Monkey Muffins

I like to make a "special" breakfast on the days of "special" events and holidays. Birthdays, anniversaries, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day, New Years Day, Easter...you get the idea. This is something new that I've added to my list of possibilities. It is basically monkey bread in muffin form. I really like having "individual" monkey bread's to pass out because then I'm not as tempted to eat the entire pan in one sitting. And thus ruin every second of The 30 Day Shred that I've ever completed.

This recipe is a combination of two that I found - the dough portion is The Frugal Girl's recipe and the remainder of the recipe is from Pioneer Woman Cooks. You don't have to make the dough from scratch - you can buy a loaf of frozen bread or a can of refrigerated biscuits and either will work just fine for this recipe!  

Ingredients

*for dough*
2 1/4 t. active dry yeast (equals one packet)
1/4 c warm water (110-115 degrees)
1 1/4 c warm milk (110-115 degrees)
1/3 c butter, melted
1/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 t salt
4 1/2 - 5 c all purpose flour

*for "glaze"*

Butter

Sugar

Ground Cinnamon

Directions

In a stand mixer, let yeast dissolve in 1/4 cup of water. Add in milk, sugar, salt, eggs, butter and 3 cups of flour. Beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed for 3 minutes. Add in enough remaining flour to create a soft dough. Dump dough onto a floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes. Place dough back in bowl, cover with a wet tea towel and let rise in a warm, draft free place. Let rise for one hour, or until doubled.

Punch dough down, roll into 40 balls and set aside.

Add 1/2 teaspoon butter to muffin tins. Sprinkle in sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough into walnut sized balls (or cut refrigerated biscuit dough into thirds). Place three into each muffin tin. Top with 1/2 teaspoon butter. Sprinkle on more sugar and cinnamon. Allow dough to rise for 30 minutes and then bake for 15 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.

Basic Sandwich Bread

When I found this recipe over at The Frugal Girl (over a year ago) I decided to give it a shot. We liked the occaisonal loaf of homemade bread, but I never was too keen on the whole kneading thing, so I attempted it in my bread machine. It was one big.fat.flop. So I threw it away and never attempted again.

Fast forward a year and I was itchin' to try and make sandwich bread again so I could break free from the chains of having to buy bread at the store each week. I tried it just like Ms. Frugal herself and used the KitchenAid for the mixing, and then I kneaded the dough by hand. I know. Stop.the.World.

But guess what?!? It turned out FABULOUSLY! And it was EASY! And my arm muscles are getting so much more defined now that I knead our own bread! Okay, that last one may be more credit to Jillian than to the bread, but whatev.

So, we no longer purchase bread at the store. I just make a batch of this each Monday morning and we're good to go for the week. Don't be discouraged if this bread doesn't turn out 100% wonderful after your first, second or even tenth try. It takes practice. And experience. But you'll get the hang of it. The more you learn, the better it will turn out! So get kneading!

And here are some of Frugal Girl's "pointers" posts about bread baking, which have helped to improve my bread baking skills TREMENDOUSLY!!

How to Knead Bread Dough
A Lesson on Gluten
Gluten and Kneading
Troubleshooting Yeast Bread I
Troubleshooting Yeast Bread II
Does Homemade Bread Save Money?

Ingredients

5 3/4-6 1/4 c. All-Purpose Flour

2 1/4 t. (equivalent to one packet) Active Dry Yeast

2 1/4 c. Water

2 T. Sugar

1 T. Vegetable Oil

2 t. Salt

Directions

In a large standing mixer bowl, combine 2 1/2 cups of flour and yeast. In the microwave, heat water, sugar, oil, and salt to 115-120 degrees (use a candy thermometer for this). Add hot liquids to flour and yeast. Beat at low speed until combined, then beat at high speed for 3 minutes. Add enough additional flour to make a soft, but kneadable dough, and turn out onto a floured surface. Knead for 5-10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Put dough back into mixing bowl, cover with wet tea towel, and let rise in a warn, draft free place for 1 hour. Punch dough down, divide into two pieces, and roll into a rectangle, about 6″x18″. Starting from the short end, roll up jelly-roll style and place into two greased 4×8 inch loaf pans. Cover with wet tea towel and let rise in a warm, draft free place for 30-40 minutes, or until doubled. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool before slicing.

Garlic-y Potato Rolls

I found this recipe over at The Frugal Girl. She is a baking whiz! I have started to work very hard at becoming as talented at bread baking as she is, and I must say that I'm catching on pretty quickly! I have even started to make all of our own sandwich bread, so we don't have to purchase it at the store anymore (I'll share that recipe soon!). These rolls are super great, and very easy to whip up a batch of! We like to eat these rolls with just about anything! They are very soft and flaky, and the garlic potato flakes add just the slightest hint of a garlic flavor to these rolls. You don't have to use garlic flavored potato flakes to make these rolls, any flakes will do, I just like to use the garlic variety for just a hint of flavor to the rolls. As is the case with any bread, these are best eaten fresh from the oven - but they are mighty delicious later on as well!

Ingredients
3-1/2 to 4 c. All-Purpose Flour
1 T. Sugar
2 1/4 t. active dry yeast (equal to 1 packet)
3/4 t. salt
3/4 c. water
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. instant potato flakes
2 eggs

In large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt. Heat water, milk, and butter until very warm (120° F). Stir in potato flakes; let soften 1 minute. Stir into dry ingredients. Stir in 1 egg and beat for several minutes. Add enough remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 4 to 6 minutes. Place dough in bowl, cover, and let rise 1 hour.

Divide dough into 24 equal pieces. Roll each piece to 6-inch rope. Coil each rope to make “snail” shape. Arrange 12 rolls in a circle on large greased baking sheet with sides barely touching; repeat with remaining rolls. Cover rolls and let rise 30 minutes.

Lightly beat remaining egg; brush over rolls. Bake at 375° F for 15 minutes or until done. Remove from sheet; let cool on wire rack

To see more great recipes, be sure to check out the Ultimate Recipe Swap over at Life as Mom!

Bagel Dogs

Yet another Real Mom Kitchen recipe that I just couldn't pass up! As I've mentioned before, we are big Macaroni and Cheese fans in this house! That being said, I have more macaroni and cheese AND packages of hot dogs in my stockpile than the average person eats in their entire life. Add to that the fact that I am sick and tired of macaroni and cheese and hot dogs, I knew it was time to start experimenting with new recipes to get these hot dogs used up. What I really wanted to make was Pigs in a Blanket, but I didn't have any sliced cheese on hand, and I was not about to run out to the grocery store just for sliced cheese. So I decided to give this recipe a whirl!

These are super amazingly good! A plump, warm hot dog wrapped up in a blanket of soft, chewy bagel bread just really hits the spot! Next time, I may add some cheese wrapped around the hotdog before I wrap the dough around, but otherwise, I pretty much left this recipe as is and was very happy with the results. As was hubs. Now I'm off to try and find a recipe for pretzel dogs...because this just got the ball rolling on things I can do with the umpteen meeeelion packages of hot dogs I have stored in our deep freeze (okay. not quite that many. but close.)

Ingredients...

...2 cups warm water

...4 1/2 tsp. yeast

...3 T. sugar

...3 tsp. salt

...5 1/2 c. flour 

...12 hot dogs

...2 tsp. baking soda

...1 egg yolk

...Salt for garnish 

Directions...

Pour the warm water into the bowl of your stand mixer and add the yeast. Let stand until foamy. Stir in sugar and salt and turn the mixer on low speed. Gradually add flour until a smooth, elastic dough has formed. Using the dough hook, knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Place the dough into a clean, well greased bowl and turn to make sure all sides of the dough are covered with grease. Cover and let stand in a warm, draft free place for an hour. Once the dough has risen, punch down and place onto a floured workspace. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until about 1/4" thick. Using a kitchen scissors, cut the dough into strips about 1" wide (approximately 10-12 strips). Wrap each strip around a hot dog, overlapping each layer slightly. Place on a greased baking sheet and cover. Let sit in a warm, draft free place to rise for about 45 minutes. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the dough has browned. Serve warm.

Blitz Bread

This is a fabulous bread recipe that is my new go to bread for Italian food night! It has an amazing garlic-y/Italian/DELICIOUS flavor to it that just makes me want to sit and eat the entire pan in one sitting! I found this recipe over at My Kitchen Cafe and was intrigued! I have seen recipes in the past that call for adding things like garlic or cheese to bread, but have never tried them before. I finally decided to give it a go with this recipe and I'm a convert! This is a great alternative to garlic bread or breadsticks on Italian night! I served this with spaghetti (I made the sauce from scratch, watch for the recipe in a few days!)  and it was delicious!

This is a flatter bread, slightly dense, so it wasn't your typical loaf of bread. It was more of a bar like consistency. Just try this, it's great!

Ingredients...

...1 1/2 c. warm water

...3 T. olive oil

...1 1/4 tsp. salt

...3 1/2 c. flour

...1 T. yeast

...1/2 tsp. garlic salt

...3 tsp. dried herbs (I used a McCormick blend of herbs & garlic powder. It was perfect!)

...Italian Seasoning

Directions...

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients except for the Italian Seasoning. Stir until everything is well combined. Prepare a 9x13 pan by greasing the bottom and sides, and then drizzling the 3 T. olive oil on the bottom. Scrape batter into the pan, cover and let sit in a draft free, room temperature spot for one hour. After resting for an hour, drizzle the top of the dough with a little more olive oil, and then sprinkle with Italian Seasoning. Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins

These muffins are probably, hands down, the most tasty muffin that I have made in my life. Ever. If you love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, then this is the muffin for you!! I found this recipe in Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cookbook and just the thought of a peanut butter and jelly muffin made me salivate! I made a few changes to her recipe (it should just be expected now that I will find something to change in a recipe!) and I have to say that not a one of them was regretted!

This muffin is best served once cool. For two reasons. Reason number one - the peanut butter and jelly flavors stand out much better once cooled. Reason number two - you will burn your mouth terribly bad from the hot jelly if you eat these muffins straight from the oven! Talking from experience here! You would think that burning my mouth pretty badly the first time around would have changed my mind from wanting to try another straight away, but no. I immedietely grabbed a second muffin and proceeded to burn my mouth again on the hot jelly! I gave up until the muffins were cooled and ate two more once they had cooled a bit. So that's 4 of these muffins within 3 hours of them being out of the oven, all to myself.

Don't judge me. At least they are healthy muffins with veggies!!

Ingredients...

...1/2 c. creamy peanut butter

...1/2 c. carrot puree (Steam or boil some carrots until soft, then put in food processor with water until it is smooth)

...1/2 c. brown sugar

...2 T. butter

...1/2 c. vanilla yogurt

...1 egg white

...1 c. flour

...1 tsp. baking powder

...1 tsp. baking soda

...1/2 tsp. salt

...1/2 c. jam/preserves/jelly (I used my homemade strawberry rhubarb jam...sooooo good!!)

Directions...

In a large bowl, beat the peanut butter, carrot puree, sugar and butter until well combined. Stir in the yogurt and egg white. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until just combined, but do not overmix (lumps are okay!). Spoon the batter into 12 greased or lined muffin cups and then create a "well" in the top of each muffin. Drop a spoonful of the jam (or preserves/jelly) into each "well". Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Macadamia Sweet Rolls

As I've mentioned in the past, on special holidays we like to enjoy an extra special breakfast as a family. This is something that my family did as I was growing up (except that our "special breakfast" back then usually consisted of either Pillsbury cinnamon rolls or store bought cinnamon rolls...) and it's a tradition that I've continued on now that I'm married.

Some of our old standby's for special breakfasts include Cinnamon Rolls and Monkey Bread. I decided that it's high time I try my hand at a Sticky Bun. I usually shy away from sticky bun recipes because they call for pecans, which I never have on hand...and I find to expensive to buy when the bag usually is only big enough for one recipe. So when I stumbled upon this recipe over at Allrecipes, I finally decided enough was enough and why couldn't I substitute something for the pecans? I opted to go with macadamia nuts, as I had some on hand with the intentions of making cookies.

These rolls are soooo sinfully delicious that I couldn't stop at just one! I felt kind of guilty eating two...but then decided that a special occaison could mean calories don't count for the day, right? These rolls actually get better with age. Hubs and I both had one straight from the oven, piping hot and all. They were good, but I had one a little while later, once they had cooled a bit and the "sticky" portion of the rolls had a chance to set up and they were ten times better than piping hot from the oven!

This recipe is also super great because you can do all the prep work the night before, toss them in the refrigerator, and then just bake up the morning of! Just toss them in while your kids are hunting for their Easter baskets! And the smell that will waft through your house as these bake up is absolutely amazing! So amazing that your kids will probably (I said probably!) forget about their full of chocolate Easter baskets for long enough to get some real food in their tummies before they fill up on sugar and chocolate (well. just chocolate. these rolls are plenty high in their own sugar count!).

Ingredients and Directions...

...1 c. warm milk (heat in microwave for about 1 minute)
...1 egg
...2 T. butter
...2 T. sugar
...1/2 tsp. salt
...3 1/3 c. flour
...1 1/2 tsp. yeast

Place ingredients in stand mixer and mix until dough pulls away from the sides and is smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl and let rise, covered, in a warm draft free place for one hour. (this step can also be done in your bread machine).

...1/3 c. butter
...1/2 c. brown sugar
...2 T. milk
...1/2 c. chopped macadamia nuts (but you can substitute any nut really...)

Place butter in a saucepan over low heat until melted. Add milk and brown sugar. Stir until well combined. Add in nuts. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and set aside.

...1/4 c. butter, melted
...1/2 c. brown sugar
...2 tsp. ground cinnamon
...1/4 c. chopped macadamia nuts (or other nut you have chosen)
...1/2 c. raisins

Once dough has finished rising, roll out onto a lightly floured surface into a rectangle. Spread with 1/4 c. melted butter. Sprinkle on cinnamon and brown sugar, followed by nuts and raisins. Roll up like a jellyroll on the long side. With a greased butchers knife, slice roll into 1" pieces. Place the slices in the prepared pan, on top of the sauce prepared earlier. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. If you choose to refrigerate overnight and bake in the morning, let rise and then place in refrigerator, covered. Baking time may need to be lengthened a few minutes. Once baked, turn upside down onto a platter immediately upon removal from oven. Let cool to allow the sauce to set up for a few minutes before serving.

30 Minute Rolls

What would be an Easter dinner without rolls? There are a lot of really great roll recipes out there, several of which I have tried and shared with you including Sour Cream Rolls and Pumpkin Rolls. I decided this time to go the way of ease and try out the 30 Minute Rolls that I found over at Real Mom Kitchen. The idea of quick rolls really appealed to me, especially at this time of year when I feel like I am running 100 miles per minute just to get everything done. Between the Easter celebrations we have with family, baby showers, First Communions, weddings, prom grand marches, spring cleaning, yard work, and work anything that is quick and easy is much appreciated right now! To get a roll that's quick and easy like this? Priceless! Especially when it's a super tasty roll like this one!

My only suggestion to you is to use more flour than I did. My dough was pretty sticky, and I think that affected the baking time, which actually ended up being closer to 20 minutes. I also think that they would have shaped into a prettier roll had the dough been easier to handle. Otherwise, this roll is amazing and one that you should seriously consider for your Easter potluck this weekend!

Ingredients...

...1 1/8 c. plus 2 tsp. warm water

...1/3 c. oil

...2 T. yeast

...1/4 c. sugar

...1/2 tsp. salt

...1 eggs

...3 1/2 c. flour

Directions...

Mix water, oil, yeast and sugar together in a bowl. Let rest for 15 minutes. Add salt and eggs. Gradually stir in flour until a dough forms. Shape into rolls and place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 400 for 10 minutes.

Pineapple Carrot Bread

I'm a pretty big quick bread fan. I started out just making Banana Bread, but soon started trying recipes like Zuchinni Bread, Pear Bread (a recipe I've not shared yet, but is delicious!!), and there are many other quick bread recipes that I've bookmarked and am anxious to try! Quick breads are just too easy, not only to make, but also to have on hand for snacks, as a tasty breakfast and even as dessert!

This quick bread recipe, which I got from an acquaintence, really got my attention! Carrot bread seems so very appropriate for this time of year being spring and Easter time and all, but adding pineapple? Now there's a concept I never would have thought of on my own! I knew this was a must try recipe, and now I'm sharing with you that this is a must. try. recipe! This bread is so moist and delicious! It reminds me a lot of carrot cake, but with that extra addition of fruity pineapple really kicks it up a notch! This bread is super great warm, fresh from the oven with a little butter on it, and because I can't eat it that way every time (isn't it so sad that food can't stay warm fresh from the oven all the time?) I have a tendency to toss a slice in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time or so to sort of mimick that warm from the oven taste. It does the trick well enough to satisfy me :)

Ingredients...

...3 cups all-purpose flour

...1 tsp. salt
...1 tsp. baking soda
...1 tsp. ground cinnamon
...3 eggs
...2 c. sugar
...3/4 c. applesauce
...1 c. shredded carrots
...1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
...2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions...

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. In a seperate mixing bowl, wisk together eggs, sugar and applesauce until well combined. Then add in carrots, pineapple and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until everything is wet and well combined. Pour batter into two greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the loaf comes out clean.

Irish Soda Bread

St. Patricks Day is tomorrow, do you have your Irish meal all ready to celebrate? I shared a most delicious cupcake recipe that is in no way, shape or form Irish, on Saturday, and now I've made some Irish Soda bread. This bread would make a great side to the dish that I've made for tomorrow...Irish Lamb Stew...yum!

This bread was...different. It appears to be a yeast bread, but it is actually a quick bread. It also appears to have the density of a yeast bread, but it actually eerily reminds me of cornbread. Very much so. It also doesn't bake up "pretty". As you can see in the picture, it's a pretty lumpy loaf of bread. Now, I realize that you're just going to slice it up and slather it in butter, so looks don't really matter, but I'm just weird like that. I like my loaves of bread to be smooth and pretty :)

Despite the lack of "pretty" in this loaf of bread, it really did taste very good. Once you get used to the cornbread consistency, this bread is quite enjoyable! Next time, I think I'm going to try and make this bread in loaf pans though. While the round loaf is fun and different, it makes for some really hu-uge long slices of bread! I found this recipe over at Allrecipes and was very eager to try it! You should whip up a loaf or two for St. Patricks Day, it's always fun to celebrate a holiday with the appropriate foods! 

Ingredients...

...4 c. flour

...4 T. sugar (not pictured)

...1 tsp. baking soda

...1 T. baking powder

...1/2 tsp. salt (not pictured)

...1/2 c. butter, softened

...1 c. buttermilk (I made my own by adding 1 T. lemon juice to 1 c. regular milk)

...1 egg

Directions...

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir to evenly distribute all ingredients. Cut in softened butter. Stir in buttermilk and egg until all ingredients are moistened. Knead dough lightly until everything is evenly incorporated. Shape dough into a round loaf and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cut an "x" in the top of the loaf and brush with milk and butter if desired. Bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes. 

To see other really great recipes, be sure to check out Tuesday's at the Table over at All the Small Stuff, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at BlessedwithGrace and Tasty Tuesday over at Beauty and Bedlam!

Banana Nut Muffins

Remember a few weeks ago when I was craving what I thought to be an apple muffin? Well, I learned with that recipe that maybe it wasn't an apple muffin I was craving at all. So I kept at making muffins until I discovered that what I was actually craving was a moist, chewy banana nut muffin. Yep. Not exactly apple muffins.

Darn you, pregnancy cravings. Why can't you be more clear?

You know those monster muffins that they sell at Perkins? The ones that you just know are so calorie laden that you shouldn't even look at them for fear of what will happen to your hips. But you still order one anyways and then proceed to enjoy every last crumb. Yeah...that's what I wanted. Minus all the calories.

Is it really possible to get the best of both worlds? Why yes. Yes it is.

I found this recipe in my trusty ol' hometown church cookbook and this recipe alone just goes to prove that little ol' church ladies really do know what they're talking about when it comes to making a tasty dish!

Ingredients...

...1 c. flour
...1/2 c. sugar
...2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
...1/2 tsp. salt
...3/4 c. quick oatmeal
...1/3 c. nuts (I used cashews and crushed them up)
...1 egg
...3 T. oil
...1/2 c. milk
...1/4 tsp. baking soda
...1/2 c. mashed bananas

Directions...

Mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nuts and oatmeal. In a seperate bowl, beat the eggs and then stir in the milk and oil. Add to the dry ingredients and then stir in the bananas. Stir only until the dry ingredeints are moistened. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling them 2/3 full. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

To see more great recipes, be sure to check out Friday's at the Table over at And Baby Makes Five, Foodie Friday's over at Designs by Gollum and Food on Friday's over at Anne Kroeker!

Sour Cream Rolls

I have a confession to make. Back in September my mother in law found a KitchenAid stand mixer at a garage sale at a GREAT price, and picked it up for me, knowing that I wanted one in the worst way. Here's the confession.

It took me until a week ago to use it for the first time.

*runs and hides in the corner shamefully*

I mean, it's not like it was hidden in a cupboard for those 6 months and I forgot about it. No, no. It was sitting on my kitchen counter in all of it's glory. Unused. I don't know what finally posessed me to use it. Actually, I do. It was this recipe. I found this recipe over at Real Mom Kitchen, and she mentioned that she used her KitchenAid to do the kneading for her. I was dumbfounded.

You mean I've had this thing for 6 months, and haven't used it to aid with bread making?!? What have I been doing, hiding under a rock?!?!?!?!?

This roll recipe was phenomenal! I couildn't decide between making this one for the first time, or repeating the wonderful Pumpkin Roll recipe that I discovered at Thanksgiving. I opted to try this one, because I love rolls and like experimenting with new roll recipes. I'm so glad I opted for something new, because even though the Pumpkin Rolls just may be my favorite food, EVER, this roll was super great!!

Ingredients...
...2 1/2 - 3 c. flour (I used more than this. Use your best judgement)

...2 T. sugar

...2 1/4 tsp. yeast

...1 tsp. salt

...1 c. sour cream

...1/4 c. water

...3 T. butter (divided)

...1 egg

Directions...

In a large bowl, combine 1 1/2 c. of the flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the sour cream, water and 2 T. of the butter until it reaches 120-130 degrees and then add to the dry ingredients. Place in KitchenAid mixer and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the egg and 1/2 cup more of the flour, beat for 2 minutes more. Slowly add remaining flour a little bit at a time until a soft dough forms and the dough pulls away from the side of the mixing bowl. Let mix on low to medium speed for 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl (be sure to turn the dough over so it is also greased), cover and let rise in a warm, draft free spot for 1 hour. Punch down dough, and let rest on a floured surface for 5 minutes. Divide into 12 pieces. Place each piece into a ball and into a greased 9x13 pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes, until the dough is doubled. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. After the first 10 minutes, cover pan with aluminum foil to keep the rolls from getting too browned on the top. Melt remaining 1 T. of butter and brush onto the top of the rolls and remove from the pan to cool.

To see more great recipes, be sure to check out the Recipe Swap going on over at Life as Mom and the Recipe Swap going on over at Grocery Cart Challenge!

Hidden Ingredient French Toast

I don't know about you, but I often find getting the proper servings of fruits and vegetables (mostly vegetables) into my husband to be a challenge. He's just not that into his veggies. So I really feel for you with kids...because then you are nagging more than just one person at the dinner table to "eat your vegetables! pleeeaassseee!!". But at least you guys only have to nag at kids...I have to nag at a grown man!

In comes Jessica Seinfeld with her book Deceptively Delicious. I had heard wonderful things about this book, mostly when it was first realeased. I saw a segment she did on Oprah when the book was first released showing Jessica feeding kids all kinds of their favorite foods like brownies and macaroni and cheese that had the hidden vegetables like squash or cauliflower in them. And the kids were gobbling them up! Could it be true? 5 and 6 year olds eating broccoli....and liking it?!?!? I was enthralled!!

At the time I didn't give it much more thought than that. But when I stumbled upon her cookbook at the local library, I figured it couldn't hurt to try! Especially with my own munchkin on the way, I figured it's never to early to start practicing on how to sneak those vegetables that will inevitably be tagged as "yucky" into our diets. I started simple. With french toast. Who's hidden ingredient is bananas. And you know what?!? I couldn't even taste a hint of banana in my french toast. Nor did hubs...he just thought it was my everyday french toast recipe!

So now onto bigger and better things...like hiding that broccoli and those brussell sprouts!!

Ingredients...

...French bread, sliced into thick pieces
...4 eggs
...2 T. banana, pineapple, sweet potato, carrot or butternut squash puree. Or 2 T. canned pumpkin. (I, of course, used the banana puree)
...1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Directions...

In a shallow bowl, whisk the eggs, puree and cinnamon. Dip the bread slices into the puree, one at a time making sure to coat both sides. Let each side soak in the mixture for no longer than 30 seconds each. Cook the soaked bread slices in a greased skillet over medium-high heat for about 2-3 minutes per side. Serve warm with the toppings of your choice!

To see more great recipes, check out Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace and Tasty Tuesday over at Beauty and Bedlam!

Apple Muffins

I have been craving a moist, spicy, nutty apple muffin for weeks now. I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and make one. I've made lots of muffins before, but never an apple cinnamon muffin. So I searched high and low over at Allrecipes and finally decided that this particular recipe was the chosen one.

I'm not going to lie.

This was nothing like I was hoping for. While it was good...there just wasn't enough "spice" to it. And I forgot to add in nuts. And there was too much apple.

However, for what it's worth, despite that this muffin didn't meet my craving, it was pretty good. Kind of a dense muffin, not so much a light and fluffy muffin.

Ingredients...

...2 c. flour

...1 T. baking powder

...1/2 tsp. salt

...1 tsp. ground cinnamon

...3/4 c. milk

...2 eggs

...1/4 c. applesauce

...1/4 c. honey

...1 c. chopped apples

Directions...

In a small bowl, lightly beat eggs. In a larger bowl, stir together dry ingredients until well combined. In another seperate bowl, mix remaining ingredients. Gently fold in beaten eggs. Add wet mixture to flour mixture until everything is just moistened. Fill greased muffin cups until 3/4 full and bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

To see more delicious recipes, check out Tempt my Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace and Tasty Tuesday over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!

Monkey Bread

Merry Christmas Eve! I'm sure today finds you hurridly finishing last minute details for tomorrow! I thought it most appropriate that today I share a recipe for a breakfast delight that you can make tomorrow morning for after church or while you open gifts with your littles. Growing up, we always had a tradition of having cinnamon rolls on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter mornings. I've decided to keep with this tradition now that I am starting my own family, and this year I am making this delicious monkey bread for our Christmas morning breakfast! It's so gooey and delicious warm from the oven...mmmmm...I'm salivating just thinking about it!

Ingredients...

...1 cup white sugar
...2 tsp. cinnamon
...1 pound bread dough (or 3 cans of refrigerator biscuits)
...1/2 cup. butter
...1 cup brown sugar, packed

Directions...

In a small bowl, stir together white sugar and cinnamon until well combined. Divide bread dough into small balls (if you are using refrigerator biscuits, divide each biscuit into four pieces) and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place coated balls into a well greased bundt pan. In a small saucepan, melt butter and then stir in the brown sugar. Bring to a boil and continue to let boil for 1 minute. Pour the mixture over the dough in the pan and then bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. Once removed from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes before turning the pan over on a plate and dumping the bread out.

Garlic Pull Apart Bread

We have pizza night once a week around here, and I like to have some sort of a garlic bread to go with it. I usually just whip up a batch of french bread and then toast it with some garlic powder and butter. I decided to go with something a little different this time around and made this garlic-y pull apart bread. This recipe is the exact same concept as monkey bread, except with garlic. I really like the concept of this bread and it was a great alternative to the normal garlic bread that I make. This picture does it no justice...it was much tastier than it looks, and it was even better dipped in marinara!

Ingredients...

...2 tubes of refrigerator biscuits
...1/4 cup butter
...1/2 T. garlic and herb blend spice (you can also substitute 1 T. parsley flakes, 1 tsp. garlic powder and 1/4 tsp. garlic salt if you don't have the herb blend on hand)

Directions...

Cut each biscuit into quarters and roll into a ball. In a small bowl, melt butter and then stir in seasoning(s). Cover each dough ball in butter/seasoning mixture and place in a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes.

To see more great recipes, check out the Recipe Swap going on over atr Life as Mom!

Crockpot Stuffing

Two days and counting until Thanksgiving...are you ready? I'm guessing you have your grocery list all made out for what you need to buy, and I'm guessing that Stove Top stuffing is on that list. Well cross it off! Seriously, you won't regret it! At first I was skeptical too...stuffing in the crockpot? No way it could be done! Well, bite your tongue (or rather, bite into some of this, yuummmm!) because it can be done! And it can be done better than any old box of Stove Top any day!

Ingredients...

...1 loaf bread
...1 tsp. minced onion (or onion powder. or that chopped onion that's dried and you can keep in the spice closet)
...1 cup celery, diced
...1 cup apple, diced (I used a granny smith)
...1/4 cup butter, melted
...1 1/2 cups chicken broth
...1 T. poultry seasoning

Directions...

Before you start crockpotting, you need to toast the bread. I cut my bread into chunks before I toasted it, but you can toast it in slices and then chunk. It's totally up to you. Place a single layer of bread in the oven at 300 for 15 minutes. But really, toasting time will depend on what type of bread you are using.

Once bread is toasted, place in crockpot. Add celery, apple, onion and poultry seasoning. Toss to evenly disperse ingredients. Add melted butter and chicken broth and toss to evenly coat bread. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours. At this point you can determine if you would like your stuffing a little more moist or not. Let it stand for a few minutes uncovered, if you want more moist then add 1/4 cup more of chicken broth and stir well to coat all bread. Otherwise, serve as is!

Yep. That's it. It's that easy. So don't give me the excuse that boxed stuffing is easier to make. Puh-leeze!

To see other great recipes, be sure to check out Tempt my Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace and Tasty Tuesday over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!

Pumpkin Rolls

If you need a good roll recipe for Turkey Day (3 days and counting you know!), I strongly recommend you try this one. The ingredients list will throw you...trust me, it threw me too. A can of pumpkin in rolls just can't be natural, can it? But trust me, you can't even tell that the pumpkin is there...it helps keep the rolls soft and moist instead of getting hard and dry.

This is originally Money Saving Mom's recipe...I left it completely unchanged. Which is very unlike me, I usually switch a few things up. I was super nervous about that too. I never make any sort of bread without the aid of my bread machine. Sure, I've done it sans bread machine before, but I just prefer the machine to do all the mixing and kneading for me. Kneading is so not my forte. Despite that I think I shorted it a little on the flour, they turned out phenomenally, and this is my new roll recipe. Hands down. Perhaps I'll start experimenting with other bread recipes machine-less.

Or maybe not...I'm kinda wussy like that...

Ingredients...

...1/2 cup sugar
...1/4 cup warm water
...1 cup warm milk
...2 T. butter, softened
...1 cup pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling. Plain old pumpkin.)
...1 tsp. salt
...1/4 cup wheat germ (If you'd rather not do the whole wheat germ thing, flour will sub nicely)
...5-6 cups all purpose flour
...3 1/2 t. yeast

Directions...

In a large mixing bowl combine sugar, water, milk, salt, butter and pumpkin. Whisk together until smooth. Add in wheat germ, 2-3 cups of flour and yeast. Combine until all ingredients are well mixed, and then continue adding flour until dough is smooth, elastic and no longer sticky. Place dough in a greased bowl and grease the top of the dough. Cover and place in a warm place to let rise for one hour. Once dough has risen, punch down and divide into 25 individual rolls. Place on a baking sheet and again cover to let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Once dough has risen, bake rolls at 350 for 15-20 minutes. When rolls are golden, remove from oven and brush each roll with melted butter. Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

To see more delicious recipes, check out Mouthwatering Monday over at A Southern Fairytale!

French Toast Casserole

We love breakfast food in this house! We have breakfast for supper night at least once per week. I decided that this week instead of the usual waffles or pancakes and eggs/bacon I would switch things up a bit and we would give french toast casserole a shot at glory. I'm super glad I did, this is amazing! Plus, it left my kitchen smelling like french toast for days!

Ingredients...

...5 cups bread cubes (I used my french bread recipe for the bread. you can use whatever you want!)
...4 eggs
...1/4 cup white sugar, divided
...1 1/2 cups milk
...1/4 tsp. salt
...1 tsp. vanilla extract
...1 T. margarine, softened
...1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions...

Grease an oven safe casserole dish and place bread cubes in dish. In a small bowl, wisk together eggs, milk, 2 T. sugar, salt and vanilla. Pour mixture over bread cubes. Stir until bread cubes are all well coated. Dot with butter and let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine remaining sugar and cinnamon together. At the end of the 10 minutes, pour the cinnamon/sugar mixture over the bread cube mixture and stir to coat well. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.

Simple White Bread

There is nothing better on a chilly fall day than a steaming bowl of tasty soup and a slice or two of still warm from the oven bread. My body warms up just at the thought of it! I've already shared the recipe that I use for Amish White Bread...but this white bread is just a really simple no-one-can-screw-it-up white bread. This is also the white bread that my youngest sister has dubbed as the.best.homemade.bread.ever. I must admit, for how simple this is to make, it is surprisingly tasty! It's so easy to whip up a loaf of this to go with supper. Or just to fufill a craving.

Ingredients...

...1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
...2 1/4 cups flour
...4 tsp. white sugar
...1 tsp. salt
...4 tsp. dry milk
...4 tsp. oil
...3/4 cup + 1 tbs. water

Directions...

Place ingredients in bread machine in order listed. Run on dough cycle. Remove dough from machine and place in a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.