Recipes

Dessert, Recipes

German Chocolate Cake

german chocolate cake | confections of a dietitian

My friends here in Oki know how much I love to bake cakes and cupcakes so, occasionally, I’ll get a special request for a birthday or other event. A good friend of mine had a birthday a few weeks ago and asked me to make her favorite kind of cake, German chocolate. Never one to say no to a baking adventure, I gladly started searching for the perfect recipe for her birthday. Through my research, I stumbled upon a little a little bit of a history worth mentioning. Interestingly enough, German chocolate cake is not from Germany, but named after an American, Samuel German, who created a dark baking chocolate for Baker’s Chocolate. The company named the chocolate bar after him and, later, a recipe was created using the specific chocolate bar, titled German’s Chocolate Cake. The apostrophe and “s” have since been dropped from the name, but the recipe remains an American favorite.

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Dessert, Recipes

Cream Cheese Brownies

cream cheese brownies | confections of a dietitian

Colin and I frequently attend events that ask us to bring a dish to share. Most people probably dread this, but I love it because it gives me an excuse to bake something deliciously unhealthy, eat one serving and give the rest away. We had to go to one such event the other weekend so, naturally, I decided to bring cream cheese brownies and they turned out so good that I had to share them with you. The inspiration for the brownies came from my mom’s recipe, which, on my recipe card, is very accurately titled “Kim’s Best Brownies.” This is not her recipe, (don’t worry Mom, I’m not giving that away) rather my take on her delicious original.

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Main Dish, Recipes

Grilled Chicken Souvlaki

confections of a dietitian | chicken souvlaki

Hey there! Long time, no see! As usual, life has been super busy around here. My husband and I just got back from a whirlwind trip through Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. It was amazing and I’m trying to hunt down some ingredients to be able to share some recipes with you from our trip soon. But, for now, I’m just excited to be back in the kitchen! After eating out for every meal for the first half of March, I cannot tell you how nice it has been to eat healthy, home-cooked meals. So, as a welcome back, I’m sharing one of our favorite dinners with you!

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Dessert, Recipes

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

confections of a dietitian | mint chocolate cupcakes

I love cupcakes! That might sound odd coming from a dietitian, but it’s true (I mean, have you read the title of this blog?). It’s pretty much like having a personal cake, except with a higher frosting to cake ratio. And, if you’re like my husband, the more frosting, the better the cake is. That’s not the only reason to love cupcakes though. I think they are faster and easier to make than a cake. Each one is it’s own serving, so I can have a sweet treat without feeling overly full. Plus, the variations of cupcake flavors and frostings are endless, so it’s easy to customize for every person, event or holiday.

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Main Dish, Recipes

White Chicken Enchiladas

white chicken enchiladas | confections of a dietitian
When Colin and I first started dating, we decided to compete in a March Madness bracket. It was just the two of us, so the grand prize for the winner was dinner and drinks, all prepared by the loser. I won, of course, so Colin decided to make chicken enchiladas for me. It was love at first bite, although not with what you’d think. I fell in love with his chicken enchilada recipe! Of course, I couldn’t just leave it as is, so I’ve been changing it every time I make it and this last time, I finally perfected the recipe. It’s so good that I knew I had to share it with all of you!

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Main Dish, Recipes

Shredded Salsa Chicken

shredded salsa chicken | confections of a dietitian

Somehow, January has turned into a crazy month for me. All of my commitments slowly started to pile on and I didn’t realize until a few days ago just how much time each was going to take. All of that means that I need some easy, healthy dinners for the coming weeks! I have to think I’m not the only one who has crammed a lot into the month of January, so I wanted to share this super simple, delicious dinner option with all of you.

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Main Dish, Recipes

Colin’s Chili

crockpot chili | confections of a dietitian

With football season in full swing and the Packers squeezing in a spot in the playoffs, I knew I had to share one of our favorite game day foods. The reason Colin and I started dating, or at least continued our first conversation after initial introductions, was because of our mutual love for the Packers. Since neither of us knew many Packers fans in Washington, we quickly started watching the games together. The games always tended to fall around meal times, so Colin made chili for one of the first games he invited me over for. His chili making skills impressed me, maybe even more than his love of football, and it quickly became one of our favorite half time meals. (Side note: Colin later revealed his chili recipe was from Cooking Comically, which is a hilarious way to write recipes, if you ask me.) After moving to Japan and realizing that half time was either going to be spent sleeping (no game is important enough for me to wake up at 3am), drinking coffee or at work, I knew we were going to have to resolve to eating chili on a regular weeknight.

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Breakfast, Dessert, Recipes, Snacks

Gingerbread Loaf

gingerbread loaf | confections of a dietitian

Gingerbread has been on my list of things to bake for a long time. There’s something about the warm spices of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, mixed with molasses that makes gingerbread sound so appealing. You already know my feelings about rolling out dough, so gingerbread cookies were not an option. I love having a quick bread around for breakfast, an afternoon snack or dessert, so I figured a gingerbread loaf would be the perfect way to get my gingerbread fix.

gingerbread loaf | confections of a dietitian gingerbread loaf | confections of a dietitian

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Dessert, Recipes

Funfetti Sugar Cookies

funfetti sugar cookies | confections of a dietitian

Navigating Christmas as a newly married couple has been interesting. We each have our own traditions that we want to bring into our married life, but we also want to start new ones. Christmas cookies, at least to me, are a part of these traditions. Colin wasn’t here for Christmas last year so I only made a couple of my favorite kinds of cookies to share with friends. The previous year, our first Christmas together, I think I made every kind of Christmas cookie ever because I was homesick and bored (my job hadn’t started yet). This year, since Colin should be here, I want to make each of our favorites and try out some new recipes too. Since I was already planning on donating one of my favorite Christmas cookies for the cookie drive (you can find that recipe here), I wanted to bring one of Colin’s favorites too. When I asked him what his favorite Christmas cookies are or if he had any family cookie traditions, he answered with oatmeal, molasses and sugar cookies as well as peanut brittle. Peanut brittle was eliminated right away (I’m allergic to peanuts). He always asks for oatmeal cookies and we already have two great molasses cookie recipes, one from my mom and the other from his grandma. The obvious answer for the new cookie recipe to find, of course, was sugar cookies. Did I mention that I hate sugar cookies? Hate is the wrong word, I guess, because I do actually love eating them, but I hate making sugar cookies. Just the thought of rolling out dough a million times, cutting out shapes and then, once you’re finally done baking the cookies, you have to spend endless hours decorating them with royal icing makes me shudder. I voluntarily made 30 sea turtle cookies for a baby shower this summer and I haven’t recovered yet. (Can you tell?) So when Colin asked for sugar cookies, I knew I had to find a drop cookie recipe.

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Dessert, Recipes

M&M Cookie Bars

m&m cookie bars | confections of a dietitian

It’s December which means it’s Christmas cookie season! In the past, every Christmas vacation at home meant spending countless hours in the kitchen with my mom, sister and friends baking dozens of different kinds of cookies to send out as gifts. I have so many fun memories from doing this that baking cookies has become one of my favorite things about this time of year. Even though I will be spending Christmas in Oki again this year, baking cookies makes me feel a little closer to home and always puts me in the Christmas spirit. It must be the magical combination of mouth watering smells coming from the oven and Christmas music playing in the background. Since I’m already starting to feel nostalgic about Christmases at home (the sunny, 70 degree weather sure isn’t helping), Christmas cookie baking has begun in our house, which means I get to start sharing some of my favorite recipes, both old and new, with all of you!

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