Broncos Cake Batter Puppy Chow

There's something about all those food dye concerns that goes straight out the window when it comes to food during football season.  Call me a hypocrite, but during the football season and especially during January football, I need food in Broncos colors.  If you are watching January football and see your team, I think food coloring is understandable. 

I made the funfetti cake mix puppy chow last year which was a pretty big hit with the group I served it up to, but who doesn't love puppy chow really?  

In truth this is just one batch of regular cake mix puppy chow with orange sprinkles and one batch using blue candy melts and blue powdered sugar.  I received quite a few e-mails from readers of the Broncos cake pops and Broncos popcorn post asking where to find navy blue candy melts and I have to tell you, I feel your pain.  These are Make'N Mold brand which I purchase from Hobby Lobby.  During the year I was in Vegas, I only found them once and proceeded to buy all three remaining bags.  I've had better luck here in Denver but it's still hit or miss.  You can also buy them directly via Make'N Mold's site but as of now, they are the only makers of navy candy melts that I've seen.  I guess that makes them the official supplier of candy melts for Super Bowl XLVIII foodie needs. 

I used white chocolate for this but you can also use almond bark.  My anti-white chocolate mind doesn't really differentiate.  I think it's really just the glue to hold the cake mix and powdered sugar on. 

I added orange sprinkles here, because when I made the funfetti cake mix version, I found that sprinkles didn't stick so well to the puppy chow when they were in the cake mix.  Turns out, sprinkles really don't stick all that well regardless.  They are fine here but fall off when mixed into the cake batter mix.  

Coloring powdered sugar and dry cake mix is kind of a funny thing.  It worked well here but next time I think I'll take my chances with regular white cake mix and powdered sugar.  While the coloring dries, I was forever concerned that fingers would turn blue if people licked their fingers. I left out the colored cake mix in the recipe below but it's really just adding the cake mix and powdered sugar to a mini food processor and slowly adding food coloring by drops and processing until you get the color you want.  I've found the Americolor food coloring (Hobby Lobby of course) dries faster and more thoroughly for this purpose than the Wilton gels. 

Crazy stuff right?  I would contend that this is more of a Denver blue than a Seattle blue. 

Since the sprinkles didn't stick all that well, I called an audible here and added orange Reeses Pieces.  This was definitely one of the easiest ways to get team colors on the party table.   And I'm guessing I don't have to tell you how addictive puppy chow can be. 

Broncos Cake Batter Puppy Chow

8 c Chex cereal

1.5 c chopped almond bark or white chocolate, melted

1.5 c navy blue candy melts

1 1/3 c dry cake mix

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1 cup orange Reeses Pieces

Directions:

1. Pour 2/3 c. cake mix and 1/3 c powdered sugar into gallon size baggie and mix well
2. Measure out 4 c Chex into a large bowl
3. Pour melted white chocolate over Chex mix and gently stir well to coat all cereal. 
4. Add cereal to gallon baggie, seal and shake well to coat.  
5. Spoon out coated Puppy Chow onto a baking sheet and allow white chocolate to fully harden
6. Repeat above steps with remaining ingredients and using the blue candy melts in place of the white chocolate.
7. When Puppy Chow is fully dry/hardened, combine in large bowl and mix in Reeses Pieces.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes with Coconut Berry Topping

You thought I'd have another Game Day Broncos recipe today right?  :) :) :)  I'll give you a bit of a break but SuperBowl countdown has already started.   It's been a very long time since we've been in the big one so you betcha, there's more Broncos themed foodie stuff coming up. 

Today though,  I'm sharing the world's easiest pancakes batter and piggybacking off yesterday's  healthier eats theme.  In the blender is oatmeal, coconut flour, cottage cheese, baking powder and vanilla.  I don't add any sugar but if you like your pancakes a bit sweetened, you can add it at this point.  Just a couple of eggs and a couple of minutes blending and the batter is ready to go.  

Yep, easy peasy.  For this recipe, most of the effort is in the topping. 

The topping itself isn't all that time consuming either.  I added a 6oz container each of blueberries and blackberries to a pan along with 2 tbsp of honey and 1/4 cup coconut milk.  I freeze mine in ice cube trays for smoothies when I open a can.  

Cook berries on med-low heat until it forms a thickened syrup. Remove from heat and add one additional 6oz container of fresh blackberries and serve warm.  Or eat it by the spoonful warm.  Either way it's good stuff.  

Next post up isn't quite so healthy but who can say no to any Broncos colored party food? :)  I almost never make puppy chow but when I do, it's shockingly blue.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes with Coconut Berry Topping

Pancake Ingredients
1 cup cottage cheese
2/3 cup oatmeal

2/3 cup coconut flour (or you can increase oatmeal to 1 cup) 

1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla 

Coconut Berry Topping Ingredients

2 6oz containers of blackberries

1 6oz container of blueberries

2 tbsp honey

1/4 cup coconut milk

Coconut oil for greasing skillet

Directions

1. Add all pancake ingredients to blender and mix for 2-3 minutes or until smooth.
2. Lightly grease a skillet with coconut oil and heat over medium heat.  
3. Pour desired size pancakes into heated skillet.  Cook until golden on the bottom and bubbles form and begin to pop. Flip and cook until golden on other side.
4. Top with your warm coconut berry topping and serve immediately.

Not So Cheese Buffalo Chicken Dip

I didn't make up the name, Vitamix did.  I recently made Vitamix's Not So Cheese Sauce and I have to say, I've been a little bit addicted.  I've used the base recipe to make a not so cheese queso and even mac and not so cheese.  While I love me some cheese sauce, I think I'm just in awe that you can throw cashews, roasted peppers and nutritional yeast and some spices into a blender, and have a creamy cheese-like sauce. 

The most recent experiment was turning this into a buffalo chicken dip and I have to say it was love.  Not just, "this is healthy so I guess I should love it" love but more like the  "I love the volleyball scene in Top Gun" love.  The fact that the ingredient list makes you feel a lot less guilty does contribute to this, but it tastes good as well.  Throw this on the table as game day eats and you might have a few people ask what's a bit different about your version, but I doubt it.  I served it up (with full disclosures that it contained nuts) and peeps thought it was just as good as the 45 packets of cream cheese version.  

What is nutritional yeast you ask?  I don't really know much except that it's full of Vitamin B, protein and is  popular amongst vegans as a cheese substitute.  I'm sure its unfortunate name precludes many from even trying it, but it's quite tasty.  It definitely doesn't taste like white cheddar on your popcorn but it's strangely addictive.  I actually prefer my popcorn with nutritional yeast these days.  

Blended with other ingredients, it definitely has that tangy cheese-like flavor.

I have to admit that when blended, the color was eerily so similar to nacho cheez with a "z" that I hesitated before tasting it.   Turns out it was pretty yum poured over broccoli.  Does it taste exactly like Nacho Cheez?  Probably not but that's not necessarily a bad thing in my eyes.  I've been eating a lot more broccoli recently.

To turn it into buffalo dip I reduced the salt, added a bit of garlic powder,  Ranch dry dressing mix, Franks Red Hot Sauce (you could use wing sauce but adjust amount to taste since pre made sauce usually has oil/butter/margarine as well) and of course shredded chicken.  

This dip definitely taste best served up in a platter like this.  

I topped it with blue cheese crumbles.  You can leave that off (and omit the ranch dressing)of course and the dip stays dairy free.  

Even though it's not a  identical to the version with the packets of cream cheese and cheddar, it's still super creamy, and full of tangy buffalo sauce.  Since buffalo sauce is the shining star, you don't miss the cream cheese.  And given that most of my Game Day Eats posts are hardly nutritional superstars, it feels good to get something healthier on the game day table.  This dip makes even celery palatable.  

This town is ready for a little football tomorrow.  Time to Ride folks.

Not So Cheese Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients
2 c water
1/4 c  lemon juice
1/2 c chopped roasted red peppers (if you use jarred make sure they are not pickled)
1 1/3 cup  whole raw cashews (or almonds)
1 1/4 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 c  nutritional yeast
1 tsp sea salt

1/3--1/2 c Frank's Red Hot Sauce

2 tbsp Ranch dressing dry mix

1 tsp garlic powder

3 c shredded cooked chicken
blue cheese crumbles for topping (optional)

Directions

1. Place all ingredients except Chicken into the Vitamix container in the order listed and secure lid.
2. Blend for 2-3 minutes until sauce is fully blended. 
3. Pour into pan, add chicken and heat through
4. Serve hot with celery sticks, tortilla chips and/or pita chips.
5. Top with blue cheese crumbles if desired.

Denver Broncos Orange Crush Cupcakes

I have to admit that post-season games always get my blood pressure up.  Playoffs have been causing trepidation and fear ever since the days of Elway, Mecklenburg, the Three Amigos and Rulon Jones (who I had a really big girlie crush on mostly because he was 6-6 and that sure sounded like the most perfect height. Indeed.)   Those playoff games were always so close and then so disappointing that part of me just can't shake that post-season fear.

Fingers crossed for no disappointment Sunday.  It's been quite awhile since I've posted a game day eats recipe.  With the big playoff game coming up on Sunday, it seemed appropriate to post a recipe that had a bit of orange or blue in preparation for  game day.  I say double points here for not only bringing in the orange and blue, but for adding a little extra team spirit to the recipe. 

We call this Rocky Mountain champagne.  Now if you can actually drink the stuff, you are badder, tougher and cooler than me.  But it is the official drink of game day, (okay beer probably is) so you have to have it on the table at least as an offering.   OR, you can put it in the cupcakes.

I'd bookmarked a Mountain Dew cupcakes recipe awhile back because I'd planned on making some for my Mountain Dew addict brothers but never got around to it.  I mixed it up a bit and swapped out the Dew for some of the Rocky Mountain Champagne and was surprisingly pleased. It's not a full on chocolate cupcake with chocolate truffle frosting, but it's definitely a fun game day food.

I opted to make the cooked flour frosting that I'd made earlier this year, minus the dried ground strawberries.  Every time I say "cooked flour frosting" people turn up their nose and every time I make a cake with it, people ask for the recipe.  If you've never had it, I'd describe it as being really just a stabilized whipped cream type frosting.  It's basically the same core make up (butter is extra, extra whipped cream yes?) except with the flour which stabilizes it all so that you can frost cakes and leave them out.  

Make sure you cool the cooked flour mixture before adding to the butter.  Current weather conditions can be used to your advantage here.  I'd suggest pressing plastic wrap all the way down on the flour mixture to prevent a skin from forming.

Don't the little mini helmets just make you smile?  These are fully painted/printed so you can wash and reuse them if you are so inclined, but I've found that they tend to disappear with the guests.  

Here's hoping for a Sunday full of orange and blue magic and some good Orange Crush defense.

Orange Crush Cupcakes

adapted from Forkful  of Comfort

For the Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 cup butter (2 sticks) softened
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest

1/2 tsp orange extract
4 large eggs at room temperature
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups Orange Crush soda

1 batch of Cooked Flour Frosting(minus the strawberries) 

Orange Sprinkles

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In stand mixer beat butter until light. 

Add in sugar, orange zest and beat until fully mixed and fluffy. 

Add in eggs on at a time. 

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. 

Starting with flour mixture, add 1/4 flour mixture then 1/3 Orange Crush alternately to the butter mixture, mixing to combine after each addition. 

Pour evenly about 2/3rds of the way up in a paper lined muffin tin. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned and tooth pick comes out clean. 

Remove for pan and allow to completely cool on wire rack before frosting and dipping in sprinkles.  

Marzipan Royal Crescent Scones

I have an opinion about scones everything.  Since I have an opinion about everything, I have an opinion about scones.  Yes indeedy. 

Actually it's not much of an opinion, I just think they should be just a little bit crisp on the outside and flaky and almost like a slightly sweetened shortcake/biscuit on the inside just like they are in the motherland.  By motherland I am referring to the home of many, many other people who are not me, namely the Brits. 

The standard Starbucks cakey scones?  Yeah, not so much a fan.  Why are they so cakey and soft?  How can they hold both clotted cream and jam without turning into smush?

Victoria Magazine's cookbook had this scone recipe from the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath that has been my go-to favorite for eons--I shared the recipe many, many, many years ago when I liked to take yellow photographs.  I blame all older yellow photographs on my former incorrectly calibrated computer.  I blame all current yellow photos on the fact that white balance is still my archenemy. 

The scones are made by cutting butter into the flour and then adding milk and gently folding/kneading--that's how you get those awesome flakey layers.  I mixed it up a little bit this time by also adding 8 oz of cut up almondy goodness in the form of marzipan.  

Marzipan is added after the butter is cut into the flour but before milk is added. 

The rest is just plain 'ole scone making.  Gently press flat and cut into triangles or circles. 

I used cast iron to ensure the bottom got that crispy crunch I like. Sugar in the raw was right on the counter whereas white large decorating sugar was in the back of the cupboard.  Sugar in the Raw worked perfectly for this. 

With clotted cream and jam of course.  

Royal Crescent Scones
from Victoria Sweet Baking

Ingredients
3 & 2/3 c flour
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

8 oz chopped marzipan (optional)
1 & 1/4 cup milk, plus additional for brushing scones

large sugar crystals for sprinkling on top

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with Silpat or parchment--or use a cast iron pan
2. Place flour in food processor bowl.  Add sugar, baking pwder and salt and cut butter.  Pulse a few times until butter is the size of peas.  
3. Pour flour mixture into bowl and add marzipan.  Mix marzipan into flour.
4. Gradually add enough milk to form a soft dough--mix only enough to incorporate dry ingredients. Turn dough onto floured surface and turn and fold dough gently several times to form smooth dough.
5. Roll or press dough on floured surface to a 1 1/4 inch thickness. 
6. Cut out scones with a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter. Reroll scraps and cut additional scones. 
7. Arrange scones 2 inches apart on baking sheet and lightly brush tops with milk. Sprinkle with large sugar crystals if desired.
8. Bake for 20 mins, or until golden. Serve with clotted cream and jam while hot and fresh.

Happy (Simple) 2014!!!!

Happiest of New Year's wishes to all.  :) :)

Have you chiseled those 2014 New Year's Resolutions in stone yet?  

This year, I am embracing the idea of the New Year's Resolution.  Really, it's more like a 2014 theme than resolution.  I've never really done the whole New Year's Resolutions thing--I tend to make and fail at resolutions throughout the year.  Mazel Tov right?

Lately though, I've felt tied down and overwhelmed by...well, my own stuff.  I try to put dishes away and have to move them to storage shelves in the basement.  I put my laundry away and wonder how i can really need a full bureau, dresser and two closets.  Books fall off of shelves randomly and I have looked around my home many times and wonder how one human can own so much stuff. 

Not to be be pseudo-profound really but lately I've noticed how the more I have, the fewer choices I feel I have.  I cannot decide which cookbook to cook from because the selection overwhelms me so I walk away without looking at any of them.  I wear the same 40 garments always and I often don't cook or bake because the thought of digging through the pans tires me.  

Maybe it's mid-life crisis, but I often think how freeing it would be to be able to pack up a suitcase, all of my photography gear, electronics and only my favorite things that will fit in my jeep, and just drive to Alberta, Canada to work on a horse ranch and whisper to horses.  Ok so that might be attributed to watching too much Heartland on Hulu, but even if I really wanted to move to a horse ranch, I couldn't because I have too much stuff and I've only ridden a horse once.  (I also just watched R5 Sons Alaska so a life offgrid and accessible only by bush plane seems like a perfectly reasonable aspiration as well.  I could totally fix a broken septic tank or build a cabin from just trees and stuff.)

Yeah, I know I'm not fooling anyone.  I'm hardly minimalist material and if you know me, you are nodding your head.  Even the word minimalism conjures up images in my head of sparse modern furniture in sterile looking homes -- I don't ever see myself there. Heck my list of items to take when I run away leads to the conclusion that I'm hardly about moving into a tent and living without wifi.  Life needs wifi.

Maslow it seems, wholeheartedly agrees. 

Even though minimalism to me doesn't mean a house filled with 7 items, I am  embracing the idea that minimalism is more about being deliberate in what I own, my stewardship of my money and how that impacts my personal time and values.

So welcome 2014---the year of simplicity,  quality and love over quantity and lukewarm attachment to crap.   I hope.  

This first quote that is my 2014 motivation is from becoming minimalist, a fantastic and inspirational site!  Apologies on the others but I don't know who to attribute them to unless Pinterest counts. :)