Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake in a Bowl

I love making these for myself post-workout! 



PUMPKIN SPICE CHEESECAKE in a BOWL (serves 2)


1 Can of Pumpkin

2 eggs

Put the Eggs and Pumpkin in a saucepan over medium heat stirring constantly until it is warmed up and steaming. Be careful. It can sputter a bit as it warms. 

Lower heat to low and add...

2 Tablespoons of Swerve Granulated Sweetener

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

1-2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir well and if you want it super decadent then add:

1 Tablespoon of Heavy Whipping Cream 

Keep stirring until the entire mixture is heated up and let it sit while you stir for 3-5 minutes so that the egg is thoroughly cooked through. Set aside to cool slightly as you are stirring take a moment to mix:

1 cup of Greek yogurt 

1 Tablespoon of Swerve (I sometimes replace this with a squirt of liquid stevia)

Give this a quick stir and divide it evenly into two bowls. 

Top each bowl with half of the cooled pumpkin mixture and stir until you get a pretty pumpkin cheesecake swirl. Enjoy!



Tuesday, November 10, 2020

White Chocolate Snickerdoodles! Grainfree/Paleo/Low Carb/Keto



These White Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodles are grain free, Paleo, Low Carb and they even hit the Keto checkmarks! Especially if you leave out the white chocolate chips. ;)

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

Makes 15 Cookies


2 Cups of Fine Ground/Blanched Almond Flour

2 teaspoons Gluten-Free Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt

1 Tablespoon Ground Cinnamon

1 cup Swerve Granulated Sweetener


Mix These in a Medium Bowl

Then Add these wet ingredients


1 teaspoon Vanilla

Add 2 Eggs

1/3 Cup of Melted Butter


Stir in

1/2 Cup White Chocolate Chips


Stir the wet into the dry ingredients.

Work Teaspoon Size Amounts into a Ball in your hands. Put them on a Non Stick Cookie Sheet. Smash them a bit into cookie rounds. Separate by 2 inches to allow for spreading while they cook. 


Cook for 12 minutes. Cool and Enjoy

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins (Gluten Free)





  • My husband is gluten free so we always try to go gluten free when we make treats so that we don't leave him out of the fun. He isn't allergic to gluten. He is following a low inflammation diet because last year he was suffering some sciatica pain and found that taking out gluten made him feel a lot better REALLY fast. So he is very dedicated to this way of eating. This is not a diagnosis. Just passing on his experience and why I usually choose to make things gluten free. We really don't miss it. We do eat a lot more corn tortillas and oatmeal now, though. 

  • I am gearing up for the July Forth celebration so these went into some cute stars and stripes cupcake cups and onto my holiday themed doily. As one does. ;)

    These turned out really good! And so fast and easy. I would just love to share my version of the recipe with you!

  • Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins

  • 2 cups good quality gluten-free flour blend
  • 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum (omit if your flour blend has xanthan or guar)
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
  • 1 cup  brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup plus a few extra for the topping of Hershey's Special Dark Mildly Sweet Dark Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 375F degrees. Line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.

Mix the flour, Baking Powder, Cinnamon, Salt and Baking Soda in a medium bowl. Whisk until incorporated.

In a medium bowl mix the pumpkin, brown sugar, coconut oil, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients all at once and stir just until mixed. 

Fill each cup 2/3 full and top with a pinch of brown sugar and a few more chocolate chips just to spoil them. 

Bake 15-18 minutes or until they spring back after you touch the top. 

Enjoy and please tag me on instagram if you make them! @melodycrochet


Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Meatloaf Muffins



Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit

1 lb ground beef 85/15
2T Italian bread crumbs
Big Squirt of Ketchup
Little Squirt of Yellow Mustard
1t pepper
1t garlic powder
1t Italian seasoning
2 eggs

I put it all in a bowl and mooshed (technical term) until uniformly combined. Then formed large enough meatballs to heapingly fill the cup of a regular sized muffin tin. I had enough meatloaf to fill 6 of the cups perfectly.

In the oven please put a cookie sheet underneath your muffin pan. Some fat spilled over (on to our fries...thank GOODNESS they were there or that would have been a mess).

Bake for 20 minutes.
Take them out and put a little ketchup on each and put them back in the oven and back until cooked through. Mine took another 15 minutes.

Nutrition per meatloaf muffin: 198 calories, 3 carbs, 13 grams of fat, 16 grams of protein

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Nigellas' beautiful Clementine Cake!



Hi All! Happy New Year!

I am so excited about 2016. We ended up finding the home of our dreams after an "interesting" rental experience. It was not convenient to have my yarn out or blog or share. But I learned so much about what I really want in a home. And we found it. We moved in December 18th and its just been amazing to finally feel at home.

Today my husband is working through the evening. Sometimes it is more convenient for him to work when other people have gone home. He has more room and freedom to get his work done. He is quite the work tornado. So this evening was just me and Izzy. Being at home and lazy with a six year old is so relaxing. We played Don't Break the Ice and watched a few shows. I got all of my housework done for tomorrow. I poached chicken for this weeks lunches and made an amazing pot of tea. And...a cake!

I love Nigella Lawson. She has been my absolute favorite celebrity chef for as long as I can remember. Her laid back, genuine style just makes me feel more comfortable jumping in the kitchen and attempting new things.

Today her recipe of the day was a clementine cake. I really push the vitamin C on my guys this time of year. I have lots of left over clementines and I got right to boiling 4 of them.



I adjusted the recipe slightly because my springform pan is larger than the one she suggested.

I used:

4 clementines
7 eggs
3 cups of almond meal (the whole bag)
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

It still just needed 1 hour at 375 and I covered it with a foil tent after 40 minutes.

The cake is moist, sweet-but-not-too-sweet and orangy. The house smells amazing. I tried to wait until it was cooled off to eat it but that was impossible. Now I have breakfast for the rest of the week!






Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Gluten Free Banana Bread for Breakfast



We are back in school! I excited. I have a college freshman and a first grader. I am homeschooling my first grader which is going great. I am using the Discovery k-12 program and it is a great guideline for our day. Which gives me real peace of mind. I really worry that I will leave out important "first grade" stuff. He will be going back to public school sooner or later and when he does I want him to be prepared. We are on day two and its just awesome so far.

During school time its always nice to have breakfast ready to go in the morning. Cereal isn't bad but they always claim to be hungry long before lunch when they have cold cereal.

I am not nearly gluten free but we do like to replace wheat with an alternative as often as possible because there is just SO much wheat around. It is in everything! And I feel better when I don't eat a lot of it.

This breakfast cake is filling, dense and tasty. This is very loosely based on a recipe from this post at a blog called Ceara's Kitchen.

1 tsp of ground flax seeds
3 tsp of water
(mix these and set aside...it will be your "egg" later in the recipe)

4 large bananas

(mash them and then stir in the...)

1/4 cup light agave syrup
1/3 cup coconut palm sugar 
1/4 cup cooking oil (coconut worked great)

(beat this together really well. then add...)

1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

(use a fork to stir your flax/water one more time, it should be a little gooey and then turn this into the mix well. Then stir in...)

1 1/2 cups rolled outs (ground up a bit in the blender)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup gluten free baking mix

Toss this in a loaf pan that is well sprayed with a non-stick spray.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

I make this the night before and the next day its awesome!


There are affiliate links in this post. If you use then then thank you so much for your support! <3






Thursday, September 27, 2012

Thursday Favorite - Dinner!


My Thursday Favorite would have to be dinner tonight. Spaghetti! I do not do alot of evening carbs. So, I try to minimize the impact while still fitting spaghetti into my life a few times a week.

I use the spaghetti sauce with the least amount of sugar available. I cute the pasta with a bag of frozen veggies and I use lean beef. I tried "Shirataki" noodles, but I could not stomach them at all! I would rather go hungry. I use Barilla Plus (with added protein and Omega 3s). It tastes just like your run of the mill spaghetti to my guys!


 
Thank you for reading! Happy Thursday!!!

Melody

Friday, August 31, 2012

Review: Perfect Food Raw Drink Mix

Today I was at Sprouts and found a chocolate flavored greens drink mix...Raw even! Had to try it. I like chocolate a little bit. :)

It is Garden of Life brand Perfect Food Raw Oraganic Green Superfood in Chocolate!

I was really excited that I didn't have to buy an entire canister just to test it. I just bought one packet. 

 I mixed it with a cup of water and lots of ice. The taste was not so bad. The smell bugged me. But a straw took care of that. I do not think I would add this to my morning smoothie. But, it is MUCH preferable over my plain flavored greens drink.


And pretty, too! LOL

I would like to note that when I drink a green superfood shake in the afternoon I do not crave my 3 o'clock coffee. It gets me through my evening rush beautifully without the urge to snack while I am making dinner. Which makes the ugliest muck look beautiful to me! 

Take care,
Mel 

Monday, June 25, 2012

Make My Own Laundry Detergent

I love to keep busy and when I found out that I was stuck at home because I sent all of the cards off to work with my husband this morning I felt a little stuck. My to-do list was centered outside of the home. But, it turned into a really nice homebody kind of day!

I made detergent...





I adapted a simple recipe after making Mama Duggars recipe a few times. By adapted I mean that I have pushed the bill making it lazier and lazier each time. I am just waiting for this recipe to fail somehow because of my laziness. But no...as laidback as I have gotten about it the stuff just keeps impressing me with its cleaning abilities and fresh scent. I use the same amount of it as I would any other detergent. I fill it to the line on the cap.

Stock Pot
6 c water
1/4 of a bar of Fels Naptha grated as small as your grater will grate.  (Walmart)
1/2 c of borax (Walmart)
1/2 c Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (I have seen it at some Walmarts...but I have to go to Ace Hardware for mine locally. Fortunately that box has lasted for over a year of making this recipe)
About 3 large empty detergent bottles
Warm Tap Water to fill up the bottles after you have added your detergent concentrate.

Put the water in the pot, turn on the heat medium/high. Add the grated soap. Stir until the soap is dissolved. Let it come almost to a boil. Turn off the heat. Add the borax and the washing soda to the pot and stir until it is mixed.

I then add it to my bottles using a glass measuring cup.

Top off the bottles with warm water straight from the tap. Replace the cap and give it a little shake to mix. Ready to use!

Some tips I have learned along the way...

1) I keep my bar of Fels Naptha out of the bag and package...the more dried out the get the easier it is to grate.

2) Saving money is great...but we use this because it is the best detergent I have found on my husbands CRAZY dirty work clothes. It doesn't get them back to perfect, but its the best they have come out.

3) I don't let it cure. And my detergent can be lumpy. But, the lumps have never given me an issue. But, *whines* the curing took over a day.

4) Give the detergent a little shake before you add it to your washer.

5) Some people use a bucket. I found it messy and the ladel kept slipping to the bottom of the bucket. Lots of dripping. I really love having my old detergent bottles to refill with this recipe. It makes ALOT.

6) We have the largest washer and at full capacity I still just use a cap full like I would regular detergent. Works fine.

7) We love the smell of this stuff! Without anything added. Felz Naptha is very pleasant and clean smelling. Not flowery, manly, musky, springy...just nice and clean.

8) If you are looking for a laundry booster for tougher than average load...just adding some Borax is a GREAT idea.



Ninja Kitty approves of the detergent 100%. She has been asleep on this sheet in the breeze of the window all afternoon.


Then I painted! I am loving reteaching my hands how to paint! I like to find word art I love on Pinterest and copying it. Its a great way to retrain and resteady my hand! Naptime Fun!






Friday, June 15, 2012

Hungry - Protein Pumpkin Pudding

Alot of times I am hungry after dinner. Portion control will do that for you...

tonight dinner was a pork chop and carrots. The guys had au graten potatoes. So two hours later at 8:30 I am hungry and it is about protein shake time. But, I want more.

And I love pumpkin. So the following recipe has made it to my list of "regulars". I make sure to have the ingredients on-hand. It is good hot or cold. Just microwave the pumpkin for a minute or two if you want warm pudding. Which is what I had tonight.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup of milk (any type of milk will work...we just want to dilute the protein)
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (I use BodyTech from Vitamin Shoppe because I am cheap)
1/2 of the big can of pumpkin
1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
Walnuts for garnish (optional)



Whisk the milk and protein powder (I use my electric handmixer), when its smooth poor it into the warm or cold pudding, add spice and mix until it is smooth. It is heavenly and packed with protein and vitamins. Sprinkle walnuts on top if you like. 

Workwise I am working on a pattern for a lightweight newborn sized diaper soaker. Pattern to come! :)




My Mug Of Chocolate

There are many recipes for Chocolate Mugs out there. Lets face it...an instant chocolate treat is going to be something that gets lots of attention. Here is my recipe...its a bit of a hybrid from the many I have seen online. It is a little bigger than most, too. I use a big mug. :)

Large Mug (12-16oz) with a spritz of nonstick cooking spray inside
3T whole wheat flour
3T splenda
3T cocoa powder
a splash of vanilla
1/2 t of baking powder

mix that all together with a fork.

Add 5T of milk (any kind works cow, hemp, rice, almond....) and stir until it is smooth.

Microwave for one minute, sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top and YUM!


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Beach Snacks - Caramel Apple Empanandas

A post on Kandeeland that featured her yummy Rice Krispy treat got me thinking about how it relates to my topic of the week. Preparing for this summers "Beach Day Tuesdays". I have a few standby snacks that I buy and prepare for beach day.

My beach bag is not complete with raisins, apple juice boxes, baggies of almonds, bananas, nut butter sandwiches and the basics...but we do have one item that is unique unto me. Apple caramel empanades.

(Just in case: Empanadas are little fried pies)

They are perfect beach and pool food. Make them small, put a stick in them and pop them into a quart sized ziploc and you just grab it on your way to the beach. The pie crust on the outside keeps the sand out, the stick makes them great for dirty hands, and there is something about caramel when you are in the salty air.

Fast and Easy Caramel Apple Empanadas

crust
1 containers of refrigerator biscuits...the plain little ones work best for making little treats.

filling
3 apples peeled and chopped into 1/2" cubes
1 cup of water
2 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup raisins

frying
sugar for sprinkling
vegetable oil, lard, coconut oil...whatever oil you like to fry with.

Directions

Open the biscuits, and flatten each of them out (I do it on wax paper). Make them a nice 4" circle but the shape does not have to be perfect. The entire feel of this recipe is easy breezy.

Put one cup of water in the microwave in a small bowl and microwave it for 2 minutes. When it comes out put the raisins inside to plump them. You can add more raisins if you like. Depends on how much you like cooked raisins. When they look plump drain them and set them aside.

Bring one cup of water to boil. Add the apples and cinnamon. Boil them until soft and add more water if it starts to dry up. Drain them and set them aside with the raisins.

Bring one cup of water, 2 cups of sugar and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to boil over medium heat until be turns caramel brown. It doesn't take long at all. You can use a candy thermometer and take it to 335 degrees, but I just eyeball it for the right color. When it does reduce heat to low (if you turn off the heat it will harden and be inconvenient to say the least)...add the apples and raisins.

side note: you can get creative here...as long as its not watery you can add virtually ANYTHING. I would love to hear what others have added!).

Start heating up 1" of oil in a frying pan.

Assemble by putting a spoonful of filling in the middle of each biscuit. With my fingers I dampen the edges with water, milk or egg. Whatever I have has always worked well. Fold over and seal. You can make hashmarks with a fork to ensure its sealed.

Toss in the oil and turn when brown. Remove when the second side is brown. Sprinkle with sugar immediately so it sticks. Let cool. Then you can put them in a baggie and refrigerate. I love them cold! They are good warm with ice cream, too.

If you are trying to be healthier...
use a whole wheat biscuit dough.
use only apples and raisins...and perhaps half the sugar.
bake them in the oven at 375 degrees until lightly browned.

But made this way they don't hold up as prettily at the beach...still VERY tasty though. :)





Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Cocktails! Moscato Wine Spritzer




Its HOT out and after a day of shopping and shipping I decided to take the boys out shopping. I grabbed a bunch of cheapy nail polishes at Ulta and some shorts at Old Navy. Then I went to Costplus for some sparkling mineral water.

I had a few bottles of wine open at home...I LOVE to open a bottle of wine and drink about 1/3 of a glass every Friday with my husband as he has his celebratory weekend beers. So, tonight I made spritzers!! White wine spritzers are great for a cocktail when you are watching calories and its hot out. Its very light. I am not a Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc or Chenin Blanc drinker. Immature palate. :) I love them sweeter... Riesling, Gewurztraminer, White Zinfandel (Beringer!) and Moscato. But, when its hot Moscato can be a little overly sweet. That is what was in the fridge so I decided to make nice light spritzers out of them!

Moscato Wine Spritzers

One Part Chilled Sparkling Mineral Water
One Part Chilled Moscato Wine

Cheers!




Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Summer Has Arrived!!!

Ok...not really. But here in Sourthern California summer is in full swing. The boys prefer cool weather, but hubby and I could not be happier to see it warm up. Winter felt like it lasted forever. It was harsh and punishing and felt like it went on forever!

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to everyone that has served our country. You are so appreciated.

Justin actually did not expect to have the day off. Sunday night he found out that he did not have to work the next morning...it was his first Memorial Day off since getting out of the Marines and he was THRILLED! We went out and got a kiddy pool with cup holders, inflated it and loafed in the sun until we were pruned. It was HEAVEN.

I am a lucky girl. So much love. So much fun. Living in such a beautiful place.

For dinner we cooked up some sausage and the biggest zucchini from our garden. Check it out!!


We are very proud! There is something amazing about growing your dinner.

Our Zukes Recipe:

3 cups chopped zucchini in one inch cubes
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper
4 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese (or more to taste if your are like us and love cheese)

Heat the oil in a pan, add the chopped zucchini, salt and pepper...saute for 5-10 minutes until the zucchini softens and begins to brown. Then remove from heat and toss on the Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.


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