Taste Test #1: Fiber One Toaster Pastries

I had never seen these before, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found them at Target the other day. Could it be? A HEALTHY pop tart? I of course bought a box, and brought them with me to work. I was very excited to try them the next morning – and thankfully, they did not disappoint! The pastry itself is a little more grainy tasting than the white pastry of the original Kelloggs Pop Tart – this is because the pastries for Fiber One pastries are made with whole grain. I guess these would taste somewhat similar to whole grain Pop Tarts, which I have never tried. Anyway, other than the pastry itself tasting different, the rest of this lovely breakfast treat is delicious! The icing and the inside of the pastry all taste just like a regular brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart. The upside is that you get more fiber, and we could all use more of that in our diets! This flavor was the only one they had at Target, but I hope they make other varieties as well; I’d love to try them all!

Here is the nutritional information breakdown, so you can see the comparison:

Kelloggs PopTarts
(serving size: 1 pastry)
Calories: 210
Calories from Fat: 72
Fat: 8g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 190mg
Carbs: 33g
Sugars: 13g
Dietary Fiber: 1g
Protein: 2g

Fiber One Toaster Pastry
(serving size: 1 pastry)
Calories: 190
Calories from Fat: 35
Fat: 4g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 140mg
Carbs: 36g
Sugars: 16g
Dietary Fiber: 5g
Protein: 5g

Recipe #5: No-Bake Goodness

This recipe contains many lovely aspects: chocolate, peanut butter, and no baking! I chose this recipe because it looked really good and really easy – and those are two characteristics for my kind of recipe.

They literally take less than 15 minutes to prepare, and you can vary them according to your preferences. For example, the recipe I found used a mixture of semisweet and milk choc chips. You could also add white chocolate if that’s your thing. At a suggestion from the original blogger from whom I took this recipe, I added peanut butter chips to the top of the chocolate before adding the rest of the oats. This was definitely a good idea.

Overall, I would highly recommend these if you’re looking for a simple and easy snack to whip up one day.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Oat Bars

(from Baking Blonde)

You can find the recipe here.

if you feel lost…

Shine Your Light on Us
Robbie Seay Band

Oh, my God
Shine Your light on us
That we might live
Oh, my God
Shine Your light on us
That we might live

I’ve been holding on
I’ve been holding on
All that is inside me
Screams to come back home

If you feel lost
If you feel lost
Sing along
If you feel tired
If you feel tired
Sing along
If you feel lost and tired
This is your song

I’ve been broken down
I’ve been broken down
I ain’t giving up
Love will come back around

Shine Your light
Shine it down
Let Your rescue come for us, we long to love

Recipe #4: Gluten-Free Ain’t So Bad

Not everyone is fortunate enough to find a really good friend that you can have fun with, talk with, and get along with – at work. I, however, have been incredibly blessed by my coworker Lisa, who has also turned into a good friend in and outside of work. We both started at our company about a year ago (she started a month before me), and within a few weeks, we found it hard to survive work without each other; which has made the last month quite difficult as Lisa has been out of work for the last month on medical leave.

During the last year, I have developed quite an obsession with baking, and Lisa has gladly shared in my passion by sampling all my recipes the day after I make them. However, since recently being diagnosed with a gluten allergy, she has not been able to enjoy anything I bake. So, I took it upon myself a few months ago to make her some gluten-free brownies. I don’t know why I was expecting them to taste bad, since the only ingredient different from regular brownies was soy flour instead of regular flour, as well as the addition of cornstarch; but I was pleasantly surprised with how good these brownies turned out. So, in honor of Lisa’s return to work after a month-long absence, I again made her these gluten-free brownies. They were extra moist and delicious this time, as I added about 2/3 cup each of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. I should also add that I used gluten-free flour rather than soy flour; you can find this in any grocery store, as most have a gluten-free food aisle.

Gluten-Free Brownies

(from astray recipes)

I highly recommend these for anyone looking for gluten-free desserts. Heck, even if you don’t have a gluten allergy, you may want to make these anyway – they really are quite scrumptious. For the recipe, go here.

Recipe #3: Margaritas are my Favorite

i love margaritas. in fact, i love tequila, but even more so, i love margaritas. especially with some good mexican food. so naturally, i would love to explore a recipe that uses tequila and lime. enter the margarita cupcake. i decided to make these with my nieces and nephew (it sounds, bad, i know – but their mother did give me permission!) so, overall, i like this recipe because it is quite easy. i didn’t have enough lime zest though, or tequila – so next time i would get more limes and add more tequila as well. also, the frosting was a bit runny because i didn’t mix it long enough, and i may have added a bit too much lime juice. but overall, these were pretty good, and i do recommend them if you enjoy lime flavor (and tequila).

Margarita Cupcakes
(taken from …and a cookie for dessert)

my nephew Tucker enjoying the batter:

before frosting:

my nieces Chloe and Lucy helping with the frosting:

enjoying the final product:

tequila!

Recipe #2: My Doughnut Downfall

i have to be honest, i wasn’t going to post this recipe attempt. but, to be fair, if i post my successful ones i guess i must also post the not so successful ones as well. and, despite what my mother thinks, these were an ultimate FAILURE. so, i found this recipe on Taste and Tell’s blog, and i was intrigued by the ideas of ricotta cheese in a doughnut recipe. ive made doughnuts once, and i ended up with a very smoky kitchen, but a delicious batch of doughnuts. this time, not so much. there was no smoky kitchen, but there were no delicious doughnuts either.

i’m really not sure what went wrong – i think the main thing at fault would be the fact that i don’t have a deep fryer and it is extremely difficult to make sure a pot of oil on the stove stays at 325 degrees. anyway, as a result of this, the doughnuts were at first undercooked on the inside, but nice and dark on the outside. i figured they would have a cake-like texture, similar to those at Dunkin’ Donuts, but i was sad to discover that the inside was dense and doughy (which was probably because they were undercooked! and also, i may have put a bit too much batter in for each doughnut – they were a bit large) i never did get a batch to turn out the way i wanted them, but ultimately, they didn’t look so bad on the plate. and, ironically enough, my mother came home and absolutely loved them ( i’m convinced she was lying to make me feel better, what any good mother would do, so i can’t fault her for that. but maybe she did really like them, who knows)

Vita’s Ricotta Doughnuts

(found on Taste and Tell)

the batter before frying: my toppings (i used cinnamon sugar, melted semisweet choc chips, and powdered sugar): before being coated with toppings: the final product ( because the doughnut itself is pretty bland, i definitely recommend topping these with something. the cinnamon sugar with chocolate on top was actually quite tasty): so all in all, i guess these were not a total failure, but they certainly were nowhere near a success. i think that perhaps i should wait until i have an actual deep fryer before i attempt any more doughnut recipes… if you want to attempt these yourself, go here for the recipe. let me know how you do, i’d be interested to hear about it.

Recipe #1: Bread Pudding Success!

my first recipe was a success, and what a wonderful success it was. my mother liked these, which is definitely confirmation that i did a decent job, since she’s a good judge of baking.

now, i was never a huge fan of bread pudding, but the more i tried it, the more i liked it. and if you don’t think you like bread pudding, rest assured that this recipe will change your mind.

i took some pictures, but they didn’t turn out too great (im working on my baking skills here, not my photography skills!)

Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Swirl Bread Pudding with a Sweet Maple Drizzle

(courtesy of Picky Palate)

this is what they looked like right out of the oven. i really liked the fact that the recipe called for a muffin pan – this made for perfect sized portions. you could also use ramekins, which would work well for a dinner party.

notice the shine on top – that’s from the sweet maple drizzle, which is delicious. it calls for pure maple syrup, which i wasn’t going to use because it’s so expensive, but i’m glad i invested in some. it really made it extra special, as the fake syrup just wouldn’t have even compared to the real stuff.

also, i used cinnamon raisin swirl bread, because it’s all they had at the bakery in Weis. however, i liked the raisins – i think bread pudding without raisins isn’t really bread pudding, ya know?

these are best when served warm out of the oven, but to eat later, just reheat in the microwave for about 25 – 30 seconds and enjoy!

go here for this fabulous recipe. they are definitely worth your time!

i am the queen of obsessions

so, according to my sister, i have an addictive personality – which i take to mean that people are drawn to, and easily addicted to my personality. apparently, that’s not exactly what my sister means.

basically, i have lots of addictions, such as: iced coffee, reality tv, coloring my hair, etc. and my newest obsession/addiction is baking blogs. i’ve always loved food network and been fascinating with cooking and baking; last fall, for example, i bought The Cookie Bible and vowed to bake every single recipe it contained (I’m not yet done, but I’m working on it!) so, while ive always loved to bake (more so than cook), it wasn’t until recently that i discovered the wonderful world of….BAKING BLOGS. and it’s a wonderful world, my friend. an amazing, captivating, lovely place. if you look to your right, you’ll notice the many baking blogs in my blog roll that i check on a regular basis. while i have not been totally inspired to create my own baking blog, i have decided that it would be fun to update my own blog with the occasional recipe every now and then.

so, tonight begins my great adventure of experimenting with the various recipes i have discovered on baking blogs all over the world wide web. my first excursion: Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Swirl Bread Pudding with a Sweet Maple Drizzle, courtesy of Picky Palate.

i’ll update soon with the result

random musings

i cannot believe it is already september. my life is flying by me so fast, and i fear that one day, i will wake up and be 65 and wonder where the last 40some years went.

i am ready for this election to be over. no, seriously. it’s ridiculous. it’s bringing out the worst in people, and it’s sad to see that happen. i will never understand politics. nor do i want to, actually.

i have decided that i need to do something more with my every day life than get up, go to work, come home, watch tv, then go to bed just to wake up the next day and do it all over again. i’m thinking cooking classes…or maybe volunteering somewhere. i think the second option is a better idea, mainly because it would be helping others and it’s free.

on sept 24 i will have been at my job for exactly one year. again, where is the time going??

despite my hatred for cold weather, i am excited for fall to come. now, if we could skip winter and go right to spring, that would be even better. oh, to dream.

i wonder where i will be 5 years from now…