Orange Push-Up Smoothies

Hi!  I'm popping in really quickly to share a quick recipe.  Who remembers those orange push up pops with the primary colored dots on the outside?  They remind me of my Grandparents because they always bought them for us when we visited.  It's been years since I've had one and frankly, I'm not sure if they still make them anymore?

When I made this recipe, it reminded me of that long lost orange push-up pop flavor.  The only difference was that it was in the form of a smoothie rather than the classic and fun push-up pop.  Depending on the brand of orange concentrate you use you may need more or less sugar as there are varying levels of "orange peel" bitterness to each brand.

Bottoms up and here's to our childhoods!

Orange Push-Up Smoothies

Ingredients

• 1 can orange juice concentrate, slightly thawed 
• 1 cup milk 
• 1/2 cup sugar, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 2 cups ice, or to taste 

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients, except for the ice, in a large blender and blend until smooth and creamy, taking care the sugar has dissolved and is well incorporated. If desired, add a splash more water or more milk. Add the ice and blend until smooth. Makes approximately three eight-ounce portions.

Source: Averie Cooks as seen on Delicious Melicious

SRC: Strawberry Cheesecake Smoothie

This month's Secret Recipe Club assignment comes from one of my favorite bloggers, Jennifer at Mother Thyme.  Jennifer had guest posted for me last year with her very popular Cream Cheese Coffee Cake.  It's always fun to get to know a new blog through SRC but sometimes, it's also good to get one you know and follow already because you just know it will be filled with great recipes!   I had already bookmarked her Strawberry Cheesecake Smoothies and so it seemed it was destiny that made her my assignment for the month.

What I loved about this recipe was how it tasted just like strawberry cheesecake filling.  With strawberries in season and having bought FOUR POUNDS from Costco, I added twice as much in my smoothies for extra strawberry oomph.  This made mine a bit thick so I had to add a splash of vanilla almond milk to thin it out.  It was awesome and so simple!

Jennifer topped hers with whipped cream and some graham cracker crumbs for the full cheesecake flavor experience.  Looks pretty, too!

Do you have any favorite strawberry recipes?

One Year Ago: Creamed Chard and Spring Onion Pasta and Fresh Strawberry Pie
Two Years Ago: Lemon-Rosemary Turkey Meatballs

Strawberry Cheesecake Smoothies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt (I used 0% Fage Greek Yogurt and added about 1/2 tsp vanilla)
• 3 ounces light or fat free cream cheese
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1-2 teaspoons agave nectar (I used about a tablespoon of honey)
• Vanilla almond milk or regular milk (optional)

Directions

1. Add all ingredients except for the milk into a blender.  Process until smooth and creamy.  If needed, add milk of choice to thin the smoothie out to your desired consistency.  Serve immediately.

Source: Modified from Mother Thyme

Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream

Summer just really wouldn't be complete without ice cream.  I gave my facebook fans a chance to pick which recipe I would post today and Jaida of Sweet Beginnings voted for the dessert option while my normally sweets-loving friend Brenda wanted me to do the savory entree.  Secretly though, I think Brenda wanted to see the dessert recipe first, too.  And seeing as it is Friday, I thought it would be nice to close out this week's posting with a dessert, just like you would with a multi-course meal.

I made this recipe for my friend JJ's birthday.  He had recently been in Japan for an extended business trip and one of his first weekends back was his birthday.  Knowing that he probably wouldn't have food at home nor go shopping or even cook for awhile (because he's a bachelor), I gave him some food as a welcome home gift the night we picked him up from the airport.  This ice cream was my birthday "present" to him.  I chose it because he loves ice cream and he always asked me in the past to make him homemade strawberry ice cream.

How was it, you ask?  I loved the added tang from the buttermilk.  It really complemented the fresh fruit flavor.  To be honest, I kind of didn't want to give him the ice cream once I had tried it.  This one is a keeper!

Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 3/4 cup sugar, divided
• 1 Tbsp kirsch or vodka (optional)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 6 egg yolks, lightly whisked in a medium bowl
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Before you start, make sure you freeze your ice cream maker overnight.
2. Combine the strawberries, 1/4 cup of the sugar, and kirsch or vodka (if using) in a medium bowl.  Set aside and let the sugars cause the strawberries to soften and release the juices, about 1/2 hour.
3. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, scald the cream and dissolve the remaining 1/2 cup sugar.  Pour a bit of the cream mixture into the lightly whisked yolk to temper (or warm) the eggs.  Add the remaining hot cream, whisking constantly to combine.  Pour the custard mixture back into the saucepan.  Cook custard until just thickened, whisking constantly, about 4-5 minutes.  Using a fine wire mesh, strain the custard into a medium bowl.
4. In a blender, puree the macerated strawberry mixture until smooth.
5. Combine the custard mixture and the pureed strawberries.  Cover and refrigerate until cold, at least two hours but ideally overnight.
6. Just before churning, add the cup of cold buttermilk and stir to combine.  Churn the ice cream according to your manufacturers instructions.  For a harder, more scoopable consistency, transfer ice cream to a freezer safe container and freeze for at least 1 hour before serving.

Source: As adapted by and seen on Stresscake from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Black Raspberry Frozen Yogurt

And we're back with the desserts from Emily and my Seasonal Summer Fruit and Vegetable Extravaganza!  We made two desserts and I wasn't sure which to share first so I asked my friend Jackie.  She picked this one to share with you first.  

This healthy froyo was extremely simple and extremely DELICIOUS!!  It was my favorite recipe from the whole night.  The flavor is fresh, the texture was creamy (except for the seeds which I completely forgot to strain out...oops!), and the color was vibrantly spot-on to Graeter's Black Raspberry Chip Ice Cream which made it all the more visually appealing.  By the way, did I mention that if you make it with fat free yogurt (I love Fage 0% Greek Yogurt), that there's only about 2g of fat in the whole batch?  And that fat comes from the raspberries...who would have known that those contained fat??

To recap the Seasonal Summer Fruit and Veggies Extravaganza so far: Watermelon Slush, BLT Corn Salad Wraps, and Cherry BBQ Pulled Pork Grilled Pizza. Check back on Friday for the final dessert course and recap of our latest Extravaganza.  

Only a couple more days left to enter my Beer Flats giveaway so make sure to enter now.  Your chances of winning are pretty high!

One Year Ago: Pork Sandwiches with Cilantro Jalapeno Slaw

Black Raspberry Frozen Yogurt

Photo Credit: Emily H.

Yields: 1 quart

Ingredients

• 2 cups Greek yogurt (whole milk preferred to help keep from freezing rock solid but we used fat free and ate it fresh - it was fine)
• ¾ cups sugar
• 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
• 1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1-2 tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine the yogurt, sugar, berries, and lemon juice in a blender or food processor.  Blend until smooth.  Press the mixture through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.  Stir in the vanilla.
2. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Source: As seen on and adpated by Annie's Eats from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Watermelon Slush

Hello my lovelies!  Remember my extremely talented friend Emily who guestposted this General Tso's Chicken, takes all our Dinner Club photos, and did a Apple Extravaganza bakefest with me last Fall?  Well she and her husband Scott came over recently so we could continue the tradition of the wives creating deliciousness in the kitchen while the husbands did...manly things like watching TV.  But unlike during the Fall, we minimized the use of the oven (because it was hot hot hot!), focused on a theme of using seasonal fruits and veggies, and put the boys to work by manning the grill.

To kick off our Summer Fruit and Veggie Extravaganza, we started with this absolutely refreshing, totally natural and healthy watermelon slush.  The colors were gorgeously vibrant and it quenched our thirst on this hot July day.  It was a wonderful mocktail as is but we won't tell if you add a splash of vodka, tequila, or other favorite liquor to the mix ;).

Four more recipes and another awesome review+giveaway left to share in the next two weeks so stay tuned and keep coming back!

One Year Ago: 5 Minute (Healthy) Chunky Monkey "Ice Cream"
Two Years Ago: Raspberry White Chocolate Swirl Ice Cream
Three Years Ago: Grands! Taco Melts (AKA Homemade Hot Pockets)

Watermelon Slush

Photo Credit: Emily H.

Yields: 4 servings (1 cup each)

Ingredients

• 4 cups watermelon, seeded, diced, and frozen
• 2 limes, juiced
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 3/4 to 1 cup water

Directions

1. Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.  Serve immediately.

Source: Prevention RD

SRC: Pineapple "Ice Cream"

It's that time of the month again!  This month for Secret Recipe Club (SRC) I received Erin's blog, A Tale of One Foodie's Culinary Adventures.  Erin started her blog much for the same reasons that I did.  And that's to document the cooking and baking that we do.  When I was browsing Erin's blog, I was greeted by some pretty delicious looking cupcakes in her header and found lots of drool-worthy desserts.

Because my husband and I are watching our weight and we absolutely LOVED the 5 Minute (Healthy) Chunky Monkey Banana "Ice Cream" that I made last year, I thought I'd give her pineapple version a try.  It was very simple to make and definitely tasted of summer.  Not as custard-like and creamy textured as the banana version but I think adding more yogurt could help with the creamy taste.  Or, leave it out entirely for a vegan sorbet treat.  I did leave out the booze in this instance since we ate it right away but you can add it back in if you're into that or plan to save for later.  I hollowed out a pineapple half and scooped the "ice cream" inside it for serving.  It also serves as a great freezer mold :).

Thanks Erin for this healthy recipe and I look forward to going back to try some of your more unhealthy treats like the Frozen Reese's Peanut Butter and Oreo Pie, Peanut Butter Toblerone Cheesecake, or Truffle Filled Chocolate Cupcakes.

As usual a special thank you to April of the blog Angel's Homestead, SRC ring leader and Angela of the blog Big Bear's Wife, our Group C Hostess!

Pineapple "Ice Cream"

Ingredients

• 1 whole pineapple, cut up into bit size chunks and frozen
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3-4 Tbsp spiced whiskey (omitted)
• 3 heaping Tbsp non-fat Greek yogurt

Directions

1. Combine ingredients in food processor until smooth and combined.  Scrape down as needed.  Enjoy!

Source: A Tale of One Foodie's Culinary Adventures

Product Review: Graeter's Ice Cream

Happy National Ice Cream Day!

Fellow foodies and ice cream enthusiasts, believe me when I say you haven't lived until you've tried Graeter's ice cream.  Seriously, if I could only eat ONE type of ice cream for the rest of my life, it'd hands down be Graeter's Black Cherry.  There's a reason Oprah named Graeter's her favorite ice cream and has it shipped to her to eat.  It is just sinful.  Velvety, creamy texture with flavors that just dance on your tongue.  Fresh, wholesome, REAL ingredients that you can pronounce.  The quality shines through and through.

The awesome people at Graeter's said they'd send me some of their homemade, hand-packed, small batch French pot process ice cream to review.  I felt a little silly having them ship me their ice cream (on dry ice which isn't cheap, mind you!) when there's a scoop shop just down the road from my house but they insisted.  And who am I to turn down FREE ICE CREAM?  No, not me.  Thank you!

Believe me when I say I tried to secure some to giveaway to you, too.  Unfortunately, they're not doing giveaways at this time :(.  So live vicariously through me for now and enjoy the "food porn".  Once you've realized you can't take it anymore (oh...say in a couple photos from now...) and simply must have your own Graeter's ice cream to eat, consider stopping by your local scoop shop, grocer (they're not available nationally!), or order online to enjoy this irresistible treat!  Visit their website for more details on where to find it.

The ice cream arrived by UPS Next Afternoon Air packed in a nice Graeter's brand styrofoam cooler with dried ice.  No worries about the ice cream melting even in the record hot summer heat.  Opening the cooler was literal Christmas in July.  I didn't know what amazing flavors would be sent to me or how many.  This is what greeted me:

Hellooo four pints of amazingness!

A chip assortment: Mocha chocolate chip, Mint chocolate chip,
Vanilla chocolate chip, and Black rapsberry chocolate chip.

For those unfamiliar with Graeter's ice cream, their signature flavor is their Black Raspberry Chip, which was included in my shipment.  And when they say "chip", they mean "CHUNK"!  Don't be surprised when you find literal whole pieces of rich, dark chocolate candy bar in your scoop.  Sometimes, it seems almost as if someone added some ice cream to your chocolate ;).  Oh and the best part?  Somehow they manage to keep the chunks the perfect texture/hardness.  It's easy to scoop and melts oh-so-silkily in your mouth but the ice cream is still nice and hard.  How do they do that??  Graeter's does not skimp on quantity or quality here and I was excited to try all these different "chip" flavors that they're so famous for!

Oh yeah!  THAT's the stuff.  Check out those chunks!

To be honest, my husband and I actually had not tried most of the flavors they sent us so it was a nice change from the norm.  Here's what we thought about each flavor:

Vanilla Chocolate Chip:

We decided to start with the most basic flavor that was sent to us.  You can always judge the quality of a good ice cream by their vanilla because there's nothing else to hide or mask it.  As is the case with all Graeter's ice cream bases, this was really rich and creamy.  Divine, really.  All their ice cream use real cream free of artificial growth hormones.  The strong vanilla flavor, made from Madagascar vanilla beans, was authentic and the bittersweet chocolate chunks were very plentiful and the "right size" according to my husband.  This flavor didn't disappoint!



Black Raspberry Chip: 

THIS is the stuff that dreams are made of.  Who can resist the beautiful (and natural!) vibrant color of this gorgeous ice cream?  But just wait until you have a bite...sensory overload!  Smooth fruity black raspberry flavor made from hand-picked Oregon black raspberries is complemented by the bittersweet of the chocolate.  With just one taste, you'll understand why this is their signature flavor.  And with each additional bite, you'll fall in love over and over again.  


Mocha Chocolate Chip: 

Neither Chris nor I are much of coffee people but we found this to be pretty enjoyable and coffee lovers I'm sure would go ga-ga.  Keeping with using only the highest quality ingredients, they use 100% real Arabica coffee beans.  It's like a creamy, chocolate flavored iced coffee and of course, filled with Graeter's famous chocolate chips...no, chunks.

Mint Chocolate Chip: 

We chose to save this flavor for last because mint always seems to have a way of transferring itself to other flavors and we didn't want to taint the rest of our tasting experience.  Unlike most mint chocolate chip ice cream, Graeter's mint chocolate chip is white, not artificially colored green.  It used to be green but in an effort to make the ice cream 100% natural, the food coloring was removed.  I have friends that swear it's not as minty anymore (let's face it, visual cues are huge and we do eat first with our eyes!) but I found the amount of mint to be just right.  Plus, I appreciate Graeter's taking out unnecessary ingredients so the good stuff can really shine!

So there you have it folks, our review of four different popular Graeter's ice cream flavors.  Did you make it through reading this far or have you already run off to get your own scoops or pints?  My other favorite flavors when I visit the scoop shop?  Besides Black Cherry, which we already discussed, I can also highly recommend Elena's Blueberry Pie and Cookies and Cream.  I didn't realize it until now but I guess I'm an ice cream purist and actually prefer the non-chip flavors!  My husband, the peanut butter-aholic, almost always gets the Buckeye Blitz.  That's not to say that he won't ask for the occasional free sample taste spoon of the Peanut Butter Chip (surprise, surprise) or Cookie Dough justtt in case he changes his mind ;).

I'm curious, Which flavor of Graeter's ice cream is your favorite or would you most like to try?

PS: If you are fortunate enough to have a Graeter's nearby, you can stop in and get a single dip of your favorite premium ice cream in a sugar cone for just $1.42 today in celebration of 142 years of Graeter's and National Ice Cream Day.  What a deal!  And yes....my husband and I are totally stopping by to take advantage of this offering despite the fact that Graeter's already stocked our home freezer with 4 pints.  Gotta get my Black Cherry and he his Buckeye Blitz!  There's a reason why their slogan is "Irresistible since 1870".  They really are just that irresistible!

Disclosure - This blog is a personal blog written and edited by Christine @ Christine's Kitchen Chronicles. The owner(s) of this blog was compensated with free products to provide an opinion on the products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

Strawberry Peach Frozen Yogurt

I have a confession.  I'm slightly addicted to the tingly, tart taste of Yagoot frozen yogurt.  It's a locally owned froyo place similar to PinkBerry with a mix-in concept like Cold Stone Creamery.  Yum.  Thinking about all the frozen treats from these places is starting me make me drool...


Anyway, after Linda inspired me to make more frozen treats and I kicked things off with the Five-Minute (Healthy) Chunky Monkey "Ice Cream", I decided I should also try my hand at frozen yogurt.  I found a basic recipe from the ice cream guru David Lebowitz and then went from there.  I love fruit flavors and wanted to capture that same tartness that Yagoot is famous for so in went some strawberries, peaches, and my "secret ingredient" for tartness - lemon juice.

Because I knew that adding fruit could result in icy, rock solid froyo, I also added some vodka to help lower the freezing temperature.  It worked...for maybe the first day.  After that, all bets were off and I still got a frozen rock which I waited (impatiently) to soften so I could enjoy the deliciousness that tasted just like my favorite Strawberry Yagoot at a fraction of the cost.  The way I see it, I made a quart (32 oz) of mock-Yagoot froyo for roughly $7 whereas a 1/2 cup small serving (4 oz) at the store would run me $2.50 or $20 for equivalent total ounces.  Yah for huge cost savings!

This froyo is best eaten freshly churned (so it's like soft serve) or within the same day of churning (so it's still soft and scoopable...for me this was the literal sweet spot).  Of course, if you have a bit of patience, you can wait for the frozen rock to thaw and serve.

Any tips for churning a froyo that stays SOFT over time?  I'd love to hear them!


Strawberry Peach Frozen Yogurt

Yields: About 1 quart (32 oz) of frozen yogurt

Ingredients

• 2/3 pint fresh strawberries, chopped
• 2 medium peaches, pitted and chopped
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoon vodka
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 3 cups Greek-style yogurt (update: Apparently whole milk is best because it has less water which will prevent rock-hard froyo!)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. In small mixing bowl, mix together the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Refrigerate 1 hour.
2. In a separate bowl, combined chopped strawberries, peaches, sugar, vodka and lemon juice.  Mix together well, cover and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
3. Place the yogurt mixture in your ice cream maker and churn per the manufacturer directions.  After about 15 minutes, add the fruit mixture.  Serve immediately to enjoy soft-serve style frozen yogurt.  If desired, pour the mixture into an airtight container and freeze until ready to use.  Fair warning, it gets pretty hard after about 24 hours so you'll need to let it defrost before it's remotely scoopable again!

Source: Christine's Chronicles Original inspired by Poor Girl Eats Well and The Perfect Scoop by David Lebowitz