Mini Banana Mango Bread Loaves

We love baking goodies and giving them out for the holidays. Our loved ones and neighbors are usually the ones on the receiving end of my baking addiction but give baked goods to anyone! These cute little mini loaves make perfect homemade gifts and are freezer friendly! Make a few batches now and thaw just before Christmas so they are ready to give! If you are stingy (which I can’t blame you after tasting these), enjoy them with a cup of coffee or tea. It is has just the right amount of sweetness and a nice, soft, texture. Makes 4 mini loaves or 1 regular sized loaf.

1 ½ cups GF all purpose flour

¼ cup arrowroot starch
¼ cup sweet sorghum flour
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 cup coconut sugar, stevia or regular sugar
2 eggs
3 medium bananas, mashed
½ cup mango puree (Puree a small mango, adding a little water as necessary)
1 Tbsp olive oil or coconut oil
½ cup almond milk
¼ cup chopped walnuts

• In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. Blend until well combined and form a small well in the middle.
• In a small bowl, combine eggs, bananas, mango, oil and milk until well blended. Pour banana mixture into well in flour.
• Gently mix on low speed until just combined, batter will be lumpy. Fold in walnuts.
• Spoon batter into greased loaf pans. Bake at 350°F for about 30-35 minutes for mini pans or 45-50 minutes for regular pans. Let cool about 15 minutes.
• To freeze: bake according to instructions and let bread loaves cool for an hour. Wrap loaves in plastic wrap and then in foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Remove from freezer and allow to thaw for a few hours.

Chocolate Peppermint Layer Cake

So I tried to think of a witty name for this masterpiece… but nothing came to me. It was until I tasted it that I decided it was so similar to a cup of hot cocoa stirred with a candy cane. It was so moist and airy with a deep chocolate taste topped with marshmellow crème frosting and crushed candy cakes… oh perfection! Don’t be scared of the four layers – if I can do it, you can do it! Here’s a suggestion though, if you are going to have a cake with several layers, use a separate cake pan for each layer. For example, this cake is four layers, so use four cake pans and divide batter into four sections. I only had two cake pans so I just make two layers and cut each layer in half. It was difficult to keep the layers from falling apart after cutting, but I managed (just would have been better if I’d had more pans). This cake also freezes well. Just bake the layers, freeze, thaw before serving and frost as normal. It’s perfect for those holiday parties when you want a fancy looking dessert without a lot of work.

1 box of GF chocolate cake mix (I like Namaste brand but any kind should work)

3 eggs
1 ½ cup water
½ cup applesauce
¼ cup crushed peppermints or candy canes
1 recipe of frosting (I prefer marshmellow crème but vanilla sugar frosting would work also)
1 cup crushed peppermints or candy canes

• In a large mixing bowl, blend together cake mix, eggs, water and applesauce until well blended, about 2 minutes.
• Pour batter into greased 9” round baking pans. Bake at 375°F for about 25-30 minutes or until cooked through.
• Let cool for about 30 minutes on a wire rack and cut cakes in half if necessary to make 4 layers.
• Make frosting according to instructions.
• On a serving dish, place the bottom layer of cake. Add ¼ of the frosting mixture and sprinkle crushed mint over frosting. Repeat with remaining layers.
• Refrigerate any leftovers. This serves about 12.

White Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Cookies

I love cranberries! In the coming weeks, you will probably see a lot of recipes featuring this tart little berry. I’ve posted a few already, Cranberry Orange Spread, Turkey Cranberry Sandwich, etc. These little gems are delicious – not to mention gluten free and low carb! This makes about 2.5 dozen cookies.

 

1 cup of coconut flour

¼ cup of tapioca starch
½ cup of soy flour
½ cup of white sorghum flour
½ cup of almond flour
1 large egg
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp salt
½ cup milk (I used almond)
½ tsp vanilla
¼ cup butter (I used soy)
1 cup white chocolate chips (Trader Joe’s has some healthy versions out there)
1 cup fresh cranberries, finely chopped
½ cup walnuts, chopped

• In a large mixing bowl, combine all flours, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt. Mix until well combined. Add in egg, milk, vanilla and butter.
• Blend until you get a crumbly mixture. Slowly stir in cranberries, chocolate chips and walnuts.
• Using a cookie scoop, place cookie balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Bake at 350°F for 10-15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.

Menu Plan Week of 12/01/13-12/07/13

Good Morning All! Happy December! My "Menu Plan Monday" post last week seemed to do better than posting on Saturday so for now, we'll stick with it! Make sure you check out OrgJunkie.com for a big list of other menu planners and tips! The menu plans for this week can be found here. Another busy week for us but we love this time of year so no complaints here! Have a wonderful first week of December!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7
SUNDAY	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
cinnamon	breakfast	egg	english muffin	egg	oatmeal	breakfast
rolls	casserole	toast	sandwich	toast	banana	bake
fruit	fruit	banana	orange	fruit	apple	fruit
tea/milk	tea/milk	tea/milk	tea/milk	tea/milk	tea/milk	tea/milk
Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
turkey	pear/pomegr	sprout	salad	lettuce	chicken	rice
sandwiches	salad	sandwich	with fruit	wraps	salad	bowl
trailmix	crackers	veggies	crackers	crackers	crackers	salad
water	water	water	water	water	water	water
Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner
pizza	spagetti sq	honey bbq	leftover	veggie	KIDS	leftovers
bites	au gratin	chicken	chicken	bean	CHOICE	or quick
salad	green beans	asparagus	or squash	nachos	tacos	dinner
water	water	water	water	water	water	water
Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack
cheese stick	celery	celery/PB	carrots	apple	smoothie	smoothie
broccoli	carrots	apple	hummus	celery	carrots	trailmix
cookies	apple/dip	cookies	milk shake	cookies	fruit pizza	fruit

Pumpkin Cranberry Dump Cake

If you’ve never had a “dump” cake, you are missing out. This simple and quick technique delivers a unique tasting dessert that you can customize to your desires. All you have to do is figure out your base and “dump” a box of dry cake mix on top (hence the name, dump). I traditionally see it made with cherry pie type filling or pineapple. I wanted a winter version of the dish so I decided to add in pumpkin and cranberry with a cinnamon walnut topping. It’s a little more work than a typical dump cake but it’s so good and so easy to make!

1 can pumpkin puree

1 cup fresh cranberries
¼ cup coconut sugar
¼ cup apple juice
1 banana
½ cup almond milk
1 pkg of GF vanilla cake mix (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
¼ cup butter, coconut oil or shortening, cut into very small chunks
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

• In a small saucepan, combine cranberries, coconut sugar and apple juice. Cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat until berries start to pop and soften.
• In a small blender (I used my Magic Bullet), puree banana with almond milk. In a large bowl, stir together banana mixture with pumpkin.
• Fold in cranberry mixture and carefully swirl together.
• Pour pumpkin mixture into the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking pan.
• Pour dry cake mix evenly over the pumpkin until covered. Place the small chunks of butter or shortening over the cake mixture.
• Sprinkle over cinnamon and walnuts.
• Bake at 375°F for about 40 minutes or until the topping starts to brown. Let cool about 15 minutes before serving.

Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup

Sometimes it is hard trying to figure out what to do with all those leftovers. If you are anything like my husband, you do not want to waste any food, ever! I can’t say that this is a bad thing. I used to be very wasteful but thanks to him I am not anymore. After our lovely turkey dinner, we had some leftover “crappy” sections. I call them crappy because I don’t like them. It was a leg and a thigh – all dark meat. Don’t get me wrong, it has a lot of flavor, I just don’t like that portion of the bird. Anyway – he was out hunting one evening and I knew he would need something hot to warm him up when he got home. I decided to make a turkey soup using those leftover pieces. It worked. I was able to use up all of the meat, flavor the soup and cut the meat into chunks large enough I could pick out what I didn’t want to eat. Everyone wins – plus we got rid of the leftovers! This makes about 6-8 servings.

1large cooked turkey leg (or other part of bird, bone in)

1 large cooked turkey thigh (or other part of bird, bone in)
4 cups of water or vegetable broth
½ cup chopped celery
1 ear of corn
¼ cup diced onion
½ cup chopped carrots
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp garlic salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp parsley
8 oz of GF pasta (I used rice penne pasta)

•  In a large stockpot, sauté celery, carrots and onion for about 10 minutes or until soft. Add in water or broth, turkey pieces, corn, salts, pepper, sage and parsley. B
• ring to boil and cook for about 20 minutes. Remove corn and turkey from pot. Cut corn from the cob and return to pot.
• Cut pieces of the turkey meat into small chunks and return to pot. Add in pasta and return to boiling.
• Cooking time will vary at this point, depending on your type of pasta. Just watch the soup closely until pasta is finished cooking. 

Snowy Hand Print Jars

If you aren’t one for Black Friday shopping – like me –try this little craft with your kiddies instead! I love, love, love homemade gifts from my children. We have so much fun making them and they really are something you can treasure forever. At least one holiday a year, we try to make gifts for loved ones (usually it’s every holiday!). I had a TON of extra canning jars leftover from this summer and decided to get some use out of them. These are pretty easy to make and fun for the kids.

Canning jars, clean and dry (pick whatever size you like or need depending on children’s ages)

Frosted Spray Paint (you can find this at any hardware store or even Wal-Mart)
Thin, plastic covered wire (you can find it at hardware stores or craft stores)
Yarn, string, burlap, etc (something to tie a bow around the top of the jar)
Acrylic paint (whatever colors you like)
Paint Pens
Tea light candles (regular or flameless)

• First, you need to spray paint your jars. You really only need to paint the outside and let it dry but you could try the inside too if you’d like.
• After your jars have tried, put a little bit of acrylic paint onto a paper plate. Paint the child’s hand and have them gently place it on the jar (or you could let them have at it and paint whatever they want!). Let the handprints dry.
• Paint a friendly message onto the jar if desired using the paint pens and let that dry.
• Take the wire and wrap it around the threads on top of the jar, making a loop for the handle and securing it within the wire wrap. It doesn’t have to be real secure unless you are actually wanting to hang the jars using the handle.
• Tie a bow using your type of string around the handle or the top of the jar. Put in a lit tea light candle and enjoy the subtle glow!