Green Smoothie with Peanut Butter and Banana

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Loaded with good-for-you stuff, my favorite Green Smoothie recipe combines peanut butter and banana with yogurt, milk, & spinach for a power packed breakfast or super-charged snack. Adults and kids will love the peanut butter and banana flavor combo, and it only takes a few minutes to whip up this easy recipe in a blender! Easy, refreshing, and satisfying too! You can't beat that!

Caramel Banana Cheesecake Shooters

I was experimenting in the kitchen today, and I created a yummy little treat I plan to make for Madison's college equestrian team.  They are competing in the first show of the season, and Madison was chosen as one of the riders for this show. We are so excited to go watch the team compete, and happy we are able to spoil them a little bit

Last year I purchased these little plastic push pop containers

to make transporting treats easier when attending the shows. These nifty push pops are perfect for layering cake and filling to create all sorts of delectable yummies! 

Because I've been on a caramel kick lately, I naturally came up with something to incorporate that flavor in the cake shooters.  I wanted to make a sort of caramel cheesecake, but I thought making a graham cracker crust would be a bit messy to eat out of the push pop, so I wondered if I could make a cake that tastes like a graham cracker.  allrecipes.com to the rescue once again. I went to the site and typed in graham cracker cake and up came this recipe... allrecipes.com Graham Cracker Cake  It had good reviews, so I decided to give it a go. I made the cake exactly as stated in the recipe, but I baked it in a 13x9" dish for about 35 minutes. The cake is really good and tastes just like a graham cracker- it is exactly what I wanted!

Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients

2 (8 oz) package cream cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1 banana

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/3 cup whipped cream (I used Cool Whip)

Place cream cheese, sugar, banana. and lemon juice in a blender or a mixing bowl and mix until smooth (I prefer using a blender for this - it gets it very smooth). Fold in whipped cream until incorporated.  Give it a taste and adjust flavors to your liking. Chill in freezer for 30 minutes. Then store in the fridge until ready to use.

Caramel Topping

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 1/4 cups heavy cream - warmed

salt to taste

In a heavy weight saucepan over medium heat, heat the sugar until it starts to melt and brown. This will take at least 5 minutes - maybe a little longer. Stir constantly so you don't burn the sugar (that would be bad). Once your sugar is starting to look a little brown and turning into crystallized chunks then you can add the butter. Keep stirring! Stir until you have a beautiful caramel colored smooth sauce. Be patient. It is worth the effort! Once you reach the smooth, caramel colored sauce remove the pan from the heat.  Be sure the cream is warmed all the way through. Add the cream about 1/4 cup at a time (be careful it will steam) and stir until well combined. Keep adding until all the cream is combined.  Salt to taste and enjoy the rich, smooth, creamy goodness. 

note: if the cream is not sufficiently warmed you may end up with chunks in your sauce. Not to fear - just put it back over mid-high heat and stir until all chunks are dissolved.

To make the cake shooters I used the push pop to cut cake rounds (if you don't have push pop containers you can make these in anything really and eat with a spoon). I whipped up some cheesecake filling and caramel topping.  Layer the ingredients as follows: 1 cake round, pipe in cheesecake filling, and drizzle caramel topping. Repeat until you fill the container. These are delicious right away, but pop these in the fridge overnight and enjoy them cold the next day - even better! Yummmm.

Next time I think I'll try using the graham cracker cake with a chocolate ganache and marshmallow meringue for a s'more shooter....

Banana Cheesecake Donut with Caramel Sauce

  On a recent trip to a local restaurant we enjoyed a Fried Banana Cheesecake for dessert. Right away Madison and I decided we must duplicate it at home - it was so amazing!! She had a great idea to bake our donut muffin recipe in her fancy donut pan.  Then we'd cut them in half - hollow them out and fill them with a delicious banana cheesecake concoction.  Drizzle that with a homemade caramel sauce and it should be very close to the restaurant's dessert. Sounded like a plan to me!!  We set out to do just that and we were able to make a very tasty substitution of that yummy dessert! Be warned - it is dangerously good!

Donut

Ingredients

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour 

Topping

• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in the sour cream and milk, then mix in the baking soda and flour until just combined. Fill each section of the donut pan, evenly, with the batter.  I had enough batter to fill each section about 1/2 way with batter to yield 3 donuts.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray fancy donut pan with cooking spray. I imagine you can make this in a cupcake pan as well if you don't want to run out and buy a fancy donut pan

Bake in the preheated oven until cooked through - about 20 minutes. Use a toothpick to test for doneness.

While donuts are baking, place 1/4 cup of melted butter in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of sugar with the cinnamon. Remove donut and dip each in the melted butter, and roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Let cool.

Caramel Topping (make while donuts are baking)

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups heavy cream, heated

Directions

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in sugar and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is caramel brown in color. It is important to make sure the butter/sugar mixture is a dark brown caramel color. This will take some patience. Trust me it will start to brown just keep on stirring. The butter will separate from the sugar after it starts to brown and that is a good sign - you are almost there!  At that point lower the heat and continue stirring until it is a nice dark caramel color.  When you reach the beautiful caramel color then you can add the warmed heavy cream slowly - about 1/4 cup at a time - stirring constantly. Bring the mixture to boil (keep stirring) for about 3-5 minutes then remove from heat and let cool.

Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 banana

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/3 cup whipped cream (I used Cool Whip)

Directions

Place cream cheese, sugar, banana. and lemon juice in a blender or a mixing bowl and mix until smooth (I prefer using a blender for this - it gets it very smooth). Fold in whipped cream until incorporated.  Give it a taste and adjust flavors to your liking. Chill in freezer for 30 minutes. Then store in the fridge until ready to use.

Assemble

Take a cooled donut and slice it in half. I like to cut it on the diagonal - it looks nice

     

Now hollow out the center of each half being careful not to poke any holes in the donut. This next step is very important, so don't leave it out! This is when you gobble up all the donutty goodness you just scooped out of the center - yummmm (don't leave that part out!)

I like to pipe in the filling, but you can spoon it in - fill each half with the cheesecake filling

All that is left is to drizzle with some of the delicious caramel sauce. If the sauce has cooled too much be sure to warm it in the microwave just a little bit

Enjoy!