Category: Baked goods

Posted in Baked goods, Food, lunch box

Quick Mix Oatmeal Crunchies

Posted on by lmc

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A couple of months ago, I bought several boxes of instant oatmeal because I had about 10 Quaker Oatmeal coupons that I was able to stack with a great sale price, making the oatmeal nearly free! However, after using a few of the flavored oatmeal packets, my family agreed that we prefer my Hearty Crock Pot Oatmeal much better than the instant packets. Knowing that I would have to figure out a way to use up all the leftover boxes, I scoured the Internet for some recipe ideas. After experimenting with various ingredients and playing with quantities, I came up with my own recipe for Quick Mix Oatmeal Crunchies. These flavorful cookies are a snap to throw together and we absolutely love them for lunchbox treats and afternoon snacks.

Quick Mix Oatmeal Crunchies

6 packets of flavored instant oatmeal, any variety you prefer (I use a mixture of cinnamon, raisin and apple packets.)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 tsp milk
1 egg, beaten

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the flour and oatmeal packets; set aside. Combine remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add in the flour and oatmeal mixture; combine thoroughly.
Roll dough into 1 1/2″ balls and drop on to lightly greased cookie sheets, about 2″ apart. Pat the dough ball to flatten.
Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool briefly on cookie sheet, then finish cooling on wire rack.
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies

Posted in Baked goods, Desserts, Food, lunch box

Candy-Coated Triple Chocolate Brownies

Posted on by lmc

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Late study nights and early morning swim practices have been a household routine these last several weeks. As the school year winds down, it seems that my children have been bombarded with advanced placement tests, college standardized tests, and final exams. Thinking about our busy schedule this afternoon, I realized that I haven’t baked a fun dessert in a while. Hoping to whip up something delightful, my Candy-Coated Triple Chocolate Brownie Recipe was the first thing that came to mind. A wonderfully sweet treat, sure to put a smile on anyone’s face!

Candy-Coated Triple Chocolate Brownies

2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 can prepared milk chocolate frosting
1/2 cup candy coated chocolates

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 baking pan. In a large bowl, mix together first 4 ingredients. In a second bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, salt, and chocolate chips; mix into egg mixture, just until moistened. Pour batter into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until set brownie edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool for 5-7 minutes before spreading prepared frosting over brownies. Sprinkle with coated chocolate candies. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Posted in Baked goods, breakfast, Brunch, Food

Triple Berry Cobbler

Posted on by lmc

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When frozen berries are on sale, I buy several bags and throw them in my freezer for smoothies, pancakes, spreads, and cobblers. Yesterday, I found a bag of frozen fruit in my freezer and I decided it was time to make my favorite Triple Berry Cobbler for dessert. This recipe bakes up more like a snack cake than a cobbler because the berries are evenly distributed throughout the moist, flavorful batter. I wrap individual slices in plastic wrap and send them off in lunch boxes so my family can enjoy the cobbler during their lunch hour. A simply delicious treat!

Triple Berry Cobbler

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
2 cups frozen triple berry fruit mix , no sugar added, partially thawed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9″ round baking dish or cake pan. In a large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients. Stir in butter, milk, vanilla and egg until smooth. Fold in triple berry fruit mix. Pour into prepared pan. Bake in 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through.

Posted in appetizers/snacks, Baked goods, breakfast, Brunch, Food, lunch box

Meagan’s Crunchy Homemade Granola

Posted on by lmc

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If you’ve ever bought granola in the grocery store, you know that it can be quite expensive and it may be filled with lots of added fat and sugar. The beauty of making your own granola is that you can add anything you like so that it is tailor made for you and your family. Here is a recipe for the granola that my family loves. Meagan makes it on Sunday evening and packs it into a large airtight container so that it can be sprinkled on top of yogurt, fruit, or to be eaten with milk as a granola cereal. Once you’ve made your own granola, it’s hard to go back to the pre-packaged stuff on the grocery store shelf.

Meagan’s Crunchy Homemade Granola

6 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup chopped nuts

Mix rolled oats and brown sugar together. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, honey and vanilla. Pour over dry mixture and stir to coat. Add in chopped nuts, and sunflower seeds. (Don’t add raisins until after baking.)
Spread granola on a lightly greased or sprayed cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees, for about 30 minutes. Stir frequently (every 5-10 minutes) to ensure even baking. Add raisins when finished baking. Cool and break into small pieces. Store in airtight container.

Posted in Baked goods, Baking, Bread, Food

Mary’s Irish Scones

Posted on by lmc

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My family has been making these scones for as long as I can remember. As a young girl, I used to watch my mom make batches of these buttermilk scones without having to use a recipe. She would mix everything up by hand, then swiftly kneed and cut triangular shapes from the rolled dough. During the Lenten season, Mom would make several batches as we would have scones and tea for Friday dinner.
These days, I regularly make scones for my family. I, too, can make them without the recipe but I use a biscuit cutter to uniformly cut the soft dough into circular shapes. We often top the baked scones with homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam.(Although, J and M prefer to top them with gobs of peanut butter.) After removing a batch from the oven, it isn’t long before they’ve all been eaten and everyone is asking for more.

Mary’s Irish Scones

3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cut margarine into flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, with pastry blender until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in raisins and buttermilk until dough leaves the side of the bowl. Add more milk or flour as needed. Turn dough out onto floured surface. Kneed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Roll dough into a round about 1/4 to 1/2″ thick. With a biscuit cutter, cut scones and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

Posted in Baked goods, Brunch, Food

The Perfect Peach Cake Recipe

Posted on by lmc

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When my children were young, we always enjoyed heading out to local orchards to pick the season’s fruit. In the late spring, we would pick strawberries at Johnson’s Farms. In the early summer, we would pick blueberries from Blue Sky Farms, and in the fall, we would pack up the car and drive across the border to Michigan to pick apples and peaches. I have great memories of us packing up the car with a picnic lunch, making sure we had plenty of bug spray and sunscreen slathered on our faces and necks, and comfortable shoes so that we could pick a long while. I laugh as I think about finding my children plopped on the ground gobbling up the fruit in their half filled buckets, while I continued to pick as many berries as I could before the sun grew too hot. After we carried home our bushels of fruit, I would scour my cookbooks to try new recipes with our freshly picked crop. I found this recipe after picking a load of beautiful, white, Michigan peaches several years ago. Mixing the ingredients together takes minutes and the result is phenomenal. I have even used frozen or canned peaches when I am out of the fresh stuff. Either way, this cake is absolutely delicious!

The Perfect Peach Cake Recipe

3 eggs, beaten
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups fresh peaches – peeled, pitted, and sliced
½ cup pecans, chopped

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13×9” baking pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine all wet ingredients; mix thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients and mix well by hand. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes or until done. Let cool for 20 minutes and ice cake with my recipe for Powdered Sugar Glaze. Ohhhh, so yummy!

Posted in Baked goods, breakfast, Brunch, Food, lunch box

Our Best Banana Nut Bread

Posted on by lmc

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I have several recipes for banana bread in my stash of cookbooks and various magazine clippings but this is my family’s favorite. Adding wheat germ, nuts, and a few over-ripe bananas makes this quick bread loaf moist and flavorful. I often throw sweet, over-ripe bananas in the freezer so that I will have them on hand when I want to make a quick loaf. I thaw them on the counter or defrost them briefly in the microwave before mashing them into the batter. For an added health benefit, I add wheat germ to the recipe, giving a bit of crunch to the top of the loaf.

Our Best Banana Nut Bread Recipe

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup margarine, softened
2 eggs
3-4 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup water
1 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/4 cup wheat germ

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9x5x3″ loaf pan. In a large bowl, cream sugar and margarine; stir in eggs until blended. Add bananas and water; mix well. Stir in remaining ingredients except wheat germ and mix just until moistened. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle batter with wheat germ; gently press into the batter. Bake loaf for 55-60 minutes; cool for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Place on wire rack to continue cooling.

Posted in Baked goods, Food, frostings

Springtime Carrot Cake

Posted on by lmc

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When spring arrives, I am thrilled when I can open all of the windows to let a mild fresh breeze flow through the house. Now is the time to use up all of the left over shredded vegetables kept at the ready for the long season of winter baking. Carrots, zucchini, and squash and other veggies are all good candidates that can be thrown into spice cakes, quick breads, and muffins.
This weekend, I hoped to use up all of our remaining stash. Meagan had shredded and packaged loads of carrots last fall and there were a few left over packages that would be great for this recipe. Springtime Carrot Cake is a moist, sweet, and spice-filled cake that tastes even better the second day. For this cake, I take frozen shredded carrots out of the freezer and let them thaw. Having carrots prepped ahead is a real time saver. Shredded apples can be substituted for part (or all) of the carrots for this cake. Either way…it will be absolutely delicious. Use my Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting recipe to top this gem of a cake with a swirl of extra creamy sweetness!

Springtime Carrot Cake

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups shredded carrots
1 cup course chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13×9″ baking pan. Mix sugar, oil, and eggs until well blended. Stir in dry ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes. Stir in carrots and nuts. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 35-45 minutes. Frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting if desired.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package (8oz) cream cheese
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon good quality vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Beat first three ingredients in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Carefully add powdered sugar, one cup at a time; slowly mixing after each addition, until smooth and of a spreading consistency.

Posted in Baked goods, Food

Curley Power Bars

Posted on by lmc

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As I have mentioned in past posts, my children are swimmers and they are constantly eating! After buying my share of expensive power bars at the grocery store over the years, I decided to try to come up with a recipe that would replace the expensive bars found at the local market. This is the recipe that worked out best. These bars are quite delicious and surprisingly satisfying. If I had a nickle for every time I have shared this recipe with fellow swimmer parents, I’d be rich! 🙂

Curley Power Bars

1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey or reduced sugar (1/3) corn syrup
1/3 cup margarine
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup flaked coconut (optional)
1/2 cup raisins or dates(optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix first 5 ingredients until smooth and well blended.
Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Press into a greased 13×9″ baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. After taking the pan out of the oven, cover with aluminum foil until completely cooled. This helps to keep the bars chewy.
Note: I often sprinkle a little non-fat dry milk powder or protein powder into the peanut butter mixture to add nutrients and protein. Cut into bars when cool and wrap individually in plastic wrap. Pop one into a lunch box or a sports bag to give the kids a burst of nutritious energy.

Posted in Baked goods, Food, lunch box

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Posted on by lmc

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Every year, around the holidays, I bake this loaf for friends and co-workers. I take out my ceramic bowls, baking supplies and loaf pans and turn out about 15 loaves in a matter of hours. After I let the loaves cool, I wrap them in foil and Christmas wrapping paper, tie them up with Christmas ribbons and send them off to various friends and co-workers. This yummy loaf is quick and easy to make yet looks like it takes hours. This recipe yields three gift jars that can be used to make one loaf each.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

1 pkg. white cake mix
2 pkg. rapid-rise yeast
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3 16 oz. jars

Filling

1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine the first four ingredients and evenly distribute them into the three jars. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon and distribute into three plastic baggies. To each jar, attach a baggie and a copy of the following directions.

To make Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Set aside sugar-cinnamon baggie.
In a large bowl, combine bread mix with 1 cup of warm water.
Stir until well combined.
Stir in one more cup of flour and kneed dough until smooth.
Return dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 45 minutes.
Punch down dough and roll into an 8” X 12” rectangle.
Sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon –sugar mixture.
Roll up the dough and place seam side down in greased loaf pan.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 15-20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.