Cinnamon Baked French Toast

I don't have many words for you today.

(One week left, one week left, one week left...)

But I do have a FANTASTIC recipe I tried out that you MUST make.

Perfect for a lazy, Labor Day weekend brunch.

Especially because you prep it the night before and throw it in the oven when you wake up.

It's somewhere between french toast, bread pudding and heaven.

The recipe is HERE.

Bye!  

**WAIT!  The winner of the Madhava Gift Basket is RossAnne - 

please email me at siri (dot) siriouslydelicious (dot) com**

Simple Turkey Sliders

I think I've made it clear that I haven't been in the mood to cook dinner lately.  I'll whip up a batch of cookies, no problem, but real food?  Healthy, balanced dinners?  No.  You do it for me.  

Alas, you can't do it for me, and last night Carson had to work late so I found myself slowly moving around the kitchen, trying to figure out something for the three (and a half) of us to eat.  My son suggested mini cheeseburgers, and that sounded like something I could handle.  Here's a really simple and healthy way to do that, any night of the year:

Mix some ground turkey with a little worscestershire sauce, garlic and onion powder and salt and pepper.  Form them into very mini patties (maybe 2 T worth of meat).  Heat some olive oil in a skillet.  Brown them for 4-5 minutes per side.  Add cheese (we like 2% American), let it melt.  Take whole wheat bread and cut to match size of patties.  I like to top ours with ketchup, a little mayo, a sliced pickle and some sautéed white onions.  

Simple, healthy, and Carson and I each ate 5.  What.  

Spanakopita Couscous

I still can't wrap my brain around Pinterest.  It's too much for me - image overload, too many ideas, too many GOOD ideas.  I was perfectly content before realizing the Internet is more creative than I am.  That said, I do "pin things" from time to time and I do come across some ideas I can't pass up - like this Quinoa Spanakopita I saw the other day.  However, the recipe seemed a little complex for the pea-sized brain I'm sporting these days.  So I came up with my own, simpler version using ready-in-5-minutes couscous instead.  And it was delicious.  Take that Creative Internet People!    

Saute about 1/4 cup chopped white onion and 1 clove of minced garlic in a little olive oil until slightly caramelized...   

Toast about 1/4 cup of pine nuts until golden brown...

Add 1 pkg. of thawed, chopped, frozen spinach to onions.  Sprinkle with paprika, dried oregano, salt and pepper.  Saute until spinach is warmed through...

Make couscous from a box.  Add spinach mixture, pine nuts and crumbled feta.  
Flake with fork and serve...

For my traditional Spanakopita, click here.

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Sugar + Giveaway!

Hello!  Happy Tuesday!  I'm still here!  With child!  Faking enthusiasm!  Baking cookies!

Baking very, very tasty cookies, I might add.  Recently, I was sent some wonderful products from Madhava Natural Sweeteners - products that provide alternatives to highly processed sugars and artificial sweeteners.  Pure Honey, Agave Nectar in all sorts of flavors (including vanilla and maple) and Organic Coconut Sugar.  I was particularly interested in trying out the sugar, which is described as mild and sweet in flavor, gluten free, vegan and the perfect all-natural one-to-one replacement for refined sugars.  Baking time!  More exclamation marks!

I tried it out in a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, adding some flaked sea salt on top because that makes everything better.  I substituted granulated sugar with coconut sugar but still added some organic brown sugar resulting in THE softest cookie I've ever tasted.  And because the coconut sugar is milder, it's not overly sweet.  Of course I added buckets of chocolate chips - but it's all about balance, right?  

*Update: the coconut sugar does not = coconut flavor, FYI*

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Sugar

(Makes 2 dozen)
Printable Recipe

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 cup Madhava Organic Coconut Sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups bread flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Sea salt for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 375.  In a bowl with an electric mixer, cream together butter and both sugars until smooth.  Add vanilla and eggs, and beat until combined.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt.  Add to wet ingredients and beat until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop by rounded spoonful (or I like to use an ice cream scooper) onto parchment-lined baking sheets.  Sprinkle with sea salt.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until just golden around the edges.

Now for the Giveaway!
Madhava is giving away a basket, $50 in value, that will include Organic Light, Amber and Raw Agave, Organic Coconut Sugar Shaker, Organic Raspberry, Maple and Vanilla Agave, Ambrosia Honey, Limited Edition Glass Honey Bear and Single Serve Packets of Coconut Sugar and Honey.
That's a lot of products, my friends...

Comment below to win and good luck!

Giveaway Rules:

1. You must be an official follower of this blog to win (click follow icon on the right).

2. Follow me on Twitter for an extra entry (comment below twice if you do).

3. Only open to residents of U.S. and Canada.

4. Winner will be chosen at random on Friday, August 31st, at 8am PST. 

Bump Cravings 2.0

This picture is now 2 weeks old, so use your imagination.  

As we're nearing the end, and I'm cooking less and less, I thought I'd share with you some of my pregnancy cravings this time around.  To be honest, there wasn't a ton I wouldn't eat.  With my firstborn, I was terribly turned off by chicken and fish and coffee (even decaf).  But baby girl, she ate anything and everything.  Here were the foods I craved the most...

Fruit

...mostly peaches and nectarines and bananas.  A banana every, single morning.

Orange Juice

...mainly at night, before bed, I crave a big TALL glass (image).  

Chocolate

...this should come at no surprise to you.  My blog has been saturated with baking, and rarely without chocolate.  I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I think I'm going to tell you this... sometimes I melt chocolate just to lick the spoon.  And then I become horrified with my actions and throw the bowl into the sink, covering it with dish soap as fast as I can.

Applesauce and Cottage Cheese

...this one's weird, I know.  Something about being pregnant makes me nostalgic for foods I loved as a kid, like cans of black olives and applesauce mixed with cottage cheese.  I know it doesn't look appetizing, in fact Carson makes me eat it far, far away from him.  But it's delicious, trust me.

Broccoli

...holy, moly, guacamole!  Something healthy!  At restaurants, if there's a choice of side, I've been choosing broccoli.  Steamed, with butter and salt.  Mmmm (image).

Bagels

...I would eat one every morning if I wasn't afraid of my ass becoming one.  

SO, are you pregnant?  Have you been pregnant?  What did you crave?

What's your favorite fast food burger?

The other day I drove by a Five Guys burger joint.  It was 10:37 in the morning.  I had been wanting to try this place for a long time, so the fact that most people were still waking up and heading to Starbuck's  at that hour was only a slight problem for me.  Slowly, I drove by and read the door.  It opened at 11am!  That's still pretty early to eat a burger : (

But you're only 38 weeks pregnant a few times in your life, unless you're a Duggar, so I decided to go for it.  I walked in by my lonesome.  This girl below came running towards me, and very joyfully asked me if it was my first time.  "Why yes!" I said, also very joyfully.  Gosh it was a joyful experience.  She helped me order a Little Cheeseburger (one patty) with Grilled Onions, Pickles, Ketchup and Mayo.  Simple.  Oh and a bucket of fries.  And a diet coke, sorry baby.    

By the way, not okay with listing calories on menus.  I mean why, why why why.

Anyway, 560 calories (oh plus the buckets of fries) later, I had ZERO REGRETS.  It was so damn delicious.  Tasted like it was fresh out of a local 1950's diner.  I think my favorite fast food burger yet.  Better than In and Out, better than Fat Burger (Carson said, I've never had).  So I want to know - have you had Five Guys?  What's your favorite fast food burger?  Let's discuss.  

M&M Sugar Cookies

Sometimes, I'll pass a cookie with M&M's in it, and I'll instantly feel like a kid again.  Something about the brightly colored candy was so appealing at a young age.  Remember when the green ones were poisonous or something?  Remember when they introduced the blue ones?  Remember how boring the brown ones were, and how disgusting you found your mom for eating the peanut kind?  

Oh M&M's, you're so fun to remember.  

Anyway, yesterday I found a bag of M&M's in the fridge (purchased by my MIL) and I quickly decided to throw them in a cookie.  I found this recipe for soft and chewy sugar cookies and whipped up a batch in like 5 minutes.  Seriously, it's starting to concern me how fast I'm able to bake cookies...    

Lemon Cake

I am the only idiot who decides to bake in this heat.  I should be lounging around with cucumbers over my eyeballs and cold washcloths wrapped around my ankles but instead, I'm baking.  I want brownies and cookies and cakes and I will want them for the next 19 plus or minus days.  And I will continue to bake like an idiot, because there's nothing that a cold shower can't cure.  Am I right, guys?  

I saw this recipe and whenever something is doted "the best ever" you kind of have to try it out, don't you?  This lives up to its name - perfectly moist cake with that sticky, lemony syrup coating every last bite.  The perfect pairing with coffee, if only it were cool enough to drink it hot.    

to DO...

Hi Party People.  Sorry for the lack of posting.  It's just, it's just... well you're sick of hearing it.  I'm a whale, I'm hot, I have a human being inside of me with chronic hiccups.  So here is a little to-do list, I'll be back Monday.  Have super weekends!  

Want to make this on Sunday...

Going to turn these into a big fat birthday cake today...

If I ever get around to being healthy, Quinoa Spanikopita...

Cookie Dough Pops

Are you the type of person who can make cookies without eating the dough? 

 YOU ARE?!  You need to be studied, under a microscope, by a team of monkey scientists.  I cannot even fathom making cookies without eating some (just go with the "some" part) of the dough.  In fact, I usually make myself sick during the process and can barely manage to eat a cookie when they come out of the oven ("barely" being the key word there).

Anyway, when I found this eggless cookie dough, I decided to make a batch for ice cream and for these cookie dough pops.  Because then it's totally ok to eat more than "some" of the dough, right?  I used this recipe, dipping half in melted peanut butter chips and the other half in melted chocolate chips.  

flattened balls of dough...     

inserted toothpicks...

melted peanut butter chips...

dipped...

Shark Bite Cupcakes

For shark week, if you're into that kind of thing.  Seen here.  

Eggless Cookie Dough

When your son wakes up at 5:45am and is contently watching Little Bill on the couch, you should use that time to whip up some cookie dough.  I found this eggless recipe, perfect for adding to vanilla bean ice cream, which I plan on making later.  Or, you could make these adorable truffle pops!  I plan on doing that too.  I plan lots of things around cookie dough.  

p.s. Avoid looking in the mirror at 5:45am when you're 9 months pregnant and you've been sleeping without air conditioning.  You look like one giant ball of face.  I used to have a neck, I think.    

Julia...

She would have turned 100 this Wednesday.

Let's celebrate by making some of her recipes.  

Or you do it, and then tell me about it, because I feel lazy.

My favorites...

Boeuf Bourguignon

Coq au Vin

Chocolate Mousse

(images)

Rich Chocolate Ice Cream

What do you do when it's 90 degrees outside, even at the beach, and you're 9 months pregnant?  You take lots of sweaty naps.  You drink lots of water.  You pee.  You paint rocks.  

You make chocolate ice cream.  

You eat chocolate ice cream.  Lots of it.  Until your sweat starts to resemble chocolate ice cream, at least in your pregnancy-induced dreams.  This is a weird post.  

I used this recipe because it doesn't require an ice cream maker AND it's called "the best you'll ever have" and people, ONLY make this if you are an intense lover of chocolate.  I mean it, this is RICH chocolate ice cream.  Almost the consistency of a frozen ganache.  I, of course, love it but can only eat it in small doses.  Me!  And I'm that whale that all the other whales in the school of whales make fun of because she eats so much.  Yeah.    

Zucchini Orzo Gratin

Nine months pregnant today.  Yup, no big deal, all good in the hood (pretend I didn't say that).  Hey - men - you do know we're actually pregnant for TEN MONTHS if we go full term, right?  That's the majority of a year.  There should be an award show for pregnant people.  Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, all I want to eat right now is ice cream and bagels.  It's rare that something savory catches my eye, but I found this recipe the other day and it did the trick.  I love roasting vegetables and then turning them into crispy, cheesy bites of goodness.  I totally screwed up the rice portion of the dish, though, so I used orzo instead.  Delicious.  

You try cooking rice over a hot stove when it's 90 degrees outside and you're nine months pregnant.  

My feet look like one big swollen ball of toes.  

That was neither here nor there, but you wanted to know, right?