Cauliflower Two Ways {Pinned and Tried}

The food of this week apparently was Cauliflower. We are eating very healthy and trying out new recipes. This week I tried two new recipes I had pinned on Pinterest- one that we absolutely loved and one that didn't make the cut.

Number one was Creamy Cauliflower Sauce from pinchofyum.com. (Click for recipe). I used it as pasta sauce on veggie noodles with broccoli and chicken. (Side note: I was extra excited to try this out in my new Blentec blender with the "sauces" button, which worked flawlessly by the way. Not an endorsement, just love my blender!) I served it to my family without telling them what it was. They all told me it smelled amazing and then they tasted it- and LOVED it. They didn't even realize it was cauliflower sauce until after their plates were empty. We definitely will be making this again. And again times infinity.

Big mom hi-five in the air for me! Lindsay from pinchofyum also uses it for creamy garlic rice and chicken alfredo pizza sauce, which I would love to try.

via

The second recipe was basically substituting a cauliflower mixture for pizza crust. I used a cheesy cauliflower breadstick recipe I had pinned and basically made a pizza crust with it. I followed all the directions, multiplying times four to feed the family and putting it on a cookie sheet. After cooking for 40 min, I spread a little bit of red sauce on and sprinkled pizza seasoning and cheese over the top the same way I do homemade pizza. After cooling for a few minutes I cut with a pizza cutter into "breadsticks." Unfortunately, it didn't go over great. I liked the taste but the rest of the family thought the cauliflower taste was too strong. Also, even after all that baking, they still were limp and kind of like an omelet consistency. Maybe it needed to cook longer? I guess we'll never know since I won't be cooking it again :( But I praised my family for trying something new and humoring me! I served it with a delicious spinach salad so they weren't too starving :)

So those were our dinner adventures this week! Have you tried anything new lately?

~Rebecca

Election Party

Last night we had an election party with some friends. We decorated with a patriotic/fall theme and everyone brought a treat to share. 

I made cupcakes:

I also made Crockpot Hot Chocolate, recipe found HERE, it was yummy and almost gone at the end of the night!

I also made these delish Coconut cookies, recipe found HERE.

And the best news: The election results were in our favor!!! YAY!!!

Have a great week!

Rebecca

The Friday Four Roundup #10 {Fall Home Decor and Waffle Cookie Recipe}

1. I finally got out the fall decorations! Mostly because my kids kept asking me when we were going to decorate. Here is a sneak peak of an arrangement I made for the front porch:



2. When I had the waffle iron out after I made waffles this week, I decided to get the most use out of it before I put it away and made one of my childhood favorite cookies. Have you ever made cookies with a waffle iron? The kids think it's super fun!

Chocolate Waffle Cookies
1 c. sugar, 1/2 c. margarine, 2 eggs, 2 c. flour, 1/2 c. cocoa, 1/2 c. milk, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp baking powder. Cream together sugar, margarine and eggs then add the remaining ingredients. Mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto hot waffle iron. Close and bake 1-2 min. Cool completely then frost with icing. (I put about 3 in each square). Makes 3 - 3 1/2 dozen.
Peppermint Icing
1/3 c. margarine softened, 1 1 /2 c. powdered sugar, 1 TB milk, 1/4 tsp pure peppermint extract. Mix together all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

There were some fall home tours this week. It's always interesting to see inside other people's homes and how they decorate and their different styles.

3. To see the Finding Fall home tours click HERE.

4. To see the Eclectically Fall home tours click HERE.

Happy Weekend! ~ Rebecca

The Friday Four Roundup {2}

I can't believe it's Friday already and then we will be heading into the last week of July! Here are a couple things I've been enjoying this week:

1. My husband and I are cracking down on our carb, dairy, and sugar consumption. Every dinner this week has had very little or no carbs. I have already tried several new recipes, including tonight I made these two-ingredient pancakes; just eggs and bananas, they were amazing! I couldn't believe we were eating pancakes with NO flour! The recipe I followed is found {here}.

2. Speaking of food, one of my favorite stores for kitchen supplies, Williams-Sonoma is having 75% of all their clearance plus free shipping. You know what that means? Good deals on their Summer stuff AND everyone's getting ready to bring out the FALL stuff, my favorite! {yay!} I am in desperate need of some new kitchen towels and have been debating about getting a pack of their signature stripe ones, in the summer "clearance" colors, of course. I know they are pretty good quality. Anyone have experience with them?

3. I am enjoying using this little candle I picked up at Target last month. It is a light summer scent, not too strong and very lovely. You can see their entire line of Illume candles {here}.

4. And lastly, we are getting ready to do two days of Pioneer Days out here. Parades, rodeos, races, food, and lots of fun. This will actually be my first time attending here so I am excited to see what's on the schedule!

Have a fabulous weekend!

~Rebecca

Pinned and Tried: Cauliflower Chowder

The Rundown: a little creamy, delicious. Very similar to potato soup but very low carb. It was a hit, everyone liked it (especially with bacon!) 

Original recipe found HERE.

Grace's Corn Dogs {Kid Friendly, and Baked not Fried}

I just realized I've been doing a lot of recipes lately.  I dunno, I guess that's just what I've been up to. This weekend, my two oldest decided they would pick a new recipe from their kid's cookbook and make it this week (with mommy supervising, of course). First up: Corn Dogs.

We've never made these before. The recipe called for Grand's Corn Biscuits which we could not find at the store so I searched online for homemade batter. I ended up combining a few different recipes and then modifying it to fit what we wanted, ie: baked, not fried, no fancy ingredients, simple enough for a kid to do, etc.

This is what we came up with and 4 out of 6 taste testers thought they were delicious.

Grace's Corn Dogs

popsicle sticks

16 hot dogs (2 packages)

Combine 1 cup cornmeal, 2 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, 1/4 cup sugar, and 4 teaspoons baking powder. Stir in 1 egg and 1 cup milk.

Put some flour in a small bowl and roll dogs in flour to lightly coat (it helps the batter stick). Insert sticks into dogs and twist in batter, coating well. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes at 350'. Serve with ketchup and mustard. Makes 16 corn dogs.

I think it would also be fun to cut the dogs into bite size pieces and dip in batter for appetizers.

It was fun having my daughter make these and seeing how proud she was when (mostly) everyone gobbled them up!

By the way, have you ever heard this song? (It keeps going through my head) "Corn dogs, corn dogs, they are so good to me! Corn dogs, corn dogs, they are so good to me! Good when they're hot! Good when they're cold! Good when they're fresh! Good when they're old! Corn dogs, corn dogs, they are so good to me!"

Have a great week!

We Are In Love With These Healthy Cookies! {Pinned and Tried: Guilt Free Oatmeal Cookies}

I pinned this recipe last week and have really been wanting homemade healthy snacks so I tried it out today. These are not "no bake" but they are just as easy and require no fancy equipment. I just used a fork to mash the bananas and mixed everything by hand with a bowl and spatula. The only thing I would add to the recipe is to mention to flatten them a little since they don't spread. (I always use my cookie scoop, thus the "mound" shape). Also I used a random bag of leftover white chips instead of chocolate or raisins.

So here it is:

Guilt Free Oatmeal Cookies

made with bananas and applesauce, no butter, sugar, flour or eggs.

3 ripe bananas, 1/3 c applesauce, 2 c oats, 3 tb milk, 1tsp vanilla, 1tsp cinnamon, 1/2 c raisins or choc chips.

Preheat oven to 360', combine all ingredients well, put on greased cookie sheet, bake 15-20 min. Made 2 dozen.

And just to prove their goodness, here are a few shots of us stuffing our faces with them!

original recipe found here:

http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2014/01/guilt-free-oatmeal-cookies.html

Happy St Patrick's Day: An Easy Green Treat {Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies} and a cute little Leprechaun.

We were looking for a new chocolate chip cookie recipe and I love them soft. I always check allrecipes.com because of the reviews. I found this one with simple ingredients and tried it out. I simply added about 5 drops of green food coloring for a St Patricks Day treat that was fun for the kids and did it "cookie bar" style by throwing it into a 9x13 pan because I was short on time. They turned out perfect and oh so yummy and soft! They were a hit with everyone- 5 stars in my book!

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies from Allrecipes.com

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine flour, soda and salt. In another bowl combine sugars, softened butter, shortening, and vanilla. Beat in egg. Gradually add flour mix, add chips. Bake 8-10 minutes or add to greased 9x13 pan and bake 20 min.

AND...... just for fun, here are a few pics of our little cutie.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, don't forget to wear green!

Homemade Playdough {Recipe}

In medium pan combine 2 cups flour, 2 cups water, 1 cup salt, 4 teaspoons cream of tarter, 2 teaspoons oil, food coloring.

Cook over medium heat about 3 minutes, until consistency of mashed potatoes.

Turn out on flat surface. 

 Knead 1 minute.

Cool 10 minutes and play! Store in fridge.

Eggplant Parmesano / Natural Remedies for Labor Induction??

I have had several friends and some sources on the internet say that supposedly Eggplant Parmesan is supposed to help induce labor. Here I am, 4 days till due date still pregnant, so my awesome husband brought home an eggplant and made me this super delicious dish! It's worth a try, right?

I used the recipe found HERE 

I have never had Eggplant Parmesano, or eggplant at all for that matter so this was a new "adventure" for me. It was SOOOO good! So good, in fact, I told my husband it was the type of gourmet dish that would tempt me to become a vegetarian! I definitely recommend this dish and for you to check out this recipe over at The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

It's been about an hour since I indulged and I haven't gone into labor yet (ha!) but at least my tummy is full and happy :)

Happy Memorial Day, enjoy your holiday!

Black Cat Cookies

Feelin' like an awesome mom today 'cause I made 4 dozen Black Cat Cookies for my kids' Halloween school parties tomorrow!

I discovered this recipe online about 4 years ago when I was looking for something that was festive and made from simple stuff I had on hand. It easily became a fun tradtition and they are pretty tasty too.

For the recipe, you can go HERE.

Rebecca's Easy Chicken and Dumplings

For Soup:
Cube 1 very large chicken breast, or 2 -3 small ones into 3 cups of water in a pot. Cover and boil 20 min.
Add 2 cans cream of chicken soup, celery salt and pepper to taste, 1 cup frozen veggies, and dumplings. Cook about 6 min. uncovered. Serve soup in bowls with dumplings on top, and enjoy! Serves 6 adults.
For Dumplings:
Combine 2 cups flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 cup cold butter, 1 cup milk. Drop by large spoonfulls on top of soup. They will still look moist on the outside after cooking but are done when cooked inside. Makes about 12-16. (This is actually my drop biscuit recipe and you can use this for yummy biscuits in the oven at 350' for 12 min also!)

Pinned and tried: Meatloaf

I am starting a new category for things I've done from my pins on Pinterest. (You can follow me on Pinterest here:http://m.pinterest.com/rebeccasroundup/)
This one was dividing your meatloaf into small muffin tin size portions with the claim that it will only take 15 minutes. So I decided to try it. I made my tried and true family favorite meatloaf recipe (see below) and used my ice cream scoop to put them in the correct portions.
The bad news is that it did not take 15 minutes, the good news is that it took 25 minutes which is still a third of the time it would normally take for the loaf. Woot-woot!
Meatloaf Recipe:
1 lb hamburger or ground turkey (I used gr turkey this time)
Ketchup as desired (I eyeball about 1/3 cup)
1 egg
1/4 cup chopped onion or 1-2 TB dried onions)
1/8 ts pepper
2/3 cup bread crumbs
1/4 ts garlic salt
Mix well (I use a plastic disposable glove). And cook at 400'
Can easily be doubled.
Serve with ketchup. Yum!

Rebecca's Easy Croc Pot Minestrone

This is one of my husband's favorite soups. I feel like I'm cheating because it's SO EASY! And healthy. And delicious! Here is a picture of the original recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

And here is my version:
5 cups water, 5 tablespoons or cubes beef boullion, 1 can kidney beans drained and rinsed, 1 can garbanzo beans drained and rinsed, 1 can undrained stewed tomatoes, 1 can or 1 1/2 cups vegetable juice ( I buy it in the largest store brand can and freeze the rest), (I omit the tomato paste- unnecessary), 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 teaspoon dried italian seasoning, 1 1/2 cups frozen mixed veg preferrably italian blend but any will do or any canned mixed or leftover vegetables you have in your fridge, 2 cups small pasta preferrably shells, 2 cups fresh spinach cut into strips, (I buy a big bag and cut and measure then freeze the rest), 1 sliced zucchini (can use half and freeze the rest), shredded parmesan cheese for serving.

Put all ingredients into croc pot and cook at least 4 hours on high. Cook pasta right before serving and add to pot. Serve with parmesan and enjoy!

Madeleines { a french treat !}

For Christmas, my sweet and thoughtful mother in law gave me a lovely Madeleine pan. I've always wanted one of these! I found Julia Child's "Les Madeleines de Commercy" recipe and had lots of fun making, sharing, (& eating!) them. I also learned a few new baking skills!
The recipe is from Hungry Sofia at http://hungrysofia.com/2010/08/06/julia-childs-madeleines-de-commercy/
and the pan is a really nice Wilton non-stick pan. Both the recipe and the pan worked perfectly! Definitely a new favorite.