Happy Thanksgiving:

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 

Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 

Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; 

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: 

be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 

For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."

Psalm 100:1-5

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!!

Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie:

I really like smoothies, but some of them are SO sweet. 

I was craving a good smoothie the other day, but didn't have some of my normal smoothie staples.

I found this recipe and decided to give it a try!

It was super flavorful and filling, and had just the right amount of sweetness!

I hope you try it out!

1/2 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 cup plain or strawberry yogurt (greek yogurt or regular)

1 banana, sliced

1/4 cup quick oats

1 tblsp. honey

1-3 tablespoons water, if needed

Place all in the NutriBullet or blender and blend until smooth.
Add water until desired consistency is reached.

Serve!

Caramel Banana Roll:

I love my grandma's Pumpkin Roll recipe!

We had a lot of banana's to use up the other week, and as I was looking down through as many recipes containing bananas as I could, I stumbled across this one. It looked interesting, and I actually I had all the ingredients (especially the bananas), so I gave it a try.

It didn't have a strong banana flavor, but it was really, really good!!! 

The little extra surprise in the filling, gave it just the right touch!!

I hope you give it a try!

Cake:

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup mashed banana

Filling:

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup powder sugar

6 tblsp. butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup caramel sauce (just the ice cream topping in the squeeze bottle is fine)

Grease a 15x10-inch jelly-roll pan with cooking spray. Line with wax paper (or parchment paper) and then spray the wax paper with cooking spray.

Stir together the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar, with an electric mixer, until thick and smooth. Mix in the vanilla and banana. Add the flour mixture. Mix just until combined; be sure not to over-mix.

Pour into prepared pan and spread out evenly.

Bake at 375 degrees for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown and the top of the cake springs back when touched.

Meanwhile, mix together filling ingredients; set aside. 

Lay out a kitchen towel. Place a piece of wax paper on the towel. Sprinkle wax paper with powder sugar. 

Carefully, flip the cake out onto the wax paper - bottom of the cake up. Slowly, pull the wax paper off the cake. Let stand for about 2 minutes. Roll up the cake, wax paper, and towel together, starting at the short end. Let stand 5 minutes.

Unroll, and spread the filling over the cake to within 1-inch of the edges. Spread carefully, or else you might tear the cake. Roll the cake, starting at the short end, carefully pulling away the wax paper from the cake as you roll. When you reach the end of the cake, leave on the wax paper. Place in a 9x13 baking dish. Refrigerate for about 2 hours or until chilled firm. Remove from the wax paper and gently wrap in foil. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to serve. Slice in 1/2-inch slices to serve.

Note:

-This freezes really, really well and is easier to cut while it's frozen.

Homemade Oreos:

When I first saw these, I thought they would be like any other chocolate sandwich cookie. It seems like everyone tends to call those "homemade oreos" but they are nothing short of an ordinary chocolate sandwich cookie. That doesn't make them Oreo's.

These, however, were definitely the exception.

The cookie part was more dense and maybe even a little drier than normal,

and the biggest surprise, is that the filling tastes just like real Oreo cookie filling! Seriously!

It was pretty incredible! And definitely tasty to someone who hasn't had Oreo's in 10 years or so!

I hope you try them out! 

2 & 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. xanthan gum

1 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 & 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

Filling:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable shortening, room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla

3 & 1/2 cups powder sugar

In a small bowl, combine the flour, xanthan gum, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter until light and creamy. Add sugar and brown sugar, and mix until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a lid, if the bowl has one. Chill for 30 minutes.

Using a cookie scoop to keep the cookies all the same size, roll dough into balls. Place on greased cookie sheets - 12 cookies to a sheet. With the bottom of a cup or flat spatula, lightly flatten each cookie.

Bake at 350 degrees for 6 minutes. The cookies will look like they aren't totally done, but that's how you want them. Don't over-bake. Allow to cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. 

For the filling: beat together butter, shortening and vanilla until smooth. Add powder sugar, and mix until combined. The filling is very stiff, but that's how it's supposed to be. Using the same size cookie scoop that you used for the dough, place one scoop of filling onto half of the cookies. Lightly spread out the filling, and top with the other half of the cookies.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.

Note:
-The original recipe said that these cookies freeze really well. I didn't have any leftover to try it out, but if anyone else does, please leave a comment and let me know how it turns out!

Peanut Butter Haystacks:

If you like the other No-Bake Cookie recipe I have on the blog, then you will probably enjoy these as well!

This was one of my grandma's recipes (she just LOVED sweets!!!).

I hope you enjoy them!

2 cups sugar

1 stick (8 tablespoons) Butter

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 cups mini marshmallows

2 & 1/4 cup oats (quick or old-fashion, it doesn't matter)

1/4 cup flaked coconut, optional

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Stir in the sugar and milk. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 & 1/2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add peanut butter and marshmallows. Stir until marshmallows are completely melted. Add oats and coconut, if desired, and stir until well combined. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto wax paper (I used a cookie scoop for this, to keep them all the same size). Allow to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.