There is something about special drinks at Christmas time that I just love! Below, you’ll find 7 tried and true holiday beverages that you’ll love too…
Cranberry Almond Bread with Orange Glaze
Welcome to our first brunch recipe of 2014! You’re going to love this one. It’s great with a cup of coffee. <— You know, this time last year I was just beginning to realize how awesome coffee is. Oh how far I’ve come in a year. Mmmmm, coffee with cream during my Bible time each morning. How I love it.
This bread is also great with a cup of hot tea, hot chocolate, Warm Vanilla Soother, or a cold glass of milk. Pretty much it’s great with anything you like to drink. It’s also very easy to make, and can be baked ahead of time if you’d like to wake up on Christmas morning to a delicious ready-made breakfast.
Cranberry Almond Bread with Orange Glaze
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour (regular whole wheat works okay, but pastry flour is perfection in this!)
¾ cups sucanat
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
1 ½ cups milk
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
3 eggs
1 cup melted butter or coconut oil
1 cup fresh or dried cranberries
Mix flour, sucanat, baking powder, and salt. Add eggs, milk, extracts, and oil. Mix well. Fold in cranberries. Pour batter into 2 well-buttered loaf pans (or six small loaf pans). Bake 45-60 minutes at 350°. Makes two loaves.
Orange Glaze
¼ cup orange juice
¼ cup honey
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
Heat orange juice and honey in a small saucepan. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and almond extracts. Pour mixture over loaves of cranberry bread about 3 minutes after they have been removed from the oven, but before removing the loaves from the baking pans.
Be sure to leave a comment on this post for a chance to win one of five $10 gift certificates to our Heavenly Homemakers Shop!
Low Sugar No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
One day when I was nibbling on a little piece of lightly sweetened and buttery Shortbread, it occurred to me: This would make a fantastic cheesecake crust. Then one day when I was baking a pumpkin, it occurred to me: I should use that pumpkin to make pumpkin cheesecake. These were both very, very good ideas, if I do say so myself.
Why a shortbread crust? I’m not sure why, but making a graham cracker crust for cheesecakes always seems like too much work to me. Probably because that was always my job when I was growing up, so now I have deep-seated graham cracker crust baggage from my past. That, and I never have graham crackers on hand and I don’t want to make a batch of homemade Graham Crackers only to crush them for a crust. Seriously, who knew a graham cracker crust could be such cause for discussion that it would take up an entire paragraph when I could just be sharing this great recipe with you?
So Shortbread Crust. I highly recommend it. Stir the three ingredients together, press them onto the bottom of a dish, and bake. You can’t go wrong, especially because this recipe includes lots of butter. That, of course, makes it amazing.
No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
Shortbread Crust:
3 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat for this)
1/2 cup sucanat (or brown sugar if you prefer)
1 1/2 cups melted butter
Stir flour and sucanat together in a bowl. Add melted butter, combining well. Press mixture into a 9×13 inch baking pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling:
2 8-ounce packages softened cream cheese
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups pureed pumpkin
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Real maple syrup or liquid stevia to taste (I used 4 droppers full of stevia)
Blend all ingredients together until smooth. Pour over prepared shortbread crust. Spread until smooth. Chill in refrigerator for at least two hours before serving.
My system doesn’t handle much sugar any more (which seriously limits my cheesecake eating opportunities, woe is me). Making this simple cheesecake with stevia (a natural sweetener, not a sugar or an artificial sweetener) is a fantastic option. This treat is not super sweet, although you can make it as sweet as you like by simply adding more stevia, maple syrup, or even sugar if you like. Now that I know that stevia makes a cheesecake and shortbread makes a great crust, my cheesecake lovin’ self is happy and my graham cracker crust anxt is minimized.
What is your relationship with the graham cracker crust? You should join me in loving a shortbread crust. Easy, delicious, and full o’ buttah!
Switching to Whole Food Sweeteners Without Breaking the Bank
While switching from processed food to nourishing food doesn’t have to be terribly expensive, there’s no way around this one: White and brown sugar are cheap. Sucanat, real maple syrup, muscovado, honey, and stevia are not cheap. I can get a 2-pound bag of brown sugar at the store for $1.78. Sucanat, on the other hand, is usually $5.00 for 1.5 pounds. Ouch! It’s worth it to buy the good stuff, but it isn’t fun to pay for.
While I don’t have any earth shattering advice about finding fantastic deals on these wholesome sweeteners, I do have some suggestions based on what works for me.
1. Stop eating so many sugary desserts.
I know. You’re rolling your eyes. I feel your pain on this one because I’m a recovering sugar addict. Pray about this and let God’s power be your will-power. You don’t have to cut out desserts altogether (unless you feel called to). You simply need to keep sugary foods a treat instead of pouring on the sugar like it’s a food group. You’ll be amazed at how much money you save on sucanat, honey, and maple syrup when you stop eating so much.
2. Cut the sugar in half.
When baking muffins, quick breads, and breakfast bars, I find that half the sugar called for in many recipes (even mine!) works just fine. The baked goods are still sweet and tasty. This saves quite a bit of money on wholesome sugars!
3. Drizzle your syrup.
Dousing your pancakes or waffles in real maple syrup? That’s an expensive breakfast! A little drizzle of rich, flavorful maple syrup goes a long way. It’s also fun to pour a tiny quarter-sized bit of syrup onto your plate, then dip the corner of each bite to sweeten it just a touch.
4. Pull out the cheap stuff when feeding a crowd.
If I’m feeding 40 teenagers, I leave my sucanat in the pantry and pull out the cheap brown sugar. There’s no need to use $6 worth of sucanat when I can use $1.50 worth of brown sugar for a big group of kids who really don’t care about whether or not the brownies were made with organic sugar or not. I certainly don’t mind sharing “the good stuff” with company occasionally, but it just really isn’t worth spending extra money when three pans of dessert are going to be devoured in two minutes. I never compromise on using real butter (instead of margarine), and I always use my freshly ground flour (no one can even tell) – but compromising on sugar? At least it’s actual sugar instead of artificial sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Which leads me to…
At the end of the day…
It’s all sugar. Sucanat is healthier because it’s processed very little and still contains nutrients. Real maple syrup is straight from the tree. Honey is made by bees and is as natural as it comes. But to our bodies? It’s all sugar. Read this post about Breaking Free of Sugar Addiction for more of my thoughts on this.
This means you may decide that switching to sucanat (and paying the higher price tag) is just not worth it.
I believe the bigger focus needs to be on cutting back on sugar (in all its forms). Focus on filling up on fruits and vegetables instead. You’ll be amazed at how sweet your fruits and vegetables taste when your palate isn’t coated with a cookie.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Which sugars do you choose to purchase and use for your family?
How to Adapt a Recipe to Make it Healthier
I’m often asked how much Sucanat to substitute for white sugar, or if whole wheat flour can be substituted one for one with white flour. I decided to share a little bit about how I adapt “regular recipes” to make them healthier! Please know that when I say “healthier”…I’m not talking low fat. To me, healthier means real, whole food. Click on the following links so read about how I feed my family and why I love real, whole foods!! Be sure to also check out this entire series on Simple Steps Toward Healthy Eating.
Fats
- If a recipe calls for vegetable or canola oil I switch it out one for one with melted coconut oil or melted palm shortening. It’s a little bit tough to measure out solid coconut oil to an exact needed amount. I just kind of “eyeball it”. If a recipe calls for 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, I make my best guess at how much 1/4 cup of coconut oil (or palm shortening) is while I’m scooping it out…then I melt it down in a small saucepan on the stove. If you are new to cooking/baking…you may prefer to melt it, then pour it into a measuring cup to be sure you have the correct amount.
- If a recipe calls for margarine (I gag and then) I switch it out one for one with real butter. This means that if the recipe calls for 1/2 cup margarine, I use 1/2 cup of butter.
- Usually butter and coconut oil can be used interchangeably. For instance, when I make muffins…sometimes I use coconut oil and sometimes I use butter. It depends on what I have on hand and what sounds good at the moment (coconuty goodness, or rich buttery flavor). If you are unable to eat dairy, you can substititute coconut oil for butter in most recipes.
- I almost always use melted palm shortening to fry foods (like french fries, onion rings, homemade corn dogs, etc.). Palm shortening does NOT create the same freaky effects from frying that vegetable or canola oils create. This means that foods fried in palm shortening (or coconut oil) are NOT unhealthy!
- I use olive oil if a recipe calls for just a few teaspoons or Tablespoons of vegetable oil.
- You can read more about the fats I prefer and why I prefer them here!!
Sugars
- Sucanat (or Rapadura, which is the same thing…just under a different name) can be substituted one for one with white or brown sugar. This means that if a recipe calls for one cup of white sugar…you can instead use one cup of Sucanat. However, I generally cut the Sucanat down just a hair because the flavor is stronger…and because it is more expensive…and because wow…do we really need that much sugar? :) Sucanat, by the way, is dehydrated cane sugar juice and the healthiest form of cane sugar I’ve found. You can read more about it here.
- Honey can be substituted for white or brown sugar, but I usually use 1/2 to 2/3 the amount the recipe calls for. This means that if a recipe calls for one cup of white or brown sugar, I only use 1/2 to 2/3 cup of honey. Honey has a rich flavor and is sweeter than sugar. I have not found that substituting honey causes much difference in the consistency of a recipe, even though honey is a liquid and sugar is not. If anything, I find that honey makes quick breads, muffins and cookies more moist…and that’s never a bad thing if you ask me!
- Real Grade B Maple Syrup can be substituted for white or brown sugar, but I don’t often bake with it (ooh, except for Coconut Macaroons!). I use maple syrup for liquid treats like Chocolate Milk and Smoothies and Ice Cream. If a recipe calls for corn syrup, I use Grade B Maple Syrup instead, substituting it one for one.
- You can read more about the sweeteners I prefer and why I prefer them here!!
Flours
- I substitute my freshly ground whole wheat flour (made from hard white wheat) one for one in recipes that call for white flour. However, freshly ground whole wheat flour is often lighter in texture, making a one to one substitution possible.
- If you are using store-bought whole wheat flour, I find that this seems to be a heavier flour. Therefore, I recommend using a lesser amount than the white flour that is called for in a recipe. You may find that this is even true with my recipes that call for whole wheat flour, since I am using freshly ground flour. I receive quite a few comments, particularly on my Honey Whole Wheat Bread from people using King Arthur’s whole wheat flour or another store bought flour that they didn’t need to add in all of the flour the recipe called for. I suggest just adding flour until the dough is the correct consistency…then stop.
- You can read more about grains and grain mills in this series of posts!!
To make things a little bit easier…I created a free printable “Healthy Recipe Substitutions” download. Click the following link, print it off and keep it in your kitchen as a handy reference!
Healthy Recipe Substitutions
How do you feel about adapting recipes? Are you good at making substitutions…or do you prefer to follow a recipe exactly?
This post was originally published March 9, 2011.
Quick and Easy Shortbread Recipe
Three ingredients. A super quick snack. Amazing deliciousness. Supplies you always have on hand…
Wait, you do have butter on hand, right? Okay. I mean, we can still be friends even if you have run out of butter, but don’t let it happen again. This has nothing to do with me and my butter obsession. I’m just looking out for you, that’s all. I have your best interests in mind. Opening the fridge or freezer to find that there is no more butter waiting – well, it is reason to panic. It’ll send a woman into a crazed frenzy, causing her to frantically toss a whole frozen chicken and eight packages of hamburger meat off a freezer shelf, hoping in vain to locate a forgotten pound of butter buried in the back under some frost.
It could be that I got going on that paragraph and couldn’t find a logical time to stop. Just save yourself (or me, apparently) the emotional trauma of running out of butter by always keeping a nice supply on hand.
So butter. You’ll need it for this recipe. You’ll also need flour and sugar. Plus a bowl, a spoon, and a pan. That’s it. Could it be any easier?
Quick and Easy Shortbread
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat for this)
1/4 cup sucanat (or brown sugar if you prefer)
3/4 cup melted butter
Blend all ingredients well. Press mixture into a 9×9 inch baking pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cook and cut into 12 squares.
As you can see, this is a no-brainer recipe. I discovered it as I’ve been working on a brand new healthy snacks eBook. This shortbread can be stirred up and put into the oven within just a few minutes. We love it because it is just lightly sweetened, and deliciously buttery. It is awesome with a cup of coffee or tea in the afternoon.
It is worthwhile to note that this is not a snack you’ll want to hand your kids while they are running into the living room you’ve just vacuumed. This shortbread is a bit crumbly and needs to be eaten while holding ones head directly over a plate while sitting at a table. Trust me. I know these things.
And one more thing. Go check your butter supply. We’ll all sleep better tonight knowing you’re well stocked.
‘Fess up. How much butter do you have right now?
Snickerdoodle Muffins ~ Having Breakfast With the Muppets
As I stated on Facebook yesterday:
I feel a tiny bit silly (but not silly enough to keep it to myself, apparently). Growing up, my mom and I always listened to the Muppets Christmas cassette, which featured John Denver. I loved it SO much. So I just bought the album for myself. I couldn’t hold back. I mean, if you haven’t heard Miss Piggy singing the 12 days of Christmas, you’ve really missed out. (Ah, the memories…)
I had all but forgotten the album existed until my sister-in-law texted something about it yesterday. Memories flooded back. Now I can’t stop listening to it. And I can’t stop smiling. You would think that after over 9 years of being without her, I would realize that calling to talk to my mom isn’t an option. But as I listen to this music, I have had to stop myself several times from picking up the phone to dial her number. “Mom!” I want to shout, “Remember our winter nights together? Remember Miss Piggy singing ‘ba-dum-pum-pum’ in the 12 Days of Christmas? Remember how much fun we had? I just got the John Denver Muppets album on CD and I’m listening to it now with the boys, and they love it as much as we did!”
So since I can’t tell her, I’m sharing this with you. Of all my Christmas memories, I have to say listening to this music while preparing for Christmas with my mom might be my favorite memory of all. I really can’t stop smiling. And crying. And laughing (“mee-mee-mee-mee-mee-mee” – you have to know Miss Piggy to get that one).
Here’s a little blast from the past for ya that I found on youtube:
This morning, I turned on the Christmas lights, cranked up the Muppets, and tried a new recipe. These muffins are simple, full of cinnamon, delicious, and perfect for Christmas time. My family and I had breakfast with Miss Piggy, Kermit, and John Denver.
Snickerdoodle Muffins
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sucanat or brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg
1/4 cup melted butter or coconut oil
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
Snickerdoodle Topping:
2 Tablespoons sucanat or brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Stir together flour, sucanat, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add egg, butter, sour cream, and milk – stirring until mixture is well combined. Scoop batter into 10-12 paper lined muffin tins. Stir together the sucanat/cinnamon topping. Sprinkle about a 1/2 teaspoon of the mixture onto each muffin. Bake in a 400° oven for 15-20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.
Here’s to tasty Christmas goodies, relishing wonderful Christmas memories, and creating new memories with our own families now.
Please tell me if you remember this Muppet Christmas album with John Denver so that we can talk about Piggy Pudding together! What are your favorite Christmas music memories?
Caramel Oatmeal Bars {High Five Recipe}
I wanted to include a recipe or two in my Celebrating 40 festivities. But how was I supposed to do that when everything about the celebration has to do with the number 40? I don’t have any recipes with 40 ingredients (you’re welcome).
I decided that the exact opposite of a recipe with 40 ingredients is a recipe with only 5 ingredients. Sort of. So I am including this High Five Recipe in my celebration. It’s one of the easiest and quickest you’ll ever make.
Caramel Oatmeal Bars
1 cup butter, melted
1 1/3 cups sucanat
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 1/2 cups rolled oats
Stir all five ingredients together. Press mixture into a 9×13 inch baking dish. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes until ingredients have melted together and become lightly brown. Cut into bars while hot.
Beyond eating these bars as is, we have also discovered that crumbling one onto a bowl of vanilla ice cream is incredibly delicious.
Need more High Five Recipes? (high quality recipes, five ingredients or less) Find lots and lots of them here!
Get Your Kids Involved in the Kitchen {You Can Do This! Bonus Tip}
I am very excited that so many of you are taking part in our You Can Do This! The First Five Steps To a Real Food Kitchen eCourse!
As an added bonus – for those of you who are participating in the course and for those who aren’t – each Monday for the next few weeks, I plan to share a Bonus Tip to encourage you along in your Real Food Journey. Remember though, these are just bonus tips. If you take the eCourse, you’ll get loads more information, guidance, downloads, recipes, and worksheets – all for just $5! (Click here to purchase if you are interested.)
Today’s tip is to get your kids involved in the kitchen with you. This will help them learn how to cook, and learn how to make healthy choices.
Just by helping me in the kitchen, my kids have learned how to adapt a recipe to use healthier ingredients. Case in point…
Elias got a new cookbook in his stocking – and all of the recipes are for yummy desserts, his favorite! Simply by looking through the recipes, he can figure out how to make dishes and desserts using healthier ingredients. He’s only 11.
This it not because I’ve spent countless hours drilling my kids on how to cook and how to adapt recipes. It’s because they learn simply by being in the kitchen with me, and because truly, adapting a recipe to make it healthier is not really very difficult! (Read more about how to do this here.)
Elias and Malachi (age 8) chose a Mint Chocolate Bar recipe and got to work, with very little help from me. They used sucanat in place of sugar, whole wheat flour in place of white flour, and real butter in place of vegetable oil. These are all one-to-one substitutions. See? not hard at all!
Their special treat turned out delicious. And I love knowing that I’m preparing my kids for a healthy future. (Because yes, they do know how to cook more than just desserts.) :)
Interested in learning more about our
You Can Do This! The First Five Steps To a Real Food Kitchen eCourse?
We’d love to have you join us!
And don’t forget to take advantage of our
Buy a $10 Gift Certificate for $5 deal.
With it, you can get the eCourse, bonus recipe cards, and another eBook
– all for five bucks!
Air Soft, Chocolate Cake, and Movies
Our boys have been all about making fun plans with their friends this summer. I’ve loved watching them take initiative by making the phone calls themselves, setting up baseball games, soccer games, and basketball shoot-arounds. They’ve even “written and directed” several movies and invited friends over so that they could “shoot footage”. One mom commented, “It sure has been great for Justus to be the Activities Event Coordinator for all of our kids this summer.” :)
Today, the choice event was a game of Air Soft. As they were making the phone calls yesterday to prepare for this, the idea came to them that maybe they could also do some baking so they would have something tasty as a surprise to serve to their guests. After all, it’s always a great idea to serve cake to your friends after you’ve spent an hour and a half shooting at them, right?!
Upon hearing their idea, I quickly squashed down my instinctive protests about them turning on the oven when it was 105° outside. If they want to treat their friends, who am I to argue? (Especially when they were leaning toward making something chocolate and I would get to be the taste tester.) I did suggest, however, that they make their baking plan, prepare their ingredients, and then wait to actually bake in the evening when the temperature cooled to a more comfortable…98°. Ha!
Well, one brainstorm turned into another, until what had once been an idea to bake a simple treat turned into an elaborate plan to bake and decorate a layered Chocolate Fudge Cake. In addition, they decided that while they were making the cake, they should also make a movie such as they’d seen on Cake Boss on Netflix. Did I mention I had some produce I was in the middle of chopping and preserving during all of this? To suggest that my kitchen was a little bit of a (hot) hubbub of chaos may have been an understatement. Apparently, my family thrives on messy insanity.
Fantastic as they are, our boys don’t always work well together in executing a plan, but I’ve got to hand it to them: The cake mixing and measuring went off without a hitch (with only a small amount of batter landing on the floor…twice). They took turns. They worked together. They even sort of cleaned up after themselves.
After the cake cooled (the next morning), they took turns decorating it with Fudge Frosting. As you can imagine, it was always a pity when they got frosting on their fingers. What could they do but lick it off?
I was just pleased that the frosting bags didn’t explode.
They were so proud of the finished product. And so they should be.
Then, my yard and house became a center of excitement as a total of nine boys came in and out, making me wonder all morning long why in the world I was continuing to run my air conditioner. I’m pretty sure all of our guests must surely think that the only phrase I know how to say is, “Close the door please!”
Oh, and how did the guests like the cake? Based on the fact that the only thing left in my kitchen when they were finished was a bunch of chocolate cake crumbs, I’d say they liked it just fine.
Then they headed right back outside to shoot each other again. You’ve gotta love it. :)
{Well, if you can believe it, after I had this post written and ready to go up, Justus showed me the finished movie they had put together. I got quite a chuckle out of it since 1) he said a lot of similar things in the movie that I said in this post, and 2) It’s an awful lot like the actual show Cake Boss, with a Coppinger twist, of course. Therefore, I decided to post the movie to share with you, if you care to watch it. You’ll especially appreciate it if you’ve watched the actual Cake Boss show…or if you are an aunt or loved one who just can’t help but think that my boys are cute. This just features three of our boys since our oldest is at camp.}