Black and White Rice Cakes

Think snacking on rice cakes is extremely lame and only for hungry people? It's not!

Especially with all the amazing flavors out there, like the caramel ones I eat, rice cakes get a bad rap for being boring. Oh, and how about the fact that they're SLATHERED IN PEANUT BUTTER. Do I have your attention now?

I'm a firm believer that behind all crave-worthy junk food, there is a healthy way to re-imagine it. You just have to get creative! 

Before I decide to be more aware of how I was eating, one of my favorite desserts were black and white cookies. Random, I know.

And not those little, tiny ones from the grocery store that taste like the plastic containers they're sold in. I mean the real deal, pastry shop, size of my whole hand black and white cookies.

Even though I didn't have them very often, they aren't something I should have been eating with reckless abandon, and especially in one sitting! It never occurred to me that I was basically pouring a box of sugar down my throat and upwards of 500 calories for one, albeit ginormous, cookie! (And let's not forget the 22g of fat and 39g of sugar...)

That's why I was so excited when I created my own healthy version! They satisfy that sweet craving I usually get after dinner without taking me for a ride on the sugar roller coaster. Even better, it's TWO "cookies" for only 275 calories. This healthy substitute also slashes the sugar by more than half with only 14g and has 10g less fat. And with this dessert, you're getting healthy fats from the peanut butter. Because we always need more reasons to eat peanut butter.  

The best part is that this is a snack or dessert you can customize any way you like! I used Is This Heaven or Is This Caramell for the "black" side and Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter for the "white," but any chocolate and regular peanut butters can simulate the colors.

Next time: Dark Chocolate Dreams and White Chocolate Wonderful!

Ingredients

2 caramel rice cakes

1 Tbs chocolate peanut butter

1 Tbs regular peanut butter

Nutrition: 1 serving = 275 calories
Carbs: 36g Fat: 12.5g Protein: 5g

Treasure Chest Red Velvet Cookies

I've been seeing recipes for "two ingredient" red velvet cookies all over the internet. I kept thinking, "Well, that's literally too good to be true."

Update: It's not! 

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.

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

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."

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.

Chickpea Blondies

Here's what we hope is the first of many of our nom-able recipes inspired by things that we love to eat, now turned into versions that are equal parts healthy and delicious. Don't forget to read the About Us to get to know us better!

It wouldn't be right to start this blog with anything other than dessert. A dessert with chocolate, obviously.  These blondies were inspired by the Flourless Chocolate Chip Blondies with Sea Salt from the Ambitious Kitchen and have a sneaky "skinny" ingredient that won't make you feel guilty for eating half the batch before putting it in the oven. There's also nothing ambitious about this recipe...They're almost too easy. Like "throw every ingredient into a food processor and bake" easy.