or, as I like to call them, Birthday Pancakes!!  I know I talked about Number One’s birthday all last week, but I wanted to share these too.  Especially since the theme for today is CAKE!! (I may have suggested this theme.  You know, maybe. But I’m not alone…others want their cake and eat it too!)  I was going to link up this cake….which was my first time making homemade icing.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour   I used 1/2 cup whole wheat

2/3 cup yellow cake mix 

1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 cups milk *How Sweet used vanilla almond milk. I used skim milk so I added a little extra vanilla extract

assorted sprinkles

Combine flour, cake mix, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix. Add 1 cup of milk, eggs and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. You want the batter to look like regular pancake batter; not too thin, not too thick. This will vary greatly on the brand of cake mix you use. Start with 1 cup of milk and add more if needed. I suggest a small taste test as well to see if the pancakes are flavored enough.

Preheat a skillet on medium heat (I use an electric grilled and turn it to 250 degrees). Fold desired amount of sprinkles into batter. Pour batter in 1/4 cup measurements onto skillet and let cook until bubbles form on top, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for 1 minute more. Serve with vanilla glaze.

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

assorted sprinkles

Mix milk, extract and powdered sugar until glaze forms. You may need to add a little more sugar or water/milk to reach desired consistency. Mix into glaze and drizzle on pancakes.

****The vanilla glaze would have been really good on these, but I was sending my kids to school and didn’t want them on sugar overload (I think cake batter in the pancakes was plenty!), so we topped them with sugar-free pancake syrup. And more sprinkles of course.

My pancakes did not turn out nearly as big and fluffy as How Sweets.  I’m pretty sure I didn’t let my pancake batter “rest” long enough…it was a school morning! And I added whole wheat flour.  The flavor was good, but not great.  It could use a little tweaking the next birthday that comes around.  They would have been better with the vanilla glaze!  But, the main thing is that it made Number One feel special on her birthday!  She had her party a few days before, on the weekend, so this was a way to honor her actual birthday.  Her special request for her birthday dinner?…..baked cheese sticks (the ones I made not long ago in eggroll wrappers)!  I thought that was pretty funny!  and yes, I made them.  ‘cuz I’m the greatest Mom ever.  Sometimes.

Now go check out all the other fabulous recipes at , , , , and ! 

Other linkys and hops can be found here.

If you follow my blog, you know that my husband is diabetic.  He is diet controlled, but this requires that he have very tight control over his carb intake.  It’s a struggle creating low carb meals, and snacks are even more of a challenge.  It is very difficult to find “convenience” items that are healthy and low carb, that my husband can grab on the go.  So, when I was given the opportunity to review , a company whose primary goal is to provide high protein, low carb snack items, I jumped at the chance!  This company is unique in that the founder, Dr. Massoud Kazemzadeh (known as “Dr. Kay”), who also has a Ph.D. in food science from Texas A & M University, created food items with his late wife’s juvenile diabetes in mind.  He knew first hand the challenges she faced, and was determined to make a product that was more nutritionally sound.  Kay’s Naturals products have a healthier nutritional profile of approximately 33% soy protein, 10% fiber and 57% net carbohydrates. Today Kay’s Naturals sells a dozen products – 3 cereals, 4 snacks, 3 pretzels and 2 cookies. 

Diabetics are not the only ones who benefit from products higher in protein and lower in carbohydrates. Athletes, body builders, individuals who have had weight loss (bariatric) surgery and those following a gluten free diet all have an excellent choice of snack items with Kay’s Naturals.  They have been wheat-free & gluten free since January 2009!

The Mo’Betta house received this bundle of goodies to sample.  Needless to say, we were pretty excited!  Especially hubs…he actually had some snack choices other than nuts and peanut butter!  You can view all the varieties they have to offer !  I have to say, my personal favorites were the protein chips! They were light and crunchy with a great blend of spices and flavors.  It satisfied that need for something crunchy, while still being a healthier alternative to your average chips.  They are low in calories, no saturated fat, no sugar, 3 grams of fiber and 10 grams of protein!  My husband enjoyed the protein cereals and cookie bites, b/c they allowed him to have a sweet snack without causing havoc on his blood sugar.  My kids of course, also enjoyed the cookie bites and my oldest daughter enjoyed the pretzel sticks, especially the Cinnamon Toast flavor! I think it’s safe to say that there is something for everyone!

So it doesn’t matter if you are diabetic, dealing with obesity, celiac disease or just following a healthy lifestyle, Kay’s Naturals is a company that you should check out.  Visit their follow along on  and “like” on  to join the health and wellness conversation!

***Product Demo Kits for Physicians, Dietitians and Retailers Available upon Request***
This sample pack was provided to me by Kay’s Naturals to facilitate my review.  All opinions are my own and accurate to the best of my ability.  No other compensation was received.

Chocolate “eclair cake” has been around a very long time.  My husband’s Grandmother used to make it frequently with a homemade chocolate fudge icing on top and it was to die for!  It’s also an easy thing to make, but since my husband was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago, it has not been making an appearance in the Mo’Betta house.  I would feel really bad to make one of his childhood favorites and then he couldn’t have any!  In January, his Granny passed away just 4 weeks shy of her 95th birthday. To honor her memory (because she loved to cook!), and do something nice for the hubs, I decided to make her chocolate eclair cake – but do some tweaking to make it sugar free (or sugar free as possible!).  Thankfully, there are many sugar free items on the market now so putting this together wasn’t all that difficult.

Low sugar Chocolate Eclair Cake
adapted from a family recipe

2 boxes of sugar free, fat free instant vanilla pudding mix (I used the small boxes, not sure of oz.)
3 cups skim milk
1 container of sugar free Cool Whip
1 box graham crackers (store-bought or homemade)
1 bag of Sugar free chocolate chips (I used Hershey’s) **This makes a hard chocolate “shell” on top.  If you want a more traditional topping, you can use sugar free chocolate icing or sugar free chocolate pudding.

{If you are not worried about the sugar, you can use this homemade chocolate icing, which is how I make the traditional version. It’s delicious!}

Mix the 2 boxes of instant pudding mix with the 3 cups of milk, when it starts to thicken, fold in the container of Cool Whip.  In a 9×13 dish, put a layer of graham crackers at the bottom (touching, not overlapping) and 1/2 the pudding mixture.  Place another layer of graham crackers across the top of pudding mixture.  Add remaining pudding mixture and final layer of graham crackers.  Melt your chocolate chips according to bag directions and pour on top of graham crackers.  Place in fridge to let the graham crackers soften up and get all delicious. 

The chocolate hardens and I didn’t really think about this when I first decided to use sugar free chocolate chips. However, it was yummy!  But next time, I will probably use sugar free chocolate icing or pudding, b/c that would be closer to how my husband remembers it.  Regardless, he really enjoyed this dessert.

If you are looking for an easy low sugar, low carb treat, whether you are following a low carb diet by choice or necessity, give this a try!  It uses convenience items that are probably not the healthiest, but a nice change of pace to someone living a low carb lifestyle and really wanting something sweet.  I’d love to hear about any other sugar free recipes you might have!

linking this up with Ingredient Spotlight: Frozen Whipped Topping at

 

They also have a wide range of sports supplements and fat burners.  Yes, I said fat burners.  That definitely caught my attention too!  They have well-known brands such as , , and .  Since my husband is an avid weigh-lifter, I am familiar with some sports supplements like protein powders and I even like to add whey protein to my spinach smoothies.  I should call them green monters, b/c spinach smoothie sounds a little unappetizing!!

I was given a couple of fat burners to try…the which from the site is Biochemically designed to burn fat and increase energy at the core. Specifically targeting increased muscularity, striated legs, and ripped abs. Key ingredients in Rx6 stimulate and transmit fat burning signals that carry on throughout the body. Each single serving dose is unmatched in strength and effectiveness. For non-stop hardcore energy without the effects of nervousness or crashing, count on Rx6. Rx6 delivers powerful results in short periods of time.  I also was given the  and  which are thermogenics.  They are energy stimulants and the Spirodex is a “mood-enhancing stimulant compound”. 

With the , I lost a pound a day for the first 3 days.  I felt so much better to be rid of the extra water weight and that bloated feeling.  Also, it did not make me as jittery as I feared it would, b/c it contains the caffeine equivalent to about 3 cups of coffee.  However, since I do not consume but about half that on a regular basis, I tended to get headaches everyday while taking them.  If you are sensitive to caffeine, or have any health concerns, like high blood pressure, these are definitely not for you.  And, as with any dietary supplement or exercise regimen, you should discuss it with your doctor before starting. 

The is a natural thermogenic and is “energy stimulating”.  I took this on one of those days when I had been up and down all night with a sick child and I was SO TIRED and drained feeling.  I took one of these a little before lunch, and I felt so much more alert and able to function.  It definitely gave me the push I needed to get through the day (and actually get some things accomplished).  I was also able to fall asleep that evening without any difficulty.  I have not taken this on a regular basis, but the directions say that you can take 1-2 capsules 30-60 minutes before meals 1 to 3 times daily.  I have a feeling I’m going to need them this week as I am cutting carbs and it makes me feel so sluggish initially.

I don’t think there is anything better than fresh baked bread….and this cinnamon sugar bread smells soooo good while it’s cooking!  The perfect thing for this dreary, cold (what’s up with that?! Did Mother Nature not get the memo that it is Spring?!) Monday morning.  We had 80 degree temps last week, mid to high 80’s one day…then today…chance of snow flurries. WTH?  Anyway, enough of me complaining about the weather again.  There are so many other things I could be complaining about.  Like my middle child, who has caused all kinds of drama last week from telling what she thought was a little white lie, which had me all up at her school like mom-zilla the psycho mom.  I could kick her little ass.  But anyway, the truth will set you free people. 
I had not meant to go down that path…I’m here to talk carbs.  Cinnamon-y, sugary, sweet BREAD. YUM!!  Which is ironic, since I’ve decided not to eat any carbs this week.  We will see how long that lasts.  I’m carb detoxing.  I’m short and fat.  Obviously I can’t do much abt my 5’2″ stature other than wear stilletos – which really don’t go with sweat pants – but I can and will do something about this….this….fluffiness.  I’m out to lose 20 lbs.  But right now I’m shooting for 10.  It shouldn’t be that hard right?!  Yeah, I’ve lost this same 20 lbs before…and damn if it didn’t come right back to me.  Of course, if you saw all the stuff I made during Christmas, you know why.  B/c not only do I cook a lot, I eat it as well. 

Moving on…this bread is delicious anytime of day, but we especially enjoyed it in the morning.  My son loves cinnamon toast, so he really likes this bread.  I love something a little sweet with coffee in the morning, and this fits the bill.  (Of course, this morning I’m having a boiled eggs. help me.) 

The recipe is from the lovely (preggars) Lisa from …go give her a big congrats!

• 1 cup milk

• 1 egg   *I used an egg replacement of 1 t. baking powder/1 T. vinegar/1 T. milk

• 1/4 cup applesauce

• 3 cups bread flour

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 t salt

• 1.5 t cinnamon

• 2 teaspoons yeast

Place ingredients in bread maker pan.

Set machine for quick bread or sweet bread.

When the machine is done mixing and starts to bake, open the top and sprinkle sugar on top of the bread.

Let bake for remaining time.

**I forgot to add sugar once it started baking and Lisa says this can be made in a loaf pan if you don’t have a bread maker! 
Go HERE to see what blogs I like to link up with!  Great recipes and craft ideas can be found, along with some blog and twitter hops!

I have so many blog posts floating around in my head! I have reviews, recipes and the stack is growing by the day.  But there are just so many hours in a day…and most of those are consumed by child related tasks.  I know I’m not the only one! Tomorrow is going to be super busy as well – and I have some drama brewing at Miss Two’s school…I can’t get into now, but will soon I’m sure! y’all are the closest thing I have to therapy 🙂  So, please check back next week for reviews, yummy recipes and who knows what else!  Have a FABU weekend.  Holla.

First, Happy Birthday to my oldest daughter!  She is officially 10 years old today, and couldn’t be happier to be in the “double digits”.  I remember that.  I remember my 10th birthday!  I just can’t believe how quickly my children are growing up.  And how quickly I am getting old.  Anyway, I better stop now before I start bawling all over my computer.  In yesterday’s post, I gave a re-cap of her “baking” birthday party.  So today I thought I would share some recipes!  Y’all know that everything I make is fairly easy…I don’t profess to be a chef or anything…even though now I have the hat 😉  Speaking of, some links for the paper chef hats and flowers from the party can be found and .  This is one of the reasons blogging is so great! One, a fellow gave me some of the links, which gave me the ideas for the hats/flowers, and two – someone out in blog land has been there, done that, and has a great blog post about it 😀  (That should be on a t-shirt “been there, done that, blogged about it”.)

For the cake, I mentioned that is was the first time I’ve made homemade frosting.  I used this recipe from allrecipes.com

 **This is the original recipe – I doubled it to frost a 4 layer cake

2 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

6 tablespoons butter

5 tablespoons evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1.In a medium bowl, sift together the confectioners’ sugar and cocoa, and set aside.

2.In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with evaporated milk. Blend in vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.
***************
And as I mentioned yesterday, I can’t imagine going back to canned frosting!  The only thing about this frosting (I’m not sure about others since I haven’t made it before) it seems to melt quicker than canned frosting.  I just kept it in the refrigerator until I was ready to cut it.  If you have any tried and true frosting recipes, I would love to hear about them.  I have another birthday coming up in a couple of weeks!  Mr. Terrible Two is turning THREE!!  What will I call him then?  Mr. Three?  hmmm, points to ponder.

The pizza dough recipe was also a new one that I tried.  I went with a from the Hillbilly Housewife because I was trying to make it easier on myself.  This will be my ‘go to’ crust from now on!  It was super easy, the bread machine did all the work, and the dough itself tasted good, had a great consistency, and was super easy to work with.  I made 8 “personal” size pizza crusts from one dough recipe.  I formed the crust, pre-baked, then froze them earlier in the week.  The day before the party, I stuck them in the fridge, and we were ready to go at party time.  The kids just fixed their toppings, and I stuck them in the oven to heat through.  They turned out great.

•1-1/4 cups water (plus 1 or 2 more tablespoons if necessary)

•3 tablespoons olive or other vegetable oil

•1 teaspoon salt

•4 cups bread flour or all purpose flour *I used all bread flour in one batch and a mix of bread flour and wheat flour in another. Both are good.  The wheat flour makes a denser crust. (& is a little healthier!)

•2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Measure the ingredients into the bread pan in the order listed. Make a “well” in the flour and sprinkle the yeast into it. Set the machine to it’s Dough Cycle. After the dough has mixed a few minutes add a spoonful or two of water if the dough seems very dry (I didn’t have to do this). On my machine the Dough Cycle lasts 1-1/2 hours. The dough will be risen and puffy in the bread pan when it is done kneading and rising. Punch it down (without hurting your fist on the paddle); and remove it from the pan. Knead it a few times to get it deflated properly. Divide the dough in half. Let the dough halves rest for about 10 minutes to relax the gluten, making it easier to roll out. Press the dough into 2 – 14″ or 16″ pizza pans. I oil the pans a little first, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. **I divided the dough into 8 pieces, and it made decent sized personal crusts – see pic above!

Top the dough with your favorite sauce and pizza toppings. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes.

For party decorations, I didn’t go all out.  For one, the wind was blowing pretty good, so I couldn’t do much outside.  We had a banner on the front porch, a Happy Birthday windsock, and

a cupcake cutout on the front and back doors.  I found them 2/1.00 at the Dollar Tree and hung them with ribbon.

I also had some kitchen utensils sitting around, tied with ribbon.  This was an oatmeal container that I wrapped in ribbon.  Added some spoons and cookie cutters.  Like I said, I didn’t go all out on decorations!  We also had balloons, but they all had to be in the house.  I know, it’s a little lame, but mama was tired!

Now, I’m going to get my butt out of the house and enjoy this 80 degree day we are supposed to have!!!

I’m going to link up with the great blogs found HERE! Check them out!  You can find some great recipes and craft ideas by checking out these linkys!

So my sweet little munchkin, my first born, my little baby girl….turned TEN.  T-E-N.  Holy freakin’ cow, I can’t believe it!!!  I have a child in the double digits.  Well, technically she won’t be ten until tomorrow, however, we had a party for her on Saturday.  And a sleep-over Friday night.  Which is why you haven’t heard from me.  My very large vehicle was loaded down to maximum capacity on Friday.  Number One had a few friends come home with her, and then a few more come over for her party on Saturday. 

Friday night we cooked hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill, since we had awesome weather this weekend!  Then the kids fixed s’mores. 

I’m not sure what made it perfect, other than having chocolate on it, but anyway – that’s what she said.  Note the Beiber fever going on.  She wears that shirt all the time.

Nothing is more fun than a FIRE and roasting marshmallows –

(and chocolate of course).  Number One decided she wanted a “baking” party, so I spent the past week preparing 10 personal size pizza crusts, and 10 one layer cakes, and getting everything ready for said party.  My daughter has no idea what goes into planning an endeavor like this.  I was a little ambitious in taking it on by myself as well.  A rum and coke (zero) may have been in order before the weekend was over.

On Saturday, when the kids arrived, they got busy making paper “chef hats”.  A big thanks to fellow blogger Jesseca for the ideas/links!  They turned out really cute.  They even made little cupcake liner flowers to put on them. 

Then the kids made their pizzas.  I pre-baked the crusts so they just added the toppings they wanted.

While the pizzas were cooking, they went outside and played   The kids love that thing!

They had pizza, a veggie tray (carrots and celery with ranch dressing), and chips.  After eating, they went back outside while I cleared the table and got things ready to decorate the cakes.  Everyone had a one layer cake to decorate and then take home, along with their chef’s hat. 

After they decorated cakes we brought out the birthday cake. This was not the best order to do this in, b/c the kids had eaten so many sprinkles, M&M;’s etc, while ‘decorating’ that they weren’t even hungry for cake!

I thought my cake turned out pretty good!  This is the first time I have ever made homemade icing!  I’ve always thought it was just too much trouble to make when it was so convenient to buy it in a can.  However, it’s not hard at all, requires just a few ingredients, taste really good, and have you checked the ingredients on a can of store-bought frosting?  YUCK.  So…it’s homemade frosting from now on!!  This one was a little sweeter than I would like, so next time, I want to play with the cocoa to sugar ratio a little.  But, it was very creamy and everyone liked it. 

The flowers are cut marshmallows with colored sugar sprinkled on. You just take a large marshmallow, and using kitchen scissors, cut each one into 3 or 4 slices – depending how thick you want them. Then take the slices (“petals”) and dip them in colored sugar or whatever your preference. I placed a piece of candy (M’s) in the middle to make the centers. They turned out cute, and helped camouflage the lopsidedness of my cake!  (My chocolate layers were all smaller than my yellow cake layers!)  oops.  I had planned to make cake from scratch, but ended up just using a box mix.  I forgot how I have terrible luck with box mixes.  The chocolate ones I did first, and made according to directions on the box.  They turned out afflicted looking.  So for the yellow cakes, I added 3/4ths teaspoon of baking powder, and added more filling to each pan.  This helped a lot.