Snickerdoodle Muffin

I'm always baking snickerdoodle cookies for my family (they are a big hit here) and when I came across a snicker doodle muffin recipe, I had to try it! The recipe I found was missing something, so I adapted it to suit my tastes, and man does this make a good muffin, Enjoy!




Snickerdoodle Muffins

Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 eggs
1 & 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup softened butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Topping:
1 tbsp cinnamon
3/4 cup white sugar

Directions:
Cream together eggs, butter, sugars, vanilla, and milk.

In a separate bowl mix all dry ingredients together, flour, oats, baking powder and baking soda. Slowly add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, beat until everything is incorporated well.

Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 of the way full with batter. Mix the topping together 3/4 cup of sugar plus 1 tbsp of cinnamon, and sprinkle generously over muffin batter cups before baking.

Bake at 400 for 15 - 18 minutes.

Makes approx. 18 muffins

I made these in my Pampered Chef stoneware muffin pan, and they were delish!!

Bread and Butter Pickles!

My neighbor, just brought over 7 pounds of cucumbers from her garden this afternoon. So I took it upon my self to make some bread and butter pickles! Can't wait to eat them in about 4 weeks or so!







Recipe

Ingredients

6-7 pounds of pickling cucumbers - I used regular, but smaller pickling cucumbers will make for a crisper pickle
5 cups white vinegar
5 cups sugar (I only used 3 cups)
1 tablespoon of pickling salt
1/2 tablespoon mustard seeds
1/2 tablespoon pepper corns
Pinch of ground cloves or 1/2 teaspoon of pickling spice
1 teaspoon turmeric (optional for color)

Directions

Combine vinegar, sugar, and spices in a pot and bring to boil, let simmer for about 5 minutes. Slice cukes 1/4" thick and pack in hot jars. Slowly pour the hot pickling liquid over the cucumber slices, leaving about a 1/2" head space. Make sure there are no air bubbles by running a knife or chop stick around the inside of the jars, wipe rim clean, add lids and finger tighten. Process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes. Wait 3-4 weeks before eating. Enjoy!

Home grown sprouts

A recent trip to my local grocery store left me super disappointed when I was searching for fresh sprouts to add to my sandwiches. I thought they should be pretty easy to grow yourself. So I started surfing the web and sure enough you can make sprouts right on your windowsill, using all sorts of regular dried beans.

I came across this website classbrain and followed the directions, using a glass mason jar to sprout my lentils.

I bought just a regular 1 pound bag of my store brand's lentils. I was surprised how quickly the lentils started to sprout. By day six I had about 2 one inch sprouts coming from each bean, that tasted crisp and fresh. I couldn't ask for a better tasting sprout! (Click the photo above to see my process larger)

From what I've read, lentils are a fantastic source of B vitamins, calcium, magnesium, zinc and much more. Since you can eat sprouts raw, you retain all of that incredible nutritional value, which is an A+ in my book!

The only thing I would do differently next time, is maybe buy organic lentils in bulk. I'm thinking a better quality bean might grow a heartier and longer sprout. I'm also thinking of now investing in a fancy schmancy sprouter, since this was so easy to do!

Below is a close up of day 3 when the lentils began to sprout, and day 6 when the sprouts were ready to eat!



Let me know how your lentil sprouting goes! ♥

Homemade Pop Tarts! (Vegan)

Okay, so I LOVE pop-tarts, who doesn't? I don't however love that they are filled with HFCS, artificial colors and flavors. So I thought I would make my own, I know ambitious right? heh heh. I was searching different recipes online and most were vegan, so I came up with this recipe that is sure to please anyone!




Ingredients ~

Dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup veggie oil
1/2 cup ice cold water
1 tbs sugar (optional)

Filling
All fruit spread or preserves, preferably strawberry

Icing
1/2 confectioners sugar
1 tsp water
1 tsp of the above filling
Rainbow sprinkles

Directions
Mix flour and sugar with fork. Stir in oil and water, whisk with fork to thicken.
Pour in flour and mix with fork. Roll out dough 1/4 inch thick and cut roughly into 10 - 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch rectangles. You can make them square if you wish or use your favorite cookie cutter shape. I wanted them to resemble real pop-tarts, so I left mine rectangleish. This should make about 5 tarts.

With a spoon put a dollop of your fruit spread in the middle of each rectangle, leaving about a 1/4 inch all around the sides. With your finger dab a little water on the edges and place another rectangle dough on top, pressing the sides down to seal. Take a fork and dip it in a little flour and press all four sides closed, making a nice seal. With a tooth pick, poke little vent holes on top.
Bake at 400F until for about 15 minutes or until the edges turn a nice golden brown. Let cool completely before icing.

To make the icing mix all the ingredients together until smooth, and more water if needed. Spread thinly over your tarts, and add sprinkles. Eat and enjoy!







I hope you liked this recipe as much as I did, is was a nice little treat for me on a cold and snowy Monday!

♥

Pitas and Falafels

I realize that most of my posts lately have been about food, but I can't help it, I'm preggo and preggo ladies like to eat :)






I've still been on the chickpea kick lately, so I whipped up some delicious falafel burgers on homemade pita bread. The bread was actually really easy to make, I don't think I'll ever buy it again. I used plain all purpose flour for mine, and found the recipe here.

For the falafel burger I pretty much winged it, once I have a nice recipe I'll share. I roughly used this recipe and added rolled oats and bread crumbs.

Anyway it definitely curbed my cravings, so this preggo lady is full and happy!

Yummy Hummus!

Now that I'm preggo with number 2, all I've been craving is hummus! I have never been a fan of store bought hummus, so I always make my own.

Here is my favorite basic recipe...

1 can (15oz) Chickpeas, drained but reserve 1/3 cup of liquid
1 tbl Olive Oil
1/2 - 2 tsp Cumin
1/8 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
Fresh ground pepper

Cumin is the main ingredient for hummus to taste like hummus, I use it sparingly though so I would suggest starting out with 1/2 tsp and then adding more to your liking.

Put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and pulse, add the reserved chickpea liquid and blend until smooth & creamy. Serve with homemade pita or tortillas chips. Or spread in a half pita with some sprouts and roasted red peppers, for a delicious & healthy sandwich!

You can add to this basic recipe to make different flavors of hummus. I sometimes add a 1/4 of cooked black beans and a clove of garlic, for a great tasting black bean hummus. Or you can add sun dried tomato paste and fresh basil. The possibilities are endless!

For the chips, I use about 3 white corn tortillas cut in eighths, coat lightly with one tsp olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Spread them out on a cookie sheet, and then bake for about 15 minutes at 350 until crispy. Alternatively you can make these chips with wholegrain flour tortillas or pita bread too, so good!

Enjoy ♥

Pumpkin Soup

Oh how I love Fall and the cooler weather. It makes me in the mood for warm soup in bread bowls, stripey socks, and wool scarves.

Here's a soup I made recently, that was oh so good!



Creamy Pumpkin Soup

2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups mashed cooked fresh pumpkin
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
3 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup half and half or milk
Sour Cream

Put cooked pumpkin, salt, ginger, nutmeg, olive oil, and pepper in a blender or food processor. Slowly add in chicken broth and blend together until smooth. In a large sauce pan melt butter and flour to create a roux. Slowly pour in half and half and then stir in pumpkin mixture. Simmer on low until soup starts to feel thick. Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream and garnish with roasted pumpkin seeds with a side of crusty bread. Serves 4-6.

~ I bought a pumpkin pie pumpkin or sugar pumpkin from the grocery store, it was about 6 inches in diameter, and yielded about 2 cups of pumpkin once cooked. Pumpkin pie pumpkins are very hard to cut into! I actually put the entire pumpkin in my stock pot and boiled until the skin was soft. Then I cut the pumpkin in half and scooped out the seeds (roasted them later) the pumpkin came off the skin perfectly!

Dutch Oven Bread

dutch_oven_bread1
Originally uploaded by neesypea

My Mother bought me a Dutch oven as an early birthday gift. I christened it by making some No Knead Crusty Bread. It’s cooling right now! I can’t wait to devour it!




I'm usually horrible and making bread, it's either too dense or not done enough inside. This bread came out picture perfect and so so delish!!

Snow Cream!

It's snowing today in Charlotte, NC! So I had to make Snow Cream!




It tastes great, like a lighter version of vanilla ice cream, I bet it would be good with chocolate chips also! :D

Laundry Soap

I like being frugal and I try hard to come up with ways to be more economical as well as saving money. I recently was introduced to the process of making your own laundry detergent. I received a sample and was hooked. I had to try to out for myself, and boy is it easy and cleans just as good as the commercial stuff.



There are loads (no pun intended) of "recipes" out on the net for making your own laundry detergent, just Google it and you'll see what I mean.

The three basic ingredients for making home use laundry detergent are Borax, Arm & Hammer Super WASHING soda and a bar of soap. Now the Borax is super easy to find, it's usually in a box by the rest of the household cleaners at any major supermarket or big discount store. The Washing Soda is a little harder to find, your best bet is to call around before trying to find it or order some from the Internet, and no baking soda is not the same.

The bar soap varies on personal preference, really you can use anything, though most recipes call for a laundry bar soap. There is Fels Naptha, Octagon, and Zote (dollar stores) which are all high contenders in the homemade laundry detergent set.

I used Kirks Castile, which is a natural soap made with coconut oil and has a nice clean scent. I have read that the other bar soaps that will work for your soapy endeavors include Pure & Natural (3 bars for a buck at Walmart), and Ivory. You can even try even nice scented soaps like Toms of Maine or Mrs. Meyers, the possibilities are endless. I've even read that you can also use a little essential oil to boost your linens in to high scented gear, if you so desire.

If you can't find any of the basic soap making ingredients at your local grocery, try buying from this site, Soaps Gone Buy

Below is the soap I made in dry form. You always want be careful when making your own soap, do not inhale or ingest any of this and be careful around kids and pets.

1 Cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 Cup Borax (Any brand will do)
1 Bar Kirks Castile Soap, grated



The hardest part, and really it's not hard at all, is grating up the bar soap. I had a hand grater that worked perfectly. You can also use a regular cheese grater or even your food processor if you wish, just make sure to thoroughly clean all your components before using them again on food. Once the bar soap is fully grated, combine together with the borax and soda. I poured my soap into a ball jar and am now ready to start washing. That's it, your done, that took maybe 15 minutes! I still have enough borax and soda to make about three more batches, and all it would cost me is the price of another bar of soap. Easy peasy.

Now, I know what your thinking, how well does it work? It works great my friend, great! You only need one tablespoon for a normal load, maybe two if you have some really dirty duds. This soap dosen't suds up like regular commercial brands (which is great if you have an HE machine) so I was a bit skeptical at first. But everything came out nice and crisp with a slight clean scent. You can even add 1/4 cup of white vinegar to your rinse cycle to make you clothes super soft!

You can make your own laundry soap in liquid form too. Here is a link from the Simple Dollar on how to do so and here is a great video that shows the process amazingly well!

If you don't think you are brave enough to make your own laundry detergent, I recommend buying from this site Simply Clean Ok. I've tried this soap and it's quite lovely if I do say so myself!

Enjoy and go make some soap! Next up, felted wool dryer balls :)

♥

Homemade Organic Applesauce

My neighbor gave me this huge bucket of apples from her tree, so of course I had to make applesauce!

I used this recipe ...
http://www.pickyourown.org/applesauce.htm

I haven't canned any yet. I left the skins on too, and the applesauce turned pink, but it was sure yummy. I'm going to make baby puree to freeze next, but I'll take of the skins first.

I'm not sure what kind of apples they are, my neighbor didn't know either, I did a Google search I think they might be Rome or Arkansas Black apples.



It was fun, but the applesauce came out super thick! I think it was because I only have the food grinder attachment for my kitchenaid and I actually need the fruit and veggie strainer as well.

Triple Fudge Choclate Chip Cookies

I was in a festive mood yesterday so I decided to make some Halloween-y cookies.
I adapted a cookie recipe to my liking, and they came out oh so delish!

Here's the recipe...

1 stick Sweet Cream Butter
1 cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/3 cup Chocolate syrup
1/2 cup Buttermilk or (1/2 tablespoon lemon juice in 1/2 cup Milk)
1 3/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 cup Milk Chocolate Chips, set one cup a side
Festive Sprinkles

Cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until well blended. Combine cocoa and buttermilk and chocolate syrup in a separate bowl, beat until smooth. Add to creamed mixture. Add flour, baking soda and salt, beating just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes or until centers are almost set. Remove from cookie sheet while hot, let cool.
In a double broiler (or microwave) melt the remaining milk chocolate chips until smooth & creamy, spread or dip half of the cooled cookies in the chocolate and add sprinkles, place on wax paper while the chocolate sets. Eat and try not to devour them all in one setting!

Banana Bread

banana_bread
Originally uploaded by neesypea.

There's nothin' like fresh banana bread to make your day better on a gloomy Sunday morning!


This is the easiest recipe you'll ever make!!

3 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted unsalted butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 egg (beaten)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
A couple shakes of cinnamon
1 1/2 cup of flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Pour melted butter over the smashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon (no electric mixer) mix in the sugar, beaten egg, cinnamon and vanilla. Add the baking soda, salt, and then add the flour last. Pour mixture into a greased glass loaf pan. Bake for 45 min to 1 hour. Cool, slice, and enjoy. Yum!

Cookies!

gingersnap cookies
Originally uploaded by neesypea.

My Mother and I made these spicey gingersnap cookies yesterday.
If you want to make them, be careful because they have a serious bite to them!
If you don't like spicey just put about 1/4 of a teaspoon of cayenne.

Enjoy

♥

=====================================
Gingersnaps - Extra-Spicy Gingersnaps
=====================================
What You Need:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger, or more
to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cool unsalted
butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus extra
for rolling
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup molasses (not blackstrap)
1/4 cup egg whites (from about 2
eggs)

What To Do:

Combine the flour, baking soda, and
spices in a mixing bowl and set aside.
Cream the butter until smooth and
fluffy in a mixer fitted with a paddle
attachment (or using a hand mixer).
Add the sugars and mix. Add the
molasses and mix. Add the egg whites
in 2 batches, mixing to combine after
each addition. Add the dry ingredients
in three batches, mixing to combine
after each addition.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Spread a few tablespoons of
granulated sugar on a small plate.

Roll the dough into 3/4-inch balls,
then roll each ball in the sugar until
lightly coated. Transfer to parchment
lined cookie sheets, leaving 1-inch of
space between the cookies. Bake until
browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on
wire racks and store in an airtight
container.

Yield: 60 cookies
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