Desserts

No Bake Cake Pops

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Desserts, Posts, Recipes

 Cake Pops_5

Cake Pops have been the craze for quite a while. I love the simplicity of a bite-sized cake dipped in chocolate. What I don’t like is spending unnecessary hours in the kitchen making cake pops from scratch. Don’t get me wrong, one of my best friends, a master baker – we’ll call her Fiza – makes cake pops to die for. Fiza honestly makes the most deliciously delectable desserts. She puts her heart and soul into it and they always turn out great. She will be humble and tell you she’s not that good, but I promise you, once you taste Fiza’s baking you will never want store-bought again. (more…)

Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake

categories: Desserts, Posts, Recipes

 pumpkin pecan cheesecake_4

The leaves have turned, it’s gotten pretty chilly and not to mention we had some snow flurries over the weekend. It can only mean one thing; Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

While some only remember to be thankful around the winter Holidays, I’ve been keeping up with counting my blessings year-round. And this year, I have so much to be thankful for. In Arabic, we say  Hamdellah [الحمد لله] which means Thank God, My list may be a bit long, but some of the major things I’m thankful for are: (more…)

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Peach Cobbler

categories: Desserts, Posts, Recipes

 

Peach Cobbler

 

There seems to be a recurring trend in my house, fruit on the verge of going bad. It’s awful, I know. See, it all starts when I go to the grocery store hungry (read as: when I go to Whole Foods starving). I see fruits and veggies that no one really eats, but for some reason in my state of starvation, I think that I’m going to make all these amazing foods. That’s never the case. Even when I make a list ahead of time, I end up picking up the most random items. And what do you know, I end up snacking on a bag of “low-calorie” chips and the food goes right into the fridge never to be seen — or eaten. (more…)

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Apple Turnovers

categories: Desserts, Posts, Recipes

Apple-Turnovers

It all started with a random idea to go take advantage of September and go apple picking. It then turned into an adventure that ended up with me taking a back seat to learning how to make amazing apple turnovers.

We’re about mid way through September, with only a couple more weeks before we get into pumpkin season (not that you don’t see Halloween decorations and pumpkins practically everywhere you go already). That being said, apples are still in season and what better way to enjoy a gorgeous Sunday afternoon than to go apple picking in Maryland with a friend who completely understands the importance of taking at least 20 pictures of the same thing, and gets really excited about plucking apples off a tree. (more…)

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Baked Apples

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Desserts, Posts, Recipes

Baked-Apples

Every year it seems like the seasons change too quickly for me to keep up. It had to be late July when everyone seemed to be excited for the fall. I hadn’t even had my fill of the summer when I started getting pre-fall sale emails featuring sweaters and jackets. And then, once September rolls around, the pools close and kids go back to school and all of a sudden we’ve skipped August altogether and moved straight into pumpkin-everything season.

It’s early September and it’s still 80 degrees out in DC – warm enough for the pools to stay open, but who am I to make the rules. And yet, Starbucks has already started selling their pumpkin spice lattes! There we go skipping all of September and jumping straight into October. Some of my friends have already started picking up said pumpkin spice lattes on their way to work … but I refuse to let go of the summer and indulge in my favorite fall coffee until it’s at least cool enough to strut a sweater and my boots. (more…)

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Skinny Banana Bread

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Breads, Posts, Recipes

Skinny-Banana-Bread

It’s been more than four months since my last blog post. Well, my blog has really been put on the back burner because I’ve been juggling work, travel and trying to drop a few pounds (26 pounds to be exact). And with losing weight for me, comes a disinterest in food overall. Imagine! As much as I enjoy cooking for those I love, they’ve been starving while I’ve been keeping my calorie intake to a minimum. I can’t give cutting back on eating all the credit. Believe it or not, I started running — yes on a treadmill, and yes at a pace faster than speed #3. The treadmill terrified me until I got to know a spunky girl with a big heart and a whole lot of attitude that made running on the treadmill look like fun. For those who know me personally, I would have never have used the words “treadmill” and “fun” in the same sentence. That combined with her constant pushing me to go to the gym after work really paid off. Just because I’ve lost a few pounds, doesn’t mean I won’t be enjoying my fries and sweets. I’ll just have to get smart about consumption and quantity. (more…)

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