Chocolate Fix

Today seems to be one of those days when I am craving chocolate. I don't crave it alot, so when I do
I need to give in. I seen that we had some leftover decaf coffee from yesterday, so I thought maybe a
coffee drink would be good. However, every time when I try to make a cold coffee drink, it usually turns into coffee slush. So, I took to the internet and actually found a good one....minus the sugar.

- 1 cup coconut milk (any type is fine, but coconut milk 
is a little sweet anyways and it is full of healthy fats)
- 2-3 shots of leftover coffee or 1 shot espresso
- 1 to 2 packets of stevia
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Put all ingrediants in blender and process until combined. 
And actually minus the coffee this is a healthy chocolate drink for kids.

Fall Breakfast Idea

Now that it is fall, the weather is gonna get cooler...especially the mornings. This recipe is a yummy "fall" take on plain oatmeal. My kids loved it. Not only is it good, but the pumpkin gives you an extra boost of beta-carotene.

Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal

1 c. milk ( I prefer plain coconut milk)
1 c. oats
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. canned pumpkin
1/8 c. brown sugar

In a saucepan, put milk, cinnamon, vanilla, pumpkin, and brown sugar. Heat to a low boil and add oatmeal. Cover and simmer until oatmeal is done (10 minutes or so). Once in the bowl,  I add a few dark chocolate chips, unsweetened coconut, and apple pieces. You can add whatever "extras" you would like to add as well.

Forks Over Knives

I haven't posted in so long because, honestly, I have not been so excited about cooking...like I have in the past. I was sick of making and eating the same things and I needed something to get my excited again. My first late summer love was the inspiration of freezer meals. I stocked my freezer full of homemade meatloafs, beef, chicken, stocks, muffins, etc. and than I saw the greatest documentary...Forks over Knives (thanks to my neighbor Lee). This documentary makes a strong case for vegetarianism. It is based on alot of scientific evidence and it very convincing. It made me want to try it, at least for a week. So, this was my week of being a vegan. No meat, poultry, fish, or dairy. Pretty hard, but definately doable. My week of food consisted of "eggless"egg salad, mushroom and lentil stroganoff, squash, quinoa with vegetables, homemade pea soup, green smoothies, mexican corn and bean salad, and oatmeal. Sounds kinda gross to the average person, but I really liked the food. Ok, the stroganoff was questionable, but that was the only meal that I didn't enjoy so much. It was a departure from my normal low carb eating style and I kinda liked not eating eggs for a week and having whole grain cereals with fruit instead. I encourage anyone who cares about where their food come from and who cares about their health to watch this doc. Is vegetarianism for everyone? No, but personally, I can see my family having 3 meatless meals a week. 

Happy 4th of July

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday. I have such great memories of 4th of July parties at my house growing up with the family. Mom's potato salad, Uncle Jeff's beans, dad's brats, Aunt Candy kicking instead of hitting the volleyball, Uncle Tony's fireworks, and grandma and grandpa.


This 4th we are having neighbors over and I made a slew of all american sweets. First, I attempted to make an apple pie. I bought the crust, but I made the apple filling. It was a recipe from Bobby Flay:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/apple-pie-recipe/index.html
Kids loved taking the extra crust and making cinnamon sugar pie babies in the oven. I made a festive star pattern on top. I also made some white chocolate treats. I did red, white, and blue strawberries. This recipe is all over the internet now. I always have a problem dipping into chocolate. I have a hard time getting the excess off. They are cute, but probably will not make them next year. But, my little chocolate hang up created a whole new idea.....Chocolate Fireworks. In the leftover chocolate i mixed in a few handfuls of pretzels, and colored jimmies. Than, I spooned them onto waxed paper to dry, Voila.....fireworks!


I cannot ever recreate mom's potato salad or Jeff's bean, but I can make this holiday my own now and create memories for the kids and new memories for myself based around great neighbors, independance, and (of course) food!

Catch of the Day Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for Father's Day this year. They were adorable, but  too labor intensive. I will probably never make them again. I got the idea from a blog and it really did not look like it would have been that much work. I made 24 cupcakes from a standard box of cake mix. I used carrot cake and topped with a blue tie dyed cream cheese frosting. I also used a frosting tip to pipe it on. Now the labor intensive portion....I cut wood skewers into 2 pieces and threaded a needle with thin white thread. I poked the threaded needle through a gummy fish (from a shark fruit snack pack). Then, I tied the threaded fish onto the wooded skewer and put it on the cupcake. They looked really cute, but just too much work for one day:) A fun idea though if you have someone who likes to fish in the family.

Almost BW3

Wish I could've gotten a pic before the fam dug in!

I love hot wings! I really love BW3 boneless chicken wings (mild of course). I have had a pack of chicken drumlets from Whole Foods in my freezer for 6 months now, with the intention of finding a recipe for wing sauce similar to BW3. There is a set of cookbooks called Top Secret Recipes, where the author figures out recipes for popular food found in restaurants. In one book, I found the recipe for medium BW3 wing sauce. So, I decided to finally have them on Saturday night. I opened the lb. package to find 8 drumlets. Not enough to feed a family, so I bought some chicken breasts, cubed, breaded and baked them. The drumlets were boiled for 10 minutes and places under the broiler for 6 minutes on each side. So, they got crispy, but not fried...already healthier:) The wing sauce was super easy to make and was SO good. Tasted just the same. After it was done, I tossed the chicked pieces in it and voila!


MEDIUM WING SAUCE:
1 cup Frank's cayenne pepper sauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon granulated sugar 
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Combine all but last 3 ingrediants and bring to a boil than let simmer for 10 minutes. When mixture is off heat and cool, in a seperate bowl, mix last 3 ingrediants and add to sauce mixtures. Toss with chicken

Strawberry Breakfast Cake

Berries seem to be cheap at Sendiks this week, so yet another berry cake/bread idea. We made this last night for Sunday morning breakfast. It is a strawberry breakfast cake with mini chocolate chips. Simple ingrediants, not alot of sugar and yummy. Jackson helped me make a fruit salad to go along with it.  Here is the link for the cake. The fruit salad was one banana, 1 apple, 1 container strawberries, 1 container raspberries, 1 container blueberries, a handful of granola. You can eat this on its own or over greek yogurt.
http://batterlicker.com/2010/04/strawberry-and-chocolate-chip-buttermilk-muffin-cake/