One-Bowl Butter Cookies (Keto)

 Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Salted Butter Softened

1 1/2 Cups Finely Ground Blanched Almond Flour

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 Cup Granular Erythritol

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Large Egg

1/8 tsp Liquid Stevia

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put all the ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer, slowly blend on low speed, then increase the speed to medium and continue mixing until everything is well combined.

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto the prepared pan, leaving 2 inches of space between the cookies. Use the back of a fork to press crisscrosses on each cookie.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the cookies start to turn light brown around the edges. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan. The cookies will continue to firm up as they cool. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Shamrock Mint Shake

 Ingredients

3 Large Scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream

1/4 Cup Heavy Cream

1/2 tsp Peppermint Extract

6 drops green food dye

Optional Whipped Cream and Cherry, for topping

Directions

Take a blender and add the ice cream, heavy cream, peppermint extract, and food coloring. Mix until smooth. Lastly pour into a glass. Top with whipped cream and a cherry.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This year my husband was diagnosed with Celiac. He LOVES banana bread with chocolate chips and this is a recipe that both he and I really like!

Ingredients:

2 cups gluten-free all-purpose baking flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (4-5 bananas)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup canola oil (vegetable oil is a fine substitute)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat over to 350°F. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, bananas, sugar, applesauce, oil and vanilla. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened. Gently mix in chocolate chips.

Transfer to two greased 8x4" loaf pans (or a muffin pan if you want to do muffins). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45-55 minutes for a loaf, about 25 minutes for muffins. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon  baking soda
• 1 teaspoon  baking powder
• 1 teaspoon  ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon  ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon  salt
• 1 1/2 cups  granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup  butter (1 stick), softened
• 1 cup  LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 large  egg
• 1 teaspoon  vanilla extract
• Glaze (recipe follows)
• 
  
• INSTRUCTIONS
• PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease baking sheets. 
• COMBINE flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl. Beat sugar and butter in large mixer bowl until well blended. Beat in pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets.
• 
  
• BAKE for 15 to 18 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Drizzle Glaze over cookies.
• FOR GLAZE:
• COMBINE 2 cups sifted powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in small bowl until smooth.

Low Sugar Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 eggs
2 TBSP softened butter
1/4 cup brown sugar substitute (I used Truvia Brown sugar blend, but you can use a 1/2 cup of brown sugar)
2 cups Almond flour (sifted)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 (1oz.) package sugar-free white chocolate instant pudding
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (I used slightly more, closer to 3/4 cup and felt like I could have done it successfully with slightly less, but you can adjust to your preference)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*F.
Beat eggs until nice and foamy. In a separate bowl combine the brown sugar and butter, then combine with eggs. Add vanilla. In another bowl combine the dry ingredients (almond flour, pudding, baking powder, baking soda, and salt). Add dry ingredients to wet mixture, mix well. Add chocolate chips.
Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a slipmat. Spoon dough onto cookie sheet (the cookies don’t spread, and will pretty much stay exactly as you put them on the sheet, so for a more cookie look slightly flatten the mound of cookie dough).
Bake in preheated oven for 9-12 minutes (depending on the size of your cookies).

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

INGREDIENTS:

3 Eggs
2 Cups white sugar
1 Cup plus 2 TBS Vegetable Oil
6 TBS Cocoa Powder
2 Cups grated zucchini
1 tsp Vanilla extract
2 Cups All-purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 Cup Chocolate Chips


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans, or cupcake tin (or for easy cleanup line cupcake tin with cupcake liners!). Beat eggs and sugar together until creamy. Add vegetable oil, cocoa powder, grated zucchini, and vanilla. Beat well. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake in preheated oven for 60-70 minutes int he loaf pan, 25-30 minutes in the cupcake tins. Insert a toothpick into the center of the loaf to check that it comes out clean.

Fruit Dip

I was making a dip the other day and just had to use things that were available in my cupboard and this recipe was born!!! I LOVE it!!!!!

Ingredients:
2 Cups Milk
1 pkg sugar-free white chocolate pudding
1 Cup Brown Sugar
2 pkgs (8oz) cream cheese, softened

Instructions:
Mix milk and pudding together. Mix brown sugar with softened cream cheese. Mix cream cheese mixture and pudding together. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes. Serve with fruit! ENJOY!!!!

Caramel and Chocolate Filled Peanut Butter Cookies

Can you think of anything more yummy than a chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel combination!?! Yeah, this is DELICIOUS!!!

Ingredients

1 Cup Unsalted Butter
1 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
2 1/2 Cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 bag of Caramel Filled Hershey Kisses (take each one out of their wrappers)

Directions

Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars together. Beat in eggs. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together. Stir dry ingredients in with peanut butter mix. Add vanilla.

Chill for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Roll batter around Hershey kisses**, then roll in white sugar. Place on cookie sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes.

**If you're like me you start to get tired of trying to roll the dough around the kisses! My variation on this is to just roll the batter into walnut sized balls and put on the cookie sheet, after baking put the Hershey kisses on top.... still uber delicious!!!

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:
For Cookie Dough:
1 Cup Shortening
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
2 1/2 Cups Flour
2 tsp Cream of Tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

For Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture:
1/4 Cup Sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°. Mix the shortening, sugar, and eggs until creamy. Mix the dry ingredients in another bowl. Blend the wet with the dry ingredients until well mixed. Roll the dough into balls about the size of a walnut. Prepare the cinnamon-sugar mixture in a small bowl. Roll the cookie dough into the cinnamon-sugar mixture and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6-10 minutes. As they cool they will wrinkle on top.

Microwave Fudge

Ingredients:
3 Cups Sugar
3/4 Cups Butter or margarine (1 1/2 sticks)
1 small (5 oz) can evaporated milk (about 2/3 cup)
1 (12 oz) pkg Milk Chocolate Chips
1 (7 oz) jar Marshmellow Créme
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Cup Chopped Walnuts or Pecans (Optional, I'm not a fan of nuts in my fudge!)

Directions:
In a 4-quart microwave safe bowl, microwave butter on high until melted (about 1 minute 30 seconds). Add sugar and milk. Mix well. Microwave for 5 minutes, stir after 3 minutes. Stir well, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Microwave 5 1/2 minutes, stirring after 3 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes, add chocolate chips and marshmellow créme and stire until melted. Add nuts and vanilla, mix well. Pour into foil lined 9' square pan. Spread evenly to cover the bottom of the pan. Cool at room temperature for about 12 hours. Cut into 1' squares.

Margarita Pie

We don't drink alcohol in our house, but I really like some of those fancy drinks you can get virgin, like Piña Coladas! When my husband worked at Williams-Sonoma we got this YUMMY recipe using Margarita Mix! If you like key-lime pie you will LOVE this!

Ingredients:
2/3 Cup (160ml) Margarita Mix
1 Can (14 fl. oz/430ml) Sweetened Condensed Milk
3 Egg Yolks
1 Graham Cracker crumb Pie shell (you can either make this or buy it from the store)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a large bowl, whisk together the margarita mix, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks until well blended. Pour the mixture into the pie shell and bake until set, 7-10 minutes. Cool. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serves 8.

Pumpkin Pie

Happy October!!!

Ingredients:
Pie crust
2 Large Eggs
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/8 tsp Ground Cloves
1 can (16 oz) Pumpkin
1 can (12 oz) Evaporated Milk
Whipped Cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425°F
Beat eggs slightly until fluffy. Beat in remaining ingredients except for crust and whipped cream until smooth. Pour filling into pie crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F. Bake for 45 minutes longer. When finished allow to cool and refrigerate until ready to serve (4 hours is best).

Puppy Chow

This is a SUPER yummy snack but a word of caution... it is ADDICTING! Once you start you might not be able to stop!

Ingredients:
9 Cups Chex Cereal (I prefer the Rice Chex, no name brand!)
1 1/4 Cups Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cups Creamy Peanut Butter
1/4 Cups Butter
1/4 tsp Vanilla
2 Cups Powdered Sugar

Directions:
Put cereal into a gallon sized ziploc bag. Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in a medium sauce pan. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into bag with cereal, toss a little. Add powdered sugar and shake until well coated.

Orange Fluff

This makes SO much that you really should do this when you're planning to share!

Ingredients:
24 oz Cottage Cheese
2 Small Boxes of Orange Jello, OR 1 large box
2 cans (8 oz) crushed pineapple (drained)
3 cans (11 oz) mandarine oranges (I personally think Del Monte is the best tasting)
8 oz Cool Whip (defrosted)
Nilla Wafers

Directions:
Mix everything except for the Nilla Wafers together, chill for at least 1 hour. Serve with the Nilla Wafers!

Caramel Fondant

I combined a soft caramel recipe with a fondant recipe. A word to the wise... I should have thought before hand that I was adding two recipes together therefore I only needed half of the recipes of each... but I realized it too late. So now we have a LOT of caramel fondant, but it sure is yummy and makes a great little soft caramel candy! (The ingredients listed below are for the full recipe that I used, so you will be making a LOT and it takes a while... but it can stay in the fridge until you are ready to use it for the weeks ahead!)

Ingredients

2 Cups Heavy Cream

1/2 Cup Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 Cups Light Corn Syrup

1/2 Cup Water

2 Cups Granulated Sugar

1/2 Cup (1 Stick) softened butter, cut into small cubes

1 bag of Mini Marshmallows

2 Lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 Cup Shortening

Directions

Combine the cream and sweetened condensed milk in a small saucepan, and place the saucepan on a burner to the lowest heat setting. You want to warm the milk and cream, but DO NOT allow it to boil.

In a large saucepan combine the corn syrup, water, and granulated sugar over medium-high heat. Stir the candy until the sugar dissolves, then use a wet pastry brush to wash down the sides of the pan to prevent sugar crystals from forming and making the candy grainy.

Insert a candy thermometer and reduce the heat to medium. Allow the mixture to come to a boil and cook until the thermometer reads 250°.

Add the softened butter chunks and the warm milk-cream mixture. The temperature should go down about 30°.

Continue to cook the caramel, stirring constantly so that the bottom does not scorch. Cook it until the thermometer reads 235°, and the caramel is a beautiful golden brown.

Remove the caramel from the heat and add the bag of marshmallows. Stir in the marshmallows until they have all melted.

Allow mixture to cool for about 30 minutes.

Prepare the counter and your hands by covering with shortening.

Pour some powdered sugar on the counter, then on top pour some of the caramel-marshmallow mixture. It will take a while to knead all the powdered sugar into the mixture.

After you knead the powdered sugar in. Cover the fondant in shortening and wrap in saran wrap and place in a ziploc bag overnight.

When you are ready to use the fondant remove from fridge and allow to sit for about an hour. This will allow it to come closer to room temperature and be easier to work with.

This Caramel Fondant can be used on cakes or it is great as a nice delicious candy!

ENJOY!!!

**Just so you know, making fondant does tend to leave things a little messy!!!**

Apple Spice Cake

My mom and I made a cake for my Grandmother's birthday this year. She likes apple spice cake and my mom and I thought it would be yummy to have a caramel fondant... so that's what we did!!!
I based the recipe off this one found at allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

2 Cups All-purpose Flour
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp Ground Allspice
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Cup Butter, Softened
2 Cups White Sugar
4 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 TBSP Warm Water
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 Apples - Peeled, Cored and Chopped (or Grated)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Butter a 9x13" pan. Whisk together flour, spices, and salt. Set aside.
Cream together butter (or margarine) and sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Stir together soda and 1 TBSP warm water, and mix into the sugar mixture. Stire in flour mixture, and apples until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool in pan. Once cool, shake pan to loosen cake. Turn onto plate.

To frost the cake you can just dust with confectioners' sugar. Or you may use my recipe for caramel fondant. We used a Buttercream Frosting between the layers.

Icing

I usually am not a fan of eating a cake with fondant icing. But this recipe is one that I am actually a fan of. This was my first time trying out fondant, and I must say I really enjoyed it! The cake I made is a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and fondant decorations. So today I'm posting the recipe for the chocolate frosting and the fondant.

First the chocolate frosting. My favorite recipe for chocolate frosting is the one on the back of Hershey's Cocoa (natural unsweetened). This recipe makes about 2 cups of frosting.

Ingredients:

1 stick (1/2 Cup) Butter

2/3 Cup Hershey's Cocoa

3 Cups Powdered Sugar

1/3 Cup Milk

1 tsp Vanilla

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency. Add more milk if consistency is too thick, add more powdered sugar if too runny. Stir in vanilla.

Click HERE for the link to the fondant tutorial I used. Fondant can also be used as a fun thing for your kids to play with, the consistency is similar to that of play dough, however they may end up eating more of it than you would like!

Ingredients:

16 ounces white mini-marshmallows (use a good quality brand)
2 to 5 tablespoons water
2 pounds icing sugar (use C&H Cane Powdered Sugar for the best results)
1/2 cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

Directions:

NOTE:  Please be careful, this first stage can get hot. Take OFF jewelry such as rings!!!

Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave or double boiler: Put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted. It usually takes between 2-2 1/2 minutes total. Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix.

Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY (palms, backs, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle. Start kneading like you would bread dough.

Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking. If the mix is tearing easily, it is to dry, so add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time and then knead it in). It usually takes at least 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake.

It is best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water.

Prepare the fondant for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic-type wrap product (Saran wrap) and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible. 

MM Fondant will hold very well in the refrigerator for weeks. It is best to store the fondant in it's natural white color, some food coloring colors can change the consistency of the icing. Please go to the tutorial here to check out how to roll out the fondant and get it on the cake.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my absolute FAVORITE chocolate chip cookie recipe! I adapted it from a recipe I found on allrecipes.com (one of my favorite recipe sites to browse through, mainly because it has reviews for it's recipes and the reviews are VERY helpful). Depending on the size of cookies you are making this recipe can make up to 6 dozen (these are small cookies), but if you are making cookies the size I like... it's probably closer to 3-4 dozen!

Ingredients

2 Cups Softened Butter

1 1/2 Cups Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Sugar

2 (3.4 oz) Packages Instant Vanilla Pudding

2 tsp Baking Soda

4 eggs

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

4 1/2 Cups Flour

1 (12 oz package, which is about 4 cups) Chocolate Chips**

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a large bowl cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding, baking soda, eggs, and vanilla until well blended. Add flour gradually until all mixed together. Finally stir in chocolate chips.

Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Make sure they are at least an inch apart (depending on how big of spoonfuls you are making you may need more space).

Bake for 9-12 minutes. Edges should be golden brown.

**DELICIOUS VARIATIONS**

Nutty:

If you like nuts you can just add 2 cups of nuts (I recommend using walnuts) to the above recipe.

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry:

This is one of my FAVORITE combinations and I feel better with adding the cranberries when I eat the cookies!!! For this variation use 1 (12 oz) package of white chocolate chips and 2 cups of dried sweetened cranberries.

For Kids:

When making chocolate chip cookies for kids I like to use the Mini-Morsels chocolate chips, then I make the cookies small and it's just right for them!

Everything but the kitchen sink:

Ok... for this one you add a little bit of everything, you can pick your favorites or add anything else you think sounds yummy!

1 Cup Heath pieces

1 Cup Butterscotch chocolate chips

1 Cup White Chocolate Chips

1 Cup Milk Chocolate Chips

1/2 cup Walnuts

Death by Chocolate
If you LOVE chocolate (like I do) you can use chocolate pudding instead of vanilla! 

Simply Peach Cobbler

This is a recipe that I learned from a Scout Master when I lived in Michigan. He taught us how to make it in a Dutch Oven for camping. No, I wasn't a scout, but he was friends with my dad and we lived in a house that had a bonfire pit, so we did dutch oven cooking there!

This recipe can feed 8 hearty servings! And can be made for under $10 (these are all things I keep in food storage, so I'm not sure of the exact cost!

Ingredients:

2 (13 oz.) cans of peaches (sliced or whole; whatever you prefer)

1 box of yellow cake mix

1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter

1 TBSP cinnamon

3-4 TBSP sugar

vanilla ice cream (optional)

Directions:

I like to use my 5 quart Le Creuset, but you can use anything that will hold a large amount of food! If you are making this in a fire, with a dutch oven make sure you line the dutch oven with aluminum foil, this will make for a much easier clean up!

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Pour both cans of peaches in (I prefer to have my peaches bite size, so I cut them up to a nice bite size).

Sprinkle yellow cake mix on top. Put chunks of butter all over the top.

Sprinkle cinnamon on top, then sprinkle sugar on top.

Cover and bake for 30-35 minutes. For the last 2-3 minutes uncover and turn the heat up to broil, this will give you a nice golden top. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

Serve with vanilla ice cream (optional). Enjoy!!!!

Lemon Bars

This is another one of my husbands favorites! I admit that I am rather picky when it comes to lemon bars, I don't like them too hard or too soft, but this recipe is perfect!

It is from Betty Crocker's Cookbook (1978 Edition), as pictured below

Ingredients:

1 Cup all-purpose flour

1/2 Cup margarine or butter (the cookbook says to soften, but I have actually found it easier to work with if it is straight from the fridge)

1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar

2 Eggs

1 Cup Granulated Sugar

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

2 TBSP Lemon Juice

2 tsp grated lemon peel (optional, I usually leave this out!)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, margarine, and powdered sugar. Press in un-greased pan. I have found the best size pan for this is a 11"x7"x2" glass dish. Build up the edges between a 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch. Make sure if you used butter or margarine straight from the fridge that you press it down into the pan.

Bake 20 minutes, or until slightly browned. Beat remaining ingredients until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Pour over hot crust. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until no indentation remains when touched lightly in the center, and appears a beautiful golden brown! Cool for about 5 minutes; sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar. Cut into about 1 1/2 inch squares. Makes about 15.