French Bread

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but life keeps demanding my attention.

Anyway, I've made this recipe a couple of times now, and it was delicious both times. I found it on pinterest, but you can get the recipe here.

This is how mine turned out:

It was really easy. The instructions are well written. And it's totally worth the effort.

Making coffee mixes

Sometimes, especially in the evening, I like to have a cup of coffee but I don't want to make a whole pot. That's why I love the General Foods International Coffees. (I think they're now Maxwell House coffees.)

Anyway...........

While I was online one day looking for a way to purchase the GFIC for a lower price, I came across this site with recipes to make a few of their flavors myself. So of course I had to give it a try. Since the Cafe Vienna is my favorite, that's the one I tried.

Here's the recipe from Top Secret Recipes

Cafe Vienna

• 1/4 cup instant coffee
• 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon Coffee-mate creamer
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Grind the instant coffee into powder using a coffee grinder.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Store in a sealed container.
3. To make the coffee drink, measure 2 tablespoons of the powdered mix into a coffee cup. Add 8 ounces (1 cup) of boiling water and stir.
Makes 9 servings.


Now, with me being me and all, I didn't make it quite like the recipe says. It wasn't on purpose or anything like that. I wasn't paying attention and measured my first two ingredients incorrectly, then tried to figure out what I actually had done, then tried to adjust the remaining ingredients based on zero knowledge of what I did with the first two. Perfectly clear, right?!

Regardless, it still tastes pretty good. The next time I make it, I'll add more cinnamon, though. Oh, and I'll actually follow what the measurements are supposed to be. *sigh* One thing I changed (on purpose) was that I used Splenda instead of sugar. Even if I wasn't using the zero calorie sweetener, I would probably opt for powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar, just to keep my mix more consistent. 

If you try any of the recipes, let me know what you think. And if you change them up, let me know that too.

Pumpkin Spice Granola

I've seen lots of granola recipes that I want to try and recently saw one that sounded delicious, but the only ingredient I had for it was the oats. *sigh*

I finally decided that it was time to just suck it up and make it up as I went along. Here's what I came up with, and it turned out pretty good. My kids even liked it!

Preheat oven to 350F.

I mixed the dry ingredients together.

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup pecans

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds 

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Then stir in the wet ingredients.

1/2 cup melted coconut oil

1/2 maple syrup

Once everything is all mixed together, spread evenly on a cookie sheet with sides and bake for about 25 minutes. Be sure to give it a good stir about halfway through.

It will keep for about two weeks if stored in an airtight container.

This recipe had a good flavor with mild hints of spices. If you would like a stronger flavor, increase the cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice accordingly.

This has actually given me the courage to venture into coming up with other combinations too. I'll let you know if any of those turn out as tasty.

Banana chocolate hazelnut muffins

So I decided to play around a little with some muffins. I had seen a recipe for muffins using Nutella but of course I couldn't find it again when I was looking. That meant I was left to my own devices so I made something up. lol Oh, and I didn't have any Nutella......my son prefers the Jiff version of chocolate hazelnut spread.

This is the end product....

I decided to make a banana version.

I got my basic banana muffin recipe made. (You can find the recipe at the bottom of the post.) Also, I used agave nectar instead of sugar to keep more moisture in the muffins. I find that when I make banana muffins they tend to be drier than I want so I use the agave instead. Of course, I could always just add a little more milk.....that would work. If you don't want to use the agave, of course you can use regular sugar. It's the same amount, and you might want to add in a splash of milk so that the batter isn't quite so thick.

So, back to the making stuff.

After I got my recipe all made, I just dumped some of the chocolate hazelnut spread into my bowl. It looked like this..........

I just folded it in so that my batter (and later my muffins) would have swirls of the hazelnut spread.

Then I put the batter in the muffin pan, put it in the oven and waited 20 minutes.

And that's it. Yummy muffins for breakfast!

Here's the recipe.


Banana Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 egg beaten

1/3 cup agave nectar

½ cup milk

¼ cup oil

½ cup mashed banana

½ cup chocolate hazelnut spread

 

 

Preheat oven to 350F.

 

Grease 12 muffin cups or use paper muffin cup liners. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, combine beaten egg, agave nectar, milk, oil, and mashed banana. Add to the flour mixture and combine well, but do not over stir. Gently fold in the chocolate hazelnut spread leaving a swirl effect to the batter. (To be perfectly honest here, I did not measure the chocolate hazelnut spread. I just glopped a bunch out into my bowl until I thought it looked like enough.)

 

Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes or until set.

Let me know if you try them and what you think!

More cooking.....

This time I made these quick and easy pizza rolls as one of our snacks for family movie night.


Pizza Rolls:

1 pkg. canned biscuits
1 small jar/can spaghetti sauce
cheese cubes
pepperoni (or other pizza topping favorites)


Preheat oven to 350F.

Flatten each biscuit dough piece. (I just did this with my hands as I was preparing each roll.)

Place a spoonful of sauce, cube of cheese, and a slice of pepperoni (or your chosen toppings) in the center of each flattened biscuit dough piece. Fold the dough around the toppings and seal.

Place on cookie sheet about an inch or so apart.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

They are good just like this. This is the second time I've made these and this time when they came out of the oven, I rubbed butter on the top and sprinkled them with a little garlic salt. I think it would also be good with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. I'm going to try that the next time around.


On a side note:  I usually take my pictures when my kids aren't around. In a house with four teenagers there's always someone around to 'help' me if they're here (or awake).  When I was trying to take these pictures one of my daughters, Abigail, kept photo bombing them.

 

She's using a zoo pals plate.

Yes. I only have teenage children and I'm still having to buy zoo pals. LOL

Cream Cheese Cake Mix Cookies

I saw this recipe on facebook, so I don't know where it came from and this is all just from memory.



Anyway, I made these cookies with white chocolate M&Ms in them. They taste really good, and they stay soft and chewy.

(Obviously photographing food is not one of my strong points.)

Cream Cheese Cake Mix Cookies

8 oz. package cream cheese - softened
1/4 cup butter - softened
1 egg
1 box yellow (or white) cake mix
add-ins of choice

Cream together butter and cream cheese until smooth.

Add in egg and continue to mix until fully incorporated.

Slowly stir in cake mix. The dough will get thick.

Add in your treat of choice. (I used white chocolate M&Ms but would be good with all kinds of things.....chocolate chips, toffee chips, chopped peanut butter cups or snickers bars, etc.)

Bake at 375 F for 10 minutes.



Like I said, the cookies are really good. But, a word of warning......

I make a batch of cookie dough, but then only make 8 cookies to put into my children's lunch each day. I made this dough in the morning so the first batch of cookies was a breeze. Then I put the leftover dough into a container and put it in the fridge. Well, the next morning when I made the cookies the dough was a sticky mess. The cookies still tasted great, but once you chill this dough it's VERY sticky and hard to work with. But, the silver lining here is that it really sticks to the spoon so once I get the dough on the cookie sheet there's still a big glob left stuck to the spoon and what choice do I really have but to eat it? So maybe it's not so bad that it's sticky after all..............

And more cookies.....

Here's another of the cookie recipes that I made during my cookies for clients baking marathon. Huh, I like the sound of that. Maybe that's what I'll refer to it as from now on. lol

Anyway, these cookies are called Dishpan Cookies and I used this recipe to make them. There are several recipes out there (as I later found out) but this is the first one that I came across and it's the one I used.

They're called dishpan cookies because the recipe is so large that you need to use a dishpan to make them in. Now, I didn't use a dishpan but I did use a very large bowl.

I also accidentally made a batch without the baking soda or salt. But honestly, they still tasted great, they just didn't flatten out like the other cookies.

These taste good and have so many things in them that are considered good food that I was almost tempted to feed them to my kids for breakfast.

Well, the good ingredients and the lack of sleep working together. But, alas, I came to my senses and they got a decent breakfast.

Trust me, there were plenty of cookies left for them to eat that afternoon. And for the next week!

Chocolate Hazelnut Snickerdoodle Cookies

These cookies were as good as they sound and were a hit with everyone that tried them. I got the recipe here.

And I should mention that it's super easy. Start with a snickerdoodle cookie mix and add a chocolate hazelnut spread on top. That's two of my favorite things......easy and delicious!

It's that time of year....

Every year I make about 100 dozen (yes, really) cookies for some of our monthly clients. Next week is that time so I've been busy using my family for taste testing. I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner to share the recipes here, but at least it finally did.

The first recipe we tried was for Lemon Bars from Living Practically's blog.

Now, these are SUPER easy....only two ingredients! A single step (only add water to the mix kind) angel food cake mix and a 15(ish) ounce can of lemon pie filling. Boom! That's it.

 And we liked the way they taste. However, because they really aren't very bar like they won't be included with the boxes of cookies.

I really think it would have been better if I had cooked them a little longer. The bottom didn't cook quite long enough to hold them together when I tried to get them out of the pan. So we just scooped it out with a spoon and ate it that way.

Hey, whatever works!

Now, if you want to make these, go to her blog and read the instructions and follow them. You will find that there are a lot of comments and some of them might scare you away from trying this recipe, but if you follow the directions they're super easy and will work for you. I suspect many of the commenters didn't even bother to actually read the directions.

I would have included a picture but, like I said earlier, I never thought to post the recipe links here until now.

Many more to come.....

DIY Coffee Creamer

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it.) We had a great time. The kids turned 14 the day before so we spent that Wednesday celebrating with them. Then everyone was at our house on Thursday and we all ate too much. Mostly on Friday we laid around trying to recover (and eating leftovers.) Then on Saturday Dax and I headed to Las Vegas for several days to attend an accounting continuing education conference......what? if you have to spend your days listening to people talk about accounting, there's got to be something fun to do at night so we don't go completely mad. :0)

We got home late Thursday night and it seems that it's been non-stop business as usual since.

But, some time ago, I found this super simple recipe for homemade coffee creamer at Mrs. Happy Homemaker's blog. Actually, I found it on Pinterest and followed the links to her blog.

It's as simple as these three ingredients.

Milk, sweetened condensed milk, and flavoring.

I used a mason jar and poured in one can of sweetened condensed milk, I refilled the can with regular milk and poured it in the jar, and added some flavoring. I think the original recipe said 2 Tbls. but I'm not really one for exact measurements so I just poured it in until I thought it looked good. Then I put t he lid on and shook it until everything was combined.

You get something that looks like this:

I've made the recipe several times now. I've made the dulce de leche, vanilla, and right now I have a cinnamon vanilla that I just made.

I love how easy it is to make, I usually have all of the ingredients on hand, and I can make the flavors as strong or as weak as I choose. Win, win, win!

Made it myself

Actually, I started making my own deodorant about a year ago.


It's just soooo easy and I really like it.


Here's what I use.

I use pretty much equal parts of baking soda and corn starch.

I mix those together and then I add in coconut oil. I like for my deodorant to be kind of soft and creamy so I use enough coconut oil to get that consistency. The more you use the softer it will be and the less coconut oil you use the harder it will be.

I also add in several drops of sweet orange essential oil to give it a nice smell.

Here it is all stirred up and in a tiny little mason jar.

(Sorry for the yellow tint to the pictures. No matter how many I took, they all looked like this.)

I use a make up sponge to put this on with.

When I first started using it, I kept getting these knots under my arm and thought I must be allergic to something in it. Then it occurred to me that it was my sweat glands that were just trying to learn how to work again after all of the years of being repressed by the anit-perspirent.

And honestly, since my body has now adjusted to it, I don't sweat that much anymore.....except of course when we're working out.

If you give it a try, let me know what you think. And you can use a different essential oil if you like. I've tried other recipes and I really like this one the best.

Holiday Baking......

Every year I make a ton of cookies that get delivered to some of our regular clients that we work with monthly throughout the year.


This year was now exception.


The kids look forward to it each year because they get to sample the trial runs on all of the recipes that I pick out and then narrow down.


This year I made a wide variety (as usual) but these are the only ones I took a picture of:

They are Rolo Turtles and the recipe can be found on this blog.

I also made:

 Girl Scout Samoa Bar Cookies

Sugar Cookies that stay soft and are frosted

Grandma's Old Fashioned Tea Cakes

Gooey Butter Cookies (I can't for the life of me find the blog I followed the recipe from.

There were Cherry Bombs which is a recipe that came from 'The Sugar  Cookie Murders' book (I think.) Have you read any of those books? They are murder mysteries but the lady that helps figure them out owns a cookie shop so there is much mention of food and recipes scattered throughout. It's a kick!

And last but not least, I took a tube of sugar cookie dough and rolled it out between two sheets of wax paper, and did the same with a tube of gingerbread cookie dough. Then I laid one on top to the other (without the was paper, duh) and rolled that into a tube -- rolling from the long side towards the opposite long side (hope that makes sense.) Then you slice them and bake and have pinwheel-like cookies.

They were all pretty good and much appreciated by the clients.

For us at home I also made these Crack-tastic Crackers. If you haven't made them, go do it now!! They are delicious and more than a little addicting. Everyone that tasted them like them and kept going back for more. I think I may make some more tonight since there won't be as many people at my house......then I won't have to share as many. LOL

Savory Cupcakes

I made these 'cupcakes' for dinner the other night.

They're tuna rice cupcakes. If you like tuna casserole, you'll like these.

I got the recipe from Sweet Peas and Bumble Bees blog.

It was just Dax and I at home, but I think I'll try them again when the kids get back. I may also try them with peas in them too.

If you decide to give them a try, let me know what you think.

Monday Morning Check In

Wow! Monday again already. I have to say that this time I'm actually excited to check in. I'm down a pound this week. WooHoo!! I guess I didn't do too bad with the kids gone on spring break. We actually only went out to dinner one night instead of every night all week like we usually do. lol I hope that I can keep this momentum going through this week too. Good luck to everyone else this week too. :0)

Now for my recipe. It's one that I started out with a published muffin recipe and have adapted it to make it healthier and the kids will still eat them so it must not be too bad. lol

Banana Blueberry Muffins

1 1/3 c. flour
3/4 c. rolled oats
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. agave nectar
1 egg beaten
1/2 c. milk
3/4 c. mashed banana
1/4 c. canola oil
3/4 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper baking cups.

In a medium bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and set aside.

In another mixing bowl combine agave, egg, milk, banana, and oil. Add all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened. Then gently stir in blueberries.

Spoon mixture into muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden. Cool in cups for about 5 minutes.

Monday Morning Challeng Check In

Well, it's time to update on my diet challenge progress. I did okay last week. I only managed to work out once. I did okay on my eating but not great. I did try to cut back on how much I was eating but still it hasn't been enough of the healthier foods that it should be. This month I practically live at the office and I just don't have it left in me to do the needed prep work or to exercise by the time I get home. I only barely manage to drag myself out of bed in the mornings to get the kids dressed and ready much less fit in exercising too. lol But I'm not giving up...I have good intentions every single day....but then again, you know what they say about good intentions, the road to hell is paved with them. lol All that aside, I did manage to lose .6 pounds this week. The way I calculate my weight loss is that I weigh every day and then I average the week. That helps me to account for the ups and downs that happen every day. I also weigh close to the same time everyday (always before I eat anything LOL). Also, I was going to do my before photo and totally forgot. I remembered on the way into the office today while I was thinking that I needed to be sure and post today. Oops!

I did manage to put dinner in the crockpot before I left this morning. I won't get home to eat with the rest of the family, but at least they'll get to eat something that's good for them. :0) It's a chicken taco stew. It's quick to get everything in the crockpot and tastes good too. Here's the recipe:

1 small onion chopped
2 cans rotel chopped tomatoes w/ green chili (I use can rotel and one can plain so it doesnt get too spicy for the kids)
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can corn (drained)
1 can tomato sauce
1 pkg. taco seasoning
2 boneless chicken breasts

Put everything in the crockpot (except the chicken breasts) and stir it up. Lay the chicken breasts on top and let it cook on low all day. Before serving take the chicken out and shred then stir it back in. Serve with a spoonful of sour cream and tortilla stips if you like. A little cheese sprinkled on top it good too.

Anyway, I hope everyone else is able to get into the swing and doing well with their diets. Have a great week.