Posts Tagged ‘Good eats’
- In: Life
- 12 Comments
The past weekend, I wanted to make a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies. As I got going, I decided to make a double batch to freeze the other half. I’d always read about making double batches, but for some reason I’ve just never done it. Until now.
I measured out my cookies on my baking sheet and popped them in the freezer:
Once they were frozen {about an hour}, I put them in a big ziploc bag:
Just zip up your bag, and pop them back into the freezer. When you’re ready to bake them, just set them on your baking sheet and bake as usual {though, you may need to allow more time than called for}.
And now, whenever I crave Baby Boy craves cookies, I can just sneak into the freezer and pull them out.
Have you ever frozen ready to make cookies? If so, what did you think of them?
Visit Kristen at We Are THAT Family for more Works for Me Wednesday.
- In: Life
- 11 Comments
Thanks to Jill, Amanda and Mary, I’ve been craving s’mores like it’s my job. In fact, I’ve even dreamed about them. Crazy, right? Even crazier is that I’ve gone week, literally weeks, without indulging in my cravings. Which in pregnancy world is perhaps the worst form of torture. So, this weekend, when all I could think about was getting my hands on a s’more, I knew it was time to take matters into my own hands.
I bought a small bag of Hershey bars, a box of graham cracker and some marshmallows. I decided to give s’more nachos a go, but didn’t have fudge on hand. I figured I could just melt the Hershey bars and get the same effect, but sadly, I was wrong. Still, a s’more is a s’more is a s’more and they were tasty {though not nearly as good as I’m sure they’d be had I followed the recipe}.
Then last night, after the girls were tucked into bed and my s’more loving was safe from little ones asking to share, I made myself some. As I was preparing my s’more goodness, I was struck with this thought:
“What if I added peanut butter?”
Now, I am a huge, huge peanut butter lover. And peanut butter with chocolate? Clearly a food combination giving to us by God {thank you Jesus!}. So I slathered on the peanut butter and got this:
I have to warn you, there is so much deliciousness squeezed between two little graham crackers that your mind might not know just how to process it all. If you’re like me, you may just sit in utter wonder at what you have just experienced {though some of that might have to do with a quiet house and a good book…}.
Have you ever tried peanut butter s’mores?
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday
French Bread Rolls Recipe
Posted on: May 26, 2011
- In: Life
- 9 Comments
In my effort to mark off more from my 30 Before 30, I have been perfecting my yeast handling abilities. Last week I decided to make French bread rolls from my Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, because, well, I have a love of French bread that might board on obsession. Not to mention, it looked like a crazy-easy recipe.
French Bread Rolls
1 to 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water {when it is neither hot nor cold on your wrist}
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
1 tbsp butter
3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cup sifted flour
Mix water, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl until yeast is well dissolved. Add in butter. Slowly add flour, until well blended. Knead bread, folding dough over toward you. Then press down away from you with the heel of your hand. Give dough quarter turns, repeating kneading, until it is smooth, elastic and non-sticky.
Place dough in greased bowl, turning once to bring greased side up. Cover. Let rise until double {about 1.5-2 hours}. Once risen, punch down, pulling edges into center and turn completely over in bowl. Let rise again until almost double {about 30-45 minutes}.
After second rising, divide dough into 16 equal parts. Form into little buns {or balls}. Place on grease baking sheet. With scissors, snip rolls in half, then in half again, cutting almost through to the bottom. Brush with water. Let rise one hour.
Brush with water again. Then brush with egg white and sprinkle with poppyseeds.
Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.
It might sound like a lot {especially if you don’t bake with yeast often}, but it’s really quite easy – I promise!
Once the rolls are done, they are hard on the outside {like french bread} but super soft and yummy on the inside. They make a plainer meal – like Monday night meatloaf – something a little more spectacular.
And for that, I’m marking mastering yeast off my 30 Before 30 list!
Bon Appetit!
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.
Visit Jill at Diaper Diaries for more Things I Love Thursday.
- In: Life
- 4 Comments
I am super excited to introduce today’s guest poster, Kelsey. Kelsey is a friend from Iowa, who I personally think makes some crazy awesome recipes {several of them being “healthy sweets”}. Plus, she’s a dog lover and understands my blight of battling with doggy bed hogs.
=================================================
My husband’s mouth has a radar that instantly detects a healthified snack. If I replace oil with applesauce, he knows. If I trade all purpose flour for whole wheat, he knows. If I reduce the sugar, the man definitely knows.
Until last week, when I made magically healthy oatmeal raisin cookies. Why are they magical? Because he didn’t know.
My husband had to make a late run into work, and my assignment was to concoct a filling, yummy, but fairly healthy bedtime snack. I started with a trusted recipe from Smitten Kitchen. She confesses that she actually reduced the sugar when she made the recipe. I reduced it a little more. (And to tell you the truth, when I make them again, I’ll probably reduce it just a little bit more.) Add in whole wheat flour and flaxseed meal, and I had a fairly healthy but sweet-tooth satisfying bedtime snack.
After we had eaten a few I asked, “Are they sweet enough?” My husband gave me a “What did you do to these?” look, but responded, “Yeah, they taste great!”
The next day, after work, I even got a completely unsolicited, “Man, those cookies are good!” It was music to my ears.
I recommend eating these with a glass of milk while snuggling and watching Cheers on Netflix. They just might taste better that way.
Magically Healthy(er) Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
1/3-1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg or 1/4 cup egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup flax seed meal
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (reduce to 1/4 if you like less salt)
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350*F.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.
Scoop the cookies onto the cookie sheet or plate and put in the freezer for 15 minutes. You can skip this step, but it might affect the texture or spreading of your cookies.
Bake the cookies about 2 inches on a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet for 10-12 minutes. (Mine took 12. They are done when you see golden brown along the bottom, even if they don’t look all the way done on the top.) Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool. Makes about 30 cookies with a 2 teaspoon scoop.
Visit Lisa at Blessed with Grace for more Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.
=================================================
Kelsey is a wife, teacher, Christ follower, and lover of all things baked. When she’s not at school or in the kitchen, she loves reading, snuggling with her puppies, and photography, which she posts at rocketsteady photoblog. She blogs at Mrs. Dexter about her pursuit of debt freedom and ethical eating.
- In: Life
- 10 Comments
This week a made a batch of Southern Living’s blackberry sweet tea. I thought I’d be sweet {pun intended} and pass along the recipe.
Blackberry Sweet Tea
- 3 cups fresh or frozen blackberries, thawed
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
- Pinch of baking soda
- 4 cups boiling water
- 2 family-size tea bags
- 2 1/2 cups cold water
- Garnish: fresh blackberries
Combine blackberries and sugar in a large container, and crush with a wooden spoon; stir in mint and baking soda.
Pour 4 cups boiling water over tea bags; cover and steep 5 minutes. Discard tea bags.
Pour tea over blackberry mixture; let stand at room temperature 1 hour. Pour tea through a wire-mesh strainer into a large pitcher, discarding solids. Add 2 1/2 cups cold water, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cover and chill 1 hour. Garnish, if desired.
This is a super, super, super easy recipe. If you’ve ever made sweet tea, it’s as easy as that. However, I will say this: as I’m not a big fan of sweet tea, I’m not really a big fan of flavored {cold} tea. The blackberries give the tea a tartness, that I wasn’t in love with. I think you could easily remedy this by cutting back on the amount of blackberries used, or increase the sugar. BUT, Jonathan loved the tea, it was certainly tasty and it made me realize how incredibly easy it is to make flavored teas. I’m planning to experiment with mangos, because that does sounds yummy.
Do you like sweet tea? How about flavored tea?
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.
Baby It’s Hot Outside
Posted on: May 9, 2011
- In: Life
- 8 Comments
This is the temp my car registered yesterday afternoon
After starting the week off at a blustery 50*, we ended our week with, well, a 50*+ jump. That has to be a record of some sort.
The a/c is on, ice water in hand and the dress code is anything cool. The girls and I are living by the pool most afternoons, and enjoying every minute of it. I’m surprised at how adjusted I am becoming to the temperature. Although, all my wonderful secret fit belly pants and bella bands are not heat-friendly. I’ve tried folding them down, but then it puts too much constriction on my stomach which is pretty uncomfortable. It leaves me in a quandry as to how to hold up my pants. I suppose dresses are the way to go after all.
Southern Living’s May issue has some wonderful sweet tea recipes that I am hoping to try this week. Currently, I have water boiling for blackberry sweet tea – I’ll be sure to share the recipe with you all Thursday. They also have a sweet tea tart which looks divine. And while I might not drink sweet tea often, I’m a Southerner at heart and love anything recipe that requires tea, sugar and heavy cream. Hmmm….
Strawberry Bread Recipe
Posted on: May 6, 2011
- In: Life
- 6 Comments
After yesterday’s post, I decided that everyone really needed in on the strawberry bread recipe.
Strawberry Bread Yumminess
Strawberry Bread
- 2 cups fresh strawberries
- 3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil {I used coconut oil instead}
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1 1/4 cups chopped pecans {I omitted the pecans}
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.
Slice strawberries, and place in medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and set aside while preparing bread mixture.
Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in large bowl: mix well. Blend oil and eggs into strawberries. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened. Stir in pecans. Divide batter into pans.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn loaves out, and cool completely.
I personally think you should serve with coffee or warm tea. Even better when consumed in the company of good friends.
A friendly note: Bake the loaves separately. I don’t remember having this problem before, but when I baked them together this last time, one didn’t bake fully on the inside, and took quite a bit longer than the 50 minutes.
I first started making this recipe back in Spring 2009. I haven’t changed it up, but have experimented with different sugars and flours. All results have been quite yummy {just make sure to get your whole wheat flour ratio correct, or they will be very dense}. Also, try them as muffins. It’s like doubling the yumminess. Not sure why, but it seems so much more decadent in muffin form. Especially the over-sized muffins. *drool*
And to answer Rosann‘s question from yesterday – No, it does not need to be refrigerated.
I got the original recipe {as noted above} from allrecipes.com.
Bon Appetit!
Angel Food Ministries
Posted on: March 23, 2011
- In: Life
- 8 Comments
Last night I had dinner with some friends, when they asked if I’d ever heard of Angel Food Ministries. I admitted that I had not, and they proceeded to tell me about the coolest food ministry I’ve heard of in a long time.
Angel Food Ministries distributes food boxes filled with frozen meats, fresh or frozen veggies, canned goods, etc., for a discounted price. It was started in 1994, with the desire to help families afford feeding themselves. Their food packages range in price from $16 to $51. Typically speaking, you save about half your money for the goods received {a $30 package is about $60 worth of food}.
The best part is: it’s open to all families. I love that. I love finding easy ways to save money, while at the same time giving to a good cause. Because the more I buy from Angel Food, the more they can continue to help provide for other families.
While you can order as many packages you want, the distribution is only once a month. I’ve missed the deadline for March, but plan to order a box come April. Now I will say this: I’m sure the food isn’t organic, the meat isn’t grass feed and the mixes they provide are modified in some way. But, shockingly, I’m okay with that. You know why? Because I have a peace about feeding my kids non-organic veggies. And while in my ideal world, we would only eat grass fed beef, right now, our budget won’t allow it. So, I figure, even if the package isn’t my “ideal” it is pretty amazing. And feeding my family amazing food works for me.
Have you ever heard of Angel Food Ministries? Would you ever participate in a food ministry like this?
Visit Kristen at We are THAT Family for more Works for Me Wednesday.
- In: Life
- 10 Comments
Growing up I prided myself on having no Southern accent. I worked continuously to sound as if I was from any where but Tennessee. Then in the summer of 2002, after spending time in southern Alabama, I realized how deeply I missed my Southern accent. Unfortunately, it no longer comes naturally {unless I’m very tired or very upset} and it seems odd to work on an accent at nearly 30. So instead of drawing out my vowels and slowing down my speech, I’ve devoted myself to other Southern endeavors, like mastering fried chicken, sweet tea, and teaching my girls to say ma’am and sir. One endeavor {which might be my favorite and easiest} is to subscribe to Southern Living. And while, I don’t always make their mouth-watering recipes, when I come a cross one that grabs me by the horns, I know it’s going to be a keeper.
Goat Cheese and Strawberry Grilled Cheese Sandwich
The original recipe called for more ingredients than I had on hand, so I made a simplified version:
1/4-1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
2-3 strawberries, thinly sliced
2 pieces of bread
Place half of the goat cheese on a slice of bread. Layer with strawberries. Add remaining cheese. Grill on a lightly grease frying pan {or in your George Foreman, like me}, until cheese is melted. Cut in half. Enjoy!
I’ve experimented with other cheeses, and will say that goat cheese is the way to go. It’s tanginess mingles just perfectly with the sweet-tartness of the strawberries. It’s delicious!
What’s your favorite grilled cheese sandwich?
Visit Jill at Diaper Diaries for more Things I Love Thursday.
It’s That Time of Year
Posted on: March 11, 2011
- In: Life
- 13 Comments
It’s that time of year, where the candy aisles across America are painted with pastels and bunnies. That time of year that signifies the end of winter and the coming of spring. That time of year when the Cadbury Egg makes it’s stunning debut.
Whether a lover or a hater of these creme filled eggs, you’ve got to hand it to Cadbury for their great American marketing skills. I go a little egg-crazy once these chocolate goodies hit the shelf. Last year, after Easter, I bought several dozen {because, that’s what normal people do, right?}. Every year, as the boxes inch up in price, I still buy them. Typically only the individuals, because I have to practice some sort of self control, and if I bought four at once, well, I’d be tempted to eat four at once {and trust me when I say, it has been done}.
My biggest goal this week has been to find amazing recipes that call for Cadbury eggs. Like these Cadbury Creme Filled Cookies from Marie at Make and Take. Mmmmmm….
What’s your favorite springtime candy?
A Wife Loved Like The Church 
Recent Comments