Perfect Summer Seafood Sauce

Summer is here! For many this means hitting the grill for some burgers & dogs, but for me this means super fresh seafood season! Now I'm not huge on seafood, (I prefer the 'Turf' side of a 'Surf & Turf' any day) but I have really grown to love a nice light white fish with a citrus kick. 

I had gotten some beautiful fresh Tilapia at the market & I knew I wanted to jazz it up a bit for my own little kick off to summer meal, so naturally I headed to the internet for some inspiration. I found myself stumbling around FoodGawker, (if you haven't tried this yet, it's basically like what would happen if Julia Childs had a love child with Pinterest.) when I found this recipe on there and it came with a bonus Lemon Garlic Mayonnaise Sauce (umm yum.) & I decided to give it a go. I did tweak the recipe just a bit (less & 'light' mayo) to make it a bit more healthy, it is pool party season afterall. 

What you need:

Light Mayonnaise w Garlic w Lemon w Salt & Black Pepper

Peal back some of that garlic (1 clove to be exact) & mince it up.

Then you want to measure out 1/2 a cup of Light Mayo

Then you are going to want to squeeze one large lemon which produces about 2 tablespoons full of juice.

Using a spoon, combine the minced garlic, lemon juice & light mayo in a bowl. Sprinkle in some sea salt and black pepper for taste. 

Place the sauce back in the fridge until your ready to serve.

 I up-cyled an old mayo 'squeeze style' bottle & tripled the recipe so I can keep it in my fridge & have it ready to go for next time. *Just make sure you remove the old wrapper & write on the bottle with a sharpie to make sure there is no condiment confusion. :)

& there you have it. This sauce tastes amazing & was a great compliment to the Tilapia (it tastes great with Swordfish & Mahi Mahi too.)

On Pinterest? Repin Here!

Cute Cukes!

Here is a quick & easy way to class up your cucumbers!

 All you need is a fresh cucumber, a peeler, a fork & a knife. 

Start by washing & peeling your cucumber.

Once your cucumber is all peeled take a fork & press into the cucumber. 

Drag along the side to create ridges. Repeat this all the way around.

Using your knife, slice up your cucumbers & voilà you have some super cute 'cukes'!

Add these too your salad, cucumber sandwiches or try them in a tangy marinade!

This marinade is made from 3 parts white vinegar, 1 part vegetable oil, 2 Tbs of Sugar. Let them soak for 10-15 minutes for a tangy treat.

On pinterest? Repin here or here!

Orange Cream Cupcakes

It's cupcake time! So after seeing this pin on pinterest, I was curious to try it! Basically it says you can replace the eggs, oil & water in a boxcake mix with a can of diet soda then top with light cool whip topping for a cupcake under 100 calories! Sounds good to me! Now while this does add aspartame (fake sugar) to your cupcake, it is a nice alternative if you are on a diet & desperate for some sweets! So like cupcakes consume aspartame sparingly & in moderation.  

So when the challenge came for me to make a low cal birthday cupcake for a family friend, I decided to get  creative. 

What you need:

Diet 7Up wDuncan Hines Orange Supreme Cake Mix w Nestle White Chocolate Chips,w 1 Cara Cara Orange w Light Whipped Topping w Cupcake Baking Cups w 1 Gallon Zip-Lock Bag w A Food Processor w Apple Corer w Fresh Raspberries & Decorative Sprinkles (optional)

Mix & Bake

 

You can actually just use a can of Diet 7Up but since I don't drink soda regularly I didn't feel like buying a 12 pack & just got a bottle. Measure out 12 ounces of the soda & add it to your cake mix. It will fizz for a moment so give it a second or two before you blend. Place your batter into your baking cups & bake for 18-22 minutes at 350.

White Chocolate & Fruit Purée

While your cupcakes bake you'll want to get out your food processor to purée your white chocolate chips & Cara Cara orange. (If you can't find a Cara Cara orange you can use the local variety at your market.) The Cara Cara orange has an exceptionally sweet & tangy flavor which will blend nicely with the smooth white chocolate flavor. 

In a microwave safe bowl add 1 cup of the chopped white chocolate chips & begin to microwave in 10 second intervals. Stir in-between & repeat 3 times until smooth.  Then you are going to want to spoon in the orange purée. Add in one spoonful at a time & stir. At first the chocolate will seize & begin to get thick and chalk like. IT'S OK. Just stir the best you can, when you feel like it is well blended add in another spoonful. The chocolate will smooth itself out again. I added about 5-6 spoonfuls until I got a nice orange cream flavor. 

Fill

By now your cupcakes should be done. Take them out of the oven & let them cool. Then take an apple corer & gently press into your cupcakes. (I only went about half way down into the cupcake, I didn't want to fill the cupcakes with too much filling seeing as these are diet inspired cupcakes.) Then fill your cupcakes up with the orange cream filling.

Top

Then take a large 1 gallon zip-lock bag & fill it with the cool whip topping, snip off a corner with scissors to create a makeshift piping bag. Top off the holes you created in the cupcakes above the orange cream filling.

Swirl the piping bag around to create your mock icing topping. 

You can stop there if you like, but to make these a bit more aesthetically pleasing I added a little bit of red sugar sprinkles & some fresh raspberries. :)

So even with the addition of the orange cream filling & toppings you can still have a cupcake for around 150 calories!

On Pinterest? Repin here!

Can of Doughnuts?

Ok as much as I like to play the healthy game, I can not deny my sweet teeth (yes I know its suppose to be 'tooth', but lets be real, all of my teeth want to have deliciousness all up in their business, not just one). So when I found this super easy doughnut recipe I just had to give it a go. Now I know spring break is just around the corner and some of you will be in a bikini on the beach, so I apologize for tempting you with this wickedness.... but to play my own devil's advocate, you can have 3 of these tasty little doughnuts (toppings included) for around 220 calories (that's basically a bowl of cereal) so spice up your Sunday brunch & live a little! 

 what you need: 

Ok so your going to want to gather a large skillet w vegetable oil w a plate covered with some paper towels w tongs w an apple corer w & a can of biscuits. 

Now when I say can off biscuits, I'm not talking GRANDS biscuits, no no friends that would be a giant doughnut, I'm talking about a regular sized biscuit, the can should be significantly smaller then a 'grands' can. 

For your toppings you can use a simple glaze, which is made out of 1 & 1/4 cup confectionery sugar and 3 tbs of water or milk. (you can also substitute a fruit juice if you want to give it a flavor or a dash of vanilla) Which when combined is 1tbs of equals about 31 calories.
You can also use a cinnamon and sugar mix, using 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, and 2 tbs of cinnamon.

 & sprinkles are always fun. 

Ok to begin, cover the bottom of your skillet with vegetable oil (I would say I filled mine up so it was maybe a 1/4 of an inch - 1/2 an inch thick) & place on the stove top at a medium/high heat. While you let that heat up, pop open that can & separate the biscuits onto a plate. 

Take your apple corer and punch out the center of your biscuits. Use your finger to gently push out the center bit. You can save these little centers and make doughnut holes with them!

By the time you've punch out the centers of all your doughnuts your oil should be hot enough to begin frying. Test out the oils heat by placing in some doughnut holes in the oil, you should hear the nice sizzle sound and they should begin to bubble around the outside. Once you see that it's hot enough you can begin to add in the regular doughnuts.

You will see the doughnuts begin to brown up on the bottom in the oil, that's how you know it's time to flip. I would say total time in the oil is about 1 minute per each side.

(fyi: you should be using your tongs to do this)

When your second side starts to brown, use your tongs to remove the doughnuts from the oil and place on the paper towel plate to cool. The paper towel will help absorb any extra oil that may be on the doughnut. 

Let your doughnuts cool for a few minutes & mix together the toppings in separate bowls. Dip the doughnuts into the cinnamon & sugar mix, top off with just glaze or spice it up with glaze & sprinkles.

I found the cinnamon sugar mixture to be the most delicious! Once your done dipping it's time to dig in! Best served when they are still warm!

Enjoy!

On Pinterest? Repin Here!

Fat Tuesday. No Bake Ice Cream Cake

Mmm Fat Tuesday, a day for forgetting about that new years resolution and cutting loose on that diet. In undergrad 'Fat Tuesday' was celebrated every Tuesday by eating 'real people food' ('real people food' mostly provided via casserole from my mom-thanks ma!) with my roommates then followed by dollar drafts at our local watering hole. 

So to celebrate I'm going to show you how to make an easy treat. We will be making a cake (not a 'king cake', maybe next year) but if baking is not your thing, not to worry, this is a quick and easy way to make a tasty treat with avoiding the oven entirely! 

What you need:

2 boxes of small ice cream sandwiches,  1 Jar of Hot Fudge Topping, 1 Jar of Carmel Pecan Topping, 1/2 pint of heavy cream, 3-5 table spoons of confectionery sugar, (Vanilla extract- optional) 5-6 cookies, electric hand mixer, 2 cookie sheets lined with wax paper, metal or glass mixing bowl, large dish for serving, spatula

• Start by clearing out some room in your freezer, you going to want to be able to fit two cookie sheets in it at the same time. Place your mixing bowl with electric mixer beaters in the freezer as well.

• When your ready begin start unwrapping the ice cream sandwiches from their paper wrappings. (Hint: Use scissors to speed up the process you don't want the ice cream to have enough time to melt) Place Ice cream sandwiches onto the cookie sheet and put them back into the freezer immediately. 

•  Warm up your Fudge & Carmel Toppings in the microwave (follow instructions on label) & with a spoon drizzle on top of ice cream, & return ice cream to freezer. 

• Pull out your mixing bowl & beaters from the freezer, they should be nice and cold. This will help keep your heavy cream at the right temperature & consistency for whipping. 

• Pour your container of heavy cream into the bowl & begin whipping at medium/high speed.
• Spoon in your desired amount of confectionery sugar. Taste in between spoonfuls until you've reached desired sweetness. 

• Add in small dash of vanilla extract for flavor. and continue whipping. you will begin to see some lines beginning to form, but keep whipping. 

• When your cream begins to look like thick fluffy clouds you are ready to stop. It should be thick enough to hold onto the beaters when you take it out.  Place in the refrigerator. 

• Using a food processor blend up some cookie crumbs( I used an oreo cookie but removed the cream filling)
• You can also use a large sandwich bag and a rolling pin to get the same results.

•  Pull one set of ice cream sandwiches from the freezer, & with your spatula line the bottom of your serving dish. (Hint: If your sandwiches are good and stuck, run the spatula under some hot water & quickly dry. This will help remove the sticky topping from the wax paper)

• With half of your whipped cream spread a layer on top of you sandwiches. 

• Sprinkle a layer of cookie crumbs on top of your whipped cream.

•  Add the next layer of ice cream sandwiches & repeat the last two steps. 

• Then you're done! Place into freezer until you're ready to serve! Happy Fat Tuesday!

Not celebrating with a large party? You can still make this desert for 1-2 people just use 4 ice cream sandwiches, replace that whipped cream for a tub of cool whip, & repeat the steps on a smaller plate! 

Have a sweet tooth but want to cut calories? Try these easy steps to have your cake and eat it too. 

replace your regular ice cream sandwiches with  Skinny Cow Ice cream sandwiches 

Instead of whipped cream go for Cool Whip Light or Sugar Free. 

Look for a sugar free fudge or cookie. 

You can even make your own mock ice cream sandwiches using Honey Maid Low Fat  Chocolate graham crackers, & Cool Whip Light.

On Pinterest? Repin here!