Weeknight Dinner

Angel Hair Pasta with Vegetables

We decided to make a fast, easy dinner tonight. Because we both love to eat pasta, we wanted to cook some angel hair but make sure to add tons of fresh vegetables. We cooked some broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, red pepper, and mushrooms and mixed it with this dish. Feel free to sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top and enjoy!

Angel Food Cake: Take Two!

Angel Food Cake

A few weeks ago we decided to make an angel food cake. Although the cake was delicious, it didn't rise in the oven and turned out to be rather dense and heavy--quite opposite of an angel food cake's stereotypical light, fluffy texture. However, today's angel food cake was light and fluffy as anticipated! Make sure that the egg whites whip up completely in order to yield a wonderful angel food cake like ours. Enjoy!

Greek Yogurt Cheesecake

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Bars

We decided to make a lightened-up version of a classic dessert: cheesecake. Cheesecake can be known for being extremely rich, heavy, and unhealthy. However, because it is so delicious, we wanted to see if we could possibly make this treat a bit healthier. By introducing Greek yogurt to this recipe as well as low-fat cream cheese, these cheesecake bars are creamy and full of protein, while cutting out saturated fat. Some restaurants sell slices of cheesecake that average at least 500 calories. Make these raspberry preserve-swirled cheesecake bars instead and save yourself a stomach ache! Feel free to add whole raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, chocolate chips, or any other of your favorite add-ins! Enjoy!

Low-Carb Lasagna

Zucchini Lasagna

Amanda and I had some zucchini and yellow squash in our house, so we decided to make lasagna. Coming from a big Italian family, lasagna is a staple when it comes to holidays and family dinners. Because we have been cooking a lot with zucchini lately, we decided to make use of the vegetable and substitute it for pasta sheets in a lasagna recipe. Although it is not quite as satisfying as our traditional lasagna recipe, this "healthier" version is still delicious. We hope you enjoy it!

Goodbye Potato Chips

Zucchini Chips

Today, Amanda and I wanted to continue the theme of 'baked chips,' so we decided to make zucchini chips. We sliced the zucchini and seasoned the slices with salt and pepper. Zucchini chips are certainly healthier than potato chips, and they are so easy to make. If you are craving a more savory snack than our apple chips and have a few extra zucchinis in your kitchen, then try this recipe for a salty snack that is purely  made of vegetables. Enjoy!

Truffles with a Twist

Avocado Truffles

We all know that it would be better to eat a piece of fruit or vegetables than it would be to eat a piece of chocolate. However, a lot of the time we still choose chocolate over "healthier" options. It is probably impossible to eat chocolate and not feel happy--it has actually been proven that eating chocolate can help improve your mood. Today, we recreated a treat that we all love by combining it with avocado. The idea of avocado truffles may seem absurd, but you might be surprised that you cannot taste any avocado in these chocolate truffles. Instead, the avocado lends itself to making the truffles soft, rich, and creamy. So next time you are craving a sweet treat, try this no-bake recipe and remain guilt-free. Enjoy!

Apples to Apples

Cinnamon Sugar Apple "Chips"

Today we decided to make apple "chips" by slicing up some apples, sprinkling them with cinnamon and sugar, and baking them until they were crispy and golden brown. These chips were so easy to make and are such a healthy snack. Instead of eating processed potato chips or other unhealthy foods to satisfy your snack cravings, these are purely made of fruit! They are delicious, addicting, and are sure to beat any store-bought snack you'd find in the supermarket aisles!

Crab Cakes

Crab Cakes

Today we decided to make homemade crab cakes. Making crab cakes may seem like it would be difficult and require a lot of time, skills, and ingredients, but you wouldn't believe how simple these crab cakes are to cook. They are incredibly easy to make, and our family loved eating them. See our step-by-step photos below!

Ravioli Made Easy

Spinach Ravioli

After seeing how successful our “healthy” mozzarella sticks were last week, we decided to use wonton wrappers in another recipe. The wrappers seem to be able to be used in an endless variety of ways, and they are an easy shortcut to having your own pre-cut squares of dough. We knew that we wanted to cook homemade ravioli, but it is a long process to make your own pasta. So, we wanted to make a fast and easy ravioli recipe and thought of using wonton wrappers once again! We stuffed our ravioli with spinach, part skim ricotta cheese, and Parmesan cheese, but you can really add whatever add-ins you would like. We put about a tablespoon of the mixture in each ravioli, sealed off the ravioli with a wonton wrapper on top, and crimped the edges down with a fork before baking them in the oven.

Fruit Doughnuts

Strawberry and Blueberry Doughnuts

After seeing how successful our cinnamon roll flavored doughnuts were, Kimberly and I wanted to make a second doughnut recipe. Typically, I enjoy eating richer, chocolatey foods, and Kimberly loves sweeter, sugary ones. So, this fruit doughnut recipe is right up her alley. Kimberly's favorite doughnut to eat is a strawberry-frosted glazed doughnut, while mine is either a chocolate cake doughnut or Boston cream! These strawberry and blueberry doughnuts pack in tons of fresh fruit to naturally sweeten them, and applesauce keeps them nice and moist. We also decided to use whole-wheat flour to make them even healthier. These doughnuts are delicious! Again, they are baked in the oven and only take a few minutes to cook! Thanks to a neat doughnut pan that we borrowed from our friend, we have been able to cook doughnuts in our very own home (and we also may want to invest in buying a pan for ourselves!). So, next time you're craving a doughnut, skip the doughnut shop and bake one of these wholesome fruit doughnuts instead!

Cinnamon Bun-Fun

Greek Yogurt Cinnamon Roll Doughnuts

Happy almost-National Doughnut Day, everyone! In honor of National Doughnut Day, which is June 5, we decided to cook up a healthy take on this classic treat. Kimberly absolutely loves to eat doughnuts. It is always a good day when our mom comes home from the local doughnut and coffee store with a brown bag heavy with the weight of a strawberry-frosted doughnut. Without a doubt, doughnuts are delicious, but they can be deep-fried and loaded with sugar and fat. We wanted to make doughnuts that were baked--not fried--and utilized healthy substitutions for butter and sugar. In these doughnuts, you will find Greek yogurt and applesauce making them extra moist, and whole-wheat flour making them even heartier. We have even combined them with one of our other favorite breakfast treats--cinnamon buns! We love how these doughnuts taste delicious, yet are SO much healthier than the ones you can buy at the store. Enjoy!

Colorful Cupcakes

Rainbow Cupcakes

Today we were having friends over and wanted to make a fun, colorful recipe. This recipe was definitely not cooked "from scratch," nor is it "healthy." Not all of our recipes can be completely homemade and natural, after all. This recipe was meant to be fun to make, which it certainly was. We used a boxed cake mix and separated the batter into four different bowls, dyed them various colors with food dye, and placed spoonfuls of each color inside of cupcake trays to create a rainbow or tie dye effect. The results were pretty neat, and the cupcakes were even more delicious to eat!