Oatmeal Chocolate Square

Apr30

Do ever need to pull together a snack fast for a playdate or you just really need something sweet but there is nothing to grab? These squares are a very fast and delicious and hit the spot when you want a cookie or a chocolate bar kind of snack. These disappeared quickly, mainly because I can’t pass the pan without cutting out a square.

For the base:

3 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup corn syrup

In a large bowl mix oats, brown sugar and wheat germ. Cut in butter until crumbly.

Stir in corn syrup.

Pour mixture into a microwave safe (glass), greased 8 inch square pan. Spread lightly and microwave on high uncovered for 2 minutes. Stir.

Press down firmly with a damp fork. Microwave uncovered on high for 2 minutes more until bubbly.

Now for the topping:

3/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

In a microwave safe dish, combine chocolate chips and peanut butter. Microwave for about 1 minute, but stop part way through and stir, then continue heating. If not melted smooth microwave for 20 seconds at a time until melted smooth. Pour over oat mixture and let cool before cutting.

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Once cooled cut into squares. Good luck with the self control!

Our next project is to give these a makeover so they are healthier and nut free so they are school safe for the lunch box. We will work on that as soon as my little social butterfly has some free time at home to work on it with me.

Snowballs

Dec17

There seemed to be some problems with my reblogged post, so lets see if this works! This is one of our very early posts and we have so many newer followers since this post we thought we would share it again. This is a Christmas staple and an excellent addition to any Christmas cookie tray. We are making these right now, Evie is rolling in coconut as I type!

I should call these cookies Newfoundland snowballs.

These are cookies that I grew up eating and Evie loves them now. I haven’t met anyone that didn’t like them. I made a batch recently and shared with a few people. They are really easy, no bake and quick to make with few ingredients.

The coconut used is fine or medium desiccated unsweetened coconut.

Put the first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan and melt stirring to combine.

cookswithevie

I should call these cookies Newfoundland snowballs.

These are cookies that I grew up eating and Evie loves them now. I haven’t met anyone that didn’t like them. I made a batch recently and shared with a few people. They are really easy, no bake and quick to make with few ingredients.

The coconut used is fine or medium desiccated unsweetened coconut.

Put the first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan and melt stirring to combine.

Into another bowl add the next 3 ingredients and mix to combine.

Add the melted butter mixture to the oat mixture and mix. Let this cool, I usually put it in the fridge for about half an hour until it will hold shape when rolled into balls.

Roll into balls and then roll in coconut. That is it!

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These also freeze well and are good in the freezer for a few months. Sometimes I freeze…

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Dutch Baby Pancake

Jul23

Summer is here again and we are in the middle of an extreme heat warning. We had one a few weeks ago and then it cooled down into more normal temperatures and today the temperature spiked again. There was just some thunder and the night sky was lighting up. Maybe a good storm with break the heat.

I haven’t had time lately for blogging. Work has been insane and when I am not working I am trying to be outside in summer before it is over.

A few weeks ago, when our local strawberries were in season we went strawberry picking and made a dutch baby pancake for Sunday morning breakfast/brunch. It is easy to make, I use my Nutribullet to whip it up quickly, and fun to watch it bake as it puffs up and then falls.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

3 large eggs

3/4 cup whole milk (you could use 2%)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a Nutribullet or blender, combine eggs, milk, flour, salt, vanilla, and 1/4 cup sugar. Blend until foamy, about 1 minute.

Most recipes call for a medium cast-iron or ovenproof nonstick skillet. I don’t have one, so I used a 9” non-stick cake pan. Just before I was ready to put the prepared batter in I put 2 tablespoons butter in the pan and put it in the over until the butter melted then I swirled it around to totally coat the pan and poured the batter right in. Pour batter into hot pan or skillet; bake until pancake is puffed and lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

Working quickly, dot pancake with 1 tablespoon butter, and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon powdered sugar and a sprinkle of lemon juice. Slice into wedges, and serve immediately

After you take it out of the oven it will fall very quickly.

We sprinkled with a light dusting with powdered sugar and topped with berries and whipped cream. Sometimes we just do a little butter and a drizzle of maple syrup. Either is delicious.

I hope you give this recipe a try. It is fun to watch and delicious too!

Lemon Caper Cod en Papillote

Jul10

Well that sounds fancy! Everything sounds fancier en francais, non?

This dish is very simple to put together and only about 15 minutes to bake and the result is impressive.

Only a few ingredients:

Cod (1 piece person, each piece a little larger than a deck of cards)

lemons ( about 4-5 thin slices per piece of cod)

2tbsp chopped capers

1-2 shallots, thinly sliced ( about 1/3-1/2 shallot per piece of cod)

salt to taste

cold butter cubed (about 1-2 tbsp per piece of cod)

Parchment to wrap

Take a large piece of parchement (about 4X the size of your cod) and place pats of butter, shallots capers and lemons on top of and around cod. Then wrap cod tightly in the parchement so it can steam.

Bake at 450F for about 15 minutes. I baked our little pieces for about 18 minutes, cause I like my fish well done. The time will depend on the size of the cod. When done you should insert a knife tip into the center of the fish for a few seconds and be hot when you take it out, and the fish should be white and flaky.

We served ours over basmati rice, but you can use anything that would go well with white fish and lemon.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

May22

Evie is reading a new book from the library called “Eggs Over Evie” by Alison Jackson and she loves it. It is about a 13 year old girl named Evie who loves to cook and is taking cooking classes, there is some other drama and family situations that make it interesting as well, but every chapter starts with a recipe and a kitchen tip. She loves this book so much she asked for her own copy, which we ordered online. It has also fired up her need to cook by herself. Last week she decided to make cookies, all by herself, we were only allowed to lift the hot pan out of the oven. There were really really good and perfect in shape and done-ness. I hope you try them because they are sooo good, crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the middle.

Sporting a Blue Heron airbrushed tattoo! We were at science fun-fest and all of the little girls were getting butterfly tattoos, nope not Evie, she eyed that Blue Heron stencil and decision made.

This recipe comes from Winnie-the-Pooh’s Cookie Book.

Right now she is in the kitchen making a recipe from her book. This time it is chocolate chip pecan cookies, and announcing that she does not need any help. Tomorrow she is going to make us Mushroom Omelettes for breakfast!

Toddler Banana Bread

Apr25

We were very excited when we found this recipe which we had lost! It is a recipe that was on a sheet of paper and it had gotten tucked inside another recipe book and when leafing through it the other day there it was. This recipe came from Evie’s daycare when she was a toddler, her caregivers were a wonderful group of young ladies at a Reggio Centre and they really were special. This is a recipe that they made regularly with the toddlers, each child had a part, one measured the flour, one mixed etc. The children loved taking part and they loved to have their banana bread for a snack afterwards.

Here is the toddler banana bread! (that is Evie’s note)

There you have it, a very simple easy banana bread. It is perfect for breakfast and snacks.

Empty Tomb Buns

Mar27

Happy Easter!

Evie has been learning the true meaning of Easter since she started school. She goes to Catholic school so those things are taught from the beginning. I was a little concerned at first with the Easter story because of the crucifixion, it was violent and horrific, not that people are any less violent and horrific today, but this was my little 4 year old child. I had nothing to fear, the teachers taught it very simply, cleaned up and scaled down. That first Easter in school Evie came home one day saying “Mom, do you know that they killed Jesus on a cross and he died.” I said yes I knew that and it was not nice just because he was different. She replied, “Don’t worry Mom, he got up again!” Now at almost 8, she has been preparing for her first communion all winter, she knows the details and tells me things I didn’t know.

This was the perfect year to start a tradition with empty tomb buns. These were quick and easy to put together on Easter morning with just 4 ingredients.

1 tube Pillsbury crescent rolls

8 large marshmallows

1/4 cup cinnamon sugar (this is very expensive to buy. I use 1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1-2 tsp cinnamon)

1/4 cup melted butter

Unroll the dough and cut into 8 squares.

Take a marshmallow, dip in the melted butter then roll in cinnamon sugar.

Wrap the dough around the marshmallow and pinch the seams to seal. This represents Jesus in the tomb.

Place seam side down in a greased muffin pan. Bake at 375F for about 9 minutes. First when I looked in the oven there was marshmallow oozing out of a few and it looked a bit of a mess, but it was ok. I let them cool a couple of minutes and gently lifted the buns out using a spoon, then let cool on a baking rack for about 10 minutes or until room temperature, there is hot melted sugar inside so make sure cool enough before giving to children. Break the first one open together to see the inside, they will be amazed!

Then once cooled we added little icing crosses to the top (just a small tube of bought icing from the baking aisle).

When you break open the bun, the tomb is empty!…..and delicious.

These will be an Easter morning tradition at our house every year.

Mashed Potato with Kale

Feb28

This side dish to delicious. Even if you don’t like kale just try it once I guarantee you will like it here. I know at least two people that do not like kale, don’t eat kale, but love this. I didn’t get a picture of it plated because I took this to a friends house for dinner.

This is not a low cal recipe. It is a hearty stick to your ribs winter dish. We only make it about twice in a year for a treat, though it is so good I could eat it every week.

You will need:

about 2 lbs potatoes

1 bunch kale

3tbsp butter

2 cups finely diced onion or leeks thinly sliced (I use Vidalia sweet onion or leeks)

1/2 to 1 cup half-&-half (10% cream) (start out with 1/2 cup and add more as needed)

1/2 to 1 cup milk (start out with 1/2 cup and add more as needed)

1/2 to 1 cup grated while medium or old cheddar, you want flavour here ( I use Balderson’s)

Boil potatoes in slightly salted water until soft and then drain. once drained well, mash.

While the potatoes are cooking boil another large pot of water and cook the kale for about 5 minutes. It doesn’t get fully cooked at this stage as it will get finished in the oven later. One it is cool enough to handle chop it finely, just run the knife through it several times, it doesn’t have to be pretty.

In another small pot melt butter and cook onions with a sprinkle of salt until they are very soft and translucent.

Mix cooked onion mixture into the mashed potato. Add cooked chopped kale, cream and milk (be slow with adding the milk & cream so you don’t make it to runny. It should be very creamy but not watery. I add 1/2 of cup of each at first and add more as required to get the consistency as I want it. How much you add will depend on the potatoes you use and the moisture content. Mash all together, add salt to taste. I usually toss in 1/4-1/2 cup of grated cheese and mix it through as well, for extra cheesy flavour.

Place mashed mixture in baking dish or casserole dish and sprinkle top with grated cheese and bake at 350F until cheese is melted and top is lightly browned, about 20-30 minutes.

Cheesy warm creamy mashed potato flecked with little bits of green. Delicious!

Adapted from: The Green Door Restaurant Vegetarian Cookbook.

Cookie Dough Truffles

Dec31

It is New Year’s Eve here in this part of Canada. For some of you it is already the start of a new year, Happy New Year to you!

We are spending a quiet night at home. It is our tradition to stay at home, get takeout and watch a movie. This year we are getting Turkish food and watching the Lego Movie. It doesn’t get any wilder than that for us. We finally had a little snow, so tomorrow we are sledding before going to a friends for supper.

In the meantime, here is a recipe that we make every year. Kids love it and they can help by rolling the balls. There are no eggs, hence the dough is safe to eat. It is also every easy and no bake.

In a mixing bowl cream together:

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

Cream until light and fluffy.

Add:

2 cups flour

1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix well.

Stir in 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

chill in fridge for about an hour until firm. Roll into 1″ balls.

chill again until ready to dip in chocolate.

Melt a little over 1LB of semisweet candy coating (Merkins Wafers) or you can use straight up chocolate, but probably wont be as shiny and nice unless you are good at tempering chocolate.

I melted the wafers in the microwave heating and stirring until all melted. As you can see my fancy dipping and drizzling tools are forks.

I get about 1/2LB milk wafers as well for drizzling over the top.

All done and ready to eat. Store in fridge.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Jul5

This is the best ever banana cake. It is so moist and has a lot of banana flavour, made even better by adding cream cheese frosting. It is dangerous for me to have this cake in the house because I cannot pass it without cutting off a little bite. I also like to keep this one in the fridge, I like it better cold. You can use the frosting or if you prefer more of a snacking cake for ~~breakfast~~ mid-morning snack, it is also very good with out the frosting.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 & 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups four

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 medium bananas, mashed (1 cup)

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and mix to incorporate

Add in sour cream and vanilla, mix

Combine flour baking soda and salt, gradually add this to the creamed mixture

Mix until combine into a batter

Add in the banana and mix until combined

Pour batter into a 9″X13″and bake.

TO prepare the cream cheese frosting:

Take 1 block of cream cheese at room temperature, 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature, 2 tsp vanilla and about 3 cups icing sugar. Mix until combined and creamy smooth. I usually add 2 cups of the icing sugar and them keep adding until it is as sweet as I want it.

Well I got carried away and didn’t take a picture before frosting!