Treats from the Tipsy Turtle

 My family really enjoys a chewy brownie and these blondies have the perfect texture. They are also super easy and quick to make. I wanted to make a treat for my daughter (who's still pregnant) today. To make it extra-special I decided to tweak the recipe; cherries and chocolate can never go wrong! You may notice a trend with me. And cherries. With chocolate... Anyway, here's today's cast! I melted the butter in the microwave--I always cut it into smaller chunks so it'll melt faster and more uniformly. I put about a cup of dried cherries to soak in some warm water to soften up. Dry ingredients are mixed together in one bowl. The melted butter was mixed with the brown sugar. I doubled the recipe but regardless, this is not for the faint of heart; that's quite a lot of sugar! I added the eggs and instead of vanilla, I used a cherry extract. It was pretty potent! I drained the cherries well and dredged them in the dry ingredients before I added them to the butter mixtu

These hearty cookies are definitely not low-carb but the carbs come from healthy choices such as dried fruits and whole grain oats. They are wonderfully easy to make and so versatile! The combination of fruit and nuts are endless and if you're feeling like indulging further, some chocolate chips would be a perfect addition as well. Here's today's cast! It was hot today. How hot, do you ask? It was almond-butter-kept-separating hot. I had to mix it really well and after I took out what I needed for the recipe, I decided to store the rest in the fridge. This is a great one bowl recipe! The dry ingredients went in. The stuff that looks like mac and cheese is actually mashed bananas. The practically liquid almond butter, maple syrup and applesauce were added. Though the mixture is very thick and heavy, it's quite easy to combine everything together. The mixture was measured out in 1/4 cupfuls onto cookie sheets lined with parchment. I used my knuckles to flatten them a bit.

 I love my carbs so going 100% keto is probably unlikely. Still, I figure anywhere I can cut carbs is a good thing, right? When I have the grands on the weekdays, healthy meals absolutely have to be planned ahead; both kids are carb lovers and if I ate what they ate...no, not a good idea, even though it is the most convenient. I decided to make these cups so I can grab and go for breakfast or lunch. Or both. Here's today's cast! The recipe would have made six cups. Since I didn't see the point in leaving half of the tin empty, I doubled the recipe. Keto alert: the recipe calls for heavy cream. My cream had gone sour so I substituted whole milk. If you want to keep it keto, use the cream. Half of the bacon was used to line the bottom edge of the tins. I used the microwaveable bacon so they were slightly less flexible The other half of the bacon was chopped and placed in the bottom of the tins. Eggs, whole milk, salt and pepper were combined in a bowl. And given a good whiski

 It's been hot and humid as blazes but I keep making soups and stews for dinner. It's not intentional; I'll have random ingredients and when I figure out what to do with them, I realize it's soup. My family is great though; they like soups and will eat them even though we're already hot, dripping with sweat and otherwise disgusting. I had some beautiful crimini mushrooms from one of the local farms. I could have fried them up with onions and butter and served them with steak. But no. It's soup. Here's the cast! Dehydrated porcini mushrooms were put in water to soften. In the meantime, pancetta got browned up in a bit of olive oil. Onions, celery and carrots... ...and a shallot were added to the pancetta. They were cooked till softened. Roughly chopped crimini mushrooms and crushed garlic were added next. The recipe didn't call for it but I always add some kosher salt when I cook mushrooms; it flavors it but also helps the mushrooms to release some liquid