brownie mix

I obviously found a bunch of mixes on pinterest and have been trying them out.  This one is for brownies and came from heart, hands, home website.  There are tons of mixes on this site.  I want to try more of them, but so far I've only tried the brownies.  Again, I used coconut oil when baking them (it isn't in the mix.)  It made my mix kind of thick and I worried about getting a good brownie texture, but they baked up nicely and were plenty tasty.
I can't say these are healthy, and I didn't use a healthier sugar this time, but next time I may try it with sucanant, and/or coconut sugar.

Ingredients

• 8 cups sugar
• 6 cups unbleached flour
• 2 cups cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon salt

Directions:

1. Mix everything together in a large container or zip top bag.  Label.

To make Brownies, mix together

• 2 1/4 cup brownie mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup oil (I used coconut, melted - can use butter, or olive as well - original called for canola but I don't use that.  It was tasty with coconut)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips (optional) - dried cherries would be tasty too.

Bake in a greased 8 inch square pan at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

You can also apparently make Texas sheet cake with this recipe by mixing 

• 4 cups brownie mix
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

The directions say to boil the water, oil and sour cream, then mix it with the brownie mix and add the remaining ingredients.  Bake on a greased jelly roll pan at 375 for 20-25 minutes.  Frost with the following:

• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

It says to frost while still hot.  

I have not made this, but living in Texas, this is actually brought to many an event, so I may actually try it sometime.  It isn't however my favorite cake to eat.  I prefer brownies.  :)

cherry pecan brownies

I've been eyeballing these in the Rodale whole foods cookbook I have checked out of the library for more than a couple of weeks now.  I finally made them this evening making substitutions as needed /desired.  They like to claim the the book that these are made healthier by using flax seed instead of 2 eggs, but they still use 2 more eggs.  The book also used plain old white sugar and brown sugar.  I swapped the plain old white with some healthier alternatives.  I also fiddled with the chocolate - mostly because I didn't have any bittersweet chocolate, but I did have some dark chocolate chips.  The brownies turned out wonderful.  I definitely don't want to change anything and ruin them.  Super moist and chewy but not doughy.  To me the perfect  brownie texture.  Add to that lots of nice crunch from the pecans and chewy bits of cherries.  WOW.  I had to give some to the neighbors to keep myself from eating them for lunch today.  :)  I must get back off sugar.  :)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 10 oz. dark chocolate chips.  (Mine were a 63% cacao all natural variety)
• 2 heaping Tablespoons flaxseed (I used light)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar - I used a combination of sucanat (about 2/3 cup) and coconut palm sugar (the remaining 1/3 cup or so.
• 1 cup brown sugar (I just gave up and used brown sugar for this.)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
• 3/4 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Line a 9 X 13 pan with 2 sheets of foil crisscross.  Oil the foil.
2. In a small ovenproof bowl (I used a very large mug) combine the butter, oil and chocolate.  Place in the oven while it preheats and let the butter and chocolate melt.  (I loved this idea - no using the microwave, just the oven that is already on anyway.  Takes about 10 minutes.  I took it out and whisked/stirred it to get the last bit of butter to melt.)
3. Grind the flaxseeds in a coffee grinder (or food processor or blender.  I just prefer the coffee grinder.)  Mix with water and let set. (now would be a good time to chop nuts and cherries -letting the flax gel, and the chocolate melt.)
4. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugars, vanilla, salt, and flaxseed.   Stir in the chocolate mixture.  Stir in the flour.  Fold in the nuts and cherries.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 45 minutes or until the toothpick poked into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.  (45 minutes was perfect for me.  The toothpick didn't have any crumbs, and the top didn't look super crackly or anything but it didn't look under done.  Top felt done with my finger, and I figured no crumbs was a good sign but worried that they were overdone.  They weren't - they were perfect.)
6. Cool in pan before cutting into squares. (book says 32.  I made 24 (4 X 6) and they seemed small enough.  Lets just say Mr. 15 year old cut his own on the second half and didn't follow my scoring at the edge and took a brownie twice as big for lunch today.  :)  I'm sure he thinks he took a small piece.  :)

Lemon Meringue Tartlets

Although I'm on vacation, I still have been able to cook a bit and try some new recipes.  I really need to get them posted before I forget what we did.  This first one is a tartlet that I made for Brandon's birthday.  He and I both have an unhealthy addiction to the lemon tarts at La Madeline.  I was trying to find something similar to make him for his birthday.  This came close.  The meringue was different but so pretty I had to try it.  I really liked it.  The lemon on the bottom was a bit more tart than those at La Madeline, but I liked it that way with the sweet meringue top.  I thought the custard center was a bit too dry/ not creamy enough/ overdone.  I think if I were making these again I may try to either get the custard off the oven a little sooner, or let it thicken the same amount, but pre-cook the shells partially to all of the way, depending on how creamy the custard was.  I think the oven time just made the texture different - It was still good, and probably more like a lemon meringue pie - I was just going for the custard type tart from La Madeline and this didn't hit the texture factor.
This recipe comes from a book my mom got from Demarle called Classic French Pastries.  The recipe was horribly written in the book - good thing we know how to cook or we never would have made it through the recipe.  The book is full of recipes that look super yummy, but none look like they are written particularly well.  OK- I best get on with the recipe if I want to do a second recipe tonight.  :)  Here is what we ended up doing -with much better directions.  :)
I'll get pictures posted of these cuties when I get back from vacation.

Shortbread Ingredients

• 7 Tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 oz sugar (this was just shy of 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 1/3 cup flour
• 2-3 Tablespoons ice water if necessary

Lemon custard ingredients

• 3 lemons (zest and juice)  -original called for 2, but 3 oz of juice.  3 gave me 3.3 oz juice so that is what I used.  I zested all 3.    Be the judge of the size of your lemons.
• 6 1/2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 6 large eggs, beaten

Meringue ingredients

• 4 oz sugar
• 3 Tablespoons water
• 2 egg whites

Directions

1. To make the shortbread; Beat butter and sugar in a mixer.  Blend in flour and salt.  If looking crumbly, add ice water a teaspoon at a time until a dough forms.  (original called for no water, we just found it necessary.)
2. Roll out dough on a silicon mat and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
3. Using a 3 7/8 inch round, scalloped dough cutter, make 12 circles of dough. Line a tartlet mold with the dough circles.  (As a reference, we used a Demarle tartlet tray.  It made 12 tarts that were 3 1/4 " x 3/4" and 2 oz.  I loved the idea of cutting the tart crust out with the scalloped circle. It made the tarts so cute with no extra effort.  You could adjust the size of the tart as necessary, but may need to adjust cooking time as well.)  
4. Heat oven to 340.  
5. For the lemon custard;  Heat lemon juice and zest with butter until melted.  Add powdered sugar.  Slowly whisk some of the hot liquid into the beaten eggs to temper the eggs.  When they have warmed a bit, pour them slowly into the remaining lemon mixture whisking continuously.  
6. Heat over low heat until thickened.  
7. Fill the tartlet shells with the cream.  Bake for 20 minutes.
8. To make the Meringue.
9. Heat sugar and water.  When the temperature reaches 200, whip up the egg whites until firm.  
10. When the sugar syrup reaches 225, remove from heat and slowly pour into the egg whites while still beating them.  Beat until mixture has cooled down.
11. Place the meringue in a pastry bag with a small fluted tip.  Pipe onto the tartlets in a circle pattern (or as desired.)
12. Place tarts on a baking sheet and broil for a few seconds - until browned on top.

raw cookie dough bites

I've been a busy baker, but not a very busy blogger.  Mostly because I have had no camera.  However, I did realize that I wasn't entirely cameraless.  I do have a phone, so I just opted to take some pictures from my phone for the last couple of days.  Now to just get them uploaded right?

These are totally tasty.  I found them fiddling around on pinterest the other day and new I had to try them.  I found them on adashofcompassion.com but I'm thinking they must be elsewhere because I saw the exact same recipe shared by someone from church just the other day.

There is nothing not to LOVE about these cookie dough bites.  They are totally simple to make, raw - as in no cooked or processed ingredients (except probably my chocolate chips, but I'm sure they make raw chocolate chips.  I just haven't invested in any.)  I did change up the directions a bit just because I didn't want to deal with a gummy mess in my blender.  Worked great and easy.  You can make these entirely in the blender or food processor if you so desire.

So if they are so great -on to sharing the recipe.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup raw almonds
• 2/3 cup raw walnuts
• 2/3 cup raw oat flakes (I used groats which I rolled so I know they were raw.  If you are rolling I found that the 1/2 cup groats I rolled yielded 1 cup of rolled, so you should be fine to just roll 1/3 cup - or just toss 1/3 cup groats in without rolling if your blender can grind them up.)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 cup raw agave nectar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 Tablespoons dark chocolate chips or cacao nibs (I used mini semi sweets because it is what I had)

Directions

1. In a food processor or high powered blender, process the almonds, walnuts, oats, cinnamon and salt to a fine meal.
2. Move powder to a bowl and stir in agave and chips (or process them in if you want.)
3. Roll into balls (I made about 25 and the dough was super sticky, I didn't really roll them.  I jsut kind of put them on the mat.  )  Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silpat or other silicon mat.  Freeze until firm.  Store in a tightly covered container in the freezer.  

healthy chocolate squares

While making this treat, I determined that I was definitely NOT going to blog about it or ever make it again because first I had it in my food processor.  It started smoking - thought I had ruined it.  I have to admit that I have a super cheap, tiny food processor, so I can not complain about that.  Then I threw this into the blendtec and it was so thick that it was still hard to blend and I had to stop and push it down into the blades a ton of times.  The dates never got really chopped up, and it was a total pain to make.
However, then I ate them....
Well, you see the post don't you.  Yes, they were that good and healthy to boot.  I WILL find an easier/more effective way to make these.  (Starting out with fresher dates may be helpful.)  :)
This recipe is also adapted from one in my new e-book.
I have to say the picture isn't much to look at - they were sticky and hard to cut, but again, you see the post right?  After it was difficult to make - but look at the ingredients - who gets a bunch of fruit and nuts when they eat chocolate???  OK, now I want to make some more.  I finished these off today before dinner. Too bad I'm out of dates.  Better go add them to my shopping list.

Ingredients

• 1 cup dates
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/4-1/3 cup walnuts
• 1/4-1/3 cup hazelnuts
• 5 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup honey
• pinch salt
• coconut oil (for greasing the pan)

Directions

1. Process all of the ingredients except coconut oil any way you can think of.  I would say high powered blender, or a better food processor than I have.  I may even try my immersion blender - not sure but rest assured I'll keep trying.  :)  Process until it is a nice gooey glob.  It should still have chunks of nuts, but hopefully not much fruit (although mine had plenty of date chunks and it was still delicious - but I used whole dates, not chopped.)
2. Line a bread pan with wax paper. (I didn't originally line the pan, but I found I didn't want to cut it in the pan and it was a bit hard to take out.  My thought is paper will make it much easier next time.)  Coat the wax paper with coconut oil (or butter.)  
3. Press mix into the bottom of the pan.  Freeze for 20 minutes or so to make the mix more solid.  
4. Remove paper from the pan and cut into square.
5. Keep stored in the fridge.

ice cream

So I finally got a blendtec about 2 weeks ago.  I use it all the time now.  At least 2 times a day and sometimes more.  I have to say it isn't perfect, it has jammed on me, and can't seem to ever finish an ice cream cycle without me having to push the ingredients down.  In that respect, I guess the vitamix and it's tamper would be nice.  However, I wouldn't trade the capacity of the wild side jar for anything.  It's the only thing that will make enough green smoothie in the morning for my family.   OK, enough about the blendtec.  I'm happy to have such a powerful blender that cleans up so easily.  This recipe is actually a modification of a recipe in the blendtec book.  Their strawberry ice cream had lemon juice in it.  I didn't have lemons so I left it out.  Today I made the same recipe with cherry.  Also turned out well.  A bit tangy, but still sweet enough for my tastes.  Would have been better with sweet cherries, but I have pie cherries this year.  Anyway, on to the recipe.  LOVE it - couldn't be simpler.  Can't say that the half and half is wonderful for you, but at least I know exactly what is in my ice cream, and over half of it is frozen fruit.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup half and half
• 3 Tablespoons agave
• 16 oz. frozen fruit

In a high powered blender, blend until smooth. (unless you want a couple of frozen chunks of fruit left.)  

We have tried this with strawberry and cherry, but I have plans to try it with other fruits in my freezer like peaches, pineapple (will probably throw in some coconut with that one.), loganberries, raspberries (may need another tablespoon of agave for that one.)  You get the idea.  I bet it would even be good with the tropical blend of fruits I use in my smoothies sometimes.

apple crisp

I had a lot of apples the other day so I decided to make an apple crisp.  I couldn't believe that I didn't have one blogged.  This is what I ended up making the other night.  It is a combination of 2 recipes.  The one with the least sugar (none) on the bottom, and the least sugar and butter on the top.  It turned out tasty.  Honestly I prefer my apple crisp topping to be a bit more crisp and clumpy than this was, but I don't think you can achieve that effect without more sugar/butter.  (although I did see a recipe today that used granola on top.  That might just solve the problem and work well.  Definitely something to try in the future.)

Ingredients

• 6 cups sliced and peeled apples
• 1 cup sweetened dried cranberries (we actually didn't use these, but I put it in here because the original bottom had it and I'd like to try it.)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (we didn't use these either.  Not sure why, DH was baking, but I do like nuts in the mix so I put as an option for next time.)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375.  Spray a 2 quart baking dish with cooking spray.  
2. In a large bowl, toss apples, lemon juice, cinnamon and cranberries if using.  Pour into the prepared baking dish.
3. In another bowl, mix oats, brown sugar, and flour.  cut in butter until crumbly.  Stir in nuts.  Sprinkle on top of the apples.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is golden brown.

Yellow fruit and veggie pop

Yesterday I don't know what possessed me to decide to spend so much time in the kitchen - withdrawals maybe.  It was fun, and I made some good stuff, but man I don't like the clean up.  :)

First I had promised Benjamin and Aaron that we would make Popsicles.  It had warmed up this week, we were out of frozen treats, and I really didn't feel like buying something store bought because I'm trying to be more healthy and eat less processed foods.....  So, I let the boys pick a popsicle out of my Ice pop Joy book.  Luckily Benjamin picked the yellow goodness pop.  I had wanted to make this pop because it used cantaloupe and mango - both of which I got in my bountiful basket this weekend.  It called for sparkling water - which I had purchased at costco in the morning, and a yellow squash (really making me want to try this - which I had bought in the afternoon.  (Can you tell I wanted to make this pop too - I was sooo glad he picked it.)  

I have not tasted this as a pop, but I did take a sip of the "smoothie" and it was quite good. (That is saying something because I'm not a huge fan of cantaloupe - juiced anyway, I'm also not a huge fan of sparkling water.) Benjamin had a whole cup of the smoothie and drank it down.  He had a pop for breakfast this morning and ate most of it.  I liked the mix of flavors which like I said, surprised me.  I also liked the little bite the sparkling water gave it.  Altogether it made a pretty, tasty, healthy pop.  I'd definitely make this one again. I've also thought of just making this as a smoothie.

Ingredients

• 1 yellow squash, chopped
• 1/2 cantaloupe, scooped from shell and cut into chunks
• 1 cup chopped mango (this was probably 2/3 of my rather large mango)
• 2 cups sparkling water (any flavor -I found a lemon at costco that was just water and natural flavor - no sweeteners or salt.)
• 1/4 cup raw agave nectar

Directions

1. Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.  
2. Pour into molds, add sticks and freeze until solid.

chocolate molten lava cake

This is another cake recipe I found at everydayfoodstorage.net.  This time I was looking for a treat to serve to choir after choir practice. I headed to everydayfoodstorage because I knew she was doing a cake month and found this.  I was a bit skeptical to try this, plus I wanted to replace the bean puree with bean flour and I didn't want it to go wrong and be inedible.  So rather than not experiment, I had my son make some chocolate chip cookies as backup.  The cookies weren't needed.  The cake was delicious.  It has a lot of sugar in it which I am actually really trying to reduce right now, but at least it had no oil, and used some wheat flour and bean flour.  It was also super easy to mix together.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 6 Tablespoons cocoa powder, divided
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup +2 Tablespoons milk (I used 1 %)
• 2 Tablespoons black bean flour (Could use any bean flour)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 3/4 cups hot water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder, baking powder, bean flour, and salt.  Stir in milk and vanilla until smooth.
3. Spread in an ungreased 9 X 9 inch baking pan.  In another bowl, combine brown sugar and remaining cocoa.  Sprinkle over batter.  Pour hot water over all of it.  Do not stir.
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes.  Serve

cherry cake + how to make pureed beans from dry beans in under 10 minutes.

This year Benjamin wanted a cherry cake for his birthday.  I really had no idea how to go about making a cherry cake.  I looked up various recipes on allrecipes.com but they mostly used a can of cherry pie filling or something and I had frozen cherries I wanted to use, so I didn't choose any of those.  I finally found this recipe on everydayfoodstorage.net.  I edited it to make it cherry and use frozen cherries not freeze dried.  I made a cherry cream cheese frosting to go on top.  The cake turned out a bit heavier than I expected, but still good - think more like a pound cake texture than a light and fluffy cake.  I loved the icing.  It was very good.  Really I was happy to make a cake that was pretty healthy -excluding the sugar of course.  :)
If making again, I'd probably just use white bean flour and worry less about the amount of cherries/liquid I was adding.  I could probably get away with adding more cherries if using bean flour.
Here is how I made it (hopefully I correctly remember my changes.  :)

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour (I did use 1 3/4 white and 1/4 wheat)
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white bean puree (see below for a quick way to make bean puree from dry beans, or puree canned white beans, or use butter)
• 3 Tablespoons powdered milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups frozen cherries, defrosted and pureed to make about 1 cup puree.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and powdered milk.  
3. Add bean puree, vanilla, eggs and cherries.  Beat until well mixed.
4. Pour batter into 2 8 or 9 inch round cake pans.  Bake 30-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  (I was not a good timer here.  Forgot to set it at the beginning - sorry.)
5. Cool and frost.

I made frosting using the following

• 1 8 oz package cream cheese
• 1/4 cup cherries, defrosted, juice poured off, then pureed
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar

Directions

1. Cream all ingredients together in a bowl.

How to make bean puree from dried beans -This info comes from the book Country beans by Rita Bingham.

1 cup whole beans = about 1 1/8 cups bean flour

1 cup water + 1/2 cup bean flour = 1 cup "instant mashed beans"

2 cups water + 3/4 cups bean flour = 2 1/2 cups fluffy mashed beans

Directions

1. Bring 1 cup water to a boil then whisk in 1 cup bean flour mixed with 1 cup cool water.  Cook and stir for 1 minute until mixture thickens.  Reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook 4 minutes more stirring occasionally.  
2. Use as oil replacement in recipes or even as refried beans - adding salt and spices of course.  

Of course you can just take a can of beans and puree them to get bean puree, but this isn't super time consuming or anything and it is a way to use dried beans.  (More on beans coming soon.)

heart shaped hand pies

For valentines day I totally wanted to make something simple and chocolate.  I was really leaning towards this (chocolate) ....but I didn't have almond meal.... and we had already had this (more chocolate) for breakfast.  Then I saw this post at our best bites.  I opted to go with the sweetie pie pops, but #1 I had no lollipop sticks.  #2 - wouldn't have mattered, there was no way I was taking that much time to make something so tiny and cutsie.  Boys just don't appreciate it.  However towards the end of that post, they did mention you could make them hand pie size.  That size 1 recipe of pie crust will make 6 hand pies.  Perfect.  I really wanted to make apple but alas, my apples were past usable, so I opted for cherry (DH's vote.)  They really weren't to hard to make, and turned out super cute.  I did use our best bite's pie crust recipe -because it was easier than anything else, and I used the idea for filling from their site as well -found here - you must scroll to get to this part.  Here it is all put together the way I made it.  Of course if you want super wonderful directions and pictures click any of the links to our best bites.  I still have no photos on my current computer so my blog remains photoless.
These were pretty good.  I liked them quite a bit.  How well they were received by the kids depended on how much they liked cherries. :)

Pie crust (Make while you toddler is napping and put in the fridge for later.  :)

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon shortening (I used butter flavored)
• 1/4 cup ice water

Directions

1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.  Cut in the shortening until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
2. Add water a Tablespoon at a time and toss until the dough comes together.
3. Pat into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and put in the fridge until ready to use.

Cherry filling (certainly you could spice this up some, but I was going for ease. -you probably only need to make about 1/2 this much for just 6 pies)

• 2 cups cherries (I used frozen pie cherries which I defrosted in the microwave -no pre-planning on my part)
• 2 or 3 Tablespoons sugar (I think I used 2 heaping Tablespoons because the cherries are a bit tart.)
• 2 -3 Tablespoons flour (again, I used heaping Tablespoons and I think 3 this time because the cherries were plenty juicy

Directions

1. Mix together in a bowl.

To make the pies

1. Roll out dough on a floured surface and cut out 12 heart shapes with a cookie cutter.  Mine was about 3 1/2 inches across.
2. Prepare a cookie sheet by lining with parchment paper.  Place 6 of the hearts evenly spaced on the parchment.  Add a little cherry filling.  Notice the key word.  I thought I was putting a little and leaving enough room for the top - wrong!  They leaked out all over the place.  Of course I took advantage of that and brushed the juices over the top of the pies so they had a sweetish pink glaze, but that is beside the point.  I was super glad they were on parchment because they made a mess.  My fault to be sure, but messy.
3. Top the pies with the remaining 6 heart shaped crust pieces.  Now, if you didn't make a juicy mess, you may need to wet the edge with water to seal the hearts closed.  I certainly didn't.  With or without the water, seal the edges of the heart pies together by pressing down all around the edge with the tines of a fork.
4. Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes.  (Sorry not sure exactly how long they ended up taking.  I'm thinking it was closer to the 30 end for this size.)

Note -with my remaining cherries and crust I did make 1 pie in a jar.  I just pushed the crust into the bottom of the small canning (jelly) jar and filled it as full as I dared with cherries.  Pretty sure mine was 1 size smaller than those used on our best bites.  While I'm hear, I have to say I just clicked on their cupcake link.  Now I need to try those.  Yum!

Strawberry-coconut rice pudding

Really I came to the computer to post this recipe.  I just got here and saw the screens I had up searching for the play dough recipe and looked again.
This recipe is from 366 Delicious Ways to cook rice, beans, and grain.  This book is definitely going on my wish list.
Being a person who rather enjoys her rice pudding, I was surprised (actually quite surprised) to find a new way to cook rice pudding.  This one started in a double boiler - who knew you could cook rice that way - not me.  Just a warning - the actual rice never seemed to boil (and I checked on it a few times wondering when it was going to simmer.)  It didn't, just the water underneath, but magically the rice absorbed all of the water and on we went with the recipe.
 After the rice was made, the pudding was made separately and added to the rice, and the strawberries.  Very effective, but also a bit on the time consuming side.  Luckily the longest part is cooking the rice and it only needs to be slightly baby sat to ensure that the bottom of the double boiler doesn't boil dry. (Mine did while I taught piano lessons.  Luckily it didn't scorch.  I think it had barely boiled dry.  Whew!!
And the important info - was it any good??  Great flavor and texture.  A little too sweet for my liking.  As a dessert, it was great tonight, but typically I like to eat rice pudding as breakfast, and this would definitely be too sweet for me for that.  Next time I will probably try this with 1/2 the sugar/sweetener and sub out some agave. -I made myself some notes in the recipe below.)

On to the recipe.
Did I mention this is time consuming?  Start early :)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup uncooked Arborio rice
• 2 cups water
• 3/4 cup sugar (I used 1 Tablespoon less, and would probably use a lot less next time.
• 1 pint fresh strawberries
• 1 can (14 oz) light coconut milk
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 large eggs

Directions

1. In the top of a double boiler, combine the rice, water, and 1/4 cup of the sugar. (Use 1-2 Tablespoons agave here next time??)  Simmer until the rice is completely tender and most of the water has been absorbed.  (About 1 1/2 hours)  Set aside to cool
2. Meanwhile, wash and hull and slice the berries.  Place in a bowl with another 1/4 cup sugar. (Use less next time)  Mix and set aside.
3. When rice is ready (or almost ready) heat coconut milk in a heavy bottomed, medium saucepan over medium-low heat.  Combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cornstarch (Here is where I took out 1 Tablespoon of sugar -debated more and should have taken out more -next time.)  Whisk cornstarch/sugar mixture into the coconut milk.  Continue whisking until the sugar is completely dissolved.  In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until smooth.  Add about 1 cup of the hot coconut milk mixture to the eggs whisking continuously.  Slowly pour the eggs back into the saucepan, again whisking continuously.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens.  (About 10 minutes - it will look bubbly at first, but it gets to looking nice and puddingy (you know smooth, thick and creamy)  That does take just about 10 minutes.  I went back and froth from whisking and using a silicon scraper spoon that I like to stir with.  Whisk kept the pudding smooth, silicon spoon kept it from sticking anywhere (sides or bottom.)
4. Stir cooked rice and strawberries with their juice into the pudding mixture.
5. Set aside to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until chilled. 

Lemon Lime Jello

Along with the lime chicken I made yet again another jello salad.  I don't know what my facination is with making these.  I guess I feel like I made a dessert which of course my kids love.  They are in no way healthy though - although I have an Idea to try this but in a healthy version - I'm a little worried though.  Anyway, the idea for this came from Deals to Meals.  I thought is was so strange to combine jello and pudding - probably what possessed me to try it - I couldn't even imagine the result.  It turned out ok.  Pretty tangy with these lemon/lime flavors.  I'd love to see a chocolate pudding with strawberry jello.  (That is my goal for a healthy version - we'll see)  Here is how to make this one. -Oh, I was going to go without putting the cool whip on top, but trust me, it needs it.  Kind of takes off the super strong tangy/sweet artificial lemon/lime flavor.  Sorry, I know I'm not making it sound appetizing.  It is my healthy side taking over the typing fingers.  The kids loved it though.  Tavio chose to have 1/2 pudding and 1/2 ice cream for dessert last night, so it really isn't all that bad.  :)

Ingredients

• 1 large box cook n'serve lemon pudding
• 1 large box lime jello (I used 2 small)
• 1 tub cool whip (I only used about 1/2 the tub

Directions

1. Make lemon pudding according to package directions.  Set aside.  Make the lime jello according to package directions, minus 1/2 cup water (I do have to say I did it the quick way using ice for the cold water so it would be cool and start to set.)  
2. Whisk together the jello and pudding.  Pour into a 9 X 13 pan.  
3. Let cool in fridge for 3-4 hours until firm.  When firm top with cool whip.  

Cheddar-Pear pie

And finally for the pie that went in the previous post (push in pie crust)  This too come from Family FEasts for $75 a week.  I did my normal healthier tweeking - bit of extra fruit here coconut oil there...  Even added (not bean flour :) which is surprising lately, but a high fiber starch that I have - just subbed out 1-2 Tablespoons for the regular flour but I don't expect most people to have that so I'm leaving it out of the recipe.)  I probably also made some sort of sugar substitution but at this point I can't remember.  Maybe not because I increased the fruit.
I loved this pie.  (Actually there is a piece left in the refrigerator - I know what my reward for making it thorough this last day of DH being out of town will be.  Sorry Brandon, there will be no pie for you to try.) I was of course skeptical about this pie.  I always am when it is something new.  I was worried about not liking pear - would it get too mushy?  I worried about not liking the cheese on top.  I've heard of apples and cheese and even enjoyed the 2 together once or twice but for some reason it still sounds weird to me. Well, I was pleasantly surprised with how this turned out.  I loved the flakiness of the crust, and the little crunch the toasted cheese on top of the pie gave it.  The cheese also added just enough savory to the sweet.  It was such a nice combinations.  If pears are on sale this week where you live like they are here, you should definitely go try this pie.  In fact, maybe I'll have to buy some more and make this for DH to try - wouldn't want him to miss out right?? :)

Ingredients

• 1 Push-in pie crust
• 5 medium-large ripe pears, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
• dash of salt

Topping Ingredients

• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup flour 
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup sugar
• dash of salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Press crust into a 9 inch pie pan (I used a deeper dish pyrex to accommodate the extra fruit)
3. In a large bowl, combine pears, sugar, cornstarch and salt.  Pour into pie crust.  
4. Be lazy like me, scrape the bowl well, and use the same bowl to combine the topping ingredients until nice and crumbly. (It seemed easier to me to work but the cheese together and then add the cheese, so that is what I did.)  Sprinkle evenly over the filling.
5. Bake until crust is golden and cheese is melted, 25 to 35 minutes.  (I didn't think the topping looked done enough at 25 but the edges of the crust were browning too much so I tosses a little crust cover over it and baked it the remaining 10 minutes.)  Let cool 10 minutes on wire rack.  Serve warm

 --  I thought it sounded lovely with vanilla ice cream, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't super warm by the time we ate it.  It was plenty good just plain.  :)  

push in pie crust

This was the easiest pie crust ever.  My 5 year old helped me make it and was perfectly happy to do so.  (Not to mention capable.)  I found the recipe/idea in Family Feasts for $75.  I changed it to use coconut oil and couldn't help myself but throw in some bean flour.  Getting crazy with my experimenting lately.  It really had a great texture.
It was very odd to make because I mixed in all of the coconut oil first (before adding the milk) so that it wouldn't clump.  It seemed very moist and I honestly debated adding the milk, but each Tablespoon actually firmed up the dough a bit (I'm thinking because it solidified the coconut oil a bit.)  I thought it was kind of cool, but I'm kind of geeky in the kitchen like that.  :)
It's ease combined with the nice texture are winning it a 5 star from me.  I think this will be my go-to pie crust for any pie other than special occasions or further experimenting (like different grains.)


***Update 5/24/12 - I tried this today with whole wheat flour and coconut palm sugar.  I actually needed a bit extra milk but the resulting crust was very tasty.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour (I subbed out 2 Tablespoons regular flour for 2 Tablespoons pinto bean flour)
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 2 Tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Toss flour(s), sugar and salt in the bottom of a pie pan.  Mix with a fork.  (Watch out, 5 year olds mix it right out of the container.  ;)  Add oil and mix through.  Add milk and mix again.  (If using another oil, you could certainly add the milk and oil together.  I just didn't want to with coconut oil.  My house is warm enough in summer that my coconut oil is always liquid and I wanted it mixed with the flour that way.)
2. Press dough around the pie plate with fingertips.  (I find that my palm works much better for the bottom of the pan.)  I didn't bother making a scalloped edge, but you can. 
3. If using the crust for a pudding-type pie, bake empty pie shell in an oven pre-heated to 425 for 10 to 12 minutes.  Otherwise follow directions of your recipe.

Grape salad

This salad was simply delicious.  It is basically the dip that I've seen at numerous events, but with the fruit stirred in.  If you ask me, there was a bit too much dip for the amount of grapes, and we used probably double the amount of grapes called for.  This would be delicious with any type of fruit.  Top on my list to try would be strawberries.
Next time I would probably just make a 1/2 batch of sauce.
Update 10/27.  I have made this a couple more times cutting the cream cheese mix in half and it was great that way.  (One time that I paid attention I actually had 3 pounds of grapes and I still only used 1/2 the cream cheese.  Much better than the original 1-2 pounds for the entire batch of cream cheese.)  Forgot the almonds/pecans both times though.  And purposely didn't add the brown sugar. :)

Ingredients

• 2 bags seedless grapes (we used a black and red)
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• optional - sliced almonds or chopped pecans

Directions

1. Wash, separate and dry the grapes.  
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla. (I like an electric hand mixer for this)  Add grapes and mix until evenly coated.  
3. Sprinkle with brown sugar and nuts (oops I added my brown sugar to the mix and thought it was just plumb strange to call for 2 types of sugar.  I should so learn to read directions. :)  Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Banana nutella rolls

I had these on the menu forever before actually trying them.  They were pretty simple to make.  Not sure how much I really liked them.  They sounded so yummy - nutella and banana, but I'm not a huge fan of mushy banana (although I do like them fried so I thought this would be good.  I do however think this would be excellent with another fruit that maybe wouldn't get mushy, and if you are more of a banana fan, I'm sure these would be great.  I'd love to try them with sliced strawberries or even raspberries.  YUM!
I found the recipe in my Rachael Ray magazine.  Not many changes except I didn't dust mine with powdered sugar and she did.  You could try that if you wanted something sweeter.  I also tried making a couple with just cooking spray (not brushed with butter - mostly because  I had 2 left and no more melted butter.  They are still good, but obviously better with the butter.)

Sorry for the picture -I totally need a new flash.  This also must have
been the week I had no dishwasher since it is on a paper plate.  I chose
this picture rather than a powdered sugar one to show the bananas
and nutella inside.  

Ingredients

• 8 egg roll wrappers
• 3 bananas, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
• 3 Tablespoons Nutella (didn't measure this at all and probably used more)
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter

Directions

1. Working 1 at a time, spread 1 teaspoon (more or less) of nutella down the center of the egg roll wrapper (leave room all around to roll up)  Top with 4 or 5 slices of banana.  
2. Brush edges with butter.  Roll up like a burrito.  
3. Brush the outside with butter and cook in a nonstick skillet over medium heat 4 minutes per side or until nicely browned.  

zucchini chocolate cake with sour cream icing

I came upon a recipe for zucchini chocolate cake with orange glaze in my Taste of home healthy cooking magazine.  I really wanted to make it and so I had every plan to and bought the zucchini.  I had a ton of tangelos so I figured I was good.  However, my boys ate through the tangelos like crazy eating 2-4 at a time and they ended up gone for this and a previous post.  However, this week I also saw a recipe on Jami cooks it up for a zucchini cake with sour cream icing.  Both cakes were actually quite similar -both even cooked in a fluted tube pan, but Jami's wasn't chocolate.  However I did decide to modify and use her sour cream icing idea.  Wish I could have made my cake look as good as hers.  :)  Here is the cake I came up with - mostly the Taste of home cake - minus walnuts and 1 T orange peel - I'd love to try this again with the orange peel and orange glaze.  I left the nuts out to make sure all of the kids would eat it - and they did - and loved it.  ONLY way to get zucchini into my toddler.  (and this cake actually had a good deal.)  I even used over 1/2 wheat flour - I could tell I did that, but no child had any complaints - couldn't taste the zucchini at all.  This would be great without the wheat flour.  I also think it would taste wonderful with chocolate chips.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup sugar (I actually used 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup splenda.  I'm not a huge artificial sweetener fan anymore,  but I still have a bag of splenda so I decided to use some here.)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 1/2 cup white wheat ground on the pastry setting in my grinder and 1 cup white)
• 1/2 cup cocoa (I used dutch process)
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tesapoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup milk (I had 2 % today)
• 3 cups shredded zucchini - I had 3 medium and it was only about 2.5 cups shredded

Icing ingredients

• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 Tablespoon butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

1. Coat a 10 inch fluted tube pan with cooking spray and sprinkle with flour.  Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in applesauce and vanilla.
3. Combine flour, (or flours if using wheat and white) cocoa, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and soda; add to the creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition.  Fold in zucchini.
4. Pour into prepared pan.  Bake for 50-60 minutes (mine took 60) or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
5. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack to cool completely.
6. In a medium bowl beat icing ingredients together until smooth.  Frost.

Rainforest cookies

This recipe came from a story book we checked out of the library.  It was about the rain forest, and had a cookie recipe at the end.  I made a couple of changes - one just a typo correction, and I added more coconut.  These were a bit on the cakey side for me for cookies - I assume it must be the addition of banana because other than that they are a basic chocolate chip cookie.  I liked the flavor, but if I'm going to waste the calories, and 2 sticks of butter I'd rather the cookie seem like a cookie more than a bread.  I could have just made banana bread - would have had more bananas and less butter.  But that is me being silly - they are super tasty, and I do want to eat a ton once I start eating, but then again I'm a cookie monster.  :)

Ingredients

• 2 to 2 1/4 cups flour (I actually used 1 cup wheat and 1.25 cups white)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 stick butter -(oops I used 2.  Maybe that was my problem. Now I'll have to make them again.)
• 1 medium ripe banana
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes
• 2 cups chocolate chips (12 oz)
• 1 cup chopped cashews

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.  combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside.
2. beat butter, banana, and sugars until creamy
3. beat in eggs and then add coconut.
4. Add flour mixture using extra flour if needed.
5. Stir in chocolate chips and cashews.
6. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet (I always cover mine in parchment or a baking mat.)
7. Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

Lemon Chiffon pie

I must stop commenting how far behind I am.  It is the new norm for my blog.  I'm going to be surprised when I'm actually caught up.  :)  This particular recipe is still up in my browser from Father's day last sunday.  (as is my next post which was the dinner I made.)  Brandon actually picked peach crisp, but then I had to make a pie for church, and he picked lemon chiffon.  I had him buy graham cracker crusts because I had forgotten to make the pie until the last minute, and he bought 2 along with 2 bags of large lemons, so I made 2.  Now I have to remember what I changed.  :)  Pretty sure it was just the amount of lemon zest.  I like a lemony pie.
This was the first time I had made this type of pie, and I found the instructions on allrecipes to be a bit vague for my liking.  I'll try to add detail.
I had thought this would be a simple pie, but it was a bit involved.  However, that was fine. What wasn't fine was  the horrible lemons we got - tons of skin making them hard to squeeze.  Then when we almost had our cup full of juice, it got knocked over by a hubby trying to be helpful.  Not a delightful time, but the pie got made and didn't have to bake in the oven, and it turned out delicious, and we had one for home and one for church, so I guess it was still a win.  I'm writing instructions for 1 pie.  It works fine to double and make 2 at a time as well.

Ingredients

• 1 .25 oz package unflavored gelatin
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust

Directions

1. Soften gelatin in water 5 minutes.  
2. Meanwhile in the top of a double boiler, beat egg yolks.  Add sugar, lemon juice and salt.  Cook stirring constantly until of custard consistency (this was when it thickened, but not super thick - maybe like a thin gravy - I expected it to get thicker and worried that it wouldn't turn out, but it did.)  Remove from heat and add grated lemon zest and softened gelatin and stir thoroughly.  Cool
3. When mixture begins to get thick, (It won't be super thick - again, I was waiting for pudding texture or something and worried that it wasn't going to work - basically when mixture is cooler and a bit thicker) In a clean bowl, whip egg whites until stiff, adding remaining 1/2 cup sugar while whipping.  Fold egg whites into custard.
4. Pour filling into pie shell and chill in the refrigerator.  Serve when firm.  (I chilled mine overnight.  It firmed up great and was wonderful - light and airy with a great lemon flavor.)