Vanilla Frozen Yogurt with Banana

I have a love for ice cream, and even more for frozen yogurt, so here is a super healthy recipe for some delicious homemade ice cream, which is perfect for every occasion!

Ingredients:
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk or vanilla almond milk.

Directions:
Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth and serve immediately.

Thai Soup with Coconut Milk

I seriously love the asian kitchen. It is just one of my favorites. Without question. I actually think that we eat it too rare, but it is kind of hard, because it usually is very spicy and uses a lot of authentic ingredients etc., but there are options! And this soup is one of them. And it's my favorite. It's just nothing less than an amazing soup that I will make a million more times for sure.

Ingredients:

Noodles (rice noodles, buckwheat noodles, or whatever you would prefer)

1 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp red curry paste (depending on how spicy you want it)

3 large carrots

1 cups chicken stock

1 cup water

1 can coconut milk

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 chicken breasts (leave out if you want it vegan)

1 cup frozen peas

Directions:

Cook noodles according to directions on package. Set aside.

Cut carrots into small sticks. Cut chicken into small bite sizes as well.
Heat oil in a skillet and stir in curry paste. Cook chicken in the oil and fury paste. Add carrots and stir for about 30 seconds. Add Chicken stock, water, and coconut milk. Boil carrots for a minute or two before you add the soy sauce and frozen peas. Let it simmer for just a couple of minutes to let the peas thaw. Add the noodles as the last thing.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Granola

Someone might ask you what your favorite cereal is, or just your favorite thing for breakfast, and I have always said yogurt with granola. Even since I was 9 years old that has just been my favorite thing, and it still is. So what do you do, when stores in America don't have your usual favorite kind of granola from Denmark? Well you make your own, which actually is zoo much better and also healthier. And I gotta say that I have fallen in love with this recipe. It is simply amazing.

Ingredients:

3 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup honey
1 tbsp vanilla
handful cranberries
1/2 cup hazelnuts


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl combine oats, coconut, flour, salt, and cinnamon.
3. Melt coconut oil, honey, and vanilla in a smaller bowl in the microwave.
4. Stir the honey mixture into the oats until they are all covered.
5. Pour the mixture onto the baking sheet and bake for about an hour an a half. Stir it a little every to mix it around every half hour.
6. When there is about 15-20 minutes left add the cranberries and nuts to the baking sheet.
7. When the oats are golden and the honey is not wet anymore the granola is done.
8. Store in a closed jar, and it stays good for months!

Enjoy!

The Danish Open Faced Sandwich

To make good Smørrebrød (as we call it in Denmark) is really an art, but one of the most delicious things in the world. The good thing about it is that you can be super creative and make it with almost anything you like. All it requires is good rye bread, lunch meat or fish, and whatever other toppings you would like.

This one is one of my favorites, and it's super simple. Just a couple of slices of avocado and topped with a tablespoon of cottage cheese and salt and pepper. 

This is one of the classics. Start out with putting some kind of green base on the base. I used spinach in this case, but lettuce or rucola or whatever you would like would be good. Then you take a hard boiled egg and slice into 1/8 inch slices. Top with slices of tomato and cucumber and some mayonnaise, and don't forget salt and pepper.

 A thing that is very popular in Denmark on rye bread is different kinds of fish. Usually some kind of canned fish. In this case, I used tuna, and made a simple tuna and egg salad and put it on a base of spinach and topped with a couple of sliced tomato and cucumber. 

Other things to put on rye bread:

Nutella (SO GOOD)

Lunch meat

Boiled potatoes with mayonnaise

Peanut Butter with banana slices

BBQ Chicken Salad

In my foods class we had to make these 5 different salads, and because I missed that day of class I had to make it up at home. I personally love this kind of salad with the beans and corn and chicken on a base of lettuce. I would just prefer it with a more Mexican inspired dressing instead of the very American BBQ and ranch. Check this recipe out if you want to try my cilantro lime dressing with the same kind of salad.

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil
2 chicken breasts
2 heads of lettuce
2 roma tomatoes (about 1 cup chopped)
1 cup corn kernels
1 cup black beans
1/4 red onion
Ranch dressing
BBQ sauce

Optional ingredients:
Shredded cheddar cheese
Tortilla strips

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat.
2. Sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Cook in heated oil, flipping once, until cooked through.
3. Dice chicken into bite sizes.
4. Cut the onion in small dice, tomatoes into medium or small dice. Drain and rinse corn and beans.
5. Assemble the salad by placing shredded lettuce in a large bowl. Top with chicken, onion, tomatoes, corn, and beans.
6. Pour ranch and BBQ sauce on top of the salad and toss gently to combine.
7. Add optional cheese and crushed tortilla strips.

Cake Pops

Getting creative for easter? Well that's what me and some friends got this saturday, and ended up spending nearly 6 hours in the kitchen baking cake balls. It was a lot of work!! But hey, they are just the yummiest thing ever, right? And we had a lot of fun making them, even though the coating kept teasing us... 

We made two different kinds; banana bread and vanilla cake. Both were super good. Here is the recipe for the banana bread ones. We just used a vanilla cake box for the vanilla cake.


Banana Bread ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar 
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened 
2 eggs 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1/2 cup sour cream 
2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Mix sugar and butter in a mixer for a couple of minutes until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and mix. Mash the bananas and add those and the sour cream and peanut butter to the bowl. 
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. 
Slowly add this to the wet ingredients and continue mixing on low-medium speed. 
Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake in a preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes. 

Here are the steps to making the cake pops:

1. Put the cake in a food processor and process until all crumbled up. Take a little at a time, and put the rest in a bowl.
2. Add about 1/2 cup creme cheese frosting. Stir it all around until it gets kind of firm and forms into little crumbles. You need to be able to make little balls that does not come apart.
3. Shape the cake balls and put on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and freeze for about an hour. This step will make the coating process a lot easier.
4. Heat up, in a microwave, either chocolate chips or candy coating until melted all the way. Do it 30 seconds at a time and stir in between to make sure it doesn't burn. 
5. Stick a popsicle stick (or any other kind of stick) into a ball and cover with the coating. This can be kind of hard, but just be patient and take your time. This is also the fun part.
6. If you want to add sprinkled go ahead and add them now, before the coating hardens.
7. Let them dry upside down, if you want to make real cake pops. If you don't have anything to stick them into, as in out case, just let them dry on a baking sheet. 
8. Store in refrigerator, and enjoy! 

Another thing we made was Oreo Balls. They were super easy to make. Just purify the oreos in a food processor and fold in creme cheese. Let them sit for an hour in the fridge and shape to little balls or eggs and coat in chocolate. The best thing ever!

Ingredients:

1 package golden oreos
1 8oz package creme cheese
Chocolate chips for coating

Oatmeal Cinnamon Cookies

Me and some friends decided to make some cookies the other day and give them to some of our good friends, just to tell them how much we love them.
It was a lot of fun to make, and our friends loved us just a little bit more after ;)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) dark brown sugar (or light brown)
1/4 cup  (50g) granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon (20g) dark molasses
1 and 2/3 cups (140g) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cups add-ins (we used semi sweet chocolate chips)

Directions:
Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the softened butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth. Add the egg and mix on high until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and molasses and mix on high until combined. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, toss the oats, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together. Add to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Fold in the add-ins. Dough will be thick. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
Preheat oven to 325F degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Roll balls of dough (about 1.5 tablespoons of dough per cookie) and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes until very lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft. Remove from the oven and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

DIsneyland Dining

This last week I went to Disneyland with my choir, and they seriously have some delicious (but expensive) food to offer! All over the park are a million ice cream and drink stands, and also the famous mickey pretzels are to find in at least 15 different spots. They also have other things as rice crispy treats, corn dogs, turkey legs, corn, and a lot of other delicious stuff.

 It was so cool how you could watch them make easter eggs and other treats from the window.

 One thing you HAVE to try if you go to Disneyland is their ice cram. It was probably the best ice cream I've had in a very long time! The mint chocolate was soooo good, and the other kind I had was pecan praline I think, and it was sugar free and all, but still the creamiest yummiest thing I've ever had!

They also have a lot of more expensive restaurants which we didn't really get to try, because we were too cheap.

The first day we went to a restaurant in fantasy land were they served different burgers and salads etc. The best thing from here was probably the veggie burger!

Another thing I was really excited to try was the Pineapple Dole Whip, because I had heard so much good about, and it was not disappointing! It was so fresh and creamy, and you could really taste the delicious pineapple in it. Also it was fairly cheap; only about $3 for a soft serve and $5 for a float.

One evening we were looking for something for dinner and we came by this pasta, pizza, salad place in California Adventure, and I gotta say that that was the most amazing pasta with creme sauce and sun dried tomatoes. It was so good, and only $10, which is very little compared to Disneyland prices. Their salads were also amazing, and all less than $10.

Have fun dining in Disneyland!

Farmers Market

So over Spring Break I went to LA with the choir on my school, and it was so much fun. On of the best things was when we stopped by this super cool market where they had a million different food places, and they all just looked so amazing. I got a smoothie from this place called Zia Valentina, where they only used whole foods and sweetened their smoothies etc with stevia, and had a ton of gluten free treats and sandwiches etc. I was in love with that place! Check out their website: http://www.ziavalentina.com

Another place had tons of salads and sandwiches with seafood, which was really good too.

 There was a sushi place, a pizza place and other yummy dishes.

There was also a lot of bakeries that just looked so delicious. 

Spaghetti with a Veggie Yogurt Sauce

So the other day I got a bit creative and made this totally spontaneous empty the refrigerator dish. Also I was really craving spaghetti, so this is what I came up with!

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp italien seasoning
2 cloves garlic
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup milk
1 tbsp garlic creme cheese
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1 cup mushrooms
1/2 bell pepper
14 oz canned artichoke hearts
2 cooked chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese for topping

Directions:

1. Cook spaghetti al dente.
2. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a sauté pan.
3. Sauté garlic and it alien seasoning together.
4. Add tomatoes and chopped mushrooms and sauté.
5. Add in stock, milk, creme cheese, and yogurt.
6. Finish off with adding artichoke hearts and chopped bell pepper and cooked chicken cut into bite sized pieces.
7. If you want the sauce more creamy you can go ahead and thicken it a bit with some corn meal mixed with water.

Enjoy!