Oikos Greek Yogurt Week #2 - Almost-Famous Frozen Yogurt

This is my second week working with the Oikos Greek Yogurt and I made Food Network's Almost-Famous Frozen Yogurt. This almost-famous frozen yogurt is a copycat recipe for the famous and yummy Pinkberry frozen yogurt. Pinkberry is located in New York, California, and Texas and is becoming really popular as a healthy treat. Check out the Pinkberry website here. They have many toppings for their frozen yogurt, such as lychee, mango, fruity pebbles, granola, honey, and many others. I chose to top my frozen yogurt with fresh raspberries.

Food Network features a brand new almost-famous recipe in each issue of their magazine. These are my favorites recipes in the magazine. So far, I have made every one of them and have yet to be disappointed. This recipe is marvelous! I feel like it is a healthy treat that is very satisfying. I found the end product to be creamy and tangy with lots of possibilities. I would love to add mix-ins to the yogurt and also make a frozen yogurt parfait.

Food Network recommends using Greek yogurt when making this frozen yogurt. I made this recipe both ways and found that when using Greek yogurt the end product was much creamier. This is one delicious recipe that you will love and feel good about serving to your family. You can even set up a frozen yogurt bar with all different kinds of toppings!!

Almost-Famous Frozen Yogurt - adapted from Food Network Magazine
2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt
2 cups plain nonfat or reduced fat Greek yogurt **Greek yogurt is much creamier**
1/2 cup superfine sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
fresh fruit or other toppings

Whisk both yogurts, the sugar and corn syrup in a bowl until combined. Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

For a soft consistency, serve right out of the ice cream maker. For a firmer texture, transfer the frozen yogurt to a covered container and freeze for up to 2 hours. Serve with assorted toppings.

This recipe takes only 10 minutes and makes 1 quart of frozen yogurt. The kids and I really enjoyed making this and we feel even better about eating it. We had some leftovers that we stored in a reusable Tupperware container with great results.

We loved this recipe so much that we are thinking about experimenting with the other flavors of Greek yogurt at the market. I used plain in this recipe, but I am tempted to try both the honey and the strawberry!! This recipe was delicious.

Paula Deen's Blueberry Cream Pie

My Dad, along with his wife and her sister, came to visit us this week. My Dad's wife, Lesley, has lived in the U.S. for over 30 years, but she is originally from Scotland. Her sister, Eileen, still lives in Scotland but comes to visit often during the summertime. We were so happy to have them all. It was a real treat!!Eileen loves to cook and I showed her my blog. We talked all about different kinds of recipes and I gave her some recipes before they left. We had so much fun talking about all kinds of recipes. Eileen mentioned that she had bought cups and tablespoons so she could follow American recipes at home.

My Dad's birthday was the very first week of August so I made him Paula's Blueberry Cream Pie. Ever since I can remember, both me and my Dad have loved blueberry pie. There is a little diner in my hometown that has the best blueberry pie and we both would order it every time it was on the menu. Although we always have traditional blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream, I thought I would try something new.

Paula's recipe is very fun and simple. Let's face it.....how bad can blueberry cream pie actually be? This pie is served cold and the filling is not baked at all. The final product was light and fluffy. Some were skeptical at first, mainly because they didn't love blueberry pie the traditional way. They enjoyed this pie because it was not overwhelming in the blueberry department. At first, I thought the pie was a bit too mild. I guess what I mean by that is simply that it didn't have a lot of flavor. However, the next day, the pie was better. Maybe it needed extra time in the refrigerator. The next day, the flavors seemed to blend a little better and my Dad and I finished it off : ) I thought the cream portion of the pie might taste somewhat like cheesecake, but it didn't. It almost tasted a bit like a cream cheese frosting, if that makes any sense. In the end, I think I prefer traditional blueberry pie a la mode, but this was fun and enjoyed by all. I'm glad that I made it at least once to test it out. If you need a quick dessert, don't be ashamed to throw this together!!

Blueberry Cream Pie- adapted from The Lady & Sons by Paula Deen
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I used pecans)
One 9-inch deep-dish pie crust (thawed if frozen)
Two 3-ounce packages cream cheese, room temp
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar
One 21-ounce can blueberry pie filing

Press the chopped nuts into the bottom of the pie crust. Bake as directed on the package and let cool. Beat the cream cheese with the confectioners sugar. Beat the heavy cream with the granulated sugar until it forms soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture. Spoon this mixture into the cooled pie shell and top with blueberry pie filling. Refrigerate until well chilled.

On a fun note, I received a shipment of cookbooks yesterday from The Good Cook. I started wondering how many other food bloggers belong to their cookbook club. When I arrived home to see the box on my mailbox I was SO excited. I just couldn't wait to tear into the package. I have been wanting some of these cookbooks for months and I finally ordered them. I received Carmine's Family-Style Cookbook, Taste of Home's Winning Recipes Cookbook, and also a fun book all about Halloween called Matthew mead's Monster Book of Halloween. All of these books are great, but the Taste of Home Winning Recipes is an ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE FOR EVERY FOOD LOVER!! I'm not kidding when I say that you simply have to have this book. It contains 645 recipes from National Cooking Contests and I have bookmarked over 150 recipes to try. Everything sounds delicious. In fact, I'm going to post about this book soon. If you don't have this book, you need to seriously think about getting it. If you do have this book, I'm curious what some of your favorites are. I don't know where to start : )

Creative Thursdays: Poached Eggs on Black Bean Cakes with Salsa

I love breakfast foods! I absolute love going out to eat for breakfast and making it at home. I think it has to do with the sheer variety of foods that one can eat for breakfast. When I think of all those possibilities, it just makes me hungry! How can you decide between the egg platter or the pancake platter? What about the stuffed french toast, crepes, fruit platters, biscuits, rolls, bagels, hashbrowns.....not to mention all those pastries.........what's a girl to do??

Well, I have a great breakfast recipe that is one of my favorites to cook at home. It is a little fancier than most at-home breakfasts, pretty healthy, and can be made with pantry ingredients. Plus, it uses this week's featured ingredient.....beans!!

This is really quite a healthy breakfast. This recipe makes 6 black bean cakes. I halved the recipe because I had only one can of beans and I ended up with 3 black bean cakes. Each serving has 13g of protein and about 7-9 g of fiber, almost your daily allowance! In addition, this recipe is low in fat, low in carbs and just plain delicious.

I've made this recipe several times and I can tell you that it is much, much easier if you use store-bought salsa over the Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce. The red bell pepper sauce adds quite a bit more time and a whole lot of dirty dishes. On the flip side, it was tasty, and might be worthwhile to you if you love peppers. I didn't have any red bell pepper this morning, so I opted for the store-bought salsa.

Poached Eggs on Black Bean Cakes with Salsa - adapted from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt
8 saltines, broken up (I used Ritz crackers)
2 cans (15 oz. each) black beans, drained and rinsed
6 green onions, including some tender green tops, cut into pieces
2 garlic cloves, cut into pieces
2 sprigs cilantro or parsley, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salsa or Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce
6 poached eggs
cilantro sprigs for garnish

Place saltines in a food processor and process until crushed. Add beans, green onions, garlic, cilantro, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper to taste and process until chuncky. Form into 6 cakes. (Mixture will be sticky). Place cornmeal in a flat dish or on waxed paper. Add cakes and turn to coat.
In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, warm 2 tablespoons oil. Fry cakes until crisp, about 5 minutes on each side. Add more oil, if needed.
If serving with bell pepper sauce, have the sauce warmed and ready. If serving with salsa, warm the salsa.
To assemble, top each cake with a poached egg and a spoonful of Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce/Salsa. Garnish each with a sprig of cilantro and serve immediately.

Note: The black bean cakes make great vegetarian burgers.

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon a/p flour
1/2 cup milk
1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled, and cut-up
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper
*Makes about a cup of sauce*

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion and garlic and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add flour and stir until bubbly. Stir in milk and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Sauce will be thick.
Place roasted bell pepper in food processor or blender and puree. Add onion mixture and process until smooth. Return to pan and add paprika, salt, and pepper to taste. Serve warm.
Note: To roast the pepper, preheat the broiler. Cut pepper in half lengthwise and remove seeds and ribs. Make several 1-inch slashes around the edge of each pepper half. Place skin-side up on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet. Press peppers down with the palm of your hand to flatten them. Broil until skin is charred, about 10 minutes. Remove from broiler, fold foil tightly over peppers, and let them steam for 10 minutes. Unwrap peppers and peel off skin.

As mentioned above, these are great alone or as a veggie burger. Head on over to these sites to find other delicious recipes using beans:

Reeni of Cinnamon & Spice has compiled a whole folder of recipes using black beans. Click here to check them out, every one of them looks excellent!!

Joanne of Eats Well With Others, made these delicious Louisiana Red Beans, found here.

Deb of Kahakai Kitchen made these tasty-looking Pinto Bean Patties that she learned from a vegetarian cooking class, here.

Or, how about adding your black beans to a quesadilla, like Kevin at Closet Cooking. Head over to check out his recipe for Corn and Black Bean Quesadillas, found here.

Well, I hope there are some tasty bean recipes that you will enjoy here. I'm off to wash an entire sink full of dishes only to dirty them all up again. The hubby invited two of his co-workers over for dinner and I'll be a busy girl today!!

Black Bean Dip for My Girl Paula

This is my third recipe for My Girl Paula, and it was delicious! In fact, I made it again a couple of days later. It really hit the spot! I have to admit, I haven't had Velveeta cheese in many years. But, I stuck with the recipe and made the dip with Velveeta cheese. This dip was flavorful the night it was made, but even better the next day.

A couple of days later, I made this dip again without the Velveeta cheese. I added 4 oz. of cream cheese instead of the Velveeta and I liked this version even better. I'm tempted to make this dip again, but there is such a thing as too much beans ; )

Black Bean Dip - Adapted from The Lady & Sons, Too! -Paula Deen
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped onions
One 4-oz. can green chiles, chopped
1 tomato, diced *I used 1/2 cup salsa*
2 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
1 teaspoon The Lady's House Seasoning
One 15 oz. can black beans with jalapenos
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
4-ounce block Velveeta Mexican cheese product, diced
1- 3 oz. package cream cheese, diced

Melt the butter in a skillet. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the green chiles, tomato, cilantro, and House Seasoning, and cook for 5 minutes longer. Add the beans and cheeses, and simmer until hot and bubbling. Serve hot with white-corn tortilla chips.

Oikos Greek Yogurt Week #1

Today is the perfect day to Go Greek!! At work today, we had a toga party and celebrated all of the Greek ingredients in our products. We wore togas and the florist made all of us girls very pretty wreaths to wear on our hair. It was so much fun. When I came home, I noticed that even Ina Garten went Greek today cooking all kinds of Greek goodies. I decided it was the perfect day to start my posts about Oikos Greek Yogurt.

A couple weeks ago Kristina at Stonyfield Farm contacted me about trying Oikos Greek Yogurt. I was very interested and welcomed the package with open arms. Kristina was so sweet...she sent me tons of coupons and a very cute Stonyfield reusable bag. In the package were also coupons for five FREE 5.3 oz. greek yogurts! I also received another packet of coupons for some of their other products. I was so excited to receive this package and try the yogurt!!

Oikos Greek Yogurt comes in a variety of flavors: plain, vanilla, blueberry, and honey were all available in my supermarket. They use a centuries-old straining process to remove the whey (liquid) from the yogurt which leaves the end product both rich and creamy. The Oikos Greek Yogurt is organic and has twice the protein of normal yogurt. There is 0% fat, and each 5.3 oz. container has just 80 calories! The very best part is that the Oikos Greek Yogurt is deliciously creamy and seems very decadent! Not only is it great to eat on its own, it is also great to bake with PLUS use in smoothies, salad dressings, frozen yogurt...you get the idea : )

I've been dreaming up recipes and ideas for posting and have decided that each Sunday, for the next 4-6 weeks, I will post a new recipe using the Oikos Greek Yogurt. In the meantime, have fun thinking of ways that you might like to use Oikos Greek Yogurt. At the end of my 4-6 week series, there will be a very generous giveaway!! Kristina at Stonyfield Farm will send one lucky winner the following:

2 FREE 16 0Z. OIKOS COUPONS
4 FREE 5.3 0Z. OIKOS COUPONS
$4 WORTH OF STONYFIELD COUPONS
OIKOS SPATULA AND RECIPE CARD SET

This is definitely something that you would want to win!!

Now, onto the food!!

Tip # 1 - Use greek yogurt in place of sour cream when baking! It is delicious and much healthier!

I chose Martha Stewart's Date-Bran Muffins and replaced the sour cream with the Oikos Plain Greek Yogurt. The muffins were moist from the yogurt and delicious with a hint of orange flavor. I would recommend baking with the greek yogurt anyday! This recipe makes 1 dozen, but I halved the recipe and everything worked out just fine.

Date-Bran Muffins- Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp, plus more for pans
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups wheat bran
1/4 cup plus 2 TBSP packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1-1/2 cups sour cream OR Oikos Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup unsulphured molasses (do not substitute sulfured of blackstrap)
1-1/2 cups (8 ozs.) pitted chopped dates
1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest

Preheat the oven to 375F. Generously butter a standard 12-cup muffin tin. *I used muffin/cupcake liners.** In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and bran; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar on med-high spped until light and fluffy; 2 to 3 minutes. Scrap bowl as needed. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add greek yogurt/sour cream and molasses; mix on low speed until just combined.

Using a rubber spatula, fold in the reserved flour mixture, dates, and orange zest until just combined; do not over mix. Divide and fill muffin pans. Bake, rotating halfway through, until a cake tester comes out clean, 22-25 minutes. Transfer the pan to wire rack and let rest for 10 minutes. Let cool completely.

The next morning, I served these date-bran muffins alongside Tyler's Greek Yogurt with a Fig, Date, and Honey Swirl. Do yourself a HUGE favor and find the recipe here. It was heavenly, creamy, crunchy, sweet and just plain delicious. I couldn't even believe it was healthy!! I am already craving more. Plus, this is probably the easiest Tyler recipe that I have ever made!! If you don't believe me, check out Beth's post at The Seventh Level of Boredom. Beth and I both loved this creamy and decadent breakfast treat!!



Come back next Sunday for more recipes using greek yogurt!!

CREATIVE THURSDAYS: Baked Jalapeno Poppers

Do you think of a jalapeno pepper as a blank canvas? If not, you should consider it. Most often, we cut them up and add them to chili, tex-mex, or we might top our burgers with them. They are probably not a staple on the grocery list. However, jalapenos are extremely inexpensive, keep well for long periods of time, and are a terrific canvas for cheese, bacon, sausage, and breadcrumbs. For all these reasons, jalapenos are this week's featured ingredient.

Create your own filling for them, roll them in breadcrumbs and bake away. You can even freeze them and bake them later when you need to have a quick appetizer or treat!

Both my mom and neighbor have an abundance of jalapenos in their garden. I literally received bags of jalapenos. My husband and I love spicy food, but there was no way we could eat all the peppers we received in time. I thought about canning, but just wasn't feeling it. I started looking up recipes for jalapenos and found a recipe for poppers.

I made a huge batch of poppers and froze them so that we could have them whenever we want. These poppers were so delicious, you would never know they were baked and not fried! When you bite into these, they are so crunchy and the cheese just comes oozing out! The poppers bake for around 30 minutes which allows the peppers to soften just perfectly. In other words, when you bite into them, it is a clean bite. You will not find yourself biting into the popper and pulling out the whole jalapeno in one bite, leaving only a shell of breadcrumbs behind. (Does that ever happen to you?)

The recipe that I used is from the Food Network and can be found here. Basically, you remove the stems and halve the jalapenos. You then create a mixture of cheese (I used garden vegetable cream cheese and monterey jack) and stuff the jalapenos. Once all jalapenos are stuffed, you roll them in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs. This recipe uses panko, but I'm sure any breadcrumb would be fine. You can bake them right away at 350F for 30 minutes or freeze them and bake later. I brushed mine with a little bit of olive oil before baking to help achieve a golden brown color. Use this recipe as a guide only. Feel free to stuff your jalopenos with any kind of cheese, wrap them in bacon, or use regular breadcrumbs.

The Pioneer Woman also has a recipe for bacon-wrapped jalapeno thingies, found here. She has said on more than one occasion that she absolutely loves these jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon.

And, if you can't stand the heat.....don't get out of the kitchen just yet!!! Try Kevin's Baked Jalapeno Popper Dip, recipe found here. This dip looks simply delicious and would be great with tortilla chips or crackers. Surely the all that ooey gooey cream cheese, cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, and mayo will balance out the heat. The breadcrumb topping looks to die for!!

I also want to post my carrot flowers for a wonderful giveaway over on my friend Beth's site. Please go to The Seventh Level of Boredom and check out Beth's extremely generous giveaway. It is a Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker!! I saw what those bakers can do at a recent Pampered Chef party and they are fabulous! You can even cook with them in the microwave.

Beth is going to a baby shower coming up and will be creating a vegetable garden to take with her. She is looking for good ideas from readers about cutting veggies into flowers. Submissions can be posted on your blog or sent to Beth directly. I searched and searched and found a carrot flower that I thought was pretty cute. It is suppose to be set alongside sprigs of rosemary to look much like a flower with a pretty rosemary stem. Please don't laugh, I'm not very artsy at all.

Pita Bread for Tyler Florence Fridays and BYOB

I am crazy about pita bread and was looking for an excuse to make them at home. Normally, I would love to have pita bread filled with hummus and veggies or maybe chicken and veggies. But, I saw someone on TV eating a Philly cheesesteak and I was inspired. I decided to get straight to work and try Tyler's version, which can be found here. Who knew making pita bread was SO MUCH FUN??

The dough is very simple and then rises for an hour and a half. Once the dough rises, you cut it into 8 pieces and roll each piece into a ball. It is important to keep each ball of dough covered so that it doesn't dry out. Once divided, the dough rests for another 15 minutes, covered. Meanwhile you are allowing your oven to reach 500F (not so perfect for summertime).

One by one, you remove a ball of dough and roll out with a rolling pin, being careful to make a smooth circle. Place the circle of dough directly on the hot pizza stone and watch it puff in the oven!! So exciting and the kids get a big kick out of it : ) They bake in about 3-4 minutes. They are delicious warm and also when they are room temperature. If you love pita bread and are thinking about baking some from scratch, try this Tyler recipe. It is rated 5 stars on the food network website.

I am submitting this recipe to both BYOB, Bake Your Own Bread, and Tyler Florence Fridays. Tyler Florence Fridays is a great group that showcases a variety of Tyler's recipes each Friday. It is so much fun to see what everyone has created throughout the week. Head on over there Friday evening and see for yourself : )