Spinach & Artichoke Dip

Mondays always come way too quickly, especially when you had the best weekend ever. The maternity photoshoot went incredibly well on Saturday and I can’t wait to share it with you! Sunday I snuggled my baby, made apple crisp, did a little shopping (found out I’m a size smaller than I thought, woo!), and finished some meal prep for the week. 

This weekend my focus was on snacks that go together quickly. I went with spinach & artichoke dip, partly because I had all the ingredients already and mostly because I was craving comfort food. In the past I’ve tried straining the cottage cheese first to reduce the water content in the finished product, but it just wasn’t as good. 

  

This dip is light and makes a great snack for any occasion. It keeps well for about a week and tastes just as good reheated in the microwave. Best part, you can whip it up pretty quickly with just a few ingredients and it makes a large portion. I hope you enjoy it!

  

Spinach & Artichoke Dip
Prep: 10 mins, Cook: 20 mins
Makes 4 cups
Shapers: P1FT, serve with veggies or nut thins.

Ingredients:
6 oz. frozen spinach
6-8 artichoke hearts, chopped
1 ½ cup cottage cheese
2/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1 tbs garlic salt
1 tbs nutritional yeast
Sprinkle of paprika

Instructions:
Mix the cottage cheese and yogurt until combined, then mix in the garlic salt and nutritional yeast until well combined. Stir in the artichoke hearts. Stir in the spinach. Sprinkle the top with paprika. Bake on 400 for about 20 minutes, or until top begins to brown and the dip is boiling. If your spinach is still a little frozen, take the dip out after 10 minutes and stir it again to break it up. Place it back in the oven for the remainder. It will be a bit watery on the top. You can drain it quite a bit using a turkey baster. Serve with veggies or your favorite rice cracker.

Crock Pot Apple Crisp (No Sugar – No Butter)

This whole 40 degree-cloudy-windy-naked-tree mess that is Maine right now reminds me of fall. And slow cookers. I feel like we should be carving pumpkins and burning Autumn Spice candles and sipping on freshly pressed hot apple cider. Where are the spring feelings I felt yesterday?! I’m so confused.

Lately I’ve been trying to focus more on living in the moment and not worrying about yesterday or tomorrow. Since it’s fall today, I couldn’t think of a better way to practice that than by making slow cooker apple crisp. The only catch is there isn’t any sugar. Or butter. Or oatmeal. I swear it’s delicious! It can be served as a warm dessert or breakfast, with or without the yogurt topping.

Crock Pot Apple Crisp
Makes 8 servings
Prep: 30 mins, Cook: 4 hours
*Shapers – P1FT, omit oil if needed.

Ingredients:
7 small apples – peeled, cored, and chopped into uniform chunks
1 tbs of coconut or MCT oil
1/2 lemon
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup xylitol
1 tbs apple pie spice
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tbs arrowroot powder

Topping:
3 packages of Melba Toasts
1 tsp apple pie spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup finely ground xylitol (use coffee grinder if you have one)
2 tbs melted coconut or MCT oil

Optional:
greek yogurt (plain or vanilla)

Instructions:
Peel, core, and chop the apples and put in the bottom of your crock pot. Squeeze the lemon juice over the apples and stir them to coat. Stir in the coconut oil and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the xylitol, apple pie spice, cloves, and arrowroot powder until well combined. Pour mixture over the apples and stir until they’re evenly coated.

To make the topping, combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the Melba Toasts are in small chunks but not ground up too finely.

Sprinkle topping on top of apples. Cook on low for 4 hours or until it’s bubbling on the sides and apples are very tender.

Optional:
Put some greek yogurt of choice in the freezer for 15-20 minutes before apple crisp is done. Don’t leave the yogurt in the freezer too long or it will freeze solid. Top the apple crisp with yogurt and garnish with cinnamon and apple peel. Enjoy!

Chocolate Covered Berries Smoothie

Just because it’s 8am, doesn’t mean you can’t have chocolate. When I was a kid, my favorite thing to drink in the morning was chocolate milk. I still love chocolate milk, but the scale doesn’t. So, improvise we must. This morning treat comes packed with benefits like antioxidants, iron, protein, and fiber to name a few.

I’m excited this morning because I get to do a maternity shoot in the forest with the most beautiful mama! It’s an F16 kind of day but get this: it’s MUDDY! Muddy in Maine at the end of February. Dear Mother Nature, we were supposed to be taking these photos in a winter wonderland…what gives? You know what, I can forgive as long as it’s true that spring is almost here.

Anyway, back to the chocolate. I find the fruit to chocolate ratio perfect, and the vanilla yogurt gives it enough sweetness. If you want more sweet, I suggest adding a tablespoon of xylitol or 1-2 of those heavenly Medjool dates.

Chocolate Covered Berries Smoothie
Makes 12 oz.

1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt (I prefer Triple Zero brand because it’s sweetened with Stevia)
1/2 cup water
1 cup frozen mixed berries
1 big handful of spinach
1 1/2 tbs raw cacao

Blend all ingredients together until smooth, then taste test. Add sweetener if desired. Enjoy!

That’s all for today, I have an adorable baby belly to go take photos of! They don’t know the sex of the baby, but my bets are on boy. I’m smitten!

Have a happy weekend, everyone! Let me know what you think.

Kayla

Mini Raspberry Cheesecakes with Chia Cinnamon Crust (Sugar Free, No Cream Cheese)

Faux cheesecake is not to be trusted! That was my firm belief up until 48 hours ago, when I went against my belief and messed with my classic cheesecake recipe. I had a craving, and the only thing that would satisfy it was thick creamy delicious cheesecake. I’ve tried to make an alternative cheesecake that was free of sugar and cream cheese and I did come up with something, but it tasted more like a custard and not a cheesecake. And that was when I decided not to mess with it again…that is, until I came across how to strain greek yogurt! My life has changed forever. Making desserts that are sugar free and health conscious isn’t easy. Sometimes you strike gold, sometimes (most times) you’re left craving things even more than when you started. This time, I struck gold and I’m begging you to try this recipe! I can’t believe how smooth this cake is!

This will require a bit of patience and prep. I’ll start off by re-posting the method for making the “cream cheese”. You absolutely must do this in order for the cake to come out right. There are a ton of variations on how to do it, but here’s what I did:

Cream Cheese
Prep: 24 hours

You will need:
Large container with tight lid
Cheese cloth
(1) 32 oz container of plain greek yogurt (I uses Fage 0%)

Instructions:
Scoop the yogurt out onto the cheese cloth, and strain it over a large bowl for 24 hours in the refrigerator. Suspend the yogurt above the bottom of the by using a bowl with a lid and closing the cheesecloth up into the lid. All the water will drain out of it and you’ll end up with a very thick consistency like cream cheese.

IMPORTANT NOTE!! ** This recipe contains xylitol. Xylitol is deadly to animals. Keep it far far away from your pets!**

Mini Raspberry Cheesecakes with Chia Cinnamon Crust
Yields (3) 4” mini cheesecakes.
Shapers this is P1 FT
Prepping: Prep time is 1 hour, cook time is 25 minutes, plus 24 hours for the cheesecake to set/chill.

Crust (Adaptation of Shape Muffins by Jessie Pierce Crites):
1 c. freshly ground flax seed
½ c. chia seeds (don’t soak them)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp apple pie spice
½ tsp cloves
¼ tsp of ginger
Pinch of salt

2 eggs
¼ c. xylitol
1 ½ tbs melted coconut oil
¼ c. plain greek yogurt
¼ tsp vanilla

Crust Instructions:
Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside. Mix the wet ingredients together and add it to the dry ingredients. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper and scoop the batter into it. Bake at 350 for about 20 mins or until done. When finished, set aside and let cool while you make the filling. After the crust has cooled, break about half of it off and pulse in a food processor with about 1 tbs of coconut oil. Press the crumbs to the bottom of your cheesecake pans. You’ll likely have leftover crust.

Topping:
1 package of melba toasts
½ tsp apple pie spice
¼ tsp cinnamon
2 tbs melted coconut oil
1/8 c. finely ground xylitol (use coffee grinder for this if you have one)

Topping Instructions:
Grind all ingredients together in a food processor. Pulse until the melba toast is coarse and set aside.

Filling:
1 1/2 cup homemade cream cheese (the greek yogurt you strained)
1 ½ egg
1 cup xylitol
¼ – ½ frozen raspberries, cooked down

Filling Instructions:
Cook the raspberries down in a small sauce pan over medium and add a bit of xylitol to sweeten it if you wish. Set aside.

Mix the cream cheese and xylitol on low until combined. Add one egg until incorporated, then add in the other ½ egg. Fold in the raspberries gently. Don’t over beat it, but make sure everything is mixed thoroughly. The batter will be runny.

Scoop the filling into the cheesecake pans and sprinkle with the topping.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until the filling is not jiggly. You may see a little bit of browning on the sides. Let cool on the stove top, then chill in the fridge for 24 hours like you would a real cheesecake. Do not skip this step, trust me. I know it’s hard to wait, but it makes a huge difference! Top with fresh or frozen fruit and serve chilled, and with a cup of coffee. 😉

This faux cheesecake will do. Given how smooth it is, and the fact that it didn’t crack, I probably won’t make another cheesecake with cream cheese again!

I hope you like it!

Kayla