Breakfast Cookies

These are super good, and super filling! My boys can only handle half of one at a time, I had one for breakfast at 5:30am and wasn't hungry again until Todd came home for lunch at 1pm!

Ingredients:

2 cups quick oats (not whole oats)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup almond butter, peanut butter, or sunflower seed butter

1/4 cup pure maple syrup (or honey)

1/4 cup apple butter (I used LauraintheKitchen’s apple butter)

1 large banana, mashed (about 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup shelled pumpkin seeds/slivered almonds/sunflower seeds

1/2 cup raisins/chocolate chips/white chocolate chips

1/4 cup ground flaxseed (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F degrees. Line large cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.

Combine all of the ingredients into a large bowl. Mix until all of the ingredients are combined. The dough will be quite stiff.

Take 1/4 cup of dough and drop onto prepared cookie sheet. Slightly flatten the tops into desired thickness. The cookies will not spread in the oven. I used a large cookie scoop and they seem to be the perfect size for us.

Bake for 15-16 minutes or until edges are slightly brown. Allow to cool on the cookie sheets completely.

Cookies stay fresh at room temperature for 1 week. Cookies can be frozen up to 3 months.

Adapted from here 

Beef with Broccoli

3 tablespoons cornstarch, divided (2 then 1 tablespoon)
1/2 cup water, plus
2 tablespoons water, divided
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 lb boneless round steak cut into thin 3-inch strips (grass fed pasture raise happy please)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
4 bunches of broccoli cut into florets steamed in the microwave for 3 minutes
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground ginger
rice

In a bowl, combine 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons water (more if needed, I used about ¼ of a cup) and garlic powder until smooth. Add beef and dip. In a large skillet or wok over medium high heat, stir-fry beef in 1 tablespoon oil until beef reaches desired doneness; remove and keep warm. Stir-fry broccoli in remaining oil for 4-5 minutes. Return beef to pan. Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and remaining cornstarch and water until smooth; add to the pan. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Serve over rice.

NOTE: I just added broccoli to the beef/chicken in the last stage, it came out great. Corbyn even liked it! 

Indian Tacos

I grew up literally less than a mile from the largest Native reserve in North America, which means I got to grow up learning a lot about their culture. One of my favorites were Indian Tacos, but I only had them a few times growing up.I looked and looked for an 'authentic' Indian Tacos recipe all over online and had my mom ask all of her friends but according to all of them, you make taco meat and do normal tacos over fry bread, what?! How could they have been that good growing up if they were just simple tacos? Very doubtful I tried it, THEY WERE SO GOOD! I used Emily's Fry Bread recipe and then we just made simple tacos. Yum!

Ingredients
taco meat
lettuce
tomatoes
cheese
etc

Place all ingredients on cooked fry bread and enjoy!

Nutella Cheesecake

are you in for a really, really, really, really, REALLY rich cheese cake? Corbyn decided he wanted this for his birthday cake this year, it was pretty easy to whip up, but it was too rich for all of us. Kase was the only one who was able to pound it!
If you are like me and prefer to watch the video on how she made it go here

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 ¼ cups of Ground Graham Crackers
6 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
2 Tbsp of Nutella
¼ cup of Granulated Sugar
¼ cup of Chopped Hazelnuts, finely ground in a food processor

For the Filling:
2 8oz Blocks of Cream Cheese, softened at room temperature
1 cup of Powder Sugar
1 ½ cups of Nutella
½ tsp of Vanilla Extract
¼ cup of Heavy Cream

For the Topping:
1/2 cup of Heavy Cream
4 oz of MILK chocolate chips
1 tsp of Butter, softened at room temperature

1) In a food processor, add all the ingredients for the crust and whiz it up until everything is finely crushed and when you pinch the mixture together, it holds well.
2) Press the mixture in the bottom and one inch up the sides of a 9” springform pan, set it in the fridge.
3) In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the cream cheese and nutella and mix it on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
4) Add the remaining ingredients and keep mixing it for another minute or so or until you have a smooth batter.
5) Pour the batter into the prepared crust, cover the top of the pan with a plate and set it in the fridge overnight.
6) About an hour before you are ready to serve it, make the ganache.
7) In a small saucepan, add the cream and bring it to a simmer.
8) Pour the cream in a bowl with the chocolate chips and let it sit for about 3 minutes.
9) Whisk it all together until the chocolate chips have melted, and whisk in the butter as well.
10) Place it back in the fridge for about an hour to set a bit.

Tip:

Wipe your knife in between cutting each slice so that all the slices come out nice and neat.

Recipe By: Laura Vitale

NEXT TIME for ME!!!

It would be just as good with Deana's Cheesecake crust, that way I wouldn't have to buy expensive hazelnuts. 

We didn't wait the hour after putting on the ganache, and I like the drip effect it had on the cake. I prefer this cake 'warm' sitting out on the counter for a bit. 

Holly's Buttermilk Pancake Recipe!

I haven't had much luck making pancakes in the past, but these are good and they turn out for me pretty good. They could be fluffier (Holly's were fluffy) for me, but these are super tasty and EASY! Yay! I make them with Stephanie's Pancake Syrup

The only bad thing about these pancakes is how much I miss Holly when I make them!

Glazed Pecans

We crush these and put them on our Steel Cut Oats…so good!

Ingredients

1 egg white

4 teaspoons water

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat an oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Beat the egg in a bowl until frothy; whisk the water and vanilla into the egg. Stir the sugar, cinnamon, and salt into the egg mixture. Add the pecans; stir to coat completely. Spread the pecans onto the prepared baking sheet.

Roast the pecans in the preheated oven, stirring about every 15 minutes, until the coating forms a glaze, about 1 hour. Allow to cool on the baking sheet at least 10 minutes before serving.

Steel Cut Oats

3 C Water
1 C Steel Cut Oats

You can replace the water with a 1/2-1 C of milk/Almond milk for a sweeter taste
You can also add a tsp of cinnamon while cooking to spice it up a little

Bring them to a boil and let them sit overnight, the next morning scoop out what you want (a little goes a LONG way) and heat that up and save the rest in a air tight container in the refrigerator. It keeps 5-7 days really well, after that it starts to get a mucus type texture to it, ha ha!