My Mom put me up to making dessert for our family lunch on Sunday this week. Not wanting to disappoint, I took to Facebook and Twitter to see if anyone had a show-stopping recipe I just had to try.
The ideas came pouring in and were SO delectable (seriously – drooling in my PJs circa 9am reading all of them!) that I decided to share them with you! If you’re ever in need of a dessert recipe, may I suggest:
Cookie Stuffed Cookies (you have to see these…)
Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow
Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chippers
Fried Chocolate & Banana Ravioli
Plus tons of other recipes posted on my Facebook page. There were about five that looked so decadent I felt like I HAD to have them this afternoon – but I held out. Instead, I made babies.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Babies!!!
Oh, you thought I meant…oh my, no!
These sweet & chewy bites are basically homemade Larabars, squeezed into cute little baby balls – and they’re only 70 calories a ball!!
I’ve had this recipe, courtesy of Chocolate Covered Katie, in my back pocket for the past couple of weeks and knew they’d be perfect to cure my craving for a sweet treat, at a fraction of the calories. I started by adding dried chopped dates, salted peanuts and vanilla extract to my mini food processor.
Then I processed the heck out of it!
My dried dates were UBER dry, so after 3 minutes of no luck getting the mixture to come together, I added a teaspoon each of peanut butter and water.
Just the ticket!
When the mixture was processed enough to stick together when I squeezed some between my fingers, I transferred it to a bowl and stirred in 1/4 cup chocolate chips.
That’s right!
Finally I pressed and rolled the batter into 9 balls.
These will blow your sweet tooth out of the water, off the beach and clear onto the mainland. THEY ARE SO FREAKING GOOD. Only 70 cals a ball, and you’ll really only want 1 or 2 – they are really decadent. Sweet, chewy, peanut buttery (it’s a word) and those pops of chocolate are mouthwatering.
Check out Katie’s site for this luscious recipe. NOTE: I added one teaspoon each of peanut butter and water to her recipe, but if I had been using softer Medjool dates, I probably could have omitted it. I also stirred in 1/4 cup of milk chocolate chips at the end!
After rolling balls (twss) I took to the streets. A stop by my new tax accountant’s office (great advice about TurboTax, there’s just several other variables that make it a little too complicated to use this year!) and a pit stop at the gym later, I was home cooking dinner – Orange Tofu!
The last time I made 30 Minute Lemon Brown Sugar Chicken aka Healthy Girl’s Sesame Chicken a reader commented that she had tried making it with oranges instead of lemons. I knew I had to have it!
Instead of making it with chicken, though, tonight I opted for tofu.
I cubed up a block of pressed, extra-firm tofu, then tossed it in flour seasoned with salt & paprika.
I tossed the cubes around in a strainer to get the extra flour off,
before sautéing in a about 1 teaspoon vegetable oil.
Tofu is like a sponge so it soaked up the oil pretty quick, but I just let it sauté dry until it was golden brown.
Then removed it to a non-stick sprayed baking dish.
Into the still hot pan I squeezed in the juice of an orange.
I let it bubble and reduce until it was slightly thick, then poured it over the cooked tofu.
Yummy!
You know what goes on next…brown sugar!
Into the oven @ 350 degrees for 15 minutes, then I fired up the broiler and let the brown sugar caramelize up.
Seriouslyholyfreakingcow!
The orange juice got super thick and coated the tofu cubes. Hot shugah!
I didn’t know whether the tofu was going to taste like candy from all the sweet flavors, so I cooked up some couscous in chicken broth to make sure I got some savory flavors in there too.
Couscous is basically the easiest thing to cook ever. I just boiled 3/4 cup chicken broth then added 1/2 cup couscous, put a lid on the pot, took it off the heat and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Like the texture of fluffy, soft sand. Love this stuff!
But OMG this tofu!!!
Yeah, sure, it was sweet – but definitely not candy sweet. The orange juice reduced down and became almost sour like lemon juice.
I think I may have liked it even better than the lemon version!!
I couldn’t bring myself to eat just a plate of yellow things so I quick sautéed some baby spinach with garlic salt to add vitamins and color. LOVE this dish!
Fed and full, I must go clean the house. We are having some friends over tonight and I’ve got to make the place look presentable!
TGIF! 
Making Babies
February 25, 2011