Strawberry Muffins

Want something to do with those strawberries sitting in your fridge about to go bad? 

Try this. 

:: Ingredients ::

2 cups flour

2 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup chopped strawberries

2 eggs

3/4 cup margarine or butter

1/2 cup vanilla soy milk

2 tsp. almond extract

1 tsp grated orange zest

:: Directions ::

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees

2. Use a mixer to mix eggs, butter, milk, almond extract and orange zest

3. Add sugar, flour, baking powder and salt beat until smooth.

4. Fold in strawberries.

5. Spoon batter into muffin tins with paper liners.

6. Sprinkle sugar on the top of each muffin.

7. Bake 20-25 minutes. Test with a toothpick, if it comes out clean, they're done.

Blueberry Muffins

Today my daughter's best friend's family invited us to go blueberry picking. 

I hadn't done that since I was a little kid. 

We had such a great time and we have tons of blueberries now as the bucket below got filled to the top 

when my daughter's friend decided we needed more blueberries and dumped her bucket into ours. LOL.

So, time for some creative recipe developing by yours truly! Blueberry muffins were first on the request list, 

and they turned out so delicious - I thought I would share with you guys!

:: Ingredients ::

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup vanilla soy milk

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) melted

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups blueberries

:: Directions ::

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line muffin pan with muffin cups. Recipe will make about 16 muffins.

In a large bowl, add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt - whisk together.

In a separate bowl, beat together milk, melted butter, egg and vanilla until blended.

Add liquid mixture to dry mixture until moistened. Then fold in blueberries.

Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes. 

Immediately remove muffins from pan and let them cool on wire rack.

July 4th, 2012
Made these for brunch today and changed the vanilla extract to almond extract + I added the zest of one small lemon -- so so good!!!!

Activities Board tutorial

Hurray, it's summer! Well, maybe not.

My daughter is out of pre-K and has been moping around the house, saying and I quote, "I'm bored out of my mind." Where does she come up with this stuff?
So not wanting to hear THAT all summer, I got to work trying to find some inexpensive activities to do in our city. Well I found more than I thought I would and to keep track of all of them,
I created...voila, an activities board.

This is a super easy project.

I completed mine in about 2 hours and most of that was paint drying time. 

So, all you busy moms out there, you can definitely do other things 

while you are waiting for that to happen.

• find a 16 x20 frame that you're not using anymore, preferably one in which the glass has broken and you were wondering what you would ever do with it. LOL.
• Grab a can of spray paint, something fun and bright. (I picked teal blue to match my home office where I was planning to hang the board.) Follow the directions on the paint can and spray your frame. 

• I already had the cork which I purchased at Home Depot, I found it in the section where they have contact paper. So easy, just peel and stick it on the frame backing!
• I found lots of activities (for free) at our local library, so I printed out their calendar of scheduled events for the summer months. On MS Word, I made my own schedule of summer $1 movies that play at our local Regal Cinemas every Tuesday and Wednesday to hang on the board. Plus I made a list of places for possible day trips in the area. The internet is so handy, don't ya love it?
•  When your frame is dry, reassemble and arrange your activity ideas easily so you can figure out what you are doing day-to-day without too much searching. I circled all the library events we were going to in red pen and showed my daughter, she was very excited!

Now hopefully my daughter will be entertained until Fall when kindergarten starts! :-)

When Life Throws You Lemons, Make Chocolate Cake

This sweet girl, my daughter Shelby, reminded me yesterday of how lucky I am to be a Mom. 

More importantly HER Mom. 

We were getting ready to go to a birthday party for one of her classmates last night and I noticed my check engine light was on. I pulled up my car hood and promptly called my dad, cause isn't that what every girl does when she has car troubles? After some deliberation, I noticed my coolant was completely empty. He said don't drive it. Greeeeeaaaaaat.

Alas, the party was a no-go, but to my shock there were only a few tears. Then Shelby came up with the plan that we could have a party at our house. Since she knew they were having pizza and cake, she decided that's what we should have. So we pulled out cookbooks, found a cake recipe and got to work. 

 

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup milk

1/3 cup cooking oil

1 tsp almond extract

1 egg

a handful of chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour your cake pan. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add dry ingredients and mix. 
3. Add wet ingredients (except the egg) and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. 
4. Add the egg and beat for 2 more minutes. Pour into your cake pan. 
5. Then sprinkle your chocolate chips on top.
6. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes - then test with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it's done! 
7. Cool cake thoroughly, remove from pan. 
8. Then add your choice of icing and sprinkles and voila, you're done!

Recipe derived from One Bowl Chocolate Cake  

in the Better Homes and Gardens Celebrating the Promise Limited Edition Cookbook.

Edamame Salad Sandwich

 

A very healthy take-off on the egg salad sandwich, I give you the edamame salad sandwich!

The following goes in the food processor:

One 8 oz. pkg of edamame, cooked and shelled

1 heaping spoonful of olive oil mayonaise 

A sprinkle of sea salt

Drizzle sesame oil over top 

A handful of toasted cashews (or whatever nuts you like)

Blend ingredients, then pile up on your favorite bread! So easy, right?!

Enjoy ♥

SIDE NOTE:  

Sorry about the blurry picture, my phone is terrible - it definitely does not do this sandwich justice.
Hopefully I'm getting a new one soon - a Mom's day present from my hubby! 

Yeah, he rocks like that.

Simple and Yummy Chicken Salad

So I come home from shopping at Sam's Club this evening and to my delight there was an unexpected visitor
at our house. My step-daugher, Emily! I, of course, invited her to stay for dinner.
Then was left to ponder...what should I make? 

Here's what I came up and it was really simple to prepare - it only took me about 20 minutes. 

It's a super easy dinner for all you busy moms out there who need to get a nutritious meal on the table, and an added bonus, not too much clean up!

Ingredients:

Salad:

A handful of cherry tomatoes, diced

One can of corn

One can of black beans

The breasts from one of the roasted chickens you can get almost anywhere for like $6 or $7, chopped

A handful of spinach, ours was from our garden, chopped

1 cup of mango salsa (regular salsa would work too)

Dressing:

2 tbsp of chopped onions

1/4 cup of the salsa

2 tbsp of olive oil

one lemon, juiced

a couple good shakes of coriander and lime pepper seasoning

Chop up your salad ingredients and place in a bowl. Add dressing ingredients to the food processor or blender. Blend. Then add your dressing to the salad and fold in gently.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream on top and a side of Tostitos Hint of Lime Chips.

Enjoy! ♥

Real Men Eat Quiche

So I asked my husband if he even liked quiche before I started developing this recipe and his answer,
"Real men eat quiche."
I don't know what that means, but I figured it meant "yes" so I went ahead
and started in on my dish. The end result, he LOVED it! So of course, I'm sharing with you,

Ingredients:

1 deep dish pie crust, baked

Cherry Tomatoes, halved

Broccoli, chopped

Roasted Red Peppers, minced

(Note: the above three ingredients will total 1 cup altogether)

1/4 cup bacon crumbles

1/2 cup Colby cheese, shredded.

1/2 cup Emmentaler cheese, shredded

(you can use Swiss if Emmentaler is not readily available to you)

 1 tbsp chopped basil

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups of milk

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of pepper

1/2 tbsp lemon zest

Directions:

Bake your pie crust as per the directions on the package. 

While your pie crust is in the oven, doing the following:

Prepare your veggies.
 

 Measure out your bacon crumbles.

Grate your cheeses.

Chop your basil leaves.

Mix your eggs, milk, salt, pepper and lemon zest in a bowl. Set aside.

Start layering your ingredients, like this:

Then pour your egg mixture over top when your pie crust is done baking.
 

Bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until the pie is firm.

Let it cool for 20 to 30 minutes, this allows it to set up.
Otherwise, it will fall apart when you try to slice into it.

Serve and enjoy! ♥