Banana Smores

We've had a crazy few weeks with vacation and family in town... but here is a little treat for the kiddies after a bbq, or out by a campfire.

You will need:
Graham crackers
Hersheys chocolate bar
bananas

Cut the bananas into thick (1") slices, and put them onto a stick- we used skewers. Roast them over a flame as you would a marshmallow, and put them onto graham cracker with chocolate piece. Squeeze together and serve. Yum, delicious and not a choking hazard! : )

Delicious Blueberry Cake

The kids had a great time picking blueberries at the Temecula Berry Company with friends, last week. I had to find a recipe to use them up. My daughter kept asking to make a blueberry cake, and since my husband came home from work early one night, they made this together. I'm lucky that my hubbie loves cooking as much as I do.
I found this Blueberry Cake recipe online.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif. We may have browned it a little too much but it was still delicious! The kids didn't eat it, but that just meant more for my husband and myself! Try this!

Here is the recipe:

Meyer Lemon Blueberry Cake
Serves 8

Note: Meyer lemons are sweeter than regular lemons. If you are using regular lemons, you may need to adjust the sugar in this recipe.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup, plus 1 tsp. all purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla
- zest of 2 Meyer lemons
- juice of 1.5 Meyer lemons, separated
- 2 large eggs
- two 1/2 pints blueberries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan and dust with flour.
2. In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour with the baking powder and salt and set aside.
3. In the bowl of a mixer, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add all of the lemon zest and the juice of one of the lemons and mix to combine. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well blended. At this point, the batter may look a bit curdled from the lemon juice — don’t worry!
4. Reduce the speed of the mixer and gradually add the flour mixture. Beat together until the batter is smooth. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top.
5. In medium bowl, toss the blueberries with the remaining 1 tsp. flour and the juice from 1/2 a lemon. Sprinkle the berry mixture over the top of the cake.
6. Bake for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

Amazing Carrot Cake

I found this carrot cake recipe through online searching because I was looking for a way to use the many carrots we received from the farm this week. It uses 3 cups of shreaded carrots, so it sounded a little healthy at least.
I don't consider myself a baker, so I was amazed with the results of this recipe! It was sooooooo good! My husband loves carrot cake and thought this was one of the best things I've ever made. My daughter didn't try it, but my son loved it. I'll definitely make this again!

Here is the link for the recipe, but I have it also copied below:
All recipes
INGREDIENTS
Cake:
* 4 eggs
* 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
* 2 cups white sugar
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 3 cups grated carrots
* 1 cup chopped pecans (I omitted)
Frosting:
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
* 4 cups confectioners' sugar (I only used 2 cups)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup chopped pecans (I omitted)

Enjoy this one!!

Mother's Day Strawberry Shortcakes

Mother's Day was a beautiful day, celebrated with all the best mother's in my life. I wanted to make a homemade but low sugar dessert to enjoy, and since strawberries are still in season, I thought I'd try this recipe I found online, for the "original strawberry shortcake" from the early 1900's. It's got to be good... and this was as easy as making a boxed cake!

Ingredients:
* 2 cups flour
* 3/4 cup milk
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3 tablespoons sugar
* 6 tablespoons butter (I used the "healthy butter" and it was great)

* 1 quart fresh strawberries
* 1/3 cup sugar (although I used less... surprise, surprise)
* 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
* 2 baking tins and paper baking cups

Strawberries:
Prepare strawberries an hour or two before serving. Rinse the strawberries under cold water; drain well. Slice the strawberries in halves; place in a bowl. Sprinkle with the sugar; cover and let stand at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Whip the cream until it holds a soft peak. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Shortcake:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Set rack at center level.

Use a large bowl to combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix thoroughly.

Cut butter into small pieces and work in with fingertips.

Make a well in the center. Stir in milk. Mix just until dough is moist. Let dough stand for a minute.

Spoon into baking cups, makes 12. Although the cups will be only half-filled.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until risen and tops are golden brown.

Serve with whipped cream topped with the strawberries.

Everyone enjoyed these, including the kids!

Yogurt Smoothie Pops

My son just loves eating my homemade ice pops (sometimes for dinner), so I found some other healthy ingredients to add to them.

Ingredients:
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup strawberries (use frozen if making a smoothie instead of the pops)
1 banana
1/2 cup swiss chard, green or rainbow
1 Tbsp flax seed meal (omega 3)
1 Tbsp light olive oil (omega 3)

Blend all the ingredients together. If making the pops, pour right into the pop molds and freeze. These are soooooo delicious. The kids want to eat them every night!

kale smoothie?

Really, you can't taste it! A delicious way to utilize this green or any other bitter green. My daughter loved helping to throw all the ingredients in the blender. She told me, "It is very hard work". After making this smoothie, we poured some into ice-pop molds to freeze for an after dinner treat. If I was only using it for a smoothie, using frozen fruit would have thickened the mixture up a bit.
Here we used:
2 bananas
1 cup strawberries
2 handfuls kale, chopped
1 cup fresh squeezed OJ
1 cup cold water
Handful of ice

Success! My daughter ate two ice pops after dinner!! And my son, well, half the pop was his dinner. :(