PB&J cookies

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies

1 C sugar, plus extra for rolling dough
1 C brown sugar, firmly packed
1 C shortening regular or butter flavored
1 C creamy peanut butter
2 Lg eggs
1/4 C milk
2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 C flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbs salt
3/4 C jam, jelly or preserves

Preheat oven to 375
Beat together sugar, brown sugar, shortening and peanut butter until blended. Add eggs, milk & vanilla. Beat well. stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to peanut butter mixture. Beat well. Shape dough into 1 inch balls, roll in sugar. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven, cool 2 minutes. Make a depression in the center of each warm cookie with the back of a teaspoon. Fill each depression with about 1/2 tsp jelly.
Cool completely.

What's for dinner?

Pork stir fry
Ingredients:
1lb boneless pork ribs, cubed
1 head cauliflower
1 stalk broccoli
1 onion
rice
Mr Yoshida's sauce
chow mein noodles

If using long cook rice, start it before you begin the stir fry, or else you end up waiting on rice. Chop onion & pork. Heat 1 Tbsp oil and add in skillet when hot. Cook meat through. Chop veggies. When meat is all cooked, dilute yoshita sauce 2/3 sauce 1/3 water and pour into skillet. Add veggies and cover. Bring to a boil & turn heat to med or med/low. Cook veggies to taste. Enjoy with hot rice & chow mein noodles!! Mmmmm...

Apple day!!

Today, after picking Lauren up from school, my neighbors called us over to their garage, and handed us a HUGE bag of apples!! They had just taken everything off their tree & had a ton leftover. I gladly accepted this awesome gift!! After peeling & coring, I put them in the crockpot with a little water & some cinnamon and a little pumpkin pie spice too!!

My kids think this stuff is dessert. (and don't tell them otherwise!!)

Honey Baked Pears

Here is a new recipe that I would like to try. I will share it with you!

Prep: 12 min.; Bake: 25 min.

Cost per serving: $1.05

Yield

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 cup crushed graham crackers
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon apple-pie spice
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 3 pears (about 2 lb.), peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Stir lemon juice with honey and 1/2 cup water in a small bowl until blended. In a separate bowl, blend graham cracker crumbs with sugar and apple-pie spice, then stir in melted butter.

2. Layer pears in an 11-by-7-inch baking dish and sprinkle with half of crumb mixture. Pour honey mixture over pears and sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture. Bake about 25 minutes, until pears are tender when pierced with a knife, topping is golden brown and juices are bubbling. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream, or let cool, cover and refrigerate to serve cold.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

269

Fat:

9g (sat 5g)

Protein:

1g

Carbohydrate:

50g

Fiber:

4g

Cholesterol:

20mg

Sodium:

127mg

All You, OCTOBER 2009

Blueberry Coffee Cake!!

Today, I got a great recipe from a friend of mine for Blueberry Coffee Cake. It was soooo delicious!! I made a double batch (hoping to freeze some) but it was half gone after dinner!! Everyone (especially Brad) couldn't keep their hands off it!!
I will share the recipe with you!!

The original recipe calls for an 8x8 pan. I doubled the recipe and baked it in a 9x13. I am going to post the original 8x8 recipe.

Topping:
1/3 c flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c sugar
--mix well
1/4 c butter, softened (or Dairy Free margarine)
--cut in with a pastry blender or fork until incorporated.

Batter:
mix together-
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk separately-
1/4 c vegetable oil
3/4 c sugar
1 egg (or egg substitute)

1/2 c milk (or soy milk)
--stir into sugar mixture alternately with flour

Then fold into batter
1 c blueberries

Pour batter into greased & floured 8x8 pan. Cover with streusel topping.
Bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 mins (bake longer if doubling recipe) until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool & serve. Enjoy! (we sure did!)

Yummy Raspberry Bread!!

Today, I made a loaf of Raspberry bread from scratch, with Berries from my garden!! It was a hit. I will share my recipe with you!!

Ingredients for bread:
1 1/3 cups fresh (or frozen) Raspberries
2 C flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
dash salt
1 egg (or egg substitute)
3 Tbsp melted butter (or dairy free margarine)
1C milk (or soy or rice milk)

Ingredients for streusel:
3-4 Tbsp butter (or DF margarine)
2/3 C brown sugar
1/3 C quick oats (I put them in the food processor)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease bread pan.
In one bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder & salt. Mix. Add egg, melted butter & milk. Mix. Fold in raspberries gently. Pour in bread pan.

In a separate bowl, cut up butter for streusel. Add brown sugar and oats. With a fork or a pastry cutter, incorporate the struesel ingredients. Pour over the bread mixture in the pan.

Bake 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Pizza

Tonight, for dinner, I made the kiddo's a (kiddo safe) taco pizza!!

I think that it turned out pretty good!!

I am guessing that the kids thought so too, because between them, they ate more than half!!

The flu strikes again!!

The flu struck me this morning. I wish I would have known this. Now you will!!

Tummy Tea Time

How about something that has all-natural ingredients and that will rehydrate you and rebalance your electrolytes even better than Gatorade?

INGREDIENTS:
~ about a cup of HOT WATER (not boiling! if it boiled, let it cool slightly)
~ about a half LEMON, squeezed in (more or less depending on your taste)
~ a liberal amount of SEA SALT (to taste, but do add a lot!)
~ a spoonful of RAW HONEY

Mix these up and sip slowly. The warmth itself is soothing, but the ingredients will work to actively settle your poor tender tummy.

If you can catch it at the right time between "bouts," a very small amount of this Tummy Tea can actually help stop you throwing up again. Wait until 10 or 15 minutes after throwing up, and have a small sip. After a few minutes, try another sip. Don't gulp big amounts of it! Continue to take tiny amounts at intervals and it will help stop the "something in-something out" cycle.

The warmth itself is soothing, but the ingredients work to restore the upset balance in your tummy, helping it stop the spastic cycle of overreacting to everything that comes in.

Irish Soda Bread with Raisins

This is what we made at our house today with our Girl Scout troop for our thinking day celebration coming up!! Enjoy!!

Irish Soda Bread with Raisins

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
2 C all purpose flour
5 Tbsp sugar, divided
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
¾ tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp butter chilled and cut into cubes
1 C buttermilk
1 C raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray an 8-inch diameter cake pan with nonstick spray. Wisk together flour, 4 Tbsp sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and baking soda in a large bowl to blend. Add butter. Using fingertips, rub in until a course meal forms. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add buttermilk. Gradually stir dry ingredients into milk to blend. Mix in raisins.

Transfer in to the prepared pan. Sprinkle dough with remaining Tbsp of sugar.

Bake bread until light brown and tester into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool bread in pan 10 minutes. Transfer to rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER!!

Ok, so I have been trying to find that "just right" Chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have to substitute lots of different things to make baked goods work in my house. I have found the best milk-free, egg-free, nut-free cookie ever!! You can make it full dairy & egg and add nuts if you want to though!! I will write out the recipe with all options!!

1 C brown sugar
3/4 C sugar
1 C butter (or dairy-free margarine or dairy-free shortening)
***I used 1/2 cup D.F. margarine and 1/2 cup D.F. shortening***
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs (or 1 Tbsp Ener-G egg replacer powder & 1/4 cup warm water, stir together)
2 1/2 C flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
12 oz chocolate chips (I used dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free semi-sweet choc chips)
Optional: 1 cup nuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In one large bowl, combine brown sugar, sugar and butter. Beat 3 minutes on medium until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and eggs (or egg substitute). Add flour, baking soda and salt. Stir. Add chocolate chips.

Drop by 1/4 cupfuls. Flatten slightly with a fork. Bake 11-14 minutes until the edges are lightly brown. Centers will be soft. Cool 3-4 minutes on the pan and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum... Just look at them! How could you resist??? I have never baked cookies that look & taste like that!!