Dawn's Chia Pudding

• 1 cup Sweet Acidophilus Milk
• 2 TB Chia Seed
  
• 2 packets of Truvia
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 TB egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1. Stir together the milk, chia, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low; cook and stir 5 minutes longer.  Mixture will be very thick.
   
2. Whisk egg white into milk mixture.  Bring the pudding to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat; cook and stir 2 minutes longer until the pudding becomes thick enough to evenly coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. The pudding may be served hot or poured into a serving dish and refrigerated several hours until cold.

Note:  This mixture is very thick.  I added more milk (than the original 1 cup) to my glass.  You can also use honey or agave syrup to sweeten instead of Truvia.

Rice Krispie Treat - Bunny Gram

One of our FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) fundraisers at the high school is Bunny Grams, which are rice krispie treats!  A buyer can purchase a square rice krispie treat, a square with sprinkles or a bunny head.  A few years ago my mother was here helping me make the square rice krispie treats.  She came up with the idea of shaping them into bunny heads.  Ever since then, I have been making them in the shape of a bunny head.  Last year I started decorating the faces.  This year I made 83 bunny heads and 56 squares (some with sprinkles).  Since I had to make so many treats, I poured several boxes into a bun bag to make it easier to measure out the Rice Krispies.

6 cups of Rice Krispies

3 TB butter

1 bag 10.5 oz marshmallows

Greek Yogurt

I eat two servings of Greek yogurt a day, 

along with two servings of fruit.

Add pure extracts to yogurt:  Vanilla, French Vanilla, Lemon

For extra protein, fiber and Omega 3's add:  Milled Flaxseed or Chia Seed
--1 Tb of either flaxseed or chia per cup of yogurt--

For extra sweetness add:  Truvia or Stevia Raw

My Favorite New Pan

We eat chicken pretty much every night - it's my favorite!  Poor Shannon.  I love baked crispy chicken! However, the crust on the underside of the chicken breast always turns out soggy.  So I found the perfect pan at Bed Bath and Beyond that would solve my problem of soggy crust.  I combined seasonings with 1 TB cold pressed milled flax seed for my piece of chicken.  For Shannon's I seasoned his and dipped it in butter than into crushed seasoned cornflakes.  Guess butter made it yummy! He doesn't mind the calories.  This pan is a cinch to wash! Nothing stuck to the pan that dropped down.

I love PINK!

Pink is one of my favorite colors!  So I could not pass up these kitchen gadgets.  I really didn't need any of these as you may have or will read in an older post.  I already have two pairs of kitchen scissors, but what will another pair hurt????

Dawn's Cauliflower Bake

I was getting a  little tired of just plain cauliflower mash - so I pulled out some of my favorite vegetables to add to the mash!  I thought it turned out pretty yummy - so did Shannon!!!!

1 16 oz package of frozen cauliflower
1 package of frozen peppers - red, green, yellow (Bird's Eye brand)
1 onion
2 jalapenos (for some reason the ones I purchased were not very hot)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 can diced tomatoes with diced onions (Best Choice brand) (DRAINED)

Place cauliflower in bowl, cover and cook in microwave for 12 minutes - no need to add water.  Mash cauliflower.

Layer in a 9 x 9 inch baking dish (no need to grease pan):
Frozen peppers
Cauliflower mash
Onions
Diced tomatoes
Cayenne Pepper
Jalapenos
Mix layers--if desired
Top with desired amount of Mozzarella cheese.

Fresh peppers would be delicious as well.  I did not drain my canned tomatoes and my mixture had a lot of liquid.  That may also have came from the frozen peppers.  This was delicious.  Tasted similar to pizza!

Too Many Gadgets

Does your drawer look like mine?  It just drives me CRAZY!!!! CLUTTER---my mission is to find a drawer organizer to make this drawer more organized!  If that is possible.  

If I only had one more drawer - then my problem would be solved.  

New Silicon Spatulas

As mentioned in a prior post, if you use the rubber spatulas where the head comes off - BEWARE!!!  Take the head off and take a look at the handle, you may find mold.  A few years back I had purchased inexpensive rubber spatula for the high school's smoothie business.  One day the rubber head came off, to my surprise there was black build up on the handle part where the head goes - YUCK!  Last month my mom pointed out that she takes her rubber spatulas apart and washes them - I do as well now.  I was at Barry and Meta West's cooking class a few weeks back and Barry pointed out the same thing - about there being mold with the spatulas that are two pieces.  He showed us a single piece rubber spatula.  So the hunt was on!!!! I have to have a one piece rubber spatula.  Of course I could not just stop at buying one.  I found these at Kohl's - they are the Food Network brand.  They were on sale, plus I had a $5.00 off coupon on each, plus 30% off as well - which made them very cheap!  I turned the blue one over so that you could see the back of it.

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Dawn's Yogurt Pancakes

I love pancakes! So I found several recipes on line and came up with this.  This batter is very thick as you can see in the pictures, but was still pretty good, especially with my Sugar Free Syrup.  When you place batter on skillet spread out with rubber spatula.  When pancake is slightly cooked, flip pancake and smash down a bit to make it bigger. Yields:  6 small pancakes

I made these a second time - adjusting the recipe - I did not take a new picture - but my second round the pancakes were fluffy.

6 oz. Fage Greek Yogurt
6 TB whole wheat flour
1/3 cup Acidophilus or skim milk (optional)
--can use water instead of milk--
1 packet Truvia
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 TB milled flax seed + 6 TB water (or two eggs)
1/2 TB Chia seed (optional)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Place Greek yogurt in a medium bowl. Add flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir together very gently. Stop short of the mixture being totally combined. You want the pancakes to have some interesting texture.
Whisk flax seed in a separate bowl. Add vanilla to flax and stir to combine. Pour liquid mixture into the Greek yogurt-flour mixture. Stir together gently. Don’t worry about the mixture being totally combined.
Pour the batter onto a griddle sprayed with 100 percent Canola cooking spray, ¼ cup at a time. Cook for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, then flip the pancakes. Cook for another 45 seconds and remove to plate. Repeat with the remaining batter. Top pancakes with syrup, fruit, or desired toppings.

Sugar Glazed Preztels with Peanut Butter

I wanted to create a sweet coated pretzel - with the sugar coating being nice and smooth/slick.  I make a Pecan Praline Crunch with Oatmeal Square Cereal, so I thought that I would use that recipe.  The pretzels did come out with a nice slick coating, but lacked enough sweetness.  So I added Reese's peanut butter chips.  I melted Reese's peanut butter in the microwave and mixed the pretzels in the peanut butter.  This made the pretzels better and of course - I could not stop eating them! So if you love peanut butter - give this recipe a try.  I took these to school today and the students and staff loved them! They could not stop eating them.

1 bag of 15 oz. waffle pretzels

1/2 c. light corn syrup
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups of pecans (optional) - peanuts would be good! (next time I am not going to add pecans)

1 bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

Heat oven to 250 degrees. Place pretzels in a 9x13 inch pan. Set aside.Combine corn syrup, brown sugar and butter in saucepan; heat to boil over medium heat. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and baking soda and pour over pretzels. Stir to coat evenly. Bake 1 hour; stirring every 20 minutes. Spread on baking sheet to cool - cool completely prior to adding peanut butter.  Melt Reese's peanut butter chips in microwave.  In a bowl, stir pretzels and melted peanut butter together - using hands works great!

Store in airtight container.  Below is a picture of the pretzels prior to adding the peanut butter.

Caramel Corn Pretzels

I love sweet and salty together! If you are the same, you will love these sugar coated chewy pretzels.  I was very excited because I finally was able to use my candy thermometer that my mother had given me several years ago.  I have to warn you that these pretzels are very sugary and addicting.  After making these I took them up to the school to Joselyn Meader, my favorite custodian, for an evening snack.  I spoke to her an hour later, and she said, "I can't stop eating them, they are good!" I love sharing my treats with Joselyn.  She (along with my students) is one of my biggest food critics, since I know she will be honest!  I took them to school on Monday - they were a big hit! Students and staff loved the pretzels them as well! "They are delicious!" Alley Pipes stated!

Ingredients

• 15 ounces mini twist or waffle pretzels
• 2 cups mixed nuts (I used walnuts and pecans)
• 1 cup unsalted butter (two sticks)
• 2 cups packed dark brown sugar (I used light since that is all that I had)
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 pinch salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. In a 9x13-inch baking dish, combine the pretzels and nuts. Set aside.
3. In a large saucepan combine the butter, sugar, corn syrup and salt. Stir together over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and cook until very thick and at the 'firm ball' stage (248 degrees F). Remove from heat, pour over pretzel/nut mixture and mix all together.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes. Remove from oven and spread out on wax paper to cool.

Note:  The sugar coating is very thick, which I think you could add more pretzels.  I think next time that I am going to use a bigger pan, such as an aluminum roaster pan and bake the pretzels for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  To try something different, I drizzled melted semi-sweet chocolate over some of the pretzels and dipped others in the chocolate (after the coating on the pretzels had cooled completely).  I also placed some of the sugar coated pecans on top of the chocolate dipped pretzels.  Everyone that tried the pretzels thought that they were delicious! - even asking for the recipe.

I made these pretzels again, and halved the caramel recipe (since the first batch was very sugary) - using waffle pretzels this time, not using the entire bag of waffle pretzels.  Halving the recipe, didn't seem like enough sugar coating.  Will keep the recipe the same in the future.

  

Dawn's Special Cookies

My mother gave me a Betty Crocker cookie mix that she had found on sale (we are bargain hunters).  I have to admit that I not too fond of the idea of making cookies from a mix, but could not let them go to waste.  The flavor was chocolate chip and walnut, however I added my own ingredients to the mix.

1 bag of Betty Crocker chocolate chip and walnut cookie mix
--make as directed on package - 1 egg and one stick of butter--

Mix in:
1 cup of marshmallows
1/2 cup of butterscotch chips
1/4 cup of heath toffee bits

Spray cookie sheet.

1" cookie scoop

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes

Caramel Apple Crisp

I stocked up on Wilderness' limited edition Caramel Apple pie filling during the holidays!


1 can apple (or desired fruit) pie filling
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup oats
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter - melted

Place apple pie filling in 8 x 8 pan.

Spread mixture on top.

Bake 30-40 minutes at 375