Author: Busy Mom

I'm a busy mom of 2 adorable kids! I love cooking, Finding Nemo, and face painting.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake (Vegan)

Posted on by Busy Mom

If you are looking for a sweet for your sweetie this Valentine’s Day, this Chocolate Beetroot Cake might just be what you need 🙂  This is a rich and moist chocolate cake, and healthier than many cakes out there. Don’t worry, you shouldn’t be able to taste the beets in the cake. My husband and son were very wary of the fact that this was a beetroot cake, but they both loved it and even wanted seconds!

Chocolate Beetroot Cake (Vegan)

Ingredients (serves 8-12):

  • 1 C. whole wheat flour
  • 1 C. all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 C. Turbinado sugar
  • 1/2 C. unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 large beet (the one I used was about 11 inches in diameter and filled about 1 1/4 cups pureed.) and water to boil.
  • 1/3 C. melted coconut oil
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 1/3 C. beetroot water (reserve this from the water you use to boil the beet).
  • 1/2 C. chocolate chips (vegan chocolate chips if you want this to be a vegan cake)

For the Glaze/Frosting/Topping:

  • 1 C. chocolate chips (again, vegan chocolate chips if you want this to be a vegan cake)
  • 1/4 C. coconut oil

Optional Toppings:

  • shredded coconut
  • whipped cream (or Vegan Coconut Whipped Topping… Scroll down on THIS page for the recipe)

Instructions:

  1. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add the beet (washed and scrubbed). Let boil for about 45 minutes to an hour (or until beet is tender and can easily be pierced with a fork). Remove the beet from the water and pull off the peel (or use a knife to cut off the peel.) Cut the beet into about 2-inch chunks and place the chunks in a food processor. Process the beet chunks until smooth. Add vanilla and melted the 1/3 cup of melted coconut oil. Blend together in the food processor. Scoop this mixture into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the 1 1/3 cups of the water you used to boil the beet.  
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and lightly grease and flour a 10-inch circular cake pan. 
  3. In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, Turbinado sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. 
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the large mixing bowl with the beet mixture. Stir together until evenly combined.
  5. Stir in the 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. 
  6. Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and bake on the middle rack of the oven for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean (this may be tricky if you get some of the melted chocolate chip on the toothpick, so try to find a spot in the cake where you’re not poking into a chocolate chip).  
  7. Remove cake from oven and let sit 10-15 minutes. Flip it onto a cake platter or plate so it can cool to room temperature.
  8. Make the topping by melting the chocolate chips and coconut oil together. You can do this using the microwave, but just stir them up about every 20 seconds or so to keep the chocolate from burning. Let the topping sit at room temperature for a little while to harden back up a little bit. Smooth a spoonful or so of the topping onto each piece of cake as you serve the slices. 

You can sprinkle shredded coconut flakes on top for decoration. Whipped cream is also a wonderful addition to this chocolate beetroot cake, but it is still amazing as is <3 

Enjoy!

*Inspired by Olivia and THIS recipe.

**For other great Valentine’s Day desserts, try CRANBERRY JELLO or a NO-BAKE NUTELLA CHEESECAKE.

Cranberry Jello Dessert

Posted on by Busy Mom

One thing I love about my siblings is that we all kinda speak “food”. We appreciate good food and get pretty excited to try new recipes. We generally try to eat healthy, nutritious things. Some of my favorite recipes have come from, or been inspired by, a sister or brother (in-laws count too!) of mine. When my sister mentioned this homemade cranberry jello dessert, I just happened to have a bag of frozen cranberries in the freezer and couldn’t wait to try the recipe! She says the really good part about this cranberry jello is eating it with fresh raspberries and plenty of whipped cream 😀 And she’s right! Please don’t skimp on the cream and berries.

 

Cranberry Jello Dessert

Ingredients:

  • 1 (12 oz) bag of cranberries, frozen or unfrozen, and rinsed 
  • 2 Cups water, separated
  • 2 packages of Knox unflavored gelatin 
  • 2/3 C. honey (THIS is the kind of honey I used, but you can get it for much cheaper at an actual Trader Joe’s store) 
  • 2 C. heavy whipping cream
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 3-4 Tbsp. powdered sugar
  • fresh raspberries 

Instructions:

  1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Once boiling, stir in the cranberries. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and let simmer for about 6-8 minutes, or until several of the cranberries have broken up/popped. 
  2. Stir in the gelatin until dissolved. Add the second cup of water and the honey. Stir together.
  3. Put the mixture in a blender, and blend everything together. Transfer to an 8×8 inch glass baking dish. Let chill in the refrigerator overnight, or about 6 hours. 
  4. For the whipped cream topping: Put the heavy whipping cream in a mixing bowl with the vanilla and powdered sugar. Whip with an electric hand mixer until desired consistency. I usually start out on a high speed setting for the first 2 minutes or so, then decrease the speed to slow or medium for the rest of the whipping time. Do not over-whip, or it will turn into butter. To see if it’s whipped enough, lift the beaters our from the bowl and if the whipped cream drips off, you may want to whip more until the whipped cream stays on the beaters when you lift them out of the bowl. And your kids may want to lick the beaters 😉 
  5. Enjoy the cranberry jello topped with a good serving of whipped cream and raspberries! 

*Inspired by Karalee

ps. Two other delicious cranberry recipes are CRANBERRY STREUSEL SHORTBREAD BARS and CRANBERRY ORANGE MUFFINS.

Minestrone Soup (Vegan)

Posted on by Busy Mom

Minestrone Soup is a great way to pack a variety of vegetables into one meal! You’ve got onions and garlic. Celery and carrots. Tomatoes. Zucchini and yellow squash. And even a leafy green… spinach. And no need for broth. The soup turns out flavorful and delicious with the vegetables and seasonings themselves.

(update: Just had some leftovers of this soup and added a spoonful of homemade pesto and a good amount of shredded cheese, stirred it all up so the cheese was nice and melty and it was very tasty. Not vegan anymore, but tasty!)

Minestrone Soup (Vegan)

Ingredients:

  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 large yellow onion, diced
  • 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 carrots, grated and chopped
  • 3 stalks of celery, chopped
  • 1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
  • 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
  • 2 can-fulls of water plus 1 Cup of water
  • 1 medium/large green zucchini, chopped
  • 1 medium yellow squash (yellow zucchini), chopped
  • One (15 oz) can Canellini beans, rinsed and drained
  • One (15 oz) can red kidney beans
  • 1 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. black pepper
  • 1 tsp. Oregano
  • 1/2 tsp. Thyme
  • 1 Cup small dry pasta
  • 2 big handfuls of baby spinach
  • about 3 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped (plus more for garnish)

Instructions:

  1. Heat a large soup pot to medium heat. Swirl olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent.
  2. Add the carrots, celery, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Increase heat to medium-high. Cook about 10 minutes.
  3. Add the water, zucchini, yellow squash, cannellini and kidney beans, salt, pepper, oregano and thyme. Let cook about 10 minutes.
  4. Add the dry pasta. Cook another 10 minutes, or until carrots are tender enough to pierce with fork.
  5. Stir in the baby spinach and 3 Tbsp. of fresh basil.
  6. Serve the soup garnished with a little more fresh basil and/or Parmesan cheese if desired (we didn’t use Parmesan and the soup was still very tasty).

*Inspired by THIS recipe, and HERE is another yummy soup recipe to try.

Broccoli Salad (Vegetarian)

Posted on by Busy Mom

Every time I eat broccoli salad I think to myself “This is so good! I’m totally going to ask whoever made it for the recipe and make it at home!” But somehow I always forget to ask for the recipe. Two other things that have been holding me back from making broccoli salad is 1.) Will the salad still be good without bacon in it? If I have to cook bacon, the recipe goes from quick and easy to long and messy and greasy. and 2.) For some reason I like using up the whole onion and not saving part in the fridge for later. However, if I add the whole onion to the salad, it will taste like onion salad instead of broccoli salad.

I’m happy to report that there was already leftover red onion in the refrigerator today (made THIS salad earlier this week and knew I’d have to use up the two heads of broccoli soon)… just the right amount of onion for this broccoli salad.

We definitely recommend toasting your almonds and sunflower seeds to add such a beautiful flavor to the salad. My husband even forgave me for putting vinegar in the recipe b/c the toasted almonds were so flavorful 😉 To toast the almonds and sunflower seeds, just heat a cast iron skillet to medium or medium-high heat. Swirl a teaspoon or so of light olive oil to coat the bottom of the skillet. Stir in the raw almonds and sunflower seeds (I toasted the almonds and then decided to add sunflower seeds, but you can probably just toast them together at the same time). Give them a stir every 20 seconds or so, depending on the heat of the skillet. You can add a pinch of salt too. Once they are getting that golden brown look, spoon them out of the skillet and onto the salad.

Broccoli Salad (Vegetarian)

Ingredients (for about 6 servings):

Instructions:

  1. Soak the diced red onion in cold water for 5-10 minutes. Drain water.
  2. In a medium salad bowl, stir together mayonnaise, yogurt, honey, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper. 
  3. Add the broccoli florets, dried cranberries, toasted almonds and toasted sunflower seeds to the dressing. Mix together. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. (We only had it in the fridge for about 20 minutes before serving and it tasted great!)

This broccoli salad would go well with mashed potatoes and chicken (or just mashed potatoes, as you see below). It would also be the perfect side dish to bring to a potluck or BBQ!

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

Apple Cider Recipe (Healthy, Quick Easy)

Posted on by Busy Mom

What are your favorite warm drinks to sip on a chilly day?

Even though CHOCOLAT CHAUD is amazing, there is usually more than one cold day each year and I just can’t drink that rich hot chocolate too often.

A healthier alternative that tastes great is warm lemon water with honey. And in the Fall, or for the days when I want to skip the whole cutting open and squeezing the lemon part, I opt for my other favorite healthy option: “apple cider”. If you make this to share with friends, maybe give them a small sample to try first to see if they like it 😉

apple cider vinegar honey cinnamon drink

We’ve had little apple cider powder packets sitting in our kitchen cupboard for years. They come in handy for camping trips, but isn’t it nice that we can easily make an apple cider drink at home without the artificial flavors and preservatives?

Apple Cider Recipe (Healthy, Quick and Easy)

Ingredients (1 serving):

Instructions:

  1. Warm the water in a microwave-safe glass or mug for about 1 minute (or until warm enough to melt the honey).
  2. Stir in the spoonful of honey. Add the spoonful of vinegar and the sprinkle of cinnamon and stir it together.

Enjoy sipping this “apple cider”, knowing it’s probably doing your body good 🙂

Fruit Cobbler (Canned Peaches and Frozen Berries)

Posted on by Busy Mom

It’s been a while since I’ve had any sort of fruit cobbler, and I’m so glad we made this recipe because it turned out perfect! Almost made a small 8×8 square dish of it, but I figured we’d make a 9×13 sized dish to have plenty of leftovers for breakfast. And the 9×13 size was the way to go!

What did I love about this recipe? I loved all the fruit that went into it! This is a great way to use up any canned peaches when it’s time to rotate your food storage 🙂  And fresh berries seem to go bad too quickly, so I love having big bags of frozen berries in the freezer. We usually use the berries for breakfast parfaits or smoothies, but this was a fun new way to use the berries.

I loved the coarse sugar sprinkled on top. The crispy edges of the biscuity topping. This recipe was sweet, but not overly sweet. The vanilla ice cream was an amazing addition. We loved watching it melt all over the cobbler. We warmed up leftovers in the microwave for breakfast, and drizzled some milk on top. So delicious.   Berry and Peach Cobbler

Fruit Cobbler (Canned Peaches and Frozen Berries)

Ingredients (makes 12 servings):

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. and lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking dish.
  2. Use a fork to move the peach slices from the can to a large mixing bowl. Some of the juice will end up in the large mixing bowl with the peaches. Discard (or drink) the remainder of the juice after you fork over all the peaches.
  3. Add 1/3 C. flour and 1/4 tsp. salt, and the frozen berries to the peaches and gently mix. Set aside while you make the biscuit topping.  Berry Cobbler with peaches
  4. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together 2 cups of flour, the granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Cut in the cold butter until it resembles a crumble-like texture.  cutting in the butter
  5. Stir in the buttermilk just until mixed.
  6. Transfer the fruit mixture to the greased baking dish and even it out.  Peach Cobbler with Berries
  7. Drop the biscuit batter by Tablespoonfuls on top of the fruit mixture. (It should cover most of the fruit).  Easy fruit cobbler
  8. Sprinkle the raw Turbinado sugar on top. cobbler with canned peaches
  9. Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling and a toothpick inserted in the biscuits comes out clean. Let cool 20-30 minutes before serving.

cobbler with biscuit topping

Serve this fruit cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert, and leftovers in a bowl with milk for breakfast!

Fruit Cobbler with Peaches and Berries

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

*For a more cake-like peach cobbler, try THIS recipe!

Cold Hot Chocolate Story

Posted on by Busy Mom

Bundle up and get comfy. Here is a cold hot chocolate story for you:

As college students, my husband and I somehow ended up with way too much hot chocolate one Winter… mostly passed down from friends and old roommates who were in the process of moving and trying to get rid of stuff they didn’t want to move and didn’t want to throw away. So we inherited several bulk containers of hot chocolate powder.

I am not much of a hot-chocolate drinker. Every so often I enjoy sipping a little, but I’m more of a food person. Like I’d rather get my calories by eating yummy food than by drinking a sugary drink.

But Busy Dad loves hot chocolate. He also doesn’t like to be wasteful.

It was finally our turn to move and de-junk. I would have gladly thrown all that hot chocolate powder into the garbage, but my husband thought we should use it up, even though technically the expiration dates had all passed. So I watched with a smile as he prepared to make our hot chocolate stash disappear.

I’ll never forget the moment he put some hot chocolate powder into a cup, turned the tap to hot, but didn’t wait for the stream of water to heat up. He gave the concoction a quick stir and started drinking that clumpy, cold hot chocolate.

Gulp by gulp, it was clear he wasn’t enjoying the “hot” chocolate very much. He definitely was not savoring each little sip. Was it really worth putting that sugar into his body if he wasn’t even enjoying it?

Anyway, I don’t remember how this story ended, but he doesn’t do that anymore. He’s actually a fantastic hot chocolate maker now.

The moral of this story is that we only have so many sips of hot chocolate in our lives. If they aren’t enjoyable, don’t sip. If something is unhealthy and you don’t care for it, go without. Save the calories for something you actually like! You’ll be glad you did 🙂

*If you would like to enjoy hot chocolate every once in a while as a really special treat, you may want to give this FRENCH HOT CHOCOLATE RECIPE a try.

Cranberry Sauce with Whole Berries

Posted on by Busy Mom

Who here likes cranberry sauce?

Who here does not like cranberry sauce?

Who here has tried making their own homemade cranberry sauce and still doesn’t like it?

It is actually very easy to make, and I didn’t realize that until looking up a recipe. And the homemade version is really good compared to the canned cranberry jelly sauce version.

Honestly, I was starting to like a little of that canned jelly version with the dry Thanksgiving turkey meat. But I don’t think I can eat the canned jelly kind anymore now that I’ve tried this homemade cranberry sauce.

Challenge: If you’ve never made your own whole berry cranberry sauce, please do! And let us know how you like it 😉

This would be a fun recipe to try with your kids. When the berries start boiling in the water/sugar mixture, they kind of pop. And when they start to expand, find a darker cranberry and see if there are any light lines on it. They might look somewhat like the planet Saturn, with a ring around them.

homemade cranberry sauce with whole berries

Cranberry Sauce with Whole Berries

Ingredients:

  • 1 C. water
  • 1 C. granulated sugar
  • 1 (12 oz) bag fresh or frozen cranberries, rinsed and drained homemade cranberry sauce

Instructions:

  1. Stir water and sugar together in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil.
  2. Add the cranberries. Let the water come to a boil again, then reduce heat to medium and let boil for 10 minutes.
  3. Reduce heat to low, and use a lid to mostly cover the saucepan, but allow a crack for the hot steam to get out. Let simmer this way for 10 minutes.
  4. Remove from heat. Cover completely with the lid and let cool to room temperature.
  5. Store the leftover sauce in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

whole berry cranberry sauce

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

Pumpkin Pancakes (Whole Wheat)

Posted on by Busy Mom

Fall is such an exciting time of year. Weather cools, leaves change colors, holidays are approaching. And don’t you love seeing the Internet explode with mouth-watering pumpkin recipes?

These Whole Wheat Pumpkin pancakes were pretty mouth-watering themselves. But especially topped with homemade whipped cream. Really, I wanted to make whipped cream in the morning and have leftovers to use with our French Hot Chocolate. It was kind of a lot of whipped cream in just one day, but both recipes turned out delicious!

pumpkin pancakes

Pumpkin Pancakes (Whole Wheat)

Ingredients (serves 4… makes about 12 pancakes):

  • 2 Cups whole wheat flour
  • 2 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 4 Tbps. melted coconut oil
  • 2 C. milk, warmed (so it doesn’t harden the coconut oil)
  • 2/3 C. pumpkin puree
  • 4 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 2 eggs

Instructions:

  1. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl.
  2. In a large microwave-safe mixing bowl, melt the coconut oil and warm the milk. Add pumpkin puree, brown sugar, vanilla and eggs. Mix well.
  3. Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and whisk together until just mixed.
  4. Heat a nonstick skillet to medium-low heat. When the skillet is hot enough (if a drop of water sizzles in there), then add a little butter.
  5. Pour 1/4 C. of the batter for each pancake. Let cook on the first side for 2-3 minutes. Flip, and let cook about 1 minute on the second side. pumpkin pancakes whole wheat flour
  6. Serve warm with pure Maple syrup and whipped cream.

whole wheat pumpkin pancakes

Hope you enjoy the warm, lovely smelling and tasty pumpkin pancakes!

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

French Hot Chocolate (Chocolat Chaud)

Posted on by Busy Mom

This French Hot Chocolate recipe is totally gourmet style. Definitely not your everyday hot cocoa (unless you live in France maybe??) It’s like drinking a thick, rich, liquid chocolate. I would recommend this as a once a year special hot chocolate, maybe to sip on during Christmas Eve, or maybe on the first snow day of the season.

Due to the richness of this hot chocolate, my husband and I had plenty of leftovers to share with the kids the next day. We warmed it up in the microwave and gave it a stir, and it tasted just as good or better than the night before 🙂 It seemed even thicker, and even more like melted chocolate, the second day.

Thick hot chocolate

bittersweet hot chocolate

French Hot Chocolate (Chocolat Chaud)

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

  • 1 1/2 C. whole milk
  • 1/2 C. heavy whipping cream
  • 2 tsp. powdered sugar
  • 8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped (we used Trader Joe’s 72%, but might actually go a tiny bit sweeter next time) Also, we have THIS DIGITAL KITCHEN SCALE, which was really fun to use for measuring the chocolate. how to make parisan hot chocolateBittersweet chocolate 72
  • whipped cream to go on top
  • optional: garnish with a sprinkle of cacao powder

Instructions:

  1. Heat milk, cream, and powdered sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk frequently. warm milk
  2. When the milk is really hot (starting to bubble), remove from heat and whisk in the chopped chocolate. If the chocolate isn’t melting all the way, you can continue stirring/whisking on a very low heat setting. Parisan Chocolat Chaudliquid chocolate
  3. Serve with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cacao powder.

Chocolat Chaud

*Inspired by THIS recipe.