Sweetheart Special

Sweetheart Special

Heart shaped cookie cutters on toast and fried egg+natural fruit strawberry jam and plain greek yogurt+a pink smoothie served in red crystal goblets=one happy sweetheart.  Too bad mine isn't here to serve it to . . . so I will send him a picture instead.  Enjoy, my Special Sweetheart!

Be Inspired,

Valentine's Day Breakfast

Blend a small amount of canned beets (not pickled beets) in your blender and add them to your pancake or waffle batter for a pink surprise.  (I didn't use her recipe but I got the idea from "Deceptively Delicious" by Jesica Seinfeld)

I made the pink juice by:

•  draining 1 can of pineapple, 1 can of pears and puting the juice in my pitcher (I use the ones canned in natural fruit juice, not sugar syrup)
• draining a can of beets (I don't reserve the juice from the beets since it creates a taste that is too strong).
• In a juicer, juice the pinapple, pears,  1/2 of the beets and 1 large sweet potato (uncooked and unpeeled).  Then add the juice to the pithcer with the other reserved juice. (If you don't have a juicer, you could create a smoothie.  If you use the juicer remember that the pulp can be used to make great muffins, pancakes or quick bread . . . be creative) 
• What a healthy and festive drink!  It tastes somewhat like drinking a watermelon nectar.

Be inspired,

Using the Halloween Pumpkin

For Family Home Evening, I used my daughter's Jack'0 Lantern to make some cooked pumpkin to use in place of pie filling in a yummy recipe.
1) bring some water to a boil in 1-2 large pots, depending on the size of the pumkin you are cooking.
2) Cut the pumpkin up into several small pieces that can easily fit into the pots and add them into the boiling water.
3) Boil the pumpkin until it is the desired softness. It will cook faster if you cover the pot.
4) Remember to let it cool to a warm temp before using tongs to take the pieces out and peel the skin off of each piece.
5) either smash up or puree in a blender the small pumkin pieces.
Serving suggestions: This is great to use with butter and brown sugar to eat as a side dish. It tastes a lot like butternut squash. Yum! Also great in recipes calling for pumpkin pie filling. Freezes well for later.
We made some yummy and very easy pumpkin cookies with it from a very simple recipe from the Friend.All it took was a spice cake mix, eggs, chocolate chips or raisins and the cooked pumpkin.

Halloween Goo (Split Pea Soup)

I usually buy a bag of split peas and then follow the recipe on the back of the bag with my own alterations as I feel that day:) This time I did:

1) 2 T oil in bottom of very large pot and then add following ingredients and cook and stir a few minutes (can add a little water to the bottom of the pan to help steam the vegetables if desired):
-3 stalks celery chopped
-3 large carrots chopped
-2 medium potatoes chopped
-1 package of bacon cooked in microwave and cut into pieces
-1 medium chopped onion (or 1/4 cup dehydrated onion)
-4 cloves garlic smashed and peeled

2) next add
-49 oz of chicken broth (can make your own with water and chicken bouillon)
-1 tsp thyme
-the whole bag of split peas (sorted through first to make sure there are no little rocks or anything else that got mixed into them during packaging)

3) bring to a boil and then turn down heat to medium-low and simmer for about 60 minutes frequently stirring and adding a little more water or broth whenever it begins to get low.

4) when peas are soft and mushy, it is finished. You can blend up half of the mixture to make a creamier texture if desired.

Note: This makes a very large pot of soup which can easily be split into freezer containers for later or you can make only half a batch at a time.

serving suggestion: you can make little bat wing shaped pieces of toast and put them on top of each bowl of soup when serving. Also tastes really great with cornbread.

Birthday Breakfast

If you love ice cream, then you will love this breakfast treat. It all started when I was little and my family went out to eat at a place (I don't remember where) that had a birthday special. I ordered it and it was a bowl of cereal with a scoop of ice cream in the middle. Surprisingly, it was VERY good! This dish became a special tradition for breakfast on birthdays and now my husband and daughter have been glad to adopt it into our family too. My hubby decided to have some and so I thought It can be holiday breakfast too :) Besides it WAS the country's birthday.

1 half-filled bowl of "plain " cereal (like Cheerios or Corn Flakes)
1 large scoop of ice cream (Mint or Chocolate really flavor the milk well)
Milk
Spoon

Just fill up your cereal bowl, put a scoop of ice cream on and pour the milk over the top. Then grab a spoon and enjoy it!