Homemade Playdough

This playdough used by my son's preschool.  It works really well....not too dry, too wet, too sticky, etc.  A keeper!  :)

1/2 C salt
1 C flour
1 TBSP cream of tartar
1 TBSP oil
1 C water
food coloring



Combine ingredients in a saucepan.  Heat gently, stirring constantly.  When the dough has a good consistency, take it off the heat and allow to cool.  If you want to make different colors of dough, divide the dough and add a few drops of food coloring to each dough ball; knead until color is distributed.

*I added the food coloring to the water portion and made several batches of different colors.

**Also, if the dough is too sticky, keep it on the heat and keep stirring!  You did not measure wrong, just keep stirring on the heat.  I also took the pot off the heat and kneaded with my hands (after it cooled a touch).   I made the mistake of adding more flour because I thought the measurements were off.  After reading reviews online, I realized I had just had to keep it on the heat a bit longer!

Photo Source here

Easy Cheese Ball

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

2 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 (1 ounce) package Ranch dressing mix

1 1/2 C chopped pecans

In a medium size bowl, mash cream cheese. Mix dressing mix and Cheddar cheese into the cream cheese. Shape the mixture into a ball. Roll the ball in the chopped nuts. Refrigerate covered until ready to serve. Yum!  

Mel's Note:

*You may need to refrigerate mixture for a few hours after mixing ingredients, as the mixture may be too soft to make into a ball unless it has had time to harden again.  

 Recipe and Photo Source: All Recipes

Fresh Lemonade

One of the great things about living in the tropics is the abundance of fresh fruit trees. I picked several lemons straight off a tree and made this delicious lemonade. I'm not sure how many lemons you'd need exactly, as they vary in size and how much juice they give. Another Foodnetwork recipe I saw said 12 lemons, but the ones I was juicing were smaller so I needed more. Delicious!!

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1 cup hot water
2 cups fresh lemon juice
1 gallon cold water
1 lemon, sliced
Mint sprigs, for garnish



Directions

In a 1 gallon container, place sugar and hot water, and stir until sugar dissolves. Add lemon juice and cold water to render 1 gallon. Stir until well mixed. Pour lemonade over glasses of ice, squeeze slice of lemon on top of each, and garnish with a sprig of mint.

Recipe and Photo Source: The Food Network

Frosted Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Bars

So, when it comes to desserts, I'm a pretty lazy. Bars are the best invention ever because they take way less time and usually taste about the same. I'm just waaaayyyy too lazy to roll out sugar cookies and these taste just like them without the fancy shapes. There is value in doing it cookie-cutter style, but unless its Christmas or Valentine's Day, count me out. Thanks Mandy for the recipe!

Source: Cooking With Mandy

Frosted Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Bars
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3-5 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
food coloring

Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and egg until frothy, about 4-5 minutes. Add vanilla and almond extract and beat for 1 minute more.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix well. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat for about 2 minutes. Pour the dough into a greased cookie sheet. Spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges. Cool completely before frosting.

To make frosting, combine butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl or stand mixer. Beat for 2 minutes. Add powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, almond extract, and food coloring. Mix for 1-2 minutes or until smooth. Frost cookies. Cut into bars and enjoy!

Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

When we first moved into our home, a neighbor delivered fresh, hot, pumpkin doughnut muffins as a "welcome to the neighborhood" gift.

It. Was. Heavenly.

And you can believe I've never forgotten them.

Fast forward two years and here are two ways of making delicious, pumpkin doughnut muffins:

Option 1:

I am in the process of getting ready to move, so I have been doing my best to use up any and all food we have left in our house. I was asked to bring mini muffins to an event recently and I didn't want to go to the store for any ingredients. Then I remembered the pumpkin pie filling in the pantry I had been trying to use up. And THEN I remembered the delicious pumpkin doughnut muffins from the neighbor and thought I may be able to recreate them so I could use the pumpkin pie filling. I kept trying to find recipes that used the pie filling in a muffin recipe, but every recipe I came across used pumpkin puree, not pie filling. I then stumbled upon a recipe (somewhere I can't find now) where they used only two ingredients to make their muffins-yellow cake mix and pumpkin pie filling. Say what?! No eggs, oil, or anything else was needed. Sa-weet!!! I happened to have both in my pantry :) I mixed the two ingredients together, baked them at 350 degrees for around 20 minutes or so (until a toothpick comes out clean) and they turned out great. They are NOT like a normal muffin and you can definitely tell it has cake mix in it, but I love me some good cake mix taste. :) I then used a cinnamon sugar topping on the muffins (recipe below). It was a great option to making super easy muffins. (note: The pie filling was the very large can, not the smaller can.)

Option 2:

Here is the original recipe that my neighbor brought over. It is a more traditional pumpkin muffin. She made it using the giant muffin pans, but any size muffin pan would also work.


Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

Makes 12

For the Batter:

•10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
•3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
•2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
•1/4 teaspoon baking soda
•1 teaspoon coarse salt
•1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
•1/3 cup buttermilk
•1 1/4 cups pure pumpkin puree
•3/4 cup light-brown sugar
•2 large eggs

For the Sugar Coating:

•3/4 cup granulated sugar
•2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
•1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 12 standard muffin cups. Make batter. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and allspice. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions pumpkin mixture and beat to combine.

Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each muffin cup and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Let muffins cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Working with one at a time, remove muffins from pan, brush all over with butter, then toss to coat in sugar mixture. Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

Fresh Vegetable/Fruit Juice

If you have Netflix, I suggest watching the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead." It shows how juicing can be really beneficial to your health, even to the point that it can reverse sicknesses brought on by poor diet choices. By eating and drinking micro-nutrient dense foods, you will be a healthier person and who doesn't want that?! If you look around, you can get good deals on vegetables to juice. At our local Winco, 25 pounds of juicing carrots are just $6.98! The bag is huge so I split the cost with a friend. Score for both of us!

In today's juice, I used 2 celery stalks, a few swiss chard leaves and stems, 1 granny-smith apple, 1/2 cucumber (the no wax kind with the skin on), about 10 carrots carrots, 1/4 of a beet and a few leaves of kale. You can substitute many different items, but we usually do carrots as the base of the juice because they are cheap and super good for you. They are also sweet so it has a good flavor. Go easy on the beet-a little bit goes a long way. We have also thrown in there cutie oranges or a wedge of lemon and it has been good too....but also go easy on the citrus because it has a strong flavor.


Happy juicing!!

Monster Cookies

 These cookies are really good and I love that I usually have all of the ingredients in my pantry. They also are gluten free (aka...no flour)! Now I finally have something to put my oats and peanut butter to use, other than PB Bars.  Thanks again to Mel's Kitchen Cafe for another recipe keeper!

*Makes 2-3 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS:
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 stick butter (8 tablespoons), softened
1 cup M&Ms
1 cup milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, silpat liners or lightly grease with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs and sugars. Mix well. Add the salt, vanilla, peanut butter and butter. Mix until creamy and well combined. Stir in the M&Ms, chocolate chips, baking soda and oatmeal. Mix well. Roll the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Flatten the cookies slightly with the palm of your hand.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes. Don’t overbake – the cookies should just be set and very lightly golden around the edges. Let the cookies sit for 1-2 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in a airtight container for 2 days (the baked cookies freeze well, also).

Recipe Source Mel's Kitchen Cafe
Photo Source Recipe Girl