Shortbread Lasso Biscuits

This shortbread recipe is loosely based on the “official” Lasso shortbread. It’s not too sweet, but it’s very buttery and tasty!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

3/4 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 300 F.

2. Sift flour and salt into large bowl.

3. In separate bowl, butter should be soft - the consistency of mayonnaise, but not melted into a liquid.

4. Mix the vanilla into the butter.

5. Sift the sugar into the butter and mix thoroughly.

6. Mix the sifted flour into the butter/sugar mixture and combine evenly.  It will be crumbly.

7. Use a square pan, either covered with parchment paper or coated in butter. Pour the mixture into the pan and evenly spread out and press down to about 1/2” thick. Use a piece of parchment as a barrier sheet under your hand to flatten in the pan.

8. (Optional) You can cut into squares in advance before baking to make the cuts smooth later.

9. Bake until golden and firm, approximately 45-60 minutes.

10. Cool and re-slice, if necessary.

Strawberry Napoleons

My kid made these and we loved them so much, we made them weekly for a while. Delicious and a very easy recipe for kids. You could make them with other fruit or mixtures, depending on what you have or what’s in season. You could also add other flavors to the cream filling, or color it pink (or whatever color you like) to get creative and make it even more special.

Ingredients

1 box frozen puff pastry sheet (or homemade)

1 box instant vanilla pudding, 3-oz size

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups whipped topping (like Cool Whip) or sweetened whipped cream

1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries

Powdered sugar for dusting at the end (optional)

Melted chocolate, sprinkles, or other topping for drizzling at the end (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Prepare the frozen puff pastry by thawing it and cutting it into 12 equal rectangles, using a pizza cutter or knife. You could also use a ruler if needed.

3. Add the puff pastry rectangles to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or silicone mat. Bake for 13-15 minutes until the rectangles puff up and are golden brown.

4. Remove the puff pastry rectangles from the oven and allow to cool. Split them in half to make 24 rectangles.

5. In a bowl, mix the vanilla pudding with the milk. Let it set for 5 minutes. Fold in the whipped topping, to create the pastry cream.

6. Wash and slice the strawberries. If you use frozen strawberries, thaw them out and drain away most of the juice so they’re not too drippy.

7. Using a spoon or piping bag, put some cream on a rectangle, place some strawberry slices on the cream,   Add a little more cream, and then add a puff pastry rectangle on top.  Like a little sandwich.

8. On top of each little strawberry cream pastry sandwich, top with a little more cream and a few more strawberry slices.

9. At this point, you could drizzle them with melted chocolate or dust with powdered sugar, if you want.

10. Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.  They are best eaten fresh, but can be stored for a couple of days in the refrigerator.

French Toast Casserole

This is our favorite way to eat French Toast.  The buttery brown sugar at the bottom of each bite is the *chef’s kiss*. The outside is firm and lightly crunchy.  The inside of each bite is like a warm, fluffy pillow of awesome. No more soggy, floppy big triangles of the old fashioned kind.  THIS IS THE WAY.

Ingredients

• 1/2 loaf of bread, cut into bite-sized cubes (we use regular bread, but it could be French bread)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided in 2 portions
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar for topping
• Pam or non-stick cooking spray
• Powdered sugar for topping
• Pancake syrup, or other toppings (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Butter or use Pam to grease a 13x9” baking pan.

2. Melt the butter and put in a bowl. Stir in the brown sugar until the mixture is smooth.  Pour the mixture into the bottom of the baking pan and spread it out evenly.

3. Carefully add the bread cubes to the pan, spreading them evenly over the butter/sugar mixture.

4. In a medium/large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, and 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon.  Carefully pour the egg mixture over the cubed bread, making sure to distribute it over all of the pieces and saturate them.

5. Sprinkle the other teaspoon of cinnamon and the tablespoon of brown sugar over the top of the bread cubes.

6. Bake the casserole for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

7. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar and whatever toppings you like on your French Toast.

Easy, Kid-Friendly Blueberry Vinaigrette

My kid is working on learning to enjoy eating green salad, because healthy.  So we found a way to use the blueberries that we picked and froze last summer to make a super tasty and very PURPLE salad dressing that makes eating salad fun awesome. You simply blend the 4 ingredients together, using a regular blender or immersion blender, food processor…or any machine that will purée the ingredients into a smooth dressing.

Ingredients

1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, thaw)

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup honey

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or vegetable oil

Directions

1. Combine all of the ingredients with your blender

2. Strain, if you want.

3. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.  Shake before pouring.

The Best Homemade Waffle Recipe Ever

My son and I have perfected a waffle batter recipe. You’ll need a waffle iron.  It will get messy and drippy, so maybe put a piece of parchment paper underneath your machine while you use it to catch the drips. It’s totally worth the mess, though.

Also, you can put the cooked waffles in a freezer bag, freeze them, and save them for later. These are better than store bought waffles!

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• A dash of cinnamon
• Nonstick cooking spray
• (Optional) Toppings for your cooked waffles, such as butter, syrup, powdered sugar, jam, peanut butter, Nutella, etc.

Directions

1. Preheat your waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

2. In a large bowl, whisk just the eggs until they are thoroughly blended and smooth.

3. Add the flour, milk, and vegetable oil. Mix until blended.

4. Whisk in the sugar, and then everything else - the baking powder, baking soda, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon just until smooth, Be careful not to overmix.

5. Spray the waffle iron with non stick cooking spray. Pour some batter onto the hot waffle iron and cook until golden brown.  I use a soup ladle, which seems to be the perfect amount (about 4 oz)  to fill both sides of our smallish waffle maker. Use whatever works for your machine.

For our waffle iron and this recipe, 4 minutes seems to be the perfect amount of time to cook the waffles to a perfect level of golden brown crispness.  But it could take anywhere from about 3-5 minutes for other waffle makers.

Enjoy your amazing waffles!

Magic Mojo Easy Spaghetti Sauce for Picky Children

My sensitive kid is currently finicky about textures in his food.  He likes sauces that are "smooth with no chunks" and no pieces of unidentifiable herbs or vegetables.  While we are working on helping him broaden his horizons to include more variety and chunky things in sauces, in the mean time he helped me create this great recipe for spaghetti/pizza sauce.  It is simple enough for a kid to assemble, extremely inexpensive, and so tasty!  The credit for the inspiration for this goes to a wonderful and gracious lady/blogger mom, a.k.a. 4hatsandfrugal.com , who also has finicky kids.  We started with her fabulous make-ahead pizza sauce recipe and adapted it to our tastes to be a quick spaghetti sauce.

Ingredients:
1 small can (6 ounces) of tomato paste
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 to 1 tablespoon ground oregano (should be like a powder, not leaves)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

How to make it:
In a medium sauce pan, combine the ingredients (my son measures and combines in the pan for this part).
Turn the heat on to just under medium and continually stir as the sauce heats up.  Make sure it's smooth.  We like to use a whisk; It works great.  It takes just a few minutes before the sauce starts bubbling. Then, turn it way down to simmer while your noodles (or whatever protein/vegetables) are cooking.

We like to put it on Italian Bucatini, which is a large, tubular spaghetti type pasta, and then chop up a baked, crunchy vegetarian "chicken" patty to put on top.  Then we top it all with some Parmesan cheese.

If you are the type that mixes sauce into pasta and mixing before serving, this recipe makes enough sauce to cover an entire 16 ounce package of Italian Bucatini noodles.

SO EASY. SO TASTY. SO YUMMY.