All posts tagged: recipe

Mixed Berries Balsamic Low Sugar Preserves

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You will find that this recipe is very similar to my Strawberry-Rosé Low Sugar Preserves. Once you master the basics of making a low sugar preserve and how to can it, you can use different ingredients to come up with different flavors. As long as you adjust a few key items, such as the acidity level, then it can be a breeze to make these. Mixed Berries Balsamic Low Sugar Preserves Ingredients: 1 lb strawberries (I used frozen) 1 lb mixed berries (I used frozen blueberries and blackberries) 2-3 Tbsps. balsamic vinegar 1/2 cup sugar 1 cup honey 1/2 tsp salt 5 Tbsps. Low or No-Sugar Needed Pectin (I used the Ball brand one). Directions: If you are canning your preserves you need to sterilize your jars and get your water boiling for water-bath canning. In a saucepan add your frozen strawberries and mixed berries (for this recipe I used a mixture of frozen blueberries and blackberries, but you can use raspberries, or any other berry you want) and cook over medium heat until they …

Welcome Spring with a Strawberry Pie

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To me, nothing screams spring more than strawberries. Their beautiful vibrant color lends itself perfectly to this flowering season. This is why whenever Easter rolls around, or if I am throwing a garden party, or dinner party during Spring, my dessert of choice is always strawberry pie. This is a great recipe to put together when you don’t have a lot of prep-time or when you just want to display some beautiful homegrown strawberries, since you will not be cooking the fruit. For this recipe I used some of my Strawberry-Rosé low sugar preserves. If you make some, I highly recommend you use it for this pie, if not you can either skip this step or use any low-sugar strawberry jam or preserves. I find that it adds an extra punch of strawberry flavor and counteracts a bit of that “fake” strawberry flavoring that the gelatin has. Strawberry Pie Ingredients: 1 sheet of store-bought pie crust 1 Tbsp butter 2 lbs of strawberries (or two 16 oz. containers) 1 3 oz strawberry jello package 3/4 …

Under The Sea Bento

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I put this one together last night, I made dinner and her bento at the same time. Nothing too crazy here, sautéed shrimp, boiled mini sausages, corn, rice, and fruits. I added organic, no chemicals (or anything weird) added food dye to the rice to make it blue. I found that all the stirring required to spread out evenly the blue made the rice extra sticky (even though I took care not to smash the rice). I don’t know how I feel about that, I might try just adding it to the water when cooking the rice next time. No real recipe this time. Just sharing the cute little fishies and showing off baby A.’s new bento box (a yumbox).

Friday Easy Bento

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After yesterday’s very labor intensive bento, I just wanted a very easy lunch that I could throw together in the morning with minimal fuss. Therefore today baby A. got an easy sandwich bento. The sandwich is made of brioche bread, home made hummus, ham and lettuce. I used a cutter to turn into a cute little piggie. As a side I made mini sausage “octopi” and just threw some berries in the container and called it a day. The hummus is what took the longest out of everything, and I threw that together fairly quickly the night before. I found these cute little cans of chickpeas that are perfect for making a smaller portion of hummus. I also made a very simple recipe since it was for a five year old, here it is: – 1 8oz can of garbanzo beans – 2 Tbsp of tahini – 2 garlic cloves – The juice of half a lemon – 1 green onion – salt and pepper Blend all of the above in a food processor, add …

Sunflower Bento

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The things we do for our children!! So yesterday, after a full day of work and a workout I headed to the kitchen to cook dinner. I knew today baby A. was heading back to class and I had sort of planned a bento in my head. After cooking the components, which were fairly easy, all I had to do was assemble it. I debated whether or not to wait until very early this morning to put it all together like I did last time, but decided I would just go ahead and leave it ready. After we finished dinner I went back into the kitchen and what proceeded was a two hour bento assembly. I had to cut each little petal by hand, then set it all so it would look like a sunflower. Then I had the great idea of making a cherry tomato stuffed with a creamy cheese filling which I had dyed blue, just to have baby A. try it and say she didn’t like it -_- so that got scrapped …

Vegan Oatmeal

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We actually like oatmeal in my house. We find it to be the perfect base for so many toppings, it is extremely versatile, and can be made to anyone’s taste. This one is a very simple vegan recipe. I like to boil my oats in milk, I find it makes them creamy and gives them more flavor. Ingredients: 1/2 cup oats 1-2 cups almond milk (depends how thick you want the consistency to be) 1 tsp sugar 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp vanilla Pinch of salt Mix all of these in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer until oats are the texture and consistency you prefer. Toppings: The list of toppings is endless, so many possibilities, in the above picture I used: Sliced strawberries Walnuts Agave syrup Other options that would make a great vegan oatmeal are: Mango Coconut flakes Almonds Agave syrup Add 1 tsp of cocoa when cooking oats Toasted hazelnuts Chopped dates Brown sugar Add 2 Tbsp pumpkin purée and 1/2 tsp nutmeg when cooking oats Pumpkin seeds (pepitas) Pecans …

First Day of School Character Bento

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Today our eldest goes to school for the first time ever. We are excited but also a little  nervous, since a whole new stage of our life just started today. To commemorate such an occasion I decided to get back to writing in this blog, even more since I made this cute little character bento (kyaraben) for her first lunch at school. While it required a little assembly, it was a very easy lunch to put together and can be prepared the night before, so the next day is just the assembly. Components: Hard-boiled egg turned into a hatching chick (I followed this tutorial from HGTV). Sliced strawberries. Cherry tomato. Ham flower (bend ham slice in half, make several cuts around folded edge, and roll until it looks like a flower. I thought this was a great explanation on how to do it, but my husband says that after reading it he still does not know how to make it -_-, so here is a great tutorial from Just One Cook Book). Soy sauce noodles: …

Camping Adventures — Cuban Caldoza

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The last night of our camping adventure was actually a little bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand we were pretty tired at this point and just wanted to relax around the fire and enjoy the last part of our stay. On the other hand we had the Sheriff department calling us about a possible break in to our house… More on that later! For the first part of our night, once we returned from the Renaissance Faire I immediately got to work on a Cuban Caldoza (a stew with a lot of meats and root vegetables, slowly simmered until the vegetable and meat are falling apart) since our crew was very hungry and it needs to simmer for a while. A caldoza is a heavenly comforting stew. It fills you up and warms your heart and body. It can be made with any root vegetables you fancy as well as any meats you might have on hand. We used to make them in Cuba for block parties (usually a political reason was said …

Camping Adventures — Breakfast Casserole On The Grill

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The second day dawned beautifully. It was a nice temperature in Florida (for once) and my toddler was just soooo happy to be out and about all she did was run from the moment she woke up. Our itinerary for this day was to have breakfast in the camp, then go to the Renaissance Faire that was taking place in the same park as the one we were in. But before we went off to see knights and princesses we needed a sturdy breakfast to get us through all the walking we had to do (and let me tell you it was A LOT of walking). Since it was so early in the morning and most of my family was still asleep I did not feel like starting a fire, so I opted for the easier way, and just lighted the charcoal grill that is provided in every campsite (we had brought a bag of charcoal with the idea of my husband, the grilling master, making some burgers). I also brought a small cast iron …