Pages, Pucks and Pantry

Blueberry Cheese Rolls

This Blueberry Cheese Roll was a very quick, flavorful way to get breakfast on the table. Though there were far too many calories in this for me to make on a regular basis this was a great way to use up some leftover fresh blueberries and put a warm breakfast on the table.

I originally pinned this on Pinterest (where the link no longer seems to work)  but it can be found on the Kraft Foods site here. It's simply crescent rolls, cream cheese, sugar and blueberries, but together they made something a little decadent.

I did not "form" these the way they showed on Pinterest or the Kraft site. Those took all four edges of the dough and brought them together. As I was rushing to get this in the oven so that I wasn't the woman who took an hour to get ready in the morning and made everyone late, I just brought two edges together. I think I saved 2.4 seconds of cooking time by doing this. I don't think it made a difference in anything but how quick we made it out the door that day.

I have made some exchanges to the original recipe they posted here.

BLUEBERRY CHEESE ROLLS
(Kraft Foods)

1 pkg. (8 oz.) Pillsbury Original Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls
4 oz (1/2 of 8-oz pkg.) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 cup (or more) blueberries, divided

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Unroll dough into four rectangles; firmly press perforations together to seal.

Combine cream cheese and brown sugar; spread onto dough rectangles to within 1/2 inch of edges. Top evenly with blueberries. Bring opposite corners of rectangles together; press together to seal. Place on un-greased baking sheet.

Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until golden brown.

Serves 4

Note: Their original recipe used Neufchatel Cheese, I used full fat cream cheese. Original recipe used regular sugar and I substituted brown sugar.

Note: I would spread the cream cheese closer to the edge of the dough next time and maybe put a few more blueberries closer to the points. This might not have been an issue if I had brought all four ends of the dough together.

Note: Calories listed for just one of these puppies was 350 with 19 grams of fat and 34 grams of carbs. Since I used full fat cream cheese, the calorie count will be more.

Note: Original recipe states you can substitute 1/2 cup chopped red or green apples and 2 Tbsp. raisins for the blueberries.

Note: You can sprinkle 1 tsp sifted powdered sugar just before serving to make this over the top.

Note: I probably overcooked these a bit. I blame the cat Tiggher who was screaming to be fed before I was.

Nice sweet little breakfast that is also easy to transport if one is running late and has to carry it out the door while trying to get a jacket on and grabbing keys from purse.

Blueberry Mousse from Sandra's Easy Cooking

Valentines Day found Mr. L and I getting home late and having a late dinner. We had decided to stay home and cook not only because it was less expensive and less of a hassle, but because we could watch our diets and not over do. Mr. L fixed me a wonderful dinner of sauteed scallops and his spicy string beans, a dish he first made for me when we started dating.

And then we both collapsed on the couch to watch some tv completely forgetting about dessert. There might have been some champagne involved in this forgetfulness.

So I didn't do my part of our Valentines dinner until several days later when I made this little Blueberry Mousse I found on Pinterest. When I saw this I figured it would be the perfect dessert for Valentines Day (or an anniversary, special occasion, etc). Because I knew I'd have limited time that evening to make something fancy this seemed like a quick and easy dessert to put on the table. The fact that it wasn't full of calories and wouldn't interfere with some pieces of dark chocolate that might have been received on said Valentines Day was also a plus. Oh and I figured it would go well with champagne.

I had found these small, heart, spring-form pans at Target which I used for the mold. The original recipe from Sandra's Easy Cooking blog just had hollow heart molds. Though my mold turned out perfect, it did have that spring-form pan at the bottom which was impossible to get the mousse off of without destroying the shape. No matter, we just ate off that!

The ingredients for this were pretty simple...heavy cream, blueberries, a bit of vanilla flavored yogurt and some stevia. You can find the recipe here:

BLUEBERRY MOUSSE

This was so simple that I'm sure it's going to become a regular dessert and not just be brought out on special occasions. Thanks to Sandra's Easy Cooking for this wonderful idea (and many more, check out her blog for some great recipes).

Photo from Mr. L's iPhone.

 

Easy Ricotta Dessert Creme

Years ago when the South Beach Diet was all the rage I bought many of their cookbooks. The first "phase" of the diet had a wonderful little dessert that I made quite a bit....ricotta cheese with a bit of non-sugar sweetener, some vanilla extract and chopped nuts. It was a great way to get rid of that sweet craving after dinner without too much damage (i.e. too much sugar or calories).

I still make that little dessert every once in a while, but since it was in the first phase of the program, fruit wasn't allowed so I never added it. I had a 'duh' moment when I saw this recipe in the Plugged In cookbook by Lara Brody...just add fruit to the mix to make a quick dessert!

I don't know about you, but I always seem to have a bit of leftover ricotta cheese after I've made some recipe...this is a great little way to use it up.

EASY RICOTTA DESSERT CREME

1 cup ricotta cheese

2 tablespoons honey

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

2 to 3 drops pure almond extract, to your taste

Fresh berries of your choice

Place all the ingredients except the berries in a blender, cover, and blend on medium speed until smooth. Refrigerate for 1 hour, then spoon over the berries and serve. Makes 1 serving.

Note: I added fresh peaches to the blueberries instead of using all berries. I used all 3 drops of the almond extract.

Note: I was lazy and didn't bother putting everything in a blender. I just mixed it well by hand. I had no problem with the texture.

A Strawberry A Day Recap

So, I consider my A Strawberry A Day challenge, where I made everything the June 2011 issue of The Food Network magazine listed for the month of June, a success. Though if I put something with strawberries on the table anytime soon, Mr. L might get up from the table and not eat. Love strawberries, but too much of a good thing, is, well, too much.

Would I do this challenge again? Probably not. Not because of the food (Mr. L did suggest that should there be a month of pork and pork related products, he could deal with that) but because cooking and posting every single day is hard! I don't know how these prolific bloggers do it, but I'm still recovering.

I did enjoy discovering new ways to use a food that, up until the challenge, I had boringly just pretty much eaten raw. Not that there is anything wrong with that, because a good, fresh, ripe strawberry is heaven on earth. But it was nice to cook out of the box for a bit.

What was my favorite strawberry day? At first I thought that was going to be a tough decision. I love using frozen strawberries in drinks and dipping strawberries in sour cream and then brown sugar is a regular occurrence for a quick dessert. But even though there were many good ideas, the simple Strawberry Soup won me over. Easy to make, it's a dish that I probably wouldn't have made without the challenge and something that I really did enjoy. It's also given me a desire to experiment with different fruit soups in the future.

The funny thing is, I keep finding strawberry recipes I'd like to try! Maybe it's the season, maybe I just became more aware of strawberries in general, but there are so many new strawberry recipes on blogs everywhere that sound enticing. Except maybe not right away. Maybe I need to wait a bit. Or find a strawberry recipe that is mainly bacon...

A Strawberry A Day - June 30 - Strawberry Vinaigrette

This is the last day that I'm making strawberry related things (okay, last day for the A Strawberry A Day strawberry posts anyway) and I really thought that this dressing would be a bust. But I actually became quite attached to the flavor.

FOOD NETWORK INSTRUCTIONS

Thursday June 30, 2011

For dinner, blend strawberries into vinaigrette, then toss with arugula, chopped berries and grilled chicken.

Mr. L, who is completely over and done with strawberries for quite some time, wanted nothing to do with this dressing or having strawberries anywhere near his dinner. Therefor for him I just served some chicken over a salad mixture not adding any berries at all. I on the other hand, did use this dressing over not only my lettuce greens but also over my chicken. Loved it. Really not sure why the mixture worked so well for me, but I'll be finding more ways to use the remaining  dressing over the next few days.

I used a recipe I found online on the blog "Our Best Bites". Great blog from two women who also feature some cool family crafts. Check out the blog and the recipe:

BERRY POPPY SEED VINAIGRETTE

It has a lovely color and I think the strawberry vinaigrette would also work well on a spinach salad. It doesn't have an overpowering sweetness which is what I expected. I really was surprised how well it went with the chicken so I might have to grill (or poach) up some chicken breasts to use up the rest of the vinaigrette!

And if you've come this far, thank you for joining me on this little A Strawberry A Day adventure. I plan on doing some sort of round up of everything in the next couple of days. Hopefully either a recipe, an idea or a tip worked it's way into your menus this month!

A Strawberry A Day - June 29 - Strawberries as Ice Cubes

Earlier in the month, when the daily A Strawberry A Day instructions were to freeze strawberries, I knew I'd be using them for this days post. What I didn't know back then, is that we would still be in winter weather with some wind, pouring rain and cool temperatures. I'm craving hot cocoa, not a nice summer drink with ice cubes!

FOOD NETWORK INSTRUCTIONS:

Wednesday June 29, 2011

Chill happy hour drinks with frozen whole strawberries instead of ice: They won't dilute your cocktails.

Alas, any cocktail I thought of that I'd want frozen strawberries in, just wasn't doing it for me with this weather. Thus I grabbed a bottle of sparking pink lemonade and added my frozen strawberries. Excellent idea, as the mixture went well together. Or course everything just seemed a bit off because I was wearing flannel pajamas, big fuzzy slippers and sipping this in front of a fireplace!!

 

A Strawberry A Day - June 28 - Strawberry Smoothie

There are a ton of different ways to make a smoothie so I kinda took a simple route...milk (I used whole), yogurt (I used Clover organic low fat strawberry) fresh strawberries, and some ice. Of course you could add a bit of vanilla ice cream, though that would make it more like a milkshake.

FOOD NETWORK INSTRUCTIONS

Tuesday June 28, 2011

One cup of strawberries has more vitamin C than an orange. Blend some into a smoothie to get your daily dose.

Not sure why I don't have more smoothies for breakfast, especially in the summertime. Using non-fat milk would make this even healthier. Maybe use some greek yogurt and add a bit of strawberry preserves as a sweetner. Using fresh ripe berries gave this the extra touch it needed to make a great start to a work day.

A Strawberry A Day - June 27 - Strawberry Fools

Nice little quick dessert that I can put together anytime I have any strawberries on hand.

FOOD NETWORK INSTRUCTIONS:

Monday June 27, 2011

Beat the Monday blues with a quick dessert; Try the 10-minute berry-chocolate fools on page 120.

This actually was pretty quick to put together. I think if I ever made this again, I wouldn't even bother measuring anything. Basically you just macerate some berries in sugar, add some melted chocolate to sweetened whip cream, layer and you have dessert.

BERRY-CHOCOLATE FOOLS

Toss 1 quart quartered strawberries with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar in a bowl. Beat 1 cup heavy cream with 2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar until soft peaks form. Melt 2 ounces finely chopped semisweet chocolate in the microwave and cool slightly; fold into the whipped cream. Layer the cream and berries in glasses.

Note: I used semisweet chocolate chips in this and didn't bother to finely chop them. The photo of the dessert in the Food Network Magazine seemed to have more swirls of chocolate (almost like they never mixed the chocolate with the whipped cream) so they either poured the chocolate between layers or really didn't mix it into the cream at all.

This was a great use of the last of some almost-passed-their-prime strawberries and some leftover chocolate chips. I enjoyed this but I think Mr. L, who for some reason has basically sworn off strawberries of late, had the last word...he wanted to know if there were seconds...which means it must have been good.

A Strawberry A Day - June 26 - Strawberry, Banana and Peanut Butter Sandwiches

I've never actually had an Elvis Sandwich...peanut butter, bananas and bacon on toasted bread. It wasn't the bacon that made me think twice...it was actually the combination of the peanut butter and banana that had me putting the idea of eating that kind of sandwich off...until now.

FOOD NETWORK INSTRUCTIONS

Sunday June 26, 2011

Make sandwiches with peanut butter, sliced strawberries and bananas, and head to the beach for a picnic lunch.

I admit to not being sure about this sandwich at all. Such a strange combination. And though I made it and brought it to work last week, I had an alternate lunch should this concoction need to be tossed in the trash.

And you know what? It wasn't that bad! I had no problem polishing off the entire sandwich. But, I have to admit, my least favorite part were the strawberries. But the bananas and peanut butter? Worked. So yeah, I think an Elvis Sandwich will be on the lunch menu sometime soon. Or maybe I could just deep fry the dang thing like Paula Deen does? Why it took me so long to try this combination I'll never know, but now I may need to make up for lost time and have this regularly!

A Strawberry A Day - June 24 - How to Hull A Strawberry

This was a simple tip that I thought was a brilliant idea.

FOOD NETWORK INSTRUCTIONS

Friday June 24, 2011

Hull strawberries in a flash: Push a drinking straw through the bottom of a berry to pop out the stem.

So I grabbed a straw that I had sitting in a drawer. Probably one I'd had left over from some fast food joint. And I tried to hull the strawberry as told. Only the strawberry decided to mangle the straw. I tried several sizes of strawberries and used much leverage trying to force that stupid straw up the strawberries butt to no avail. It just didn't work.

Realizing I needed a much more robust straw, I made a trip to Starbucks. I figured I'd order a Frappuccino and confiscate the straw. Yeah, really, I only got that Frapp because of the straw. It would have been rude to steal a straw and not buy a drink. So I got a venti size Caramel Frappuccino. You know, for the straw.

And low and behold, the Starbucks straw worked. To a point. If I used a smallish strawberry I could sort of hull the strawberry using this tip. Only the straw hole just wasn't big enough and I had to keep poking the poor strawberry with the straw to completely get rid of the greens. After a few of these I felt I was done violating the poor strawberries and went back to using my little paring knife to hull the berries.

Then I went and took a shower. Then I chewed some gum because I don't smoke.