Sauteed Artichokes

I love love articokes. I put them in all kind of recipes, and I love to eat them plain. Steamed artichokes dipped in butter . . . mmmmm. Too bad the little brats are so expensive! Every once and a while you find fresh artichokes at a good sale price (2 for a dollar would be what I consider a good price), and that is a good day. We all know that when we eat artichokes leaf by leaf, we are just paying our dues so we can get to what we really want, the heart! So tonight I said, to heck with it, I am going straight for the heart, it was worth it, and I only felt a little guilty.

So next time you see some cheap artichokes buy them, and instead of steaming them, do what I did. First pull off all the leaves and cut out the choke (the furry part) with a paring knife. Shave off anything green on the outside so what you have left is just beige. Once you have the beautiful round heart, quarter it. Add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil to a saute pan. Add the hearts to the heated butter/oil and season with salt and pepper. Just before they are tender enough, add one or two minced garlic cloves. Once you can pierce the hearts with a fork, they are ready.

You will probably feel a lot more guilty than I did when you eat them, they are that good. I have learned to hide my shame . . . .

what to do with that lame fondue pot you got at your wedding

For a little family fun, we busted out the fondue pot for the first time.  I actually really like fondue of all types, not just chocolate fondue. However, I would much rather have my sweet heart take me to the melting pot that make my own. The chocolate fondue was fun, and the kids loved it, and so did mom.

Ingredient list:

3/4 c half and half

1/2 c heavy cream

2 big symphony chocolate bars (about 12-13 oz chocolate)

The first thing you need to do is fine chop or shave your chocolate. I did this by sending the chocolate through the shredder with the food processor. The finer you get the chocolate the easier it will melt.  I have the electric cuisinart  fondue pot, I think a crock pot would work pretty good, but you may need to heat up the cream on the stove first. Heat up the cream and half and half till bubbles start to form on the edges, turn it down and immediately add the shaved chocolate and stir. Wala! you have fondue! 

We dipped graham crackers, marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, apples, and gummy worms. I baked some brownies to dip, but they weren't done in time.

What to do with left over mash potatoes

As a lot of cooks do, I have a fear of not having enough food. Who cares if my fly is down, or my boob falls out of my swimsuit, that I can live with. I can't live with running out of food at a get together.  That being said, I always have leftovers.  This Sunday, I had quite a bit of mashed potatoes left over. So for dinner the next night, I made some potato pancakes with the leftovers, to go with the chili that I made with the left over roast beef. I have never done this before, but they turned out really good. All the amounts that you put in will depend on how much potatoes you have. It doesn't really matter, just do "a little of this, a little of that."

Potato pancakes:

left over mashed potatoes

handful of shredded cheese

1-2 eggs

1/2 c ish flour

4-5 T cream cheese

splash of season salt

pepper

more egg

panko bread crumbs

vegetable oil

Mix together the first 5 ingredients. Add enough flour to make the potatoes fairly stiff.  Form a patty with you hands, dip in egg then dip in the panko bread crumbs. Now I pre-made these and put them in the fridge till it was time to cook them at dinner. I think it was nice to have them chilled because they were more cement. I put about a 1/4 inch of oil in a skillet and fried them on both sides. Then I served them hot with a little ketchup; they would probably go good with a whole host of condiments, ranch dressing, sour cream, salsa . . . .

Carrott cake with buttermilk glaze

As you know, I go to a lot of banquet type dinners, which means I have had a lot of bad carrot cake. This carrot cake is not bad, it is good. One good thing about it is that it has a little twist. This adapted from a recipe I read in a cooking magazine (I think it was gourmet, I love cooking magazines with all my heart). Their recipe called to make regular frosting, but with the glaze, I thought that would be way too sugary, so I changed it to a cream cheese cream. I also added the nutmeg and clove to the glaze.

Ingredient list:

Cake:

2 c flour

2 t baking soda

2 t cinnamon

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 c sugar

3 large eggs

3/4 c buttermilk

3/4 c vegetable oil

1 8 oz can crushed pineapple in juice

2 c carrots shredded

1 c chopped pecans

glaze:

1 stick butter

1/2 c buttermilk

1 c sugar

1 1/2 t baking soda

1 t vanilla

dash nutmeg

dash clove

cream cheese cream:

pint heavy whipping cream

half a block softened cream cheese

1/4 c sugar

1 t vanilla

For the cake, combine the first 4 ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl beat together the eggs, sugar, buttermilk and oil. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat well. Fold in the carrots, pineapple along with the juice, and pecans. Transfer to a greased cake pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Loosely cover with foil, or put a cookie sheet over it (that is what I do) and bake for about 15 more minutes, test it with a tooth pick to make sure its done.

Meanwhile prepare the glaze: Combine everything but the baking soda in a sauce pan on the stove. Bring to a boil and allow it to boil for about a minute. Turn off the heat a add the baking soda (this will make it grow, so do it in a big pot). When the cake is done, poke holes in it all over and pour the glaze over it so it goes down into the holes (I use a chop stick or a bamboo skewer).

When you are ready to serve it, combine the cream cheese cream ingredients and beat them until they become stiff (not too stiff, that is butter!) and serve with the cake.

My daughter loves boys and she is 5

Alta gets into the car after school and says;

"Mom the funniest thing happened today! Brock didn't even know that I was his girlfriend, so I had to tell him!"

This is not suprising to me because I have known for awhile that she loves boys. Before Brock, it was Seth. Both innocent blond haired blue eyed boys. We have had many discussions about not trying to kiss her boyfriends after I found her chasing poor Seth, trying to pin him down for a smooch;

"Alta, you can't kiss boys until you are a grown up, you can only kiss your mom and dad."

She relentlessly agrees.

She makes Brock a card professing her undying love. It says "kiss me" on it. I make her scratch it out. She draws hearts over the words.

People! She is only five! What am I going to do? HELP!

Beef Curry

This dish is another one of my top 20 favorite things to cook. Many of you will think it doesn't sound that good and probably won't try it, but you will sorely be mistaken. If that is your feeling, email me and I will invite you up next time I make it and you will love it!  Have it with a cold can of your favorite pop (mine is coke zero or diet dr pepper) and it is heaven. I think this is considered "Hawaiian food" I only say that because if anyone lived in the Provo area when back in the day there was the "Bamboo Hut"(not the same place as the current Bamboo Hut, which tries their best but is not even CLOSE to the old Bamboo Hut) they had beef curry on the menu. 

This is another one of those recipes where I use left over Sunday roast beef which is very convenient. If you don't have left over roast beef, buy stew beef and follow the Sunday roast beef recipe first, or follow the pot roast recipe but add the curry and a can of green beans.

I also need to say something about curry. Curries can very greatly, and it makes a big difference. There is Indian curry in many varieties (gag me with a spoon!) and there is Persian curry, or middle eastern curry.  The problem is, they are not labeled as such. They both will say  CURRY.   I have been rationing a big bottle of curry that I stole from my mom that she bought in Turkey.  I have been sweating over how I was going to get good curry like this again. My mother bought some curry online and cooked like five meals in one day with it, when I tasted it , I had no choice but to spit it out, Indian curry! Alright, Alright I could go on forever with this incredibly boring story. To sum a very long saga that I will not pleasure you with, I bought some curry in the Mexican spices section (I know it makes no sense) at wall-mart, and it was good curry. I was so happy! So get it at wall mart, enough said. So now that you have scrolled down for about a mile, here is the recipe.

Left over roast beef and gravy of a reasonable amount

1 onion chopped

baby carrots, about 2 big handfuls

diced potatoes of any variety, about 2 big handfuls

1 can canned green beans or fresh or frozen beans

1 can beef broth

1-2 T curry

2-3 bay leaves

Heat your sauce pan up and saute your onions to allow them to release their fragrance, you don't have to cook them through (as long as it takes to prep the rest of the veggies) Add the potatoes and carrots and beef broth. Cook until potatoes and carrots begin to get tender.  If you are using fresh beans add them next, if you are using canned beans add them closer to the end. Add your leftover roast beef and gravy. Add the curry and stir. Cook on med-low until potatoes and carrots are very tender. Serve over rice.

Then eat it for lunch the next day because it is good leftovers!

Encounters with white chocolate macadamia cookies

In the last two days, I have had two good encounters with white chocolate macadamia cookies. The first one was at the Jazz game last night and the second one was a Sundance today.  I thought to myself, I never in my life have made a a white chocolate macadamia cookies! So today I did. These cookies are inspired by the rookie cookies chocolate chip cookies, that I have been meaning to try for weeks but haven't gotten around to. Her recipe intrigued me because it calls for a vanilla pudding mix. I didn't change anything from her recipe aside from substituting the chocolate chips for white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts, and I made them into huge cookies.  

Ingredient list:
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
¾ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

half bag white chocolate chips

1 c macadamia nuts

Now you can cook these just the regular way, golf ball size dough, 375 degrees for 9-10 min. I decided to make ginormous size cookies. I used my big ice cream scoop rather than my mini scoop, (probably about 2 1/2 tablespoons) I baked them for 14 minutes at 375.  I also chilled the dough before I  baked them (heavens sake just TRY chilling your dough first!)

So now that I have made my first white chocolate macadamia cookies I can say,suck it Energy Solutions Arena and Sundance, my cookies were gooood!

The meal for the terrible cook

If there is any meal that ANYONE can cook, its the pot roast. Easy to do, hard to screw up, no fail, effortless. Throw it all in the crock pot and go. I don't mess around with weird things like a can of coke or Italian dressing, these are just whole foods and whole ingredients letting their flavors speak for themselves.

Ingredient list:

2-3 lbs of roast beef or chuck roast (you want something with some fat on it or will be dry)

bag of baby carrots

3-4 potatoes cut in big chunks (I used yukon gold, did you know those are better for you than regular potatoes, they lean toward the sweet potato in health)

1 medium onion cut in big chunks

2-3 garlic cloves minced (or  a teaspoon of garlic powder, I am always a fresh garlic girl)

5-6 bay leaves

1/2-1 t thyme

2 T beef base (or you could use bullion cubes or beef stock, I am a beef base girl)

1-2 c water

Lots of salt and pepper

After breakfast (hopefully something good like steel cut oats, not rice chexs like I had this morning) heat up your crock pot. Meanwhile heat a skillet on high and liberally salt and pepper both sides of your meat. Put a little oil in the skillet and brown both sides of the meat. Once it is browned, put it in the crock pot along with the rest of the ingredients.  Cook on low till dinner time and serve (about 8-9 hours). 

You can do the same thing in the oven, after you have browned the meat cook at 325 degrees for 3-4 hours.

If you choose,  scoop all the meat and veggies out and pour the liquid into a sauce pan and make some gravy!

Forward this post on to all the people you know who eat taco bell for dinner with their families.  We need families eating real food people!

Mexican Beef

Its good to be eating beef again. Fairb is back in town! I can say however, whenever he goes on a long trip, it is sort of anti climatic when he returns. Kind of like crying on your birthday. I have it built up in my head that life is going to be so easy when he returns, but as he goes into his office after dinner to write the ten millionth email, while all the kids are biting at my waist as I do the dishes,  it doesn't feel much different. I can say the bed is much warmer when he's around, and I love it!

This recipe I have adopted into my family. I make it all the time, it has become one of my top 20 most loved and most made dishes (oooh, I should make a top 20 list!) My friend Rebecca taught it to me. Her mother is from Mexico, so this is the real thing folks, you are going to love it, I promise.  She'll probably read this and say, "That's not the recipe,  the woman is nuts."  So this is generally it, I am too lazy to pull out a recipe she gave me to actually follow it; sorry folks.

Ingredient list

2-3 lbs beef (from the cheapest to the expensive, your choice, its slow cooked so you can get away with cheap, please don't use ground, I beg you!)

1 medium onion fine diced

4 garlic cloves minced

2 t cumin

salt and pepper

1-2 T beef base

a little water

2, 15 oz cans of tomato sauce

4-5 serrano peppers

This is most easily cooked in a slow cooker, but first you must brown the meat and saute the onions. So in batches brown the meat (if you do it all at once, it won't brown properly, rather it will "steam")  a hot skillet (use a little oil) along with the onions. While browning, liberally salt and pepper.  Put all the browned meat and onions into the slow cooker. Add a little beef base and a little water (like a 1/3 c). Add garlic and cumin. Cook on high for 4-5 hours, or low for 8-9 hours. Half way through, add the tomato sauce and the serrano peppers. Add them whole, if the peppers are cooked too long, or if they get too hot, they will burst and making it very spicy.  Discard the peppers before serving. The meat should be very tender and savory.

Serve in burritos, tacos, enchiladas, with beans and rice. This makes the best leftovers. Make double and freeze it, it is the perfect freezer food.

best buddy

Today I went my son's preschool to assist with a walking field trip.  When I got there, Everett grabbed this boy by the shirt and dragged him over to me. As if showing me a new toy he said, 

"Look mom, this is my best buddy! "

The boy smiled ear to ear, proud to be meeting the family. They held hands the whole walk, and their conversation went something like this;

Everett: "Hey buddy?"

Best Buddy: "Ya buddy?"

Everett: "Is your house in the mountains?"

Best Buddy: "No! I live in Provo!"

Everett: "My house is in the mountains."

We can't all be as lucky as you Everett, sorry best buddy.

KITCHEN TOOL OF THE WEEK: Poach pod

I haven't done a kitchen tool for a while, I have a lot more kitchen tools to go! This tool I just recently acquired. Put me in a Bed, Bath and Beyond, or even worse, a Williams and Sonoma and I will blow some coin. I try to stay away, but sometimes I can't resist . . . .

So this is a silicone pod used to poach eggs.  Eggs poached is my "egg way", but poaching eggs is so difficult and messy and I always feel like you loose half the egg in the water. My kids love poached eggs as well. They once read a story about poached eggs on toast, and ever since then they want poached eggs.

So a new kitchen tool was enough to inspire me to make breakfast, if you are a frequent reader, you know that I hate making breakfast and it suppose to be my husbands job . Since I've had to be mom and dad lately, I made a big breakfast before a day of skiing.

The egg poachers worked great! I highly recommend them, and plan on getting more. A perfectly poached egg, the egg doesn't touch the water, so its not going to get your toast soggy.

I also made some STEEL CUT oats (haven't tried steel cut yet? go get some!) with fresh cream and strawberries and bananas. I served the poached eggs on buttered toast and some CENTER CUT (tastes better, less fat). Breakfast sounds like of good huh?

chicken strips

So tonight I made a classic Persian recipe that is pretty unique and popular in my family. I took all these pictures of the dinner but when it came time for blogging, I realized I didn't have the memory chip in the camera. No pictures, no recipe, sorry folks.  However, I won't just love and leave you, I did make some baked chicken strips for the kiddos earlier this week, so here ya go . . . .

So these look enormous in the picture, but they are just the regular chicken tenders. We dipped them in ranch dressing and the kids loved them.

Ingredient list:

2 c panko bread crumbs (Japanese bread crumbs)

1/3 c flour

2 t salt

1 t pepper

1/4 t cayenne pepper (optional, if your kids are super sensitive to spice, my kids kinda are but they have to suffer anyway)

1 T paprika

1 garlic powder

1 t onion powder

1/3 c flax meal (I measured 1/3 c flax seeds and ground them in my blender)

Combine the above ingredients in a ziplock bag.

2 lbs chicken tenders

2 eggs beaten

Dip the chicken tenders in the eggs then drop into the ziplock and shake to coat. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat a cookie sheet in OVOO and line the sheet with the chicken. Brush the tops of the chicken with more oil. Place chicken in the top half of the oven and cook for about 30 minutes, flipping half way through till they are brown and crispy.

 Don't get me wrong, they are good, but the kids are going to like the fried ones better, so you can pan fry them in like 2 inches of oil, or deep fat fry them. The flax seed gives them a good crunch and added nutrition, but they do make it taste a little more earthy ( I like earthy), it can be easily omitted.

Pork tenderloin

So tonight I made a pork tenderloin for the first time. Yes, it is still pork and chicken week. My husband is still gone and I am going to die. Actually, I am going to be fine, but my children are going to die, by my own hands.  I bought a new DVD today and put it on while I made dinner. I was enjoying the peace of having them engaged upstairs that I didn't even call them down for dinner. So my parents and I enjoyed dinner without them. Aaaahhhhh . . . . .

So I have never made a pork tenderloin before, tenderloin is a good thing when it comes to beef, so I figure it will be good for pork too.  In the package, it looked like a perfect little tubular log, but when I opened it, it was actually in two pieces, which was disappointing. I definitely had "cookers block" as I looked at this piece of meat. So I pulled out my mountain of cookbooks, nothing inspired me. Went to my favorite website, the food network, nothing.  I had faint memories of seeing someone stuff a pork tenderloin, so that is what I did.

I sauteed some onion(1 small), celery(2 stocks) and garlic(1 clove) in some OVOO (not to get Rachael Ray on you, but it is more convenient!) Then I added about 2 c stove top stuffing, a handful of pine nuts and a handful of dried cherries. Then I added about a 1/2 can chicken broth. That was the stuffing.

I slapped the stuffing in the middle then tied up the roast with a string. Liberally s and p'd it, and put it in the oven for about 1 hour at 350 degrees.

I have to say . . . . pretty good invention. I served it up with some scalloped potatoes . Although, it was good. I am ready to eat some beef with my lover.

Grab A Button

So I got a great new look! Do you likey? It was created by the blog fairy at theblogfairy.com.

I bought a blog makeover and a fundraiser for my cousin Stephanie , so she is very generous and did a very good job. So if you want your blog to look spiffy, check her out!

Now I have my own button that you can put on your blog to link people who visit your blog to me. Look into the computer screen . . . you are getting very sleepy . . . you want to put my link on your blog . . . .you will do everything I tell you . . . When you wake up you will be feeling relaxed . . .and hungry . . .

If you would like to add a Hobble Creek Kitchen button to your blog, just copy the code below and paste it into your HTML/JavaScript Elements.

<a href="http://hobblecreekkitchen.blogspot.com/"><img alt="Hobble Creek Kitchen" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/ff98725d.png" /></a>

valentine cuppycakes

For a little family activity tonight we decorated cuppycakes. I used the same recipe for my chocolate cake but did it for vanilla (using vanilla pudding, obviously) and I halved it. I used the big cupcake tin (has anyone ever bought the big tin cupcake liners? if you have tell me where!) Nothing is more appetizing that seeing a huge cupcake! I make a basic butter cream frosting,

2 sticks butter softened

1 bag powdered sugar

1 T vanilla (don't use dark vanilla or it makes you white frosting poopy color, use clear vanilla)

approx 2/3 c milk

pinch of salt

 Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, slowly add powdered sugar to the butter, add vanilla, now slowly add milk until the frosting is the desired consistency.

Use the gel food coloring instead of the liquid stuff, often they sell it over by the crafts (like at wall mart for instance) instead of the food section.

Kids had a blast, we delivered some to the neighbors, and they tasted good! I could only eat about a third of one, so it will make good breakfast tomorrow morning!

I'm so proud

Look what I did today!

I finally remembered to bring my reusable shopping bags into the store! I am so proud! I have only had them for 6 months, it was high time I used them! It felt great!

We live where there is no garbage service, so we have to manage our garbage ourselves. That make us acutely aware of how much garbage we use. So every time I brought home my groceries in those plastic bags I would be riddled with guilt. So I would pile them in a corner, with the weak intention of taking them to recycled, full knowing I would probably never remember to take them somewhere. I would recycle them in others ways, lining the bathroom waste baskets, some times I line a bowl with one and use it for garbage when I am cooking (Rachael Ray style) so I just pull it out of the bowl and drop everything into the garbage.

So today is a new day, Nan uses reusable grocery bags. Next thing you know I will be composting!

this is good stuff, and you can cook with it too!

This lotion is amazing! You will love it! and did you you coconut oil is a super food? here are the links. www.basabody.com and for information on coast coconut farms and how it helps moms in Kenya go to www.coastcoconutfarms.co.ke

Bring on summer . . food at least

So I love winter, I love to ski, I love the snow, I love careening down my hill in my car out of control bouncing off snow banks. I love all of it. What I hate is a winter where there is no snow, and there is just a soggy mess outside. Thank goodness I live above the inversion or I would be in hell! If there isn't going to be any snow to enjoy, bring on summer please. So last night I made some summer food.  Barbecue ribs, with coleslaw, french fries and watermelon.

So my ribs are really faux barbecue ribs. Because before I put them on the grill, I braise them on the stove. They however are the best ribs you will ever have. So here it goes!

Baby Back Ribs:

I buy my ribs at costco, however they only sell them in pretty big quantity, so if you are only serving a little family, best get them at you friendly corner market. You will need to cut them into sections in order to fit them into a pot. Sometimes I cut them individually, sometimes into three or four sections. Get your nice big pot and put your ribs in, if you are doing more than fits in one layer in the pan, stop here. Make one layer and liberally season with salt and pepper. Now quarter 1 small onion and smash 3-4 garlic cloves with the back side of your knife and add to the pot. Sprinkle with about a teaspoon of rubbed sage. Add 3-4 bay leaves. Now if you have more layers of ribs to put down, do so now and add more salt and pepper, onions, garlic and sage and bay leave. I would advise only doing two layers in a pot. Now add water just to cover the ribs. Bring to a boil and immediately turn to the lowest heat your stove will go. Let simmer for 1.5-2 hours. You can check them to see if they are pulling away from the bone and looking tender. They won't look super appetizing. . . yet.

 What the ribs look like taken out of the liquid

At this point you can potentially just put them in the fridge for when you are ready to eat them, or more significantly you can freeze them to eat them at another date or to take them on a camping trip, lake powell, etc. If you are going to eat them that night, like I just did, get your grill or your oven hot. I used my grill. You want the grill on medium low, the oven at 425 degrees. Baste the ribs with your favorite barbecue sauce, I like "sweet baby rays". Put them on the grill, flipping them once, for about 10 minutes. So they are browned and looking tasty.

like this . . . 

If using the oven, put them on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven for about 10-15 minutes until they are browned. You will not believe how good these ribs are, and you will want summer to come!

chicken dumplings

Sigh . . . .Chicken and dumplings . . . don't get me wrong, they are really, really good, but you know what chicken means right? My love is out of town. Yep, its chicken and pork week. We always eat chicken or pork when he is gone,  and we are going to be eating a lot of chicken and pork. I hate you chicken and pork and all you stand for.

So this dish is very "semi-homemade" which isn't usually how I roll, but its quite good. This is something my mother taught me and I ate often as a child. You can use left over  sunday chicken, roast your own chicken or, use a rotisserie chicken. You could also use, dare I even utter the words, boneless, skinless chicken breast, but I think boneless, skinless chicken is a violation of culinary humanity. I shutter.

Ingredient list:

2-3 cups chopped cooked chicken

1 box chicken stock

1 onion chopped

2 c potato chopped

2 c carrots chopped

1 c celery chopped

1 cup frozen peas

1 c frozen corn

2 T butter

2 T oil

flour

salt and pepper

3 c Bisquick or any baking mix

milk

Make sure you dice all your veggies the same size (1/2 inch). Heat your oil and butter in a large skillet and saute all your veggies, hold off on the peas and corn till your other veggies and par cooked. Season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  Add corn and peas and cook a while longer. When potatoes are tender, add about a 1/2 cup flour, sprinkling all over the veggies. Stir to coat all the veggies. Add the chicken (and any gravy if you have it) then add the chicken stock, you might not need all of it.  Pour enough in to cover everything. Bring to a boil then simmer on medium low for about 15 minutes, till potatoes are very tender and everything thickens up. If it is too thick, add some more stock. Taste and make sure it doesn't need more salt and pepper. You could add some herbs, like thyme or rosemary but I don't.  Meanwhile, make you biscuit dough. You could probably just follow the instructions on the box, but I just add some milk to make a very sticky dough. Pour the filling into a casserole dish. With a mini ice cream scoop, spoon balls of the dough on top of the filling, as if you were arranging cookie dough on a cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until the biscuits are fluffy and browned. Its an easy one and everyone will love it, unless you are fairb but he's gone anyway :(

what do ripe bananas mean its time for?

BANANA BREAD!

I sometimes buy extra bananas just to have an excuse to make banana bread. But my banana bread is more than banana bread. It is super bread bread! I adapted this recipe from my mother-in-law to hide some healthy stuff in it in order to make it a more healthy snack for the kidos. It's made with half whole wheat, has flax seed, carrots and zucchini.

Ingredients:

1 c melted butter

1 c sugar

4 eggs

1 c shredded carrots

1 c shredded zucchini

6 ripe bananas mashed

1 cup milk

1 container of yogurt (any kind, just not something chunky

or you can use sour cream(about a cup)

2 c whole wheat flour

2 c all-purpose flour

1/2 c flax seeds (you can do whole, but the kids won't like it, I grind them up into meal)

1 t salt

2 t baking soda

I chop up the carrots and zucchini in the food processor, you want it fine. First cream the butter and sugar, next add the eggs, zucchini, carrots, bananas, yogurt and milk. Blend together well. Meanwhile combine the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the mixture, until combined. Do not over mix. Now this will make two long bread pans (what I do) or three regular bread pans. Make sure you spray with pam first. Bake at 350 degrees convection, if you oven doesn't do convection, do 375. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Test it with a toothpick.  

You absolutely must have a piece when it comes out of the oven, put some butter on it. Yum! Store it in tin foil and enjoy for the next few days. Take the extra loaf to your neighbor, or freeze it!

What to do for family home evening

Come with me and my family to this concert tonight! You may have heard about Stephanie and her husband Christian who were in a plane accident in August and were severely burned. What you may not know is that Stephanie is my cousin. So come on down to Provo for this benefit concert for her family!