Before and After: recipes

Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Strawberry Banana Protein Smoothie

Even though it is fall now, our family never gets tired of smoothies!!

We love them and feel great when we feed our body right!

Plus, this makes an excellent fast, easy, and healthy breakfast before school!!

I just add milk, frozen strawberries, and a fresh banana to a blender and mix it all up.

Then I add our favorite protein powder for long lasting energy!

Then, we blend, pour, and ENJOY!

What is your favorite smoothie?

Have a great day!

Bonnie :)

Click here to order the protein that we use.

SWEET POTATO CAKE

We have another amazing contributor with us today! I am seriously loving this recipe and pics! We have Jessie, from Optimal Living, here to share this deliciously, divine cake. Jessie is a wife and mother and excellent cook!!

SWEET POTATO CAKE

I have been having some serious cake dreams lately. As you may already know…I LOVE me some cake. I also LOVE making them! So it was no real surprise that my daily power walks were being corrupted by visions of moist delicious cakes. Kind of ironic…but that is my thinking time.

With Thanksgiving coming up, I wanted to create a festive cake. And what is more festive than sweet potatoes…well maybe turkey, but I am not going there. I also remembered that I had a can of organic sweet potato purée in my pantry just begging to be used. Perfect.

Here is my latest creation…

(and before you go thinking that I totally copied the Epicurious concept…I actually had the complete cake idea in my head before I did any research. It just turns out that my idea wasn't that original…Just had to get that off my chest;)

The Recipe:

2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil (NON-GMO!!!)
2 cup puréed sweet potatoes (or 1-15oz can of sweet potato purée)
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder (aluminum free)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

You will also need 1-2 cups of Sugared Pecans…I used this recipe. And this recipe for Caramel Frosting.

The Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Gather the ingredients.

Butter and flour a bundt pan, or 13x9 inch cake pan. Personally, I really LOVE my bundt pan…I think I discussed this in my German Apple Cake post. It makes the cake look extra classy, especially if it is for a special occasion, or you are entertaining. OK…I’ve said my bundt pan peace…you will never have to hear it again (yeah, right).

You should always use room temperature eggs when baking. Most of the time I use this little trick to quickly bring my eggs to room temp…Place the eggs in warm (not hot, or they will start cooking) water for a 5 or 10 minutes. This is a very useful tip if you are like me, and decide you are going to bake something on a whim, or just lack the attention span and patience to wait…HAHA!

This is the can of the sweet potatoes that gave me the inspiration for the recipe. I bet you could use the baby food sweet potatoes instead…but you would need A LOT of jars.

Combine the sugar, oil, sweet potatoes and vanilla in a large mixing bowl…or the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix at medium speed until well combined.

Add eggs one at a time…

scraping down the side of the bowl with each addition.

Tip:

Cracking the eggs into a small dish before adding to the batter ensures that you will not be eating pieces of shell (or fishing them out of the batter), and that if an egg is rotten it will not ruin your ingredients.

Next stir together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg). I do this with a fork…or you could sift them. I only sift ingredients together when I am making a yellow or white cake. I know…professional pastry chef I am not.)

Add to the batter.

Mix on the lowest speed until combined and only a few lumps remain.

Do not over mix.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for 45 minutes…or 30 minutes, if you are boring and using a 13x9 inch pan;)

Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for ten minutes.

Flip the slightly cooled cake out onto the same rack. (You will need oven mitts or potholders, as the cake will still be hot!)
Let the cake cool completely for about an hour.

This part is optional…I like to trim the bottom of the cake off, and even the cake up with a serrated knife. But I am a crazy, perfectionist freak when it comes to stuff like this…so it is really up to you. Plus, I really like to eat the scraps;)

Transfer to a cake plate, or whatever you will be using to serve your cake on.

Time to prepare the frosting.

It is a bit richer than the one I used for my German Apple Cake.

It poured onto the cake like a dream.

Immediately after I frosted, I covered the top of my cake with the sugared pecans.

Look at all of that gooey caramel frosting!

I hope you will consider taking this beauty to your Thanksgiving gatherings. This was a huge hit with my family. We had this sucker polished off in a day and a half.

Enjoy!

Jessie

Thank you so much Jessie! :)

What is your favorite cake?

Bonnie :)

Southwest-Style Stuffed Peppers

I am so excited about this guest post because this recipe looks amazing! :) Today, Krysta, from Steen Health Solutions, is here to share this yummy Mexican treat with you! She is an amazing Wife, Mother, person and friend! We met online and and became friends and business partners. Krysta even stayed at our house four several days this spring when we went to training. She is super nice and very smart.

Welcome Krysta!

My mouth was watering as a typed up this post – these were SO good!

Follow me on our Facebook community for more tips, recipes and more!

My husband LOVES the traditional stuffed peppers, but the rest of the family are not the biggest fans. We do all, however, LOVE tacos! These stuffed peppers have a great Mexican flavor that we all thought was great! We even had some filling left over and used it the next day in soft taco shells – Delish!

Southwest-Style Stuffed Peppers

Serves 4-6

4 bell peppers (halve and remove seeds)

olive oil

1/2 lb ground turkey or beef (cooked)

2 cups of cooked brown rice (white rice would be fine too)

1 cup of corn (fresh or frozen)

1 can black beans (drained and rinsed well)

3/4 cup onion, chopped

1 small (16 oz. or so) jar salsa

1 Tablespoon taco seasoning (I made my own using this recipe, or store-bought is fine)

1-2 cups Shredded cheese (I used cheddar)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly coat the halved, seeded bell peppers with olive oil and roast in a glass 9X13 pan or baking sheet for about 25 minutes until slightly softened. Remove from oven and cool while you assemble your filling.

Combine turkey/beef, rice, corn, onion, salsa and taco seasoning in a bowl. Spoon filling into the pepper halves and cook for another 15 minutes or until cooked through. Top with cheese and cook until cheese has melted.

Top with sour cream or avocado if desired. Enjoy!!

Thanks so much!! :) I am so excited to try this! Thanks so much Krysta!! Please follow her on Facebook for more recipes!

Have a great weekend!

Bonnie :)

Favorite Fall Treats

Hello! :) I hope that you are enjoying some fall weather!

Today, I just wanted to stop in and share some of my top fall treats with you.

HOMEMADE APPLE CRISP

(get recipe here)

HOMEMADE APPLESAUCE

(get recipe here)

HOMEMADE STRAWBERRY & RHUBARB CRISP

(get recipe here)

What are your favorite fall treats?

Follow HOUSE OF GRACE on Facebook now!

Have a great day,

Bonnie

Strawberry Protein Oatmeal

I know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I also know that eating protein is essential for our brain, especially for kids that will be in school learning all day.

So I like it make strawberry oatmeal with protein.

I just make oatmeal and add strawberry Cinch Protein at the end!

That's it!!

I love it and it tastes great although sometimes I add a little stevia because I like my oatmeal really sweet.

Do you try to eat protein with every meal?

How do you make your oatmeal?

Have a great day!

Bonnie ;)

You can get your own protein here!

SHOP HERE!

Homemade Waffles

We love making homemade waffles! We use the Better Homes and Gardens Recipe but we use whole wheat flour instead of white flour.

directions

1.In a medium bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.

2.In another medium bowl beat eggs slightly; stir in milk, oil, and vanilla. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened

(batter should be slightly lumpy).

3.Pour 1 to 1 1/4 cups batter onto grids of a preheated, lightly greased waffle baker (use a regular or Belgian waffle baker). Close lid quickly; do not open until done. Bake according to manufacturers directions. When done, use a fork to lift waffle off grid. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm.

4.Makes 12 to 16 (4-inch) waffles

We have an awesome waffle maker that makes them super thick!

Then, we like to freeze the leftovers for a quick breakfast another day!

Do you make your own waffles?

Do you freeze them?

Have a great day!

Bonnie :)

Homemade French Toast

One of our favorite family traditions is to make and eat a big, homemade breakfast as a family on the weekends! :)

My husband actually loves to cook with us. We crank up the music, sing, drink tea or coffee and during the summer, we eat outside.

It is one of my favorite times of the week! On Saturdays, we don't need to be anywhere until Michael's baseball at 11:45 so that gives us plenty of time and we go to 9:45 Mass on Sundays, so we can squeeze in a breakfast before hand.

We love to make homemade french toast!

We use my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and then we alter it a little bit! ;)