Jan 2, 2012 Posted by Jennifer on Jan 2, 2012 in a day in the life of me!, holiday foods, kid friendly | 6 comments

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! It’s been a great Holiday – I’ve had 10 days off in a row, so I cannot complain about that

I also slept in every day, I did run a few times (running into my friend Jacky while we were both running in our neighborhood. I had Christmas with my husbands side of the family on Christmas Day and yesterday was spent having a 2nd Christmas at my Mom’s since she was out of town visiting my brother.

I got a little more organized, I spent time reading a new book “The Kitchen Counter Cooking School” which is a great read, we got a new to me (used) car – which I am VERY Happy about. Here is my new car:

We took the kids to the eye Dr. and Mark and Paul’s prescription changed (Mark’s doubled!) and Claire was complaining she couldn’t see close – so she got new glasses too! We went to America’s Best – and if you don’t get all the “extras” it is 2 pairs for $69.95 WITH the eye exam – so it’s a great deal. We are waiting to pick those up – but they are super excited about getting new glasses

So here are some pictures from my Holiday:

So – all in all a great Holiday. And I am one of those people who makes New Year’s Resolutions – so here are mine:

Enter a cooking contest sometime this year
Learn to can – I really want to make homemade sweet and spicy pickles this year
I have an idea for a cookbook – so I’m going to start working on that
Run a half marathon – since I’m signed up I have to do it! April 28th 2012. Don’t forget to donate HERE
And I’m not putting down lose weight, my plan is to continue eating great and exercising and because of that the weight will come off, but I’m not going to count points, or calories, just focus on healthy foods and correct portions!

SO what’s your New Years Resolutions???

Dec 27, 2011 Posted by Jennifer on Dec 27, 2011 in breakfast, dessert, holiday foods, kid friendly, recipe make over | 4 comments

Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Happy Holidays everyone! My site was down for a few days but everything is back up and fine. I hope you had a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

I am off of work until January 3rd – so I am SUPER excited to have so much time off in a row. I don’t have any specific plans, but I know there will be some time spent in my kitchen!

I made these cinnamon rolls the night of Christmas Eve so that all I had to do was pop these in the oven while the kids were opening their gifts. The best part about this recipe, is it’s so easy – no yeast is required, you don’t have to wait for the dough to rise an hour before you roll it out. And the dough is super soft and pliable so it’s a great dough to work with, even if it’s your first time working with it.

This recipe is based on a Cooks Illustrated Recipe. It called for a cream cheese frosting and I just did a simple glaze. I DID figure out the calories, even though it is the Holidays, I’m trying not to go crazy and so far it’s working!

Each Cinnamon Roll without the glaze is:

247 calories
6 grams of fat
43 carbs
4 grams protein
1 gram of fiber

If you add 1/2 a tablespoon of the glaze – add 25 calories.

All in all, I didn’t think it was that bad – considering I analyzed Paula Deens recipe for Cinnamon rolls and hers were 478 calories per cinnamon roll with 22 grams of fat!

So – this recipe makes 10 cinnamon rolls (I split the prepared rolls between 2 pans)

Ingredients:

Rolls:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for the counter
2 Tablespoons white granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Cinnamon Filling:

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Generously coat a 9 inch round cake pan and a wire cooling rack with vegetable oil spray.

2. Make the filling: combine together the brown sugar, 1/4 cup granulated white sugar, cinnamon, salt, and the 1 Tablespoon melted butter until the mixture resembles wet sand.

3. Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour; 2 Tablespoons white granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk and 2 Tablespoons of the melted butter together.

5. Stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until absorbed, about 30 seconds. Turn the dough out onto a generously floured counter and knead until smooth, about 1 minute.

7. Press the dough out into a 9 by 12 inch rectangle using your hands. (I used a rolling pin)

8. Sprinkle the dough evenly with the filling, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Press the filling firmly into the dough.

9. Loosen the dough from the counter using a bench scraper or a metal spatula.

10. Starting at a long side, roll the dough, pressing lightly, to form a tight log.

11. Pinch the seam to seal. Slice the dough into 10 even pieces.

12. Place the slices in the greased pan. (I used Pam Cooking Spray)

13. Bake until the edges are golden brown, 20-25 minutes.

14. Use a knife to loosen the buns from the pan. Flip the buns out onto the prepared wire rack, then turn buns upright and let cool for 10 minutes before adding the icing. Prepare the icing while rolls are cooling.

For the icing, I just mixed 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon of milk. If it’s too thick add a touch more milk to get the right consistency. (You will have leftover icing).

*I lessened the amount of butter by 4 tablespoons. The original recipe called for brushing the dough with 2 tablespoons melted butter before putting the filling in and then adding another 2 tablespoons of butter over the top before baking. I didn’t really think this was necessary – so I omitted that part.

These turned out great! So tender and gooey. After making these, I just covered the pan with saran wrap and placed in the refrigerator overnight. As the rolls cooked, they spread out covering the whole pan.

Enjoy your week if you are off! I did overindulge on Christmas, but was back on as of yesterday and I ran 3 miles yesterday with my hubby on the local high school track. We were both wearing shorts and t-shirts the day after Christmas! It was 45 degrees and sunny out – no signs of winter yet here in Chicago – but I am fine with that!

Dec 16, 2011 Posted by Jennifer on Dec 16, 2011 in cookies, dessert, holiday foods, kid friendly, party food! | 6 comments

Homemade kit kat bars

It’s that time of year when I will once again be making my homemade kit kat bars. I think this is at least the 10th year in a row I’ve made them.

The recipe actually came off of the back of Almond Bark and I just made it on a whim, and when we all tasted it, we were surprised that they tasted JUST like kit kat bars!!

The chocolate I use is called Almond Bark. Its a chocolate made for candy making. You need to use this because the chocolate dries within about a minute. If you use chocolate chips, it doesn’t set right. I’ve been lucky sometimes to find Almond Bark at Walmart for $1.00 a block, but even at stores like Jewel or Dominick’s in the Chicago area, it’s around $2.00-$2.50. It is sold by the chocolate chips.

All you need is 3 ingredients. Graham crackers, peanut butter and the almond bark chocolate.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl at 20 second increments until it’s all melted.

Separate 1 sheet of graham cracker into the 4 pieces. ONE TIP – don’t use cheepo graham crackers – stick to Keebler because other brands I’ve used don’t separate right and you end up with a lot of broken sheets of graham crackers!

Take 2 graham crackers and put peanut butter in between and make a sandwich. Then dip it in the bowl of melted chocolate. Using a fork, make sure the whole thing is coated and lift up and shake off any excess chocolate. Let dry on wax paper or parchment paper, they will be dry fast!

If the bowl of chocolate starts to dry out, just re-heat it in the microwave for about 20 seconds so it’s all smooth again.

These are so good! Great to bring to a party – or just make for your family.

Do you have a special recipe you make every Christmas? I’d love to hear it!

Jul 4, 2011 Posted by Jennifer on Jul 4, 2011 in a day in the life of me!, Dinner Idea, general ideas, holiday foods, The 100 Day workout challenge | 9 comments

Great grill out/5k/Day 29/Orzo spinach blue cheese cold salad

I’ll start with our great dinner on Saturday night. I was thinking of something I haven’t made in a long time and thought about kabobs! You can make them super healthy with lots of veggies and that’s what I did.

I pre-cooked some baby potatoes, chicken, different peppers and onions – fantastic. The only seasoning I put on was salt and pepper, paprika and a squeeze of fresh lemon.

Grill 5 minutes per side and they are done.

On the side I made my orzo/spinach/feta salad but subbed blue cheese instead.

1 box of orzo – cook according to directions, drain and run cold water over it to cool it off.

Once the orzo is cool, put it in a big bowl. Add about 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, half the juice of a fresh lemon, lemon zest, fresh spinach torn into bite size pieces, salt and pepper and about 1/2 a cup (or more!) of blue cheese. Stir together and chill in the fridge before serving.

Awesome dinner – great way to start the weekend!

So Sunday, it was gorgeous out, so we got a slip and slide so Mark and Claire could have some fun. We just relaxed all afternoon outside – it was great. The only thing is it was approaching 4:00 p.m. and I still hadn’t done any exercise yet… I was thinking about doing another DVD when my husband suggested going to the high school track and run. Great idea! I haven’t even attempted running in months, but it was a great way to spend time outside and a great workout to boot!

This is our high school track – it’s super deluxe – there was only a few other people there so it was like we had the whole thing to ourselves!

Every lap I finished, I’d put a rock in a pile. I wanted to do 12 laps which would be a 5k – guess I can’t count, when I uploaded the picture I did 13 laps!

Since its been forever since I’ve run, I walked the short part of the track and jogged the long side of the track the whole way. I was SUPER happy to have completed it. I think my husband lapped me about 6 times though!

So my new goal is at the end of 60 days I want to run a 10k. I think I can do that! Although for that fun, I’ll go to the bike path near my house where there are mile markers and SHADE!

Have a great 4th of July – we are headed to my nieces Gelato Shop Black Dog Gelato right now! Wahoo!

Apr 23, 2011 Posted by Jennifer on Apr 23, 2011 in dessert, eggs, holiday foods, kid friendly | 8 comments

Rice Krispy bars

I actually re-vamped this recipe from a Vegetarian Times magazine. Their recipe had dried fruit in it, which I didn’t have so I substituted mini chocolate chips instead. I followed the rest of their recipe, however, even after freezing for 30 minutes, they never really formed like bars, so the kids just spooned some out into a bowl and ate it with a spoon instead – either way, they tasted great!

7 cups rice krispy cereal
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/4 cup wheat germ
mini chocolate chips

In a big bowl add everything except the cereal and melt in the microwave for about 1 minute. Add the cereal and coat all the cereal with the peanut butter/honey mixture.

In a 8×8 or 9×13 dish, flatten out and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Freeze for 30 minutes. After that you are supposed to be able to cut them into bars, however that really didn’t happen. I thought about adding more honey, but decided they still tasted good, so I left it alone.

So, it’s been a busy week for me. I’ve started some spring cleaning going through my closet and getting rid of some old clothes. Why did I have not one but two denim shirts and why in the hell did I have a denim jacket?? I bagged up 3 garbage bags of clothes that I will never wear again – it felt great doing that! Now I have so much more space in my closet.

What are your Easter plans? I bought a huge ass ham today – only the 2nd time I’ve cooked a ham, so I am excited by that. I’ve got eggs in a big pot to decorate tonight. I’m using a new technique which promises easy removal of the shell. You bring them to a boil, then turn off the heat and let sit for 16 minutes. Once they are done, cool in an ice bath until they come to room temperature. I hope that works! I hate it when I have to fight to get the shell off.

And, there are signs of spring in Chicago. A few of my tulips are now up. It’s been sunny and 60 today, so much better than gloomy rain and 40′s around here!

Have a great Easter – I’ll leave you with my favorite Easter cartoon