Spinach Fruit Smoothie

adapted from 100daysofrealfood.com
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/05/17/recipe-tasty-smoothies/

I have tried many smoothies, this seems to be my favorite. It is pretty close to the smoothie on 100daysofrealfood.com, but we narrowed down to the strawberries and add a little more milk. Hope you enjoy.

1 1/2 cup plain yogurt (I use organic)
1-2 bananas (if using frozen, let thaw - hard to blend when frozen)
1 cup strawberries (I used 3/4 cup frozen and 1/4 cup fresh)
1/4 cup (or less) milk
Handful of spinach (1/2-1 cup)

Mix all in blender. Add ice to thicken.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

Courtesy of 100daysofrealfood.com
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/05/02/recipe-whole-wheat-banana-bread/

Since we've had to make a lot of changes around our house because of health problems, I have began following this blog - and I LOVE IT! This is definitely a favorite around our house. I usually try to make it once a week. You will love it - I promise!

Whole Wheat Banana Bread - Lisa Leake

INGREDIENTS

• 2 ¼ cup whole-wheat flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• ¼ cup plain yogurt
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 eggs
• ⅓ cup oil (I used coconut oil)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease pan.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl mix mashed bananas with yogurt, honey, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
4. Fold the banana mixture into the flour mixture until blended. Do not overmix.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake large loaf for 40 – 50 minutes or until it comes clean with a toothpick.

Chocolate Sauce Topping

Courtesy of The Girl Who Ate Everything
http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/06/chocolate-sauce-topping.html

This is the homemade chocolate sauce that we made to go with the eclair cake. It's delicious. You won't ever want store bought sauce again!

Chocolate Sauce Topping

Ingredients:

1/4 cup cocoa

1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions:
Stir cocoa and sugar together well. In a saucepan combine milk, butter, salt, and vanilla. Stir in dry mix. Heat, stirring until it reaches a boil and is thick. You want it to coat the back of a spoon. If you want it to be thicker, for a crepe filling for example, boil it a little longer. I boiled mine for two minutes whisking constantly. It will still be thin once you are done with this step. Don’t worry once you let it cool down a bit it will thicken. It will thicken a lot when chilled.

Makes around 1 cup of sauce.

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Courtesy of The Girl Who Ate Everything
http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2009/06/chocolate-eclair-cake.html

Difficulty Level: Easy

I made this cake for Bree's birthday yesterday. And, it was a huge hit! Everyone loved it - and it wasn't hard to make. Tastes just like an eclair. Hope you like it.

Chocolate Eclair Pie
by Debbie Mortensen

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
4 large eggs
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 large box (5.1 ounces) vanilla instant pudding
3 cups milk
1 8 oz. container cool whip (just enough for a thin layer. I don’t use the whole container) or one batch of homemade whipped cream
chocolate syrup or homemade chocolate syrup

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease a 9″X13″ glass baking pan.

Eclair Crust: In a medium saucepan, melt butter in water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in flour. Mix in one egg at a time, mixing completely before adding another egg. Spread mixture into pan, covering the bottom and sides evenly. *If the sides of your pan are too greased you won’t be able to get the mixture to stay up the sides so make sure to just lightly grease.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown (Mine only took 25 minutes.) You may want to check itoccasionally-you don’t want to overcook the crust, it will ruin the cake! Remove from oven and let cool (don’t touch or push bubbles down).

Filling: Whip cream cheese in a medium bowl. In separate bowl make vanilla pudding. Make sure pudding is thick before mixing in with cream cheese. Slowly add pudding to cream cheese, mixing until there are no lumps. Let cool in fridge.When the crust is completely cooled, pour filling in. Top with layer of cool whip however thick you want it and serve with chocolate syrup. *If you want to make this even better use homemade whipped cream.

Oven Baked Chimichangas

Courtesy of The Tasty Kitchen
http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/holidays/stevene28099s-oven-baked-chimichangas/

Well, I seem to take a lot of vacations from Blogging. I do miss it. And, I miss cooking. I haven't had a ton of time lately because of color guard.
But, I have made this recipe a few times and my family loves it. I either use beef or chicken. We just make them last night and they were yummy. Enjoy!

Steve's Oven Baked Chimichangas

Ingredients

• 1-½ pound Ground Turkey ( Or Chicken)
• 1 package Taco Seasoning (1.25 Oz)
• 1-¼ cup Water
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
• 2 teaspoons Chopped Fresh Oregano
• 2 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Cilantro
• 1 can Fire-roasted Green Chiles (7 Oz.)
• ½ cups Diced Fresh Tomatoes
• 2 Chopped Green Onions
• ½ cups Low Fat Sour Cream
• ½ cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 4 Tablespoons Melted Butter
• 6 Flour Tortillas (burrito Sized / Large)
• ½ cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese (to Melt On Top)
• GARNISH: Tomatoes, Lettuce, Cheese, Guacamole, Salsa, Sour Cream

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Saute poultry until cooked through and starting to brown. Add taco seasoning and stir. Add water and stir. Over med – low heat cook until liquid has reduced 2/3.

Add cumin, oregano, cilantro, chiles, tomatoes and green onions. Simmer until the rest of the liquid has evaporated. Remove from heat and let cool 5 minutes. Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese.

Lay tortillas on wax paper and brush both sides with the melted butter. Spoon 1/6 th of filling into center of tortilla and fold like and envelope.

Put tortillas, seam-side down on a non-stick sheet pan. Spaced so they DO NOT touch. Bake 20 -25 minutes or until golden and crisp. Sprinkle with cheese and return to oven to melt. Serve with the garnishes.

Raspberry Crumb Pie

Courtesy of Gingerbread Bagels
http://gingerbreadbagels.com/2011/07/22/raspberry-crumb-pie/

My friend Tabitha brought me over some fresh raspberries from her yard today - so we decided to make jam... We'll, we thought pie sounded yummy, so we made this instead. It was SO GOOD! Definitely will be making this again. Enjoy.

Raspberry Crumb Pie

Crust
(makes two single pie crusts)
4 cups all purpose flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 3/4 cup cold shortening, diced
1/2 cup cold water
1 large egg
1 large egg mixed with 1 Tablespoon water (for the egg wash)

Filling
4 1/2 cups raspberries
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Crumb Topping
2 1/2 Tablespoons packed light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup plus 2 1/2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and kosher salt. Put the bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes. It’s important that the ingredients for the pie crust are very cold. Dice the shortening and also place it in the freezer for 5 minutes.
Take the bowl out of the freezer and add in the shortening. Using a fork, cut the shortening into the flour. The mixture should resemble small peas. Mix together 1/2 cup very cold water (I put the water in the freezer) and 1 large cold egg. Add it to the bowl and mix the ingredients together with a fork.
Put the dough onto a floured counter and form it into a large circle. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and take off 3/4 of the dough. I always use a little more so it’s easier to roll out. You can reserve the extra dough you don’t use for another pie.
Flour the counter, rolling pin and the dough. Roll it out into a large circle. Then roll the dough onto your rolling pin. Roll the dough over the pie plate (a 9 inch pie plate) and press it into the insides of the pie plate.
Crimp the edges of the pie or if you can just take a fork and crimp the edges.
Place the pie in the refrigerator while you work on the filling. In a bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together the sugar and flour. Add in the sour cream, eggs and vanilla extract and mix on medium speed until combined.
Take the pie crust out of the refrigerator and put the raspberries on the bottom of the crust. Pour the filling over the raspberries and spread it out.
Now make the crumb topping. Mix together the sugar, brown sugar, ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg. Pour the melted unsalted butter into the bowl and mix everything together.
Add in the flour and mix until the ingredients form a crumble topping.
Crumble the crumb topping over the pie.
Mix together 1 large egg and 1 Tablespoon of water and brush over the edge of the crust. You won’t use all of the egg wash.
Bake the pie at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10-15 minutes. (the pie is done when the filling is somewhat firm) Let the pie cool for at least 1 hour on a cooling rack before cutting into slices. The filling will set when the pie cools. Then enjoy!

Homemade Granola

Courtesy of Simple Organized Living
http://www.simpleorganizedliving.com/2010/08/04/homemade-granola/

We made this homemade granola this morning, and it was really good. Jack and Bree didn't like the raisins, so I think I'll use craisins next time I make it. We had it with yogurt this morning. It was a nice change from the normal breakfast food. Enjoy!

• INGREDIENTS 
• 4 1/2  c. uncooked oats
• 2 c. chopped nuts (I used one cup each of pecans and almonds)
• 2 c. dried fruit (I used one cup each of raisins and chopped apricots)
• 1/2. c. brown sugar
• 2 T. cinnamon
• 1 T. vanilla
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1  1/2 c. maple syrup (a 12 oz. jar)

• DIRECTIONS
• Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl
• Spread onto 2 large greased baking sheets (mine are 17 x 11 x 1)
• Bake at 325 F. for 45-50 minutes (stirring half way through)

Let it cool completely and store it in airtight containers.
It usually makes 2 1/2 quarts so we store the extras in our freezer. It should stay fresh for several months.

Original content from Simple Organized Living: http://www.simpleorganizedliving.com/2010/08/04/homemade-granola/#ixzz1x9PoCCdE
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives