A Simple, Practical Dinner Gift Basket

Some friends of ours are in the middle of a stressful move, and to add a little support, we made a simple dinner basket up for them. I think this would be a great gift for a new mom, if someone has family in the hospital or just needs a bit of lovin'.

I just layered spinach salad (heaviest ingredients at the bottom!) in a large mason jar, added a pretty loaf of bread and some poppy seed dressing on the side and popped it into a basket. Simple, beautiful and helpful. I'll definitely do this again!

Ingredients, in order from bottom up:
Mushrooms, sliced
Grape Tomatoes, whole
Grated Cheddar
Hard boiled Egg (one and a half), sliced
Bacon, diced
Lots of baby spinach

Will keep in the refrigerator for 2-5 days depending on how fresh the ingredients are.

Easy Homemade Lip Balm Recipe

This lip balm is the best. I've tried all sorts of expensive natural chapstick and been disappointed every time. When I started using my homemade stuff, I was able to go from constant, all day application to once in the morning and once at bedtime!

 

Ingredients:

2 tsp coconut oil

1 tsp beeswax

1 vitamin E capsule

5-10 drops of sweet almond oil 

*optional 5-10 drops essential oil such as sweet orange, peppermint, vanilla or cinnamon

Melt it all in a pan (be clever and use one that pours well) on low heat. If using essential oils, add after removing from the heat. Pour into containers.

Tips:
 *I bought a big brick of beeswax from a honey supplier. I use a sharp, heavy knife to shave off the wax and then pack it into the teaspoon. You can also buy beeswax in pellet form (much easier to deal with) or if you don't want to buy a lot of wax, a chopped beeswax tea light will do.
*Lip balm containers can be found at some health food stores or on Etsy
*I quadruple the recipe to fill approx 12-0.15oz containers (standard twist up size)

Picnic Perfect Lemonade by the Jar

This lemonade is the best I've ever made and it only takes 3 steps, 2 ingredients and I made 4 jars in less than 5 minutes. I'm thinking I could even add a shot of vodka for hard lemonade for a grown up BBQ!

Supplies & Ingredients:

250 mL Mason Jars (as many as you'd like!)
Measuring Cup and Spoons
Sugar
Lemon Juice
Hot (or boiling) water
Ice Cubes

1.) Add 1 heaping Tbsp of sugar and an inch of hot tap water to each mason jar. Put on the lid and shake to dissolve the sugar.


2.) Add 30 mL (2 Tbsp, 1/8 cup) or lemon juice to each jar.

3.) Pack full of ice cubes and screw the lid on. It will be perfect by the time you unpack your picnic lunch, just give it a little shake before you open it!

If you plan on drinking it right away, add 2-3 ice cubes and fill the rest of the way with cold water. Yum!

Pinto Beans, Sweet Potato and Quinoa in Tomato Broth: Better and Faster than it Sounds!

This is my favorite soup recipe. I found it in Mothering Magazine, and then adapted it to our taste. It's so nutritionally dense, it's hard to believe that it tastes as good as it does! I'm making it tonight and thought I'd share.

Pinto Beans, Sweet Potatoes, and Quinoa in Tomato Broth

1 1/2 cups canned pinto beans

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

7 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 T extra-virgin olive oil

1 small yellow onion, minced

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp minced fresh oregano or 1/2 t dried oregano

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper

1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes, finely diced, with juice

1 orange sweet potato, peeled, diced small

Rinse pinto beans and set aside.

Place quinoa in small pot and cover with 1 1/2 cups stock. Bring to boil, immediately turn down to simmer, cover, and cook until quinoa has absorbed all liquid (about 15 minutes). Keep warm.

Heat olive oil in 4-quart pot over medium heat. When hot, add onion and cook until soft around the edges (4-5 minutes). Add garlic and chipotle chile and cook 1 minute more. Add cumin, oregano, bay leaf and a little salt and pepper. Cover with remaining stock and diced tomatoes with their juice. Bring to a simmer and cook 10-15 minutes to allow stock to become well-flavored. Add sweet potato and simmer 10-15 minutes more, until sweet potatoes are tender.

Add pinto beans to broth and bring back to a simmer. Divide warm quinoa among deep bowls. Ladle hot broth into bowls. 

Garnish with a dollop of plain yogurt, avocado and green onion. If Daniel's not into it,  I'll add crushed tortilla chips to his soup as well.

The Mothering Recipe calls for a roasted chipotle pepper in the soup and suggests topping with lime, cabbage, feta or radishes as a garnish.

Apple Picking!

While pet sitting for a friend of ours, we discovered she has a huge apple tree in her back yard! So, naturally, we came back with bags and picked everything we could.

Here's us sorting and washing in the yard. We made some yummy canned honey-maple apples, but I don't think I'll have time for anything else. It's been a busy Fall so far!

This is the syrup recipe I made up for canning them:
3 Cups Water
1/2 Cup Maple
1/2 Cup Honey
Cinnamon to Taste

You can use any recipe for canning whole/diced apples and substitute this syrup recipe for a traditional sugar syrup recipe.

Delightful Summer Cupcakes

I was on cupcake duty for my dear friends wedding shower last month and I decided to try some fun flavors. Party guests were raving about these tiny little gems, and I thought they were just being polite. That is, until I tasted one. And another. And then I thought...I guess I should try all of them. Genius! Here's the gist of how I made them (sometimes I wish I used real recipes!!!)

Cake:

My Grandma always tells me that if you want the icing to be pretty and perfect, to forget about making the cake from scratch and focus on the icing. So I used Superstore's Organic Chocolate and Vanilla cake mix. I substituted full fat sour cream for the oil and it made them taste homemade and really moist.

I split the vanilla batter in half and added 2-3 Tbsp of lemon flavoring. You can add food coloring or lemon zest so you can tell them apart from the plain vanilla. Taste the batter to make sure they're really lemony! Bake the lemon and vanilla in mini muffin tins.

Bake the chocolate cupcakes in mini muffin tins, adding 3 or 4 chocolate chips to the tops of half.

Icing:

Whip up the base icing (make it nice and thick) and divide into 4 bowls.

Classic Buttercream Icing (Base):
5 cups icing sugar
1 Cup soft butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2-4 Tbsp Water or Milk

Classic Lemon Cupcakes:
Base Icing plus 3-4 tsp lemon flavoring on a vanilla cupcake. Garnish with lemon zest if desired.

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes:
Base icing plus 2-3 Tbsp raspberry jam or raspberry puree on a lemon cupcake. You may need to add more icing sugar if it thins out too much. Garnish with a fresh raspberry if desired.

Mocha Chip Frappuccino Cupcakes:
Base Icing plus two packages of Decaf Starbucks Via (you can substitute instant coffee, but it's really not the same!!!) on the chocolate cupcakes with the added chocolate chips. A chocolate chip or chocolate espresso bean are perfect garnishes.

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes:
Base Icing plus 2-3 tsp of coconut flavoring on a plain chocolate cupcake. Garnish with shredded coconut before icing sets. This was the #1 hit of the night. DELISH!

Tips:
-This little tool is so amazing (and inexpensive) that I've thrown away my piping bag!
-Use mini tins. The icing to cake ratio is perfect for these combos.
-Taste everything as you go and add bits of flavoring as you taste to make sure it comes out right.
-Make sure the icing is quite thick so it holds it shape. If you add any liquid to the base, that means you'll likely have to add more icing sugar to get the right consistency.

Homemade Honey Toffee Un-Recipe

I was trying to come up with something, other than gum, for my little guy to chew on the plane. Enter my clever Mother-in-Law! She mentioned the she always made "Grampa's Toffee" for airplane trips when her kids were little. Genius! I prefer for Daniel to have honey or maple as sweeteners-especially when I know he's going to down 8 or 9 per flight so I decided to make my own recipe.

I thought of all the honey treats my mom made for me when I was little. I had the mom who shopped at the health food store, bought organic and started every morning with a vitamin buffet, before it was cool. I remember her making honey lollipops for me and I figured I could make toffee out of honey as well. I'm sure this will turn out differently at different altitudes etc, but if it's too soft, cook it to the hard crack stage (300 degrees) and add a little more butter. You can also store it in the fridge to keep it from melting.

So here is my delicious, honey toffee "un-recipe":

Ingredients:
About 4 Tbsp butter
About 3/4 cup creamed honey (liquid works, but they're a bit melty-er)
Sprinkle of Salt
Dash of Vanilla

Melt butter and honey in the pan on medium heat to the soft crack stage (or about 290 degrees).

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and salt.

Pour into a well greased glass or ceramic dish and place in the fridge to cool for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.

Remove cold toffee from the pan, cut into pieces and wrap in wax paper squares.

 It's really that simple, and SO yummy. Honey is known for it's energy boosting and healing properties and as helpful for your immune system, so eat up!

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal with Flax and Maple

I made some great oatmeal for breakfast this morning and thought it was about time that I posted a recipe on the blog! I added flax, a ton of cinnamon and just a little natural sweetener to make this a perfect start to your day!

Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
1 Cup Oatmeal (I use plain quick oats)
1/8 Cup Ground Flax
Handful of dried apple rings, diced (or substitute fresh apple if it's on hand)
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
2 Cups Boiling Hot Water
Real maple syrup to taste

Combine all the dry ingredients and stir. Add hot water and stir. Let sit 1 minute, or until water is absorbed. You can also tweak the consistency by adding water/oats. Top with a drizzle of real maple syrup, or honey.

Birthday Madness: Part Two

Daniel helped me make his cupcakes this year. He loved following the steps of the recipe, and helping me with the blender. Thanks to my mother in law's piping bag, I didn't have to use parchment triangles this year! It is SO much easier with a piping bag. The cupcakes are chocolate with peanut butter, and raspberry icing.  Here are the recipes:


3/4 cup soft butter
4 1/2 cups icing sugar
3 tsp milk or water (I use water)
2 tsp vanilla

Beat butter until soft, add icing sugar slowly. Beat in liquid 1 tsp at a time. Split in half.

Add 3 tbsp peanut butter to one half and mix well. You may need to thin out with a little water.

Add 2 tbsp rasperry jam/jelly to the other half and beat. You may need to thicken up with more icing sugar.

The best part of it all, for my numbers-obsessed little guy was finding these (free and printable!) cupcake flags at Fog and Thistle.