Edible Experiments

Graduation Hat Sugar Cookies

2013-05-29T09:34:00.001-07:00

The big day is drawing near for many students and I thought I would post some cookies I made for my friend Shelly when she graduated from medical assisting school last year. I don’t have anyone in my life graduating from anything right now, but I will say that I am very proud of my husband who is franticly studying for his Step 1 Boards Exam for medical school which he will take next week. You can do it, Benj!

I’m not going to go into much detail about how I made these cookies. If you want to learn more about how to make cookies like these, visit my sugar cookie tutorial. The recipe on the tutorial is a brown sugar spice cookie, but if you would like to make a coconut sugar cookie, click here for the recipe.

I started by outlining and flooding the cookie in black.

Once it was dry, I used black piping icing to separate the bottom and top of the hat. Then I used yellow piping icing to make a tassel. I added some yellow sanding sugar to the tassel to make it pop. Lastly, I added a thick black blob of black icing for the button on top of the hat.

I will say, I did have some problems with the tassels breaking because it is such a thin extension. I know there are other types of graduation hat cookie cutters out there with a more sturdy tassel. So, when choosing your cookie cutter, keep that in mind. If you don’t have to transfer them very far, a skinny tassel is probably fine, but I had to take them to work and from there to a graduation party and there was some breakage along the way.

If you have trouble getting your black icing black enough, add a little cocoa powder to darken it up.

Congrats Graduates!

By Edible Experiments

Coconut Cauliflower Red Lentil Soup

2013-05-25T10:14:00.001-07:00

After a quick burst of recipes to make in the heat of summer (Portobello Pineapple Burgers and Fresh Veggie Spring Rolls), we had a few days of cold, rainy, blustery weather. When it first started to rain, I opened all the windows to cool down the house and it never really warmed back up. I’m shivering as I am typing this. All I really want to do is curl up with a hot bowl of soup (and some sort of chocolate) and watch the The Voice on Hulu. So for all of you who still have some unpredictable spring weather, I have a delicious, exotic, and super healthy soup.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped fine
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, chopped fine
1 TBSP. fresh ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 TBSP. curry powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. salt
1/3 C. tomato paste
7 C. water
1 can unsweetened light coconut milk
2 C. red split lentils ( the orange split-pea shaped ones)
1 can (15 oz.) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 TBSP. freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 C. roughly shopped cilantro

Directions:
1. Chop up the onion, bell pepper, jalapeno, ginger, and garlic. I just got a food processor and have been using it for everything. It made prep for this soup really easy. I just quickly trimmed them up and threw them straight in the food processor, gave it a few pulses, and everything was chopped fine.
2. Heat a little bit of oil in the bottom of large soup pot. Add the onion, peppers, ginger, and garlic to the oil and heat until onions are tender, stirring to prevent burning.
3. Add the curry powder, cinnamon, salt and tomato paste and stir for a another minute or two.(I always put the unused tomato paste in a baggy and freeze it for next time I need it. I never use a whole can at once.) Add the water, coconut milk, lentils, chickpeas, and cauliflower. Cook until the red lentils are tender, about 20 minutes.
4. Add the lime juice and cilantro right at the end of cooking. Stir and taste then add more lime juice and salt if needed. Serve with lime wedges.

I also served it with some delicious whole grain spelt rolls (which I will post next time).

Recipe from Edible Experiments, adapted from Scaling Back

Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls

2013-05-17T13:01:00.001-07:00

How’s the weather where you live? Its been a little moody here in Ohio. Just this week there was frost warning at night and a day later the high was 92. In this spring weather, some days are perfect for soup and some are perfect for this spring roll recipe. I hate using the oven and stove a lot on those really hot days because it really heats up the house. This recipe is almost raw! Minimal cooking required. All you need to do is cook the rice. For this, I love my rice maker. It just sits on the counter and cooks the rice to the perfect doneness and doesn’t heat up the house. Keep this recipe up your sleeve for those hot summer days. And remember when I made Portobello Pineapple Teriyaki Burgers? The left over sauce from the burgers makes a delicious dipping sauce for these fresh spring rolls. Make both of these recipes in the same week, grill the Portobello's outside, and you will have two delicious meals for hot weather that wont heat up your house.
PRINTABLE RECIPE
Ingredients:

1 C. uncooked rice (you will notice that I used black “Forbidden Rice” from Whole Foods. It is delicious, but you can use any kind of rice. I suggest some sort of short grained rice)
Veggies cut into matchsticks (I used carrots, cucumbers, red bell pepper, snow peas, and mushrooms)
Avocado, sliced
spinach
1 package of rice spring roll wrappers
sweet Thai chili sauce (find this in the Asian section at any grocery store)
Dipping sauce (you can just dip these in the same sweet chili sauce that is inside the wraps or you can use my ginger teriyaki sauce found here)

Ingredients:
1. Cook the rice according to the package directions. Let it cool. Left over rice from the fridge would be great for this recipe, too.
2. Slice up your veggies. You could add what ever veggies you want to your spring rolls, but I recommend at least having carrots and cucumbers.

3. Fill a shallow dish that is big enough to fit a whole spring roll wrapper inside with water. Set up a rolling and filling assembly line. Soak one wrapper in the water for about 30 –60 minutes.

4. Lay the wrapper on a plate. Lay down a layer of rice.

5. Add the veggies. Squirt on a drizzle of sweet Thai chili sauce on top of the veggies.

6. Roll the spring roll like a burrito. Repeat until you have the desired amount of spring rolls. Dip in sauce and eat fresh.

Recipe by Edible Experiments

Portobello Pineapple Teriyaki Burgers

2013-05-12T14:17:00.001-07:00

When ever I get hamburger at a restaurant, I always end up getting some sort of pineapple burger. I always tell myself I am going to try something new, but I always end up falling back to my favorite. My mouth is watering as I write this. While I do like a good hamburger at a restaurant every once in a while, I find myself cooking less and less with meat. I don’t really enjoy eating meat and I really don’t enjoy cooking with it. This burger completely satisfied my craving for a pineapple teriyaki burger, but I didn’t have to wash my hands twenty times before I felt like they were rid of raw meat germs.

I found this recipe at Whole Foods Market. I love Whole Foods. It is such a huge, fancy store and I love it. I always admire their beautiful produce, but it is quite expensive. Maybe someday I could afford to do all my grocery shopping there, but not for a long time. But I do like to go there occasionally and get things like “Forbidden Rice” and “Pink Madagascar Rice”. I found this recipe when I went there the other day to get some bulk chia seeds and this delectable Black current apple cider drink (because I was craving apple cider in the spring):

This recipe is so easy! It’s a breeze to prepare and even meat lovers would enjoy this. The flavor from the sauce is sweet and tangy and I think I could drink it. If you like mushrooms and you just don’t want to deal with touching ground beef, give this recipe a try!

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

4 Portobello mushrooms
1 can pineapple rings in pineapple juice
3 TBSP. soy sauce
2 TBSP. brown sugar
1 TBSP. minced garlic
1 TBSP. grated ginger
1 TBSP. toasted sesame oil
1/4 C. cold water
1 TBSP cornstarch
4 hamburger buns
toppings (cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, mayo, etc.)

Directions:

1. Pop the stem off of the mushrooms and scrape off the brown “gills” with a spoon. Rinse the mushrooms and pat dry. Set the mushrooms in a 9x13 baking dish. Put the pineapples in the dish too, but save the juice for the sauce.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4 C. of the extra pineapple juice, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and sesame oil. Pour sauce over the mushrooms and pineapples. Cover and put in the fridge to marinade for 1 or 2 hours. Turn the mushrooms and pineapple half way through.

3. After the mushrooms are done marinating, whisk together the cold water and cornstarch. Drain the marinade from the mushrooms and add it to the cornstarch mix. Heat to a boil, stirring occasionally. Let it boil for a minute or two more. Remove from heat.

4. Heat a small drizzle of oil in skillet (or use a grill) until sizzling. Cook the mushrooms and pineapple in the hot pan, flipping once. Toast the buns (here is a yummy bun recipe) and stack the mushrooms, pineapple, and what ever other topping you like. Use the thickened sauce as a dipping sauce. Save left over sauce for a spring roll dip (spring roll’s coming to this blog soon!) or as a stir-fry sauce.

Note: If you put the Portobello's stem side up, it makes a nice little bowl for toppings. I topped mine with a very thin spread of mayo, sliced cherry tomatoes (I ran out of big tomatoes), yellow bell pepper, two pineapple rings (I think two is the magic number here), and lettuce fresh from my garden.

Recipe adapted from Whole Foods Market

Stamped Sugar Cookies (Polka Dots and Goodbye’s)

2013-04-30T12:01:00.001-07:00

I am so excited about a little trick I figured out last week! I was looking for an excuse to make some sugar cookies with royal icing. I decided to make some for my neighbors who are moving next week. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what kind of sugar cookie I was going to make. I realized I was out of meringue powder for my royal icing and headed over to Michael’s craft store to buy some more because I had a 40% off coupon. While I was there, I was perusing the $1 rubber stamp bin when I had the idea to use food coloring as ink and stamp the royal icing! I was even more excited to find a couple stamps with “goodbye” phrases on them. I also found an awesome little set of lower case alphabet stamps.

I didn’t really have a clear sense of what I wanted to do with the cookies other than stamp them, so I started by making some basic circles and squares. I experimented with the cookie dough a bit and came up with a yummy coconut sugar cookie dough:

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 C. white sugar
1 egg
3/4 tsp. vanilla (or lime juice)
1/2 tsp. coconut extract
1 TBSP fine lime zest
3 C. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder

Directions:

1. Cream together butter and sugar. Add in the egg, vanilla (or lime juice), coconut extract, and lime zest. Mix until combined.

2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Add slowly to the wet mixture and mix until just combined. The dough will be very crumbly.

3. Turn out the crumby dough onto a large sheet of plastic wrap. Squish the dough together and wrap with the plastic wrap to form a ball. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

4. Roll out dough and use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lay out cookies onto cookie sheets lined with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Freeze the cookies on the pan for 10 minutes. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

To learn more about making a sugar cookie, visit my full tutorial here.

Next, trace the stamps by flipping them upside down and using a clean push pin to scratch a faint outline into baked and cooled cookies. Like this:

Now, if you have never decorated cookies using royal icing, visit my tutorial and learn how to make royal icing and how to use it. I am not going to explain it in detail here. Outline the stamp area with a piping consistency royal icing.

Then flood the stamp area with whatever color you would like. Let it dry 24 hours before attempting to stamp. At this point, you may also, outline and flood the remainder of the cookie. Note: if the rest of the cookie is the same color as the stamp area, you may want to pipe an outline in another color to differentiate between the “text box” and the rest of the cookie. It is easier to add this after you stamp the cookie. Like in these cookies with arrows pointing at them:

Add the polka dots. If you want a smooth polka dot look, drop in flooding icing in the colors of your choice with a squeeze bottle. Drop dots straight into the still wet, newly flooded background color. It should look like this:

If you want raised dots, use royal icing that is somewhere between piping and flooding consistency. I call it 20 second icing. I learned how to make and use this consistency of icing from The Adventures of Sweet Sugar Belle. Click here to learn how to make this 20-second icing. I like it because it makes a more smooth, puffy dot than stiff outlining icing. It looks something like this cookie:

Now for the stamping. I am cheap. I have heard you can buy a foam or felt un-inked stamp pad and dilute gel food coloring with a little bit of alcohol or water (click here to see it done that way in action), but I just didn’t want to spend the money to buy the stamp pad and deal with that mess. I tried saturating a couple folded up paper towels with food coloring diluted with water and it worked ok, but I struggled a little bit to get every part of the design onto the cookie.

I used an edible marker to fill in the spots that didn’t transfer well. I also tried just using the marker to ink the stamp and I found that worked the best. It made for a perfect transfer. So, if you don’t have an edible marker, you can probably make it work with food coloring, but it was much easier and less messy to just use the marker. Click here, here, and here to see some marker options.

To transfer the image, roll the stamp down onto the cookie. Start by pressing one end down and rolling the rest of the stamp down. Make sure it transfers over by holding the stamp in place and pressing hard and rocking back and forth a little to make sure all the corners and sides get a chance to touch the icing. Try it a couple of times on a paper or paper towel to get the hang of it before stamping the cookie.

Just so you know, I use stamps that have only ever had food coloring on them and I wash them thoroughly with hot soap and water before and after I use them.

Go make some cookies, buy some stamps, and create! Oh, and goodbye to the Martindale’s. We will miss you!

By Edible Experiments

Roasted Vegetable Stacked Enchiladas

2013-04-16T11:05:00.001-07:00

My sweet 2 month old daughter loves to “help me cook”. In other words, she is content to sit in her bouncy chair in the kitchen and stare at me while I cook. She has just started making spit bubbles. I love to look over at her while I’m cooking and see her smiling face, spit bubbles and all. Its fun to have a little friend who I can talk to while I cook. However, it’s not always that easy. A lot of the time I am running back and forth between her and the stove. Give her the binky, run back and stir the sauce, run back and hand her the toy she dropped, run back and add the seasonings, etc. And sometimes she just wants more attention than I am giving her so she will start to fuss, so I will go to her and she will immediately stop her crying act and smile. And sometimes I just have to drop everything and feed her. Caring for a sweet little spirit is so rewarding, but I have learned to appreciate recipes that are either fast or that can be divided into stages. I love this recipe for the later reason. You can prepare all the veggies the day before, roast the veggies the next morning and assemble the enchiladas, and bake the whole thing in the evening. I love recipes I can work on for a short amount of time, leave and come back to later. I haven’t tried it yet, but I bet you could easily freeze this meal after assembling it.
Another great thing about this recipe is that it is full of veggies and variety, full of protein, and you don’t miss the meat at all. It is filling and satisfying without loading it full of saturated fat. It does have a couple sprinkles of cheese though. In all my attempts to eat mostly plant based whole foods, I just can’t quite ditch the cheese (or the ice cream). And I don’t think that’s ever going to change. This recipe makes a lot. We have been eating it all week for lunch. You really could customize this recipe how ever you want, throwing in what ever veggies you have on hand. My next goal is to make it with homemade tortillas. Enjoy!
PRINTABLE RECIPE
Directions:

1 poblano chili, cut into inch long strips
1 red bell pepper, cut into inch long strips
1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
1 sweet potato, peeled and diced into dice sized cubes
1/2 of a medium onion, sliced into small strips
1 can (15.25 oz.) of corn (fresh or frozen corn works, too)
1 can (15 oz.) black or red beans, drained and rinsed
3 TBSP. olive oil (or any kind of oil)
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
3-4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
a sprinkle of chipotle seasoning, to taste (optional)
1 TBSP. lime juice
salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
1/2 C. fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
2 C. salsa (any kind, homemade or store bought)
8-10 corn tortillas, ripped in half
1 to 2 cups of shredded cheese (I used a Mexican blend)
sour cream and avocados for garnish

Directions:
1. Chop up all your veggies and put them all together in a big bowl. Using salad tongs or your hands, toss in the olive oil, cumin, garlic, and lime juice. Preheat oven to 450 F.
2. Lay all the veggies out evenly on a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat, parchment paper, or lightly greased tin foil. Spread them out evenly. Sprinkle generously with salt and cracked pepper. Lightly sprinkle on some chipotle seasoning if you choose to use it (it’s a little spicy).
3. Roast the vegetables for 40 minutes, or until they are tender and starting to brown. Use tongs to turn the veggies every 10 minutes. While it is cooking, mix together the cilantro and salsa. Rinse and drain the beans.
4. Reduce heat to 350 F. and assemble the stacked enchiladas. First, lay down a thin layer of salsa in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Tear the tortilla’s in half and place one layer on top of the salsa. Add a layer of vegetables, followed by a layer of beans, another layer of salsa, and a layer of cheese. Repeat until all the veggies are gone. Sprinkle with cheese.
5. Cover with tin foil and bake the stacked enchiladas for 30 minutes. Remove the foil for the last 10 minutes. Let it sit for a couple minutes before cutting. Serve with sour cream and avocados.
Recipe adapted from Perry’s Plate

Brown Rice with Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

2013-04-13T10:30:00.001-07:00

If I had to pick my favorite dinner, it would be something Italian with a super unhealthy creamy white sauce. Alfredo something or other. Something with lots of butter, cream, and cheese. Sadly if I ate that as much as I wanted (every day) I would probably dead in 5 years. Luckily I have found a healthy substitute to satisfy my need for something thick and creamy. This sauce is made almost entirely of cauliflower! It has great flavor, it’s creamy, it’s thick, it’s just what I need in my life.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 C. short grain brown rice
1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1/2 C. –3/4 C. vegetable broth ( you could really use any liquid as long as you adjust the salt level)
salt to taste (probably at least 1 tsp.)
fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 tsp. Italian herb blend (I used an Italian Pasta Sprinkle from Penzy’s Spices)
2 TBSP. olive oil
8 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 zucchini, quartered and sliced
1 tomato, diced
1/2 C. Mozzarella cheese
fresh parsley roughly chopped, for topping.

Directions:

1. Prep the short grain brown rice. I like to soak my brown rice because I feel like it makes it softer. If you want to soak your rice, just follow the instructions on the package, but before you cook it, just leave it to sit in the water while you prep your veggies.

2. Wash and cut your cauliflower in to smaller florets. Try to make them roughly the same size so they cook through at the same rate. While you have the knife out, chop up the zucchini, garlic, and tomato and set aside. Boil the cauliflower in salted water until it is tender. Start cooking the rice according to the package now.

3. After the cauliflower is soft, drain out the water and transfer the cauliflower to a blender, food processor, or use a stick blender. Blend with 1/2 cup of vegetable broth it until it is smooth. If you would like it a little thinner or smoother, add a little more veggie broth. Add the Italian herb blend. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you used used veggie broth, you wont need quite as much salt as you would if you used milk or water ( I have used milk before and it works fine). Set sauce aside.

4. In a large skillet, sauté the garlic in the olive oil on low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and increase the heat to medium. Stir occasionally, cooking until the zucchini is tender, but not mushy. If the garlic is starting to burn or stick, add a little bit of veggie broth or water to deglaze the pan.

5. Add the rice and cauliflower sauce to the skillet and stir until everything is all mixed together. Add the cheese and tomato and stir again until the cheese is melted. Taste one last time and add more salt, pepper, and Italian herbs as needed. Top with parsley.

Recipe by Edible Experiments, idea from Pinch of Yum

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

2013-04-03T17:48:00.001-07:00

I am so excited! I am so excited about lots of things. For starters, life in general and the new life that’s joined my little family. I am excited that I have finally recovered from having a baby. I am excited for summer. I am excited to start going on walks and jogs. I am excited to explore the farmer’s markets and start my own small garden. I am still figuring out how to cook while taking care of a baby at the same time, but I’m starting to get the hang of it. I have lots of ideas up my sleeve and I am exited to be back in the kitchen experimenting again!
As I browsed through some of my past posts, I realized that there are lot of recipes for goodies. I love goodies, but I do eat pretty healthy most of the time. I am going to focus on some main meals and side dishes in the next little bit to give you a taste of how I actually eat. I don’t just eat dessert, you know. This salad is quick, easy, fresh, and reminds me of summer. If you don’t like raw onions, just give them one more chance in this dish. The acidity of the lemon juice and feta cheese really mellows out the onion. Just make sure you don’t put too many in and make sure you chop them very fine.
Ingredients:

1/2 C. uncooked quinoa
1 C. water
2 tomatoes (Roma)
1 C. fresh spinach, shredded
1/4 of a red onion, chopped very finely
1/2 of a medium cucumber
2 TBSP. lemon juice
2 TBSP. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
2 avocados, sliced
1/3 C. crumbled feta cheese

Directions:
1. Cook the quinoa just like you would cook rice. I like to use my rice maker, but you can do it on the stove top by boiling the water and quinoa in a saucepan, reduce heat, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed. You will know its done when the little curly “tails” pop out of the grain.
2. While the quinoa is cooking, chop up all the veggies. Mix them together in a mixing bowl. Add the quinoa.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. Add this mixture to the veggies and quinoa. Stir to evenly coat everything.
4. Top with avocados and feta.
Recipe by Edible Experiments, inspiration from Fitness Magazine.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

2013-02-20T11:22:00.001-08:00

I made these cookies pre-baby, ate a few, took some to the neighbors, and froze the rest for post-baby. You would think that with a sweet little baby girl and no more pregnancy cravings I wouldn’t need any more sweetness in this house. Not true. I am going to go pop some in the oven right now!

I tweaked my chocolate chip cookie recipe a little to make these cookies. I also tried adding a little cornstarch because I heard that it prevents cookies from flattening out too much. I don’t usually have a problem with flattening with these cookies, but I think it did make them a little thicker and fuller. I think it was a good addition. I also think these would be yummy with some pistachios thrown in the mix.

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tsp. cornstarch

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm

1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 C. dried cranberries

3/4 C. white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Mix together flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt in a medium bowl.

2. In an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until combined. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

4. Place balls of cookie dough on a baking pan lined with parchment paper or a silpat. Bake for 14-17 minutes. With my oven, I always cook them for 14 minutes. Do not over cook these. Take them out just when the edges start to firm up and then let them cool on the pan. If they are still too gooey after a few minutes, just pop them back in, but don’t over cook them. I do cook them a minute or two longer when cooking them from frozen, however.

Recipe by Edible Experiments

My Memories Giveaway Winner and New Baby

2013-02-18T13:37:00.001-08:00

Just a quick post to announce the winner of the My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software Giveaway.

The winner is………LINDSAY. She liked the Baby Boy kit. I’ll get in touch with you soon, Lindsay, and let you know the promo code so you can redeem your free digital scrapbooking software.

I know it took me awhile to announce the winner, but I think I have a pretty good excuse for my tardiness. I was busy birthing this little beauty:

Nine pounds of chubby, rosy, sweet baby goodness. Don’t you just want to kiss her cheeks? I am smitten.

Just a reminder, use the promo code over on the right side bar for $10 off My Memories Digital Scrapbooking software.

Mom’s Chewy Brownies

2013-02-11T08:46:00.000-08:00

There are some recipes that you just grow up with. You know, those recipes that are scribbled on a wrinkled piece of paper covered in batter. I can’t tell you where this recipe originated. All I know is that my mom has made these brownies for as long as I can remember. They are my favorite. They are soft, chewy, rich, and remind me of those nights when my family is just sitting around, hanging out and my mom decides to whip up a batch. I could probably eat a whole pan.

I have a confession to make about these brownies. Last time I made them, I put black beans in them. Weird, I know. I have heard for a long time that beans can be used in the place of butter in baked goods. I decided to give it a try. So I whipped up my moms delicious brownie recipe and used black beans instead of butter. They were ok, but just not the same. There was something off in the texture and I think it was probably because the original brownie recipe uses melted butter, but I’m not sure. They just weren’t as chewy and soft and chocolaty. I would definitely juts stick with the original recipe. However, you couldn’t taste the black beans at all! No one would have known! So if for some reason, you are out of butter but need a chocolate fix, you could use beans. Rinse the beans well, puree them really well in a blender, and use the same amount of beans as butter called for. But I would highly suggest just sticking to the original recipe. I just thought I’d tell you about my little experiment.

Ingredients:

3/4 C. butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted
1/2 C. cocoa powder
2 C. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 C. flour

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cream together the butter, sugar,and cocoa powder. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix until combined.

2. Mix in the salt and flour and mix until combined and lumps are gone.

3. Pour into baking dish. The size of dish is up to you depending on how thick you like your brownies. A 9x13 dish should take 25-30 minutes. If you use a smaller dish, they will probably need to cook longer because they will be thicker.

To dress them up for Valentine’s Day, cut out a heart from paper and place it on top of a brownie square and dust with powdered sugar. Remove the paper.

Recipe from ediblexperiments.blogspot.com

My Memories Giveaway Extended

2013-02-09T13:30:00.001-08:00

Just a quick post to let you know that I am extending the giveaway deadline for the My Memories digital scrapbooking software by a few days to give everyone a little more time to comment. So get your comments in by Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at midnight! Read the previous post to learn more about the product and giveaway rules.

Homemade Valentines Fruit Chews, Free Printable, and My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software GIVEAWAY!!!

2013-02-04T15:51:00.001-08:00

Wow, that’s a long title. That’s because there is a lot going on in todays post! So pay attention! First, I’m going to show you how to make your own homemade fruit chews out of real fruit. I also have a cute little bag topper for you to print out so you can turn todays recipe into a Valentine. Last, but certainly not least, I have an awesome giveaway for one of my readers and a discount promo code for everyone! My Memories, a digital scrapbooking company, let me download their scrapbooking software (Suite v4) and play around with it! I had so much fun exploring all the different aspects of this program. And guess what? They gave me a digital scrapbooking software package to give to one of you! So make sure you carefully read the giveaway info at the bottom so you can see how to enter and how to get a promo code for $10 off.
Lets start with the edible stuff. These fruit chews are so easy to make and you can use any fruit or juice as long as its not one of those fruits that mess up the gelatin (pineapple, guava,mango, fig, and kiwi). I think berries work really well for this. I made mine raspberry flavored with fresh lemon juice.
Ingredients:

2/3 C. fresh or frozen raspberries
2/3 C. fresh lemon juice
1/2 C. sugar (taste it and if its too tart for your liking, add more sugar)
1/4 C. unflavored gelatin (4 packets)
sugar for topping (optional)

Directions:
1. In a small pot over medium heat, cook berries, lemon juice, and sugar until the berries are soft and the sugar is dissolved.
2. Once it starts to thicken up, use a hand held stick blender to make the mixture smooth (you could also use a normal blender). Run mixture through a mesh strainer and into a square container to remove the seeds.
3. Let cool for about 10 minutes. Add gelatin, a little bit at a time, whisking after each addition. Make sure gelatin is completely dissolved. If there are lumps, smooth it out with the stick blender again.
4. Cover mixture and refrigerate for about an hour. Cut into cubes and roll in sugar if desired. Store in airtight container. When I rolled them in sugar they looked really pretty and tasted even better, but once they were in a baggie there were little droplets of condensation. So, if you don’t like that, don’t add the sugar until right before you eat them.
Note: Feel free to pour mixture into candy molds!

Now, I’m going to show you how to dress up your bag of fruit chews using digital scrapbooking software:
What is digital scrapbooking software? It’s a program that helps you create a scrapbook on the computer using digital paper, stamps, embellishments(flowers, buttons, ribbons, brads, shapes..), word art, photos, etc. After you finish a scrapbook you can print it, email it, or even turn it into a video through YouTube or DVD. Your album can have as many or few pages as you want and you can design it from scratch or use premade layouts. Here are some of my favorite features of the My Memories Suite v4 software:

It comes with lots of fun papers, embellishments, stamps, and templates. Simply open up the list of items on the left side bar, pick your item, and drag it onto the page. From there you can resize or edit on the right side bar. Don’t forget to look under the “purchased” section of papers and embellishments, even if you haven’t purchased any. I found most of the good stuff that came with the software in that section.
Using MyMemories.com, you can download endless “kits” of scrapbooking paper, lettering, and embellishments. There are some really cute options. There are some fun Valentines Day packages, too! They show up with all the items on one page (papers stacked in the back and most embellishments on top), but when you download them you use the items individually. They are displayed like this:

The kits are cheap! The one above is $2.29 right now. You can’t tell me that you could buy all those scrapbooking embellishments in paper form for $2.29. Some packages are more than others, but some are less than a dollar! And you can use them over and over, unlike real paper. (NOTE: click the picture above to purchase V-day kit which is on sale 48% off until February 28, 2013).
There are tons of FREE KITS at MyMemories.com! Pages and pages of free stuff!
Its really easy to layer items in just the way you want. For instance, say you want text on top of a gift tag, and you want that tag within a frame. Just right click an item and select “Send item forward” (or backward). It’s so simple to set up the page just how you like.
There are tons of tutorials on Youtube. Click here to see their Youtube page. Here is a basic overview video:

You are not limited to making a scrapbook album. You can make any kind of digital or printable project your heart desires. You can make blog banners, greeting cards, calendars, collages, posters, subway art, Facebook timeline headers, buttons, stickers,… Just create an item from scratch and customize the size. I created a cute gift bag topper to go with my fruit chews (all with items that came with the software). Here’s what it looks like:

If you would like to print one of these labels for yourself, click the picture above, right click print, and adjust the size to what ever size you need. I used a normal sandwich bag, which 6.6 inches across the top. So I just chose 5x7 and folded it over the top of the bag and stapled it. Just make sure you leave the original Ziploc seal in place so you can still get an airtight baggie. It should look like this:

Note: To avoid condensation in the baggie, don’t roll fruit chews in sugar until right before you are ready to eat. I learned the hard way. Oops.
GIVEAWAY INFO:

So, do you want in on the goods? All you need to do is visit MyMemories.com, take a look around, and comment on my blog which scrapbooking kit is your favorite. One of my favorites is the “February” kit (which is actually on sale until 02/06/13). Easy-Peasy. Remember, if you get my blog posts sent to you via email, you must visit this actual blog post to comment and enter. You have until Sunday, February 10, 2013 at midnight to comment. (My baby is most likely coming the day after the giveaway ends via induction, so if you don’t hear from me right away, it probably means I am busy having a baby. I haven’t forgotten about you! Oh, and wish me luck.)
Do you really, really want this scrapbooking software? Well, I’ll give you a couple more entries. After you enter by commenting on your favorite kit, you can also visit My Memories’ blog, facebook page, or twitter account and follow them. Just follow them and comment on my blog to tell me that you did it and I’ll count it as an additional entry. Make a new comment for following each the blog, facebook, and twitter. That’s up to 4 entries!

Here are the links:
Blog- http://blog.mymemories.com/
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593
Twitter- http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

If you win, I will email you the promo code for the free software. You can then download it for free from their website. I will email you more detailed instructions if you win (make sure I can get ahold of you via email when you comment).
Didn’t win? Don’t be too sad because I have something for you, too! Just because you’re cool, I’m giving you a promo code for $10 off the My Memories digital scrapbooking Suite v4! Here’s the code:STMMMS31723. You can also access it anytime by clicking on the button on my side bar. Just copy and paste in the code at check out and your adjusted total will show up.
If you want to download or order this software, check and make sure your computer is compatible with this software, or to see more details about this software, click here.

I hope you have a marvelous time with this fun software! I hope you can use it to make some cute Valentines!
Giveaway sponsored by My Memories on Edible Experiments. Recipe by Edible Experiments.

Tomato and Rice Soup

2013-01-25T11:06:00.001-08:00

What do you do when you need to go grocery shopping, but you just don’t want to and all you have in your fridge is a couple carrots, an onion, and a few stalks of celery? I just hate going out and running errands in the cold winter weather. So I knew I would have to find something to make out of my carrots and celery or brave the cold weather. Luckily I had a can of tomatoes and some rice in my pantry, too. This soup is comforting, easy, and completely healthy. Perfect for the cold winter weather.

Ingredients:

1/2 C. long grained brown rice
1 TBSP. olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 large carrot, peeled and and sliced
1 large stalk of celery, finely sliced
1 large garlic clove, pressed
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1 can (28 oz.) stewed tomatoes
1 can (14.5 oz.) chicken or vegetable broth (1 3/4 C.)
1/2 tsp. salt (more to taste)
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 C. water
1/2 C. fresh parsley or basil, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. Using a rice maker or stove top, prepare the rice according to instructions on the bag, omitting salt and butter.

2. In a saucepan (at least 4-quarts), heat the oil. When oil is hot, add onions, carrots, and celery. Heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetable are tender. Add in garlic and thyme and stir for another minute or so.

3. Add tomatoes with all their juices. Add the broth, salt, pepper, bay leaf, and water. Bring to a boil for a few minutes. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover pot, and let cook for 30 minutes.

4. Remove bay leaf. Use a handheld stick blender to puree the soup. Or split the soup into two batches and blend each batch in a blender or food processor until smooth. Restore soup to pot and add the rice and fresh parsley or basil.

Serve with warm bread and butter.

NOTE: Last time I made this I only had a 14.5 oz. can of tomatoes, so I split the recipe in half and it worked just fine. I still used the same amount of onions, carrot, celery, garlic, and bay leaf. It tasted a little bit carroty, but still great.

Recipe adapted from Good Housekeeping Favorite Recipes Vegetarian Meals

Full Tutorial: Sugar Cookies w/ Royal Icing

2013-01-16T11:21:00.001-08:00

I have made a lot of sugar cookies for different occasions. I’ve made autumn leaves, conversation hearts, bunnies and carrots, graduation hats, shoes, Halloween cookies, Christmas ornaments, etc… I think each time I make them, they get easier and I figure out new tricks and techniques to make things easier. And each time I usually have at least one thing go wrong (like dropping in the cookies on the dirt). I have lots of different posts for lots of different versions of my cookies, but I don’t have a really detailed tutorial with all my tips, tricks, and Do’s and Don’ts in one place. A few days ago, I hosted a baby shower for my friend Kelli and I made rain “shower” themed cookies (which was appropriate because it rained last night and melted all the snow and it felt like April all day!) Click here to see pictures from that shower. This post is a tutorial using pictures and ideas from all of my sugar cookies from the past. Also, I am going to try to be very thorough and detailed, telling why I do what I do, so don’t cringe at the length of this post. Just because it’s long, doesn't mean it’s hard. Although plan a full day for baking, cooling, decorating, and icing. Read through it completely and just pin it for the next time you are making sugar cookies.
THE SUGAR COOKIE:
The sugar cookie is just as important as the decorations on top. In the end, they are going to get eaten and it doesn’t matter how cute it is if it doesn’t taste good. I know everyone has their own favorite sugar cookie dough recipe. That’s fine. Use what ever recipe you want. Some sugar cookie dough is better at holding it’s shape than other’s, though, so choose wisely. My absolute favorite sugar cookie recipe is a brown sugar and spice sugar cookie. At every event I make these cookies for, I get compliments on how the cookie is different from the basic sugar cookie, but really tasty. It’s rich and buttery, but not too rich. And the subtle hint of spices is my favorite part. My husband is always hovering, wishing I would break one so he can eat it. Here is the recipe (if you don’t want the brown sugar and spice, try this recipe):
Ingredients:

1 C. butter (2 sticks), softened
1/2 C. white sugar
1/2 C. brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
3 C. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp. allspice

Directions:
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Once combined and slightly fluffy, add the egg and vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, and spices.
3. With the electric mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Once it is combined enough for the flour not to spray all over the kitchen, you can turn up the mixing speed. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated well. Scrape with rubber spatula as needed. (NOTE: At this point, my dough is usually completely crumbly, but can be squished back together.)
4. Spread out a sheet of plastic wrap. Turn out the dough onto the plastic wrap. Wrap it up in a ball and stick it in the freezer for about 10 minutes. I used to roll it out between parchment paper and then freeze it, but I like rolling it into a ball now. Here is why: I usually find that I end up having to roll it into a ball again and roll it out again, anyway. Also, the idea is to just get it cold enough to stay firm while you are working with it, so I had the tendency to leave it in the freezer a few minutes to long and it would get too cold and brittle when it was that thin. The thickness of a ball lets it get cold, without freezing it all the way through. If you plan on freezing the dough and coming back to it another day, freezing it thin is the way to go. Or if you want to let it chill in the fridge (thirty minutes), roll it out thin because it wont take so long. No matter what you do, cutting out shapes will be easier and way less messy with a chilled dough.
5. Starting from a smooth ball of dough, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface or between two pieces of parchment paper (my favorite way) with a marble rolling pin. It should be the same thickness everywhere, about 1/4”. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Transfer to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a baking mat (if you don’t have either, just cook them straight on the pan. Don’t grease it.) Re-roll the dough scraps and continue to cut out cookies. Repeat until the dough is gone. The best part is that little bit of leftover dough that doesn’t quite fit into a cookie cutter. Bake it and eat it straight from the oven, just to make sure it tastes good (but be careful, because if you give a cookie maker a scrap cookie, chances are she’s going to want to eat one of her pretty shaped cookies, too).
6. Once you fill one pan of cookies, place the whole pan into the freezer and preheat the oven to 350 F. Continue to work on cutting out the rest of the cookies. I usually fill two pans, depending on the shapes of the cookies. Once the oven is preheated (5-10 minutes). Bake the cookies straight from the freezer for 10-12 minutes (I usually do 10). As soon as you put them in oven, put the next batch into the freezer. Freezing them helps them keep their shape. Do not over cook the cookies! I overcooked one pan of them for the baby shower, and they just weren’t the same (sorry for all you ladies who got an over cooked ones.) When in doubt, take them out. That’s my motto. Unless, you move them directly to a cooling rack, they will continue to cook a little on the pan, so err on the side of caution when accessing doneness.

TIPS FOR GETTING THE PERFECT CUT OUT COOKIE:

Chill dough before rolling and cutting.
Chill cut out shapes before baking to avoid spreading and puffy, shapeless cookies.
Roll between two parchment papers for ease and cleanliness. Peel off the top layer of parchment and leave the dough on the bottom sheet the whole time. No flour, counter washing, or rolling pin washing necessary.
Roll out the dough, then flip it over and run the rolling pin over it again to smooth out bumps and curves.
Don’t roll the dough too thin or it will be brittle and burn easier.
Squish any skinny extensions ( graduation tassels, skull cross bones, umbrella handles) into the main body of the cookie a little bit to avoid breakage. There is nothing worse than having beautiful graduation hats with broken tassels! Or just avoid shapes with lots of skinny extensions all together.
Use a knife and a stencil to etch on complex patterns, lines, and shapes that you normally wouldn’t be able to free hand with frosting. Make your own stencil out of a piece of paper and a craft razor.
Let cookies cool completely before frosting.
You can freeze the cookie dough/cookies at any point in the process. You can freeze the dough before cutting, after cutting, after baking, and even after icing. Just make sure they are in an air tight container or baggie. If I know I have an event to make cookies for, I usually make them in steps so I am not stuck with all the work for one day.

ROYAL ICING:
I love royal icing because its easy to make and it dries smooth and hard. I love this for stacking and packaging. Once you know how to work with it, it is not that hard to get professional looking results. With each cookie you will pipe on an outline, thin the icing and “flood” inside the outline, and pipe on texture and details. I’ll first teach you how to make it, then I’ll teach you how to prep it for piping and flooding. Royal icing dries hard, so make sure you cover it in an airtight container when you are not using it. You do not need to refrigerate this icing. There are different combinations of meringue powder and water measurements, but I like this one the best. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:

3 TBSP. meringue powder (I buy mine at Walmart in the cake decorating isle)
6-7 TBSP. water
4 C. powdered sugar

Directions:
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the meringue powder and water until combined.
2. Add the powdered sugar while the mixer is on low. Once powdered sugar isn’t spraying all over the kitchen, increase the speed to a nice medium-high. Beat until powdered sugar is combined, stiff peaks form, and it has a slight shine to it.

3. Access the thickness. This is sometimes tricky and comes with experience and trial and error. After making it a few times, you will just know when it’s right. Kind of like adding flour to bread dough. If your icing is too thick, it will be difficult to pipe and your hands and arms will get very tired. To thin, add a little bit more water and beat again. I usually end up adding one more tablespoon of water at the end. You want it to easily squeeze out of the piping tip. If you don’t notice that it’s too thick until you have it in a squeeze bottle or piping bag, you can always add a few drops of water and stir. If it’s in a piping bag, just take the frosting out, mix in some water, and start over.
NOTE: You can also make royal icing using 3 oz. pasteurized egg whites and 4 cups of powdered sugar. Beat the egg whites until foamy, then add the powdered sugar. Beat until you get stiff, glossy peaks (6 or 7 minutes). Thin with water as needed.
DECORATION PREP:
This maybe on of the most important parts of decorating the cookies. I have found that when I am lazy and skip some of these prep steps, I pay for it in the end. These tips and tricks will save you from a catastrophe later! I know! Most of these tips are on this blog because I learned the hard way! Like I always say, “I’m here to make the mistakes, so you don’t have to!”
1. Decide exactly which cookie cutters you are going to use and draw out a game plan. I start by getting a blank piece of paper and tracing the cookie cutters onto the paper (unless I can do a close freehand). Label each cookie with the colors you are going to use. Decide in advance for which colors you will need piping icing and flooding icing. Decide in advance what colors get squeeze bottles and bags, which tips you are going to use with each color, and how much of each color you will need. Decide in advance the order of decorating. Write all that on the paper. This game plan will save you tons of time.
Below is my game plan for my rain shower cookies. It’s messy and I have a couple different versions of the cloud and umbrella that I was considering. I have a list of what colors I need and a list of what order to do everything. I knew right off the bat that it was going to be fastest if I started by outlining everything that needed a white border, the reason being that I knew it would take the longest for the clouds to dry and I wanted to get them filled first because I wanted to pipe on detail and needed a dry surface. I also knew I would only need a small amount of the colors purple, pink, and yellow for the umbrellas and a lot of blue and white for the clouds and rain drops.

Here is my messy game plan for my Halloween cookies:

2. Color the frosting. Have a container with a lid for each color. I like to get them all out and set their assigned color on top, like this:

Scoop out the icing into each container according to the amount you will need for each color. It’s sometimes hard to guess how much you need. This skill will come with experience. Just in case, ALWAYS KEEP ASIDE EXTRA WHITE FROSTING! This has saved me so many times when I needed just a little bit more of a color. There is nothing worse than running out of a color that you need. I always have enough frosting for the cookies, I just sometime don’t have it divided correctly. If you are really worried, divide out the frosting and dye it as you are ready for each color, instead of all at once.
A NOTE ABOUT FOOD COLORING: Americolor is the way to go! I used to use Winston gel color, which produces fine colors, but I HATE the containers it comes in. Americolor gel food coloring comes in little squeezy bottles, making it easier to add a squirt of color. Click here to see my Americolor color set on Amazon (although, a couple of my colors ended up being different than what is shown in the picture on Amazon). You can buy them at baking shops and online. Either way, stay away from those cheap liquid box of four food coloring packs. Gel is the way to go because if produces more vibrant colors, using less coloring.
A NOTE ABOUT ACHIEVING A DARK RED OR A TRUE BLACK: Have you ever noticed that sometime red looks pink and black looks grey? You can fix it without adding so much coloring that it tastes bitter! First of all, a good gel food coloring may be enough, so invest in good food coloring ( Americolor!). If you need it even deeper, add a little bit of cocoa powder to the frosting. I never really notice a chocolate taste in my final cookie. It works like a charm! Keep in mind, as the icing dries, the color will deepen. So, don’t worry if your icing is a lighter black at first because it will dry darker.
A NOTE ABOUT MIXING THE COLORS INTO THE ICING: I have discovered that I really like to mix the color and frosting together with a butter knife. Why? 1)It fits into a squeeze bottle for stirring later on. 2) Its thick enough and sturdy enough that it cuts through the frosting easily. 3) It is easier to scrape off on the sides of things than a spoon. I like to have a knife for each color and set them on a plate for future use.

3. Fill your piping bags and squeeze bottles. Which are you using? Or a combination of both? For awhile, I only used piping bags because that was all I had. After, I collected a few squeeze bottles with the attachment for piping tips, I found that I prefer the straight squeeze bottles for most jobs.
Here’s why I like squeeze bottles:

It’s really easy to switch to a different piping tip.
It’s really easy to add more frosting or water.
It’s really easy to stir the frosting after adding more water.
It’s really easy to guide the frosting when you are flooding the cookie .
You cant squirt frosting out the end and make a mess, like in a piping bag.

Here’s when I still prefer a piping bag:

For colors that I only need small amounts of the thicker piping frosting. I find the squeeze bottles work better, the fuller they are. I only have so many squeeze bottles, so I save them for the colors I will be using a lot for both piping and flooding.

You only really need a squeeze bottle if you want two colors mixed together. Piping bags work fine. Here is a quick tutorial on how to get a piping bag ready (or a ziplock baggie in this case):

1. Place your coupler base into the corner of the bag. Cut the extra tip off the bag. Do not cut too far down or your frosting will gush out all over your hands. I usually cut right up to the coupler, but not any further.

2. Place the piping tip over the coupler on the outside of the bag and secure with the coupler ring.

3. Place tip down into a tall glass and invert sides of bag over the sides of the cup. Fill with frosting and pull the bag out of the cup, turning it outside-out.

NOTE ON BAGGIES: If you are using a Ziploc baggie, make sure it’s heavy duty or double bagged. It’s a pain when the baggie breaks!
NOTE ON CHOOSING YOUR TIP: For outlining, I like to use a fairly small round tip (I like a Wilton #3 round tip). Don’t go too small for outlining, though, or it will be really difficult to squeeze out the frosting. I have multiple Wilton #3 tips so that I can have many piping bags equipped at once instead of changing the tip out all the time. If you are going to use a squeeze bottle for flooding, use a larger tip. It doesn’t really matter what size, just big enough that you can squeeze quite a bit out quickly. You can even use a regular old dollar store condiment bottle for this, if you like.
NOTE ON STORING UNUSED PIPING BAGS AND SQUEEZE BOTTLES FOR LATER USE: Place your piping bag, tip down, into a glass with a small amount of water at the bottom. Having the tip of the tip submerged keeps the frosting from drying out while you are using another color. Just make sure you squeeze a little frosting out onto a paper towel or plate to get out the moisture before frosting the cookie again.

Keep lids on unused squeeze bottles at all times. Keep the icing near the tip by turning them upside down in a cup:

4. Set up a decorating station with everything you will need: I really find it helpful (especially 8 months pregnant) to have everything I might need spread out near me as I decorate so I don’t have to constantly get up to get something. It just saves time. Here is a picture of my most recent layout:

DECORATE YOUR COOKIES:
1. Outline the cookie with the thicker piping frosting: You can’t flood the cookie and get that nice smooth look without having a boundary to keep in the runny frosting. I like to pipe with the color I will be flooding with, but some people like to outline everything in black. Either one looks great!

TIPS FOR GETTING A FLAWLESS OUTLINE:

Make sure your frosting is the right thickness. If it is too thick your hand will shake because you will have to squeeze to hard. If it’s too thin, you wont have the control you need.
Make sure your piping tip is the right size. If the opening is too small, you will have to squeeze to hard. If it’s too big, you won’t have control.
Make sure there are no air bubbles in your piping bag or squeeze bottle so you can have a constant stream of frosting.
Make sure you apply consistent pressure as you squeeze.
Don’t stop and start. Make one continuous stream until you finish the section.
Lift the piping tip above the cookie and guide the stream of frosting while keeping your tip slightly ahead of the frosting. Touch down only at the start and finish or if you want sharper corners.

I made a video of how to do this technique to help you visualize. I also included how NOT to do it so you can see the difference:

Here is a picture of one cookie done with the tip above the cookie and one with the tip pressed against the cookie. Can you see the difference? Once you get the hang of it, it is so much easier and faster.

2. Make the Flooding Frosting: Once you have finished piping your outline, let it dry. This doesn’t take very long and usually by the time I am finished with piping for all the cookies of one kind, the first one that I outlined is dry and ready for flooding. Make your flooding frosting by adding a couple drops of water at a time to your frosting. You can add this to the original frosting container or straight to a squeeze bottle (just make sure you are completely finished with the thicker frosting in the squeeze bottle). Stir the water in and test the thickness by raising your knife or spoon up out of the frosting. If it runs off the knife, it’s not too thick. If it is still too thick, just add a bit more water. TEN SECOND RULE: If you run your knife through the frosting and it flows back together smooth in 5-10 seconds, you have a good consistency. If it is faster than that, your icing is too runny and will be harder to control. This is why it is important to add a few drops at a time. Give the flooding icing a few minutes to settle, then give it a gentle stir to get rid of some of the air bubbles.
3. Flood inside the piping: It’s as simple as pouring the thin frosting inside the lines you created when you outlined the cookie. You can use a spoon to flood like this:

Or you can use a squeeze bottle to squeeze on the runny frosting. Start in the middle and use the tip of the squeeze bottle, spoon, or a toothpick to guide the icing into the corners. As long as you don’t fill it too full, you can make it as thin or thick as you like. Give the cookie a few minutes, then pop the remaining air bubbles with a toothpick.
4. Add details to the cookie: Now that you have flooded the cookie, you have a couple options.

Add another color of icing straight to the wet icing to make a design that will dry flat. I did a little white shine mark in my rain drops like this:

Marble the cookie by making a line or circle with another color using a squeeze bottle. With the umbrellas, I made rows of horizontal lines of thin white frosting straight into the still wet umbrella. Then I used a toothpick and drug it through the lines from top to bottom, so it looked like this:

With the spider webs, I used squeeze bottles to add alternating colored circles straight to the wet black icing and drug my toothpick from the center to the outside all around the cookie, like this:

Add texture by piping on details: Simply let the flooded icing dry, then pipe on what ever details you want with the thicker outlining icing. Plan ahead before flooding, so you have enough thick icing left for this. You can really do anything you want here. Add eyes, polka dots, stripes, words, swirls, etc. Here are a few examples:

Add texture using sprinkles: I love adding little finishing touches to a cookie, just to make it pop a little more. All you need to do is flood the section you want to add sprinkles to, then dip them in a pile of sprinkles on plate or parchment paper sheet. Just make sure the designated sprinkle area is the only part that is wet. If you decide to add sprinkles to the cookie after the flooded section is dry, just squeeze on a little bit of thicker frosting and dip it into the sprinkles. I did this to the tail and ears of my bunnies:

Add raised embellishments: You can add isomalt to add clear or colored droplets, molded candies, chocolate chip eyes, or shapes made from extra cookie dough. I added little spiders to my webs by baking little balls of of cookie dough and decorating them like spiders, like this:

5. Let dry completely: I highly recommend letting the cookies dry over night before packaging them or stacking them. They may be hard enough to add details to and they may seem dry to the touch, but they are still fragile. Kind of like nail polish. You think its dry until you make a big smudge mark in it. I learned this the hard way. I made cute bunnies and carrots for a friend’s baby shower and stuck them in Ziploc baggies after I thought they were dry enough. The next morning, I pulled the baggie up and it pulled up a layer of the frosting with it. Although I was able to salvage (I’ll teach you how in the next section) them, I almost didn’t have enough time before the baby shower. I have never had a problem with the cookies going stale when I leave them out over night. Once the are truly dry, you can be pretty rough with them and the frosting wont smudge, crack, smear, or bleed.
FIXING MISTAKES AND SALVAGING MESS UPS:
It’s easy to mess up while decorating. While some mistakes are irreversible (dang, you will just have to eat that one!), you can reverse a lot of mistakes. Here are a few tips:
1. Wipe off the frosting with a paper towel: A lot of the time, you can simply wipe off the mistake frosting. Thick outlining icing will often break right off after it is dry with a little pressure.
2. Flood on top of mistake: If you make a mistake flooding, you can simply let it dry and flood right on top of the mistake. Be careful to avoid flooding outside the lines. Make the new layer as thin as you can while still covering the mistake. This is how I fixed my bunnies and carrots that I mentioned above. I have also done this to fix cookies that I totally smudged in that half dry stage.
3. Use a toothpick to touch up messy lines: Self explanatory.
Well, I hope I have instilled some cookie decorating confidence into you. It really isn’t that hard and it’s a blast to do! If you have any questions or need help, contact me! There is a “contact me” button at the top of the page. The more you decorate with royal icing, the easier it will become and the more skilled you will become at judging thickness and doneness. I hope you have a blast making cookies of your own!
By ediblexperiments.blogspot.com

Baby “Shower” Sugar Cookies

2013-01-16T10:32:00.001-08:00

Last week I helped host a baby shower for my friend Kelli. We took the whole “shower” thing seriously and made the theme rain showers. We had soup and bread, fruit and veggies, cloud cupcakes, cloud jello shots, and rain shower sugar cookies. The shower turned out great! Click here to see the recipe for the cookies and a full tutorial on how to decorate sugar cookies with royal icing.

Here are some pictures from the shower:

These cute rain clouds were hanging from the ceiling all over the living room and kitchen. My friends Emily and Bethany made them. Aren’t they cute?

Cloud Cupcakes:

Cloud jello shots made from blue jello and whipped cream. Thanks Joanna for making these!

My shower sugar cookies:

Party favors:

The cute mom to-be:

Thanks everyone who helped out to throw a great party! Click here to see my full sugar cookie decorating tutorial!

By ediblexperiments.blogspot.com

Coconut Banana Bread

2013-01-07T10:57:00.001-08:00

What do you do when you have an excess of of bananas because they were 25 cents a pound and you bought way to many? Make banana ice cream, banana muffins, and of course some banana bread! I have delicious banana ice cream in my freezer tempting me and I froze some banana muffins made from my best and basic banana bread recipe. Although I will always have my favorite banana bread recipe, I decided to try a variation. Today’s banana bread is made with coconut milk instead of butter. I also used brown sugar and honey instead of white sugar. Throw in some oats, and you have a slightly healthier banana bread. I don’t know if I can totally call it healthy or fat free because coconut milk does have quite a bit of fat, but it doesn’t have the cholesterol of butter. This bread is slightly chewier than my go-to recipe because of the oats and not quite as sweet and rich, but it is definitely a keeper! I can’t stop eating it!!! Especially if you top it with a toasted coconut streusel!

Side Note: I found 25 cent bananas at a little store called Aldi. It’s my new favorite store! It is a quirky little store, but I highly recommend it because the prices are so low! Although the really cheap things are different every time I go, I am always able to find really great deals. I got a whole big thing of cherry tomatoes for 50 cents! At normal stores they are at least $3 . Blackberries were 99 cents out of season! The reason they are able to keep their prices so consistently low is because they don’t have very high overhead. They keep their overhead low by making the customers do all the work, so its good to have a heads up before you go so you know what to expect. First, you need a quarter in order to unlock a cart to use. When you put your cart back, you get the quarter back and it keeps the carts neat and in one place and there is no need to hire someone to gather carts. Second, the bags are not complimentary. You can pay for bags or bring your own. However, most people just grab an empty card board food box from off one of the shelves. The cashier quickly runs the food through straight into another cart, which you can then take over a packing counter and load it up into your bags or boxes yourself. Also, you can only pay with cash or a debit card with a pin number. No credit or checks. They don’t always have every specific thing I need, but I have saved so much grocery money at this store and I highly recommend it if you have one in your town. I was able to fill my completely empty fridge for only $30.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

185 mL coconut milk (full fat)
3/4 C. brown sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe large, ripe bananas
2 TBSP. honey
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 C. all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder

Toasted Coconut Streusel:

1/4 C. flour
3 TBSP. brown sugar
dash of salt
dash of cinnamon
3 heaping TBSP. sweetened shredded coconut
2 TBSP. cold butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a large baking pan with spray.

2. Beat together coconut milk, sugar,eggs, cinnamon, and honey in the bowl of an electric mixer. In a separate bowl, mash peeled bananas with a fork. Some small chunks are just fine. Add to wet mixture and mix until combined, scraping down the sides as needed.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and oats. Gradually add to the wet mixture and mix until combined.

4. Pour mixture into the large bread pan. I like to leave a little bit for a small bread pan so the big one isn’t filled so full. It will cook faster if you don’t pour the all the batter into the same pan.

5. In a small bowl, combine the streusel ingredients. Blend the butter in with a pastry cutter or your fingers. Sprinkle generously on top of the batter. Bake bread for 40-60 minutes, depending on how full you fill the pan. If you are cooking a smaller loaf, too, it will be done much faster, so check it. My coconut didn’t burn and was toasted just right, but I would still check it frequently and if it is toasting too quickly, cover the loaf with tin foil.

Recipe idea adapted from Cook Republic

Vegetarian Black Bean, Corn, and Sweet Potato Flautas

2013-01-05T12:52:00.001-08:00

It’s the fifth day of a new year. How’s everyone doing with their resolutions? I really didn’t stress much about making resolutions this year. My goals are pretty simple and after a few spiritual goals, my resolutions consist of 1) have a baby 2) learn how to sew 3) meet my Goodreads goal of reading 30 books this year after failing the past two years. I am having a baby in 6 weeks and don’t have the energy to worry about much else, so I’m keeping it simple this year. I am happy to say that last New Years I made some resolutions to eat healthier and for the most part, I have been able to make that a lifestyle change and don’t need to do a huge diet make over again this year. Plus its kind of hard not to cook foods high in vegetables and low in saturated fat when my husband is obsessed with vegetables and beans. I will never be able to cut out the occasional sweet treat or french fries, but for the most part the main meals in my house are pretty nutritious and I’m at peace with that.

I love this meal because it is filling and satisfying and you don’t miss the meat at all! I guess you could add some chicken or shredded pork if you like, but you really don’t need it to feel satisfied. Also, the sweet potatoes add a lot of bulk and nutrition, but are not overwhelming. Sometimes I struggle with the sweetness of sweet potatoes , but the seasonings, cheese, and other vegetables really mellow out that sweetness. So don’t be scared of those bright orange beauties! If you wanted to make this recipe even healthier, feel free to leave out the cheese and cream cheese (at your own risk).

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

corn tortillas
1 small onion, diced (1/2 C. to 3/4 C.)
1/2 medium red bell pepper, diced (about 1/2 C.)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
2 small sweet potatoes (or 1 large one)
1/4 C. fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (add more or less according to desired spiciness)
ground chipotle powder, to taste (optional)
1/4 C. lime juice ( you may add more, to taste)
3/4 tsp. salt (taste and more if needed)
heaping 1/4 C. salsa ( you may add more to taste)
2 C. grated cheese (I used cheddar)
4 oz. cream cheese, very soft
olive oil spray
additional toppings (avocado, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, ranch dressing, cheese)

Directions:

1. Using a fork, poke holes in the sweet potatoes. Wrap them in a damp paper towel and microwave for about 7 minute, or until soft. You can also bake the sweet potatoes,it will just take you about 40-60 minutes.

2. In a small skillet, heat a small drizzle of olive oil over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot, add diced onions and bell peppers. Heat until soft and slightly caramelized, stirring occasionally.

3. Once cooked through, transfer onions and peppers to a medium bowl. Add the corn, beans, cilantro, spices, salt, lime juice, and salsa. Mix until combined. Split the cooked sweet potatoes and scoop out the soft meat into the bowl. Mix in the sweet potatoes until well combined. Taste the veggie mixture and add more spices, salt, lime juice, and salsa as desired.

4. Preheat the oven to 425 F. In a separate, smaller bowl combine the cream cheese and shredded cheese. You might need to slightly warm the cream cheese so it will mix together with the shredded cheese.

5. Take about 5 corn tortillas at a time and wrap the stack in a damp paper towel. Then wrap the whole thing in a dry paper towel. Microwave on a plate for 1 minute. This will prevent cracking and promote better rolling. Make a little filling and rolling assembly line. Place a line of the veggie mixture down the middle of the tortilla, top with the cheese mixture, and roll as tight as you can. Don’t fill it too full, or it wont stay rolled and it might split. Place a baking/cooling rack directly onto a baking sheet. Place the rolled flautas, seam side down, onto this rack. Repeat until your filling is gone or your rack is full. I am not sure how many you will be able to make from this recipe because it all depends on the tortilla size and how full you fill them. You may also need to make some more cheese/cream cheese depending on how much you use in each flauta. I fed myself, my husband, and two hungry missionaries with quite a bit of left overs.

6. Spray the rolled flautas with olive oil spray so they will crisp up nicely. Bake for 15 minute. If you want them even crispier, turn the oven to broil for the last 2 minutes, but watch them closely because they will go from perfect to burnt in the blink of an eye!!! Serve hot with desired toppings.

OTHER HEALTHY RECIPES FOR THE NEW YEAR:

Original inspiration from Peas and Crayons, but recipe by Edible Experiments.

Salted Honey Butter Pop Corn

2012-12-31T14:29:00.001-08:00

I guess we all survived the Mayan Apocalypse, which is good because I wasn’t looking forward to giving birth in a post-apocalyptic world…or dying. And hopefully everyone had a great Christmas, too! I know I enjoyed visiting my family in Idaho (even though I had to fly back to Ohio on Christmas Day). Two big things happened to me since my last post (and I contribute my lack of posting over the holidays to these two things.) First, I crossed a line in my pregnancy. That line between energetic with a cute round belly and completely huge and uncomfortable. I have had a comparably easy pregnancy and I haven’t minded being pregnant one bit, until I crossed that line. It seemed like almost overnight my belly doubled in size, I sprouted an insane amount of stretch marks, and my whole body aches. I only have 6 weeks left until my due date and I am now ready to face labor. I think you have to hit the point where you are completely uncomfortable and live with it for while before you are ready to face the fear of labor and delivery. I have hit the point where getting her out sounds much better than keeping her in.

The second big thing that happened to me is that I got a sewing machine for Christmas! This is a big deal. My husband picked out a really cool computerized Janome (DC1050) with 50 stitches, told me that he believes in me and my abilities to learn something new and be creative, and patiently took me to three different craft stores to pick out some fabric and special scissors. I was so surprised by this present and shocked that he would take such and expensive risk on me, because up until now I have only ever sewn one item with lots of help and supervision. Let me tell you, I have been obsessed with my sewing machine and haven’t even put a thought into cooking . I have been reading different blogs and tutorials online and planning out all the cool things I want to learn how to sew. Make It and Love It is a great blog full of tutorials for beginners. Yesterday, I proudly finished my first solo sewing project. A flannel receiving blanket. And although it is just two squares of fabric and the top stitch is horribly uneven in one section, I am incredibly proud of myself!!! Between my new sewing machine and my “new” body, I haven’t touched a pot or pan since Christmas. Thanks for being patient.

But I thought I should leave you with one final recipe for the year 2012. I consider it a proper New Years Eve recipe for a couple reasons. 1) Popcorn pops and explodes like fireworks. 2) Popcorn kind of looks like snow. 3) It’s a good treat to share at a party. 4) It is sweet, but far healthier than most sweets, just incase you are getting a head start on some of those healthy eating resolutions. 5) It tastes like warm corn bread drizzled with honey butter, which sounds so cozy on a blizzardy day like today. 6) You can stay in your PJ’s until right before tonight’s party because it only takes 5 minutes to make!

Ingredients:

1/2 C. pop corn kernels
2 TBSP. butter, melted
2 TBSP. honey
salt to taste

Directions:

1. Air pop the pop corn kernels. If you don’t have an air popper, pop them on the stove. If you decided to use a microwave packet (only do this as a last resort), make sure it isn’t buttered or salted. You want to be in control of your own flavoring. If all you have it a buttered microwave packet, add the honey first and then taste to see if it needs additional butter and salt.

2. Melt the butter in a microwavable bowl. Add the honey and microwave for about 20 more seconds. Stir together. Drizzle honey butter over the popcorn and toss (I like to use salad tongs to toss around the pop corn) so all the popcorn is evenly coated.

3. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Stop salting when it tastes like warm corn bread spread with honey butter. If you add too much salt the flavor will be overwhelming and you wont be able to taste the honey. If you add too much salt, just pop a little more pop corn and add to the mix. You can also drizzle on more honey butter if you like.

Goodbye 2012. Welcome 2013. See you all next year!!!

Eggnog Cookies

2012-12-15T02:29:00.000-08:00

I have really been trying to get some kind of Christmas cookie posted on this blog, but certain things have been getting in my way. Mostly one thing: baby brain. For starters, I made a really cute, yummy Christmas cookie and gave them all away before I took a picture. Second, I went to the store to get eggnog for these cookies and I bought eggnog flavored coffee creamer (and I must say that they actually taste just fine with the flavored coffee creamer) instead. Yesterday I was late picking up my husband because I couldn’t find my keys anywhere! After tearing apart the house, I found them in the pocket of the coat I was wearing. I almost had a meltdown because I thought my Nook was broken (I can’t live without my Nook!). My husband could see it coming and calmly said, “Can you just wait for 5 seconds before you have your melt down?” He took the Nook from me and plugged it into it’s charger on the wall and it started right up. All I needed to do was charge it, but no. I had to waste 20 minutes searching the web for all the possible reasons why my Nook wouldn’t turn on. I have been rushing around all day trying to get ready for my trip across the country (I’ll probably already be there when this post goes up). I am hoping to bake another set of cookies and post them while I’m at my parents house, but I just can’t guarantee anything at this point. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person. For the most part, I feel completely normal and sharp and mentally capable. That’s when my spacey moments strike: just when I think I’ve got it together.

Now, about the cookies. I’m not sure what people will think of them. Here’s why: you either like eggnog or you don’t. So, the question I keep asking myself is how strong to make the eggnog flavor? I, personally, can’t stand eggnog. So, I kept the eggnog flavor light in this cookie and I thought they were delicious. There is an eggnog after taste, but it isn’t overwhelming. However, if you love eggnog, you might wish the eggnog flavor were a little bit more prominent. Here is my advice: if you are giving these away or taking them to a party, follow the recipe as is. If you are making them for people you know love eggnog, add up to 1/4 C. more eggnog. The dough may be stickier this way, so you may need to add a little bit of flour, adjust the baking time, and use a piping bag instead of a scoop to drop the cookies onto the pan.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

3/4 C. butter, softened
3/4 C. white sugar
1/2 C. brown sugar, packed
1/2 C. eggnog (for a stronger eggnog flavor, read description above)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
dash of ginger (optional)
2 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
Christmas colored sanding sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine spices, flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl. Set aside.

2. Cream together butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks. Beat until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary.

3. Add the flour mixture and beat on low until just combined.

4. Drop tablespoon sized balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Try to get them fairly round. If the dough is too sticky to form round balls, refrigerate it for about 15 minutes. You can also use a piping bag with a large opening hole to drop the cookies onto the pan.

5. Bake for about 10 minutes. Don’t over bake, unless you want them to be crispy. As soon as you pull them out of the oven, sprinkle them with colored sanding sugar. Store in an airtight container or baggie to keep chewy and soft.

Recipe by Edible Experiments (inspired by many different cookie recipes)

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

2012-12-11T19:12:00.001-08:00

I love this casserole! It’s really easy and the Italian flavors really perk up the squash. I will usually tolerate winter squash, but this in this meal I forget that I don’t really like squash. It reminds me of a yummy baked pasta casserole. Just make sure you plan enough time to roast the squash before assembling the casserole (if you are in a pinch, I think you can microwave spaghetti squash). Enjoy another healthy recipe before the holiday binge, but keep watching for some Christmas sweets later this week!

PRINTABLE RECIPES

Ingredients:

1 medium spaghetti squash
1 C. water
1-2 TBSP. olive or canola oil
1 C. chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
8 oz. mushrooms, chopped
1 TBSP. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 medium tomatoes, diced (halved grape tomatoes are really yummy, too)
1 small zucchini, chopped
1/2 bell pepper (any color), chopped
1 C. cottage cheese
1 C. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 C. fresh parsley, minced
2 C. dry bread crumbs, divided
1/4 C. grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Prep squash by slicing it in half length-wise and scooping out the seeds and pulp. Rub a little bit of oil onto the cut surface of the squash. Place both halves, cut side down into a rimmed baking dish. Add the cup of water to the base of the dish. Bake for 45-60 minutes. Once you can easily pierce it with a knife, it’s done. Set it aside to let it cool.

2. While the squash is cooling, let the oil get hot in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until it starts to look translucent. Add the mushrooms, garlic, basil, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cook until the onions and mushrooms are tender, stirring so they don’t burn. Add the zucchini, peppers, and tomatoes and cook until tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. Set aside.

3. Once the squash is cool enough to handle, scoop out the meat of the squash. If it is cooked enough, it should separate into little noodle like strands. In a mixing bowl gently combine the squash, cottage cheese, mozzarella, cooked vegetable mixture, parsley, and 1 cup of the bread crumbs. (I make my own bread crumbs by toasting a two or 3 pieces of bread and then tossing them in my blender.) Taste it and add more salt in pepper if needed.

4. Increase oven to 375 F. Place squash mixture into a casserole dish (2 quart), top with the remaining bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered for about 40 minutes, or until its heated through and the cheese and bread crumbs are golden brown and bubbly.

5. Let it sit for about 10 minutes before scooping out so that the juices can settle. Serve with warm garlic bread.

Recipe adapted from Addicted to Recipes

Mushroom and Spinach Enchiladas

2012-12-07T10:58:00.001-08:00

It’s bad, people. I’m to that point in my pregnancy where my mind wants to nest and get ready for the baby, but my body wants to sit at the computer in my PJ’s all day. I actually want to go on a walk right now, but the only place I want to go is to the gas station down the road to get a snickers bar (As Lauren from Go On would say, “Every bite matters and it tastes like love”). I need to go grocery shopping and the only reason I might actually bring myself to go is so that I can buy some Cocoa Krispies. Why is it that all I crave is candy, ice cream, and sugary cereal? During the first half of my pregnancy, the last thing I wanted was anything sweet. My how the tables have turned (or as Michael Scott would say, “My how the turn tables…”). I gave in the other day and bought a little bag of peach rings. It was heaven. I am confessing my deep dark obsessions with candy and Cocoa Krispies to you, but I do need to also let you know not to be worried about the nutrition of my baby. I very rarely give in to these cravings. A typical morning starts of with a mixture of bran flakes, cheerios, and wheat berry flakes sweetened only by a sliced banana or berries. A typical dinner at my house looks something like this recipe I’m posting today. Full of veggies. I don’t cook with meat very often, but use lots of whole grains, veggies, and beans. This recipe doesn’t really have whole grains or beans, but its chuck full of spinach. You could add shredded chicken if you really wanted.

PRINTABLE RECIPES

Ingredients:

1 lb. mushrooms, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1-2 TBSP. olive or canola oil
3 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1/4 C. chicken broth
12 oz. fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp. seasoning salt, divided
3/4 C. water
3 TBSP. lime juice
1 TBSP. chicken bouillon
1 TBSP. garlic powder
1 1/2 C. light or fat free sour cream
1/2 C. fresh cilantro, minced
12 corn tortillas (6 in.)
1 1/2 C. Monterey Jack cheese
crushed red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large pan, sauté mushrooms and onion in the oil until tender. Add the garlic and cook for about another minute. Take half of the mushroom/onion mixture out of the pan and set aside for later use.

2. To the remaining mushrooms in the pan, add the broth. Cook for a few minutes more. Add 1/4 tsp. seasoning salt and spinach. Cook until the spinach is wilty and the liquid evaporates.

3.Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large pot, bring the water, lime juice, bouillon, garlic powder, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon seasoning salt to a boil. Stir occasionally. Stir in the sour cream, cilantro, and the rest of the set aside mushroom mixture. Cook until hot. Taste and add up to one more tablespoon of lime juice, if you wish.

4. Warm a stack of tortillas for a about 15 seconds in the microwave, or until soft and pliable. Place about 3-4 tablespoons of the spinach mixture down the middle of each tortilla and roll tightly. Place the rolled tortillas, seam down, in a greased 13 x 9 baking dish. Pour the sour cream sauce over the tortillas. Sprinkle with cheese.

5. Bake, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes. It just needs to be hot and the cheese bubbly and crispy. Sprinkle with crushed red pepper flakes, if you don’t mind a little heat.

Recipe inspired by and adapted from Taste of Home Magazine, November 2011.

Easy Corn Bread

2012-12-04T09:28:00.001-08:00

Last week I posted the recipe for Black Bean Soup and if you looked carefully enough, you could see a thick slice of corn bread in the background of the picture. Corn bread is just one of those recipe’s that you should always have up your sleeve to serve on a cold winter day with a hot bowl of soup. The way I see it, there are three different types of cornbread. 1) Sweet cornbread that is pretty much like eating yellow cake and calling it a side dish. 2) Non-sweet corn bread that can be eaten with sweet or savory side kicks. 3) Corn bread with different kinds of mix ins (corn, cheese, peppers, bacon, etc). Although I love cornbread types one and three, today’s recipe is for cornbread number two. It isn’t overly sweet, so you don’t feel like you are eating cake. I like corn bread number two because its versatile. You can sweeten it up with honey, honey butter, or jam. You can also use it to sop up a savory gravy or chili. The best thing is that it is really easy, really fast, and as long as you keep corn meal in your pantry, you probably have all the ingredients in your house at any given time.

PRINTABLE RECIPES

Ingredients:

1 1/4 C. All purpose flour
3/4 C. corn meal
1/4 C. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C. milk
1/4 C. vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix together all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

2. Add the wet ingredients. Mix just until combined. Don’t over mix, just make sure all the dry ingredients are moistened.

3. Grease an 8 inch or 9 inch square baking dish. Pour in the batter. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (mine only took 20 minutes). A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Serve straight out of the oven.

Recipe adapted from Quaker

Healthy Black Bean Soup

2012-11-27T12:16:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I sure did. My husband and I had 3 other couples over for Thanksgiving Dinner and it was delicious! I know everyone is gearing up for Christmas, now. I know there will be another round sweets and feasting before the New Year detox, but I can’t help but feel like I already over did it enough for the rest of the year and next year. With all the pies I made through out the month and a growing baby belly, I am feeling stuffed to the gills (it probably doesn’t help that I just ate a Philly cheese steak, too)! And although I am tempted to run down stairs and make brownies right this very second, I think I need to cut back a little and try to control my consumption of empty calories. At least until I get bit by the Christmas baking bug. So, I share with you today, a recipe for black bean soup that is packed with flavor and nutrition. It is easy to make, it fills you up, and it keeps you full. You could very well make this a vegetarian dish by using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. Or you could go the other way and add crumbled bacon. This is one of my husbands favorite meals!

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 TBSP. vegetable oil
1 large onion, minced
3 celery ribs, chopped thinly
2 –3 carrots, peeled and diced

You can also use a 12 oz. bag of frozen mirepoix veggies instead of the above onions, celery, and carrots.

6 garlic cloves (4 or 5 if your cloves are really big), pressed
4 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
4 (15 oz.) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
4 C. chicken broth or vegetable broth
2 TBSP. fresh lime juice
salt and pepper to taste
chili powder to taste
shredded cheese (for topping)
sour cream (for topping)
tortilla chips (for dipping)

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large stainless steel pot over medium high until it bubbles and crackles when you add a little piece of onion. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and cook until the vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

2. Stir in the garlic, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Add the chicken stock and beans. Bring to a simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes, until the beans are really soft.

3. Use a hand held immersion blender to blend some of the beans until soup is your desired smoothness. If you don’t have a hand held stick blender, just puree about 1 1/2 cups of beans with about 2 cups of the broth in a blender. Add it back to the pot.

4. Stir in the lime juice. Add salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste.

5. Top with sour cream and shredded cheese and serve with tortilla chips. Or serve with corn bread. Recipe by Edible Experiments, but inspired by The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook

A Month of Pie: Fruit and Cream Frozen Cheesecake

2012-11-20T09:46:00.001-08:00

I saved this pie for last because it is pretty much the easiest pie in world to make. If you want just one more pie in your Thanksgiving spread, but you don’t have the time or energy to make one, try this pie. You do need at least enough time to freeze the pie, so I would at least make it the night before the event. This pie is made to be eaten frozen and it isn’t exactly a true cheesecake, but I really didn’t know what to call it. Its basically a graham cracker crust filled with a mixture of fruit juice and cream cheese whipped together, topped with whipped cream and then frozen. You can use any kind of fruit juice concentrate you want. I chose grape because I have a strange obsession with grape juice and cream…together. I know, weird, right? But have you ever had those cream slushes at Sonic? Grape is the best kind! I also have a weird habit when I go to hotels. At the breakfast bar, if they have juice machines, I get a cup of grape juice and empty those little creamer thimbles in my grape juice. It’s so good. My husband thinks I am crazy, but I seriously love grape and cream. You could use orange juice and make this an orange dream-sicle pie. Or you could do pink lemonade, limeade, something tropical, cranberry…the possibilities are endless.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/2 C. graham cracker crumbs
1/4 C. sugar
4 TBSP. butter, melted

Filling:

1 (8 oz.) packet of cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 C. fruit juice concentrate (any flavor)
2 TBSP. lemon juice

Topping:

1 C. whipping cream
3 TBSP. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Make the crust by combining the graham cracker crumbs and sugar in a bowl. Add the melted butter and stir until the crumbs are evenly saturated in butter. Press crumbs into a spring-form pan so they evenly coat the bottom and the sides of the pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Transfer to freezer until you are ready to fill the crust.

2. Make the fruit cream filling: Using the whip attachment, whip the cream cheese in an electric mixer or with a hand held mixer. Once it is smooth, very slowly drizzle in the condensed milk while continuing to mix. Scrape the bowl as you go.

3. Slowly add the fruit juice concentrate and the lemon juice to the cream cheese mixture. Remember, the concentrate is undiluted. Don’t add water to the concentrate. If you would like a more vibrant color, add a few drops of food coloring at this point. I didn’t use any food coloring for the grape variety and I loved the pretty purple it ended up.

4. Pour the fruit cream cheese mixture into the spring form pan, on top of the crust. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap or tin foil and freeze until the filling is slightly stiff on top, or frozen solid. Whip the cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Spread the whipped cream over the fruit juice filling. Freeze until entire pie is firm. I made mine a week ago and it still tasted great today. Just make sure you wrap it tightly so it doesn’t get freezer burned.

5. When ready to serve, release the sides of the spring form pan. Use a warm, wet knife to make smooth cuts in the frozen pie.

All pies from A Month of Pie:

Blackberry Mango Pie
Candy Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie using Homemade Pumpkin Puree
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I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving full of pie!

Recipe adapted from Prepared Pantry