Dutch Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

This summer we have made several trips to our favorite frozen yogurt place. While I am sure that the frozen yogurt is a little better for you than ice cream that is short lived once we load up our frozen yogurt with all those yummy, but super unhealthy candy toppings! So of course I had to try to make a healthier version at home where I could determine the ingredients and choice of sweetener. The options of what mix-ins to use are endless: fresh fruit, vanilla beans, chocolate, coconut, or some combo of these.

I have made this with store bought yogurt and homemade yogurt, I prefer homemade plain yogurt because it is not as sour as store bought yogurt. If you have never tried making your own yogurt it is really easy and super delicious! My friend Kelli, who is a registered dietitian has a great recipe for homemade yogurt on her blog  Fuel Right , check it out! She reviews through all of the health and cost benefits of making your own yogurt at home.

I chose fresh homemade yogurt, raw honey, and high quality cocoa powder for my first go round at this, and the results were amazing! This was incredibly creamy and chocolaty!

Mix together yogurt, honey, cocoa powder, and vanilla extract...should look like this

Then put back in fridge for an hour to chill. Once chilled poor into ice cream maker and let is do it's thing!

Once it's done scoop and serve!

Dutch Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

4 Cups Plain Greek Yogurt (homemade or high quality brand like Fage)
1/2 Cup Raw Honey
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Dutch Process Cocoa Powder

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix on medium speed for 1-2 minutes until all ingredients are well combined. Cover bowl and place in fridge for 1-2 hours. Remove from fridge and pour into ice cream machine- depending on what brand you have it will take about 15-30 minutes to make toe creamiest frozen yogurt you've ever had!

Nutrition Facts: 1/2 cup= 120 calories, 18g carbs, 12g protein 

Compare to 1/2 cup of Chocolate ice cream: 270 calories, 31g carbs, 0g Protein

Lentil and Kale Minestrone

Even though it is still in the 90's here, we had a couple of cooler days last week that made me long for fall! I love everything about fall, the cooler weather, leaves changing colors, football, sweaters, pumpkin latte's and pumpkin chai's from Starbuck's...really there is nothing not to love about fall!

During the summer I hate using my oven and stove, I would much rather grill. But with the cooler weather last week I really wanted some delicious soup and I needed to use up some of the veggies in my fridge. So I decided to throw together a minestrone type soup. We don't eat pasta (or really any grains) and decided to add in some white kidney beans and lentils instead. If you follow a strict paleo diet you can absolutely leave these out altogether but our family LOVES lentils, even my 3 year old who would eat every last one out of the soup if I let her! You can also make this vegetarian by excluding the chicken sausage and using vegetable broth.

I have made several versions of this soup, but the recipe below is our favorite. You know you hit the jackpot on a recipe when your 3 year old and husband argue over who gets the last of the soup! This soup is hearty but light and is SO flavorful!

So this picture was actually taken last fall (didn't take one when I made it last week). You'll notice it has potatoes in it, which I no longer use in this recipe as we really don't eat potatoes any more. Instead I have been using a few white beans although any variety will do. I didn't plan ahead and make my own but here is a great link from Kalyn's Kitchen on how to do it.

Lentil and Kale Minestrone

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 large carrots, diced (or 5-6 small carrots)
1 Small zucchini, diced
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
Salt and pepper to taste
1 28 oz can Crushed tomatoes (I use Pomi tomatoes to avoid the BPA found in most canned products)
1/2 cup french green lentils, rinsed
8 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
2 tsp freshly chopped Thyme
1-1/2 tsp Italian herb seasoning
1 14-oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (I used Eden Organic again to avoid BPA)
2 C. Swiss Chard or Kale, roughly chopped
1 lb italian chicken sausage

In a dutch oven or stock pot saute sausage until lightly browned. Remove from pot. Add olive oil and carrots and onions. Saute until softened slightly then add zucchini and saute until slightly browned (season with salt and pepper). Then add in Thyme and italian seasoning and garlic saute 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and lentils and cover pot and let cook for about 10 minutes (this steams lentils). Uncover pot and add beans, sausage, and chicken stock (season again with salt and pepper) cook on medium low heat for about 30 minutes, turn off heat and add chard or kale.

Make 6-8 servings

Hope you enjoy it!

Vanilla Peach Raspberry Jam

Well, I have never blogged anything before in my life and am a little unsure of beginning now. I have to say that I am a little (ok a lot) obsessed with cooking blogs however, probably because I really LOVE food. Not all food, just really super yummy good food. Not only do I love food, I LOVE to cook. I have been cooking for as long as I remember. My first memories of cooking are sitting as a little girl on my great grandma's kitchen table and helping her make pie dough. Well, more eating her pie dough! I was making meals for my family before I was 10 years old, not because I had to or was even asked to but because I really enjoyed cooking. Cooking is not just a hobby to me, but a love!

I hope to share some of my favorite recipes on here in hopes you'll love them as much as we do!

The end of summer, beginning of fall is prime canning season. This is my 2nd year canning and I would definitely consider myself a newbie at this! Last year my husband's favorite jam was peach. I ended up giving away most of the jars and he was a little sad that we ran out so soon. So this year I bought 36lbs of Palisade peaches and now we have peach jam everywhere (and some peach cobbler too)!

                                                                           Peach Jam

The last batch of the day was going to be peach again but I decided I wanted to spice it up a little so I tossed in some raspberries and vanilla extract with the peaches. It was so delicious! It is perfectly sweet, with a hint of vanilla...I am honestly surprised any of it made it to the canning jars!

                                                            Vanilla Peach Raspberry Jam

I am only going to post the recipe here, so if you are new to canning please see Ball's website for specific info on what materials you need to can and how to get started.

Vanilla Peach Raspberry Jam 

4 1/2  Cups Peaches (skin removed and roughly diced)
2 1/4 Cups Raspberries
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
7 1/2 Tbsp Ball Real Fruit Pectin Low or No Sugar
1 1/2 Cups Water
1 Tbsp Vanilla extract
3/4 Cup Honey or agave (or 1 Cup granulated sugar) 

Makes 10 half pint jars

Place peaches and raspberries in large stock pot. Using a potato masher or large spoon crushed peaches and berries until only very small pieces of fruit remains (it will be very soupy at this point). Then add vanilla, lemon juice, pectin, and water and combine well. Heat over medium heat, stirring often until mixture comes to a hard boil. At this point add sweetener of choice and boil hard for another minute. Remove from heat and carefully ladle into sterilized jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Carefully place sterilized lids and rings on and process in water bath as directed on Ball Canning's website above. Again, if you are new to canning please see link above to Ball's website- it is very important to use proper technique when preserving food via canning.

Since you are using Low or No sugar pectin this can be made with any kind of sweetener or if you have really ripe, sweet fruit then no added sweetener is needed! If you are not using any sweetener then you will need to increase your peaches to 6 1/2 cups and your raspberries to 3 1/2 cups to get 10 half pint jars. 

Regular jam recipes call for 7 cups of  white sugar! By making your own jam you can control the sweetness and quality of ingredients. 

Good luck and let me know if you give it a try!