Banana, Peanut Butter, Oatmeal Cookies

Everyone seems to be baking more that they have more time now that we're staying home now. If you're looking for a new treat to try look no further than these banana, peanut butter, oatmeal cookies. 


What You'll Need...

2 Over Ripe Bananas
2 Cups Quick Oats
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon


Mash the bananas until liquidy. Add in the rest of the ingredients and combine. You’ll need to mash the stuff together at first.

Once it all comes together scoop out 2 tablespoons of “dough” at a time and form into discs. 

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Enjoy! 

Sweet and Spicy Pizza

All four of us LOVE pizza! If you love pizza, and you love spicy, then this pizza is for you. 

What You'll Need...

1 Pizza Crust (1/4 to 1/2 of a homemade pizza dough recipe.)

Panda Express Sweet Chili Sauce

Spicy Cheese (Our favorite is Hot Jalapeno and Habanero Jack)

Your Favorite Spicy Seasoning (We like "Slap Ya Mama" Cajun Seasoning)

Deli Ham (Optional)

Pineapple (Optional)

If you're you want to make your crust from scratch this is our favorite recipe. 

Pizza Dough 

1 Packet Active Dry Yeast

1 Teaspoon Sugar

1 1/2 Cups Hot Water

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil 

3 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

2 Teaspoons Salt

Add the water, sugar and yeast to a mixing bowl and allow the yeast to bloom. Make sure that the water is hot, but not too hot. Too hot or too cold and the yeast won't activate. 

Once the yeast has bloomed at the oil, flour, and salt. Mix to combine and then knead until smooth and elastic. This will take at least 5 minutes of kneading. 

Coat the mixing bowl with oil or cooking spray, place the bowl back in, and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise for at least 1 hour. 

When the dough has risen and you're ready to use it punch it down once to get the extra air out and divide the dough into 2, 3, or 4 balls. It all depends on how big you want your pizzas to be. 

Pizza

Pre-heat your oven to 450 F

On a greased pizza pan or baking pan press your dough out into your desired pizza shape and thickness. We like a thinner, crispier pizza! 

Once the dough is pressed out spread the Sweet Chili Sauce and then later on the cheese. Sprinkle your favorite spicy seasoning on top of the cheese. After the seasoning top the pizza with as much or as little ham and pineapple as you like. This pizza is also great as a spicy cheese or spicy chicken pizza. You can also use your favorite regular pizza cheese as well, but the spicy cheese gives it more of a kick. 

Place your pizza in a 450 F oven and allow to bake for 12 - 17. The bake time all depends on how you like your pizza. The longer it stays in the crispier the crust will get! 

Remove the pizza from the oven, slice, and enjoy! 

Fluffy Pumpkin Pancakes

As a family we love pancakes! We have them for dinner once or twice a month. I know what you’re thinking, pancakes for dinner?! We love to have breakfast for dinner sometimes, and we do it every Friday! So, we have a few different pancake recipes, and this Fall recipe is perfect for this week! They have a nice pumpkin flavor and are super light and fluffy.

What You’ll Need…

1 ½ Cup All-Purpose Flour

3 ½ Teaspoons Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon Salt

1 Tablespoon Sugar

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

3 Tablespoon Butter (Melted)

1 ¼ Cup Milk

2/3 Cup Pumpkin Puree

Add flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cinnamon to a mixing bowl and whisk to combine.

Add the butter, milk, and pumpkin and stir to combine.

Scoop the batter onto a greased skillet or griddle over medium heat. We prefer our pancakes to be about 2-3 Tablespoons worth of batter. Allow it to cook until bubbles start to appear and then flip. Allow the other side to cook through. Keep the pancakes warm until serving (while the others are cooking) in a 200̊̊ F oven.

Serve with your favorite pancake toppings. Some of ours are peanut butter, syrup, or cream cheese icing.

Enjoy!!

Roasted Butternut Squash

It’s Fall, and that means fall food! One of my favorite Fall foods is butternut squash. We love to have roasted squash in burritos, tacos, with eggs or pasta. Today I have for you my roasted butternut squash recipe.

What You’ll Need…

1 Butternut Squash

Ground Cloves

Garlic Powder or Honey Garlic Rub

Seasoned Salt

Olive Oil

Pre-heat you oven to 425̊ F.

Cut off the top and bottom of the squash. Lay it on its side and cut it in half to make it easier to peel.

Peel the skin from both halves of the squash.

Once the peel is removed cut the bottom in half and remove the seeds.

Cut the squash into ½ - 1 inch cubes and spread them out on a greased baking sheet.

Drizzle the squash with olive oil and spices. Toss the squash gently to make sure that it is coated with oil and spices.

Bake at 425̊ F for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes increase the heat to 500̊ F and bake for an additional 5-8 minutes.

Remove the squash from the oven and enjoy as part of a taco or burrito, with eggs, pasta, or salad, or whatever you like!

Pumpkin Bread

It has been quite some time, but I finally have a new, Fall recipe for you!

For about a month now Christian has been asking me to make pumpkin bread and yesterday we finally made some! All of the recipes that I could find had a TON of sugar in them, so I decided to come up with my own recipe by making some changes to my banana bread recipe.

Baking is a science, so making changes to a recipe can be risky – up this one paid off! The bread is dense, flavorful, and has a delicious fall feel to it!

1 – 15oz Can Pumpkin Puree

3 Cups All Purpose Flour

2 Teaspoons Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon Salt

½ Teaspoon Allspice

½ Teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

2/3 Cup Sugar

2/3 Cup Butter (Melted)

2 Eggs (Or 3 Tablespoons Sour Cream)

Preheat your oven to 350.

In a medium mixing bowl add the can of pumpkin and the sour cream (or eggs), and mix well. Once the eggs or sour cream are incorporated add in the melted butter and sugar, and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.

Add half of the dry mix to the pumpkin mixture and mix until it comes together before adding the second half.

Be sure to mix well, scraping the bottom of the bowl to ensure that all of the dry mix is incorporated.

Divide the batter evenly between into two greased loaf pans, and smooth it out so that it isn’t just a mound in the middle of the pan.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

Allow the loaf to cool slightly before removing from the pan and cooling completely on a cooling rack

Slice and enjoy! .

Buckeyes

One of my favorite flavor combinations in the whole world is peanut butter and chocolate. Reese's Peanut Butter cups are my favorite candy, and these buckeyes are just homemade peanut butter balls. Yum!

What You'll Need...

1 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter (Or other nut butter, or Sunbutter)
1/4 Cup Butter (Softened)
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups + 2 Tablespoons Powdered Sugar
8oz Chocolate Chips or Melting Chocolate

In a mixing bowl combine the butter and peanut butter. You can use a hand or stand mixer, but I prefer to mix them by hand.

Add the sugars and vanilla to the peanut butter mixture and mix until combined. This is where doing it by hand makes the most sense for me. You will need to use your hands to make the mixture come completely together.

Once the peanut butter mixture is completely combined form them into balls and place them on a tray. I like to make mine using about 1/2 Tablespoon of peanut butter mixture at a time. The last time I made these (last weekend) I weighed each one using my kitchen scale. 9g per ball was the perfect amount.

Once you have all of the balls formed place the tray in the freezer for at least 15 minutes. Before removing them from the freezer melt the chocolate in the microwave in a deep, skinny microwave safe bowl or mug.

Remove the peanut butter balls from the freezer and using a toothpick dip them in the chocolate so that they are 3/4 of the way covered.

Be careful, the peanut butter will start to soften, so you will need to refreeze the entire batch at times. I find that I can get 10-15 balls dipped before I need to refreeze.

Once they are all dipped all to set and then serve! Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Cabbage Bowls

Last month we had some cabbage left over after St. Patrick’s Day and I wanted to do something with it besides make coleslaw. I had an idea and I went with it – it has become one of my new favorite things to make and to eat! The measurements in this recipe are in grams for the vegetables and ounces or even cups for other goodies. If you’re not looking for accurate measurements for calorie counting purposes you can eyeball the amount, however, a kitchen scale is a great tool to have. (We gave in and bought one the fall and use it multiple times a day. Definitely worth the ~$20 spent.

What You’ll Need…

Cabbage [Chopped] (200g per person)

Spices (Your favorites)

¼ Cup Water

Mix and Match Add Ins: (The amounts for these depend on what you like and how many people the dish is being made for.)

Onions (100 – 200g)

Zucchini (150 – 300g)

Bell Pepper (100 – 200g)

½ Cup Peas

3 – 8oz Meat of your Choice Cut into Bite Sized Pieces [Pork, Beef, Chicken, Sausage, etc.]  (Per person)

1 Serving Cooked Pasta

½ - 1 Cup Cooked Rice

Your Favorite Sauce

Start out by measuring out and chopping your chosen vegetables. Add the chopped cabbage to a deep 10in skillet along with the water. Cover the pan and allow to cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Mix twice to avoid sticking.

After 10 minutes add in your additional vegetables and your chosen spices. Cover again and allow to cook for at least an additional 10 minutes. Mix twice to avoid sticking. The longer you let everything cook the softer it will be.

While the vegetables are cooking prefer your additional items like meats, starches, and sauces.

Once the vegetables are cooked to your liking remove them from the heat and divide evenly for the number of people to be served. Add in your extras (meat, starch, and sauce) and mix to combine.

Enjoy!

Our current favorite combination is cabbage, peas, zucchini, red bell pepper, chicken, rice, sour cream and barbecue sauce.