Dangerously Yummy!

 

 

Yesterday the girls and I made these yummy doughnut holes. We have made several different recipes of doughnuts over the years but I think I can safely say that these have been the best ones yet. The recipe came from HERE. I won't say that it is the most well written recipe but it wasn't too difficult to figure things out. We doubled it for our family and it still didn't make a whole lot. I did find out that they puff a good bit while they are cooking so with the remaining batches I pulled each of the dough balls apart and made two balls. That helped alot with the size of the finished doughnut hole. We will definitely be making these again.

 

Shortbread

Sundays after church are generally a day of rest for us. A rest from the never-ending laundry...a day for naps or just whatever. Today I had a hankering for shortbread so that was how I decided to spend my day of rest. I love shortbread, preferrably dipped in chocolate but today I was running low on chocolate, probably due to the Larabars I made. So B#4 took pity on me and melted what we did have and drizzled it over the shortbread. It still tastes yummy!

Protein Bars

With this pregnancy, I have been trying to be much more mindful of getting lots of protein in. During pregnancy a woman should have at least 60 grams of protein. I like to spead it out through out the day if I can. I read label after label of all the "protein" bars. I must have looked ridiculous as I stood in Wal-Mart reading labels in the pharmacy section where they keep the protein bars. Of course there are all kinds of bars available with tons of protein. I actually took one to show DH which was like a snickers bar that had something like 30 grams of protein. In the end I just couldn't bring myself to buy them because of the huge list of ingredients, most of them I couldn't even identify. What is soy protein isolate anyway?!? Then I tried buying some Kashi bars but they weren't really any different, maybe a smidge better. Then DH suggested I try the protein bar aisle at our grocery store. There I saw Larabars for the first time. I remembered bookmarking a page on my computer that mentioned them so I thought I would check them out. They don't boast the huge protein content that the others do, at a relatively low 6 or 7 grams of protein but when I looked at the ingredients list I decided to be brave enough to give them a try. The first one I tried was the Peanut Butter Cookie bar. The ingredients were: Dates, peanuts and salt. WOW! Three things. But would I like dates???  I actually did. Now DH and B#4 absolutely did not like them. But that's okay, the other kiddos did. Not that I plan on feeding them to the whole tribe at $1.32/bar. I have a hard time spending that on me so I decided it couldn't be that hard to make from scratch.

Enter Google. Need a recipe, go to Google. Turns out lots of people are making them from scratch. If you are interested in trying your hand at it you can find the recipe I used HERE. B#2 and I just love them and they were really easy to make and while dates in and of themselves don't have much to recommend them in the nutrition department, aside from calcium and magnesium, they do a good job of substituting sugar and giving these bars something to hold them together. I would say the protein in these "protein bars" comes from the nuts that you add in. When I made them I used almonds because that was what I had on hand. I also added chocolate chips because you can never go wrong with chocolate chips!

I would love to hear if you have ever tried Larabars and if so what you thought of them.

Bean Day

Today was a bean day at our house. On a friend's blog she tells how to make your own "canned" beans. I must admit it really is quite a bit of savings. I bought two pounds of Kidney beans and 4 pounds of Pinto beans at the grocery store for less than $1.00/lb. Out of that I ended up with 12 quarts of canned beans ready to use in any recipe at a moments notice. Normally I would buy cans of beans at the store for about $.70 each but with this I spent about $4.00 and ended up with 12 quarts. I think it was definitely worth it. Sometimes when I make up a big batch of beans I freeze them but I always ended up forgetting to set them out to thaw for dinner. This way all I have to do is pop open a jar and make a meal with it.

Here is how you do it if you are interested...

Soak a big ole pot of beans overnight. I did a huge bowl and a stock pot. Drain and rinse the beans the next morning. Fill your quart jars 3/4 full, add a teaspoon of salt and fill with water. Put your lids and rings on and pressure can according to your canner directions at 10lbs for 60 minutes. Voile...canned beans.

My pictures above are backwards...the first one is the finished product and the bottom one is some of the jars awaiting their turn in the pressure canner.

Next I am going to make homemade refried beans. If you have any tips on that, feel free to leave a comment.

This One's for you Mom

I was talking with my mom on the phone tonight and we got to talking about good things to eat so I shared this one with her and thought you all might enjoy it too...

Slice a banana into a bowl
Put some yogurt on top of the banana(think ice cream)
Slice some strawberries to put on top of the yogurt
Add some granola on top of that (optional)
Drizzle some chocolate syrup on top of it all
Enjoy!

Thanks to my good friend Karen for this recipe which comes from "The Biggest Loser" cookbook
It is all good for you and the chocolate syrup makes you feel like you are having a sweet treat.

YUM!

B#2 decided today to try her hand at making homemade pretzels. Boy are they yummy. I think we could just skip the stir-fry that is for dinner and just eat pretzels and cheese:)

Granola

I have been experimenting lately with making granola. I have made lots in the past that just needed to be thrown in the trash but I think I finally figured it out....the trick for me seems to be not to leave it in oven until it is as dry as you would eat it since it hardens up more after you take it out. I do stir it quite often both in the oven and once you take it out. Below is the recipe that seems to work best for me. I quadrupled it and it makes about 1 and 1/2 gallons.

2cups rolled oats

1 cup nuts of your choice(we prefer sliced almonds)

1/2cup coconut(optional)

1/4cup wheat germ( I use ground flax seeds)

1/2cup honey or maple syrup

2Tablespoons oil(I use melted butter)

1cup dried fruit(we like dried cranberries)

In a large bowl combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and wheat germ or flax(optional). Stir together the honey or syrup and the melted butter or oil;stir into oat mixture. Spread evenly onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes in a 300 degree oven, stirring after 20 minutes. Take out before 30 minutes if it is looking brown since it will cook and harden more after you take it out of the oven. Since I quadruple the above recipe it takes the full 30 minutes to cook on multiple cookie sheets but if you are just doing a single recipe it may not take the full 30 minutes. Stir often after taking out of the oven and wait until it is cool and hardened to put into a container. The book says you can store it in an airtight container for up to a week but I do think I have stored ours a bit longer or you could freeze it. NOTE: don't add the dried fruit until after you have taken it out of the oven. I have put it in before cooking it and it can make some of the cranberries very hard.