Tag Archives: tasty tuesday

Tasty Tuesday: Fair Trade Lemonade & Fair Trade S’mores

- Posted by to Recipes Tasty Tuesday

Summertime is in full swing! 4th of July is right around the corner and I am gearing up for picnics and free outdoor summer concerts! I love this time of year. I dedicate this Tasty Tuesday to the spirit of summer!

theo

Fair Trade S’mores! In my mind, summer is about camp fires and nothing goes better with camp fires than s’mores! This is a simple recipe, of course, but I jazzed it up a bit with dark fair trade chocolate for these fair trade s’mores.  All you need are graham crackers, marshmallows and a fair trade chocolate bar and voila, you have a simply classic American snack.  Incidentally, you don’t need a camp fire for s’mores, there are certainly other ways to warm the marshmallow and thus melt the chocolate.

declan

Fair Trade Lemonade! Another easy recipe and classic summer companion.  The lemons I used are organic Eureka lemons.  I had never seen such large lemons before.  These lemons produced a good amount of juice too.

lemons

Perfect Lemonade

  • Prep time: 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup) – (I used Wholesome Sweetners Fair Trade Sugar)
  • 1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
  • 1 cup lemon juice
  • 3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

METHOD

1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.

2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.

3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.

Serve with ice, sliced lemons.

Yield: Serves 6.

Breakfast Quinoa – Fair Trade for Breakfast

- Posted by to Recipes Tasty Tuesday

Martha Stewart! I’m a big fan. I enjoy reading her magazines and dream about the crafts and tasty treats I can make with the Martha Stewart line at various stores. But I’ll be honest, I generally just dream and don’t actually create. This time is different. In my pursuit for a delicious fair trade dish that is savory I found a wonderfully easy recipe for breakfast quinoa.

I had heard about using quinoa for breakfast instead of oatmeal, but I’d never actually tried it. This past Sunday I broke out my fair trade quinoa and fair trade brown sugar along with just a few other items and made a truly enjoyable breakfast dish.  My family and I loved it! And I’ll happily make it again.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole or low-fat milk, plus more for serving
  • 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
  • 3 tablespoons light-brown sugar, plus more for serving
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for serving
  • 1 cup (1/2 pint) fresh blueberries, plus more for serving

Visit here to view Martha Stewart’s full recipe for Breakfast Quinoa.

breakfast-quinoa

Special K Bars – Tasty Tuesday

- Posted by to General Tasty Tuesday

This classic Special K Bars Recipe is one of my Dad’s favorites – a sweet indulgence for those special holidays & family get-togethers. In my family the holidays have always been about spending time with friends and family, and sharing our favorite holiday traditions. My mom starts baking the week before Christmas, wearing her favorite fair trade apron and oven mitts, to make sure we have everyone’s favorite treats. It’s definitely my favorite time of year, and I know it’s not so much about the treats or the special holiday menus – but the memories we’ve created around them, so I wanted to share this recipe with you for Special K Bars. It’s one that we make whenever my Dad’s family gets together for Christmas, birthdays, or other special occassions.

Special K Bars

Special K Bars

Ingredients:
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Light Corn Syrup
1 pinch Salt
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 1/3 cups Peanut Butter
6 cups Special K cereal
1 pkg chocolate chips
1 pkg butterscotch chips

Directions:
In medium sauce pan – bring syrup, sugar, salt, and vanilla to a boil. Remove from heat. In a large bowl, pour the syrup mixture over the Special K cereal – stir to combine. Pat into 13×9 pan.

For the frosting, melt chocolate and butterscotch over low heat – stir constantly. Spread over top of the Special K mixture in the pan. Let it cool completely (you can cheat a little and put it in the fridge or freezer for a while.) Cut into small pieces and garnish with festive sprinkles of your choice.

Talavera Ceramic Serving Plate

Talavera Ceramic Serving Plate

Serve on a colorful and festive platter like this talavera serving plate & enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday – Homemade Pumpkin Butter

- Posted by to General Tasty Tuesday

With so many holiday parties coming up, I’ve been trying to think of something that would make a fun hostess gift. And since I know there will already be cookies, pie, and things of that nature, I came up with this delicious Homemade Pumpkin Butter.

This is super easy to make. I doubled the batch below so I could have some to enjoy myself. It will be fantastic spread onto pancakes, toast, or muffins! It could also be used to make an amazing Pumpkin Cheesecake. The possibilities are endless, and I plan to find them all. Note that I reduced the sugar by 1/3 of a cup as I didn’t want it super sweet. You can adjust the sugar and seasonings to your own taste of course.

Homemade Pumpkin Butter

Ingredients:
1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree, approx. 3 1/2 cups or fresh
3/4 cup apple juice
1.5 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Juice of half a lemon

Directions:
 Combine pumpkin, apple juice, spices, and sugar in a large saucepan and stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Cover with lid and stir frequently. Remove from heat. Adjust spices to taste. Stir in lemon juice, or more to taste. Once cool, pumpkin butter can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge. Makes enough to fill one large mason jar or about 3.5 cups.

Tasty Tuesday – Gingerbread Cupcakes with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

- Posted by to Tasty Tuesday

‘Tis the time of jack o’ lanterns, spicy pumpkin pie and other festive holiday recipes, so I’d thought I’d share one of my new favorites with you in honor of All Hallow’s Eve! You can make these delicious gingerbread cupcakes with any type of frosting; I thought since I was was making them to help celebrate Halloween I would try a Pumpkin Cream Cheese frosting & they turned out great! You can decorate them with a little raw cane sugar like I did, or go for a little more festive look with Halloween sprinkles or candy corn.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 stick butter, room temperature
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch salt
1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream

Mix flour and baking soda. In separate bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Beat in molasses, then eggs one at a time. Mix in sour cream until well blended. Pour into lined cupcake pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out almost clean.

Frosting

8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup canned pumpkin purée
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (more if you prefer to pipe the frosting on instead of spreading)

In a large bowl, mix frosting ingredients with electric hand mixer. Spread onto cooled cupcakes, or pipe on with a piping bag and a tip. Sprinkle with a little raw cane sugar on top for a little crunch, or place your favorite Halloween candy on top & enjoy!