Homemaker Monday: Triple Berry Pie

Welcome to the 127th weekly edition of...


Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to Tiffany at "Breakfast With Tiffany"! Tiffany shows how to make homemade soy candles and they look totally professional! I can definitely see myself making tons of these to give away at Christmas time. Just look how cute...

You guys are definitely going to want to check this out! Thanks so much, Tiffany, for linking up! We'll certainly look forward to hearing more from you in the future. For Tiffany's post, click HERE. Oh, and feel free to grab the "I Was Featured" button from my left sidebar!

MINE: To give credit where credit is due, I need to let you know that the 15-year-old girl made this pie.....

(I actually have no idea how to make a lattice crust.) I made a promise that I would blog this a long time ago, but I'm only just now getting to it. Thanks for your patience, as always! Here's a closer look, just in case you wanna see...

Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust
pie
4 cups fresh or frozen mixed berries. We used blackberries, blueberries and raspberries.
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

2. Line a 9 inch pie pan with half the pastry. Save remaining pastry for top crust. Chill both while preparing the blackberries.

3. Combine berries, flour, sugar, and lemon juice. Spoon into pie shell, and dot with butter or margarine. Cover with top crust, and slash in several places.

4. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 40 minutes, or until browned.


OURS: Okay, now it's your turn! Can't wait to see what homemaking tips, recipes, and how-tos you link up today! And remember, if this is your first time, feel free to dig through your archives and link anything homemaking! Thanks so much for your visits and links and have a terrific Homemaker Monday!

P.S. My sister and I are finally getting skinnier!
See how we're doing it HERE! :)

Homemaker Monday: Crispy Creamy Doughnut Mix!

This post is in progress...

MINE: I put an exclamation point after the title of this post because I'm so excited about baking mixes right now!!!

If you ask anyone who knows me well, they'll tell you that I get really "into" something once I get started. I could name countless things that some believe I've become "obsessed" over, but I'll spare you the boring details. Suffice it to say I'm currently completely engrossed in making everything I currently bake into a convenient mixes, for me, and.... for you!

It's so, so easy to do. Simply quadruple the dry stuff in any baked goods recipe, mix the dry ingredients together, cut in the butter, if so called for, then divide into 4 parts and place into jars or ziploc bags. If there's butter in your mix, it must be refrigerated or frozen, otherwise it will keep on the shelf for months, even years. Make sure to label your mix, and write down which wet ingredients to add and the baking directions, and you're set!

I plan on blogging tons of mixes in the coming days and weeks, but I thought the best one to start off with would be one of my favorites... Crispy Creamy Doughnuts! If you'll remember, I found the original recipe HERE, at allrecipes.com, but to make the Crispy Creamy Doughnut mix, I had to mix things up a bit by making a couple of substitutions. And don't worry. I tried out this mix this evening, and these doughnuts were just as delightful as they always are. So here you go.... and you're welcome! :)

Doughnut mix:
20 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons yeast (8 envelopes)
3/4 cup powdered milk
2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons salt
1 1/3 cup butter

Doughnut mix directions:

1. Whisk together all dry ingredients, then cut in butter until small crumbs form.
2. Divide mix into four parts, about 6 cups each, and place into Ziploc bags in the fridge or freezer. Mix will keep for about a month in the fridge and about 3 months in the freezer.

Icing mix:
8 cups powdered sugar
1 1/3 cups butter

Icing mix directions:

1. Cut butter into powdered sugar until mix resembles small crumbs. Divide into four parts, and place in Ziploc bags. Store in fridge or freezer.

To make doughnuts and icing:

For the doughnuts:
1 package Crispy Creamy Doughnut mix
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup warm water (so warm that you can barely hold your hand under it as it comes out of the faucet)

1. In a mixing bowl, combine mix and water, then stir until water cools down. Add eggs. Knead mixture by hand, or in a Kitchen-aid with a dough hook for about 5 minutes. If mix is too sticky, add flour. If it's too firm, add water.

2. Let rise in a greased bowl until doubled in bulk, about an hour.

3. Roll out onto a counter about 1/2 inch thick and cut into desired shapes. For instructions on how to make the shapes pictured above, go HERE. Place doughnuts on greased cookie sheets to rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

4. Fry in hot oil until lightly browned on both sides, then let cool slightly for 5 minutes on a paper-towel-covered cookie sheet. While still warm, dip doughnuts in Crispy Creamy icing, then let cool on racks.

For the icing:
1 package Crispy Creamy icing mix
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup hot water

1. Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan until butter is melted and mixture is smooth. Turn off heat when icing begins to simmer.

Please let me know if these directions are confusing. It's late, and I'm tired, but I am willing to make the sacrifice and post this just for you! :) Love ya!

OURS: Okay, let's see what homemaking tips, recipes and how-tos you have to link up today. Can't wait and thank you so much. Have a great Homemaker Monday!

(Linky Tools is currently down....)

P.S. My sister and I are finally getting skinnier!
See how we're doing it HERE! :)

Copykat Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls

This post is going to seem somewhat incongruous with the post I did yesterday, but there comes a time when we all must have a cinnamon roll. And if we are going to have a cinnamon roll, it should be the best recipe ever made.

I've decided that I'm not necessarily a great cook or baker, but it seems that the 15-year-old girl and I are super-good at finding amazing recipes. Most of our recipes come from allrecipes.com, but another other really cool food site is Copykat.com. I don't know how this lady does it, but Stephanie Manley concocts recipes that taste just like the ones at your favorite restaurants! One thing I love about using Copykat recipes is that when you make them, you can choose to serve yourself a normal portion size, not enough for 4 to 8, as many restaurants are serving today.

I did make these Cinnabon copycats a bit smaller than you would find at Cinnabon, but I think they were even better, because they were so fresh.

Instead of posting the recipe here, I'm going to give you the link, just to show appreciation to Stephanie Manley, creator of Copykat.com. Check out her site. You're going to love it, I promise you!

HERE'S the recipe, which actually came from copykatchat.com, linked to from copykat.com. Enjoy!

PSSST! To find great deals on fun stuff to do in your area, go HERE!

Homemaker Monday: Kids Paying Consequences

Welcome to the 108th weekly edition of...


Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: (Today's "YOURS" will be posted soon....)

MINE: So today, I'm going to journal my Saturday, which will include an anecdote about how my kids had to pay consequences.

My day started at about 6:30, as it usually does, because that's what time Baby Hippo awoke. I went to the kitchen where John was already up making breakfast for the twins and 4-year-old boy, which gave me time to make my favorite breakfast of all time, a half peanut-butter and honey sandwich with psyllium husks.

Once I was finished eating, I made the dreaded chore list. Each kid has personal and family chores. The family chores must always be finished first, then the personal chores can be tackled. The personal chores include cleaning their bedrooms, hanging up and folding their laundry and cleaning their bathrooms. Thus, if they stay on top of their personal responsibilities during the week, they won't have much to do on Saturday. And that never happens.

They each have four family chores, which entail deep-cleaning two rooms and their parts of the kitchen and babysitting Baby Hippo for 30 minutes each, thus affording me time to do my work as well. Their family chores include...

The living room
The dining room
The hallways
The entryway
The basement hallways
The basement theater
The basement game room
The basement bathroom
Their monthly kitchen responsibility after breakfast, lunch and dinner

These chores are evenly divided among the four able-bodied children, and while one of them is babysitting, I do my chores, which are laundry, cleaning my room and the 4 four and under's room, John's office and loft, sweeping the kitchen and doing any baking that may need to be done for the day.... and of course, lots of breastfeeding and diaper changing.

Now, I mentioned sweeping the kitchen. As you may remember reading from previous posts, my kitchen is about 600 square feet in area, and it takes me about 15 minutes to sweep it after a meal. I have special sweeping songs that I listen to while I sweep, mostly by Cold Play, and I usually go through three of them before I'm finished. Thus, because I spend about 45 minutes a day, at least, sweeping, it's extremely important to me to have a proper broom. I love a good plastic broom, with clean flexible plastic bristles that can really fling the dirt and food where I need it to go. However, when these bristles get old, they become stiff, and maybe even a little sticky, and make sweeping much less pleasurable.

Recently, all three of my brooms (and I have 3 so we all can sweep without hindrance) began to wax old and I asked John to buy me three more during one of his trips to the states. He gladly did, and I happily swept with my new clean, flexible brooms. However, not a month later, all of the brooms had disappeared. I told the kids that I know that they always leave them in their rooms, so they must be there and they had better start looking or they wouldn't get any computer time that day. They all did, for more than half an hour, but to my dismay, not one broom could be located.

The last thing I wanted to do was to ask John to buy me three more brooms, at the cost of $30 total, after he had just recently bought me a set. However, I couldn't go on sweeping with the one old sticky, stiff broom I had saved from my previous set.

Now normally in a situation like this, I would tell the kids that they would need to earn the money to replace the brooms via working for me or John. Their options are usually being my servant, giving me massages, doing chores, or babysitting. I pay them $5.00 per hour. This time, however, since I was feeling poor, I decided that they were going to have to replace the brooms using outside funding. I just didn't want to pay, regardless of whether I got a massage or not.

So I've told you that we've found the best doughnut recipe ever, right? It's HERE. And I suggested that they make these and sell them around town. I told them that I would be going to the dentist and that they could start on it while I was gone. They were all very angry about this, especially after having had to do their chores in the morning. I was relentless, however, and insisted that they WERE going to pay for the brooms they had lost.

So I went to the dentist and had an interesting experience there. First I must preface this part of the story by telling you that I would rather go to the gynecologist than the dentist. I absolutely loathe dental visits because I had a horrible experience with a dentist as a teenager, and I have been scarred for life. While at my visit on Saturday, I told as much to my dentist, saying it was nothing personal, and he laughed.

My dentist is a handsome man who is about ten years my junior (it's still difficult to get used to the fact that many of my doctors and dentists are now younger than I am) and he began his work on filling two cavities by numbing my entire lower jaw, drilling, filling, shining a blue light and who knows what else. As I lay there listening to him speak Spanish to his assistant, I began to feel relaxed and a little tired, so I closed my eyes. My mind began wandering and I remembered a time when one of my daughters, at the age of five, had fallen asleep for about twenty minutes while our dentist filled a cavity. I couldn't imagine how someone could fall asleep with someone sticking hard, vibrating metal tools in their mouth, but she had snored away until he was finished.

The next thing I knew, I was choking on my own saliva and when I stopped and opened my eyes, my dentist asked, "Did you have a nice nap?" I looked at him in a daze, and after he removed his tools and the two cotton logs from my mouth, I asked if I had really fallen asleep. He confirmed that I had.

Okay, I guess dental visits aren't that bad after all.

When I returned home, the kids had done jack, but I continued to be unrelenting and INSISITED that they WOULD sell baked goods to pay for my brooms. None of them liked the idea of making doughnuts, but they did think they would have success selling other baked goods, so the 15-year-old girl reluctantly made four loaves of white bread and the 10-year-old boy made a quadruple batch of chocolate chip cookie dough. He only made one mistake, well no, two. He put 4 tablespoons or baking soda and salt instead of 4 teaspoons. However, I was able to salvage the dough by adding a cup of sugar and a tablespoon of vanilla. The cookies were super flat, but they still tasted very good.

When they were finished, they went to the homes of people from our church, told them they were raising money to replace their mom's brooms that they lost, and came back in a matter with about twenty minutes with $30 profit. It was a profitable evening in many ways, one of which was that I don't think they will forget to put the brooms back where they go from now on.

Thanks for listening.


OURS: Okay, it's your turn now! Can't wait to see what your homemaking tip is. Thanks for visiting and linking up and I hope you have a wonderful Homemaker Monday!

PSSST! To find great deals on fun stuff to do in your area, go HERE!

The Definition of Red Velvet Cake

-Red velvet cake

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"A Red velvet cake is a cake with a dark red, bright red or red-brown color. It is usually prepared as a layer cake somewhere between chocolate and vanilla in flavor, topped with a creamy white icing. Common ingredients are buttermilk, butter, flour, cocoa, and red food coloring or beetroot; although beetroot is traditionally used, many prefer food coloring since it is seen as more appealing. The amount of cocoa used varies in different recipes. A typical frosting is a butter roux (also known as a cooked flour frosting). Cream cheese or buttercream frostings are also used.^[1]"

I've always wanted to make a red velvet cake. So once I looked up a recipe and was shocked to find out how much red food coloring was called for. I shun even using a few drops in my recipes, but most red velvet cakes call for almost an entire half bottle of the chemical!!!

Here's something else I read on Wikipedia...

"Though past research showed no correlation between attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and food dyes,^[6][7] new studies now point to synthetic preservatives and artificial coloring agents as aggravating ADD and ADHD symptoms, both in those affected by these disorders and in the general population.^[8][9] Older studies were inconclusive, quite possibly due to inadequate clinical methods of measuring offending behavior. Parental reports were more accurate indicators of the presence of additives than clinical tests.^[10] Several major studies show academic performance increased and disciplinary problems decreased in large non-ADD student populations when artificial ingredients, including artificial colors, were eliminated from school food programs.^[11][12]"

I've heard of these studies for quite some years now, so have tried to avoid using food dyes where possible. That doesn't mean we don't use them ever, but I try to be aware of how many artificial dyes my kids consume.

Now, back to the red velvet cake. My husband, an avid and successful gardener, harvested our beets this weekend. As he processed them, I observed their beautiful deep red color and thought to myself that perhaps this is the dye I have been looking for to use in my red velvet cake. I had never before heard that beetroot was sometimes used in this cake, and when I mentioned my plan to the 15-year-old girl, she said, "Mom! That's going to be so gross! Don't use beets in a cake. It's going to taste lame and it's not going to work!"

So, you can imagine my glee when, upon researching how many beets I might use in my cake, I stumbled upon the fact that beets were indeed originally used in the making of red velvet cake! I cried to the 15-year-old girl, "See 15-year-old girl! Beetroots! I intuitively knew that beetroots would work in red velvet cake!"

She laughed at me, but couldn't deny that I was right, as usual.

So, I made the batter, and it was indeed quite red...

...but when it was finished baking, sadly, it was only the color of spice cake. However, as per the definition of red velvet cake, it being a cake somewhere between a deep red and reddish brown color, I'm still calling it red velvet.

And you know what, it tastes like velvet and it is so delicious, that I don't care if it's not quite red. Here's the recipe and thanks for listening!

P.S. You might not want to look at the nutrition data on this one. 

Ingredients
For the cake:
1 cup shredded beetroot
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup cocoa powder
4 eggs
3 tsp baking soda
2 cups milk
2 tsp salt
3 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp cider vinegar
5 cups flour

For the frosting:
8 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
4 tsp vanilla
1/4 to 3/4 cup milk

Directions

1. Combine and milk and vinegar in a glass and leave for 10 minutes, until milk is slightly curdled.

2. In a blender, blend milk and beets until smooth.

2. Whisk together all dry ingredients.

3. Beat sugar and butter together, until creamy. Add eggs, vanilla, and milk mixture.

4. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.

5. Pour batter into 4 9” greased and floured cake pans or 3 cake pans and 12 cupcake papers.

6. Cook for 15 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

7. When finished baking, leave in cakes pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto racks to cool.

8. For the frosting, beat together powdered sugar, butter and vanilla. Slowly add milk until frosting is desired consistency. Frost cake when it is completely cooled.

PSSST! To find great deals on fun stuff to do in your area, go HERE!

Baking...

Sometimes this is the only way it can be done...

Thanks for listening!

PSSST! To find great deals on fun stuff to do in your area, go HERE!

Craisin Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I'm posting this recipe over at "Make It From Scratch" today. Come see HERE!

I'm Declaring it National Popsicle Month! Oh, and Whole Food Olive Oil Carrot Cupcakes

I told you I would, and I really am.

Hopefully, for your daily enjoyment, I will be posting the recipe for a Popsicle a day on this blog or my Whole Food Kids blog. It's June first, many of you have kids who are out of school for the summer, and what could be a better time to be inspired by Popsicles?

My first recipe for Popsicle month is posted over at Whole Food Kids. I call it the Iron Man Popsicle...

...and you will see what effect that name had on the ten-year-old boy. To read the post, go HERE. Thank you!

Okay, now for the olive oil carrot cupakes!

This recipe is a whole foods version of The Best Carrot Cake in the World recipe I posted in January. It felt great eating these cupcakes, not only because they are totally delicious, but because we ground the wheat into flour ourselves, and we dug up baby carrots from our garden, which were sweet and tender...

To cut down on the sweetener, I served the twins these cupcakes "commando, or sans frosting, and they didn't seem to know the difference...

However, if you feel a little more indulgent, I came across a whole foods recipe for cream cheese frosting yesterday at Elana's Pantry, made it, and used it...

It was amazing. Hope you love these!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:
* 6 tablespoons whole flax seeds
* 1 ½ cups water
* 3 ¾ cups agave nectar
* 3 cups olive oil
* 6 cups whole wheat flour
* 4 teaspoons cinnamon
* 4 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 2 teaspoons vanilla
* 6 cups grated carrots
* 1 ½ cups chopped pecans (optional)
* 2 cups craisins (optional)
 For the frosting:
* 2 8-oz. packages of cream cheese
* ½ cup butter
* ½ to 1 cup agave nectar

Directions

Step 1: In a blender, blend flax seeds and water until smooth and creamy.

Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, combine oil, sugar and the flax seed mixture.

Step 3: In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

Step 4: Add the flour mixture to the flax seed mixture, and stir until well mixed.

Step 5: To this mixture, add the vanilla, pecans, carrots and craisins.

Step 6: Pour this batter into greased pans or cupcake papers, and bake at 350 degrees F until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The time will vary depending on what size pan you use, but will probably be between 20 and 35 minutes.

Step 7: To make the frosting, let cream cheese and butter warm to room temperature, then add agave and beat with a hand beater until smooth. Frost cupcakes when cool.

Direct recipe link: http://keyingredient.com/recipes/327826/

Product helps I used for this recipe...

...and...

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes with Vegan Chocolate Frosting

Welcome to the 93rd weekly edition of...

Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to Jessica over at Moneyless Mommas! She posts a recipe on how to make your own chocolate syrup, and since I'm totally into chocolate, and we have a milk cow, I love the idea of making my own syrup. For Jessica's recipe, click HERE. Thank you so much, Jessica, for linking up and please feel free to take the "I Was Featured" button from my left sidebar. We'll look forward to hearing much more from you in the future!

MINE: Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes with Vegan Chocolate Frosting

I have a new best friend. I've introduced you to her before, but I'm going to do it again, because I just can't get enough of her. Now, our relationship is a bit one-sided, in that I'm pretty sure she doesn't know I exist, but still, no prob.

Her name is Elana and I have totally been loving her recipes! They are all gluten-free, and it's not that I or anyone in my family have a wheat allergy, but I don't like using white flour and sometimes using 100% whole wheat flour in confections just doesn't do the trick.

Apparently it was cupcake month on her blog, and since I've been faithfully following her for the past three weeks or so, it's become cupcake month for me, too!

We just loved these peanut butter chocolate cupcakes. If you check out her post on this, you'll see that she used whole nuts to garnish the frosting. I, on the other hand, since I knew some of the kids wouldn't really dig whole nuts on their cupcakes, finely chopped my nuts and sprinkled them on instead. One way to get nuts really finely chopped is to partially chop them, then leave the nut chopper and the nuts out on the counter and if things go as planned, every kid who walks by will reflexively grab the chopper and the chop the nuts even further...

I certainly could not have foreseen this happening, but it did, and we ended up with lovely, super-fine nut topping...

(I had to share this picture because I'm in love with my $.99 two-tier confection server purchased from my favorite Good Will store!)

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that these cupcakes turn out a little "sinky", to use Elana's word, meaning after they are baked, they have little wells in them. That's okay, though, because they can just be filled with extra frosting! So here's the recipe, and enjoy!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:
* ½ cup natural creamy peanut butter
* ½ cup agave nectar
* 2 eggs
* ¼ teaspoon sea salt
* ¼ teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
* ½ cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao
For the frosting:
* 1 cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao
* ½ cup oil
* 2 tablespoons of agave nectar
* 1 tablespoon vanilla
* Pinch sea salt
* 1 to 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

For the cupcakes:

1. With a hand mixer, combine peanut butter, agave and eggs.

2. Blend in baking soda and salt.

3. Fold in chocolate.

4. Spoon ¼ cup-fulls into cupcake papers and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes.

For the frosting:

1. Over very low heat, melt together chocolate and oil.

2. Mix in agave nectar, vanilla and salt.

3. Place mixture in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

4. With a hand mixer, add in enough powdered sugar until frosting reaches desired consistency.

5. When cupcakes are cool, spread with frosting.

Direct recipe link: http://keyingredient.com/recipes/326211/

OURS: Okay, I'm so looking forward to reading your tips, recipes, and homemaking strategies today. Thank you so much for linking up and visiting and I hope you have a wonderful Homemaker Monday!

Rosemary Olive Oil Chocolate Chunk Cake

I have been totally stoked to make and post this recipe. Rosemary is probably my all-time favorite herb and chocolate is probably my all-time favorite thing about life, soooo.... why not put them together in a cake?

I found the original recipe at 101 Cookbooks dot com, a really wonderful food blog written by a really cool girl that I'm jealous of because she travels everywhere and is pretty and knows all these big, smart-sounding food terms and has like 375,000 subscribers to her blog, literally. I came across her blog while searching for a black bean brownie recipe, and I totally fell in love. I subscribe by email to 3 blogs, and her's is one.

So... you should really go check her out. Her photo composition is gorgeous and her recipes are amazing.

Providence was on my side when it came to making this cake. It just so happened that John had purchased myriad dark chocolate bars from different countries at Walmart the week before...

...and as far as the rosemary was concerned, after calling all over town, I found someone who grew it. I know I had some last summer, but the pot it was in was moved before the frost came, and I couldn't find it when I needed it. Thanks Ken and Lauretta!

To make Heidi's cake, I altered the recipe a little. She called for spelt flour, which I've never heard of, and I am sure the people at the local Mexican market have never heard of it either, so I used whole wheat flour...

....I also added a ganache-style chocolate frosting to make it a little more "dessert-y", also made with the dark chocolate John had brought down...

And to add to all this, I doubled the recipe and made one a healthier, whole foods version, substituting all of the white flour with whole wheat flour (which I ground myself in my handy-dandy Golden Grain Grinder, by the way), and using honey as the sweetener. There were a few other minor changes I made as well. If you'd like to see that recipe, just go to my Whole Food Kids blog.

This cake was moist and had a wonderful, unique taste. It tasted, I guess I could say, "classy" for lack of a better word. The rosemary added a surprise in the flavor and the chocolate chunks of different sizes were so good...

(shown above before frosting)

This is something I would love to make for a lady luncheon, and plan to. Hope you love it, too...

Ingredients

For the cake:
* ¾ cup whole wheat flour
* 1 ½ cups white flour
* ¾ cup sugar
* 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
* ¾ teaspoon sea salt
* 3 eggs
* 1 cup olive oil
* ¾ cup whole milk
* 1 ½ tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped
* 5 ounces chocolate (70% cacao), chopped into ½-inch pieces
For the frosting:
* 1 ½ cups chocolate chunks (70% cacoa)
* ¼ cup butter

Directions

1. In a blender, process oil and rosemary until smooth.

1. Combine the dry ingredients.

2. Combine the wet ingredients, including rosemary olive oil.

3. Combine these two mixes until barely moistened, then stir in chocolate chunks.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 to 40 minutes, depending on your pan size. I used an 8×11 and baked it for about 35 minutes.

5. For the frosting, slowly melt butter and chocolate together, then spread on cake once it has cooled.

Direct recipe link: http://keyingredient.com/recipes/321499/

Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes with Vegan Chocolate Frosting

Sometimes blogging can take up a lot of time...

But sometimes, just sometimes, blogging can inspire the mind of the writer to actually do something blog-worthy. Since the conception of my new food blog called Whole Food Kids, I've had tons of fun poring over internet sites in search of whole food recipes to try out on my kids and blog about. In the process, I have come across an amazing site called Elana's Pantry. Not only does this lady have a really cool name and a lovely face, her recipes use healthy flours, such as almond and coconut flour, and she's got tons of them!

Yesterday I came across one of her chocolate cupcake recipes, and strangely, this recipe called for no flour at all, not even almond flour. I still haven't quite figured out how this cupcake comes together, but it does, in a nearly guilt-free manner. Shown below, the batter right before it goes into the oven...

One disclaimer I have to make, however, is that I tried to follow her vegan chocolate frosting recipe linked to from the brownie recipe, but I must have messed up. Her recipe says to melt dark chocolate and oil, among other ingredients, in a pot, then freeze it for a while, then beat it until smooth. This didn't work at all for me, and it could have been because I left it in the freezer for too long while I was visiting my in-laws. When it comes to visiting the in-laws, you just can't scrimp on time. Anyway, my frosting resulted in a grainy, almost curdled mess. However, I wasn't going to let that deter me. I added a bit of powdered sugar and some water, and just look at the results...

Honestly, I love this frosting much more than the typical butter cream frosting I usually make, so this will be my go-to chocolate frosting from now on. I'm also thinking it would be absolutely DELICIOUS on THIS chocolate cake, which is my favorite chocolate cake recipe in all the world, and is also vegan.

Anyways, here is the recipe, and I hope you love it...

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:
* 1 ½ cups dark chocolate pieces, 73%
* ½ cup almonds
* 3 eggs
* ¼ cup grapeseed oil (or other oil)
* ¼ cup agave nectar
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* ¼ teaspoon sea salt

For the frosting:
* 1 cup dark chocolate pieces, 73%
* ½ cup grapeseed oil (or other oil)
* 2 tablespoons agave nectar
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* pinch sea salt
* 1 cup powdered sugar
* 1-2 TB water

Directions

To make the cupcakes:

1. Place chocolate and almonds in a food processor.

2. Grind until the consistency of coarse sand.

3. Pulse in eggs, grapeseed oil and agave.

4. Then pulse in vanilla and salt.

5. Spoon batter into cupcake tins lined with baking cups
.
6. Bake at 350° for 12–15 minutes.

7. Cool and frost with Vegan Chocolate Icing.

8. Serve.

To make the frosting:

1. In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate and grapeseed oil.

2. Stir in agave, vanilla and salt.

3. Place frosting in freezer for 15 minutes to chill and thicken.

4. Remove from freezer, add powdered sugar and water, and whip frosting with a hand blender until it is thick and fluffy.

5. Frost over cake, chocolate or vanilla cupcakes or between cookies

Direct recipe link: http://keyingredient.com/recipes/311880/

I am pleased to list this post @...

Today on Whole Food Kids: Purple Fruit and Veggie Popsicles...

Blueberry Breakfast Cupcakes

Today I'm guest-posting over at Make It From Scratch. Come see how the 15-year-old girl and I made Blueberry Breakfast Cupcakes!

Hope you love them as much as we did!

And....if you want.....come see what we're doing over at Whole Food Kids! It's GOOD for you, I promise!

Homemade Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies!

As promised yesterday, here is how I made Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies! The credit for this recipe goes to Santa's Gift Shoppe and I am unbelievably grateful to her for posting this. Thank you!

Homemade Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies

Ingredients:

For Dough:
2 1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. white sugar
1/2 c. butter, room temperature
1/3 c. milk (any kind)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. peppermint extract

For Chocolate Coating:
10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate
1/2 c. butter, room temperature

Directions:

Step 1: In a small bowl whisk together flour, cornstarch cocoa powder, and salt.

Step 2: In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. With the mixer on low speed, add in the milk and the extracts. Mixture will look curdled. Gradually, add flour mixture until fully incorporated.

Step 3: Shape dough into two logs, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for at least 1-2 hours, until dough is very firm.

Step 4: Pre-heat oven to 375F. Slice dough into rounds not more than 1/4 inch thick (if they are too thick they will not be as crisp) and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cookies will not spread very much, so you can put them quite close together.

Step 5: Bake for 13-15 minutes, until cookies are firm at the edges...

(As you can see, my cookies did not turn out quite round enough, as my log was a bit soft due to the extra milk I added. But still...)

Cool completely on a wire rack before dipping in chocolate.

Step 6: To make the chocolate coating, measure out 10 oz. of chocolate (I used chocolate chips) using a kitchen scale.

Step 7: On very low heat, melt and stir chocolate and butter together until smooth.

Step 8: Dip each cookie in melted chocolate, turn with fork to coat, then transfer to a piece of parchment paper (or wax paper) to set up for at least 30 min or until chocolate is cool and firm...

(I placed my cookies on non-stick dehydrator sheets and they came off just swimmingly once the chocolate was hardened.)

I swear these cookies were way, way too good. I stuffed myself until I felt like I was going to founder. Try to pace yourself because these are rich, and decadent and unbelievably amazing. Enjoy!

Homemaker Monday: Honey Oat Quick Bread

Welcome to the 85th weekly edition of...

Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: Today's "YOURS" goes to Single Mormon Chic over at The Law of Chastity and the Modern Mormon Girl. Am I the Only One? ! She wrote a post on making frosting that is different from the norm. Here is what she says...

"i dont love making frosting,but i HATE the fake, gross and canned grocery store stuff, so i make it even though i think its a pain. its not that its difficult, but just....annoying. i know. weird, but thats my story and i am sticking to it. this recipe TOTALLY took the annoying aspect out of making yummy frosting. this is so easy, but the pay off is big."

With a preface like that, this has to be good. For Single Mormon Chic's recipe, click HERE. Thanks again, Single Mormon Chic, for linking up and we look forward to seeing what you have every week!

MINE: Today I am posting a quick bread recipe my mother found during a search for a healthy bread. She tried this recipe yesterday and it was absolutely fantastic. What I love most about it is that it's a quick bread, so even if you're afraid of yeast, you can still enjoy healthy, whole-wheat oat bread!

From start to finish...

...this bread just exudes healthiness.

Now, do you think it's a sin that I slathered butter all over my slice?

Even so, at least I ingested some oats and wheat along with it! For the recipe, please click HERE. Thanks for listening!

OURS: Okay, ya'll, your turn! Thanks so much for participating and visiting today and have a wonderful Homemaker Monday!





On 365 Days of TV-Free Toddler Time today:
It's Swing Time! Click the pic to see.



On life in mexico {and other places} a picture a day today:
{two square buildings}