Baking Day: Whole Wheat Bread, Banana muffins & peanut butter cookies

I Started out baking day making this 100% whole wheat bread...so yummy here's the recipe:

Whole Wheat Bread

2 Cups warm water
1/4 C canola or olive oil
1/4 C. honey
1 tbs salt
6 Cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbs vital wheat gluten
2 1/2 tps. yeast

I put everything in my bread machine on the dough cycle. When that's done I put it in my own pans and let rise until double and then bake at 350 for 30 min. When done I spread a small amount of butter over the top of the bread. This makes two loaves of bread.


I also made some peanut butter cookies the best recipe ever from Ben's great grandma here it is:

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 C. brown sugar
1 C. White sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter softened
2 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp. soda
pinch of salt
1 egg
1 C. peanut butter

Mix all ingredients together. Drop on cookie sheet and then push down with a fork and bake at 350 for 10-11 min.

Lastly I had some rotten banana's to use up so the kids and I made some chocolate chip banana muffins from Tammy's recipes.com. Very moist and yummy these are my kids favorite.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup Miracle Whip or mayonnaise
3 ripe bananas (the riper the better!!)
1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. In large bowl, combine dry flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

2. In medium sized bowl, beat egg. Add banana and mash thoroughly, using a potato masher. Stir in Miracle Whip. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened.

3. Fill paper-lined muffin tins 3/4 full; sprinkle tops with chocolate chips. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until muffin tests done with toothpick. Allow muffins to cool 5 minutes in the pan, and then remove to wire racks to finish cooling. Store loosely covered to help prevent stickyness! :)

To get pic's of these and more reviews go here.

Also, head on over to money saving mom for more great recipes and to see what others made.

Cake in a cup...say what?!

I received an email with this cake in a cup recipe. Sounded easy and strange so I promptly had to try it out. Here is the recipe:

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well




. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.


Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.


The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT!

Definitely not a light and fluffy cake in my opinion. It's lacking something although I'm not quite sure what. I tried a small piece with a dab of vanilla ice cream and a smidgen of chocolate syrup. It's not to bad if your craving chocolate cake and want a piece quickly. Pretty crazy.. cake in a cup..makes me wonder what other kind of cakes in a cup are out there. If you try it let me know what you think.

One can of pumpkin

Equals two yummy pumpkin recipes... First off I made pumpkin muffins made from Taste of Homes magazine. I've never made pumpkin muffins before but they sure looked yummy. I have to admit I wasn't to impressed with this recipe. As Lucas said "there pretty bland without lots of butter". I think I'll keep looking for a good pumpkin muffin if anyone tries these let me know what you think.

Pumpkin Muffins

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• TOPPING:
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cold butter

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, pumpkin, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in pecans. Fill six greased or paper-lined jumbo muffin cups three-fourths full.
In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, pecans and flour; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter.
Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm. Yield: 6 muffins. I made 12 large muffins they must've used a larger muffin pan than mine is.


Next I made these fabulous pumpkin rolls from Tammy's Recipe's. They are one of our favorite dinner rolls. They also make great buns for ham buns or whatever meat you choose to put on for lunch. I always halve the recipe and end up freezing some of those even but that's the best part it makes a ton. I have a bread maker which makes these super easy to make. I love fall all the yummy apple and pumpkin recipes out there are endless. I bought more pumpkin yesterday to make more muffins I'll write a review once I've made them.

Chocolate Coconut Bars

Today I obtained a new bar recipe that is awesome!! I've had them at a Homeschool building where my kids take classes on Friday's. I am a money collector for hot lunch which means my kids get a free hot lunch and we all get to eat yummy desserts like this. Finally today my friend Heather and I remembered to ask the lunch lady for her recipe. I made them this afternoon and now I know why they are so good...they're loaded with butter and sugar....that makes anything good:~) Not the greatest picture of the bars but you get the idea. Oh, and for you non coconut fans like myself you can't taste it and it makes the bars really good.


Chocolate Coconut Bars

Crust:

1 3/4 C. Flour
1/4 C. Cocoa (if using dutch cocoa use a little bit less)
3/4 C. Powered Sugar
1 C. Butter

Filling:

3 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 Tbs. Flour
1 C. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking power
1 c. pecans
1 1/2 C. coconut
10 oz chocolate chunks

1. Melt butter and then mix the rest of the crust ingredients with the butter. Spread in a 9x13 greased pan and bake at 350 for 15 min.

2. Mix all the filling ingredients together and pour over the hot crust. Bake an additional 20 min. at 350.

Zucchini Bread

Alright if you've got extra zucchini and come on who doesn't this time of year you must try out this bread. It is awesome!! My two loaves I made Wednesday are gone my kids devoured it. I loved that it was an already dairy free recipe so no adjustments had to be made for Kaleb. I will be making more this weekend and hopefully slipping one loaf into the freezer for later eating:~)


Zucchini Bread

3 Eggs
1 C. Oil
2 C. Sugar
2 C. grated Zucchini
2 tsp. Vanilla
3 C. Flour
3 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 C. chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees lightly grease two loaf pans.

2. In large bowl mix together the eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla, and zucchini

3. Combine the cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt and add to the wet ingrediants.

4. stir in the walnuts

5. Divide between the two loaf pans evenly

6. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until done.

Zucchini Pie

Here's a great recipe to try out with all that extra zucchini we all have from our gardens. My kids love this pie it's great for lunch or dinner.


Italian Zucchini Pie

4 C. thinly sliced unpeeled zucchini
1 C. chopped onion
1/4-1/2 C butter
1/2 C. chopped parsley or 2T. flakes
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1/4 t. garlic pepper
1/4 t. basil
1/4 t.oregano leaves
2 eggs well beaten
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
2 t. dijon mustard

1. Make 9" pie crust and place in pie pan
2. Saute Zucchini and onion in butter 10 min.
3. Stir in seasonings. In large bowl blend eggs and cheese stir into vegetable mixture
4. Pour into the pie crust
5. Bake at 375 for 18-20 min. Let stand10 min before serving.

Spinach Quiche

Here is a new recipe I tried last week. It got rave reviews from Ben and the boys so I will be making it again. It had great flavor nothing low fat about it but it was really good.

Pepperoni Spinach Quiche

1 Tube crescent rolls
1 red pepper chopped
1 garlic clove minced
1 tbs olive oil
5 eggs
1/2 c. mozzarella cheese
1/2 C frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1/4 cup pepperoni cut up
1/4 c. half and half cream
2 tbs. Parmesan cheese
1 Tbs. fresh parsley minced
1 Tbs. fresh basil or 1 tps. of dried basil

* I didn't have the fresh herbs so I just used Italian seasoning.

Separate cresent dough into eight triangles, place in an ungreased pie plate with points toward the center. Press onto the bottom and sides to form a crust.

Saute the red pepper and garlic in the olive oil. In another small bowl combine the remaining ingredients and stir in the red pepper mixture. Pour into crust.

Bake at 375 for 25-30 min. or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Let stand 5 min. before serving.

** This recipe came from the my new Taste of Home magazine I just got.

Here's what happens....

When the hubby leaves me I bake and bake and bake. Actually I only made one thing so far this mocha chocolate cheesecake. It is so good quite rich but not to rich. It has an oreo cookie crust and then a chocolate layer then the mocha layer and topped with a chocolate glaze.

Here you can see the layers better the first piece kind of came out messy but the rest of them came out so pretty. I wish I had a better picture it's a very pretty cheesecake. I will be freezing a lot of it I also shared some with my neighbor already who said it was one of the best cheesecakes she's ever had..:) So I'll be putting this in my recipe book and making it again for company sometime. Here is the recipe below and you can also link to Taste of Home for a better picture of the cheesecake.

Layered Mocha Cheesecake

Taste of Home

“In my search for the perfect mocha cheesecake, I ended up combining a few of my favorite recipes to create this delicious version. It’s as much a feast for the eyes as for the palate!”

SERVINGS: 16

CATEGORY: Dessert

METHOD: Baked

TIME: Prep: 30 min. Bake: 45 min. + chilling

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• FILLING:
• 2 tablespoons plus 1-1/2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
• 1 tablespoon boiling water
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled
• GLAZE:
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons butter
• Chocolate-covered coffee beans, optional

Directions:

Combine cookie crumbs and butter; press onto the bottom of a greased 9-in. springform pan. In a small bowl, combine the coffee granules, water and cinnamon; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and flour until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in vanilla. Divide batter in half. Stir melted chocolate into one portion; pour over crust. Stir coffee mixture into the remaining batter; spoon over chocolate layer.
Place pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 16 in. square). Securely wrap foil around pan. Place in a large baking pan; add 1 in. of hot water to larger pan.
Bake at 325° for 45-50 minutes or until center is just set and top appears dull. Remove springform pan from water bath. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate chips and butter; stir until smooth. Spread over cheesecake. Remove sides of pan. Garnish with coffee beans if desired. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 16 servings.

Pancakes...

I've been making so many yummy things this week that I decided I need to start putting them on my blog so that I have another hard copy of all my yummy things. In case I ever lost my own personal cookbook I'd be in trouble. Here is a pancake recipe I've come up with that really suits our family tastes. I can also make them dairy free for Kaleb which is an added bonus to any recipe in my opinion. After making them this morning for breakfast I was reminded how yummy they are so here is the recipe:

Pancakes

3 C. flour
3 t. baking powder ( I only used 2t. today and they turned out great still)
2 t. salt
4 T. sugar
3 C. milk (add a little vinegar for "buttermilk" pancakes)
2 eggs
6 T melted butter
2 t. vanilla
1/2-1 t. cinnamon
blueberries, apples, etc if desired.

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
2. Add all the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until mixed well.
3. You can add a little water to the mix if it's to thick for your tastes.

4. For Kaleb's I just substitute soy milk for the regular milk and because he can have a little butter I just leave that as is. I know you can buy a dairy free butter to though. I am going to try half water half soy milk for his next time and see how they turn out. I'm always experimenting with recipes sometimes they turn out better sometimes not but it's always fun to try:)

Apple Muffins

Something that's been hard for Kaleb is not being able to eat cake or any type of sweets. So I made apple muffins today... ok I'll admit it for me to not just Kaleb..heehee. I experimented a little bit and didn't know if they'd turn out or not but they did. They are awesome!! I put an icing on top which I went a little over board with I know but mmmm it sure makes them tasty.
This is actually an apple bread recipe that I've made for years but it also made fantastic muffins.

Apple Muffins

2 C. Flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 C. butter, softened
1 C. white sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 C. peeled, chopped apple
4 oz. applesauce
1 t. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon.
3. In large bowl beat butter, sugar, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla. Stir in the chopped apple.
4. Pour flour mixture into the liquid's and stir just until moistened.
5. Pour into 12 muffin cups.
6. Bake at 350 for 30-35 min.

Icing

3/4 C. confectioners sugar
1 T. butter melted
3/4 t. vanilla
2 t. water
mix all together until a glaze forms and pour over warm muffins.

Dairy Free donuts

This morning I decided to try and make some home made donuts that Kaleb can eat. Being they had to be dairy free I wasn't sure how they would taste. I took this recipe from allrecipes.com
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Plain-Cake-Doughnuts/Detail.aspx
I substituted the regular milk with soy milk that he drinks. I wasn't to impressed by them I don't think it was the soy milk I couldn't even taste it. But I didn't make any with regular milk so I'm not sure if there would be a taste difference. The kids loved them and had fun putting powdered sugar and cinnamon sugar on them. I have another recipe to try that's suppose to be like crispy creme donuts we'll see how those turn out. Maybe some other Saturday.:) I will say they were very easy to make.



The dough for the donut holes.







I had just dropped them into the oil.









Brown on one side. They float to the top as they cook the kids got a kick out of watching them cook.







Our finished product. They were very crispy just missing something that I couldn't identify.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

Here is a picture of the bread that I make that we eat all the time. It's a whole wheat bread and very healthy plus it tastes great. I actually grind my own wheat fresh into flour for this bread. I think it makes it taste lighter not so heavy of a bread. I'm sure it would work great with wheat flour from the store as well I've just never tried it. Anyway here is the recipe:


Whole Wheat Bread

2 Cups warm water
1/4 C canola or olive oil
1/4 C. honey
1 tbs salt
6 Cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbs vital wheat gluten
2 1/2 tps. yeast

I put everything in my bread machine on the dough cycle. When that's done I put it in my own pans and let rise until double and then bake at 350 for 30 min. When done I spread a small amount of butter over the top of the bread. If anyone tries it let me know how it turned out. This does make two loaves of bread I forgot to state that..sorry.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake recipe

This morning I awoke to two little boys in the kitchen cooking me breakfast. It was so sweet Lucas was busy frying up eggs and Kaleb was toasting english muffins. They were so proud it was so cute I just have the best boys in the world! In other news a few people requested this cake recipe so here it is.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

3/4 C. boiling water
1/2C. Cocoa
1 3/4 C. Cake flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 3/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. vegetable oil
7 egg yolks
2 tsp. vanilla
1 C. egg whites
1/2 tsp. cream of tarter

Combine boiling water and cocoa. cool. Sift flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in bowl. Make a well and add oil, egg yolks, vanilla and cooled cocoa mixture. Beat until smooth. Beat egg whites and cream of tarter until very stiff. Add in the flour and cocoa mixture very slowly to the egg whites gently folding in until well blended. Bake in a 10 inch tube pan ungreased for 55 min. at 325 and then at 350 for 10-15 min. Invert pan to cool. When cool carefully loosen from pan. Cut into three layers and frost in between layers and down the middle hole. After all layers are put back together frost outside of cake. Frost all with "mock whipped cream frosting". After the whole cake is frosted take 2 squares bitter sweet baking chocolate and 1 Tbl. of butter and melt in microwave. Drizzle the warm chocolate down the outside all the way around cake and down center whole. Also on the top of cake if you desire.

Mock Whipped Cream Frosting

6 T. Flour
1 1/2 C. milk
3/4 C. shortening
3/4 C. oleo
1 C. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Mix together flour and milk. Cook slowly together on stove until thick, stirring constantly. Cool thoroughly. Beat shortening, oleo, sugar, and vanilla in mixer at fast speed about 10 min. until creamy. Add the cooled flour mixture and beat another five min. until thoroughly mixed and fluffy.

Chicken Chimichanga's

Today I was craving On The Border's chicken chimichanga so I decided to try and make some myself. I had some canned chicken to use up and a bunch of veggies from the garden. I'm not a fan of canned chicken I bought some on a whim at Costco awhile ago and wanted to use it up. So to start with I cut up some colored peppers and onion and fried those in olive oil. Then I added the canned chicken to that and some garlic pepper and a little taco seasoning and mixed it all up. I took whole wheat tortilla's and cooked them just a little. I added my chicken and veggie mixture and a little cheese and rolled up the tortilla's. I then fried them on olive oil in a frying pan until they were crispy on each side. After I fried them all I put some warm Queso cheese on top of them and they were so yummy!!! They tasted a lot like the restaurants I will for sure make these again. The kids thought they were great as well. Next time I'm going to use fresh chicken instead of canned I bet they'll even be better. Not exactly a low fat healthy dinner but I'm sure it's better than the restaurants.

My favorite cookies

These are my all time favorite cookies. Part of it is just the cookies itself is so good but also they make me think of my grandma. She would always make these just for me when I came over after school every day. So whenever I make them it really reminds me of my grandma and my time I spent with her. I believe that my grandma had a sweet tooth like me:) Here is the recipe below.






Chocolate No Bake Cookies

2 C. Sugar
1/2 C. milk
1/2 C. Butter
3 T. Cocoa

Mix all these together on stove and bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 2 1/2 min. timing precisely.
Turn the heat off and Add:

1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 C. peanut Butter
3 C. Oatmeal

Mix well and drop on wax paper to cool on the counter.

Baked Spaghetti

Tonight for dinner we had baked spaghetti we eat spaghetti once a week so this is a different version of original spaghetti.

Baked Spaghetti

1 lb. spaghetti
1 chopped onion
1 chopped green pepper
1 lb ground beef
2 jars spaghetti sauce
1 small can mushrooms
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 C. cheddar cheese
2 cans cream mushroom soup
1/4 C. milk
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese

1. cook ground beef, onion, and green pepper and drain.
2. Add spaghetti sauce, mushrooms, spices
3. Cook spaghetti according to package directions
4. In separate bowl mix the soup up with milk
5. Grease 9x13 pan
6. place half the spaghetti in bottom of pan, then half the sauce, half the soup, then half the cheese and repeat layer.
7. sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top
8. Bake at 350 for 30-35 min.

We've hit the jackpot!!

On chicken that is lest anyone get to excited that we literally hit the jackpot. I made fried chicken tonight using the recipe that Esther sent over my way and it was a major major hit. Hubby who doesn't like chicken said it was the best chicken he'd ever eaten whoa that's so major. Everyone really liked it so I'll be making it again and again..thanx so much Esther for sending it my way. For the recipe go to http://www.tammysrecipes.com/moms_easy_fried_chicken It's awesome!