Safe Trick or Treating

Tomorrow night is Halloween! Children of all ages will rush home to gobble up their dinner and then don their costumes. Soon the streets will be filled with children scuffling door to door in hopes of filling their bags with treats. Please consider getting some "safe" treats for kids with food allergies. Most chocolates like Kit-Kat bars, Snickers, Milky Way bars and even some non-chocolates like candy corn can either be made with nuts or in a facility with nuts deeming them unsafe for many children. Consider something like fruit snacks, Skittles, Smarties, pencils and tiny containers of Play-Doh to pass out.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Recipe: Overnight Blueberry French Toast

I am usually all about eating healthy, but sometimes you just need to indulge!! This recipe is almost like a dessert instead of a breakfast dish and it is worth every single calorie swallowed. My dear friend, Kathy, published a cookbook a few years ago with all of the proceeds going to a scholarship that is very near and dear to my heart. I happily purchased a cookbook and began searching for yummy recipes to make. Overnight blueberry french toast has become one of my absolute favorite recipes from this cookbook! I have made it many times for holidays, brunches and even a Sunday night breakfast dinner. We're actually having this evening along with bacon and scrambled eggs. I don't make this often as it is quite an indulgence, I don't even know how many calories is in one serving (not sure I want to know!).

The recipe calls for sliced french bread. Due to food allergies I cannot use just any french bread. Most bakery breads are made in the same facility as peanuts or tree nuts so I usually have to make my own which adds on prep and bake time. I recently discovered that the Jimmy John's in my area sells its day old loafs of bread for $.50 a piece. Two loaves of Jimmy John's bread is perfect for this recipe! Best of all, it is allergen safe for Brennan.

Ingredients
French baguette cut into one inch slices
2 cups milk
4 eggs
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I like more)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions
Lightly grease a casserole dish. Arrange bread slices in the dish.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, 1/2 cup brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour evenly over the bread. Turn the bread slices to coat evenly. Cover the bread and refrigerate overnight. Just before baking sprinkle the berries over the bread. Heat butter and 1/4 cup of brown sugar in a saucepan until bubbly. Drizzle over the berries. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until set. Enjoy!!

Recipe: Pumpkin Bread

It is mid-October and pumpkin food is everywhere you turn. A friend made the comment that she was making pumpkin bread and from the moment I heard her say that I have been craving pumpkin bread. I've never made it so I searched around on my cell one day on my lunch break (well I don't get breaks so I searched while eating and teaching, bad confession!) and decided I'd make time to bake today. I am a busy lady, so busy that I felt the need to multi-task while attempting to bake and totally screwed up the recipe. It is baking now, smells so amazingly yummy, but it certainly is not what I set off making. I hope it tastes good otherwise I wasted all the ingredients and time on nothing! Lesson learned: take time to relax! If you can't even follow a recipe for bread you are doing too much and need to carve time for the simple things in life!

*Update: Dear Lord that bread was simply amazing!! I will make it the wrong way every single time I bake it! It is so moist and has a very subtle pumpkin flavor. Alex begged for pumpkin bread each morning for breakfast. A slice of this tasty bread with a cup of greek yogurt and a banana has been his breakfast of choice all week! We cleared the entire loaf and I need to make more tonight if I can muster up the energy!

Ingredients

1 package (8 ounce) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel (I omitted this)

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup pumpkin puree, canned or homemade

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

Since you are making this my "messed up way" just mix it all together!! Seriously, I mixed the cream cheese, one egg, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of flour together until it was really creamy and set it aside. Then I sifted together the rest of the ingredients into a bowl. If you want to follow the “Melissa Way” just dump the pumpkin mixture into the cream cheese mixture and make sure you blend it together well. Then place it all inside a lightly greased loaf pan and bake on 350 degree for a very long time...this is where I wondered what the hell I did as the bread wasn't baked in the 45 minutes I had written down. I bet this bread cooked for a good 90 minutes! Keep checking on it to make sure it isn’t burning. This pumpkin bread is seriously addicting! Enjoy!

I'm always looking to make recipes healthier. I plan on making this bread this week, but I will sub local honey for the sugar, all natural applesauce for the vegetable oil and I'll do a "half and half" mixture of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour. If I make the bread I'll update with results. 

Eight Funky Foods

Today as I was playing round on Facebook I came across an article on a friend's page. The article lists eight foods that experts refuse to consume and why. I was pretty sure I'd find dairy laced with hormones on the list and I was right, it is number six on the list. If you know me at all, you know my love for cows and my quest to stay away from rBGH tainted dairy. I found this to be an interesting read and wanted to share:

http://eatlocalgrown.com/article/12214-8-foods-even-the-experts-won-t-eat.html

Recipe: Healthy "Cookies"

I don't know about you, but I love to indulge in cookies. My favorite is a good old fashioned chocolate chip cookie, however I am pretty open to eating any cookie you pass my way. A few weeks ago I was obsessed with Ginger Snap cookies. That love affair has come and gone and now I am back to my beloved chocolate chip cookie. Over the past several months I have lost some weight. It took me awhile to drop three sizes and I am damn proud of my accomplishments! I do not want to sabotage my efforts, but I cannot live without my sweets! Then my friend Abby shared this amazing cookie recipe with me and I am in love!

Now, you cannot make this recipe and except it to be a traditional cookie. It is actually far from anything you'd bake, but it satisfies my sweet tooth, is fairly healthy in my opinion and best of all it is so easy to make!! I'll have to see where she found this recipe so I can give credit where it is due, but for now I shall just share this little gem with you!

Ingredients
2 very ripe bananas (think brown to black colored peel)
1 cup of quick oats
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions
In a bowl, mash bananas well.

Mix in the oats.

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Spoon tablespoons of batter onto a lightly greased baking sheet.

Bake on 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

These are awesome straight from the oven! I save the leftovers and just popped them in the microwave when I was ready to indulge. I've certainly eaten my fair share today!

Thank you Abs for sharing this with me!! xoxoxo

I'm Back!!!

It has been 10 months since I last blogged! I have been so very busy and sadly blogging was just not high on list of things to accomplished. Both boys are in elementary school now and I have had a major career change that has effected our family in many ways. When I cook or visit somewhere fun I always think, "I should blog about this...", but then life gets busy and once again this site is pushed away. I miss blogging though so I am going to make it a point to get on here at least twice a month to post. Writing is fun, almost therapeutic to me, so I need to bump it up on my list of priorities and make time for it. With that said, I am off to create my newest recipe post!