Healthy Red Velvet Pancakes

Right now we're in the middle of yet another blizzard. Valentine's Day is tomorrow, we're buried underneath eight inches of snow and there's a 100% that I'm not moving from underneath these blankets for at least the next 48 hours.

Skinny Red Velvet Cake Pops

I'm always looking for an excuse to bake. Birthdays, holidays, Arbor Day...I really don't care. Just point me towards the oven and I'm on it.

The problem is when I'm done, I'm left with an entire cake, three dozen cookies, or a truckload of cake pops. I'll happily try to to polish off the pan on my own.

Skinny Red Velvet Hot Chocolate

 

I've always been casually ambivalent towards Valentine's Day. I'm not too sentimental (Read: I'm not sentimental. Like, at all.) I'm not that into jewelry and I'm pretty positive I'm allergic to flowers. But I'll be damned if I'm not gonna accept some delicious chocolate just because Hallmark is telling someone to give it to me. Who am I to get in the way of that tradition?

But lately, there's only reason I get remotely excited when February 1st rolls. In the last few years the rest of the universe has accepted what I've known to be true for quite a while: Red velvet is one of the best things that's ever happened to food. Maybe even to the world in general.

People who call red velvet "just a regular cake with food coloring" are just so wrong. Maybe it's the rich, opulent color that draws me to a red velvet cookie. It could be the simplicity and subtlety of mild cocoa flavor bundled up in dense, moist cupcake. Or, it could be because I love to eat cream cheese frosting by the spoonful (so much so that I created a healthy version -- try it here!). Who's really keeping score anyway?

Now, I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to realize that beauty red velvet could be repurposed into a beverage. To everyone who has kept red velvet hot chocolate from me until this moment: we're fighting.

When I finally realized all that my life was missing, I promptly cooked up a recipe. Mainly almond milk and cocoa, there's nothing in the way of keeping this treat a healthy one. It's so low in calories that, if you're like me, you may want to hit it with a shot (or two) of whipped cream while you're at it.

What I experienced when I took my first steamy sip can only be described one way -- it was a hug in a mug. That's coming from this self-professed pragmatist who's not even that fond of hugging. But no, it was so warm and rich and velvety that when I reached the bottom, I was actually sad. 

So it may be socially acceptable to red velvet-ify everything in sight only during Valentine's season, but there's not a chance I'm giving up this now nightly tradition any time soon.

-- Cara

Ingredients:
1 C Unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbs stevia
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
5  drops red food coloring

Directions
1. Combine milk, cocoa powder, stevia and food coloring in a pot. Stir continuously until it comes to a boil and then remove from heat.
2. Stir in vanilla. Pour and enjoy!

Nutrition: 1 cup (without whipped cream) = 43 calories
Carbs: 5g Fat: 4g Protein: 1g

Smoked Salmon Breakfast Wrap

I love oatmeal. If you ask any of my co-workers they will confirm this obsession due to the fact that they have to watch me eat it every single morning. However, when I woke up one morning to the wonderful text telling me I had a two-hour delay, I decided to push my red velvet oatmeal (recipe to come later!) to the side and make something equally delicious.

Butternut Squash, Sausage & Spinach Pasta

Kristen was the one who discovered Skinnytaste and introduced me to her blog. I'm forever grateful that she did, because I pretty much worship Gina. Like, I want to be her and cook delicious meals in my kitchen and hang out with famous chefs all day. Color me extremely envious.

Naturally, her blog is one of the first places we go to when we're looking for some meal inspiration!

Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting

I cannot keep this stuff in the house. I'm serious. When I make it I need to use it immediately and give any extras away. It could be to friends, family, a random stranger on the street -- just get it away from me. Because I will eat an entire tub of it and feel no remorse. It's that addictive.

The only thing that can (almost) justify eating this by the spoonful is that it's way better for you than regular frosting. Duncan Hines cream cheese frosting has 140 calories for 2 Tbs. The same dollop of this recipe is only 83. . . That means you could have twice the nice for the same amount of calories! Can't beat that. Oh, and the fact that one serving of this has seven carbs. From a can? 23! Yikes.

This recipe makes the frosting just sweet enough. I used to like cream cheese frosting so sweet it'd make my teeth ache, but then you lose the tartness that makes the frosting so good.

I've used this recipe on everything cupcakes to cookies to pancakes -- it's especially good with red velvet (obviously!) and pumpkin.

Basically, I'll find an excuse to put this stuff on anything. The problem is that it's so easy to throw together that if I had absolutely no will power, I would!

-- Cara

Recipe:
8 oz 1/3 fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese
3 Tbs powdered sugar
2 Tbs stevia
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Mix together all four ingredients by hand or with an electric mixer until everything is incorporated.

Makes 8 servings

Nutrition
1 serving: 2 Tbs 83 calories
Carbs: 7 Fat: 6 Protein: 2

Banana Boat Breakfast Bowl

When I was little, one of my favorite things EVER were baked banana boats. If you've never had a baked banana boat, I apologize for your childhood.

We'd make them when we went camping by slitting a banana longways and stuffing it with chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham crackers, and then wrapping it up in aluminum foil and baking it over the fire. They're the first and last thing I ever enjoyed about camping.

Coconut Snowballs

So yesterday I may have said how much I loathe the snow. Well, I take it back, because even though we had about eight inches dumped on us, I had a snow day! So instead of going to work, naturally I had to make "snowballs."

Bacon, Egg and Avocado "Pizza"

This recipe is super easy and way healthier than a regular bacon, egg and cheese sandwich or breakfast pizza. Once I had all the ingredients out, it took be about five minutes to make and assemble it. It's perfect for those mornings when you hit "snooze" on your alarm five times and don't have time for something "gourmet."

Strawberry Coconut Sorbet

For real, I hate winter. Once the first snow has come and gone in New England, the fun is gone. The only thing left is bone-chilling, soul-crushing cold. And snow. So. Much. Snow. 

Thanks, Polar Vortex.