Day 65 - Finally made the Rice Pudding!

Today was definitely a better day. The little Diva has some of her appetite back. She ate almost an ENTIRE banana at breakfast time - something she doesn't even do when she's healthy. She usually loses interest half way through and wants something else to eat. I still kept her diet pretty bland today but she did get little bits of milk throughout the day, some porridge, cheerios, toast, rice crispies and peas and rice for dinner. The hubby is also slowly feeling better - one day behind the little Diva!

I finally got around to making the rice pudding today. I doubled the recipe (12 eggs was quite the sight) and made a few changes. I probably used 2 or 3 extra cups of rice but the recipe is pretty flexible as far as quantities go.


Ingredients:
3 Cups of Rice
2 Cups of Milk
1 tablespoon butter (15ml)
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
1 Cup of Sugar
1 tablespoon syrup (15ml)
6 eggs
2 tsp baking powder (10ml)
Cinnamon for top

Place milk, rice, butter,nutmeg and syrup in a pot. Warm until butter is completely melted.

Beat sugar and eggs lightly together.

Mix everything together. Pour into greased Pyrex dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake in 320 degree oven for 60 minutes.ption

ENJOY!!

Day 64 - Rice pudding...

I am moving my rice pudding plans till tomorrow. I was at the drugstore late last night picking up Pepto and ginger ale for the hubby and as can be imagined today was not a very productive one. Neither the hubby nor the little Diva were too happy.

The poor little Diva is still not herself and asked for at least a thousand hugs today. She has needed lots of snuggles and as a result I have spent a good chunk of time in bed or on the couch watching Treehouse with her. I have enjoyed the snuggles but would have enjoyed them more if the poor little girl didn't have to be sick!

The little Diva really doesn't know what she wants: as soon as you pick her up she wants to go down and as soon as we're downstairs she wants to go up! It's so hard seeing her sick - I'd gladly be sick in her place but unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

I've spent the day hoping and praying that my immune system stays strong and so far I have been lucky. I am washing my hands like crazy and being super careful not to touch my face. There's a little voice in the back of my head whispering that I might be tempting fate by typing that I'm still fine...

Anywho I need to go get some rest - hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

Day 63- Rice Pudding!

So today was a pretty low key day. The little Diva is still not 100% but at least there was no throwing up today. She is pretty cranky but I'm hoping that she will have her appetite back tomorrow. She ate a few crackers, some banana and drank a fair amount of pedialyte and 2% milk so all in all it was a good day. We spent our time watching tv - reading books and generally trying not to get too high energy. I did a tonne of laundry today and am hopeful that I have cleaned every barfy item!

Dadoos and Dadda came over for supper and we ate Chinese food. After getting to sleep after 2am last night neither the hubby nor I was in a "preparing food" mood and so we ordered in. There was a bit of miscommunication - and I ended up making a pot of plain rice for the little Diva. The supper came with plain rice in addition to the chicken friend rice we ordered and I now have a HUMONGOUS amount of rice. Unless we eat rice as the main part of every meal for the next week we are not going to be able to eat this all. Yes I am taking rice for breakfast.

Before you think I'm complaining - rest assured I am not! There is no better excuse to make rice pudding than too much rice :D I remember as a kid hoping that my mom had made too much rice and had enough leftovers to make this. I need to pick up eggs in the morning and then I will be baking up a batch of this. I'm thinking I'm going to need to double the recipe though. Enjoy :)

Ingredients:
3 Cups of Rice
2 Cups of Milk
1 tablespoon butter (15ml)
1 Cup of Sugar
1 tablespoon syrup (15ml)
6 eggs
2 tsp baking powder (10ml)

To Do:
Place milk, rice, butter and syrup in a pot. Warm until butter is completely melted. Beat sugar and eggs lightly together. Mix everything together. Pour into greased Pyrex dish. Bake in 320 degree oven for 60 minutes.

Day 62 - MIA

We had a crazy day with a pretty sick Little Diva - I will be back to type later :)

Day 61 - Diet approved Mac and Cheese

Here's a quick and diet approved recipe for Mac and Cheese (well it's approved for the diet we are following :))

Ingredients to serve 4:
120g uncooked macaroni
5ml salt
500ml skim milk
40g wholewheat flour
50ml water
100g grated cheddar cheese low fat
1 onion chopped finely and fried
1 tomato chopped
10ml fresh or dry parsley chopped
5ml mustard powder
2ml salt
5ml ground black pepper
Bread Crumbs and Italian spice mix to garnish

To Do:
Cook macaroni in well salted water for 15-20 minutes. Heat the milk over low heat. Mix the flour, water and half of the warm milk to form a smooth paste. Add paste to the rest of the warm milk in the pan and continue to cook over low heat - mix in cheese, mustard powder, parsley, onions, tomato, salt and pepper. Boil and stir until sauce thickens. Stir in macaroni and place in well greased backing dish. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and Italian spice if desired and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Day 60 - Baked Beans

Whew - what a day! It started out at 6:30am - apparently this is the Little Diva's new start time now! We were supposed to get a giant winter storm overnight and into this morning so I was a little concerned that the drive to Granny's was going to be a little slippery. Well the storm didn't really arrive at all and instead the little Diva and I had a lovely uneventful ride in some rain.

We spent a little time at Granny's hanging out with her,  cousin L, and Misty the cat. Once everyone was ready we went to Cora's for a lovely breakfast with sis-in-law M and her two awesome kiddies. We stopped by Chapters on the way back to Granny's and I picked up, "A Perfect Blood" by Kim Harrison. I LOVE this series!!

Another stop at Walmart and we were back at Granny's for some tea, a snack and the little Diva and I went home to daddy. I discovered that she has got over her issue with baked beans. I didn't take too many out of the pot to cool down for her because she usually "chews" on maybe 5 and spits them out. She took me by surprise when she methodically ate them one by one and demanded "MORE". Unfortunately Mommy and Daddy had eaten the rest of them and I was truly lucky that she was in the mood for some yogurt.

I am now on the look out for a GOOD slow cooker recipe for baked beans. I'm guessing they will taste better than the canned variety (which we do enjoy) so it can only be a plus.

Here's to an AMAZING weekend for everyone. Happy Cooking and Baking :)

Day 59 - Sweet Potato (yams) and all kinds of yummy!

Okey dokey so before I fall asleep on my keyboard let me get this out. First of all when I say "Sweet potato's" - I really mean those orange yam things. I am NOT a fan of the white sweet potatoes. There's just something about their flavour that doesn't really sit so well with me :)

So yes - grab and orange yam and peel it. Now slice it into rounds or smaller. Lay these in a greased oven proof dish. You can let them overlap. Sprinkle these with cinnamon, ginger, honey and a blob of butter. Cover with foil and cook in a 350 degree oven until almost done - approximately 30minutes (will depend on how thick your slices were). Uncover and grill for a few minutes. Enjoy as a side with you favourite protein!

Day 58 - Rooibos Tea

If you are South African or know a South African you have probably heard of Rooibos tea. I find that people tend to either love or hate it - and yes I'm sure there are some "on-the-fence-ers" but for the sake of this post I'm going to pretend they don't exist! Anywho - so yes you do need to try Rooibos. You can buy it at most grocery stores now. I would suggest avoiding the ones with vanilla added until you've tasted what it is supposed to taste like.

Once you have the teabags boil a kettle of water. Pop the teabag in a mug and pour the water over it. Leave to steep for a few minutes. You can add milk, sugar or honey or even nothing at all. Why not experiment. I find that it is really yummy with just a little honey. I also enjoy drinking it with milk.

Enjoy :)

Day 57 - Ground Chicken!

So I made a ground chicken recipe yesterday and then used the leftovers today to make wraps - yum yum yummy! I'm not going to spend too much time typing. I went to Pilate's tonight and lets just say that I probably won't be able to move tomorrow! I can already feel my arms, legs, and abdominal muscles crying. Don't get me wrong though - it is a good pain; a definite, "I did a workout pain". Now to keep up the walking until my next class.

Ok so I used approximately 500g of ground chicken. What I did was fry up some onion and garlic in a pan with a little oil. I then added approximately 2 cups of peas, and 2 cups of mixed frozen veggies. I cooked these a little while and added the meat. I mixed this all well and added approximately 2 tablespoons of Montreal Chicken Spice. You really can just use your favourite spice as long as it goes with chicken. I continued  cooking until the vegetables were soft and the meat was cooked. I served this over quinoa - it was super yummy!

Day 56 - Family Day Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and a Playdate!

We had a lovely day today. It started out pretty darn early though - I have to thank the Little Diva for the 3:30am snuggles. She was kind enough to snooze until 8am after that though so this mommy got a little more sleep. At 8am The Little Diva and I went down for breakfast and then back upstairs to snuggle in bed with Daddy and watch a few episodes of her favourite show. I then made a batch of Oatmeal raisin cookies and after the little Diva had her nap we patiently waited for her little friend "A" to arrive with her mommy and daddy for a coffee/play-date.

The doorbell rang at one point and all three of us excitedly went to greet our guests only to be met by a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses. I hope they weren't too hurt when they saw my face go from "happy expectation" to "Oh dammit it's you guys again" to a "non-committal non-threatening not too too interested expression". Don't get me wrong I do appreciate what these folks are doing. They believe their faith calls them to knock on doors and spread the word and god bless them and their tenacity because I'm sure they get a LOT of doors slammed in their faces. If they weren't two dear "Grandma" looking individuals I probably would be less likely to listen to their 5 minutes spiel and accept their reading material. This time I get to read about why "Armageddon" isn't something to fear... super cheerful...Anywho so yes - I need to install and actually start using a peephole.

Right so moving on a few minutes later our guests arrived. We had a great afternoon. At one point the little Diva was eating a cookie when her little friend  scootched closer - opened her mouth for a bite and when she realized the little Diva hadn't notice her attempt to get some cookie simply took the whole thing. The little Diva stood there with an incredulous expression on her face as "A" tucked into her cookie and looking at daddy said, "Coooooookie!!!" She soon had a replacement cookie and both little girls were happy again!

They had a blast and I'm happy to report that they pretty much ate all of the cookies crumbs that ended up spread through the living room. The Roomba is going to feel a little hungry after his morning run tomorrow!

I actually lifted and vacuumed under my couch cushions several day ago and was horrified by what I found in there. I was expecting the cheerios and crispies...

but cheese?

Seriously?

CHEESE?

When did the little Diva eat shredded cheese on the couch. I don't recall this happening but I guess the proof speaks for itself. :)

Anywho that was another exciting day in the life of a parental to a little Diva. Before I head off to dream land here is the recipe I used to make the cookies. I added almost a cup worth of raisins and topped that up with white chocolate chips. The only reason I did that was because I didn't have enough raisins! Here as always is the text recipe right off the website:

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup quick cooking oats or walnuts

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with a large fork dipped in sugar.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Day 55 - Baked Vegetables

This family Day weekend is going swell! We had another lovely day with Granny, Grandpa, cousin "L", Aunt and Uncle "M" and Cousin's "E" and "B". I can't believe the first week of my cousin's visit has already come and gone. The little Diva and I are really looking forward to going shopping with her and Granny next week.

Anywho, I have a million and one things to get done tonight so let me leave you with a quick and easy vegetable dish recipe.

Grab a Pyrex dish and add a little olive oil. Make sure it is spread along the bottom. Into this dish add an assortment of chopped (fresh or frozen) vegetables. Butternut is a MUST! A great combination also includes onion,  mushrooms, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers and carrots. Sprinkle a veggie spice of your choice over the top (one with rosemary and olive is delicious!), cover with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until the veggies are cooked to your liking.

Day 54 - Recipe for a Happy Life

We had a good day today. It started with me breaking the garbage bin in the kitchen. AND no I didn't kick it -I simply stepped on the peddle and the metal pulled out and snapped. Also, NO I do not have enormous feet!

While we were out trying to replace said garbage bin my mom called me to let us know they were planning to go for Sushi. We ended up tagging along and had a great afternoon. We ended the day with coffee and apple tart at my bro and sis-in-law "M's" house. Yum! All in all it was a perfect day and we did in fact find a new bin at our stop on the way home.

The little Diva went to bed fairly early and I quickly popped out to grab some groceries. I didn't do any new cooking today so I will leave you with this cute little "recipe" I found online:

Recipe For A Happy Life

One cup of Confidence
One cup of Love
In a pan of Happiness
Mix the above.

Add a pinch of Tenderness
A tablespoon of Truth
Stir well in the Sunshine
Roll out a loving Trust

Flour well with Contentment
Keep all free from Strife
Fill with Understanding
And bake well all your Life

Day 53 - Quick Fry steak with mushroom sauce!

Okey dokey - so here's the plan! You go out and grab a couple of those quick fry steaks and IF you don't already have one - GET A MEAT MALLET.

Ok so we are ready to start. Get out a chopping board and lay some plastic wrap on it. Place the steak(s) on top of the wrap and add another layer or wrap. Now BEAT the crap out of the meat with your shiny new mallet. The cling wrap basically keeps your house from looking like an episode of CSI!

Great now that the meat is beat (ha ha - look a rhyme) - you simply add a little oil or butter to a pan. let it warm up. Add some salt and pepper to either side of the steak and fry it to your desired "done-ness".

If you like a mushroom sauce you should have grabbed a pan before frying the steaks. Chop up and fry some onions, mushrooms and garlic. Add a sprinkle or two of spice mix - Italian works well, a little mustard powder only adds to the flavour. Once it is nicely fried add a cup of milk. Mix a heaped teaspoon of cornstarch in a little water or milk and once dissolved add to the milk and mushroom mix. Stir this until it begins to boil. Reduce head and simmer for a few minutes. Serve with steak, veggies and starch of choice. We went with Rice and asparagus.

I am SUPER happy that is it Friday night and that we have a long weekend to look forward to! Happy Baking and Cooking everyone :)

Day 52 - Second Cup's White Hot Chocolate!

So the little Diva and I had a lovely morning. We spent it with my cousin "L". We didn't do too much in the line of exciting things. We spent some time at Granny's house drinking tea while the little Diva tucked into a blueberry muffin and some puffs. Then we spent some time at the grocery store and then home to try and convince the little Diva to take her nap. This took a ridiculous amount of time but she finally did! Cousin L and I watched "Something Borrowed" and had a lovely chat. Then all too quickly the afternoon was over - CRAZY how time flies. We didn't really get to baking or cooking today so I'm going to leave you with one of my all time favourite warm drinks (other than coffee) - Second Cup's White Hot Chocolate! Simply boil the kettle - add three heaped teaspoons of the powder to a cup - add hot water, them milk to top, stir and ENJOY!!!

Day 51 - Healthy Lunch

Okey dokey - so I just got back from the dentist... my face is still frozen and I'm feeling ever so sorry for myself. I had to have an old filling redone - apparently there was a cavity under it. I had however experienced no pain until they began to drill. The skeptic in me questions if it was truly necessary....I should have asked to see the damn x-ray lol Any who I was not impressed when the dentist administered the freezing shot and immediately began drilling. Naturally I made a noise that sounded like someone screaming into a sock. They stopped and waited the 5 freaking minutes we should have waited in the first place. The rest of the procedure was pretty uneventful.

So yes lets fast-forward to recipe time. Hmmm... healthy lunch. My plan for lunch tomorrow includes a healthy sandwich - with a little mayo and mustard, a slice of chicken breast, tomato, lettuce and onion. I'll add a little baggie of cut veggies: carrots, cucumbers, pepper. Throw in some cut fruit and a small yogurt and you're good to go :)

Day Freaking 50!!! - Chocolate Chip cookies!

CAN ya'all freaking believe it?!

I have officially blogged every day for 50 days in a row. YAY me!!

The little Diva and I had a lovely morning hanging out with my mom and my cousin. The Little Diva was at first pretty weary of the new person at Granny's house - but she soon came around. I'm pretty confident that they will be GREAT friends by the next time we get together.

Ok so I'm pretty close to my midnight deadline and I'd HATE for day 50 to be the one where I don't get my post out so lets get on with the recipe. I'm going to share the chocolate chip recipe I made for the Hubby's birthday. Here is the recipe I tried.

The only changes I made was to omit the walnuts altogether and instead of 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips I used two cups of assorted chips. Semi-sweet, dark and white.

Hope you make and enjoy them - and here is the text version:

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
3. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

Day 49 - Spicy beef burgers!

Okey dokey so as promised here is a recipe for Spicy beef burger patties. I apologize that it isn't in exact measurements but this is how I tend to cook. I am never too coherent when people ask for my recipes.... not because I don't want to share but because I usually have only a vague idea of EXACTLY what went into the meal. Generally baking is better than cooking though if you're going to ask for a recipe from me :D.

I tend to cook by taste and guestimation. I guestimate and if it doesn't taste right I'll tweak things. So here are the things you need to make the patties. You simply mix everything together, shape into patties and fry, or grill them in, or on top of the oven - or if it's not freezing out there you can attempt to BBQ! I did mine in the oven for 30minutes at 350 degrees - I poured off the liquid that cooked off twice and then grilled them for approximately 5 minutes in the oven. They turned out super yummy - if I do say so myself!

Ingredients to mix together:
Ground beef (aprox :1250g)
Finely chopped onion (2)
Cilantro finely chopped (handful)
Mint finely chopped (less than the cilantro)
Green Chilli's (3 jalapeno worked well)
salt and pepper to taste
red chili powder  (1/2 tsp)
coriander powder (1 tsp)
Shan Masala - seek kabob spice (I used the whole box)
lemon juice (aprox 45ml)
1 egg

Anywho I'm going to call it a night. The little Diva only got to bed at 9:45pm. I took her for the second half of her flu shot today and she only ended up napping at 4pm... so it was a super long day with a super messed up schedule. I'm hoping tomorrow goes better. I'm super excited - one of my cousins from South Africa is visiting! If the Little Diva is up early enough and is cheery enough we plan to pop in to Granny's to have breakfast with her and my cuz!

Day 48 - Food, food and more FOOD!!

So the hubby's birthday party went really well - we ate way too much! Grandpa bought delicious milk-tart, Dadoos bought potato patties, Aunty M bought a delicious salad. I will write more tomorrow and share the recipe for the spicy burgers we made! Until tomorrow - best wishes for all and apologies for the shortness of this post - Spartacus is on! :D

Day 47 - Strawberry Cheesecake!

Mmmm - so I baked the cheesecake for my hubby's birthday today. It's currently sitting in the fridge cooling down for it's big moment tomorrow. The cake did crack a little but I was aware that I over beat it. When I added the eggs I realized my mixer had left a little  of the cream cheese on the bottom of the bowl and I beat it a little faster to make sure it was properly mixed. Oh well... it still looks good and hopefully tomorrow we will find out that it tastes good. I am a little concerned that the base might be a bit sweet but we will be reporting back tomorrow after tasting it. Also I'll show you a photo of what the cake looks like inside!

I added half a teaspoon of vanilla essence to the crust because more than one reviewer suggested this. I also used a 600g bag of frozen strawberries and added 45ml of sugar. I couldn't find sweetened frozen strawberries - other than that I followed the recipe.


I used this recipe. The reviews were mostly positive and so I decided this was the one I was going to try. Here is the text recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen sweetened strawberries, thawed
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon water

Directions

1. Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Press onto the bottom of an ungreased 9-in. springform pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. In a blender or food processor, combine strawberries and cornstarch; cover and process until smooth. Pour into a saucepan; bring to a boil. Boil and stir for 2 minutes. Set aside 1/3 cup strawberry sauce; cool. Cover and refrigerate remaining sauce for serving. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in milk. Add lemon juice; mix well. Add eggs, beat on low just until combined. Pour half of the cream cheese mixture over crust. Drop half of the reserved strawberry mixture by 1/2 teaspoonfuls onto cream cheese layer. Carefully spoon remaining cream cheese mixture over sauce. Drop remaining strawberry sauce by 1/2 teaspoonfuls on top. With a knife, cut through top layer only to swirl strawberry sauce. Bake at 300 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight. Remove side of pan. Thin chilled strawberry sauce with water if desired; serve with cheesecake. Store in the refrigerator.

Day 46 - BEST chocolate icing EVER!!

Okey smokey so I did promise you a recipe for frosting aka icing today. I don't have much time to blog up a storm this evening and I'm sure tomorrow will be worse - the hubby's birthday is tomorrow and we're having a family get together on Sunday so I'm going to be busy cleaning and baking tomorrow! I will have a bunch of fun new recipes to share for sure so hang in there :)

Ingredients for icing:

1 cup (8 ounces) room temperature unsalted butter
2½ cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted and left to cool cooled

To do:
Whip this all together in a mixer until light and fluffy. If you need to put this in the fridge - let it come to room temperature before beating again and them using. I used half milk chocolate and half dark chocolate chips. This icing is AMAZING!

Happy baking everyone :)

Day 45 - Chocolate Spice Cake!

The hubby's birthday is on Saturday so I thought I'd make some cupcakes to send to work with him tomorrow. This plan worked REALLY well with providing fodder for blogging as well :D I decided to use my mom's Spice Cake recipe because it is AWESOME. I have to share what the recipe I use looks like with all of you. There it is over to the right --->

My recipe is a photocopy of the handwritten page out of one of my mom's recipe books! What I love about my copy is that is is OBVIOUSLY well used and loved! I need to get it into a plastic sleeve before I lose it all-together. At least I have a digital copy now.

I won't share a photo of the finished cupcakes tonight simply because I haven't iced them yet. The icing is a super delicious recipe I found online and I will be sharing that tomorrow. So hang in there! If you're not in the mood for cupcakes - by all means bake this recipe into a cake :) That's how it was intended!! I will type out the recipe below so it's easier to see.

Ingredients:
2 Cups Flour
2 Cups Sugar
4 Eggs
1/4 lb butter
4 tsp Baking Powder
3 tsp Mixed Spice
2 tsp Vanilla Essence
4 tbls cocoa
1 cup boiling water
pinch of salt

Cream sugar and eggs. Sieve the flour, baking powder, cocoa, spice and salt into egg mix. Fold in with a spatula. Melt the butter in 1 cup of boiling water. Add to the other ingredients and fold in gently until mixed. You can either pour this into two greased and floured cake pans or you can pour it into cupcake cups.

To bake the cake: 375 degrees for 35 minute
To bake cupcakes: 375 degrees for approximately 16minutes

Day 44 - Carrot and Pineapple Muffins!

Okey dokey so I made muffins yesterday. I had leftover pineapple that needed to be used and so I decided to whip up a batch of Carrot and pineapple muffins. The only thing I did differently to the recipe was that I used chucks instead of crushed pineapple and I added a half cup of the pineapple juice to the recipe.

My muffins turns out light and fluffy - they collapsed slightly on top they were so light. If you've ever had pineapple upside down cake; these reminded me of that! Yummers! I used this recipe and would highly recommend it - I imagine they would be delicious without my changes as well.

The Little Diva loves these - she gave her daddy kiss after kiss as he let her basically steal his entire muffin! It was too cute and she was only too happy to share a second muffin with him too.

We had a busy day today and a not entirely great night of sleep last night so I'm going to say goodnight now. Hopefully we all get some sleep tonight!

As always here is the print version of the recipe if you're not into clicking links!

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• ²⁄₃; cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup grated carrots
• 1 cup drained crushed pineapple

Directions

1. Stir together sugar and oil.
2. Stir in the eggs until well combined.
3. Stir in vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
5. Stir into sugar mixture just until combined.
6. Stir in carrots and pineapple just until combined.
7. Spoon into greased muffin tin, filling to top.
8. Bake in a preheated 375F oven for 20 minutes or until done.
9. Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a rack to finish cooling.

Day 43 - Crispies are not a good muffin ingredient...

So I made muffins today. I used a zucchini bread recipe that came with my bread machine. The original recipe called for raisins and walnuts. The little Diva isn't a fan of raisins and I'm not a fan of big chocking hazards. I decided to use rice crispies instead of these two ingredients. Once I added them though the batter was pretty dry and I added a half cup of milk. In hindsight I probably should have skipped the milk. The muffins didn't turn out gross - but they were not the best either! I really should just have added some oats and coconut. But hey - if I hadn't tried it I wouldn't know :)

So yes - there's my cooking tip of the day - Rice Crispies are not a good muffin ingredient!

Day 42 - Chocolate Crunchies

The Little Diva and I had a BLAST this morning. We went to a group specifically for toddlers. I wasn't too sure that she would be able to do the craft but she proved me wrong. She was AMAZING with the glue stick! I'm thinking there will be lots of cutting and pasting in our future. She was SUPER impressed when this new group had SNACK TIME. She loved her tiny little cup of juice and fish crackers. She was however not convinced she had received enough fishies. Luckily I was able to distract her before she had a mini tantrum!

The rest of the day went by in a blur of laundry, episodes of Thomas, book reading, a brief baking stint and a walk outside. I made cookies that my mom used to make quite often when I was a kid. They tasted EXACTLY how I remembered. Aaah reminiscing about my childhood is always a good moment :) Thank you mom (and dad of course!) I was so happy that the Little Diva loved these cookies too - in fact she was so happy with these cookies that she actually giggled.

If you have access to South Africa or a South African OR a South African store - make sure you actually use PRONUTRO! It is a breakfast cereal that is super yummy. I currently have a stash thanks to my little sister's visit! I will definitely be getting more when I run out. So yes you can use flour instead of pronutro but I'd advise using it if you can get it.

I made the mistake of icing my cookies a little too soon - ie right out of the oven and instead of having a lovely icing layer it sort of melted into the crunchie. They still taste divine but they are not 100% perfect. So WAIT a few minutes before putting the icing on. ENJOY!!

Ingredients:
To make crunchie part:

EAT ME!!

1 Cup flour (1/2 pronutro + 1/2 flour)
1 Cup oats
1 Cup coconut
1tsp baking powder
2 tbs cocoa
1/2 cup sugar
125g margarine

to make icing:
1 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup water

Mix all dry ingredients together. Melt the margarine in the microwave or in a pot. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix well. Press into a greased Pyrex dish. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. Ice while still warm. WARM and not piping hot!! Let it cool while you mix the icing.

To create the icing simply mix the icing sugar, cocoa and water. Mix these well and then spread over the cookies. Let the icing dry and then cut the crunchies into squares. You can also simply use melted chocolate on top.

Day 41 - Birthday plans :)

So the Hubby's birthday is just around the corner - and I am currently searching for a drool worthy strawberry cheesecake recipe. I'm thinking I"ll go with a baked cheesecake - they generally turn out fantastic! Stay tuned for that blog later this week :)

I have "Bad Teacher" playing in the background and can't help but giggle to myself every now and then. QUIETLY of course - the Little Diva is fast asleep. We had a fun day with her today - we spent some time this morning running around out front. She had a ball and chased after every bird that even dared to tweet a teeny little peep! There's nothing like fresh air to make for GREAT naps! I am looking forward to the days warming up a little so we can get out and about for walks more often. Our little Diva definitely likes the outdoors - makes this mommy super happy!!

We have another busy week ahead of us and hopefully I find time to try a new recipe or two and blog about it! Best wishes to everyone - have a GREAT week!!

Day 40 - Yster Varkies!

Whew - We have hit day 40! And even though I technically haven't shared a recipe (per se) every singly post I have at least mentioned food. That has to count right? RIGHT? Ok I'm going to pretend I heard a loud resounding YES and I'll get on with my mindless Internet babbling. I do wonder every so often if people are reading my blog regularly and my stat counter seems to say yes. So to you frequent visitors, "Hello again" and to the newbies in the back we hope you pop by on a regular basis! I can't always guarantee that my posts will be sunshine and roses but I will attempt to entertain :)

My day started out FABULOUSLY! The hubby watched the little Diva and got her down for her nap while mommy went for a long overdue massage. My massage therapist is great and although massaging my shoulders felt a little more "torture-ey" than relaxing at times it was totally worth it. I left there with my shoulders at least a foot lower than they were when I walked in there. If you've never been for a professional massage I fully recommend it!

We had a lovely day - the little Diva just gets cuter and cuter every day. Her new favourite snack is "crispies". She LOVES rice crispies and although they do tend to land all over the floor I can't not let her have them. Seeing the delight on her face when she asks for them and Mommy understands and gives her a little bowl with crispies in them just warms my heart. She is too cute marching off with her bowl to go crunch her crispies with JubJub on the couch. Thanks to the Little Diva we discovered that Gah's cat too loves rice crispies. We and by "we' I mean "I" spent the afternoon yesterday scouring the floor at granny's for crispies while trying to fend of the cutest little crispie sucker - Misty! The Little Diva's contribution was to say "OOOH NOO!" after she dropped them and repeatedly while I picked them up... lol she is too freaking adorable :D

Too too much fun :) I really do love my life! It's an amazing privilege to get to watch the Little Diva grow up first hand. Anywho before I get too mushy let me share a recipe! I used to make these soo soo often when I was a kid - The name "Yster Varkies" means hedge hog and they sort of look like these hence the name :) I didn't actually make them today but will have to update with a photo if I make them any time soon.

Enjoy!!

Boil these together for 5 minutes once everything has melted:
2 cups sugar
1/4 lb margarine (125g)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk

Remove from heat and add:
3 cups oats
1 cup coconut
1tsp vanilla essence
1 cup raisins (Optional - I usually didn't add these)

Put spoonfuls onto parchment or wax paper and allow to cool - ENJOY!

Day 39 - Sunset Griddle!

The little Diva, my mommers and I had a yummy pancake breakfast at Sunset Griddle today. We mostly ended up buying instead of making breakfast because the Little Diva and I managed to leave SUPER early and the stores we wanted to shop at weren't even open yet - a MIRACLE!! hehe Anywho - We had a lovely day with Granny and even got to see Grandpa before we set off back for home! I don't really have anything more to type other than - Check out Sunset Griddle!

Stay tuned for more exciting blogs this weekend!

Day 38 - Wheat Free Brownies

I actually made these brownies yesterday. We shared some with Aunty M, cousin E and B and then we took them with to Dadoos and Dadda's as well. Gah visited today and she got to taste them too! The little Diva is definitely a fan of these. They were super decadent and you really can't eat too many of them! I was actually one egg short so I substituted half a banana and 1/4 tsp of baking soda. I also only put in 3/4 cup chocolate chips and you could totally get away with using 1/2 a cup or probably even omitting them all together! Hope you enjoy them too - just remember if you need them to be gluten free - ensure that each of the individual ingredients are gluten free :)

about to go in the oven!

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
6 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

YUMMY!

 

Method:

Set oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in pan and stir in cocoa powder to form smooth paste. Remove from stove and let cool. In a separate bowl mix eggs, sugar and vanilla. Blend this into the cocoa mixture. Stir in the coconut flour until the batter has no lumps. Add the chocolate chips if you are using them. Bake in a greased 8X8 Pyrex dish for 30 - 35 minutes. Let cool, cut into squares and enjoy!!

Day 37 - Pizza Base from SCRATCH!

So my lovely Sis-in-Law "M" visited today with her lovely kiddies E and B :) We had a wonderful day and the Little Diva enjoyed playing with her cousins - we had one mini meltdown when cousin B was playing with the Little Diva's Thomas the Tank engine. When the waterworks started he hurried Thomas over and after a few sniffles all was forgiven!

We had a wonderful time and then it was over to Dadoos and Dadda for dinner. The Little Diva had a blast there too especially when her cousin R shared his iPod her her... Our kids are such technology superstars! It's only a matter of time before they've mastered teleportation and they're laughing at us because we're old fuddy duddy's who push the wrong button and end up in the wrong time zones.... potentially spliced and in need of technical support!

hehe so yes - hopefully that is still AGES away. For now I want to share a pizza base recipe that has been our family recipe for pretty much as long as I've owned "Cooking is Fun" by Margaret Ramsbottom. This has got to be one of the coolest starter cookbooks EVER. I was super thrilled to bond over the book with my sis-in-law! What are the odds that she had and also still has the same recipe book as a kid. AWESOME - just FREAKING AWESOME!!

Ok so now that I've used up my allotted capital letters for this blog let me wind it down before we hit midnight and I miss my deadline. I decided to make pizza for lunch and after checking with M discovered that her kiddies like pineapple, cheese and bread and butter pickles on their pizza! It turned out to be an AWESOME combination (eek over on my caps!). I did also put tomato paste on the base as well as a sprinkle of Italian spices. I put down the grated cheese and then added the pineapple and pickles on top of the cheese.

The reason for this was mostly because I couldn't open the pickle jar. I kept hoping M would arrive and be able to open it for me. Eventually all other layers were on the pizza and I HAD to get the jar open. I whacked it a few times with a butter knife and miraculously it opened! Yay... so yes without further ado - here is the pizza base recipe. I ALWAYS double it :)

Ingredients:
45 ml butter or margarine
375 ml (1 1/2 Cups) Self-raising flour
pinch of salt
125 ml (1/2 Cup) milk

To Do:
Set oven to 350 degrees F. Rub the butter into the flour and salt until it resembles bread crumbs (you can do this in a mixer). Add the milk and mix to a soft dough (you can do this in a mixer as well). Grease a pizza tray and either roll out the dough with a rolling pin or do what I do ---> Break pieces of dough off and push into the tray until you have an even and full base.

Add tomato paste and ingredients to your taste and then simply bake the pizza for 20 - 30 minutes.

Enjoy :)