cooking ala mel

healthy recipes and the occasional craft

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Puppy Chow

Puppy Chow is probably one of my favorite easy-to-make treats.  It’s such a childhood classic.  Chocolate and peanut butter covered chex coated in powdered sugar.. you really can’t go wrong.  They were a key food in many school parties all through elementary school and up into high school.  Definitely a favorite in my family – puppy chow never lasts long when someone makes a batch!

While most recipes you’ll find on the side of the cereal box have a stick of butter in it to make the chocolate-peanut butter coating flow a little better, I never use butter in mine.  I just up the peanut butter and chocolate a bit, and I’ve never had any issues.

This time around, I coated it in Swerve Sweetener instead of powdered sugar to make it a bit healthier.  Dark chocolate and natural peanut butter.. heavenly!
Be careful, though.  If you allow yourself to be near the whole batch at any one moment, you’ll find it doesn’t last very long.. I’ve been limiting myself to a little bowl as a snack, but I’ve been known to grab a handful almost every time I go into the kitchen.  Puppy chow is definitely addictive.
Puppy Chow
 
5 cups corn or rice squares cereal
3/4 cup natural peanut butter
2 1/4 cups dark chocolate chips
1 cup Swerve confectioner’s style (or confectioner’s sugar)
In a small saucepan, melt the peanut butter and chocolate chips together over medium heat, stirring (or in the microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring in between).  Pour over the cereal in a large bowl, and stir until evenly coated.  At this point, you can either place the confectioner’s sugar in a bag, dump the chocolate-coated cereal on top, and shake, or you can pour the sugar over the chocolate-coated cereal in the large bowl, put a lid on the bowl, and shake.  Shake until the cereal is evenly coated with sugar.  Store in an airtight container.  ENJOY!

Spinach and Artichoke Grilled Cheese

If you haven’t heard already, April is National Grilled Cheese Month.  I like grilled cheese just as much as the next person (how can you go wrong with fried bread and melty cheese?), so I couldn’t wait to partake.  TasteSpotting has been sharing a grilled cheese sandwich for every day this month, and one of them happened to be a spinach and artichoke grilled cheese.  Um, hello?!  How amazing does that sound?!  I immediately had to make it.. but we didn’t have any bread, and we used our last artichokes on some pizza awhile back.

This weekend, we finally picked up some bread and refreshed our stash of artichoke hearts.  I let Alex choose the bread, so he picked out a ciabatta.  I personally think it would be extra good on a hearty whole grain bread, but the ciabatta was fantastic, as well.

If you like spinach and artichoke dip, you will love this sandwich.  Melty cheese, chunky artichokes, and spinach, seasoned with some garlic & salt, and you’ve got yourself one killer sandwich.  We used Kerrygold’s Blarney Castle cheese for this sandwich, and I thought it was wonderful – it’s a gouda style cheese.  Gouda is one of my absolute favorite cheeses.  It’d also be really great with mozzarella.
Spinach and Artichoke Grilled Cheese
adapted from TasteSpotting

makes 2 sandwiches


4 slices bread (choose your favorite)
2 slices gouda style cheese (or mozzarella)
1 1/2 cups spinach, sautéed in olive oil and a dash of garlic powder & sea salt
marinated artichoke hearts, chopped
2 T butter
parmesan cheese, sea salt, to taste

Spread the butter on one side of each of the four slices of bread.  Place the bread butter side down on a skillet over medium heat.  Place one slice of cheese on two of the slices of bread.  Cook until the cheese is melty, and the bread is golden.  Remove from pan to two plates.  Place the sautéed spinach on top of the melted cheese slices, sprinkle with parmesan, and place the artichokes on top.  Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt, and top it with the other slice of bread.  Enjoy.

Baked Marbled Coconut Donuts (Gluten Free)

I stopped at Target earlier this week to pick up some OxiClean to finally remove the coffee stains from all of my white polos from when I worked at Dunkin’ Donuts over the summer.  They’ve been sitting in my closet for months, unwashed, because I’ve been too lazy to take the time to actually get the stains out.  I’m working at GNC now (to better familiarize myself with vitamins/herbals – hey, pharmacy, I can learn without an internship!), and I’m required to wear a white collared shirt.. uh oh!  Gotta get rid of those coffee stains!

So.. I got the OxiClean.  But I also came home with cookies and cream eggs and a new donut pan (day after Easter – they were both 50% off).  So now I can make a whole dozen of donuts at a time.  It’s like I never left Dunkin’… well, except I’m making my own donuts from scratch, now.  So I guess it’s a whole lot different.  Theirs are all frozen.

I happened to stumble upon a baked coconut donut recipe, and I immediately wanted some coconut donuts.  That recipe inspired these donuts.
I’m not really happy if there isn’t any chocolate, so I figured I would make a marbled vanilla and chocolate batter.  And I’d really rather them be somewhat healthy, so I went the gluten free route by way of coconut flour – healthier and totally coconut donuts.  Because I’ve been having fun with Swerve Sweetener lately, I also made them sugar free.  Oh yes.
Lovely.  I had one of these snow white donuts before I went to work this morning, in my newly stain-free white collared shirt.  And yes, that OxiClean did the job splendidly.  Months-old coffee stains, see you later!
Baked Marbled Coconut Donuts (GF)
makes 1 dozen donuts
 
For the chocolate batter:
2 T cocoa powder
1/2 t baking soda
pinch salt
1/4 cup coconut sugar (or Swerve)
1/4 cup coconut milk (or other milk)
2 eggs
In a small bowl, stir together the coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs until well blended.  Stir in the dry ingredients.
For the vanilla batter:
1/4 t baking soda
pinch salt
1/3 cup coconut sugar (or Swerve)
1/3 cup coconut milk (or other milk)
1/2 t vanilla
2 eggs
In a small bowl, stir together the coconut flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla, and eggs until well blended.  Stir in the dry ingredients.
Spoon each of the batters into a pastry bag or ziploc bag with the corner cut off.  Into a well greased donut pan, pipe an equal amount of each of the batters into the donut pan, about 1/2-2/3 full.  With a spoon, swirl the batter around in the to give it a marbled look.
Bake at 350ºF for 10-12 minutes, until the donuts spring back when lightly touched.  Allow to cool slightly in the pan before removing, and then cool on a wire rack.
For the glaze:
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar (or Swerve confectioner’s style)
4-6 T coconut milk
1 t vanilla
12 oz. shredded coconut flakes, for dipping
Whisk together the powdered sugar, 4 T milk, and vanilla.  Add 2 more T if too thick.
Once the donuts are cool, dip in the glaze, allowing any excess to drip off.  Place the coconut flakes into a bowl, and coat the glazed donuts completely with coconut.  Place back on the wire rack to allow the glaze to dry.  Once dry (about 30 minutes later), either serve or store in an airtight container.  It’s best to eat the donuts within two days.