pinterest reviews

I love being home during the day so much!
One of the bonuses of not being at school all day is that I get to actually make things that I pin on Pinterest.  So here are some of the things I've made lately:

Oatmeal Cream Pies:
I seriously love those cheap little cookies that you can buy in the store.  But then again, I have a weakness for oatmeal cookies, especially if I don't have to pick out any raisins or chocolate chips.  So I made these:

 The cookie dough was phenomenal!  Too bad I don't photgraph them as well as the original pinner does.  But they were good.  It was nice to get to use my double boiler to make the filling (since I feel guilty having kitchen products take up space if they don't get used often), and the filling was very similar to the Little Debbie cookies, but I think I'd prefer something with butter and/or cream cheese in the middle if I'm going to be making them.  I'll try that next time.

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. honey
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
In a double boiler, add egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar and heat over simmering water. Whisking frequently, heat until egg whites become very frothy and sugar is dissolved (approx. 160 degrees). Carefully add egg mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed for several minutes until egg mixture will hold stiff peaks and is light in texture. Carefully fold in vanilla until incorporated. Add frosting to cookie and then top with another cookie. Enjoy!

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer cream together the butter, brown sugar, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, honey and vanilla and beat until incorporated.

In a separate medium sized bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix just until incorporated. Stir in oats until evenly distributed. Transfer dough to a large mixing bowl (this is so you can use stand mixer bowl for the frosting) and chill in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Remove dough from refrigerator and drop by tablespoons onto baking sheet (or even a bit smaller for smaller cookies). Bake for 8 to 10 minutes just until the edges start to brown. Cookies will seem moist in the middle but they will set up. Cool on baking sheet until set and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Once cool, on the underside of one cookie spread the marshmallow frosting and top with another cookie. Store in an airtight container.

Marshmallow Frosting

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
In a double boiler, add egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar and heat over simmering water. Whisking frequently, heat until egg whites become very frothy and sugar is dissolved (approx. 160 degrees). Carefully add egg mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed for several minutes until egg mixture will hold stiff peaks and is light in texture. Carefully fold in vanilla until incorporated. Add frosting to cookie and then top with another cookie. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles:
Anyone else craving fall?  It may be pregnant Kristin talking, but I'm anxious for cooler weather and all things pumpkin.  Oh, and having this baby.  That'll be nice too.  But I was craving that today.  So I busted out the pumpkin, even if it is still August, it's only supposed to be 95º today, so I'm going with fall.

 These cookies weren't my favorite.  Probably because they are very cake-like in texture.  The recipe calls for 1 1/2 tsp. of baking powder.  I think next time I'd try doing just 1 tsp. baking soda to help the cookies be more chewy rather than cakey.  But there were still pumpkin, cinnamon cookies, which is always a winning combination.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles:

3 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the coating:

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Dash of allspice

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk together to blend. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars on medium speed until well combined. Next, still on medium speed, beat in pumpkin. Then, add the egg and vanilla extract. Lastly, add in the dry ingredients. Beat until combined, but do not over mix. Cover the dough, and refrigerate for one hour, until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and spices for the sugar coating. Scoop dough (approximately 2 1/2 tablespoons) and roll into a ball. Roll the dough ball in the sugar mixture, and place on the lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Take a drinking glass with a flat bottom and moisten with water. Dip the glass in the sugar mixture, and use it to flatten the dough balls. Re-sugar the glass as needed.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Remove when the centers of the cookies have set. Let cool on the baking pan for approximately 5 minutes, and then transfer to wire cooling racks to cool completely.

Brown Sugar and Garlic Chicken:

This should just be called sweet and sour chicken.  That's basically what it is... without any added vegetables.  This I didn't get a picture, so I'm using the one from Pinterest.  

Some thoughts on the recipe.  The 1/4 c Sierra Mist is point less.  I panicked when I got to that part of the recipe until I remembered we were at Costco just before, and Drake got a Sierra Mist there, so I made him give me the rest of his cup so I could add the 1/4 cup.  It added nothing.  Next time, I'll just skip it, because I'm sure I won't have any pop on hand.

Also, this needs some serious veggies!  I should have steamed some broccoli, zucchini, cabbage, bell peppers, and carrots to put with the chicken and rice, but I choose to make balsamic glazed carrots to go with dinner.  But the sauce is so strong, and the chicken is so saucy, that I could have easily incorporated some non-flavored vegetables in with the chicken.  

Oh, and we ate it over brown rice, and the kids usually don't love brown rice, but the chicken sauce was so tangy, they didn't even notice.  

Shredded Sweet and Sour Chicken:

• 5 chicken breasts
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup Sierra Mist lemon lime soda  (like I said, feel free to leave this out as I think it was pointless - there's plenty of sugar and acid in this already!)
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce  (I used Liquid Aminos)
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons corn starch

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients in crock pot (except chicken) and whisk together until mixed thoroughly and all corn starch lumps are gone.
2. Add chicken breasts to sauce in crock pot
3. Cook on Medium for 4-6 hours or high for 4 hours.
4. Shred Chicken
5. Let shredded chicken sit in sauce over "warm" setting or low for about 20 minutes
6. Serve with rice

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Banana Bread

Oh. My. Goodness.

This is good.

I buy bananas all the time, because I eat a lot of bananas.

Plus if I have extras, and they go bad, then that's only an excuse to make banana bread!

I have a go to recipe that I make all the time. It is so yummy, with orange peel in it to add a nice flavor. I'll post that one sometime.

But for now, I'll post this recipe.

I love Emily Malone's blog Daily Garnish!

The other day she posted this Whole Wheat Oatmeal Banana Bread recipe that's vegan. Well I didn't keep mine totally vegan. I threw in an egg to add a little more leavening because I was worried that it'd be too dense. Plus I used Coach's Oats rather than rolled oats, so I thought it might need a little more liquid.

It turned out FANTASTIC!!

Go make this yummy, healthy bread. You won't regret it.

Starbucks Lemon Pound Cake

Two posts in one day?!

(I must be sitting in a really boring class right now)

In an effort to use more of my lemons, I found this recipe for lemon pound cake on the "internets" (as President Obama would say).

Just like the lady who posted the recipe, I found that in searching for a lemon pound cake recipe, most of them call for lemon extract rather than using real lemons. Well that doesn't help my lemon problem. So this one is claimed to be "Better than Starbucks", and I don't know if I'd go that far, but this is pretty dang good!

Use up the rest of your lemons, make this cake.

Next, I'm going to make this Baked Lemon Risotto. It sure looks delish. I'll let you know if it is!

coconut veggie curry

The other night the kids and I were headed home, and all I could think of was "let's pick up a pizza on the way home". And I have this silly game that I play with myself, where when I'm tempted to go pick up food I like to go home and see what I can throw together with what I have on hand. Then I justify spending what I saved not buying fast food for my family with something later, like a cute pair of earrings. (sometimes! And other times I actually DO save money ;)

Well I got home and saw that we didn't have much in our house. But I did see that can of coconut milk and new I wanted curry. We are CURRY.FANS in our house. So I started the rice cooker, and started rummaging the cupboards for ingredients. This is the curry I came up with:

1 15 ounce can of coconut milk

2 T Braggs Liquid Amino Acids (use soy sauce if you don't have this)

2 t Curry powder

1 T Agave Nectar

1/2 t Salt

1/4 t Ground Cayenne Pepper

1 T Corn Starch in 1 T Water to make a slurry

Pour coconut milk in a sauce pan, stir in all the other ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Then after my sauce was made, I stirred in a bunch of frozen veggies (from the Costco stir fry vegetable bag) and let them cook up.

Serve over cooked rice.

Gwen ate three servings. After first declaring that she hates this dinner.

Lemon Rolls

My neighbor Barb is hilarious. She keeps us in the loop on all the neighborhood gossip, even speculative gossip. She is probably the best neighbor ever. When we had roofers working on our house while we were out of town, she went over and grilled them making sure they had permission to be there. Then she called me to make sure they were telling the truth.

Anyway, Saturday she asked me to meet her at another neighbors house because she needed to help with their lemon problem. Their tree had tons of lemons, and they were going to go to waste, so she had a bag for me and helped me pick a ton of lemons. That was sweet. But what am I going to do with all those lemons? Yep, I made lemonade. Then searched out a lemon recipe for something to bake. I found this recipe on the interweb.

They were scrumptious even though I didn't have cream cheese. Doh!! But I improvised and used that fat free sour cream in my fridge (why would I ever buy FF Sour Cream!?) instead, and the frosting was great! Sweet and tangy.

The dough is interesting. I've never used that much butter in a bread. But it rolled out nice and thick, and I love thick rolls for these things. My other gripe is the "filling". IT is so thin, it mostly ran out as I was rolling the rolls, and I wish I sprinkled the dough with the lemon zest and sugar, and then rolled them and drizzzled the finished rolls with lemon juice. Also, I would reduce the ginger, probably by half.

So there you have it. Lemon rolls.

Wassail

It's that time of year! For the non-chocolate lover (such as myself) have a nice hot cup of Wassail when you get chilly. It's so yummy and spicy, and it feels awesome going down if your throat is starting to get sore (again, like me).

You can find some really good recipes out on the interweb, but here's a basic super easy recipe:

(picture courtesy of google)

Wassail -

2 C Tang

1 1/2 C Country Time Lemonade Mix

1 C Sugar

2 t Cinnamon

1 1/2 t Cloves (ground)

Add a couple of tablespoons to a mug of hot water and enjoy!

Vegan Butternut Squash Enchiladas

I have been obsessed with butternut squash this season! Between my two pumpkin shakes a day, and all the squash and sweet potato fries I've consumed since the temps have dropped into the double digits, (Arizona fall) I can't believe I haven't turned orange yet. Oh well, I'm sure it'll come sometime before Thanksgiving!

This is so yummy!! And easy peasy.

So that's two plusses.

Now you have no excuse.

You need to make these!

1 Med Butternut squash cubed up (go to Costco and buy it pre-cubed!)

8 Flour tortillas (we go burrito size on these - also from Costco, the cook and eat ones)

1 can Black beans

1 cup Frozen Corn

1 med Onion

1/2 tsp. Garlic salt *

1/2 tsp. each Cinnamon and Nutmeg

1 tsp. Cumin

1 can Hatch green enchilada sauce

Shredded Mozzarella (we used Rice cheese and it was fantastic!)

I start by spaying a sheet with non-stick spray, dump the butternut squash on them, and then liberally salt and pepper. Throw them in the oven at 375º for about 25 minutes while you prep the rest of the stuff.

Chop the onion and sauté in a skillet over med high heat until translucent. Add the beans and corn and warm up.

Cook your tortillas if you bought the cook and eat kind.

Pull your squash out of the oven and sprinkle with your spices.

*I just dump the spices in my hand and guess to how much I actually use, but I think you'll be safe with these approximations. ;)

Then mash the squash all up. Oh man, it'll smell soooo good!

Then pour some enchilada sauce at the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Take your tortillas, and spread a good amount of the squash in the middle of them, then a couple scoops of the bean/corn mixture. Roll up and place in the pan, and when finished, cover with the remaining enchilada sauce.

Bake in your 375º oven for 30 minutes, covering with cheese for the last five minutes.

Enjoy your healthy enchiladas.

mmmmmm punkin

I have been experimenting, and have mastered the pumpkin smoothie. I have at least one a day.

I have found that I like the almond milk a lot better in it (I was doing coconut before). That with the banana helps to make it nice and thick!

Pumpkin Smoothie:

1 Cup ice

1 Cup almond milk

1 Scoop vanilla protein powder

1/2 - 2/3 C pumpkin

1/2 banana

1/2 t pumpkin spice blend

1/2 T chia seeds

General Conference Weekend

Oh, how I LOVE General Conference weekend. It's a time to stay home and listen to inspired words. I always recommit to trying harder to be a better wife, mother, member of the community, and to try to live a life of service and charity.

It's also nice because we don't have to go to church on Sunday. Not that I don't like going to church, but I can do so much while watching/listening to conference...in my pajamas! For instance I cleaned off my atrocious desk. Really, my desk was so bad from late nights studying and snacking, the kids playing on my computer, sewing scraps, coloring, cords, etc.

So once it was cleared off, I was able to see my sewing machine and have a work space. So I attacked my mending pile, and I was a mending machine! I took care of three pairs of pants, a pair of shorts, and a race shirt.

Exhibit A: Drake's pants. The kids school dress code forbids pants with holes or tears. Too bad Drake has a special talent for putting holes in his knees. There were actually three pairs of pants that needed knee patches, but they had sat there for so long that two of them didn't even fit anymore! Well since these were some of Drakes favorites, I put a nice pirate canon patch on his knee. He loves it!

Then I did a pair of pants of mine and Ryan's.

Exhibit B: Some of my favorite denim knee length shorts. These were in high rotation until Ryan and I decided to go on a double date with Jake and Kaylani. They're so wild, they got us on a mechanical bull that bucked so hard, and I squeezed so tight that I ripped my shorts! Um how long ago was that?? I don't even remember. But now I have another pair of shorts!

Exhibit C: My San Diego Marathon tech-t. It really bugs me when you get your race shirt (especially for a marathon! come on, I worked hard for this shirt!) and you ordered a small, and sure the tag says small, but it's HUGE. So I dissemble the shirt and put it back together again in my size. Now I have a work out shirt that I'm not swimming in.

Also, do you see that back on the counter there? I also made a healthy pumpkin bread today too! And I'll even share my recipe:

PUMPKIN BREAD that's not terrible for you:

1 C Wheat flour

1 t Baking Powder

1/2 t Baking Soda

1/2 t Salt

1 t Cinnamon

1/2 t of each: Ginger, Nutmeg, Ground Cloves

1 1/4 C Pumpkin Puree

1/2 C Raw Sugar

1/2 C Brown Sugar

1/2 C Water

1 C Apple Sauce

1 Egg

2 Egg Whites

1/2 - 1 C Chopped Pecans (pronounced pee-cans thankyouverymuch)

You know how it goes from there, mix your wets in a bowl and your dries in a bowl and then stir together. Throw in a long bread pan and bake at 350º for about 1 hour, 15 min.

Okay, now back to studying. I have a Family Law mid-term this week. :( Oh well, at least next week is October break! San Francisco here we come!

question

Have you ever come home from school, lost total control of yourself, and ate three delicious pumpkin cupcakes?

No?

Me neither.

Fat Tuesday

Did you know that in the UK Fat Tuesday is also Pancake Day? Did you also know that I L-O-V-E pancakes!?? They are heavenly. Warm fluffy carbs smothered in fat and sugar. Yummmmmmmmmmmmm.

So naturally we had to celebrate. We had two styles, German Pacakes:

I have no idea what that thing is on the back of my oven, but it's not food

And Swedish Pancakes, or crepes if you prefer the French variety. Scrumptious! A new tradition in the McPhie home, Pancake day.

lovers day

Well, I checked my phone, and unfortunately I only got two pictures from Valentine's Day. But they're good ones!

Here I was so excited to see this young man exiting the light rail on his way to school. He made my day even better (and mind you I woke up to my Valentine giving me a watch and perfume!!). This gentleman is probably about 6'3", but maybe you wouldn't have guessed by his 18" legs!! I mean his femur is almost non existent! His bum sits on top of his knees. Oh, wait, maybe his pants are just falling down? Anyhow, this made me happy.

Next up: Valentine pizza for my Valentines. Drake especially. He will poo poo just about everything I make, except for pizza and cookies. This was so yummy. If you can, never make pizza unless you use fresh mozzarella. It makes such a difference!

Okay, now back to school work.

yumbelievable

I made these Lemon Ricotta cookies tonight, (I'll just stay up til one to do my school readings now) and holy smokes are they good! Supposedly they're kinda healthy too (in a cookie way) because they don't have a lot of butter, and you use skim ricotta. So you've got extra protein, calcium, less fat, but just as much sugar. I suppose if you wanted to get crazy you could use some stevia and whole wheat flour, but then they might taste like poo. Just my opinion.

I love the citrus time of year, and that I can just go out and pick a fresh lemon to zest up. Plus, I think I've eaten four oranges a day for the last couple weeks. I always want to live close to citrus!!

oh dear

Today, this...


led to this...

Don't worry, no one was hurt, and the monkey bread survived! But now I have burnt carmel sauce all over the bottom of my oven.

Oh, and my Shepherd's Pie was cooked to mush.

thank you Pioneer Woman!

I luh-ove malt. I never would have thought to put it in my chocchip cookies! Today I was introduced to a little piece of heaven. Pioneer Woman's malted milk chocolate chip cookies!

I'll never be the same.

Ever.

move over Auntie Anne!

Last night, the kids and I made these copy cat Auntie Anne's pretzels. They were so yummy, but I'd say more Wetzel's than Auntie Annes. The recipe yeilded 12 pretzels, and I ate 7!!!!! I know. I have no self control. But in my defense, that was my form of carb loading last night.

Because today I tried out my new Newton Running shoes! Verdict: A.W.E.S.O.M.E!!
They are made for fore foot running, which is supposedly natural form. It is less stress on your bones, joints and muscles. Something I OBVIOUSLY need since my crappy osteoporotic bones hate running and I love it. (stress fracture count is up to 3!!) You're supposed to ease into running with them. Start with only a mile or two since your form is way different and you'll get really sore. Well today I threw my old shoes in my Camelback and set out on my run anticipating changing shoes after a mile or two. Well after two I still felt great so I kept going. After nine I started to feel the tightness in my calves, so I stopped and changed my shoes. I didn't even go a quarter mile before I changed back into the Newtons. They felt so good I couldn't even go back to my former running shoes! So I'm a convert. (Nice how neither the sports medicine Dr. or the podiatrist I've been to because of my running problems, suggested I try these shoes and running style. Jerks.)

4 weeks til the SLC marathon. Hope I'm ready!

donuts and candy

Well, the Pioneer Woman inspired me to make these today.

Tawnya came over and helped and we were just delighted at how they turned out. I LOVE homemade donuts. I'm just going to try not to think about the number of donuts/calories I've consumed today!

We used her recipe, and followed it pretty close up until we saw the directions had you refrigerate the dough for 8 hours. We wanted to eat them today so we just let them rise an extra time like making bread. Also, the dough was REALLY soft, so we added about an extra cup of flour! They turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

< With Valentine's Day approaching, we have been enjoying ourselves some delicious V-Day candy!! The Gobstopper HeartBreakers are my personal fav. We've been munching these for about the past month, but I haven't been able to find them at the stores for the last week and a half! Come on retailers, keep the stuff stocked until the holiday's here!
And Dots of course has their Valentine Dots out! The flavors are Cherry Vanilla, and Passionfruit Vanilla. The Cherry were better, and I still found myself eating them like how I eat my Candy Corn. I bite off the color and toss the white part.

And lastly, HAS ANYONE SEEN CINNAMON BEARS FOR SALE ANYWHERE? I've been craving these since Christmas, and I can't find them anywhere! I've checked Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, Fry's and Bashas, and apparently these are off the market! Oh BYU Bookstore, why do you have to be so far away? Right now I'd be buying the Cinnamon Lips that you have out for V-Day!

I hope my 7 layer dip was enjoyed

because I sacrificed the tip of my finger to make it!

I totally sharpened my knife to slice those green onions and tomatoes. Why do people say it's better to cut yourself with a sharp knife than a dull knife? I don't think a dull knife would have cut through the finger and nail!

gingerbread casa

It's that time of year again! The kids have been dying to do it, but I didn't want to spend $10-$15 on a gingerbread house kit. (yes I'm cheaper than ever!) So I figured I'd make my own gingerbread, roll it out and cut my own pieces. And WOW! My new FAVORITE way for my home to smell. Seriously, could not get over how good it smelled baking the gingerbread today! For some reason it smelled better than making gingerbread cookies.
Tip: keep the kids out of your hair while you're rolling and cutting serious business by giving them some dough to roll and form on their own. This kept Drake busy for over an hour! My stuff was in the oven, baked and cooling while he was still working his dough!
See look at his focus. He'll impress some girl some day with his cooking skillz. Then she'll have me to thank and will be forever in my debt. I'm already coming up with ways she can pay me back. wuahhahhahahah (my evil laugh)

Gwen's house front we decided looks like Monster House

We kinda spoiled our appetite for dinner by playing a little game called "One for me, one for the house".

It turned out pretty cute!

Just when you do it, make sure your measurements are exact, or you'll have spaces between pieces like this. My measurements should have been perfect! At least it all fits in my head. I think that some pieces got stretched in transferring from the counter to the cookie sheet.

Fun activity, not hard, smells good, and this might actually be a gingerbread house that we'll eat!

Gingerbread for construction

3/4 C buttermilk

6 T butter

1 C brown sugar

1/2 C molasses

1 egg

5 1/2 C flour

1 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1 t ginger

1/2 t salt

Heat butter and buttermilk in saucepan just until butter melts. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar and molasses. Transfer to mixing bowl. Add egg, 1 C flour, soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Mix. Add remaining flour. Will be a thick dough. Refriegerate 1 hour.

Roll 1/4" thick. Bake at 350º for 15-18 minutes or until edges just start to brown.

Royal Icing

3 egg whites

1/2 t cream of tartar

4 C powdered sugar

In mixing bowl beat egg whites and cream of tartar just until stiff. Add powdered sugar gradually while mixing. Put in pastry bag and glue your pieces together.

Potato Soup

Last night Gwen and I made Potato Soup. It was a total hit with Ryan, and today when he brought left overs to school for lunch, I guess it was the envy. A recipe post was requested, and I'm happy to oblige! And here's a shout out to Precious!!

Baked Potato Soup
5 bacon strips
1 med onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 T flour
1 t salt
1 t basil
1/2 t fresh ground black pepper

4 C chickem broth

2 large baked potatoes, cubed

1 baked potato, mashed

1 C heavy cream (that's why it's SOOO good!)

1 t Tabasco

1 C shredded cheddar, plus more for topping

In stock pot, brown up bacon. Set aside and crumble to top soup. Reserve 1 T of fat and saute onion and garlic until soft. Stir in flour, salt basil and pepper. Add broth and bring to boil. Boil 3 min. Stir in mashed potato, boil 2 more min. Add cream, cubed potatoes, Tabasco, and cheddar. Heat through and garnish with cheese, bacon, and green onions. Enjoy!