Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Farmer's Cake

I made the easiest, most delicious cake the other night.  The recipe came from my great aunt, and man, it was good!  As some of you know, in the last few months we have moved and I killed my laptop by banging it against a wall.  Why am I telling you this, you ask?  Well, I don't have any pictures because I have to find the disk to download my camera software,due to the new laptop, but haven't found the box.  So you're just going to have to take my word for it.  This stuff is good (did I already say that) and it's super easy, so you won't be out anything for trying it.

 Farmer's Cake 

2 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sugar
2 eggs replaced ( I did 2 Tbsp. flax + 6 Tbsp. water)
1 stick margarine (blue bonnet light)
1 Lg. can of pie filling
  Cherry, blueberry, whatever you like.  I did peach. YUM!

First, preheat your oven to 350*F. Mix your dry ingredients and then stir in the replaced eggs and sick of melted margarine.  Once combined, add in the pie filling.  Bake in an 8x11 pan for 35-40 minutes.


* I thought for sure I was screwing this recipe up, because when I added the egg replacer and margarine, the dough was still so dry and crumbly.  Once the pie filling gets added to the mixture it will look much better.

Hope you all will give it a try.  We all fought over this one and it disappeared in just a couple days.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Pumpkin Crazy!

So I was on pinterest the other night looking at pumpkin bread recipes and every single one called for massive quantities of eggs.  Now I can replace an egg or two, but I'm not big on changing up a recipe that calls for 5 eggs.  Yes, that's right, I said 5!  It made me wonder, if we can use pumpkin as an egg replacer then why in the world would pumpkin bread need so many eggs? IDK.  Well that sent me off on a mission to find some "safe" pumpkin treats for our house, and I found a lot.


Here is a pumpkin french toast recipe that is almost perfect.  I only need to switch the almond milk for rice or soy. Nuts are optional (as seen in the pic.) but I'm obviously skipping those.  I found it at piarecipes.



From ohsheglows is some pumpkin butter.  I've been slathering it all over my toast every morning for breakfast.
20101005IMG 8998 thumb   Happy Thanksgiving Homemade Pumpkin Butter


Bread pudding is for breakfast, right?  Even if it has chocolate? Well, it is in our house.  Chef Chloe has given us another great recipe.  I love this sight so much, it is bookmarked.  If you haven't been there before, check it out, do a little browsing, and I bet you'll find something else you like.

Chocolate Pumpkin Bread Pudding


OK on to the really good stuff (aka dessert)  After finding all the recipe's above, I finally stumbled upon a cake recipe that doesn't call for tons of eggs.  Actually, it calls for ener-G egg replacer.  I will have to make a couple changes though. The recipe calls for walnuts and cayenne, which I will be omitting.  It even includes a butter cream frosting, but by now you all probably know that I'm frosting lazy and just buy the pillsbury cream cheese frosting.  Oh yeah, I found this at healthy happy life




Even though I found my cake recipe, I couldn't stop myself, I just kept finding more and more "safe" pumpkin options.  Here are some pumpkin oatmeal cookies from family fresh meals.  This recipe does need adapted.  Here is what I will do to change it.  I will use enjoy life chocolate chips, blue bonnet light for the butter, and 1Tbsp. flax + 3Tbsp water to replace the egg.  Now, for the pumpkin pie spice I just added some nutmeg, cloves, and ginger, because I don't really know what's in it.  Oh, and you'll notice this recipe also calls for white chocolate, which up until now, I have been unable to find.  I was introduced to premium chocolatiers this week and noticed immediately that they have white chocolate.  I sent them an email asking if they would consider selling white chips since there are none on the market.  I got my response this morning saying they will be introducing a white chocolate bar next  week called polar dream and hope to release chips some time in the future.  I'm going to be first in line to buy those baby's up!

It's impossible to eat just one!

the baker chick has these amazing looking frosted pumpkin spice cookies.  They also need adapting.  I'm using earth balance for the butter and egg replacer for the egg.  I think a flax egg would put chunks in this smooth batter and of course I'm using bottled frosting.



I even found pumpkin custard.  The recipe is already safe, but I'm going to try subbing arrowroot for the agar, since it's already in the house.  I figure worst case scenario we'll be enjoying pudding instead.
I found this at food fitness fresh air




I was the most excited about finding this one! It's a pumpkin spice latte, also from healthy happy life.  Really, you can find so much there.  Now I don't have a foaming tool so I'm topping it with a vegan pumpkin whipped cream I found at family fresh cooking.  Once again, I'll just use cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves for the pie spice.




Pumpkin-Whipped-Cream-Marla-Meridith-IMG_2338





Monday, October 22, 2012

Halloween Party

Hi all, I survived surgery, recovered, and have made my way across three states since the last time we talked.  With Halloween just a few days away I'm figuring out what we are going to do.  Last year we knew all our neighbors, so I packaged "safe" treats and delivered them to our friends and then I went home, picked up my daughter, and we went trick or treating.  She had a blast and was super excited that she got to actually keep everything she received.

This year, we don't know anyone so I've decided that we are going to have our own party at home this year, treats included.  My hope is that this will turn into a tradition for us.  Here are my plans.

Games

First up from no time for flash cards  is a spider web walking game.  I like this one because it can be adjusted based on your child's development and it is a way to earn treats. 




It's written on the walls has a TON of games to look through.  We are doing the witch hat ring toss


and the pumpkin bean bag toss.  We are going to use our leftover moving boxes to make this as a craft project this week.

Techy Teacher made a punch a bunch board.  What I like about this is that it's educational, fun, and the kiddos get a prize.  I'm stuffing our bowls with little glow sticks, plastic bugs, and cheap toys.


If you haven't seen anything you like yet, check out kimboscrafts.  She also had a bunch of party games. 
We're doing the spiderweb obstacle course

and a mummy race

I've actually done the mummy race before with a bunch of adults and it's a blast.


Crafts

We're definitely painting our fingernails

 and making Bat o lanterns
Bat-o'-Lanterns

and there is no way I could miss out on glitter bombing a pumpkin.
glitter pumpkins

Food

sprinkled with flour made these ritz pb spiders.  I'm using ritz crackers, sunbutter, enjoy life chocolates, and idk maybe smarties for the eyes.


I saw these kabobs at where the cookies are and figured I would make them with with surf sweets gummy swirls and spooky spiders along with the ghost peeps.



Lastly, we are going to make a cake.  I'm going to use my hummingbird cake and pillsbury cream cheese frosting.  Here are a couple of the decorating ideas I'm thinking about. Which one should it be?


or

or this one is really cool, but I'm not sure if I'm that talented.  We'll see...


I hope that no matter what you all choose to do this year, you have a fun, safe holiday.