***Have you entered my earring giveaway yet?…***

So if you read yesterday’s post, you’ll know that I was recently given samples of POMx™ Iced Coffee to taste and review.  While I really enjoyed the flavor of the iced coffees, I don’t think I’ll be rushing to replace my morning cup of black coffee with the POMx™ Iced Coffee anytime soon.  Sorry! They’re just a tad too sweet for me to have so early on in the day as my first consumption of caffeine.  Plus, I’m already sweet enough (*sarcasm*)!  So what did I do with the rest of my samples, you ask?  Did I throw them away?  Did I give them to someone else to finish (that would be a bit gross)?  Did I just drink them for the heck of it?  No.  No.  And no!  Since Healthy Chow isn’t one for wasting things, I decided to make good use of my free samples versus just letting them sit and and take up precious space in my fridge.

So, you wanna know what I made…?

Well, if I wasn’t going to be drinking these little ‘wonderfuls’ as part of my breakfast, I figured the next best thing was to cook with them!  Because I love the rich and decadent taste of each of the flavors, I imagined they would be the perfect component in my breakfast foods.  Now, I’m not right a lot of the times, but when I am, I hit the nail exactly on the head (she pats herself on the back)!

Are you ready to find out yet…?

Blueberry Cheesecake Oatmeal POM-erized
Serves 1

• 1/2 cup of dry oats (you can use quick oats or old-fashioned style)
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 TSP of chia seeds (I used Greens Plus brand)
• 2 TBSP of nonfat cottage cheese
• 1 TBSP of POMx™ Vanilla flavored Iced Coffee
• 1/2 TBSP of chopped raw almonds
• small handful of blueberries, fresh or frozen

1) In a small pot, bring water to a rolling boil.  Once boiling, add the oats and chia seeds.  Stir to make sure the chia seeds are well-blended with the oats.  Reduce the heat to medium/medium-low and let cook for another 3 minutes.

2) Add your cottage cheese and iced coffee.  Stir.

3) Remove oatmeal from heat and pour into a bowl.  Top with blueberries and chopped almonds.

4) Eat with a spoon, but you won’t be able to stop thinking that this is a piece of blueberry cheesecake!

Yum-to-the-O!  This was incredible! The cottage cheese made the oatmeal fluffy (and cheesy) while the chia seeds added to the thickness.  The vanilla iced coffee sweetened this whole little number and the chewiness from the almonds made me think I was eating a graham cracker crust.  And of course, the blueberries accentuated the entire recipe.  If this breakfast was a whole cake, there wouldn’t be a slice left!

POM-errific Chocolate Banana French Toast
Serves 1

• 2 or 3 slices of bread (I used Trader Joe’s Sprouted Flourless Whole Wheat Berry Bread – 2 slices and 1 end)
• 1/4 cup of POMx™ Chocolate flavored Iced Coffee
• 1/3 cup of liquid egg whites
• few shakes of pumpkin pie spice
• few shakes of cinnamon
• few shakes of nutmeg
• pinch of brown sugar
• 1/2 of banana, sliced
• sprinkling of organic dried coconut (I used Woodstock Farms brand)
• sprinkling of cocoa powder

1) Mix the iced coffee, egg whites, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar in a shallow bowl.

2) Dip each slice of bread in the iced coffee/egg white mixture.  Let each piece absorb the mixture for about 1 minute.

3) Spray your frying pan or griddler (or in my kitchen, the C.G.) with cooking spray.  Turn your heat to medium.

4) Place your dipped slices of bread on the frying pan/griddler.  Heat each side for about 2-3 minutes or until the edges start turning that nice golden brown color.

5) Flip each piece of bread and cook for another couple of minutes.

6) Serve with sliced bananas, cocoa powder and dried coconut sprinkles.  Devour!

This french toast recipe was so tasty! There was just enough chocolate flavoring from the iced coffee to give this dish a unique flavor without it being overly sweet.  Coupled with the smashed banana slices (the banana was previously frozen) and the dried coconut, this french toast didn’t even need maple syrup.  I wish I had made more than the the 2.5 pieces I inhaled!

Oatmeal POM-tein Pancakes
Serves 1

• 1/3 cup of dry oats (you can use quick oats or old-fashioned style)
• 1/4 cup of POMx™ Vanilla flavored Iced Coffee
• 1/4 cup of liquid egg whites
• 1/2 TSP of baking soda
• few shakes of cinnamon
• few shakes of nutmeg
• 1/2 banana, sliced
• maple syrup or agave nectar

1) In a small bowl, mix together the oats, iced coffee, egg whites, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.

2) Pour the mixture into your blender.  Add your sliced banana.  Blend until you get the consistency of a thin batter.

3) Spray your frying pan or griddler (or C.G) with cooking spray.  Turn your heat to medium/medium-high.

4) Pour your batter onto your pan or griddler.  Let cook for 2-3 minutes.  Once the pancake can be moved without sticking, flip.  Cook the other side for another 2 minutes.

5) Serve with maple syrup or agave nectar.  Enjoy!

Ohemgee!  These protein-packed pancakes tasted more like banana bread than flapjacks.  They were so delicious and aromatic; I couldn’t believe this breakfast was actually healthy! The vanilla iced coffee and banana kept these pancakes moist and more than flavorful.  I’m glad no one was watching me eat these because I seriously was licking the plate clean.

POM-tastic Banana Coffee Soft Serve
Serves 1

• 1 frozen banana
• 2 TBSP of POMx Café au Lait flavored Iced Coffee

1) Place the  frozen banana and the iced coffee in your blender.  Blend until you get the consistency of soft serve.  You might need to stop the blender intermittently to scrape down the sides and then blend again.

2) Pour into a dish and savor your frosty treat!

Not only did I love this but Patrick seemed to be quite fond of it as well.  He kept asking me what was in his soft serve and couldn’t believe that it was just a frozen banana and a couple of splashes of iced coffee.  The coffee flavoring gave this frozen treat a more gourmet taste than the usual banana flavor.  While we ate this for dessert, it could definitely be a fun breakfast.  After all, it is just fruit and coffee!

When I first tried these iced coffee samples, my first reaction was that they were good.  They were a bit sweet for my liking, but they were definitely tasty.  However, after I began cooking with the iced coffees, I really fell in love.  I guess that goes to show that when life (or Blue) gives you slightly over sweet iced coffee, you need to make perfectly sweet breakfast!

Do you prefer cranberry sauce from the can (the kind where you can still see the indentations from the can) or do you prefer the homemade stuff?  Or are you like me and don’t like either?

***Don’t forget!  You still have until Friday, November 27th at 6pm ET to enter my jewelry giveaway.  After all, we could all use some sparkle in our lives…***

Namasté,
Nicole

Who says you can’t have dessert in the middle of the day?  Not me!

This afternoon was the first event of many for the Healthy Living Summit.  We had an ice cream social at JP Licks on Newbury Street where both attendees and non-attendees of the Summit were invited to come meet and greet the Summit’s organizers.  Of course I jumped at the chance to go!  Not only was I so excited to meet all the bloggers I had been following for months and months, but the fact that I could enjoy a frozen treat at JP Licks midday was an added bonus.

Do you know what it feels like to literally count down the minutes to something?  I felt like a little girl again on Christmas morning, standing over my mother and father at the crack of dawn waiting for them to get out of bed so I could finally open my presents.  Well, today wasn’t Christmas but meeting everyone was certainly a gift.  Just how often in life do you get to meet your mentors, the people you’ve admired from afar, or the people who you just want to flippin’ meet because they just seem so darn cool?!  And this is only the tip of the iceberg (not lettuce though, we food bloggers like something a little mo’ green and leafy!).  I haven’t even met everyone yet!

While the sunshine was lacking this afternoon at JP Licks, the smiles and laughter were a plenty.  We had a small group but it was a mighty one!  Kath, Tina, Jenna, Heather and Mark all greeted us at the entrance of JP Licks.  Unfortunately, Caitlin and Meghann, who were on the same flight from Orlando, were delayed a little bit and weren’t able to make the ice cream party.

This is me taking candid photos...

I think like me, Jenna was ready for her ice cream!

Hi Mark! Thanks for being our photographer...

Yes, the wall is supposed to look like a cow - mooooo!

I <3 JP Licks!

But not to worry, we took pictures for ‘the Floridians’ and had enough ice cream, soft serve and frozen yogurt to make up for their absence . Well, I certainly did!  I ordered a small oatmeal cookie hard frozen yogurt with chocolate jimmies (or sprinkles, for all you non-Northeasterners) in a cup and I wanted it to it seemed like it lasted forever.  Delicious!  This is my got-to at JP Licks; it never fails me.  My frozen yogurt had chunks of oatmeal cookie and it was just sweet enough for me.  I tend to go for vanilla based ice creams/frozen yogurts versus chocolate ones.  But then I like to add things like chocolate jimmies on top, so I’m not sure what my rationale is?  All I can say is, I wasn’t craving potato chips or french fries afterward .

There were even more chocolate jimmies (sprinkles) on the sidewalk...

And if the sweet treats weren’t enough excitement, we even had a special guest of honor at JP Licks – Sammie’s son, Declan.  He was so cute and definitely a blogger in training.  Maybe Declan will be an organizer at Healthy Living Summit 2029?  You just never know…

Crouching tiger...

Hi Kath!

And what would a blogger event (or any event really) be without a group picture?  Mark was our gracious photographer and did a wonderful job taking pictures with everyone’s cameras (I think there were close to 12 cameras in the group).  Naturally, the zoom function on my camera wasn’t on the correct setting so my group photo wasn’t that – a group photo.  Heather was kind enough to let me borrow snag her group photo – which turned out awesome!  Thanks Heather and Mark!  And don’t you worry, the zoom function has been set properly on my camera, so there will be many successful group pics taken this weekend.  Woot!

Healthy Living Summit 2009 JP Licks Class Photo

And there you have it, the end of the first event of Healthy Living Summit 2009.  To all of you who could make it, it was my pleasure meeting you all.  And to those that could not, we had you there in spirit!  I’m sure I’ll have a serving of yogurt or two and a drink or two (or more) for you this weekend.

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream/frozen yogurt?  Or, do you always like to try new flavors?

Namasté,
Nicole

PS: I’m sorry for the late posting today!  Healthy Chow’s files were getting transferred over to another server.  Thank you for your patience.  BTW, if you left a comment for me last night, it may not have posted due to the transfer.  I’m so sorry, but as our beloved Michael Jackson said, “Oh baby, give me one more chance…!“