In the Kitchen - Dried Fruit

Bubba goes through A LOT of dried fruit daily. He is a huge fan of Funky Monkey Pink Pineapple, and can eat 2 or 3 packages a day. But at $2.50 per 1 oz package, it's not the cheapest snack around.

So I began experimenting with making my own dried fruit. I make my own fruit leather - how hard can drying fruit be? It's kinda the same, right?

Turns out, it was a little more difficult than I thought. I started out with pineapple {since it's his favorite; except, he won't eat it fresh - weirdo}. I didn't bother taking a picture of the pile of yuck that came out of my oven. After 4 hours, it never really dried, it just turned into dark brown blobs.

After wasting a whole bag of frozen pineapple, I decided to take a different approach.

I picked 4 fruits I had on hand - blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries - and I just used a little of each. After all, I really didn't want to waste too much more, fruit isn't cheap, ya know? All but the blueberries were frozen.

I read here to set the oven to 210º, but I did the pineapple at 200º and failed, so I set the oven to 170º and left them in for 4 hours. 

The Results

The blackberries and blueberries were the clear winners. Fresh or frozen - they did well.

The raspberries would have been a success also, had I baked them alone. They dried faster than the others {since they are smaller}, so I should have taken them out sooner.

And my poor strawberries were a disaster. I should have cut them smaller. They were just too thick and never seemed to dry out.

I'm determined to get the pineapple to work, so I will be trying that again - once I get to the store, it's only been oooooohhhh 2 weeks. {don't worry, I'm not starving my kid}

Happy Cooking!

In The Kitchen - Zucchini Nut Bread Cookie Sandwiches

That has to be the longest name ever for cookie. But, oh man, are they good!

I found the recipe in an issue of Martha Stewart Living a few months back, and proceeded to add it to my growing pile of "recipes to try" - and when I say pile, I mean a 3 inch three ringer binder (that is full). While looking for a few holiday cookie recipes for a friend, I found this; and decided since I had some leftover zucchini, I should give it a try. 

You have to check this recipe out on MarthaStewart.com. You will love it! 

I pretty much followed the recipe exactly. The only differences in mine is that I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (instead of 1 cup all-purpose), and I only used 1/4 cup walnuts (I also forgot to toast them).

Refrigerated for 1 hour.

I think I made mine a bit too big because I only ended up getting 8 sandwiches out of this batch (according to the recipe I should have gotten 14).

MMMMMMMM...So yummy!

I'm not normally a fan of cream cheese frosting; but sandwiched between the zucchini bread cookies it is delicious! If you're not a fan either, no worries, these babies taste just as good without it. I would also like to point out that the consistency of the cookies is more bread like - as the name insinuates. Just thought I would point that out, in case you were wanting a more crunchy cookie.

This little guy LOVED them! I was quite surprised that he didn't just take it apart and eat the frosting. Makes me happy that I snuck in some veggies. He didn't eat the whole thing though - we shared =). 

Thank you, Martha Stewart, for another amazing recipe to add to my collection.

Make them yourself:

Zucchini Nut Bread Cookie Sandwiches

Happy Baking!

Greenwise Publix Deal

Snikiddy Snacks Grilled Cheese Puffs - BOGO, $2.33
$1/1 Any Variety Snikiddy Snacks printable
Use (2) $1/1 Printable Coupons and pay $.33 for both!

This deal ends today. Sorry for posting this on such short notice. I just discovered these amazing snacks; and I just had to share this awesome deal!

As you can tell, there is only one bag pictured. That is because this little guy has already started digging into the other one....

Only the Grilled Cheese Puffs are on sale, but we can't wait to try the other varieties.

Hope you get a chance to grab this deal!

In The Kitchen - Fruit Leather

This is a great recipe for Homemade Fruit Leather. It's easy to make, tastes great, and so much healthier than eating fruit snacks (which my family is addicted to). I found this recipe in an issue of Parents magazine a couple months ago, and have made a few versions of it already - strawberry is my favorite and Little Man enjoys just about any flavor. I like to stock up on berries and other fruit when they are cheap in the summer and freeze them to use for smoothies and things like this. 

Ingredients

4 cups of berries 

2 Tbs honey

Puree berries and honey in a blender or food processor. In this batch I only used 2 cups of berries and a little less than 1 Tbs of honey. The first time I made this I used exactly 2 Tbs and thought that it overpowered the berries (raspberries in that instance).

Spread the mixture evenly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Bake 3-4 hours at 200ºF, or until the mixture feels dry and is no longer sticky. After about 3 hrs 45 min, check it often! Let it cool, then slice (or tear, that's what I normally do) into strips. 

I took mine out a bit to early. So what is pictured on the right is not quite set. However, I let it dry over night, and was able to peal it off in the morning. Store the strips in an air tight container for up to 2 weeks.