Lorinne's Amazing chili. 
                                     (Because I'm amazing!)

This past weekend, we were "blessed" with about four feet of snow over the period of several hours.
We had also lost power for several hours and I was quite worried about what I was going to feed the family since we had just come from outside, shoveling snow(with a snow shovel) and sand shovels of course when you have a 1 and a 3 year old....And I wanted a good cold weather meal.
How lucky we were that a few hours later our power was restored. I was unsure it would remain on, as we were about half way through our snow storm. SO....I cranked up my stove and made chili the fastest I had ever done before. Otherwise it could have been frozen fish sticks and lettuce. Mmmm.
Luckily, we were able to keep our power. Here is my recipe.

-Two pounds of ground beef. I prefer 93/7 but only had 80/20 on hand. So any kind will work with this, I think ground beef is mostly ground beef with some extra fat/oil.
-One 29oz can of tomato sauce
-One 29oz can of pinto beans
-One 29 oz of dark red kidney beans. I might add in another small can, I LOVE kidney beans in my chili!
-One can of diced tomatoes with green chilies. I use the regular, I think they have mild and hot as well.
-Three tablespoons of chili powder
-Two table spoons of cumin powder
-One to two tablespoons of pepper
(You can certainly adjust the spices to your liking)

-In large cooking pot, brown your ground beef and break into little bite size pieces.
If there is left over fat/oil...I always drain it into a jar to throw away.
-Once drained (or not, whatever you decide-just remember its not very healthy to eat the fat/oil) Pour in the tomato sauce, beans, diced tomatoes with chilies and spices.
-Continue stirring a few times an hour (Every 15 to 30 minutes) while keeping it on low or around "3" on your stove. (I kept mine around 3) To cook it quickly, like I did this time...I think I had it on "6" or so and was stirring every few minutes. You DONT want the chili to get burned on the bottom. Ick.
-Depending on how thick you like it, this step is optional. You could add some water to it. I probably wouldn't add more then 1cup. However, it is your chili your making. So go ahead and be adventurous.

                       Rainbow "Sparkle" Birthday Cake

So for Claire's 3rd birthday, she told me that she wanted a rainbow and sparkles birthday party and for her other party (We are having two, to accommodate family visiting) She stated she would like a dancing garbage man birthday as well. So we'll see how that one goes.
Back to the rainbow and sparkles cake. Now, normally I would have made everything homemade. But I never made a homemade vanilla cake before and felt nervous about screwing it up, as I wouldn't have been able to go out and buy more supplies since we had the winter storm of a life time this weekend.

So ingredients are as follows.
-1 box of white or vanilla cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
------>I used 3 eggs, 1 cup of water and apple sauce. 1/2 cup I think, Instead of oil.You can do what you feel comfortable with. The apple sauce measures cup for cup. I liked the idea of saving some calories and not noticing a difference in taste or texture.
-1 box of instant vanilla pudding
-Wilton gel food coloring. I used 4 colors. Red, blue, purple and green. Remember a little goes a long way!
-Kit Kat bars. Lots of them. I bought 1 bag, and that will most likely work. But you cant eat any, or there will be holes in your "fence" ...That was a little problem over here...Ooops!
-M&M's
-Vanilla frosting (I prefer to make my own, but was out of  powder sugar, so store bought it was.

PLUS:
- A pretty ribbon to tie around your cake (Optional, but adds a little "extra" to it.)
-I had a card board cake bottom. You could also use a cake stand or plate.

Start out with your pan. I used two 8inch round pans and sprayed them with Crisco no stick cooking spray. Set them aside.

-Take a large mixing bowl, pour in the cake mix, vanilla pudding powder and the ingredients you need from the back of the cake box. (Eggs, water, etc...)
-Take 4 large wide mouth cups and divide up the batter by fourths into the cups.
-Put in 1 color of gel food coloring in each cup (One color for each cup) Start with a tiny bit and add more as you need it to get the color you desire.
-Glop in big spoonfuls around the cake pan (Make sure you already greased your pan!) Its kind of like Tie dye, you cant really screw it up.
- The take a butter knife, place inside the pan and move it up and down like you are making ocean waves. Don't do too much, it will come out looking gross and brown. A little goes a long way with the swirling technique.
-Bake in the oven according to your cake box directions. Mine was at 350 for about 18 minutes. I take my cakes out AS SOON AS THEY ARE FIRM AND HAVE NO MOVEMENT WHEN THE PAN IS LIGHTLY TAPPED. Let the cakes cool.

Ok, so your cake is baked and COOLED.

-Place your cooled bottom cake on the cardboard cake bottom, cake stand, or plate. You might need to cut some cake off the top, just do it nice and straight.
-Frost that top.
-Then place the second layer on top and you might need to cut a little off the top here as well. Just nice and straight. Frost the top and the sides of the 2 layer cake.
-Place the Kit Kat bars around the cake as though it was a fence.
-Pour or place M&M's on top of the cake. I used about a half of a medium sized bag. I was glad there was some left over for me to snack on!
-Measure out your ribbon and cut to desired length. Tie your bow.
-VOILA!

You just made a fantastic Kitkat rainbow cake.

Here is how mine came out. AND since I made mine with Apple sauce, its more "healthy" then it could have been :)

Homemade Baked Donuts (Somewhat "skinny" donuts)

Ok, so I woke up this morning around 2am thinking that I needed to send my Husband off for the day with something warm out of the oven. I had run out of yeast the night before, so I felt like donuts might make a nice treat. I'll bet they put a pep in his step. Not to mention his pants still fit after breakfast.
I was able to make 8.

Homemade Baked Donuts
Heat up your oven to 350 degrees.
Grease pans enough to get a nice coating. I used the non-stick cooking spray and set those aside for now.

-1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of all purpose flour
-3/4 cup of stevia (Or you can use Sugar, Splenda or Truvia...whatever you choose. They ARE going to be your donuts)
-2 Teaspoons of Baking powder
-1/2 Teaspoon of cinnamon
-1 dash of salt
-3/4 cup of skim milk
-2 eggs
-1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1 Teaspoon of Almond extract (You can use one or the other as well. Whatever excites you in the kitchen!)
-1 Tablespoon of butter flavored shortening
-2 Tablespoons of Heavy whipping cream (Optional)

#1 In a bowl, preferably a medium to large one...Mix the flour, stevia, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Just enough to have it mixed nicely.
2. Add in the milk, eggs, vanilla, shortening and whipping cream.
3. Beat everything together until well blended.
4. Now take a large clean Zip lock bag and pour batter into it. Trying not to get too much of it on the sides.
5. Cut off one of the corner edges about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch (HINT: You are trying to make a pipping bag) Not the best pic, but see below how the corner of the bag is snipped?
6. Squeeze batter into each donut part, try to fill it about 1/2 full. That should make nice sized donuts. Although you can play around with it, as you might like smaller or bigger/thicker donuts.

Your going to bake your donuts about 8 minutes. Don't forget, I live in a high altitude area and 8 minutes at 350 degrees works for me. You want your donuts to be soft and spring back to form when poked with a finger tip. Otherwise you will have blow-out-nuts or crispnuts. Ick.  Below is what a nice batch should look like.

Now for the frosting, what I did is make Hershey's best brownie frosting. Its my favorite and has a good consistency. You can also just buy cake frosting in any flavor you wish.

Frosting
3 Tablespoons melted butter
3 Tablespoons of cocoa
1 Tablespoon honey or corn syrup (I used Honey)
1/2 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Cup of powdered sugar
1-2 Tablespoons milk.

Beat butter, cocoa, honey and vanilla until blended. Add powdered sugar and milk. Stir to spreading consistency.

Spread and enjoy! (Make sure you cool the donuts for atleast 5-10 minutes. You don't want your frosting to turn to chocolate milk on your donuts!!!) You can also add sprinkles, chopped nuts, ect...be creative! Good job on baking some delightful donuts!

Hank says, "Wheres mine!"

I see a donut monster!

Thanks for stopping in!

Work with me on my photo skills. It was late and I really wanted to have a visual here. (See the chunks of banana and chocolate?) Yummm!


Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins:

So I found a recipe I had wanted to try and when I was in the middle of it, I realized I didn't have a few of the ingredients....(Oops) So I compromised with other things sitting in the fridge. The outcome? Amazing and delicious muffins!
The basis started from Sally's baking addiction website (Skinny Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins) and did my own additions and subtractions. I LOVE her blog! I will share what I changed.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

*Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and either spray muffin pans with non stick cooking spray or with baking liners. Your choice! I used liners. Then set aside until you are ready for them.

-1 and 1/4 cup of all purpose flour and 1 and 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
(This will be 2 and 1/2 cups total of flour)
-1 Teaspoon baking powder
-1/4 Teaspoon of salt
-1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
-1/4 cup of Honey
-1/2 cup of brown sugar (I used light brown)
-2 LARGE, nicely ripe banana's. Mashed.
-1 Tablespoon whipping cream
-1 Teaspoon of Miracle whip
-2 to 3 heaping Tablespoons of Apple sauce
-1/2 cup of skim milk
-1/2 cup of chocolate chips (More or less depending on your personal taste)

Ok. Do you have everything you need?

Lets go!

#1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon (Just a few stirs to get it mixed together)

2. In a separate bowl, stir the honey and brown sugar together. Its going to be like a paste and try to get as many lumps out as you can. Add the mashed bananas, the whipping cream, the miracle whip, apple sauce and the milk.
Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Stir enough to get it mixed nicely, do not over mix. Fold in the chocolate chips.

3. Fill the cups about 1/2 to 3/4 full. My batter made 18 regular size muffins. Bake the first 12 by themselves, wait for those to be done before putting the last 6 muffins in the oven.

4. Now I live in a high altitude region and 15-16 minutes worked for me with my oven. Check with a toothpick and if it comes out clean, they are done. Let them cool a while. I just ate two warm ones with some ice cold milk. Yesss! All in a day's work.

Thanks for visiting!