Inprov Cooking Challenge~Apples & Oats

It's  #ImprovCookingChallenge time again. This month Lesa of Edesia's Notebook has given us Apples & Oats as our challenge ingredients. What better ingredients for the start of fall. 

I tried a few apple & oat recipes with my family. The fan favorite (fans being my family) was the baked apple donuts with a crunchy oat and walnut topping. So I am sharing this tasty recipe for this month's challenge. 

Baked Apple Donuts With A Crunchy Oat & Walnut Topping

1 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

3 tbls sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp lemon juice

6 oz of Greek yogurt

1 egg

1 small Granny Smith Apple, peeled and finely chopped

Crunchy Oat Topping

1/3 cup old fashioned oats

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tbls melted butter

Cinnamon Apple Drizzle 

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tbls apple juice

A pinch of cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350* Lightly spray your donut pan and set aside.  Mix all ingredients for the crunchy oat topping and set aside. Mix all of your moist ingredients together.  Add all of the dry ingredients and mix until all is moistened.  Fill each donut section in the pan to slightly overfull. generously top with the crunchy oat topping. Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks. While the donuts are cooling mix together the ingredients for the drizzle.  Once the donuts have completely cooled drizzle them with the cinnamon apple drizzle. Now it's time to enjoy them with an icy cold glass of milk or your morning cup of coffee. 

Some other tasty Apple & Oat creations you might like.

An InLinkz Link-up

National Dog Day

Cammie's Kitchen Adventures is going to the dogs because it's National Dog Day! I love my pretty girl. She is a Diva Doggie for sure, but she's my ray of sunshine everyday. 

Do you have a dog? How are celebrating with your doggie today? 

Success In The Kitchen

The kitchen is my most favorite place in my home. It's my playground; the place where I love creating lots of sweet memories and meals with my family.  Here are a few things I have learned along the way that have helped me have success in the kitchen.  Let me share them with you.

~~~A Few Tips For Success In Kitchen~~~

1. Use the best quality ingredients you can possibly afford. 
2. Before trying a new recipe, read it through a couple of times before preparing it. Doing this will familiarize you with the steps involved, it will ensure that you have all of the ingredients necessary and enough time to prepare it. 
3. When following a recipe, assemble and measure all of your ingredients before you start cooking It will help you stay organized and make the cooking process much easier. 
4. Relax and have fun in the kitchen! Even if you do make a mistake with a recipe relax, and consider it a learning experience. ALL great cooks have had mishaps in the kitchen at some point.
5. Add LOVE to everything you cook and the food will taste wonderful. My mom always said this and I think it's true.
6. Always use pure vanilla. There is no substitute for the REAL thing that will make the recipe taste good. 

Let's dish. Do you have a tip for success in your kitchen? What has helped you in your cooking adventures?

I love this little kitchen poem. I've seen it in a few old cookbooks.

God bless my little kitchen,

I love its every nook,

And bless me as I do my work,

Wash pots and pans and cook.

And may the meals that I prepare

Be seasoned from above

With Thy great blessings and Thy grace,

But most of all Thy love.

As we partake of earthly food,

The table before us spread,

We’ll not forget to thank Thee, Lord,

Who gives us daily bread.

So bless my little kitchen, God,

And those who enter in,

May they find naught but Joy and Peace,

And Happiness therein.

Author: M. Peterson (1944)

Biscuits...

                               for Bella.

Yes, sweetie girl loves her morning biscuit. But I got to thinking, what's in that biscuit that I've been giving her? Is it healthy, nutritional things that are good for her? You have to wonder, given the time they sit on the store shelves or in the bulk bins. I did anyways. 

So I had a kitchen adventure of the doggie kind today and made a batch of homemade biscuits for my Bella.~~~

The ones I made are a modified version of an oat biscuit recipe on dog trainer Cesar Millans Webpage. 

They couldn't be easier to make. Just mix everything together until it forms a ball of dough. Knead it for a bit and roll or pat out to a 1/2" thickness and cut out your biscuits. Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silpat. Bake at 325* for 20 minutes. Let them cool and store in an airtight container.  They should last a week outside of the fridge. If you freeze them they can last about 3 months.

The ingredients in the recipe are all healthy for doggies, however if you might want to try them it's  best to consult with your vet to be sure your furry pal doesn't have allergies to any of the ingredients. 

What Is That Thing???

I love to cook and bake, but when you live with a chronic illness such as Rheumatoid Arthritis ordinary every day tasks get difficult and sometimes just plain impossible to accomplish. So kitchen adventures are often a bit of a struggle, especially for my hands and arms. Lifting, carrying and fine motor skills are often limited or on really bad days non existent. For this reason I am always on the lookout for kitchen gadgets and tools that make my cooking adventures easier for me. Recently I found this handy little kitchen gadget for cooking eggs and thought I would give it a try. 

 It's electric and basically uses steam to poach, boil and even make omelets. The handy cup that is included tells you exactly how much water you need for each type of egg you are cooking.

 So far I have used it to make poached eggs and have also used it to boil eggs (has a capacity for 7 eggs) and it does a wonderful job. The boiled eggs are super easy to peel and with just a tiny bit of butter the poached eggs slipped right out. I am giving the Elite Egg Cooker a big thumbs up. Anyone would enjoy using it I think. It's portable and doesn't take up too much counter/cupboard space. Oh, and it doesn't heat up the kitchen like boiling eggs or poaching would do. And here's a good plus, it turns itself off when the eggs are done, so, incase you get distracted, not that I ever have, you won't have any burnt or overcooked eggs either. It comes in a few different colors. Naturally I went with my favorite color teal/turquoise. At $17.00 it doesn't make a huge dent in your pocketbook either, and that's always a good thing.

July Improv Cooking Challenge

I After a few tasty kitchen adventures with pretzels and mustard, this month's ingredients for the Inprov Cooking Challenge,  I decided to go with a savory main dish. It got rave reviews with my toughest and most honest critics, my family.

It was a super simple, yet oh so tasty dinner meal.
Here's how you can do it too.

1. Crush the pretzels.

2. Make the honey mustard marinade.

3. Baste the chicken with the honey mustard sauce before breading it. If you want a more tangy flavor you could soak the drumsticks overnight.

4. Coat the drumsticks with the pretzel breading.

5. Bake in a lightly greased baking pan @350* for 40 minutes. Turning the chicken over at 20 minutes.

Serve with your favorite sides and enjoy!

Check out the other tasty recipes from this month's challenge. They all look super tasty and good. Can't wait to try them myself.

An InLinkz Link-up

Crockpot Potato Wedges

Hey y'all I'll try any food at least once. Well...thinking about it  maybe there are couple of things I'd have to say no to. But other wise I am pretty adventurous food wise. Lately I've been seeing recipes for crock pot French fries. They are everywhere, and thought I would try them. I mean they are a healthier way to get your french fry fix using way less oil and salt. Plus they are done in a crockpot. What's not to love about that?

There are slight variations among the recipes I looked at, but for the most part they are all pretty much the same. Potatoes julienned into french fries, a small amount of some kind of oil and seasoning. Pretty simple. Right?

Ok so here is the recipe I tried. I chose this one because it also had a copycat recipe for the Red Robin Seasoning. Yay! I love their seasoning mix. Now I can make it myself and save some greenbacks, and that's  always a win.

So all in all I liked how the potatoes turned out. 

Even though they really weren't crispy and french fry like they were tasty and not loaded with oil. They were actually more like a potato wedge, a really flavorful potato wedge. 

Will I make them again? Yes. Why?

1. They are easy to make and you can do a whole crockpot full all at once. Yes!!!

2.  No standing over hot oil. 

3.  They were almost set it and forget it. They did need a stir every hour. 

I am giving these a thumbs up.