Cinnamon Rolls with Coffee Glaze

I chuckle as I write this post thinking back to how I used to never call myself a breakfast food fan. I always ate breakfast, as it is THE most important meal of the day, but it was usually a smoothie or fruit and cereal. Then I thought back to all the breakfast food posts I have added which changed my mind. Maybe I really do like breakfast, but only the fresh baked or made from scratch kind. Here's another favorite of my mine.

So, how important is breakfast in your family? Do you plan breakfast like you do your dinner meals? If not, let me convince you to try. I am amazed at how much smoother my mornings go if I know right when the alarm goes off what I need to get on the table for my girls. If you don’t put some planning or thought into this meal, you might be more likely to settle for processed foods, either at home or on the road, which are high calorie and fat-laden choices.

As I sit down to plan our meals either on Friday night or Saturday morning, I like to think about what pleasing and nutritious foods my family would enjoy for breakfast. A few days a week, I build in room for choices so my oldest can enjoy cereal or a frozen waffle. This is also helpful for those crazy hurried mornings where no one has time to breathe. We tend to stick with either thick oatmeal dishes, French toast or, every now and then, splurge on a homemade baked treat such as these yummy cinnamon rolls!

I have always loved making cinnamon rolls and fell in love with The Pioneer Woman version but knew I needed to work on a healthier version. So when one of my first food bloggers I ever connected with, Jen Schall over at My Kitchen Addiction came out with a great whole wheat version I knew I had found a winner!


Cinnamon Rolls with Coffee Glaze
Adapted from: My Kitchen Addiction

For the dough:
3/4 cup warm low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup orange juice
1/3 cup cane sugar
1/3 cup plain low fat yogurt
1 egg
1/4 cup canola oil
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour (or Jen uses 4 cups of White Whole Wheat flour instead of 1/2 and 1/2)

For the filling:
1 cup dark brown sugar
4 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted

For the icing:
¼ cup strongly brewed coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powder sugar

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, orange juice, sugar, yogurt, egg, and oil. Add the yeast and let sit for about 5 minutes. Then add the salt and one cup of the flour. Stir one more cup of flour until the dough begins to form and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. You can transfer dough to stand-up mixer and use dough attachment or turn out onto a floured surface and knead in the rest of the flour, until the dough is smooth and not too dense.

Grease another large bowl and place dough in center and cover with damp cloth. Let rise until almost doubled in size (about 1 ½ hours).

Lightly grease a deep cookie sheet or 9x13 casserole dish and set aside. In small bowl add melted butter, cinnamon and sugar.

Punch down the dough, and roll out it out on a floured surface. Make sure to roll it into a nice long rectangle. Only roll it to a ½ thickness. You want your roll to be nice and doughy. Spread butter, sugar, cinnamon mixture over dough and roll lengthwise. Press end gently down to close off the roll. Cut dough with sharp knife into 12 large cinnamon rolls and place in lightly greased pan.

Let the rolls rise in a warm spot on the counter or stove for about 30 minutes or longer if you can wait. NOTE-make sure not to have direct heat touch pan or they will start to cook- yucky! Great time to heat the oven!

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool then add the Coffee Glaze. The glaze will be runny so no need to worry if it soaks into the rolls. This makes them even better!

Crunchy Granola with Almond Butter

A Feature from the KY Food Bloggers Bake Sale

When I was in college I landed a great job at a cool new natural food store that moved to town. Of course, I say "cool" when most were saying- "weird". Anyway, I enjoyed this job SO much!

I had been a vegetarian for a couple of years by then so what better way for a cheap college student to get their food, but with a discount from work. Not only did we get great discounts but we also got great freebies from the companies we sold. Granola was one of these samples we were given often and since it was not something I grew up on, NO- I grew up eating plain Grape-Nuts and plenty of Cheerios, I took every sample. Years later it finally hit me that I could make this stuff! How easy, oats, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and oh yeah- honey. Since this discovery I have tried to perfect my recipe. Here is one trial that's really good. Hope you like it too!


Granola with Almond Butter

¼ cup oat flour (use food processor to make your own by grinding about ½ cup to a fine powder)
3 cups of old fashion rolled oats
¼ cup wheat germ
¼ cup ground flax seeds
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 cup almond butter
3 tbsp melted butter (or ½ cup canola oil- I’ve used both and they each work well)
½ cup honey
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
¼ cup sunflower seeds
1 cup sliced almonds (whole work well too!)
1 cup dried fruit of your choice (I like to vary it with either apricots, mangoes, dates or here I used raspberries)

Heat oven to 350degrees
Mix dry ingredients minus the dried fruit in a large bowl. Whisk together butter, sugar, honey, cinnamon and salt then add almond butter and stir. Gradually add wet ingredients to other bowl and stir well. Mix in dried fruit and almonds. Spread on baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until slightly brown.

First Annual National Food Bloggers Bake Sale

If you've visited my page in the past couple of months you might have noticed the cute cupcake button in my sidebar. Well, the sale finally arrived bringing much anticipation and excitement! This was the annual weekend of the American Bake Sale and I joined forces with other food bloggers from around 21 states to support Share Our Strength in raising money to help fight childhood hunger. A BIG thanks to the lovely Gaby from What's Gaby Cooking for spearheading this wonderful team!

Did you know that 1 out of 4 children in the U.S. struggles with hunger everyday? That pushed me to set up a sale in the Bluegrass area! So I did it! I emailed a few places and found a great location! The Georgetown International Kite and Cultural Festival. I started asking around for folks to help me bake and I was amazed by the generous out pour of baked goods. Then I had to decided what I wanted to whip up that I knew others would enjoy. Hahah- not some of my strange creations. Check out what I added to the sale below.

To make this even sweeter was an email I received from Jen over at Homemade By Holman, a fellow food blogger in Louisville. She contacted me to see if she could help by driving over, about an hour or so drive, to drop off her treats. I was thrilled to met her! Check out what Jen made on her site. She's planning on adding some recipes soon.

Then my mom...what an incredible woman, offered to bake. My best friend Whitney(pictured below) jumped in and baked her special Peanut Butter Cookie too. -And she even spent time away from her 4 kids and fabulous husband to help work the sale. Plus I had two of my co-workers, Helen (pictured below) and Karen who pitched in with goods and worked the sale. This all made for a wonderful day!
























On top of all the delicious baked treats we also had a HUGE helpful addition to our sale...HOT coffee! What a hit seeing that Saturday was a pretty chilly day in the Bluegrass after we had been enjoying summer like temperatures. Jim Davis owner of Common Grounds, you can follow him on Twitter @EspressoMedic- donated 2 huge urns of some really good coffee for our folks to enjoy.

















Wondering what we all provided? Here's some of what we all provided.
Don't hesitate to ask for other recipes if interested. I'll add my recipes later this week.

Some of my awesome bakers provided:
Applesauce Squares
Banana Bread Loaves
Banana Muffins
Chocolate Cherry Bread
Chocolate No-Bake Cookies
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Funfetti Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing
Lemon Almond Scones
Old Fashion Applesauce Loaves
Peanut Butter Cookies
















I added these goodies:
Cinnamon Rolls with Coffee Glaze
Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
Almond Butter Granola

And I had to add this cute picture of one of Jen's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes. They don't just look great but they taste great too! Yum! Don't forget to visit her site to see what all she brought to share.


















This was such a great experience that I'm already pumped to get going next year! If you're in the Bluegrass State and think you'd be interested to...contact me later and we'll start planning early. For our first sale - I am very pleased to annouce we made a little over $200 to contribute to Share Our Strength. All in all- the whole Food Blogger team made over $16, 000 in ONE weekend! WOW!

Not Your Average Ramen Noodle Salad

I bet you all never thought you'd see Ramen noodles on my post. Well, I didn't think so either, until I got a craving for a fresh Asian salad as I was planning our menu for the week. My oldest and I went to Kroger for a few items on Sunday, and it even took me a little while to get the courage up to pull the package of noodles off the shelf. Why didn't my college instincts kick in? I ate plenty of these packages, usually with my own seasonings, or plain, when living on my own.

Anyway, I took the plunge and purchased them, and on Tuesday night I got enough courage up to fix them for the fam. They turned out tasting pretty good mixed with my dressing---nice and tasty!

Ramen Noodle Salad

4-6 cups of salad greens
1/2 head of purple cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, peeled and shredded
1/2 green pepper, sliced thinly
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 tsp virgin coconut oil, melted
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
1 tsp sesame seeds
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 package of Ramen Noodles, broken in small pieces (I bought Oriental- but you don't use the seasoning so it might not matter)
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 can mandarin oranges, drained

Place salad greens in bowl. Shred other veggies on top. In separate bowl, whisk melted coconut oil, garlic, ginger and remainder ingredients until nicely blended. Break noodles and place on top of salad pour dressing on top and add oranges. The oil will solidify but will taste so good! If you do not have coconut oil, olive will work too but minus coconut flavor.

A side note: If you look closely, you will notice this beautiful bowl is wooden. I am very proud to say that my father made this bowl! He is an amazing woodcrafter. Remember the cute rolling pins he made for my oldest gal's birthday party. I can't wait to show you more of his wonderful crafts. Just wait, you'll want to place an order.

My Garden is All "Wrapped" and Ready to Go!

Friday morning was a beautiful spring morning here in the Bluegrass state. It was nice and crisp with the sun shining perfectly through the budding leaves. There had been a chance of frost that morning, but we lucked out and missed the colder temperatures. It was perfect gardening weather!

My husband had been great and helped get the garden up and running a couple of weeks ago but I still needed to do a few things before I could get anything in the ground. I still needed to get the weeds before they got my plants! I found this cool new product from DuPont that will hopefully help keep the darn weeds out this year. It's a biodegradable paper that spread over your soil and just cut out where the plants grow. It makes your garden look like it's wrapped up and ready to ship off with UPS. I keep my garden as organic as possible so chemical weed killer is never an option. Let's hope Garden O.N.E. helps!



Gardening has always been important to me. My grandparents lived on some land in southern Kentucky and had a large garden going every year. They really were the ones who gave me my appreciation for the land. My grandfather grew everything from green beans to turnips and lots more in between. They were also the first folks I knew of who composted. There was always a container on their counter for food scraps and coffee grinds. Of course they probably did this for two reasons: one being they didn't have a garbage disposal, and the other, they new how the nitrogen in the coffee grinds would help feed the vegetables. Pretty cool! Anyway, gardening is in my blood.

We have always had a garden in every yard we've owned from Portland to Asheville. But this year we're going bigger! Last year our garden looked like this last year. But I wanted to have more space to plant some corn and have a specific herb section. You can see the extra space cut out from last year to this year.

Once I placed the cover over the soil, I planted some lettuce seeds to try for an early crop. I'll start planting the majority of the other seeds and starters the last weekend of April, or first weekend of May. Typically, most folks in KY tend to wait until Derby weekend to get their crops in the ground. You never know with the crazy weather we've had, there could be snow in May.



Here's what I am going to plant this year:
Lettuce
Spinach
Swiss Chard
Beets
Carrots
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Onions
Tomatoes (three different varieties)
Snap Peas
Corn
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Basil
Cilantro
Oregano
Mint

Sounds like a lot for our small yard, but really it will all work out great. Especially since we expanded the garden and will use some pots, too. My oldest daughter can't wait to plant her watermelon and cantaloupe seeds. She's become quite a gardener too. I just hope my husband and I can help create special memories and instill these important values in our girls.

Check out what's going on over at goodLife {eats} and GrowCookEat for more gardening information! Katie has so many good ideas along with others who have linked.

Salmon Patties and Memories

I am sure we all have a meal that brings back memories of our childhood, whether it was something you loved or hated. I'll give you a little background on one I loved.

Growing up, my mom was a high school teacher that gave her the flexibility to be home in the afternoons to play with me and cook dinner. My mom liked to fix fresh meals and tried to stay away from the box meals as much as possible. There was the occasional Lo Mein La Choy meal with the crunchy fried sticks on top, but, cans were not something she stayed away from. We always had plenty of cans of a variety of foods on hand just in case we had to depend on special rations during a lean time. Joking mom. Yes, my mom reads my blog so I have to be nice.

One can I grew to appreciate was salmon. Now, before anyone gets on me for eating canned salmon let me tell you that it has lots of nutritional value as long as you stick with the Pacific kind. KidSafe Seafood gives some great information regarding the best choices. It's a great alternative to fresh with the same rich nutrient content. The bones even add a little added calcium and you'll never know they are there when you mix it all up.

So, my mom made one tasty Salmon Patty--slightly crunchy on the outside but nice and soft on the inside. Her version had plenty of saltine crackers, this was one of my dad's favorites. I've played around with this recipe for a while and think I've finally come up with the perfect combination of ingredients for the McD family!



Salmon Patties

1 can of Pacific Salmon, bones and skin on is what I use but the other works too.
1 egg, beaten
1 clove garlic, minced
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
1 tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried dill
2 tbsp bread crumbs
1 tbsp canola oil

In a large bowl place drained salmon and flake. Add beaten egg and stir. Mix in the remaining ingredients and mix well. Make into patties. This recipe will make about 6 patties. Heat oil in large skillet and saute until brown on each side. Serve with salad or other side dish. Can be eaten with or without a sauce. I've used a mango salsa before. Or plain low fat sour cream works well.

On another note- here is one of my new favorite kitchen gadgets that my husband surprised me with a couple of weeks ago! WOW- this thing is great. The food drops right into the compartment for a clean catch. I'm always one who has carrot or cheese gratings all over the counter and floor. Thanks my dear. Just in case you are wondering, I am not getting anything for mentioning this KitchenAid product.

Easter Cupcakes

WOW! Everything is starting to look like Easter around here! The daffodils are in full bloom. Some of our tulips are starting to show their colors and the plastic eggs are begging to be hidden! I don't know about you, but I love this time of year. And to make things even better, today we had 80 degree weather here in the beautiful Bluegrass state.

We took a nice little trip out of town yesterday and today, so when I got back tonight I was ready to get back into the swing of things. And what better thing to do than bake?!! Since our girls were such angels the whole trip I decided they needed a little early Easter treat. We don't do the typical candy filled baskets so instead I treated them to a yummy Funfetti Cupcake! But this is not just any old cupcake, this is one special recipe from my fabulous Adopt-A-Blogger friend, Clara!!!! I showed you earlier her IHeartFood4Thought site, but she also has this sweet cupcake baking talent she shares on IHeartCuppycakes.

You can see her original post for this recipe above. I tried to stick to the recipe since I'm not much of a cupcake chef and Clara knows what she's doing!

Makes 12 cupcakes

For funfetti cupcakes
1-1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg + 1 egg white, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract (I was out of vanilla so used almond ext. instead)
1/2 cup half and half (I accidentally used 1 cup- worked well)
2 tbsp rainbow sprinkles

Clara used a buttercream icing but I tried a cream cheese instead.

1/2 block neufchatel cream cheese
2 cups powder sugar
1/4 tsp lemon extract
2 tbsp skim milk

Let cream cheese come to room temperature. Place block of cheese and sugar in bowl and beat with electric mixer until smooth. Add extract and milk gradually until creamy. Spread on top of cool cupcakes. Make sure to refrigerate cupcakes or the icing will run away. Haha! Found this out the hard way.

Preheat oven to 350degrees.

Line cupcake tin with liners.

In separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a stand mixer, fitted with flat beater, beat the sugar and butter until well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg and egg white, one at a time, beating on low. Then add extract (she used vanilla I used almond- both are good!). Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture. Gently fold in rainbow sprinkles. Spoon mixture into liners to 2/3 full. Bake for about 18 minutes but check with toothpick to make sure they are not wet instead. If they are not finished baking, return to oven for one minute increments until ready. Remove and place on cooling rack and allow to cool completely before icing.



WARNING: these will induce childhood memories!!!
Enjoy! My family sure did and honestly, it felt so good to NOT be giving them the box mix variety. I had been staying away from making cupcakes thinking I couldn't do it but thanks to Clara...I can!! IHeartClara