We have a new look!

There’s a pretty good chance I’ll change the theme 8 more times in the next two weeks.

An even bigger announcement is that after much soul searching I’ve decided I don’t have the self confidence (or the time) to carry a blog on my own. A good friend of mine will be joining me!

Meet Tori!

This horrendous photo was the only one I could find of just the two of us. And by “just the two of us,” don’t think I haven’t noticed Ian creeping in the background. She’ll kill me for posting it as I already texted it to her and she described it as “hein,” but oh well.

Tori and I have been friends for over 5 years, sharing a mutual love for obnoxiously orienting new students to Loyola, fine dining and cooking on a budget, and (most importantly) Body Pump.

She lives in NYC and is much more glamorous than me so I think we’ll give you a good mix of personality and different recipes. Because we’re both fitness fanatics, we might be adding some insights on that as well. Gotta burn off the cookies somehow.

And speaking of desserts, which have been few and far between on here lately, this is a quick and easy one to add to your summer repertoire.

Chocolate Greek Yogurt Truffles (makes 10-12 small truffles)

inspired by Honey & Figs

1 cup semisweet or dark chocolate chips

1 container (5.3 oz) vanilla Greek yogurt (plain or coconut would work!)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbs cocoa powder

crushed nuts, pretzels, cocoa powder, graham cracker crumbs for topping

Melt the chocolate. I’ve been really bad at this lately- it always seizes up on me. But I added the Greek yogurt anyway and kept stirring and it smoothed out just fine. I’ve found that if I add a little bit of milk to seized chocolate you can usually save it- yogurt had the same effect.

Stir in the vanilla and cocoa powder. Place in the freezer for an hour to chill, then scoop/roll into truffles. Roll them in extra cocoa powder, crushed nuts or pretzels, or graham cracker crumbs. Stick them back in the freezer to set, and serve cold.

Happy consequence of truffle making. I bet this is exactly how the master chocolatiers at Lindt do it.

And yes, the peanuts and pretzels involved in this post are brought to you by the Southwest Airlines flight I took 2 weeks ago.

These came out even better than I expected. Just as rich as truffles made with heavy cream, but they’re a little bit tart from the yogurt. And they look so fancy!

Now I just need to try not to eat all of them in one sitting.