Category: Recipes

I love donuts.  The cake ones, the doughnut holes, frosted, plain, sprinkles…you name the kind and I like it (unless it’s a Bismarck, then it can only be Bavarian Cream….no exceptions.)  The one thing I don’t like is the guilt I feel after eating a doughnut.  I’ve always wanted to try baked doughnuts, but didn’t have the pan to do it.  Soooo, I bought the pan and away we went.  My daughter was so excited to see that I chose the heart-shaped pan (purchased here).

Are these not stinkin’ cute?!  These puppies were so easy to make.  I was worried about the batter running over the edges of the pan or burning the doughnuts, but I followed the baking directions of the recipe to a T and they came out perfect!  They’re almost too cute to eat…almost.

Of course it’s always necessary to eat a couple handful of sprinkles while decorating :-)

Baked Buttermilk Doughnuts

Ingredients

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar —–(I used 1/4 cup)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg —–(I didn’t have this on hand, so I used cinnamon)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk (1%) —–(I used skim)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup honey —–(I used 1/2 cup)
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°. Lightly coat a doughnut pan with cooking spray.

2. Combine flours and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

3. Combine buttermilk, eggs, honey, butter, and vanilla, stirring well with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture; whisk just until combined.

4. Spoon batter into doughnut pans, filling twothirds full. Bake in middle of oven until doughnuts spring back when touched and are golden on bottom (about 8 minutes). Let cool in pan slightly (about 4 minutes); turn out. Coat with toppings (see ideas on website…click link above), if desired.

*I did edit this receipt somewhat.  My edits are in red.  Also, I had some homemade cinnamon roll frosting leftover, so I used that as a topping, as well as sprinkles.  It was fun to have the kiddos help mix the batter and decorate them with sprinkles.  Great Sunday morning breakfast treat.  I hope you’ll try them and enjoy!

 

 

I’m always on the search for something quick (ready in 25 min) and easy to make for dinner.  The hubby always requests meat for the main dish, so if he didn’t oppose, I would totally have eaten this as a main dish.  Why is it that men always want meat with their meal?  I could live without it for the most part.  Give me a salad or pasta any day of the week over a meal of meat.

Paremsan Garlic Orzo (Serves 4)

–  2 cups orzo pasta

–  1/2 cup butter

–  1/4 cup minced garlic (decrease by half if you don’t want it too garlicky)

–  1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

–  1/4 cup milk

–  1 tsp each of salt and pepper

–  2 Tbsp chopped, fresh parsley (i used dried)

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook orzo in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, about 11 minutes. Drain.
2. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat; cook and stir garlic in melted butter until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir orzo into garlic mixture and mix in Parmesan cheese, milk, salt, black pepper, and parsley.

We go through a lot of bread in our house.   About a loaf a week to be exact, which to me…is a lot.  I’ve never thought to make my own bread, but I’ve recently tried to cut costs on groceries and other household items.  I also don’t like to see the insane amount of ingredients listed on a loaf of store-bought bread.  I think it’s like 20 ingredients or something crazy like that.  I’ve only bought whole wheat bread and there are still that many ingredients.  I have a bread machine, but the bread always has a thick outer crust, which I am not a fan of for sandwiches.  So, I got a recipe from my Grandma (she makes her own bread) and have made it a couple of times.  The bread tasted great, but it didn’t rise as high as I would’ve liked it to.  Thus, I was on the search for a whole wheat bread recipe that would suite my needs and I came across this:

I’ve made two loaves so far and it’s so good!  It rises quickly and it doesn’t fall apart when you cut into it.  We’ve made sandwiches, eaten it plain or with butter…anyway you slice it (no pun intended :))…it’s good.  One thing I like is that it only has 6 ingredients.  Another is that it has no sugar, but uses honey instead.  I will be using this recipe from now on for making my own bread and next time I plan on substituting whole wheat bread flour for the white bread flour the recipe calls for.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.  Now to find the perfect whole wheat hamburger bun recipe.  If you have a recipe, please share :)