Here in Utah, our license plates state, “The Greatest Snow on Earth.” Well, either Utah has moved to another part of the country (unbeknownst to me) or mother nature’s been a little lazy sending the white stuff. I still have mixed feelings about it really. I love it in December, and despise it in April, May and June…and especially in July. Although, we do enjoy a good sledding and snowman making, which we were able to do a few weeks ago, so I guess I won’t complain too loudly.

Also a few weeks ago, my son, Xavier, was in charge of something called “Snack Center”  in his 2nd/3rd grade class. It is where the kids have the opportunity to make a delicious and nutritious snack on their own, by following and writing a new recipe shared by a classmate. So far, Xavier has been loving all of the recipes. He brings the handwritten recipes home to me, and asks if we have all the ingredients to make them again.

It’s been fun to see him in the kitchen making his own tasty creations. Especially because he is going through a growth spurt, and pretty much eats non-stop. He eats more than me at dinner, getting second and sometimes third helpings. If you ask me, I think the only thing he’s really growing is a stomach! He is only 8 years old right now, and I am pretty nervous about feeding (and paying to feed!) a teenage boy. Two of them!

  
Snowman Kabobs

*One banana will make 2-3 Snowmen

Ingredients
Banana, sliced into thick rounds
Mini Chocolate Chips, 8 chips per snowman
Carrot, slivered into triangle shapes
Pretzel Sticks, 2 per snowman

*You’ll also need a long Kabob Skewer

Directions
1. Carefully slide 3 banana slices to the end of a skewer.
2. Gently press the carrot sliver onto the middle of the top banana.
3.Very carefully stick the pretzels into both sides of the middle banana slice.
4.Softly press the points of the mini chocolate chips into the banana for the eyes, mouth and buttons.
5.Enjoy, be creative, and have fun!

Especially because these cookies are good, real good. Chewy and sweet, with a slightly nutty flavor and texture from the oatmeal. I made the excuse to eat more of these cookies just because there was oatmeal in them. Oatmeal is good for you right?! Right. Glad we are all on the same page here.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

(From the Queen of Cookies at Two Peas and Their Pod)

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup oats, rolled
1 cup shredded coconut, sweetened
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit. Cream together the butter and sugars, stir in egg and vanilla. Next, stir in flour, soda, powder, and salt. Now stir in oats, coconut and chocolate chips. Form into one inch balls and place 2 inches apart on a greased or lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. The cookies will look slightly uncooked, but let them sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes to finish setting. Remove cookies to cooling rack or right into a glass of milk!

And if you’re making breakfast, you mine as well make these scrumptious Squash Pancakes in the form of a heart or an absolutely adorable squirrel. Isn’t he the cutest?

 All you need to do is cook up these here pancakes, pick out a cookie cutter to size, and then just press the cookie cutter down firmly over the pancake, and Voila! Instant love.

If only love really was that easy and instant. Throwing in a few sprinkles couldn’t hurt either…for the pancakes that is, well I guess Love could use some too. Go ahead, throw some at your loved ones and see what happens. I bet surprise, laughter, sweeping, and memories might all be wrapped up in the experience, but by all means, please let me know how it goes.

Enough about sprinkles, these pancakes are a treat. Not like a decadent increase-your-pant-size kinda treat (like these), but a nice light, just-sweet-enough for breakfast treat, with hints of cinnamon and cloves. Perfect for a lazy Saturday morning while sipping on hot chocolate and watching the soft snowflakes fall (not in Utah though, apparently the snow has moved to Washington this winter! What’s that all about?). Needless to say, seconds and thirds were requested by all three of my children, and the love my life enjoyed them as well.

Squash {Lovers} Pancakes

*makes about 20 small pancakes

Ingredients
 2 cups dry pancake mix (like Bisquick)
1 1/2 cups water or milk
1/2 cup pureed squash (click here for how to make this)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice (or 1/8 tsp. cloves & 1/8 tsp. ginger)
3 Tbsp brown sugar

Directions
This is the easiest part, put all ingredients into a large bowl and whisk together. Heat and grease a skillet on medium heat. Ladle out batter onto skillet, and cook till bubbles form, then flip pancakes over and cook another 30 seconds or so. See? Easy.

Serve with warm maple syrup and sprinkles (if you want).

I realized recently that my children have become very good at trying new foods, even if it’s just a bite. I had forgotten how my oldest used to refuse all things green.

How sometimes they would look at their plates and immediately begin throwing fits (or food) just to get out of eating. Sometimes they’d even trick me into thinking they’d actually eaten, when upon removing them from their food-ladened highchair I’d find that no, no they hadn’t eaten. But yes, they had touched their food, just enough to smash it down in between all the cracks and crevices of their awful no good highchair seat. I HATE highchairs, they are disgusting and awful to keep clean, but that’s another story.

Today’s story has to do with my kitchen and living room being overrun with squash, all kinds; spaghetti squash, butternut, buttercup, turban squash, even pumpkin. Apparently, someone (not me!) had been flirting with the local farmstand boy, and was given boxes and boxes of squash. Supposedly, the farmstand was “closing for the winter” according to my source, but I think the amazingly long beautiful blonde hair may have been more of the reason she was given so much.

Non-the-less, I had squash, a lot of it. You can roast it with olive oil, you can make soup with it, you can puree the stuff and hide it in homemade mac-n-cheese, but after that I’m stumped. I still had squash coming out my ears! So when I ran across this recipe I was a bit overwhelmed with stupidity. Why on earth hadn’t I thought of this myself?! Sometimes I am just stuck in the box.

So I made it, and we loved it. So I made it again, and we still loved it.

The kids loved it with every different kind of squash I used. I realized then, that my children are maturing, growing, and becoming little miniature Foodies. I couldn’t be more proud.

In the future, I have hopes to decrease the sugar, throw in some whole wheat flour and possible turn these into muffins, but for now I just made them as is, swapping out for different kinds of pureed squashes. Spaghetti squash, buttercup, and turban squash all turned out perfectly moist and delicious every time.

Cinnamon Squash Bread

(from an “out of the box” kinda girl at Twizzling Whimsies)

*Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups pureed squash, any variety (see below)

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Grease two loaf pans.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the squash.

Stir the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture, just until incorporated.

Divide the thick batter between the two loaf pans, smooth out the surface a bit.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool 20 or so minutes, remove from pan.

Slice and serve warm or at room temperature.

How To Make Squash Puree:
Preheat oven to 375*F

Cut squash in half lengthwise and scrape out seeds and guts.

Place on a baking sheet lined with foil (for easy clean up).

Bake squash for 45-60 minutes depending on the size of your squash. Use a fork to test the softness of the squash. Once a fork pierces is easily they are done.

Remove from oven, and let cool until you can hand it with your hands. Scrape out the meat of the squash or peel off the skin, whatever is easiest for you.

To puree the squash, us a stick blender or a food processor or even a blender. Blend until the consistency is smooth.

Ok, so now it’s the New Year and many of us have set our New Year’s resolutions. Some of these resolutions include cutting back on our sugar intake, which can be a bit difficult considering we have all just given ourselves a free pass to eat Christmas Cookies for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Er wait, was that just me?

Anyhoo, I’m a big believer on easing into the New Year. So I made these sweet, moist and delicious muffins, which went much too quickly at my house.

I loved the combination of lemon zest and almond extract with the added moisture from the ricotta cheese. It was a pleasing and light, yet satisfying muffin if I do say so myself, and I do.

Enjoy! And good luck on those New Year’s Resolutions! By the way, one of mine is to count a new blessing each and everyday. (*Scroll down for todays.)

What’s one of your resolutions?

Lemon Ricotta Almond Muffins

(adapted from The Food Network)

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar for sprinkling
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese ( I used 3/4 cup and 1/4 cup plain yogurt as that was what I had)
1 egg
2 teaspoons almond extract
1/4 cup thinly sliced almonds

Directions
Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or spray with non-stick baking spray. Preheat oven to 350 Farenheit.

In a large bowl, beat 1 cup of sugar,  butter and lemon zest until fluffy. Beat in ricotta, egg, lemon juice, and almond extract. Add the dry ingredients in and mix just until combined, batter will be thick. Spoon out batter into prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle with sliced almonds and remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar. Bake 20 minutes, or until slightly golden on top.

*Today’s blessing is brought to you by “chubby little hands playing peek-a-boo.” I love those little hands so much.

1. Strawberry Shortcake cookies. My good friend Katie and I were baking these up and we were excited for the result, until we tried one of the freshly cut up strawberries. It tasted weird.  Weird and odd, almost like onions and garlic. We had used what we thought was a clean cutting board from the dishwasher, turns out the dishes weren’t clean. Tell me I’m not the only one this has happened to?! We cut up the strawberries and they took on the onion and garlic flavor that was on the cutting board prior to our use. Not every cookie tasted like onions and garlic, but you took a chance every time you tried one. FAIL!

2. Cumin Cauliflower. I have to admit, many recipes I try with cauliflower fail. My family just isn’t a fan, except for this find (click here for that recipe). This cumin cauliflower was way to salty and slightly burnt.

3. Grilled Corn basted with Lime dressing. It just didn’t work. I was trying to get creative. I pulled the corn husks back, basted the corn with Lime dressing, pulled the husks back on and grilled the corn to death. The corn didn’t taste like anything. It wasn’t gross, but it sure didn’t taste like lime grilled corn either.

4. These Almond Muffins with Fig Filling would have been lovely, if only I had remembered to add the baking powder. Oops. I’ll be trying these again next time I get more figs. They tasted wonderful even without rising, just a little dense. If you want to give them a try (perhaps, you’re not as forgetful) the recipe I used was from Epicurious.

5.This looks like a cookie, but in fact, it is actually a muffin. Gingerbread Muffins-failed on so many levels. Perhaps on my next attempt I’ll actually use a recipe. Hey, what can I say I like to “wing it” sometimes.

6. Chocolate Peppermint Snack (recipe from the back of the marshmallow bag), there was everything wrong with how this turned out. I had such high hopes too.

7. Although these look like yummy balls of cookie dough, they are actually already baked cookies. Let’s just call them Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Rock Cookies.

8. {Purple} Green Smoothie Pops. Tasted good, however sometimes I try all sorts of ways to photograph things and well, this is one unappetizing photo for a popsicle. Don’t ya think?

9. Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette. It was nasty, too bad to because I was really looking forward to this salad.

10. Kale Chips. I think these can be good if you don’t go overboard on the salt. Sheesh is that a lot of salt!

11. I take pictures of food anywhere I can get good lighting and an interesting background, which in the warmer months usually means outside. Here you can see my ginormous big toe. You can also see my driveway and the door of my garage (yes, it is a wood door). To see the final picture from this photo shoot, click here.

12. Whoops, how did this get in here? Isn’t she just the cutest in her piggie tails?!

Happy New Year! Here’s to hoping we all stay out of jail.

This year for Christmas I am giving our neighbors either a box of Christmas Cookies (Linzers with Three berry Jam, Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles, Peanut Butter Blossoms, and Chocolate Chunk Blondies with Sea Salt) or a jar of this wonderfully rich and creamy Caramel Sauce.

The caramel sauce is pretty easy to make and tastes divine. I’ve never made caramel sauce before and I was surprised at how easy it was. I’ve made 4 batches since.

You can drizzle it on ice cream, pie or pound cake. You can dip apple slices in it. You can dip popcorn in it. You can eat it by the spoonful.  I may or may not have done the last two, and if I did, I would probably recommend it. Either way, you’ll enjoy it and those you gift it to, will also.

So Merry Gifting, and here’s to hoping your season is filled with:

giving, snuggling, days spent in your jammies,

plays starring stuffed Christmas animals, snow if you want it,

noses pressed against frosted window panes, delicious goodies,

and dear sweet little Baby Jesus.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Homemade Caramel Sauce

(from Southern Living Ultimate Christmas Cookbook)

Makes 1 3/4 cups

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup water
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/2 tsp vanilla (I used Mexican Vanilla)

Directions
Combine sugar and water in a large heavy saucepan; cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high, and boil gently, without stirring, until syrup turns a deep amber color, occasionally brushing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush and swirling pan (about 8-10 minutes). (Swirling the pan, instead of stirring promotes more even cooking.) Gradually add cream (sauce will bubble vigorously). Add butter; stir gently until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla.

The caramel will get thicker as it cools. I found it easiest to pour the hot caramel into the jar before it thickens. This way I can get as much of the caramel out as possible without leaving it’s sticky-goodness in the pan.  I leave the lid off while the caramel cools. Refrigerate caramel, and reheat in the microwave when ready to use.

I’ve been pretty nice this year (depending on who you ask…so ask the right person!), and well, after tasting these cookies I just can’t be nice anymore. They’re mine all mine! I’m not sharing! I don’t care if I get coal in my stocking this year…I’ll just put these cookies in my stocking instead. So take that Santa!

Speaking of Santa, here is Zoe’s first real look at the Jolly old elf.

And here are Quinn and Xavier too, but they’ve grown to like Santa just a bit more than Zoe did.

We made these cookies as a family and it got pretty messy, but it was a lot of fun and they (the cookies) still tasted delicious. I recommend you make them with someone you love too. Enjoy!

Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles

(adapted from Allrecipes)

Ingredients
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp peppermint extract
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar

crushed candy cane, for garnish (optional)

Directions
In a medium-sized bowl, beat together cocoa powder, sugar and vegetable oil. Next, beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla and peppermint. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; mix into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill for 2-4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare baking sheets with baking mats or parchment paper. Scoop out dough into 2 teaspoon size balls ( I use a #60 Oxo scoop), and roll into the powdered sugar, coating the entire thing. Place dough about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, letting cookies cool on the baking sheet a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

For garnish, top each cookie with a small amount of crushed candy cane.

I did it! I made it into the very first edition of FoodieCrush Magazine!

I am so excited! The online magazine is awesome and I am so proud to have a photo and recipe published in it. I know they have been working so hard on it, and I think they did a fabulous job. It is now one of my new favorites. So check it out for yourself, by clicking here!

Oh, and by the way these Chocolate Pomander Cookies are the perfect holiday treat. With chocolate, orange, cinnamon, and cloves they are sure to please. The Orange Pomander seen in the background of the photo was my inspiration for these cookies.

These are not healthy. DO NOT make these, unless….

Unless for you, right now, healthy means your body needs a stress reliever. And by hand mixing these, it will release tension and aggression within your body. And by eating the dough, it will calm your anxious nerves. And by the time they are baked and set, you can sit down and enjoy these delicious and chewy morsels calmly with the family you love, leaving the days unrest behind you.

Breathe and enjoy…life and cookies (they go best hand in hand you know).

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

(from Love Veggies and Yoga)

Yields 2 dozen large stress relieving cookies.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 egg + 1 yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 c old fashioned whole oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together by hand the butter, sugars, and peanut butter. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla; stir.

Next, slowly mix in the oatmeal, soda, and flour, stirring to combine. If the dough is too dry add a bit more peanut butter so that it is the consistency of cookie dough.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop out golf ball sized balls onto cookie sheet, setting about 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. Now listen, these cookies will not look done after 10-12 minutes, but they are-trust me. Give ‘em a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

Definitely, have some milk on hand. For best flavor and texture, enjoy these the day they were baked.