The Nifty Foodie

Amy

Pumpkin Blondies

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Pumpkin Blondies

If you read my Twitter, you might already know that I’m on a major diet. A 10 week weight loss challenge for my local YMCA to be exact. I slowly freaked out inside when they took my body fat % and weight…those numbers weren’t so pretty. However, I guess I should see this as more weight to lose and alas, a good chance to win this challenge. The prizes are pretty phenomenal, too. The hard thing? It’s 10 weeks….until December 16th.

I’m pretty hardcore when it comes to competition. Just ask my family…I get pretty extreme just to get that “#1” feeling. So, I’m back to the gym 4-5x/week and back on Weight Watchers too to kick this challenge’s booty!

Before you panic about my recipes being ALL “skinny” again, I still intend to do my cold weather baking, because my urges to bake and create things are far too strong lately. The difference this year is that a lot of my husband’s coworkers (and maybe mine) will be getting to enjoy these treats moreso than I.

These blondies, actually, were made for my family. I went to visit them this past weekend and had a blast! I thought it would be nice to bring these blondies, and with a family of 6 in the house, the pan of these were almost GONE Sunday. I’d say the recipe was pretty darn successful, no? I did try a couple (small) squares of these, and yes, yes, yes! Majorly yummy and potentially majorly addictive. It took a lot for me to hold back. 🙂

Pumpkin Blondies
Source: Martha Stewart (adaptation found on Smells Like Home)

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp. salt
  • 16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (or brown sugar)
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with foil.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt.  Stir together and set aside.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined.  Mix in the pumpkin puree.  With the mixer on low speed add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.  Fold in the white chocolate and 1 cup butterscotch chips with a rubber spatula.
  3. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan and sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of butterscotch chips over the top of the batter.  Bake until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs, about 35-40 minutes.  Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely before cutting.
  4. To serve, lift the cake from the pan using the foil and transfer to a cutting board.  Peel off the foil and using a sharp knife, cut into 24 squares.

Betcha didn’t know…

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I haven’t gotten a blog award in a long time, but Kaelin over at The Plaid Scottie decided to pass on the torch to me. 🙂

By the way, Kaelin is a WAY talented sewer/quilter and she’s in NOLA. I love it when I find a fellow Louisiana blogger! 🙂

I also need to pass this to 5 bloggers. So, here goes:

His Birdie’s Nest
She Likes Ruffles, He Likes Truffles
Bien Living
Marissa Makes
This Casita

Since the torch has been passed, that means I get to share with y’all 7 things you probably don’t know about me. 🙂

  1. I’m left-handed. The only thing I do with my right hand (over my left) is move a computer mouse. I had to learn that way in school, and I just sort of adjusted to it. I understand what it’s like to be in art class, only to find that the left side of my left hand is full of marker smudges at the end of class. I also slant my paper at almost 90 degrees clockwise when I write. 🙂
  2. I used to be petrified of dogs. Yes, this dog obsessed person was PETRIFIED. When I was really young (like barely out of diapers young), apparently my neighbor had a bunch of pitbulls unleashed (and we believe this neighbor was not a very good dog owner) and one of the dogs ran towards me. What did I do? I ran and fell. The dog was literally over my body when my Dad shoo’ed him away. Scary, for real. My parents’ and neighbors helped me get over my fear very slowly. I’m talking in my teenage years….it took me a long time to ever approach a dog again. Now, I love ’em to pieces. 🙂
  3. I was a big time major-changer in college. I started in pre-med. I wanted to be a pediatrician…I love kids. However, Biology 1201 did NOT love me. I flunked it, and decided to change over to education. After two years of doing that, I really didn’t see myself staying up late, writing lesson plans and watching as school systems throw a huge emphasis on standardized test scores. It wasn’t for me. I went back to a passion I had when I was 8. Weather. Side note: When I was 8 years old, I had a journal of highs/lows/weather conditions. I did this everyday for almost a year. I loved weather, especially cloud types. I actually took pre-reqs to get into broadcast meteorology at Mississippi State. After Calculus 2, I was done with the math. It didn’t come naturally to me, like it did to most engineering students. That B in Calculus 2 was the hardest B I ever worked for in my life…I just couldn’t do it anymore. So, I leaned back on the degree that I was working towards (Geography Sciences)  and put more emphasis on cartography in the end.
  4. I used to love to read. When my family moved closer to the public library, I was SO happy! Then, I found out there is more than a 2 book limit on rentals, so I rented all the time. I tried to read 1 every 3 days, and was SUPER competitive during Summer reading months. Honors English in high school killed that love. I don’t like being forced to read, and I haven’t touched a novel in years because of it. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get back into reading either. 🙁
  5. I’m not much of a traveler. I’ve only been out of the country once, and that was on a tour of Ontario in 8th grade. The farthest west I’ve been is Salt Lake City, Utah. I’d love to travel, but the cheap person in me always tells myself that the money is better spent elsewhere.
  6. I am very, very shy in real life. If you met me, you wouldn’t think I’m the same person at all. It takes a lot for me to introduce myself to someone, and sometimes I don’t even do it. I actually went to a local Twitter GTG, and introduced myself to 2-3 people. There were a LOT more people there though. However, once I warm up, I’m a chatterbox like my mother.
  7. I don’t keep up with current events very much. When it comes to politics, I don’t really care either. I know I’m an adult and should care about these things, but the news is rarely uplifting, so I really try to avoid it.  

Are any of y’all surprised with these? 😛

Dogs Gone Wild!

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My dog is crazy. Absolutely crazy. She eats things she shouldn’t eat all the time, which constantly worries me. One time, I came home to find her dog name ID and her rabies tag all chewed up and the ring that held them on her collar was missing. I dialed the vet in tears. I thought I killed my pup. How could I leave ANYTHING in her crate with her? I felt so dumb and scared of what the vet would say: surgery.

To my relief, he told me to just feed her pumpkin. It will help with her upcoming upset tummy and make things, uh, come out faster (sorry, TMI, I know.) This worried me, though. In my experience, our puppy just did not like fruits or veggies at all. Much to my surprise though, she went absolutely bananas for the puree. She lapped up that pumpkin like no other. It was then that I realized that I might have created a pumpkin monster.

Pumpkin PB Treats

My dog now prefers her meals with a small spoonful of pumpkin. If she doesn’t get pumpkin, she whines and gives me the “cute eyes”. So, of course, I feed her addiction and give her pumpkin. It’s not bad for her, so I’m fine with doing this.

Since she is officially addicted, I began a search for pumpkin dog treats. This recipe combines two of her favorite things: pumpkin and peanut butter. And the verdict? Well, let’s just say when I open the fridge, this dog is HOPING I pull a treat out of the ziploc for her. 🙂 A big time winner, for sure…it will make your dogs go WILD!

Peanut Butter and Pumpkin Dog Treats
Source: AllRecipes

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
  • 2 tablespoons peanut butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. Whisk together the flour, eggs, pumpkin, peanut butter, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Add water as needed to help make the dough workable, but the dough should be dry and stiff. Roll the dough into a 1/2-inch-thick roll. Cut into 1/2-inch pieces.
  3. Bake in preheated oven until hard, about 40 minutes.

Christmas Quilt Block Swap (Update)

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I can’t believe it’s already October. I walked outside of my Louisiana home and was greeted with weather in the 40s! I had to dig out my sweater and have finally surrendered (happily) to the fact that it is now Fall. Whew!

Being that it’s October, I just wanted to give a little update on the Christmas Quilt Block Swap! For those of you participating, you should have received an email a little over a month ago with details and an address to send your blocks to! I already received one package of blocks…super cute! I’m so excited to see what everyone comes up with.

Just a reminder, the deadline to get the blocks in is October 15th! That’s 11 days away! 😀

I ended up being a cutting/ironing machine over the weekend. These pics are taken using the Hipstamatic app on the iPhone. It’s so fun!

Here’s a little sneak peek of the three fabrics that my blocks will be made of. The “ribbon” will be Kona Snow and a Kona cotton in some red color. Shows how much I pay attention to detail. 🙁

Aren’t those fabrics so fun? I tend to lean towards whimsy with Christmas. 🙂

A minor hiccup though…my machine is acting up. It needs to go to the shop to get looked at or something. I hope this doesn’t take too long, because I can’t WAIT to show y’all the final blocks! 🙂 

Are you guys super excited to see what everyone is coming up with? I know I am! 🙂 For those of you who are participating, how are your blocks coming along?

Thank you!

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Millie (1)

::insert puppy picture just because::

You guys, my readers, are amazing. From the bottom of my heart, I really appreciate every comment, email and lately, votes for Project Food Blog. I made it to challenge 2, which was very surprising, because there are so many wonderful bloggers out there. I still think of myself as a blogger with 5 readers, and I was so overwhelmed with happiness when you guys pushed me through to round 2.

I appreciate it.

Unfortunately, the talents of other bloggers got the best of me. I didn’t make it to round 3. I will admit that I cried a little, because I’m a girl and girls are emotional :). However, on the bright side of things, I can now fully support/cheer on my awesome blogger friends who are still in the running! I can’t believe one of them can possibly win $10,000! How life changing and amazing is that?!

So, instead of voting for me from now on, can you take a minute to vote for/support these spectacular bloggers? Round 3 was a Luxurious Dinner Party, and I sort of wish I crashed each party. The menus were spectacular and these gals are just so dang creative. 🙂

Amy of Sing for your Supper
Tara of Smells Like Home
Jessica of The Novice Chef
Serena of Big Apple Nosh
Erin of Milk & Honey

Again, thanks so much for y’all’s support during Project Food Blog! Making it as far as I did gives me warm fuzzies. 🙂

A bunch of randoms (3)

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It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but I have a good bit to share. 🙂

  • I’m sort of happy to finally see the end of the tunnel in a sewing project I’ve been working on. The pattern had terrible directions for a key component and I somehow rigged it. I can’t wait to blog about it.

 

  • My original Etsy name was taken. I checked about a month ago and no one had it. Well, lo and behold, someone bought the dang site and I had to think up (with the help of very creative friends) a new name. I’m waiting for biz cards to come in so I can ::finally:: open shop. 🙂 I bought the URL, got the Etsy shop username and the gmail. No one better try to pull a fast one on me. I’m keeping the official shop name a secret until the shop opens! I cannot wait. 🙂

 

  • Pretty soon this blog will have a new name, but I’ll keep the old URL to reduce confusion. The name “Nifty Foodie’s Life” is getting fairly boring to me, and I’ve always wanted to keep food/life blog separate. I’m fairly certain the name will change to my Etsy shop name, so I can have a shop blog and continue to blog about random life stuff too. 🙂

 

  • My Aerogarden is going to be growing salad greens next. I’m so excited about this, especially since the Junk Food Detox is still happening. 🙂

 

  • Speaking of Junk Food Detox, I’ve given up snowballs, ice cream, candy and fried food. I’ve only cheated twice! 🙂 I had a Snickers bar and Arby’s curly fries. Fully admitting to my faults, but it’s WAY better than where I was about a month ago! I’m 9.3 lbs. down so far too. WOOT!

 

  • Food blog blurb: Some of you may know this, but I’m in a great contest called Project Food Blog right now. I’d really appreciate your vote to move on to round 3! Here’s my round 2 entry! 🙂

 

  • I have a sad sad addiction to fabrics. I am on a fabric buying fast until I bust some of this yardage into gifts/shop stuff. I told myself I won’t buy more fabric than what will fit in a wicker laundry basket that I have. It’s overstuffed right now…oops! I can’t let it get out of control…I just don’t have room for it. 🙁

 

  • I’m a little sad all of my shows are back. I was enjoying the “free” evenings, in a way, and now I have to schedule things around my TV schedule. Bummer.

 

  • It was in the 60s this morning. It gave me my first goosebumps in a long time. Thank you FALL!

How are things going for y’all? 🙂

Bananas Foster French Toast “Muffins”

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Bananas Foster French Toast "Muffins"

Just a little blurb: If you’d like to see me move on to Round 3 of Project Food Blog, I’d really appreciate your vote here! You can check out my round 2 entry here. Thanks so much y’all!! 🙂

I tend to LOVE sweet breakfasts. Give me a stack of pancakes, some french toast, donuts, waffles…whatever. As long as it’s sweet! Don’t get me wrong, I love a good plate of scramble bambles (eggs- as my mom called them) or some crusty hashbrowns, but man, something about a sweet breakfast makes me drool. 🙂

This past weekend, I couldn’t stand it. I had to make some french toast. Not just any french toast, though. I had ripe bananas begging to be cooked into SOMETHING, so I decided to make bananas foster french toast.

Bananas Foster is a very popular dessert in New Orleans. It’s one of those dishes that is a ::must eat:: at Brennan’s Restaurant. They make it right in front of you, and it’s just so delicious. So, I figured this would be PERFECT in french toast, especially for my sweet tooth! You’ll notice that this recipe has no alcohol in it. It still comes out pretty tasty, I promise!

This recipe is another submission for the Nature’s Pride Bread Ambassador contest. They will be choosing 6 recipes/bloggers to represent them at the Foodbuzz Fest this year! I made two other recipe entries, which are here and here. As you can tell, the sweet tooth influenced these recipes heavily. 🙂

The verdict? OMG…delicious! It was so easy to put together and the little “muffin” servings help with portion control. That is, until you find yourself eating 3-4 of these with no remorse. 😉

Bananas Foster French Toast “Muffins”
Source: an original

makes 12 servings

Ingredients:

French Toast:

Bananas Foster:

  • 1/2 stick butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 3 ripe bananas, cut in half lengthwise

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Add bread in and break it up into pieces as it absorbs the mixture. Let sit.
  3. In the meantime, melt butter in a large pan and add brown sugar/cinnamon. Stir until all sugar dissolves.
  4. Add in bananas and cook them down for a few minutes. Remove bananas from the pan and allow to cool. Set sauce to the side.
  5. Once the bananas are cool, add them to the bread mixture and mix by hand. Scoop the combined mixture into greased muffin pans and bake for 15-20 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean).
  6. Serve with bananas foster sauce on top and enjoy!!

Disclaimer: As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Program, Foodbuzz offered a coupon for a free Nature’s Pride product in exchange for making up a little ol’ recipe highlighting Nature’s Pride bread.  

Caakiri: My First Adventure with Couscous

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Caakiri

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate y’alls support during Project Food Blog so far. You better believe I was jumping in my chair when I saw that I get to compete in round 2! So, thank you very much. You guys are the best!

Round 2’s challenge is called The Classics.
Ready to tackle a classic dish from another culture? Pick an ethnic classic that is outside your comfort zone or are not as familiar with. You should include how you arrived at this decision in your post. Do your research then try to pull off successfully creating this challenge. Try to keep the dish as authentic as the real deal, and document your experience through a compelling post.

So, with absolutely no clue what to do, I went to my local library and picked up 4 books. 3 of them were Asian inspired and the other one, which was a direct opposite, featured German cuisine. Not exactly sure why I picked that one up, but heck, why not? I flipped through pages and pages, bookmarking some recipes, but none of them felt like it should be the dish for this challenge. I walked away from the books for a while, feeling pretty bummed. What dish was I going to make?

I wanted to find a recipe that was different, featuring ingredients that normally make me turn the other way. I ended up finding this dessert recipe featuring couscous. Can you believe I’ve never tried couscous before? I was intimidated by it..completely.

This recipe also has sour cream, which is an ingredient that does not appeal to me at all. I rarely use it in recipes, because it’s a personal food aversion of mine. So, why not go all out with an ingredient I’ve never tried and an ingredient I really don’t like? Challenge enough, no?

I’m sure you want to know where this dish is from. Ultimately, I ended up going to a whole different continent for this challenge: Africa!

The dish is called Caakiri, which is a yogurt based couscous dessert, originating in Western Africa. The dish tastes a lot like rice pudding, but with a very different texture. I found the dish to be a little too tart for me, probably due to the high amounts of yogurt and sour cream. However, more sugar seemed to help that issue. 🙂

Caakiri Components

Couscous and yogurt mixture pictured.

The best thing about this dish was that the ingredients weren’t too hard to find, and it introduced me to couscous. I’m pretty sure I’m going to make this grain again really soon. 🙂

Note: this recipe is halved from the original source and it still made PLENTY!

Caakiri
Source: The Congo Cookbook

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup couscous
  • 2 cups water
  • pat of  butter
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cup evaporated milk
  • 1 cup vanilla or plain yogurt
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
  • pinch of nutmeg
  • 1/2 can of crushed pineapple, drained

Directions:

  1. Bring water to boil in a medium pot. Add couscous, butter and salt. Stir, cover and remove from heat. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Then stir and let couscous cool.
  2. Combine all of the other ingredients in a bowl.
  3. Add couscous to yogurt mixture and add sugar to taste. Serve warm or cold.

Caramel Apple Pie A La Mode Bites

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Caramel Apple Pie A La Mode Bites

Since the Summer is winding down, it’s time to say goodbye to fresh, sweet berries and hello to juicy, flavorful apples. A great way to celebrate the season is with apple pie, of course.

Instead of making a pie, I wanted to make another recipe highlighting Nature’s Pride bread! This is another entry for the Nature’s Pride bread ambassador contest.

Note: As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Program, Foodbuzz offered a coupon for a free Nature’s Pride product in exchange for making up a little ol’ recipe highlighting Nature’s Pride bread.  Six bloggers’ recipes will be chosen to be an ambassador for Nature’s Pride at this year’s Foodbuzz Festival!

Can you tell I’d really like to go to Foodbuzz Festival this year? 🙂

I took apple pie a few steps further and made this into a caramel apple pie a la mode bite. Talk about DELICIOUS and perfect for a party! 🙂

I’m sure you’re curious about the crust. The crust is simply sliced Honey Wheat bread, and it comes out perfectly crispy and sweet, which is great for a dessert crust! To do this, I used a 2″ circle cutter to cut out the crusts and pressed them into a mini muffin pan to shape them! I took a couple of pictures, since I’m a visual person, and thought pictures would help.

Crust how-to

Super easy, right? Definitely give these a try! You’ll be glad that you did!

Caramel Apple Pie A La Mode Bites
Source: an original

makes 24 bites

Ingredients:

Crust:

Apple Filling:

  • 2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and diced finely
  • 1/2 stick butter
  • 5 tbsp. brown sugar
  • 2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 3/4 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1 1/2 tsp. flour

Additional toppings:

  • vanilla ice cream
  • caramel sundae topping

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Using a 2″-3″ circle cookie cutter, cut out circles in the bread. I was able to get 2 per slice.
  3. Press each circle into a mini muffin pan, making sure it’s pressed well against the edges to form into a good crust. (see above picture)
  4. Brush melted butter on the tops of the crusts.
  5. Combine sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle liberally over the buttered crusts.
  6. Bake for 5-8 minutes, until the crusts brown. Allow to cool.
  7. To make the apple filling, melt the 1/2 stick butter in a small pot and add apples. Then, add brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook down for about 5 minutes on low/med-low heat. Add flour to thicken the sauce and cook another 5 minutes or until tender. Allow to cool until apple filling is just warm.
  8. To assemble the bites, add about 2 tsp. of ice cream to each of the crusts (just eyeball it). Add a tsp. of apple filling and then drizzle with caramel sundae topping. Serve immediately. 🙂

Pretty Please?

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millie1

Hi, I’m Millie. I hijacked my mommy’s blog today for a huge reason today. Not just to show you my major cuteness, but to let you know that voting is now open for Round 1 of Project Food Blog! Whatever that is…

Millie (1)

I’m obviously super happy voting is open…yay GO mommy!

millie4

I think you should vote for my mommy, because my mommy even thinks puppies deserve an extra special treat. She didn’t make this one for me, but because of this treat, I now know that puppies can have a cupcake too. 🙂

millie3

So let’s get serious here. I can get serious. ::runs to grab a bone::

Ok, I’m back to being serious.

Vote for my mommy. Tell EVERYONE to vote for my mommy.

If she gets through to round 2, she gets to cook up more challenges for you humans. More yummy food! She even promised me pumpkin treats! I love pumpkin. 🙂

Win-win situation, right?

Note: I have been informed that I get pumpkin treats no matter what, but, uhm, still vote. Pretty please?