I started off the week making homemade ice cream. This is a delicious creation I had forgotten the taste of until I had my first bite of homemade again. Why do we buy that store ice cream at all when it is clearly inferior? I also made orange dreamsicle popsicles. They were super easy to make and I had one last night and it was delicious! It reminded me of being a kid again.
I also made my first batch of whole wheat bread in the bread maker. It turned out great! Everyone loved it. Sure it takes five hours to cook but it's worth it. Just the smell alone was enough to make my mouth water. I also made some Iced Oatmeal cookies. My husband told me last night that they taste better than the Mother's brand Iced Oatmeal cookies. That made me feel great! The recipe made a ton, so I froze a bunch. Lastly yesterday I made two loaves of cinnamon bread. This bread didn't require the bread maker, and boy what a treat it is! YUM!
I'm changing my mindset about food on the whole. I've been reading anything Real Food that I can get my hands on, as well as hitting up my favorite Real Food blogs. I'm much more likely to stay home and cook a meal, instead of us going out to eat now. My husband and I have both started losing weight because we're no longer eating the processed garbage. We're also just being healthier on the whole as a family, by taking long walks in the evening together, or hikes in the mountains when we can. It feels great to make such a good change for our family. I can see us sticking to this for a very long time.
Here are a few of the recipes I used this week to make these delicious foods.
Iced Oatmeal Cookies:
Cookie Dough:
(This recipe made about 22 fairly large cookies)
2 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
Frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and generously grease your cookie sheet (use butter or a good amount of cooking spray to help the cookies spread).
In a chopper, food processor or even your coffee grinder (cleaned of course) pulse the 2 cups of oats to a coarse meal, you do not want to go as far as a fine powder. Dump into a large bowl and add the flour, baking powder/soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix and set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the melted butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat on medium until the sugars are combined and the mixture is creamy. Add in the eggs, one at a time. Next, drop your oat/flour mix into the butter mixture and beat until thoroughly combined.
Place heaping Tablespoon fulls onto your prepared cookie sheets and bake, for 14 minutes or until golden, turning the pan half way through baking.
Let the cookies cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheets before transferring to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before frosting.
Mix your frosting ingredients together in a small bowl. Take the cooled cookies and dunk the tops into the frosting. Continue until all of the cookies are frosted and set aside to harden.
Orange Julius Popsicles |
Ingredients
- 6 oz thawed orange juice concentrate
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- In a bowl, stir together orange juice concentrate, milk, water, sugar and vanilla until well mixed.
- Pour orange mixture into Popsicle molds and wait until frozen.
- Eat and enjoy!
CINNAMON BREAD
(makes 2 loaves)
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk or 2 cups milk plus 2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
Cinnamon/sugar mixture:
2/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Cream together butter, 2 cups of sugar, and eggs. Add milk, flour, and baking soda. Put 1/2 of batter (or a little less) into greased loaf pans (1/4 in each pan). Mix in separate bowl the 2/3 c sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle 3/4 of cinnamon mixture on top of the 1/2 batter in each pan. Add remaining batter to pans; sprinkle with last of cinnamon topping. Swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 min. or until toothpick tester come clean.
Cool in pan for 20 minutes before removing from pan.
No comments:
Post a Comment