I made these today for Claire's breakfast this week.  They are soooo yummy! 

Just a warning, trying to cook 1/4 cup quinoa in even my smallest saucepan was pretty hard.  Next time I'm just going to cook a whole cup and then freeze it for future use.  I substituted hemp milk for Greek yogurt and they turned out great.  Mommy tested, Claire approved!

Trying to get Claire to eat protein has been a challenge.  She can't drink cows milk, and none of the milk alternatives have as much protein.  She likes eggs, but can't have them.  She wouldn't eat meat until just last week, though she is doing a lot better now (knock on wood).  For breakfast this morning, I gave her a banana dipped in Sunbutter (a peanut butter alternative made out of sunflower seeds), and she really likes it, so I decided to try these muffins in hopes of sending them to daycare for breakfast.

I made a ton of modifications for her various allergies, high altitude, and the fact that I didn't have any brown sugar (I can't believe I actually had molasses in my pantry!)  They actually turned out quite good, and they got the stamp of approval at lunch today when she bypassed the little pieces I broke off for her and grabbed the whole muffin out of my hand and tried to shove it in her mouth  :-)

I wanted to make some goodies for the guys at work who had to take over my job while I was on leave, and Kevin suggested I make something for Claire's new daycare teachers.  My poor Kitchenaid mixer had about a quarter inch of dust on it.  Okay, maybe not that much, but it hasn't felt the love in a lonnnng time.  Chinese Five Spice is a mixture of cinnamon, anise seed, cloves, ginger and fennel.  With the cool weather setting in, it's a warm and tasty "Welcome to Fall" kind of cookie!  

http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/2108604-Chinese-5-Spice-Oatmeal-Cookies

My favorite popsicle flavor ever... the orange one with the vanilla ice cream in the middle... mmmm.  And in cookie form?  MMMM.  I used Ghirardelli white chocolate chips in these just to be fancy, but I bet any white chocolate chip would be just fine.  The recipe makes a lot, so it's perfect for your summer potluck or barbeque!  If you can get them there without eating them all first ;-)

I made these cookies for a friend's daughter's baby shower.  Sweet Sugar Belle had a tutorial last year that used a balloon cutter instead of a ladybug cutter.  I didn't have either of them, but re-purposing is always a good thing so I tried it out.  The knot on the balloon makes a perfect place for the antennae, and I can re-use it next year for a certain someone's birthday party :-)  I made the leaves with a heart cookie cutter and just cut the heart in half and re-shaped them a little bit.

My friend Delphine bought this "Homemade" cookie press for me, isn't it the cutest?  Perfect for including a "signature" cookie with my creations.  They were a big hit at the party (and an even bigger hit when I brought a couple left over ones home for Kevin  :-)

I had another good baking weekend (despite the fact that our blizzard turned out to be not-so-much.)  Saturday morning I made scones using the recipe and technique I learned in a class I took at Taste of Life, our local natural market here in Monument.  I made chocolate chip for breakfast and some cinnamon to put in the freezer for later.

Today I made this Cranberry Orange Quick Bread to take into work tomorrow.  Not sure if I mentioned before that my cube-mate David has given up sweets for Lent, so he hasn't been able to eat the Friday donuts or the myriad of cakes and cookies that have been appearing in our cube.  He decided that this bread was not a "sweet", as long as he didn't have the glaze on it, so I put the glaze in a squeeze bottle for people to add if they want to.  The key is to use fresh orange zest and fresh or frozen cranberries, not the dried Craisins.  It's a great breakfast treat!

http://www.food.com/recipe/cranberry-orange-quick-bread-77086

Today was a good day... it snowed on a weekend!  That doesn't seem very exciting, but for me it is!  You see, I LOVE to bake when it's snowing.  But with my luck, it seems to always snow on a day I have to go to work.  So when I looked at the weather report on Friday and saw that we were expecting snow this weekend, I stopped by the store on the way home and stocked up on butter and eggs.

First I made Chocolate Banana Bread.  Kevin likes to take bananas in his lunch, but sometimes we end up with some that don't get eaten.  So when they're looking a little less than stellar, they go into a ziplock bag in the freezer, so I am always stocked up for banana bread.

Then I decided to make some of his favorite cookies for Valentine's Day.  This recipe is from a cookbook called A Peak at the Springs from the Colorado Springs Junior League.  They were giving out samples of these cookies a couple years ago when Kevin and I went to their Kitchens With Altitude event, which is like the Parade of Homes, but with super high-end kitchens.  I'm not a fan of coconut, but you can't really taste it in this cookie. 

The recipe makes 4 dozen... I asked Kevin if he was going to take them to work and he said "No.  That would be sharing."  LOL  I guess that means he likes them.

Happy Valentine's Day, sweetie!

A couple days ago, I was browsing through my Pinterest dessert board looking for something to make for our friends' New Year's party tonight.  First I thought I would just be lazy and make the boxed brownies I have in the cabinet.  But then I thought, wellllll.... I'm on vacation, I have the time.  I need to go all out!

And go all out, I did.  With Sweetapolita's Neapolitan layer cake.  Devil's Food cake layered with chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream...  I can't believe I have to wait another 6 hours to delve into this thing, it's just not fair.

It's a little frillier than I would have liked due to my choice of icing tip, but I didn't have the one she used in the blog.  (We'll just pretend I'm practicing for a little girl's birthday party ;-)   I used my usual Devil's Food cake recipe because I was a little wary of the mayonnaise thing, but if you try her recipe, I'd be interested to know how it turned out.

Hope you have a happy and prosperous new year!  We are looking forward to new challenges ahead!

Today was a busy day in the kitchen.  I planned to make these Linzer cookies, Peppermint Candy Cane Bark for a Christmas gift, and a new chicken recipe in my pressure cooker.  When I stopped by Michaels yesterday to get the candy melts for the bark, they were all out.  So, I bought Ghirardelli chips at the grocery store instead.  That was a bad idea.  $12 worth of chocolate went in the trash because it didn't set up right and wasn't hard enough.  Lesson learned:  don't procrastinate.

The chicken dish was completed without incident, but it wasn't very interesting.  Thankfully, the Linzer cookies saved me from having a totally unsuccessful day.  I used pomegranate jelly from Whole Foods (the only place I can find it)... it goes perfectly with the almond cookies.  Now, these cookies are kind of a lot of work.  I got the cookie cutters for cheap at Homegoods last year, so I wanted to try them out, but honestly...?  If you don't want to do the work, make these instead. 

Now, please excuse me while I go get some crumbs on the sofa and try to figure out where to buy peppermint candy cane bark.