Sunday Snack - Chia Seed Pudding

 Today's snack comes via this pin and the information found here.

You will need:
  
2 1/2 cups almond milk (or 1 1/2 cups almond milk + 1 cup Thai canned coconut milk for more coconut flavor) I used what you see underlined
1/3 cup chia seeds

2 tablespoons agave, honey, or liquid sweetener of choice (optional)
zest from 1 orange

1 cup chopped orange segments, from about 3 juicy oranges (can also use canned mandarin oranges)
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh ripe pineapple
1/2 cup toasted large flake coconut, garnish
1/4 cup chopped pistachios, garnish
honey for garnish (optional)

Place almond milk (coconut milk if using), chia seeds, (liquid sweetener if using) and zest from one orange in a large glass jar or glass bowl.

If using a jar, fit it with a lid, shake to combine, then refrigerate.

If using a bowl, mix together with a spoon, cover with plastic and refrigerate.

Allow to chill for a few hours, shaking the jar or stirring occasionally, until chia seeds are plump and soft.

Mixture should not be too thick.

If you’re using it as a breakfast treat, mix orange and pineapple to combine then refrigerate again until you’re ready to eat.  Garnish with coconut and pistachios before serving.  If making dessert, fold coconut whipped cream into plumped chia seeds then add fruit.  This will last a day or two tightly covered and refrigerated.

I made enough that I was eating it longer than just two days. It ended up liking it a lot better without the pieces of fruit in it and was usually so hungry that I didn't bother with the pistachios. I might skip the orange zest if I were to make this again. This was pretty tasty, very light, and not overly sweet. The little lamb even seemed to really enjoy it the first few days.

Epic Pinfail In The Kitchen - Red Velvet Cheesecake

My parents were coming for Christmas, and despite a recent conversation with my mother about my fathers cholesterol I didn't deviate from my plan to make a dessert sure to delight both my husband and my father.

Today's pintest comes via this pin and the info found here.

First you have to make the red velvet cake.

Your dry ingrediants will be mixed in one bowl.

You're going to need a sifter for your cake flour.

Your wet in a second.

And the butter and sugar will be creamed in either another bowl or your mixer.

It says that it doesn't really matter too much what kind of pan you bake your cake in. Because I was planning on probably making the cheesecake the same day I didn't want to have to wash spring form pans all night in addition to all of the other measuring cups and what have you.

Once the red velvet cake was finished I set it out to cool.

Why is there a huge dent in the cake? Because it bumped into another one of my oven racks. After I moved it the cake pretty much just deflated.

Then I put the cake into a bag for the evening because the cake will end up being broken up anyway.

Between making cakes I still had to do dishes and wipe down my mixer.

If you've never made a cheesecake before (and quite honestly I'd only made one once before, years ago, and it went terribly) it's a pretty quick thing to make. Once you have an ingredient list it's just about as simple as, "mix all of your ingredients and then put into the oven for x amount of time."

Making this cheesecake is ALMOST that simple.
1)  line your spring form pan with aluminum foil.
2) you're going to break apart half of your red velvet cake.
3) cover the red velvet cake bottom with your cheesecake mix.
4) place your cheesecake into a ban marie (hot water bath.)
5) put the entire thing into the oven and wait 45 minutes.

When your time is up turn off your oven and wait another hour - the original poster urges you NOT to open your oven and peek. This wasn't a problem because I had approximate 12,037,102,934,835,724,387,092,348,238,427,345 things to do in preparation for my parents arrival.

Around the time my cake had come to room temperature

it hit me - I had my hands so full that I forgot to mix red velvet cake chunks into my cheesecake! In my mind the cake was now 100% ruined and I'd just wasted two days. My husband told me all that had happened was that I made a delicious cheesecake with a yummy crust and yummy topping. I was miserable. Then my mother texted me to tell me they were probably not coming.

The time came to get the cake into my cake saver for the night. I released the tab on the spring form and everything looked okay. When I flipped the cake onto a plate I sensed that everything had gone badly. I had to unwrap layers of foil to see just how badly it was and each layer of foil just made me more certain that this was a disaster. Closer to the cake there were small layers of cheesecake inside the foil. When I got down to the plate the cake looked a bit like someone had dropped it from a standing position. Maybe I can still save it? The cake was now upside-down and would have to be flipped again. Cake pretty much went all over the kitchen from there. There was cake all over the floor, cake all over the plate, cake all over the cake taker . . . it was just really horrifying for me right then.

I was left with a huge mess and a bag full of half of a red velvet cake. FML and FTP (Eff This Pin).

Pintesting In The Kitchen - Gummies

I felt like making a healthy snack food for my little lamb.

Today's pintest comes via this pin and the information found here.

Get all of your materials together.

Anticipating that my little lamb would be all about some fruit snacks, I decided to make a double batch.

Having read ahead I knew that I was going to need to put apple juice

into a bowl and set it aside. I went ahead and did that first.

Hoping my chosen small pot would be large enough I put a cup of my mixed fruit in

and then a half of a cup of water in. Turn on your stove top and cook until your fruit is nice and soft.

Once it was it was ready for a very, very quick trip through the blender.

I'd planned to use my immersion blender but for some unforeseen reason it stopped working.

Back into the pot

with a cup full of apple sauce.

Once that's all been heated you should turn your attention back to the apple juice you set out and put your gelatin packets on top.

I found that it made greater sense considering what the next step was to just do this in the container I would be refrigerating this all in.

Pour the hot mixture of applesauce and fruit over the gelatin and stir well making sure that the gelatin has completely dissolved.

Then place it in the refrigerator to congeal.

It says to wait around 3 hours. I waited then sliced a few pieces for each of us to try.

How was it? It wasn't as tart as I anticipated. The texture isn't quite like a gummy and isn't quite like jello. It's sweet but not too sweet. I feel it would make a totally acceptable snack food for your child.

Also, don't make a double batch - she's not THAT into it.