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Olivia’s Scrumptious Ginger Cookies | Printable Recipe

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I never considered myself to be a fan of the ginger spice. But somehow when my daughter Olivia (14 – the girl of the triplets) makes her ginger cookies . . . . I take one bite, and there’s a party in my mouth! I think it must be just the right amount of ginger, combined with the butter. Whatever it is, it can be hard to stop from having another.  And if no one is looking, another. We don’t have treats like these around the house often. But when we do, they are homemade, and it’s a treat indeed!  In fact, anytime Olivia bakes or cooks for us, which is frequently, it’s a treat!  As I type up this post, she is actually packing up to head out for a cooking competition for the weekend! She’s got some real skills, and you can taste them in these cookies. (Like everything else she whips up for us!)

We’re giving you Olivia’s Ginger Cookies recipe today. There’s a printable version at the end of this post. 
So, you can make some for yourself, and thank us later.
–

Olivia’s Ginger Cookies


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Simple & Savory Homemade Applesauce (Recipe)

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With the Fall season, comes apple season!  And we all know there are innumerable wonderful and delicious things, that can be made with apples!
They really are a fruit of so many gifts. But some recipes take a lot more ambition, than others!
If you just want to enjoy the simplicity and goodness of apples, while still having a great celebration happening in your mouth, than this applesauce recipe is for you!
Applesauce is also a versatile food, that can be used in so many different ways. We’ll talk about there here, too.

 

  • 4-6 pounds Apples, Peeled, Cored, And Cut Into 8 Slices
  • 1 cup Water
  • Juice Of 1 Lemon (or 6 shakes of Lemon Essential Oil)
  • 1/2 cup Brown Sugar, Packed
  • 1 teaspoon Cinnamon or Cassia, More Or Less To Taste

(*Optional Ingredients: Nutmeg, Maple Syrup, Allspice, Butter)

It’s This Simple:

1. First, we always recommend you begin with washed, organic apples, if possible.
What kind of apples? That’s up to you! But varieties of the sweet and soft kind, are best when making applesauce. In this recipe, we used all McIntosh apples, and so can attest to the goodness of an applesauce made with that variety!  But [Read more…]

Granola Goodness | Recipe

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granola-recipe-1

We love granola around here!  It’s such a good and wholesome snack, handful after handful, with CrUnCh!  (Oh, how I love crunch.)  It’s really a great way to start your day off right too, in the morning!  Throw some in a bowl with a few splashes of cold milk, or load it on top of a serving of yogurt!

Unfortunately, it’s next to impossible to find ‘peanut-safe’ granola at the markets.  Added to the allergies now, is cashews and pistachios. Even small amounts of granola are kind of pricey to buy, ready-made, anyway.  So, if we want granola (and we do!), it’s up to us to make it homemade.  But we don’t mind, because it’s easy and fun to make, and we can make BIG batches.

granola-recipe We have posted another granola recipe here on the blog before, and that one can be found here.  There is so many ways to make granola! Experimenting with different ingredients, is half the fun and surprise!  Here is the granola recipe we’ve been crunching on this week!

Granola Goodness

(Note: All C.(cup) measurements are heaping – not level.)

  • 4C rolled oats
  • 1 1/2 C shredded unsweetened coconut
  • 1 C wheat germ
  • 1/2 C natural bran (We used Fiber One cereal.)
  • 2 C raisins
  • 1/2 C cooking oil
  • 1/2 C honey
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla

(*Chopped nuts optional. We have a kiddo allergic.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.  In a small saucepan, combine oil and honey.  Stir over low heat until the honey is melted and it’s warm and blended with the oil enough. (About 5 minutes.)  Stir in vanilla.  Pour oil mixture over dry ingredients, little by little, mixing to blend well.  Spread mixture on two cookie sheets, and bake for for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned, stirring and flipping mixture over about half way through time. Let cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.  Makes about 12+ cups!

Granola Goodness
 
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There is nothing like a good granola! Here we are sharing our recipe with you, in hopes you'll enjoy it as much as we do!
:
: Snack
Serves: 12 Cups
Ingredients
  • 4C rolled oats
  • 1½ C shredded unsweetened coconut
  • 1 C wheat germ
  • ½ C natural bran (We used Fiber One cereal.)
  • 2 C raisins
  • ½ C cooking oil
  • ½ C honey
  • ½ tsp. vanilla
  • (*Chopped nuts optional. We have a kiddo allergic.)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
  3. In a small saucepan, combine oil and honey.
  4. Stir over low heat until the honey is melted and it's warm and blended with the oil enough. (About 5 minutes.)
  5. Stir in vanilla.
  6. Pour oil mixture over dry ingredients, little by little, mixing to blend well.
  7. Spread mixture on two cookie sheets, and bake for for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned, stirring and flipping mixture over about half way through time.
  8. Let cool completely.
  9. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 12+ cups!

Josh’s Double-Chocolate Biscottis Recipe

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A friend of ours baked our family thesedouble-chocolate biscottis, and we enjoyed them so much, we asked him for the recipe. (So we could have some more!).  He very kindly sent the recipe to us, and he also suggested it as a blog post.  We thought it was a great idea!  It’s just not nice not to share, Italian cookies this good

bis·cot·ti

Definition of BISCOTTI :  small rectangular twice-baked cookies, typically containing *nuts, made originally in Italy.

*We omitted nuts, as one in our family has a serious allergy to nuts.

 

Josh’s Double Chocolate Biscotti Recipe
Recipe

 

Participating Ingredients

  • 1 cup of butter, softened
  • 1 1/3 cups of sugar
  • ½ of a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 4 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 4 eggs
  • 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup of white chocolate pieces
  • ¼ cup milk, semisweet, or dark chocolate pieces

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 2 or more cookie sheets. Beat the softened butter with an electric mixer on medium/high speed for 45 seconds to a minute. Add sugar, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Beat until combined. Beat in the eggs until combined. Beat in flour, “If you can’t beat in all the flour, just stir it in.” Stir in the chocolate pieces.

Divide the dough in fourths: shape into four loaves and put them on the cookie sheets, adjusting the thickness and length of them to fit in the cookie sheet but not bake into each other.

Bake for 23 to 28 minutes or until wood toothpicks inserted near the centers comes out clean. Cool the loaves on cutting boards for 1 to 4 hours. (They slice easier if you let them cool longer and become more firm.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a serrated bread knife to cut each loaf into slices, you may cut them as thick or thin as you like. Bake them for 12 to 15 minutes, turn them over on their side, and bake them for another 12 to 15 minutes.

Cool, and enjoy!

Origin of BISCOTTO

Italian, biscuit, cookie, from (pane) biscotto, literally, bread baked twice

First Known Use: 1946

 

 

Josh's Double Chocolate Biscotti Recipe
 
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A delightful double-chocolate biscotti cookie recipe, with a dash of facts about biscotti cookies, to further enjoy.
:
: Baking
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: ~48 cookies
Ingredients
  • 1 cup of butter, softened
  • 1⅓ cups of sugar
  • ½ of a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 4 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 4 eggs
  • 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup of white chocolate pieces
  • ¼ cup milk, semisweet, or dark chocolate pieces
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 2 or more cookie sheets. Beat the softened butter with an electric mixer on medium/high speed for 45 seconds to a minute. Add sugar, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Beat until combined. Beat in the eggs until combined. Beat in flour, “If you can’t beat in all the flour, just stir it in.” Stir in the chocolate pieces.
  2. Divide the dough in fourths: shape into four loaves and put them on the cookie sheets, adjusting the thickness and length of them to fit in the cookie sheet but not bake into each other.
  3. Bake for 25 to 28 minutes or until wood toothpicks inserted near the centers comes out clean. Cool the loaves on cutting boards for 1 to 4 hours. (They slice easier if you let them cool longer and become more firm.)
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a serrated bread knife to cut each loaf into slices, you may cut them as thick or thin as you like. Bake them for 12 to 15 minutes, turn them over on their side, and bake them for another 12 to 15 minutes.
  5. Cool, and enjoy!

Be sure to grab the printable recipe, before you go! Hope you enjoy, too!

 


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Banana-Fanna-Fo-Fanna…Fe-Fi-Fo-Fanna…Banana.(CHIPS!) | Recipe

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There’s nothing like a snack you can give your kids, and feel good about!
So today, we’re going to show you how to make a simple, healthy and natural snack – Banana Chips!

banana chips recipe

Like most recipes, there are always a few variations or different ways to go about preparing a food.  Banana chips can either be fried, or baked.   We try to opt for the healthy options first.

Making baked banana chips really couldn’t be any simpler.

Get this:

Participating Ingredients:

  • Bananas!

Need I say more?   Maybe.  Some may want to know exactly what to do with them.  But I am willing to bet, this is going to go just about how you think it is.

bananas The main thing you need to make banana chips, is a bunch of bananas.

bananas-1

But really, if you want a bunch of banana chips, you might want to go with two bunches of bananas.  Because they shrink up to nothing, and you may find yourself asking in the end, “That’s all we got?  Seriously?”     Much like mushrooms, or onions…..you start out with a big pile, get cooking them, and wonder where it all went!

banana chips recipe

So, you’ll want to peel and slice the bananas to about 1/8″ thick.  Now…above, is a little thicker than that.   I went thinner after this one.  (And after I already took the photo.)

banana chips recipe

But either way….if you cut them or like them a little thicker, you’ll just bake them a little longer, and I’ll get to that.

banana chips recipe

If it’s gardening season, and you garden, remember…..banana peels are a wonderful organic compost ingredient!  They are a great source of potassium for the soil.  That means excellent nutrients for your producing plants.   When burying peels near your rose bushes, you’re bound to get bigger blooms too!

But right….we were talking about banana chips.

Preheat your oven to ~150 degrees for thinner slices, 200 degrees for thicker.

Then, you can lightly grease your pans, or spray oil on them.

Spread your banana slices on the cookie sheets, not touching.

healthy-banana-chips-recipe-3

Now, if it’s important to you that the banana slices maintain their color for the most part, and don’t turn too brown, you can spray them with lemon juice.

We didn’t care, and I was afraid I would taste the lemon juice.  (Not a lemon fan.)  So….we skipped that.

How long you bake them, depends on how thick you sliced them:

1/8″ : 2-3 hours, turning over every 30 minutes or so.

(The temp is so low, I used a spatula the first time, but used me fingers after that.)

When they are dried out and nice and a little golden brown, they are done.

Thicker than 1/8: Bake an hour, turn over and check if they are dehydrated yet.  If not, put in a little longer.

Really……when they are chippy, they are done.  You can’t do it wrong,  People. (Unless they are still mushy, or burnt. ; ).  After that, just leave them out to harden a little more.   Then put them in a storage container to keep fresh.

banana chips recipe

Ours came out crunchy at first bite, and then a little fun and chewy.

They can be eaten alone, or added to a trail mix.

A couple of other Fun Banana Facts!:

1)   Bananas make you HaPpY!!   They contain the natural chemical found in prozac.

2)  Bananas, eaten raw, do not make me happy. Well, they used to make my mouth happy.  But then I found, they do not make my stomach happy.  After several bouts of excruciating stomach pains, on different occasions, I had always asked myself what I had recently eaten.  The common consumption?  A banana.    I’ve come to the conclusion that my stomach can digest anything under the sun, except raw bananas.  Which is a bummer, because I love them.  So I make myself feel better with, banana chips!….banana bread…..banana muffins…..banana pancakes…..banana-fanna-fo-fanna….you get the idea.

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Banana chips (baked)  are a healthy, organic snack for the kiddos too!  So be sure to share!



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