Monday, September 30, 2013

Marshmallow Brownies:

I love Mallow Cups and these tasted very similar to those! I think they were best the next day, after they had chilled. They are an awesome treat and I hope you try them out!

 

Brownies:
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
2/3 cup baking cocoa
4 eggs
1 & 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp. xanthan gum (omit if not making gluten-free)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla

1 (10 oz.) bag mini marshmallows

Chocolate Frosting:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 tblsp. cocoa
3 cups powder sugar

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil and cocoa. Add eggs, one at a time mixing well after each. Add flour, xanthan gum, salt and baking powder and vanilla. Stir until well combined. Pour into a greased 10x15-inch baking pan and spread out evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Remove from the oven and top with marshmallows. Return to the oven for 3-5 minutes or until marshmallows are soft and puffy (make sure to watch closely or they will get huge and burn!). Allow to cool completely and then mix up the frosting: Mix all frosting ingredients with a hand mixer. Add more milk, if needed until you reach desired consistency. Spread evenly over marshmallows and chill until ready to serve!

Note:
-These are pretty rich, I suggest cutting them small!!!!
-You can use large marshmallows cut in quarters if you don't have any mini ones.
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Monday, September 23, 2013

Eggs a la Goldenrod:

When I first saw this recipe, I thought it was interesting. I didn't think it sounded necessarily bad, but I didn't really expect to be trying it any time soon either (I have no clue where the name came from!)
 
Tonight, around 5:30 or so, I realized that we were missing a few key ingredients for what I had planned to make for dinner (it's a good thing I picked up on this early in the day, right?!)!! 
So, I needed to come up with something quick, and someone shouted out that waffles sounded good. They did sound good, but we had nothing to put with them that would make them a little more "dinner" worthy or healthy, if that's possible!! 
This recipe instantly came to mind (not necessarily for "health"), so I decided to give it a try.
When people started realizing what I was doing, they weren't impressed!
But after trying one bite, everyone loved it!! I was so shocked!!
It's so different, yet so yummy!!
I hope you take a few minutes and try it for yourself!
Let me know what you think!!
 
 
 
8 hard-boiled eggs
6 tblsp. butter
1/2 tsp. onion powder
4 tblsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
3 cups milk
 
Separate the yolk from the white of all the eggs. Lightly chop the whites and set aside. Place the yolks in a bowl, and using a fork, mash the yolks. They will just be basically crumbly. Set aside.
Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Combine onion powder, cornstarch, salt and pepper. Whisk into melted butter and stir until smooth. Gradually add milk, and whisk until mixture begins to bubble and thicken. Cook and stir until desired consistency is reached (we like it not too thin, not too thick, but you can make it however you prefer. The longer you cook it, the thicker it gets).
Stir the whites of the eggs into the sauce.
To serve, spoon the sauce over toast, biscuits or waffles. Sprinkle with some of the egg yolks!
 
Note:
-This would probably be good with some cooked, crumbled sausage in the sauce as well.
-As you can see from the picture, my dad sprinkled bacon-bits on his and said it was good.
-We served it over waffles (click here for the recipe), but the original recipe served it over toast.
-Recipe adapted from SixSistersStuff.com
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Monday, September 16, 2013

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins:

These taste just like a peanut butter and banana sandwich!! I was afraid they would be dry and heavy, but they were surprisingly most and spongy! Definitely a great switch up from regular banana muffins!


2 cups flour
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tblsp. baking powder (yes, that's tablespoon!)
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup peanut butter, crunchy or smooth it's up to you
2 tblsp. vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3 ripe bananas

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, xanthan gum, brown sugar
baking powder and salt. 
Place bananas in a separate bowl, and beat with a hand mixer until thoroughly mashed. Add peanut butter, oil, eggs and milk and mix until well combined. Pour into dry ingredients, and mix just until combined. Fill paper-lined muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in tins for 5 minutes. Serve or transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Note:
-You can use a whisk, fork or stand mixer to mash the bananas and combine with the remaining ingredients. I just used a hand mixer and that worked fine. It is a fairly thick consistency.
-Chocolate chips or peanut butter chips would probably be very good in these!!

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Monday, September 9, 2013

Baked Corn on the Cob with Honey Butter:

Where I live, "knee-high by the 4th of July" does not represent our corn!!
Its late August, beginning of September till we are enjoying any corn on the cob around here!
There is really lots of ways to cook corn - we usually steam it, but we've also tried grilling it.
Corn roasts are also big around here, and to be honest, that's the best way to have corn!! Of course, it also involves the most work!!
I had been seeing recipes floating around the Internet for baking corn on the cob and decided to give it a try. Am I ever glad I did! Talk about easy and delicious!!! We made it twice in one week! It's a cross between steaming it and roasting it. Super yummy!!
 
And you can't have corn on the cob without butter! Make sure you try out the super easy recipe for Honey Butter! It's SO yummy on the corn (and would be good on lots of other things too!) 
I hope you give these two recipes a try!!
 
Honey butter
 
1/4 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1/4 cup honey
 
In a small bowl, beat together butter and honey with a hand mixer until well combined and light and fluffy. Place in a serving dish. Refrigerate until ready to use.
 
Baked Corn on the Cob
 
 
 
There is no ingredient list for the corn, except as many ears of corn as you want!
 
Leaving the husks on, pull or cut off the brown, fuzzy, silky part at the top of the ear of corn. Make sure you don't cut farther down than just the brown part, because you don't want the corn to be exposed - it needs to be thoroughly wrapped in the husks.
 
Place the corn right on the racks in your oven. If you have a convection oven, you can place corn on all three racks and it should get done evenly. If you do not have a convection oven, placing corn on all three racks, may result in the top rack getting done, and the other two racks needing more time.
 
Bake at 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Carefully remove from the oven to a serving plate with oven mitts, and/or tongs. To test for doneness, VERY carefully pull the husks down and if a fork goes into the kernels of corn easily, it's done.
 
Serve!!
 
Note:
-Be VERY cautious while pulling away the husks after baking. There is steam trapped inside, and it can burn you, if you don't open it carefully!   

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Monday, September 2, 2013

NutriBullet:




You may have seen these advertised on TV, in magazines or seen them in stores.
You can click HERE to go directly to the NutriBullet web page and learn all about them.

Before I get into this too far, I just want to say that I'm not trying to sell them and I'm not getting any compensation for writing this post about them either!

I had not heard of them before my Aunt bought one for us a few months ago. It's like a juicer and a blender combined. You can use it for lots of things, but right now, we are using ours mainly for smoothies. Smoothies are a big thing right now, and they are a great, easy way to get in a lot of fruits and veggies that you might not other wise eat!
With the NutriBullet, you can totally customize your smoothie to your preference. You can use just about any fruit and any vegetable, seeds, nuts, protein powders, etc., and the ratio is again, up to you.

I prefer a pretty simple smoothie - 50% vegetable/50% fruit. I use spinach, strawberries, bananas and a small amount of water. I also prefer that my strawberries are frozen and that my bananas are not! The frozen fruit makes it cold and frothy without making it watery. The fresh bananas makes it creamy. According to the book, they say to add water to the max line, but that makes it pretty runny and I like it to be more milkshake consistency, so I usually only add about an inch of water. Again, my preference. Everyone in my family makes theirs a little different!

(normally, I like have more spinach and less fruit, but we were running out of spinach!)

My aunt adds in Greek yogurt, milk, chai seeds and fruit juices.
The list is really endless! You just put in everything you like, and blend it all together to a smooth, creamy texture! There is books with recipes and you can go to the website for recipes as well. You can also just use the recipes for ideas as to what kind of fruits and vegetable to do together, and adjust the amounts to your preference.

So, if you have one, I hope you use it!! And if you don't have one, I hope you check out the link at the top and start making some amazing, healthy smoothies!!!!

Leave me a comment with your favorite smoothie combo!
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