Grilled Apple, Bacon & Cheddar Sandwich

Here is another attempt to use up some of the mass amount of apples I have. It only got rid of one, but these sandwiches are SO GOOD. Grown-up grilled cheese perfection. With a side of Sprouts Organic Baby Kale mix to make it healthy…kind of. 

There's really not a science to putting these together. And you just use as much bread, cheese, bacon, & apple slices as you want for however many sandwiches you're making. But here's what I used for two:

• 1 small gala apple, cored & thinly sliced
• 4 slices hickory smoked bacon (like real bacon)
• Sprouts white sandwich bread (I usually get their wheat, but they were out last time I needed bread. I really like Sprouts bread. It tastes way less processed. No artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives.)
• Velata cheddar cheese
• Butter (If you're one of those people that use mayo when making a grilled cheese, consider yourself judged. Butter is better.)

Now, there are plenty of ways you can go about putting everything together. This would be my recommendation:

• Cook your bacon in a fry pan as directed on the package. Use a paper towel to soak up the majority of the grease (or pour it in a jar). But make sure to leave a bit of grease in the pan--it will add a lot of flavor to you sandwich.
• I spread butter on the "outside" part of the bread slices.
• I slathered Velata on the "inside" part of the bread slices, so that there would be a layer of cheese, then bacon, then apple, then another layer of cheese. 
• Grill it up until it's warmed through & your cheese is melty. 

Things at work have been crazy lately. Respiratory season has definitely hit, and so my floor is having to take the overflow of sick kids in addition to our surgical kids. I'm totally good with like blood & gore, CSF, chest tubes, and JP drains…but I. hate. mucus. so. much. It was also challenging working Monday night, and then staying over on Tuesday until noon for education stuff. I was awake for almost 24 hours. Took a 3 hour nap & went to Zumba. And then crashed for another 10 1/2. I will (probably) go back tomorrow night & then I've got Friday & Saturday before a 4-day break. Happy Birthday to me. I'm so looking forward to Mexico in March… Hope everyone else's week is wonderful!

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

I love any reason to make cake, and today is the mother's birthday! Score! There were several recipes to choose from, but the winner was this Chocolate Pumpkin Cake with chocolate ganache and pumpkin whipped cream from i am baker. By the way, i am baker is one of my favorites for sweets. Great stuff. I'm generally against cake without frosting. I don't see the point. However, this cake is definitely the exception. The cake itself is perfectly moist. The pumpkin whipped cream is spectacular. And how can you go wrong with ganache? Deliciousness.  

I didn't really change anything from i am baker's recipe. My cake is just round instead of square. Mostly, well, all because I don't have a square plate…and a square cake on a round plate would really mess with my OCD. Here it is:

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

For the cake:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 TBSP vanilla

4 eggs

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups AP flour

2/3 cup cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

• Preheat the oven to 350*F and prepare two round or square baking pans.
• In a small bowl, mix together the pumpkin and buttermilk.
• In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, powder, soda and salt.
• In a mixer, beat the sugars, butter, and vanilla until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. 
• Alternating, add the flour mixture and pumpkin mixture to the sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix for about a minute on low, until fully combined.
• Divide the batter evenly among your pans. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Let cool in the pans about 10 minutes before inverting one onto your plate or cake stand, and the other onto a cooling rack or whatever you want to use!

For the Ganache:

12 oz Velata milk chocolate

6 oz heavy whipping cream

• Place your chocolate in a heat-safe bowl.
• In a small sauce pan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate.
• Mix together until smooth. Let it sit for just a few minutes to thicken.
• Pour over the top of each layer of cake. Spread to the edges &/or let it run over the edges. Let it sit for at least an hour.

For the Pumpkin Whipped Cream:

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1-2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup pureed pumpkin

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp all spice

• In a small bowl, combine pumpkin and spices. Mix together.
• In a mixer, beat the whipping cream on medium-high until soft peaks are formed. Add 1 cup of the powdered sugar (1/2 cup at a time). Mix until combined.
• Fold the pumpkin mixture into the whipped cream.
• Beat in the remaining powdered sugar (1/4 cup at a time) until the desired texture is reached. I ended up using a total of 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar. 
• Let it chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

When you go to assemble your cake, I recommend using placing straws through the whipped cream and bottom cake layer to support the top layer. It'll keep the top layer from squishing out all the whipped cream!

Enjoy!

{Flourless} Chocolate Chunk Blondies with Sea Salt

I got in a little baking amongst everything else going on today! I had found this "healthy" sweet treat recipe on Pinterest a while back. I'm so glad I finally tried it! Plus, it was a good excuse to break in my recent Target find:

Pretty great, right? These blondies are flour-free, egg-free, refined sugar-free...but not taste-free. The big secret ingredient? Chick peas. Mixed up with honey and natural peanut butter. ANYTHING is better with peanut butter. (Fine, I realize that may not be completely true...but mostly.) I broke apart some Velata discs for my chocolate chunks. Great choice. I promise there is a difference in the taste between regular chocolate chips/chunks and Velata. It's kind of epic. 

Being me, I under-baked these babies. So mine turned out very soft and gooey. Yum. I couldn't tell you what they might be like if you actually bake them for an appropriate amount of time...but I'd imagine they still taste good! Enjoy!

Flourless Chocolate Chunk Blondies with Sea Salt

Inspired by: Ambitious Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 can (15 oz) chick peas, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1/3 cup honey

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup broken Velata premium chocolate pieces 

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350*F. Prepare an 8x8 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
• Combine everything except the chocolate into a food processor (really, a Ninja or Vitamix is best). Process until the batter is smooth. Fold in the chocolate chunks. 
• Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle a little sea salt on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean out of the center and the edges are slightly browned. 

Strawberries & Cream Bars

Well... Today has been, I guess, interesting. That's probably the simplest way to put it.  So instead of getting the story of my time in London, you're getting a recipe for these sweet treats. Naturally, I found these bars on Pinterest. They make for a great summertime dessert! They're pretty delicious. Four layers of sweet goodness. They don't last long. 

The recipe came from Lil' Luna. It's a sugar cookie base topped with a cream cheese & Velata white chocolate mixture, a strawberry mixture, and whipped topping. I think it'd be fun to try it with a dark chocolatey-brownie base sometime...yum. 

Strawberries & Cream Bars

Ingredients for the sugar cookie layer:

1/3 cup shortening

1/3 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Ingredients for the cream layer:

8 oz cream cheese, softened 

6 oz bag Velata premium white chocolate, melted

Ingredients for the strawberry layer:

1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

2 TBSP cornstarch 

8 oz whipped topping 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan.
• Cream together the shortening, butter, and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla, and almond until well mixed.
• Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to the creamed mixture until well blended. 
• Spread into the bottom of your prepared pan. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Let cool.
• Melt the white chocolate as directed on the bag. Mix with cream cheese until well blended. Spread over cooled cookie layer and pop it in the fridge.
• In a small sauce pan, mix together sugar and cornstarch. Add chopped strawberries and water. Heat on medium-high until it comes to a boil. Once it's boiling, remove from heat and let it cool for 10 minutes. Pour over cream cheese/white chocolate layer and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. 
• Top with your whipped topping of choice. I didn't use the whole tub. Just enough to make it look good. Keep it in the fridge until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Vanilla Sheet Cake with Strawberry White Chocolate Frosting

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! I certainly enjoyed the day, and am so thankful for all those who protect our nation's independence. The weather yesterday morning was quite perfect for the LibertyFest parade in downtown Edmond. Then, I headed to a friend's house for an incredibly delicious lunch...featuring ribs. I felt like I'd just had Thanksgiving dinner, so I took a nap. Before I knew it, it was time for party #2. A big cookout, sparklers, fireworks...good times. 




















I made a vanilla Texas sheet cake with strawberry white chocolate frosting to take to the cookout. It turned out superb. I adapted the recipe from an almond sheet cake that I've made. The cake is so moist and wonderful. The frosting is pretty tasty too. The brother has requested another one to celebrate dorm life when he heads off to college in August. Ha. 


Vanilla Sheet Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup water
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a jelly roll pan.
• In a small saucepan, add the water and butter. Bring to a boil.
• In a large mixing bowl, add the flour and sugar.
• Pour the boiling water and butter mixture over the flour and sugar mixture. Beat well.
• Add the baking soda, vanilla, sour cream, and eggs. Mix again.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Strawberry White Chocolate Frosting

• Click here to get the recipe for the white chocolate frosting. Just make a half recipe or so.
• Slice some fresh strawberries until you have about a cup. Place in a food processor and pulse until the pieces are small enough. 
• Add the strawberries to the white chocolate frosting and mix well.
• Spread over cooled cake.

Enjoy! I recommend chilling the cake. But it's good either way. 

Pretzel Cookie Bars with Caramel and Chocolate Drizzle

Some friends of mine got together for a cookout yesterday evening out at Arcadia. It was a rare, beautiful summer evening. The weather was just perfect. I ended up throwing these bars together because I had everything I needed, and it was quick. Yesterday was pretty crazy, so time was kind of an issue. Like I got these in the oven and left the brother in charge...and he now knows that you have to actually take things out of the oven to stop the baking process...not just turn the oven off. Needless to say, the edges got rather dry (still pretty good dunked in milk). Thankfully, the center was still super tasty and great. All the bars disappeared, so I'm guessing people liked them!


Pretzel Cookie Bars

Ingredients:
1 cup butter flavored shortening (cringe! I know. Use butter instead. I didn't have time for it to soften.)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup broken pretzel pieces (more if you want some on top too!)
15 Velata milk chocolate pieces 
Caramel sauce (see recipe below)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a 9x13 baking dish.
• In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugars. Add the eggs, beating between each one. Add the vanilla; beat. 
• In a medium bowl, combine the soda, salt and flour; whisk together. Add the dry mixture in with the wet mixture. Mix it all up. Add the pretzel bits. Mix.
• Place the batter into the prepared dish, using your hands to even it out. Bake until the top is golden brown. Let cool.
• Melt your Velata in a microwave-safe dish for 30 seconds. Use a spoon to drizzle it over the bars.
• Using a different spoon, drizzle the caramel over the bars.
• You may break apart more pretzels and sprinkle the pieces on top, if you wish.

Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/8 cup half and half

1 TBSP butter

Pinch of salt

1 1/4 tsp vanilla

Directions:

• In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine brown sugar, half and half, butter, and salt. Cook while gently whisking for about 4 minutes, until it gets thicker. Add vanilla and cook another minute to thicken further.
• Remove from heat. Cool slightly and pour into a glass jar.
• Let the sauce cool more before drizzling it on the bars!

White Chocolate Raspberry Cake

The brother turns 18 tomorrow! I am so old. We ended up celebrating today because I'll be OTR tomorrow. We went to The Garage for lunch. Which, if you're in Edmond and want a burger, is definitely the place to go. I love their turkey burgers. And sweet potato fries. I was feeling adventurous today, so I got the new "Sticky Fingers" burger, which has peanut butter, bacon, colby jack, and sweet jalapeño relish. I wasn't sure about how it would taste, but I LOVE peanut butter...so I went for it. Great decision. New favorite. 

He told me a few months ago that he wanted some kind of white cake with a raspberry filling and white chocolate. And I made fun of him for wanting a girly cake. He has a thing for girly cakes. For one of his previous birthdays he wanted a legit strawberry cake, so I made Bobby's Lighter Simply Delicious Strawberry Cake. Great cake. Also very pink. So, I laughed because I had planned to do some kind of manly Dr. Pepper cake, but no, he wanted a white cake with raspberries. Bless his heart. I have been trying to decide how I would pull this off for months. Literally, I live for birthdays so I can make cake. My Pinterest feed had been full with white almond sour cream (WASC) cake, which involves taking a white cake box mix and adding stuff to make it taste like wedding cake. But I'm in this anti-box-mix phase because I like to avoid additives and preservatives and artificial whatever. I ended up finding a recipe for homemade white cake mix from Chickens In The Road. So, I took that and added the extra stuff for the WASC wedding cake, except I changed a couple things...don't tell...he liked it. What I came up with: three delectable layers of white cake, separated by raspberry laced white chocolate, smothered with a perfectly sweet and fluffy white chocolate buttercream frosting, and topped with fresh tart raspberries.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cake

For the Cake:
3 3/4 cups plus 2 TBSP cake flour
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup non-fat dried milk (like the kind by Organic Valley)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups water
2 TBSP coconut oil, melted but not hot
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup Fage Total Greek Yogurt
4 large egg whites

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare 3 8" round cake pans.
• In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix.
• Add the remaining ingredients and mix on medium for about 2 minutes.
• Pour into greased and floured cake pans.
• Tap the pans gently on the counter to bring the air bubbles to the top.
• Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Let cool in pans for about 10 minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely.

For the Filling:
Seedless raspberry jam (from your local natural food store)
3-6 oz Velata premium white chocolate
1-2 heaping spoonfuls Fage Total Greek Yogurt

• In a small bowl, microwave the Velata in 30 second intervals until melted. Cool slightly.
• Combine yogurt with the Velata and mix.
• When the cake has cooled, spoon raspberry jam on the top of the bottom layer and spread evenly. Top with half the Velata/yogurt mixture. 
• Place the middle cake layer on top, securing with toothpicks, and repeat.
• Place the top cake layer on and secure with toothpicks.

For the Frosting:
6 oz Velata premium white chocolate
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 plus cups of powdered sugar
1/4 cup Fage Total Greek Yogurt 
1/4 tsp vanilla
A pinch of salt

• Melt the Velata in the microwave (directions on pouch); set aside.
• Cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla and salt.
• Add in the chocolate and beat.
• Fold in the yogurt, and then beat the frosting on high for about 5 minutes. It should be nice and fluffy!
• Do a thin layer of dirty frosting over the entire cake. Place the cake in the fridge until the frosting hardens.
• Use the rest of the frosting to make it pretty!
• Top with fresh raspberries!

Oreo Balls

Oreo Balls.  A classic.  I have made these every year that I've been doing a holiday bake-a-thon.  They are so simple, yet so delicious.  They are always a hit!  Plus, if you make them small enough, they're really like Oreo vitamins so the calories don't count. 

Oreo Balls
Ingredients:

• 1 package of Oreos, crushed (I recommend using a Ninja food processor...turns the cookies into dust in seconds)

• 1 package (8 oz) of cream cheese, room temperature

• 12-16 oz of chocolate, melted (I recommend Velata...yum!)  

Directions:
Mix together the crushed Oreos and cream cheese until well blended.  Put them in the fridge for a little bit, so it's easier to roll the dough into balls.  To make the balls, I use a teaspoon to scoop the dough out of the bowl with.  Then, I just roll it up.  After that's all done, I recommend putting the balls of dough back in the fridge for a little while to harden up again.  Melt your chocolate (be careful not to burn).  I recommend putting your melted chocolate into your Velata warmer to keep it melted and perfect for dipping (or else you get stuck having to re-heat your chocolate as it cools).  Drop the balls of dough into the chocolate and coat.  Use a couple of forks to pick them up and remove the excess chocolate.  Place on a baking sheet covered in waxed paper and let cool.  Enjoy!   
 

S'mores Cookie Bars

The 4th of July was a fun-filled day with the Liberty Fest parade, going to the movies, worship, and going to some friends' for food & fireworks...Oh, and baking these puppies!  I needed a treat to take to the festivities Wednesday night, and I came across this.  While there are many cute, and probably tasty, red, white, and blue treats on Pinterest.  I went with this one!  I figure s'mores are pretty American, right?  I also had graham crackers and marshmallows left over from a Velata party.  These turned out to be scrumptious.  Not that I was surprised.  I was, however, a little surprised by how rich these were.  You really only need one, if that.  So good:

Get the recipe at Leenee's Sweetest Delights! (FYI I used actual marshmallows instead of the cream and it turned out perfectly yummy...although there's not that lovely layer that you see in her picture)