Reduced Fat Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

This decadent looking double chocolate zucchini bread is reduced fat for your waistline's pleasure, but tastes so right making your mouth VERY happy!

2 zucchini recipes in one week, that's what you get with a zucchini that size, like the one I showed you in my last post. What's more they're both zucchini bread. Well I fell in love with it so much I had to chocolify it... (totally a word or should be).

So for the longest time guys I hesitated to write that my recipes were healthy or lower in fat or whatever. I thought oh people know this food blog has a healthy focus... but really unless you read all the time you don't. So I gotta call it out. But I hesitate because most people will dismiss it thinking this... "Ughhhh reduced fat, low fat, healthy... BORING!" I used to think that way too before I embarked upon a new healthy lifestyle.

Imperial Porter Truffles, Beer Adventures in San Diego and a GIVEAWAY!!! #beermonth

You guys are in for a treat today! This last post for a beer month is a love letter to California Craft Beer (and my adventures there). To make #beermonth go out with a bang- I topped it off with an awesome recipe for Imperial Porter Truffles with 4 flavor variations! I also have a giveaway for Brewershirts.com. Super awesome shirts for beer lovers and home brewers! If you're not interested in my beer adventures skip to the bottom.

I love you and I miss you California!

Just a couple months ago I was fortunate enough to go on my first trip to California and fell in love! What's not to love especially when it's the dead of fuckin winter in NY?! I literally looked at house prices in San Diego because I loved it there so much!

The first part of the trip was hiking through Joshua Tree State Park. So we went from winter in NY to a dessert and it was "winter" there to. But their winter is 70's and sunny every day. It was absolutely gorgeous and we went hiking for miles every day. To save money we cooked our own breakfast, Lunch was eaten out backpacks and dinner was re splurge. So I got to sample most of the local cuisine guilt free and of course had a beer with dinner. My most memorable meal there was breakfast at Crossroads Cafe- a Mexican skillet polenta with queso fresco, eggs, black beans and ranchero sauce. This came to inspire a recipe for the blog coming soon.

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The second part of this trip was in San Diego- which I shall call Craft Beer Mecca! Here is the run down- my friend and I pretty much packed in as many Craft Breweries as we could. We went to Ballast Point, The Belching Beaver, Toronado (craft beer bar), Automatic (Blind Lady Ale House), Stone Brewing (amazing), Lost Abbey, Port Brewing Company, Iron Fist and Mother of Earth. Yeah we saw a lot in three days! But we missed so many as well! Either way my trip to Cali was EPIC!

Beer Highlights from the trip

Stone Brewing Company- it is MASSIVE and GORGEOUS! A seriously awesome place to hang out by far. The tour was great and their Cali-Belgique aged in red wine barrels. It's an IPA with saison yeast, already a great beer. The hoppiness it taken down by the dryness and champagney flavor the yeast gives it, then all of a sudden you get that sweeter taste of red wine. It was one of the most unique beers I tried. This was my favorite, so much that we went here twice!

The Belching Beaver- THE BEST DESSERT BEER EVER- You must have their Peanut Butter Milk Stout, So much peanut butter and so much sweetness from the milk stout, AMAZING! I brought a bottle home from 3 months ago and have not opened it yet! Luckily I found out I can order it online (it's not distributed in NY). That just about made my day! I also remember really liking everything they had, but the PB Stout was the stand out!

Ballast Point Brewery- The Sculpin IPA is a great beer, but we got to have the Mango Habenero Sculpin and that was really cool as well as this Thai Chilli Wahoo. There was some serious heat! The best though was their Victory at Sea Imperial Porter which I used for this recipe!

Mother of Earth- Beers was pretty good, California Cream Ale was my fave- BUT more memorable was the company- my friend and I befriended two random English dudes- love the accents. Well they bought me a couple pints and loved my filthy New Yorker mouth and pissed me off so I would curse them out. People are very entertained by mu drunk potty mouth. Bear in mind this was the last stop for the day and I was NOT driving!

Now for the recipe...

I always thought truffles to be intimidating, shockingly they are not. At lease these aren't! Don't be scared this is SIMPLE!

This is a recipe I made from The Beeroness, however the toppings are my own. I followed someone else's recipe since I don't know the first thing about making truffles! LOL! It is a VERY simple recipe reduce down some beer and stir in the chocolate and let it set. Then roll into balls then into toppings. Let's talk about toppings....

4 AMAZING toppings: Cayenne and Brown Sugar, 2-Coconut Flakes and Powdered Sugar, Crushed Pistachios and my FAVE- Black Forest Bacon and Brown Sugar! See below!

So if I made this recipe again I would add some cream or butter. The truffles are delish, just a little harder than I like.

Why is this a Foodgasm??

Ummmm chocolate and beer and yeah there was some bacon involved. This is definitely a one night stand kinda foodgasm... Heavy on the calories and fat. But you gotta indulge time to time!

What you need

Recipe from The Beeroness

1 cup Imperial Porter ( I used Ballast Point Victory at Sea)
8 oz. dark chocolate, chopped rough

Toppings
1 part chili to one part brown sugar
3 slices of bacon and 2 tbsp coconut sugar
1/4 cup coconut flakes and 2 tbsp powdered sugar
chopped pistachios

How to make it

SUPER easy
1- In a saucepan reduce 1 cup of beer to 1/2 the size on medium heat, stirring frequently.
2- When reduced remove from heat and melt chocolate into the beer.
3- Let sit on counter to become room temperature and set.
4- Roll into balls in hands and roll into toppings.

Brewer Shirts GIVEAWAY!!!  

Aren't these super cute??  These are the ladies shirts and there are lots for guys too!

You have a week to enter and 4 winners will be chosen to get one of their awesome shirts of your choice!! You love beer? You wanna win on of THESE! Please check them out brewershirts.com!


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MORE AWESOME #beermonth Recipes

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#Beermonth Begins with a Chocolate Stout Shake!

For those of you that have been following me for a while you will remember #Beermonth from last year. It is a month where I celebrate my love for craft beer with: recipes, articles, reviews and more from me and some of my blogging friends! This year I have my friend Lauren from Hall's Nesting, Jessica from Jessiker Bakes, Melissa from Drunk and Unemployed and Nicole from Nibbles by Nic.You can expect BIG recipe posts 4/16 and 4/30 from ALL of us and maybe some articles and general craft beer love coming your way!

The Story of Beer Month...

My love of craft beer started with The Gateway to Craft Beer, Pumpkin Spice. I think you ladies know what I am talking about. If not this is the magic that is pumpkin spice ale- It is ale brewed with pumpkin and spices and then in NY (as I understand this is not done everywhere) they rim the glass with pumpkin spice sugar. TO- DIE- FOR. I fell and I fell hard for the spice. The spice captured my heart and then I just had to know more about craft beer.

I moved on to other fruit beers. One of my first faves was Bluepoint Blueberry Ale, so delicious and perfect in the summer. Then I tried Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. Then I really started getting adventurous and ventured onto the dark side. Dark beers- dun dun dun **cue scary music**

I learned one thing- never to judge a beer by it's color. Just like with people, you should see what's happening on the inside. While I don't encourage you to lick a person to see if they're any good... I do encourage you to at least take a simple sip of a beer. At worst, you can easily spit it our if you don't like it.

Since I had my own blog I knew I had to incorporate cooking and beer together for a month of craft beer love.

Since my love of craft beer grew, it blossomed into a new direction for me. I write for 2 magazines about local craft beer and have become completely immersed with the craft beer culture here on Long Island. Beer month was born so I can share recipes with local craft beer and give you a little taste of the local scene and happenings.

Since I never drink alone- I always invite some bloggers to get in on the fun with me!
I have some surprises too! This month I will be brewing my VERY own beer with The Brewers Collective, a local group of home brewers. I strongly believe that homebrewers' creativity heavily influences the nano and craft brew market. With homebrew you can take those chances and you know I like to get creative!

Now for the reason you are all here- this drippy mess of deliciousness that I call A Chocolate Stout Milkshake...

I have been going to a local restaurant, Relish, for a while now. The food is always fresh, as local as it can be and inventive while still being incredibly comforting and inviting. No small portion or names you cannot pronounce or understand. This is down to earth, creative twists on classic comfort. A place that anyone can feel comfortable. When I heard they were serving beer, I was excited. When I saw they had a Guinness Milk Shake, I had to try it and WOAH it stopped me in my tracks, I clutched my chest to keep my heart still. It was way better than I ever expected.

Chocolate and Stouts are  not an uncommon combination at all. If you follow one of my faves, The Beeroness, You will see stout and chocolate are a "thing", basically mouth magic! The dark maltiness of a stout already had notes of chocolate present often, so to add it to a chocolate recipe further pushes the bounderies.

So I thank Relish in Kings Park, NY for this recipe! It rocks HARD!

Why is this a Foodgasm?

This is pretty easy to answer, chocolate ice cream + stout beer = MAGIC.
But to balance it out there is caramel and chocolate syrup for a little more sweet-ness as stouts sometimes have a bitter edge to them.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Torte and a Giveaway

This is my gratuitous Valentine's Day post. For so many years I loathed this holiday. It is the single gal's day to remember she is single. I remember in college all my friend and I didn't have a boyfriend, so we all banned together and had our own little party (under the bandstand of the college). That was one of my favorite Valentine's Days yet! So all you single ladies don't feel bad, feel empowered because V-Day is just silly even when you have a man or woman.

But still I felt compelled to make a cutesy little cake with strawberry hearts baked into it. I guess I have those two sides: the Martha Stewart and the chick that drinks craft beer and swears. Or as my husband said best: "You are like Martha Stewart, but you say fuck a lot." Yeah that sums me up. That is also why I need to start making videos for you guys! It would be loads of fun for you to meet me, like really get to know me.

But if you love or loathe this holiday- here is an incentive to at least like it. I made you a crazy delish chocolate covered strawberry torte literally with strawberry and chocolate in it and on it. But I have another surprise for you a GIVEAWAY! A really gorgeous handcrafted apron from Guate Love It.

So a brownie and a pound cake walk into a brewery....

So you're probably seeing and expecting lots of wing recipes, nachos and all those other classic Super Bowl Snacks this week. That was the plan until I was snowed in and decided to experiment with some brown ale and developed my first ever scratch cake recipe. The results and response to the pictures were so amazing that I couldn't make you guys wait. It was delicious, fudgy madness! It also happened to be low in fat.

Well..... actually I made it that way. When I cook and bake I NEVER EVER add all the fat. My conscience just cannot allow me to do it. 3 sticks of butter?? 4??? Ouch! Unless of course I just need to learn how a recipe works in order to then find my own way to reduce the fat, LOL. 

Technically this is not a superbowl meal, but ummm who makes those rules as to what goes with football? If it were up to me, football would be a cake occasion and it DOES have beer in it after all, specifically some local Brooklyn Brown Ale. You need beer for your party and doesn't every party need cake?!

But if you don't want cake for your party (perish the thought!), fret not, I gotcha covered with some great healthy super bowl snacks from Peanut Butter and Peppers!! She has a TONS of recipes you are gonna LOVE! Check out more info at the bottom of the post!

Why is this a Foodgasm?

This is like a fudgy brownie and a pound cake walked into a brewery, had a threesome with some brown ale and they had a baby. Yeah that is totally what happened here. Totally fudgy while still holding the pound cake shape and could be cut into slices. But if that were already not good enough for you I decided to make a brown ale glaze to top it with. In this case the pics, totally speak of this magical texture!

I am proud of these photos, all the drippy deliciousness and really fudgey texture smack you in the mouth and say "Eat me". Yeah no caption needed. Just instant desire for putting it in your mouth!

How did I do it?

I used pumpkin puree to take the place of most of the fat, adding only a little coconut oil for some fat so it had a better texture overall. If you dont have coconut oil feel free to sub with some canola oil. It will work just as well. This also has 1 egg, but if you want to make this vegan you can try it without it, I am sure it would work, but may change the texture slightly.

What you need

1 can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling- this has added spiced and sugar)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup brown ale
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

For the brown ale glaze

3 tablespoons brown ale
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

How to make it

Preheat oven to 350º
1- In a mixer combine together 1 can pumpkin puree, 2 tablespoons coconut oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 large egg with the paddle attachment.
2- In a separate bowl combine together:
1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 1/4 cup brown ale, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3- Slowly and gradually add in the dry ingredient mixture into the wet ingredinets in the mixer until well combined (give it a couple minutes).
4- Grease a nonstick loaf pan (I used Trader Joe's Coconut Oil Spray) and pour in the batter.
5- Bake for about 1 hour and let it cool. (the toothpick method doesn't work too well here, it still comes out sticking due to the texture, but an hour should do it)

To make the brown ale glaze: Whisk together 3 tablespoons brown ale and 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar.

Pour over the top of the cake and ENJOY!

Nutritional Information 

Lots of Vitamin A and Potassium and very little fat!  AMAZING!! Yes you can have your cake and beer and eat it too!

Peanut Butter and Peppers Superbowl Recipe Round Up!!

Does my girl Jennifer have you hooked up?? Hell yeah, just look at all these! YUMMMM!

Get her recipes HERE!

Holiday Baking Recap

So if you follow me on social media you may have noticed my #cookieabstinence for the week leading up until Christmas Eve. Well it was hard and I made it without any desserts AT ALL! I am so very proud of myself and I learned a lot about impulse control and determination. The whole reason I started it was because my baking marathon 2 weeks before Christmas left me feeling sick from all the cookies I "tried" and "tasted". There was also A LOT of craft beer consumed, so I gave up beer for 5 days too! Before I even stepped on the scale last week I was scared and knew I needed a break from all the holidays' consumption! So it was a win and a lose for me this holiday season. I got to try some amazing recipes, but it took it's toll on me- BUT I also made it a whole week without a single dessert. So I think it evened out... maybe. So this pic below was me totally deflecting cookies! I was literally like wonder woman!

So this post is a recap of ALL my holiday baking! Everything came out amazing! I decided to go full fat and just try other bloggers recipes. Like my husband says, you have to master something before you add any variables.  I have never been a good baker, like seriously I don't know much about it. By making other bloggers recipes I learn A LOT in the process and how I can make my own low fat version of it at some point. This is the experimentation and learning process behind the madness. I am also happy to report, I think I am really good at baking and cookie making now. I have learned a lot and I will share some tips with you! I will mark them clearly below.

This is my last post before #HolidayDetox begins! I am ready to get my healthy back on! If you are too, please stop in every Wednesday for healthy breakfasts, lunches, dinner and snacks- also lots of great tips to stay on track! 

So without further adieu here are the treats that I made. The links on the headings will lead you to the recipe.

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie Baklava by Half Baked Harvest

This was definitely some over the top deliciousness! Its basically chocolate chip cookie dough with LOTS of nuts layered in buttered filo dough, then soaked in vanilla syrup and drizzled with chocolate ganache and sea salt. Yeah this is NOT for the faint of heart. It is totally opposite of what I usually make, my recipes are always reduced fat and think and sometimes reduced sugar, so this was a treat ONLY for the holiday season! I ate 1 piece and left it at my parents. It was beautiful and delicious but an indulgence. So that is why I left it behind, LOL. I love Half Baked Harvest's recipes, LOVE them. This one, to me, was a bit too over the top. More sugar! More butter! More Fat! I used 1 less stick of butter for assembly, that is something right?! I HAD to try it though! It was in my MUST Make Board on Pinterest, since I am half Greek and I love me some baklava and chocolate!

Pub Cookies by the Beeroness

These cookies are a craft beer lover's dream! There is beer extract in them: basically it's a beer you reduce down to a tablespoon or two. They also have chocolate chips, honey roasted peanuts and pretzels. I didn't have peanuts so I omitted them. Overall these wee great! Very chewy in texture. Had a but if beer flavor and the salty of the pretzel with sweet chocolate chips were great!

Peppermint Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache- Adapted from Martha Stewart

I took this basic recipe for macarons from Martha Stewart. The directions were good. To my surprise they came out great! As I am sure you heard macarons are difficult to make. But now I have gotten the hang of them. Made 2 kinds this season! I have great step by step pics with the gingerbread macarons I made. There are detailed directions in the link. Most important thing I learned is just take your time with it. All I did differently is I added a teaspoon of Peppermint Extract and some red food coloring. Then I made her dark chocolate ganache for the center. These were AMAZING! So light, so fluffy and just PERFECT!

Gingerbread Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache- Adapted from Martha Stewart

Same recipe from Martha with the same chocolate ganche, BUT I added 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon allspice and 1/2 teaspoon ginger. These were GREAT! All that great spice flavor, without being overly spiced, add some chocolate and you go MAGIC! I also let these set in the freezer for 5 minutes to get the ganache to firm up.

Gingerbread Blondies by The Baker Chick

Just look at that texture, yeah I would say fudgey- but it's not chocolate. But these totally blew my mind. Confession: I added some beer extract that I made for the Pub Cookies, just 1 tablespoon and man these are the BEST blondies I ever ate! Sooooo good, I broke my cookie abstinence with one of these puppies! Yeah they are THAT good! Seriously you MUST try 'em! I think I can make these low fat though. I will experiment with pumpkin in these! I think I can make that work!

Nutella Oatmeal Lace Cookies by Half Baked Harvest

Made these exactly as directed and they are not as Lacey as a Lacey cookie usually is, but there were AMAZING none the less. Buttery, not too sweet with nutella in the middle, pure magic! Would totally make them again!

Beer Molasses Spice Cookies- Adapted from Katrina's Kitchen

So I made some changes to this one too! I added a tablespoon of that beer extract and also rolled these in cinnamon sugar. I also did not dip them into white chocolate as the recipe calls for. These were sweet and had this great soft texture! Another big success!

Thanks to all the bloggers that made these incredible recipes and thanks to my friend Jenn, a real live pastry chef, that helped me experiment and ummm drink beer for ummmmm research!! LOL! Another BIG thanks to my neighbor Christine, that let me bake with her is her very large in beautiful kitchen!! She also helped me with beer research and brainstorm of ideas of what to do, if we have no bread flour as needed for the Pub cookies. LOVE my foodie friends and my ladies! Thanks so much! XOXO!