Zucchini Carrot Muffins

Zucchini Carrot Muffins

1 cup flour (½ wheat, ½ white)
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons butter, melted
½ cup pure honey (or pure maple syrup, or pure organic cane sugar)
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup grated zucchini
½ cup grated carrot
½ cup raisins


Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a muffin pan with cooking spray.
Combine the flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a small mixing bowl until well combined. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the butter, honey, egg, and vanilla extract.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir together until just barely combined.
Add the zucchini, carrot and raisins and stir gently until just distributed.
Fill each cup in the mini muffin pan approximately ¾ full.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Soft and Simple Bread

So, now that our family has grown (yet again!) we have been taking more steps to becoming those "crunchy" parents. I don't think of that as a bad thing, we're getting healthier and building a good foundation for our kids. One of the steps we have taken is making our own bread.

Yep, we have a newborn, a toddler, AND we make our own bread. It can be done!

But that is why I love this recipe so much. It is quick enough that I can make it during nap time, and it's delicious!

This recipe is so flexible also. I've subbed plenty of ingredients in this recipe. Which brings me to the picture. This is actually the bread recipe using all white all-purpose flour, BUT I usually make wheat bread with 1/2 wheat flour and 1/2 white all-purpose. I just happened to run out of wheat.

I wrote up the recipe as I usually make it, but I'll add a list of possible substitutions under the recipe. That should make the recipe easy for anyone to make!

Soft and Simple Bread

4 cups white all-purpose flour

4 cups whole wheat flour

4 1/2 tsp quick-rise yeast

2 1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 cup almond milk

1 1/2 cup water

1/4 honey

1/4 coconut oil

Combine the undissolved yeast, 1 1/2 cups of white flour, 1 1/2 cups of wheat flour, and sea salt in a large mixing bowl.

In a medium saucepan on the stove, heat the almond milk, water, honey and coconut oil until very warm (do not allow it to boil.)

Slowly add the warmed wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and beat for about 2 minutes with an electric or stand mixer. Mix in another 1/2 cup of white flour and 1/2 cup wheat flour, scraping the bowl occasionally.

With clean hands, or a large spoon, mix in the remaining flour (1 3/4 cup of wheat, 1 3/4 cup of white) until a soft dough forms.

Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Cover the dough and let rest for 10 minutes.

Lightly grease two 8.5 X 4.5 loaf pans. Divide the dough in half. Gently shape into a loaf, tucking under any cracks to create a smooth top of the dough. Place in the greased loaf pans, cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 30 minutes.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes. Remove from loaf pans and let cool on a wire rack.

Substitutions:

Coconut oil: any oil used in baking (vegetable, ect.)

Honey: maple syrup

Almond milk: cows milk

Sea salt: regular table salt

Flour: any variation of white and/or wheat flour*

*Using more or all wheat flour will create a more crumbly texture in your bread.

Saving memories, in more than just a file cabinet!

I will admit that I had seen something similar to this floating around pinterest, but there were so many different sources, I couldn't link you to just one. This idea is great. On the day of my sons first birthday, I decided to forever preserve some of the first things he would officially call "his" in the form of a Christmas ornament! How adorable is that. They were originally sitting in my file cabinet. I'm sure we are all familiar with that situation, where these precious items get looked at once in a blue moon. But this insures we get to relive some of these amazing memories every year. And for the Christmas season, there is really no better timing!

This would be most representative of the first year my son was with us. I decided to use his hospital hat, and his crib card from the hospital bassinet. 

The clear plastic ornament was something like .88 cents at Walmart, and has a decently sized opening on the top. Once I got the hat and crib card in the ornament, I just used a tweezers to position them. 

I am hoping to do this again, using something to represent our sons second year, but I'm just not quite sure what that will be just yet!

Strawberry Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

Despite a rather gloomy Memorial Day here in my neck of the woods, we still found a way to celebrate. We took Zingy to see Papa and some more of his family. I meant to concoct a delicious strawberry rhubarb something or another to share with the fam, but nothing in life is guaranteed with a baby. So hours later after we returned home, the baking itch hit and I needed to make SOMETHING. I didn't want to have to run to the store, so this is what I found from The Farm Chicks.
When I went through the recipe, I decided that I didn't want to blend the strawberries. I am a fan of tasty strawberry chunks in my baked goods, so I just cut them up into about 1/2 inch pieces and folded them into the cake batter.

Skubz can't seem to keep his hands off this cake, I would be surprised if it makes it through the night.

Strawberry Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

3/4 cups butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar (not packed)
3 cups fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/2" - 3/4" chunks
2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs

2 heaping cups fresh strawberries, cut into 1/2" chunks

Add 3/4 cups of butter and brown sugar to a saucepan and cook over medium high heat until butter is melted and sugar has dissolved. Pour into a 13"x9" baking pan. Top with the rhubarb chunks and set aside while you prepare the cake batter.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda to a mixing bowl and stir together. Add melted butter and milk and beat at medium speed, scraping bowl as needed, for one minute. Add eggs and beat on high for two minutes, scraping bowl as needed. Fold in the strawberry chunks. Pour batter atop the Rhubarb Topping in the baking pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes until the cake is set in the center, and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool for five minutes. After five minutes, loosen cake from edges of the pan with a spatula and invert onto a cooling rack or platter.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

So as if we don't have enough to keep us busy with our little 5 month old Zingy baby, but we have some upcoming nuptials. As in, our own! Yes, the Mimz and Skubz are finally going to make it official next month. We aren't much to make a spectacle, so the wedding is going to be a small, private affair. I decided that a wedding cake is just too cliche for us, so I am making cupcakes. I'm still in the experimental stage, and just tried these Pink Lemonade Cupcakes. They are fantastic! I like baking cupcakes too much to say for sure that they are the winner, but they are definitely worth sharing. They are everything about a warm summer day, in a cupcake liner. So Here they are!

I found this recipe from The Awesome Recipe Collection.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
Yeild: 10-12 cupcakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Pinch salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 egg whites
1/3 cup thawed frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate
1/4 cup buttermilk
few drops red food coloring


Lemonade Buttercream:
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1/8 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. pink lemonade concentrate
Red food coloring

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin pan with liners.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, egg whites and lemonade concentrate.
Alternately whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until just smooth.
Add just enough food coloring to turn the batter a light shade of pink.
Scoop batter into liners (fill about three-fourths full).
Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting.
For the buttercream frosting:
Add the butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt, lemon juice, and a few drops of food coloring to the stand mixer and mix on low using the paddle attachment until combined.
Turn the speed to med-high until the buttercream is fluffy and uniformly pink.

White Chicken Enchiladas

Oh-my-lanta! This are amazing! This recipe from Joyful Momma's Kitchen went viral on Pinterest. This has turned into one of Skubz favorites, and a go-to meal for me when I don't have a lot of time. I did make a few adjustments to the original recipe. We found that, for our tastes, the recipe didn't have enough spice. If you don't like your food too spicy, you can stick with the original recipe and omit the red pepper flakes and chili powder.

The green chilies aren't hot at all. But we like the flavor so we've doubled the amount! And finally, I can never find shredded Monterey Jack cheese at our local stores, so we have always just used mozzarella. One of these days, when I get out to the cheese factory, I will get some pepperjack, and give that a try!

We buy rotisserie chicken in this family, maybe once every week or so. We take it off the bone and use that in our chicken recipes. It's so convenient, since it is already cooked, seasoned and it shreds so nicely! That's what we use in this recipe as well.

White Chicken Enchiladas
10 soft taco shells
2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
3 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. flour
1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
2 (4 oz) can diced green chillies

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 Tbs chili powder


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan
2. Mix chicken and 1 cup cheese. Put some of the chicken/cheese mixture in each tortilla, roll up and set in the 9x13
3. In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add broth and whisk until smooth. Heat over medium heat until thickened.
4. Stir in sour cream, red pepper flakes, chili powder and chilies. DO NOT allow this to come to a boil after the sour cream is added. It will curdle.
5. Pour over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until cheese is stringy. Turn oven onto broil to brown the cheese (if you have the patience, we never do!)

Pudding Poke Cakes

This has been my obsession lately. On Pinterest, I found a banana pudding poke cake, as well as an Oreo pudding poke cake. Since then, I have been trying to come up with all sorts of cake/pudding combinations. The most recent one that I tried, was a "strawberry shortcake" type. I barely feel the need to post an actual recipe, this is so simple. Here is the idea:
Mix, and bake, a boxed cake mix.
Let the cake cool completely
Poke holes in the cake
Prepare two boxes of instant pudding.
BEFORE the pudding sets, pour over cake
Spread cool whip over the top
Finish with any additional toppings you see fit

Some examples would be:
Chocolate cake, Oreo pudding, and crushed oreos on top.
White cake mix, banana pudding, crushed vanilla wafers on top.
Strawberry cake, vanilla pudding, crushed vanilla wafers on top.
Pineapple cake, coconut pudding, graham cracker crumbs on top.

Oh, the possibilities are endless.
Feel free to share some of the pudding poke cake ideas that you have tried.