This is my very first fondant and sugar paste cake. I’ll resist the urge to tell you everything that’s wrong with it. I messed up so much! But in the end, I let Heather and Brandon help me finish it by placing on the sugar paste flowers, berries, and leaves and they really had good ideas about how to cover up my mistakes. I hope it still looks this nice for her party tomorrow :). There are so many little fingers in this house that can’t wait for a taste.
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.
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.
This quick bread rounds out a meal and is an inexpensive way to fill up growing children :). Start the bread before preparing the rest of your meal and everything should get done about the same time.
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teasoon salt
1 egg
1 1/2 cups skim milk
3 Tablespoons olive oil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix flour, oats, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl beat egg. Add milk and canola oil, mix well. Pour milk mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Pour batter into a greased 8-9″ round cake pan or pie pan. Sprinkle with 2 Tablesspons of additional oats. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool 5 mins, remove from pan and cut into wedges to serve with butter and jam.
This recipe comes from my church friends, the Lades. They make this bread daily at home and bring a loaf to every new baby and sick family in the church.
1 2/3 cup water
3 Tablespoons powdered mlk
3 Tablespoons shortening (coconut oil or butter)
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cups unbleached white flour
2 1/2 tsp yeast
5 tsp gluten flour
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup craisins
Place in bread machine on wheat cycle (2 lb loaf).
Or mix together and knead, let rise until double. Punch dough and form a loaf. Place in greased pan. Let rise until double. Bake at 325 for 40 minutes or until golden brown.
I decided to create my daughter’s birthday cake’s decorations from Gum Paste this year. I’ve wanted to try it for years and finally dug in. I made my own red and green gum paste from wilton’s glucose and gum-tex. I made the white from Marshmallows and gum-tex. While they both taste okay, the marshmallow gum paste is by far the best (I added a touch of almond extract.) They were both very easy to work with as long as I had my tub of shortening nearby to grease the bowls, cutters and my hands.
I can’t decide if this was a frugal hobby to start or not :P. I had to buy the glucose, gum-tex, fondant tool set and flower creator set. I used 40% off coupons at Hobby Lobby and kept going back until I collected each item I needed. This was by far the most affordable way to shop. I compared prices with Amazon, Ebay, and Jo-Ann before buying.
The nice part is I have plenty of glucose and gum-tex left to decorate many a cake and the tools will last forever if I take care of them. I’d love to make my mother a beautiful rose covered birthday cake in October. We’ll see how hard they are! I’m also invisioning cupcakes with single gum paste daisies on the top :).
I glued the tops to the strawberries with a homemade edible glue. The recipe is 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiled water and 1 tsp gum-tex. Mix it all up and let it sit in the fridge. The lumps will disappear overnight. I didn’t wait for the lumps to disappear and just dipped my paintbrush in and around them. It still worked great.
The centers on the strawberry blossoms are a dot of glue and a dot of yellow sugar. So pretty and sparkly! I brushed some of the leaves with green pearl powder for shimmer. I texturized the leaves by pressing them into a silk flower leaf. I think I’ll put a leave texturizing plate on my birthday list. The silk leaf did okay but the texture is more subtle than I was hoping for.
P.S. In my research for this project, I learned the difference between gum paste and rolled fondant is just a little gum-tex. This makes the gum paste creations dry hard while fondant will stay soft and pliable. I also read that you can use denture powder instead of gum-tex, but Wilton’s gum-tex at Hobby Lobby with a coupon was more affordable and it made me feel better that it was actually created for the purpose. (The denture powder had warnings on it about swallowing too much!)
This recipe comes from my cousin Janet. When I first tasted it, I thought it was Knorr Vegetable Spinach Dip. That is one of my favorite things but expensive to make–and requires a mix–boo. This recipe is purely from the garden–no mix required. My favorite way to eat it is in a hallowed out bread bolle with the torn bread pieces to dip with.
8 oz brick of cream cheese (or neufchatel cheese)
1/3 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 medium tomatoes seeded and chopped
10 oz of frozen spinch, thawed and squeezed dry (I’d use my lovely lamb’s quarter–it’s free!)
1 small sweet onion, finely chopped
Mix all ingredients until well blended and refrigerate until serving.
You have such good ideas! I’m really struggling right now to get everything done and your idea to share recipes from my beloved pile is perfect!I feel badly because I won’t be able to photograph each one, but I can give you my frugal tips on how I change things to fit into my budget.
This recipe comes from my Sister in Law–Gena. It’s a much loved potluck recipe. Note: This salad is best made the night before to give the dressing enough time to cool. Here’s the original just the way she makes it:
1 head nappa cabbage, sliced fine
2 bunches of green onions, chopped
2 pkgs ramen noodles, crushed
1 cup sliced almonds
2 T sesame seeds
1/2 cup butter
In a bowl combine chopped cabbage and onion, refrigerate until serving time. In a large skillet, melt butter. Toss in ramen, almonds, and sesame seeds. Stir and cook until toasted and golden, remove to wax paper to cool.
Meanwhile make dressing:
3/4 Cup peanut oil
1/2 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and stir with a wisk over medium high heat until boiling. Boil for 1 minute then cool.
Just before serving, toss salad with ramen crunchies and dressing. It is best eaten right away as it tends to get soggy as leftovers.
Nappa Cabbage Salad–Angela Style . I save calories and money by cutting out 3/4 a cup of butter and oil combined, plus reducing the sugar by half. I save time and money by replacing the nappa cabbage with prepared cole slaw mix (on sale) and trading out sunflower seeds (no need to chop and less $ per pound) for the almonds. I add the green onion if I have it, or a sweet chopped onion is just as nice. The salad is just as yummy without if neither are on hand.
1-16oz package cole slaw mix–these go on sale for $.75 each!
2 pkgs ramen noodles, crushed
1 cup hulled sunflower seeds
2 T sesame seeds
1/4 cup butter
In a large skillet melt butter, toss in ramen, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. Cook and stir until toasted and golden, remove to wax paper to cool.
Meanwhile, make dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar (rice is nice, but I’ve successfully used red wine, balsamic or cider vinegar)
1/4 cup sugar plus 2 packets of stevia
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
Cook and stir over medium high heat until boiling. Boil for one minute. Cool in the fridge overnight.
Just before serving toss cole slaw mix, crunchies and dressing. It’s best eaten right away.
I was cleaning out my garage today and found something that made my day..
…a box of recipes. These aren’t ordinary recipes though. They are when you are at a social and taste something so fantastic that you track down the person who made it and make her write the recipe on your napkin kind of recipes.
I feel like cooking again.
This is the best month ever! We are taking a break from life in August. No ballet lessons, no music lessons. No sports, no camps, no travelling. School can wait until September :). Today we are headed to the pool–even me! And I get to visit my matron of honor and her children for the afteroon. After that it’s date night and hubby and I get a few hours to ourselves to make sure our marriage stays strong. To top it off I have cleaning help this morning before we all go. Can this day get any better? No cooking–sitting poolside with great friends–and a clean house when it’s over. Pinch Me…No, don’t.
