Peanut Banana Bread

3 medium sized banana's mashed
1/3 cup plain yogurt (I like Mountain High yogurt)
1/3 cup peanut butter (crunchy adds a nice texture to the bread)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar or sucant
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Glaze
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon crunchy peanut butter

Pre-heat oven to 350.
Combine banana, yogurt peanut butter, butter and eggs. Add brown sugar, beat at medium speed until well blended. In a separate bowl whisk flour, flaxseed, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add whisked dry mixture to the wet mixture. beat until just blended. Pour batter into a 9x5 inch loaf pan or for fun use a bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour in loaf pan. If using bundt pan check at 40 minutes.
Cool for 5-10 min.
Whisk all glaze ingredients together.
Remove bread from pan. Drizzle with glaze. Enjoy with a cold glass of milk!

Sun Oven Cookies

I used this recipe
It is pretty easy to make cookies in the sun oven. I made them from about 3 pm to 4pm and the sun was still bright enough to heat my oven up to 315-325 F. I put them on to small pans and cooked them for about 20 min. You can stack the pans since the sides are higher than a cookie sheet. It doesn't squish the cookies :) If you cook them to long they become really brown and crispy. They will burn unlike a lot of things in a sun oven. I tested one batch to see how long until burn time. At 25 min they were not burned but a few min longer and I wouldn't have wanted to eat them.

Whole Wheat Corn Pancakes

I originally found a similar recipe on Smitten Kitchen. Her blog is pretty fun with beautiful pictures!
A few tweaks and it was more my flavor.

Whole Wheat Corn Pancakes

2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cup corn (I used frozen, thawed in the microwave)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Whisk cornmeal, whole wheat flour together. Add buttermilk and stir until combined. Let it soak in the fridge overnight or for at least eight hours.

When you are ready to make the pancakes,
Saute corn with butter in your cooking skillet till lightly browned.
Beat eggs. Add vanilla, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
Add to the soaked mixture and stir until combined. The baking soda will cause the batter to bubble a little bit. Toss in the corn, stir, then ladle pancakes onto
pre-heated skillet.
Cook on both sides till evenly browned.
Serve with warmed real maple syrup and blueberries. Enjoy!

French Macarons

I never had a macaron before today. These intriguing little desserts are the new cupcake. Everyone says they are amazing so I thought why not just make some. Besides, I needed an adventure today.
It wasn't as difficult as it could have been but it wasn't easy either. I would recommend buying ground almond flour rather than trying to do it yourself. (unless of course you have a nut grinder, in that case, grind on!) Seriously, that was the most difficult/messiest part of the whole process. Making perfect circular macarons was beyond my capabilities today because in between this whole process Ella decided that she wanted to use the potty for the first time in weeks. (kids are all about perfect timing :) Anyways, I think that the perfect circle takes practice so better luck next time...


These are good. So good. Like, I don't know if there will be any left by the time my dear husband gets home good. Like I already have eaten three, good.

my oh my.

Anyways here are two different recipes I used. I made the actual macaron cookie from the cake journals instructions and the chocolate filling from David Lebovitz blog. (I added some salt to the filling because in my mind dark chocolate with a slight salty side note is heaven.)
Since I have never had one before I cant compare to what it is supposed to be like. A trip to Paris France seems to be needed for the complete experience. As i don't foresee traveling that far in the near future I'll have to make do with what I've got.
Sometimes life is just so hard...

Vanilla Ice Cream with Toasted Chocolate Covered Almonds

This is a copycat recipe of the Hagan Daz version. It turned out pretty well, though next time I will use more Vanilla. (I only used 2 teaspoons.)


It was good... Really good. Here is the basic recipe.

1 cup whole or 2% milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups Heavy Cream
2-3 teaspoons High Quality Vanilla Extract

For the Almonds
1 1/2 - 2 cups unsalted raw almonds
1/2 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate chips
pinch of sea salt



I used the Cuisinart CIM-20 Series Automatic Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker.



Toast your almonds at 250 degrees for about ten minutes or until you can smell that lovely warm toasted smell coming from you oven. Make sure you don't over do it and burn them.



Next you need to melt your chocolate chips. You can do this in a microwave but it is tricky and if you heat them to much they will become a chalky mess. My preferred method is to use two bowls that nest into each other. In the bigger bowl heat water in the microwave for 60 seconds. Pour the chocolate chips into the smaller bowel to heat for about 15 seconds in the microwave. Sit the smaller chocolate bowl on the larger bowl with water. the hot water will provide sufficient heat for the chocolate chips to melt.
Just be careful when you set the bowls together. If you have to much water in the one then it will overflow.



Stir the chocolate until it is smooth in texture.



Add the almonds.



Stir until almonds are fully coated.




Spread them onto a parchment covered cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt and then put them into the fridge to harden.





Whisk the milk and sugar together for at least three minutes. You want to make sure that the sugar is fully dissolved. Add your cream and vanilla. Whisk. Then pour into ice cream maker and let it process for 25 min until thickened.



After 25 min your almonds should look like this, the chocolate has hardened and it has a matte sheen to it. Break the almond clusters apart.


Add the almonds to the thickened ice cream mixture. I ended up adding only a cup.



It is done when it looks like ice cream. You can see that it is so thick it sticks to the paddle.

Let it ripen in the Freezer for about 2 hours. Serve and enjoy!

Snacks

I found this blog yesterday and so far have made the chocolate covered almonds and honey roasted pecans. Delish! There are a lot of fun looking recipes. Who couldn't use more snack ideas?

Fix Me A Snack

Frosting

1/2 cup butter room temp
4-5 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
1 tablespoon to 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream (until desired texture and creaminess)
Cream butter add powdered sugar, extract and whipping cream until desired consistency. Add color if you want.

My Favorite Sugar Cookies

This is my Mom's recipe and I love them!
2 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
cream butter and sugar
add eggs, salt and extract,mix then add flour and baking powder. Bake at 375 for 8-10 min. I like my sugar cookies soft and chewy so i barely brown them on the bottom. If you want them crunchy then just extend the baking time.

Roasted Vegetables with Quinoa

This is a great main dish recipe. Roasted vegetables are delicious. Any variety that sounds good to you will work. Ella had so much fun helping me put it all together. Her version of helping is to eat the tomatoes as fast as I can cut them. Today she also had fun tasting the peppers, carrots and zucchini. I had to chop extra because she ate a lot of them before they got roasted. It does a mother good to see her child eat vegetables!
Pre-heat oven to 425
1 med to small red bell pepper chopped
1 tomato chopped
4-6 garlic cloves whole
1/2 butternut squash peeled, seeded and chopped into cubes
3 carrots peeled and sliced into sticks about 2-3 inches long
1 yellow squash chopped
1 zucchini chopped
olive oil
sea salt
pepper
balsamic vinegar
fresh lemon juice

I put the butternut squash on one pan, the carrots and summer squash on on another one and the peppers and tomatoes on their own. This was for ease of cooking since tomatoes and peppers will roast faster than the squash and carrots. Drizzle with olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste. Roast for 20-35 min checking about every ten min and stirring halfway through. It is done when they are browned and look slightly caramelized. Boil 1 cup of water and add 1/2 cup quinoa. Cook for about 40 min while veggies roast. Combine quinoa and veggies. Drizzle some balsamic vinegar to taste. You can also serve it with Parmesan cheese or feta. This feeds about three hungry people and a toddler. Enjoy!
(Ella made a train with the carrots and was saying Choo choo!)

Laura's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter
1/2cup demerara
1/4 scant cup congealed honey
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
1cup wheat flour
1 1/4 cup white flour
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup raisins
Cream the butter demerara, honey and white sugar. Beat in vanilla and eggs. Add flours and oats. Combine. add raisins and chocolate chips. Fold into dough.
Use a cookie scoop or drop 1 tablespoon portions onto a prepared baking sheet. bake 375 degrees for 10 min. You want them to be very slightly browned, Remember they will continue to cook for a few min even after you take them out of the oven. Let cool on the cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes then place cookies on a cooling rack. Grab a glass of milk and enjoy!

As a way to limit how much you eat bake one cookie sheet and freze the rest of the cookie dough in a roll or in little balls. Take out when you need a treat!

Soaked Whole grain Morning Glory Muffins

This is a great "go to" morning muffin recipe. Sometimes it can be hard to make breakfast every morning. Sunday's especially since there is so much to do in getting ready for church. These are what we had today. I made them last night (with Charles help, what a nice guy:) and even put them into the muffin tins. I covered the muffin tins with plastic wrap, so all I had to do this morning was pop them in the oven.(After removing the plastic of course. I would never EVER, forget to do that...right.) Bada bing bada boom bada bang, breakfast!

Morning Glory Muffins

1/2 cup raisins
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup demerara or sucant
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 scant teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups carrots, peeled and grated
1 large tart apple, peeled, cored, and grated
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup sunflower seeds or wheat germ (this morning I used wheat germ
3 large eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup (2 ounces) orange juice

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin, or line it with papers and spray the insides of the papers.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt. Stir in the carrots, apple, coconut, nuts, raisins and sunflower seeds or wheat germ. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, buttermilk butter, vanilla, and orange juice. Add to the flour mixture, and stir until evenly moistened. Spoon into muffin tin, I use a ice cream scoop, it helps keep things nice and neat. These wont rise very much so you want the muffin cups to be full.
Bake for 20-25 min till a toothpick come out clean.


Soaking your grains is better for the digestive system because it releases the phytic acid in the wheat allowing for easier digestion and vitamin absorption.
This would be considered soaked only if you let the batter sit overnight. If you want to eat them right away then you would want to soak your raisins in hot water till they are plump before adding them to the batter.

Gourmet Lemonade

This was delicious. Really. No more Country Time mix for me. (Not that I have been drinking any of that lately anyways...)This recipe was adapted from one I found at Cheeky Kitchen.

Gourmet Lemonade Concentrate
3 c. fresh-squeezed lemon juice
2 3/4 c. sugar
Dash of ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond flavoring

In a saucepan mix 1 1/2 cups of the lemon juice and the sugar. No need to boil just heat until the sugar dissolves. Then add the nutmeg, vanilla and almond. You can store it in the fridge for a week.
To make the lemonade add three parts water for one part concentrate.
I also made the fun ice cubes she had on the website. I pureed strawberries and kiwis. I did not need to add any liquid to the puree.

Pumpkin Cookies

More dessert. It's been a great week for baking around here. :) This is my Mom's recipe. She used to make them for Stephen to take to school on his birthday. They were his favorite.

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
pecans

cream butter and sugar
add egg
mix dry together in a separate bowl
Combine butter mixture with dry mix and pumpkin.
Add chocolate chips and mix till evenly incorporated.
form cookies (about a tablespoon of dough each) top with a half of a pecan.
bake at 375 for 8- 10 min.

Lemon bars

Carla gave me this recipe. I always thought lemon bars were difficult to make. Not anymore. These are very easy to assemble and delicious to boot!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crust:
1 cup butter
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Give this a whirl in the food processor or blend with a fork.
press into a 9x13 pan
Bake crust in preheated oven for 20 min.

Topping:
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Whisk eggs. Add lemon juice. Combine dry ingredients and then whisk into wet.

Pour over hot crust and bake for 20 -30 more minutes. When done Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cool for ten minutes. Loosen edge and cut bars.