Rhubarb Strawberry Dessert

I'm adding some long overdue recipes to this blog. First off, I'm busy baking a rhubarb strawberry dessert. It's like a cobbler or crumble, except the amount of topping has been cut way down from the original recipe. Here it is, with the nutrition information alongside it.

Preheat over to 375 and spray a 10 by 5 glass baking dish with cooking spray.
Combine cut up rhubarb, quartered strawberries, flour and Truvia baking blend in a bowl. Stir to combine well. Turn into greased baking dish. Combine brown sugar, rolled oats (that's regular oatmeal) and whole wheat flour in a small bowl. Mix well. (I use clean fingers to get it combined and to break up the brown sugar.) Drizzle in the vegetable oil and combine thoroughly. Sprinkle the oat combination evenly on the fruit. Bake at 375 for 30 - 40 minutes. Let cool. (This will thicken as it cools.) Cut in six pieces and serve with a really thick vanilla shake instead of ice cream or whipped topping.


The original recipe I modified this from had 305 calories per serving. The biggest changes were:

1. Doubling the amount of strawberries, thus bulking up on fruit to make up for less topping.

2. Using 1/2 cup Truvia baking blend instead of 1 cup sugar in the fruit portion.

3. Cutting the amount of topping by 1/3. Changing the ratio of sugar to oats from equal portions of each to 3 oats to 1 sugar proportions.

4. Taking out 1/4 cup butter and using 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil instead in the topping.

5. Serving this with a thick vanilla shake instead of ice cream is also a really good modification.

I have had to make a change so it thickens up better. Put 2 tablespoons of flour in the fruit and sugar mixture. Then, leave flour out of the topping.  This keeps the calorie count the same, but the dessert can be eaten while it's still warm, and will be thicker.

Cream of Broccoli Soup - Second Kind

This cream of broccoli soup has a secret ingredient - cauliflower. The immersion blender really helps make this a thick, hearty soup. I've also started using nonfat milk powder & chicken boullion granules instead of the HMR chicken soup for recipes. Cost is the big factor, here. If you want to keep it 'in the box' use the chicken soup mix.

1 stalk broccoli

1/4 head cauliflower

2 cups water

1 teaspoon dried diced onion

1 tablespoon chicken boullion  and 2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup nonfat milk powder (or 1 pack of chicken soup mix instead.)

1/4 additional cup cold water


Wash and cut broccoli & cauliflower into small florets. Add the broccoli to the water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes. Gently remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon. Add cauliflower and onions to the water, and cook, covered, until very soft. (About 20 minutes.) Using your immersion blender, blend the cauliflower and onions to a smooth consistency. In a separate bowl or cup,
to 1/4 cup cold water, add the boullion and milk powder or pack of chicken soup mix. Whisk until blended. Temper this with a few tablespoons of hot mixture from the saucepan, stirring after each addition. Add the tempered soup mixture to the saucepan along with the cooked broccoli. Stir and heat through. Add hot water if it is too thick. This is very easy to double, and is good as a leftover.

Root Beer Float Shake

The second snow cone flavor I found was sugar-free root beer flavor. This makes a reasonably tasty root beer float flavor with the vanilla shake powder. I added a generous amount of flavoring, and it really was a root beer float flavor. I wonder if a half a can of diet root beer instead of the water and flavoring would give me the same result. I'll check that out, too, when the opportunity presents itself, and get back on that one.

2 tablespoons root beer flavoring

1 scoop vanilla shake powder

4 oz. water

8 - 10 ice cubes

Make the shake as usual, except, add the root beer flavoring with the water right at the beginning of the process.

Peach Melba, HMR Style

I am now moving into processed fruits and vegetable mode. Although I love fresh produce, I have to balance that with the cost to our family as well as the true cost of transporting fresh fruit and veggies from wherever it isn't snowing. I am using canned peaches and frozen raspberries for the fruit component of this Peach Melba dessert, and substituting the vanilla HMR shake for ice cream. This recipe makes two servings.

1 can of canned peaches in pear juice. Reserve 4 tablespoons of pear juice for making raspberry sauce

1/4 cup frozen raspberries (Fresh can also be used.)

1 teaspoon SF/FF raspberry jello mix. 

1 scoop vanilla HMR powder (I use the 120)

1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

4 oz. cold water

10 - 12 ice cubes

2 teaspoons vanilla pudding powder, sugar & fat free (optional, for thicker texture)

Make the raspberry sauce first. Put the raspberries into a small saucepan, and crush them up. Add reserved juice from the canned peaches. Stir while heating. When they come to a light boil, add jello powder and stir to disolve.  Allow this mixture to cool while you make the rest of the dessert. Make the vanilla shake as usual, except add additional vanilla flavoring, and use less water and more ice cubes than usual. Add pudding mix if a thicker texture is preferred. Texture should be spoonable. Put about half of the vanilla shake into each small dessert bowl. Place 2 peach halves or 4 peach slices into the dessert bowl. Drizzle raspberry sauce over peaches and vanilla dessert, and eat immediately.

Hot Chai, HMR Style

One of my favorite hot drinks is this vanilla chai. It's made quite simply with my Keurig brewer and the blender. It's also easy to make if you just wish to use a chai teabag, and hot water for the basic liquid. I use an 8 - 9 ounce cup of liquid for this and all of my hot drinks, since the ice cubes are not added to bring up the volume of liquid. I warm this for about 30 seconds in the microwave, but if you are using freshly brewed tea, it's not necessary unless you really like your tea piping hot.

1 cup (8 - 9 ounces) freshly brewed chai tea.

1 scoop vanilla HMR shake powder

Pour tea into blender. loosely cover, and run on low speed for a few seconds. Raise cover to add vanilla powder carefully. Add powder while still blending on low. Recover, and turn speed to medium or high. Pour into a tall mug and enjoy.

Pumpkin Creme - Another Great Hot Drink

I always think of the 'pumpkin juice' from the Harry Potter books when I make this. It is borrowed & then changed from one of the HMR recipe sites. On that site, this is a cold shake. In my remake of the classic, I drink it hot. I tried it without the sweetener and even though I usually get along fine with things that are less sweet, this drink can use the extra touch of Truvia. I'm also not particularly accurate on the measurements, so change it up as you like for your own taste.

7 - 8 oz cool water

2 heaping tablespoons of canned pumpkin

1/2 to 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 scoop vanilla powder

1/2 to 1 packet Truvia or other artificial sweetener

Put water into blender. Add pumpkin and spice. Blend on low speed until mixed. Add sweetener and vanilla powder. Blend on medium speed until frothy. Stop blender and pour drink into large mug. Heat in microwave until warm, about 50 seconds to a minute. Do not overheat.

Time for Hot Drinks! "Almond Joy" Cocoa Cream

While drinking my evening shake a couple of nights ago, I decided that a nice, warm drink before bedtime would be a welcome change at this time of the year. I looked up 'Hot Beverages' in my HMR Recipe Booklet, and found some good choices. I have, of course, done some variations that are quite tasty. I started out mixing my hot drinks with a fork, but found that the blenderizing makes a frothier drink, with fewer clumps of unmixed powder. (of course) I also like it better if I blend first, then gently heat in the microwave just to drinking temperature. Here's a variation that's similar to the candy bar shake of this summer:

7 to 8 oz. cool water

1 scoop vanilla 120 powder

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Put water and extracts  in blender. Run blender on low speed, adding vanilla powder and cocoa to the blender as it runs. Turn speed up to medium, blending until frothy. Pour drink into tall mug, and heat in microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute. (My drink is perfect for me at 50 seconds.)

I personally find the chocolate powder too overpowering, and prefer the vanilla/cocoa combination. Chocoholics, however, may find the chocolate powder exactly what they crave. I also like the less sweet, faintly bitter flavor of this recipe, but my daughter thinks it tastes better with a half of a packet of Truvia. Obviously, do what you like to get it just right for your personal tastes.

Creamy Carrot Soup

Here is a recipe for carrot soup that has a few variations. This particular soup can be made a couple of ways, depending upon if you have the HMR chicken soup available or nonfat dry milk powder. I make this in tandem with the orange shake recipe, then put the finished soup in the fridge so I have it available to microwave for lunch. In the olden days, I used to make this with lots of butter and real half & half. The variation here is not quite as creamy, but using the immersion blender gives it a nice, smooth consistency, and I can live with that.

1 lb bag of baby carrots

1 small potato

1 onion, diced

6 to 10 basil leaves

2 tsp. "Better Than Bullion" vegetable stock

1 package HMR chilcken soup mix OR 2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk mix

1 small green pepper and parsley (both optional)

Peel and cut potato into 1 inch chunks. Add baby carrots and potatoes to 2 cups of water in a soup pan. Bring to a boil, then simmer until carrots are soft. Remove 6 -8 carrots, slice into rounds, and set aside. (At this point, I remove 6 additional carrots and 3/4 cup liquid for an orange shake if I want it.) Add onion and basil leaves. I have also added green pepper from the garden at this point, but that's optional. After all of the vegetables are very soft, remove a few pepper bits and larger onion pieces. Using the immersion blender, blend the remaining vegetables smooth. Add either the soup mix or nonfat dry milk to 1/2 cup of cool water, blending until smooth. Add this mixture and the vegetable stock to the soup, and heat, stirring well. You may wish to blend again after this step if you like your soup super smooth. Add reserved vegetables to the mix, and serve, or pack into a container for rewarming. Garnish with parsley.

Apple Pie & Ice Cream Shake

One of my favorite Fall flavors is apple. Since I may have any kind of fruit on this diet, I am sampling several apple varieties that are new to me. Incorporating apples into a shake, however, was a trickier business. The secret ingredient for this concoction is coconut extract. It gives a smooth, buttery flavor which gives the illusion of pie crust without the calories. I tried a couple of ways to make this using fresh apples, but I've fallen back on natural applesauce without sugar as the apple ingredient. Here's the recipe:

1 single serving natural applesauce (mine had apples and water as the only two ingredients)

1/4 teaspoon coconut flavoring

1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 scoop vanilla shake powder

3/4 cup water

8 - 10 ice cubes

Add water, applesauce, cinnamon & coconut flavoring to blender container. Mix on low speed until ingredients are combined. Add vanilla shake powder and continue blending on medium speed. Add ice cubes, a couple at a time, until shake is the volume & consistency you like. Pour & serve.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

I like soup, and I'm trying to stay within the boundaries of my HMR Phase 1 plan. That's 2 entrees, 3 shakes (or soup or hot cereal), and at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. I have gotten to kind of enjoy the chicken soup available on the plan, but I also wanted to use that soup as a base, and then see how I could change it up a bit. Here is my first attempt:

1 packet of chicken soup

1/2 cup tiny fresh broccoli florets, washed

1 teaspoon dehydrated onions, chopped

1/4 teaspoon chicken bullion granules (don't use if you're on a low sodium diet.)

pepper to taste

1 cup water, room temperature or warmer

Put the cup of warm water in a soup bowl. Add onions, and allow to sit for about five minutes. Add the tiny broccoli florets and microwave, lightly covered with waxed paper or a plate, for 3 to 4 minutes. Check broccoli for doneness. Continue to microwave in 1 minute intervals until broccoli is tender, and onions are rehydrated. Add water if it seems to be below 3/4 cup of water (or if you like a thinner consistency soup.) Add chicken bullion granules, stir to dissolve. Add chicken soup powder, and whisk until completely mixed. This is good to have with an entree when you feel like a special dinner. I like it as a first course, then lasagne and spinach or green beans, then a serving of fresh fruit salad or frozen berries with Truvia and a cup of decaf. Lots of variety, enough food to feel full, and no reason to feel like a food martyr.

Candy Bar Shake

This is a little like an Almond Joy bar. It's got lots of 'flavorings' in it, as opposed to natural foods, but sometimes that's what you've got to do. I decided to put a little chocolate pudding powder in, just to give it a thicker consistency that held together til the bottom of the glass, but it's not really absolutely necessary to get a tasty shake.

3/4 cup water

1 Tablespoon sugar free caramel syrup

1/2 teaspoon each almond extract and coconut flavoring

1 teaspoon chocolate pudding powder

1 scoop chocolate shake mix

8 - 10 ice cubes

Put water, caramel syrup and almond & coconut flavorings in the container of your blender. Blend on low speed. While blending, quickly add shake powder, then pudding powder to the mix. Turn blender speed to medium. Add ice cubes, one at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Pour into a large glass, and serve.

Blueberry Cheesecake Shake

At the farmer's market last Saturday, one of the sellers was selling blueberries. I didn't know blueberries were a September fruit, but apparently different varieties ripen at different times, and I'm getting the end of season blueberries just before cranberry harvest time. These berries are juicy, but rather tart, so after my daughter used some berries in her scones, I used a half a cup of berries in a shake. The cheesecake pudding mix in the shake is a good balance for the tartness of the berries, and really makes a delicious shake as a meal replacement, or as a dessert shake after a meal. This shake doesn't mix up totally smooth. The skins and tiny little seeds float around in the shake. (It doesn't bother me, but I know some people are sensitive about texture.) Here are the instructions:

1/2 cup washed, fresh blueberries

1 teaspoon sugar free, fat free instant cheesecake pudding mix

1 scoop vanilla shake powder

3/4 cup water

8 - 10 ice cubes

With water in blender container, turn blender to low. Add blueberries and process until berries are liquified. Add vanilla shake powder and cheesecake pudding powder. Turn to medium speed, and add ice cubes one at a time until shake is desired thickness. Serve immediately.