Easy Peach Frozen Yogurt

I saw this recipe on Pinterest, and it looked super simple and good, so I just had to try it.  Frozen yogurt made from a just a few ingredients in a food processor.  Why not?

So I tried it, but the original recipe was more peach than yogurt.  While it was good, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting - so I tried again.  I think the result is pretty good.

Easy Peach Frozen Yogurt
adapted from Just a Taste

Ingredients:

• 1 16-oz. bag frozen peaches (or 4 cups fresh peaches, frozen)
• 1 frozen banana
• 3 T honey
• 1-1/2 cups plain yogurt
• 1 T fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients into food processor and process until creamy, about 5 minutes.
2. Serve immediately or transfer to airtight container and store in the freezer.

I also stirred mine every hour or so once I transferred it to the freezer, though I don't know how necessary that was.  In the end, it freezes pretty solid so you'll want to let it sit out for a few minutes before you serve it up.  If you want smooth, creamy frozen yogurt like you'd get at the Frozen Yogurt place, serve it up and let it sit a bit longer, and then stir it to get the creamy consistency you want.  (or start eating it - slowly - and enjoy it both ways)

You get a nice cool treat without a lot of sugar, only healthy ingredients you don't have to feel guilty about.  What could be better?

I'm thinking strawberries would make some good frozen yogurt, too.  What fruit would you use?

Tex-Mex Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

It's time again for  Secret Recipe Club (Secret Recipe Club) reveal!  This month I got to choose a recipe from Beth's blog It's Good To Be The Cook.  Beth lives outside Philadelphia, loves her family, her wonderful (and cute) boyfriend Dave, and her dog Stella.  Her posts are so much fun to read.  They're not just about the food - though the food is definitely front and center with recipes and loads of mouth-watering pictures.

So I started looking at the recipes - Oh, Beth!  So many great recipes.  How am I supposed to choose?  I love all the spicy stuff and that there's spinach in practically everything.  OK, maybe not everything, but a lot.  It looks like she's almost as obsessed with fresh spinach as I am.  I love it in practically everything!  Also, she has all her clipped and saved recipes organized in a binder - something I've thought about/wanted to do for ages, and never got around to it.  Yep, I still have boxes of magazine and newspaper clippings, recipes I wanted to try but may never find again.  I'm kinda jealous of her organizational skills.

Anyway, I started looking through the recipes, and I wanted to try the Buffalo Chicken Soup, the Black & White Bean Quesadillas w/ Avocado Ranch Dip, the Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Baked Potato, the Chicken and Bean Burritos, and several more, but I finally decided on these Tex-Mex Stuffed Sweet Potatoes. And it was a very good decision.  These things are yummy!!!

Tex-Mex Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
slightly adapted from It's Good to Be the Cook

Ingredients:

• 2 Sweet Potatoes
• 2 T Olive Oil
• 1/2 Onion, chopped
• 1 T Garlic, minced
• 1 Jalapeno, chopped (seeded for less heat)

  

  just some Spinach

• 4 or 5 mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup frozen Corn, thawed
• 1 T Cumin
• 1 T Chili Powder
• a bunch of fresh Spinach (sorry, I didn't measure)
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 can Black Beans, drained and rinsed (1-1/2 cups home-cooked)
• 1 T Cream Cheese
• 1/2 cup Plain Yogurt
• 1 cup (or less) Cheddar or Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese
• Parsley Flakes & Paprika for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.  Wash potatoes and pierce a few holes or slices in the top. Pat dry and place on foil or a baking sheet in the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes, checking at the 1 hour mark. They will be cooked when they can be easily pierced with a fork.  Set aside while you prepare the filling.
2. Heat the oil in a large skillet on medium high. Add the onions and saute for 3 minutes then add the garlic, jalapeno and mushrooms and saute another 3 minutes or so. Now, add the corn and saute for another 3 minutes and then stir in the seasonings. Let that saute for a bout a minute and then add the spinach and saute until it’s just cooked and wilted. Season with the salt and pepper. Turn heat to low.
3. Add cream cheese to skillet and stir until it is melted.  Stir in the yogurt and beans.
4. Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise, scoop out most of the potato with a spoon, and add it to the skillet.  Stir to combine, and taste and add seasoning if necessary.
5. Evenly spoon the filling back into the sweet potato boats and top with shredded cheese.
6. Turn the oven to broil and slide the potatoes back in until the cheese is just lightly browned and bubbly, about 3 minutes.
7. Garnish with a shake of Paprika and Parsley and serve immediately!

I didn't actually pay attention to how long I sauteed the onions, garlic, peppers, etc.  Just added the onion to the skillet, cooked it a bit, then started adding all the other ingredients.  It's basically what looks good to you.  It does look good, doesn't it?  Oh, and I only used 1/2 of the jalapeno because I thought the whole thing would make it too spicy for my husband, but it didn't turn out spicy at all, so I'd suggest sticking with the whole thing.  Or using the pickled ones like Beth did in hers.

Onions, garlic, jalapeno, mushrooms and corn

And then I added the cream cheese - the heat from the skillet melted it very nicely - and the yogurt and beans.  Doesn't this look yummy?  For some reason, I didn't taste it, but it certainly smelled amazing.  I'm thinking this mixture right here would be perfect for something.  I'm not sure what yet - over pasta?  With some pasta mixed in?  Spread over tortilla chips, topped with shredded cheese and baked like nachos?  Yeah, there's something...  I should've tasted it, though, because I forgot to add the salt and pepper like I was supposed to.

Creamy!

My potatoes were so done that I had to be careful not to scoop all of the flesh out of them, leaving nothing but the peel behind.

Sweet potatoes scooped out

I put as much filling as I could into the scooped out potato skins, and I had some left over, so I saved that for later.  It was great warmed up and wrapped in a tortilla and also just scooped up with tortilla chips.  This is good filling!  I added some salt right before I sprinkled the cheese on - because I forgot to taste and add it earlier. 

Ready to go under the broiler

The filling is already hot, so it doesn't take long to melt the cheese under the broiler, and they're ready to eat.

Ready to eat!

These things are really filling.  We had one potato half with some salad, and that was enough!  That means we got to enjoy them for another meal.  I just put them into a Corningware dish and baked them, with the lid on, for 20 to 30 minutes at 350°.  Perfect!  My husband just ate the filling both times and threw the potato skin away.  I ate the skin, and I liked it much better after it was baked.  It kind of crisped up a bit.  I'm thinking that next time I make these I'm going to bake them until the cheese is melted and browned, instead of broiling.  Either that or scoop absolutely all of the potato out of the skins, mix the filling, and put it into some kind of baking dish to broil and melt the cheese.

So many yummy flavors.  I am definitely making these again!  And trying some of those other recipes from Beth's blog.  Be sure to check it out for yourself.

Cranberry Apple Pie Oatmeal (a la Mode)

I love oatmeal in the morning.  I usually cook my oatmeal with dried apples, dried cranberries, and cinnamon - and that's pretty much the perfect oatmeal, but I saw this recipe for Apple Pie Oatmeal on Pinterest, and it looked so good, I just had to try it.  Reading the recipe now, I see that I did not actually follow the recipe.  How could I miss the part about cooking the apple with nuts, butter, brown sugar and spices?  I will have to try it again, I guess.

Here's how I made my oatmeal, and it turned out quite good, too.  Maybe it doesn't actually qualify as an Apple Pie Oatmeal, but I'll call it what I want!

Cranberry Apple Pie Oatmeal (a la Mode)

• Bring to boiling 1 cup water with a dash of salt
• While water boils, cut half an apple into small pieces
• Reduce heat to medium and stir in 1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
• Add some cinnamon, the chopped apples, some dried cranberries and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally
• Turn burner off or remove from heat; cover and let sit for a few minutes

To serve: top with a little brown sugar and vanilla yogurt  (I used Yoplait Honey Vanilla Greek yogurt - that's the a la Mode part!)

Next time I'm going to try cooking the apples, cranberries, and probably some walnuts with butter, brown sugar, and spices and then cooking the oatmeal with that - like the other recipe - and see if that makes a difference.  If there's a huge difference, I'll be sure to update this recipe.

I'll also go back to using plain yogurt, because the vanilla was a bit too sweet to me.  I love plain yogurt on my oatmeal.

Related articles

• My favorite soaked Oatmeal (arealfoodlover.wordpress.com)
• Oatmeal (lovinglifethismorning.wordpress.com)
• Baked Banana Split Oatmeal (thehappyhousewife.com)
• Five-Grain Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal (themomcamera.wordpress.com)

Recipes from Dannon

I'm copying a few recipes from The Dannon Kitchen so I can toss the (what do you call those? the foil seals from the top of the yogurt containers?) - anyway, so I can get those off my kitchen counter.

A couple recipes I want to try:

Banana Nut Winter Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 banana, frozen
• 1 cup Dannon® All Natural Vanilla Lowfat Yogurt
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. honey (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. Cut the frozen banana into 3 or 4 chunks and peel. Place in blender with Dannon® All Natural Vanilla Lowfat Yogurt, walnuts, cinnamon and honey (optional).
2. Blend on high for 2 minutes or until smooth. Pour into glass and top with a dusting of ground nutmeg. 

 Creamy Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1-1/2 qt. chicken broth
• 1-3/4 cup Dannon® Plain Yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. chopped parsley or cilantro
• 1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Directions:

1. In a soup pot heat oil. Add onions and cumin and sauté 3-4 minutes. Add potatoes and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer soup 20-25 minutes.
2. Puree soup with 1-1/2 cups Dannon® Plain Yogurt and parsley or cilantro. Serve each portion of soup with a dollop of remaining yogurt and a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds.

and a recipe I've tried:

Layered Mexican Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 16 oz. can refried beans or black beans
• 1 cup chunky salsa
• 2 cups DANNON® All Natural Plain Yogurt
• 1 cup sliced olives (black or green)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded lettuce

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine beans with 1/3 cup salsa. Spread half of mixture into a flat serving dish.
2. Spread 1 cup DANNON® All Natural Plain Yogurt over the bean mixture, followed by 1/2 cup olives, 1/3 cup salsa, 1/2 cup cheese and 1/2 cup lettuce.
3. Repeat layering. Cover and chill until ready to use.

I liked the dip. I think everyone else would rather I made my regular Taco Dip, but it's good to have options. Also, while looking up these recipes, I saw several other recipes I'd like to try.  So many good-looking recipes on that Dannon Kitchen site...

Crockpot Yogurt

Found this recipe on Mommysavers. Must try.

Of all the things you’ve made in your Crock Pot, I’m guessing yogurt isn’t on the list.  I hadn’t really heard of it either until I heard the buzz on our discussion forums a couple years ago.   I tested it out myself, tweaked and experimented, and the instructions are as follows:

What You’ll Need for Crock Pot Yogurt:

• 8 cups (1/2 gallon) milk
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt with live cultures (I used Fage Greek yogurt)
• Insulation for Crock Pot (a thick bath towel works well)

Crock Pot Yogurt Instructions:

Pour milk into Crock Pot and turn on low setting.  Cover and cook 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Unplug Crock Pot and, while still covered, allow to sit for 3 hours.  Scoop out 2 cups of milk and place in a bowl.  Whisk in 1/2 cup yogurt and return to the Crock Pot.  Stir to combine .

Put the lid back on the Crock Pot and wrap with towel to insulate.  Allow to sit overnight, or 8 hours.  Place in plastic containers and refrigerate.  Lasts seven to ten days.