Sweet Saturday #27: Apple Pie Smoothie

First we had Hurricane Sandy, and now Athena the Nor'easter snow storm! NY/NJ can't get a break! The funniest thing is, today it feels like 60 degrees out and the snow is almost completely melted! Less than 2 days ago it was pouring down on us and causing closings and delays. Those who believe that global warming is bunk are probably having second thoughts right now...

Anyway, let's talk sweet stuff instead. I keep seeing all these yummy recipes for variations on the apple smoothie, and decided it was time I made one myself. Using ingredients I had handy, here is what I came up with, and it turned out really good!

 

Apple Pie Smoothie
(serves 2 large or 4 small)

Ingredients:

1 apple, cored and chopped up (I used Red Delicious)
1 banana
1 cup milk of choice (I used almond-coconut)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp flax powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon + extra for topping

Puree all ingredients in blender. Pour into glass(es). Sprinkle extra cinnamon on top and garnish with apple slice if desired.

What you'll need, plus ground flax seed

Everything about to get blended up!

Alternatively, you could just use vanilla yogurt instead of plain, and don't bother to add the extract. You could also easily substitute the apple for pumpkin and make it a pumpkin pie smoothie! Ooo...I know what I'm trying next..!

 
This is a new favorite for sure. A treat your entire family will love. Apples are so good for you, they're full of so many nutrients like vitamin C, fiber, antioxidants, healthy sugars, and so much more. We are all familiar with the old saying: "an apple a day, keeps the doctor away"- it's probably true! They're so versatile and easy to cook/bake/create with! Make a batch of this smoothie for visiting guests that you don't have time to bake for!


Now, as I said before, Hurricane Sandy totally knocked me off my A game for a bit (and also knocked out my internet for about a week!), so forgive me if I didn't get to thank you for joining our last Sweet Saturday, or if I responded very tardily. I do my best to visit every link posted, but sometimes work and being a mommy/homemaker catches up with me, and my time runs out. I don't know how people who get over 200 links posted to their blog hop parties manage to get through it all! I wonder if they even do...?


And although I didn't make time this week to arrange for a guest hostess, I did check to see whose links had the most visits, in continuance with our fall theme. Here they are!

Earning My Cape's scrumptious-looking Pumpkin Roll recipe was our most-clicked overall! I think you can see why! Thanks, Susie!

Wow, just wow. Look at that slice of pie! Jazzy Gourmet's Chocolate Pumpkin Mousse Pie looks too good to be true! Thanks, Sherry!

Yet another delicious pumpkin-inspired recipe took third place in most-visited links. Jen's Favorite Cookies' recipe inspired my Pumpkin S'mores Cookies from 2 weeks ago, and now she is sharing these tasty looking no-bake treats. Thanks, Jen!

Most clicked-on honorable mentions:

Mary's Breakfast Sammies from Mary's Kitchen

Texas Chili and Non-GMO Blue Cornchips also from Mary's Kitchen

Rich Chocolate Cake from Something Sweet

I'm doing something a little different and placing my featured button right on the post instead of emailing it, so grab a button if you were featured today!
 

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Thanks to everyone who joined last time! Welcome all new party-goers! I can't wait to finally go through all the links from our last party and get a closer look- everything looks really amazing! Now, on to the party!

Just follow these simple rules:

1. Link up something sweet to really WOW us all- your blog, Etsy store, Pinterest, Facebook, whatever you want! 

2. Link-up as much as you want and please follow me and if you are not already. Leave me a comment if you are a new follower so I can follow you back!

3. Don't forget to hop around and say hi!

4. Share my button to get more people to join us (not required, but it would be nice!)

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Thanks for stopping by, this little get together really makes the weekend even more enjoyable for me, and gives me the encouragement to keep my little blog going :) 
 

Post- Post-Halloween Wrap-up

For most of the world, Halloween was celebrated 1 week ago on October 31st. However, those of us who were effected by superstorm Hurricane Sandy didn't get to "officially" celebrate until November 5th, this past Monday. It was cold, and the trick-or-treaters were scarce due to most people still more focused on recovering from Sandy's devestation than on collecting free candy and dressing up, but I was pleased to get rid of at least 2 of the 4 bags of candy I'd bought! 

Best of all, this was Lily's first time trick-or-treating, so it was fun to take her around for the first time. I had debated over the possible ramifications of celebrating this holiday with her- i.e. receiving free candy from strangers, having more than enough candy than she would ever need, me debating whether or not I should even allow her to eat any of the candy...In the end, I decided to focus on the positive parts of the holiday that was a favorite of mine as a kid- and still is! I love spooky stuff and dressing up and all the fall fun that goes along with the month of October. I felt it wouldn't be right to not allow Lily to participate with the other kids, even though she is still a bit young to even really know what Halloween is. Our night went something like this:

"I can has Halloween?"

The trick-or-treaters started arriving around 5ish, and at first Lily was confused, and then a little frightened by some of the costumes. But, after a while, and after I explained it to her a few times, she became curious, and said to me: "Mommy, I want to do Halloween". So, after dinner I dressed her up in her super cute Alice in Wonderland costume my dear friend Kristen had given her, and I bundled her up in a warm coat and sweat pants over her white stockings. Armed with her jack-o-lantern bucket, we set out and went to our neighbors homes who we already knew (so she wouldn't get too nervous), and after just 3 houses she told me she was ready to go home. Her bucket was already bursting as you can see from the picture below! She was so cute, she got extra goodies at each house we visited!

Happy with all her goodies

Inspecting her loot

I haven't let her eat any of the actual candy and don't intend to, although she "allegedly" opened a Tootsie Roll on her own and ate a small bite of it (I say allegedly because Paul was present when this happened, so I suspect he may have assisted). She still doesn't really know what candy is and is happy just to play with it by dumping it out of her bucket, looking at it all, and then putting it back in. Our neighbors were thoughtful enough to give her some treats that were less sugary, such as potato chips, oatmeal cookies, and a juice box, so we're letting her have those. They are working well as rewards for her good behavior :)

Happy Halloween!

Before the big day, we decorated some pumpkins in various ways. Holli from Full Hands, Full Heart shared this very clever way to allow toddlers to easily paint pumpkins with minimal mess and including a cute jack-o-lantern face! 

First, cut out shapes for the desired face, then pin directly onto pumpkin with sewing or safety pins.

Then let them paint away! The tacked-on face blocks the paint, and once the decorated pumpkin is all dry, you can remove the pins and paper and voilà! Here are our finished pumpkins:

I really gotta stop giving her black paint..

We added some glittery pom-poms, and I made a Mardi-Gras-themed pumpkin myself. The little green one is the one Lily picked from the patch at the farm we visited, and I painted the face on it. The pumpkin on the far left is Lily's first decorated pumpkin, which you can see more of here. 

All-in-all, it was a pretty fun Halloween, despite not being what I'd hoped it was going to be. You can't predict what Mother Nature will do sometimes, but that's okay. We are alive and well and our home is still standing. That's all I needed to make this Halloween a success. Keep others less fortunate in your thoughts and prayers. 

 

Meatless Monday: Cran-Blueberry Mini Muffins

First of all, I want to thank everyone who shared kind words and wished me well after the news in my last post. Things continue to pick up and return to normalcy at home. We are very fortunate to have not been hit harder.

One of the things I was happiest about after getting my electricity back was getting my oven back along with it! Although it uses gas, it has an electric starter...so, no baking to keep things warm and cozy during our power outage :(

But, I got back to work right away and baked up these easy-to-make and super tasty little muffins. Lily's favored request of the day after trying these babies was: "I want more muffin, Mommy."

Cran-Blueberry Mini Corn Muffins
(makes 2 dozen muffins)

Ingredients:

1 cup corn meal
1 cup flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup almond milk (or milk of choice)
1/2 cup canola or coconut oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine corn meal, flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Next, beat eggs in a separate large bowl, then add honey, milk, and oil and mix together. Slowly beat in dry ingredients until well-combined with wet. Add the blueberries, cranberries, and corn last.

I hope you do a neater job than I did...

Spoon mixture into greased or lined muffin tins, then put in oven to bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes before enjoying :)

These were easy and yummy and perfect for any time of the day. And don't they look cute?

Using fresh berries and corn packs these little muffins with antioxidants, vitamin C, fiber, and other beneficial nutrients. You can also try using whole wheat flour if you'd like to make them even healthier; the only reason I didn't is because I wasn't sure if they'd taste the same, but I may try that next time. The last time I used whole wheat flour when a recipe called for white I wasn't very pleased with the results.     

I'm not sure if you heard, but due to the reign of terror from Sandy, Halloween was post-poned to November 5th in NJ, so expect a be-lated Halloween post later this week, by Wednesday if not Friday. I hope you all aren't completely sick of October-related blog posts yet!

Now it's your turn to share your Meatless Monday dish below! No rules, other than please only link-up meat-free recipes. No other un-related links or I will remove them. Sorry to sound so harsh, but let's keep it true to what it is, ok? Link up as much as you want, and feel free to spread the word with the button below. Thanks, and have a great week! 

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Sweet Saturday #26: Pumpkin S'mores Cookies

Happy almost-Halloween, everyone! I don't know about you all, but I'm getting excited! I'm also going pumpkin-crazy, so I just had to make something pumpkin-y. I came across these AH-mazing sounding cookies recently and had to try them. Don't they look so yummy? I only did some slight tweaks, and I honestly was not 100% satisfied with them, but wanted to share anyway. The original recipe is called "Pumpkin Swirl Sugar Cookies", but they made me think of s'mores, so I gave them this cute name for my post. I Read on for how it went...

Pumpkin S'mores Cookies
(makes about 30 cookies)

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (+ extra for rolling) 
Chocolate chips  
Mini marshmallows
Raw brown sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350. Combine sugar, coconut oil, and butter, then mix in the eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin puree. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. 

Flour a flat surface for rolling the dough out on. Take a section of the dough, and roll out onto the floured surface with a rolling pin into a rectangle about 1/4" thick. Spread chocolate chips and mini marshmallows onto the dough like shown below.

  
Roll the dough into a log.

  
Slice roll into slices about 1" thick, then spread onto ungreased baking sheet about an inch apart. Sprinkle some of the raw sugar on top of each cookie. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until slightly browned on top. Allow to cool before serving.

  
Now, as awesome as these cookies look, I was a little disappointed. I thought dough was too doughy, and the pumpkin flavor was too subtle. This may have something to do with my using whole wheat flour or omitting the ginger, but I really don't think that should've made a huge difference. Also, the marshmallows practically completely dissolved into the cookies, which may have been because they were a cheap brand, perhaps? Honestly, I don't know. I followed the recipe to a tee except for the slight ingredient changes, but what I changed shouldn't have changed the cookies flavor too much I feel, but what do you think? I'm not the most experienced baker, maybe I did miss something...

Let me know what you think if you give them a try! Now, onto the features! Last week's most-clicked on posts were....

Simple Sweet 'n Savory is being featured here again for these too-cute cupcakes!! Love the cobweb frosting!

This yummy apple and honey challah is from Something Sweet, a blog that always has the most amazing baked goods on the web! 

Pinkoddy shared this sweet and simple DIY ghost tutorial made from upcycled materials.

This adorable unicorn-themed birthday party post is sure to inspire you! Congrats, Becoming SuperMommy, for being the most clicked-on feature!

I invite you to link-up Halloween-themed posts, but feel free to link-up whatever you want, as long as it is family-friendly and sweet! Fall-related posts are also encouraged. Our guest-hostess today is Good Girl Gone Green, and her blog is one of my favorites, so please check her out and be sure to leave some comment love if you like what you see ;)

Just follow these simple rules:

1. Link up something sweet to really WOW us all- your blog, Etsy store, Pinterest, Facebook, whatever you want! 

2. Link-up as much as you want and please follow me and Good Girl Gone Green if you are not already. Leave me a comment if you are a new follower so I can follow you back!

3. Don't forget to hop around and say hi!

4. Share my button to get more people to join us (not required, but it would be nice!)

I am still working on my Halloween costume, so expect some sweet pics of that and Lily's coming soon, as well as our pumpkins! Have a great weekend! 

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Sweet Saturday #25: Nutty Peanut Butter-Banana Cookies

It's officially baking season in my house now! Our oven hadn't been working since we moved in to the new house, and Paul finally got around to tinkering with it, and somehow got it to work. Hooray! So, I got started on making some cookies, and here's a new one I came up with. It's so tasty, moist, and healthy you could even have them for breakfast!

Nutty Peanut Butter-Banana Cookies

(makes about 30 cookies)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup honey + a little extra for topping

3/4 cup coconut oil, softened (you can also use shortening or butter)

1 egg

1 ripe banana, mashed

1/2 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup cut oats

1/4 cup hemp seed

1/4 cup flax seed

1 cup walnut pieces

1/4 cup brown sugar or honey

Preheat oven to 375. Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl until combined. In a separate bowl combine the honey, coconut oil, and egg together; then mix in the banana and peanut butter. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the wet ingredients with an electric beater until well-mixed. Last, add the oats, hemp seeds, and flax seeds. 

On ungreased baking sheets, place small spoonfulls of the batter onto the sheet, at about an inch apart. Place into center rack in oven. While they're baking, heat the walnuts and brown sugar in a small pot over medium heat. When the brown sugar starts to melt, start mixing together with the walnuts, being careful not to burn. Continue until sugar is all melted and coating the walnuts, should take about 5 minutes. 

Spread candied walnuts over a sheet of parchment paper and allow to cool for a moment. At the 10 minute mark on baking the cookies, remove them from oven without turning off the heat, and carefully press the tops with the back of a spoon in order to make a shallow indent. Dab a little extra honey onto each indent, the place a few of the candied walnuts on top of each cookie. Bake for another 5 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned. Allow to cool before serving.

This is a recipe I came up with on my own. I had an overly ripe banana I needed to do something with, and peanut butter goes pretty awesomely with banana, so I got creative. The added benefits of all the omegas, protein, fiber, and minerals from the nuts make these cookies especially healthy. Walnuts are especially beneficial for brain development and function, and those candied walnuts really make them yummy, so don't leave that out unless you want them to be completely sugar-free. Of course, you could probably make them candied with honey instead. Let me know how that goes if you try that!

I was happy to see that Lily really enjoyed these cookies. She loves treats, but- like most parents -I don't want her eating a lot of sugar. These cookies are the perfect fix for your little sweet tooth- whether it be your child, or yourself! We even had them for breakfast without feeling guilty about it ;) The only thing I would change next time is either add more banana or ease up on the nuts, because the banana flavor was a bit subtle. Other than that, this recipe is a keeper!

Now, here are the most clicked-on fall features:

These tasty-looking cookies made with apple sauce, walnuts, and raisins are the perfect healthy treat to satisfy your fall sweets craving! Thank you, Angie from God's Growing Garden!

Holli from Full Hands, Full Heart had a wonderfully informative post about choosing allergy-friendly treats to give out to trick-or-treaters this year. I was especially glad she posted this since I often try to choose allergy-free treats myself! Thanks, Holli!

And we also have another adorable and creative costume from Carpe Diem who has lots of fun DIY Halloween costume ideas on her blog, so please check her out! I really liked this costume in particular because it was one of my first Halloween costumes when I was a little girl, and my mom made mine too! I'll have to dig-up a picture to share ;) Thanks, Ana!

And the most clicked-on features over all were:

Cream of Cauliflower Potato Soup from Good Girl Gone Green

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups from Something Sweet

Eat to Beat Cancer (part 2) from Back to the Basics!

Thanks, ladies! I can't wait to see what everyone links up this week!

Now on to the party!!!

Just follow these simple rules:

1. Link up something sweet to really WOW us all- your blog, Etsy store, Pinterest, Facebook, whatever you want! 

2. Link-up as much as you want and please follow me if you are not already. Leave me a comment if you are a new follower so I can follow you back!

3. Don't forget to hop around and say hi!

4. Share my button to get more people to join us (not required, but it would be nice!)

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