I love smoothies.  Period.  I’ve always visioned myself being that trendy stay at home mom walking into the smoothie shop everyday and getting myself and my daughters smoothies.  I quickly woke up and realized that can’t happen.  I would literally hate myself if I spent $12 everyday on drinks.

So, I forced myself to learn how to make them.  I also needed to make it Paleo style.  Sorry Smoothie King, Robeks and Tropical Smoothie Cafe… you’re not really all that healthy nor do you qualify my needs for Paleo.  I, okay my husband, came up with this delish smoothie.  All you need is…..

• 1/2 can coconut milk (I bought this brand because the only ingredients are coconut milk and water)
• banana
• mixed frozen fruit (or frozen fruit of choice)

Put it in your magic bullet cup:

Mix away!

Seriously, the magic bullet has to be one of my favorite kitchen gadgets.  It’s amazing and it is reasonably priced.  It makes smoothies so convenient and easy.

Now, look at it finished.

Cheers!

My 2 year old begs for me to make them everyday and my 1 year old loves them too.  You can easily sneak some other stuff into them also.  Happy smoothie making.  You really should try it, they are delicious and healthy!

Check out the baby food I made in the bullet:
Vegetables
Fruit 

 

The weather is getting warmer and that means barbecue season!   The warm weather always gets me in the mood to grill.  This yummy avocado salad will go perfect with your next barbecue.

It’s healthy, fresh, and tasty!

Don’t be afraid of the avocados!  Avocados have almost 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid.  Avocados have both mono-saturated and polyunsaturated fat and by eating these “good” fats (in moderation) in place of saturated or trans fat can reduce blood cholesterol levels and decrease the risk of heart disease.  Check out avocado.org for more information.

The truth is, this salad would be even more awesome if it had chunks of fresh mozzarella cheese and bacon in it as well.  Since the hubs and I are really focusing on being healthy we left it out this time.  Don’t worry though… it was still awesome!

 

Ingredients:
2 tomatoes, diced
1 avocado, diced
1 Tb balsamic vinaigrette.
1 Tb basil

***Mix the tomatoes, vinegar and basil together.  Gently stir in avocado chunks so that they do not mush together.

VARIATIONS:
bacon
fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed
black beans
corn
red peppers

 

Happy Birthday to me!

This year my husband was extra creative!  He took a cooking lesson from a professional Italian chef and founder of Copper Pot Food Company, Stefano Frigerio.  We are lucky to have him as a good friend and neighbor.

My husband had Stefano teach him how to make homemade tortellini (one of my absolute favorite foods!).  Anyway, for my birthday he bought me a pasta press and from what he had learned from his cooking lesson, he had us make fresh Tortellini from scratch together for my birthday dinner.

It was a lot of fun, but more than that, the food was awesome!  There is something to be said about fresh homemade food!  I can see us forty years from now (retired hopefully!) making delicious gourmet meals from scratch with the freshest ingredients!

 

We went with a cheese filling this time since that is my favorite and after all… it was my birthday!  🙂  You can use lots of different fillings.  Stefano had Danny learn a prosciutto filling during is cooking lesson.

Here is the recipe we used for our cheese filling.

Cheese Filling:

1 (8 oz) container ricotta cheese
1 (4oz) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup cup provolone cheese, shredded
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp dried parsley

***Combine all ingredients and mix well.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Dough:
2 cups flour
1 pinch salt
1 tsp olive oil
4 eggs
1 1/2 Tb water
***I use 4 eggs instead of 2 as our chef told us you need 2 eggs for every cup of flour you use.  If you only use 2 eggs and mix the dough it is so dry it just crumbles instead of being able to roll out.

The recipe from Allrecipes.com has you dump the flour and salt right on the table and mix it by hand.  Then you form a well and mix in the liquid ingredients (that you first beat together).  Then knead for 8 to 10 minutes.

This did sound sort of interesting so we made two batches… one we mixed right on the table as the directions say to do and one we mixed in the kitchen aid.  I couldn’t tell the difference between them.

So, if you are adventurous and don’t mind a mess mix it right on the table, but really it doesn’t matter!  I will admit that the kneading gets a bit tedious when you do it by hand (Yes, Grandma I know us modern girls are spoiled!).  I did not refrigerate the dough for one hour either, but hey neither did our professional chef teacher.

Form your dough into a ball and place on a lightly flowered surface.  Cut the ball into small pieces (we did 4 or 5 smaller pieces).  Grab one piece at a time and feed it through the pasta machine on the thickest setting (there is a number dial on the pasta machine).  Add a pinch or two of flour to the rolled out dough, then fold up flatly and feed back into the machine on one setting lower.  Repeat this process until you have gone through to the 2nd to lowest setting on  your number dial.  You will be left with a very long thin, ribbony textured strip of dough.  Put the strip across a cleaned table.  Do this with all of your dough.

 

 

 

For the next part, you need a circle cookie cutter, or just use the top of a kids cup like we did.  Cut out as many circles as you can using your strips of dough.  Lay your circles on a lightly flowered table and get your cheese mixture out.  Put just a small amount in the center of each circle (we used a baby spoon to dish this out).  If you use to much filling, you will not be able to roll your tortellini without the cheese leaking out.

FOLDING THE TORTELLINI
Beat one egg in a bowl.  Brush a small amount of egg onto the very end of the dough circle.  This will act as the glue.

1. Fold the circle in half pushing the dough together to seal the cheese in
2.  Fold the ends of the dough (not the creased part) up
3.  Pull the corners of the dough together around your pinky finger and squish dough together to hold

Once you are ready to cook your tortellini, fill a large pan with water and a pinch of salt and let it come to a rolling boil (a rolling boil is a strong boil that doesn’t stop even when being stirred or adding ingredients).   Add the pasta, stirring occasionally.  Cook until the pasta starts to float to the top… about  4 to 8 minutes.  Drain and add your sauce!

You can use any sauce you want really!  We wanted to use a homemade sauce made with all fresh tomatoes!  It was fabulous!

 

 

We got WAY to much candy for Easter!  I want to eat responsibly, but with all this candy laying around… well, I just can’t.  So I decided that I  need to get rid of the candy asap!  I found the perfect method!  Candy bar filled snickerdoodles.  I got the idea from thebakerchick.com who filled her snickerdoodle cookies with caramels.  If caramels work, why not these easter chocolates?

I ended up using Snickers, Rollos, and Reese’s peanut butter eggs in mine.  They were awesome!  All the cookies were on way tray and you never knew which candy bar would be in the middle.  It didn’t matter though… they were all delicious!  My favorite was the Reese’s!  The candy bars melted into the center of the cookies and were seriously soooooo yummy!

So all you need to do to get rid of all that Easter candy so you can start eating responsibly again is to invite a bunch of kids over and make these cookies!  They were gobbled up!  I was barely able to save one for my husband to try when he got home from work.  Here’s to no more Easter candy!

Candy Bar Stuffed Snickerdoodle Cookies
Adapted from thebakerchick.com

2 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick of unsalted butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 3/4 cup of sugar (put 1/4 cup of this aside)
2 Tb cinnamon
2 large eggs

1.  Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl (flour, cream of tarter, baking soda, and salt)

2.  Mix butter, shortening, and 1 1/2 cups sugar together until light and fluffily.  Add eggs, mixing one at a time.

3.  Add dry ingredients to butter mixture gradually.

4.  Mix 1/4 cup of sugar with the cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

5.  Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Using a ice cream scooper, scoop up a ball of dough and roll into a nice ball.  Break ball apart and put a mini candybar in the center of each one before rolling back up.

6.  Roll each dough ball in the sugar/cinnamon mixture until it is well coated.  You really can’t overdo it here.

7.  Bake on 400 degrees for 10 minutes and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes.

***She said this would make 48 cookies, but my batch only made 24.  Maybe my ice cream scoop was a lot bigger than hers.  Either way… they were yummy and I didn’t have to adjust the cooking time.

I’ve always been a fan of popcorn cake.  It.is.amazing.  My brother always makes it every Christmas, so I made an excuse to make it at Easter time with the pastel M&Ms.  So.dang.good.  I’m “supposed” to be on the Paleo diet so I fit in my bridesmaid dress next week for my friend’s wedding, well I just started it a couple days late (therefore you might be seeing healthy recipes from me for a while).  Here you have it:

What you need:

• 3 bags of popcorn, popped and placed in a bowl (remove kernels)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 21 oz. mini marshmallows
• 4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups M&Ms
• 1 cup peanuts (optional)

Delicious and adorable Easter treats!  I made these for the kiddos just to get us in the Easter mood.  They are pretty cute I have to say! Nothing to them really.  They are just chocolate rice crispy treats made in cup cake tins with Easter M&M’s in the middle.

I thought about putting some shredded coconut in a little green food coloring to look like grass under the M&M’s, but I forgot to get the coconut!  Oh well… these were still awesome!  We gave a bunch of them to some friends who have three cute kiddos too.  It is always good to have friends to help you eat the goodies!

Enjoy the yumminess and Happy Spring!!!!!!!

 

 

I often go out with some of my friends just to get buffalo wings and sweet potato fries.  I love me some hot stuff .  This also takes literally 5 minutes to prepare in the slow cooker.  Crock pot + hot stuff = mydreammeal.  I got this from allrecipes.com.

All you need is:

• 3 chicken breasts cut in half
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• ranch packet
• jar of buffalo wing sauce

 

Can you stand it?  Don’t you just want to gobble it up and lick your fingers after?!?!?!  What if I told you the other half had walnuts?  Even better huh!  I have always been a fan of monkey bread ever since I went to my very first slumber party as a kid and my friend’s mom brought it down to us for breakfast!  This is better than monkey bread though… this is like monkey bread on steroids!  This gooey delicious monkey bread is stuffed with delicious cream cheese and topped with chopped walnuts!

 

About once a month my friends and I plan a girl’s night.  Girl’s night ALWAYS involves good food!  We often go out to dinner, sometimes a movie, or often after dinner just head to one of our houses for some dessert.  This month was my turn to bring the dessert.  I had been saving this recipe from pinterest for a long time… just waiting for the opportunity to make it!

We seriously gobbled this up!  I only put nuts on half of it just in case there were leftovers and my kids wanted some… that idea was wasted!  The side with chopped walnuts was the first to go!  It was delicious and blended in nicely with the cream cheese flavor.

So I will stop rambling now and give you what you really want… the recipe!

CREAM CHEESE MONKEY BREAD
Adapted from pipandebbby.com

2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tb cinnamon
2 -12 ounce tubes of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (make 10 equal sized round discs from each tube)
8 ounce cube of cream cheese (cut into 20 equal cubes)
3/4 cup butter melted
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

• Preheat over to 350 degrees and spray bundt pan with cooking spray.
•  Mix sugars and cinnamon together in a medium bowl.
• Put one cube of cream cheese in each biscuit dough disc and fold the dough around the cream cheese leaving just the top of the cream cheese exposed.
• Sprinkle have your chopped nuts along the bottom on of the pan
• Put 10 discs in the bundt pan (on top of the nuts) with cream cheese facing up
• Dump 1/2 of you melted butter across the dough and sprinkle 1/2 your sugar-cinnamon mixture on top of that
• Place the last 10 discs in the bundt pan with the cream cheese facing down this time
• Dump the rest of you melted butter around the dough and then sprinkle the rest of the sugar-cinnamon on the top
• Top with chopped walnuts (optional)
• Bake for 40 minutes
• Invert and serve warm

Yummy dinner rolls from the famous Lion House Bakery!  I was really excited to try this recipe and was pleased with how they turned out.  The part I like about this recipe is that they make a lot of rolls on one baking tray!  When you put 20 rolls on one sheet it saves a lot of time from the usual roll recipes.  I got 2 1/2 dozen rolls out of my batch.

Lion House Rolls
2 cups warm water
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk
2 Tb active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1 egg
4 1/2 to 5 cups flour
1/2 cup butter, melted

1.  Combine water and dry milk first.  Then mix in your yeast, sugar, salt, butter, and egg on low speed until combined.  Then mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.

2.   Add 2 cups of flour.  Mix on low until combined and then on medium for 2 minutes.

3.  Add remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time mixing each time until dough is soft, but not too sticky.  It is not necessary to use all of the flour.  Only use enough to make the dough soft, but still workable.  The recipe doesn’t say this, but I did knead the dough for 5 to 6 minutes… old bread making habit I guess.

4.  Put one tablespoon of vegetable oil all around dough, turning the dough to make sure it is completely covered.  (This keeps the dough moist while it rises).  Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a clean cloth and let it rise until double.  This takes about an hour and a half if you don’t use a quick rise method (heating pad or a previously warmed oven that has been turned off).

5.  Sprinkle work surface with flour (I use oil to keep the dough extra moist).  Roll and shape as desired.  To roll using the Lion House method you need to roll in a long rectangle.  Using a pizza cutter, cut rectangles using the length of your pointer finger and the width of your thumb as a guide.  Then roll up and place on cookie sheet with tail resting on the pan.  Rolls need to be placed only an inch a part if you are using this rolling method as they need to be able to lean against each other as they rise.  See the Lion House video here to see how to roll dough.

6.  Cover with plastic wrap or a clean cloth once more and let rise until double.  Again, about an hour to hour and a half if you don’t use a quick rise method.  I am impatient and always use the quick method.  It shortens the time to 30 to 45minutes and I dont see a difference in how the rolls turn out in the long run.

7.  Bake at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Brush the rolls with melted butter while they are still warm.

This bread is great with butter, honey butter, and homemade strawberry jam!

 

 

Some of my hubby’s fondest memories from his childhood is going strawberry picking with his family.  They did it every every year and came back with buckets and buckets of strawberries.  His mom would make homemade jam from the strawberries and can them so they could have delicious strawberry jam all year.

As the spring weather approaches my husband always starts craving that homemade jam!  Unfortunately, his mom now lives 2000 miles away from us so I have had to step into the role of fulfilling his strawberry jam requirement.  I have to say that I am glad though… I would never have done it with out his insistence and am happy to have learned this skill and be able to pass this tradition on to our own growing family.

After a lot of research from several different sites, I have mastered canning strawberry jam!  I mostly pulled my research from LovelyLittleDetails.com and pickyoruown.org.  Let me first just suggest you buy this canning kit from Amazon to get you started with all the useful tools.  It isn’t absolutely necessary, but it is only $12.97 and will make your life much easier.  You’ll also need some canning jars.  You can get these at most grocery stores or target/walmart.

Before you start make sure to sanitize your jars and rings in the dishwasher or by boiling them in water.  DO NOT WASH THE LIDS.

Ingredients:
6 pints or 4 lbs of fresh strawberries
2 cups sugar (if you are not using reduced sugar pectin you will need closer to 7 cups, check the pectin box for specifics).
1 box reduced sugar pectin
2 lemons or 1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp butter (optional)

MAKING YOUR STRAWBERRY JAM

1.  Rinse and hull your strawberries.  The goal is to cleanly remove all of the stem of the strawberry.  I use a small paring knife and just get at each one individually while I watch TV however, I am guessing there is probably some tool out there to do this for you, but I just never think about it until I am already hulling.

 

2.  Mash up your strawberries!  Some people like to use a blender to do this, but personally I like to have a few small strawberry chunks in my jam so I prefer to use a potato masher and to leave it a little chunkier.

 

3.  Put the strawberries in a large pot and begin cooking on high heat.  Add one pectin packet and the juice of 2 lemons (or 1/4 cup of lemon juice).  The lemon juice helps preserve the jam so it keeps longer and the pectin helps to thicken the jam.  The next step is optional.  Adding butter to the strawberries as it heats helps reduce foaming.  You can always skim the foam off the top instead of adding butter and you may need to skim a little foam even with the butter.

 

4.  Let the jam come to a full boil before adding the sugar.  Then, stir constantly and bring to a rolling boil.  A rolling boil is a vigorous boil that keeps boiling even when you stir.  Keep the jam at this rolling boil for at least 3 full minutes.  Don’t forget to keep stirring!  It’s very important!

5.  Skim any foam from the top of the jam using a large sauce spoon or a ladle.  Keep a spoon in a cup of ice water.  Then to test the consistency of your jam, pull out the spoon  and scoop up a teaspoon or so of jam.  Let it cool to room temperature then turn it sideways checking to see if it is firming the way you would like.  Don’t worry… if it is not as thick as you want just add a little more pectin from the 2nd pouch in your box and bring to a rolling boil for another 3 minutes.  Then test again.  You can continue doing this until you are satisfied the pectin is thickening your jam.  I usually add another 1/4 a packet to mine…. maybe I just like mine a little thicker.  😉

 

6.  Poor the jam into the jars.  I needed 7 jars (1/2 pint sized).  You can use the funnel from the canning kit for this or you can cheat like me and poor all the jam into a juice pitcher and then poor into the jars.  I found this way easiest and less messy.  Wipe all along each jar to make sure there is no jam residue from pouring.

7.  Get the jar lids in some hot water to soak.  This loosens up the waxy stuff on the rim of the lid to help it seal.  Let the jam sit to cool for 5 minutes while the lids soak.  Before you put the lids on stir your jam carefully one more time.  This makes the chunks of strawberries distribute more evenly instead of all floating to the top.  Seal the jars tightly with the lid and rings and your are almost done!

8.  Put the sealed jars in a large pot of boiling water.  Note:  Do not let the jars rest directly on the bottom of the pan.  You need a buffer of some sort.  I use a wash rag at the bottom and put my jars on top of the rag.  Make sure the water is at least 2 inches above the top of your jars.  Let them boil for at least 10 minutes.  You don’t want to keep them in much longer than that or the jam will get runny and turn dark.  Be careful putting the jars in and pulling them out… this is where the jar tongs from the canning kit are very useful.

8.  Pull the jars out and let them cool on a wire rack.  You will hear a popping sound as the jars cool and seal.  Check to make sure they have sealed after 24hrs by pushing in the center of the jar.  If it pops up and down your lid did not seal correctly.  If you do not can your jam it will keep for a month in the fridge.  If you can them they will keep for a year, but start to get runny after about six to eight months.

That’s it!  You’re done!  Now you can tie a cute ribbon around it and you have a great gift for a friend or neighbor.  I will be using some of mine for teacher appreciation week. 🙂  Enjoy!

The jam tastes great on rolls, breads, crepes, cheesecakes, short cakes, etc… Pretty  much anything!!!