Cheese Cake with Cresent Crust

Confession:  My husband and I both love cream cheese, really love it.  So, when I needed a dessert for small group at our house last night, I did a Google search for "easy desserts with cream cheese" and found this.  Now, I know I haven't posted in a while, but I have record for not being able to make something just as the recipe says.  So here is my version:

Ingredients:

• 1 can crescent rolls (I used reduced fat.)
• 2 8oz packages of cream cheese (I used neufchatel cheese.)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg yolk (I'll probably just use the whole egg next time.)

Directions:
      Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll out crescent rolls into the bottom of a 9"x13" pan.  Mix cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg.  Pour over crescent rolls.  Bake for 15 minutes.  I think it would be awesome to add some chocolate chips or apples and cinnamon next time.  I served it warm, so it was a little runny, but it firms up after it cools.  It tasted delicious though!

E: 9
A: 10
T:  10

HH: 9

Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

I'm a little embarrassed to show pictures of this cake.  However, we do say that we are sharing our "disasters and delights," so I will.  This cake turned into a little of a mixture of a disaster and delight.  It tasted awesome, it just looked pretty rough.

I used vanilla yogurt instead of oil in the cake and baked it according to the package directions. 

For the icing I combined a few recipes I found.  It looks lumpy because I used fat free cream cheese... if you can get past the texture of the lumps (that are IMPOSSIBLE to get rid of) it ended up tasting pretty good.

Icing ingredients:

• 8oz Cream Cheese (don't use fat free)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/4 cup of vanilla yogurt

I just mixed it all together, then refrigerated it.

Even though the icing was lumpy, it was very tasty.  I think I'll make it again with Neufchatel cheese instead and see how that works.

E:  7 (I tried everything to get the lumps out, I even heated the mixture.)
A:  8
T:  8

HH: 9  (He loved the taste.)

Baked Apples

I guess this dessert made me feel a little bit healthier because it has apples in it. The bad news is... we made all 4 and... ate all 4. You have to get your serving of fruit, right?

Ingredients:

4 Granny Smith apples

sugar

1/4 cup almonds, slivered and toasted

2 tbsp raisins

2 tbsp dried apricots, chopped

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp orange juice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200⁰C or 392⁰F. You can thank me for converting it later.

Using an apple corer, remove the core from each apple.

Using a large sharp knife, cut the top off of each apple. Carefully remove the flesh from inside each apple, being careful not to damage the natural shape of the apple and leaving enough of the flesh next to the skins so the apples do not collapse.Dice the flesh removed from each apple and toss in a medium mixing bowl with the almonds, raisins, apricots, cinnamon and orange juice.

Carefully spoon the mixture into the center of each apple allowing it to overflow slightly out of the top and sprinkle with sugar.

Place the tops back over the apples, spooning a little of the stuffing mixture into the whole of each top, and sprinkle with sugar.

Place the apples into a small baking dish and bake in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until the apples have wilted slightly and the tops have turned light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before serving the warm apples.

We wish we would have done this - drizzle honey or add more sugar on top.

E: 8 - Eliott's got some mad knife skills.

A: 8 - We bought a trail mix that had almonds, raisins, and apricots mixed together.

T: 8

HH: 6 - We'll both admit, Apple Pie tastes better. Baked Apples is healthier, but it's not the same.

Healthy Brownies?

I found a recipe (if you can call it that) a few months ago for brownies that had fiber, and were not terrible for you.  It sounds gross, but I wanted to give it a try anyway.  All you need is a package of brownie mix and a can of black beans... yes, black beans.  Drain the can of black beans, rinse them until the water runs clear, fill the can with water to just cover the beans, then puree the beans and water.  You mix the pureed beans with the brownie mix and bake according to the what the box says.  (Don't add the eggs, butter, oil, or whatever else the mix calls for.)

They actually didn't taste that bad.  I think if I hadn't known what was in them I would have liked them better.  Justin doesn't really like chocolate, but liked them ok.  Our friend, Mark, was staying with us the night I made them, and he seemed to like them. I didn't tell him there were black beans in them until after he had eaten one, I recommend this if you make them.  He still ate more after he knew what was in them, so I guess that's a good sign.

Justin and Mark enjoying the bean brownies

E:  8
A:  7
T:  8

HH:  6 (he just doesn't like chocolate that much)