Getting Cozy: No Joke Brownies

This is technically yesterday's post. I forgot to post it! Melody will have another post for you later today. 

My family has a brownie recipe that is incredible. This recipe has one cup of butter and two cups of sugar. They are no joke, hence the name that I gave them. 

They are the perfect brownie to whip up when you have guests coming over, because believe me, you do not want the whole pan in your house because you will eat them all. The whole pan.

Place a scoop of ice cream, some warm chocolate sauce and even some sprinkles on top and you have the perfect dessert.

No Joke Brownies

1 cup butter 

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup cocoa

3 large eggs

1 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) 

1/2 cup chocolate chips (also optional, but you will be missing out if you don't put them in. Just sayin'.) 

Preheat oven to 350 fahrenheit. 

Melt butter and add sugars and cocoa. Blend well. Beat eggs in one at a time. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add vanilla. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Bake in a 9x13 pan for 30 min. 

** Sometimes I don't use this icing recipe and just use a store bought version. Easy and still good. **

ICING

1/2 cup softened butter 

1 cup icing sugar

2/3 cup cocoa

2 T milk

2 T hot coffee (you can use instant coffee for this) 

Beat the butter, sugar and cocoa together. Add the milk and hot coffee to the mixture. Spread on top of cooled brownies. 

Enjoy! 

This is day 28 of our Getting Cozy Series 

To catch up on the rest of the days, click the button above! 

Getting Cozy: Warm Drinks

I love to drink warm drinks even if it's 100 degrees outside, so when the cooler weather comes, I pull out all the stops... or kettles.

I have a Keurig and I absolutely love it. It makes my coffee in the morning in about 2 minutes flat. Perfect for a coffee junky like me. I know coffee isn't everyone's thing so I put in a few other of my favourite recipes too :)

via The Kitchn

This gingerbread latte recipe sounds amazing and I'm definitely putting it on my list of drinks to try. I love that it has fresh ginger in it, can I say healthy?

via It's Our Pinteresting Life

I posted this recipe for Pomegranate Apple Cider last year and I'd have to say that it's still my all-time favourite. It's also a really simple way to make plain apple cider a little fancier for a get-together with friends. Plus, kids can drink it too!

via It's Our Pinteresting Life

Heidi posted this Pumpkin Spice Latte recipe last year and it is ah-mazing. Exactly like Starbucks except not expensive. And it actually has real pumpkin in it. I keep a can of pumpkin in my fridge just for this recipe.

via Gourmande in the Kitchen

For all of the tea lovers out there, here's an awesome recipe for Spiced Persimmon Tumeric Tea. Not only is it delicious, it also has amazing health benefits.

Hope this helps to expand your drink repertoire. 

Any good recipes that I missed?

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Getting Cozy: Best of the {Healthy} Comfort Foods

This is the time of year when I start thinking about comfort foods. Thick stews with crusty bread, apple crisp, and lots of pasta casseroles. I'm making myself hungry!

Unfortunately, most comfort foods can be pretty unhealthy. Full of bad fats, preservatives and way too many calories.

The premise behind these foods are not bad, you just might have to do a little more work to make them healthy. I've put together some of my favourite meals from around the blogosphere that are actually pretty healthy!

via

This has some great recipes for those days when you have too much going on. Just grab one out of the freezer in the morning and you're set for the night! Most of these meals are pretty healthy. If it calls for any sauces on top, simply try to find the healthiest version that has either no sugars or very small amounts of sugar in them. If you can't pronounce one of the ingredients, it's probably not good for you.

via

I love a good homemade soup. My parents make the best soup ever and this reminds me of their recipe. Full of vegetables, it would be perfect on a rainy fall day.

via

Yummy beef stew recipe with very few ingredients. You can also customize it for your family and add tons of vegetables. Did you know that most family's fall short on the amount of vegetables that they're eating every day? Loading up on them during your supper meal is always a good idea.

via

This slow cooker jambalaya sounds absolutely fantastic and will probably be added to my menu for next week. I'm not a huge fan of sausages, but if you grab turkey sausage from your local butcher, that is a much healthier option than the usual pork sausages. 

What are some of your fall/winter meal staples? Any good ones that I missed?

Getting Cozy: Homemade Applesauce

Sorry about the late post. I was planning on posting yesterday, but I ran out of time! Heidi will have her second post up later today :)

There's nothing better than licking the whipped cream off the beaters,
unless you get to do it with this cutie!

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A few days, I bought 1/2 a bushel of apples to make applesauce with. My girls have applesauce with their oatmeal every morning and when Troy starts on solid foods in a few months, applesauce will be one of the staples. 

I figured that I could save myself a pretty good amount of money, not to mention that I know exactly what's in it and know that it's perfectly safe for my kids.

Instead of making a huge batch at a time, I make two or three jars as I have had time. It really doesn't take too long, but when you have kids hanging off you, it's just easier!

If you want to make your own, I followed these instructions with a few of my own modifications.  I chose to do the "easy" instructions since  I don't have a canning pot or a colander. I simply peeled and cored my apples before putting them in the pot. 

I didn't add any sugar to mine since it's for the kids, but I added quite a bit of cinnamon to give it some extra flavour. 

I made quite a few jars and I have to admit, I was quite giddy when I heard the first "pop" that means that the jar sealed. 

I'll be making a few other recipes with apples, but for now, I can look at my jars and feel proud :)

This technically day 13 of our Getting Cozy series. 

Click the button above to catch the rest of the days. 

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Getting Cozy: Pumpkin Cheesecake

Something you may not know about my husband, is that he is serious about his cheesecake. Seriously in love. He also loves pumpkin pie. He could eat pumpkin pie in the middle of the summer. Me? Not so much. I am more for saving the pumpkin pie experience for when it is intended to eat it. At Thanksgiving.

When Jesse told me about growing up having pumpkin cheesecake at Thanksgiving, I thought it was weird. Like...pumpkin pie cheesecake? He decided to show me what I was missing and actually baked a pumpkin cheesecake. Who knew he could bake?

We both agree that this recipe is delicious and we he makes it almost every Thanksgiving at the request of my family. (I unfortunately don't remember where I found this recipe, so if it is your creation, I apologize.)

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Pumpkin Cheesecake 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Crust:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cup ginger snap cookies, crushed into crumbs 

Melt the butter into a small saucepan and stir in the cookie crumbs. Press into an ungreased 9"x9" springform pan and bake for 10 minutes. Let cool.

Filling:

• 2 - 8oz. packages of cream cheese, softened 
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 - 14oz. can of real pumpkin 
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/2 tsp. salt 

Beat together the cream cheese and sugar well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in remaining ingredients. Pour over cooled crust. Bake for 1 hour or until firm.

Chill and garnish with whipping cream (real is the best). If desired, sprinkle a bit of pumpkin pie spice or nutmeg on top of the whipped cream.

Enjoy!

Serves 12

This is day 12 of our Getting Cozy series. 

To catch up on the series, click the button above! 

Getting Cozy: Harvest Vegetable Soup

It seems a little crazy to be writing about soup recipes since it's still 25 degrees outside and I have my air conditioning on.. but I'm gonna do it anyways.

I found this wonderful recipe from President's Choice. It's actually a commercial that runs during my favourite designer show so maybe I was brainwashed into making it? But I have to admit that it is as delicious as the commercial says it is!

I had a few friends over today so I decided to try out the recipe. I figured they could be my guinea pigs!

As always, I changed up the recipe to suit our tastes. You can find the original recipe here.

Harvest Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

• 7 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1  large leek, white and light green parts only, chopped
• 1  large onion, chopped
• 1  large ripe pear, cored and quartered
• 3  sprigs fresh thyme
• 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp of sea salt
• ½ cup crumbled goat cheese
• 1/3 cup PC black label Walnut Pesto, stirred (you can find this at any PC brand grocery store or you can use this recipe to make your own)
• 1 1/2 L of chicken broth
• ¼ cup 35% whipping cream

Chop all the vegetables and place in a baking dish. Drizzle the olive oil and sea salt over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes to an 1 hour or until the vegetables are soft. 

Puree half the vegetables in a good blender with half of the chicken broth. Move that over to a large pot. Puree the other half of the vegetables with the rest of the chicken broth and the whipping cream. Move to the pot. Warm on the stove until it comes to a boil. Take it off the heat.

In another bowl, mix together the goat cheese and the walnut pesto.  Place the soup into individual bowls and top with about 2 tbsp of the pesto mixture. Serve with some crusty bread and enjoy!

This recipe makes quite a bit of soup. It will feed about 10 people! Store the leftovers in the fridge. It just gets more delicious as the flavours mix together!

I hope you're enjoying our 31 Day series so far. 

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Wheat-Free Waffles

For the last little while, I've been experimenting with different recipes to see if I can make them "wheat free". My whole family, including me, does better if we don't have a lot of wheat in our diet. This includes breads, pastas, crackers or anything that has wheat in it. It's been a little difficult but thankfully there are a lot of great recipes out there!

My hubby has been pretty good about this whole experiment but he still wants normal tasting food. Fair enough, right?

I made these for Easter morning and they were a big hit!

Wheat-Free Waffles (makes 8 waffles)

1 3/4 cups of oatmeal, finely ground
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In another bowl, add the wet ingredients and mix together. Using a hand mixer, add the wet and dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Cook according to your waffle maker's directions. They might take a little longer to cook than regular waffles so just be patient! Top with berries, maple syrup or whatever you want!

Oatmeal doesn't seem to bother anyone in our family as much as wheat does. If you want to make these completely gluten free, check and make sure that you're using gluten free oatmeal. I grind my oatmeal in my coffee grinder and it makes a nice light flour.

If you use this recipe, let me know what you think! 

I've made it a few times but the recipe could always use some "tweaking".

Mediterranean Chicken with Brown Rice

This has always been one of my favourite recipes. It's a fast and easy and makes you look like a culinary genius!

Heidi shared this recipe with me when she and Jesse were first married. I'm not sure where she got it from so unfortunately, I can't give any credit to anyone. But I was not the one to come up with it!

It's mostly a one pot meal which I love. Who wants to do a bajillion dishes??

So without further ado, here is the recipe.

Mediterranean Chicken

1 tbsp of olive oil
1 1/4 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups of sliced mushrooms
1 cup of sliced red or yellow peppers
1 1/2 tsp of dried basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 cups of fresh spinach
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
1 tbsp of lemon juice

First you're going to want to start your rice in a pot. In can be cooking away while you cook everything else.

The original recipe says to cook your chicken breast in the olive oil, but I'm always a little paranoid with raw chicken, so I usually cook it ahead of time by boiling it for a few minutes. Once the chicken is cooked (if you're like me), grab a large skillet and brown it in the olive oil.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the skillet and let it cook until the spinach is wilted and the rest of the vegetables are cooked.

Once your rice is cooked, add it to the plates and put your chicken and vegetables on top. You're done!

The total time it takes is about 20 minutes from start to finish. The best part is that it is full of vegetables and is so yummy that your kids won't even mind. I know mine don't!

P.S. This is our 300th post! I think that's pretty awesome. We definitely wouldn't be writing if it weren't for all of you wonderful ladies, so thanks! 

Healthy Recipe Roundup

I am three quarters of the way through my wheat-free, sugar-free month and I have to say that I have cheated. I went out for super with a friend last week and had pasta. I don't feel guilty because it was delicious! So creamy and yummy that I still think about it.

I have had to be a little more creative though. I've been pinning and trying lots of "healthy" recipes but they can be a hit or miss. Some of them don't taste very good at all, and some of them taste so yummy you want to eat the whole plate. To help you out, I've grabbed a few of my favourite recipes. These recipes don't have flour or sugar in them and they are kid and husband "approved".

1) Avocado Alfredo 2) Chocolate Lava Cake 3) Southwestern Chicken Casserole

4) Hot Chocolate 5) Tropical Cranberry, Lemon, & Coconut Squares 6) Cauliflower Pizza 7) Chocolate Chip Blondies

I tried the Tropical Squares last night and then had them for breakfast again this morning. So. yummy. 

Are there any good and healthy recipes that you've been trying lately? 

We'd love to hear about them!

Hello Dollies

I don't know who Dolly is, but I'm sure glad someone said hello to her and came up with these delicious bars. 

 

When I got married, my mom gave me a small book full of recipes that we had enjoyed as a family over the years, and this was one of them. 

During the holidays (or really, any day) that you have people coming over for dinner or dessert, and you don't have a lot of time, this is the dessert to whip up. It takes about 10 minutes to put together and then 25 minutes to bake in the oven. And the smell that it makes in your house is incredible. Seriously. Yummy. 

•  1/2 cup of butter or margarine, melted
• 1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup butterscotch chips 
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 1/3 cup flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped walnuts 

I do realize that for the picture of what you'll need, I pulled out the Reese's chocolate chips instead of butterscotch chips. But I didn't notice till after I uploaded the picture on my computer. And I showed up a week early to Gavin's 18-month doctor appointment on Wednesday... Let's blame everything on tiredness and pregnancy brain.

Turn on the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Stir together the melted butter and graham cracker crumbs in a mixing bowl. 

Pat the graham cracker mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. 

Stir together the sweetened condensed milk, butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, flaked coconut and chopped walnuts. 

Spread the sweetened condensed milk mixture over the graham cracker crust. 

Put it in the oven for about 25 minutes and sit back and start smelling those sweet smells. 

When it's done, you will have this! 

So.good. 

We hope you have enjoyed this second week of preparing for Christmas, before it starts! I know my stomach has. 

If you missed any of the days this past week, here's a recap: 

Next week is our last week of this series (I can't believe December 1st is next Saturday!) and that means that we will bringing some of our favourite Christmas crafts to do with our kids and to decorate our homes. 

Check back on Monday to see what Melody has up her sleeve!

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Happy weekend!