Cinnamon Biscuit Rolls - Video!

I made a how to video for the cinnamon biscuit rolls last week!  I'm currently working on the sourdough bread video. as well.  I've got a few other videos on my channel, like how to make buns and showing how I decorated a baby shower cake, plus some other fun stuff.

I'm hoping to post weekly, but we'll see.  Until later, have fun cooking!

Pizza Twists

So, we like to make pizza in our house.  Yes... we make a lot of pizza.  This last Friday I decided to do something a little bit different.  We had a regular pizza, but I doubled the dough recipe and took half of that for the pizza, and the other half for these!

 

MMMMMM

These will be perfect for my little Grade 1 girl for school!  Popped them all in the freezer for something different for lunches.  I'm sure she will enjoy them!

They are super easy! 

Take your favorite pizza dough recipe.  Make it.  Take your favorite pizza sauce recipe.  Make that.  Roll your dough out as thin as you think you can possibly make it.  Spread on the sauce, and sprinkle the cheese on half of it.  Fold the 'no cheese' half over the 'cheesy' half.  Then cut into strips.  Twirl each strip twice before placing it on a parchment paper lined baking pan, then bake as you would your regular pizza!  Ta-da!

Valentine's Crepes

I love Valentine's day.  I can't help but have some fun with at least one of the meals we make.  Last year I made pink beet pancakes, and they were a hit.  Breakfast isn't so easy to make into something fun now with our oldest in school, so I decided to do crepes for lunch.  I figured since the beets worked so well last year, I'd do them again this year.  They turned out great!

 

Isn't that a beautiful pink color?  And for fun, I sliced the strawberries into hearts to go with and made whipped cream.

Just lots of yum! 

Don't they just look delish?  Oh, and did you know that February 2 was crepe day?  Made crepes then as well... did about 1 and 1/2 recipe and it ended up not being quite enough. 

 

Valentine's Crepes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar (I omitted this)
2 cups milk
2 Tablespoon melted butter
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients together.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth.  Add 2 or 3 Tablespoons beet puree* to the mix to make it pink. 

Heat a pan on medium low heat with butter to grease it.  Then put 1/4 cup batter and swirl it to a thin circle.  When cooked enough to lift it (doesn't take long, maybe a minute or so) loosen the edges with a spatula and flip.  Cook a minute more.  Then remove, recoat the pan with a little butter, and do it again.  It will probably take almost an hour, but it is worth it.

Serve with whipped cream and fruit!  So tasty.

Whipped Cream
Whip one cup of whipping cream with 1/4 cup date paste** until peaks form.

*Beet Puree - Wrap beets in tin foil, and roast in the oven at 350F for 45-60minutes.  Remove, and wait until cool to the touch.  Then, using plastic gloves (or plastic bags), remove the skin (it's slippery and actually comes off pretty easily).  Puree the beets in a food processor, and store in the fridge for a week or freeze for up to three months.

**Date paste - Soak dates overnight in a bit of water.  Place in a food processor and process until smooth.  Store in the fridge for 3 months.

Peanut Butter Cookie Day!

So, yesterday, June 12th, was Peanut Butter Cookie Day!  In honor of this day, the kids and I made scrumptious PB cookies!

 

Mmmmmmmm.... don't they look tasty?

 

 

 I just love these cookies!  When I was little, I baked these with my grandma.  We made so many!  Funny lil story... when I was in grade 6, my mom went along on a semi trip with my dad.  My siblings and I went to different houses for what was supposed to be one week... ended up three!  Dad's normal trip was switched up on him.  Anyway, I was at my Grandma's house those 3 weeks... making igloos, trying to create a 'gingerbread house' using graham crackers and icing, and baking.  One of the things we made were PB Cookies!  Then, for school lunch, she would send about 10 of them with me... and they were HUGE!  At least 3-4 inches in diameter!  I ended up 'sharing the wealth' with friends.  And the amount of sandwiches... 3 or 4!  It took a while for me to convince her that I couldn't eat all that food, only needed one sandwich 2 or 3 cookies, and maybe some carrots or an apple or something fruit/veggie (yes, I was asking for carrots.  All those grains were making me feel yucky after awhile, haha).  Ah, memories!  :)

Anyway, here is the recipe for the cookies pictured above.  It is probably not the same recipe as my grandma made with me, but it is a good one nonetheless

Peanut Butter Cookies (adapted from Betty Crocker Cookbook)

Ingredients
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour (I did 1 cup whole wheat and 1/4 cup white)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
dash salt

Mix sugars, shortening, peanut butter and egg.  Stir together flour and baking powder/soda/salt.  Mix dry into wet ingredients.  Form into a ball, wrap, and chill in fridge for one hour (recipe says 3 hours, but I didn't have the patience and one hour worked just fine)

Heat oven to 350 F.  Shape dough into one inch balls and place two to three inches apart on the cookie sheet.  Flatten with a floured fork in a criss cross pattern (I didn't bother with the flour, it worked fine).  Bake until set but not hard, about 8-10 minutes.

Cool slightly on cookie sheet, and remove onto cooling racks.  If you want, you can make the cookies smaller and put jam in between, making 'sandwiches'.  Or, serve with milk.  Mmmm

Makes 4 1/2 dozen cookies.

PB Banana Ice Cream Treats

 One of the ladies at preschool recently told me about this wonderful little treat she'd heard about... after I mentioned how some people turn frozen bananas into 'ice cream'.  The treat she mentioned sounded so perfect I couldn't wait to try it for myself.  It really takes very little effort, and while mine may not look perfect, they sure do taste good.

PB Banana Ice Cream Treats

Ingredients
Bananas
Peanut Butter (or other nut butter.  I use all natural)
Melted chocolate (I'm unsure how much per banana... I melted far too much and ended up wrapping my bowl so I can do this again later)

Tools
wax paper
knife
toothpicks
cookie sheet

First, slice your banana.  I was able to make 8 treats per banana, but you can do more or less depending on the thickness of your slices (well, I could have done 9 but I ate the ends, haha).  Place peanut butter on a slice of banana.

 

 

Next, sandwich the peanut butter between another banana slice.  Then, using the toothpick, dip and coat completely in chocolate (sorry, no picture.  My camera didn't want to cooperate with me).  Place the chocolate coated treat on wax paper and into the freezer for 20 minutes.



 

Voila!  Done!  And boy are they tasty!  This is from 2 bananas.  I kept eating the ends of them, haha.

A Meatless Day

Today I decided to make meals meatless.  I used to do this twice per week ages ago, and have since stopped for some unknown reason.  So, today is meatless day.  For fun, I figured I'd post the meals we had and their recipes (if necessary).

Breakfast -
old fashioned oatmeal cooked with berries, cinnamon, and honey. 
toasted buns with pb and bananas

Lunch -
bean burritos
no sugar gluten free chocolate chip cookie dough dip

Snack -
fruit (apples, oranges, that sort of thing)

Supper -
Stir fry with rice, veggies, and freshly sprouted lentils.
chocolate avocado pudding


The no sugar gluten free cookie dough dip is amazing.  Found the recipe on Pinterest.  You can get it here.  Never thought chickpeas and dates would make for such great stuff!

Sprouting lentils is new to me, too!  I'll post more on that later.  The stir fry is basically cooking all your veggies in a bit of oil for a bit with some soya sauce, making rice, and serving with soya sauce.  Super simple.  I learned how to do this back in seventh grade in home economics class.

Not only is it great to have a day without meat for digestive health, it also reduces costs a bit.  Beans are way cheaper than ground beef, and the bean burrito meal cost us less than $1.50 for a family of 4!  I cannot be certain how much exactly since I can only know that the tortillas cost $0.15 (and there are leftovers), the beans were less than $0.75, and the rest is unknown.  And the beans made as much as one pound of beef!  I only used about 1.5 cups dry... and we still have some left.  Next time I make burritos we'll be throwing the leftovers in with the beef.

Avocado Chocolate Pudding

Found this recipe on the web somewhere... not sure where exactly.  I've modified it a bit to include less sweetener as I found the amount it asked for WAY too sweet for my taste, so you could easily adjust it to fit yours.  I've made this a lot in the last few months!

Chocolate Avocado Pudding

1 ripe avocado
5 Tablespoons cocoa powder
6 Tablespoons milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tablespoons sweetener (honey, maple syrup, or you could use 1/4 cup date paste... the original recipe asked for 1/4 cup maple syrup)

Get out your food processor, and process the avocado until creamy.  Plop in the other ingredients and blend until smooth.  Serve. 

It's that easy!