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

Friday, October 24, 2014

Gluten Free, Dairy Free lunch with Chocolate Chip Banana Bread



Yesterday, I posted one of Rose's favourite kinds of lunch - the snack box. Today her Planetbox has her second favourite kind of lunch - salad.


Rose has Applegate Farms chicken strips, red grapes, dairy & gluten free choc chip banana bread (recipe from Natural Nutrition) with probably a bit too large of a smear of dairy free butter like spread! The main compartment has all of her favourite veggies in a salad - romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, yellow mini bell pepper, carrot coins & cucumber.

When she came home she said it was the best lunch ever, even the chicken. Love her.


Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Look, Lunch!

We have only a few days left of the school year for the 3 eldest girls and Emily has already finished up play group for the year. Woo hoo! 

Here is Rose's lunch from yesterday. She's been a lunch time vegetarian these days. Now that I think about it, she is vegetarian for most breakfasts too, but she does prefer a few non-veg dinners.

strawberries & blueberries, red grapes, mini yellow peppers, no bake energy bites, goldfish, carrots, cucumber & tomatoes.

These little energy bites are a family favourite and I seem to be constantly making them these days.
I often tweak it a bit if I run out of something, I might add a  Linwoods seed mix instead of chia, sometimes wheat germ, sometimes ground flaxseed, half the chips as mini chips + a few currants, Enjoy life dairy free chips and almond or soy butter to make them peanut and dairy free and so on. This time they are made exactly as the recipe suggests.

I swear that I have been making lunches for my girls during this loooong blogging break! Sometimes I'm so busy living life and getting the daily tasks accomplished there just isn't any time left to blog about it! I'm sure my fellow bloggers out there know how easily this can happen if you don't dedicate blogging time. My real problem seems to be in the morning, no time to snap a photo before the lunches go off to school!


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Thursday, January 16, 2014

Vegetarian Yumbox

Rose is on a bit of a vegetarian kick lately. We could all use a few meatless meals so everyone had similar vegetarian lunches packed in their new Yumboxes. This is Amy's very easy to pack vegetarian school lunch.

Amy has diced peaches, sliced apples with a yummy greek yogurt & peanut butter dip (recipe from BentOnBetterLunches), sliced veggies - radish, carrots & cucumber. There are 2 no bake energy bites (recipe from MOMables) and a boiled egg. 

Most foods in this lunch were considered her favourites so I thought I could sneak in a few new tastes like the dip and the radishes. Amy didn't like either, but her sisters sure did! Rose & Heidi had extremely similar lunches. Rose had pineapple instead of peaches and Heidi did not have radishes or cucumbers. 
They ate everything from their lunch save a few bites.

This lunch was extremely fast to pack! The boiled eggs were made the night before using this fool proof method and I had also made the energy bites ahead of time. Packing all 3 lunches in the morning took less than 10 minutes! Now that is FAST.


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Sunday, April 7, 2013

Lunch Box Ideas List




Since we are on break I have been only thinking about packed lunches and not making any. I feel like I am going to need a little inspiration when school starts up again, so I looked through a bunch of my past lunch photos and wrote down a list of items by category that I can put on the fridge for inspiration. Instead of staring at the fridge and cupboards for 5 minutes on those less than creative mornings, I can glance at my list and see what I have on hand. It's also going to be useful when I am working on my weekly grocery shopping list. 

Lunch Box Ideas

Protein:

  • Boiled egg / egg salad
  • Nuts – almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pistachios
  • Sunflower seeds
  • Peanut Butter
  • Hummus
  • lunch meat – ham, chicken, turkey, roast beef
  • Tuna
  • Chicken Salad
  • Leftovers from dinner – chicken, turkey, beef
  • Beans – kidney, black eyed peas, black beans
  • Chick Peas
  • Homemade chicken nuggets
  • Taco Meat
  • Meatballs
  • Yogurt
  • Cheese
  • Sliced mozzarella, provolone, Colby jack, cheddar, Swiss, Muenster
  • Cubed cheddar
  • Mini BabyBel
  • Laughing Cow Wedges
  • Cottage Cheese
  • Neufchatel & Cream cheese
  • String Mozzarella

Veggies:

  • Lettuce / Spinach
  • Carrots
  • Grape tomatoes
  • Cucumber
  • Bell pepper strips
  • Broccoli
  • Cauliflower
  • Green beans
  • Snap Peas
  • Celery
  • Radishes
  • Salsa
  • Pickles
  • Beets
  • Olives

Grains / carbs:

  • Whole grain bread / rolls
  • Crackers – club, Ritz, butterfly
  • Pretzels
  • Flour tortillas/wraps
  • Pita bread
  • Mini pita pockets
  • Croissants
  • Pita Chips
  • Taco Shells
  • Tortilla chips
  • Pasta / Pasta Salad
  • Rice
  • Popcorn
  • Rice cakes
  • Potato salad
  • Muffins & mini muffins   – sweet or savory
  • Graham Crackers
  • Cheesy Crackers (goldfish, bunnies)
  • Granola Bar / Granola
  • Stuffed Biscuits – pizza, chicken pot pie

Fruit:

  • Grapes
  • Honeydew melon
  • Cantaloupe
  • Watermelon
  • Clementines & Tangerines
  • Mandarin Oranges
  • Navel Orange wedges
  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Pears
  • Plums
  • Pineapple
  • Loquats
  • Guava
  • Kiwi
  • Berries
  • Peaches – fresh or canned
  • 100% Fruit spread
  • Dried fruit – raisins, cranberries, apricots

If you would like a handy list for your fridge, click the link below. It prints on one page.


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Homemade Chicken Nuggets for lunch

Homemade chicken nuggets for lunch - This was for Rose and was eaten at home.
chicken nuggets, pistachios & almonds, ketchup for dipping, carrots and grape tomatoes (from our garden)
fresh fruit - apples, grapes, blueberries, strawberries

The idea to make these into heart shapes was seen on BentOnBetterLunches, I used to always just make nugget shapes, when I saw Cristi's shaped into hearts, I thought hey- why didn't I think of that!
Here's my recipe:

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

1 lb ground chicken
a few grinds each of sea salt & black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground flax seed
1 small carrot, grated
1 small apple, grated
1 leek, sliced
I clove of garlic, chopped
Extra Virgin Olive Oil about 1 tbsp
2/3 cup cornflake crumbs
1/3 cup grated parmesan and romano

Preheat oven to 375F.
In a medium frying pan add olive oil (a quick once around the pan, about 1 tbsp). Saute carrots, leeks, garlic and grated apple until all are soft. Put into mini chopper and whiz a couple of times. Cool slightly. In a medium bowl, mix ground chicken, salt & pepper, papkrika, and ground flax seed. Add the vegetable mixture. Mix until just combined.  In a small bowl mix together cornflake crumbs and cheeses. Form chicken into small nuggets or heart shapes using your hands to form the shape and coat in the crumb mixture. Place on cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Spray the tops of the nuggets with non-stick spray and bake for 12-15 minutes turning once. If you would like to freeze these for later, go as far as coating the nuggets and place them on a small cookie sheet and flash freeze them for about 30 minutes - 1 hour. Then store in the freezer in an airtight container or freezer bag. When you are ready to bake them add an extra 5 minutes to the cooking time.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Chili Cheddar Corn muffins for lunch


I made my husband a man sized lunch in our planetbox launch, Lots of goodies to keep his tummy full. I suspect he ate the bagel sometime mid-morning,

honeydew melon, carrot sticks, celery with cream cheese, raisins, almonds, peanuts & sunflower seeds 
chili cheddar corn muffins, cinnamon & raisin bagel with cream cheese

The chili-cheddar corn muffins were very easy to whip up. I had about a cup of leftover chili from making some delicious oven chili dogs and I wasn't sure what to do with it  Chili-Cheddar corn muffins came to mind. I used a regular mini box of jiffy corn muffin mix, mixed as directed on the box (1 egg, 1/3 cup milk) and added 1 cup of chili and a handful of grated cheddar and baked as directed. Yum!




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Grown-Ups Gotta Eat

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Leftovers for lunch - Pizza Biscuits

I made some delicious pizza biscuits for lunch on Sunday and the girls had them in their lunches on Monday.

 This was Rose's lunch
goldfish, pizza biscuit, marinara sauce for dipping
grape tomatoes & carrots from our garden, pineapple

Heidi's lunch
all of the same items except I swapped the tomatoes for celery.

Amy was at home feeling sick so I didn't pack her a lunch. She ate a few nibbles here and there at lunchtime.




Here's the recipe for the pizza biscuits, it's hardly an original idea and there are several versions around. These are very easy to make and my 3 year old was able to do much of the work. We actually didn't put pepperoni in each one as my the girls don't like pepperoni. So I marked each biscuit that was filled with pepperoni with 1/4 pepperoni slice on the top so that we could identify them when they were all baked.


Pizza Biscuits
makes 16

2 cans grands biscuits 
1 cup marinara sauce
16 slices of pepperoni (or 32 slices if you like extra pepperoni)
16 mozzarella bocconcini, each one cut into 3 slices
3 tbsp melted butter (or melted garlic butter - yum!)
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1/4 cup grated Parmesan and Romano cheese

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray inside of 13x9 dish with non stick spray. Roll out the grands biscuits until flat.  Put one small spoon of sauce in the middle. Don't spread it around too much or it will be difficult to wrap up. Add a slice or two of pepperoni and 3 slices of fresh mozzarella from the bocconcini. Pull up all of the sides and pinch into a ball shape. Put seam side down into the prepared dish. Repeat until all of the pizza biscuits are filled and in the pan. They will just about fit, you'll have to squish that last one in there a bit but they all will cook evenly. Brush the tops with melted butter and then sprinkle with the Italian seasoning and the grated Parmesan & Romano cheese.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until  the biscuits are puffed and browned on top. Leave to cool in the pan. Warm the extra marinara sauce and use for dipping. Yum!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Lunch for me!

This is actually from last week. I had to go out on and lend someone a hand so I brought my own lunch along :)

Cream cheese and sugar free strawberry jam croissant, No bake energy bites
carrots, grapes, pineapple & a strawberry

It was delicious :)

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Friday, March 15, 2013

Lunch for the hubby

My husband and I are having a pretty busy day today so he won't be coming home for lunch. I packed him this planetbox launch container to take to work :) He said he thought he would be pretty hungry today.

No bake energy bites, cherry & date bars (that my Granny made - yum!), a few pistachios
grapes, pineapple, kiwi & a couple of grape tomatoes 
two ham, Swiss cheese. lettuce & mustard croissants sandwiches


I think this will keep his belly full! I try not to make his lunch too cutesy -- do you think the hearts were too much? nah - me neither. The sandwiches were just begging for a pick to keep them closed ;)






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Grown-Ups Gotta Eat Following In My Shoes Bento Lunches

Thursday, February 28, 2013

CuteZCute cutter

What a fun new sandwich cutter! I have used this a couple of times now but I don't think that I have shared any photos before. The cutter set actually makes several different sandwiches - frog and bear pictured and cat & pig not pictured. There is the option of either stamping out or cutting out the face making for endless possibilities and not just sandwiches. 

Heidi's lunch - not travelling anywhere, just sitting in the fridge until she comes home at lunchtime.
Christmas Crack snack mix (recipe) , strawberries, veggies and a froggy sandwich
I know she'll want some ranch dip and I'll put it in the veggie cup when she asks.


Rose & Amy had very similar lunch items - neither one wanted the snack mix so just fruit and veggies for them
For Rose: Bear sandwich, hummus dip for her celery, tomatoes, cucumbers and carrot coins, strawberries

The carrots and tomatoes are from our garden. Hopefully, we'll have some strawberries soon. They are coming a few at a time right now and the little garden harvesting girls seem to keep eating them before any make it inside! Same for the green beans and snap peas.  Ah well - least they are eating their veggies.

For Amy: cucumbers, carrots, celery, strawberries and a froggy sandwich


Recently I received my order from All Things For Sale with lots of fun goodies inside. Hopefully it will give me a little inspiration as I feel that the creative juices have not really been flowing lately. Do you ever get in those kinds of ruts? Probably I need to go through and tidy up my bento accessories storage area. That usually helps me get back in the swing of things. You know, kind of like how little children clean their rooms - 10% cleaning and 90% playing with stuff they just found! haha.


These are some items that I used in these lunches today.

CuteZcute Bento Sandwich Cutter and Pastry Stamp Kit Japanese Bento Food Pick Cute Rabbit Frog Monkey Bear Pig Easylunchboxes bento lunch box pack of 4
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  Bento Lunch

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Pumpkin Shaped Sugar Cookies

Rose had her Me Museum last week at school. It's kind of a fun thing. Every week it's a different person's turn and they bring in some items and photos to share all about themselves. We decided to make some cookies to share with the class as it represents one of her favourite things -- cooking!

Here she is cutting out the pumpkin shapes

Putting on some sprinkles

Rose decided to take her spider craft that she made last week, some turkey cut and paste and colouring pages, some information about her name and a list of some favourites, her favourite book Bugs A-Z, her favourite stuffed animal, lots of photos of her doing various activities - gardening, swimming, dancing, gymnastics etc, a CD of her favourite songs, some family photos including our pets and lots of pictures of her cooking in the kitchen. She's really the go to kitchen helper in the family.  Collecting the photos is the part where I did the most work to help. We talked about what she wants to bring photos of and then I just used the computer to arrange them on the pages and type a description where it's needed. We don't have to arrange these like a project. The teachers have a special board and they put them up each week :) 

So how did Rose make these fabulous sugar cookies? Easy peasy. We made our favourite sugar cookie recipe -- Wilton Roll Out Cookies -- and added some neon pink and regular yellow food colouring to make the dough bright orange. Then I helped roll out the dough as this recipe is a no chill dough and is very soft and a bit tricky for a four year old to handle. Rose cut out the pumpkin shapes, added the sprinkles and I did the oven work.

This is the pumpkin cookie cutter that we used:

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

British Bread Pudding

You might be wondering what happens with all of the bread scraps I must have from making a different sandwich shape every day. I surely don't throw them all away! I put them in a ziploc bag and freeze them until I have a decent quantity, then I defrost the bag and make either croutons, overnight french toast casserole or this Bread Pudding. This is a local favourite British Bread Pudding recipe --it's a pudding in the British sense of the word meaning dessert -- not meaning that this is a custard  or creamy pudding. It's also not the same as Bread and Butter Pudding. It is however, one of my hubby's favourites :)


Bread Pudding
about 6 cups of cubed bread -- any leftover bread will do, even cake (what's leftover cake? haha)
1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup softened butter  -- I cut it into cubes
1 egg, beaten
1 cup raisins - you can sub in any dried, diced fruit here really
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon nutmeg

Most recently, I have used Nature's Own Honey Wheat bread scraps that were defrosted from the freezer and added in some leftover Masa which is a Portuguese Sweet Egg Bread. If you don't quite have 6 cups of  leftover bread scraps you can add in a slice or two of fresh bread (any kind) or slightly decrease the milk.

Dice or tear the bread into cubes/pieces and put in a medium bowl. Pour the milk over the top and leave it to soak in, about 5 minutes.

Add in 1 beaten egg,  the softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and raisins. Stir really well until it is well combined.

Press with a wooden spoon into a 9x9 ungreased pan.

Bake at 350F for 1 hour. The time depends on your bread (how stale it was) and your oven. I think it is best to check it after 35-40 minutes. If you are worried about it burning the outsides without cooking the middle through at that point, turn down your oven to 325F for the rest of the time. To tell if it's cooked through, the top should crust and when you touch the middle it should be firm and not "bouncy". Leave to cool and then cut into squares. It's delicious served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (or chocolate ice cream if that's your fancy) and of course a cup of tea!



PIN MEme

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Cute cupcakes for a pool party

Last Sunday, the girls and I made these adorable cupcakes for Rose's end of year class party. We went to a classmate's house to swim in their pool, play on their play equipment and feed some fish off of their dock. It was a marvelous day!

These  little fish were seen on pinterest  many times over :) They are mini cupcakes and mini m & m's

These cute little swimming bears were also on pinterest many times over!
They are mini cupcakes, icing, peach or watermelon gummy rings and a teddy graham.

We made the the swimming bears assembly line style. I frosted the icing, Rose put on the gummy rings and Amy stuck in the teddy graham and lined them up. It was fast work and fun for the girls. Heidi was not interested in helping but quite happy to taste test.


The kids at the party really liked them - but come on, what's not to like!?!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Mini Pizza Bites Recipe

Pizza bites


I found this recipe on pinterest.  It's from a blog called lick the bowl good. It seemed super easy and sounded like a good lunch choice for when Rose is in a no sandwich mood. I made these on a Sunday and had to quickly save 4 to put aside for lunch as we all gobbled them up! I must make another batch with just cheese and no pepperoni for Amy. She doesn't like the pepperoni because it's too spicy! It made exactly 24 mini pizza bites for me.


3/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
pinch of salt
3/4 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup Kraft Shredded Four Cheese Pizza blend (mozzarella, provolone, Romano, Parmesan)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
13 slices pepperoni, diced
1/2 cup marinara sauce or pizza sauce

Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, Italian seasoning and salt.  Whisk in the egg and milk. Add the cheeses and pepperoni. Let stand 10 minutes. Stir the batter.
Spray a 24 count mini muffin tin with non stick spray. Using a mini ice cream scoop (or tablespoons) fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full with the batter. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes until they have puffed up.

Heat the marinara sauce and serve warm or serve cold in a lunch like this one. These won't last long as they are simply delicious!


Mini pizza bites lunch

Mini Pizza bites lunch for Rose. I'll post the recipe and a quick review later today. Click here to view the recipe.

peach slices, red grapes, watermelon
homemade blueberry muffin, ranch rice cakes
mini pizza bites with marinara dipping sauce

She ate everything!

Friday, June 22, 2012

Tomatoes, Tomatoes everywhere!

Our garden is full of tomatoes: Cherry, Heirloom, Plum, Beefsteak. What to do with all of these tomatoes, basically all ripe around the same time?
As my husband planted several cherry-100 plants we certainly have an abundance of cherry tomatoes and really there are only so many that you can eat as a snack or in a salad. I cruised the net looking for some new recipes and ways to use them up. I came across this one and knew I would make it!

Cherry Tomato Puff Pastry Tart

It was simply delicious! It could be an appetizer or part of a brunch or lunch with a side salad. I ate it for dinner :) I basically followed the recipe only varying with items I had on hand so won't re-post the whole thing here. It's very simple though. Spread puff pastry with your favourite mustard (I used Grey Poupon Country Dijon), sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, cherry tomatoes tossed with herbs ( our garden is plentiful with fresh herbs too!) and olive oil and bake. Couldn't be easier. After stumbling upon this blog, The Italian Dish,  I looked around a bit and found many other great recipes so it's definitely worth a visit. 

Next I searched for an easy homemade Marinara recipe to make with our crop of plum tomatoes. I found this one  on Former Chef. This was scrumptious too! It was great on pasta and as a pizza sauce base. The instructions were easy to follow and it didn't actually take as much prep work as I thought. I had never peeled and seeded tomatoes before and I was worried that it would be a pain. It really was as easy as the recipe said! 

I will definitely make these every time our garden is full with tomatoes! I highly recommend that you check out these recipes if you have an abundance of tomatoes in your garden too :)

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Rainbow Sugar Cookies -- Whey free


I first saw the idea of rainbow cookies on pinterest but they were rainbow striped, rectangle cookies. I expanded on that idea -- I used a different cookie dough base, tinted it and then made curved rainbow shapes instead. These were for Amy's classroom cookie swap - it turned out that she was feeling sick again that day, so Rosie took them in for her. A classmate has an allergy to whey, so these are whey free cookies so that everyone can participate in the cookie swap :) 

Rainbow Sugar Cookies  -- Whey free
1 cup  unsalted real butter, softened
1 ¾ c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 ¼ c all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder
liquid food colouring: red, blue, yellow, green

In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar, add in eggs & vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients one cup at a time. Do not over mix, the dough will be very soft.  Divide the dough into 6 equal portions and tint with food colouring accordingly so that you have the following colours : red, orange , yellow, green, blue and purple. Roll each colour into a ball, wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate for about 15-20 minutes until it’s slightly firmer.

Lightly dust a large piece of parchment paper with flour and roll out the red into a medium rectangle – about 6x10. The dough should be very thin. Then going in the order of the rainbow, roll out each subsequent colour to a similar sized rectangle and stack it on top of the red. This is the trickiest part. Use the parchment paper to flip the next colour onto the stack and then gently peel the paper away. When all of the colours have been stacked, cover with parchment paper and press together firmly, then put in the fridge for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F. When the dough is chilled, trim the edges to make a neat rectangle and cut in half into two long rectangles of 3x10. Slice 1/4inch slices, curve into a rainbow shape and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes. Leave to cool one minute on the pan and then move to cooling racks to cool completely.

Tip: it is best to leave dough in the fridge until you are ready to use it, so if you are baking 2 cookie sheets at a time and are waiting to cut and arrange the next batch -- leave the dough in the fridge until you are ready to  put the cookies on the sheet.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sunday Morning Breakfast: Shirred Eggs

Sunday morning breakfast for two! The girls ate breakfast earlier ( they woke up at 6 am today!) and then the hubby and I had a later breakfast, just the two of us. This is a very easy method that I learned from the Barefoot Contessa many years ago. Thanks Ina! You can adjust it to use your favourite herbs or what you have on hand. This is the way that we LOVE it.

Shirred Eggs for two

1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp heavy cream
4 eggs, cracked into 2 prep bowls -- 2 eggs into each bowl and ready to go
a few snips of chives
2 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp fresh thyme

Turn on the broiler. Put two small gratin dishes on a baking sheet and place 1/2 a tbsp butter and 1 tbsp heavy cream into each. Put them under the broiler for about 3 minutes until they are bubbly and hot. Remove the gratin dishes from the oven and pour in the eggs, 2 into each gratin dish. Don't break the yolks! Share the parsley, thyme and chives between both dishes. Season with salt & freshly ground pepper. Return to the broiler for about 7 more minutes until the egg whites are mostly cooked. We like our whites cooked through and the yolks a bit runny. Adjust the cooking time to your tastes, upon standing they will continue to cook slightly. Keep an eye on them to make sure that they are cooking evenly, rotate as necessary. Remove from the oven and let stand for about 1 more minute. Serve with buttered toast. Be careful as the dishes are hot!

It is extremely easy to increase this recipe to accommodate more servings as you are making individual serving dishes anyway. This is also a good recipe to create for a few extra guests as it has a bit of a wow factor yet is so easy to make. 

If you don't have these cute little gratin dishes you can also use ramekins. I bought my gratin dishes at International Imports ages ago but I imagine they still keep them in stock.



Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Blueberry Kuchen Bars



I saw this recipe on 4Kowboys blog for cherry kuchen bars and wanted to try it right away! I opted to switch to my husband's favourite -- blueberry. Yum! I did not have a 15x10x1 baking sheet so I used a 9x13. The only problem was possibly making the bottom crust slightly too thick and not saving enough dough for the top. They still tasted yummy! Next time I will save at least 2 cups of dough for the top. I'm not quite sure how this works out in the larger pan, the bottom crust must be really thin and I can't quite figure out how 1 1/2 cups of dough will cover the larger top enough. Anyhow -- I recommend the 13x9 pan instead but you can certainly go with the original recipe plan and used the 15x10

Blueberry Kuchen Bars

makes - 32 bars in a 15x10 pan, I made 24 bars in a 13x9 pan
Prep: 10 minutes, Cool 10-15 minutes, bake 42 minutes
Temp: 350F

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 21oz can of blueberry pie filling -- or any other pie filling you choose

Icing to drizzle over the top:

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla or almond extract
3-4 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350F. In a mixing bowl combine butter and shortening. Add in sugar, baking powder and salt and cream together. Add in eggs, vanilla and then the flour one cup at a time. Mix until combined. In an ungreased pan spread all but 1 1/2 (or 2 cups) of the dough on the bottom. Bake at 350F for 12 minutes - it will not be golden brown. Remove from oven and spread the pie filling over the top. Drop the remaining dough by teaspoonfuls over the top. Return to oven and bake for 30 minutes more until the top is lightly golden. Cool on a rack for AT LEAST 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla and milk to make a thin icing. Drizzle over the top of the bars and then cool just a little bit more and cut into squares. The original recipe said to cool completely and then cut into bars. However, you can cut and serve this slightly warm  -- it tastes great both ways and cuts fine slightly warm :)

One other little booboo I made was putting my icing on the top before they had cooled enough. It looked less drizzled and kind of melted/spread all over. Still tasted great but not quite as pretty as the original photo! 




Monday, May 14, 2012

Rainbow cupcakes


Easy peasy lemon squeezy! As Amy would say :) I used one box of Duncan Hines Coconut Supreme cake mix and some food colouring. I separated out the cake mix into 6 bowls and coloured them- red, orange, yellow, green, blue and a violet-y-purple. Then I layered in one small spoon of each colour into each cupcake well.

Baked as usual and frosted with Betty Crocker cherry frosting and covered in rainbow sprinkles. The coconut cake and cherry frosting is really a good combination. I was not in the mood to make icing and all I had in the house was one can of ready made cherry frosting. I'm glad it worked out that way -- Delicious! These do not hang around too long -- I had to hide two that I wanted to take to my grandparents. they almost missed out!