Gluten Free Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

Television seemed more exciting to me when I was younger. The same goes for movies, I used to love going to see new movies every Friday evening in my twenties. I would get addicted to television shows and be excited for the next weeks episode. Now in my middle thirties television and movies just don't seem to hold the same appeal. A big part of the change might have to do with the Internet and the way that I watch movies and television. My family dropped cable years ago, we now rely on Netflix and Hulu. It's cheaper and we don't miss having all pointless channels that have nothing to watch on them. However, I also seem to not enjoy television the way that I used to. I get bored halfway through a lot of episodes and more than a couple of seasons of any show is just a little too much. There are exceptions, there are some shows that I have watched for years, but they are the exception not the norm. Maybe my expectations for television and movies have gotten higher the older I get. I have far less time to waste hours watching a movie that I hate. Maybe I just haven't watched anything great lately. Whatever the reason I have preferred books to television and movies for years and the trend seems to get only stronger the older I get. Hopefully I'm not alone.

Last week I was having a strong craving for pancakes. Gluten free pancakes can be very hit or miss, some are great, others barely edible. I decided to try a new recipe for Gluten Free Banana Oatmeal Pancakes in order to utilize the large amount of oat flour I had in my cupboard.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active, and makes 8 pancakes. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. First I had a large container of coconut oil so I used it in the recipe. I warmed it in the microwave and I had no problems with it re-solidifying (like the recipe mentioned). I also cheated and didn't let the batter sit for 10 minutes. It was breakfast and I was hungry and I just wanted to eat. Not letting the batter sit didn't seem to change the outcome of the  pancakes. They were still fluffy without the wait time. Finally, I doubled the recipe and made my pancakes a little bigger than the recipe suggested so I ended up with 12 pancakes total.

These pancakes turned out very well. I topped the servings with melted peanut butter (which is delicious on pancakes and waffles - just heat peanut butter in the microwave for 20 seconds and it pours like syrup). The pancakes had a great banana taste and rose well on the griddle. They were delicious with peanut butter, but would also be great with butter or syrup. The only change I would make would be to add a small amount of vanilla extract the next time.

For the recipe go to Gluten Free Banana Oatmeal Pancakes.

Pecan Sticky Buns

Pecan Sticky Buns

Growing up we had a huge holly bush in our front yard. When I say huge it was well over 50 years old and had never been trimmed. Every year at Christmas our neighbors would come over and ask if they could have holly for the holidays. My mother loved sharing the holly and it was a nice way to catch up with neighbors. For me the holly was one of the sure signs that Christmas was coming. We would cut a huge basket full of branches and decorate the table in our living room. My mother would add tall candles and candle holders and on Christmas Eve it was beautiful.

Christmas Eve was always the bigger holiday in our house. While I loved opening presents Christmas morning, Christmas Eve was special. My mother would host a party every year and our entire family would come over. We had a tiny 2 bedroom cottage house and it would be busting at the seams. My mother would cook for days and the house smelled wonderful and looked beautiful with candles and lights everywhere. There would be small plates of pickles, olives, smoked oysters and crackers. 7 layer bars, brownies, cookies, veggies, and cheese trays would be all over the house. It was an evening to enjoy the season and most of all family. There are many things that I miss about my mother, but I think the biggest part for both my father and I are those Christmas Eve parties. Neither of us have felt the same about Christmas Eve since she passed. Christmas is still wonderful, but Christmas Eve will always be my mothers.

I often times try multiple recipes for the same dish. There are so many small changes that can be made to a dish that drastically change the outcome. A few weeks back I tried a new recipe for Caramel Pecan Sticky Buns. They were great, but my husband wanted me to try a recipe that was more brown sugar based. This week I tried a new recipe for Pecan Sticky Buns from the Number 160 issue of Saveur magazine.

Lake Vesuvius

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 2 hours 30 minutes (plus fridge time) and makes 12 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First I mixed the dough by hand. While I have a great kitchen aid mixer, oftentimes I prefer to make my dough by hand. The original recipe was heavy on butter. While I love butter as much as the next person since my kids were eating the majority of this recipe I reduced some of the butter. I cut the butter down by more than half to a total of 1 1/2 sticks. 3 1/2 sticks for 12 buns was just a little too butter heavy for my tastes. The reduction in butter worked out well and the dough still rose beautifully. Plus my kids and husband didn't notice the fat reduction so a win-win all around.

Lake Vesuvius Spillway

My husband preferred this recipe to the last one I tried. The combination of 3 types of sugar made for a great molasses taste on top and sweet swirled bun in the center. Cutting down on the butter was a nice way to make the recipe more family friendly. If you are taking this to a party I would keep the recipe with the full amount of butter, but for home baking the modification worked out well.

For the recipe go to Pecan Sticky Buns.

Apple Pie Mini Muffins

Apple Pie Muffins

My family doesn't have cable, we don't watch live television and we gave up our home phone years ago. We used to have cable. In graduate school my husband and I would watch horrible cable television while working on papers into the early hours of the morning. Then like a lot of people in our generation we graduated and were struck with the cold reality of a bad economy, aka no jobs. The jobs we did find were in retail, my husband woke up at 3 in the morning to help unload the truck at a toy store. So we did what needed to be done, we moved to a cheaper apartment, cancelled cable and switched to cell phones only. Our friends couldn't fathom not having cable, especially since we only received 3 channels through the regular television. We survived and eventually bought an Apple TV and Roku, which made regular television pretty much useless. The last time we watched live television was so far back I don't remember when it happened. Instead we watch Netflix and Hulu plus, use our computers and save the 130 dollars we paid on cable when we were younger. None of us miss it, we can watch pretty much anything we want between our Apple TV and computer and it gives us more time outside the house enjoying family time. It's also one of the numerous ways that I save money in order to stay at home with my kids.

I have two active and growing boys that eat more food than I would think possible. I shudder to think how much food they will eat as teenagers. I try to keep a variety of after school snacks that they can eat while I prepare dinner. Today I tried a new recipe for Apple Pie Mini Muffins from the November 2013 issue of Parents Magazine.

Apple Pie Muffins

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 36 mini muffins. I made a number of changes to the original recipe. The most obvious being that I made full size muffins instead of mini muffins. I ended up with a total of 12 regular sized muffins and one jumbo muffin I baked in a custard cup. Instead of using a food processor I mixed the muffin topping by hand. I also toasted my own pumpkin seeds since the ones I could find at the store where raw. I found that my total cooking time was slightly increased by approximately 5 minutes. Additionally I rotated the pan halfway through the baking time.

Haunted Tunnel Ironton Ohio

I like that these muffins have pumpkin seeds, oats and apples. It's a nice way to sneak a little nutrition into my kids diets. The batter will be very, very thick when it's prepared. Don't add more liquid, they will cook up fine without it. I did find that the amount of topping was a little short with full sized muffins. You might wanted to double the amount of topping used.

For the recipe go to Apple Pie Mini Muffins. (registration required)

Pumpkin Fudge from Allrecipes Magazine

Pumpkin Fudge

We had to put our oldest male dog to sleep today. He got a very aggressive form of bone cancer and within a month could no longer walk and was barely eating. It was time. My two sons cried for almost 2 hours straight this evening. I felt horrible for them and wish that I could have taken away their pain. Tomorrow we are going to paint a brick and make a gravestone for our backyard. They are intrigued by this idea and I am hoping it will help them with the grieving process. When we lost our oldest female dog a few years back they were too young to remember or understand. Today was very different. I spent most of the evening explaining what it means when something passes away. That is such a hard topic for anyone to process so I hope I did an adequate job. My husband and I adopted our dog from the pound a year after we were married. We had just graduated from graduate school and were looking for work. It was a rough year, we both worked 3 jobs at the mall to make ends meet. Our male dog brought joy into a stressful period. I will always remember him as the bumbling 60 pound puppy that would jump into the air when he was excited. He was the right dog at the right time for us. Since today has been stressful I have done a lot of baking. I bake when I am stressed. After my mother passed away I made 10 dozen cookies. It's my form of therapy and stress relief. This week I tried a new recipe for Pumpkin Fudge from All Recipes Magazine.

Rotary Park Sign Huntington, WV

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 1 hour and 20 minutes, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 16 squares. I followed the recipe pretty exactly, I only made two change. First, I used parchment paper instead of foil. I find that foil shreds too easily when cut upon. Second, I found that I had more than 16 squares when cut. They must have made some very large pieces of fudge in their test kitchen. I also added the 1/8 teaspoon of salt suggested by the magazine.

Rotary Park Overlook Huntington, WV

My family loves pumpkin. I make a ton of pumpkin recipes during the fall and winter, but I had never tried fudge before. My two boys really liked this fudge. It is very different than traditional chocolate fudge, with a nice subtle pumpkin and cinnamon flavor. This would be a nice recipe to take to a party or to host a Halloween get together.

For the recipe go to Pumpkin Fudge.

Pumpkin Fudge

Recipe Type: Dessert

Summary:

A creamy recipe for Pumpkin Fudge. Great for fall or a party.

Cooking Time: 0h, 20m

Total Time: 1h, 20m

Yield: Serves 16

Cinnamon Raisin Strata

Cinnamon Raisin Strata

I don't sit still well. I never have. If I don't have a project or something to do, I get bored. Very, very bored. I also fidget all the time. I am one of those people that is always tapping their foot or fingers. It drives my husband nuts. He loves to take naps in the middle of the day, but I just can't do it. The moment I try to lay down I think of something that needs to be done. At any given time I have at least 3 projects that I am working on. Today I decided that I needed to make new covers for the pillows in our living room. This weekend I started re-upholstering our chairs. Last week I painted the bookcase. My brain has the habit of always seeing what needs to be updated or fixed. There are many days that I wish that I was more like my husband. It would be nice if I could sit down and relax occasionally. Cooking is one of the many ways that I distract myself. Last week I tried a new recipe for Cinnamon Raisin Strata from the Eggbeaters website.

Ritter Park Huntington, WV

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 9 1/2 hours of total time (including fridge time), 10 minutes of which is active and makes 9 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First, I made my own cinnamon raisin bread from scratch. Homemade bread is always better than store bought. I allowed the bread to sit in the egg mixture overnight and then cooked it for a little over an hour. I like to have the outside of my strata to turn slightly crispy and brown and cooking it for a little longer than the recipe suggested allowed for this to happen.

Water Fountain Ritter Park, Huntington, WV

I like that this recipe is lower in fat. Per serving it has 9 grams of fat and 13 grams of protein, making it a nice breakfast option. My youngest was a big fan of this recipe. However, I would suggest adding vanilla and more maple syrup, especially if you like your bread dishes sweet.

For the recipe go to Cinnamon Raisin Strata.

Cinnamon Raisin Strata

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Summary:

A very easy breakfast recipe for Cinnamon Raisin Strata. It has 13 grams of protein per serving.

Preparation Time: 0h, 10m

Total Time: 9h, 30m

Yield: Serves 9

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast

We live in a college town. During the summer months our city is pretty dead. You can go into a store and it's pretty uncrowded. Until this weekend. School starts for Marshall University tomorrow and suddenly our city becomes full of students. It's not too bad, except that it takes a period of adjustment. The baggers at the grocery store don't bag correctly, there are a ton of kids driving their parents SUV's (badly), and downtown is full of people walking around. While all of these things can be really annoying for a couple of weeks, without the university our city wouldn't have nearly as much money. The university is what keeps the city running for most of the year. Plus this weekend they were giving away lots of free coupons for restaurants in our area. I now have enough coupons to not have to pay for meals for my kids until at least December. There is nothing like free food to make up for a few weeks of incoming freshman. This weekend I was trying to use up all the leftover food from last week. I tried a new recipe for Cinnamon Raisin French Toast from the Food Network.

Marshall University Huntington, WV

This recipe has 6 ingredients. It takes 24 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. For this recipe I loosely followed the original recipe, with a number of modifications. First, I made my own bread. If you have never tried making your own bread, you really should. It's very easy once you try making it a few times. I had leftover cinnamon raisin bread that I had made on Friday. I used it in this recipe. In my fridge only ever has non-fat or 2 percent milk, so instead of using half and half I utilized the 2 percent milk I already had. Finally, instead of cooking the french toast in the oven, I soaked the bread peaces in the milk mixture and then cooked them on my griddle.

Old Marshall College Sign Marshall University

My two boys were huge fans of this french toast. Since I used regular bread, I ate something else for breakfast. I can tell you though that this French toast smelled great! It didn't last long at all, less than half of a day. It was great with both butter and maple syrup. The recipe would also be great with other types of bread, especially ones with a lot of crust.

For the recipe go to Cinnamon Raisin French Toast.

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Summary:

A simple recipe for French Toast. Works with a variety of breads, including cinnamon raisin.

Preparation Time: 0h, 10m

Cooking Time: 0h, 14m

Total Time: 0h, 24m

Yield: Serves 4

Milk Chocolate Toffee Bars

Milk Chocolate Toffee Bars

I was looking over my son's paperwork for school and noticed the new policies for school behavior. After reading it I realized that according to the new policy I am a bully. See they are now defining bullying as giving another student a 'look'. All the women in my family have a 'look'. It's the look that says that you better stop talking and go into the other room or your going to dig yourself into a hole. I also have a tendency to glare when I think someone is acting a little dense. This evening I discovered that apparently that makes me a bully. Hopefully they are being more serious with what is defined by a look being a form of bullying. I'm pretty sure I gave and received a lot of looks in high-school. I do understand that it can be far more serious such as a bunch of girls continuously giving another girl the evil eye. It just sounds funny when it isn't further defined. Sometimes it takes behavior that I need to modify in my kids to remind me that I need to change some of my own behaviors. The world would be a better place if we all stopped to re-access how we treat each other, even the small things such as eye gestures. On to lighter subjects, the recipe! Yesterday I tried a new recipe for Milk Chocolate Toffee Bars from Better Homes and Gardens.

Garden Roses

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 55 minutes of total time, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 36 bars. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. My pantry cupboards have been less than organized lately and my cinnamon seemed to have disappeared into it's shelves. So I left it out of the recipe. It was probably for the best since my two boys aren't big fans of the taste of cinnamon. My schedule has been a little crazy so I cheated and used pre-chopped pecans. With sales it turned out that they were actually cheaper than buying the pecans whole. The total cooking time was slightly longer than the recipe suggested. It took approximately 35 minutes to fully brown.

Garden Roses

These bar cookies are pretty rich. My husband and kids are normally huge sweets eaters, but they were only able to eat one of these cookies at a time since they were so sweet. Since I can't eat gluten I wasn't able to try this recipe, but all the males in my house loved it. They would be great to take to a bake sale or a party since they make 36 bars and taste good enough that you can just eat one.

For the recipe go to Milk Chocolate Toffee Bars.

Milk Chocolate Toffee Bars

Recipe Type: Dessert

Summary:

A rich and delicious bar cookie recipe. Great for a party or bake sale.

Preparation Time: 0h, 25m

Cooking Time: 0h, 25m

Total Time: 0h, 50m

Yield: 36 Bars

Hot Out of the Oven: Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread

Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread

My husband grew up in a small town. There are supposedly 2000 residents still living in it, but I believe that they are counting chickens and pets. It's a great small town and I love visiting my in-laws at least twice a year. My boys go up and fish, take hikes in the forest and generally love every minute of their stay. There is literally one stop light in the whole town and my in-laws know everyone by name. My dad grew up in an even smaller town (there was no stop sign at all), so small town life was something I grew up surrounded by. One of my favorite aspects is the casserole. Every time someone is sick or dies my mother-in-law makes a covered dish. My husband jokes that the way that you can spot a Methodist is by the covered dish socials. She makes a mean casserole and I love her cooking. It is also a long standing joke in my household that when my mother-in-law calls and asks me if my husband knows such and such that that person is either ill or dead. Since most people in the town are getting older (like the whole state of WV) there are a lot more casseroles to be made and a lot more phone calls. There is something very comforting about sitting around in my in-laws kitchen while my mother-in-law cooks. The town looks and feels like it could of stepped right out of a 1950's sitcom, it feels like home. It's also one of the many reasons that I love my state. Homemade bread is one food that instantly makes me feel the same way that small town WV does, comforted and perfect. This week I tried a new recipe for Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread from the Betty Crocker website.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 3 hours and 10 minutes of total time, 35 minutes of which is active and makes 16 servings (per loaf). Since I make bread every week I take the easy way out and combine all the ingredients in my mixer. After they have been combined I take out the dough and knead it by hand for 6 minutes. I do not wait for the yeast to proof. I know that my yeast is fine so I add the yeast to the dry ingredients on the bottom of the bowl and then add the wet ingredients on top. I allow the egg to come to room temp before adding so it doesn't shock the yeast. Rising times are really relative. My kitchen always takes at least 2 hours for a good rise, even in the summer. Don't think that if your dough has not come over the top of the loaf pan in an hour that you did anything wrong, it just needs longer to rise. Make sure that it has just come to the top of the pan and not puffed over or your bread tops will fall during baking. With breads with egg they will rise over the top nicely when placed in the oven.

The tops of this bread turned out beautiful. It rose very nicely in the oven and the dough was very easy to work with. I only had to add a little under 6 cups of flour and the dough was very smooth, which was nice. So many dough recipes have a tough dough to work with before kneading, but this bread was an easy to work with and simple to complete. Plus since it makes two loaves it was enough for three days. You can also freeze the second loaf for later use, just make sure to wrap it well in butcher paper.

For the recipe go to Cinnamon Swirl Bread.

Don't Know What to Do with Canned Pumpkin? Try Pumpkin Pancakes

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes

I have a pet peeve, recipe disappointments. I'm not talking about recipe fails, they are obvious. You take the dish out of the oven and you can see right away, something didn't work. I'm talking about recipe disappointments, those moments when you finish your recipe, stand back and think wow, that looks yummy. Then you bite into the dish and everything falls apart. While it may look beautiful, the taste is flat. Don't worry I'm not perfect by any means and have these experiences quiet frequently. Normally when they happen I try re-making the recipe with changes in order to figure out what exactly needs to be modified. It doesn't help when many food sites are moving to user based reviews. While I like the idea of reviews, they have a few issues. When you see that thousands of people like a recipe you assume it will turn out and when it doesn't you instantly feel like a failure. I think that is the root of the problem, the more positive reviews a recipe gets the more pressure you feel to give a positive review. With my reviews I try to be as honest as I can, when something doesn't work I relate how to change the ingredients or steps in order to make the recipe work. Today I tried a new recipe for Pumpkin Pancakes from the new All Recipes magazine which was one such experience.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 40 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 12 pancakes. I made a number of changes to the original recipe and suggest even a few more. Perfect pancakes are something to be savored and I do my best to make delicious breakfasts. After struggling with pancakes for years I bought a griddle and haven't looked back. They are wonderful, no more gooey centers or burnt pancakes. I eat gluten free so I made two batches of these pancakes, one with gluten free flour and one as written. Either way I suggest a few modifications. The taste of the allspice is way too strong. It needs to be reduced to 1/2 teaspoon or less. The recipe does not include nutmeg, which to me helps reduce the strong taste of ginger and allspice in recipes. Additionally, the cinnamon flavor is hard to notice. I would suggest adding a 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, increasing the cinnamon and using buttermilk instead of milk and vinegar. The flavor would be much better. The pancakes end up too dense and heavy, which could be alleviated by only using baking soda or baking powder. Using both of them and too little liquid makes for a pancake that sits in your stomach for days. A thinner batter would help for the pancakes to be a little less hearty.

I made these again with changes and they were much better. However, my two kids liked them either way, they ate both batches. For the second batch, which is pictured, I added chocolate chips. Both my kids and I preferred the chocolate chips since it mellowed the pumpkin taste. My family is an example of different food opinions, my boys loved the recipe as written, while I preferred it with changes. Food as with many things in life, is relative.

For the recipe go to Pumpkin Pancakes.

Wanting to Escape the Heat and Think of Cooler Weather: Try Pumpkin Chipotle Pasta Sauce

Pumpkin Chipotle Pasta Sauce

Fall is my favorite time of the year. The weather is cooler, without being cold and the leaves turn beautiful colors. Best of all are the fall foods. I love anything involving apples or pumpkin. Since we are in the middle of the heat of summer it can be a little hard to want to cook. The humidity has been very high and the temps were in the 90's today. Needless to say it doesn't make me want to cook. It leaves me thinking of all the great things to come in the fall. So I decided to try some fall like foods for dinner tonight. I tried a new recipe for Pumpkin Chipotle Pasta Sauce from the new All Recipes magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I followed the recipe mostly as written. I make my own chicken broth since it allows me to control the amount of salt (and it tastes better). While the original recipe uses butter I substituted extra virgin olive oil. I prefer cooking with olive oil since it is healthier for the heart. Since Vidalia onions are in season that is the type I used in this recipe. They really are delicious. I allowed my onions to caramelize before adding the pumpkin. I hate half cooked onions in recipes, it turns me off.

If you are making this for more than two people you really need to double the amount of sauce. As written it was barely enough for three small sized portions. My husband likes lots of sauce and this needed more to fully coat the pasta. I liked that the chipotle peppers gave it a nice kick, if you like spicy foods you can increase the amount or seed the peppers to reduce the spiciness.

For the recipe go to Pumpkin Chipotle Pasta Sauce.

Overrippened Bananas Strike Again: Time for Banana Crumb Muffins

Gluten Free Banana Crumb Muffins

I have been shopping our pantry and freezer the last couple of weeks. Every 2 or 3 months I notice all the food bits that we have leftover such as half packages of pasta, condiments, half jars of olives etc. Then I make an effort to use as much as I can of everything before doing another large grocery trip. My pantry and freezer have had enough 'bits' of things to last me two weeks with another week or more of meals to go. We routinely eat leftovers, but the little portions of things I have to make an effort to go back and use every couple of months. So I have had a number of recipe experiments, most of which have gone well, a few not so much. Today my youngest son really wanted to eat the bananas he found at the store last weekend, but the heat had already gotten to them and they had turned brown. So it was muffin time again. Today I made a new recipe for Banana Crumb Muffins from Allrecipes.com.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 10 muffins. I actually made two versions of this muffin, one gluten free and one as written. The major change that I made to the recipe was to puree my bananas in my blender before adding them to the wet ingredients. I'm not a fan of lumpy bananas, so this step eliminated that problem. For the topping I let the butter sit at room temperature and then rubbed the warm butter into the sugar mixture with my hands. This allowed for larger chunks of crumb on the muffins, which is what I prefer. My muffins took the entire 20 minutes of baking time to fully set.

The tops on these muffins are the best part. The muffins themselves are a little soft, I might suggest switching the butter to canola oil and adding a small amount of cinnamon or nutmeg to the batter. This would help with the flavor and texture of the finished muffins. My youngest son ate the tops off a number of the muffins, since that was his favorite part. The muffins are on the sweet side due to the topping, so if you are looking for a less sweet muffin you might want to leave off the topping.

For the recipe go to Banana Crumb Muffins.

Recipe for Yogurt and Chia Seed Muffins

Yogurt and Chia Seed Gluten Free Muffins

We brought a Pomeranian Chihuahua mix into our house in December. I had grown up with toy poodles so I expected it to be an easy transition. Apparently our puppy had other ideas. Last week he ate my last pair of glasses. He had previously chewed apart two other pairs. So this morning I had to go to the eye doctor. After exams for both my husband and I, most of my day was gone. At least now I can actually see since I was also out of contacts. It's so much nicer to be able to see the television show that I am trying to watch. This weekend also marks the first part of my oldest son's summer vacation. Yesterday my two boys decided to mark the occasion by fighting the whole day and than telling each other that they would rather be only children. This is going to be a long summer. Since both of my sons are now home all day I have been baking and cooking more than usual. Last week I tried a new recipe for Yogurt and Chia Seed Muffins from the Detroit Free Press (via the Charleston Gazette-Mail April, 14 2013).

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 12 muffins. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First I eat gluten free so I used gluten free all-purpose baking mix. Since the baking mix that I use already has salt, I left the salt out of the recipe. The only yogurt that I had in my fridge was Greek style, so that is the variety I used. I chose to add the cinnamon sugar topping and I used foil baking cups to prevent the muffins from sticking. These muffins were still a little soft when they came out of the oven, but they firmed up as they cooled.

My kids really enjoyed this recipe. It is a great way to use chia seeds in a baking recipe. Chia seeds do not have flavor by themselves, so they are great to add to oatmeal, smoothies and baked goods. With 6 grams of protein per muffin they are a nice way to add extra nutrition to breakfast or a morning snack.

For the recipe go to Chia Seed Muffins.

Recipe for Katmis Satsivi - Chicken with Walnut Sauce

Katmis Satsivi - Chicken with Walnut Sauce

There seems to be a yogurt theme in my house the last couple of weeks. My two boys just discovered Greek yogurt and love it. I have always eaten Greek yogurt for breakfast and my kids never touched it. However, recently they have fallen in love with the type of yogurt. While I prefer my plain yogurt with honey or as part of a smoothie, my two boys will eat it plain. The only problem now is keeping my yogurt from being eaten. Another food that my boys will steal off my plate is chicken. No matter how it is prepared they love it. This week I tried a new recipe for Katmis Satsivi - Chicken with Walnut Sauce from Number 155 of Saveur magazine.

This recipe has 17 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, all of which is active and make 6-8 servings. I did make a few modifications to this recipe. First when I was making the walnut sauce I found that I had to add 1 1/2 cups of stock in order for the sauce to fully liquefy in my blender. Fenugreek isn't available in my area, so I left it out of the recipe. The recipe didn't state how to serve the dish, but I chose to serve the chicken over basmati rice. As always I made my own chicken stock which I do not salt, but instead I salt the finished dish. I topped the servings with cilantro and not the chopped walnuts.

My husband and I really enjoyed this recipe. The flavors were great and the sauce was creamy, thick and delicious. The nice thing about this dish is that it makes plenty of leftovers, more than enough for lunch the next day and an additional dinner for my family of 4. Overall, a flavorful dish that is tender and great over rice or served as is.

For the recipe go to Chicken with Walnut Sauce.

Quick and Fluffy Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

I love breakfast foods. There is something so great about a big stack of pancakes, especially when the rest of the day has been less than perfect. In college I was known to study until the early hours of the morning and I quickly learned that 24 hour greasy spoons were a great place to study. They had unlimited amounts of free coffee and delicious breakfast foods (which often served as both my dinner and breakfast since I was always running from school to work to study). Making pancakes at home was always a problem for me. They never turned out as great as they did at my favorite diners and I literally switched to making waffles until my kids were born. Then I discovered what a difference a great griddle makes. No more burnt pancakes and lots and lots of yumminess. This week I tried a new recipe for Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes from the March 2013 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of prep, plus the time for the pancakes to cook and makes 12 pancakes. I did make a few modifications. First I used low-fat buttermilk since it was what I already had in my fridge. I try to cut down on dairy fats whenever I can. Instead of all-purpose flour I substituted brown rice flour since I can't eat gluten. Finally I found that since I used a indoor griddle/grill my cooking time was slightly longer than the time suggested by the recipe.

My youngest son absolutely loved these. Make sure to let the pancakes fully set before you flip them or you will end up with patches of soggy pancake around the blueberries. I ate a number of these pancakes and really enjoyed them. They were delicious with frozen blueberries and maple syrup for breakfast. This is a recipe I would make again.

For the recipe go to Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes.

Recipe for Spiced Chicken with Creamy Horseradish and Cabbage Slaw

I live in a family that loves meat. My husband and two boys would be horrible vegetarians. They will put up with vegetables being in a dish or a meal or two during the week having no meat. However, anything more than that and I begin to hear complaints. When my husband is left to take care of my two boys they seem to eat a lot of bacon with chicken or pork as a side. Needless to say meat seems to always be center stage in my house. Sine meat is such an integral part of my family's diet I try to make sure we eat a large variety of protein sources and I switch up my menu plans so no one gets bored. Yesterday I tried a new recipe for Spiced Chicken with Creamy Horseradish Cabbage Slaw from the July 2012 issue of Woman's Day magazine.

This recipe has 8 ingredients in the chicken and 9 ingredients in the slaw. It takes 1 hour 15 minutes of total time for the chicken, 20 minutes of which is active and 30 minutes of total time for the slaw, 15 minutes of which is active. Both recipes make 12 servings. The only change that I made to the chicken was to take the skin off of the thighs and I used honey instead of the brown sugar called for in the recipe. For the slaw I left out the carrot that was used in the original recipe. Instead of the granulated sugar I used agave syrup. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The slaw used in this recipe is delicious. My husband and two sons loved it and they are picky about slaw. The chicken was okay. It needed more flavor that it had from the rub. I would suggest adding 1 tsp of garlic powder and 1/8-1/4 of cayenne pepper to increase the flavor and add a little bit of kick. I think with the changes to the rub the chicken could be a lot better. The slaw would be delicious with a blue cheese burger or anything with blue cheese. The flavors would blend very well together.

For the recipes go to Spiced Chicken and Creamy Horseradish and Cabbage Slaw.

Flavorful Low Fat Moroccan Lentil Soup

My youngest son went the dentist today and for the first time he had a cavity free appointment. While this is routine for my oldest son, my poor youngest son has had serious problems with his teeth since they came in. He never drank cows milk and still had to have two dental surgeries before his third birthday. Since then he has had fillings every six months. My dentist was determined that it was the food that he was drinking, but has finally been convinced that is has to mostly be genetics. My youngest eats healthier than any other child his age that I know and drinks a ton of water, very little carbs and a high protein diet. Luckily our pediatrician agrees with me and thinks it's 100 percent genetic and not my fault. I still hate the mommy guilt when he has to have another filling. I decided to make one of my son's favorite meals this week in order to calm him down before the dentist. My youngest absolutely loves soup, chicken noodle, vegetable you name it. This week I tried a new recipe for Moroccan Lentil Soup from the February 2013 issue of Eating Well magazine.

This recipe has 18 ingredients. It takes 1 1/2 hours of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. Since vegetable stock is so expensive pre-made I made my own. It costs a lot less money and tastes so much better. I used fresh spinach since the taste of frozen spinach always seems off to me. Thanks to my forgetfulness I failed to add the lemon and cilantro to the finished soup. I did add it to the leftovers and the flavor was delicious. I added a little more time to my overall cooking time to ensure that the lentils were fully soft. For soup I prefer my beans very soft, I find the texture more pleasing when eaten. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I love that this soup is only 152 calories and 1 gram of fat per serving. Since it is full of vegetables and lentils it is filling and can either be used as a side or a main dish. I served it as a main dish and it was a perfect option for our vegetarian meal night. My youngest loved the cauliflower and ate all the pieces out first. This soup also makes a large batch so their are plenty of leftovers.

For the recipe go to Moroccan Lentil Soup.

Overnight Hot Oat, Dried Cranberry and Quinoa Cereal

My meal plan got thrown-out the window this week. With a Monday holiday and very cold weather, dinners haven't gone as planned. I utilized a lot of leftovers and baked a little more than usual. My youngest somehow ate an entire batch of brownies by himself. Luckily for me I was able to eat one before the rest went into his hollow stomach. Breakfast is still a struggle with my youngest son. He would rather eat anything, except something healthy. Oatmeal is the one breakfast food that I can almost always convince him to eat, he loves it. The only problem I have is that the steel cut oats that he loves take a long time to prep when he is hungry in the morning. Therefore I have been trying a variety of overnight oat recipes. Last week I made a new recipe from Bon Appetit magazine for Overnight Hot Oat, Dried Cranberry and Quinoa Cereal.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 10 minutes of prep, an overnight soak and then 5 minutes in the morning and makes 4 servings. I decided to double the recipe in order to have enough for everyone in my family. For the dried fruit I used dried cranberries. For the toppings I added pumpkin seeds, a small amount of vanilla and maple syrup. I have never been able to find cardamom at my local stores so I left it out. Make sure to rinse your quinoa very well. If you have never used quinoa before rinsing is a very important step. The rinsing gets rid of the bitter taste and without the rinse the quinoa will have a distinct bitter taste, that is not appetizing. Even if the brand that you buy claims that it is pre-rinsed, still rinse the quinoa again. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My youngest son and I both liked the idea behind this recipe. However, it needs a few changes. The taste of the quinoa was very strong. My husband wasn't a fan of the quinoa taste at all, so this recipe as written would have to be for somehow that really likes quinoa. I would suggest decreasing the amount of quinoa to 1/4 cup and increasing the steel cut oats to 3/4 cup. Adding additional fruit for sweetness might also help. The recipe suggests using barley instead of quinoa, which if you can eat gluten would be a great change and I think make the dish even better.

For the recipe go to Hot Oat and Quinoa Cereal.

Pistachio, Dried Cranberry, Coconut and Agave Syrup Homemade Granola

Mornings in my house are always crazy. With two boys, one of which is in school it is always a rush to get out the door to the bus. I have become great at putting on make-up in three minutes (and having it still look great) and I am the queen of 5 minute showers. My two boys on the other hand move like molasses. It doesn't help that many mornings my oldest is finishing his homework from the night before or my youngest is unhappy and massively grumpy from having to wake-up in the first place. Normally breakfast for myself takes a backseat and I am often left with only coffee until lunch. I try to keep at least a few things on hand that are quick to grab on the run. This week I tried a new recipe for Captain Crunch - A Better Granola from Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. For the nuts I used pistachios since they are a family favorite. I have never seen coconut shaving at my local store so I substitute unsweetened coconut. Finally I used olive oil instead of coconut oil since coconut oil is much higher in saturated fat. So every once in a while a recipe doesn't turn out at all. This recipe was one of those cases. I had to completely redo the recipe after it came out of the oven. First the granola as written came out dry and with no crunch or clump at all. Therefore I added additional olive oil and a 1/2 cup of honey. Then I placed it back in the oven for 20 minutes. When it came out I let it cool and then broke it into chunks. After my modifications it was perfect. I would suggest adding honey instead of the agave and adding additional olive oil. The texture was definitely better with the modifications.

With my changes this recipe was very popular with my family. Before the changes the granola was too salty and did not hold together at all. It would be better as a yogurt topping, but if you are looking for a granola recipe you need to make changes such as I did by adding additional honey and oil. My two boys really loved the granola after the changes and ate over half of the batch.

For the recipe go to A Better Granola.

Soft Oatmeal Cookies

Today was my grocery shopping day. Once a week I spend a couple of hours at the store without my husband and children grocery shopping. While it might sound boring to some, I cherish the small amount of me time. Since I stay at home with my youngest all day I have very little time to myself. So on Saturdays I walk down every aisle of the grocery store and slowly look at everything in the whole store. It is also a great way to save money. Since I'm not in a hurry I don't buy unnecessary items and I have the time to spot great deal like today when my grocery store paid me 5 dollars thanks to clearance finds and coupons. I try to remember my peace of mind during this time when my four-year-old has temper tantrums or draws all over the walls the rest of the week. Baking from scratch is another great way to save money. I try to bake as many things from scratch as I can, especially since I have to eat gluten free now. Last week I tried a new recipe for Oatmeal Cookies from Allrecipes.com.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 2 hours of total time (including chilling), 15 minutes of which is active and makes 2 dozen cookies. I did make a few modifications to the recipe. First since I eat gluten free I used gluten free all-purpose flour. There are a number of brands of gluten free flour, my favorite uses coconut flour as a base or I make my own using a blend of sorghum and brown rice flours. Make sure to let the dough chill. I have made this recipe a number of times and experimented with how long to let the dough chill. Without the chilling time the cookies are a mess to roll into balls and place on the cookie sheet. I have also tried making them flat with a fork like the recipe states or skipping this step. If you want soft cookies don't flatten them with a fork. If you want crunchy oatmeal cookies than you have to flatten them. Plus the sugar gives them a nice added sweet crunchiness. Finally make sure to let the cookies cool before moving them from the baking sheet. They have a tendency to fall apart if they are moved while still warm. My baking time was also slightly longer than the recipe, approximately 3-5 minutes. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

These cookies were very popular in my house. My boys will eat just about any type of cookie and this recipe as no exception. The cookies came out thin and crunchy, which is the type of oatmeal cookie that I prefer. My husband thought that they were very good, especially since they were gluten free. This recipe would also be delicious with chocolate chips, I would go with bittersweet since the cookies are already so sweet and reduce the amount of total sugar by 1/2 cup.

For the recipe go to Soft Oatmeal Cookies.

Rajma - Northern Indian Kidney Bean Masala Stew

I am feeling blah. For whatever reason January is never a great month for me. I don't know why, but I have horrible luck with appliances breaking and things going generally not in the right direction during this month. People also seem to be less than pleasant right now also. Today at the grocery store I was in the frozen food aisle. I was looking at some vegetables and the aisle was very narrow thanks to a display the store had set-up. When I was walking away I noticed there was a woman behind me that I hadn't noticed. Honestly, after two kids when I'm at the grocery store without them I tend to get in my 'me' zone. It is literally the only couple of hours during the week that I have to myself. I immediately apologized to the women and asked if I was in her way. Her response took me a little off guard. This woman was well into later life and used a profanity at me followed by the line 'of course you were.' Okay. I can understand if I was in her way. However, she could have said excuse me or brought it to my attention since I in no way say her since the door was open to the frozen food case. Second, why pull out the s word. Not necessary at all. I hope that my kids will grow up knowing that politeness is always the best response. Overall, I think so far I am already ready for the month of January to be over and it has just started. So I am feeling a little blah. Given my current winter mood I have been making a lot of soups and bean dishes. Last night I made a new recipe for Rajma (Northern Indian Kidney Bean Masala Stew) from a recent issue of Saveur magazine.

This recipe has 17 ingredients. It takes an hour and a half of total time, 45 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a number of modifications. First I doubled the recipe. Four servings is not enough for my family, which includes two growing boys. Second I try to follow a recipe as much as I can but sometimes I am unable to find a particular ingredient. So with this recipe I left one out. I have used chiles de arbol when I lived in a much larger city. Finding them in my city just isn't a possibility, so I chose to not use them. Finally, since I was making this for my kids I seeded and diced my serranos. It would have been too spicy for my kids to eat otherwise. I also chose to cook my beans on the stove. I have a pressure cooker which I use for canning, but I find it a pain to take down and use for everyday cooking. I let my beans cook for two hours in order to be fully softened. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

By leaving out the chiles de arbol and seeding the serranos this dish had a slight kick, without being too spicy for my kids. I let my beans cook down slightly so they were thicker than a traditional stew, but still worked well served over brown rice. My husband really loved this dish and was happy that it tasted different than the normal Indian curries that I make frequently.

For the recipe go to Rajma.