Watch this short video on how to make flavored extracts to use in cakes, cookies, frostings, salad dressings, and marinades. They make great and inexpensive Chrsitmas gifts.
Cranberry Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
These delicious cookies are a great way to use fresh frozen cranberries. These would be wondefully festive for your Thanksgiving or Christmas snack table. When I buy fresh cranberries, I immediately put them in the freezer in their original bag. They are easier to chop or grind this way for recipes and keep for over a year.
Cranberry Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
In an electric mixer cream together: 1 cup softened butter 1/2 cup white sugar 1 cup packed dark brown sugar 2 tsp vanilla 1/4 cup milk Add slowly, mixing well after each addition: 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 3 cups wheat flour 2 cups quick oats 2 cups chopped frozen fresh cranberries 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips Drop by teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden around the edges. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 4.5 dozen at 133 calories each.
Easy Pumpkin Cake
This cake can’t get any easier. It’s super moist, low in fat, and has only 3 ingredients. To save money, stock up on cake mixes when they are on sale. I snagged mine at a 1 day sale when the store brand mixes were $.59 each. Also, making your own pumpkin puree is really easy if you have a kitchen aid food mill attachment.
Speaking of pumpkin puree…Does anyone know where there are pumpkins on clearance cheap in Kansas City?
Easy Pumpkin Cake:
1 box spice cake mix (other flavors are nice too, such as white or yellow with 2 tsps of pumpkin spice added; or chococolate :).)
1 cup of water
2 cups (or 1 15 oz can) of pumpkin puree (not to be confused with pumpkin pie filling)
Mix all for 2 minutes in an electric mixer on medium speed. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 dish (or muffin cups) Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes (30 minutes for cupcakes) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cake will be very soft. Frost with whipped cream or cream cheese frosting.
Lunch on the Go
We were filming today and yesterday for a show that’s a secret. It’s a pilot for a new reality series, but that’s all I can say about it. (It’s a one time thing for us–not like the Dugger show.) It was great to have so much motivation to get my house organized–even my bedroom, and my kids have had a blast with all the attention from the crew. But that’s why I’ve been quiet here and also why my newsletter didn’t make it out this week. There was a lot more work to do than I wanted to admit since we were welcoming the film crew into every nook and cranny of our home–even our master bedroom and the basement!
I just have a short break while the filming crew goes for lunch and thought I would show you a picture of an easy lunch idea for mom’s on the go. I took this lunch with me to the soccer fields on Saturday. I packed traditional sandwiches for the rest of the family, but made this salad to go along with my Fit Yummy Mummy plan.
This is 2 cups of romaine, 1 cup of navy beans, 4 oz grilled chicken, 3 sliced baby bell peppers, a sprinkle of parmesean and light ceasar dressing. It was so delicious and filling. And fast to throw together since I had large batches of beans and chicken already cooked and sliced for the week. The only bummer was I forgot to pack a fork–and ate the salad with my fingers. Until Brandon suggested I use one of his sliced apples as a scoop. It worked great and next time I might add some tangy chopped apples to the salad. It complemented it well.
Jar Gift Mix: Split Pea Soup
This tasty soup is ready in just 30 minutes on the stove, or 3 hours in the slow cooker. All you need to add is carrots and water. This would make a lovely gift for a school teacher who needs a night off from cooking. Read more
Impossible Taco Pie
I put this dish on my menu this week with a link in my newsletter to a free recipe site and a warning that I NEVER follow a recipe. Our version of this pie turned out so fantastic that I’m writing it down here so we can try it again :). The variations include making our own taco seasoning blend, replacing expesive canned green chilies and fresh tomatoes with an aldi can of tomatoes and green chilies blend, and a cornbread style replacement for bisquick which is fat free!
Impossible Taco Pie: Makes 2 pies
2 lbs ground beef (or turkey)
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp seasoning salt
2 tsp cumin
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 can tomatoes with green chilies, drained (I used Aldi brand)
2 cups shredded cheese (I used cheddar jack from Costco)
3/4 cup unbleached flour
3/4 cup yellow corn meal
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
6 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
Place hamburger in a large skillet and sprinkle with spices. Brown and drain. Place half of the hamburger mixture in the bottom of 2 greased deep dish pie pans. Top hamburger in each pan with 1/2 the can of tomatoes and green chilies and 1 cup of cheese. In a mixing bowl, use a wire wisk to blend flour, cornmeal, salt and baking powder until well blended. Whip in eggs and milk. Pour half the mixture over each pie pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Makes 16 servings (or eat one, freeze one.) (or eat one, save one for tomorrow’s lunch.)
Gluten Free English Muffins
I don’t normally eat gluten free, but I agreed to try an acceleration diet with Fit Yummy Mummy for 12 days. Part of the diet is gluten free and uncultured diary free, so I’m experimenting. These English Muffins turned out good, but next time I will roll them thinner (about 1/2 inch instead of 1 inch thick so they can cook all the way through.) I used what I had on hand, but you can make substitutions as you wish.
I get frustrated when searching for gluten free recipes because many of them contain ingredients such as tapioca starch, potato flour, and corn flour. These are non-nutritive starches that congeal well, but are basically garbage for your body. So you won’t find any of those things in my recipes.
Xanthan gum is the odd ingredient here. It is an investment to start with (about $21 for a 1lb bag) but is essential to helping the dough hold together in the absence of gluten.
Gluten Free English Muffins
1 cup whey (leftover from Greek yogurt making–or substitute milk, or buttermilk)
1 cup warm water
3 Tablespoons butter (or coconut oil), melted
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons honey (or brown sugar)
1 Tablespoon yeast (or 1 packet which is slightly less)
2 cups brown rice flour (I ground long grain brown rice in my grain mill)
1 cup teff flour
1 cup quinoa flour
2 Tablespoons xanthan gum (I bought mine at Amazon.com)
I didn’t want to heat my whey because it’s full of probiotics that will work for good on the flours while the dough rests. It would be nice to bring it to room temperature naturally if yo have time for that. Mix the whey, warm water, butter, salt and honey (or sugar) in a bowl. In your mixer bowl combine the flours, xanthan gum, and yeast. While the mixer runs slowly, pour the liquid ingredients in with the flours and stir until just combined. Press into a ball and let rest covered with a towel for 1 hour or until doubled.
With moist hands, pat the dough 1/2 in thick (without punching dough down.) Dough will feel more like biscuit dough than bread dough. Cut with a 3 inch biscuit cutter and place on a cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal to rest. (About 18 rounds) Let the rounds rise for 30 minutes to an hour. Place the rounds on a skillet or griddle preheated to 300 degrees. Cook for 10 minutes on one side, then flip and cook for 10 minutes on the other side. Split with a fork and eat with butter and jam.
No Sugar Added Granola
I made a new kind of granola last week. It is sweetened only with pineapple and banannas. It could use some stevia but really isn’t bad with a few raisins. My goal was for a very crunchy, mildly sweet granola that clumped when cooked. I succeeded! Here’s the recipe:
5 cups thick cut rolled oats
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup whole almonds (roughly chopped)
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup wheat germ (to encourage clumping)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum (to encourage clumping)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
dash salt
1 cup canned crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
2 ripe bananas (not previously frozen)
1/2 cup coconut oil
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
In a large bowl combine first 8 ingredients and mix well. In a blender add pineapple, bananas and soft coconut oil. (Next time I will add 1/2 teaspoon pure stevia extract or 6-8 packets stevia blend.) Mix until smooth and whipped. Pour pineapple mixture over oat mixture and stir until completely moistened.
This is how it looked just before baking.
Spread in a single layer onto two large greased cookie sheets. I fisted some of the mixture to encourage clumping.
Bake for 15 minutes, then stir and switch racks for the cookie sheets. Repeat 3 more times. For the last 15 minutes, turn the oven off and let it cool down naturally with the granola still inside. Watch for over browning the last 15 minutes. Set the pans out to cool. When completely cool, mixture will be nice and crisp.
Makes 10 cups of granola
Nutrition–per 1/3 cup: Calories: 168 Protein: 4.6 Fat: 9.8g Carbs: 25 g including 5.2 grams of fiber and only 1.7 sugar grams
Hearty Morning Muffins
These whole grain muffins are full of fruit and vegetables! I’ll give you the original recipe and then in brackets how I plan to modify it.
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar [1/2 cup brown sugar plus 6 packets stevia]
2 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
2 cups shredded carrots
1/3 cup dried apricots, snipped
1/3 cup hulled sunflower seeds
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
1 medium banana mashed
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil [1 stick butter, melted, plus 1/2 cup plain yogurt]
2 teaspoons vanilla
Mix all ingredients. Pour batter into 18 greased muffin cups and bake at 375 for 18-22 minutes.
Healthy Banana Cookies
I found this recipe scrawled on a piece of scrap paper. It is gluten free (if you have certified GF oats) and has no added sugar other than that occuring naturally in bananas and dates. I can’t tell you if it’s good yet, but I’d like to try it. I can imagine that I will need to think about it as a healthy snack and not as a “cookie.” By the ingredient list, I can expect this to have a cake like texture without the crisp and chewy texture from traditional sugar and butter cookies.
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup dates or raisins
2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup oil (coconut oil would be lovely)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix all and let sit for 15 minutes. Drop by spoonfulls on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.
I would like to add nuts for a little protein, and then these would be the perfect after workout snack. The healthy carbs are great for muscle recovery. Also, I think a teaspoon of cinnamon would be nice here and help with blood sugar stabilization.