I have wanted to do this forever – it is infinitely easier than it seems and it seems crazy easy. No brainer and the wee ones are happy, happy, happy. I came across this recipe via Easie Peasie and tried it later the same day. Success!

Just mix 3 teaspoons of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup corn starch and 2 cups of water in a saucepan. Cook it until it starts to thicken and then separate it into jars and add food coloring! So simple! Wee One #3 watched me make it, and helped get the paper and brushes and easel ready. By the time we were set up to paint, it had cooled and she painted for almost an hour – creating an alarming number of masterpieces. Clean up was easy too!

I love how no matter the time of year, no matter the holiday – there is a candy corn for it. Of course I was aware of the original orange, yellow and white candy corn of Halloween, though honestly, I never really liked it. Two years ago I needed some for a recipe and my husband, the saint that he is, came home with like three times the amount I asked for so the kids snacked on it for weeks till it was gone. Then a couple of months later he was back at the bulk store buying some rando ingredient like arrowroot flour or chia seeds or something and he texts me that there is red, white and green Christmasy candy corn. I was way too excited about this discovery but had a lot of purposeful Christmas baking to do and none of it included candy corn, so I totally forgot about it. Months later, he found himself searching for candy that I could use as bunny ears for the Easter cake pops I was making (the post on that to come in time for Easter this year) and came across, yes – pastel candy corn in various colors with yellow and white (pink, green, blue and purple). He brought home way too much of it, I used a lot of them as bunny ears and way too many of them as late night snacks. Theeeen, just a couple of weeks ago, I was looking for pink and red M&Ms to make Valentiney cookies and in the bulk bin right beside them was…wait for it…Valentiney candy corn. Red, pink and white.

I bought two scoops with absolutely no plan for them at all, because I’m a total rebel like that.

Eventually I decided that poking them into a tray of blondies during their last few minutes in the oven was an excellent place for them to go. I was totally right, these babies are serious good. They’re good without the candy corn too but I think the colors make the tray look more festive, yes?

The original recipe was found over at Simple Recipes.

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt
1 cup of all-purpose flour

It comes together as simply as you’d expect it to!

First whisk the melted butter and the brown sugar, then whisk in the egg and vanilla.
Now just whisk in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt) and spread it into a greased brownie pan. Bake for about 20-25 minutes at 350F! I took mine out at the 20 minute mark to poke the candy corn in and then popped them back in for another 10 minutes.

Just like with a lot of kids, peanut butter and jam is a real weakness with mine. A weakness I try my best to exploit – to their own advantage, of course! As with all the recipes in Jessica Seinfield’s book, there is a hidden vegetable snuck into these muffins. Some of the recipes in this book seem like an easy sell (like these brownies with spinach and carrots) but turn out to have a telltale veggie taste that totally turns off anyone with a vegetable radar – aka anyone under the age of 10. However, this recipe disguises a healthy dose of carrots with peanut butter and jam. Genius! If you use sugar free, low sugar, or otherwise healthier jam than a run of the mill glucose fructose garbage, it’s even healthier!

So what’s so amazing about carrots? We know veggies are good for us but the why is helpful to know. We think of carrots and we think two things usually, they’re good for our eyesight and they’re full of beta carotene. Both of those things are true but there’s so much more to it than that! There’s a 10 year study out of the Netherlands that was recently released that explains that carrots are actually amazing at reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Like, really significantly reducing the risk and all you need is about 3/4 of a cup of carrots a day. Also, in addition to the beta carotene we are always talking about carrots also have polyacetylenes, which are power houses against colon cancer. Protect your butts, people! Vitamin A is in serious abundance in just 1 cup of carrots (over 407%).

I served these with homemade hot chocolate and milk to the kids after school one day with no mention at all of any added veggies and they gobbled them up while going over their homework to-dos – and asked for seconds!

Peanut Butter and Jam Muffins – from Deceptively Delicious (p. 63)

1/2 natural peanut butter
1/2 cup carrot puree
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter/margarine
1/2 cup non fat plain yogurt
1 large egg white
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup low sugar strawberry, blueberry or grape jam

Essentially, you just beat the peanut butter with the carrot puree and then with the brown sugar and the butter. Then stir in the yogurt and the egg white and you’re ready for the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Line your muffin tin with paper cups and divide the batter between 12. Now drop a spoonful of jam over each one. Bake at 350F for about 20-25 minutes. So good with a nice boost of beta carotene!

Reeces Pieces are one of those things I cannot possibly just have one handful of. I can usually restrain myself if they are in the room, but if I cave and have one, I will likely just keep noming on them until they are totally gone. I know people who are not so into the combining of peanut butter with other already delicious things (like chocolate), and I’ve decided they are totally insane. Peanut butter and chocolate? How does that pose a problem!?

Anyhoo, moving along. I made these a few months ago – actually a little longer ago than that even, but the recipe is good and the pictures make me want to whip up another batch and go hide in the laundry room to eat them. Ahem.

The peanut butter cookie recipe is straight from the much loved (and much falling apart and really super sad looking) Good Housekeeping cookbook I’ve had since just after I got married. For those of you playing along at home, that was approximately eleventy billion years ago. When you’d normally toss in a cup of chocolate chips at the end of the recipe, I tossed in a cup of Reeces Pieces instead. Mmmmm.

Oddly, I was texting with my cousin Jenn while I made them and she had made these cookies the day before, that’s a little weird, yes? Or just proof that we are connected on some weird culinary level? You know because Reeces Pieces chocolate chip cookies are such culinarily advanced treats, dontcha know?!

Via Good Housekeeping Cook Book

1 1/14 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup Reeces Pieces

It’s the simplest thing in the world. Well, very close to it anyway. Mix sugars with butter, add the egg and vanilla. Mix the rest in a separate bowl and then tip that bowl into the wet ingredients. Voila!	When it’s all mixed up and you have peanut butter cookie dough, fold in the Reeces Pieces with a wooden spoon (your mixer paddle may crush them) and spoon them onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. About a tablespoon each.
Bake them for 15-20 minutes at 350F.

I’ve been wanting to institute Super Cute Saturday around here for so long I was a little surprised I had only actually posted it once before! The HORROR!!

These pictures were taken last year and it’s fair to say that my current makeup looks are inching closer to drag queen territory. This look is really sweet and simple though and it’s a lot more subtle for women who don’t routinely wear fake lashes to their kids school – you don’t do that? What am I supposed to do? Take them off before heading over and put them back on again when I get home?!

The photos themselves are meant for inspiration but I’m including product links as well.

First, I swept Urban Decay’s Midnight Cowboy Rides Again shadow all over my lid and almost all the way up to my brow bone.

The crease and part of the lid is Urban Decay’s Half Baked shadow.

The lid itself is Too Faced’s Galaxy Glam shadow in Magenta Moon, blended with the UD half baked.

My cheeks are Tarte’s cheek stain cream blush in dollface, lips are Urban Decay lipstick in Wicked (it’s my fave color and they don’t carry it anymore!), eyeliner and brows are Lorac in brown and the mascara is just Maybelline’s Great Lash .

I honestly think this took maybe 10 minutes. Pretty much anything is possible with a good blending brush!!

I’m participating in Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

I have been very good this week and stuck with the baby legwarmers without touching the Flying Arrows socks at all. I have been spending a lot of my evenings doing research for something that’s sort of a really big deal but that I shouldn’t talk about until I have more details on it. Vague enough for you?!? That’s what has kept me from knitting, that and the very same something has me going on less errands lately so I’m not knitting in the car as much either!

This pattern (Socks for Mary Janes) really is alarmingly cute and would work so well on a little girl in Mary Janes. The little girl I’m making the legwarmer version of these for will look equally adorable running around her house in her little skirts and sneakers.

They are sooooo close to being done, just 4 repeats of 4 rows left and then I will ship them the 800 miles to her house.

This started out as a Work in Progress Wednesday but between that last sentence and this one, I finished them and had Wee One #3 model them for me.

These socks were knit in Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK in Paintbox Pink, on 3mm DPNs. What a cute name! The band just says #160, with a name that cute they really should make it obvious.

I really, really liked using this yarn. I bought two balls assuming I’d be using most of it on these little cuties, but I still have a few yards left on the first ball! When this little photoshoot was over, Miss Wee One #3 freaked out and didn’t want the socks I had knit her anymore she wanted to keep these legwarmers. When I asked why, she said, in her painfully cute not quite 3 year old voice ‘beeeeecuz they so peddy’. My heart melted, but I cast on for my friend Rachel’s kid, and so Rachel’s kid shall rock these. I’ll make another pair for my own kid this weekend.

More love for Mama Pea today. One day I may make something from her cookbook and hate it, but so far everything is amazing. I have made more of her recipes than I’ve blogged about because duh, there’s a heap ton of deliciousness happening around here. Eventually, you’ll see it all and read my words of ass kissing wisdom.

Anyhoo.

You love chocolate, yes? Of course you do. Almonds? Natch. Cherries? Well, unless you’re my sister then you are probably also down with cherries (I swear sometimes her weird I love this I hate that makes it tricky to be an amazing kitchen goddess/sister but I try to work around it). I will not give you the recipe, because as I mentioned before, I am encouraging you to buy the book (and no, no one is asking me to push this book I just think it’s worth pushing). The very title of the recipe gives away the gist of the recipe, but there is more to it than you’d assume. Also, the commentary before each recipe is worth the book alone.

This is my new go-to for a post-workout chocolate craving. Well for any time of the day chocolate craving. Does anyone else work out really excessively and then want to wreck all their hard work with chocolate?! No. You’re a liar. A dirty liar. This smoothie is great for those times because it calms the chocolate beast enough to get on with your day aaaaand they’re mega healthy for you!

So so so good! I like to make it a little thicker than a smoothie and eat it like ice cream.

There are times when you want to come out of the kitchen with a decadent several-layer cake to a room full of friends. Or when you want to serve homemade ice cream on the back deck to your family after a barbecue. Then there are times when you want to make something so simple and yet addicting and amazing that it borderlines on ‘trashy’. I mean, maybe any recipe that includes mini marshmallows can be classified as trashy. I’m not smack talking, I’m a serious fan of trashy food. Dips for fruit that include marshmallows? Yes please. Ice Salad (aka Jello set with ice cream)? Um, totally. Tater Tot Casserole, the king of all trashy food? Give it here! So when I call this trashy, that’s not a bad thing – just honest. More honesty for you? You’ll eat as many as the kids will (if not more) and then you’ll make another batch.

So, just as you would do for usual Rice Krispie squares, melt the butter and marshmallows together.	Once the marshmallow is pretty much melted, add the peanut butter.
Mix! Mix! Mix!	Now add the cinnamon and honey, use less if you don’t want them so ‘cinnamony’.
Now you have a magnificent peanut butter marshmallow mound of goo.	Pour that goo over your Rice Krispies!
Mmmmm, peanut buttery goooooo.	Mix it quickly!
I used my tablespoon to shape these balls. If you have a mini ice cream scoop it works even better. Whatever you use, you’re going for a uniform shape.
You could stop there – but no. Melt about a cup of semi sweet chocolate (either in the microwave or over a double boiler) with a little vegetable oil and dip the balls in it.	If you have small children in the kitchen, they will likely suggest you add candy to the tops.
If you’re really feeling it, use candy melts instead of chocolate! You can use whatever color or combo of colors you want!	Purple is sort of a big deal around here.

Phone calls and notes in the mail can convey love and thoughtfulness over a long distance, but I have found that nothing says ‘we love you’ like homemade treats in the mail. 🙂

These treats were made for the brother of one of my best friends. Her brother and my husband have also become friends over the years and those are the connections that make me happiest to see happen. They’re totally random and stuff like that can’t be forced so when it happens on it’s own, I just love to witness it. He has always been a fan of my cooking, baking, and slightly odder kitchen experiments – so this year I’m sending him a random treat in the mail once a month. January’s treat was Homemade Twix Bites.

This is one of those times when you go all out when you say you’re making something from scratch. If I had said I was making these from scratch and used store bought caramels I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night (I’ll let you decide if I’m kidding or not). Essentially, you make the caramel first, then you measure it out and find that you need to make another batch of caramel because you’re half a cup short. Ahem. Theeeen you make the shortbread base, make the caramel layer (with the scratch caramel of course) and pour it over the base. Once it’s set you cut out bar shapes, dip them in chocolate and you’re done. HOWEVER, that last step sounds a lot simpler and prettier than it really is. When making cake pops, or chocolate covered nuts or berries, it’s a lot easier to handle because you’re dealing with much smaller pieces to dip in chocolate. Also, those things don’t melt when they come into contact with liquid chocolate. The caramel, even chilled in the fridge for hoooours was totally running and falling apart on me when I tried to add the chocolate layer. So I took a moment, made a martini and wished I had bought the chocolate bar molds when I bought the wee chocolate square molds – and then I thought oh yeah those wee chocolate square molds!! I cut my bars into bites and tah dah!! Much, much easier and way prettier looking too.

To make the caramel put all the ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Just dump it all in.
Mix it up.	Microwave it for 6 minutes, taking it out every 2 minutes to stir it.
Let it set.	Now start the cookie base! Preheat the oven to 300F, and combine the icing sugar with the butter and the vanilla extract.
Add the flour and mix till incorporated.	Mix! Mix! Mix! Spread it in a 9″ x 13″ (ish) pan and bake for about 35 minutes.
Mmmm fresh caramel….	Mmmm fresh shortbread….
While the cookie base is cooling, it’s time to make the caramel layer. Pour 2 cups of caramel into a saucepan.	Add 3 tablespoons of heavy cream to the caramel and cook.
This sheet of shortbread is about to be seriously upgraded.	Cover it evenly in caramel sauce.
Now it needs to be popped into the fridge for AT LEAST a couple of hours, leaving it overnight will save you much heartache.	The chocolate layer is just the standard, melt the chocolate in a double boiler (or in a heat safe bowl over a pan of simmering water) and add the vegetable shortening.
This is where it got tricky. It is near impossible to ‘dip the bars in chocolate’ without the caramel sliding off. So I put down a layer of chocolate for the bottoms.	Then I slathered the chocolate over top. My husband ate these ones. They’re good but ugly.
See? Yummy but ugly. So very ugly.
This is when I had that stroke of genius I mentioned earlier. LE DUH. So I filled the mold with chocolate & put a bite sized version on top.	I covered those babies with more chocolate and voila!
Just as yummy and now even prettier. I recognize they will not be winning any presentation prizes, but that’s alright.
Since they were mailed, I wanted their little caramel souls to be protected so I wrapped them up in tin foil.	Individually!
In case you were wondering, yes he loved them! I’m sure he felt the love that was my husband & I messing around in the kitchen at 3am making these chocolate treats!

I figured since my last post involved cheesecake, I’d sway to the healthy side this afternoon. There are people, like my dear friend Gill, who will eat something she isn’t super fond of in the name of health. She’s totally my hero. Then there are other dear friends, like my sister Nikki, who wont eat something unless it’s yummy. She’s my hero for the other side of my brain. The side that wants to eat Oreos for breakfast and then move on to Nutella pancakes for brunch. Mmmmmm. Anyhoo, I fall somewhere in between. Don’t get me wrong, I have been known to fall off the wagon and be found in my pantry mid-sugar coma covered in cinnamon hearts and candy corn. Mmmmm. I’m striving to strike a balance now where I eat as healthy as I can for most of the week and allow myself a balls-out weekend. Yes, I’m calling that balance!

This recipe should defo be classified as a weekday recipe. It’s not bad but I choose to eat it because of the grapefruit and the wheat germ – not because it’s an amazing breakfast treat. Also, instead of just telling you ‘grapefruit and wheat germ are healthy enough for me to force them on myself’, I’ll tell you why and also why I made these vegan. No, I’m not vegan – just to clarify. I wanted to get all specific and call them ‘Low Cal Wheat Germ Grapefruit Vegan Pancakes’, but I think ‘Wheat Germ Grapefruit Pancakes’ will do.

Aside from the obvious serious dose of vitamin C (you probably already know that C is amazing for your immune system and that it can help with inflammatory issues like asthma, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis – and of course that it helps you to fight and prevent colds). Grapefruits also contain lycopene (that’s where the pink or red color comes from), and to get all brainy on you, lycopene is a carotenoid phytonutrient which essentially means it helps fight free radicals – and those little bastards are totally evil. Super random facts about grapefruits; ranked among the highest fruits in antioxidant activity, lowers cholesterol, prevents kidney stones, protects against colon cancer, and helps repair DNA.

I didn’t think I had much to say about wheat germ till I got going. Ha! It’s full of thiamin, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and zinc. So what? Well, thiamin helps your body convert carbs to energy and it’s way important for your heart, muscles, and nervous system. Do you love how scientific I am? It’s like, way important, man. Folate helps your body make new cells which is important for everyone but uber important for pregnant women. I had no idea what magnesium was good for until I looked it up for this post. Yeah, I’m a real authority on health people! Kidding! I just read a lot. Anyhoo, so magnesium is actually responsible for the contraction and relaxation of muscles! Interesting! It also controls certain enzymes in the body (that sounds mysterious, doesn’t it?) and the production of protein. Phosphorus I already knew is in every cell of your body! Isn’t that neat?! It’s mostly for your bones and teeth though. Iron as we all pretty well know is important, our bodies need it to make hemoglobin and myoglobin (found in red blood cells and muscles, respectively). They help carry and store oxygen in your body. And zinc well, over time I’ve read dirty things about zinc and your man, but taking my head out of the gutter, zinc actually helps your immune system fight off bacteria and viruses. Not just help your man feel like a porn star. Who said that?!

So why did I made it vegan? The original recipe called for both almond milk and skim milk, but dairy isn’t kind to my tummy and maybe not to yours either so I just went with a little more almond milk instead of both. Also, I replaced the eggs with ground flax seeds and water because even though one or two eggs in a single recipe isn’t going to mess with my cholesterol levels, I try to replace them when I’m not going to notice they’re gone so I can enjoy them with total abandon when the recipe I’m using needs them. So in pancakes I can leave them out, but I’m still going to make a tray of popovers on Sunday morning that call for 3 extra large eggs and happily munch away!

Moving on to the actual recipe. It’s been heavily modified from it’s original source so I’m calling it my own!

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 cups almond milk
1/4 cup vegan butter (ie Earth Balance)
2 medium grapefruits
2 tablespoons flax meal
6 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

First mix the water and flax meal in a bowl and let it sit to thicken up a bit.	Whisk together the whole wheat flour, wheat germ and baking powder in a big bowl.
Add the almond milk, vanilla extract and flax meal with water. Mix that up till combined.	Now attack your grapefruits. Squeeze about 1/4 cup of juice into the mixing bowl.
Chop up the grapefruits into wee pieces and add them, along with a bit more of the juice, to the mixing bowl.	Whisk! Whisk! Whisk!
Grapefruit aftermath.
First one!!
This recipe made 13 pancakes that were made from 1/4 cup of the batter.
123 calories each!