Oreo Cookie Salad

We're going camping this weekend for a trail ride with our local club, and we're having a potluck on Saturday night, it's been a while since I've broken this recipe out (mainly because I tend to gorge myself on this whenever I make it) so I decided it had been long enough.

It is extremely simple and yummy and I learned this recipe from my step mom who would make this about half of the times that we would go to see her and Dad. So if you want a crowd pleaser and only have a few minutes to throw something together, give this a try!

Oreo Cookie Salad
by Karen Crawford

2 Cups Buttermilk
16 oz container whip cream (thawed)
2 (4oz) french vanilla instant pudding
1 (15 oz) can mandarin oranges (drained)
1 lb oreo cookies

Mix the first 4 ingredients together, break up cookies and fold them into the mixture, and refrigerate until served.

Zucchini Bread

OK-- so enough with the healthy stuff... on to the good 'ol fattining stuff again.

I, for some reason, have been baking a bit more lately (must be the blog) and it's been kinda bad on my eating habits, but damn it tastes good!

I also made some zucchini bread this week, and as if all that sugar in the bread wasn't enough, I had to make sure that I added chocolate chips to one of the loaves. mmmm, chocolate...

Something Healthy for a Change-- Stir Fry

So, I decided that I would actually post something healthy today. I've been making this recipe since I was pregnant with Aiden, so almost 6 years now, and have tweaked it a bit from the original recipe I found on verybestbaby.com. I was looking for recipes that were good for pregnant women that would have all the nutrients that I would need. And hey, if it's good for pregnant ladies, then its good for everyone!

What is excellent about this recipe is that you can tweak it to whatever type of meat you want!

Chicken/Steak/Pork Stir Fry

1lb Your choice of Chicken breast, Steak, or Pork

a drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 16 oz bags of frozen stir fry veggies (I get the deluxe stir fry mix from Wally World because it doesn't have mushrooms in it)

2 Cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup Water

Sauce:

1 cup Water

6 Bullion cubes (to match type of meat you are using)

1 tsp Ground ginger

1 tsp Ground black pepper

1/4 cup Soy Sauce

2 1/2 T. Corn Starch

Directions:

Thinly cut the meat and cook in a large pan (I guess a wok if you have one, but I do mine in a 14" frying pan with deep sides) with Oil and Garlic until no longer pink. Add in Vegetables and water, cover and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While meat and vegetables are cooking, put water and bullion cubes in microwave for 1 minute on high to soften bullion. Add in ginger, pepper, soy sauce, and corn starch. Add to Meat and Veggies.

Cook on low/med low heat until sauce has thickened and veggies are cooked through (about 10 minutes).

Serve over rice (my choice is brown rice)

MMMM, Yummy! And more than enough to also have left overs, which do warm up nicely in the microwave! Might not be as good as a Chinese restaurant, but if you want to know exatly what is in what you are eating, or live 50 miles away from the closest Chinese place (like me), it hits the spot!

Now I just need to find a fortune cookie recipe!!

Experimenting with Flax

So yesterday at one of my whirlwind trips to pick up the kids, from their 10 days with grandma and grandpa, and swing through the Wally World that was closest to my house (which I will remind everyone is about 50 miles from my house). I decided to pick up some milled flax...

Mind you, I did not pick it up for it's wonderful health benefits, but rather, I needed to find something that was a good substitute for eggs because I am making a couple cakes later this summer for someone who is allergic to eggs. I wanted to make sure that the cakes I did for this person were not the first try at using flax, so I tried it out last night.

I didn't make a cake, but used it in a box muffin mix just to get a look see at what the look, taste and texture would be like. Afterall, the milled flax doesn't exactly look pretty...

But it really wasn't bad at all!! The look was a little different than what it would have been had I used eggs (it looked like there was wheat flour used instead of white flour) but the taste and texture was just perfect! They were light and fluffy and pretty darn moist, so now I'm not afraid to use the flax at all for these cakes!!! YAY!

For anyone who would like to be able to make any food without eggs, 1 tablespoon of milled flax mixed with 3 tablespoons of water is equal to about 1 egg.

Below are the the out of the box "blueberry" muffins.

Birthday cakes

I have been looking for ideas for birthday cakes, since my Ewan is turning 1 in a month. Since he is my chubby little monkey, I thought what better than a monkey cake and a monkey theme...

Here are some of the photos that I've come across for inspiration...

Any favorites??? I really like the first one and the monkey cupcakes...