30 Days of Dinner - Challenge Complete

So we have reached the end of September, and with that the end of our 30 Days of Dinner Challenge. The last week (and two days) were fantastic. Some of the best recipes were waiting for us. This was extra great because of our experience last week. I won't lie, I'm glad the challenge is over, because I am excited to start creating meals again. I have never followed a recipe every day for this long, maybe once or twice a week, but for 30 days was tough. It was great having a plan, but every time we veered from it slightly I felt like I was cheating.

Here are my thoughts on the final days. I'm not going to blog our favourite recipe this week, because it was too hard to decide (although the scallops were a front runner). Who knows, maybe a few of these recipes will show back up after being adapted in the kitchen with Reebs one day!

Procrastination Cookies

So I've been baking a lot more, and I think it's because it's a new way to procrastinate, most specifically from Economics and Finance homework. Tonight I decided to make oatmeal cookies and I kind of spliced two recipes together (one had raisins, the other had chocolate chips). They were a little spicy, that's because in my tired state I mixed up the measurements for the vanilla and cinnamon. I was looking at the tablespoon of cinnamon and thinking 'wow, that's a lot of cinnamon', and as I dumped it in I re-checked the recipe. Woops. They still turned out great!

30 Days of Dinner - Week Three

I have to admit, week three was not great. There may have been other factors influencing this, in particular a trip to the dentist that left my teeth very sensitive for a few days, and therefore taking away a lot of my joy in eating. I was also feeling a little stifled with the pre-planned meals. There were days when I felt like making something different, but we stuck to the plan through and through. Here are my thoughts and our favourite recipe.

Fresh Apple Cookies

This is another great recipe with apples, and what better time of year than the fall to bake some apple cookies? I would recommend laying some wax paper down before glazing the cookies.

I'll be bringing these ones to my economics study group tomorrow, and can only hope my group will forgive me for not understanding the material!

Chewy Granola Bars

I've been meaning to make my own granola bars for years now, and whenever the urge strikes I seem to be missing one or two key ingredients. I finally decided to go out and buy what I needed, and see how hard it really was. These were super easy to make, and so good! The recipe I printed out a couple of years ago, and says they store for a week in an airtight container. I highly doubt these will last a week at the rate I keep snacking on them.

30 Days of Dinner - Week Two

Week two of our challenge has come to an end, and it ended on a great note - Beef Tenderloin Steaks and Kimchi Mash. This week's grocery list was a little more expensive, because there was more meat, including the beef tenderloin. Here are my thoughts for this week, followed by our favourite recipe.

Banana Spice Cupcakes

I decided to see how the cupcakes would be with banana instead of apples. For the recipe I used the same one here, except I substituted one cup mashed bananas (about 2 medium bananas) for the one cup shredded apple.

Brent says that these cupcakes are just like muffins, however, he also says muffins are just cupcakes without icing. Because I usually put chocolate chips in my banana muffins, I decided to make a chocolate cream cheese icing.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
- 1/3 cup butter, softened
- 1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa

In stand mixer or bowl, beat butter and cream cheese together, add vanilla and icing sugar and cocoa. Beat until well blended and smooth.

These turned out pretty good, I think I'll be bringing some of them to study group tonight because I cannot be eating cupcakes every day!

30 Days of Dinner - Week One

Week one of our September challenge is complete, and it was great. As mentioned earlier, for the month of September we are following the Canadian Living 30 Meals for 30 Days. We printed out the grocery list and have followed the calendar for the week. The groceries for this week were about $100, and that gave us dinner each night, with leftovers for lunch. Here are my thoughts for the first week, along with our favourite recipe from the week.

Apple Spice Cupcakes

Molly and I are headed to a friends place for lunch tomorrow. I hate showing up empty handed, plus I've been looking for an excuse to bake, so I said I would bring dessert. This recipe is adapted from the September issue of Canadian Living.

Apple Spice Cupcakes
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup almond milk (the recipe called for buttermilk but the almond milk worked well)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp each cinnamon, ground ginger and ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- pinch ground cloves
- 1 cup grated and peeled apple (about 2 apples)

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing
- 1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups icing sugar

In bowl of stand mixer, or large bowl, beat butter until smooth. Beat in brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat. Stir in almond milk until combined. In separate bowl whisk together dry ingredients. Stir into butter mixture along with apple until just combined. Spoon into 12 paper-lined muffin cups.

Bake in 375F oven until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, 17 - 20 minutes. Transfer to rack and let cool. At this point you could pretend they're muffins.

For icing, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth; beat in cinnamon and vanilla. Beat in sugar until smooth. Pipe or spread over cupcakes.

You could probably substitute a cup of mashed banana for the apple and they would still be pretty good. Either way, Brent and I taste tested them and they are a great fall dessert.