Low-Cal Strawberry Icebox Dessert

While killing time on Pinterest, I found this simple recipe for No Bake Strawberry Icebox Cake.  The recipe seemed easy enough, but I decided I would make a low calorie/nearly sugar free version.

I used about 3 cups of sugar free chocolate pudding, 12 Low Fat Honey Graham Crackers, almost a whole container of Cool Whip Free, and maybe 1 cup of sliced fresh strawberries.  Then I layered them like a lasagna and refrigerated it over night. (You definitively have to let it set for a minimum of 4 hours, this allows the graham crackers to absorb moisture from the Cool Whip and pudding and softens them.)

Here is the nutritional break down for 1 of the 12 servings of this -

Calories - 145
Carbs - 25
Fat - 1g

Pretty good I think!  More importantly ~ How did it taste?  It was very tasty!  It's no chocolate birthday cake but it will definitely satisfy your sweet tooth craving.

I will make a few changes for next time.  I think I will cook down the strawberries to make more of a strawberry sauce and I think I will try cream cheese sugar free pudding.

Freaux Yeaux Addict

Apparently I'm late to the game about this new 'Frozen Yogurt" craze.  I've noticed the 10 different yogurt stores popping up around town, but I wasn't so sure about this 'pay by the ounce' deal.

So on Saturday Michael and I decided to try it out.  We went to Orange Leaf - (I think) a relatively new yogurt shoppe in town.  At first glance this place was CUTE and they had a Facebook check in deal.  I was 'liking' it.  My coworker had recommend I try the Cheesecake yogurt, and boy was I glad she did.  It was delicious!

I decided to swirl Strawberry and the Cheesecake together for a tasty treat!

Michael swirled Key Lime Pie and Coconut together, and he was pretty excited about it!

He is holding (and playing like a guitar) the second best thing about Orange Leaf - The Spoon!  It's not your usual plastic spoon.  It's made of sturdy plastic and has a rounded rectangle shape.  

In the past at other frozen desert establishments I've had plastic spoons cut my tongue.  That would never happen with this spoon.  I'm not going to lie, I wanted to save mine and bring it home. 

Regarding the 'Pay by the Ounce' deal - it wasn't as bad as I thought.  I believe its about .42 an ounce.  They only offer you one large size container and you don't know until you check out how much it will cost.  But for the 2 of us it was only $7 which I think is a very good deal compared to other frozen dessert places.

Michael and I will definitively be going back!  We can't wait to try more flavors.

Fall Garden Harvest

Back in October we planted our Fall garden.  We doubled the size of our garden from the summer, and I was excited to see how our plants would do.

Here is a list of everything we've harvested:
4 heads of Broccoli plus many broccoli florets
2 heads of Cauliflower with one more we are about to pick
A salad's amount of lettuce - there was more but we didn't pick it all
We have a cabbage but we are waiting for it to get bigger to pick

All in all not too bad.

What I learned from this is that carrots are really hard to grow!  After nearly 4 months in the ground ours only got this big!

We are still waiting on our brussel spouts, maybe by next Thanksgiving!

Resolutions

Happy New Year!

I'm sure we say this every year, but boy did 2011 fly by!  I thought I'd share my resolutions in order to hold myself to them for 2012.

1. Exercise more.  Well any exercise really.  I think my plan is to purchase a bike and start riding.  And if I do maybe I will get a pet bike carrier for Lola.
2. Be more organized.  I think I'm getting a good start on this.  I have a handy dandy 2012 planner to keep my life in order. I also think I will utilize auto bill pay so I have less bills to remember.
3. This is the big one.  Try not to worry about things I can not control. This is very difficult for me.  I tend to worry about everything.  

We'll see how I do on these resolutions.  Wish me luck!