Mini-Pavlovas

Made by my mom on Christmas Eve. These are now a tradition at our house. Made with Ina's recipe and raspberry sauce.

NOT low carb. ;)

Banana Snickerdoodles

Banana Snickerdoodles via Noble Pig

Rosemary Olive Oil Cake

Rosemary Olive Oil Cake from 101 Cookbooks

This was interesting and I'm glad I tried it. That being said...if I make this cake again, I'm leaving out the rosemary. Just too strange for me.

Old-fashioned Berry Chocolate Cake

Based on this molasses cake. (Hold the molasses, add chocolate ;))

Ina's Berry Pavlova

Mixed Berry Pavlova from Ina Garten

This gorgeous confection was my birthday "cake" this year. I wasn't feeling the traditional birthday cake, and once I saw Ina make this, I knew I had to have it. I'm a huge fan of Barefoot Contessa and I just love Ina. I also saw a Martha Stewart recipe for pavlova that also looked beautiful and delicious, but ultimately I had to be loyal to my contessa. ;)

My mom took on the task of making this. I know it was time-consuming and I am so grateful to her for doing it for me - and it turned out amazing. She did an awesome job.

Pavlova is basically a dessert made from a giant circle of meringue. I've never been a fan of meringue, but this was different. After you bake it, you let it cool, then cover it with a massive amount of homemade whipped cream, and then finish it off with a berry sauce made from fresh berries and a raspberry-flavored beer. (We actually sipped on the beer before lunch and it was very good - it tasted more like a raspberry champagne.)

This combination of creamy flavors makes the pavlova sweet, luscious, melt-in-your-mouth yummy. I loved it.

Actually, we all loved it. And if you need proof - this is what was left of the pavlova after 10 minutes:

Dark chocolate (Nutella) almond cookies

Chocolate Nutella Cookies


I made these dark chocolate cookies almost two months ago. Talk about a delay. :)

We had some dark chocolate spread in the house (knock-off Nutella), and I really wanted to make cookies with it. The above recipe is the one I chose, but I tweaked it a little. Instead of using chocolate chips and only 3 tablespoons of chocolate spread, I omitted the chips and used about 6 oz of chocolate spread, or almost half a container of the stuff. I also added almonds and sprinkled powdered sugar on the finished cookies.

These cookies would go perfectly with morning coffee. They are extremely dense but they are small, so they make the perfect bite. Nutella (hazelnut spread) or any other chocolate spread would work for this recipe. I know World Market carries a variety of flavors, like caramel, white chocolate, and the dark chocolate kind.

Strawberry pie with crumb topping

The Old Boy's Strawberry Pie from Allrecipes




This is a bizarre strawberry pie. It just is. You can't imagine how strange it looks before you stick it in the oven. So if you make it, just keep that in mind, and if it looks so bizarre you think you're doing something wrong...well you're probably not. You're probably doing it just right.

Appearances aside, this does taste very good. The crumb topping is scrumptious, even when I replaced the white flour with all-purpose white-wheat flour. Remember to keep it refrigerated for best taste.

I am ashamed to admit that, even though my blog is subtitled "pudding and pie"....this is the first pie I have posted since I began blogging in January.

I have yet to post a pudding.

Volcano cake

Volcano Cake from Sandra Lee


So obviously this is not a healthy recipe. Eat this at your own risk.

My little sister requested this cake especially for her 18th birthday party. Basically it's a red velvet cake covered in dyed cream cheese frosting.

I made the cake mix from a box, then baked it in a Bundt pan, 2 circle pans, and one large cupcake form. Then I hodge-podged the cakes together after they cooled, and covered the whole thing with frosting.

It came out better than I thought...and dessert is always better with flames. :)

Chocolate-banana cookies

Nikki's Healthy Cookies via 101 Cookbooks


This is a flour-less, egg-less cookie....so, perfect if you're like me, and you have a yearning to bake, but you don't feel like going to the store. Hehe... Also good if you're like me and you let bananas sit around til they're practically mush, and the only thing you can do with them is put them in a baked good.

I really enjoyed these cookies. They're healthy, but they're good! I promise! I calculated that each one has 105 calories and 2g protein when you make a batch of 26.

Like a 100-calorie pack!
(You know, except healthy, and not full of corn syrup ;))

Bananaberry crumble

Upside-Down Bananaberry Crumble from Hungry Girl
140 calories for half recipe

The Hungry Girl site doesn't have the recipe listed, but basically it's chopped up bananas and strawberries, mixed with Splenda, rum extract and cornstarch; covered in crushed graham crackers, and baked.


Of course, mine is not upside down. I did make a few changes to the recipe, mainly that I used part Sweet-n-Low and part regular sugar because we didn't have Splenda. I also used frozen strawberries instead of fresh.

I think it was a little more gushy rather than crispy because of the extra liquid from the frozen berries. But still pretty good. This would be good with some Cool Whip but we didn't have any.

Big Red ice cream

Big Red ice cream from Recipezaar

All I can say is.......YUMMMMMMM. My mom has made this for a long, long time.

Of course, Big Red ice cream isn't really healthy, but it's unbelievably delicious. So if you haven't tried it before, you should get ya summa that.

Frozen yogurt and chile relleno casserole

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt from David Lebovitz
1/2 c for 127 calories

Chile Relleno Casserole from Peertrainer.com
6 servings for 288 calories each

I first tasted Pinkberry frozen yogurt when my family visited Hollywood two summers ago. Since then we have tried to find a frozen yogurt that is comparable. The frozen yogurt with berries at Central Market comes pretty close. Well then I found this recipe, and this is the closest thing yet.

I will definitely make this again, and double it, because there was not enough to go around with 7 people. I will use a little less sugar next time. We topped ours with white chocolate chips, but pretty much any fruit, nut, or chocolate topping will taste good with this yogurt.

The chile relleno casserole was a recipe that I found randomly, when I was looking for tips on how to make a low-calorie chile relleno. (Although it's made from a very large chile, at Mexican restaurants it's usually stuffed brimming, overflowing with cheese....and usually has at least 600 calories.) I've never heard of peertrainer.com but this recipe was good, so I might look to see if they have other tantalizing recipes.

Mango mousse

Mango Mousse from About.com

This is a pretty healthy dessert, definitely a good alternative to ice cream. I'm going through a mango phase, so I wanted to try a mango dessert.

I can't remember exactly how many calories are in this, but you can get a large portion for about 200 calories I think. I would say the key to success is to get very ripe mangoes. Ours weren't quite ripe enough, so the mousse turned out a little sour. If you use very ripe mangoes, then you could use less of the confectioner's sugar. One other note is that I used low-fat whipped topping instead of the whipping cream, so that cuts down the calories as well. Sprinkle some nutmeg or cinnamon on top.

Low-carb cheesecake

I have had a never-ending chocolate craving this weekend. I can't get enough of it. So far, I've been able to control it to a decent extent, but I did have a few too many Valentine chocolates.

I've been limiting my carb intake recently... I'm not doing the Atkins diet or anything, but I am trying to avoid bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, tortillas, chips, etc. When I started this, I told myself I would boycott desserts...but I quickly realized that I can't do without chocolate for an extended period of time. Actually, I don't think I can go without chocolate for more than a day or two.

Anyway, so I found myself craving chocolate once again tonight. I found a recipe for a low-carb "cheesecake," and I immediately decided to make it into a turtle cheesecake. Here's the recipe..

Low-Carb Turtle Cheesecake
(makes 3 or 4 servings;
267 calories and 14 carbs;
or 202 calories and 10 carbs)

8 oz package cream cheese or neufchatel
1 TB unsweetened cocoa powder
3 TBS splenda*
3 sugar-free pecans-and-caramel chocolates
Can of light whipped cream

Heat neufchatel in microwave for 20-30 seconds. Mix in cocoa powder and sugar, and place in fridge to set. (If you have some time, give it about 30-40 minutes. Or, you can put it in the freezer to speed it up.)
Finely chop the chocolates. When the neufchatel mixture is set, divide up portions, top with a squirt of whipped cream, and sprinkle generously with chocolate.


*We were practically out of splenda, so I used 1 TB splenda, 1 TB stevia, and 1 TB regular sugar.

Baked Quince

At Whole Foods yesterday, I came across some odd-looking fruits in the produce section. This quince was the only one I could afford. LOL. I wasn't sure how to eat it....I thought you could eat it like an apple. Apparently not. I looked it up, and I found out that raw quince is hard and tart...and that quince jelly used to be common in the U.S. until canning went out of fashion. Quince can also be baked like pears or apples, used in compotes, cobblers, and pies, or made into a kind of fruit leather.


The quince intrigues me. It looks like a lemon, smells like a pineapple, and tastes like a pear. The word "quince" sounds so medieval and antiquated to me...like an obsolete word. It makes me feel like I'm eating something from the middle ages, maybe along with some Cornish pasties and mutton. I can't wait to buy more, so I can make another of the recipes I found. Apparently when you cook quince for several hours (5), the flesh turns from white to bright, blood red.




I came across a few quince recipes, and I combined a couple of them.

Baked Quince

1 quince, cut in half and cored
1 TB butter
1 TB honey
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cloves
cinnamon (to taste)
3 c water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the quince flesh side up in a deep baking pan. Place butter on the quince, drizzle with 1/2 TB of honey, save the rest. Sprinkle quince with sugar, cloves, and cinnamon according to your liking. Fill pan with water and heat uncovered for 1 hour. Remove from oven, drizzle quince with remaining honey. Serve by itself or with vanilla ice cream. :)

Cookie dough Brownies made with pumpkin

Ok...let me preface this by saying - this concoction is not health food in any way. This is not a 100-calorie pack. This is not breakfast. This is not what you eat for energy before a workout. However, even though this isn't healthy, this is an example of taking a ludicrously indulgent recipe and making it a little more healthy than it was.

So with that disclaimer, here are the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies. Basically, in the original recipe, you take chocolate chip cookie dough, and you pour it onto brownie batter, and bake it all together as one glorious pan of chocolatey goo.

Now, here's where the slight adjustment comes in. I knew this recipe would have a plethora of calories, so I decided to soften the blow a little bit, by replacing the brownie batter with Hungry Girl's Yum Yum Brownie Muffin mix. Instead of brownie mix, get a box of devil's food cake mix, and stir in a can of pure pumpkin. And there's your batter. Don't add eggs or oil.


After that, I followed the recipe as is. The change of the brownie batter took off about 100 calories, and in the end, I cut each piece in 2 to make smaller portions, bringing the total to about 200 calories per brownie.

I find it laughable that Betty Crocker lists this recipe as having 48 servings. I ended up with about 26 pieces. (The brownie pictured is a double serving...imagine it cut in half.)

Anyway, these are delicious. Fortunately, we were able to pawn them off on some willing bystanders, so there's not many left in the house to tempt us.