Recipe Test-Deceptively Delicious Part 2

......Blueberry Oatmeal Bars! Looked and sounded good to me and I thought it would be a good 3 o'clock snack. But still no. Even the day after I tried giving Lil' Hunkie a bite, he actually put it in his mouth but it came right back out! 

They are very good and you can NOT taste the spinach at all! Mine turned out to be a little more crumbly than the picture due to my poor 'cut in' skills and the fact that I used what oatmeal I had instead of buying old-fashioned oats. It still tasted yummy!!

Dry ingredients.

Cut in butter....



...till it is no longer powdery.

Press1/2 mixture into pan...I don't have an 8x8 so used an 8x6 and bake for 13 minutes.

Mix spinach, blueberry preserves and vanilla together. I know...it doesn't look very appealing...but stick with me!!

Pour blueberry mixture on top of crust and then top with remaining dry mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes.



Yummy!

Tip: let it completely cool before serving so that the taste of the spinach has a chance to disappear completely. Here's the recipe:

Blueberry Oatmeal Bars

Nonstick cooking spray

2 cups old-fashioned oats

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup Balance trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread, chilled

1 cup low-sugar blueberry preserves

1/2 cup spinach puree

1

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Coat an 8x8 inch baking pan with cooking spray.

2

In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and vanilla, and stir to mix well.  ( I prefer putting vanilla with wet ingredients. )

3

Add the margarine and cut it quickly into the dry ingredients with two knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal and is no longer powdery. Do not over mix-bits of margarine will still be visible.

4

Set aside about half of the oat mixture; press the rest of it firmly into the pan.  Bake until lightly browned at the edges (but not fully baked), 13 to 15 minutes.

5

Meanwhile, mix the preserves with the spinach puree in a small bowl.

6

Spread the blueberry mixture over the partially baked oat layer, then sprinkle with the reserved oat mixture.  Bake until the topping is slightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes.  Set the pan on a rack to cool completely before cutting into 12 bars.

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Hope this helps with any picky eaters out there! I highly recommend the cookbook!!

Vintage Gwen Chapel-Devotion Quotes

I am currently making my way through Ann Spangler's Praying the Names of Jesus devotion. I've already completed her Praying the Names of God. They are so good! I really like the format and that each book came with a journal.  This past week's study was on the name Prince of Peace or Sar Shalom and I've been marking my favorite sentences ..... 

"Shalom conveys not only a sense of tranquility but also of wholeness and completion."

In other words having peace in Jesus means to be complete.

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"Peace with God produces peace with others and peace within ourselves."

How often do we allow our peace to be robbed?

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"Indeed, it is the wounds of Christ that bring us peace."

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"...evil, despite its allure, is essentially stupid."

How true!!

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"When God's work is complete, things are as they should be."

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"Jesus not only brings us peace, he is our peace."

Our completion!

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"You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you." Isaiah 26:3

Have a peaceful weekend!

Photo courtesy of Amazon

Featured on Calico and Cupcakes/Recipe Test-Deceptively Delicious Part 1

I'm SO excited to have my Vintage Truck Party post featured on the ever so cute Calico and Cupcakes blog today!! I'm so honored since this is only my 2nd week of blogging! Thanks Calico and Cupcakes!!

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How I wished I was not in the 'have a picky eater' category. But I am! My 15 month old Hunkie won't hardly eat veggies or fruit. So a couple months ago my mom gave me Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, Deceptively Delicious and I thought I'd try some recipes.  I went through and picked some easy ones to make and ones I thought Lil' Hunkie would like.  The book is about making veggie purees and hiding it in food.  My first choice: spinach. I thought I'd share the two recipes I made in two parts so as not to make it too lengthy as I will share the recipe.

I just steamed the spinach in a skillet with a little dab of water..about 90 seconds.

Put spinach in blender then pureed till smooth and creamy.

This is for freezing purposes.  A 10 oz bag made 1 cup of puree. Each recipe I tried needed 1/2 cup of spinach each so a 10 oz bag was perfect!

 Pita Pizzas

8 (4-inch) whole wheat pita pockets

1/2 cup spinach puree

2 cups bottled tomato sauce

2 cups thinly sliced part skim mozzarella

1: Preheat oven to 400 F.

2:  Spread spinach puree on each pita so that the spinach come to within about 1/2 inch of edge.  Spread the sauce over the spinach; it should cover the spinach and come to within about 1/4 inch of the edge of the pita.  Now lay the cheese over the sauce, covering any place where the green comes through.

3:  Place the pizzas on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until the cheese melts and begins to brown, 5-10 minutes. Let the pizzas cool 5 minutes before serving so the cheese cools and doesn't pull off (and the spinach stays completely invisible).

As you can see my pitas are a little bigger than what the recipe says...my Walmart didn't have them. Also I used pizza sauce for more flavor and didn't realize till I got home that I needed sliced cheese instead of shredded. Note: this is what happens when you become a mommy!! :)

When I put the sauce on I realized I had too much spinach....I only made these two.  I guess I was getting excited thinking Lil' Hunkie would love it!

It was yummy! But to my dismay Lil' Hunkie waved his hands and head "no" and wouldn't even try a bite! So then I was eating the 2nd one the next day and he wanted some...ate several pieces!! Success! Until I made the second recipe............



Fabric Flower Ring

If you can't tell by now, I love me some fabric flowers!!  This past Christmas I decided to give them a try and now I'm trying not to be obsessed!! I figured they'd be pretty cute as a ring and well...I might be right!





Supplies: fabric( been checking the remnants lately ), needle & thread, glue, rings with a pad.

Cut about 2 inch wide and about 15 inch long strips. 

Thought I'd show a few more pics of how I make these. Put a knot in one end. Then pull needle through knot.

This is the under side after I had rolled the tail around the knot a few times. I roll and twist a couple of times then sew some stitches.

Underneath.

Front.



I then cut a circle of fabric and glued it to cover up the stitches and then glued the ring to that circle.

Press and press. Let dry.

Tahdah!! This one is my fav! Please overlook the mommy hand!

Cuteness for about $2!!

Linking to:

Show and Tell-Ematic Ereader

I wanted to 'show and tell' one of the things I bought with my Christmas money.  It's probably the most generic ereader there is! But I love it! Yes I'm probably a little behind but I didn't want nothing fancy, after all I also got a new phone at the same time and just wanted a device that was for reading. However it does more! It can play music, including the radio, and video and you can load photos on it. You can also record on it. I probably won't even use all that! There were about 3 things that made me lay down some dough: it has a color screen, the price, and it's hot pink!!  Now I'm not a gadget person so the only negative thing I have to say about it is that it was a little tricky to figure out how to download books and the manual it came with was no help at all.  But alas! I enjoy the challenge of figuring things out on the computer! Here's some photos:

*Didn't know it came with a leather case!

*Ordered this case from Etsy before I got the ereader! I almost made one myself....but I like to support others who craft as well. ☺

*First book I read. An excellent choice!

And I only paid $80 for it and got it at Walmart.com.

Vintage Truck 1st Birthday Party

My little Hunkie turned 1 last November.  As we all know turning 1 is a big deal.  I decorated his room in trucks due to his daddy liking trucks and knew I wanted to go with that theme but a little different.  Vintage Truck it was! And boy was it hard to find stuff for!  That's when I entered  the blog world! Now I read Martha Stewart Living and had read her Weddings magazine until I got married so I know a little about dessert tables. But man party planning and party blogs are SO popular. Well of course I found some favorite blogs! First one being Hostess with the Mostess which led to others, one being Glorious Treats.  I used some parties on those sites as inspiration. But never did I find a party that was just Vintage Truck...there's Vintage Fire Truck but not what I was looking for.  So I turned to Etsy and found Bnute Productions....she had the perfect invitation! I used Bnute for the invitations, cupcake picks, and a banner with Hunkie's name on it.  The rest I did myself. The rest being; the birthday boy's hat, highchair banner, food labels, timeline banner, baking (except the sugar cookies my big sis did those) and the activities which were a coloring station and a mock photo booth complete with mustaches on a stick! Whew! I won't lie...it was alot of work but it turned out how I wanted and I'd do it again! On to the photos!..........

* I couldn't find a polka dot tablecloth to use as the two runners so I improvised!...I used a $4 twin sheet...cut it in half...sewed the edges.

Linked to:

Someday Crafts-Whatever Goes Wednesday