Baking Breakfast

Today I have been stocking the freezer with breakfast goodies and I thought I would share the recipes :)

Whole Wheat Fig Muffins

I used all white whole wheat flour, and coconut oil instead of canola, and I omitted the oat topping.

Lemon-Raspberry Muffins

Using coconut oil in place of canola and all white whole wheat flour

Sorta Scones with Chocolate chips

Honey whole-wheat sandwich bread

I don't have a bread maker but the comments below the post are full of tips to bake this bread without out.  I placed the yeast and melted honey into the measuring cup of water and allowed it to poof up for about 5 minutes, meanwhile I mixed the flour and salt with my kitchen aid.  Then using the dough hook I added the oil and wet ingredients to the flour and let the mixer beat away at it till it was smooth and elastic (about 6 minutes or so).  I let that rise in an oiled and towel covered bowl for about an hour and a half, then punched it down and placed it into my loaf pan to rise for about 45 minutes.  Then I baked it at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  YUM!  It sliced super easy. 

Happy Valentines Day

Ganache...

Cream and chocolate = Amazing!

I love taking a freshly baked cake 

and mixing it with the ganache.  It just seems like something you'd never do :) 

I made a  Chocolate Sour Cream Cake with a few changes- coconut oil instead of shortening, unbleached white whole wheat flour, plain yogurt instead of sour cream and dark coco powder.  

I then followed these instructions for the prep. 

This mixture is very easy to mold into whatever shape you'd like.  

I placed the cake in the freezer for about an hour and then topped it with the remaining ganache.  While it was in the refrigerator setting up I made the; 

Whipped Cream

1 cup whipping cream, whipped to stiff peak consistency

3 TB powdered sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

The strawberries are simply sliced and placed on top.  I also sprinkled the whipped cream with chopped almonds.  This is one of my favorite desserts, and was wonderful to share with good friends this valentines day.  

I was super surprised by my very sweet valentine with some garden starting goodies and a gift card to my favorite crafting indulgence :)  That man knows me so well!  

For Remembrance of Bruce Anthony Gabriel

Sweet boy, you were with us for 15 days.... it was enough to make a huge impact on your Auntie's heart.  I made 15 hats to give to your NICU, I prayed for each one of the babies these hats will go to. 

One of your mommy's friends made a couple of hats too.

And your Great Grandma made 20!!

We love and miss you so very much Bruce! 

Wonderful things we ate this week :)

I have been learning a TON about whole foods and I have several goals this month.  One has been to try new recipes and modify some of my favorites to incorporate whole foods.  

We enjoyed the ease and awesome flavor of Cilantro Lime Chicken with Salsa Verde (one of the freezer meals I made last month), served with steamed baby spinach and Colonial Oatmeal Bread.

I also made some yummy and filling (but too spicy for the kids)...

Taco Soup
2 cups Taco chicken stock ;
(left over from another recipe- place in a crock pot on high for 4 hours; 1 lb chicken thighs, 1 can diced green chilies, 1/2 packet trader joes taco seasoning, and water to cover the chicken.  I used the chicken for enchiladas and took the remaining broth and threw it in the freezer)
1 cup cooked diced chicken (I used the leftover grilled chicken)
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans

1 cup cooked brown rice (leftover from the batch of rice)

Simmer in the crock pot for about 4 hours on high and serve with chopped fresh cilantro, green onions, and a scoop of plain yogurt.

Homemade Granola Bars- I made mine with Bob's Red Mill Muesli  in place of the oats.  Yum!

Blueberry Raspberry Oat Grain Muffins -based off of this recipe, I used coconut oil instead of canola, white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose, 1/2 cup of honey instead of brown sugar, a mixture of blueberries and raspberries, I also used 1/4 cup of yogurt whey and milk to equal the 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk.

Pistachio Chai Muffins I didn't have any pistachios so I called mine vanilla chai muffins :)

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes- I used applesauce instead of bananas and made half with blueberries and the other half with chocolate, they were moist and easy to cook, nice and fluffy too!

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
-12 washed and dried fresh strawberries
mix
-1 cup chocolate chips, melted
-1 tsp coconut oil
Dip strawberries in the chocolate and place on waxed paper,
finely chop
-2 TB almonds
sprinkle on the chocolate covered strawberries

Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or until chocolate is hardened.

Enjoy!

Colonial Williamsburg

I wanted to share some of our pictures from Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.  It was so much fun! 

Soggy has read the American Girl Felicity series and since it is all about Colonial Williamsburg and it's so close.... how could we not take advantage of such a wonderful teaching opportunity.  I can't even tell you how much we learned.  The shops with the actual tradesmen and women were my favorite.  

Soggy at the back door of the Governor's Palace.  

The kids really enjoyed the hedge maze at the Governor's Palace.  

I loved watching this man make wool and cotton yarn.  He also told me all about how they make it now.  Such a contrast.  I would love to learn how to spin my own wool.... but I think my husband would think I was crazy if I bought a spinning wheel!  

Soggy loved taking pictures... here is one at the shoemaker's shop.

Petting the sheep.

Such a beautiful place!  We certainly enjoyed being there without the crowds since this is the off season.  It was wonderful watch Soggy see literature in action.  We will definitely do so again.... hopefully she starts reading The Adventure's of Tintin next.  Let's travel the world! 

Meal Plan 1/25-1/31

We just returned home from a trip to Colonial Williamsburg, VA.  It was so much fun!  We learned a whole lot from the shops and museums.

I'll be sure to post about that soon... for now I want to post this upcoming week's meal plan.  I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep track of my meal planning.  The refrigerator, a chalk board, a pinterest board, a notebook???? I'm not sure yet.  For this week I'm posting the recipes here so that I have a complete link list and instructions for how to do some of the new things I want to try (like soaking beans).  So here's what's we have on the menu...

Wednesday- 

Chicken Enchiladas, 

I put some frozen chicken thighs, a can of green chilies, and a 1/2 packet of Trader Joes taco seasoning in the crock pot on high for 4 hours so that I won't have to fuss with cooking the chicken and I can assemble the enchiladas this afternoon and put them in the refrigerator.  That way when we get home from AWANA all I have to do is make some rice to serve with it and throw the preped enchiladas in the oven for 30 minutes.  

Here's the recipe I'm trying...

Chicken Enchiladas

1 lb seasoned cooked and shredded chicken (see above)

1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

10 oz chopped spinach (thawed and patted dry if frozen)

8 whole wheat flour tortillas

16 oz salsa verde

2 cups pepper jack or sharp cheddar cheese

Mix; seasoned chicken, chopped spinach and yogurt together in a bowl.

Place; filling on tortillas, roll them up and place in a pan seam side down.

Pour: Salsa verde over tortillas and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake: for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Thursday-

Instant Chicken Parmesan

28 oz jar of spaghetti sauce
4-6 frozen breaded "chicken" patties (I use morningstar veggie patties)
4-6 slices provolone cheese
1-2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Spread sauce in 9'-13' pan; arrange patties on top. Place a slice of provolone cheese on each patty; sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake, at 350 degrees for 20 min, broil for about 3-5 minutes to brown the cheese. serves 4-6

Great over pasta. I usually toss the cooked noodles with; olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and some grated parmesan cheese. Yummy!

Friday

BBQ Chicken Pizza  This is one of the meals I made and froze last week!  It's part of the once a month cooking I mentioned before and will post about soon.

Saturday

Breakfast for dinner

Sunday

Whole Roasted Chicken, rice, fresh steamed spinach or artichokes

Monday

Chipotle Chili Chicken and Black Bean Soup, and Four Grain Batter Bread 

To make the soup I'll be sprouting the black beans (a process beginning 3 days prior, why, how) and using the leftover chicken pieces from Sunday's meal.  I will also make crock pot chicken stock with the bones from Sunday's chicken.  

Tuesday

Sprouted Lentil Tacos (also requiring 3 days prior sprouting) 

A few other things I want to make this week...

Whole Grain Cheese crackers, Chewy Oatmeal Cookies, Whole Grain Breakfast Cookies

Chocolate Pecan Date Bars

This is a recipe to make a date bar similar to "Larabars" (which are super yummy). I imagine you could really play around with the recipe to make it your own. The one I saw on a Facebook comment was;

1/2 c cashews
3/4 c dates
Splash of vanilla

Blend all of the above thoroughly in a food processor. Pour mixture onto a cutting board and press together. Cut into small bars.  That's it!

Here are a few other combinations...

Pecans
Dates
Coco powder

Cashews
Dates
Dried blueberries

Since I can't just leave a recipe as is, this is what I made....

-1 1/2 c dates
-3/4 c pecans (lightly roasted in 1tsp butter)
1 tsp stevia
1/4 c dark cocoa powder

This is what it looks like all blended up..

and then pressed...

and cut into a cute little bar.

I'm going to try a coffee flavored one next :) probably, dates, almonds, cashews, coffee beans, vanilla, and cocoa powder. Sounds yummy... I'll post how much of what I used if it turns our ok.