Apr. 7, 2006 - Buttermilk Pecan Waffles
From my Atkins for Life ~ I thought these would be a td too "healthy" to be good... but they were AMAZINGLY yummy!! I used Stevia instead of Splenda.
1/2 cup pecans
1 1/2 cups soy flour
2 tablespoons sugar/sugar substitute
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons butter, melted
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Feb. 22, 2006 - Banana Bread Recipes
I got a bunch of overripe bananas from one of my "health nut" friends who is helping me back to my own health nut ways... and I have foudn two recipes that I have the ingredients for that I'm going to try. (I typed in "Healthy Banana Bread" at www.allrecipes.com) I shall let you know how they turn out tomorrow!
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/4 cup yogurt
- 3/4 cup chopped strawberries
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 cup mashed banana
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
- Place yogurt, strawberries, milk, bananas and orange juice in blender or food processor; puree until smooth. Mix in sugar, nutmeg and vanilla.
- In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir flour mixture to the smoothie mixture until batter is smooth. Pour into prepared pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.
Healthy Whole Grain Banana Bread
INGREDIENTS:
- 3/4 cup SPLENDA® Sugar Blend for Baking
- 3/4 cup flax seed meal
- 5 ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/4 cup skim milk
- 1/4 cup low-fat sour cream
- 2 teaspoons egg whites
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar blend, flax meal, bananas, milk, sour cream and egg whites until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the banana mixture until moistened. Spoon into prepared loaf pan.
- Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the crown of the loaf comes out clean.
Feb. 21, 2006 - Spinach Quiche
Yesterday while dinner was cooking, I mixed up our favorite spinach quiche to be ready to bake for breakfast. Its easy ~ and I don't even follow the recipe anymore... it also tastes really good with some cooked sausage thrown in... and sun dried tomatoes:)
Spinach Quiche
6 eggs
1 small onion
3 cups shredded muenster cheese
chopped, frozen spinach drained (to your tastes)
salt and pepper to taste
Mix ingredients together
~ pour in 9 inch pie pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Set to cool
Feb. 20, 2006 - Strawberry Ricotta breakfast sandwich
Starting our beginning phase into more healthy eating, one of the "special" recipes I decided to try was this recipe. I thought it might work well to add some special treat type things as well as just "boring" healthy stuff. Anyway, I held my breath ~ and the kids LOVED it. I even loved it:) Abyni wouldn't eat it, so hers is being saved for snack time... although all the other kids wanted her leftovers really badly! We're phasing out cereal this week and next ~ adding more whole grains, less processed stuff (as we slowly rid our pantry of it) and more veggies.
I also had salad out with fresh spinach, boiled eggs, cheese, flax seed (Great on salads!!) and cucmbers with our lunch.
Strawberry Ricotta Cheese Sandwiches from my Atkins For Life cookbook
Makes four sandwhiches:
1 cup whole ricotta cheese
2 large eggs (I used more eggs and threw the rest in a pan with cheese for scrmabled eggs)
1/4 cup heavy cream (I just used whole milk)
1 Tbsp sugar substitute (Splenda or Stevia work well)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
8 slices low carb bread (I just used 100% whole grain bread ~ Love Mrs Bairds!)
4 Tbsp low sugar strawberry jam (Smuckers is fantastic!!)
Spoon ricotta onto a paper towel to drain for a few minutes. Then mix with 1 tbsp of sugar subst.and cinnamon.
Spread cheese onto one half of the sandwich(I used it like I would peanut butter ~ thinly)
Spread jam on the other slice.
Put the bread together (I kind of pinched the edges together just slightly)
Mix the eggs and milk/cream well.
Then dip in the eggs like you would french toast and cook on your skillet/griddle just like you would with french toast!
YUMMY!!! You don't even need syrup with these and they taste divine:)
Jan. 30, 2006 - Cheese Topped Pumpkin Muffins
Jaedin needs to take snacks for scouts tonight, so he and Paris are going to make cheese-topped pumpkin muffins... thsoe are soooo yummy. Too bad I won't get any:( Dh loves them though, I'm sure he'll gladly eat my share! Cheese Topped Pumpkin Muffins PREHEAT OVEN 400 degrees. Combine Dry Ingredients: 7 cups white flour 2 cups sugar 4 TBLSP baking powder 4 tsp. Pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp salt Combine Wet ingredients: 3 cups canned pumpkin 2 cups milk 1 cup oil 5 eggs Mix wet and dry ingredients. Prepare cream cheese: Take 2 blocks of cream cheese, divided into 24 cubes each Put a cube of cream cheese and a small sprinkle of brown sugar into the center of each muffin (or along the middle of the mini loaf) and press down so it is covered. Bake for 14-18 minutes for muffins, 25-30 for loaf. Top with cream cheese frosting if desired
Dec. 7, 2005 - Baking in a winter wonderland
awwww... okay, its not exactly snowing or anything, but it was reeeeeeeally really cold in here! We have got to get plastic on our windows!!
Anyway, Abyni started off our school day by reading about when the Angels told the shepherds about baby Jesus. She is just so thrilled with the story each day ~ and loves getting to be the teacher for a bit:) Then we read Romans 12:9-21 and discussed what those verses had to say about love and how we can apply them to our lives. The kids all copied down two of the verses from those and we hung them on our "love" bulletin board.
We watched chapter two of "Mega Math" and LOVE it. Kainan and Jaedinwere just flying through three digit addition problems, even with 4 or 5 numbers added together! Sprite and Paris are a little slower on the big rows of bnumbers, but doing really well on double digit addition ~ even with "carrying"... it is awesome. So much easier.
Paris and Abyni mixed up sugar cookies for the HS elementary CHristmas Party on Friday.
Byn's Sugar Cookies
Mix together well:
2 sticks butter
1 cup shortening
2 cups of sugar
Add:
6 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
Dry Ingredients (separately)
5 cups white flour
2 cups wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
4 tsp cream of tartar
Mix with wet ingredients.
Chill dough over night in fridge.
Roll 1/4 inch thick & cut
Bake for 6-8 minutes at 425
do not overbake!
They will be making home made frosting tomorrow:
1 bag powdered sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 stick margarine (mix together)
Gradually add up to 3/4 cup of HOT milk until desired consitency
I made a batch of "Po Pie" (ground beef, green beans, cream of mushroom soup mixed together topped with mashed potatoes and shredded cheese, baked until cheese is melted and bubbly:) for supper... its one of the family favorites, its easy and cheap!
We did a good solid morning of school, then after lunch, Kainan (who isn't feeling well) took an audio book (The Fourth WIseman) upstairs to listen to it and rest... that's the last we've seen of him. THe other kids did their reading and baking/chores.
I whipped up a couple of sample "gingerbread" graham cracker houses for Fridays party as well. I tried to make them somewhat wimple since it will be ages 9-11 making them. I think it will be fun to do and see what the kids create with their candy houses:)
I moved the dryer vent inside to help with the heat. Now the windows are steamy, but at least its not wasting all the heat straight outside. Dh is going to put plastic on the windows when he gets home tomorrow night ~ since he has a staple gun, it will go sooo much quicker than me trying to do it!
Thats all for now, I'm going to join the kids for the rest of teh Cosby Show!
Aug. 29, 2005 - Jaedin's surprise Party!!!
Yesterday went SOOOO well!
Friday night, after many upheavals trying to get a kitten (after option one two and three all fell out, two at the last minute), Dh found one in the bargain shopper... actually IN our own town! (The rest had been at least 45 minutes out of our way.) He picked up the absolutely GORGEOUS 2 month old 1/2 siamese kitten and brought her home. I smuggled her in my bedroom as Dh took all the kids to the play for their last performance.
I baked the volcano cake and the martian cupcakes, cleaned up a bit and did the other next to the last minute things that needed to be done.
The kitten spent the night in our room... and Jaedin didn't discover her!! We even managed to keep it a secret from Paris and AByni as well;)
I got up early for a CHEER mom's breakfast at Panera bread... kind of dragged myself out of bed at 7:30:) I was at the breakfast, which I REALLY enjoyed and got to meet some women, and get to know some women whom I've seen but not really had a chance to talk with.
ANyway, the whole time I was sooo anxious that Jaedin was going to discover the kitten hidden in our bathroom, so I was fairly distracted!:) I left around 9:30 and came ome to get Jaedin ready for his "job" weeding my friend Shawna's garden. I was about ready to burst by this point, I was So excited.
Jaedin and I left and went to McD's for a short breakfast to kill some time (and keep him out of the house.) We also stopped at a garage sale, where I found 4 white button up shirts for 50 cents each, for the assistants "lab coats." Meanwhile Sprite, her friend Kerra & Kainan were at home starting the decorating process.
I finally dropped Jaedin off, picked up Shawna's two girls and came home. We hustled and got ready, another friend of Sprite's showed up to help... and at 2:00 the guests started arriving. The assistants pinned the name badges on each child, then sent them to the guessing game table (three jars of candies and plastic critters ~ guess the closest to the actual # and get the jar:)
Then the boys worked making toothpick structures (all had a bag of 3 tootsie rolls, 4 DOTS candies, and 10 marshmallows for connecting the toothpicks. We latergave prizes for the sturdiest, tallest and most creative.
I called Dh, and he and Jaedin were around the corner at a Pet store and on their way home. ALl the kids hid and we got ready. When Jaedin walked in, everyone jumped out and yelled "SURPRISE!!!" (With 15 kids, that's a pretty LOUD surprise!:)
Jaedin was SO SHOCKED. He had NO idea... and he was so happy to get all the attention:) He did the guessing jar thing right quick and then he and the rest of the boys finished their toothpick buildings.
Unfortunately, at that point Dh noticed that the AC wasn't working... it was frozen over. So, while he dealt with that, I took all the kids out to do the film canister rockets. We had too much water in them the first time, so they all exploded before the kids could put them down... so it was try again! THe second time it was a bit better... some of those rockets flew across the street into the neighbor's yard!
Then we did the big Dr. Pepper volcano. The first one didn't go too terrbly high ~ maybe 3 -5 feet high. THe second one went probably 8 - 9 feet high ~ and had Dh trying to figure out a better way to get a higher pressure stream next time:) He has decided to cut a hole in the board underneath, so he can swap out new Dr. Pepper bottles:)
We then did some of the other stations, while Dh set up the slime table. The recipe was wrong, so we had to adjust a bit, but soon all the boys had their hands full of green goopy snot looking stuff (ICKKK!!) There were more than enough baby food jars for everyone:) thanks to my freecycle friends!!
I then brought out the volcano cake http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/spe
We did an egg drop contest ~ all the kids got three feet of masking tape, 12 straws and a raw egg. We then dropped them from different heights, until there was only one left. The boys actually didn't do too bad. Several of the boys' eggs made it after being dropped from knee height, and the winner's egg lasted until dropped from shoulder height!
THEN we did gifts (we were quickly running out of time:) Jaedin was thrilled with all of his gifts. He got some cool cub scout stuff from last years' den leader and his son, he got some AWESOME science stuff from a homeschooling friend that he was so excited about. He got some money, some legos, some seeds & a pot and some books... and then it was time to bring out the kitten...Kerra covered his eyes, and all the kids were instructed not to breath a word. The gasps were heard all around... and when Jaedin opened his eyes, I thought he was going to cry. He just kept saying, "Oh.... my... god!" He could not believe it. He sat there rubbing his nose on the kitten's face and just being so cuddly. It was sooooo sweet.
ANYWAY ~ most of the guests had to go at that point. Jaedin and Kainan holed up in their room playing with legos and science stuff... Dh and the teen girls made oobleck int he kitchen and messed witht aht for a while, Paris and Abyni and their friends went outside to swim... and I began to pick up:)
That was about it!:) It was a FANTASTIC day and we had an ABSOLUTE BLAST!! I am SO glad we dd it this way ~ and I know that Jaedin really enjoyed himself, and just felt so specialf or having that much effort put into something for him. Yay!:)
