No-bake Cheese Cake Recipe & Sugarless Chocolate!

I was in a dessert making mood last night... I don't like to use a lot of sugar, so I've been working on a suger-free chocolate recipe using stevia for the sweetner. Well, the experement involved butter, unsweetend chocolate powder, almond flavoring and stevia (it is a lot like splenda). The one thing I would do differently is that I would use unsalted butter, because the salt brings out the bitter taste in the chocolate, and stevia doesn't mask it like sugar does (I added some frutose to cover it in the end). So, any way, Chocolate is usually made basically with cocoa butter, sugar and cocoa powder, mixed in different ratios to get different types. Butter is a lot like cocoa butter, but it's less expensive. Anyway, that's what I was doing last night. It started with making my own graham crackers, then it went to the Chocolate mixture I was melting in a small pan on the stove, then my graham crackers turned out hard because I didn't put any soda in them. (I should have followed a recipe.) :) Well, they tasted about right, so I ground them up in my Vita-Mix and added butter and cinnamon. It made a nice crust so I patted small amounts into a mini muffin pan and poured chocolate in them. I put them in the fridge, and went on to other things. I used the graham cracker crist in a pie pan and poured the last of my chocolate on in a thin layer, then I mixed up one package of cream cheese and 1 cup of sour cream in the Vita-Mix. I added about a 1/4 tsp of Lemon Extract and put about a 1/8 cup of frutose and a few dashes of stevia until it tasted good. Then, I smeared that onto the crust and smoothed it out. the final layer was the sour cream scrapings and a little bit of cocoa powder and stevia mixed together like chocolate mousse. I spread that out on top and sprinkled unsweetend coconut on top. After refridgerating it all night, we ate it for breakfast, and it was really good! You'll have to try it!

Going bananas! Banana Bread Recipe

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 stp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
4 ripe bananas
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Mash the bananas with a potato masher or use your kitchen aid mixer. Add the egg and milk, then sugar, salt, baking powder and flour. Mix well. Butter two or three bread pans, and fill them half full of the batter. Bake at 350 for 55-65 minute.

I made 10 x this recipe yesterday with th 40 bananas that were going "down hill". It was loads of fun! My little neice, who is 20 months, helped me stir and managed to fling quite a bit around the kitchen. We wore matching red aprons. She loves to work in the kitchen!

Sourdough Starter

My old starter got thrown out a while back when the fridge got cleaned, but that's ok, because I was mad at it. Now that I think I know a little bit more about Sourdough Bread making, I'm getting a new starter going. If you want to start your own Sourdough colony, here's how I am doing it. I've put about 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of warm water in a glass jar, and I'm letting it sit for 24 hours on top the fridge (a warm place), then I'm going to dump out half, and add half again to feed it. I'll do this three days in a row or until it gets sour and bubbly. Then, when I go to use it, I'll use just part of it to make my "sponge", which is just a big batch of sour batter.

~Nourishing Traditions~

I would like to recommend to you, my favorite cookbook! Nourishing Traditions, challenges me to do crazy things. It's packed full of weird and Delicious recipes. Make your own Sourdough Starter or Sour Kraut. Learn appropriate soaking times for whole grains. You'll love it! Sally Fallon, also shares her own Kombucha Recipe, and some other exciting beverages. It's a totally new way to approach nutrition.

Financially, you can make bread!

I make Honey Whole-Wheat bread, 3 long loaves, or 4-5 short loaves at a time and knead it by hand. If we want a variation, I'll maybe use Molasses instead of part of the Honey or add some Oats, Rasins & Cinnamon or something else I can think of. There are SO MANY things you can use for spreads, and Sandwiches are easy planning. In a pinch, bread and cheese are great. One loaf of bread costs roughly $0.40 in ingredients! We eat anywhere from 2-4 loafs a day in my family. The best part is that it's good for you and tastes so much better then store-baught bread!

This is my sister-in-law's recipe that I use all the time.

5 1/2 Cups warm Water
1/2 Cup Honey
4 tsp Salt
1/3 Cup Oil
3 TBS Yeast
6 Cups Whole Wheat Flour.

Stir for 1 minute.

Add 6 more cups of flour, a little at a time.

Knead for 10 minutes. (You may use a mixer, but I always knead by hand). Let the dough rise in the bowl for 20-30 minutes, in a warm place ( 85 -100 degrees). Punch the dough, cut it into four sections, shape it into loafs and place them in four buttered bread pans. Let them rise again in a warm place for about 20-30 minutes, and bake for 30 minutes at 350. The Loaves should be golden brown. I usually butter the tops when I get them out, and wrap them in a big towel until they cool. (One loaf is usually eaten while it's still warm!)

I use Western Family Whole Wheat Flour, most of the time, and it works great with this recipe. Some flours vary just a little bit, so you'll get slightly different results.

Homemade Super Pizza!

Dad makes the best Pizza! We had a birthday party yesterday for my brother Isaac, and considering that in big families, we have alot of birthdays we eat cake alot. We wanted to do something a little different, so, we made Jello and put the candles in it. My sister Rachel made donuts, which were really good, and Isaac played his fiddle a bit. Dad made about 6 of his great Pizzas, which always have plenty of stuff on them, so you don't have to eat as many pieces. The secret is, put lots of stuff on them!

Bread, yummy!

OK, so I FINALLY got to make bread again since the trip. It's hard to get back into the swing of things, and bread is just one thing I really miss when I don't make it. It's like a stress-bomb defuser. I love to knead that stuff! It's gonna be done in about 20 minutes, then we are going to have hamburgers for dinner. It's kind of late for dinner, but we snacked in late afternoon.

Something to try~ Republic of Tea, Pomegranate Green Tea, with Stevia. Fabulous!

Waffles & Coagulation

Isaac, (YES, my brother!) actually made waffles for breakfast this morning! They were really good. He said he had to "improvise" a little since we didn't have enough shortning, and I know he added some extra eggs. They were good anyway. We have the coolest waffle iron.

So, I made some white sauce last night, and I don't know what I was thinking, because it was kind of runny. It was actually a lot like gravy, only with cheese in it. I had expected it to coagulate while it was still hot, (for some reason) but it didn't. This morning, the leftovers are certainly coagulated. I should have made it thicker in the first place. Oh well, it wasn't bad, just runny. We had it on chips with salsa.

I've been dying to make some bread, ever since we got home, but I can't seem to get enough sure hours all together at the same time while I feel like it. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get some time tonight.

"Chicken Darling?"

My new Chicken Recipe;

"Chicken Darling?"
10lbs chicken*
1 quart jar of your favorite Spaghetti Sauce
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Stevia
1/8 tsp Sage
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
Salt

*Skinned and seperated at the bone into thighs and drumsticks.

Wash and divide chicken evenly between two large cassarol dishes, Sprinkle on cinnamom and stevia, Pour the tomato sauce on, and sprinkle on garlic, sage and salt. Cover with foil (it will smoke if it is not covered!) Bake at 350 degrees for about 55 minutes.

It's delicious!