"Yummy in My Tummy" Hot Cocoa

 

'Tis the season...

This homemade hot cocoa is simple but filled with the special feelings of the Holiday season. Perfect for those snowy days when there's nothing to do but snuggle.

 

 

3 cups of whole milk

1/3 cup of unbleached sugar

1 TBSP of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 dash of cinnamon

 

Heat the milk on low/medium heat whisking often to avoid scalding. Once you begin to see it start to steam, whisk in the sugar, cocoa and cinnamon.

 

Easy as that! Enjoy, We did! 

Spiced Blondies with a Ginger Snap Crust

 

I came across a recipe for Chai Spiced Blondies and put them on my list of things to bake and bless my husband with. When I went for the ingredients, the Cardamom was a crazy price that I, a person with a tight grocery budget, was not going to pay. So, while standing in our little amish style corner store, I began to ponder. How can I make this work? I knew that at some point in time, I had a carton of Chai liquid concentrate in my pantry. Hopefully that was still there and could be added to flavor these and save the chai concept. Nope. Not there. Plan C came about and with it came a simple spiced blondie with, after I spotted the ginger snaps in the pantry where the chai drink was supposed to be, a ginger snap crust. That is the fun part about cooking and baking! The flavor possibilities are many and you can make things your own. I hope you try these and enjoy them as much as my husband and kids did!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients for the crust:

2 cups of ground gingersnap crumbs

1/2 stick of melted butter

Food process about half a bag of gingersnaps and combine with the melted butter. Press into a greased 9x12 glass baking dish. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Ingredients for the blondie:

2 sticks of softened butter

1/2 cups of packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cups plain yogurt

1 TBSP of vanilla

2 2/3 cups of unbleached flour

2 tsps of baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 coriander

Thoroughly whip up the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. While it mixes, combine the dry ingredients in a seperate bowl. Into the fluffy butter and sugar, add in eggs, yogurt and vanilla. With mixer on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients until it's just incorporated. Scrape sides down with a spatula and stir to combine. Put dough out onto the cooled crust and press out evenly using warm water to keep your hands damp. This allows you to press out the dough without it sticking to your fingers. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Check with toothpick to make sure they're done.

Then you are obligated to enjoy them as much as she did with her milk! Haha!

This bar cookie made for some pretty pictures so I added them just for fun!  

 

 

Sweet Butternut Squash Bisque

 

Fall in a bowl!

 

 

 

 

This is a butternut squash.



Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Ingredients:
2 butternut squash
4-5 cups of milk
1 TBSP cinnamon
1/2 cups of maple syrup
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Slice the squash and take the seeds out. Place face down on a baking pan and roast for 1 hour.

Check all pieces for softness, removing those that are soft and continuing to bake those that are still a bit hard. Once cooled, scoop the squash out of skin and put a quarter of the squash in the blender at a time with 1 of the cup of milk. Continue to blend in parts until all is smooth and back into the pot. Add the additional ingredients as you warm the soup in a large pot. Taste for seasoning. If it's still too thick just add a bit more milk or syrup.



 

Enjoy!!!

Garlic, Herb and Parmesan Crusted Bread

 

 

Making bread.

 It can be an intimidating thought but if you have a few key tips, you'll be a success at it every time! I'll fill you in. I find that most recipes say luke warm water and that seems to be where a lot of people get confused. Luke warm water means that when you touch the water it feels cool and hot at the same time. Yeah, like that clears it up! My motto is when you touch the water it's warm but on the hotter side of warm. Think of the temperature you would make the water for your little one to wash their hands and then use that.  Yeast is a touchy ingredient, if the water is too cold, the yeast doesn't wake up. If it is too hot, then the yeast dies. It's much easier to show you in person but alas, that is clearly not happening. Be encouraged, the temperature of the water is a step in breadmaking that will quickly become familiar.

 

Ingredients:

1 TBSP yeast

1 1/2 cups of warm water

2 tsp sweetener- sugar, brown sugar, honey etc

4 cups of unbleached flour

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

 

For the crust rub

1 clove of garlic- zested into a paste

salt

dried italian herbs

grated parmesan cheese

 

*My preference is to use my KitchenAid mixer to knead my bread. You can also do this in a bowl and knead with your hands or use a bread machine on the dough setting. All three ways will get the same end result*

 

With your dough hook attatchment, begin with the water, yeast and sweetener. (A sweetener of some sort is necessary. The yeast reacts with the sweetener to become active) Mix to combine. Add in the olive oil. Gradually add the flour in, adding the salt in with the last cup of flour. You will have to stop the mixer to scrape down the sides. Once a dough has formed, leave the mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes. Turn off the mixer and form into a ball in the mixing bowl. Cover the whole ball of dough with olive oil and set in a warm place, covered with a towel. Let rise for 15 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove and divide the dough into two equal parts. Form one part into a loaf shape. Set other dough ball aside.

 

Grate the clove of garlic onto a plate. Drizzle the top of the loaf with olive oil and spread the grated garlic evenly onto the top of the dough. Sprinkle with any italian herbs you have. Continue with a light sprinkle of salt and parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Until top is golden brown. (If you don't want to grate the garlic, you could substitute it with garlic powder and simply sprinkle it on followed with the salt, herbs and cheese)

 

 

 

 

*The extra dough ball can either be another loaf of bread, a pizza crust OR  my choice were these delicious cinnamon rolls. ENJOY!

 http://kellyscozykitchen.blogspot.com/2012/02/pizza-dough-cinnamon-rolls.html

 

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with a Meat Marinara

 

 

The beginning of the fall harvest brings apples, pears, butternut squash and this intriguing variety of squash, the spaghetti squash. I may be easily entertained but it's quite exciting! You can bake a seemingly hard and dull squash and in turn scrape out "noodles". I'm surprised by the amount of people I mention this dish to and they are unaware of it's existence. I am a huge fan of the spaghetti squash because it gives me the freedom to eat a huge plate of "spaghetti" with meat marinara with the joy of knowing, at the same time, I'm getting calcium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and fiber with only a few grams of carbs. And yes, after 2 big babies and 2 c-sections, I do care about my carb intake! I'm sure that I'm not alone in this! This is not a dish that I reccommend making when a spaghetti squash is not in season. They can get quite pricey any other time of the year but right now, rejoice, and go to your local farmer's market or grocery store and discover the awe-inspiring performance of the spaghetti squash!

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

 

Ingredients:

1 medium spaghetti squash- for 2 people. 1 large squash for a family.

olive oil

salt and pepper

meat marinara-sautee meat, or vegies, and add your favorite jarred marinara sauce

 

 

This is a spaghetti squash. Oval in shape and yellow.

 

 

 

Slice the squash lenth-wise with a very sharp knife. Scrape out the seeds. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place face down on a baking sheet. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven.

 

 

 

Turn over onto serving plate and top with the marinara and cheese. We eat ours right out of the shell, like a bowl. If you're preparing a large squash, bake for 1 hour and scrape the "noodles" out into a bowl for serving.

 

 

 

Quite the amazing vegetable!

 

 

 

 *Try any sauce or topping you would use for pasta. You could do pesto and feta, sausage and peppers... the possibilites are many.*

 

Parmesan and Thyme Roasted Chicken

 

 Chicken

Seems like it's one thing you just can't get away from. At our house, we eat a very little amount of meat and chicken is basically our meat of choice so I'm always trying to come up with new ways to prepare it. This version came to life out of  a desire to use the abundance of lemon thyme that I have taking over my porch window box. If you've never had lemon thyme, it's really a nice herb. Light, fresh and of course, lemony... if lemony is a word. Well it is today! Another great use for the herb is roasted potatoes. So, if you're like me and need ever-changing chicken recipes in hopes your family will continue to eat it while desperately try to provide your kiddos with the proper amount of protein in their limited diets, try this quick and delicious version.

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

 

Ingredients:

chicken breasts- I buy thinly sliced, already trimmed and use 5 of them

extra virgin olive oil

salt- the most important one. Don't be afraid of salt!

pepper

garlic powder

any chicken seasoning spice blend- chicken seasoning grinder at Aldi that I love

leaves of 2-3 sprigs of lemon thyme

parmesan cheese

 

Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and then add your desired amounts of seasoning to each one. Place it seasoned side down onto your baking dish, I used a pizza stone, and then season that side. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Until golden brown.

 

 



Whole grain/flax seed wrap with cucumber, feta, parmesan and thyme roasted chicken.

 

 

Pumpkin Pie Bread with a Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Crumb Topping

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Ingredients:

1 15oz can of pure pumpkin

1 cup of coconut oil or light olive oil
1 cup unbleached sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups of whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached flour

1 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

3 TBSP cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Crumble ingredients:

1 cup of whole oats

1/3 cup of coconut oil or butter

1/4 cup of sugar

pinch of salt

1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips

Combine the pumpkin, oil, eggs and vanilla until very well incorporated. Add in the dry ingredients and mix just until smooth. Seperate into two small, greased, loaf pans. Top with the crumble mixture. The crumble will cause the baking time to vary. Bake for 1 hour then check with toothpick and continue baking until the toothpick comes out clean.