Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Happy Canada weekend fellow Canucks!

To celebrate I am posting a delicious, low cal, red and white desert, the Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberry.

SO cute

I found the recipe from Nutmeg Nanny and I knew I had to make them for my parents Canada day celebrations out at their cabin. It’s like all the cheese cake flavor you want but without all the guilt. But other than the general concept, my cheesecake stuffed strawberries took a very different turn from Nutmeg Nannys.

See, I like no bake cheesecakes, so instead of using Nanny’s recipe, here’s my own I used:

• 4 oz fat-free cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1/2 tub (40z) Light Cool Whip
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Graham crumbs (approx. 1/4 teaspoon a strawberry)

So super simple, blend all ingredients except crumbs into a creamy mixture, stuff into strawberries (I used a cake decorating bag and tip), sprinkle graham crumbs on top, eat.

Taa-Daa!

Approximate calorie count per strawberry: 25 calories! Just the best 🙂

I just finished a 5 1/2 (ish) hour crochet throw so I’m off to get more yarn to make more!! I’ll show you pics and the pattern next post. Happy Canada Day long weekend!!!

~Crafty Nerd

Dnd Sugar Cookies??

That’s right! What says “I’m a huge domestic nerd” more than roleplay confectionaries.

Critical Yummyness

I wanted to make cookies for my Saturday dnd group which is just starting up and is a combination of new and super veteran players (and a few of us in the middle too). For those who are curious, we running Scales or War… no spoilers! So I wanted to make a treat but of course I also needed it to be low in calories so I could munch unconcernedly as we played. The recipe is from About.com.

Their recipe is 101 calories a cookie if you make a dozen. A little high on the calorie count for me so to counter that I just made smaller cookies! Using an awesome biscuit cutter my fiance bought me, I made 4 dozen cookies out of the same recipe 🙂 My cookies were just smaller and thinner (which also meant each batch only cookies for about 4 minutes). Then I whipped out me awesome and new Wilson Ultimate Decorating Set and iced the suckers in icing sugar. I did put a tiny bit of meringue powder in just to make sure the icing would be stiff when it dried. When all was said and done, each cookie came to approximately 55 calories a cookie. I’d still like to get it a bit lower, but they were nummy cookies and just so cute!

+1 cookies of Om Nom

Hope you enjoy the cookies. Remember, dnd isn’t always Cheetos and Mountain Dew 😉

~Crafty Nerd

Mostaccioli

Hey All!!

Sorry for the hiatus in posting, life got hectic. But no excuses!! Now that my views are in the tens I better be a more responsible blogger 🙂

Today I wanna show you a super yummy little cookie that is so good when you need to fill a chocolate craving! The om nommie Mostaccioli

Chocolate anyone?

I got this recipe way back when I started counting calories (like 4 weeks ago) from Delish. Click the link to get all the baking details. These cookies ended up being super simple to make and glazing them is super fun!! It’s more of a cake cookie and they freeze awesome. The pictures on the blog are actually of ones I had baked 2 weeks previously and stuck in the freezer. I don’t think you can even tell. You know, I am a big fan of freezing cookies! That way you don’t feel rushed to eat them all before they go stale and you have little treats in you freezer for whenever you need a pick me up 🙂

Recognize the bird pick?

Enough about frozen cookies though. Each of these babies will set you back a measly 55 calories! Way better than reaching for that chocolate bar 🙂

And on the topic of calorie counting, I would just like to toot my own horn a bit and brag that I am now down 10 pounds since May 6th!! It’s amazing what being aware of my calorie intake has done for me, I definitely suggest that if you wanna lose weight in a slow and steady manner, try it out!

~Crafty Nerd

Low Calorie Beef Stir Fry

For the first time in this blogs very young history I am posting a recipe that a) isn’t a desert *shock* and b) is an original recipe. Making an original recipe is so much easier with cooking because you can substitute easier and wing it a bit and things won’t explode in a gooey, doughy mess! So here’s my recipe for Low Calorie Beef Stir Fry.

So Saucy!

So the low cal secret to this recipe is the sauce. And it goes a little something like this:

• 1/2 cup Water
• 4 tbsp Cornstarch
• 3 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp White Vinegar
• 1 clove or Garlic (minced)
• 2 tsp White Sugar
• Ginger powder to taste

Alright, now here’s the really complicated part. You take all those ingredients, mix them in a bowl, then pour into your frying pan with your cooked meat and simmer to desired consistency. OH, I was super fibbing about the difficult part 🙂 Makes four saucy servings at 47 calories a serving.

The other thing I did to keep my calories way down with this recipe was to substitute noodles for cooked cabbage and bean sprouts. I cooked the cabbage in boiling water for about 4 minutes first then threw in the bean sprouts for another minute then drained it all. This made the cabbage soft and the bean sprouts cooked but still a bit crisp. Using no noodles took out TONS of calories so I was able to use beef and feta and not feel guilty.

My stir fry made 4 servings at approx. 216 calories a serving. Of course if you’d like to cut the calories even further, don’t put any cheese on or use a leaner meat like chicken (or no meat at all).

Why yes, those are Lightsaber chopsticks

I hope you enjoy the recipe, I’m off for a second plate!

~Crafty Nerd

Blue Bird Picks

So today I officially had my first ridiculous wedding freak out! Yay… And this freak out was over a flower. It shall forever be known as my ridiculous ranunculus freak out.

The Ranunculus (Stolen from google)

So let me start the story by saying I don’t even really care about the flowers at my wedding. We will only have bouquets and boutonniere, not flowers at the tables or for decoration. Originally I was just going to by random wild flowers! But my mom was really excited by the idea that she could grow my flowers and I appreciated the gift, so this year she has planned an experimental garden of flowers to see what will grow best. Lots of dollars later she and my dad  have a full garden and I have a myriad of flower options.

Of course, the only flower I wanted to defiantly try growing was the one we couldn’t find, the Ranunculus. I had seen the bulbs at a green house a few weeks earlier and loved them! After being unsuccessful at finding them at my parents green house, I went back to the previous one today. I asked all around for help, I had so many questions about planting and colors and the like, and I eventually had two employees helping me. It was great! But then I asked if they could help me find the bulbs I had seen a few weeks back since they had been moved. That’s when it went swiftly downhill.

“We don’t have bulbs anymore. The season is over and we got rid of all of them.”

….

….

….

And here’s the part I burst into tears. In front of two ladies. Over flowers I don’t even care about.

I win at being an adult….

Well, needless to say they were surprised. Both jumped into super helpful mood, suggesting I try again next year, giving me the name of the employee who orders their bulbs, telling me that I can asked the cut flower department how much Ranunculus is a stem. All very sweet and helpful suggestion. All of which I ignored.

I walked away saying tearful thank-yous and wandered around the green house, hoping against hope to find one pack of forgotten bulbs. No such luck, but I did find these!

From Green House (not stolen)

They were prefect! In my wedding colour with cute little birds. I immediately bought 3 packs 🙂 And that’s the story of my first (most likely of many) wedding freak out. I’ve now made myself the promise that each time I have a silly wedding freak out I get to buy something for the wedding. I’m sure this type positive reinforcement will increase the incidents, but what ever… I’m an adult.

~Crafty Nerd

Low Calorie Lemon Squares

Second post in a week… WHA-WHAT?! I’m like a real blogger….. kinda

Anywho, today my fiance was stuck working a long shift and then an inventory at a certain video game store that shall remain nameless. So to treat him I thought I’d bake something delicious and healthy (well almost). So I went hunting around and found this great low-calorie lemon squares recipe from Cooking Done Light.

Lemony Goodness

It’s a simple recipe that went like clockwork! Mine probably could have cooked for a bit longer, but oh well 🙂 still so yummy. And at 66 calories a piece it’s a great substitution to fill a pie craving!

Hope you check out the recipe and baking it and enjoy it! I’m off to watch a chick flick and crochet a blanket from my moms birthday that most certainly won’t be done in time. Pics to come later.

~Crafty Nerd

Brownie Covered Oreos!

So this week while Stumbling at work (shhhh, don’t tell my boss) I came across a mouth-watering recipe that just had to be baked! Diet be damned!

The original recipe can be found on Picky Palate and will seriously melt your face off if you are into chocolatey deliciousness.

OM NOM!

I didn’t get a pic of the Oreo insides but there’s a nice one on Picky Palate. I used low fat Oreos, but some people use mint or golden, all sounds awesome!

One thing many people mentioned online was that their Brownie Oreos were coming shaped like a cake. For mine I used very little brownie mix (just enough to cover the cookies), and as soon as they came out of the oven, I went around the sides with a plastic knife. This helped unstick the brownie from the side but also had the nice side effect of rounding the brownies edge, giving it a nicer cookie shape. And if you don’t rush and have actual spray oil for the pan (unlike me) you will get nice clean sides (again…unlike me.)

Anywho, this recipe was simple, fast, and looks super impressive. One box of brownie batter did the whole box of Oreos so I ended up with 28 cookies at approximately 110 calories a cookie.

My DnD group will love these tomorrow!

Enjoy!

~Crafty Nerd

The first of many (or few)

Here’s to a new summer project!

Amidst 2 jobs, planning a wedding, prepping for school, and trying to save my ass off, I find myself with some precious free time… So lets fill it with a blog!

This blog will be my fun dumping pot for whatever I’m up too. Making a craft, baking, gaming, wedding planning, or music stuff; it could all end up here! And the best part. I’m writing just for the hell of writing and possibly the thrill of someone stumbling onto my blog by sheer dumb luck (or google search). So sorry to the friends I don’t tell about this blog but I bore you enough in life already.

But not you random blog stumbler! Your boredom begins right now on….

WRATH OF THE CRAFTY NERD!

~Crafty Nerd