Oatmeal Mondays

Roasted bananas seem to be all the rage right now.  Roasted banana pudding, roasted banana bread, roasted banana ice cream, etc.  Before baking a dessert with these ultra sweet gems, I wanted to taste them first to see what all the fuss was about.

To roast a banana, you place it unpeeled on a baking sheet and bake it for 20-30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Mine took about 20 minutes.  You'll know when it's done when the peel turns completely black and it starts leaking its juices.

Like this:

Let it cool a bit and then using a sharp knife, cut down the peel and the banana, along with its juices will fall right out.  It looked a little gross, I must admit but I just added it to a cooked bowl of plain oatmeal and stirred.  The flavor was definitely sweet and it was fun eating a banana in a different way, but I've had organic bananas that were sweeter.  So I think next time I will experiment and see if a roasted organic banana is noticeably sweeter than any other banana I've had in the past.

FYI: Be sure to run some water on your baking sheet right away or the sticky juices will be hard to scrub off! 

Cake Fridays

My mom hosted a bunco party at her house last night.  All of her girlfriends from the neighborhood were in attendance.  She was kind enough to ask me to bake some goodies for the party.  I made maple pumpkin granola and Sue's chocolate cake in a cupcake tin.  The cupcakes were topped off with hot pink French vanilla frosting and adorned with mini dice.  They turned out rather cute, if I do say so myself.  My mom did a great job decorating them right before the festivities!

I got the idea from Pinterest, shocking surprise!  The dice are sugar cubes dotted with black decorating icing.  Be sure to let them dry overnight and spread the dice out on a cookie sheet or else they will stick to each other.

For the frosting, I consulted this blog site.  I whipped one package French vanilla pudding mix with 1 C milk until thick.  Then I folded in a tub of extra creamy Cool Whip and about 30 drops of red food coloring to achieve the hot pink color.  It made a lot of frosting so I decorated the 12 cupcakes my mom requested and made 12 graham cracker frozen treats with the rest (an idea I got from the above blog site).  I laid out 24 graham crackers.  I took a large ice cream scooper filled with the frosting and dolloped it on every other graham cracker, making 12 sandwiches.  I put them into a gallon size plastic bag and placed them in the freezer.

I love this frosting because it contains no butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract or powdered sugar!  It reminds me of a marshmallow cream and turned out so light, silky and smooth.  If you're looking for a thicker, denser, richer frosting, stick with traditional buttercream.  But this one was perfect for us :)  

Stuffed, Baked Apples

I had every intention of making this cake but when I saw we had a surplus of apples in the fridge, I decided to halve the chocolate-peanut butter streusel recipe and stuff some fruit.  This was a new adventure for me, since I've never stuffed and baked apples before.  I think next time I will use either golden delicious or macintosh.  The galas I used were just OK and tasted more like pears when baked than apples.

Chocolate-peanut butter streusel:

3-6 T brown sugar
4 T natural peanut butter
1 T flour
1/2 C semi sweet chocolate chips

Mix streusel ingredients and set aside.  Wash and core 4 apples, using a spoon to scoop out the insides of  the apple, but don't go through the bottom.  Stuff each apple with streusel.  Place in 8x8 glass baking dish with 3 T apple juice.  Bake 30-40 minutes in a 325 degree oven until done.

FYI: Mine baked for 33 minutes but I think they went too long.  They were a little mushy but still delicious.  If you like apple slices with peanut butter and as an added bonus, melted chocolate, you will love this "healthy" dessert, breakfast, and snack.  I had some streusel left over, perfect to mix into vanilla ice cream or use as a topping :)  Overall, this is kid tested and mother approved.  I will certainly be making these again soon.  Great fall activity if you go apple picking too! 

Slightly adapted from: iheartnaptime

Nutty, crunchy fruit salad

 Refreshing, healthful and addictive: This snack will have everyone 

in the house celebrating summer!

Dice one apple, any variety

Halve a few handfuls of grapes, green or red

Chop a few handfuls of nuts (I used almonds)

Add to a large bowl.  Plop some dollops of Greek yogurt on top, along with a few sprinklings of cinnamon and 1-3 capfuls of lime juice (optional).  Stir to combine.  Place in refrigerator until ready to serve.  Add some water before service to loosen the yogurt mixture.  Perfect to have as a snack, kid friendly, and will decorate any bowl of oatmeal.  Enjoy :) 

Smudgies

These are the bomb!  Do people even say that anymore?!  Seriously though, I didn't expect these graham crackers filled with banana and peanut butter to really taste like ice cream when frozen, but they do!  The kids loved them and so did the parents :)

FYI: I mashed one banana with 2 T natural peanut butter and got 8.5 graham cracker sandwiches (17 crackers in total).  I froze them in a plastic bag and they proved to be a delectable snack. 

Oatmeal Mondays

Eggless Baked Oatmeal

2 C canned pumpkin

2 C Greek yogurt

4 T chia seeds 

2 C old fashioned oats

2T-4T water to loosen the batter

I stopped here, mixed all the ingredients together in a bowl and poured it into an 8x8 glass baking dish.  I baked it for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  I reheated each serving in the microwave for 2.5 minutes, dusted it with cinnamon and adorned it with a sliced banana.  4 servings.

If you are not a fan of the sometimes bitter taste of canned pumpkin, you might want to add vanilla extract to the mixture, pumpkin pie spice, brown sugar, and/or your favorite chopped nuts.  I would suggest 1 t vanilla extract, 1/4 t pumpkin pie spice, 1/4 C brown sugar, and 1/4 C chopped nuts.  

This is a super healthy, energy boosting breakfast.  I loved it and I think you will too :) 

 

Cake Fridays

I know this cake is totally unseasonable, but I have a soft spot for all things gingerbread.  I love those bold, spicy flavors mixed with molasses.  This cake is not for the faint of heart.  It is very dark, rich and poignant.  When I first came across this recipe, I thought, "A cup of molasses!"  It seemed like overkill to me, but once you try this heavily seasoned and fragrant cake, you'll see that it works.

 

FYI: I loved this cake but my family thought it was one-note so maybe next time I'll add a cup of chocolate chips or a half a cup of crystallized ginger.  I also used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour to add more earthy, nutty flavors.  I filled a 9 inch round cake pan to the top with this batter so it mushroomed up when baked.  Next time I might save some of the batter for a donut or a few mini cupcakes.  It still tasted great but it took longer to bake (I had to cover it after 35 minutes and bake it an additional 8-10 minutes).  All in all, I would make this cake again, preferably around Christmastime :)  

Cottage Cheese Cornbread

I LOVE Foster's Market salt and pepper skillet cornbread.  It's one of my favorites, but this cottage cheese cornbread comes in a close second.  You know how some cornmeal based recipes bake up dry and crumbly? 

Well, this cornbread is the opposite of dry and crumbly!  It is so moist and fluffy from the cottage cheese, buttermilk, oil and eggs.  You can't even taste the cottage cheese, so if it's not your favorite dairy product, have no fear.  You will still adore this cornbread.  It's not super sweet either (only 2 T brown sugar and 1 C frozen corn in the whole batter), which makes for the perfect dinner accompaniment.  Thanks again everybody likes sandwiches!  

FYI: I baked mine in a 9 inch square pan for 25 minutes and got 12 servings.  2 pieces per person is sufficient but trust me, you'll be tempted to go back for more.  You don't even need to slather on the butter...it's that luscious!         

Double Chocolate Cherry Muffins

If you've been following my blog, you may have noticed a trend.  We love chocolate, cherries, and almond extract in our baked goods.  The three ingredients are so compatible and harmonious; they play off of each other to create a delectable song on your taste buds.  That's why I couldn't wait to make these double chocolate cherry muffins.  The recipe hails from one of my most visited sites: everybody likes sandwiches.  It contains simple, uncomplicated recipes that are reliable and enticing.  Click on the link and check out the recipe index!

FYI: I used whole, dried, tart Montmorency cherries, almond extract instead of vanilla, and milk chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips.  I think I baked them too long because they turned out a bit dry.  Next time I will take them out of the oven after 18 minutes, instead of baking the full 20 minutes.  Everyone adored them slathered with butter or Nutella or both!  Enjoy :)         

Oatmeal Mondays

Here is my version of coconut granola clusters:

• 2 C old fashioned oats
• 2 C Oatmeal Squares cereal
• 1/2 C brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 C chopped almonds
• 1/2 C shredded coconut
• 3/4 C total dried cherries and dried cranberries
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 C honey
• 1/3 C oil
• 1 T vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine oats, cereal, brown sugar, almonds, coconut, dried fruit, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, heat honey until warm, about 15 seconds.  Stir in oil and vanilla extract.  Pour liquids over oat/cereal mixture and mix thoroughly until everything is completely coated.
3. Grease cookie sheet and spread mixture evenly in a single layer.  Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes until slightly golden brown.  No need to stir during baking.  Cool completely and break into pieces.  Store in an air tight container.

Slightly adapted from barbarabakes.com

FYI: This recipe makes a lot of hearty oat clusters, perfect to put in your favorite cereal bowl with a healthy dose of milk and a sliced banana.  Mix the granola clusters into Greek yogurt with extra honey drizzled over top if cereal isn't your thing.  Top your favorite ice cream with these chunks of heaven to add some crunch.  Or just munch on the clusters right out of the container.  Put these in front of your kids and watch them peck, nip, flap, and pick like little birds.  These coconut granola clusters are something special, you'll see:)    

Happy Father's Day!

 

As promised, pancakes this morning too!  I made speculoos pancakes and boy were they yummy.

The batter was super thick so I wasn't sure how they would cook up.  They turned out fluffy and tall.  Topped with more speculoos spread, a sliced banana and a drizzle of syrup would be a marvelous addition to this breakfast.  But these are so substantial and sweet on their own that you can eat them plain.  They are almost dessert-like.  The prefect breakfast treat for the dad(s) in your house!

 

All pancakes, all weekend!

Since Sunday is Father's Day and my husband LOVES pancakes, that's what I'll be serving up all weekend long!

This morning I made lemon cornmeal pancakes with strawberry sauce from my new favorite site: eatliverun.com.  The lemon olive oil cake from yesterday's post hails from the same site and what better way to continue the lemon tradition than with pancakes?!

I combined the dry ingredients last night so this morning all I had to do was whisk the eggs, buttermilk, oil and applesauce, and zest the lemon.  Since I knew I'd be frying these babies up in butter, I opted for 1 T oil and 1 T applesauce.  These pancakes are light and delicate with a sandy texture from the cornmeal. 

Next time I might make a blueberry sauce to compliment these lemon cornmeal pancakes and maybe even add some toasted pecans.  Overall, they were absolutely delicious and I will definitely be making them again soon!

Look at the foamy butter

I had mine with the sauce only

My husband added syrup

FYI: My pancakes took 3-5 minutes per side and my strawberry sauce took 25-30 minutes to soften.  I used a 1/4 measuring cup to ladle my pancakes into the pan and made 12 pancakes total, which came to 3 (4 pancakes each) servings in our house. 

Cake Fridays

Lemon + Olive Oil = A refreshing, early summer cake

The olive oil gives it a rich, full bodied flavor.  The lemon zest and juice cut right through it.  The four eggs, when whipped for 5 minutes with the sugar, give the cake a light, airy texture.

FYI: My cake baked up in 30 minutes flat, and I only added 2/3 C sugar.  When dusted with powdered sugar, it is complete bliss.  Enjoy :)

Lemon Olive Oil Cake

Source: eatliverun.com 

4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Zest of 1 lemon
juice of 2 lemons
powdered sugar for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9" cake round---set aside.
Beat together the eggs and sugar until very pale and fluffy. For best results, use a Kitchen Aid mixer on high setting for five minutes. If you don't have a Kitchen Aid, beat by hand until very thick.
Slowly stream in the olive oil and lemon juice into the eggs and sugar mixture and fold in with a rubber spatula.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and zest. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, making sure you get down to the bottom of the bowl so everything is incorporated well.
Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for 45 minutes.
Let cake cool in pan slightly before inverting onto a cake plate and dusting with powdered sugar.

Soft and chewy spiced carrot cake cookies

I have the dough chilling in the fridge :)

Can't wait to bake off these beauties! 




Fast forward to noon...here is what they look like:

Firmed up on the cooling racks but still soft and delicate

Light oatmeal cookies with little carrot thorns sticking out

 If you prefer cookies to cake, this is the prefect carrot cake replacement.  Me, I crave cake everyday, although these got me out of making cream cheese frosting!  I'll feast on a piece of cake on Friday :)

Peanut Butter Tassies

One of my favorite cookies and my mom's good friend surprised us with a batch!  I think my favorite part is the sweet, salty combination.  The peanut butter cups are just salty enough to offset the sweet cookie crust.  These are so much fun to make and eat.  They go fast since they are mini sized so don't even try to keep track of how many you've consumed.  These are fabulous served warm with ice cream, frozen with whipped cream, or at room temperature with a tall glass of milk.  I have eaten these every way possible...can you tell?!

Peanut Butter Tassies
Source: My mom's good friend

1/2 C softened butter
1/2 C peanut butter
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 C flour
3/4 T baking soda
1/2 t salt
48 mini Reese Cups candies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a medium bowl, add flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars.  Add egg and vanilla.  Add the flour mixture, and cream with the butter mixture.  Roll into small balls about the size of a walnut.  Place in tassie (mini muffin) pan.  Don't flatten.  Bake for 7-10 minutes.  Immediately place small peanut butter cup in each cup.  Let cool in pans.  Makes about 48.  Can substitute candy kisses.  Invert kisses when putting in each cup.      

Oatmeal Mondays and Avocado Continuation

My weekly Monday blog posts normally feature oatmeal based recipes.  But I made these mini chocolate avocado muffins yesterday, and I couldn't wait to talk about them!  I am also out of creative, interesting oatmeal recipes at the moment :(

So these muffins come together in a snap and contain zero butter, zero oil.  The avocado flavor is masked by the cocoa powder and chocolate chips.  Those healthy fats are in there but you can't even taste them!  Perfect for the pickiest of eaters, like my children.  They won't eat an avocado, but they'll scarf down these muffins.

These muffins travel well too.  They are firm, super sturdy treats that won't disintegrate when you bite into them.  No crumbly mess here.  Oh, wait a minute, these will create a mess on the littlest of hands with those gooey chocolate chips though.  Just be sure to pack extra wipes that day :)

FYI: I made 24 standard sized muffins, added water instead of milk, measured out 2/3 C sugar instead of 1 C sugar, and stirred in regular sized semisweet morsels.  The first batch baked for 20 minutes, and the second batch took 23 minutes.  Enjoy!   

   

Sunday Dressing

With an overabundance of avocados from my trip to Costco, what better way to use one up than in the form of a homemade, fresh, all-purpose dressing.  

The almighty avocado

  
Creamy Avocado Dressing
Source: Redbook magazine

1 large ripe avocado
2 scallions, white and light green parts only
1 large garlic clove
1/3 C extra-virgin olive oil
juice from 1/2 lemon
3/4 t salt
pinch cayenne pepper

Place avocado, scallions, and garlic in food processor.  Process to rough puree.  Add oil, lemon juice, salt, cayenne and 3 T cold water.  Process until dressing is smooth and creamy.

This would be prefect drizzled on your favorite salad, spread on a hamburger bun (think mayonnaise alternative), poked with carrot and celery sticks, or anyway you like it!  The possibilities are endless :)

Cake Fridays

To continue the debate of whether or not something baked in a loaf pan can be called a cake, I asked my husband what he thought.  He agreed with me.  If something is baked as a quick bread how can it be called a cake?  So I "surfed" Google and found tons of recipes for loaf cakes.  I came to the conclusion that people do call them cakes and it doesn't really matter what pan you use, especially if you add frosting to it like this whole wheat applesauce loaf cake.  So it all depends if you like your cakes round, square, rectangular, or in bundt form.  Anyway you slice it, it's still cake! 

Head on over to my new favorite blog where you'll find this recipe and many more delicious creations: http://www.eatliverun.com/

FYI: I baked my loaf cake uncovered for 35 minutes, then covered it for 10 more minutes, for a total baking time of 45 minutes.  The bottom picture has lines on the finished product because it stuck to the pan so I had to let it cool upside down :(  The frosting would be a good cover-up, although I did not go that route.  Overall, it smells and tastes absolutely fabulous.  

Before

After

This One Will Knock 'em Dead!

Yes, that's a toy gun in the background and no, we are not a violent family.  My son just cherishes the hand-me-down guns from his dad, which repeatedly end up on the kitchen counter! 

I've been sick all week and completely forgot to post this recipe.  I'm glad I realized that before I ate the last piece, which is what you see above.  This loaf cake went fast, like lickety split.  Everyday after lunch I would have my 2 slivers of chocolate loaf cake with some Greek yogurt on top and it was complete heaven.  I was hoping this miracle bread/cake would knock my germs dead and I'd be feeling better by now, but that has not been the case.  At least I felt good in the time it took me to eat those moist, rich, dark slices.

It cuts and eats like a cake but since it is baked in a loaf pan, I might have to say it's more of a quick bread than an actual cake.  Nick Malgieri calls it a loaf cake though so you be the judge.  I've made a lot of chocolate breads in the past 5 years, and I have to say, this one is my favorite, hands down.  The flavors are balanced perfectly and the texture is outstanding.  I'm just sorry I've kept it a secret all this week :)      

FYI, I halved the recipe and kept it in the oven for the full 35 minutes.

See recipe here.    

If you liked Monday's post,

you'll love today's post.  Move over flourless chocolate peanut butter oatmeal muffins, here come no-bake chocolate peanut butter granola bites.  Yum :)

See recipe here. 

Oatmeal Mondays

 

I love the base of these muffins.  Sometimes I would rather just use rolled oats and not have to bother with adding flour.  These have cocoa powder, peanut butter, Greek yogurt and plenty of eggs to bind them together.  Chocolatey and delicious, these muffins are a win win for everyone at the breakfast table :)

From start...

To finish...

See recipe here.