Healthy S’mores Cupcakes

Ingredients

For Chocolate Cupcake (Makes 10 Cupcakes)

• 115 gr of Dark Sugar-Free Chocolate
• 15 gr of Butter
• 2 Large Eggs
• 50 gr of Brown Sugar, Stevia, or Sweetener of Choice
• 25 gr of Coconut Oil or Olive Oil or Oil or Choice
• 60 gr Oats Flour
• 30 gr of Cacao Powder
• 1 gr Salt
• 1 gr Baking Soda
• 2 gr Baking Powder
• Preheat oven at 170 C.

For Marshmallows

• 40 gr Water
• 100 gr White Sugar 
• 20 gr of Gelatin Sheets
• 2 Egg Whites
• Stick Vanilla

 For Crushed Biscuit Topping

• Healthy Sugar-Free Short Bread Cookies

For Those of you who don’t know, This is a S’more, a traditional campfire treat that is really popular in the United States. One of my personal favorite decadent Treats. This new twist to the recipe kind of came about when I had a special request for work; Someone requested a children’s bday cake that was healthy but yet appealing to kids…So, I made Healthy S’mores Cake and from what I heard, the kids loved it!

I decided to make a healthy Cupcake version just because cupcakes are way cuter and its easier for “portion control”…so here is my version of Healthy S’mores Cupcakes!

Here’s what to do:

Make Cupcakes

• Melt the Chocolate and butter either in the microwave or in a double-broiler (bain-marie).
• In a bowl beat together the Sugar and Eggs until you get a light and fluffy mixture.
• Add the olive oil and beat until incorporated.
• Using a spatula, mix in the melted chocolate and butter. Once incorporated mix in the powders (oat flour, salt, cacao, baking soda and baking powder).
• Finally, mix in the greek yogurt.
• Serve the cupcake mix into your cupcake tins (fill up about 1/2 to 3/4 of the tin) and bake in hot oven for 20 mins approximately.

For the Marshmallows

• Place the water and sugar in a pot, stir it to incorporate and then place over medium-high heat and allow to boil without stirring at all. Allow this mix to come to 120 C.
• Meanwhile, place the gelatin sheets into really cold water until they soften ( 5-10 mins).
• Beat the egg whites until they form light, fluffy, solid white peaks.
• When the sugar and water reach 120 C, remove from heat and stir in the gelatin sheets until they dissolve and immediately pour the mix into the fluffy egg white peaks and beat constantly with an electric mixer until the mixture cools (about 4-5 mins).
• Place into an icing bag and either serve directly into cupcakes decorating them however you like, or make different shapes marshmallows on a sheet of baking paper covered with 1 tablespoon of shredded coconut.
• Allow for the marshmallows to set / dry (about 30 mins) before serving.

If you own a gas torch, brown your marshmallows a bit before serving and top with some crushed sugar-free biscuits, you can try my Healthy Sugar-Free Short Bread Cookie Recipe or any other sugar-free biscuit you like.

P.S: Not including the crushed biscuits topping, each of these cupcakes only yields to about 20g of Carbs and about 9g of Fats!! So enjoy it Guilt-Free!!

xoxo,

Yoggi B.

Healthy Chocolate Quinoa “Risotto”

Ingredients

• 1/3 Cup of  Cooked Quinoa or Brown Rice 
• 3/4 Cup of Almond Milk 
• 1-2 Tablespoons of Sweetener or Brown Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon of Cacao Powder
• 30 Grams of Sugar-Free Chocolate (Dark, Milk, whatever you prefer)
• 1/2 Banana
• Chopped Walnuts 

 

A couple years ago when I still lived in Venezuela, I used to go to this restaurant that served the most amazing chocolate Risotto! It had rice (of course), Nutella Chocolate sauce, chopped bananas and walnuts…it was served warm. YUM!! One of the yummiest desserts I’ve ever had!

So, to satisfy my sweet tooth but keep my fitness goals in check, I decided to come up with this Clean version of the Chocolate Risotto.

The preparation is pretty similar to that of the Healthy Rice Pudding Recipe I shared with you!

Here’s what to do

• In a small sauce pan, place the 1/3 cup of cooked quinoa or brown rice, sweetener, cacao and milk. Stir and bring to a boil over medium-high temperature.
• Add the chopped chocolate and stir it in. Allow the mix to simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally so it doesn’t stick to the pan.
• Stir in the banana and walnuts, and allow to simmer for 1 more minute. Turn off the heat and allow the risotto to set for 3-4 minutes.
• Top with nuts or melted chocolate if you prefer and serve warm!

Enjoy!!

xoxo,

Yoggi B.

Healthy Chocolate Cake-Pops!

Ingredients

• 4 Eggs
• 1 Cup of Oats Flour or Whole-Wheat Flour
• 3/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Cup of Plain Greek Yogurt
• 1/4 Cup of Olive Oil
• 1/4 Cup of Cacao Powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Salt
• 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
• 200 Grams of Sugar-Free Milk Chocolate 
• 2 Tablespoons of Butter
• 3/4 Cups of Chopped Walnuts (Optional)

Preheat the Oven at 180 C / 350 F

Here’s what to do

• Take half the chocolate and Melt it with 1 tablespoon of butter in “Bain Marie”, stirring occasionally so it doesn’t stick to the pot. Set aside when ready.
• In a small bowl, mix the powders: Flour,  Cacao, Baking Soda, Vanilla and Salt.
• In another bowl mix with an electric beater the eggs and sugar until obtaining a light color, fluffy mixture. Add the Greek Yogurt and Olive oil until well combined. Add the melted chocolate and beat well until you get a uniform chocolatey mix. Finally, Add the powders and mix until getting a creamy mixture.
• Place the mixture in buttered and floured cake mould and place in the oven for 30 minutes or until you stick a toothpick in it and it comes out clean.

You can absolutely serve this as a cake or make them as cupcakes, since it’s tastier when warm, so this ways is easier to pop in the microwave for 10 seconds and then serve…HOWEVER, if you are looking to impress your guests or something of the sort, do this extra step to turn the chocolate cake into cake-pops:

• Allow cake to cool at room temperature
• Melt the other half of the chocolate and butter in bain-marie.
• Meanwhile, with your hands or in a food processor, turn the cake into crumbles!
• Then, in a bowl, per every 100 grams of cake crumble you want to add 1 tablespoon of Melted Chocolate. Mix the cake crumble and chocolate with your hands; you should get a moist mix that you can easily roll into small balls (add more chocolate if desired) around a cake pop stick. If you want, you can Place the cake pops in fridge for 30 mins to 1 hour to achieve better consistency.
• Take out of fridge and allow them to come back to room temperature. If you are having an extra craving or if you want to decorate them for Halloween, melt some dark chocolate for dipping and decorate as a black cat cake pop,  or with white chocolate or meringue to make a Spooky Ghost!!

Happy Halloween….ENJOY this Treat without all the calories!!!!

xoxo,

Yoggi B.

Healthy “Rice Pudding or Ριζόγαλο” with Quinoa!

Ingredients

• 1/3 Cup of Cooked Quinoa (or Brown Rice if you prefer)
• 1/2 Cup of Almond Milk
• 1-2 Tablespoon of Sweetener (or Brown Sugar)
• 1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon

Wondering what you can do with Almond Milk??? This is a super easy, quick-to-make, sweet treat! I am such a lover of Rice Pudding! My Mom made the best rice pudding when I was growing up…so here’s is my healthy version that I think tastes just as good as the real deal!!

Here’s what to do

• Cook the quinoa (or brown rice) according to instructions (usually it should be 1/2 cup of quinoa with a 1 1/2 cups of water – bring to a boil and simmer until water has dried up).
• Place the cooked quinoa, sweetener and milk in a small sauce pan; feel free to add a cinnamon stick for flavor. Bring the mix to a boil, stirring occasionally, and allow it to simmer for about 3 minutes. Turn off the fire and allow mix to set for 5 minutes.
• Sprinkle some cinnamon before serving. You can keep it in the fridge or eat it at room temperature!

The texture is just like that of the real Rice Pudding! And overall, it’s a pretty satisfying healthy dessert alternative! I keep healthy treats like this handy! So that I can eat a little something sweet almost every day! (big sweet tooth, you guys..)

Hope you like it!!

xoxo,

Yoggi B.

Homemade Almond Milk

Ingredients

• 1 Cup of Almonds (soaked in cold water over night)
• 3 Cups of Water
• 1 Teaspoon of Sweetener (optional)

 Here’s what to do:

• Soak the almonds over night or for 8 hours.
• Rinse the almonds and throw away the water.
• Place almonds in blender and add 3 cups of cold water. Blend until you get a white “milky” solution.
• Using a cheese-cloth, strain the milk (I used the instrument on the picture, this is what we use in Venezuela to filter coffee..it works just fine!); place cloth over a deep bowl and pour the almond milk; the liquid should go through and the cloth should retain the leftover shredded almonds. Squeeze out as much milk as possible.
• Place in sealed container and refrigerate!

With the leftover shredded almonds you can make Almond Flour:

• Place the shredded almonds in the oven at 180 C for about 20 minutes, until dry and toasted.
• Take out of the oven and allow to cool.
• Place in blender and shred for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until flour consistency is achieved!

Compared to cow milk, almond milk is a much healthier choice! Give it a try and introduce it in your everyday diet!

xoxo,

Yoggi B.

About: Almond Milk!

One question I get asked all the time is “if I drink almond milk?” The answer is YES! Most of the time I prefer drinking almond milk just because of it’s overall nutritional value! It’s something I consider to be a really Healthy Switch. Almond Milk is high in a number of vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin E, magnesium, calcium, iron, among others, while at the same time being low on calories! A cup of almond milk contains about 40 calories, only 3 grams of (healthy) fats (vs 8 grams in regular milk), and about 3 grams of carbs. Until Recently, I had NOT found almond milk at the supermarkets. I had found Almond DRINKS, which when looking at the nutritional value, you could easily see that each cup, though it was only about 50 calories, it had almost 10 grams of carbs/sugars! This is NOT a healthier option than regular milk….You want the nutritional info to look like that in the picture! So if, you are in Greece, look out for this brand of Almond Milk. When you check the Nutritional Info in the back you will see that it is low calorie, low carb and low fat…in other words, Almond Milk! If you prefer to make your own at some, it is super easy! Just Click here!

xoxo, Yoggi B.

Egg Mini-Muffins for Breakfast

Hey, Hey, Hey!!

In Other news, this past months I made the decision of fulfilling my lifelong dream of becoming a Pastry Chef! So I have decided to go back to school and learn all there is to learn about food, baking, cooking! I am so excited I cannot describe it!!!!!

At the same Time I got to join into a Catering Team of Chefs, called Tip The Chef! Which means I actually get to cook for people!

For these reasons, even though school doesn’t start for another month, I have started baking a little more than usual!!

Today for breakfast, I decided to take:

Ingredients

• 2 Egg Whites
• 4-6 Tablespoons of Minced Meat
• Loads of veggies: Zucchini, Carrots, Celery, Sweet Peas, Onions, whatever you like!

 

• All I did is chop the vegetables and sautee them
•  mix the veggies in with the minced meat (which was my leftovers from dinner the night before and you can see how I make it in my Zucchini Boats Recipe), then beat the egg whites and mix all the ingredients together.
• Add Salt and Pepper to Taste, and place in Muffin Tin or in a Muffin Making Machine (I got one last Christmass! hurray! ) and bake until the egg is completely set, about 10 mins or less!
• Little TIP: Fill out the muffin tins only about half way full, they will sort of “grow” as they bake…so better make them smaller and avoid a mess later!! 

This is a protein-filled breakfast! I didn’t even use oil to make it! It’s as healthy as it gets!! I served it with some Avocado and YUM, YUM, YUM!!

Enjoy your Breakfast!!!

xoxo,

Yoggi B.

Homemade Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients

• 1 Cup of Oat Flour
• 1/2 Cup of Almond Flour
• 1 Egg White
• 1 tablespoon of Honey or Agave Nectar,
• or 3-4 tbs of Sugar or Sweetener
• 1-2 Tablespoons of Filling: 

You can use anything you want as a filling! I personally decided to make a few different ones: Regular Sugar-Free Strawberry Jam; Peanut Butter and Strawberry jam (both sugar-free); and Chocolate and Peanut Butter (also both sugar-free)

• Preheat oven at 200 C

I got the idea to make these bad boys when I asked my mom to send my from Venezuela some Protein Granola Bars or Quest Bars if she found (they don’t sell those in Greece). Anyways, my mom did not really have ANY CLUE of what I was asking her for…but she still said she would find them! In the end, she sent me a care package with these Quaker Oatmeal Bars (not even close to what I wanted) that weren’t bad, but weren’t really tasty either….

When I tried them I thought: I like the crunchiness and taste of the actual bar, but the strawberry filling is Terrible!! So I kept trying to mask the bad flavor by adding my own sugar-free strawberry jam on top and peanut butter and what not…..Finally, one day I decided to just go for it and make my own version of these Oatmeal bars….

Here’s how I did them:

• I make both the Oat Flour and Almond Flour by placing the required amount in a blender and blend it until it has a flour-like texture.
• Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a spoon, fork or your hands until it becomes a dough ball.
• Divide the dough in 5 equal pieces and place on a flat, clean surface so that you can stretch the dough using a rolling pin. Basically we want to end up with 5 square pieces of dough.
• Using a knife or cookie cutters, feel free to make some cute design on the one side of your dough.
• Choose your fillings! You don’t need very much of it, only about 1 tablespoon or 2 per bar. If you choose Sugar-Free Jam, just add it directly to the bar, however, if you choose chocolate or peanut butter, make sure you melt them a bit in the microwave so that they become easier to spread. If you do a Peanut Butter and Jam, mix one tablespoon of each before spreading it on the granola bar…this way you get a much fuller mixture of tastes in each bite!
• Add the fillings in each one of your squares, only on one half of your dough; take the half of dough and cover the filling with it, like a sandwich.
• Using your fingers or a fork, press the edges of the oatmeal bars to close them up properly and so the filling doesn’t come out.
• Place in prepared tray and in preheated oven at 200 C for 8-10 minutes or until they start to brown in the edges.

And they are ready to eat!! This can easily be a snack you can carry on the go, post-workout or when you are in a hurry. Because of the almond flour and honey, plus the peanut butter and chocolate filling, to me, it tastes like a really clean version of Snickers!!

As you can see from the picture, these Homemade Oatmeal Bars are about twice the size of the store-bought ones but the same calories and carbs! Meaning that each bar contains about 15 grams of Carbs, but all healthy carbs and it only has the healthy fats from the Almond Flour; this does not include the filling, since it depends on what you decide to add….But so that you have a guideline: the Total carbs in the PB&J (Peanut Butter & Jam) Oatmeal Bar is 23 carbs, whereas the store bought Oatmeal bar has 24 grams of Carbs per bar.

Enjoy!!!!

xoxo,

Yoggi B.

Full Fat vs Full Fit: Mashed Potatoes

Hey, hey, hey!!

Full Fat vs Full Fit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In today’s post I want to share what a regular weeknight dinner looks like in my house! If you have been reading my posts, you know that for most days, I try to eat as healthy as I can…but the same cannot be said for my Boyfriend. So what I do is I make the “base dinner” or proteins the same for the both of us, but different side dishes to go with it for each!

For Tonight’s dinner I made Oven Fried Chicken Nuggets with Mashed Potatoes. Since the nuggets are oven fried, I consider them pretty healthy, the label said that per 100g of product it contained 12 carbs and 8 fats, which I consider acceptable since throughout the day I eat minimal amounts of fats and carbs, so it balances out for me, and it’s nuggets….my bf loves them!; to go with these nuggets I made Traditional Mashed Potatoes for my Boyfriend, and Healthy Low-Carb, Low-Fat Cauliflower Puree or Low Carb Mashed Potatoes!

Let’s do a quick Overview:

Ingredients

Full Fat: Traditional Mashed Potatoes vs Full Fit: CauliFlower Mashed Potatoes

700 grams of Potatoes (120g Carbs) vs 700 grams of Cauliflower (35g Carbs)

50 grams of Butter (40g Fat) vs 2 tbs of Philadelphia Light Cream Cheese (4g Fat)

4 tbs of Heavy Cream (22g Fat) vs 2 tbs Mozzarella Cheese (5g Fat)

+ 2 tbs of Parmesan Cheese (3g Fat)

Both recipes yield two servings, for the Full Fat Traditional Mashed Potatoes we have aprox. 60g of Carbs and 31g of Fat per serving; and for the Full Fit Cauliflower “Mashed Potatoes” aprox. 17g of Carbs and 6g of Fats per serving.

The benefits of doing this, for me are obvious: On the one hand I cut down on fats and calories by not frying the nuggets, but I am aware that they do contain carbs…so I balance these carbs out in my dinner by having “mashed potatoes” made of veggies, Cauliflower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other words, For me, I make this “Clean Version of Nuggets & Mashed Potatoes”, a well balanced Protein-Carb dinner that is tasty, satisfying and easy to make; And for my Boyfriend a less healthy, full carb, slight variation of what I eat. For us, this is a healthy and happy compromise!

xoxo,

Yoggi B.

Cauliflower Puree/ Healthy “Mashed Potatoes”

Ingredients

• 1 Head of Cauliflower
• 2 Tablespoons of Parmesan Cheese
• 2 Tablespoons of Mozzarella 
• 2 Tablespoons of Light Cream Cheese
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Salt and Pepper to taste
• Chives to taste

I must admit that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Mashed Potatoes!! So naturally, it was a Necessity to find a way to make healthy mashed potatoes! I found this recipe in the Foodnetwork.com, tried it and I loved it! As usual I twitched the recipe just a bit….

Here’s what I did:

• Bring a pot of water to Boil
• Meanwhile, cut the Cauliflower to get rid of the stem and keeping only the very top, the florets. Once the water is boiling Add the florets to it and allow to cook for about 6-7 mins or until tender.
• When the cauliflower is ready, rinse it out and place it in a fat surface; take some paper towels or napkins to try and dry the florets, getting rid of as much water as possible.
• Cut the Chives into tiny pieces.
• Place cauliflower in a blender and add the cheeses, chives, salt and pepper, and blend until smooth, for about 2 mins. If necessary, stop the blender, move everything around with a spoon and then blend for another minute or so.
• Top the puree with some chives for decoration and its ready to serve!

It has the same texture of real Mashed potatoes and this recipe seemed to be really forgiving, for example: I didn’t have cream cheese so I used 2 “La Vache qui Rit Cheeses” (non-fat “Laughing Cow Cheese”) and I didn’t have mozzarella so I only added the parmesan and it still turned out great! I think it is a perfect and different way to eat your veggies!!

xoxo,

Yoggi B.