Hooray for healthy fixes!

Do you imagine me as a gargantuan-sized woman who never leaves the house but only bakes, eats and blogs, bakes, eats and blogs? Despite appearances, you mustn't believe that it's all dessert all the time for me. I do have a concept of healthy eating and I confess only to you that I'm more than slightly obsessed with spinach.

image by paramount pictures courtesy getty images

Dear readers, this is a bit of a break in tradition, but I am here today to tell you about health food. What's more, it's health food that still gives you that Fox Fix we've all come to love. Food that feeds your body with essential nutrients but can still satisfy your cravings for SUGAR. And even CHOCOLATE. Because lets be honest, we're all addicted to sugar and chocolate here.

And I'm not talking about pure health food fluff- food that is only a substitute for the junk food. This "fluff" might not be as bad for you as the real thing, but it's not helping you out much either...I'm thinking of my brief foray into the "eating raw" realm, when I'd mix almond butter with agave nectar and cocoa powder and eat it every night with strawberries and pretend I was being healthy. Maybe it was better for me that Nutella, but it shouldn't have replaced real meals.

No, these dishes make great breakfasts or snacks and are even worthy of every-day-eating.

And while we're talking, I'd like to address all you lurkers out there. I know I'm not talking to myself here at The Fox Fix; the blog stats reassure me that I'm not. Some of you are even lurking from far away places like Canada and the Netherlands. Therefore, I'd like to encourage all of you to introduce yourselves- say hi in the comments and we can all have a dialogue; a real repartee if you will. I'd love to know my readers.

And those of you that I already know, please feel free (or even obligated) to comment away :) Thank you.

Because they are full of nutrients and easy to use, I find myself eating bananas and spinach most days. I also eat a lot of oatmeal, and I would like to eat pudding every day, though I do my best to quash that desire. Pudding every day is ridiculous.

And so, inspired by these food items, I bring you three delicious snacks in the next three posts:

First up,

GREEN CHAI MILKSHAKE

I drink a lot of smoothies because they're easy to mix up with different frozen fruit and juices. I always, always, always throw a large handful of spinach in the blender, too, because you can't taste the addition and spinach is one of the most nutrient dense foods in existence. One (packed) cup contains only 14 calories, and loads of vitamins A and K, as well as magnesium, iron, fiber, calcium, etc. It protects against cancer, heart disease, cataracts and more. With stats like that, why wouldn't you throw it into everything you eat?

Recently, Eric and I have been going ape for Banana Milkshakes, a drink his mom made a lot when he was growing up. It's simply frozen banana blended with milk, and I swear it tastes exactly like a creamy vanilla milkshake. It's truly equal to milkshakes made with ice cream. I crave banana milkshakes, and you will to once you join the club. Bananas are fat free and contain lots of vitamins c and a, potassium and fiber. It is also one of few fruits that contains the entire range of B vitamins. Freeze the bananas in chunks in ziplock freezer bags when they're very ripe for best flavor.

All this to say, I combined the green smoothie and banana milkshake concepts, added a dash of my love for chai lattes, and came up with the GREEN CHAI MILKSHAKE.

Blend until smooth:

1 frozen banana

1/2 cup liquid chai latte mix

1/2 cup skim milk or almond milk

large handful spinach

You may have to adjust the amount of liquid based on how big your banana is. Feel free to skip the chai and double the milk or add other flavorings, even cocoa powder.

According to my calculations, this milkshake has about 200 calories, zero fat and 46 grams sugar (plus loads of nutrients.) If you compare this to a chik-fil-a vanilla milkshake (640 calories, 26 grams fat, 88 grams sugar) you're doing great to stick to the green chai milkshake.

White Chocolate Cake with Chai Frosting

This is my second attempt at a Chai-flavored Cake.

I used Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe for White Chocolate Whisper Cake from The Cake Bible for the layers. I knew I wanted to used chai latte mix for the frosting, and I was inspired by this blog to add french vanilla instant pudding mix too. It changed the texture a bit- made thicker and it seemed to cling to itself. This was plus, as so many frostings just want to creep down the sides of your cake.

Rose is pretty much a scientist when it comes to cakes- all her recipes are very exact and must be followed exactly or they won't work. The Cake Bible is a great resource, but alas there are no pictures. I find it hard to work from a book with absolutely no pictures. Is this bad?

Grease and flour (or line with parchment paper) 2 9-in cake pans. As you can see, my cake has three layers. This is because I tripled the recipe and made two cakes with three layers each.

Preheat to 350.

Ingredients:

6 oz white chocolate

3/4 t salt

1 T plus 1 1/2 t baking powder

1 cup plus 3 T sugar

3 cups cake flour, sifted

1 1/2 t vanilla

1 c milk, divided

4 1/2 large egg whites

9 T unsalted butter, softened

Melt the white chocolate (in either the microwave or in a double boiler- careful not to burn) and set aside.

Whisk together 1/4 cup milk, egg whites and vanilla. In your mixer bowl, sift together the sugar, cake flur, baking powder and salt. Mix on low for 30 seconds.

Add the butter and the remaining 3/4 cup milk. Mix on low until all the ingredients are moistened. Then, mix on medium for a minute and a half to develop the batter's structure.

Gradually add the egg mixture in 3 batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition and scraping down the bowl.

Add the melted chocolate and beat to incorporate.

Divide the batter into your two pans and smooth the surface. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a cake tested inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool on racks in pans for 10 minutes before inverting cakes onto the racks to cool completely. If the tops are overly rounded, you might want to let them cool right side up so that the bottom isn't put under stress, which may cause splitting.

Frosting:

1 lb unsalted butter

Most of a small package of instant french vanilla pudding

1/2-1 cup chai latte mix (start with less and adjust along with the powdered sugar for taste and consistency)

2-4 cups powdered sugar

Cream the butter. Slowly add the pudding mix, then the chai and finally the powdered sugar. Adjust as your taste requires.

Next time, I think I will infuse the chai flavors into a plain white or vanilla cake by soaking tea bags in the milk, and then use white chocolate frosting. I think in general I prefer spicy cakes with light, creamy frostings playing a supporting role, rather than this cake, where the frosting took center stage.

Chai Spice Cake

I want this post to be mostly informative about frosting flavored with honey: don't do it.

It will pretend like it's going to hold it's shape and then slowly melt all over your counter, fridge, whatever. One could, for instance, use honey frosting to drape over a cake, letting it drip down the sides like ganache. That would be an appropriate usage for honey frosting. But unless you feel like scraping it all off and trying to piece back together the cake that has to be at the restaurant an hour ago, don't use it to completely frost a cake.

But isn't a chai spice cake a good idea? I used a recipe from Sky High.

1 1/3 cups milk

6 unsweetened chai tea bags, like Tazo

4 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 t vanilla

2 2/3 cake flour

2 cups sugar

4 1/2 t baking powder

3/4 t cinnamon

1/2 t ground cardamon

1/2 t salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and line the bottoms of 3 8-in round cake pans with parchment paper.

In a saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer over med-low heat (watch it, don't let it boil over). Add the tea bags, draping the strings over the outside of the pot. Remove from heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags and squeeze all the liquid from each back into the pot. Let the milk mixture cool.

In a bowl, combine the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla and 1/3 cup chai milk. Whisk to blend.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and cardamom. Beat on low to mix. Add the softened butter and remaining chai milk and mix on med-low to blend; then turn up the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture in three additions, scraping down the bowl between each and mixing only to incorporate.

Divide the batter among your pans and bake for 25-28 minutes until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Honey Ginger frosting was a great idea, but use less honey than more if you're trying it. The book recommends using powdered sugar, cream cheese, honey, butter and fresh grated ginger.

I am now inspired to make my own chai mixture. Also I LOVE cardamom.