Our Memorial Day Weekend

Hope you and yours had a great weekend spending time with each other and doing some fun stuff.  Matt is currently at an Army school and aside from this four day week end we don't get much time off, so we wanted to make the most of it.  We are thankful that my younger brother was able to come spend some time with us.

This is how we spent our weekend:

A few delish meals were made, and this was my favorite I wanted to share with y'all

 

Lasagna Cupcakes by way of Plain Chicken.  So clever, so easy, so good!

We went to the Pima County Air and Space  Museum

Took a hike along the San Pedro River

It isn't often you see big trees in AZ, so we decided on a photo op.

Duece went for a swim in the river.  He did not like it. 

He also got a new toy...meet "The Squirrel". 

Crafted a little bit (kinda).

More on this later. 

And after all of it we decided we needed patio furniture.  Brace yourself...

Isn't it just adorable.  Mom, don't be jealous.  I love our new retro green glider/chair combo.

Fabulous!

Again, hope your family time this weekend was as great as ours!

Shhh...there are black beans in the brownie!

No, I did not stutter, I mean, it really is healthy....er healthier.  Matt is a connoisseur of all things brownie, and today at school he had a really hard test that took all day. Also the past couple of days have been kind of rough at the Langford house and he has been so sweet.  I thought he deserved a home baked treat, with a twist.

I am always looking for ways to make the things we love healthier, so when I stumbled across the Black Bean Brownie recipe and saw it was roughly 40% of the calories of a regular delish concoction I thought, "why the heck not."  

Black Bean Brownies

One 15 oz can of drained and rinsed black beans

Add three eggs 

1/4 cup Cocoa Powder 

Pinch of salt 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

3/4 cup of sugar and 1 tsp baking powder 

2 tsp instant coffee (The Barefoot Contessa swears that coffee brings out the flavor of chocolate)

and 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 

You don't need a ninja for this part but I highly recommend it,  I love my ninja and it does  a freaking awesome job at blending stuff.  So, just blend all of your ingredients up until smooth.  I did notice that the chocolate chips were still chunky, but they will melt.  I promise you, the beans will be pulverized.

Bake at 350 in a greased 8X8 pan. 

And...TADA!

Healthy Brownie goodness.

The verdict:  I told Matt about my little secret AFTER he ate some, he said they were good, but once he knew there were beans in them, he said he could tell they tasted different.  Still good, but different.  I think he felt better knowing they were better for him.  So I say, trick your kids and your men...don't ever tell them your secret ingredient!

The brownies that will cure all the bad in the world

Oreo Stuffed Brownies.  Yes, that just happened.  

In fact these brownies made Matt declare, "Dang baby, you are the brownie queen."  

I take that as a serious compliment, because Matt is a brownie lover of the biggest kind.  I am not going to take all of the credit, Jenny at Picky Palate featured this recipe on her blog, and I stumbled upon it looking for an update to the regular ole' brownies I had been making.  I must give you fair warning.  These are NOT healthy (most good things aren't).

Grab a napkin cause your gonna need it.

Oreos (Double Stuff, is there any other kind?) and Brownie Mix

Prepare brownie mix as directed in a large bowl, do not pour into baking dish.

Dip the Oreo using a spoon into your brownie batter, make sure that the cookie gets nice and coated.  Go ahead and use your hands to, don't be afraid to get dirty.  Trust me, it's worth it.

Once you have the Oreo sufficiently coated in batter...

Place each coated Oreo into a well greased muffin pan.

Cook for approx 15 or until you can tell that your brownies are done.  As soon as you pull them out of the oven, use a knife to remove your slice of heaven cookie.  Let cool just a little bit. 

Serve!

He was happy, and that is the way I like it.

I have officially been banned from making "regular" brownies ever again.

Do you still have that napkin?  Now would be a good time to wipe up the drool.

I am also linking up today to We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado.

Check out the great blog post featuring a ton of other great bloggers!

A Very Merry "Cake"mas

Merry Christmas!

I have a Christmas present for each and everyone of you. I am going to share my super secret family recipe for Hazelnut Cake.  Fine.  It isn't a super secret or even a secret, heck I found the recipe last week in a magazine and haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.  But I did officially decide tonight (while eating the cake) that I am going to make this cake every year at Christmas time, isn't that special? Yes M'am.

So without further ado I present to you your gift:

Chelle's Hazelnut Cake

I know it isn't the prettiest, most evenly frosted, or level cake, but I did put my sweat (not literally) and tears (yes real tears) into it.  I made it from scratch, and not from a box scratch.  Everyone seemed to be really really pleased with it and kept telling me how good it was.  Let's hope they weren't lying for the sake of Christmas and they really liked it.

Chelle's Hazelnut Cake

1 c. butter softened

1 c. firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 large eggs

2 cups all purpose flour, divided

1/2 cup chopped toasted hazelnut*

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream

 Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour 3 cake rounds.  In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars at medium speed until creamy.  Add vanilla, beat to combine.  Add eggs one at a time beating well after each.  In the food processor, combine 1/4 c. flour and hazelnut, process until finely ground.  In medium bowl, combine remaining 1 3/4 c flour, ground hazelnut mixture, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternating with sour cream.  Be sure to begin and end with flour mixture.  Spoon batter into prepared pans.  Bake for 18-20 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool in pans for 10 min.  Remove from pan and cool on rack.  Spread Frosting between layers, garnish with nuts.

*  Hazelnuts were hard to find and I had to buy them, crack them, and toast them.  Then I had to remove the skins from them and they didn't want to cooperate.  This is where the tears came in.

Chocolate Hazelnut Frosting

2 (8oz) cream cheese softened

3/4c chocolate hazelnut spread (Nutella)

8 cups confectioner's sugar

In a large bowl beat cream cheese and chocolate spread at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.  Gradually beat in confectioner's sugar until smooth.

Enjoy!

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Christmas Saturday full of fun, family, and fellowship.  Not only is today a day for fun, presents, and good food, but most importantly it is the day our Savior, Jesus Christ was born and never has there been a more important gift than that.  So today, in the midst of all the Christmasy things  take a moment to think about what the day is and don't get bogged down in what is has become.

This rubs me the right way

Thanks to One Pretty Thing I found a really cute idea for some Christmas happy's for friends.  I have always heard the saying that "friends are the spice of life", and I believe that.  When I saw the really cute spice rub gift idea I new that it would be a simple and usable gift.  

One the website it was in a jar with a twist top, but I decided put my own spin on it.  I found little glass jars that were the perfect size and I saw it as the perfect opportunity to use some of my chalkboard paint.  I started with the glass jars and painted a little square on the front that could be used to label what was inside.

Once the rub has been used the jar can be washed and labeled to match the new contents

I wrapped them up in some festive tissue paper, stamped a little card, and tied them up with a fresh piece of chalk!

Can't wait to give these out to some friends.

Christmas Spice Rub Recipe

1/3 cup coarse salt

1/4 cup paprika

4 tbsp light brown sugar

2 tbsp dried oregano

2 tbsp dried thyme leaves

2 tbsp black pepper

1 tbsp cayenne pepper

*will season approximately 10 lbs of meat or poultry

Sweet Treat for my Sweet Pup

What did the honeydew melon say after the watermelon proposed marriage?

Sorry but I can't elope!

Just a little melon humor to get us going.  You know that you laughed a little even though it was only on the inside.

I thought about my friend Shannon from Why Not On A Tuesday as I wrote this post.  Her and her husband just got a brand new member of their family, Beauford, and he is a real cutie!  Shan, Duece said to tell Beauford that he would love this treat!

Matt loves melon and the honeydew I bought the other day just wasn't very good, it wasn't ripe enough and we were just going to throw it away.  I decided to salvage the remainder of the honeydew and turn it into a treat for Duece.  I had made him some frozen treats in the past using I recipe I found in a Rachel Ray magazine so I just used the same principle and adjusted the recipe to the ingredients I had on hand...all two of them.  Thats right this is a simple treat for your pet that only requires 2 ingredients and 4 easy steps.

1. I started with the melon in question

2. Blended it in the blender

Don't judge it because I know that it doesn't look very appetizing.

3.  Mixed in some plain all natural yogurt, just enough to thicken it up

4.  Put it in my mini cupcake pan and put it in the freezer to harden. You could use an ice cube tray but I didn't have one.

Freezing them this way is so convenient because I can put them in a ziploc and pull out as a treat when I want to.  Any fruit you have on hand (other than grapes) would work great in this recipe.  I have used both bananas and strawberries in the past.  The fruit and yogurt are also 100% okay for your dog to eat as long as it is given in moderation with the rest of their doggy diet.  

Duece didn't complain!

Pizza or Pasta?

Why not both?  Pizza and pasta are two of the classic dinner dishes, the following recipe marries them together for the best of both worlds.  And guess what?  As a bonus it is healthy too!

3 cups uncooked whole wheat spiral pasta

1 lb. lean ground turkey (I used beef because it was all I had)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 1/2 cups garden style spaghetti sauce

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/8 tsp pepper

3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese (I used shredded)

4 oz slice turkey pepperoni

1/2 cu shredded part skim mozzarella cheese

1.  Cook pasta according to package directions.

2.  Meanwhile in a large non-stick skillet, cook turkey and onion over medium high until meat is no longer pink; drain.

3.  Add can of diced tomatoes, basil, oregano, worcestershire sauce, and pepper

4.  Add spaghetti sauce to mixture in the skillet

5.  After you have drained your pasta transfer it to your 13x9' baking dish

6. Then sprinkle with parmesan cheese, next cover with your sauce/meat mixture.

7.  Top with slices of pepperoni

8.  Finally sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, your cheese will be melted and resemble the top of a pizza!

Enjoy your best of both worlds dish!

Voila, the finished product, served with a side of delish pan sauteed green beans!

And if you are feeling extra good about being in the kitchen take the time to whip up a nice batch of chocolate chip cookies...I am just saying, no pressure. :)

Dear Matt, 

Just so you know.  I think you will love this dish, right down to the green beans.  Aren't you happy I started liking green beans and can eat them with you now.  So I will be adding this dish to my "meals to make for Matt when he comes home" list.  Love you.

Your Happy Homemaker