In the Kitchen with Kate: Healthy Wendy’s Copycat Frosty

  
Really? That seems deceptively simple. But I had all of the ingredients on hand… And I had just finished 30 minutes on the stationary bike… So yes please!! 

  
I gathered my ingredients. 

And I blended. 

And blended. 

And shook the cup and blended some more. 

The mixture was really thick so I added another 1/4 cup+ of Almond milk. 

(The “+” is because I had just over a 1/4 cup left and went a head and finished off the carton! 😂😂😂) 

I blended some more. 

Taste test time! 

Ok, still really think and oh my goodness was that a chocolate overload! 

And not in a good way! 

And I’m out of almond milk, so I add some water. And then a scoop of vanilla protein powder. My thinking was that the vanilla would help off-set the bitter chocolate (cause 1/3 a banana wasn’t near enough sweetener!!) and to help keep the shake thicker after I added water… 

  
It worked!! So while the recipe wasn’t all that spot-on for me, with a few modifications I made it work! By the time I modified it, the caloric count was 234, which isn’t bad considering I had a scoop of protein in there! It was simple enough I’ll be making this me again! 

Oh, and well, I wouldn’t ever mistake it for a Wendy’s Frosty, it was really tasty, and 160 calories less (it would have been 260 calories less, but again, protein powder!!) 

In The Kitchen with Kate: Wordless Wednesday Edition

I saw this recipe on Pinterest the other day and couldn’t wait to try it. Homemade Veggie Nuggets!

That looks neat, right? Vegetarian chicken nuggets! And the ingredient list really was simple: Carrots, parsnips, potato, broccoli – and then some oil, egg and breadcrumbs.

The reality:

So, mine is a different color… I can work with that… but it was also a totally different texture… well, let’s try it anyway, so what if the cookie cutter didn’t work and I pulled out the melon baller… It could still work!

Yeah.  No.

In the Kitchen with Kate: Homemade Donuts

So, I know there are 1,000 ways to spell donuts.  I am lazy efficient, so I go for the shortest, yet still socially acceptable, version there is!

Now that we have that out of the way let’s continue.

A few days ago I told you that I bought a bundt pan.  What I didn’t tell you was that just hours after making that purchase in the store, I was on-line and accidentally bought a donut pan.

It arrived today! Let the confetti and streamers fly!

I have patience the size of a gnat, so naturally I hit up Pinterest and searched for a homemade donut, baked not fried, from scratch and E A S Y.

I found a recipe that, after a quick pantry check, I could make.

Thanks to Moms Need to Know, I was off and running!

I mixed the ingredients and put them in a zippered bag, cut off the tip and that made getting the dough into the pan so much easier.

Popped it in the oven and 8 minutes later, those suckers were ready!

Now, the blogger I used for inspiration had a glaze and a chocolate and, well,

But, have you seen this? I think if you look up “awesome sauce” this is what you’ll find. It’s not too sweet and was a perfect compliment to the donuts.

So, one minute and 30 seconds later, the chocolate was melted!  I took the donuts that were cool enough to touch and dipped them in the chocolate (and FYI, that container is the perfect size to dip the tops of the donuts, I didn’t even have to dirty up a bowl!)

BAM!

And then sprinkles, cause:

In The Kitchen with Kate: Bundt Pan Edition

The other day I had to have a bundt pan. Now, it’s been on my Christmas list for years, so I’ve been refusing to buy one, and now for the life of me, I can’t remember exactly why I HAD to have one, but within a few days, I was at the store. 

I got it home and at a loss for why I wanted it, I still knew I had to bake something. 

Thank you Pinterest. 

I picked the first recipe I found that I had all of the ingredients on hand for. 

  
I’m 100% sure that the batter was supposed to be smooth and pourable.  

In the interest of full disclosure, it wasn’t. It clotted up and the batter was super thick. 

You’ve heard me mention that I’m flexible with my ingredients, well, I was too impatient to wait for the butter to come to temp and I may have done the shortcut and put it in the microwave to temp it, and it might have not handled it very well when it hit the cold stainless bowl, and the cold milk and eggs were added. That is my guess. 

Baking is a science. 

I am not a scientist! 

So I made a quick chocolate glaze because chocolate fixes everything. 

  
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t something I would have shared with you! Mr. T and I ate it, but since he has grown up with my cooking, he has a lower standard! 

So, I put out a call for new bundt pan recipes! And right now my house smells lovely making a cinnamon apple monkey bread suggested by Holly. 

  
Yum! See those apples covered in cinnamon? Delish! And yes, the recipe calls for green apples. I loathe green apples and have a plethora of red ones on hand… So red it is! 

  
And I think there is something on my iPad camera, as the bottom of those photos are blurry… But I’m just keepin’ it real peeps! 

Another friend, Kari has suggested a Harvy Wallbanger cake… Which has an ingredient I can’t pronounce, but it sounds easy 🙂 

So, help me out here, what are your favorite bundt pan recipies? Which ones do I need to try out? Let me know in the comments below and you could be featured in a upcoming episode of In The Kitchen with Kate… Which isn’t as exciting as it sound so! Lol 

P.S. :  

 
Ugh. Ignore the clumps. I was trying to get it finished during a commercial (see above re: impatience!) #GoCowboys 

PPS:  I remembered what I wanted the bundt pan for!! But I’m not telling until I make it and can show you 🙂 

In The Kitchen with Kate: Grilled Veggie Quesadillas

I am all about the most efficient way to accomplish, well, anything, but especially cooking.  I can’t tell you the collection of quick, fast, 4-ingredient-or-less and one-pan skillet recipes I have amassed over the years! It’s actually impressive when I think about it. But that’s not the point, the point is that I am lazy efficient in the kitchen and if there is a faster way to do it, or if there is a step that can be eliminated, I’m the first to do it!

Having said that, this recipe is a two-parter… and as you now know, that’s not my style, but there was something about the flavor combination that had me ready to spend a few extra minutes in the kitchen!

First, pick your vegetables, and honestly, I just grabbed what I had in the veggie drawer, a zucchini, bell pepper and onion, and then grill them.  Now, a real Texan would have fired up her grill.  But, it’s 100 dg. and I cheated (see above re: efficiency) and grabbed my indoor grill and got those suckers going.

While those are cooking and filling the kitchen with wonderful smells, it’s time to create some pesto!  Homemade pesto is so easy to make, grab your food processor or blender, and toss in a big handful of basil leaves, some pine nuts, some parmesean cheese a bit of garlic and olive oil to help mix it all together.  That’s it!

Now, you can also buy a jar at the store, I totally won’t judge you for that, and since you need some goat cheese and whole grain wraps, you’ll already be at the store anyway!

Take your wrap and smear one side with the goat cheese and the other side with pesto, and then top with the grilled vegetables, fold in half and put back on the grill to warm up the pesto and cheese, and voila!

You now have some warm, melty, grilled vegetable quesadillas!  And the extra time it took to grill the veggies really brings an extra layer of flavor to the dish, Mr. T didn’t complain once about the meal being vegetarian!  I added a handful of grapes and blueberries to the side of the plate and dinner was done!

Grilled Veggie Quesadillas

Ingredients

• zuchinni
• red onion
• green bell pepper
• pesto sauce
• goat cheese
• tortillas, whole grain
• anything you have in the fridge that you like grilled 🙂

Cooking Directions

1. Slice the vegetables and brush with oil (or spray with cooking spray, or use a non-stick grill pan) and grill.
2. Take your tortilla and spread pesto on one half and goat cheese on the other.
3. Place grilled vegetables on cheese side of tortilla, fold in half and place back on the grill.
4. Flip over and then remove once each side had reached your desired done-ness. (Yes, that is a word)
5. Cut into triangles and enjoy!

In the Kitchen with Kate: 5 Ingredient Paleo Chocolate Treats

I needed a treat the other night… and I don’t keep treats on hand, because treats on hand last about as long as it takes to type this sentence and then they are gone!

As such, I’m always on the lookout for some yummy treats that are fast and easy to make, and ones that don’t make 3 dozen at a time!  Because see above!

I found Primal Fudge by Practical Paleo on Pinterest and had to prepare it.

Okay, I’m done with the alliteration.  I just couldn’t resist once I got started!

How cute are those little guys? And while I am always looking for an excuse to use my muffin tins – she had me at 5 ingredients!

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup high quality cocoa powder
1/2 cup smooth almond butter
1/4 cup raw honey or maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

I was a little more flexible in my ingredient selection…

I’m currently obsessed with my PB2, and almond butter, peanut butter, same diff.  I’ll just mix up half a cup of my PB2 and it’s half the calories! I ended up mixing 1/2 cup dry and that shrunk as I was re-hydrating it, so I added in another 2 tablespoons.  This may or may not be important later on!

Once the peanut butter was mixed up, it was time to add the melted coconut oil.

Like how I did the whole Pioneer Woman snap-a-picture-while-you-are-pouring thing?  I was proud of myself!

Then I added in the rest of the ingredients and got to mixing.

It looks odd… but it’s starting to incorporate.  Oh, and the original blogger did mention that you could use either a blender or food processor.  I’m starting to wonder about now if my food processor would have been the better option.

Once everything is mixed, you are supposed to “pour” it into the muffin tins.  POUR.  Does that look like it will pour?

No.  No it doesn’t.

So, let’s improvise and add in a touch more honey and a splash of vanilla to moisten it up and make it pour-able.

Then, just for fun, splash some vanilla on your tablet cover.  At least it’ll smell good for a bit.  Sadly, even after adding more liquids, the mixture wasn’t able to be poured.

So I took my spoon and dropped and mushed the chocolate mixture into my silicone mini muffin pan and then popped those suckers in the freezer and set my timer for 15 minutes! Of course, once in the freezer, I saw a container of frozen blueberries…

And I grabbed a handful and popped the frozen blueberries on half of my chocolates.  And then reset my timer.

…..

15 minutes later

….

Mine look nothing like the original! They are pretty darn ugly, and you can see those white lines – where some coconut oil didn’t fully incorporate – so it’s a #PinterestFail, but you know what? They are pretty darn yummy! And at about 70 calories each, heck yeah I’m eating them!

In the Kitchen with Kate: Peanut Butter Cookie FAIL

For a thousand reasons, I decided to try a new recipe of treats tonight. It was a flourless peanut butter cookie recipe.

Peanut butter.
Honey.
Baking soda.
Egg

Seems easy, right?

I gathered the ingredients. I decided not to judge a book by the cover and discarded the fact that the picture of the cookie looked funny, cause I’ve eaten plenty of things that looked funny but tasted great!

I did decide to add chocolate chips, though, because, hello!

Okay, looks a little different from how most cookies start. But peanut butter. Honey. Chocolate chips!

Fresh from the oven… Yeah…

About 10 minutes later they’ve fallen and I’ve literally had to scrape them off the pan!

I had to move fast to get the picture before it fell apart in my hand!

So, not every recipe is a glowing success! But, not going to lie, as ugly as they are and as hard to eat as they are, at 50 calories I scraped those suckers up and ate 3!

In the Kitchen with Kate: Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin goodness going in the mixer.

My kitchen is about to smell really nice!

Whaaaa? There’s more?

The word you’re looking for is “Foodgasm”

Pumpkin Muffins with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.

For the muffins:

• Box Yellow Cake Mix
• Can of pure pumpkin (of if you are more talented than me, make your own!)
• I added Cinnamon, All Spice and ground Nutmeg, pumpkin spice would be good, too.
• Add to muffin pan, bake approx 18 min at 350 dg.

For the frosting:

• 1 stick of butter, softened
• 1 block of cream cheese softened
• dash of vanilla
• I added a big sprinkle of cinnamon
• Powdered sugar, about 3-4 cups
• Mix well, and frost muffins when cool

Personally, these muffins don’t need the frosting, but boy oh boy, were they good!

In the Kitchen with Kate: Maple Bacon Frosted Sugar Cookies

Okay, a few weeks ago I saw this:

 

And I was intrigued.

I couldn’t get it off my mind.

It was like my very own Schrodinger’s Cat.  It was probably gross, but what if it was the best thing in the world?

I had to know; and so, I went home from the store with this:

I couldn’t wait, I had to make some cookies to frost! It had to be done! So, welcome to my kitchen as we make maple bacon frosted sugar cookies!

I gathered the ingredients:

Now, I didn’t have any eggs, but that’s okay, you can use oil as a substitute!

I highly suggest you do not get in a hurry and accidentally melt your butter when you are supposed to be softening it.  It makes a big difference!

But, when you do accidentally melt your butter when you are suppose to be softening it – don’t let that stop you! Just go with it!

You’ll end up with some funny looking cookies, but hey – YOLO! 🙂

Of course, I do not suggest you be in a rush or distracted when you are taking the cookies out of the oven 😦

 

Power through it! You can do it!

I closed my eyes, I took a breath…

Chewed.

And it wasn’t bad! It actually tasted like a maple donut! There really wasn’t much, if any, bacon flavor. So, yes, it was good because I LOVE maple; however, I was a bit disappointed because – hey – bacon!

I did put on the bacon bits that came with the icing, because bacon!

It didn’t add much flavor.

So, I do still recommend it, if you love maple flavor; however, don’t buy it expecting a lot of bacon flavor!

In the Kitchen with Kate Homemade Pizza Edition

I can’t decide between In the Kitchen with Kate or Cooking with Kate.  They both have the “kha” sound, and I like the shorter Cooking with Kate, but like the look of the two “K”s in In the Kitchen with Kate.

Obviously I’m not that good at naming thing, not very inventive.  And apparently I’m a bit self-centered.

I think we knew that latter bit already, though.

Anyway – if you have any suggestions, I’m open to them.

Sort-of.

I’ll try to be open to them.

But I’ll be really open to someone who wants to make me a cute little jpeg that I can use for these episodes!

Moving on.

I’m currently obsessed with pizza.

Specifically, homemade pizza!

I’ve made a couple lately, from spinach feta to chicken broccoli, and I have no plans of stopping as they are turning out so very yummy, and so much better for you than take-out!

I love it so much that I have to share!

I started with the ortsofsorts – Pizza Perfection post.  This pizza dough was so simply, so easy and so very yummy!

I made the dough, rolled it out on a lightly floured surface and then put it on a pizza pan – I know pizza stones are popular – but I don’t have one of those! Then I lightly brushed the crust with some EVOO.  And if you don’t know what that is, then you didn’t watch enough Rachael Ray.  Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Next, I took the bulb of garlic that I roasted… oh but the house smelled delicious – and I smeared it all over the dough.  It doesn’t look pretty, but trust me – I almost baked the bread just like it was!

It’s a good thing I didn’t bake it right then and there – because the next step was to amp up the mouthwatering factor.

Grilled onions baby!  Low and slow that onion simmered away on my stove caramelizing and tantalizing me with its smell.

Hello spinach! And lots of it!  Pile that stuff up!  At this point you may be wondering why I didn’t put down pizza sauce.  I’ll be honest, I don’t use sauce very often.  I’ve found it really distracts from the other flavors, and I don’t want wasted calories on my pizza!  I’ve found that a bit of EVOO and roasted garlic makes a great base.  I highly suggest you try it!

Your next step is to get carried away piling toppings on and forget to take a picture, so then you have to go back and open the oven door because Pix or it Didn’t Happen!

On top of the spinach I piled cheddar cheese and then – wait for it – FETA!  If you’ve never had a pizza with feta cheese, I’m telling you, your life isn’t complete!

Do you see that? It’s heaven on a plate!

Now, this pizza was made on our meatless night, but you could easily add any topping you wanted, sausage, pepperoni, peppers, etc.  As I mentioned, the other day I sauteed some chicken and broccoli and using the same pizza crust, with roasted garlic and oil base, I tossed on the chicken and broccoli and topped it with mozzarella, cheddar and parmesan.  It was delightful!

That concludes today’s In the Kitchen with Kate episode featuring Homemade Pizza.  I hope you all enjoyed it and I would love to hear back from you if you make your own pizza!