Chocolate Chip Scones

Chocolate Chip Scones

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt, heaping
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pats
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (12 ounces) mini chocolate chips
Demerara (or other coarse) sugar, for topping (I left this off because I didn't have it)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Put the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder in your stand mixer -- stir to combine. Add in the small butter pieces, and give it a mix until combined. You won't see the butter much at this point - it will just mix and coat the flour. Put the chocolate chips in the mixer at this point. (I didn't do this until the end the first time, and I would have been happier with the way they mixed in if they had been put in at this point) In a small bowl: mix your heavy cream, eggs, and vanilla. Save 2 tablespoons of this mixture to use as an egg wash before baking. Add this to the mixer and mix until combined and it starts to be a dough.

Liberally flour your surface and press out the dough to about 3/4 inch thick -- I didn't really measure this - I just pressed the dough out in a circle until it was about as thick as I wanted the scones to be. They don't rise or spread much at all so what you see is what you're going to get. You can also crowd this recipe entirely on one pan -- I used a small round biscuit cutter for these, but you could use any shape you'd like.

Once you have all the dough cut, brush with the remaining egg & cream mixture. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned on the top. They are best served warm, but we ate on them for several days - I packed them for breakfasts "to go" and sent them off to work with John.

You could freeze the unbaked dough on a cookie sheet until they are firm, then pack them away for use as you need them. Just bake directly from the freezer and add about 5 minutes to the original baking time.

**These would be outstanding with cinnamon chips instead of chocolate... or any baking chip you'd like to use. It's a great basic scone dough that you can add in any flavor you'd like - dried fruit would be great too.Pin It Now!

Cheesy Broccoli Cups

Cheesy Broccoli Cups


1 cup quick-cooking rice (like Minute Rice)
1 cup chicken stock
1 10-oz. box frozen, chopped broccoli florets, thawed and excess water squeezed out
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1/4 cup Homemade Ranch Dressing, or store bought
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Prepare your rice using chicken stock instead of the water. Once the rice is cooked, put it in a bowl to cool. Squeeze the water out of your broccoli, and add it to the bowl with the rice. Add 1/2 a cup of cheddar cheese, the ranch dressing, eggs, and salt & pepper to your bowl. Mix everything together, and spoon the mixture into a regular sized muffin pan -- top with the remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes or until the cheese on the top is browned.

You could steam fresh broccoli for this recipe as well, and it would be great! 

This was a toddler sensation, so we will be making them many times in the future!  Pin It Now!

Chocolate Pecan Granola

Chocolate Pecan Granola

4 cups rolled oats

4 TBSP sugar

3 TBSP vegetable oil

12 TBSP honey

12 oz bag mini chocolate chips

2 cups pecan pieces

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. In a large pot, melt your sugar, honey, and vegetable oil together until liquid and runny. Add in your rolled oats and pecans - coat in the honey mixture. Pour on a large jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with sides. Spread into an even layer and bake for 10-15 minutes. Mix the oats a bit, and then bake for another 10-15 minutes or until everything is a golden brown color. Leave on cookie sheet until cooled. Pour the chocolate chips over the top of the mixture once it is completely cooled, and then scoop into an air-tight container or baggie for storage. 

You can serve it over ice cream, with milk as a cereal, with yogurt, with fruit, or just eat handfuls of it as a snack. Enjoy!

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Cabbage Roll Soup

Cabbage Roll Soup
Adapted from: Hey That Tastes Good (I added some things)

1 pound ground beef (you could mix beef & pork)

salt and pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, cut into half moons

2 stalks of celery, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes

1 quart chicken stock

1/2 head of cabbage, core removed and the rest sliced into thin strips

1/2 cup long grain rice

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 teaspoon celery salt

 

We are moving to a clean eating household... but aren't there quite yet, so to make this as a true clean eating recipe - you might make your own stock, can your own tomatoes, and use brown rice instead of white.

 

I put the onion, carrots, celery, celery salt, and garlic in a large stock pot with the salt & pepper and let them start cooking for about 5 minutes... I then added the meat and let it brown while the vegetables continued to get soft. After the meat is browned, add the tomatoes, chicken stock, and cabbage. Let the soup come to a boil for about 5-10 minutes then add the rice. Let everything cook together for 20-30 minutes. At the very end, we added the vinegar.

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Pasta Fagoli Soup

 

Pasta Fagoli Soup
My version

1 lb ground sirloin -- the original recipe called for ground Italian sausage
4 large carrots, sliced or chopped
1 small/medium onion, chopped
1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 can cannellini beans, drained
1 cup ditalini pasta or small pasta (like a small elbow noodle)
6 cups chicken stock
salt & pepper
2-3 tsp garlic powder (I didn't measure this -- I just added a liberal amount so I'm guessing)
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Parmesan for the topping

I made this up to the last step during naptime, and then all I needed to do was add the pasta to finish it when it was dinner time. I love meals that can be prepped ahead and finished quickly. 

I started off browning my meat in a stock pot with a liberal coating of salt & pepper. Add in the carrots and onion - cook until they start to get soft. If there isn't enough grease in the pan from your meat, you may need to add a small amount of olive oil to keep the veggies from burning.

Stir in the diced tomatoes, drained cannellini beans, garlic powder, thyme, bay leaf, and 4 cups of the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer, and let it sit in the pot covered until you're ready to finish it off.

Add in the remaining 2 cups of stock and the pasta, boil until the pasta is ready about 10 minutes or so. Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on the soup as you are serving it. I served ours with bread, but a good homemade Cesar salad would go nicely too. Pin It Now!

Prune Cake

Let me start off by saying that I know this sounds weird, but it's a childhood favorite of my mother's. You could easily leave the prunes out and have a nice spice cake... which is what I'd do if I made it for myself.

Prune Cake
Courtesy of: Meme

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
3 beaten eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp allspice
1 cup chopped prunes
1 cup chopped pecans

Icing:
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup prune juice (you could sub in orange juice or something else in lieu of the prunes)
2 tbsp flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup pecans

Cream the butter and sugar together with a mixer, I used my stand mixer for this because the batter is a tad bit thick. Add the buttermilk and eggs and mix until smooth.

In another mixing bowl - combine the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, and allspice. Begin slowly mixing the dry ingredients in small amounts into the wet ingredients. Mix until combined. Add in the chopped prunes and pecans at the end.

You can bake this as a round cake, but for this time around my Mom was traveling with it to visit my Grandmother - so I baked it in a 13x9 pan so that it was easier to travel with and we didn't have to worry about the layers shifting.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. There wasn't a baking time on the original recipe, so I wanted to make sure it wasn't overdone. Always easier to check on it and put it back in for a little longer than to over bake it.

Once it is done let it cool. It is a warm icing, so it doesn't have to be completely cooled before you finish it.

When you are ready to frost it -- mix all the icing ingredients together and boil on the stove until it thickens. It is pretty thick when it is done. I start mine slow and add more heat gradually to make sure that the eggs don't scramble.

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Microwave Pecan Pralines

Microwave Pecan Pralines
Courtesy of: Meme

1 box of light brown sugar
1/2 pint of heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 cups pecan halves
Wax paper

In a large microwave safe bowl, mix the brown sugar with the whipping cream until smooth. Microwave for 9 minutes, then leave it for 1 minute. Add butter and vanilla -- it will bubble like crazy. Finally, stir in pecans. Stir until slightly thickened, and then drop onto wax paper. Once completely cooled, store them in an air-tight container.Pin It Now!