Category: Breakfast

Mixed Berry Frozen Yogurt Bark

The 4th of July holiday weekend is just around the corner and have I got the coolest (pun intended) recipe for you! Creamy, crunchy, sweet, tart, and incredibly refreshing frozen yogurt bark, and it’s red, white and blue too!

If you’ve missed out the frozen yogurt bark trend, it’s a new, fun way to enjoy your favorite yogurt. Forget banana ice cream, frozen Greek yogurt confections are what’s hot! I love that there are endless possibilities – from the yogurt base, to the assorted toppings, there is SO much you can do.

With my patriotic spirit in mind, I went with a mix of berries and added granola for crunch. You can use fresh or frozen, which makes this super easy, and store-bought or homemade granola – so basically, this bark practically makes itself. And with a full summer ahead, we all love those types of recipes! Especially when they’re healthy, refreshing, and cold (have you BEEN outside lately?!).

These recipes aren’t just fun for me, they’re actually a necessity. You see, I don’t tolerate the heat very well (which is why, while I love my family in Florida, I would NEVER move there) and from what I hear, NYC is in for a HOT summer. If I could haul around a freezer of ice chips on my back, I probably would, but I have to settle for light and cold foods instead. I HATE cooking in the summer and with a baby coming soon (aaahhh!!), I hate it even more. Any tips for surviving the heat this season? I’m all ears.

In the meantime, it’s going to be lots of yogurt and fruit for me, which is great, because that’s exactly what I’m craving. I love Norman’s line of thick, creamy Greek yogurts but my favorite of all time is their guava yogurt. I can literally eat it for breakfast, lunch and ice cream. Oh wait, is ice cream not a meal? It is for this overheated pregnant mama ok?!?!?!?!

So, if you’re like me and you like to indulge in yogurt and imagine it’s ice cream, give this no-guilt mixed berry yogurt bark a try! It’s guaranteed to cool you off, if only for a few minutes, until your next venture outdoors.

Good luck with the summer heat you guys, and remember to stay hydrated! Oh, and of course, Happy Independence Day! Enjoy the holiday weekend :)

This post was sponsored by Norman’s. All opinions are my own. 

Related Recipes:

4th of July tartufo
4th of July chocolate-dipped kettle chip stars
blueberry frozen yogurt bites
terra stix white chocolate bark
blueberry sweet potato granola salad with  yogurt dressing

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Nutella Crepes with Sweet Plantain Tortillas

In continuation from yesterday’s post for savory plantain tortillas, I bring you some sweet ones! You can read the previous post on more about what plantains are, and to see more step by step pics of the tortilla making process!

These sweet tortilla crepes are made with plantains, and the addition of coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla. They’re great for breakfast or dessert, and best of all, they’re egg-free!

If you’re eating these over Passover, chances are, you’ve had eggs for breakfast, or you plan to have it for lunch or dinner. So having an egg-free meal option is a must-have! Of course you can make these a tad healthier by filling with nut butter and fresh fruit, but homemade nutella is nut butter too. It’s just chocolate hazelnut nut butter ;)

If you’re not into the tortilla crepe idea, use your own potato starch + egg variation, but you must try my homemade nutella and other fillings, especially the maple candied pecans. Happy Passover!


Related Recipes:

sweet nut omelette
nutella banana ice cream
chocolate ganache tart with macaroon crust
fish tacos with savory plantain tortillas

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Healthy Thumbprint Hamantaschen (Egg Free!)

I thought I was done with hamantaschen baking this year. My corndog hamantaschen were a huge hit and that was good enough for me! Except every time I bought classic hamantaschen for the kids, my allergic toddler would watch his older siblings enviously and each time I promised myself to make an egg-free version.

I thought about making classic hamantaschen using aquafaba, that slimy juice at the bottom of a can of chickpeas. It’s said to be a great alternative for eggs in vegan baking, and I’ve used it before in muffins. Of course I got busy and my aquafaba-infused hamantaschen experiments went to the wayside.

But then this week, I had a business meeting in my ‘hood, and Chaya brought me a much needed cup of coffee with a side of crunchy thumbprint cookies. The cookies were delicious, so, like any good food blogger, I asked for the recipe. When I heard that the cookies were egg free with few ingredients, I knew I had to whip them up for my son.

I drove home dreaming about the cookies and it hit me – I wanted to make egg-free hamantaschen, so why not make egg-free thumbprint hamantaschen cookies! They had jam anyway, right?


So I got right to work on the 5-ingredient dough, which took less than 5 minutes to make, and I ransacked my fridge for all the jam I could find. I’m kind of a jam hoarder, so I wasn’t surprised to find an assortment of flavors in the back of the fridge, including, blueberry, strawberry rhubarb, apricot, fig and plum (told you I was a jam hoarder! my favorite place to buy them is Homegoods!).

Would  you check out that beautiful jam filling?

The cookies taste like a crisp granola cookie, only mildly sweet, so I couldn’t help but finish them off with some melted chocolate. Chocolate makes everything better.

The true test was giving these to my son, who is prone to scraping the chocolate off anything and everything, instead of biting into it. I’m always reminding him, “Bite, don’t lick!”, but he always goes back to his chocolate (or cheese!) licking when I’m not looking.


I handed him a hamantasch and he held it in his hand and studied it for a minute or two. I thought he was going to start scraping off the chocolate, but to my surprise, he actually took a bite! He continued to eat his way through, enjoying every morsel. Success!

Purim is just two days away, so we’ll call these “last licks!” (pun intended!). If you’ve been looking for that healthy hamantaschen recipe, you’ve got it. And just in time.


Related Recipes:

cowboy cookie dough bites
healthy date & almond hamantaschen
Grape Nut coconut crunch cookies
oatmeal cookies

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Banana Nut Greek Yogurt Bowl

Bowls are all the rage right now, at least that’s what everyone’s calling them! They’ve got grain bowls, smoothie bowls, salad bowls and soup bowls. Of course these are foods that have gone into bowls before, but now instead of mixing stuff together, the food is neatly organized on a base of smoothie batter, grains, greens or broth. It’s prettier and we all love seeing so many different options on our plates, right?

I’m not a big fan of smoothies, and the idea of topping off a fruit soup with more fruit just doesn’t do it for me, but yogurt I can take. I love to start with a base of plain tangy Greek yogurt. I almost feel like I’m indulging in soft serve (if I dream a little, ok?) and topping it off with some of my favorite toppings makes it feel like a treat. And since muffins or pancakes or scones are not happening around here, I’ll take it!

OK I may have just said that I don’t like smoothies, but the truth is, there is one smoothie that I love and that’s what inspired this yogurt bowl. So if you are into smoothies, give it a try too!

Related Recipes:

banana, date, almond milk & honey smoothie
blueberry sweet potato granola salad with strawberry yogurt dressing
banana oat pancakes
strawberry banana yogurt parfait with homemade granola

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Artisan Toast, 6 Ways

Making my own sourdough bread has been on my wish list for years. I love the dark, crunchy crust on the outside and the chewy, tender crumb on the inside. Give me some sourdough bread and I’m a happy gal.

I’ve even turned my husband into a sourdough snob and now that the Artisan Bakeshop has opened in my neighborhood, we splurge on their bread every week for Shabbat. We can’t go back to regular Challah even if we wanted to. We are sourdough snobs, period.

Well, somehow, G-d was listening to my inner sourdough goddess when I ended up sitting right next to the Queen Of Sourdough at the recent Kosher Food Blogger Conference. Chaya Suri (also known as Spice & Zest) is a talented home cook who doesn’t shy away from a challenge. She taught herself the ins & outs of sourdough when she began her starter three years ago, and she’s never turned back! She makes sourdough everything – crackers, pizza, pretzel buns, pita, challah, even sweets like babka and donuts! I invited her over for a hands-on sourdough class-turned-artisan toast party and Oh. Em. Gee. you guys. Her bread is insane. And now, now I have my own starter blooming in the fridge, and my own batch of sourdough bread ready to be baked! I’ve hopped on the sourdough train and I’m never turning back!

The best part of cooking together with another foodie is that we speak the same language. Chaya Suri loves using herbs and spices in her cooking (hence the name Spice & Zest, soon to be a food blog!) and her creations are healthy, creative and full of flavor. I drool over her Instagram posts and I can’t wait to cook with her again! Of course I picked her brain about some of her favorite cookbooks, kitchen tools and spices, and lets just say my Amazon shopping cart is loaded to capacity.

So first things first, Chaya Suri came with her cast iron pan, a batch of ready made dough and sourdough starter. We baked up her bread and a quick batch of her amazing (and easier than ever) sourdough crackers and then started on a new batch of sourdough bread from scratch. To say I was a little overwhelmed by the whole you-need-to-take-care-of-your-starter-like-another-child thing is an understatement. I’ve been known to kill every plant I ever had. But I’m going to try. And if my starter “chokes”, I’m just going to have to bother the Queen of Sourdough for a fresh batch! ;)

After we put together our 85% hydrated dough, we set it aside for the autolyse stage (don’t ask me what that is, just hire Chaya Suri for your own class!) and got started on our toasts. Artisan toasts are all the rage right now, and being a huge fan of Zak The Baker, I couldn’t wait to put together my own Artisan bites.

In true Zak the Baker style, I even made a custom chalkboard for the occasion!

We made some fun combos including avocado toast with persimmon and pomegranate (with pomegranate molasses and sriracha salt!), Gingerbread toast with my own homemade gingerbread pecan butter (it’s as good as it sounds!), camembert toast with port cranberry jam, berry toasts with creme fraiche, honey & lime, feta toast with tomatoes, olives and za’atar (because I always HAVE to have za’atar on the table) and finally, a spicy cheese toast with preserved lemon and harissa (because you know I’m obsessed with the stuff).

My favorite, hands down, was the avocado persimmon toast, followed closely by the gingerbread and the feta with za’atar. The others came close behind because they were all winners!

What are your favorite artisan toast combinations? Share them with me in the comments below!


If you want to get started on making your own sourdough, here are some of Chaya Suri’s book/tool recommendations. To attend one of her sourdough workshops, email her at cookwithspiceandzest@gmail.com.

Tartine Bread
Tartine Book No. 3
Sourdough
Lodge cast iron pan
Proofing Basket
Bread Making Container (stainless steel is not recommended)
Bread Lame
Flour Sack Towels
Bench Scraper

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