Heat vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat, add onions and fry until slightly golden. Add the ground beef and fry until the meat is well browned, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, hot dogs, turmeric powder, salt and pepper; cook for 1-2 minutes. Then add green peppers, mushrooms, crushed tomatoes and salsa sauce; mix well and simmer uncovered until all the liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally.
Let the mixture cool then add bread crumb, dried oregano leaves, 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese; mix well and set it aside.
Meanwhile bring a large pan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add manicotti tubes and cook until tender but still firm to the bite (or follow the package instruction). Using a slotted spoon, transfer the manicotti tubes to a colander, drain, rinse under cold running water and drain again.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Using a teaspoon, fill the manicotti tubes with the mixture. Spread a little cooking oil around the inside of a baking dish and transfer the manicotti tubes to the dish (you need more than one dish).
Pour the white sauce over them to cover completely and sprinkle with 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake until golden brown and bubbling (30-40 minutes).
Serve immediately.
Note: All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my photos without prior written permission. If you want to share this recipe, please simply link back to this post for the recipe. Thanks!
Sometimes it seems like the years past faster than the days do, and capturing little handprints are like freezing a moment in time. When my oldest was small, I made an apron with his handprint on it for my dad for Father’s Day. I still LOVE seeing his tiny little hand on that apron. ♥ This year it was grandmas’ turn… I love how these Handprint Aprons turned out!
This is an easy and super fun project—the hardest part will be trying to get the handprints in the right places with a minimum of wiggling! I love gifts that the kids can contribute to, and it created some really great family time.
{SUPPLIES}
canvas apron
fabric paint (make sure it’s washable!)
fabric, matching thread
heat transfer (optional)
{DIRECTIONS}
1. I added my embellishment first–I thought it would be easier to have it in place, and use it as as guide when I added the handprints. I added a ruffle like THIS at the top and along the bottom of the apron, then stitched on a flower at the top using a coordinating fabric. You can embellish these aprons any way you like–that’s the beauty of it! I’ve seen darling flowers made out of handprints, with ric rac for the stem. A friend of mine added a ruffle all the way around the edge of the apron, and it was adorable.
2. I cut out the names of the moms (Grandma and Gramme), and the names of the kids in the same font–My Own Topher on my Silhouette. I used white flocked heat transfer, which I love for this project, because it has some depth to it. I didn’t iron them on yet–I wanted to wait until after handprints were on. but if you would rather do it the other way around that’s okay too!
When I made the original apron when my son was little, I used the fabric paint (get the bottle with a pointed tip–meant for writing) to write all the text. It turned out really cute, and it was super easy to do.
3. I applied the white paint to the hands one at a time, and despite much wiggling, I think they turned out pretty well! Have a plan for where you want them to go–it might not be perfect, but it will be better than guessing. Once this paint is on, it’s on! Check the bottle for directions, but mine needed to dry for 24 hours.
4. Once the handprints were dry, I ironed on the heat transfer names.
I can’t believe it’s already October – I have absolutely no idea where September went (or the whole year, for that matter). I’m hoping this month goes a lot slower because fall is always over so quickly here and there are too many things to enjoy before they’re gone, like the beautiful red and gold leaves on the trees, sunny weather with crisp air, being able to wear light jackets and boots before the parka and heavy boots come out for what feels like forever, and of course, pumpkin spice everything!
This is the first pumpkin recipe I’ve made this fall and I know I’ll be making it several more times before the season’s over!
I love pumpkin oatmeal, but replacing oats with quinoa retains the comforting porridge-like texture while adding lots of protein to give you energy to start your day! And because quinoa can be left alone while it cooks, it’s still easy to make this on a weekday morning while you’re getting ready for work or school.
All you need to do to turn plain quinoa into this cozy pumpkin breakfast quinoa is replace some of the cooking water with milk, then stir in some pumpkin, vanilla, spices, a little maple syrup for sweetness, and top with some pecans for crunch.
If you usually add milk to your oatmeal, you can do the same with this breakfast quinoa too – your choice! And if you want this to be even more of a treat, feel free to throw in a spoonful of chocolate chips!
Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Quinoa
Bring milk and water to a boil in a small to medium sized saucepan. Add quinoa, cover, reduce heat to simmer, and let cook 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Uncover and fluff with a fork, then stir in the pumpkin, maple syrup, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Taste and adjust any amounts to your liking (i.e. add more sweetness or spices). Divide into two bowls (add milk if desired) and top with desired amount of pecans.
I love cereal and I often have a bowl for a snack, but I never find that it does a good job filling me up. Because of this I rarely have cereal for breakfast, assuming that I am going to be hungry in an hour.
Every morning Eric eats a gigantic bowl of Nature’s Path Spelt cereal, chia seeds, and raisins that holds him over for 4-5 hours. I have cereal envy! If I can make it happen, I just may have to design my own custom cereal.
So, this morning I set on a mission to do justice to the cereal bowl…
My mission was to create a bowl of cereal that had the following elements:
High in protein (over 25 grams)
High in fibre (over 15 grams)
Good dose of Omega healthy fats
Antioxidants
Fruit
Super Crunchy texture
Light sweetness and an array of flavours
Is it possible? And would it hold me over all morning long?
The first thing I did was make a list of the foods that I wanted to include:
Nature’s Path Spelt Cereal (love this cereal because it’s 100% spelt flour and just 4 grams sugar per serving)
Raw Buckwheat Groats- For the crunch, protein/fibre + other nutrients
Eden Organic Soy Milk– I’ve been using this lately for breakfast because it has 12 grams protein per cup! It is also organic, no additives, and uses non-GMO beans. With that said it doesn’t taste great because I got the unsweetened variety.
Vega Choc-o-lot Protein Powder– I had the fun idea of sprinkling some of my favourite protein powder onto the cereal for an extra vitamin and protein boost.
Fruit– For light sweetness, texture, and nutrients (Today I used strawberries, kiwi, and raisins)
1/2-1 teaspoon (not tbsp like I wrote prior) chocolate protein powder (I used Vega choc-o-lot)
1.25 cup high-protein non-dairy milk (I used Eden organic soy with 12 grams PRO per cup)
Before I even poured the bowl, I calculated the nutrition info to see if it was where I wanted it to be. After a couple tweaks, I was able to come up with one powerhouse cereal bowl.
Nutritional Info Per basic Bowl (above):
532 kcals
15 grams fat (1 gram sat fat, mostly healthy fats)
Fruit to equal 1/2 cup (I used 3 strawberries and 1/2 kiwi)
Buckwheat Note: Apparently, raw buckwheat groats can cause GI discomfort in some people Please proceed with caution when using! Toasted buckwheat (Kasha) might be a better option for some.
[/print_this]
The chocolate protein powder was fun! I’ve never had it on cereal before but I loved the chocolaty and sweet flavour it brought to this bowl.
I also loved the combination of chia seeds, protein powder, soy milk, spelt flakes, and buckwheat. The chia seeds created a doughy VOO mixture at the bottom of the bowl that I loved. This was probably one of the most satisfying bowls of cereal I have had in a while. It was SO flavourful and had so many amazing textures!
But how long will it hold me over? I have my doubts, but time will tell. I’ll be sure to report my findings. :)
I’ve has this vision of molasses buttercream floating around my head ever since Heather came to town. She brought some delightful espresso macarons to her book signing this past summer, filled with a surprising molasses buttercream.
I haven’t forgotten it.
Sweet Potato Cake with Molasses Buttercream
I first attempted to re-work the bourbon layer cake, intending to use it as a base for this inspired buttercream, and also playing with the recipe as it has never completely satisfied me in terms of consistency. Unfortunately, my modifications, which I thought would help make the cake lighter and fluffier, only made things worse.
With another cake failure settled into the garbage and me not wanting to give up just yet, I still needed a vehicle for my molasses buttercream. So I turned to my faithful stand-by: Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes. In it was a recipe for a delightful sweet potato cake. Seeing as how we’ve been getting a steady 2 pounds of sweet potatoes each week with our CSA and a whopping 10 pounds this past week, I had no shortage of sweet potatoes. It seemed it was meant to be.
Sweet Potato Cake with Molasses Buttercream
While it isn’t the simplest cake to prepare, the extra step of whipping and folding in the egg whites make the cake light, with a delicate crumb that most sweet potato or pumpkin cakes lack. In fact, I may have to try this trick on the aforementioned bourbon cake as it could definitely use some lightening up.
The cake itself has a very light sweet potato flavor and subtle spiced undertones. It’s like a milder version of pumpkin pie, only with sweet potato, and cake instead of custard (ok, so maybe it’s not like pumpkin pie at all). But my intuition that it would be delightful in combination with a sweet and sticky molasses buttercream? Spot on.
Sweet Potato Cake with Molasses Buttercream
I’ve slowly realized, over the years of making cakes and cupcakes, that buttercream has distinct seasons (and I’m talking about straight up American buttercream here, don’t even get me started on the meringues and other varieties). Summer means soupy buttercream, so you better have some shortening handy. Spring and fall are ideal for buttercream-preparation, where the temperature of “room-temperature” is, apparently, perfect. But I never thought I’d have trouble with winter buttercream, even more so than the pesky summer stuff. It definitely requires some more experimentation on my part to figure it out, but I assume that the butter is simply too cold. Even at room temperature it’s still a chilly 65 degrees. My winter buttercream often stays thick, bordering on buttery/greasy in texture (even though the powdered sugar makes it plenty sweet). Adding more milk/cream to lighten it up only works to a certain extent, after which adding more doesn’t change things one bit. Poor, sad, moody buttercream.
Guess you can add American buttercream to the ever-growing list of seemingly-simple things with which I constantly battle (including, but not limited to: chocolate, chocolate ganache, chocolate candy coating, caramel, and pie crust).
Perfectly fluffy or not, luckily, it still makes for a fantastic cake.
For Frosting:
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup milk or cream, more or less as needed
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prick sweet potatoes in a few spots with a fork, then place on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for about 1 hour, or until the potatoes are very soft and beginning to caramelize. Remove from oven cool slightly.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 9-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper; butter parchment.
When the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel of the skins and remove any blemishes. Pulse in a food processor until smooth. Measure out 1 cup of puree (discard or reserve the rest for another use).
In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
In a large metal mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on medium speed until frothy. Gradually beat in /4 cup of sugar, increase speed to high, and beat until the egg whites form moderately stiff peaks.
In another large mixing bowl, combine sweet potato, butter, vanilla, and remaining 2 cups sugar. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. With the mixer on low speed, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, followed by 1/2 of the milk. Repeat with another 1/3 dry ingredients, remaining milk, and finally remaining dry ingredients, mixing until just incorporated.
Using a large rubber spatula, fold 1/4 of egg whites into the batter to lighten it. Add the remaining egg white and continue to fold just until incorporated; be sure not to overmix the batter.
Divide batter among prepared cake pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks and cool completely, at least 1 hour.
To prepare frosting, in a large mixing bowl, beat butter on medium-high speed until smooth and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add molasses and beat until incorporated. Depending on the temperature and consistency of your frosting at this point, add milk or cream, 1 tablespoon at a time as needed, then continue beating until frosting is light and fluffy.
To assemble, level each cake layer by cutting of the domed top with a long serrated knife. Place one layer, flat side down, on a cake stand or serving platter. Spread on a layer of buttercream using an offset spatula. Position second layer on top and press to adhere. Repeat with another layer of buttercream, and then position final cake layer, flat side up.
Cover the entire cake with a thin layer of buttercream. This “crumb coat” will make frosting the cake easier. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes to allow this crumb coat to set.
Remove cake from refrigerator and frost with remaining buttercream, reserving some for piping decorative details if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
Let us know what you think! Leave a Comment or share a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #loveandoliveoil.
In a world of exotic baked goods, these take the cake: cupcakes made from shredded potatoes, bacon, eggs and Cheddar cheese, and drizzled with spicy Sriracha sauce. The final flavor is pure breakfast, but like nothing you’ve ever tasted.
Since trying to make the switch to Paleo, breakfast has proven to be the most difficult meal of the day for me. Snacks are easy and lunch and dinner aren't hard, but traditional breakfast food generally contains grains that are a big no no when it comes to Paleo. I figured some other people may be having a hard time coming up with breakfast options too. There are only so many days in a row that I can eat bacon and eggs. Check out these 20 Paleo breakfastideas to help add plenty of variety to your mornings. If you are looking for a way to sweeten your evenings, check out these 25 Paleo Dessert Recipes too.
Hi Guys! I’d like to get straight to dumplings, if that’s okay… because I.LOVE.DUMPLINGS. (that should be a shirt, by the way…just a thought) Yes, we have Pot Stickers for you today and they’re awesome. :) I love pot stickers because they’re as basic as it comes, when it comes to dumplings, and it’s the type of snack you can fill with whatever suits your taste!
Today’s Pot Stickers recipe is sort of a mixed bag of Asian ingredients, but the dipping sauce is very Korean. Choganjang is a Korean condiment generally made of 3 parts soy sauce and 1 part vinegar. It’s great to use for dipping pot stickers, but I really love adding a spoonful to hot, kimchi dumpling and rice cake soup… so good! As we get into chillier months you can guarantee we’ll be sharing said soup with all you lovelies.
Not only is this recipe super easy to throw together, but it’s quick and delicious! These little guys also freeze really well. I love making a giant batch of these pot stickers and freezing them for whenever I want them. You can also make them slightly healthier by going full steam on them and skipping the pan frying all together. You can also skip out on “fancy” crimping and go straight-edged if you prefer. Enjoy! xx, Jenny
While living in Korea, Husband definitely loved the Korean dramas while I tried to find ways to watch Oprah and US TV shows. I always ended up watching the dramas because Husband liked them and time after time, although I hated myself for it, I would become very wrapped up in whatever story line, throwing things at the TV when the evil-mother-in-law character would do something horrible to the beautiful-loving-sweet-angelic protagonist. And even though each drama would have many predictable elements like cancer, a break-up, a forbidden love and a series of misunderstandings between man and woman, it still made for good entertainment. After intensely focusing on a series, I would tel Husband, "That's the last one I'm watching" because I would become too overwrought and too involved. Korean dramas were very stressful and not good for me.
After moving back to the Bay Area, Korean dramas fell by the wayside as 3 children competing for my attention simply out-competed dramas which wanted my attention. Husband too stopped watching them, although every so often he'd mention that maybe we should go rent a series, to which I adamantly always said no. I liked my sleep, and having a series that we stayed up to late to watch just seemed like a bad idea. Therefore, for 4 years, I have not watched a Korea drama.
Until the weekend I was with my parents in Southern California, I did not even remember that I used to watch the dramas. But Father and Mother were getting very involved in one, and suddenly, every evening, after Children were in bed, I found myself in front of the TV, getting vaporized into the drama on the big TV. The final night, before I left, I begged Father to get as many episodes as we could watch so that I could try and finish the story. The final evening, as I sat watching and bawling my eyes out (in my defense, so did Mom) over the hopeless love between a girl and a boy, I remembered all the times I watched dramas and how much I enjoyed them. It was and is now, very much a pleasurable experience, and I won't even call it a guilty pleasure. It is a good pleasure, to watch something, to engage with the characters, and at the end of the series to have some sort of release from all the emotions. (Some in Korea have been known to call a good series "therapy" as the emotions that are locked inside of you get gushed out through a good drama.)
With the arrival of my new ice cream maker, I've been trying to find ways to make things that are delicious in them, but that I am happy to feed my kids. I've discovered that owning your own maker means that you can make healthier versions of sorbets (sorbetto), reducing sugar and increasing fruit. Daughters love them and Son is now hooked to the cantaloupe version. And the elation on their faces as they enjoy this pleasure, a pleasure that I don't feel guilty giving them, is worth the small effort to make it.
The basic method of sorbets is to make a syrup, blend it with some fruit, and then pour it into the ice cream maker and let it do the rest. Simple, straightforward, but produces lots of yummy refreshing goodness. My recipe is less sugar than other recipes ask for, and an increase in the fruit. If you're using fresh, seasonal, ripe fruits, the natural sweetness of the fruit will be the star of the sorbet, and not refined sugar. YAY!! A not-so-guilty pleasure! The cantaloupe version is sweet and mild while the kiwi is tart and bright. Making both means that you get a little bit of goodness from both sweet and tart.
**Cooking notes: Here's a quick tip to peeling your kiwi - use a spoon.
Cut kiwi in half and stick a thin spoon (I like this Korean spoon for this) in between the flesh and the skin and rotate the kiwi around until you go around the entire fruit. (This works best with fruit that is starting to ripen.)
Honey, Lime, Cantaloupe Sorbet Makes about 1 quart
Ingredients ¼ cup sugar ¼ cup water ¼ cup honey 5 cups of cantaloupe, cut and chilled (Tuscan melons are sweet with extra flavor) Juice of 2 limes
Method In a heavy saucepan add sugar, water and honey. Over medium heat bring to a boil, dissolving the sugar and honey altogether. (Use a larger pan so as to avoid messy sugary overflow, which I experienced.) Remove from heat. Cool, and then refrigerate until syrup is cool.
With a blender or a hand blender, blend together cool syrup, cantaloupe and lime juice. Pour contents into ice cream maker and turn on for 25 to 30 minutes, until mixture is stiff and bunching into the blades. Remove all sorbet from ice cream maker and store it in another container. Freeze for an additional 2 hours. Serve. Kiwi Sorbet Makes about 1 quart
Ingredients ¼ cup sugar ¼ cup water ¼ cup honey 5 cups of peeled and cut kiwi Juice of 1 lime
Method In a heavy saucepan add sugar, water and honey. Over medium heat bring to a boil, dissolving the sugar and honey altogether. (Use a larger pan so as to avoid messy sugary overflow, which I experienced.) Remove from heat. Cool, and then refrigerate until syrup is cool.
With a blender or a hand blender, blend together cool syrup, kiwi and lime juice. Pour contents into ice cream maker and turn on for 25 to 30 minutes, until mixture is stiff and bunching into the blades.
Remove all sorbet from ice cream maker and store it in another container. Freeze for an additional 2 hours. Serve. Printable recipe
the ice cream that I'm using.
Williams Sonoma has a great deal on the same ice cream maker with TWO bowls. (so you can make two kinds of sorbets as once.) They also have a very cool looking stainless steel cuisinart with great reviews on special. Link here.
Unfortunately imgfave will be shutting down operations soon :( Long story short, I have been operating imgfave at a loss for awhile now we can no longer afford to keep the servers running. I want to thank everyone in the imgfave community. Some of you have been coming to imgfave to find and share your visual inspiration for as long as 10 years! For many of you it has become an important part of your daily routine. I'm sorry to have to shut it down, but it's just no longer as possible to keep the lights on.
But what about my images?
A generous member of the imgfave community is working on a tool that will let you download all your images and collections. We'll make it available to download as soon as it's ready. Please make sure you have an up-to-date email set in your imgfave account so that you can receive our announcement.
Progress on the imgfave exporter tool is coming along nicely. I've gotten some emails from people concerned about getting their images out, so just want to assure you that you'll have time to do so once the tool is ready. Please make sure you have an up-to-date email set in your imgfave account so that you can receive our announcement.
Update (Oct 3rd 2018):
You can now view your own profile and collections once logged in. I've also updated the Pinterest share option so that if you share an image to Pinterest it will use the original source url instead of linking back to imgfave. This should be helpful to those that would like to manually start moving some of their images over to Pinterest. Still working on a way to allow users to download a full export of all their images.
You can email me at hello@imgfave.com with any questions or concerns and I'll do my best to get back to you.
What a crazy weekend this has been! Between Thursday and Saturday, I made 60 cupcakes for a hospital fundraiser, 6 orange passionfruit curd mini tarts, a batch of tangerine mousse, 24 pumpkin-decorated sugar cookies (my first decorated cookies ever and pictured above), and a lemon genoise cake filled with lemon curd and covered in lemon white chocolate mousse frosting as well as decorating a half sheet cake with lots of buttercream and pumpkin and fall colored designs! To be honest, I can hardly believe I was able to get it all done, but it feels damn good to have completed all of it! But I must confess that I moved my favorites post up this week because I simply could not drag myself back to baking just yet. So please enjoy these lovely photos from around the blogosphere while I muster up the will to get back in the kitchen =p.
Hot Chocolate on a Stick (Free Printable Pumpkin Labels Download) from The Ticket KitchenPumpkin-shaped Orange Velvet Whoopie Pies from Cookies & Cups
Lastly I wanted to share this very useful kitchen safety infographic that a reader recently shared with me. Trust me, I'm familiar with the many ways that you can hurt yourself in the kitchen. Plus a lot of food-related illness comes from improper handling. So please put safety first whenever you're in the kitchen!
