Soft Sugar Cookies

Yesterday I made a sugar free cake for my sister’s birthday. It was terrible!! I mean seriously bad lol! We all had a good laugh about how bad it was. Clearly I don't have a  knack for baking without sugar!  Anyway, the cake (that got thrown in the bin) needed 12 egg whites….That’s right, 12!!!! So I then had 12 egg yolks I needed to use. So I went on the hunt for some recipes. I was trying to find things that used more than 1 egg yolk, otherwise I was going to be cooking all day!! I tried 3 different recipes…one was shocking (homemade mayonnaise), one was ok (breakfast burritos, but I used Turkey mince & I didn’t love it) but the other 1 turned out great. To make up for the disgusting no sugar cake,  I made naughty but very delicious “soft sugar cookies”. Butter...yum! Sugar...yum! So without further ado, here is the recipe….

Ingredients:

* 2 ½ cups plain flour

* ¾ tsp baking powder

* 1 tsp baking powder

* 160g butter, softened

* 1 ¼ cups sugar

* 3 egg yolks

* 1 tsp vanilla extract

* ¼ cup sugar, for rolling

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2.  In a large bowl, cream together butter & sugar until combined.

3. Add egg yolks & vanilla extract and mix till combined.

4. Add flour, baking powder & baking soda and mix until just combined. Don’t overmix it.

5. Roll into balls (I got 42) and roll in the remaining sugar.

6. Place onto lined baking trays and flatten slightly with palm of your hand.

7. Cook for 15 minutes or until the tops of the cookies slightly crack.

8. Store for up to a week in an airtight container.

Enjoy the rest of your day,

Kylie xx

Money Monday's - Christmas Savings Plan

 If you haven’t already started saving for Christmas, then now is the time. Christmas is the time of year when a lot of people start making extra purchases on their credit cards because they haven’t factored in the cost of Christmas to their budgets or they just get caught up in the spending frenzy. The shops LOVE you but you start the New Year with extra debt!  There is 29 weeks till Christmas. This 26 week savings plans will have you save $663 by the last week of Nov/1^st week of Dec. Just in time for you to do gift and food shopping. Or if you’re one of those people (Like me) that purchases presents throughout the year, it could be some extra money to do some fun things with your family over the Christmas season.

The plan starts this week but at the low amount of $13.

Week Starting	Deposit	Balance
5th June	13.00	13.00
12th June	14.00	27.00
19th June	15.00	42.00
26th June	16.00	58.00
3rd July	17.00	75.00
10th July	18.00	93.00
17th July	19.00	112.00
24th July	20.00	132.00
31st July	21.00	153.00
7th August	22.00	175.00
14th August	23.00	198.00
21st August	24.00	222.00
28th August	25.00	247.00
4th September	26.00	273.00
11th September	27.00	300.00
18th September	28.00	328.00
25th September	29.00	357.00
2nd October	30.00	387.00
9th October	31.00	418.00
16th October	32.00	450.00
23rd October	33.00	483.00
30th October	34.00	517.00
6th November	35.00	552.00
13th November	36.00	588.00
20th November	37.00	625.00
27th November	38.00	663.00

Enjoy Saving!

Kylie xx

Crunchy Honey Oat Muesli Bars

A few weeks ago I made some "muesli bars". Now I say "muesli bars" because that's what they were called but I am warning you now that they are far too delicious and naughty to use as muesli bars. Really I would class it as a delicious slice, posing as a muesli bar. In fact, next time I make them, they won't  be going in lunch boxes as a semi healthy treat! Instead I will make it when I'm looking for a delicious slice to feed the masses, as it creates a large quantity. It is deliciously chewy and sweet! 

So here's the recipe....

CRUNCHY HONEY OAT MUESLI BARS

Ingredients

-7 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats

-1/2 cup vegetable oil

- 1 tsp salt

-1.5 cups of choc chips/peanuts/walnuts

-3/4 cup honey

-3/4 cup brown sugar

-1 Tbl vanilla extract

-2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Set the oven to 190 degrees Celsius

2. Line a large baking tin with baking paper.

3. Combine the oats, oil and salt and choc chips/nuts in a large bowl mix until evenly coated. 

4. Combine the honey & brown sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar is      dissolved (about 5 minutes).

5. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla & cinnamon.

6. Pour the honey mixture over the oats mixture in the large bowl until thoroughly combined.

7. Pour into large baking tin and flatten with a spatula until you have a nice even layer.

8. Bake for 35-40 mins, or until golden brown.

9. Remove the baking paper with baked goods and allow to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. 

10. Cut into desired size.

 My cute boy helping mumma stir.

Enjoy

Kylie xx

Gluten Free Choc Chip Cookies

I have always thought that gluten free baked goods were gross. But it is really just a matter of finding the right recipes. One problem that I have found with gluten free recipes, is that they have so many ingredients and therefore they end up coasting a ton to make and your not even sure if it's going to turn out well or not. This Choc chip cookie recipe is delicious, cost effective and one that the whole family can enjoy, whether they are gluten free or not.

Here's the recipe .......

Makes 35-40 Cookies

Ingredients

* 2 cups gluten free flour

* 1 teaspoon baking soda

* 1/2 teaspoon salt

* 113 grams butter (at room temperature)

* 3/4 cup brown sugar

* 1/2 cup sugar

* 1/3 cup applesauce

* 2 teaspoons vanilla

* 1 1/2 cups choc chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 195C

2. In a large bowl, mix together gluten free flour, baking soda and salt.

3. Mix in butter, brown sugar and sugar together, until light & fluffy.

4. Stir in applesauce and vanilla

5. roll into balls and bake for 8 minutes. Don't over bake, or you won't have the soft, chewy center.

Recipe found but slightly altered from miloandoats.com 

Enjoy your cookies

Kylie xx

Cinnamon Choc Oat Cookies

These cookies are the perfect blend of Oats and chocolate, with a hint on cinnamon. They are delicious! The recipe makes 45-50 Cookies and they can be frozen and thawed when you want to use them. Here is the recipe...

INGREDIENTS

* 1.5 Cups Plain Flour

* 1 cup brown sugar

* 1/4 cup sugar

* 1/2 tsp salt

* 1 tsp baking soda

* 2 tsp cinnamon

* 227g butter (at room temperature)

* 250g chocolate chips

* 3 cups rolled oats

* 1 tsp vanilla

* 2 large eggs

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

2. In a seperate bowl, beat butter, brown sugar and sugar with an electric beater, until light & fluffy.

3. Add eggs and beat until fully combined.

4. Add vanilla and beat until combined.

5. Add flour mixture and beat on low until fully combined.

6. Cover the dough in the bowl with a tea towel and place in the fridge for an hour

7. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius and line baking trays with baking paper.

8. Remove dough from fridge and seperate into balls.

9. Place on baking paper and flatten with a spatula.

10.Bake for 10 minutes or until slightly golden.

I have recently switched to using Homebrand Choc Chips. At $1.39 a bag, they are 1/3 of the price of the other brands. And they are just as delicious!

 You just cover with a tea towel over the mixture. It doesn't need to be in a nice pretty ball when it is in the fridge.

 The pile after the kids had already gotten to them!

Happy baking!

Kylie xx

DIY Chalk Paint

If you don't already know this little cheap trick than you may be very excited by this!

I have been super keen to try chalk paint for ages but in all honesty I was not keen about the price for a little tub. Not to mention that you have to buy a new tub for every different colour that you want to work with. When I saw this little trick, I was super stoked and hoped that it would in fact work. Well low and behold it did. DIY chalk paint...Here's the recipe...

Ingredients

2 1/2 Tablespoons of Plaster of Paris 

1 1/2 Tablespoons of Cool water

1 Cup of paint

Instructions

Mix the paster of paris and water together and then pour it into 1 cup of paint and stir until fully combined. 

That is it...seriously how easy is that!!!

One 2.5Kg bag of Plaster of Paris cost me $8.09 from Bunnings and I used a cheap $2 tube of paint from Spotlight. So for $10.09 I made the chalk paint that I wanted, plus i still have most of the bag of plaster left! I plan on using it to paint the bottom of my dining table. And the great thing is I can use it in whatever colour I want! You may have guessed by now that I was pretty excited about stumbling across this recipe!

 Here is what I painted...

I had this home sign sitting around that I was dying to give a makeover

Before...

After...

This Chalkboard used to be my Grandma's. It was originally a wooden calender board. So she would hang her calender inside it. Because of this, there are some thumb tac marks in the blackboard section, but I don't notice them when there is something written on the board. I had painted the chalkboard paint last year and had painted the frame a dark turquoise but I had never really loved it . No before photo's sorry. And I haven't cleaned the board very well, but you get the gist. I only did 2 coats of paint as I liked that you could slightly see the turquoise coming through which gave it a weathered look.

 

I'm so happy with how they both turned out! I love the colour and this cheap DIY recipe!

Kylie xx

Cheesy Bacon Muffins

My son is 4 and attends preschool a few days a week. They have some fairly strict rules around what you can send in the kid’s lunchboxes. They are great rules and they encourage the kids to be healthy, but I must admit that sometimes I find them a bit of a pain in the butt! Only because it means that you have to be more organised and it takes a bit more prep. In saying that though, it has definitely made me be more prepared and has encouraged me to start cooking more from scratch. This is a win/win because I find that cooking things from scratch saves me money too. One of the things that he is allowed to take to preschool is savoury muffins. So a few weeks ago I set out to make something from ingredients that I already had in the house. I desperately needed to use some bacon in the fridge, so I made cheesy bacon muffins. They are yummy, cost effective and can be enjoyed by the whole family. I freeze them and can transfer them to lunchboxes. They are also perfect as a breakfast muffin or great for lunch with a salad. If it’s frozen and you want to eat it warm, you just put it in the microwave for 1 minute and it’s perfect and ready to go! You could very easily use the basic ingredients of the flour eggs and milk and then just add whatever yummy meat or veggies you wanted. 

Here is the recipe....

Cheesy Bacon Muffins

Makes: 12

Ingredients:

*2 cups of Self-raising flour

*1/4 cup diced bacon

* 1 cup grated cheese

* 1tsp salt

*1 cup milk

*2 eggs

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven at 190c

2. Place flour, bacon, cheese and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir till all ingredients are combined.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together.

4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the egg mixture in. Gently mix until all combined.

5. Spoon the mixture into a greased muffin tray and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

 You can freeze a few batches in a container by putting baking paper in between the layers.

Kylie xx