Easy Lemon Cookies

I found this wonderful baking website called Bake at 350. Flavor of the Month is at the end of every month where you show what you created using the theme of ingredient. This month was Lemon and Lime. I decided to find an EASY recipe that I could whip up. I found this recipe for Easy Lemon Cookies that looked like a winner. They turned out really good, the texture of a cookie is as important to me as the flavor and these where perfect, soft and chewy.

Easy Lemon Cookies

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration
  

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs, oil, and lemon extract until well blended. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners' sugar. Roll them around until they're lightly covered. Once sugared, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 6 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven. The bottoms will be light brown, and the insides chewy.

Click Here to find more delicious recipes using lemon and lime.

Menu Plan Monday, 4th Week

I'm keeping it pretty simple this week. I found a website that talks about 8 foods you should eat everyday, I'm going to try and start incorporating some of them into our menu. Black Beans are one of the items so they will be the star of dinner two nights.


Monday: Breakfast for Dinner
Tuesday:Brown Rice and Black Bean Burgers
Wednesday: Tortollini Salad
Thursday: BBQ with neighbors
Friday: Date Night
Saturday:Black Bean and Veggie Quesadillas
Sunday:Monte Cristo Sandwiches

Click Here for more Menu Plan ideas.

Yeah for Swagbucks!

I've made 100 swagbucks! I'm so excited, it only took about 2 months. I'm going to get $10 Amazon gift cards with it. If you haven't started using Swagbucks as your search engine click Here.

Easy Peach Ice Cream

I love homemade ice cream, I'm so happy we got an ice cream maker for our wedding because I probably wouldn't have one right not if we didn't. But I love it! We decided to make some Peach Ice Cream, which is now the last of Peach Week because the box is empty! We finished off the peaches way faster than I expected.

This recipe is good and easy. I actually can't even take the credit because my husband was the one that made it. This also makes a lot of ice cream, only half would fit in our ice cream maker.

Peach Ice Cream
From Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book

4 cups half and half, light cream, or milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 T. vanilla
2 cups whipping cream
4 cups fresh peaches, blended until nearly smooth, it should make 2 cups

In large bowl combine half and half, sugar and vanilla. Stir until sugar dissloves. stir in whipping cream. Freeze ice cream mixture in a 4 or 5 quart ice cream freezer according to manufacturer's directions.

Free Lip Balm

Eos is giving away 50,000 of these sweet mint chapstick tihings. I signed up for mine last night. I'm excited to try it! Go Here to sign up to get yours all you do is give them your address and email.

I have a separate email account for everything I sign up for which keeps everything organized. If you are going to sign up for offers you might want to create a new email address. That way you wont get more junk emails in your personal account.
Thanks Utah Deal Diva.

Photo Face

I took Addie to Thanksgiving Point Gardens yesterday for the last 2 Buck Tuesday. I like to do a big photo shoot of her every few months to see how she's growing. This picture sums them all up. I think she looked at the camera about 3 times.

Transfer Pie Crust, The EASY Way

When I was making the Peach Pie this week I discovered a really easy way to transfer the pie crust into the pan. All I did was roll out the pie dough onto Freezer Paper, shiny side up, with just a little bit of flour. Then when it was ready to move I just flipped the Freezer paper over onto the pie dish and peeled the paper off. It was so EASY! No cracking, no trying to roll it around the rolling pin. The Pie Crust recipe I used worked like a dream. You can find Freezer paper in any grocery store by the aluminum foil.

Click Here for the Peach Pie Post.
Click Here for more Works For Me Wednesday Tips.

Peach Smoothie

We love smoothies in our family. We make them with all different kinds of fruit, whatever we have on hand. I also just found out that my little toddler LOVES them. She about died waiting for this smoothie so I wasn't able to take a good picture of it. I gave her this full glass and she slurped the whole thing up in minutes.

If you like to make a lot of smoothies like our family, I Highly recommend getting a Magic Bullet blender or personal blender. It makes single serving smoothies so easy to make, you don't have the hassle of getting out your big blender and cleaning it. They actually work really well, I'm always happy with the results. Here is an easy recipe for a Peach smoothie, but don't be afraid to throw in any other fruit or some juice for extra flavor, you usually don't have to add extra sugar unless your fruit isn't very sweet. I love mine with frozen strawberries.

Peach Smoothie

• 1 large peach
• 1 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup crushed ice
• 1/4 cup sugar
  

Mix in blender. Serve immediately. Makes 1 generous serving.

Click here to buy the magic bullet.

Peach Week

I was very excited when my husband brought home this box of peaches last week. He has been very supportive and excited about me creating this blog so he suggested I call this week Peach Week. I thought it was a brilliant idea. So everyday this week I'm going to post what I've done with this box of peaches. The goal is to use them up before they go bad, and with only two adults and one toddler in our house that can be pretty hard.

Peach Pie with Very Easy Crust

I wanted to start of Peach Week with a bang so I made a Peach Pie for my husband. To tell you the truth I don't really like fruit pies so I never make them, I also find pie curst hard to deal with and not worth it in the end. That is until I found this recipe. I've tried many pie crust recipes, even recipes called No Fail, but they have alwasy failed. They taste bland, crack all over or fall apart. This Lion House recipe was amazing because is is like making a soft cookie dough instead of a pie crust. Very easy to make and Very forgiving. If you have ever had a hard time making pie crust, or have avoided it, try this recipe! The filling was also very easy to make and everyone really enjoyed eating it.


I had to make a few changes to the recipes because I didn't have a few things on hand. I left out the orange zest and used vanilla extract instead of almond. For the pie crust I used 1/2 cup butter and 2/3 cup shortening.

Golden Peach Pie
From The Taste of Home Cookbook

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extracts
• 5 cups sliced peeled fresh peaches (about 5 medium)
• 2 Tablespoons butter

Method:

• Line a 9-in pie plate with bottom pastry; trim even with edge of plate. Set aside.
• In large bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg and salt; stir in lemon juice, orange peel and extract. Add the peaches; toss gently. Pour into crust; dot with butter.
• Roll out remaining pastry to fit top of pie. Trim seal and flute edges. Brush pastry and cutouts with milk, cut vents in the crust. Cover edges loosely with foil.
  
• Bake at 400 for 40 minutes. Remove foil; bake 10-15 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on a wire rack. Store in refrigerator.

Lion House Pie Crust
From the Lion Hose Cookbook

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup- Butter
• 1/3 cup- Lard
• ¼ cup- Margarine
• 1/3 cup- Shortening
• 1 tablespoon- Sugar
• ½ teaspoon- Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon- Salt
• 1 tablespoon- Nonfat Dry Milk Powder
• 3 cups All-purpose flour
  
• ½ cups plus 1 tablespoon cold Water

Method:

In mixer, cream butter, lard, margarine, and shortening. In bowl, mix sugar, baking powder, salt, and dry milk powder, add to creamed butter mixture and mix briefly. Add half the flour, mix. Add rest of flour and mix slightly. Pour in water and beat again only until water is just blended in.

Divide dough into two or three balls. Roll each out on floured board. Line pie pan with dough and cut off excess dough. Flute edges. Prick holes in bottom with fork. Bake empty pie shell at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until light golden brown. Or fill unbaked pie shell and bake according to recipe.

Makes 2 to 3 pie shells.