Category Archives: Mmm… Monday
Mmm… Monday #17: Jam Oatmeal Bars
A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
~Author Unknown
I have no idea why I generally only make these cookies around Christmas time. I think I’m going to have to make these more often. Every year, I forget how incredibly awesome they are. Until I bite into one. Mmm.
I just want to gobble this up.
Now, I make these with my homemade raspberry jam, but any type of jam will work. However, I will have to admit that the homemade raspberry is the best jam in the world! Yeah, I’m a bit biased.
These are quite easy to make.
Jam Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cups butter/margarine
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1 cup thick jam
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix dry ingredients.
- Cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
- Press 2/3 of mixture into 11″x7″ glass baking dish.
- Spread jam and top with remaining crumbs.
- Bake for 25 minutes.
- Cool and cut into bars.
I hope you enjoy them!
Mmm… Monday #16: No Bake Cookies
A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
~Author Unknown
I make anywhere between 17 and 23 dozen cookies each Christmas season. I also bake bread and make homemade jam. I generally give most of them away to family, friends and co-workers. This year, I have no family and no co-workers and just a smattering of new friends in my new home state.
One of the types cookies I make pretty much only at Christmas are No Bake Cookies. I have no idea why I don’t make them at other times during the year because they are SO easy and literally only take about 15 minutes from start to finish. Oh wait… probably because I don’t need to eat them year-round 
I thought No Bake Cookies were pretty much something everyone made so I never put in my recipe section here, but some of my Twitter friends said they don’t have recipes for it. So here it is:
Mmmm... total chocolate and peanut butter yumminess!
No Bake Cookies
Cook and boil the following for 1-2 minutes and then take off the heat:
– 1/4 pound (4oz) of stick butter
- 2 cups of sugar
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 3 tablespoons of cocoa
After removing from heat, add the following:
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (but I generally add 2 teaspoons because I love vanilla so much)
- 3 cups of quick oats
Stir well and then drop from spoon onto waxed paper. Let cool and harden. Enjoy!
See? Now wasn’t that easy?
Mmm… Monday #15: Homemade Carrot Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting
Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.
~Jim Davis
Huzzy loves carrot cake. It’s his favorite dessert. So for his birthday (and just before he left on last deployment… not this one, but the one previous), I made a homemade carrot cake for him. Complete with homemade cream cheese frosting.
This recipe came from a lovely restaurant in my hometown that has since closed down (obviously not because of this awesome carrot cake!)
Carrot Cake 
Ingredients
1/4 cup oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup crushed pineapple (drained)
2 cups shredded carrots
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup coconut
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix all ingredients together.
- Bake in a 9″ x 13″ greased and floured pan.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until done.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
8 ounces of cream cheese
1/4 cup of margarine
1 1/2 to 2 pounds of confectioners (powdered) sugar
Directions
- Melt margarine.
- Beat margarine in with cream cheese.
- Add powdered sugar as desired.
- Uh… don’t put the frosting on the cake until the cake is cooled
Note: This frosting is awesome, but it is sweet and rich!
Enjoy!!
Mmm… Monday #13: Homemade Applesauce
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
-Proverb
I made this recipe the other day and it’s absolutely divine. I’m not exactly sure where I got it because I wrote it down a while ago.
Peel, cut and core the apples.
This is perfect for anyone… even toddlers. I gave a batch of it to my friend who has a toddler and they nearly fought over it!
And bonus… it makes your house smell a-mazing!
Crockpot Applesauce
Ingredients
- 8 large apples (I used Gala and they were perfect… not too sweet, not too tart)
- 5-6 tablespoons of lemon juice
- 1/2 cup of water
Ready to cook!
- 2-3 teaspoons of vanilla
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
- Skin the apples and cut into quarters (take the cores out, of course) and place into slow cooker.
- Add in the liquid ingredients and mix.
- Add in the rest of the ingredients.
All done. Looks perfect!
- Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours. At about 4 1/2 hours, I mashed up the apples with a potato masher and let them cook for the rest of the six hours. The six hours to me was perfect… still some small chunks of apple, but the chunks were so soft that they melted in your mouth. Perfect for a little kid because they won’t choke… or an adult like me who likes stuff that actually tastes homemade and not totally processed.
This made somewhere around six to eight cups of applesauce. I froze some of it and it was still awesome (and was a great frozen treat as it was thawing!)
Enjoy… let me know how it works out for you!
Mmm.. Monday #12: Pumpkin Bread
Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.
~Jim Davis
My mom made an amazing pumpkin bread last year and this year I decided to try it. It is soooo yummy, so I thought I’d share it with all of you!
Ingredients
Combine ingredients one at a time.
4 eggs beaten
3c sugar
2c pumpkin
1c oil
½ c water
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 1/3 cups flour
Directions
Almost ready.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine the ingredients in order, one at a time.
- Spray baking pans with cooking spray.
- Pour batter into baking pans approximately 3/4 full.
- Bake for approximately one hour.
Mmmm
NOTE: This recipe makes 2 large loaves or approximately eight small ones. I filled my small loaf pans too full (I filled them to the top).
