An Ode To My Mother....Kinda

Growing up I remember my mother used to make a lemonade cake.  It was amazing.  Kind of sweet, super lemony, just great.  I'm a sucker for anything lemon.  So, when I thought about the Recipe Redux theme {Treasured Cookware}, this recipe came to mind.

There isn't a piece of cookware in my kitchen that WAS my mother's but, she has stocked about half of my bakeware throughout the years.  Every Christmas I get a new piece.  One of the things she bought me was my angel food cake pan.  

Honestly I used to hate angel food cake, until it was the ONLY cake I could eat.  Now I love it and love playing around with flavors and different ways of using it.  For this recipe I used sugar free lemonade mix since there is SO MUCH sugar in the cake and then the glaze has added sugar.  I prefer to not have a complete sugar bomb. Pink Lemonade would make this rather pretty too.

Angel Food Lemonade Cake

Ingredients
1 angel food cake (I normally use a box mix and make it myself but, you can use a store bought one)
.25-.5 cup sugar free powdered lemonade mix (depending on how lemony you want it)
1 cup powdered sugar
2-4 T water


Directions

1. Poke holes in the top of the cake with a fork
2. In a small bowl mix together lemonade mix and powdered sugar
3. Whisk in water and continue whisking until you have a nice smooth glaze
4. Pour glaze over the top of the cake making sure some of the glaze gets into all the holes.
5. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

An InLinkz Link-up

Samantha Birthday Cake Recipes and Birthday Recap

The initial plan for today was a trip to the zoo {hello calorie burner!} but, due to yucky weather we had to change our plans.  I am the Queen of Plan B.  I always have a plan B especially for activities that are going to be outdoors.

Buddie had an appointment to be neutered today so our day started early because his drop-off was scheduled for 8:15. Breakfast was a special raspberry coffee cake. After we dropped off Buddie I surprised Mo by picking up Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 so we could have lunch and a movie.  The movie was really cute.  I'm thinking there will be a movie themed dinner in the future.

After the movie we headed over to the Allure European Day Spa.  They were awesome with the girls.  Each of the girls got a manicure, pedicure, hair cut and the stylist even did a really cute braid for each one.  

When we got home I started on dinner.  Mo decided that she wanted tacos for her birthday dinner.  I used Boca soy crumbles for the "meat" and seasoned it using Mrs. Dash Taco Seasoning.  I also made taco shrimp using baby shrimp.  I seasoned it with chili powder, paprika, onion powder, minced garlic and cumin.  It worked really well.  After dinner was cake a presents.  Mo is obsessed with One Direction and panda bears {do you know how hard it is to find things with pandas on them?}  Her cake was a panda bear cupcake cake with I love 1D written on it.  She asked for half of her cupcakes to be chocolate and the other half to be strawberry.  I was really amazed at how well BOTH of these recipes worked.  The chocolate cake was just as moist as a tradional full fat cake and the strawberry cake tasted like strawberry ice cream.  I did the standard Cool Whip frosting.  The recipe for all 3 are below.  

Mo had a great day.  Here are all the pictures from the day:

Chocolate Cake
adapted from Hershey's "Especially Dark" Chocolate Cake Recipe

1.5 cups sugar
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
.25 cup cornstarch
.75 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1.5 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
egg substitute/egg whites equivilent to2 eggs
1 cup skim milk
.5 cup pureed zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325.  Grease muffin tins.  (The recipe says it makes between 28 and 30 cupcakes)
2. Mix together dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl mix egg substite/egg whites, milk, zucchini and vanilla
4. Stir wet ingredients into dry
5. Pour in water and blend well
6. Put batter into muffin tins and bake for 30-35 minutes
7. Cool  in pan for 10 minutes then finish cooling on a rack. 

•  

Strawberry Cake

Adapted From Paula Deen's 1-2-3-4 Cake Recipe

1.5 cup sugar
2.5 cup flour
.5 cup cornstarch
1.5 T baking powder 
1 cup strawberry puree
egg substitute/ egg whites equivilent to 4 eggs
1 cup skim milk
1 t strawberry extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease 24-30 muffin tins
2. Mix together dry ingredients
3. In a separate bowl mix your wet ingredients
4. Stir your wet into your dry
5. Fill muffin tin 3/4 full and bake for 30-35 minutes.
6. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then place on a rack to finish cooling

Frosting

8 oz Cool Whip

1 package Pudding

1 cup milk

Directions

1. Whisk together milk and pudding mix
2. Fold in Cool Whip
3. Place in fridge for atleast 30 minutes before using.

How do you celebrate your kids' birthdays?

Happy 4th Birthday Sunny Bug!

Sunny, Newborn to Age 3

Happy Birthday Sunny!

4 years ago today my world got turned upside down.  Today was a fun filled family day.  I let Kaylee and Mantha skip school because we were originally going to goto the zoo.  But, it rained half the morning so we went bowling instead.

We bowled 1 game.  It actually took us an hour.  According to SparkPeople.com 1 hour of bowling burned 140 calories.  Not bad for just having fun, right?  Ken beat me, but not by much.  The girls had a blast

I love family fun time.  We on on adventures so seldom.  I'm glad that Sunny is getting older so we can do more.  {But I'm not going to lie, I broke down last nite thinking about the fact that I have no more babies in my house...}

After bowling we went to Ken's work to eat.  The people there love the girls.  I ordered the salmon {like I always do}  this time I ordered the Salmon Florentine.  It's supposed to come with Spinach Artichoke dip on top but I substituted the dip for some steamed spinach.  It was the best salmon I've had.  The GM cooked it for me himself because he wanted to make sure it was right.  {I adore that they care enough to do that for me}  We also ordered the gaucamole so I could try it. It was delicious!

[Tip:  Avacado's are very healthy.  Loaded with fat though.  They are not good if you are dealing with gallbladder issues.  But, if you are just wanting a healthy appetizer then the gaucamole is a great option.  BUT, chips are a diet buster!  Order it with a side of raw zucchini rounds.  They still give you that chippy crunch without the fat and calories]     

The people at Ken's work really did an outstanding job of waiting on us.  It probably helped that I brought them 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes.  They really made Sunny feel special.  Balloons, a gift {I told you, the GM is awesome!} and exceptional service {thanks Kevin!}

We came back to the house, called Gramma and Sirr on Skype and video chatted while we did cake.  I made a watermelon cake since we were having cupcakes at dinner.  This was the simplest cake EVER!  Ken cut 2 rounds of watermelon and I topped it with Cool Whip and skewered fruits.  Sunny loved it.   Kaylee wanted to do something special for Sunny so she was the one that designed the cake "topper" (there was no space on the top so it got put on the side.)  She made it out of homemade modeling chocolate.  {Melt 1 pound of chocolate and stir in 0.25 cup of corn syrup or maple sugar, let it come to room temp and then use it like play-doh}  

The sun and butterfly wings Kaylee made for the cake

Super healthy!

And finally, some pictures from our day...

Bowling fun

Dinner and Cake

What do you do for your kids birthdays?

Christmas Recipes

Okay, here's a little known fact about my family.  Christmas dinner takes FOREVER to decide on in this house.  I have no clue why but it takes us about a week to figure out our menu.  Christmas Eve is a no-brainer.  We do a "munching spread".  But, Christmas dinner, we have serious sit downs to decide on what we're going to have.  We normally start talking a few days after my parents get here and finalize the menu a day or 2 before Christmas Eve. 

But, here it is.  My Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner menus

Christmas Eve

Jalapeno Poppers 

Fat free and my fave!!

(adapted from Cook This!  Not That!)

1 cup mushrooms, diced
1/2 onion, minced
1/2 cup of fat free shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup fat free cream cheese
12 jalapenos

1. Spray a skillet with pan spray.  Sautee onions and mushrooms until soft.
2. Heat oven to 400 degrees
3. In a separate bowl, combine the onions, mushrooms, cream cheese and cheese
4. Slice the jalapenos in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds (leave them in if you want it super spicy)
5. Fill each half of jalapeno with the cheese mixture. 
6. Place them on a baking sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes until the peppers are soft and the cheese is brown and bubbly. 

Spinach Pie

(Adapted from SkinnyTaste)

(You can find the crust recipe HERE) 

Ingredients
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1 T dried dill
1 T parsley
1 cup fat free feta
2 T minced garlic
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup fat free milk
1/2 cup egg substitute (equal to 2 eggs)
 1/4 - 1/2 pizza dough recipe

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2.  Spray a pie pan with cooking spray
3. Roll out pizza dough to about 1/8" thick.  Cut it out so it's a bit bigger than your pie pan, lay it inside and crimp the edges
4. Mix together the spinach, green onions, dill, parsley and feta
5. In a seperate bowl mix together all the other ingredient.
6. Mix both mixtures together.
7. Spread in the crust
8. Bake for 28-33 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Let it rest for atleast 5 minutes before cutting it.

(If you use 1/4 of the pizza dough recipe it will add about 51 calories to each slice of pie)

Sliced Fruit
Strawberries
Grapes
Pineapple
Cantaloupe
Apples
Bananas

Sliced Veggies
Mushrooms
Carrots
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Celery
Radishes
Cucumber
Grape Tomatoes

For the fruits I use a yogurt dip:  

Ingredients
2 cups fat free vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup honey (more or less to taste)
1 tsp cinnamon (to taste) 

1. Mix it all together
2. Chill until ready to use

For the veggies I use a simple  

Ranch Dip 

(I found it on the back of the ranch powder container):

Ingredients
3 T ranch dressing powder
16 oz sour cream

1. Stir it all together, cover and refridgerate

Per Mo's request we are having  

PIGS IN A BLANKET

Ingredients
1 package Hillshire Farms Lit'l Smokies
1/2 batch of pizza dough

1. Roll out pizza dough and slice into long strips about 1" wide
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
3. Drain the liquid from the packages of sausages and dry them off
4. Wrap dough around sausages  
5.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown

ON TO CHRISTMAS DINNER!!

Gramma's Christmas Cake
This cake has been a Christmas tradition for many, many, many years.  I can't imagine Christmas without this cake.  When I got sick I had to doctor the recipe to make sure I could eat it.  This cake is my mom's Christmas version of a Jello Poke Cake.

White cake  

(taken from CalorieCount.About)

2 c all purpose flour
1 1/3 c sugar
2/3 c cornstarch
4 tsp baking powder
4 egg whites
1 1/3 c skim milk
2/3 c Karo syrup
2 tsp vanilla

1. Grease 2 9inch cake pans
2. Preheat oven to 350
3. Mix together dry ingredients
4. In a separate bowl whisk the liquid ingredients together
5. Add wet ingredients into the dry and mix well
6. Pour into greased pans
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes
8. Remove from pan and cool (Keep the pans though, you'll need them for the next step)

Ingredients to put the cake together
1 box cherry gelatin
1 box lime geletin
2 C boiling water
8 oz whipped topping (Cool Whip, Dream Whip or fresh whipped cream)
  

1. Place the cooled cakes back in the pans.  Poke holes into each cake using a chopstick, skewer or knife.
2. Dissolve cherry gelatin in 1 cup of boiling water, do the same with the lime.
3. Slowly pour the cherry over one layer of cake and the lime over the other cake.
4. Place the pans in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours to set.
5. Take the cakes out of the pans and  use the whipped topping to frost the cakes.
6. Dig in!

Honestly the rest of my Christmas menu is quite simple

Salmon

Ham

Potatoes, Green Beans and Onions

Ingredients

Petite Red Potatoes (or creamer potatoes)

Frozen or Fresh Green Beans

FROZEN Pearl Onions (Mr. Amazing made the mistake of getting me fresh pearl onions for Thanksgiving, they are a pain in the neck to peel!  But, if you can't find frozen, fresh will do)

Directions

1. Clean your potatoes and green beans 
2. If you're using fresh green beans then trim the ends
3. Put potatoes in a pot and fill with water.  
4. Bring the potatoes to a boil and let boil for 15 minutes
5. Add the green beans and onions, bring back to a boil, and boil for approximately 5 minutes.  
6. When everything is done, drain
7.  Serve

 

Rolls

You can either make your own or, if you're lazy like me, you can purchase them.  The only company that makes fat free rolls is Alexia.  Their French Rolls are fat free and very delicious.  

  

Corn 

We're just going to do frozen corn on the cob.  Nice and simple.

Squash with Wilted Spinach 
(The same one from Thanksgiving, ditch the dressing, I'm using butternut and acorn squash and sweet potatoes, and roast some garlic with the potatoes, after you put it on the plate, throw some feta on top)       

Well, there it is, my Christmas dinner and Christmas Eve spread.  Hopefully I've given you some ideas.  If you try any of my recipes please leave me a comment and tell me what you think!