Coffee Freeze

I came across this in a Kraft Food & Family magazine from 2006. It looks just like a chocolate milk shake, but tastes like coffee ice cream--it's delicious!! And the best part--it's only 74 calories!

I imagine if you don't like coffee, you could substitute chocolate syrup or peanut butter, or something creative, although it would change the calories.

Since this is a Kraft recipe, they suggest their own brands of everything, but I'll just write it as generic (I made a generic version, anyway)

Cool 'n Creamy Coffee Freeze

1 cup skim milk
ice cubes
1 cup frozen Cool-whip free
1 package (4 serving size) sugar-free vanilla pudding mix
1 Tbsp. instant coffee granules

Put the skim milk in a large glass measuring cup and add enough ice to measure 3 cups total. Pour into a blender. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend on high speed until smooth. Serves 4. 

Calories: 74
Fat: 0
Fiber: 0
Carbs: 15

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites

These are heavenly! Kind of a combination of pumpkin pie and cheesecake. If you're making the bite-size mini's, they are a little time consuming. But it makes a HUGE batch--72-ish mini's. You could also make this into one big cheesecake in a spring form pan, or single-serve with regular size muffin pans.  I used the mini-muffin pan for these.

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Bites

4 (8 oz) packages light cream cheese, at room temperature
4 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon (plus some for garnish)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
cooking spray
canned cool whip

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a mini muffin tray with the muffin liners, and spray each one with a tiny amount of cooking spray.  Put 1/2 teaspoon of graham cracker crumbs in each liner, and pat down with the back of a spoon or your finger--you don't have to press hard, just press enough to flatten it out.

In a food processor, combine the cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar, and vanilla.  Add the eggs one by one and process until smooth. Remove 1 1/4 cups of batter, and add the remaining sugar to that. In the remaining batter, add the pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg and combine until smooth.

To fill the cups:
Using the pumpkin batter, fill each cup about 1/3 full.  Then using the white batter, put a tiny little dollop onto the pumpkin batter--about 1/4 tsp.  Then using the pumpkin batter again, fill each cup almost to the top. Put a tiny dollop of the white batter on top. Using a toothpick, swirl the white batter into the pumpkin batter just enough for it to swirl the colors together--don't mix it.

Put in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 12 minutes--they will still be soft. As soon as you take them out, use a butter knife to remove them from the pan and let them cool. The tops will sink down a little.  Refrigerate about 2-3 hours before serving.  Using the aerosol can of cool whip, put a tiny dollop on top to fill in the little well that forms.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.

These can be frozen--I froze my leftovers and ate one a couple days later, and it was still heavenly, if not more so that the first day!

Makes 72 bite-size cheesecakes.

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Monster Cookies

My friend Renee gave me the recipe for these--they're SUPER delish and pretty healthy for a cookie!


Monster Cookies

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup natural peanut butter  (I used natural creamy pb)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. ground flax seed
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips  (make sure you use the mini ones, so you get a little chocolate with each bite!)
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine butter and peanut butter in a mixer. Beat until smooth. Add brown sugar, egg, egg white, and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth.

Add oats, flax, baking soda, salt, chocolate chips, and raisins. Mix well.

Drop spoonfuls of dough (I used 1.5 Tbsp each) 2" apart on cookie sheet. Bake 11 to 12 minutes, until lightly golden (I did 10 minutes). Let cool a few minutes on a baking sheet before removing to rack.

Makes 30 cookies.

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