National Chocolate Cake Day?? Who Knew?

So on Friday a mutual facebook friend posted that it was National Chocolate Cake Day!  Whaaaat?  Why have I never heard of such a patriotic day?  So like any other good American would do, I baked a chocolate cake.  I used a fairly new recipe that I have come do adore!  I've been around and around with boxed mixes... tried Duncan Hines with a diet coke--works pretty well.  I've tried Cherry Brook Kitchen--and I like how the cake is, but it's a bit expensive.  Last May, when I was super preggo and super tired, I did a little research for my son's 1st Communion Cake (and future bday cakes if we found one).  I of course went back to the POFAK website because everyone there is super supportive and they did NOT disappoint.  There is a Wacky Cake recipe floating around on their website that actually originated in the 20's and 30's during the Depression when milk and eggs were hard to come by.  Score for us, because this recipe is now my go-to cake recipe.  I've made cupcakes (45 of them for my son's communion) and cake, and you really canNOT mess this recipe up!!  Here it is :-)

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
3 tblsp cocoa powder (or more if you like)
1 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients
1 cup water
5 tblsp oil (this is equal to about 1/4 cup)
1 tblsp white vingar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven 350
Grease baking pan or line muffin tin
Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Mix wet ingredients in a bowl (or in a large measuring cup)
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well
Pour into pan or muffin tins.

Bake cupcakes about 20 minutes --or use your nose; cake pan about 30 minutes--but they really will let you know when they are done.

Here's my tutorial pictures;-)

mixing bowl and measuring cup ready to go

Pouring all the wet ingredients into the dry...

baked, cooled and out of the pan-- it DIDN'T stick!!  :-)

A little frosting and...

2 Happy kids celebrating National Chocolate Cake Day :-)

~ Pam

Meatballs & Spaghetti (I know I wrote it backwards)

Okay, so this may not be the most helpful post-- mostly because I don't measure often when I cook so for those of you who need to measure everything exactly, I apologize up front.  BUT...here's what I hope you can take away from this post-- you CAN use applesauce to replace an egg in meatballs (and meatloaf for that matter).  Before cooking for FA, I used to boil my meatballs and then bake for a bit in sauce.  I'm preetttty sure if I boiled meatballs that didn't have the egg to bind, they would fall apart.  Here's what I have done with meatballs so far:

• I bake them in marinara sauce --lately I like Prego Smart Health Veggie (because it's the only way to get my kids to eat veggies)
• I use a little bbq sauce for some spice :-)
• Quite often I THINK I have breadcrumbs and I when I go for them, they aren't there. Does anyone else have this problem?  For some odd reason I do usually have stuffing mix (Stove Top & Pepperage Farm) and use this instead--another reason to love stuffing!! 

Sometimes when I have time, I like to grate onion and mince fresh garlic, but lately that isn't happening--on Sunday I didn't have time, and made them with out fresh onion and garlic and you know what?  They tasted just fine! :-)   I will "guess-ta-mate" my measurements here:

1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoons of ketchup
1-2 tablespoons of mustard
1-2 tablespoons of (your favorite bbq sauce)

2 teaspoon onion powder (or 2 tablespoons of grated onion)
1 teaspoon of garlic powder (1 minced garlic clove )

about 1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup applesauce (to replace 1 egg)

about 1 lb of ground meat of your choice (this time I used 1/2 ground turkey 1/2 beef)

Directions:
Heat oven 350
In a large bowl mix all ingredients except meat & breadcrumbs until well combined
Mix in the meat and breadcrumbs but
 don't over-mix (because Rachel Ray told me not to)
Roll your meatballs and place in a baking dish
Pour your favorite marinara sauce over the meatballs.  Cover with foil and bake for about 45 minutes.  Uncover to bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly and serve with spaghetti or your favorite pasta of choice.

~ Pam

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (dairy, egg free yumminess)

This is a tried and true recipe I've been using for a few years.  I will not brag that I thought it completely on my own... I took the oatmeal cookie recipe on the back of the Quaker Oats canister and modified it to suite our needs.  I made some yesterday for an afternoon snack for the kids.  I always feel that I too can eat a mountain of these because they have oatmeal, and therefore are "healthy" cookies.  Yeah, I know, I know...I'm ignoring the margarine and sugar content.  :-)

Ingredients:
2 sticks of softened Fleischman's unsalted margarine (it's dairy free)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (I've used both dark and light)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce (replaces 2 eggs)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups Quaker Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup (or as many as you like and if you are like me--a whole bag) dairy free choc chips

Here are the choc. chips I use.  I get them at our whole foods.  I usually go into wholefoods about once a month and I always buy at least 2 bags to keep on hand in my freezer.

Directions for cookies:
preheat oven 350
beat together margarine & sugars until creamy
add applesauce & vanilla; beat well-- it looks kinda yucky at this point, but keep going--they will be delish!
add combined flour; baking soda & powder, cinnamon; mix well
stir in oats and chips; mix well-- dough will be fairly wet
drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper
bake 10-12 minutes or until they smell/look done-- golden around the edges and just on top
cool 1 minute on baking sheet and then remove to wire rack

yields about 4 dozen cookies or you can do what I did yesterday and make one baking sheet full and put the rest on plastic wrap in the fridge for another time.

I don't have any pictures of the finished products because I forgot to take a picture before I left for work and they were all gone when I got home.  :-)

BLT's? YES Please!

We actually had these on Sunday and I didn't take a picture, but I thought it would be a good post anyway.  With any processed foods/meats, you need to be diligent about reading labels.  I have found Oscar Myer Low Sodium Bacon to work for us (sodium and I are not friends).  I try to keep bacon in the freezer at all times.  Who doesn't love bacon?

I always bake my bacon in the oven for a couple of reasons. To me, it's easier than on the stove because I can cook the whole package at once and it doesn't spatter all over the place.  This is what I do:

Preheat oven to 375
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or aluminum foil if I'm out of parchment)
Place uncooked bacon in single strips on the sheet (I usually need 2 sheets for one package of bacon)
Cook bacon for between 15-20 minutes or until is smells/looks done ( I use my nose more than a timer when baking)
Let the bacon cool for a few minutes.
Toast bread, rinse lettuce of your choice and slice tomatoes (if your kids will eat tomatoes, mine won't so our BLT's become BL's)
For my son, I butter the toast with a non-dairy butter.  For my daughter, hubby and I, I spread mayo on the toast.
Arrange the bacon, lettuce & tomato on your bread as you like and dinner is served.

~ Pam

Frozen Foods for Busy Households...

I don't think that I mentioned that I am not a stay at home mom.  I have always worked at least part-time and more recently I picked up significant hours.  I'm in education and work about 32 hours at a local community college.  My job is 2nd shift.  Hubby works 1st shift.  I do school drop off, he does pick up.  We don't see much of each other M-Th, but we have avoided daycare this way.  On Tuesdays & Thursdays I head into work earlier in the afternoon and my mom (thank goodness for her) comes to watch the baby until Hubby gets home.  It really does take a village to raise a family.  :-)  Anywho...today is Tuesday and I have to leave early and didn't have much time in the morning to prep something fresh.  So... frozen it is for this busy house... there are a LOT of frozen food items out there that aren't too bad for you.  There are also a LOT that have many allergens, but we have found a handful we like.  Here's a standard in our house:

These are not the most nutritious things, but the 2 older kids will eat them and the are fast! :-)  For our fries, we will have these:

YUM!

Nothing wrong with Frozen foods once in a while! :-)

** A quick report on the pull apart cinnamon bread-- the kids LOVED it (hubby and I are avoiding carbs to shed some holiday lbs or we would have enjoyed some too)!!  It is just about all gone, so I'd say it's a success and I'm sure will be come a regular treat for us!

~ Pam

What's for dinner tonight? Monday Jan. 9th

A quick and easy dairy free meal that everyone will enjoy...

I threw (almost literally) a package of chicken thighs in the crockpot with about 1/4 cup of Lawry's balsamic herb marinade (I didn't marinade first at all).

That will cook for about 5 hours and then will make some Uncle Ben's microwave brown rice and a quick veggie for the sides.

Voila --quick, dairy free dinner is d.o.n.e.

:-)

~ Pam

Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread

Okay, so Pillsbury has become one of our favorite products.  There are so many options and variations you can make with their doughs (and no I don't receive a paycheck from Pillsbury).  There are quite a few of their products that do not list dairy, egg or nut in them.  SOME of the them DO list the ole, "manufactured on..." or "may contain."  Husband and I made the decision a long time ago to try certain products with these disclaimers in efforts to try to expand our son's variety of foods.  Pillsbury has been okay for us, but of course, that doesn't mean it will be for everyone.  With that in mind, here's a new recipe that SMELLS delish when in the oven!  Perfect for winter!  I JUST made this for my kids for an after school treat.

I lifted this recipe from the Pillsbury website and modified slightly to suite our needs.

I took their Grands dinner rolls but we MUST use the "Golden Layers" one.  The regular one has whey.  The package looks like this.

And here is a shot of the ingredients.  We have NOT had a problem with milk.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup regular sugar
3.5 teas cinnamon
1/3 cup non-dairy butter (I used flieshmans unsalted margarine)
1 can of the rolls

Directions:
Pre-heat oven at 375

It calls for a non-dark loaf pan, but I used a dark because that's all I had, grease it.  (I used baking Pam spray)

Melt the butter in a shallow bowl in the microwave
Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in another shallow bowl
Cut the rolls into quarters

Dip the quartered rolls in the butter and then into the sugar/cinnamon mixture to coat
Place each piece in the pan after you have coated in the cinnamon/sugar.

Here is what it will look like just before it goes in the oven

Bake for about 25 minutes and it comes out like this...

I can't wait for the kids to get home to try it out!  I will report on their responses!  :-)


~ Pam

Chocolate Pretzel Rods

Super simple.  Honestly, a lil time consuming, but really easy.  Here is what I did...

Using a double boiler, I took a bag of Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (minis) and melted them until smooth.  Then I dipped a spatula in the chocolate and rolled the the pretzel rods on the spatula with chocolate.  While they were still hot I sprinkled some with colored sprinkles (allergen free of course).  I put them in up in a cup and set them to dry and harden for a couple of hours.  Voila!  Ready to eat and store for a couple of days.

I did the same thing for marshmallows and stuck them on bamboo skewers.  I coated some of them in coconut, sprinkles, and sometimes I used crushed oreos.

                                                This is NOT a great picture of them.

They were all a hit!  Hubby, kids, my sister-in-law and niece all enjoyed them :-)

~ Pam