Apple Bread

I needed to use up the remaining of my apples. A friend of mine, Cheryl Honeycutt, gave me this recipe for apple bread. It is super yummy and and adds a great new taste to fall. The hardest part was stirring in the apple as the mixture gets really thick, but is made the house smell so divine. Hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients:

1 c. Oil

3 Eggs

2 c. Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Cinnamon

1) Grease 2 loaf pans with Crisco. 

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking soda

3 1/2 c. Flour

3 c. evenly sliced and peeled apples (4-5)

1 c. Walnuts (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

1) Grease 2 loaf pans with Crisco.

2) Combine above ingredients. (Dry ingredients first)

3) Spoon batter into pans (it will be very thick). 

4) Sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and sugar over the top. 


5) Bake 1 hour 

Enjoy!

Fun in the kitchen with Mama. 

 

Pumpkin Casserole

Today has been so eventful. I took my girls to a friend's classroom for the afternoon and they had a chance to play in a real classroom. They even got to eat lunch with a bunch of Kindergartners. They sat at a big kid table and in big kid chairs and had their sandwich, yogurt and fruit. After lunch they had a chance to enjoy the playground as well.

After our little field trip, I was not feeling like I wanted to cook very much. So I Googled, vegetarian casseroles, and allrecipies.com displayed some options. One option was Pumpkin casserole. Since Thanksgiving is coming up, I thought this would be a great time to try out a dish. So that is what I did.

Ingredients:

2 c. Pumpkin puree
1 c. Original soy milk (or 1c. of evaporated milk)
1 c. White sugar
1/2 c. self-rising flour
2 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
1/2 c. Lactose free butter (or unsalted butter)
Dash of Cinnamon

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Mix pumpkin, milk, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, melted  butter, and cinnamon.

3) Pour into a casserole dish (I used a glass pie pan.)

4) Bake for 1 hour.

NOTES:
This recipe can be adjusted to fit a gluten free diet. Use 1/2c. rice flour with 3/4 tsp. baking powder and 1/4 tsp. salt. I have yet to try this, but I will to see how it turns out.

This turned out awesome! It tasted great and will be a recipe for Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Here is a shout out to my friends and family who eat gluten free food! I was watching the food network one afternoon and happened to see this recipe made. I am always looking for new and easy gluten free recipes that taste yummy. Here is the recipe and I am not sure who created it, but it is found on the foodnetwork.com.

Ingredients:

1 c. Peanut Butter
3/4 c. Sugar
1 large Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 c. Chocolate chips

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Mix all ingredients until they are combined really well. I stirred in the chocolate chips.

 3) Spoon 1 TBS. of batter about 1 inch apart onto an ungreased baking sheet.

4) Flatten the top of each cookie with a fork. If the fork sticks, then dip in water and continue to crosshatch.

5) Bake about 10 minutes. SWITCH PANS FROM BOTTOM TO TOP 1/2 WAY THROUGH.


6) Transfer to cooling rack.


NOTE: If you do not switch the pans they WILL burn. Lesson learned. The very first picture is what they should look like. :)

Oompa Loompas

Alright, I need to share this for those that are not on my Facebook. I was trying to figure out what to serve my girls for supper, so in my searches I found leftover chili beans. I warmed them up and gave them to the girls while I fixed them a nice plate of pasta for supper. When I heard Olivia say "all duh" I looked up to find both of the girls' faces covered in bean juice! Since they were chili beans, their faces were bright orange! The way that I did their hair immediately brought my childhood movie back of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" where the oompa loompas were short and bright orange. Oh, I love my girls. 

My Oompa Loompas

Tex-Mex Potato Skins

So I decided that I wanted something completely different for supper tonight. So I saw on foodnetwork.com some ideas for potato skins. Out of all the options, I found the Tex-Mex ones. However, I was not thrilled with the recipe that was given, so I decided to make my own and found that it was really good. It passed the "Mike test", which is where my husband thinks it is good and would have it again. So, it is now an added recipe to my book.

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients:


3 Medium sized potatoes
1 c. Re-fried Beans
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Garlic powder
1/4 tsp. Mrs. Dash Salt-free Extra Spicy Seasoning Blend
 Sour cream or Tofutti sour cream (which is vegan)
Salsa
Shredded Cheese or Shredded Veggie cheese (which is vegan)
5-6 Pickled jalapeno pieces (for decoration)
Olive Oil


Method:

1) For a quick baked potatoes, poke 3 medium sized potatoes and put in microwave for about 7 minutes. If you prefer to cook them in the oven it usually cooks for 1 hour.

2) After potatoes come out of the microwave carefully scoop out potato centers into a glass dish. Mash the potatoes and add re-fried beans.

3) Add spices and mix the ingredients well. Put in microwave for an additional minute.

4) Take potato skins and rub them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place in pan on high heat for 2-3 minutes. Remove from pan and place 3 skins on each plate.

5) Fill each skin with the re-fried bean mix. Be careful not to fill it to much.

6) Top each skin with cheese, sour cream and salsa. Then add a jalapeno piece on top for decoration.

Serve and enjoy.

Crock-pot Granola

This is a recipe that I received from Donna Lawnicki. I believe she found it on the internet, but I have altered it a little to meet my family's taste buds. I was quite surprised how this actually worked and how easy it was. The best part is that when I had to stir the granola, I didn't get it all over the place. When I would make it in a pan, I would have a mess all over the place. I love limiting messes, especially when I have two little ones to pick up after. This recipe is also great for visitors as well.




Ingredients:
1 Crock-pot
2 c. Barley Flakes
3 c. Oats
1/2 c. Sunflower seeds
1/2 c. Apricots- dried
3/4 c. Craisins (I added more craisins than normal, since I like them.)
1/2 c. Walnuts- coarsely chopped
1/2 c. Honey
1/2 c. Unsalted Butter


Method:


1) Put all dried ingredients into crock-pot (including fruit and nuts).

 2) Melt butter in microwave and then add to dry ingredients. Add honey and then stir up all ingredients. 

3) Cover crock-pot, but vent. (I used a flat wooden spoon) 

4) Cook on high for 3 hours. Make sure to watch the granola so it does not burn. I stirred it every 20-30 minutes or if I could smell it. Toward the end of the 3 hours I was stirring every 5-10 minutes. 

Notes: If you want a trail mix type of granola, you need to add more honey and butter so that it will clump. I have not tried it like that so I am not sure how much more honey to add. 

5) Remove granola onto cookie sheet or parchment paper to cool. Once cooled package into ziplock bags and freeze, or you can choose to eat it. 

Serve as a cereal or on top of some yogurt.

Welcome to Cooking with Sugar and Spice

I welcome everyone to my new cooking blog "Cooking with Sugar and Spice." Here is where I will be sharing with you family recipes, recipes that I find out of a cookbook and experiences that I may have with my twin girls and food.

The purpose of this blog is to help me achieve a higher level of cooking for my family and gather ideas, suggestions, and critiquing. Please be kind with your words on this blog as it is a family blog. I don't mind hearing feedback from each of you. That is what will make me a better cook.

A little about me: I am a mother of 18 month old identical twin girls. They keep me very busy, but I have always felt blessed and honored to be the Mama of my girls. I started learning to cook when I was a young teen. I loved being able to follow a recipe and the end result being so tasty and fun. Now, this was not always the case. I have burnt many meals, forgot ingredients, and made terrible things, but I am on the path to learning more about cooking and baking. My goal is to achieve a variety of dinners for my family that are enjoyable and healthy.

All of the recipes I will be sharing will be vegetarian as that is what my family eats. Some will be vegan, some will be gluten free, and some will be lactose free, but none of them will contain meat. If you wish, you may take any of the recipes I make and adapt them to meet your family's needs.

I plan to use different forms of media in my blogging. Some will be pictures, some will be videos, and others will be plain text.

I hope that you will enjoy this blog and I will do my very best to keep you updated on new and old recipes that I make. I look forward to sharing my cooking journey with you.

- Jennifer Colburn