Basil Pesto and Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken

With summer on its way we decided to post a recipe that requires using the grill! This recipe is very easy to change, so if you don't like pesto skip it and add something else, also try changing the cheese. Some of our next experiments will be with swiss, brie, gouda, and cheddar.....just get creative, don't be shy! If you don't care for bacon, just don't use it:-) It won't be as flavorful, but it still will be good!

Basil Pesto

Mozzarella Cheese

Sliced Bacon

Chicken Breasts

Toothpicks

Pound chicken breasts with meat mallet till chicken breast is even in thickness. Spread pesto on chicken breast, sprinkle with cheese. Roll breast and secure with toothpicks, warp bacon on and make sure to place extra toothpicks to hold it onto the chicken. Grill on medium heat till cooked through.

Saturday Morning Donuts!

Back at Thanksgiving our Mom took us out for the "Black Friday Sales", one of our stops was at Bed, Bath and Beyond! Upon browsing the cooking/baking section we came across these donut pans. Our little siblings LOVE donuts but we don't buy or make them that often because it involves that dreaded process of FRYING;-) When we saw these pans for baked donuts we could not resist, we just HAD to buy them. Upon buying new kitchen tools you sometimes forget that you bought them, well that's what happened to us, we made donuts the day we got the pans but had not made any since!!! Last Friday evening Hannah announced that she was going to make donuts for our Saturday morning breakfast. This time around upon making them we used a different recipe. If you like pumpkin and you have a donut pan that you always forget to use, and might have forgot that you bought it like we did , try this recipe out;-)

Baked Pumpkin Donuts

Yield: 12 donuts

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoon milk
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• cinnamon sugar for dusting
• melted butter for dunking in before coating in cinnamon sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray two 6-count donut pans with non-stick cooking spray (or alternatively spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray). Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon in a small bowl. In a stand mixer or medium sized bowl and hand mixer cream together the brown sugar, pumpkin, eggs, milk, butter and vanilla extract on medium speed until the butter is well incorporated.

2. With your mixer on medium low speed, slowly add the dry sifted ingredients to the wet mixture. Mix until just barely combined. Do not over-mix.

3. Scoop pumpkin batter into a large Ziploc bag, pushing batter down towards one end of the bag. Snip the end of the bag with scissors and fill each donut mold with the batter. Be sure to wipe any excess batter that may have gotten around the edge of the mold or on the center "hole".

4. Bake for 6 – 8 minutes or until the exterior springs back when touched. Remove from pan and dunk in melted butter then in your cinnamon sugar!

It's a BUG!

In my last post I mentioned that it was our little sister Kathryn's 8th birthday. Upon her request I (Esther) made her this very cute lady-bug cake. It was such fun to create and not to complicated to put together! I thought it was just too cute not to post a picture of:-)

What could be more special then this for breakfast???

Last week Kathryn lost a tooth, so for a special surprise we made her a very special breakfast. Crepes, Strawberry Nutella stuffed crepes to be exact! A little sweet for breakfast but would could be more fitting for such a sweet little sister!?!? Upon arriving at the table she had a rather sleepy look upon her face but after describing what we were making her they quickly opened and she eagerly waited for her breakfast. I think she liked them very much because she requested them for her birthday breakfast tomorrow! This was my first time making them, it was fun after the first few odd shaped ones......they tasted great but looked a little lopsided:-) By the time I had finished using the batter I had finally gotten the hang of it and they actually were round shaped! Since making them once I think tomorrow should be much easier when making them for her birthday breakfast. The only thing that is missing is fresh whipped cream, I think it could use some to cut back the sweetness a bit. But that's just my preference!

Sweet Breakfast or Dessert Crepes

Ingredients:

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/3 cups milk

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

In large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, melted butter, flour, sugar, and salt until smooth. Heat a medium-sized skillet or crepe pan over medium heat. Grease pan with a small amount of butter or oil. Using a serving spoon or small ladle, spoon about 4 tablespoons crepe batter into hot pan, tilting the pan so that bottom surface is evenly coated. Cook over medium heat, 1 to 2 minutes on a side, or until golden brown. Serve immediately; store leftovers in air-tight container. Makes about eight Crêpes.

Sliced strawberries and Nutella for stuffing!

The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.

-Johannes Sebastian Bach-

The perfect afternoon snack!

So what do you make yourself after you get back from your sweaty afternoon workout? A smoothie of course!!! What could be more refreshing?!?! This smoothie recipe I came up with about a week ago has all the right ingredients to make sure you are fueling your muscles after winding down from your workout. After trying this recipe you will not want to go back to your original smoothie because this one is so much more creamy then any other you could imagine, the secret ingredient.......cottage cheese, that's right you read me right, cottage cheese! For me cottage cheese is something that is not on my favorite "foods" list but I was needing to eat it because of the extra protein content, after eating it plain a few times I had this brilliant idea, why not put it in a smoothie just like you would yogurt? There both dairy products right, so why not? After pouring it into my cup I a little hesitantly gave it a try, to my surprise it was so creamy, it almost tasted like a frosty and no I'm not joking! Just make sure to blend it well so you don't get those cottage type chunks:-) Enjoy!



Blackberry Peach Smoothie
Serves:1

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1/2-3/4 cup frozen blackberries
1/2 frozen peach
1/2-3/4 cup water
Put all ingredients into blender and blend on high till very smooth, about 1 minute.