Time for Something Sweet

January 12, 2009 on 4:22 am | In Recipes | 3 Comments

Every now and then you just want something sweet. Tonight I wanted cake - but obviously, not an entire cake. So what did I do? I fiddled around with the one pan fudge cake recipe I posted here to make something more like one serving and microwaved it.

The result?

Cake! (I know you want the recipe, so here it is.)

Microwaved Bowl ‘o Cake

• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp baking cocoa
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp flour
• dash salt
• 1/8 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/8 tsp vinegar

Put all ingredients in microwave safe bowl, stir. Microwave on high for 45 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds until only small wet patches remain on the surface. (Microwave ovens vary, and so will the time it takes to cook it!)

In almost no time at all you have a nice, warm bowl of chocolate cake! You can eat it plain (it has a very nice cakey texture, not microwave rubber) or top with frosting, chocolate sauce, or do what I do - slice a banana over it and eat it with ice cream. Yum!

Oatmeal: Breakfast of Champions

September 6, 2007 on 7:01 am | In Recipes | 6 Comments

Or at least: Breakfast of My Boys. I’ve always fed them oatmeal for breakfast in the interests of nutrition. Once Max outgrew baby oatmeal flakes, I used to buy those packets of instant oatmeal, since I only needed to make one bowl a day. (Neither Greg nor I prefer an oatmeal breakfast. Probably because we were so often forced to eat it in our childhoods. That’s right, baby! Keeping the tradition alive.) Now that my little Charlie-bear (sniffle) has decided that he’s too big for baby mush, it’s not as practical. Plus, that instant oatmeal is filled with sugar and other processed stuff, and I’m trying to get away from that. But since my oatmeal-making skills are pretty rusty (and, I’m still tired of it, Mom. That and spaghetti.) I’ve been looking for oatmeal-y breakfasts to make that let me mix things up a bit. First up: breakfast cookies.

The Last Cookie - caught on film. Shown pretty much actual size. Maybe a little smaller than actual size.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oats (rolled/old fashioned)
• 3 tbsp + 1/4 cup wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp raisins
• 3 tbsp honey
• 3/4 cup applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oats, 1st flour, cinnamon, and baking powder in smallish mixing bowl. Add raisins, honey, and applesauce: mix together. Add 1/4 cup flour and mix in. Divide into three giant blobs and place on sprayed cookie sheet; bake 15-20 minutes until done. (Makes three palm-sized cookies.)

These are super fast, super easy to make, and really good. Really nutritious, too, not like some ‘breakfast cookie’ recipes I’ve seen. It multiplies well, and stores well (I once stuck one of these in a ziplock for 4 days, and it was still soft, chewy, and good when I pulled it out), and the boys love them. Once they’ve eaten theirs, they fight over who gets to mooch off of mine. Max thinks they’re real cookies. Haha. One of these days I need to just multiply the recipe by ten, bake ‘em all up, stick them away, and not have to worry about breakfast or snacks for like a week.

Second (and last, dang, this is a long post): Creamy Blueberry Oatmeal.

Max loves it and calls it ‘purple oatmeal,’ Charlie thinks it’s disgusting. Maybe he’s not quite ready for grown-up oatmeal, after all. Or he just hates purple. I don’t know.

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 cup oats (rolled/old-fashioned)
• 1 cup blueberries (I used frozen)
• small amount brown sugar

In small saucepan, scald milk over medium/medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Once it has scalded, turn the heat up and (watching closely and stirring often) bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil, immediately add oats and turn down heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add blueberries, cook for several minutes more until it looks done. Add sugar to taste. Makes three small or two ‘normal’ bowls of oatmeal.

Maybe I’m strange, but I really love being able to give my kids food with such a short ingredient list. Milk, blueberries, oats, sugar? Sounds like breakfast to me. Good times.

We had a BBQ this weekend.

May 7, 2007 on 12:46 pm | In Recipes, Life in General | 4 Comments

Not much yarny to report. I did try some new recipes, though. Good stuff!

1 Pan Fudge Cake
(I’m never buying chocolate cake mix again)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In an ungreased 9 x 13 pan (ungreased, I promise), stir together all dry ingredients. Be sure to break up lumps and clumps in this step.
3. Add the liquids and stir just until blended.
4. Bake for 25 minutes.
5. Frost! Be careful, as cake is extremely moist. Mmmm.

Jalapeño Velveeta Dip
(This one is my own concoction! Very good.)
8 oz. cream cheese
8 oz. block Velveeta
3 jalapeño peppers
milk
salsa1. Grill jalapeños (you could probably sauté them if you aren’t doing a barbeque); chop finely. (This way no one gets a mouthful of too much jalapeño!)
2. Chop velveeta and cream cheese into cubes, place in microwave-save bowl (About 1 qt sized?).
3. Microwave for 30 seconds to one minute at a time, stirring between each, until the cheeses begin to melt.
4. Add peppers.
5. Add about 1/4 cup of your favorite salsa. Stir together, heat again.
6. Add a little bit of milk. This part is subjective: you need to add enough milk to make the mixture smooth but not runny or thin. Stir.
7. When mixture is smooth and hot, serve with chips, or whatever!

Greg had some of the dip on a burger instead of cheese (I tried it. It’s very, very good). It’s good and spicy without being painful. The cake got a thumbs-up from everyone who tried it, too. When I had the first piece I said, “Wow. I’m never buying chocolate cake mix again.”

Greg said, “I’m gonna want to have a piece before we start saying crazy things like that.”

Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be needing to buy chocolate cake mixes again. Here you go, mom. You already make your own frosting, finally a cake that’s as easy as a mix, without one! I don’t make cakes that often, but I’m pretty enthused about it. The place I got the recipe from said it has also been called a ‘Depression Cake,’ because it’s made without eggs, or milk, or butter. It’s pretty cool, and it tastes really awesome. No one around here wants to hear over and over about how awesome the recipe is, though. Sigh.