Elvis Snack Mix

I used to love weekends. After having kids I look forward to weekdays and when my kids go back to school. I thought I was the only one until I decided to ask my husband, thinking maybe staying at home made my opinion slanted. Nope, my husband is the same way. While work maybe stressful and busy, it doesn't have two boys yelling in my husband's ear all day. It also doesn't have 1,000 errands to do like every weekend seems to, or the family obligations that always crop up. When my husband and I were first married weekends were a time to relax and sleep in. I haven't slept in on the weekend since I was 27, my weekend morning normally start at 5:30 am when my youngest wakes up and demands breakfast. Then my day involves errands, laundry and cleaning up after 3 males. By the time Monday roles around I'm exhausted and spend most of the day cleaning up the messes that didn't get finished the last two days. I love my kids dearly, but I also enjoy when they wave goodbye from the bus Monday morning.

I tend to make snacks in batches. For a few weeks I make various muffin recipes, then breads, cookies, etc then switch to a new batch of snacks. Last week was Chex Mix week. I made a number of recipe variations and then stored them in the cupboard in air tight containers. It's nice since they stay fresh for a decent amount of time. The following is a recipe for Elvis Snack Mix.

Recipe adapted from Redbook Magazine.

Elvis Snack Mix

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• salt to taste
• 4 cups Rice Chex
• 2 cups banana chips
• 1 cup peanuts
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Over medium heat melt the butter, peanut butter, sugar, and salt.
4. Toss with cereal.
5. Spread cereal mixture evenly on the baking sheet.
6. Let bake 10 minutes, stirring once.
7. Toss with the banana chips, peanut, and dark chocolate chips.
8. Let cool and then break into pieces.

Tips: 

• The dark chocolate chips can be replaced with semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips depending on your preference. 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips and a 1/4 cup peanut butter chips would also be yummy. 
• The Rice Chex can be replaced with Corn Chex (or other corn or rice cereals such as Crispix). 
• My husband prefers this mix with 2 cups of peanuts and 1 cup of banana chips. He has never been a banana chip fan, so experiment until you find a combination that works for your family (everyone is different!). 

Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

I have a pet peeve with companies that follow a ton of people on social media and then unfollow everyone a few days later. While it's irksome when an individual does it, with a company it just comes off as a little tacky. We all know that the company is doing it to get massive amounts of people to follow them and then betting that most people either don't know how to check or don't care enough to unfollow the company once the company unfollows them. Then the company has 30,000 followers while only following 10 people. It looks bad. I wish that PR companies would do a better job of discouraging this behavior. Almost all the likes that they receive with this type of social media behavior won't be the ones buying their products, the followers don't equal profit. It's a much better idea to actually have a great product and offer coupons on social media, making people care enough to genuinely follow your company. I'm hoping that once companies get a better grasp on how to run social media effectively this behavior will begin to stop. However, as of now that isn't happening, it's pretty much  a free for all.

Since going gluten free I have tried just about every type of gluten free flour. Some have been okay, others kill my stomach (I'm referring to you soy and quinoa flours, no thanks). I've joked with my husband that I'm going to go to a straight steak and potato diet. It would taste awesome and my stomach would be happy. However, it would also cost a mint and variety is better for my health. Coconut flour seems to be all the rage right now, so the following is my recipe for Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting.

Adapted from Healy Eat Real.

Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes

Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Recipe Type: Dessert

Preparation Time: 0h, 20m

Cooking Time: 0h, 30m

Recipe by Foodie in WV

Yield: 8-10 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 5 eggs
• 1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup milk

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend.
3. Allow batter to sit for 5-10 minutes.
4. Place batter into a muffin tin either greased or with muffin liners.
5. Bake for 20-30 minutes.
6. Let cool before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Cooking Directions

1. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer for 3 minutes. Add vanilla and cream and beat for another 1-2 minutes. If needed add more cream to get to a spreading consistency.

Tips: 

• If you've never used coconut flour before it absorbs liquid like crazy. You have to use a lot more liquid than flour in order for baked goods made with coconut flour to work. 
• These cupcakes are a mix between muffins and cupcakes. The texture is somewhere in between. 
• If you don't consume cows milk you could try using coconut milk in this recipe. I often substitute canned coconut milk in baking recipes and it works well. 
• The coconut oil could also be substituted for vegetable oil, canola oil, or unsalted butter. 
• If you like sweet cupcakes/muffins I would increase the amount of honey to 1/2 cup. Additionally the honey can be substituted for date or coconut sugar (or granulated if you eat it in your diet). 
• The frosting obviously has butter and confectioners sugar so if you are avoiding either of those things you would want to make a substitution. An easy way to make dairy free frosting is to whip a can of full fat coconut milk and a teaspoon or two of vanilla. You can add cocoa powder (or cacao) if you are wanting chocolate flavored, approximately 2 tablespoons. 

Milk Stout Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I may have eaten a bowl of icing out of the fridge this morning. Last night I made a basil chocolate cake (which was actually very good!) and made a big batch of homemade buttercream frosting. This  morning it was calling for me to eat a bite, and then another, and before I knew it the bowl of leftover frosting seemed to have disappeared. This afternoon I made a batch of cream cheese frosting and had the same problem. There is something about frosting that makes me have to eat it, I can go without cake, but frosting is a completely different story.

So now that I have babbled on about frosting, it's time for a cupcake (and frosting) recipe. My husband loves trying new kinds of beer and our fridge normally has a variety of brands and types. For the last six months my husband has been nagging me to try a cupcake recipe that he found using Milk Stout online. So I finally gave in and made them today for my mother-in-law's birthday. The recipe is as follows.

Adapted from Left Hand Brewing.

Milk Stout Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Milk Stout Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe Type: Dessert

Summary:

A delicious combination of chocolate and beer (yes beer). Great for parties!

Preparation Time: 0h, 15m

Cooking Time: 0h, 25m

Total Time: 0h, 40m

Yield: Serves 24

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 bottle Milk Stout
• 1 stick melted unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 8 ounces softened cream cheese
• 1 pound confectioners sugar

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a small bowl mix together dry ingredients (sugar, flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt).
3. In another bowl combine the stout, melted butter, and vanilla.
4. One at a time add eggs.
5. Add sour cream and mix until combined.
6. Add dry ingredients and stir until mixture come together (do not over mix or your cake will be less fluffy).
7. Pour batter into 24 muffin cups (greased or with liners).
8. Bake for 12 minutes, rotate pan and then bake for another 8-12 minutes.
9. Combine the cream cheese and confectioners sugar to make the frosting.
10. After the cupcakes have cooled frost with the frosting.
11. Store in the refrigerator.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July today! These cupcakes were a great dessert for the steak, mashed potatoes, and salad that we had for dinner tonight. For a party they would be a nice way to have a dessert that both beer and chocolate lovers would like. Plus according to my family they are pretty yummy! 

Dark Chocolate Waffles

Almost everything I believed in strongly when I was younger has completely changed. There are a few things that have survived the years and life changes, but the major things that I was adamant and unyielding about I no longer believe in at all or nearly as much. I was determined in my early 20's that no one else could possibly understand how I felt and that everything I felt strongly about was of the utmost importance. Only I could understand things the right way and I knew that my opinions would only get stronger with age. Yeah, that didn't happen, not even remotely. I grew-up, I had kids, I saw the world from new eyes. I still believe in many things, but I also understand that opinions change with circumstance and that compassion is far more important than being right. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to not push something that you know is right because in the end it isn't what's needed. Oftentimes what's needed is just an ear to listen, not a mouth to tell us how to change things. As young women we want to change everything around us to make it better, change the world with our views. As older women we want to cherish the world that we have created and make sure that the loved ones we hold dear are sheltered from everything we had to endure. Age is a tricky thing, as women we are almost different people throughout our lives, each one unique and wonderful.

As a women in my middle 30's I still love chocolate. That hasn't changed much over the years, but I have made a shift from milk to dark chocolate. When I was younger I couldn't stand dark chocolate, now it's my favorite. This week I tried a new recipe for Dark Chocolate Waffles from the February 2014 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of total time, all of which is active, and makes 6 servings. I made a number of changes to the original recipe. First, I adapted it to be gluten free by using a homemade gluten free all purpose baking mix. Instead of buying a bar of dark chocolate I used dark chocolate chips which I finely chopped. Buying the dark chocolate chips was much cheaper than buying baking bars or chocolate bars.

These waffles had a nice dark chocolate taste without being over powering. I would consider these more of a dessert waffles than something for breakfast, they are pretty sweet for something in the morning. As a dessert they were great plain or with whipped cream and my kids loved them. They also froze very well in case you don't want to eat the whole batch at once.

For the recipe go to Dark Chocolate Waffles.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes Using Quinoa Flour

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes

Growing up once a year for my birthday my mom would buy a sheet cake from the Italian bakery. I would pretty much eat the entire sheet cake. I loved cake, and the Italian bakery sheet cake was delicious. My love affair with cake started with those birthday sheet cakes and only grew stronger once I started baking during my teen years. I would scour over cookbooks looking for new cake and cupcake recipes. Flash forward to a few years ago and my cake eating life was brought to a halt. I found out that I could no longer have gluten and I was devastated. Not only because I couldn't have pasta or bread, but because cake was taken away from me. I began trying various gluten free cake recipes using all purpose gluten free flour and pretty much hated all of them. Finally I came to the conclusion that I prefer straight flours, not store bought blends. Adding 10 different ingredients for one flour just isn't something that my taste buds seem to love. Now I try to use a variety of straight flours, some of which I have found I love and others I have never bought again. This week I tried a new recipe for Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes from the Bob's Red Mill site.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes Using Quinoa Flour

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 12 cupcakes. I made a few changes to the original recipe. First I used muffin liners that I got on clearance after Valentine's Day. I love when I only have to pay a few cents for liners. Second, I found that my baking time was a little longer than the recipe, 25 minutes total. Make sure to watch the cupcakes closely, they will go from done to burnt very quickly.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes Using Quinoa Flour

My kids loved these cupcakes. I was going to frost them, but my kids loved them plain. The fact that they ate the cupcakes without frosting says a lot since they are huge frosting fans. I was worried that the taste of the quinoa flour would be too strong, but they tasted chocolatey with no after taste. My husband thought that the quinoa flour tasted like peanut butter, which he really liked. Overall, these cupcakes were very popular with my family and I would make them again.

For the recipe go to Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes. 

Black Bean Brownies

Black Bean Brownies 

My youngest signed up for kindergarten on Friday. He was excited for weeks leading up to the day, went into the school and then panicked. My normally talkative and outgoing child turned mute. He did write his letters and play with blocks while I filled out the paper work, but refused to actually talk. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but since I home school him for pre-k I am always very self conscious. It doesn't help that when you walk in the door they ask you if they are in pre-k and I was the only mommy that said he was learning at home. Now I have a master's degree, in our state I am allowed to home school through high-school. However, everyone else sends their kid to pre-k. It hasn't held my kids back in school. My oldest went into kindergarten and was already a grade ahead in reading and is now two years ahead in math. I believe strongly in teaching at home and having school being a reinforcement of things already taught through workbooks and everyday life lessons. However, I still feel judged since everyone else makes different decisions. I have had to defend my decisions so many times to other women that have made different choices and feel the need to explain to me why their decisions were better. Luckily since he starts kindergarten next year I won't have to explain my home-school pre-k choices any longer which will be a nice change. 

I have been experimenting with dessert recipes using beans in the last couple of weeks. Last week I tried a new recipe for Black Bean Brownies from the Taste of Home website. 

Black Bean Brownies 

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. I followed the original recipe with only a few changes. I did not have chocolate chips in the house and I didn't want to run to the store so I made the recipe without the chocolate chips. It made the brownies less sweet, but my kids ate them happily with the reduced sugar. I found that my total cooking time was a little longer than the recipe, my total baking time was approximately 30 minutes. 

Black Bean Brownies 

Without the chocolate chips added these black bean brownies are rich, but not overly sweet. My two boys prefer chocolate that isn't overly sweet, so they loved them. I have tried the recipe with the chocolate chips added and it's also good, just sweeter. Either way works depending on what you have in your cupboard. I love that the brownies have black beans instead of butter, it really cuts down on the fat. The total recipe only has 3 tablespoons of canola oil, which could also be substituted for virgin coconut oil or even applesauce depending on your dietary needs. 

For the recipe go to Black Bean Brownies. 

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies

My husband hates cake and most sweets. I love any type of chocolate, and have eaten an entire cake by myself on more than one occasion. He likes salt, I can barely stand it in most dishes. We are opposites snack and food wise. When we got married he could care less about the cake. He nodded his head and pretended to be listening, but in the end I chose everything myself. He did have a ton of opinions on the meat try at the buffet at our reception, I could have cared less. Sometimes I have to laugh at how different our food tastes our. When we went to Columbus for a job interview when we were in our mid twenties we went to a restaurant. I ordered mini beer battered corn dogs, he ordered a sashimi lettuce wrap plate. The waitress gave me his and him mine. Nope, I love fried fattening foods and he likes salad. He likes savory, I like sweet. One of my husband's new favorite flavors is salted caramel. He has found caramel sauce, ice cream, candy, you name it, if it comes in a salted caramel flavor he will eat it. So to indulge my family's love of salted caramel I decided to use the last of the packaged caramels I had from my sponsored parties a couple of weeks back and make Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies.

Ruben Pizza from Backyard Pizza Huntington, WV

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 16 cookie bars. I did make numerous changes to the original recipe. First I used 2 1/4 cups of flour. I have never owned a 1/8 cup measure and didn't want to deal with a half of a 1/4. Most of the time I weigh my cookie ingredients, I did not for this recipe. I did not use heavy cream with the caramels. Instead I used 2 percent milk. I rarely have cream in the house and see no reason to buy a container for only 3 tablespoons. I heated the baking caramels and milk on the stove until they were fully melted and then followed the remainder of the recipe. When the cookies were done I let them cool for 30 minutes, then for an hour in the fridge. They were still hard to work with so I cut them, took them out of the pan and placed them in the freezer. This allowed the bars to be less gooey.

Last Heirloom Tomato of the Season (It freezes tomorrow night!)

I would make a few changes to this recipe. First, do not make it in a 9 inch pan. The cookies came out too high and had to be cut very small so the taste wasn't over whelming. I would suggest using a 13 by 9 inch pan. This way the cookies would be nice and thin, while still having the great salted caramel taste. I would also suggest that if you use baking caramel like I did to let them set in the freezer, the cookies were great after they had set in the freezer for about an hour. Overall, these cookies had a nice sweet/salty combination according to my kids and husband. I think with the few changes I suggested the cookies would be perfect and nice for a party since salted caramel is very in in the foodie community right now. Great for Thanksgiving or Christmas!

For the recipe go to Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies

Recipe Type: Dessert

Summary:

A nice combination of salty and sweet, these Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies would be perfect for a party or to enjoy all by yourself!

Preparation Time: 0h, 15m

Cooking Time: 0h, 30m

Total Time: 0h, 45m

Yield: Serves 16

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Bourbon Maple Bacon Topping

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Bourbon Maple Bacon Topping

Maybe it's just me, but it seems that customer service has gone downhill since the economy started having problems. My husband had bought a shirt from a national bookstore chain and found a very noticeable defect. There was a string that when pulled took off part of the screening on the t-shirt. It was obviously not wearable with the defect so he figured it would be easy to return. He came out of the store after attempting to return the shirt very upset. Apparently the female manager was very abrasive and kept repeating that the corporate policy stated that they weren't allowed to do returns without a receipt. Now I am a very nice person until you upset my husband or kids, then I fix the situation. I quickly called the store location where the shirt was bought (the state capital) and talked to a very nice manager. He informed me that it wasn't corporate policy and that the store manager in our city was wrong. Long story short I went back to the store where my husband had a problem and fixed the problem. They tried being rude to me until I informed them that I had already contacted corporate and the other store location. Then they attempted to apologize profusely. At the end of the day I got the situation remedied, but I was still unhappy with the whole experience. It just reminded me of how far down customer service seems to have gone. This week I was in a baking mood so I decided to make a cake. My husband and two boys are huge bacon fans so I decided to try incorporating it into my recipe. After combining a few recipes I ended up with a recipe for Chocolate Bundt Cake with Bourbon Maple Icing and Chocolate Bacon Crumbles.

Stormy Day in Huntington, WV

I combined three different recipes for my final cake. The first recipe was for Double Chocolate Bundt Cake from Food and Wine Magazine. I left off the glaze and used dark chocolate instead of semi-sweet. For the glaze I followed a recipe for Vanilla Bean Bourbon Glaze. Instead of using a vanilla bean I used vanilla extract. Additionally I increased the amount of bourbon to two tablespoons. For the bacon topping I baked my bacon in the oven following a recipe from the Food Network. Then I dipped the chopped bacon in a small amount of dark chocolate. I allowed the cake to cook and then dripped the glaze over the top and added the chocolate covered bacon.

Roof of B'nai Shalom Synagogue (it was rainy and through a window so sorry for the blur :)

Since I did not make this cake gluten free I was not able to try it myself. I did eat a little bit of the bacon and the glaze. They were both really good. The rest of my family ate the cake. According to my kids the glaze and the bacon were the best parts. They aren't big fans of cake, so it's not surprising that they loved the glaze and not the cake as much. Eventually they tried the cake and liked it as well.

For the recipes go to Double Chocolate Bundt Cake, Vanilla Bean Bourbon Glaze and Roast Bacon.

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Bourbon Maple Bacon Topping

Recipe Type: Dessert

Summary:

A recipe for chocolate bundt cake with vanilla bourbon glaze and chocolate covered bacon. A great combination of flavors!

Preparation Time: 0h, 30m

Total Time: 2h, 0m

Yield: Serves 12

Monkey Bites

Monkey Bites

Today was school picture day for my oldest. Luckily he is over the cold we have all been fighting this week. He was insistent on wearing a Minecraft shirt. Everything in my house seems to revolve around Minecraft, my two boys are obsessed. I shot down his shirt idea, my mother never really let me live down the New Kids on the Block shirt I wore for picture day. I think I might have also worn a Jem shirt, so that definitely shows my age (looking back it was a pretty horrible cartoon). He ended up wearing a nice button down shirt and I'm hoping he actually remembers to smile. Last year he had a grimace on both of his school photos. Since I am still fighting a cold I have been trying to make easy recipes that don't take a lot of effort or time. Yesterday I tried a new snack recipe for Monkey Bites from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.

Old Main Marshall University Huntington, WV

Now normally I don't reprint recipes, but since this only has three ingredients and no actual recipe I will share the information. So monkey bites are just a fancy name for chocolate covered bananas with peanut butter. Here is how to make them. Slice a few bananas into medium sized slices. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Freeze for about an hour. take out the slices and spread your favorite peanut butter on half of the slices. Place the other banana slice halves on top. Refreeze for an hour or until frozen. Using your favorite chocolate, I used dark chocolate, melt and place into a bowl. Dip banana peanut butter slices into the chocolate. Refreeze. I kept my monkey bites in the freezer, they are delicious frozen. You could also keep them in the fridge, but I'm not sure what the consistency would be.

Marshall University Huntington, WV

These are a really nice snack. My two boys liked them without the chocolate for an after school snack. Frozen bananas with peanut butter are a nice protein snack. With the chocolate they are a great dessert, especially with dark chocolate.

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

A Sweet Way to Start the Day: Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I learned to bake from cookbooks. My mother was a fabulous cook, but she rarely baked. When she did it was great, however, she claimed she never enjoyed it. I am the opposite, I love to bake. I find it relaxing and when I get stressed out I bake up a storm. My oldest son also seems to share my love of baking. He helps me out in the kitchen and loves measuring out ingredients. I think his favorite part of the process is the eating. My two boys can eat up a storm and seem to be hungry as soon as they are done eating their last meal. Since my kids are continuously hungry I bake and cook a lot during the week. I love big breakfasts, in particular pancakes and waffles. Today I tried a new recipe for Chocolate Chip Pancakes from the Food Network.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, all of which is active. I made very few changes to the original recipe. I use an electric griddle to make my pancakes. It ensures that they brown without burning and makes great pancakes. I cheated on the recipe a bit. Instead of melting the butter and milk on the stove, I melted the butter in the microwave and then added the milk and let it cool to room temperature. Since I was using a griddle I did not use melted butter, but canola oil spray instead.

Since I can't eat gluten I was unable to taste these pancakes. However, my two kids are always honest with their opinions (even when they hate something). They really loved these pancakes. I liked that they baked up easily and weren't overly flat or fluffy. My kids like their pancakes somewhere in between, which is exactly what these pancakes were. Plus they browned very evenly with no problems with burning, which is always nice.

For the recipe go to Chocolate Chip Pancakes.

Looking for a Use For Fresh Zucchini? Try Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Cake

My first tomatoes were finally ripe enough to eat this morning. So for breakfast I had a sliced heirloom tomato and an omelet with fresh basil from my herb garden. There is something about food that comes from your garden that always tastes so much better. Heirloom tomatoes are one of my favorite foods, they are sweet and delicious. Of course my kids woke up and eat half of the breakfast I had prepared for myself, but who could blame them, it was pretty on the plate and yummy. They also ate the majority of the heirloom cherry tomatoes that are going crazy right now. There are at least 50 of them about to be ripe enough to eat. I love growing fruits and vegetables in my garden and eating the results. This week I had a number of zucchini to use so I turned to dessert recipes. I tried a new recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cake from the July/August 2013 issue of the Food Network Magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 6 to 8 servings. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First I used gluten free all purpose flour instead of wheat all-purpose flour. I left out the salt since the flour I use already has it in it. For the spice I used nutmeg. Make sure to squeeze all the water out of the zucchini it really does make a difference on how the finished cake turns out. I use paper towels and wring the water out over the sink. Finally, instead of using a 9 inch square pan I baked the cake in a round 9 inch pan. I prefer being able to serve cake as slices instead of squares.

The chocolate flavor in this cake really comes through. You really can't even taste the zucchini so it's a nice way to use zucchini without feeling like the entire recipe tastes like it came out of the garden. My kids loved this recipe and ate the majority of the cake by themselves. The texture is denser than many cakes, more like a dessert bread or torte. To me the texture was perfect.  It was nice with a cup of coffee for an afternoon snack or would also be nice for a dinner party.

For the recipe go to Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

Need a Chocolate Fix? Try Homemade Cocoa Brownies

Gluten Free Cocoa Brownies

I have never met a piece of dark chocolate that I didn't like. Until tonight. My family and I went to the store and I was happy to find a dark chocolate bar on clearance. It had flax seed in it, which I assumed would be ground up into the bar. Nope. The bar was full of toasted whole flax seed. The combination of bitter dark chocolate and nutty flax seed was not delicious. My oldest took one bit and told me that he was done. You know there is something wrong when your kids refuses candy. Needless to say the majority of the bar is in my freezer for when I have a chocolate craving that has to be satisfied regardless of the taste of the chocolate in question. Lucky for me I had made brownies yesterday, so as soon as I got home I ate one. So much better than the chocolate bar. When I made the brownies yesterday I tried a new recipe for Cocoa Brownies from the Food Network.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 16 brownies. Due to a lack of eggs I made a number of major changes to the original recipe. First I only had 3 eggs, not 4 so I modified the recipe. Since I reduced the amount of eggs I also reduced the butter to 10 tablespoons. I am a big fan of dutch cocoa, the flavor is intense and delicious and it's what I used in this recipe. Finally, since I can't eat gluten I substituted brown rice flour for the all-purpose flour used in the original ingredient list. My baking time was exactly 45 minutes plus cooling. With gluten free baking you really do have to allow things to cool or they will fall apart.

These brownies turned out very rich and chocolatey. My boys and I were big fans of the intense flavor and they didn't even notice they were made with brown rice flour. The brownies turned out fudge like, which I like. I'm not as big of a fan of cake brownies, I would rather eat a great chocolate cake with frosting. Overall, a great new brownie recipe that I will definitely add to my recipe list.

For the recipe go to Cocoa Brownies.

Looking For a Recipe For Your Overripe Bananas? Try Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

My youngest has fallen in love with the library. He has always been a very active child so my husband and I waited until this last weekend to introduce him to our public library. While he has been 4 since December it is only in the last couple of months that he has been able to understand not to break, rip or destroy other people's property. I was a little worried how he would react to the library since he has shown little interest in books despite my best efforts. Apparently the library was the perfect answer. He has asked to go back to the library the last three days. Best of all this afternoon he asked me to read three library books and he is recognizing his alphabet letters with very little help. I love libraries! I try to bake special treats when my children hit milestones or accomplish something new. In light of my son's new love of reading I made a batch of Favorite Banana Chip Muffins from the June/July issue of Taste of Home magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 40 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 12 muffins. I made a number of changes to the original recipes. Since I eat gluten free I used gluten free all-purpose baking mix. The baking mix I use already has salt so I omitted the salt from the recipe. I am not a fan of lumps of banana in my muffins, so instead of mashing the bananas I pureed them in a blender. This allowed for a great banana flavor throughout the muffin and no lumps. My muffins took an additional 5 minutes of baking time, for a total of 25 minutes. Gluten free muffins tend to take a little longer to bake.

My husband isn't a fan of gluten free baking, but he loved these muffins. Pureeing the bananas allowed for a great flavor and texture. My youngest son was a fan of the chocolate chips and ate 3 muffins in just a couple of hours. This recipe is definitely kid and adult friendly.

For the recipe go to Favorite Banana Chip Muffins.