One Ingredient Healthy Ice Cream - Guest Post at The Frugal Foodie Mama

Today, I'm guest blogging over at The Frugal Foodie Mama.  Carrie's website has so many amazing recipes, with great photos, and this week I am participating in her Virtual Ice Cream Social Week!

So head on over and get the recipe for my One Ingredient Healthy Ice Cream.

Yep, you heard right. One ingredient. Can you guess what it is?? Check it out!

Don’t forget to follow So There.  by Amy on:

BlogLovin' ~ Pinterest ~ Facebook ~ Google+ ~ Twitter ~  Instagram 

Now, let's #backthatazzup

Happy Friday!

So There.

Vegan Frozen Pizza Review

I was not compensated for this review - I just had a coupon (see below; you can, too!), and wanted to try it!
I am glad I did.

I picked up a frozen American Flatbread pizza at Sprout's the other day.
I chose the Vegan Harvest variety, which is basically a "cheese" and herb pizza, made with all natural, real, organic ingredients, and is dairy and soy free. 

You can find all the ingredients and nutrition facts HERE

All American Flatbread pizzas are vegetarian (including only vegetable rennet in the real cheeses), and all the flavor varieties sound amazing! 

The vegan variety of American Flatbread pizza is made with daiya, a dairy and soy free "cheese" that is actually pretty good!  I was surprised.  It melts really well, and has a good flavor. Not much of a flavor, actually, but that is way better than some fake flavor or odd aftertaste.
I would definitely use that cheese again.

The thin wood-fire oven pizza crust has a great flavor and holds up well, and the garlic and herbs give the cheese pizza a great, light flavor.

Another great thing about the pizza, and the "daiya cheese", is you let the pizza thaw on the counter for a bit ,and then it only needs to cook for 5-7 minutes.
I would definitely buy this brand and variety of American Harvest pizza again!

If you are strictly vegan, it appears this variety is the only one with vegan cheese - the other varieties with more toppings, are all vegetarian (no meat or meat substitutes), but they do use dairy cheese.

Give it a try! ...and if you do now, there is a $2 off coupon right now on their website! Click Here for the Coupon.

So There.

Don't forget to enter this week long giveaway, below, for a chance to win this Nostalgia Electrics 4-Quart Ice Cream Maker and a copy of The Perfect Scoop by Danny Lebovitz!

*This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.  All entries for the winner will be checked and verified, so please make sure you are doing what you are claiming in the Rafflecopter or all your entries will be voided.  No funny business, folks. ;). By entering you give the right to use your name and likeness. Number of entries received determines the odds of winning. One winner will be selected. This is a giveaway sponsored as a group buy, which means the bloggers pooled their money together to purchase these products for you.  Amazon, Nostalgia Electrics, and Danny Lebovitiz are in no way sponsors of this giveaway.  The ice cream maker & the copy of The Perfect Scoop will be sent directly to the winner from Amazon via Carrie of Frugal Foodie Mama.   Entries must come from your MAIN social media accounts, not accounts that have been set up separately just for entering giveaways.  Entries from these types of accounts will be disqualified.  Protected tweets do not count as an entry method for tweeting. Tweets must come from a public account. Bloggers in this group giveaway and their immediate family members in their household cannot enter or win the giveaway. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law.

Please see the Rafflecopter widget below for additional Terms & Conditions.  Good luck, all! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Healthier Banana Bread Cake

Yesterday it was ice cream, today it's cake!

I have loved experimenting with different, more healthful ingredients, like coconut oil, almond flour, and maple syrup, instead of vegetable oil, white flour, or sugar.

This banana cake is a great example.


Adapted from  Real Healthy Recipes
gluten free, dairy free, Paleo (I think?)

Uses: a 9 x 5 shallow loaf pan
Makes 8 small squares.  Double or triple to serve more.

Recipe:

Cake

1/8 cup coconut oil, melted

1/8 cup agave nectar or real maple syrup

1 egg

1 ripe banana, mashed

1 Tablespoon coconut milk, full-fat from can

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup blanched almond flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon salt

Frosting:

1/4 cup cream cheese, room temperature (I replaced a couple Tbsp of this with plain greek yogurt)

1/4 Tablespoon coconut milk, full-fat from can
1/2 Tablespoon agave nectar or real maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

small pinch of salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan with coconut oil, or line with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the coconut oil, maple syrup, egg, banana, coconut milk, vanilla extract and almond extract.

In another bowl combine the almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix until well combined.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes, or until knife comes out of middle clean. Don’t overbake.  Let cool - will continue to set more as the cake cools.

For the frosting: With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Reduce the mixing speed and add the remaining ingredients. Beat on high speed until creamy.

Once the cake is fully cooled, cover with the frosting and cut into squares.
Makes 8 small squares.

So There.

Don't forget to enter this week long giveaway, below, for a chance to win this Nostalgia Electrics 4-Quart Ice Cream Maker and a copy of The Perfect Scoop by Danny Lebovitz!

*This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.  All entries for the winner will be checked and verified, so please make sure you are doing what you are claiming in the Rafflecopter or all your entries will be voided.  No funny business, folks. ;). By entering you give the right to use your name and likeness. Number of entries received determines the odds of winning. One winner will be selected. This is a giveaway sponsored as a group buy, which means the bloggers pooled their money together to purchase these products for you.  Amazon, Nostalgia Electrics, and Danny Lebovitiz are in no way sponsors of this giveaway.  The ice cream maker & the copy of The Perfect Scoop will be sent directly to the winner from Amazon via Carrie of Frugal Foodie Mama.   Entries must come from your MAIN social media accounts, not accounts that have been set up separately just for entering giveaways.  Entries from these types of accounts will be disqualified.  Protected tweets do not count as an entry method for tweeting. Tweets must come from a public account. Bloggers in this group giveaway and their immediate family members in their household cannot enter or win the giveaway. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law.

Please see the Rafflecopter widget below for additional Terms & Conditions.  Good luck, all! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Virtual Ice Cream Social - Ice Cream Maker & Recipe Book Giveaway!

Happy Monday.  (purposeful no exclamation point...haha.  Monday...womp. womp)

But! To make your Gloomy Monday morning a bit better, I have teamed up with The Frugal Foodie Mama and some other great blog friends, to host this fun giveaway! 

All week she will have ice cream themed blog posts, including a guest post from yours truly on Friday! So stay tuned!

Enter the giveaway below for your chance to win this adorable!!! turquoise ice cream maker and amazing ice cream recipe book!

How cute would this ice cream maker look on your counter this summer?! Yeah...you're going to want to enter this one ;)

Bonus: if you already follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Google +, there are some easy entries right there! So enter below, and get to winning!

Enjoy!

So There.

I would like to extend you all a BIG welcome to Virtual Ice Cream Social Week on the blog! Throughout the next seven days, I will be sharing my homemade ice cream wisdom and some great recipes (some that require an ice cream maker, others that do not).  And in partnership with some of my fabulous premium June sponsors, I am hosting a week long giveaway on the blog for a Nostalgia Electrics 4-Quart Ice Cream Maker and a copy of The Perfect Scoop by Danny Lebovitz!

*This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.  All entries for the winner will be checked and verified, so please make sure you are doing what you are claiming in the Rafflecopter or all your entries will be voided.  No funny business, folks. ;). By entering you give the right to use your name and likeness. Number of entries received determines the odds of winning. One winner will be selected. This is a giveaway sponsored as a group buy, which means the bloggers pooled their money together to purchase these products for you.  Amazon, Nostalgia Electrics, and Danny Lebovitiz are in no way sponsors of this giveaway.  The ice cream maker & the copy of The Perfect Scoop will be sent directly to the winner from Amazon via Carrie of Frugal Foodie Mama.   Entries must come from your MAIN social media accounts, not accounts that have been set up separately just for entering giveaways.  Entries from these types of accounts will be disqualified.  Protected tweets do not count as an entry method for tweeting. Tweets must come from a public account. Bloggers in this group giveaway and their immediate family members in their household cannot enter or win the giveaway. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law.

Please see the Rafflecopter widget below for additional Terms & Conditions.  Good luck, all! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lavender Martini

For this weekend post, it is cocktail time!

I am loving these floral cocktails and liqueurs lately! Next on my list is the St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur, but first, is Lavender! I bought this Lavender Simple Syrup which is perfect for cocktails and baking desserts!

 

For this Lavender Martini, you will need:

2 oz. good vodka

1 oz. soda water (excuse my orange flavored - that was all I had. Normally I would use plain soda water,    

                          and only add citrus flavor with the fresh lemon)

1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 Tbsp lavender syrup

Shake all ingredients together with ice in a cocktail shaker until blended and chilled.

Pour into serving glass.

Serve with sprig of fresh lavender, or lemon twist (I didn't. you should. be fancy!)

So There.

Cheers!

Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Summer Solstice! and my Conscious Box #2

Happy Summer, everyone!!

I would like to take it as a good start-of-summer omen that today is the first day in a couple weeks that I did not wake up to our Southern California "June Gloom" !! Yay sunshine. I am a happy girl.

So, remember when I won this awesome contest from Along Comes Mary for three months of this cool mail order service, Conscious Box?
Well I just received my second box of organic goodies this week!!

Do you guys love getting stuff in the mail as much as I do?? Especially when the contents are a surprise!

I was so happy I got more food items this time! I am really picky about my ideal ingredients and the flavor of snack bars, so I am always hesitant to buy a whole box of one kind at the store. Getting to try two different new brands (3 flavors) from Conscious Box was exciting!

That ALT LARA BAR at the top especially impressed me because they use 'pea protein'. I really dislike soy, whey, and all other protein powders I have ever tried (seriously. don't try and convince me otherwise. i hate them all.), and this pea protein had no detectable flavor, and is all natural! The peanut butter cookie flavor was pretty good, as far as protein bars go, and I loved that there was no 'protein' aftertaste at all! Same good flavor as regular LARA BARs, but with added protein!

These Skout bars are great, too! Similar to a couple other bars on the market, they are only made with dates, oats, dried fruit, nuts, and natural sweetener like honey or agave.  They are pretty sweet with the natural sweetness from all the fruit, plus added agave/honey, but they taste great!  Both the apple pie and cherry vanilla flavors were good. I approve.

OK, this Sneak organic chocolate milk with some pureed veggies 'hidden' in it is a good idea for kids, I suppose, but YUCK!!  I would have loved to have had a kid nearby to hand this off to, to see if they actually liked it, which is totally possible, but I did NOT.LIKE.IT.  I don't drink chocolate milk anyway, but I feel like it is something I would not hate, and this one was weird. You could definitely taste the pureed veggies, and it just overall tasted odd.  Sorry.  Totally awesome if your kids will drink it though! All the ingredients are natural and healthful.

I tried my first Flavrz packet this morning - I thought the extra potassium and electrolytes might help my headache..boo.. - you mix the concentrated liquid with a glass of water; one packet has extra hydration benefits, and the other variety is a natural energy drink.

The flavor was about the same as a lot of other powdered drink mixes, but it was a bit fresher tasting, and I loved that, because it was a liquid, not a powder, it was much easier to blend in with the water.  These are a great alternative to some of the powdered drink mixes because the ingredients are all natural and organic!


I was excited to get such a large sample of all natural hand soap, below.  The lemongrass scent was nice, and there can be so many weird ingredients in cleaning products, I was happy to try an all natural hand soap, along with these other beauty products

They also sent a sample of puppy soap!! I gave this away to a friend :)
AND this cute blank Happy Birthday card to send to someone! I love that.

All in all, a successful delivery!! Yay, these are so fun!


Now, for some summertime tunes with #backthatazzup Friday!!


Btw, did you guys see the movie Country Strong? Well you should. Remember this song below by Leighton Meester (xoxo, Gossip Girl.)?? Dare you not to dance to it!!




 


Happy Friday, y'all!
So There.

Coconut Milk Vanilla Ice Cream

My go-to quick and easy, healthful, sweet snack or dessert is a tiny bowl of oatmeal with a few chocolate chips and a spoonful of nut butter swirled in. Super delicious, and kind of reminds me enough of an oatmeal cookie or brownies to call it good on the dessert craving.

But, as the weather starts to get warmer, I prefer something cold instead - ice cream!!
I have been loving Pinterest lately (always), for giving me several healthful ice cream alternatives - which are actually dairy free and so simple.

One I love is made with coconut milk! They also sell this in the refrigerated section, with the milk and coffee creamer, too, but make sure you buy it in the can instead. It can be found with the Asian foods at any grocery store.

For this I use the full fat coconut milk. It is thicker and works much better for making ice cream that is rich and creamy.
Coconut milk is a 'good' fat, and contains vitamins like calcium and magnesium.

Note, I do not have an ice cream maker, and you don't really need one for this. The food processor works fine to blend until creamy, and as it is chills in the freezer, I just stir the mixture a couple times.

Recipe:
This makes two small servings - for more, use 2 cans of coconut milk.

1 can of full fat coconut milk, chilled in the fridge until milk and water are separated. (We are only using the milk that floats to the top.)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 Tbsp - 2 Tbsp natural sweetener, to taste (I prefer maple syrup. Agave syrup or brown rice syrup work great, too)

Directions:
Put the can in the fridge the day before you make this recipe, if possible.
This causes the milk to separate from the water, and for this recipe, we are only going to open the can and scoop out the top 'milk' part, and leave the water at the bottom for other use.  Or just drink it!

Scoop this into a food processor and pulse until nice and creamy.  

Add vanilla extract, plus maple syrup, (sweeten to taste), and, really, any other flavors you'd like!
Blend those in, then scoop out ice cream into a freezable container.

Freeze until desired texture is reached; you can get to a soft serve type consistency pretty quickly, or wait longer for a more scoop-able ice cream.  While freezing, every so often, give the ice cream a good stir, mixing in the frozen bits along the edges into the middle.

This is best served right away, as soon as it freezes up a bit.
If frozen overnight it will need to thaw quite a bit before it is soft enough to scoop, and it loses some of it's nice texture.

In other news, it is finally Friday, and time to link up with Whitney for some #backthatazzup tunes!

Check out this awesome artist, Andy Davis. I discovered him when he opened for Colbie Caillat at a concert. He is great!




Do you make vegan or healthy ice cream? What is your favorite flavor?
Hope you all have a great weekend!!

So There.

Grilled Grapefruit Salad with Beets & Goat Cheese

Remember my summer-inspired Smoky Grapefruit Cocktail?
Well, it also inspired a summery salad!

I love fruit on salad, and I also am obsessed with beets and goat cheese, especially with a peppery arugula.
Arugula is a peppery, leafy green that pairs great with cheese, such as goat cheese or freshly shaved Parmesan.

I made a salad dressing with olive oil, balsamic glaze, a touch of honey, and some grilled grapefruit juice.
Combine all and mix until smooth.

Toss dressing with arugula and sliced beets.  

I use the ready-to-eat boiled beets from Trader Joe's. If you begin with whole, raw beets, peel and boil or roast until tender.

Add sections of grilled grapefruit and crumbled goat cheese.

Simple, and bursting with wonderful flavor.
The smoky flavor of the grapefruit being grilled adds another element to this dish.


..This was so good, I had it two night in  row, but night numero dos I went a little crazy with the goat cheese and balsamic glaze! YUM! ...I swear there are beets and grapefruit under there somewhere.

So There.

Smoky Greyhound Cocktail - with Grilled Grapefruit

Now that the sun is shining and summer is almost here, I think it is time for cocktails!

While in Palm Springs this weekend, we discovered the trees around the hotel were actually grapefruit trees, and finally got brave enough to jump up and shake a branch hard enough to knock one grapefruit down! Sneaky, sneaky :)

Anyway, as we were walking from the pool and trees back to our room, I pried open the grapefruit, and gave it a try. Oh man! I swear this was the best grapefruit ever! It was so sweet! I immediately passed it around to all my friends, insisting they try this grapefruit! Mind you, no, we did not have any proper utensils or kitchen tools. We made it work - Survivor style.

We couldn't go back to 'borrow' more amazing grapefruit, but the whole drive home I was still craving them!
So I swung by Trader Joe's on my way home and picked up a few, then, obviously, checked Pinterest for brilliant grapefruit ideas.

And...I found one!!

Have you guys ever tried grilling a grapefruit??

I have heard of grilled fruit, like pineapple slices, or peaches.
But grapefruit was a new idea to me, and better yet, the idea to take the juice and make a Greyhound cocktail! 
The Greyhound, vodka grapefruit,  is one of my favorite drinks. Not too sweet, and very refreshing.
Well, I just learned of this Smoky Greyhound which uses the juice of a char-grilled grapefruit!
I had to give it a try!

Instead of firing up an outside grill, I decided to try both a grill pan on the stove, and...my under-utilized creme brulee butane torch! Why? Because I rarely make creme brulee and the torch is...really fun!!

I cut a large grapefruit in half and went to town with my brulee torch.

It was fun to watch the fruit's natural sugars bubble up and caramelize. The white pith catches a spark easily, so I had to be very mindful to only broil the actual fruit. The top definitely caramelized, but the inside still remained cold.

                       

Then I put the other grapefruit half on an oiled grill pan on the stove. I left it on until it developed deep grill marks and took off to cool. This method warmed and softened the fruit all the way through, and grilled the outside.  

I would recommend actually grilling the grapefruit with this method (or outdoor) for the best results...but, the creme brulee torch is just FUN.

Juice and strain the grapefruit.  

Recipe.
Makes 1 (multiply as needed)
To make the cocktail:

Fill a cocktail glass with ice. Add 2oz of vodka, and fill with the fresh grapefruit juice.  Garnish with a grapefruit wedge.
This cocktail would also be great with tequila.

Interesting depth of flavor, smoky, bitter, and sweet all in one.
This drink is a win!

So There.