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Healthier Zucchini Bread with #EqualSucralose

March 21, 2012 By 2 Comments

One of my favorite parts of Spring is all of the fresh fruits and veggies that come into season.  This week I picked up some great looking zucchini, but with our vacation I wasn’t sure how I could get it eaten before it went bad.  So I needed a recipe to make ahead of time that we could take with us.  A bit of perusing the internet, and voila - Healthy Zucchini Bread!

I headed up to our local Walmart #1222 in Pensacola Florida to get the rest of the ingredients for my Zucchini Bread and the last minute stuff for our vacation.  You can see my Google+ Album of the whole trip here.  Right now Equal Sucralose is only available in Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.  You can see if there is a location near you by clicking here.

Since I have been replacing sugar with #EqualSucralose for the past few weeks since it is easier to use and has zero calories, I wanted to modify this recipe as well to make it as healthy as possible.  Equal Sucralose is a great alternative to sugar in all of your baking and daily sugar needs.   We now use it daily in our tea, coffee, cereal and of course baking. For the Zucchini Bread I replaced the sugar with Equal Sucralose, the flour with wheat flour, and the milk with soy milk – vanilla flavored soy milk at that so I didn’t add any extra vanilla.   It was amazing.

Healthier Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

  • 2 cups shredded zucchini
  • 2 cups wheat flour
  • 3/4 cup #EqualSucralose
  • 3/4 cup Vanilla Silk Milk
  • 1/3 cup Canola Oil
  • 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
  2. Whisk Silk milk, eggs, Equal Sucralose, and oil in a medium bowl. Stir in zucchini. Mix in wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add chocolate chips and stir until just combined. Pour entire mixture gently into your loaf pan.
  3. Bake 45 minutes to one hour or until a knife can be inserted into the center and comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then gently turn out onto a wire rack. Let cool for at least 1 hour before slicing.
  4. To save, cover tightly with saran wrap or in a tightly sealed Ziplock.

Like any of the recipes I concoct I immediately ran next door to share with my best friend and she loved it.  I also gave her a can of Equal Sucralose to try for herself and her family. Her husband is a Type 2 Diabetic, so they are really working on watching his sugar intake.  He loved the zucchini bread … and we just decided not to tell him it didnt have sugar in it  ;)

I am sure I will make this Healthier Zucchini Bread again and again with my family – the girls absolutely loved it and I felt good about giving it to them.  I also love that I could eat it and not feel guilty about it.  That, in my book, is a total win-win.

Disclaimer: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias All images and opinions are 100% my own.

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Cowboy Casserole Recipe – A Pinterest Success

March 12, 2012 By 14 Comments

When I discovered Pinterest a few months ago, the very first board I made was “Food I Might Someday Attempt to Make” and I frantically began pinning the yummiest, most amazing looking dishes I could find.  From entrees to cakepops to cocktails – I pinned them all!!

And that is where they stayed….That is, until this week.

I am happy to say I am 3 for 3 on the Pinterest recipes – that each one of them has been just as mind blowingly amazing as I expected them to be.   I am going to share all three – and give all of the credit to the sites where I found the recipes – as they are absolutely going to be made again and again here in the Moscato Household.

My first success – Cowboy Casserole – comes from The Cutting Edge of Ordinary, and she says she adapted it from a Taste of Home Recipe.   Well… she adapted it perfectly because this absolutely is one of the best casseroles I have ever tasted.  I did have to change a few things - like I used minced garlic instead of cloves – but it was still beyond fantastic.

Cowboy Casserole

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds ground chuck
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 can (15.25oz) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons Daisy sour cream
1 bag Ore-Ida Crispy Crowns tater tots

Chop your onion and sautee in a few drops of Olive Oil until soft.  Add minced garlic and cook on low for another minute or two.  Add in ground chuck and cook until completely done and no pink is left.  Drain and set aside.

In a separate bowl mix together soup, milk, and sour cream and mix together well.   Pour meat mixture in and mix well.  Add in 1 cup shredded cheese and corn and gently mix together.

In a 9×13 dish link a row of Ore-Ida Crispy Crowns.  Pour entire mixture into dish and spread evenly across tots.  Top with another layer of tots and sprinkle the remaining cup of cheese.

Bake uncovered at 350* for about 30 minutes or until Crispy Crowns are crispy and casserole is bubbly.   Let stand 10-15 minutes before serving.

This is an absolute “must try” recipe – truly.  I wasn’t sure about this one, it was actually the last of the three that I decided to try, but it was absolutely fantastic and my family practically licked their plates clean.

Thanks so much to Lisa from The Cutting Edge of Ordinary for this amazing recipe (and Pinterest for helping me to find it!)  You can check out Lisa’s blog and see all kinds of other yummy looking dishes – that I am sure I will be trying very very soon.

 


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Healthy Donut Holes Recipe With Equal Sucralose #CBias #EqualSucralose

February 23, 2012 By 3 Comments

Since the beginning of the year I have been working to get my family eating healthier and paying more attention to what we are actually putting into our bodies.   As someone who loves Cake Pops with a passion, the idea of having to cut back on sugar was well… depressing.   So when I was asked to try the new Equal Sucralose – a sugar alternative with zero calories AND zero carbs – I didn’t hesitate.

I headed to my local Walmart in Pensacola (Store #1222) where I found Equal Sucralose in the baking section next to all of the sugars.  I couldnt find it at first since I was looking for the “Equal Blue” colored container.  Thankfully I remembered someone calling it a “yellow canister” or I totally think I would have missed it…. I mean THIS is the sugar aisle:

 

Anyhow, I was impressed first that it was a great price compared to the other sweeteners, and love love love the canister – I will show you why in a minute – but the price is important because eating healthy can really put a pounding on your checkbook.   I was fearful that it was too tall for my cabinets, but as you can see by my Google + Story, it fits perfectly.

I finished up my Walmart Shopping with a bunch of fresh fruits and vegetables – satisfied that even after adding my “sugar” I still was going to have a very healthy meal.  Funny enough as I was checking out the cashier did a double take of the Equal Sucralose canister and said “oh how nice to have this in a canister – my kids are forever spilling the bag all over the floor.” 

I got home and immediately started throwing ingredients together for my “Healthy Donut Holes” substituting sugar with Equal Sucralose, as well as a few other minor adjustments.  Enjoy:

Healthy Donut Holes with Equal Sucralose

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/3 c wheat flour
  • 1/3 c Equal Sucralose
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 c 2% milk
  • 1/4 c oil
  • 1/4 c fat free sour cream
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients together slowly until batter is well blended.  Fire up your Baby Cakes Cake Pop Maker and spoon in mixture as usual.   Now unlike the other donut holes I have shown, these only take a little over three minutes to cook.  They rise up perfectly making a little sphere of yumminess for you to enjoy guilt free.

Yes, I did even try a second recipe with the Equal Sucralose which I will share later, and both tasted fantastic!

You can choose to coat these with a drizzle but they really do not need it.  I was impressed at how the Equal Sucralose sweetened just like sugar and even when I had the girls give a taste test, they did not notice any difference from when I use regular sugar in my baking…. and if you are a Mom, you know even the slightest change to a recipe can cause whining and complaining. 

My favorite part about the Equal Sucralose though is easier explained in video than text, so here is a quick clip at how something as simple as a CANISTER can make all of the difference:

I really enjoyed checking out the Equal Sucralose and look forward to doing more baking with it.  I also added it to my coffee this morning and to Mike’s tea, so it is already a great addition to our healthier way of eating.   I am certain that any of the baking I do from here on out will include this instead of normal sugar.

 

The really exciting part though – is that my family will never know the difference.

 

 

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias All images and opinions are my own. 


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Healthy Banana Bread – Cake Pops

January 17, 2012 By 17 Comments

It is no surprise that I have a mild addiction great love for my Babycakes Cake Pop Maker.   Since I discovered the little jewel back in July I have used it to make everything from quick cinnamon rolls for breakfast to cornbread muffin pops for dinner and even corndog pops for snacks in between.    There is no doubt in my mind that everyone needs a Cake Pop Maker – and not just for cake pops, even though these reindeer and snowmen were a huge hit at our Christmas Parties – but for quick, easy, fun eating at every meal.

With my New Years Resolution to be “Eating Clean” by the end of the year, I knew I was going to have to make a few adjustments to my Cake Pop Making Madness – and set out to find delicious, healthy Cake Pop recipes.  I am excited to share my favorite one so far – Healthy Banana Bread, Cake Pop Style!

Healthy Banana Bread Pops

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 c all purpose flour
  • 3/4 c wheat flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 2 slightly beaten egg whites
  • 3 medium bananas
  • 3/4 c organic sugar cane crystals
  • 1/4 canola oil
  • 1/8 c water

Start by mashing your bananas with a fork.  Over-ripe browned bananas work best.  To ripen them more quickly you can put them in the refrigerator overnight.   In a medium bowl combine mashed bananas, sugar crystals, oil, and egg whites and mix well.

In a separate bowl mix all dry ingredients until evenly distributed.   Then pour dry ingredients directly into banana mixture and stir.   Add water to thin batter to a cake batter like consistency for easy scooping into your Babycakes Cake Pop Maker.

Heat your Cake Pop Maker until the green light comes on, and then scoop one heaping teaspoon of banana bread into each hole.   Close the lid and cook for 3 minutes or until center is completely cooked.

Pop each Banana Bread Pop onto a plate and let cool.   Now you can enjoy “just a bite” of yummy, healthy banana bread whenever you like!

These Pops were another huge hit at our house, and something I know I will cook again and again – next time probably adding in a cup of chopped walnuts to make Banana Nut Bread Pops.   I love that these are more “clean” than some of the other Cake Pops I have made, so I can feel better about eating a few alongside the ones I made for my family.

Just add this to the list of reasons I believe EVERYONE should own a Babycakes Cake Pop Maker!

 


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Chocolate Chex Christmas Candy

December 20, 2011 By 3 Comments

Yesterday on Facebook my friend Kari posted a picture of her “White Trash Candy” she was making for the holidays.  After giggling a few minutes I commented asking for the recipe.    The girls and I headed off to Publix for the ingredients, and though ours didnt turn out very “white” it was certainly very yummy, and something we are sure to make again and again.

Chocolate Chex Christmas Candy

Aka: White Trash Candy

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups each Chex Mix variety – we used cinnamon and honey nut
  • 3 cups mini pretzels
  • 1 bag Holiday M&Ms – we used the minis
  • 1 cup chocolate chips (this is why mine wasnt “white”)
  • 24oz vanilla almond bark – we could not find that so we just used white chocolate

Melt the almond bark as instructed on the packaging.  While melting mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl.   Pour melted almond bark and mix to coat well.  Spread thinly on wax paper or a cookie sheet.  Let cool.  Break with a knife and enjoy!

Now as you can tell from the picture, mine did NOT turn out white – the chocolate chips melted while I was mixing – but Kari said I may have had the almond bark too hot.  Toni chimed in and said that she uses white chocolate chips… THAT was a novel idea!

Also, I did not spread mine out evenly enough on the cookie sheet, so it was very hard to break apart.  Be sure to spread the candy out very very thin.   Otherwise you kind of get a candy “brick”  :)

This recipe was very quick and easy and the girls were even able to help by measuring and mixing the dry ingredients together.    It also makes an enormous portion, so it is great for gifting.  Besides, everyone needs a little “White Trash” in their holiday, right?