Mini Berry Cakes

Dieting or not, everybody wants dessert. So why not take a bite and make this cute little cake-like creation? This mini dessert will satisfy the sweet tooth craving without pushing your calorie intake to the limit. It may be quite small but it's jam packed with fruity flavors! YUM!

Also, it gives me a chance to show off some of my new dishes! I got 4 white square snack plates, 4 Mini Trifle dishes, and the Tasting Party Ramekins set, both from Pier1. Mommy loves me.

A few notes about the recipe before I jump in. 

This recipe is courtesy of Diabetic Living  magazine and the BHG Test Kitchen.

The original recipe calls for:

6 6-ounce ramekins or quiche dishes - I used 6 2.75 oz ramekins and halved the recipe. Nutritional info altered.

Fresh berries - I used frozen, then thawed. Fresh would work better and the top would bake more completely.

Eggs - I used Egg Substitute. Nutritional info not altered.

Fat Free Milk - I used 1%. Nutritional info not altered.

Here is the halved recipe. You can obviously double it for the bigger pans.

Mini Berry Cakes

serves 6

Non Stick Cooking Spray

1/4 c. Egg Substitute

1/8 c. Sugar

1/2 t. Vanilla

Dash of Salt

1/2 c. 1% Milk

1/4 c. Flour

1/4 t. Baking Powder

1 1/2 c. Assorted Berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, etc.)

Preheat over (toaster oven!) to 400 degrees.

Place ramekins on baking sheet and spray with non-stick spray.

In small bowl whisk egg and sugar until combined. Add and blend in the vanilla and salt. Whisk in milk until combined and smooth.

Divide berries between dishes and pour batter over the berries. The batter will not completely cover the berries. 

Bake 20 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. 

Mine didn't turn golden brown. As you can see in the picture above, they turned grey. I had to thaw my berries in warm water, and obviously didn't drain them well enough. Too much juice was in the bottom of the ramekins so it blended with the batter and didn't turn out as pretty as planned. But! That's ok. It was yummy.

Nutritional Info (not altered to reflect 1% milk or Egg Substitute):

Cal 70.5

Fat 1

Carb 13

Prot 2.5

All-Purpose Flour

5 Minute Mousse!

: ) So I know I said I'd post Healthy recipes for the next 90 days or so but I've been wanting to put this one up for a while now.
I first had this mousse dessert at a Fancy Nancy Tea Party with my two cousins, ages 7 and 4 at the time. We planned a great party with pocket pizzas and fancy cups, frilly dresses, and grandma's jewelry. My aunt Toni made this mousse for dessert. It was delicious.

I have made this quite a few times, and with experience comes stories. You were warned in my very first post that you would get a whipped creamed wall story - I needed to make a quadruple (or something) batch of this for a dessert one day, and thus needed to whip up A LOT of Heavy Whipping Cream in my dad's Kitchen Aid mixer. 8 cups of whipping cream is a lot for my little mixer and my bowl of cream became a corner of cream. I was whipping it up the cups and it got a little out of hand - out of mixer. Before I could turn the mixer down I managed to spray quite a few drops on the fridge, cupboards, walls, counter...
Well, I figured since there was already a mess I was beyond the point of no return. So I held my hands up around the top of the bowl and turned up the speed.

-Note: Everyone in the world needs a splatter guard for their stand mixer. Or a good cleaning product-

It turned out great. Messy things taste better; like tacos, Red Robin's Teriyaki Chicken Burger, ice cream cones.

Without further ado, 

5 Minute Mousse

2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream

7 oz. Hershey's Symphony Bar (Plain, Creamy Milk Chocolate)

Whip the cream into stiff peaks. Melt candy bar until it stirs smooth. Fold melted chocolate into whipped cream. Serve. 

That's it. You can top it with chocolate covered pretzels or chocolate curls if you like.

Oh, and for some reason every time I've made it the chocolate cools to fast in the whipped cream so it's not a smooth texture. But I love eating the mousse and getting little chunks of chocolate. I did hear that you can whip the chocolate into the whipped cream in the mixer, but you have to be careful not to turn it into chocolate butter. (Though that would be delicious on pancakes...)

Heavy Whipping Cream

Aloha Pork Chops

Everybody Hula! Straight from the 1001 Slow Cooker Recipes cookbook here's a good dish for you. Pork can be a good lean meat, and the pepper, onion, pineapple, and papaya give you some great fruits and veggies in one meal.

 I'm not sure of the nutritional breakdown of this meal, but I looked at sparkpeople.com and entered it in. For a serving with a 4 oz piece of meat with it guesstimates about 300 calories (before rice and carrots).

Aloha Pork Chops
Serves 6-8


1 Green Bell Pepper, seeded and julienned
1 Red Bell Pepper, seeded and julienned
1 Onion, sliced
6-8 (1/2 inch thick) boneless Pork Chops
1 can (15 oz.) Pineapple Chunks with juice
1 T. Mustard
2 T. White Wine Vinegar
1 T. Brown Sugar
1 Papaya, peeled, seeded, and sliced
Macadamia nuts, chopped, optional

Place bell peppers and onions in sprayed slow cooker and place pork chops on top.

Combine juice from pineapple, mustard, vinegar, brown sugar and 1/2 t. salt in bowl. Mix and pour over chops. Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours.

Place pork chops on serving plate and keep warm. Increase heat to high and stir in pineapple chunks and papaya. Cook additional 10 minutes. Pour over pork chops and sprinkle with macadamia nuts.

Serves great over rice!

This one has a great flavor with the papaya and pineapple and peppers. The fruit and veggie blend gives it a unique taste. Try it out!

Papaya

Confetti Rice

Brown rice. Are you as unsure about that as I am? Earlier this year when I first started "watching my weight" (not that it wanted to go anywhere) I discovered that Brown rice is NOT as bad as I had believed. I had some preconceived notion that it was a disgusting wannabe. 


If we're gonna be honest here, which we always are, brown rice does take some getting use to. It is not just white rice of a different color. It's a little bit chewy and takes a while longer to cook. BUT it's versatile and good for you. 

The original recipe is in the Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals cookbook and the Light and Tasty book. Also, the original recipe calls for white rice, but I used brown rice.

Confetti Rice
serves 6 


1 can (14.5 oz.) reduced sodium Chicken Broth
1 c. uncooked Brown Rice
1/4 c. water
1/4 t. Salt
1/4 t. Oregano
1/8 t. Pepper
1/2 c. Diced Red Bell Pepper
1/2 c. Diced Green Pepper
1/2 c. frozen Green Peas, thawed
1 T. minced, fresh Parsley

In a large saucepan combine broth, water, rice, salt, oregano and pepper. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low - still visibly simmering! Cover and cook rice for ~about~ 30 minutes, then stir in peppers. Cook for about another 45-50 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed..

-My rice wasn't simmering the whole time, we turned it ALL the way down and it took over an hour to cook-

Remove from heat, add peas and cover again for about 5 minutes. Stir in parsley and serve with a yummy, healthy protein packed main dish, like the Herbed Lime Chicken!

Nutritional Info (altered slightly-brown rice is lower cal and carb):
Cal 120g
trace fat!
Carb 27g
Fib 3g
Prot 4g

This turned out really good for me -EXCEPT- I didn't mince my parsley fine enough... get a good knife.

This was a fun day of cooking because in the early afternoon I met up with my friend Katrina. She just returned home from serving a mission in Thailand and in Texas. We talked mostly about food - what else is there? The different street vendors and shops all sound so interesting! I would love to go to foreign places as a tourist and venture out to try all this awesome cuisine.

Who wants to fund my adventure?

Medium-Grain Brown Rice

Herbed Lime Chicken

The first post after the weight loss proclamation... will it be good, or just -blech- healthy?


I'm sure you all are worried that I will post 90 days 81 days of different ways to plate a garden salad. Have No FEAR!! Taste of Home Everyday Light is here!

Trainer Meal Plan Approved. :D Friend and Family dinner table appreciated.

Herbed Lime Chicken
Serves 4


(I'm a terrible person and forgot to take a picture... here's the one from the interwebz...)

1 16-oz. bottle Fat-Free Italian Salad Dressing
1/2 c. Lime Juice
1 Lime, halved and sliced
3 Garlic Cloves
1 t. dried Thyme
4 boneless, skinless Chicken Breast halves (about 4 oz. each)

In a bowl, combine everything but chicken. Remove 1/2 c. for basting, cover and refrigerate. Pour remaining marinade into gallon ziplock bag and add the chicken. Seal the bag and turn over to coat. Refrigerate for 8 to 10 hours.

~~~jeopardy theme music~~~


Drain and discard marinade. Grill Chicken on the BBQ for about 5 minutes. Turn over and baste with remaining marinade. Grill for another 5-7 minutes, or until cooked through.

Serve immediately with a delicious and healthy side like Confetti Rice - coming up next!

Nutritional Info:
Cal 62 - (That's what the book says, I'd guess more like 160-180. Thanks Stacy for pointing that out!)
Fat 2g
Carb 8g
Fib 1g
Prot 27

Lime

Cook's Comments

I am a loser. I am going to be a big loser. I'm actually hoping to be the Biggest Loser there is. Now let me explain.

Before I go off into I-Heart-My-Gym land, let me comfort you with the fact that I am NOT going to stop blogging or cooking. Ever.

With that said, I do love my gym. I go to VisionQuest Sport and Fitness at the Auburn Supermall. Twice a year (I think) they hold a Biggest Loser 90 Day Weight Loss competition (judged by percent % total weight lost).

I'm not going to be on TV or anything, it's just a 5-Gym competition.

 My wonderful boss/friend/workout partner is offering full support and I am competing. The kick-off day was Thursday, June 2nd, and today is Day 9. The Finale is Thursday, September 1st with a prize of $500 and Grand Prize of $5000. Please mark it on your calendars and plan on coming and supporting me. The louder my supporters are, the higher chance I have at winning the Best Before-and-After and the Best Testimonial competitions. You have full permission to scream your head right off.

***All Finale Night supporters will get a homemade breakfast/lunch/dinner/dessert of their choice cooked for them.***

I'm down about 9 lbs or 3.61% so far (not sure how much of that was the water I guzzled that day). Since I started at the gym I'm down 19 lbs.

My first 10 days are pretty tough because my trainer's given me a meal plan, and sugary sweets are NOT welcome : ( . It's a week and a half of meal replacement shakes (which -thankfully- aren't that bad) and one real-food dinner a night. My many boxes of whole wheat spaghetti and I are becoming good "after 5" friends.

No worries, I am better than just eating a bowl of healthified Sketti every night for the next 90 days. I have my trusty "healthy" cookbooks - and I'll probably eat a lot of taco salad, minus the sour cream.

Being the change I want to see in the world, I will post healthy and TASTY recipes. With these healthy recipes you have no excuse not to eat healthy.

Be awesome. Like me!

(and support me please)

 All healthy recipe ideas, advice, articles, etc. are welcome. If there is a recipe you love that you want to see "Healthified" tell me and I will see what I can do!