Green Smoothie

I have seen these smoothies all over the place. Between food blogs, Pinterest, and Stumbleupon, I think I've probably seen at least fifty different recipes for them. Some recipes turn out to look more like puke than a green smoothie, though. If you care about what color your smoothie will be, pay attention to the fruits you decide to use! For example, if you want a bright green smoothie like the one shown above, only use green or yellow fruits. I made a smoothie with bananas and strawberries earlier this week and it ended up looking awful. Speckled and everything. I liked it, but the visual aspect of it was hard to get over.

Very occasionally, being in a rush can be beneficial for recipes. I stress the "very occasionally" part of the last sentence. I had to get out of the house quickly this morning and had a hard time deciding what to put in my smoothie. I grabbed the usual - baby spinach and water. Then, I had a hard time deciding which fruit combinations would lead to a smoothie with a good taste and appealing color. I peeled a banana and threw it in. All other fruits in the kitchen either had another purpous for a later date or were just too difficult to prepare in the short amount of time I had (I'm looking at you, pineapple). I threw in some crushed ice and began blending. The outcome was not too thick, not too thin, and just banana-y enough for me.


Green Smoothie
serves one


Ingredients:

two small handfuls of baby spinach
one banana
scant cup of water
about 1/3 cup of crushed ice


Directions
Put the spinach, water, banana, and ice into the blender. Put the spinach in first to make blending it easier. Blend until smooth and enjoy!

Green Velvet and Bailey's Irish Cream Cake Balls

I love having reasons to bake treats. I look for them constantly. The only problem is that even though I make half-recipes, (one time I quartered one) I still have way too much cake, cookies, etc, for me and my dad to eat. Well, we'd have absolutely no problem whatsoever finishing off everything, but we enjoy not gaining a ton of weight. So, I've taken to making half-recipes and taking half of the recipe I make into school. No one complains...much. I have one friend who barely ever misses school, until I bake something and bring it in. On those days, she always ends up being absent. Today, that happened again. I might just have to bake something everyday so she'll eventually get to try some of my creations. Oh, darn.

I baked these cake balls for St. Patrick's Day. I know, I know, St. Patrick's Day isn't until Saturday, but I don't have school on Friday. So, today was the last day to bring in my festive little treats. They went fast. That's the way food and school work. If someone has food, people flock to them. It doesn't matter if you know them well or not, they want your food. And they will get said food if they bug you enough. Some people take the sneaky approach to getting it. One girl waited until the inital hoard of people went away, then casually walked up to me and asked about a homework assignment. She then engaged in nice small talk. I don't think much more than a minute went by before she was asking for food. How do you say no to that? Even if I don't want to give someone something, I usually do it anyway because I feel too bad about saying no. The only way I'm able to refuse someone is if I'm saving whatever I have for a friend I haven't seen yet. Today, I actually did try saying no to a few boys in one of my classes because they told me I was going to give them a cake ball. Then, they begged. I gave in. It doesn't matter though - it helps me more than anything. I don't have to worry about eating the cake balls myself now!


Green Velvet Cake

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 oz green food coloring

green sprinkles (optional)
white candy coating (I used the Kroger brand)


Directions
Heat the oven to 350F. Mix all of the dry ingredients together and set aside. Mix all of the wet ingredients together (except the food coloring) and set aside. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients gradually, while beating on low speed. When incorporated, add in the green food coloring. It will be very green. Pour into a baking dish (I used 9x9) and bake for 25-35min. Check the cake with a tester before removing from the oven.


Bailey's Irish Cream Buttercream

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions
Combine all ingredients and mix until creamy. If the frosting is a little runny, don't worry about it - it's going to go into the cake anyway.


To Assemble:
Let the cake cool. Then crumble it in a big bowl. Add the buttercream until you get the right consistency. (The cake balls should be able to hold their shape.) Roll the cake into balls about the size of a golf ball. Set on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Place the cake balls in the freezer for 20-30 minutes, or until firm. At this point, you can continue on to dipping them or you can take them out and rid the balls of imperfections (bumps, creases, etc.) If you do the latter, refreeze the cake balls afterwards. Melt the candy coating. Place a cake ball in the candy and coat it. Don't roll the ball! You don't want to get green crumbs in the white candy coating. Pick up the cake ball using a fork and tap the fork on the side of the bowl. This will smooth the candy coating and get rid of excess coating. Place the cake ball back on the baking sheet lined with wax paper. Sprinkle with green sprinkles. Repeat with the rest of the cake balls, then place in the freezer or fridge to harden. 


Sources
Recipe Girl
Love From the Oven

Moroccan Chickpeas

If you don't like chickpeas, the least you can do is make this recipe for the smell. My kitchen smells heavenly. I have never had chickpeas before, but let me tell you, they are awesome. They get nice and crunchy when cooked. (Some didn't get crunchy, and they were very yummy too.) The spices work wonders for them. These chickpeas are good to eat by themselves or on salad. By themselves, they are a nice salty snack that's full of protein.


Moroccan Chickpeas
serves 3-4


Ingredients:

1 can (15 oz.) chickpeas
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoons allspice
1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (optional)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons cayenne powder (or more if you like spicy food)
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon sea salt


Directions
Heat oven to 400°F
Drain the chickpeas. Coat with the olive oil and set aside. In a small bowl, mix all of the spices together. Sprinkle over the chickpeas and stir to coat evenly.

Spread the chickpeas in a single layer on a baking sheet and cook for thirty minutes, stirring them about half way through. Make sure they aren't soft when the thirty minutes is up. If they aren't, put them back in the oven. You only want the center to be a little bit soft. After cooling, the chickpeas will be crispier.  

Simple Hot Chocolate

I was in the mood for hot chocolate today, but I didn't want to have to go out and buy a big box of powdered mix. My first thought was to grab the cocoa powder out of the cupboard and the packets of splenda off of the table. I poured them haphazardly into my cow mug (complete with udders) filled with warm milk and stirred it together. I was fairly satisfied with what I created. This is a very quick and easy way to make hot chocolate. It is also much less expensive than buying mixes at the store. Using skim milk and splenda reduces the amount of calories, making this a lighter version of the creamy, chocolatey drink that everyone loves.

Simple Hot Chocolate
serves one


Ingredients:

1 1/2 milk (skim for a lighter version)
1 1/2 cocoa powder
2-3 packets of splenda

Directions
Heat milk in the microwave for 50 seconds. Mix in cocoa powder and splenda. (You may have to squish clumps of cocoa up against the side of the mug.) Heat in the microwave for another 30-45 seconds.

Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream

Have you ever wanted a special kind of ice cream but you're just stuck with vanilla? At my house, we usually only get vanilla. This has forced me to become very creative in the ice cream category. For homemade ice cream, without an ice cream maker, the concoctions I've come up with are pretty darn good in my opinion. My favorite is chunky peanut butter, chocolate syrup, and crushed Oreos in vanilla ice cream. As good as it is, I didn't choose to write about it because I never thought about using crushed candy canes in ice cream before. It's more unusual and definitely worth having. I have to thank my mom for giving me the idea to put crushed candy canes in ice cream. I wouldn't have had it had she not thought of it.

This recipe isn't going to be like other recipes. The amount of everything you want is completely up to you. You don't even need to use vanilla ice cream if you don't want to. Everyone has different tastes, so the combination of ingredients I like best may not be the best for someone else. It's ice cream - there really shouldn't be a "recipe" for it. You just grab the toppings you want and throw it into your bowl.

Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream

Ingredients:

vanilla ice cream

candy canes (or any other peppermint candy)

chocolate syrup

Oreos!

Directions

Scoop ice cream into bowl. Throw on toppings. Mix. Eat. Enjoy.

If you like chocolate and peanut butter...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Ingredients:

vanilla ice cream

chunky peanut butter

chocolate syrup

crushed Oreos

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

It is National Peanut Butter Lover's Day. I am a peanut butter lover. I am a peanut butter fan. I love peanut butter. A lot. So, I celebrated National Peanut Butter Lover's Day with delicious peanut butter chocolate brownies. I would like to credit Hershey with an ultimate brownie mix. It is ultimate. It has super chocolateyness, it's moist, and best of all, it has chocolate chunks in it. Big chocolate chunks. Do you understand how much I love Hershey's Ultimate Chocolate Brownie Mix and peanut butter? I know the picture above doesn't do the brownies justice. I apologize for that. But don't deny yourself the decadence of these brownies due to my poor photography skills. If you love peanut butter, you will love these brownies. Period. Make them. Here's the recipe.


Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies


Ingredients:

1 pouch Hershey's Ultimate Chocolate Brownie Mix (or any other favorite brownie mix)
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp water

For the peanut butter filling:

3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp butter, melted


Directions
Heat oven to indicated temperature on the brownie box.
Follow directions on brownie mix package. The ingredients listed below the Hershey mix is for the Hershey mix only. Use what the packaging tells you to use if you use a different brownie mix. Keep the batter in a bowl and set aside.

Add all of the peanut butter filling ingredients to a bowl and mix until smooth.

Grease an 11x7in pan. Add 1/3 to 1/2 of the brownie batter and spread across the bottom. Place dollops of peanut butter a few inches apart throughout the pan. Cover in remaining brownie batter then drizzle (it won't "drizzle"...but this is the best word I have for what needs to be done) across the top of the brownie batter. Using a knife, swirl peanut butter around as much as you like. Bake in the oven (according to directions on box) and enjoy! 

Source
Food for Poems