Mom Gone Wild

Everyone at one time or another you have tried a new way of eating. Admit it , you tried to be veggie, carnivorous (my brother), cut out sugar, carbohydrates, the coffee and chocolate diet, some weird thing to improve your health. Well, my mom was trying to make her joints feel better and so not only did she go veggie, she went vegan. WHAT? Okay, so a lot of Indian food was in our future, and LOTS of pasta. Then we had those weird veggie balls. So, this was the time that people’s birthdays came up and I scrambled, http://www.allrecipes.com here I come, fail. There were a total of about 3 sweet recipes that were vegan. Next option, http:///www.google.com . And, I found an entire website all about vegan baking, http://www.egglesscooking.com/ and another website I can’t remember. So my vegan baking began and then ended, Mom went back to normal eating (phwew).
So, a few weeks after we are no longer baking vegan, my friend comes over and we want to bake. Oh, and guess what, no eggs in the house. So, back to our vegan websites and we found what turned o9ut to be the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever found. The Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie, a little sphere of happiness.

The ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour (Does anyone know how it got its name? Please tell!)
1/2 tsp. Baking soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Cinnamon (previously adjusted to fix the whimpiness)
1/4 tsp nutmeg plus a pinch, the smell reminds me of Christmas
1/4 cup applesauce (I wouldn’t use chunky)
2 tbsp. Corn syrup OR 2 tbsp. Honey (I just discovered that you could substitute honey for corn syrup, jumping for joy! The world would not be complete without honey!)
2 tbsp. Vanilla (plus one for good measure) I will take this time to add that the cheapest and best vanilla is bought of http://ebay.com. You get 2, 1 quart bottles for $20-30. WAY cheaper than at the grocery or health food stores! Just search “vanilla” in the search box! The best vanilla comes from Mexico, it just does.
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup chocolate chips (I like the dark ones the best)
Directions for completion of the cookies:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Mix together (did you know that in older recipes it says “sift together” because things like flour weren’t sifted before they were sold? So, people had to get rid of all the clumps in their flour and such! My, how times have changed!) The flour salt baking soda and spices (if your family is like mine, and loves their spices feel free to add more than what is listed above, even if it’s been modified). In another bowl, mix the syrup, apple sauce, vanilla, and sugar. Combine both mixtures in one bowl (I suggest pouring the dry into the wet) and mix well. Fold in the oats and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoons onto a GREASED cookie sheet (never leave a cookie sheet un-greased, no matter what). Bake for 10 minutes or until turning brown. This is a great recipe for people who like chewy cookies, or like to taste the batter (Me, me, me, me, me and me). Cool on a rack and enjoy!
Sit down with a cup of tea a cookie and, breath.
Live, laugh, love,
A girl with tea in her hand

Classics

Peanut butter is food of the gods. I’m serious, ask any God what their favorite food is and they will say peanut butter, it must balance out ambrosia (drink of the gods, never had it) so well.
So as I sit with my cookbooks to my left and my newest recipe to my right and my dog on my lap all I can think about is peanut butter. And how about 2 years ago, when my cousin came over we had Skippy peanut butter. Mmm, now this may seem normal to you, but it was a treat for me. That was the time when we almost always had Omega 3 Peanut Butter (not recommended, it’s to thick). Now we get yummy organic peanut butter, but back to the story. We had been hungry but didn’t want chips, yogurt, granola or any other normal snack, and that was when we saw the peanut butter. So, we each took a spoon took a big glob of peanut butter and sat down to eat. It took time, perseverance, and a lot of work to get the peanut butter unstuck from the top of our mouths, but we did it. Mission accomplished.
If you haven’t already guessed, this recipe is all about the peanut butter. In fact this recipe is called, Peanut Butter Balls, and some variations. But first I must give credit to my aunt from whom I stole this recipe. To read more of her recipes go check out http://www.laineysplate.blogspot.com but remember to come back and read my blog too!
So now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…. The recipe. And for all you wackos out there who don’t know the meaning of dessert this is a healthy version, yet oh so tasty. But remember that as I write my blog, dessert is meant to be had a few times a week, so if it has some sugar in it WHO THE HECK CARES??? Not me. So go eat chocolate. And then make these wonderfully delicious treats.

The recipe:
1-cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2-cup honey (the best honey comes form thee beekeepers down the road, beautiful gold honey)
Mix together, chill for 30 minutes then for the mixture in to 1-inch balls and chill for at least one hour. Eat and enjoy. The product:

Various Variations:
Banana Peanut Butter Balls- purée one banana in a food processor, add to mix, add 1 tsp. Cinnamon, 2 tsp. Vanilla and one more 1/2 cup dry milk powder.

PB and J- press your pointer finger into the center of the peanut butter balls and onto it place a dollop of jelly (I used strawberry and blackberry). Fold the sides up around the jelly

Now for the good stuff, if you plan on eating this for dessert, you need a little bit of sugar.
First, the chocolate sauce,
Place 1/4 cup milk on the stove on medium heat until it simmers. Cut up 1 oz. Bakers unsweetened baking chocolate and stir into the heating mixture. Add in one cup chocolate chips (I use dark), and add extra milk as needed. The chocolate sauce:

Then take a 1 tbsp. Measuring Spoon and dip this into the slightly cooled chocolate sauce. Next, place the peanut butter ball into the measuring spoon, leave one half uncovered and place them chocolate side down on wax paper. The finised product:

Once you are done making all of the peanut butter balls, place them in Tupperware containers on top of wax paper; make sure that the layers are separated by wax paper.

Now, this recipe comes with a warning. These are highly addicting and disappear in lightning speed. So, good luck trying to keep these in the fridge for any substantial amount of time. Enjoy!!!!!

From our home to yours, good luck, good food and good eats,
Marley

Look Back and Laugh

Remember when you were little and said crazy things and spelled words wrong, but it looked cute. Well now when I spell something wrong, I see red marks all over my paper and I get points deducted.
Recently, I was looking for recipes to post for you wonderful people. And I found…(well, you’ll see). Needless to say it has a lot of spelling mistakes and a story behind it. However, while it’s a very tasty drink, um, you shouldn’t need this recipe on file.
Just for laughs,
She’s Your’s Specialo drink:
Ingrents:
1. Pink lemonade
2. Lime slezter
3. Orange juce
4. White grape furit juce

Hmm… lots of spelling mistakes, but how about the story behind some of the mistakes, and then I’ll tell you what I meant to say.

When my brother first came home, he called everyone a she, dad, mom, me, the mailman, everyone. But hey, he was speaking English, so who cares.
His favorite word was, specialo, your specialo dinner, specialo book, specialo dog, specialo, specialo, and specialo.

Translation time:
She’s Your’s Specialo Drink (this is the way the title is supposed to be, see explanation)
Ingredients:
Pink lemonade
Lime Seltzer
Orange Juice
White Grape Fruit Juice

Not such an exciting recipe, but if I’m going to blog about everything I do, I think you need to know a little bit about me and my life. When I was 8 I went to Ethiopia to help adopt my little brother (that accounts for the whole not speaking English thing). And this recipe is just a little bit of what I did as a kid.

Tell me about your funny moments, funny stories, I’m listening.

Peace, love, bake,
Marley and Me