Flower Cupcakes and Princess cake

It's birthday week in my house right now. My girls and I made these to share with family the day before Clara's birthday. I found the idea on Kraftfoods.com. These are super easy to do. Just cut a marshmallow with kitchen scissors into four equal pieces and set in a flower shape on your frosted cupcakes, then sprinkle for some glitter. Girls love glitter! The girls loved making these but beware, it was very very messy.

Then on Clara's birthday, which was today, we made a princess cake. I found this idea on Familyfun.com. Clara picked out the cake mix, frosting and the barbie. Let me tell you, she is a pink lover! I'm actually not sure why I'm posting this. I had a much prettier picture in my head then how it actually turned out. I guess cake decorating isn't really my area of expertise but you should have seen the excited that Clara showed when she saw this cake. It was a hit!

Honey Gold Bread

So, wow, I'm so excited to have another bread recipe. This is a wheat bread recipe which is also very exciting, as I've only ever made white bread. It's actually another sourdough recipe but very good, go figure. I hope you enjoy as much as I have.

Please refer to previous post (Dollar Pancakes) for the instructions about sourdough.

Honey Gold Bread - Marie Reese

Set your sourdough batter the night before. in the morning stir and put 1 cup of starter back in your pot.

2 cups milk

2 tbls butter

1/4 cup honey

1 package active dry yeast

2 cups wheat flour

1/4 cup wheat germ

2 tbls sugar

2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

4 cups white flour

Scald milk; stir in butter and honey, then allow to cool until lukewarm. Add yeast and stir until dissolved. Add this mix to basic sourdough batter previously prepared. Add 2 cups wheat flour and wheat germ, stirring until well mixed. Blend sugar, salt and soda until smooth; sprinkle over top of dough and stir in gently. Set dough in a warm spot and cover with a cloth and let rise for 30 minutes. Stir down and add remaining flour until dough is too stiff to stir with a spoon. Turn out on floured board and begin to knead with your hands. (NOTE: Flour required may vary from quantity indicated -one must gauge the feel-rather too little than too much). Work in remaining flour, kneading with heels of hands about 100 times until dough is light and satiny to the touch. Do not knead too long or include too much flour, or the sponge will be heavy and dry. Break into sections, flour lightly, fold over and seal. Place in greased bread pans; pans should be half full. Grease top of loaves, set in warm spot and let double in bulk agian. Meanwhile preheat oven to moderately hot (400 degrees F). When loaves have risen, bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Then reduce temp to moderately slow (325 degrees F) and continue baking until bread shrinks from side of pans. When baked, loaves will give a hollow sound when thumped on top. Remove from oven, turn out on rack or towel on table and butter tops.

Easy Chicken Santa Fe

I have a friend all the way from Louisiana who has requested that I put in a few crock pot recipes on here. She is my study partner for school and, let me tell you, she is also such a lifesaver. She motivates me to work hard everyday and is always good for advice and help. We're both busy moms and so I thought that it would be a great idea to fit in a few of these crock pot recipes into my menu. I found this recipe on www.cdkitchen.com. This is for you, Randi!

Easy Chicken Santa Fe

2 cans (15 oz size) black beans
1 can (15 oz size) corn
1 cup thick and chunky salsa
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt
6 skinless boneless chicken breasts (I used half this amount)
8 ounces nonfat cream cheese
1 cup fat-free cheddar cheese
hot cooked rice

In a 3.5 or 4-quart electric slow cooker, mix together beans, corn, and 1/2 cup salsa. Mix cumin through salt together in a small bowl; rub into chicken. Place seasoned chicken on top of corn/bean mixture in slow cooker. Pour remaining salsa over chicken.

Cover and cook on high heat setting 2 1/2-3 hours or until chicken is tender and cooked through. Do not overcook or chicken will be tough. Remove chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces. Add back to slow cooker. (I skipped this step. I actually cooked it on low for 6 hours and I had already cubed the chicken when I first put it in there. I am sure it would be fine if you cook it on low longer then 6 hours as well.)

Add cream cheese (cut into cubes to melt faster) and turn cooker to high heat. Heat until cream cheese melts and blends into sauce. Serve over hot rice. Top with shredded cheese.

Banana Crumb Muffins

My mother-in-law sent this recipe to me all the way from Australia! Actually, I think she found the recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/ and emailed it to me. That was all the way at the beginning of June and I'm only just barely getting to trying it out. I'm glad I finally did. The whole family really enjoyed these muffins. I found the motivation to make a yummy breakfast from this book I've started reading again. It's called ChangeOne by Reader's Digest. I bought it quite awhile ago for the recipes in it. I never really read through it but now I decided is as good a time as any. The concept of the book is to change one thing each week for 12 weeks. I'm on week number 1 and my goal for the week is just to eat a healthy balanced breakfast. I officially start on Monday with this goal but I'm going to try it out a couple days ahead of time anyhow. I was actually surprised how much food I needed to eat for breakfast and I had a bit of struggle doing it because I'm not a very good breakfast eater. I did, however, feel that I was treating myself rather special this morning and my family appreciated it too. No cold cereal for us this morning!
This mornings breakfast included: one muffin, one full serving of fruit, and a serving of strawberry yogurt.

Banana Crumb Muffins -allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbl all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbl butter


1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Easy Mexican Rice

This is a super easy recipe and one I used as one of this week's meatless dishes. I don't really like it as a side by itself but I love it as a burrito filler or as a chip dip. Just use it like you would taco meat. I like to put a couple tablespoons in a tortilla with some cheese, sour cream and lettuce. Super Yummy. This recipe also makes a lot so it's great for lunches throughout the week.

Easy Mexican Rice

1 1/2 cups uncooked brown or white rice

1/2 of a packet of taco seasoning mix

1 (15.25 oz) can kidney beans, drained

1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained

salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook rice according to directions

2. Stir in taco seasoning, kidney beans, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, salt and pepper

3. Cook over medium heat until heated through

Vegetable Pasta Sauce

I'm trying to be a little more healthy and save some money. Since meat is so darn expensive I thought it might be fun to try out a couple meatless meals a couple nights a week. Last night we had this pasta sauce. It is chuck full of veggies and some spices. There isn't one unhealthy ingredient. Pretty amazing (for me anyway). Shawn was pretty excited about my healthy dinner. He's always wanting me to cook more healthy. This was actually pretty tasty and very healthy. Everyone really enjoyed it. It's also a crock pot recipe which is an added bonus!

Vegetable Pasta Sauce - Rival Crock Pot recipes

2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (undrained)

1 can (14.5 oz) whole tomatoes (undrained)

1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 med red bell pepper, diced

1 med green bell pepper, diced

1 small yellow squash, sliced

1 small zucchini, sliced

1 can (6 oz) tomato paste

4 green onions

2 Tbl dried Italian seasoning

1 Tbl chopped fresh parsley

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper flakes (optional)

1 tsp black pepper

Hot cooked pasta

Parmesan cheese and fresh basil fr garnish (optional)

Combine all ingredients except pasta and garnishes in slow cooker, stirring until well blended. Cover; cook on LOW 6 to 8 hours. Serve over cooked pasta. Garnish with Parmesan cheese and fresh basil, if desired.

Smoothies!

One of my favorite things to make for dinner is breakfast and when I make breakfast my girls always scream for "SMOOVIES"! My husband introduced me to this wonderful treat when we were dating. It used to be his specialty and one that I would always request when we watched a movie in the evenings together. Now it's become my specialty. It's not really very healthy if that's what your hoping for. Is anything on here very healthy? It is very good though! This recipe is just a basic orange julius and then I add extra frozen fruits (anything I have on hand). I like to add pineapple and mango and peaches for a tropical taste, all berries, or peaches and bananas (Shawn loves the bananas, I don't so much). Just throw it all in the blender and you really can't go wrong. So so good.

Smoothies -Shawn Peterson

A few heaping tablespoons of orange juice concentrate

1 cup of milk

1 cup of water

6 ice cubes or so

1 tsp vanilla

almost a 1/2 cup sugar

then add a handful of any kind of frozen fruit

Blend it up and enjoy! If it's too thick just thin it out with a little milk or if it's too thin add a couple ice cubes. We like ours thick.