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Coconut Cupcakes (Dairy Free!)

June 1, 2011 by Laura 21 Comments

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My adorable little nephew isn’t able to eat dairy, which means his (favorite) Aunt Laura had to do a little bit of experimenting before his visit last week. I came up with a very delicious and healthy Coconut Cupcake recipe that all of my kids loved! Coconut Milk is awesome stuff and works very well for baking. (I had purchased a case of Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk to experiment with and to have on hand.)  We don’t need to eat dairy free at our house, but I will be making these cupcakes again!

Coconut CupcakesYum

3 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups sucanat
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 can (13. ounces) coconut milk
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

Mix all ingredients together with beaters. Spoon into 24 paper lined cupcake pans. Bake at 375° for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

1/2 cup palm shortening (I buy palm shortening from Tropical Traditions or through Amazon.)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I use organic, unbleached powdered sugar or I make powdered sugar myself with sucanat and a blender.)
1-2 tablespoons coconut milk
shredded coconut for garnish (optional)

By the way, this Coconut Milk also works great for making these pudding recipes and these whole wheat donuts. Yes, Aunt Laura does like to spoil her nieces and nephews, what can I say? Don’t worry. I also gave them protein and vegetables. :)

Ever done any cooking or baking with Coconut Milk? I’m excited to experiment more with this great product!

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Healthy Snacks I Feed My Family

May 26, 2011 by Laura 32 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Here is a big list of healthy snacks that I feed my family. This list is guaranteed to keep your children full and happily satisfied forever – or at least until the next time they need a snack (which may be within the next five minutes, so you may want to read quickly).

I obviously don’t have all of these snacks on hand at all times, but when my kids are hungry between meals, this is an idea of what I might offer.

  • Fresh fruit or veggies (This is always the first option. If they eat a fruit or a veggie and are still hungry but it’s not meal time yet, then I might offer something else.)
  • Homemade tortillas with peanut butter and honey or jelly or other yummy things inside
  • Muffins or quick breads
    ~Applesauce bread
    ~Orange Muffins
    ~Chocolate Swirl Muffins
    ~Coconut Flour Muffins
    ~Vanilla Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping
  • Homemade bread and butter
  • Whole wheat soft pretzels
  • Nuts or Trail Mix
  • Raisins
  • Homemade Poptarts
  • Homemade Popcorn with coconut oil and sea salt…or sprinkled with parmesan cheese
  • Mudballs
  • Milkshakes
  • Applesauce
  • Whole Wheat Graham Crackers
  • Crispy Cheese Crackers
  • Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafers
  • Homemade Yogurt with Fruit
  • Chewy Granola Bars
  • Breakfast cookies
  • Homemade Creamy Pudding
  • Breakfast bars
  • Slushies
    ~Strawberry-Peach
    ~Pineapple-Orange

vanilla_wafers

Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafers

What are your favorite healthy snacks to feed your kids?

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Homemade Sourdough Pita Bread (and the best lunch ever)

May 26, 2011 by Laura 21 Comments

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In case I haven’t shown my sourdough excitement to you enough, I thought maybe I should show you the sourdough pita pockets I made last week. I’ve made a lot of cool things in my kitchen, but these pitas are about the coolest things ever.

I used the easy recipe in the Sourdough A to Z eBook from GNOWFGLINS. You just follow their simple directions for no-knead sourdough, shape the dough into flat disks, bake them for just a few minutes – then they poof up in the oven and come out a pita pocket. All of us were standing by the oven watching the poof happen. Who needs TV when you can watch a pita bread poof up in the oven?

We’ve had these pitas with tuna salad, scrambled eggs, and wowza, Matt put together the most delicious Ranch Chicken Pita using leftover chicken, homemade ranch dressing and mixed greens. If only we would have had a fresh tomato from the garden!

Unrelated to pita bread, but on the topic of sourdough bread, mixed greens and homemade ranch dressing:  Another day last week I used my sourdough starter to make this gorgeous loaf of no-knead sourdough bread, which we ate with a big salad.

Sourdough A to Z eBook rocks- it is worth every penny. So far, following the book, I’ve made sourdough English muffins, honey wheat bread, breakfast muffins, no-knead bread and now pita bread. Between making fizz and souring my dough, I’m making great use of all the healthy, live bacteria in my kitchen. Science experiments never tasted so good!

What would you/do you put in your pita bread?

 

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My Sourdough Has Been Revived!

May 3, 2011 by Laura 34 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Ever since I read through GNOWFGLINS Sourdough A to Z eBook, I have been inspired to make bubbles again. Sourdough bubbles that is. I am excited to report that over the past few days, I have worked to revive my sourdough! (Actually, I just started over with a new starter because my original one was very…dead.)

These are my bubbles. Aren’t they simply gorgeous? (Just nod and smile.)

I shared about making Sourdough Starter about two and a half years ago and was very excited to make sourdough breads a healthy habit in my kitchen. Making a sourdough starter is stinkin’ easy (and by stinkin‘, I mean that the starter really does begin sporting a mildly sour funk after a few days). But I really had no idea what to do with my starter after it was started. I played around with making bread a few times, but never got anything more than a few dense loaves that my family didn’t like. And so, my sourdough starter died a long, slow death in my refrigerator because after a few months, I stopped feeding it or trying to do anything productive with it. It’s a sad story really.

BUT, I’m all excited about sourdough again, which is why I created a new starter.  I love that not only does Sourdough A to Z eBook have very thorough instructions about how to make a sourdough starter, it has loads of recipes and ideas with directions for what to do with your sourdough starter. We’re talking cakes and muffins and pita bread and pizza crust and all kinds of great goodies. I never knew there were so many things to make with sourdough! (Forgive me for sounding like I’m writing an over-eager book review. The GNOWFGLINS ladies didn’t ask me to write this. I’m just excited about my bubbles.)

Here’s the front view of my jar of sourdough starter on day three.
Again, see my cute little bubbles?

Because all of these items are made from sourdough starter, they are so much easier for our bodies to digest. I was kinda hoping you’d get excited with me and try getting a sourdough starter going too, if you don’t already have one. Let’s make bubbles together, wanna? Think of the fun we’ll have!!! (Yes, it would appear that I’ve gone a little sourdough silly.)

If you eat a gluten free diet, never fear – Sourdough A to Z eBook even shares how to create and use a Gluten Free Starter!!!!  Yes, we can ALL play at this game!!!

This happens to be a perfect time of year to get a sourdough starter going, as the weather is warm, making for easier and happier bubbles. :)  I was eager this morning and with my new sourdough starter, made delicious muffins based on a recipe in Sourdough A to Z. They didn’t taste one bit sour, in case you were wondering. My boys didn’t even know they were sourdough and ate their typical three to five muffins each. ;)

 Tomorrow I’m going to follow the eBook directions for making a loaf of bread. I’ll share the results whether it’s pretty or not so pretty. Here’s hoping for a successful sourdough bread making experience!

If you want to create a sourdough starter, but aren’t able to purchase the ebook, please click on this link and scroll down to the beginning of the series of posts that describe day by day instructions for how to make a starter. Since the recipes in the Sourdough A to Z eBook aren’t mine to share, I’ll only be able to talk about them and show you pictures of my results, but not print the recipes themselves. 

Okay, here’s hoping for a lovely loaf of sourdough bread at our house tomorrow!!! What’s been your sourdough experience? 

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Pretzel Challenge Winner

April 30, 2011 by Laura 3 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

You all made this week super fun, with all of your creative pretzel making and picture taking. My inbox filled up quickly as you sent in your pictures and told of your experiences. I LOVED seeing whole families involved in the pretzel making process – kids, dads, pets…

Okay, not pets. Although they might have had fun too.

Here are a few pictures I grabbed to share  – wish I had room to show them all! Way to go everyone!

The winner of our Pretzel Challenge winner is:

Laura:  (laura.hojnacke@)

Laura, email me and I’ll send you your Heavenly Homemakers Gift certificate code worth $20 off anything downloadable in the Heavenly Homemakers Shop! 

If you haven’t had a chance to make these whole wheat soft pretzels yet, might I encourage you go do that? Make it a family event. Get the kids involved. Call in the neighbors. You can come up with different shapes and letters and twist up pretzels all fancy like if you want. Hey, it’s better than a game of Twister. Unless you like embarassing yourself in front of your neighbors. And then you get to eat the pretzels, which is obviously the point, and the best part of all.

Hey, maybe next I should extend a Twister Challenge. Now those would be some fun pictures to see. Not that you’d be able to actually take a picture with your right hand “on red” and your left knee “on blue”.

I’ve gotta say, that game ranks up there with some of my least favorite. Makes you wonder why I keep talking about it, huh?

Happy National Pretzel Day (Week) everyone! :)

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Happy National Pretzel Day!!!

April 26, 2011 by Laura 19 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Yes indeed, today is the big day. It’s National Pretzel Day! (I’m sure you all dressed up for the occasion.)

I made a big batch of pretzels earlier this afternoon. They came out fat and sassy this time, and rich and buttery, and were best hot and steamy and well {she says, with a bit of a tear in her eye}, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. 

Oh look, a tower of Pretzels:

It’s been so much fun to receive your emails showing your pretzel pictures and telling of your pretzel adventures!! Thanks to all have been participating so far in our “Pretzel Challenge“. 

It’s not too late for the rest of you to join in! Read more of the details about the Pretzel Challenge here (not that it’s very complicated), then send me your pretzel pictures!!

Everyone who participates in the Pretzel Challenge by Friday night, April 29, will be in a drawing to win a $20 Gift Certificate from the Heavenly Homemakers Shop!

Happy Pretzel Baking!

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Whole Wheat Lemon Pound Cake

January 21, 2011 by Laura 46 Comments

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healthy_celebrations_med

It’s been birthday week at our house, as our third son turned nine on Tuesday. We now have 13, 10, 9 and 6 year olds at our house (and two 37 year olds but never mind that). 

Birthday week means mom makes a special treat…usually a cake chosen by the birthday boy. I’ve tried to come up with healthier varieties of cakes and treats so that we’re not just consuming empty calories…even if it is a birthday. You can click through this entire section of Healthy Celebrations if you’re interested in finding other healthier varieties of treats I’ve shared in the past. I mean, Lemon Pound Cake is delicious, but sometimes you just need Chocolate. Or is that just me? Regardless, hopefully you’ll find something fun that will please your sweet tooth in our Healthy Celebrations section…and I plan to continue to add to this category as I continue to experiment. If you recall, White Cake and Angel Food Cake are both on the Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge list!

For some reason, two of the last three birthdays celebrated at our house have included a Lemon Pound Cake. It has been fun to experiement with…although the first time I got a little bit carried away with the lemon juice. We were all pretty puckered up by the end of that cake. Whew! A little lemon goes a long way!

lemon_pound_cake

Lemon Pound CakeYum

1 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 1/4 cups sugar (I use sucanat and I’m pretty sure honey would work well in this recipe)
1/4 cup 100% lemon juice (from a bottle or from freshly squeezed lemons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 eggs
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

With beaters, whip butter, sour cream, sucanat, lemon juice and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time beating well with each one, or until you get tired of adding eggs one at a time…then just crack them all in and beat well. (Sometimes I get so lazy about individual egg cracking…)  Beat in flour and baking powder until the batter is well mixed.

Pour cake batter into a well buttered cake pan (I use a fluted cake ring pan). Bake in a 325° oven for 50-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool for at least 10 minutes before removing cake from pan and placing on a cake plate. Allow cake to cool completely before pouring Lemon Glaze over the top…

Lemon Glaze

1/2 cup 100% lemon juice  (if that’s too much lemon for ya, just cut the amount of juice down and substitute water)
1 cup powdered sugar (I recommend using unbleached organic powdered sugar or your own homemade powdered sugar from sucanat)

Use a fork (or a spoon or a whisk or whatever is clean at the moment) to mix the two ingredients. Drizzle the glaze over the cake. You can even use a toothpick to poke a few holes in the cake before you start to drizzle so that some of the glaze goes down into the cake!!

lemonpoundcake

So are you a lemon lover? Does lemon make you pucker? Have you ever been one of those parents who have given their baby a lemon wedge, just to see the face they make?

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Lots of Food…Nothing to Eat

January 9, 2011 by Laura 19 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I stood in my beloved kitchen last Thursday looking around, trying to get reacquainted with this “long, lost friend” after being away for almost three weeks. There was plenty of food in my pantry and freezers…but it seemed there was nothing to eat. Ever felt that way? 

There are plenty of ingredients to be found, but unless my family is willing to chew on some grains of wheat with a side of coconut flakes for dinner this week…I’m going to need to get busy.

I’ve had a hard time deciding whether to spend several hours cooking…or several hours (days?) wading through all the emails I  have now become so much more behind on after being “on Christmas vacation“. 

Slowly but surely, I’ve been doing both. That’s why there may be a little bit of coconut oil or ketchup on your emails when I finally get back to you to answer your questions. Here’s a napkin just in case you need it.

After this week, I’m hoping my kitchen will be re-organized and functional again. The Christmas dishes will be put away until next year, the fridge will get a good scrubbing…and I’m gonna cook and bake and fill my fridge and freezer with some healthy convenience once again!

corndogmuffinssm.JPG

Here’s a list of what I have in mind to make. I’ll share the results of what I actually accomplish later in the week.

  • Mini Apple Pies
  • Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns
  • Honey Whole Wheat Bread (x2)
  • Poptarts
  • Sloppy Joes (x3)
  • Corn Dog Muffins
  • Homemade Peanut Butter
  • Ranch Dressing
  • Healthier Rice Crispy Treats
  • Cream Cheese Apple Dip

I created the following video of my kitchen and pantry and posted it for you to see a couple of years ago…but I thought you might be interested in me posting it again for several reasons:

  1. Some of you are new here and probably haven’t seen my kitchen. I’d love for you to “visit” the kitchen I spend so much time in!
  2. Malachi popped in a time or two while I was recording and he makes the kitchen so much cuter. Ah, he was so little then…
  3. My kitchen was really, really clean when I shot this video. It’s not nearly that clean right now. I really need to get busy.  If I show you this video, maybe I’ll be motivated to get the kitchen that clean again.
    Feel like telling me something fun about your kitchen?
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Whole Wheat Gingerbread Men

December 23, 2010 by Laura 123 Comments

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Whole Wheat Gingerbread Men
It may be that I’ve gone a little loopy with all of the recent Christmas preparations, but for some reason I got really hung up on what I should call these cookies. Are they Gingerbread Men? Or are they Gingerbread Boys? But then, I didn’t want to leave out the girls…so maybe some of them should be called Gingerbread Girls. Or maybe I just go with the politically correct name and call them Gingerbread People?

When did Christmas baking become so complicated? :)

Gingerbread Men/Boys/Girls/People/CookiesYum

1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sucanat
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
Sucanat Powdered Sugar Frosting

Cream butter, sucanat and molasses together. Add eggs, vinegar, baking powder, ginger, baking soda and spices. Stir in flour and mix well. Cover and chill dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours (more is fine).

Roll out dough on a well floured surface to about 1/8 inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut into desired shape. Bake cookies about 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet in a 375° oven for 5-8 minutes.

If you don’t put your cookies 1 inch apart on the pan, you’ll end up with one cookie kicking another cookie in the head. I tell ya, I can’t even get my cookies to behave sometimes. A mother’s work is never done…

I recommend spreading Sucanat Powdered Sugar Frosting on the cookies. I had a little bit of Chocolate Fudge Frosting leftover in the fridge and used that for faces and buttons.

I figured they wouldn’t mind if I put chocolate on their faces. I know I would never mind if someone wanted to put chocolate on my face. ;)

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Vanilla Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping

December 21, 2010 by Laura 227 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I wanted something cinnamony for our Christmas Brunch (the invented word is pronounced:  sin-uh-money;  not to worry, cinnamony has nothing to do with sin or money, it’s all about the smell and taste of Christmas). I also wanted to use my homemade vanilla. So I played just a little bit and came up with Vanilla Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping. I made mine with a mini muffin tin, but you can use a regular sized muffin tin instead if you prefer.

These muffins are very simple to throw together and will make your house smell just like Christmas while they’re baking. That’s because they’re cinnamony. :)

Vanilla Muffins Yum

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sucanat (you can use brown sugar if you want)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup melted butter or coconut oil
3/4 cup milk

Cinnamon Crumb Topping

6 T. sucanat/rapadura (dehydrated cane sugar juice) or brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 T. butter, softened

Stir together flour, sucanat, baking powder and sea salt. Add egg, vanilla, butter and milk. Mix until ingredients are combined. Scoop into paper lined muffin tins. (24 mini muffins or 12 regular sized muffins)  Mix together Cinnamon Crumb Topping ingredients and sprinkle on top of each muffin. Bake in a 400° oven for 15 minutes (mini muffins) or 20 minutes (regular sized muffins).

Vanilla Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping

These Vanilla Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping go perfectly with Easy Breakfast Casserole. I also think the cinnamony-ness would taste great with Warm Vanilla Soother.

Up next during our Christmas Brunch:  a great giveaway from Tropical Traditions. Then, to add to our cinnamony pleasure…Gingerbread Cookies. Not only are they cinnamony…they’re gingerlicious. And full of molassessness.

You never knew our Christmas Brunch would be so full of new vocabulary words did you?

(Be sure to leave a comment again on this post for another chance to win one of our great Christmas Brunch Presents!)

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