Coconut rum frozen yogurt cake with walnuts and cherries

Two summers ago, I was at the mall minding my own business when I made a life-changing discovery. Let’s ignore for now that minding my own business at a mall usually involves hours of me collecting all sorts of items through the store, only to spend about 10 seconds deciding I’m leaving it all behind. I know, terrible; but we’ll leave that discussion for another day. I was at the book store, (and whether or not I successfully bought something there isn’t important) and on my way to the car I saw this “ice cream” place I’ve been seeing absolutely packed for years but never ventured in. That day I went in, and I realized it wasn’t ice cream but frozen yogurt, and after a few “trying cups” I was hooked. Over the last couple of years I’ve had so much frozen yogurt (and by so much I actually mean so many times, because I never actually buy more than 6 oz.).  From chains to local, to organic, I’ve tried them all. I love my froyo. I’ve made frozen yogurt at home too, and it has even made its way to this blog as well.

This week I went to a friend’s house for a summer party. She and her fiancé  had an array of great food, but somehow I was especially fixed on their desserts: homemade éclairs and homemade ice cream cake. Éclairs I absolutely love, so no further explanation is needed. I ate more than I should have, I know so. But the ice cream cake really surprised me. I’m not sure why, but I’ve never thought of ice cream cake as “home-doable”. It’s not like I thought it was impossible either. It just that it never really occur to me that you could make it at home. I loved that ice cream cake, and of course, now I want to make one. 

Three days after my epiphany, I decided I had to make an ice cream cake. I had a few issues, though. I am busy, so I wanted something fast and easy to make. I also wanted to keep the oven usage to a bare minimum because it has been really hot and some of us don’t have an AC to chill afterwards. Lastly, I had just overindulged at the party a few days before, so I wanted to keep the calories down. My 10 second decision was to make a “frozen yogurt cake” instead. I used a store bought, ready-to-use Graham crust I’ve had sitting in the pantry for months now. For the filling I used fat-free Greek yogurt, I added some coconut rum for both flavor and to prevent it from freezing into a block, and I added shaved coconut to give it a “cake-ier” texture. Listo. I just mixed the ingredients, poured it over the crust, and froze it overnight. No ice cream machine needed. Just for fun, I made a honey-walnut-cherry topping just before serving. 

The result was a great tasting summer dessert! The frozen yogurt cake was just 255 calories plus an extra 44 calories for the topping. Loved it! Of course, I still have to make a more “traditional” ice cream cake, but the summer has just started, so I have plenty of time to make it. And I have a feeling I’ll be making this frozen yogurt cake a few more times as well.

On the road shortcut

Coconut rum frozen yogurt cake
252 calories, 39 g carbs, 7 g fat, 7 g protein

16 oz. (2 cups) Nonfat Greek yogurt plain

0.5 oz. coconut rum

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1 ½ tablespoon unsweetened coconut flakes

1 9-inch Ready to fill crumb Graham cracker crust

Using an electric mixer at medium power, mix the Greek Yogurt, coconut rum, and vanilla extract until well incorporated. Add the sugar, and the coconut flakes and keep mixing until they are well incorporated into a fluid mixture. Pour the mixture into the Graham crust, cover it and freeze it overnight.

Walnut and cherry topping

44 calories, 5 g carbs, 3 g fat, 1 g protein

¼ cup walnuts

¼ cup dried cherries

1 teaspoon honey

Pinch salt

On a skillet on medium-high heat, toast the walnuts until browned and fragrant (about 5 minutes). Make sure to stir constantly to prevent them from burning. Remove from heat, and let them cool to the touch. Chop the walnuts and the dried cherries, then transfer them to a mixing bowl. Add the honey, a pinch of salt, and mix together well.

Cheese and Yogurt Parfait

Life’s back to normal. The holiday season brought Christmas, New Year’s and birthdays, and all of them involved multi-day celebrations with lots of eating. Surprisingly, I did not gain any weight. In fact, I lost some (What, What!). Happy New Year to me!

One of the reasons I was able to make it was that I picked up running again. Man, was that hard… I still can’t run as fast or for as long as I could last year, but 5K in around 30 minutes is still somewhat decent. Ironically the reason I stopped running was exhaustion because I read somewhere (it was you Men’s Health) that my speed and resistance was “poor” when compared to the “average man”. I don’t know they may have been referring to Superman’s or Thor’s home planets. Who knows? The point is that I was too tired and I did not like feeling like I was about to pass out after exercising. The reason I workout is because I feel great afterwards and I was not getting that feeling. I took a few months off, but now I’m back running.

Another reason I’ve been doing well managing my weight has to be this month’s workout. Now, that’s an intense workout. During most of my weight loss (and I refuse to call it “my journey”- just saying) I’ve focused on short workouts because 1, I have to move fast and I burn more calories, and 2, because it’s simply easier to commit to it. I was doing about half an hour of lifting or so. But not this month... I’ve been working on building some serious muscle (not sure it has happened yet, though) so I’ve been lifting “hard” for at least an hour, 4 times a week. So, not only I burn a few cals working out, but lean muscle causes the body to burn more fat and I think that has helped a lot. 

Still, the most important part of managing my weight this season has been nutrition. If I knew I was going to be indulging, I made sure I saved it for the planned occasions. While dinning out I minimized the amount of drinks I had, because, let’s face it, EVERYTHING counts. I had wine instead of cocktails, and I limited the amount to two glasses, maybe 3 during New Year’s. And knowing I would be eating so much meant keeping the eggnog – which is a calorie bomb, at bay.

To couple exercise with nutrition I made sure I was eating plenty of protein. I don’t do protein shakes often. Not anymore. They work great for many people but they are not for me. Just like diet soda, protein shakes make me hungrier during the day and through the 3 months I used it, I gain muscle, but did not lose any fat. I think I actually gain some. I went back to my original protein sources (eggs, Greek yogurt, cheese and meat), and it’s working well for me. 

As an example, the other day I needed a quick snack/meal replacement after my workout. I had only a few minutes and I was starving. To kill my cravings and to meet my needs I had a cheese and yogurt parfait. I used fat free cottage cheese, non fat Greek yogurt and apricot jam. I’ve made this with many preserves, and most of them seem to work well! To add a bit of a crunch, I added some granola. I know it sounds somewhat simple, but this snack has it all. A bit of saltiness from the cheese, notes of sourness from the yogurt, sweetness from the jam and crunchiness from the granola. Also, I may only have 338 calories, but it had a butt-kicking 39 grams of protein. Best part, it kept me going through the rest of the afternoon, until I could finally had dinner 4 hours later. 

This 2014, commit to a healthier lifestyle, whatever that implies for you. A healthy lifestyle is not a resolution you know you’ll drop in a few weeks. It’s a commitment to yourself because you know you are worthy of better things. And better things come to those who work for it! Happy New Year!

On the road shortcut

Nutrition facts

338 calories, 37 g carbs, 0 g fat, 39 g protein

Ingredients

1 cup fat free cottage cheese

6 oz non fat plain Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon apricot jam

1 tablespoon granola

Layer the cottage cheese, the Greek yogurt and the apricot jam in a tall glass. Top with granola.