Baking....ha

Well.. I attempted to make one of those big cupcake cakes round 1 was unsuccessful.. A delicious homemade cake with homemade mocha frosting... Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words...

What a delicious mess! now I can bake well but I have to get to love on the new pan first before we mesh well.

I did though make some pb cookies too. This is not my recipe but if you don't know this recipe you are missing out. It's so simple

1 cup sugar, 1 cup peanut butter & 1 egg... all one bowl, mix well roll into balls and roll in sugar and press with fork bake in a preheated 350 oven for 10-12 mins (if you have a fast cooking oven like mine only about 8 mins)

Mini Muffin Monday(Granola muffins)

My mini muffin tin is by far the most loved pan in the house. I have discovered that you can make lots of things other then muffins with them. Mini muffins are perfect for tiny toddler tummies that my feel overwhelmed by a big muffin. I like to play around with different recipes and things I have in the house. Last week I was cleaning out the pantry and seen I had a box of bisquick. It has been a good long time since I remember ever buying bisquick so I check the dates and surprisingly enough it was not expired. Then I started wondering other then biscuits or pancakes what can I do with this bisquick. So I started measuring out how much was left and it was 4 cups. That is a lot of bisquick to let go to waste so I started thinking what else do I need to use up? Granola! I had a double batch that I had a little left of. So we call these "Almost Expired muffins" Thats not so appealing and you might not sell to many friends on that Idea.. so Granola Muffins it is lol

Granola Muffins
2 cups of Granola (you can use homemade or store bought)
4 cups of Bisquick baking mix
2 large eggs
1/4 cup Honey or Agave
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 & 1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup mini peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 375, In a large bowl mix granola & bisquick. In a 2nd bowl whisk together wet ingredients. Gradually mix in the granola/bisquick mixture into the wet ingredients then fold in chocolate & peanut butter chips. Grease your muffin tins and add fill about 2/3 with batter. This recipe can be halved it makes about 48 mini muffins or 24 large muffins. mini muffins will bake in about 12-15 mins, larger muffins about 20-25. Check them with a toothpick and if it comes out crumb free then you know they are done! **you can substitute the chips with dried fruit**

Ice Cream Sunday..

I am a full believer that Children need sweets..and us grown ups too! At least once a week we will have a special treat. I do try to keep it healthy but sometimes you just need to have a calorie fest lol. This isn't so much a recipe as it is an idea. You can make this as easy or as hard as you want on yourself.

Ice Cream Cookie sandwiches
12 Large Chocolate Chip Cookies
*you can make them using our recipe or your own, buy them from the bakery, or refrigerated cookie dough.
Ice Cream (can be homemade) Vanilla or chocolate
sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, mini m&m's etc.

* Set up some plates with sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, mini m&m's etc. Take 6 cookies and spread about 1/4 cup of ice cream on them. Then place another cookie on top. Press down so that it holds together but careful not to squish the ice cream out. Then roll the sides of the sandwich over a plate with the sprinkles etc. Wrap the sandwich loosely in plastic wrap then again with tin foil. let them freeze for about 1/2 hour to an hour before eating or they will melt to fast.

The kids just love rolling the cookies across sprinkles and such. Lots of variation here. We once did chocolate cookies with chocolate chip mint ice cream and rolled them in crushed Andie's candies. They where really good. We used a healthy cookie recipe and low fat ice cream so it didn't seem as bad for you.

MMMMM Monday (Chocolate Chip Cookies)

What kid doesn't like chocolate chip cookies. The smell alone of chocolate chip cookies reminds me of simpler times of my childhood. Erynn my oldest daughter has a huge sweet tooth just like her mom and always asks me to make cookies. Even worse she always wants that refrigerated cookie dough at the store. While those are super easy and all they are not very good for you. I never want to be the mom that doesn't allow treats and desserts. Moderation is key and when you make healthy treats its all the better.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes about 36 cookies)
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup raw sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup coconut oil, softened (or you can use margarine)
2 large eggs
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
chopped walnuts optional

Preheat your oven to 375 and grease you cookie sheets well
in a large bowl cream together coconut oil, raw sugar & brown sugar stir in eggs and vanilla
in a large bowl mix remaining ingredients except for the chocolate chips and walnuts. Gradually blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients then fold chocolate chips and walnuts in. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets bake for 8 to 10 minutes until done leave on cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. You can also make these into bars by pressing into a jelly roll pan and cooking for 12-15 minuets.

Waffles on Wednesday

Wednesdays are one of our busiest days of the week. The older girls have school then we have about 1.5 hours to change out of uniforms, do homework, eat dinner and go to church. By the time we get home it's time for a small snack, showers and off to bed. Trying to get so much accomplished in such a little amount of time makes me really glad that I always have tons of frozen waffles on hand. I think kids are drawn to breakfast for dinner because it almost feels like your doing something naughty (mind you I don't by into the concept that you should have pizza for breakfast either lol) I have a very yummy basic waffle recipe that you can add just about anything to it. Most popular in our home are Cinnamon, banana, peanut butter & blueberry waffles. I have even started making cheese waffles that are yummy for sandwiches. I have also discovered Organic batter blaster that I like to keep on hand for the rare times that we have no waffles. It's super easy and makes a really fluffy waffle. Making pancakes with it however was a bit tricky because its so light and fluffy then burn quickly. Waffles are great because they have no rules, they can be breakfast with some fresh berries, a sandwich for lunch, A comforting dinner or even desert with whip cream & honey. My 5 year old likes to eat them frozen right out of the freezer (I think that is crazy but she loves them that way lol)

Waffles (and yes works for pancakes too)
1 1/2 cups Whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (I use a fine grain sea salt)
4 Tbsp Raw organic sugar (or equivalent sweetener of your choice)
2 large eggs
3 cups milk (you can use any kind of milk I generally use 2% or homemade almond milk)
2/3 cup butter or oil
(add fresh berries, chocolate chips, mashed bananas, applesauce, peanut butter etc)
Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl, Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients careful not to over mix them. Fold in any extras to your batter mix If you are adding fresh berries do not mix them in you will simply toss a few berries on top of the wet batter after your pour it into the waffle maker (trust me on this one)


you will want to take note of the cooking recommendations of your waffle maker. For mine I use 1/3 cup of batter and cook on medium heat for about 3.5 minutes each. You may need to butter your iron or use a cooking spray if your waffle maker requires you to do so. mine recommends it only with you are using fruits and sweet batter because the sugars/juices will make them stick.
This will make about 16-20 waffles

Now as a part 2 to this recipe a new waffle sandwich was born (due to low pantry supplies and over ripe bananas for lunch the other day. We call it the "WWED? Waffle Sammie" (wwed?=what would Elvis do)

WWED? Waffle Sammie
Using the above recipe mix in 1/2 cup of sun-butter or nut-butter of your choice (we used sun-butter) and 1 ripe banana mashed into your batter.
Take 2 cooked waffles and spread Sun-butter over it and top with thinly sliced bananas. And you have a nice healthy Waffle Sammie. We would like to think that if Elvis where alive today he would enjoy this lunch treat.
Enjoy!