Recipe for No Bake Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars-Secret Recipe Club

Warning...dangerous.  Yes, these little goodies are very good and hard to resist.  

Quick Valentines Treat

I know not everyone can get fresh strawberries right now.  If you can, this quick treat is always appreciated!


I hope you have a Happy Valentines Day tomorrow!

Book Review: "On A Stick" by Matt Armendariz (and recipe)

Photo by Matt Armendariz, used with permission

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to receive a free review copy of a new fun and quirky cookbook, “On a Stick!” by photographer and blogger Matt Armendariz, published by Quirk Books, May 2011.   Ha!  Quirky cookbook, published by Quirk books-unplanned, honestly!  OK, moving on.  I follow Matt’s blog (mattbites.com) so I was enthusiastic to see what in the world he had come up with for his “anything on a stick” cookbook.

Well, Matt did not disappoint!  Now, I’m not saying I’d make everything in this cookbook. However, there are plenty of fun appetizer or snack ideas that I would make and others that will inspire me to adapt the recipes to my ingredients/style. 

Recipe for Flourless Chocolate Torte



I’m not even going to do the calculation on this torte for nutritional value-it will be off the chart.   So obviously this is a special occasion “Eat Big” recipe.  I made it for Easter dinner, shared with friends.    I only made a few changes from the original recipe that I found on the Food Channel website (used butter and cream instead of margarine and fake creamer; added espresso to the ganache for another layer of flavor).  This is a labor of love and unless you are comfortable with baking, not a recipe I’d recommend tackling.  Having said all that, it was amazing:  tasty, rich, decadent, and beautiful.

Recipe for Double Chocolate Mocha Mint Cookies

These cookies remind me of the mint Girl Scout cookies but instead of thin and crunchy they are thick and soft.  Sort of like a brownie cookie-depending on how long you cook them, they’ll either be fudgy (my preference) or cakey (my husband’s preference).  I tried to make them on the healthier side by using white whole wheat flour and a minimum amount of brown sugar blend.  

Makes 26 cookies, each approximately 93 calories, 6.5 grams fat, 8 grams carbs, 1.5 grams fiber, 2 grams protein; 3 WW Points +

Recipe for Raspberry-Jalapeno Almond Butter Cups

Are you looking for a home-made treat for Easter?  Give these easy almond butter cups a try.  I’ve seen quite a few recipes for home-made candies based on popular commercial brands but they all seem to have stuff in them that I don’t really want to use like tons of powdered sugar or cornstarch or other stuff that I didn’t even know what it was.  I guess that’s what makes those candies taste so good, and probably not so good for us! 

So I thought I just give it a try with the basics: chocolate and nut butter, and added in a couple of things for fun: raspberry-jalapeno sauce and kosher salt. 

Recipe for Chocolate Chunk Cake

Using large chips of bittersweet chocolate makes this cake insanely chocolate.  It doesn’t need icing, just a touch of whipped cream or powdered sugar to finish it off.  If you like chocolate and salt like I do, sprinkle some kosher salt on the top and enjoy!  This is not a low calorie dessert by any means so use portion control.  You could also reduce the chocolate to 1 cup and I’m sure it would still be awesome.

Recipe for Creamy Dreamy Chocolate Almond Pie

Mmmm.  Doesn't that look good?  I promise it you it is and it is also pretty easy to make.  It’s hard to beat the combination of almond butter and chocolate, so why fight it?  We're not vegan (obviously!) but this pie turns out to be so if you have vegan friends coming over, here's your dessert!  (I developed this as part of a contest sponsored by Earth Balance but was not paid to do so or to write about it; but I did win the contest and $400 gift card to Whole Foods and a year of Earth Balance products!!)

Recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Brownies

Remember the 5+ pounds of zucchini I spoke about yesterday?  

Here’s another recipe I made using shredded zucchini.  Brownies are hard to “healthify” but these turned our really good, very moist, and much better nutritionally than traditional brownies.  And, you get some veggie and whole wheat in your sweet treat!

Makes 24 brownies. 160 calories, 7.5 grams fat, 23.5 grams carbs, 1.5 grams protein

Traditional brownie recipe with butter and double the sugar: 248 calories and 11.2 grams fat

Chocolate Hazelnut Whole Wheat Pancakes

How did I come up with this concoction for Chocolate Hazelnut Whole Wheat pancakes?  Breakfast at our house is generally pretty simple.   Almost always cereal for the hubby, pretty often for me too.  I’ll also make some of my breakfast quiches and eat those, or some hard boiled eggs.  Rarely do we do pancakes unless we go out.  Primarily because I haven’t found a recipe that feels halfway healthy.  That is until I found this one on Cooks.com

I liked it because it used whole wheat flour as the base and it got rave reviews about lightness and fluffiness.  Sounded good to me.

I felt a little creative this morning so I looked in the pantry and fridge for some inspiration.  Pumpkin?  Probably would be good, but didn’t float my boat and I had recently made pumpkin muffins.  Banana?  Hmmm, sort of ho-hum.  Semi-sweet chocolate mini chips (the tiny ones)?  OK, I can work with that, who wouldn’t like a chocolate treat for breakfast? 

I was thinking of adding some walnuts or other nuts and a light bulb came on…what about chocolate and hazelnut?  Sort of like that amazing choc/hazelnut spread I refuse to buy because I’m tempted to just stick a spoon in it and eat it straight from the jar?