Frozen Hot Chocolate (gf)

Being pregnant always brings its food adventures.  The cravings I have are so ridiculous, sometimes frustrating, and if ignored can be completely outrageous.  When I was pregnant with my baby girl I had a craving for doughnuts.  I was trying to reign in my diet some and fried dough smothered in sugary goodness was not part of that healthier diet, so I ignored it thinking it would go away.  How could I have been more wrong?  Not only did the craving not go away but it got stronger, so strong to the point that I started dreaming of dancing doughnuts.  Disturbing!  Thank goodness for my dear sweet husband who, on his way home from early morning physical training with the Army ROTC, went to the store and picked up a gallon of milk...and doughnuts.  Craving satisfied and no more dreams of dancing doughnuts.  What a relief!

This pregnancy has had it's own challenges, mostly cravings that are for things that aren't easily attainable in our state not to mention even on this side of the country.  Grrr!  Cravings for things like

L&L Hawaiian BBQ, In N Out, or the little Chinese food place that sells the most amazing doughnuts just up the street from my house.  Yes, CHINESE place.  Don't knock it till you taste it.  So of course when I've craved doughnuts this pregnancy I didn't ignore it, I satisfied it and fast.  Now this post is not a doughnut recipe (haven't found a good one yet) but it is about frozen hot chocolate. I've had it before and was telling my husband about it and he looked at me like I was crazy.  Then I had to laugh when I saw an article about Dunkin Doughnuts new frozen hot chocolate drink that has become super popular.  See, I'm not crazy!



Not being one to fork over 4 bucks for a drink I know I could make myself for the three of us at home I searched for a recipe and then have switched it up a bit.

Frozen Hot Chocolate (gf)

1 cup milk

1/4 cup your favorite dairy creamer (optional)

1/2 cup of your favorite hot chocolate mix

2 cups crushed ice

Chocolate syrup

Whipped cream (optional)

Place the first 3 ingredients in a blender and blend for several minutes until smooth.  Add a little chocolate syrup to taste.  Top with whipped cream if desired and a little additional chocolate syrup on top.

My little miss enjoys it a ton, a perfect Saturday morning treat.

Homemade Horchata

Mint Chocolate Chip Smoothie

Brazilian Lemonade

Hawaiian Lava Flow

Yay for National Ice Cream Month! Watermelon Ice Cream (gf)

Who knew there was a National Ice Cream Month?  I didn't until this last week.  So in honor of it here are two tasty recipes.  Here's the first of two.

What is the number one summer fruit?  I'd probably say watermelon.  And I love watermelon, so juicy, so tasty, so light.  Perfect for summer.  Last summer (yeah, I know, better late than never right?) we had a ton of watermelon that I wanted to use up and I really wanted to make ice cream.  Of course looking online I couldn't find any actual watermelon ice cream recipes.  Everything was for watermelon bombes.  Not what I wanted.  I did find a recipe which is from Emeril Lagasse.  It's a bit of work, but is so worth it!

Watermelon Ice Cream (gf)

4 quarts watermelon pieces with juice
1 quart heavy cream
2 cups sugar
8 egg yolks

Split the watermelon in half, reserving the other half for a later use. Using a large spoon, remove the fruit from the halved watermelon. Using your hands and knife, remove all seeds from watermelon and discard.

Dice watermelon into 2 inch pieces and put in a large bowl with the juice. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine heavy cream and sugar. Bring the mixture up to a simmer.

Whisk the egg yolks until smooth and temper into the hot cream mixture.  To temper, slowly add a few spoonfuls of the hot cream mixture to the egg yolks as you whisk.  If you stop whisking or add in too much hot cream it will curdle the eggs.  Go slowly!

Cook the egg mixture for four minutes. Remove from the heat.  Pour hot cream mixture over watermelon pieces and mix thoroughly. Cool to room temperature.

Using a hand held blender puree the mixture until smooth and strain.

Add the ice cream mixture to the your ice cream machine and follow the ice cream machine directions.  I have a small ice cream machine so I made three or four batches of the ice cream.

Serve ice cream or scoop out ice cream and place ice cream back into the empty half of watermelon.

Cover with plastic wrap. Freeze until very firm.  To serve, slice watermelon into 1 inch slices.

Makes 1 gallon ice cream

Check out the new blog at jonesinfortaste.com

Homemade Marshmallow Fondant (gf)

My husband and my daughter have their birthdays the same month.  They aren't really close together being over three weeks apart but until my little girl gets older we've decided to group them together for the meantime.  For their luau themed party this year I decided to make two cakes and I wanted to try marshmallow fondant, a recipe I had found from Bridget at Bake at 350 (I love her blog, she is just too cute, if you haven't met her yet, you should).  It was super easy to work with, and the kids loved the taste.  A few of them ate just the fondant, not the cake.  Talk about sugar overload, but isn't that what birthday parties are about.  You can check out the recipe and her step by step post here.

Homemade marshmallow fondant (gf)

I used a decorating tip to cut out circles for the fish and then rolled them a little thinner with my fingers to make them bigger and more realistic. I also cut out strips to make the fins and layered both using a light brush of water to make them stick to one another.  That was just the easiest way for me to do it at 1am.  I'm sure there are better ways.

So if you have ever wanted to use fondant but were scared by cost or ease of use just go for it.  You won't know what you are missing until you do.

Oatmeal Yogurt Muffins

I have to say I am in love with these muffins.  They are tasty, filling, and don't make me feel like I'm going to gain ten extra pounds just by looking at them.  I make them with whole wheat flour for the regular flour and unsweetened applesauce for the oil.  Plus they are super easy to adapt to whatever flavors you want by changing up the yogurt.  Almost too easy I know.  The only bummer is they make small batches but they come together so quickly that it doesn't seem that big of a deal to make a few at once.  And just like my cheesy- garlic biscuits, I just throw them in the freezer and pull them out when I need a treat or for the hubby to take to work for breakfast.  Enjoy!

Oatmeal Yogurt muffins

(adapted from recipe found on Yoplait 32oz yogurt)

Chocolate-chip with vanilla yogurt

(From l to r) Strawberry yogurt, apple and vanilla yogurt

1 cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 /2 tsp double-acting baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup raisins, chocolate chips, blueberries, or diced apple, or anything you want to add really

1 cup vanilla or strawberry nonfat yogurt, or blueberry, peach, the possibilities are endless

1 large egg, beaten lightly

2 Tbsp canola oil, or applesauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Lightly grease 1/2 cup muffin tins or use paper liners.  In bowl stir together flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon (and dried fruit if you are using them).  In another bowl, whisk together yogurt, egg and applesauce.  Stir the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined (don't over mix or you will have tough muffins).  

Divide the batter among 10 cavities and bake the muffins on the middle oven rack for 22-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Cheesy garlic biscuits (using homemade Bsiquick)

So this is the follow-up post to the previous post on homemade Bisquick Mix.  This is an adaptation of their recipe for cheese-garlic biscuits.  I've eliminated one step to make these even easier and I like to make a double or triple batch and freeze them.  I just reheat in the microwave for at least 45 seconds (the more on a plate the longer it takes) and wallah- hot biscuits without heating up the house.  Tricky I know.  Enjoy!

Cheesy-Garlic biscuits

2 cups homemade Bisquick mix
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp butter
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/2 Tbsp parsley
2/3 cup milk

Mix Bisquick mix, cheese, garlic powder, and parsley together.  Add milk and butter.  Stir until combined and add drop onto un-greased cookie sheet.  Bake for about 10 minutes until golden brown.