German Baked Beans For a Crowd

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Veronica

~Photo by Jessica Rose~

Last Saturday was our 37th annual Davis Family Pig Roast. (My maiden name is Davis, FYI.) This family reunion was started four years before I was born, and now the responsibilities have been passed on to the next generation and I’m on the planning committee and have been in charge of creating & sending the invitations for the last five years.

The remaining Davis siblings (RIP Jimmy, Doris, and Mary): Margie, Nadene, Donnie (the one who started the pig roast), Ruby, and my Dad, Jon.

~Photo by Jessica Rose~

The younger generation that runs the roast nowadays.

~Photo by Jessica Rose~

The pig roast is an all day affair, starting early in the morning when a few good men get up at the crack of dawn to put the pig (prepped the night before) on our custom roaster, and it doesn’t end until well after dark, with everyone gathering around a bonfire to drink, chat, and roast hot dogs and marshmallows for s’mores.

~Photo by Jessica Rose~

We spend the day mostly talking, though there are things you can entertain yourself with, such as Bingo, swimming in the lake, bike riding, or walking. The main event however, is the afternoon meal, which we eat when the pig is done.

~Photo by Jessica Rose~

Dennis leads us in a prayer before the meal, and then it’s on. Well, after you stand in a really long line, then it’s on. :)

~Photo by Jessica Rose~

First we go inside where all the sides that family have brought are lined up on tables…

Then we go outside to the table where the meat has been cut up and laid out, along with garlic bread.

Then we go back inside (or take a chair outside) to chow down.

Some people bring the same thing every year, and I love that because it gives you something to look forward to. Like Aunt Ruby’s Garlic Salad. It just wouldn’t be the Pig Roast without her garlic salad (which she actually doesn’t even make herself any more, her son Tyson does it for her!). Then there’s people like me, who make something different every year. This year I decided to bring a big crockpot full of German Baked Beans, which I found the recipe for on The Better Baker’s blog. I knew when she posted it that it’d be perfect for our reunion, and I was right. It was devoured!

Dennis said he could taste the saurkraut (and liked it), but if I hadn’t made it and couldn’t see it in there, I would have had no clue. These beans are sweet and so good with the onion and sausage in them, but if you’d like more sass to them, you can try skipping the rinsing on the saurkraut and that might give them a bit of a zip. This is how I made them in the crockpot for a crowd. If you’d like the oven-baked, regular-sized recipe, you can click the link to Marsha’s blog at the end.

German Baked Beans For a Crowd

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

2 (15 oz) cans pork and beans
2 (15 oz) cans baked beans
2 (14 oz) cans sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 small or 1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 (14 oz) package kielbasa sausage, sliced & quartered

Combine all ingredients in a 6 quart crockpot and cook on low for 4-5 hours, removing the cover during the last hour to let some of the liquid evaporate if desired.

Alternately, you can halve this recipe for a smaller crowd and bake it in the oven. To do this, preheat oven to 400F and combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Transfer to a 2-qt. baking dish, coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake uncovered for 1 – 1-1/2 hours.

Recipe source: The Better Baker

I just love my family!

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Posted in Side Dishes, Slow-Cooker/Crockpot and tagged barbecue, crockpot, crowd, German baked beans, potluck, saurkraut, slow cooker. Bookmark the permalink.

A photo session with a reluctant dog

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Veronica

Yesterday I featured a picture of me with Joshua’s big sister, Jessie. You probably assumed she just plopped down on her butt and smiled at the camera like a pro. Um, no. Maybe some dogs love to pose for the camera, but it’s Jessie’s number 3 thing that she hates, after thunder and the power going out. She is always reluctant to face the camera.

I thought I’d share how hard it is to get a decent photo with this girl, and why I feature her on my blog so rarely. She came into the nursery while we were doing our weekly pregnancy photos and I decided to try to get her to pose with me. But first she demanded butt scratching, and once I obliged, she never wanted me to stop. You can see on her tail where there is missing fur – even on medication, her allergies are so bad in the summer that she’s still itchy.

I finally got her to chillax on the butt scratchin’ and sit, but then she wanted to face me with her head down, which is how she asks for a neck massage. Spoiled pup much? lol At first I tried to coax her into posing without a massage…

And this was the best I got.

Why must you torture me, Mama?

Then we had some progress because she finally looked up at me and was smiling. This would have been a great photo if I was smiling back in a normal way, and not with such an open-wide mouth that I looked like I was ready to eat her.

This one cracks me up because I look like a dog trainer and she’s listening really hard to me. I wish!

But then the magic finally happened, and voila! It was all worth it.

Jessie was rewarded with her neck massage. :)

I don’t think I ever shared this “Meet Jessie” video on my blog, so you can watch it now if you didn’t get enough of her in this post. :) Also, it shows what our living room & kitchen used to look like before we had to empty the office and change it dramatically so that we had a place to put some of the stuff. I will have to take pics of what it looks like now to share with you. Soon!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIwEziHzHg

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28 weeks: I’m hotter than all y’all ;)

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Veronica

We started outside for this week’s pics, but even in the shade I couldn’t help squinting (this is as close to not squinting as I could get – lol) so this effort didn’t last long.

No, I didn’t just suddenly grow an ego the size of my belly. I’m literally hot, and have been my entire pregnancy. I sweat while people around me seem fine. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be if I was 9 months pregnant during the summer – props to the women who have to go through that. I just hope the cooler fall weather isn’t delayed this year because I’m really just done with all the sweating.

This banner was given to me by some friends at church so I had to show it off. It’s hand made and so cute!

In addition to being hotter than all y’all, I’m also having twins. Or so everyone seems to think. I kid you not, three people asked me in the last week if I’m sure I’m not having twins. Really? I actually don’t personally take offense to this question because I know and admit that I’m huge and have no problem with it (right now, anyway), but what sane person would ask a hormonal pregnant woman a question that reminds her how enormous she is? I haven’t had much problem with being emotional, but if I were prone to it like many pregnant women are, I think I’d probably start slapping people when they asked me this to knock some sense into them. I think pregnant women aren’t the only ones who have side effects from their pregnancies – it seems to make people around them stupid too! LOL! A friend just sent me a link to 28 things you should never say to a pregnant woman, and it has suggestions for what to say instead. Very helpful and a quick read if you want to check it out.

Jessie joined us in the nursery and I decided we needed a pic with Joshua’s big sister in it! :)

Not much new to report, except that I think Joshua might share his Dad’s fondness for martial arts because I swear he has taken to doing Tai Chi in my belly. Sometimes he’ll move soooooo slooooooow, but with a lot of pressure, and it feels totally weird, and not really in a good way. I’m already to that point where I need to stretch to give him more room sometimes because it’s uncomfortable. Scary to think how cramped his quarters will be near the end if I’m already stretching out to give him room! My Mom said she was so big she couldn’t reach the front of her belly and I’m hoping that’s because she has stumpy arms (she’s even shorter than me, probably just over 5′) and not because her belly was really that huge. I mean I’d have to be carrying a baby whale to be so big that I couldn’t reach the front of my belly! lol.

And the swelling/water retention continues. I can see it in my hand in the above pic – my fingers aren’t usually so plump, and I’ve had to switch to a ring I used to wear on my middle finger for my wedding ring because it’s too tight. And before you ask, my blood pressure is still OK, thankfully. Last week it was 116/68, which is higher than the last visit, but about what it was at my very first visit. Brace yourself or scroll quickly downward with your eyes closed because I’m going to show you how bad my feet can get and it ain’t pretty (the indentations are from sandals I wore all day that are usually really loose on me).

Sorry. Hope you don’t mind me keepin’ it real. It doesn’t cause any pain, just ugly to look at. My feet do tire easily, but I have a wonderful man that will rub them any time I ask, and that helps so much. God bless him! <3 And just to leave you with something cute, here’s a random picture I took of a smiling Jessie girl, which was photo bombed by my belly.

One last thing – I just want to give some love to my friend, Stacy, who was diagnosed with Lyme disease a few months ago, along with her youngest son (though the other two also show symptoms as well). She has apparently lived with it most her life and just thought that the migraines and pain were her normal, only to find out much later that there’s a reason for her and her son’s multiple problems. The treatment, however, has been tricky, and a lot of trial and error has gone into finding things that work without taking away her ability to function as a human being. She has a blog, DoingLifeWithLyme, where you can follow her journey to recovery if you have a personal interest in Lyme disease and treatments for it. She is currently using both antibiotics and essential oils and getting really good results with the oils, so if you or anyone you know suffers from this disease, you might want to check it out!

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Creamy Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Veronica

Wow, that title is a mouthful! Sometimes it’s hard to stick to a two or three-word recipe name when there’s so much goodness going on with it. I had to tell you this was creamy, because that’s one of the best features of this dish. I had to tell you it features green chiles, both straight up and in salsa verde, because the flavor profile this creates with the creamy & cheesy ingredients is rockin’. And it’s a chicken enchilada casserole so I couldn’t exclude those words. For your sake, I didn’t mention the beans in the title, though I was tempted to call this “Creamy Green Chile Chicken & White Bean Enchilada Casserole.” You gotta draw the line somewhere, am I right?

Pretty much everything I eat right now seems like the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. So maybe it’s not true that this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my life, but it sure felt that way while I was eating it. It’s filling (yay for protein, fat and fiber! hehe), which made me so sad because I wanted to eat the whole casserole, in one sitting, all by myself. It seriously rocked my world. I was so excited to serve it to my husband (we hardly ever eat dinner together, and on this occasion I actually ate before him, which is unusual since he usually gets off work before me) and I tried not to lean over his shoulder to gauge his reaction. But I kinda did. He never gets excited about food like I do, but he said it was “really good” and ate a huge plateful rather quickly, then went back for more. I’d say that’s a big two thumbs up from the Den man!

There’s pepper in this dish, but the black flecks come mainly from the roasted salsa verde, linked to in the recipe.

I based the recipe off of my favorite Creamy Chicken Enchiladas, and maybe it’s just that I haven’t had them in over a year (so many recipes, so little time), but I do believe this green casserole version is even better than the original enchiladas. All I know is it’s good, and I would definitely make it for company!

Creamy Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 ½ lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 medium onion
2 tablespoons butter
1 (7 oz) can chopped green chiles
½ cup salsa verde (I used Walmart’s World Table Roasted Salsa Verde, which I highly recommend)
1 (15.5 oz) can white beans (such as navy or Great Northern), drained and rinsed
1 cup light sour cream
1 (10.5 oz) can light cream of chicken soup
1 ½ cups Monterrey Jack, divided
1 ½ cups Cheddar, divided
*OR 3 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend substituted for both cheeses
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
8-10 white corn tortillas, quartered
Butter for pan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13×9 pan with butter and set aside.

Salt your chicken breasts and cook them in a skillet or grill (I use my George Foreman). Allow to cool enough that they won’t burn your hands, then chop them up; set aside.

While the chicken is cooking, heat a skillet over medium-high heat and chop up your onion. Melt the butter in the heated skillet and add the onions, sautéing until softened. Stir in the green chiles and salsa verde and cook for 3-5 more minutes to cook off some of the liquid. Add the chicken, white beans, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, 2 cups of the cheese (reserve the rest for the top), garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Stir together until well blended and cheese is melted.

Spread a small amount of the chicken mixture over the bottom of your prepared pan, then put a layer of the quartered tortillas over it, slightly overlapping. Spread half of the remaining chicken mixture over the tortillas, then another layer of tortillas, and finish with the remaining chicken mixture. Sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top, then cover with foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray to keep the cheese from sticking (or use the nonstick foil). Bake for 15 minutes, remove foil, and bake another 5 minutes or until bubbling around the edges. Let sit 10 minutes before cutting.

Veronica’s notes: I highly recommend shredding your own cheese, as the preshredded kind doesn’t melt as well and IMHO, does not taste as good. You will need ¾ of an 8 ounce block of both cheddar and Monterrey Jack for this recipe (every 8 oz block makes 2 cups of shredded cheese). The tortillas are super simple to cut into quarters if you layer five tortillas and use a pizza cutter on them, or a chef’s knife. Also, this would make an excellent meatless meal if you just replace the chicken with another 2-3 cans of white beans.

A Veronica’s Cornucopia original, with help for transforming it into a casserole from 4 Little Fergusons

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Posted in Main Dishes, Mexican, My Favorites and tagged chicken enchilada casserole, creamy, green chile, Mexican, southwest, white. Bookmark the permalink.

Joshua’s Nursery

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Veronica

So the nursery is finished for the most part, and what a relief it is to have a place for Joshua. If he decides to come early (please, no), he has a place to sleep. Yay! OK so this is what his room looked like when it was our office:

Before it was a nursery, it was our office. photo 6-29-097.jpg

Then we had a garage sale, started moving things around, and I wasn’t cleaning as I went. This was the office at it’s worst, after we’d moved out one desk, one computer, moved the chest into the closet (which I had emptied of plastic shelving and all my cake pans) and put the new one in its place. And let some fur & dust settle, laundry pile, and randomness build up on my desk. I see an oversized spool of white curling ribbon on it! What in the world? lol

It took us a month to find a new home for everything in the office and get all the clutter put away, but we got it done in time for Labor Day weekend, when our friends came over to start painting. Here’s Jessie’s best friend (Momma Donna’s dog), Doc, letting us know the room is ready!

This is a photo of the women who did pretty much everything for us. They’re standing in the almost-finished nursery but I want to share the picture now rather than at the end, so I can introduce them. You already know Momma Donna, and she’s on the right. Her sister, Connie, is on the left, and our mutual friend, Stephanie, is in the middle. Stephanie also used to take her dog to Donna’s doggy daycare at the same time we took Jessie and we’ve been friends ever since. You can meet her Jenny (RIP sweet girl) and Miss Weenie in this post.

Before I go any further, I just want to say that Donna is the reason the nursery happened. We bought the bedding and the paint, and once she knew what theme we were going with, she bought everything else (valences, lamp, fabric for the curtain, new hardware for the chest in the closet, etc, etc, even the paint rollers and pans. Not to mention she bought all the furniture a month before painting, to boot!). She’s the one who told her sister about wanting to do the nursery and got her so excited that Connie asked if she could help, despite not even knowing us. She also told Stephanie, who was already wanting to help and already buying baby clothes and maternity clothes, so she was rearing to go for this project too. All I have to say is, God bless these wonderful women, and our fur babies for bringing us together!

They arrived a little before noon and I got to chat with them just a bit before leaving for work. When I got home after 9 PM, they were still hard at work and didn’t leave until probably 11 pm. They had gone shopping for several hours after patching the holes in the walls. They bought all kinds of stuff for the nursery while they were gone, most of it I had no clue Donna was going to do, so they didn’t start painting until 6:30 pm. It was a really long and hard day for all of them, even Stephanie who’s a lot younger, even younger than me. They were all laughing about how crippled they were the next day from all the bending, squatting, stepping up and down the step stool, etc. I just…love them. Working so hard and laughing about how much it hurt. Wow.

We thought since the closet would be covered by a curtain that it didn’t need to be painted. Well Connie took it upon herself to make the whole room truly fantastic and thought painting inside the closet, and also painting the white chest, was necessary. I’m so glad, because it turned out so nice!

Donna and Connie came back the next day to shampoo the carpet (our shampooer broke so it’s been a while since we’ve been able to do it–it was pretty awful) and put valences up over the windows and the closet. The next day when the carpet was dry, Dennis set up the crib, changing table, and glider, with a little help from me.

He’s so sexy. :)

All three women returned on Labor Day to finish things up. Donna had a few surprises planned and they shut us out of the nursery so we couldn’t see what they were doing. We grilled some burgers, and I whipped up my favorite potato salad and some Carolina Coleslaw, but before we ate, it was time for the big reveal. This is what it looked like when we walked in.

I started crying. Seriously, go back to the pictures of this room when it was a messy office and I think you’ll start crying too. What a transformation! It is just beautiful! They’ve since returned to put the shelves that used to be on the left wall on the right wall, and Connie sewed a cover for the ottoman (which is why it’s missing in the above photo) to keep it from getting dirty, so this is what it looks like now.

Connie sewed the curtains for us! She picked out the black and white gingham fabric to match the bedding and valences during their shopping trip, then sewed them, then had to take them back home to re-hem them because they’d mis-measured the closet and they were too long. It’s hard to believe someone would be willing to do so much for people she just met…but I’m so grateful.

The closet was Connie’s project and she did the chest by herself, including putting new hardware on. It’s gawgeous!

On top are the baby cards we’ve gotten so far, which eventually will make their way into an album. The black and white ones are from Joshua (OK, they’re from a mysterious loved one that signs his name for him-lol) and “Mommie and Daddie Miller” get one every month. I love them!

And look, Joshua even has a few outfits already hanging! The one in front his Grandma Miller just brought when she came for the 3D sonogram. So our little monkey now has two little monkey outfits. :)

Donna even bought a new hamper for Joshua. They measured the closet before they went shopping so they could get one that fit and Stephanie measured all the hampers while Donna compared the measurements to the space we had and they finally settled on this one. Fits perfect, and the black totally goes with the nursery.

This is freaky, but Donna bought the changing pad cover from Walmart and it ended up exactly matching the blue in the bedding and valences, and is even the same soft, fuzzy fabric! And the bedding, etc, is from Target so it’s doubly crazy that it’s a perfect match. She bought a second one that Connie used to sew the cover for the ottoman. So clever.

Now this is really crazy. Connie just so happened to have this antique 1970 talking Cat in the Hat toy and hadn’t been able to sell it because she couldn’t find a buyer willing to pay what it was worth ($300). When she found out our theme was Dr. Seuss/Cat in the Hat, she decided she would rather give it to us than sell it for less than it was worth to someone on eBay. Wow! And she even had the talker thing fixed so he still talks, after 43 years, when you pull his cord. :)

We have more books in storage to put on this shelf, but this set is the first we’ve added since we just got them in the mail from Erin! Thanks Erin! They are so perfect!

Donna also got this matching clock and vinyl decals to put all over the room. They can be moved and restuck, which is nice if we want to put up some artwork or hang pictures. I like that the decals have characters from many Seuss books, not just Cat in the Hat.

Doc says, “This room rocks!”

Thanks to these women, the nursery is more beautiful than it ever would have been if left up to us. There would be nothing wrong with a hodge-podge nursery made up of Craigslist furniture and without a theme at all – that’s exactly what we would have done and I would have been proud of it and happy with it. But I can’t help but be thrilled to have this beautiful, perfect nursery for our perfect baby! Forever thankful!

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27 weeks: Joshua in 3D

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Veronica

Well I’ve made it to the third trimester! I’m so glad I still have three months left with Joshua in my belly – I want it to last forever. For now. :) I’m sure I’ll want every stage of his life to last forever! I remember when my little sister was a baby, I wished she would just stay that way and never grow up. I was already a Mom at 6 and she was my little baby I wanted to keep that way. lol

This is Dad introducing us to our little sister in the delivery room (we actually got to see the birth and took classes beforehand to prepare for it). I’m on the right, Danielle on the left.

I was totally in awe of this little baby! This could have been the exact moment that I realized I wanted to be a Mom. By contrast, Danielle decided she would never be a Mom, and still holds to that decision. I think Mom being in labor scarred her for life-lol.

So I’m doing much better now, despite a rough weekend. I stayed up until 5 in the morning after I got home Thursday night because I had to bake my chocolate cake twice (the first time I underbaked it). I went to bed and two hours later, got up to get ready to take my cake to the fair. We got showered and dressed, and when I retrieved my cake from the refrigerator, I said, “Well, I guess I’m not entering the chocolate cake contest after all.”

I’d had trouble getting the cakes out of the pan and the top one cracked a little bit so it became a weak link that couldn’t hold up to the weight of the frosting and that cracked piece just fell off while I slept. It was so upsetting, I couldn’t even get upset. I was in shock, and also I was grateful in a way that I could go back to sleep since I now had no reason to go to the fair so early. So we got a couple more hours sleep and headed to Hutchinson. Because we took the day off for the fair and we weren’t going to waste it. Besides, we had tickets to see Kansas in concert that night! :)

I had a great, sweaty, and exhausting time at the fair, and hardly regretted my caketastrophy. There’s always next year! :) The concert was so, so good. I only knew three songs they played because I’ve never been familiar with their music (I know, for shame living in KS, right?), but wow. They are incredible musicians, and why doesn’t every band have a violinist? It adds so much to the sound. I put together a short video of clips from their concert, which you can see here if you like.

The next day we got up bright and early, and completely exhausted, for our sonogram. And got to see baby Joshua in 3D! This made the weekend fantastic.

Here he is in 2D with his legs curled up so his feet are almost to his head! So cute.

And here he is in 3D:

Look at that huge nose! Remind you of anyone?

Like father like son. Same birthday, big noses. lol OK, maybe he’s like mama, too.

Maybe a lot like mama. But I think most like Aunt Danielle.

Between us, the kid didn’t have a chance. But he’ll probably grow into his nose and wear it just as well as the rest of us. :)

I may have helped him out with a fat nose, but at least he didn’t get my skinny lips! Love those fat lips!

He slept through the sonogram and was imperturbable when the sonographer tried to jostle him awake by pushing on my belly with the wand and wiggling it around four different times. He would just stretch or readjust and never moved more than that. I told everyone that means he’s going to be a calm baby. :) I really think he will be, and hopefully the same mother’s intuition that told me he was a boy will hold out for the calm baby thing as well. I really feel he will be! I hope I don’t have to eat my words. lol

I had to go to work after the sonogram, and got so sick while I was there. Another stomach bug! I got sick Thursday but was better Friday so I thought it was the goat cheese I’d forced myself to eat (I deplore goat cheese but am trying to make myself like it). But the sickness came back in full force on Saturday and I barely made it through the work day. By Sunday morning, I finally figured out it wasn’t anything I ate and it was time for another potato cure. Dennis bought me some yogurt and a few hours later, I was all better and taking pictures for you guys. :)

I’m sure you’ve noticed my environment and have been waiting for me to say something about the nursery, which I’m obviously standing/sitting in. Well too bad! I’ll have that for you tomorrow. Pinky swear. :)

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Blah blah ooh lala

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Veronica

Sorry, that’s my version of Lady Gaga’s song “Bad Romance” where she’s all “Gaga ooh lala, want your bad romance.” I was going to title this blog “Blah” but then the song took over my fingers. LOL!

So I’m not feeling a Thankful Thursday today, or an update on the nursery. I’m sad b/c of a family situation, and have a lot on my plate with the fair this Friday (I’ll only be entering one thing b/c I haven’t had any time to bake) and a 3D sonogram on Saturday. I’m kind of overwhelmed, knowing I’ll be getting very little sleep for the next several days because of late nights and early mornings. Sleep is so my friend, and not getting any makes me not happy. You know things suck when not even the almost-finished nursery, the upcoming fair, and most importantly the 3D sonogram can’t get me out of my funk.

So BLAH is pretty much how I feel and I’m sorry I won’t be updating on the nursery until I’m happy again. I promise it won’t take long, I’m a rubber ball. I bounce back quickly. :)

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Fluffy Whole Wheat Pancakes

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Veronica

I like pancakes. But for some reason, I can let years go by without making them. I’m even worse with waffles. It’s been probably four years since I made waffles. I don’t know why! They are so good and so simple.

Last week I woke up with a hankering for pancakes. I consider buttermilk pancakes made with white flour the best, but I had no buttermilk and I wanted them to be a little more on the healthy side, so I whipped up a whole wheat batch instead, using coconut sugar (a Christmas gift from Emma H., a sweet reader) in place of regular and raw coconut nectar instead of maple syrup. I didn’t plan to blog them, figuring they’d be nothing all that special, so I took a bite without taking any pictures first. And then I died. Or at least I thought I did, because as soon as I dug in, I was transported to heaven. Pictures ensued.

The pancakes are surprisingly fluffy and light for being whole wheat. The whole wheat aspect gives them more substance, but doesn’t seem to weigh them down. I definitely love the flavor whole wheat adds to pancakes. Slathered with butter and syrup, they are a delicious and wholesome breakfast treat!

Warning: tangent ahead. If you have no interest in coconut sweeteners, just skip to the recipe and use whatever kind of sweetener in and out of the pancakes you like. :)

If you’ve never tried coconut sweeteners and are curious about them, here’s the deal. They are low-glycemic sweeteners (35 on the glycemic index, which is comparable to most fruits and veggies) that won’t spike your blood sugar like regular sugar, or even good-for-you honey and maple syrup. This is good news not only for diabetics, but for everyone, since eating sugary foods can cause a crash that makes you crave more sugar – the vicious sugar cycle. Coconut sweeteners are unrefined as well, meaning a lot healthier for you than regular sugar! They both are an abundant source of minerals, amino acids, vitamin-C, broad spectrum B vitamins, and have a nearly neutral PH.

As for the taste, you might be surprised to know that neither come from the coconut fruit itself, or taste anything like coconut! The sugar is produced from the flower buds of the coconut tree, and the syrup/nectar comes from the tree sap, just like maple syrup is taken from the sap of maple trees. I think the sugar is similar to brown sugar, and looks like it too, except it doesn’t stick/clump together. The syrup is similar to molasses, especially when tasted straight, but much milder in flavor. I didn’t think I’d like it on pancakes because I’m not a huge fan of molasses, but the flavor changed when added to them. Not molasses at all, just a nice mildly sweet flavor that compliments the pancakes – absolutely fantastic!

Fluffy Whole Wheat Pancakes

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 cup (4 oz) whole wheat flour
1 ½ tablespoons sugar (I used coconut sugar)
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup (8 oz) milk
2 tablespoons butter or oil, plus more for skillet (I used coconut oil)

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. In a separate small bowl, whisk egg and then mix in milk and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until mixed, but not smooth. Let batter rest for five minutes while you preheat the skillet or griddle to 350F. Test if it’s ready by scattering drops of water over it. If they sizzle and dance, it’s ready.

Grease the skillet with a tablespoon of butter or coconut oil, then pour batter onto skillet to make pancakes the size of your choice. Once bubbles are over the surface and the edges are turning dry, flip over and cook until done. Serve warm with butter and syrup (I use raw coconut nectar).

Makes two giant pancakes, or four regular-sized ones.

Recipe source: adapted from Alton Brown’s recipe

26 weeks: pregnancy & drugs don’t mix

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Veronica

I don’t have much to tell you this week! I did get this outfit (skirt and shirt) from my wonderful friend, Stephanie T., who is also currently helping with the nursery. That’s the big news – that the nursery is almost finished as I type this. It should be totally done by Monday night so I plan to do a separate post with pics just for the nursery some time this week. You guys, I’m soooo excited! It looks so so good already. Momma Donna, her sister Connie (who was a stranger to us before she came over!), and Stephanie did almost everything and they really have outdone themselves. Prepare to be amazed by the transformation, that’s all I have to say!

Also, my inny is halfway to becoming an outie (this has been slowly happening for the last month or more, but you can now see it kinda poking out in photos), and if I lean back and clench my stomach tight, it pops out almost all the way! So crazy.

I did manage to bite the bullet and give my toes a little TLC last week. I did a base coat, two coats of pink, one pink sparklies, and a top coat. It was not fun, but I’m so happy to see sparkly toes on the rare occasion that I glimpse them. I like sparkly things. :)

So Dennis was taking my update pictures as usual and I asked him what I could do that was more fun than just doing different angles and holding my belly. I guess I’m getting kind of bored/boring! He had no ideas so, unfortunately, this happened:

What exactly happened here? I have no explanation. I look like I’m high on ecstasy and my arms suddenly grew a foot longer than my legs. Not one to let a golden opportunity pass me by…

Please share the message.

After that little mishap, Dennis suggested I show you my back. Sure, why not? At least it’s something I haven’t done yet. I had no idea what my backside looked like but I think it’s cool you can’t tell I’m pregnant from behind. I’m still rockin’ my curves. ;)

Have a wonderful Labor Day! I’ll be back soon with nursery pics. :)

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Chocolatey Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Veronica

Back when I made the super-fantastic Double Chocolate Banana Bread, I also made a loaf of chocolate zucchini bread, hoping it would turn out as good as the banana bread. It was a huge, miserable disappointment. Dry, and hardly any chocolate flavor. I didn’t mention this on that post, but out of the blue, reader Caren K. mentioned she had a chocolate zucchini bread recipe that was to die for. Of course I had to ask her for it, and she thankfully obliged.

This bread totally met my expectations! As you can see in the pictures, I barely had half a loaf to photograph the next day because we couldn’t help but dig in, and dig in some more, while it was cooling the night before. It is so incredibly moist, to the point of being fudgy, and I love the hint of cinnamon – it really adds some warmth and mystery to the bread. You don’t taste the instant coffee, and I suspect it is there to enhance the chocolate flavor. If so, I think it does its job well, as this bread is perfectly chocolatey!

Chocolatey Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

2 cups grated zucchini, measured after draining
1 ¼ cups (5 ¼ oz) all-purpose flour
¼ cup (3/4 oz) unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup (5.25 oz) sugar
1 large egg
6 tablespoons melted butter
¼ heaping teaspoon instant coffee granules
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
Mini semisweet chocolate chips for top, if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray the bottom of an 8×4 loaf pan with oil; set aside. (I have an excellent nonstick pan, so you might want to spray the sides too, or use Miracle Pan Release if your baked goods tend to stick to yours.)

Grate zucchini and place in a colander in the sink to drain while you continue with the recipe. After it has drained, squeeze it to get out the extra liquid before measuring. Don’t pack the cups too much or your bread might be a little soggy the second day.

Whisk together the flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Whisk until well combined. In a separate larger bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg until smooth. Add the melted butter, instant coffee granules, and vanilla extract and whisk until well combined. Add the shredded zucchini into the sugar mixture, then add the flour mixture in small sections, stirring to combine after each addition.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on a rack. If desired, sprinkle some mini chocolate chips over the top while it cools. The heat from the loaf will make them soften and melt a little and stick well to it.

Recipe source: Caren K.