Dark chocolate covered rice pudding pops!

It's HOT here in Los Angeles. 

What better way to beat the heat, than ice pops? But forget just plain juice for your frozen delight, go for the exotic with these delicious Rice Pudding pops that you can then 

dip in dark chocolate!!  

These babies smell of cinnamon and are cool comfort on a stick.

I've made them with whole milk, and recently with almond milk, making them vegan as well as Gluten free. They were good both ways!

You'll need:

3 cups whole milk/almond milk/or your favorite...

1 vanilla bean

 *Halve the bean lengthwise and scrape out all of the vanilla paste into the pot.

1 cup short or medium grain rice. 

*I used arborio last time (aka risotto), so they were extra dense and hearty

2 cinnamon sticks

1  14oz. can of sweetened condensed milk mixed with 2 cups water

3 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1. Bring your milk, 1 1/4 cups of water, scraped vanilla beans, and the vanilla paste, to a simmer in a 4 qt. pot over medium-low heat. Stir in the rice and cinnamon sticks and cook, stirring occasionally, until rice is tender, about 20–30 minutes. Remove the cinnamon sticks and stir in the condensed milk/water mixture, vanilla extract, and salt. Simmer until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid, 10–15 minutes more. Remove your pan from the heat, stir in the ground cinnamon, and let cool slightly. 

2. Transfer mixture to twelve 3-oz. ice-pop molds or even Dixie cups. Transfer the molds to the freezer and freeze until slushy, about 1 hour. Insert a Popsicle stick into each mold and freeze until pops are solid, about 3 hours more. To release ice pops from molds, run the bottom of the molds briefly under warm water.

3. Melt a good quality dark chocolate with about 1/2 teaspoon of either coconut or vegetable oil. You can melt it in a coffee cup in the microwave if you're careful not to burn it! Or you can use the double broiler method on the stove. Stir to make smooth and shiny.

Now simply dip your ice pops in, covering a little, or the whole thing, then tap the excess chocolate. Eat immediately, or store  in a container in the freezer.

Go make some today!

xo melanie

The best chocolate cake you'll ever make. No joke.

 I LOVE cake.

Love it. Want to marry it. Would eat it every single day if I could. Chocolate cake to be specific, but really, any old cake will do. I am Miranda in Sex and the City when she throws away her cake to stop eating it, only to end up eating it out of the trash. Yes, it's that bad.

While at a friend's house one day, we were jonesing for cake, but there was nary a mix in sight. I found a recipe for a chocolate cake that we JUST had all of the ingredients for, and ended up with the best chocolate cake I'd ever made. It's not fancy, it's simple, and super moist. Since then, I've tweaked it a bit, and make it for most celebrations. After getting babies down at night, I've been known to sit down with the whole cake and a fork. Who needs a plate?

Friends have been asking for the recipe, so I thought I'd share!

Ingredients

2 cups white sugar

1  3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1  1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1   1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon (optional) 

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk (I use unsweetened Rice milk)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour your favorite pan, or line your cupcake pans.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. You can also just mix by hand, but mix well... 
3. Stir in the boiling water last. Batter will be thin. Pour evenly into the prepared pans.
4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cake tests done with a toothpick. 20 to 25 for cupcakes.
5. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

I'm far too lazy for mixing dry ingredients in a separate bowl, so throw it all together in one, just add the boiling water LAST.

Now get ready, your friends are going to be asking YOU for the recipe! 

These also make the most amazing cake pops. Ever. 

Feel free to bring me a piece, it IS my favorite...

xo Melanie

THE cake to take to, or serve at your next party!

 I was invited to an egg hunt this weekend, and I wanted to bring something yummy. Instead of my usual chocolate something or other, I opted for my other go to favorite:

The Lemon, Rosemary, Olive Oil cake.

I am fortunate to have a lemon tree in my backyard here in beautiful SoCal, so I am always on the lookout for lemon recipes. This one is sunny and delicious, and Vegan to boot!

I want to share the recipe with you, so YOU can be a rockstar when you bring this beauty to your next gathering. 

3 cups plain flour

3 tbsp fresh rosemary -whizzed up in a grinder or chopped super fine

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup olive oil

3/4 cup rice milk

2 tsp grated lemon zest, chopped

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup canola oil

 

Icing

1 cup confectioners/powdered sugar

@ 2 tbsp lemon juice, until soupy.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix all of the dry ingredients into a bowl, including the rosemary. Pour in the olive oil and rice milk and beat into the dry ingredients. Add the canola oil and stir until it's thoroughly mixed. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix those in too. You can do it with out without an electric mixer.

 

Grease your cake pan with some cooking spray or oil, and pour in the batter (I use a spring form pan). For extra easy removal, I put in a piece of parchment paper cut to fit the bottom. It's thick, so bake for 35-40 minutes or until it's browned on top. Stick a knife or toothpick in and when it comes out clean, it's done!

 

 

 

 

For the icing, add lemon juice a little bit at a time to your powdered sugar until its shiny, smooth, and thinly glaze-like. 

 

 

And that's that! It's one of the tastiest cakes I make, and coming from someone who doesn't waste their time if it isn't chocolate, that's saying something!

 

 

 

*It is also really good for breakfast. 

What? you don't eat cake for breakfast??

Bon appetite! Let me know how YOURS comes out. 

Drop us a line or pop us a photo, we'd love to see it!

xo Melanie

The smoothie. A mama's best friend.

As I stated in my earlier post, I have a culinarily challenged eater. I try to avoid saying picky, as it sounds so negative, and also gives a clever preschooler a title to use for himself whenever he doesn’t want to try a new food. That being said, we could have it worse. His go to dinner is tofu and brown rice with artichokes. He eats raw carrots, occasionally beets with goat cheese, and now kale pesto!  But he would also gladly consume pizza everyday of his little life, and I worry sometimes, that he’ll wake up one morning as a quesadilla. On these days, to accompany the raw honey slathered, frozen Trader Joes waffle that has become a breakfast staple, I’ll whiz him up a smoothie, and feel sooo much better about his diet, as well as myself as a mother. 

(I’m not kidding about that last part, it really does make me feel like I’ve scored a few points)

The beautiful thing about smoothies (considering your child likes liquid) is that there is no wrong way to do it! Sure, you can go by a recipe, and there are a billion out there, but you can also just go by your FRIDGE, and use what you already have! (Personally, my favorite kind of recipe) So I’ll tell you what I’ve been making lately.

*1 frozen banana (No more banana graveyard on my counter, yay! When they get too ripe, I peel them and throw them in the freezer)

*Hand full of frozen strawberries

*Any fresh fruit available (blueberries, peach, pear, apple)

*Vanilla yogurt

*Apple Juice

*Chocolate Protein Powder

*Green powder

*Flax oil or ground flax seed

*Sunflower seed butter or any nut butter of choice

*Rice milk (Our milk fave, use whatever’s yours)

*Huge hand full of fresh spinach (literally the only time, currently, boy is 

ingesting spinach willingly)

*You can even throw some liquid egg whites in for extra extra protein!

And that’s it mamas! I don't measure really, just add by taste. Measuring anything before the sun is up? oh please! Puree and serve! There are so many options, it’s crazy! I know one mama who does kale and blueberries, and one that does an ALL green beauty! 

What works for your brood?? 

Share your favorite recipe, and let's get whizzing! (I like that word...)

xo Melanie

Kids eat Kale! Say What??

Kale Love

I have a serious love affair with Kale. I could eat it every day, any way you give it to me. So when I found a kale pesto recipe, I literally couldn't make it fast enough. 

But my boy? Ha! The only green I get into him is spinach, in a smoothie (post on that soon!).

In the past he's eaten regular pesto, so I gave it a shot, and served this super yummy, kale goodness to my very culinarily challenged eater, to be rewarded with "I love it!" 

Word!

That being said, I decided to take it to the masses (preschool, eek!).

In a nutshell, the majority of them woofed it, and considering it was a group of loud, mouthy, and opinionated 3-5 year olds, I considered it a smashing success. 

This is my version.  

2 cups kale leaves (no stems)

2/3 cup toasted chopped walnuts
1/4 cup peas (cuts the bitterness of the kale a bit)

¼ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

1/2 garlic clove, chopped

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt (I used a fine sea salt)

1/4 cup olive oil

Throw all of the ingredients into a food processor, and whiz it up!

I initially put it on rice pasta, but it was great spread on toast (me alone in the kitchen, standing over the sink, what?), and would be awesome on a pizza! If you have a picky eater, this may be the way to go, as the cheese covers the greeeeeen...

Try it, and let me know how YOUR kids like it!!

  

Adapted from the always ridiculously brilliant Weelicious.

xo Melanie