Apple Butter Yogurt Cheesecake

This is another one of my let’s-clean-out-my-fridge-before-I-move-out recipes, and conveniently happened to fall in time to celebrate a friend’s birthday. :D Recipe adapted from here! I made this about 1.5 months ago, but it feels like it’s been several decades. Funny what a life of studying and nothing (no need to get dramatic here, Farrah!) little else will do to you! :O

Apple Butter Yogurt Cheesecake

 

Ingredients:
-1 package light cream cheese at room temperature (you need it at room temp to have the right consistency!)
-2 tbsp unsweetened vanilla almond milk
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-2/3 cup 0% Fage Greek yogurt
1/4 cup apple butter
-12 vanilla wafer cookies
(Topping)
-crumbled coconut bars

Instructions:
1) Put cream cheese, milk and vanilla in a blender and blend/beat until very smooth. Add yogurt and apple butter and blend/beat until smooth.
2) Put vanilla cookies into a food processor/high power blender and process until they’re fine crumbs. (If you have a lot of anger in you/no food processor, you can stuff em’ in a ziplock bag and beat them with a rolling pin.)
3) Pour cookie crumbs onto 8″ pan and spread evenly over the bottom.
4) Top the cookie crumbs with even portions of the cheesecake filling and smooth it over with the back of a spoon.
5) Sprinkle crumbled coconut bars over the top and let chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. (I kinda wanted to stick it in the freezer for an hour to see how it’d turn out, but there was no space. If anyone tries that, please let me know how it goes!)

We stuck an umbrella on it to make it extra-fancy.

This was a DDT Featured Favorite! :]!

And lately, because no post is complete without some kind of randomness. Here’s one of my daily pop quizzes from my friend! She usually writes them on my whiteboard, but was out of town to take her exam, so she emailed it to me instead, telling me to be sure to answer it before 10:30 a.m. As it turned out, we weren’t allowed in the building because the fire alarm went off (thanks, we really needed that ;_; ), and I am slightly ashamed to admit that I was so intent on getting back into the catacombs to study that I completely tuned out and didn’t even realize the fire alarm was going off. -1 for survival skills. :[

(How is that med student so young!?!) There’s a stinking fire alarm going off so I’m answering you on my phone. :[

• Carpal tunnel syndrome, effed up median nerve, Phalen’s & Tinnel’s (or nerve conduction study)! If it’s not treated, more pain/numbness/tingling down lateral side of forearm/hand, atrophy of the thenar eminence, possibly double crush if shit really goes down.
• Large intestine stuffs, small intestine(?), and I’m sure I’m forgetting one of the sexy-time parts but I haven’t gone over the levels since the OPP final. :x will look at it today! Dry and ropy would be chronic, but if there’s edema and erythema at L2, I’d go with acute and more large intestine-y or prostate-y stuffs.
• Pons houses CN 5, 6, 7 and 8, so you’d have effed up sensation to the face, facial expressions, loss of taste to anterior 2/3 of tongue, maybe some vertigo and hearing issues.

I WOULD STILL STUDY BECAUSE ‘TIS MERELY A FLESH WOUND; I must fight on!

The internet is being shitty, so I’m waiting for the meme to load still.

Have a safe trip, an awesomely relaxing day, and you shall kick all the butts tomorrow!!! <3!

In case you wanted to know what the meme was. heh heh heh.

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No-Bake Coconut Bars

Historically speaking, I haven’t had the chance to spend actual-Mother’s Day with my mom in many years (hooray for attending a school that’s across the country), but on the plus side, we did get to go out for food last week as an early celebration of sorts, and I got to call and talk to her yesterday (after I’d waited long enough to be sure that she was most likely awake; hello time zones). <3

I spent yesterday here with my “adopted mom.” (I think I’ve been ridiculously blessed in that I have really amazing people in my life, many of whom I’ve pretty much adopted as second families.) :] My original plan had actually been to treat her to brunch or dinner, but before I could ask, she intercepted with the very reasonable statement that there were lines everywhere and asked if I wanted to have huevos rancheros for breakfast. (Yes, yes I did. But now what was I gonna do? :[ )

My friend had already picked up flowers and wine for her, and since I knew she wasn’t the biggest fan of sweets, but loved coconut, I decided to make some coconut-y dessert. I was majorly pressed for time though since I’d studied most of the day away. There were a number of amazing-looking recipes, but many of them required baking, soaking things overnight, chilling for several hours…and let’s face it, ain’t nobody got time for that when it’s already 6 p.m. and dinner’s at 7:30 (+ you need to fit a grocery trip in there somehow). :O

So I did an adaptation of this! I brought along gelato (caramel cookie crunch!) just in case it didn’t turn out the way I hoped, but everything worked out quite well. :] If you don’t have 2 hours to let it sit in the fridge, you can stuff it in the freezer for 25 minutes like I did (and spend those 25-30 minutes folding/putting away clothes, washing dishes and speed-cleaning the apartment).

No-Bake Coconut Bars

~104 calories, 13g CHO’s, 5g fat, 3g protein, 2g fiber, 25mg sodium!

Ingredients:
-2 cups rolled oats
-4 tbsp sweetened coconut flakes + some more for topping
-1/4 cup Peanut Butter & Co. White Chocolate Wonderful
-1/4 cup natural almond butter
-1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
-2 tbsp honey
-1 tbsp hot chocolate powder
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-sprinkle of sea salt

Instructions:
1) Combine oatmeal + shredded coconut in a mixing bowl and set aside.
2) Combine peanut butter, almond butter, almond milk, honey and hot chocolate powder in a sauce pan. Cook on medium heat while stirring until well combined. Heat until mixture is fragrant + thickened (~5 minutes).
3) Turn off stove + stir in vanilla and sprinkle in some sea salt.
4) Pour mixture into oatmeal mixture and mix until well combined.
5) Pour into non-stick baking dish and press down until evenly distributed. Sprinkle with extra coconut.
6) Let sit in fridge for 2 hours, or in the freezer for 25-30 minutes.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Protein Balls

I happened to have all the ingredients to make this last weekend, so here we are! Recipe was taken from here! This made me 10 protein balls (only 8 are pictured because the plate couldn’t fit any more). I took the picture right after I scooped em’ onto the plate because I figured I’d likely forget to in the morning. :O

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Protein Balls

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup oatmeal
-1/4 cup almond butter
-1/3 cup pumpkin puree
-1 scoop Designer Whey vanilla protein powder
-1 handful cinnamon chips

Instructions:
1) Mix everything together and form into little balls.
2) Chill for at least 4 hours (or overnight)!

No Bake Dark Chocolate PB Oatmeal Balls

I’m actually not the biggest fan of dark chocolate. If I happen to be craving chocolate and it’s the only type around, I’d eat it, but it’s definitely not my first choice. (My favorite is white chocolate, which is a shame, because that has absolutely no nutritional value. At least dark is somewhat good for you. In moderation. But let’s face it, it’s not like I eat chocolate for its nutritional content anyway. >_> )

A couple months ago, my friends sent me a care package filled with awesome goodies (e.g. tea, Trader Joe goodies and a ton of Halloween candy). I was eating candy like nobody’s business (hooray for short sugar highs/energy bursts while studying?) but decided eventually to take it to school because it was getting ridiculous in terms of how much I’d end up eating. :x This worked out well until they started actually enforcing the rule where you have to clear off absolutely everything on your desk during tests. Since I only show up to class for tests, I figured it might just be easier if I just cleared it all beforehand. (Everything just sits in Cordelia now. She’s my locker.)

This whole long train of thought was really just to explain how I got the bright idea to melt it down to make chocolate peanut butter balls with em’. :D! Waste not! For the record, I store them in an ice tray after I make them because then they’ll be nicely chilled and won’t all conglomerate together (they tend to all meld together if you don’t keep em’ chilled enough). Easy access too! :] I forgot to include Craisins, but I will likely make another variation of this again in my future (especially if I’ve just run out of hardboiled eggs, which is basically what happened). Hardboiled eggs are generally my post-lifting snack, but these will be a nice substitute.

No Bake Dark Chocolate PB Oatmeal Balls

Ingredients: (14-15 balls)
-1 1/2 c oats
-2 tbsp chia seeds
-1/2 c chopped raw almonds
-1/4 c natural peanut butter
-5 mini Hershey’s dark chocolate bars
-5 Hershey kisses
-1/4 c honey

Instructions:
1) In a medium bowl, combine the oats, chia seeds and almonds.
2) In a small bowl, combine the chocolate, honey and peanut butter. Microwave on low until melted and mix well to combine.
3) Add the melted mixture to the oat mixture and use hands to mix well. Form into balls and put into ice tray.
4) Stick em’ in the freezer. :D Or in an airtight container in the fridge.

No Bake Peanut Butter Protein Balls

This is probably one of the easiest things I’ve ever made, and cleanup wasn’t bad either (eating the parts I didn’t roll up was pretty awesome). I just washed a spoon, a mixing bowl, and a measuring cup. Besides being simple, you can soup em’ up with all kinds of stuff (e.g. cocoa powder, chocolate, cinnamon, coconut flakes, chopped nuts…). I chose not to for this batch since my protein powder was already chocolate-flavored, but I’m probably going to make this again pretty soon with dry milk powder. We’ll see how that one goes. I’ll probably dress those up a bit. :D Generally speaking though, anything with peanut butter, oatmeal + honey is usually a win for me.

Super easy, super fast, packed with protein, tastes pretty effing amazing. :D

No Bake Peanut Butter Protein Balls

Ingredients:
-1 cup rolled oats
~1/4 cup flax meal
~1 cup chocolate protein powder
~1 cup honey
~1 cup natural peanut butter
-cocoa powder (optional)

Instructions:
1) Mix all ingredients together.
2) Shape into round balls onto a plate and refrigerate.
3) (Optional) Before you refrigerate them, roll them in your choice of ingredient (e.g. cocoa powder, cinnamon, nuts).