My Thoughts on Things
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Fruit and Yogurt Parfait
I had this for breakfast today. I love those little parfaits from McDonald's but they are too small, too sugary and the fruit is always half frozen. Instead, how about fresh fruit, Greek yogurt and dark chocolate granola for breakfast? This turned out to be a huge bowl of breakfast and it was very good. The best part is that the yogurt has 17 grams of protein by itself, so with your added granola and sliced almonds you end up with 21 grams for breakfast. That is going to keep you full until lunch time.
Nutrition info:
Calories: 288
Fat: 10
Carbs: 32
Fiber: 4
Protein:21
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King Cake
My husband and I are both from a small town in southern Alabama with a strong Mardi Gras tradition. It is a time for celebration with family and friends and we miss it! So, inspired by my good friend Martin and the desire to bring a little carnaval to Birmingham I decided to make a King Cake. Yes, they have king cakes at Publix, but then I wouldn't have made one on my own. And I'm glad that I did, this is the best king cake I've ever had. I highly recommend it.
The recipe I chose was this one from allrecipes.com. The reviews looked good and I was excited to try making another yeasted bread. I've done a couple of loaves but nothing too complicated before. this turned out to be pretty easy, very much like a cinnamon roll.
I changed a couple of things from the written recipe. First I only made half since I seriously don't need two king cakes kicking around my house. Second, I baked at 340 for 28 min. I also omitted the raisins and added a cream cheese and apple filling that I made on the stove. I used the other filling on the other half so that when I rolled it up both fillings were in each roll.
Apple Cream Cheese filling
- One large Granny smith apple, cored, peeled and diced
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp apple pie seasoning
- 1/2 cup water
- 5 ounces cream cheese
Simmer the first four ingredients over the stove for roughly 30 min until the sugar has thickened into a thick syrup and the apples are soft. While still over the heat stir in cream cheese until smooth.
I will definitely be making this again next year and might make one for something else. It would be great for a brunch or on Christmas morning. I would really love to try a lemon filled one, but the Genius is anti-lemon so that would have to be for another day. I think a lemon filled with pink or blue sugar on top would be precious for a baby shower.
I made my colored sugar by mixing liquid food coloring with white sugar. I attempted to create purple by mixing red and blue, but it was a murky sort of purple so I dug out my Wilton gel food coloring and used the violet. It turned out to be a bright, royal purple. Perfect for Mardi Gras. I know it looks blue in the photo but it really is purple.
This Tuesday is going to be Fat Tuesday, aka Pancake Tuesday, so I think we will be having some blueberry pancakes for dinner that night. I need to mix up a batch of Alton's Good Eats instant pancake mix.
