Eat Teach Blog

Do you have a huge sweet tooth that just can’t be curbed by a bowl of berries? Well, I do. I have a sweet tooth that craves CHOCOLATE. And giving me some raspberries is just not gonna cut it. Sorry ’bout it.

But here’s a nice little dessert that portion-controls itself. That allows you to indulge in all things chocolate and tasty. Cake Balls. For people who are just too lazy cool to pop them on a stick.

***Warning: You are going be asked to “play with your food.” AKA get your hands nice and dirty! 

All you need are three simple Ingredients:

Directions: 

1. Prepare the cake batter as the back of the box tells you to do. But instead of keeping the pan in the oven for the entire time suggested, take it out 10 minutes earlier.
2. Let the cake cool. Once it’s cool enough (but still fairly warm) start crumbling the masterpiece with your hands.  Smush it, knead it, and take the crumbled-up pieces and place them into a large bowl. (I sure hope you washed your hands before starting this!) 
3. Add about 3/4 of the can of frosting to your smashed-up cake. Mix it up real good. Trust me, guys, a spoon is just not gonna do it. You’ve gotta get dirty.
4. Roll the end result into little balls – you choose what size works for you!
5. Heat up some Baker’s Chocolate and dip the balls in. Place on a tray. Put tray in fridge to harden.

The insides should be a little gooey still – helps with the mixing process

The edges may be a little too hard and crispy to use. If that’s the case, just use the center of the cake!

Mixing up the frosting. You will get a sense of how much frosting your “mixture” will need based on if it stays compact when you roll it into a ball.

Ready to be dipped!!! (They also taste DELICIOUS without the added chocolate, so if you’re not a chocolate gal/guy, your dessert is ready to go!)

A broiler would be nice. But we do it the old-fashioned way over here

Ready to be placed in the fridge to harden!

Keep in mind that this works amazingly with other flavors as well. I’ve done it with Funfetti Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate Cake and Vanilla Frosting. Anything works!

I’m not usually a frosting person. Especially not the frosting that comes in a can like this. But when you add it within the cake, rather than on top, it adds a sense of moisture that’ll last for days. Unlike your typical cake or brownies that lose moisture after a day or two, cake balls can be made, frozen, and eaten for weeks (but, let’s be honest, you’ll probably finish them off before then). 

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What is your ideal cake/frosting combination? 

It’s summer time! And with summer comes beach and bonfires. And with bonfires comes s’mores. Delicious, gooey smores. But here’s the thing. Sometimes us neat freaks don’t want goo all over the place. Or sticky fingers. Here’s an idea for some clean, tasty treats: Dipped Bitty S’mores.

You’ll need the following ingredients (obviously…)

Mallows

Choc. Chips

Graham Crackers

Baker’s Chocolate

Step-by-Step Directions in the Caption of each picture (pretty self-explanatory, but hey…just in case!):

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Split graham crackers in halves. Place chocolate chips on one side, marshmallows on the other. Place cookie tray in oven.

Take cookie tray out of oven once the marshmallows start getting a bit golden-brown. Smush them together. Place in freezer for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, dip one end in melted Bakers Chocolate and place in fridge to harden! =)

Enjoy!  

Today’s guest blogger and I first introduced ourselves through the Lose A Marathon online community, but I am so fortunate to have crossed paths with her. We are so ridiculously similar and I know I have a ton to learn from her – as I’m sure you’ll see through this post. Please welcome Laura from Spicing Up My Life! =) 

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Hi there!  I’m Laura, guest posting from www.spicingupmylife.blogspot.com!  It’s my first ever guest blog and I’m so excited for this awesome opportunity!  Thanks Divya!  Divya and I are both teachers, both trying to “Lose a Marathon” of weight and both LOVE to eat!  Divya is beating me with her 3 lb weight loss.  Great work girl!  I’m down 1.8.  My blog is about everything from weight loss to battling migraines to new recipes to running to life.

Since most of the country is experiencing some serious heat right now, I’m sure you understand that feeling of “ugggggh” as soon as you step outside.  Well the 4^th of July was no different.  I woke up at 5:30am to get ready for my very first race.  This girl decided it would be a GREAT idea to run the Firecracker5000, a sunny 5K that runs along the Illinois River…ha! It was hot.  Hot doesn’t really cover it…it was sweat dripping from your knees hot even at 7:30 in the morning.  But I had trained HARD for the past 8 weeks with the Couch to 5K program so I wasn’t about to give up.  My biggest fears:

1)     I would get run over (Yes, now that I’ve actually run a race, I know this is silly)

2)    I would have to pee or something worse in the middle of the race (I visited the lovely port-a-potty twice in the half hour before the race to ensure this fear DID NOT materialize)

3)    I would be last (This wasn’t even an issue because there were lots of walkers)

There was no order in which to line up…everyone just crowded towards the starting line and all of a sudden I hear the quietest little “poof”, which apparently meant that the starting gun had gone off and we were supposed to move out!  I was a little disappointed at how anti-climactic the start was, but it’s all good.  Thankfully, I found a fellow Sole Sister (the AMAZING running group I’m a part of) who was running at the same pace as me right before the race started so we decided to run together.  She has one of the fancy dancy watches that indicate the pace and mileage and so on.  She told me that our first mile was supposed to be the slowest…well she looked down and we were keeping a really high pace that neither of us ever run and we still had 2.5 miles to go!  Whoops!  It. Was. Hot. I just kept thinking “Ok, I can DO this. You trained for this.  You WILL do this.”  And I did.  I wish (really wish) I could say that I ran the whole thing without walking, but that’s for next time.  I walked twice just a couple minutes on the way back and ended up finishing 3.1 miles in 41 minutes.  Whew!  I am so proud of myself…I went from not even being able to run 1 minute at a time 2 months ago to running an entire 5K!

My AWESOME running group…The Sole Sisters!

Now that I’ve checked that off my list, it’s time to start thinking about school starting in August.  Since Divya is starting her job this fall, I’ve compiled a Top 10 list of things I wish I knew before I started teaching.

10) Get organized.  File cabinets, files, binders, dividers, thumb drives, planners, whatever you want to use.  Have a place for all kinds of paperwork.  Always write the date at the top of any paperwork you get and file it so you know where it is.  Someone will ask for it again and if it’s organized you will be able to find it, give it to them and smile because you are an organizing GENIOUS!

9) Students will not be enraptured by your teaching every minute of every day.  They just won’t and that’s okay.  This was hard because I had HIGH expectations of 24 smiling faces every day thoroughly enjoying every word I said.

 8) You can’t please every parent, colleague or student.  Not everyone will like your decisions or choices but knowing you did your best and stood up for what you believe will make it all worth it.

7) Don’t vent in the teacher’s lounge.  I know it will be VERY hard to resist and VERY easy to succumb to the negativity if you start.  Don’t do it.

6) Your plans will change-if the lesson isn’t working, STOP!  Do not pass GO!  Stop and try a different strategy or stop and move on to the next lesson.  There’s no point in continuing if the kids aren’t getting it.  Revamp the lesson and try again tomorrow.

5) Your first year of teaching you will try to be GREAT at EVERYTHING and you will be really sad when you are not GREAT at everything.  That’s okay.  But don’t be too hard on yourself.  Take on one thing at a time to be GREAT at each year (ex. Classroom management, guided reading, or parent communication) and by the time you have been teaching a few years you will be GREAT at many, many things.

4) You will cry.  Probably more than once.  It’s okay.   It’s all worth it.

3) Trust your gut.  If something doesn’t seem right with a student, ask.  Be a detective.  We are mandated reporters.  Remember this.

2) Earn the trust of your students.  Would you be able to learn much from someone you didn’t trust?

1) Put yourself in the shoes of your students.  If you wouldn’t want to do it, then your students won’t want to either.  If you don’t want to sit in a desk for 7 hours a day they won’t either.  If you like to get comfy when you read, the students will want to get comfy when they read too.  Think like a student…act like a teacher.

**Most importantly, remember you are so BLESSED to be entrusted with the lives of these students.  What a privilege! J

Before I sign off, I want to leave you with a yummy new recipe to try at home.  It is super easy and great for summer because you don’t have to heat up the oven.

Skillet Parmesan Crusted Tilapia (serves 2-easy to double or even triple)

2 tilapia fillets (or fish of your choice)

2 tbsp  breadcrumbs

2 tbsp parmesan cheese

2 tbsp olive oil

*Combine breadcrumbs with parmesan cheese in bowl.  Dip fish fillets in mixture and coat evenly on both sides.  If there is extra mixture, put it on the top of the fish when they are in the skillet.  Coat a medium skillet with olive oil and heat on medium for 1-2 min. Carefully lay each fillet in skillet.  Cook on medium heat for 4-5 min. and flip.  Cook the other side 4-5 min. Voila! Side with spinach salad, edamame, brown rice and enjoy!

Thanks for having me as a guest blogger today!  I hope you will head over to www.spicingupmylife.blogspot.com for some more running escapades, recipes and teaching adventures!

So much yumminess in one bowl!

Ingredients (serves 4): 

1.5 bags of arugula

4 roma tomatoes

5 persian cucumbers

1 red bellpepper

1 green bellpepper

1/2 large onion, chopped

1/2 clove of garlic, minced

1 package Vegetarian Ground Meat

1 lemon

3 tablespoons of goat feta cheese.

salt to taste

Directions: 

1) Chop up all the tomatoes, cucumbers, and bellpeppers and toss onto your bed of arugula.

2) Spray cooking spray onto a pan and pour the onions and minced garlic into the pan (medium heat).

3) Once the onions get a little golden brown, add your package of “ground meat.” Keep mixing for another 5-7 minutes. Add salt to taste.

4) Turn off the heat and let the contents sit for a bit to cool down.

5) Once the contents have cooled off, add them to the top of the salad. Squeeze the lemon juice (watch out for any falling seeds!). No dressing needed. The lemon and feta combination provide the perfect amount of flavor! =)

Enjoy!! =) 

Indian restaurants give Indian food a bad rep. People are naturally inclined to think that Indian food is butter-y or oily or fatty because of restaurant-type foods like “chicken tikka masala” or “daal makhani.” Well, thanks to my lovely mother, I’ve learned (and plan to continue on learning) how to get the same great taste without all the added (read: unnecessary) fat.

Today, I made gobi aloo (simply cauliflower, potatoes, and a ton of delicious spices). Occasionally, we swap the potatoes for carrots to make it a little less starchy, but I wanted to keep it as close to the traditional recipe as possible. I didn’t use a ton of potatoes anyway.

One head of cauliflower and 5 red potatoes (regularly potatoes can be used as well – I used these cause they’re starting to get soft and smushy).

Ingredients: 

One head of cauliflower

5 red potatoes

1/2 tbsp. cumin

1/2 tbsp. paprika

1/2 tbsp. red chiles

1/2 tbsp. coriander powder

1/2 tbsp. tumeric

1/2 tbsp. garlic

1 tbsp. chopped ginger

Salt to taste

Directions: 

1) Cut up the cauliflower into florets (or buy them pre-cut) and chop up the potato into slices.

2) PAM Spray the pan and place it on top of medium heat (Okay, I used PAM spray instead of olive oil because I felt like I got enough of my healthy fats for the day with my other meals. You can absolutely use olive oil instead of cooking spray (might turn out a little less dry)). 

3) Add cumin to the pan and wait for about 2 minutes until it gets golden brown:

1/2 tbsp. of cumin until it gets golden brown

4) Once the cumin’s brown and toasty, add all the other spices (ginger and garlic included). Let the spices settle in for a minute and mix them up all together:

5) Dump in your cauliflower and potatoes and mix it really well. Because I used PAM spray, I had to add about 1/2 cup of water to help with the steaming process.

Mix thoroughly!

5) Cover with a lid and let the steaming process begin. Every 4-5 minutes, open it up and give it a nice big stir.

6) Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!

Nutritional Information (5 servings): 

****This nutritional information is based off using cooking spray versus oil****

Calories: 650 total (Per Serving: 130) 

Total Fat: 1 g. (Per Serving: 0.20g.)

Protein: 16 g. (Per Serving: 3.20g.) 

I recently started following a bunch of education, health, and fitness blogs because I want new, fun recipes to try out and the network of support from online bloggers (and tweeters) is pretty unbelievable. Julie from Peanut Butter Fingers is probably one of my favorites. I’ve saved most of her recipes and plan on making every single one of them. This morning, I tried out her delicious Banana Bread Protein Pancakes and I was NOT disappointed. When people tell you things like “it tastes JUST LIKE banana bread,” it’s easy to doubt them. No Pudge brownies do NOT taste the same as Ghiradelli. So these can’t possibly taste just like banana bread. I’ve been fooled before, so I went into this experience with pretty low expectations……….

Turns out – Julie was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. As a healthy-food seeker with trust issues, I can completely vouch for these pancakes.

Check them out here and try them out for yourself!!!: YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY 

Ingredients: 1/2 cup dried oats, 1/4 cup cottage cheese, 1 large egg, 1 banana (half in the batter and half to top with), a dash of cinnamon

Looks nasty, right? Pour it in the blender and have the blender do the dirty work for you!

Kept it in the blender to pour onto the pan. Saves you from loads of dishes and keeps it clean! =)

See how clean my cooking space is?!

Top with 1/8th cup of Aunt Jemima’s Lite Maple Syrup and the remaining slices of banana. I put mine in the microwave for a bit to get it nice and warm!

Can’t believe I had the willpower to stop mid-meal to take another picture. These are DELICIOUS!!!

Related articles

• Protein Peanut Butter Pancakes (eatteachblog.com)

Ingredients: 

Frozen chicken breast, thawed and cut into strips

1.5 cups cooked quinoa

1 can black beans

1 can corn kernels

1 small onion, diced

2 bellpeppers (red and yellow), diced

One packet fajita seasoning mix

Salt and pepper to taste

Related articles

• Spanish-Style Quinoa (eatteachblog.com)
• Quinoa: Health benefits, tips and recipes (mnn.com)

Ingredients: 

One can of chickpeas

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons garam masala

Directions: 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas under running water.

Leave chickpeas to dry or pat dry with a paper towel.

Mix the chickpeas with olive oil and spread evenly on a cookie sheet.

Place in oven for 30-40 minutes. Shake/mix every 10 minutes so they don’t burn on one side!

Once they come out of the oven, toss with spices.

Enjoy!