Makeover Monday: Nutella Swirl Baked Doughnuts

Nutella lovers, I have treat for you!  I imagine that at this point, the only people in America who don't love Nutella are the people who haven't tried it yet.  I first had Nutella in college.  My husband went on a trip to Germany and returned with a jar of the delicious spread.  I guess it took Europe by storm before making its big splash in the States.  I was a little leery of trying trying it at first (hazelnut??) but I did.  And it was love at first bite.

For whatever reason, I don't seem to have Nutella around  much.  Perhaps it is because I would probably be constantly dipping my fingers in the jar if I did.  But whenever I come across recipes that include Nutella, I am quick to save them.  And I have plenty of them!  I have been waiting for quite a while to make the Nutella swirl doughnuts.  Fortunately, I finally got around to trying it.  I knew when I saw the recipe that if I was going to splurge on Nutella that I would have to make this a "makeover" recipe.  And that's exactly what I did.  But trust me, these don't taste like a makeover recipe!

Makeover Monday: Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies (No Eggs!)

I love a good cookie.  Probably too much.  I absolutely can't have just one.  Heck, most of the time I can't have just two!  That's why these peanut butter oatmeal cookies are one of my favorites.  They are tasty, moist, peanut buttery, and relatively healthy.  Relatively.

Another great thing about these yummy cookies is that they are egg free.  I don't have an egg allergy or anything, but if you do, these are for you.  These are also perfect for people like me who prefer their cookies a tad under-baked.  And by under-baked, I mean raw.  Grab a spoon!

Homemade Pop-Tarts

When I was a kid, we ate cereal for breakfast almost every day.  And although I loved cereal, having something else for breakfast, especially on a school day, was a pretty big deal.  Every now and then my siblings and I would whine enough at the grocery store and my mom would buy us a box of Pop-Tarts.  Those toasted pastry crusts with hot fruity filling (because they didn't have all those crazy flavors back then!) where quite a treat back in the day.  Now, not so much.

Maybe my pallet has over-evolved, but a store-bought Pop-Tart just doesn't do anything for me anymore.  They are hard, artificial tasting, and just not very good.  No thanks.  But a homemade version of a Pop-Tart?  Now we're talking.  These are REAL pastry crusts.  That means flaky and buttery, not hard and cardboard-tasting.  And they have REAL filling.  Read the ingredients.  You can actually pronounce them.  Put that filling in between two of pieces of that pastry crust, and you get something that is absolutely fabulous.  Cold cereal has nothing on these babies!

Makeover Monday: Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Scones

As the numbers on the calendars get higher and higher, the numbers on the thermometer are getting smaller and smaller.  Thank goodness!  And with that, my baking strike is officially over.  It is still pretty warm some afternoons, but the mornings have been nice and cool.  It's the perfect weather for some morning baking!

I've made scones a few times, and have always loved them.  But scones are one of those delicious breakfast foods that can be calorie stealth bombs and end up having as much fat and sugar as a dessert.  Case in point, my sinful white chocolate chip scones with peppermint glaze.  While I am all for the occasional a.m. splurge, I appreciate having some healthier breakfast options in my arsenal as well.  And this past Saturday, I was feeling like a good girl so I whipped up a batch of these whole wheat cinnamon raisin scones.  These are still sweet and satisfying, but I tried something unheard of in a scone recipe to give them a healthy twist.  And it worked!  Go me! 

Makeover Monday: Mulberry Pancakes

Last week I shared my recipe for sugar-free mulberry syrup.  I made it several weeks ago, but hadn't been able to actually enjoy it on a hot stack of pancakes because my husband and I have been traveling every weekend.  Although we traveled this weekend for an out of town wedding, we were at least able to spend some time at home Saturday morning.  Finally!  And Saturday mornings mean Saturday morning breakfast. 

I was super excited to try out my mulberry syrup and wanted the perfect pancake accompaniment.  In case you haven't checked out the syrup recipe yet (shame on you if you haven't!) in the process you simmer the mulberries in water until they are soft and then mash them.  When I have made this syrup in the past I threw the resulting mulberry pulp away.  I hated doing that.  It seemed like such a waste of one of my favorite summer treats.  This time I saved the pulp.  I knew I could use it somehow.   And then I realized that the perfect pancakes for my mulberry syrup would be mulberry pancakes.  Turns out mulberry pancakes + mulberry syrup = summer breakfast bliss.  That's math I would go to summer school for!

Makeover Monday: Lighter Cheesy Pastitsio

I love all things pasta.  I could probably eat it every day and never get tired of it!  But I rarely make cheesy pastas because cheesy pasta is just code for fatty pasta (as is creamy, or alfredo!).  So this recipe for lighter cheesy pastitsio instantly piqued my interested.  I had never heard of pastitsio, but it had cheese and pasta so I thought I would give it a try.

This recipe was already made-over for me so I can't take credit for that.  Basically this dish is just made with skim milk and reduced fat cream cheese and mozzarella.  I did make a few changes to increase the flavor.  I added some pepper because I need a little spice in my life.   I used Italian-style diced tomatoes as an easy way to up the flavor, and I topped it off with a sprinkling of Italian seasonings.  The sauce was pleasantly creamy and delicious.  I certainly didn't miss the extra fat!

Whole Wheat Maple Pecan Scones with Maple Icing

This post is dedicated to my mother-in-law.  Last year for my birthday she got me The Pioneer Woman Cooks, which is a fantastic cookbook and the original source of this recipe (I health-ed it up a little bit!).  My birthday is approaching again, and yesterday I got a package from her with several more cookbooks, including The Pioneer Woman's new cookbook.  Score!  Not only did she provide me with this recipe, she made The Pioneer Woman's maple pecan scones for us while we were visiting last year.  I kid you not, these were my first scones EVER!  And I was instantly in love.  It doesn't hurt that they were maple pecan, which is one of my favorite flavor combinations.  But since that time I have made myself several other scones (a few of which I have already shared) and have loved them all. 

I have been wanting to make these scones myself since the moment I took my first bite of the batch my mother-in-law made.  They are so delectable!  We're talking about flaky, buttery, scones with crunchy bits of pecans covered with a sugary, maple-y icing, topped with more crushed pecans.  Add a cup of hot coffee and you have pure breakfast nirvana.

Irish Soda Bread with Raisins and Walnuts

I'm not a big St. Patrick's Day fan.  Here are a few reasons: I own exactly one green item of clothing, I'm not Irish, I don't enjoy drinking until I make myself sick, and I am past the age where it is appropriate to pinch people who aren't wearing green (I'm not sure what the cutoff is, but I'm pretty sure I crossed that bridge several years ago!).  So March 17th is just another day for me.  But because I know not everyone else out there is a Srooge about St. Patrick's day, and curiosity finally got the best of me, I made some Irish soda bread this week.

I have an old cookbook with a recipe for Irish soda bread that I've been wanting to make for a while, mainly just because I have never had it.  I'm sure there's a million varieties of Irish soda bread, and I didn't even know how authentic mine was, but I decided to give it a shot.  I liked that the recipe I used included whole wheat flour and the option of adding some dried fruit.  I used raisins because that's what was in my pantry.  This recipe suggested 2 cups of dried fruit.  I like raisins, but I don't like them that much, so I did half raisins and half walnuts.  Adding raisins and walnuts made this bread a lot more interesting!

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Pancakes with Cinnamon Pecan Streusel

Last week I shared my maple mashed sweet potato recipe and I promised I would let you know what I did with my leftovers.  Without any further ado, here it is--sweet potato pancakes!  I have seen several sweet potato pancake recipes here and there on the world wide web (remember when people used to call it that?) but I passed them up.  They came back to me when I was wondering what I was going to do with the mountain of leftover mashed sweet potatoes I had.  Sweet potato pancakes seemed liked a great use for mashed sweet potatoes that already had a hint of maple flavor.  Put maple syrup on them and you have double maple!  So I searched a couple of recipes, tweaked them a little bit, and made a batch.

I loved these pancakes!  They were hearty from the whole grains, plenty thick, perfectly spiced, and very moist.  Just what I love in a good pancake!  These are similar to the pumpkin pancakes I made this fall, but they have a higher proportion of sweet potato.  While making these, I had an epiphany.  I have a recipe for pumpkin pancakes with a streusel topping that I have never made.  Because the flavors of the two pancakes are similar, I tried the streusel topping on my sweet potato pancakes, with some added pecans.  Sweet potatoes and pecans are meant to be together.  It all came together for some of the most amazing pancakes I have ever had!

Makeover Monday: Whole Wheat Banana Waffles

A few weeks ago I shared my adventures in making the perfect waffle.  And while my blueberry buttermilk waffles were amazing, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt as I scarfed down the crispy, fluffy, and fatty circles of breakfast goodness.  Yes, these were going to need a makeover to earn a spot in my Saturday morning breakfast rotation.

Thanks to whole wheat flour, applesauce, and bananas, I can now enjoy delicious waffles with a clear conscience.  And believe it or not, my husband actually said these were BETTER than the regular waffles I made previously.  They weren't quite as fluffy as the originals.  That could be due to the applesauce instead of oil, or it could be that the 2 litter bottle of seltzer water I used had been open for a week and had lost some of its carbonation.  Or maybe a combination of both!  But I think the 400 calorie savings are worth it!

I substituted mashed bananas for the sour cream which gave the waffles good texture and a nice banana flavor.  Since I was adding bananas to the mix, I thought some yummy complementary spices were in order.  So I added some cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  They were a great touch!  Of course, I added some whole wheat flour for a fiber bonus.  I used non-fat dried milk powder instead of the buttermilk powder to cut out some of the fat.  And I was back to my usual trick of applesauce instead of oil.  I even used just the white of the egg for even more extreme calorie savings.

Even with the healthy changes I made, these waffles are great!  I was so happy to have a tasty waffle with way less fat.  These are the perfect way to start a Saturday morning!

Oatmeal Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Random musing: If I had a cinnamon roll tree in my backyard that produced calorie free cinnamon rolls all year, I do believe I would have cinnamon rolls every day.  I love them that much.  But alas, cinnamon roll trees don't exist (that I know of!) and they are certainly not calorie free so I have to settle for having them every once in a while.

A while back ago, I woke up on a Saturday morning inexplicably craving cinnamon rolls.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the hours it takes to make up a batch of fresh cinnamon rolls.  So I started to make a batch of one of my favorite pancake varieties, oatmeal, which has a hint of cinnamon, thinking that would calm my craving.  I thought maybe I could even add a little extra cinnamon to up the ante.  Then I remembered seeing a recipe somewhere for cinnamon roll pancakes.  A quick internet search brought me to just what I was looking for--pancakes with a cinnamon-sugar swirl and a cream cheese glaze.  I just adapted the idea into my whole wheat oatmeal pancakes for a breakfast that was fast, hearty, and surprisingly cinnamon roll-like.  Perfect!

Chocolate Waffles (Two Ways!)

Well folks, I've done it again.  Chocolate for breakfast.  Isn't that the dream?  And what better way to start your Valentine's Day than with some chocolate waffles?  Trust me, the way to a man's heart is chocolate.  And waffles.  Hence, chocolate waffles!

The Belgian waffle maker I got for Christmas came with a few recipes.  I hadn't tried any of them yet, but I had my eye on a chocolate waffle recipe.  It's brilliant.  They suggested serving it as a dessert with ice cream.  I wanted it for breakfast.  So I used whole wheat and Splenda to make myself feel better about having chocolate for breakfast.

Now that I had decided I was going to make chocolate waffles for breakfast happen, I had some serious decisions to make.  What was I going to use as my topping?  I sometimes have donuts for breakfast.  I sometimes have coffee cake for breakfast.  But ice cream seemed like going a little too far.  I thought that for Valentine's Day, whipped topping and strawberries with strawberry syrup would be great.  But at the same time, peanut butter is chocolate's true valentine.  I remembered the peanut butter glaze I used on my Elvis cake and thought a thinned out version of that would be amazing on a chocolate waffle.  

Whole Wheat Homemade Pita Bread

Earlier this week I shared my recipe for roasted red pepper hummus.  Hummus just has to be eaten with pita bread.  Pita is a soft, chewy, circle of pure bread goodness.  And if you are having pita bread, it might as well be homemade!

When I made my hummus, I thought about going to the store to buy some pita bread, but then I thought better of it.  A quick internet search lead me to this recipe for homemade pita bread.  It had me at whole wheat!  I am gradually getting over my fear of yeast breads, so I set out to make my own pita bread.  I am so full of good ideas!

Homemade Whole Wheat Honey Graham Crackers

I guess I am on a homemade kick.  Earlier this week I posted my homemade hot dog buns.  Yesterday I posted my peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough dip, and promised I would share what I used as a worthy carrier for this fantastic treat.  And that carrier is homemade graham crackers.  Aren't I fancy?

I think I decided to make my own graham crackers because that seemed easier than going to the store and buying some.  And they were actually really easy.  The whole process of making these probably took a little longer than going to the store, but the hands-on time is quick.  The fact that they are fresh, preservative free, and delicious is just a bonus.  These had a delightful buttery taste and just the right amount of sweetness.

Whole Wheat Beer Buns

The subtitle for my blog is "a dietitian's journey through a foodie world."  And a journey it is.  I still consider myself a beginner at real, made from scratch baking.  And although I know my way around the kitchen, not everything I touch turns into foodie gold.  With that being said let me introduce you to my first crack at homemade hot dog buns!

Okay, so these didn't turn out quite as I had hoped.  They were more like mini loaves of whole wheat flat bread.  But, they were so delicious I just had to share them with you anyway.  These smelled so good while they were baking that my husband and I both just had to have a bun right out of the oven.  When was the last time you couldn't help yourself from eating a store bought hot dog bun?  Yeah, that's what I thought!