Whole Wheat Strawberry Yogurt Cake

My daughter has a serious sweet tooth. I find myself constantly telling her that she's eating too much sugar, but really, who's to blame but me? I'm the one who buys her sugary treats at the grocery store and I'm the one who stops at the ice cream shop. I have a sweet tooth, too. Solution: sweet treats made at home with less sugar (and no artificial sweeteners). This lightly sweetened cake is satisfying, and sneaks in both whole grains and whole fruit at the same time! It is delicious on it's own, but feel free to add a light coat of frosting or a dollop of whipped cream. Mine was topped with leftover cheesecake filling from the cheesecake strawberries I made the other night. I added a little bit of strawberry powder from the bottom of the can of freeze dried strawberries to give the topping a pretty pink tint.

Before we get started, preheat your oven to 350 and grease an 8x8 pan.

1c Thrive Freeze Dried Strawberries
1/2c Water

1c Thrive Vanilla Yogurt Bites
1/2c Water

Combine strawberries and water. Set aside. In another small bowl, combine yogurt bites and water and set this aside as well.

1/4c Butter (we used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light)
1/4c Apple Sauce (no sugar added)
1/2c Thrive White Sugar
1/4c Agave Nectar or Honey
2T Thrive Whole Egg Powder
4T Water
1T Thrive Powdered Milk
1t  Vanilla Extract

Whisk these ingredients together, then add the rehydrated yogurt bites. Set aside.

2c Thrive Whole Wheat Flour
1t Baking Powder
1t Baking Soda
Pinch Salt

Mix dry ingredients, then slowly add to wet ingredients. Combine well, then carefully add strawberries and their liquid. Fold gently until strawberries are mixed in, then pour into greased 8x8 dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool before serving.

 Whole cake without frosting.

Cheesecake Strawberries

Confession: the only Thrive ingredient in this recipe is Thrive Powdered Sugar. Sure, you could make it with regular store bought powdered sugar, but maybe you have some Thrive powdered sugar that is nearing it's expiration date (of 30 years) and you just have to use it right now. And let me tell you, there is no better way to use it than to make these amazingly delicious, beautiful cheesecake filled strawberries.

2 8oz Bars Cream Cheese, Softened
1c Thrive Powdered Sugar
1t Vanilla Extract
48 Strawberries

Wash your strawberries and set them out on a tea towel to dry. Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla using a spatula or hand beater. Taste it and add more sugar if you want a sweeter filling. Set each strawberry on it's top to make sure it will stand upright. I like to leave the leaves on mine because I think it looks pretty, but you might need to trim yours to make the strawberries stand up. Using a sharp knife, start at the tip and cut an X all the way down toward the stem, but don't go all the way through. This will allow your strawberry to open slightly for the filling to go inside.

Now is the time to decide how you're going to fill these babies. If you want to go super low-tech, just put your cheesecake filling into a large zip top bag, snip a little hole in one of the corners and squeeze away. You could also use a piping bag with a pretty tip. I just so happened to find the neatest little contraption at Michaels Craft Store - the Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus. It is easy to use, easy to wash, and was about $15.

Using whichever method you choose, fill each strawberry with the cheesecake filling and stand the filled strawberry upright on your serving plate. The filled strawberries may be refrigerated for up to 48 hours prior to serving. To make your strawberries extra pretty, you can drizzle melted chocolate over them or sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

Cornmeal Cookies

Our daughter Annika recently decided that she thought cornmeal cookies would be good. I've never heard of cornmeal cookies, but I like cornmeal and I like cookies so they can't be all that bad, right? Wrong. They weren't "all that bad"... they were amazing. I mean it - amazing. They were light and fluffy with a great texture from the cornmeal and just the right amount of sweetness. These are an absolute must try!

Cute little cookies baking in the oven.

1 1/2c Thrive Flour (we used a combination of whole wheat and white)
1/2c Thrive Cornmeal
1/2c Thrive White Sugar
1t Thrive Baking Powder
1/2t Thrive Salt
1T Thrive Whole Egg Powder
2T Water
4T Butter (we used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light)
2T Applesauce
1/2t Cinnamon
1/4c Agave Nectar (you could use honey or molasses)
1/4c Chocolate Chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a large cookie sheet. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl using a hand mixer on low speed until dough forms. Spoon by heaping tablespoon full onto prepared cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. Makes 28 large cookies.

What Do You Do With Whole Egg Powder?

We're going to call today "What the Heck Wednesday".

When you start cooking with food storage products, inevitably some items will make you say "what the heck do I do with that?" Thrive Whole Egg Powder was a head scratcher for me when it first showed up in my Q shipment. I know it is a crucial part of my well stocked food storage pantry, but it looks kind of funny and I found it intimidating. Surprisingly enough, it is actually very easy to use and is far more convenient than using traditional eggs in a lot of recipes.

I am notorious for spending a good four or five minutes fishing egg shell pieces out of whatever it is I'm trying to cook. I don't know what my problem is, I guess I just missed the how-to-crack-an-egg lesson, but you can imagine how happy I am to avoid that lovely exercise in patience now! No cracking, no fishing, no slimy counter top (I always manage to drip some egg white somewhere). All I have to do is open the container, measure out one tablespoon of Whole Egg Powder and two tablespoons of water for each egg my recipe requires, and stir. That's it. Genius!

Thrive Whole Egg Powder brings some excellent attributes to baking: it is always consistent in volume, it rises beautifully and evenly, and it is lower in fat and cholesterol than traditional eggs. Using egg powder allows me to fit normally high calorie desserts into my diet more often, and I feel better serving these desserts to my friends and family. Baked goods still taste rich and delicious, they just come with a little less guilt.

A few other ideas for incorporating Thrive Whole Egg Powder into your daily meals:

• Blend with milk and cinnamon to make a delicious dip for your french toast.
• Replace half of the eggs in your favorite quiche recipe with egg powder to reduce the calories, fat and cholesterol.
• Make your favorite cookie dough using whole egg powder, and eat the dough raw without worrying about salmonela.
• Make home made mayonnaise that travels - it won't spoil nearly as fast.
• Add a tablespoon or two of egg powder to your Thrive 6 Grain Pancake Mix for fluffier pancakes.
• Scramble up a quick omelet using egg powder and your favorite Thrive veggies.

 Question of the Day: What is your favorite egg dish?
I love bacon, spinach and swiss quiche. I usually have the necessary ingredients on hand, and it bakes up pretty enough to serve guests at a nice brunch. It can also be made into mini quiches if you bake it in a mini muffin tin. I'll share a recipe soon!

Potato Mash Up

Mashed potatoes are good. Sweet potatoes are good. Mashed potatoes with little bits of sweet potato goodness blended in are amazing!

1c Thrive Potato Beads

1/3c Thrive Sweet Potatoes

1  2/3c Water

2 Green Onions, Thinly Sliced

1 Heaping Tablespoon Thrive Butter, prepared

Bring water to a boil. Add sweet potatoes and simmer for 5 minutes or until tender. Add potato beads and continue to simmer, stirring frequently, until beads dissolve into creamy potatoes. If potatoes are too thick, add milk one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. Stir in green onions and butter just before serving.

Delicious meatloaf recipe coming soon :)

Question of the Day: What is your favorite food "mash up"? 

I'm a big fan of bananas with chocolate, chocolate with cinnamon, and chocolate with peanut butter. Maybe I'm just a big fan of chocolate! LOL :)

Black Bean Taco Soup

I know I promised you black bean chili with sweet potatoes, but I changed my mind. There has been a #10 can of Thrive Taco TVP* sitting in my pantry, begging to be tried, along with some instant black beans. All I can say is holy cow this soup is good! The corn and sweet potatoes bring a soft sweetness than balances out the cumin and red pepper nicely, while the onions and celery offer up the fantastic aromatics I have come to love about Thrive vegetables. And the instant black beans? These are great because you don't have to remember to soak them the night before. Plus they have, um, well, fewer "side effects". :)

1 1/2c Thrive Instant Black Beans
1/2c Thrive Taco TVP
2T Thrive Corn
2T Thrive Onion
2T Thrive Celery
3T Thrive Sweet Potatoes
1/2t Garlic Powder
1t Cumin
1/2t Ground Red Pepper (or Red Pepper Flakes)
6c Water
For Garnish: shredded cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, salsa

In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add black beans, taco TVP, corn, onions, celery, sweet potatoes and seasonings.

At this point I decided to add a can of petite diced tomatoes and a small can of diced green chiles. Yeah, I know, it's not in the pictures. It was a last minute decision :) You could also throw in a can of jalapenos - maybe even a diced zucchini. That would be really good. Now I wish I had a zucchini.

Reduce the heat and let everything simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. After about an hour, give it a taste and adjust the seasonings at your discretion. I like my soup to have a nice kick to it, but feel free to add more or less seasonings to suit your taste. Garnish with shredded cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips and/or salsa before serving.

* Are you afraid of TVP? Don't be. TVP, or textured vegetable protein, is a delicious meat alternative that is made from soy flour. It is an excellent source of low fat protein, and is quite inexpensive. There is a great little article about it here.

Question of the Day: what is your favorite soup?
Mine has always been split pea with ham, but the soup I made tonight ranks right up there with it!