Aubrey's cupcakes

In my personal opinion there is nothing wrong with cake mixes; there is definitly a time and a place! Aubrey's nana had given us this pink-licious cake mix and we're waiting to use it.

That day came! I got a request to make a quick dessert to help my mom out; of course.

Aubrey took the reigns on this baking endeavour.

We followed the recipe to the letter; however Aubrey had one suggestion. She wanted to put one raspberry in each cupcake; she dubbed the cupcakes raspberry surprise cupcakes.

They baked up great. Liam tested them and approved with a "more eat" sign!

Now for the icing...

We whipped up 2 cups of whipping cream with vanilla and 2 tbsp of icing sugar; once this was thick we set it aside.

Meanwhile We whipped a soften brick of cream cheese with 1/4 cup of icing sugar. Once this was mixed and smooth we beat in a handful of raspberries.

At this point we folded in the whipped cream; gave it a taste....perfect!

We were ready to decorate; needless to say this was Aubrey's favourite part.

Oh they were missing something....

That's better!

Viola! Such fun memories with my two sweet kids.

Raspberry lemon pound cake; Pinterest

What happens when Costco has perfectly ripe and delicious raspberries on sale? Uh I buy 8 containers and look for recipes to use them in creative yummy ways!

I creamed the butter and sugar together, adding the eggs one at a time and beating until smooth. Whipped in the lemon juice and vanilla.

Added in my premixed dry ingredients and mixed until smooth. I gently added in plain yogurt as I didn't have sour cream on hand. I then carefully folded the raspberries into the batter.

I had a nostalgic moment by using my grandmothers bundt pan; she would of love this loaf.

The loaf came out of the pan really well; I'm sure glad I sprayed the pan! 

I served this with raspberry whipped cream; yum!

This was a great recipe I would definitly use it again!

I got this in the mail from my dad; it's a running joke that he sends me a birthday card with money matching my age.He's probably one of the slim few that send cash in the mail these days but I'll take it!

Here's my dad with four of his five grandkids; they love their papa!

Falafals take 2

Once I figure out that I can save a lot of money and produce a great tasting product; I'm hooked!  I decided to try this falafal recipe again but instead of using canned chickpeas I bought a bag of chickpeas for $2.50. A can of no name chickpeas usually goes for .89 cents. I was interested to see how many cups I would get from the dried chickpeas.

I rinsed and soaked them over night.

The next morning I could see a visibal increase in size.

I drained the water and filled the pot with water and brought it to a boil for 10 minutes and then simmered it for an hour.

Meanwhile I got my onions and garlic and  parsley blitzing.

I saved four cups of chickpeas for the falafals and the remaider I divided into 2 cups portions and put them in ziploc freezer bags. 

I have 16 cups in the freezer. Needless to say I saved a lot of money and for a little effort this is really a huge cost savings. Especially since we eat a lot of chickpeas; Curries, hummus, soups and our kids love them plain on their own as a snack.

Now back to the falafals...

I measured my dry ingredients...

I mixed the dry ingredients into all the blitzed ingredients from the food processor by hand.

At this point I thought rather than shallow frying the falafal balls I would see how they would baked. I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper and drizzle of some oil. Using my trusty scoop I portioned out the mixture. These recipe doubled gave me exactly sixty falafals.

This was a huge time saver and they actually baked way more even than browning them by hand. I didn't flatten them like I did last time and I think I prefer them round.

I flipped them once; they baked for a total of 35 minutes.

These were a big hit. Aubrey had them with crackers, hummus and pepper slices. What a great lunch for the kids. I did notice a texture difference in the falafal compared to the ones made with the canned chickpeas. The outside was crunchier and the inside was still soft and tender. 

Liam stole one off Aubrey's plate. Originally I think he thought it was a timbit but after one bite he was hooked!

Leftover ham...ham and lentil soup with roasted sweet potato

There's nothing like a leftover ham bone; but what else can you make with it besides split pea soup? That was what I wanted to find out.

 I got my massive pot out and started to heat it up with some grapeseed oil.

I sautéed the leftover ham bone with 3 diced onions and the same amount of chopped celery. Once the onion and celery were soft I added in two cups of dry lentils, two packages of dry onion soup mix, 24 cups of water and two large cans of crushed tomatoes. 

I added in quite a bit of salt and let this simmer for an hour.

I diced up the remaining ham from off the bone and set that aside.

Meanwhile I thought the soup needed something extra so I peeled a large sweet potato and diced it up. I generously coated this with grape seed oil, salt, pepper, ground ginger and ground curry powder. I baked this at 375F for 1/2 hour; I wanted them fork tender but not mushy.

I then added in the diced ham and roasted sweet potato.

The lentils got tender and thickened the soup nicely.

I continued to let the soup simmer and developed flavour.

What is soup without a biscuit? I made a traditional baking powder biscuit; I thought the buttery flavour with pair perfectly  with the intensly flavourful soup.

Right before I served the soup I removed the ham bone from the soup and picked the rest of the meat off of it (I did not realize how much meat was left on it!)

This was a hit. 

Liam liked the soup but he LOVED the biscuits!

So my birthday week has officially begun and the presents started to roll in. I love my friends; I am so blessed.

I sterilized the jars so I could "can" the remainder of the soup; I had a little left over to share!

Our little fashionista!

I also made the chocolate zucchini muffins from my own blog. That was funny; I often go to my own blog to find recipes I like. I should really get this printed off!  I was letting the muffins cool on the table...

...I turned around and this is what I saw...

I then sat him in his chair and he devoured it. He always has room from dessert; that's my boy!

Look who's home from school....he was a little excited.

Sibling love💜

Enough to share!

Update: I ate the soup again and oh boy it keeps on getting better; it ate more like a rich stew.  It was absolutely delicious if I do say so myself!