From Kitchen to Blog

Quinoa Banana Bread because we are trying healthier eating.

2 cups whole wheat flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 bananas (mashed)

1 cup maple syrup

½ cup butter (melted)

1 cup cooked quinoa (cooked and cooled)

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Measure dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together

In another bowl, mix eggs, sugar and butter together

Fold in bananas

Mix in dry ingredients

Mix in quinoa

Spray loaf pans and divide batter between 2 loaf pans

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

The recipe I adapted this from did have eggs but I forgot them and made a few other substitutions on purpose. You could absolutely sub out the butter if you wanted.

Appetizers for dinner with a Valentine's twist.

Veggies

Shrimp sharing

Hot honey turkey meatballs

Sugar Cookies

1 c softened butter

3/4 C sugar

1 tsp flavouring (I usually use vanilla or almond extract)

1 egg

2 1/2 C flour

Blend sugar and butter, add flavoring and egg. Mix together.

Slowly add flour and continue mixing until blended.

Mold the dough into large ball, wrap in parchment paper and chill for 3-4 hours

Preheat oven to 350. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut into shapes. Then put back in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.

Bake for 8 minutes. Let cool before decorating.

I hav been experimenting with different consistencies of royal icing, as well as cookie glaze and am still trying to decide what I like best. I have also been experimenting with wet on wet design and piping techniques.

First attempt:

These are made with royal icing. I did wet on wet and then also used some course sugar for texture.

2.

More experimenting with wet on wet, this time trying for a pattern design, and texture. I also did some freehand and experimented with multiple colors.

3.

I wanted to try a bolder color palette. Black and red can be tricky colors to make, but I was happy how they turned out. I was also happy with Spider-Man's eyes, but the webbing needs work.

4.

I got Disney cookie cutters and was eager to use them. This time I also experimented with the icing and for the red and black, I used glaze instead of Royal icing. I used wet on wet for Minnie's dress and bow and freehanded the spider. I am also getting more comfortable separating colors. I also did some color mixing to get the icing for the Elsa cookies.

5.

My most recent video lessons was about the importance of planning out your cookie sets, so I planned out a Thanksgiving set (this is actually a test set). The pumpkins weren't as textured as I would have liked and my sunflowers need work but I love how the Turkeys came together and how much more comfortable I have gotten with using multiple colors.

It's Monday again and today is such a Monday. It is all cold and grey here, so I am making chilli.

I love to bake. But I don’t love making cakes. I find cakes require a lot of time and effort and then are a hassle to serve. I much prefer cupcakes. So I always say that if I make you a cake then I really love you and the recipient of today’s cake is one of my favorite people. Carrot cake is also his favorite, so that is what I made.

I love carrot cake but I am always wary of buying it because I am allergic to pineapple and a lot of carrot cake recipes use pineapple in it, but obviously I don’t. I also didn’t serve this with cream cheese icing because A lot of my family doesn’t like it. I just used a simple buttercream.

Carrot Cake

2 Cups Flour

2 Cups Granulated Sugar

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/3 Cups unsweetened apple sauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

3 Cups grated carrots

1 Cup chopped walnuts (more to garnish, if you wish)

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease 3 cake pans.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Add applesauce and vanilla and combine

Add eggs one at a time, stirring them into the batter

Add carrots and walnuts and blend them into the mixed batter

Divide evenly between cake pans

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

I made a couple of common mistakes. I omitted the sifting because my softer was broken and I also think my almond flour needed to dry out more. Anyway, what they lacked in presentation they made up for in taste and I will retry this month.

I love summer. I especially love summer food. Ice cream, BBQ and delicious salads. Last week I made 3 quick and delicious summer Salads I want to share with y'all.

1. Avocado Caprese Salad

This one is so simple. Take baby tomatoes, boccacini and basil and put them inside half an avocado and then drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Though if I were to do this again, I would scoop out the avocado, mix the chunks in with th salad and fill the empty shell.

2. Zucchini Salad

Thinly slice zucchini (I used a mandolin, but would do even smaller pieces next time) and red onion, toast pine nuts and then mix together with a white wine vinegar, olive oil and sugar salad dressing and then top with crumbled goat cheese.

3. Steak Salad

This salad is a meal on it's own. Thinly sliced steak (I like mine medium rare), chopped red peppers, roasted corn and green onions on a bed of baby spinach and romaine. I serve it with a jalapeno-avocado dressing.

To make th dressing I combined Greek yogurt, olive oil, white wine vinegar, lime juice, avocado, garlic, salt and half a jalapeno in the food processor. I adjusted quantities as I went because at first it was like a very smooth guacamole and needed more oil and vinegar.