Resolutions Week 3, how are your goals coming?

Week 3 of my resolutions... For the list of resolutions, click here.

- Reduced sugar intake is going okay, but I am still not completely living up to my goal of only 2 desserts per week. I find it hard to do this when I make a pan of brownies, I still have this mentality that I NEED to eat my 'fair share' before the dessert disappears. Which doesn't really make sense, because if I only want 2 desserts per week, my share may only be one! I am slowly getting over this... I actually had a bowl of ice-cream last week that was only a half a cup - I would usually have had a whole bowl. So I am making some progress!

- In the past week I made a new pizza dough recipe, which I honestly think is the recipe I will be using in the future! It was delicious.

- This past week was not so great for exercising... I had weird stomach pains, but I did go for two 1.5-2 mile walks. I missed one day of exercising to meet my goal. Unfortunately this week may not be so good as we're planning on visiting my inlaws this weekend.

- I still need to find a good book to read this month.

- This week I toyed with making gift boxes. I think I have a good method for making them now.


How are your goals coming?

Tuesday Treats: Homemade Honey Truffle Chocolates

About one year ago, I made homemade chocolates for the first time, and they are so heavenly! They do take a little bit of work, but so do sugar cookies if you think about it... However you'd be more likely to give away sugar cookies than these chocolates. They are that delicious. Of course it does matter what type of ingredients you use. I used Guittard chocolate chips, mainly because they have 63% cacao chips, and because the chips were cheaper by ounce than the bars of chocolate.

When making these chocolates, I would use dark chocolate such as 63-70% cacao. You can use semisweet, but use a little less honey. I tried using milk chocolate around Christmas, and it works, but they were too sweet for me - however Hubby loved them (he is a milk chocolate lover and I'm a dark chocolate lover, I have not converted him to dark yet.) If you do use milk chocolate you will need to freeze them in order to shape them into balls and coat them with the melted chocolate. Semisweet chocolate also works, but you will want to use a bit less honey as well.

 

Homemade Truffles

Start by making the ganache. Place 1 cup chocolate chips or 6 ounces finely chopped chocolate in a bowl, set aside. In a saucepan, combine 1/4 plus 2 Tbsp whipping cream, 1-1/2 Tablespoon butter (unsalted is best), and 1 tsp honey (you can also use corn syrup or a homemade sugar syrup of 3 parts sugar and 1 part water - however the honey gives a good flavor.) 

 Stir often over low heat until cream mixture boils and becomes bubbly.

 

Pour the boiling cream mixture over the chocolate. 

Let chocolate and cream mixture sit for 5 minutes to let the chocolate melt. Do not stir during this time. To help the chocolate melt you may need to place the bowl of chocolate and cream into a hot water bath (making sure not to get water in the chocolate.)

Once the 5 minutes is over, stir until velvety smooth. Place chocolate into the fridge and let sit for 15 minutes. 

Remove from refrigerator and stir. Refrigerate for another 15 minutes.

Remove chocolate from fridge and stir again. It will be starting to get more stiff and harder to stir. Refrigerate for another 15 minutes.

Remove from fridge and stir, it should be stiff by now. At this point I used a hand beater. I have used a fork to stir at this stage before, but the hand beater works better and I think makes the chocolate more smooth once completed. 

Place back in the refrigerator, but only for 5 minutes this time.

Remove and stir again. Place for another 5 minutes in the fridge.

Remove and stir. Congratulate yourself, you're finished with the mixing! Place chocolate in the fridge for 10-15 minutes more.

Remove chocolate from fridge and form into rough balls. I use about 1/2 Tbsp to 2 tsp ganache per ball. Refrigerate for 10-15 more minutes and shape into balls. Place ganache into the freezer for about 10-20 minutes. You can refrigerate them for 15-20 minutes instead of freezing them, but I find that freezing the ganache balls makes it so they get a thicker chocolate shell and it helps them set faster.

Melt 1 cup chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) in the microwave (or a double broiler if you prefer). To melt in microwave, microwave on high for 30 seconds, stir, microwave for 30 seconds more, stir. Continue with 30 second increments until all pieces are melted, but make sure it does not get too hot to handle. You will be hand dipping chocolate and do not want to burn yourself. You also do not want the ganache to melt into the melted chocolate.

 Place a ganache ball into the melted chocolate. 

Roll around in chocolate, be sure to coat all of it. 

Place on a greased cookie sheet or on waxed paper. Waxed paper is the preferred way, but I did not realize that I only had parchment paper until I was at this step. Oops.

 

Let the chocolate set until the coating is hardened. If you want to put something on the top so you know what the flavor is, you need to do it before it is set. You will need to top them as soon as you coat each one.

This one above I completely coated in vanilla wafer crumbs. Delicious. 

These are basic honey flavored truffles. The flavor combinations you can try are endless. I am not super crazy about some combinations you can find from Chocolatiers these days... I've tried a lavender one, and I did not particularly like it. Some I have tried making are:

Pecan Cheesecake:

 Add 3 Tbsp Cheesecake cream cheese (room temperature) spread to chocolate just after steeping for 5 minutes. 

Then once coated in chocolate, roll in finely chopped pecans.

 Cheesecake:

 Add 3 Tbsp Cheesecake cream cheese spread (room temperature) to chocolate just after steeping for 5 minutes. 

Once coated in chocolate, roll in graham cracker crumbs or vanilla wafer crumbs.

Lemon:

Replace honey with sugar syrup.

Add 1/2 tsp fresh finely grated lemon zest to chocolate before steeping.

Once coated in chocolate, place a small strip of lemon peel on top.

Peanut Butter & Jam:
1/4 cup Peanut butter (omit butter), 2 Tbsp jam - I used raspberry seedless jam (omit sugar syrup/honey). Add after steeping for 5 minutes. It is easier to mix the PB and J together before adding to the cream. The Jam/Jelly will add in easier if already mixed to the PB.

Cinnamon Spice:
Add 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp red pepper to the cream.

Pumpkin Pie:
1/4 cup Pumpkin puree reduced to a thick paste, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp ginger added to the cream before scalding.

I guarantee anyone you give these to will LOVE them (with the obvious exceptions of those people who are allergic to chocolate and those poor souls who do not like chocolate.)

Enjoy!

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Menu - February 1-7

February is here, can you believe it? It feels like January just started! This past week I was not feeling too well. I had these really bad stomach cramps, and after about 4-5 days they disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared. The real reason I'm telling you this is to let you know I don't have pictures of my menu this week because it took enough energy to actually make the dishes. By the time I was finished cooking, I just wanted to sit down and not get up again for anything. I actually did not cook every day this week either, as I am sure you can relate to.

This week I'm going to have everybody leave a comment as to which recipe you want to see. If there has been a recipe from previous weeks that you want to see instead of any this week, let me know. The recipe with the most comment votes wins and will be posted on Thursday.

Menu:

Monday: Deli bought pizza

Tuesday: Eggs Benedict

Wednesday: homemade pizza with breadsticks Recipe for Pizza Crust.

Thursday: homemade pizza (leftover)

Friday: Garden Veggie Spaghetti with meatballs

Saturday: Meatloaf (made by my brother)

Sunday: Mom's Mushroom chicken

May Be Foodless Friday: On Parenthood and chocolate

I like to think I am a good parent. I think all parents like to think that they are good parents. Sometimes I do not realize how fast my son is growing. He is able to get around so much better than he use to. This hit home about 2 weeks ago when I was busy cooking and I thought my son was behaving very well and not getting into things that I would rather he didn't (like the TV cords, etc.) That should have been my first clue that something was not quite as it should be... He was hiding so not quite in my view, but when I walked over to make sure he was doing okay, this is what I found:

 

Actually I found him eating chocolate from a foil wrapper, pictures didn't get taken until the foil was taken away (that would be the motherly instinct.) I just love how much he is enjoying the chocolate left on his hand!

A new thing that he is doing is acting guilty when he knows he has done something he wasn't suppose to do. However, this time he did not act guilty AT ALL!! He was perfectly happy that he got into the chocolate, it was as if he was saying, 'I KNOW you have been keeping stuff like this from me, and it is GOOD'. He was very happy even when I was cleaning him up afterward.

 

Enjoy Life and Enjoy Chocolate!

Carrot Cake Pancakes with Vanilla Cream Sauce

This meal was absolutely delicious. Last week I seemed to see pancakes everywhere, as a result I began to crave them. So I looked at many different pancake recipes and decided on three, but last week I only made 2 of them. I am excited to make the third recipe either this week or next week. When I read about the carrot cake recipe on Multiply Delicious, I thought they sounded wonderful. However I could not bring myself to put a syrup on these pancakes. It just did not seem right. Frosting them seemed wrong - it would make it a dessert not a meal. I decided to make a sauce that would be lighter than frosting, but still give that same feel - so I made a Vanilla Cream Sauce. The pairing was wonderful! Hubby loved it, which was good because he would have preferred having regular pancakes and toying with the syrups. Hubby likes the food he is use to and tolerates my desire to change recipes.

Carrot Cake Pancakes

Original Recipe

In a medium to large bowl, combine 1-1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon cloves, 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger 

In a small bowl (I used the measuring cup that I measured the buttermilk with) combine, 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon canola oil, 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 2 large eggs

 Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Mix in 2 cups grated carrot (about 1 pound or 5 large carrots). Be sure to finely grate the carrots or the texture of the pancakes will suffer.

The color looks a little weird because of the whole wheat flour. 

In a hot skillet, over medium heat place 1/4 cup batter, cook for 3-4 minutes and flip.

 

Cook for 1-3 minutes more.  Repeat with remaining dough.

Serve pancakes while warm. Top with Vanilla Cream Sauce.

Vanilla Cream Sauce

1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
3 egg yolks
1 tsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a small to medium bowl, beat egg yolks, cornstarch and sugar. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat cream and milk until almost boiling. Slowly, pour hot mixture over yolk mixture while beating. Once all cream and milk has been added to yolks return mixture to pan and heat gently while stirring to a smooth sauce. Do not boil.* Add 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Serve over pancakes.
*You can strain the sauce at this point if desired.
-This sauce is also delicious when poured over brownies.

Enjoy!

Resolutions, how are your goals coming?

Week 2 of my resolutions... For the list of resolutions, click here.

- I actually made quite a few new recipes last week - I made Carrot cake pancakes, vanilla cream sauce, cornmeal pancakes, lemon sauce, and creamy rotini with meatballs. Luckily they were all delicious

- I exercised on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Monday I woke up with stomach pains and they have not gone away yet, which has reduced my desire to do anything really physical.

- I did not read a book in January. I could list excuses but I won't, I'll do better this month. I also realized that I'm either going to have to order books or only read the ones that our small library has.

- I spent time taking photos of frost on plants. It was fun. I like taking photos, but am still learning how.

 

I think wintertime is very beautiful. I have wanted to take pictures like this earlier, but missed last time it was foggy. 

 

How are your goals coming?

Menu - Jan 25-31

Last week I saw pancakes everywhere... seriously... maybe it is because I wanted to eat them! So Thursday and Friday we had pancakes... but I tried two different types of pancakes. I still have one more combination that I want to try, which will probably show up next week...

We've had an interesting week since we got a new addition to our family... It has been fun, but I've gotten more exercise because of it!

Here's the menu:

Monday: French Dip

Tuesday: Leftovers (An on your own dinner)

Wednesday: Macho Nachos

Thursday: Carrot Cake Pancakes with Vanilla Cream Sauce

Friday: Cornmeal Pancakes with Lemon Sauce

Saturday: Oven Roasted Chicken with baked potatoes and broccoli (Mom's dinner)

Sunday: Creamy Meatball Rotini

and Parmesan topped roasted onions

Vote for which recipe you want to see on Thursday!