Just wanted to pop in and share our Christmas card with all of you. We had this sweet portrait done by Etsy artist jordyluxe. I love how it came out!

We are making the final preparations today for our holiday fun and looking forward to spending time with our loved ones. Hope you are enjoying the season, too.

We have so many blessings to reflect on and much to be thankful for. We are most thankful for the sacrific of our great King Jesus to humble himself, come to eart and become a man to save us from our sin. What a gift, that we can be in relationship with our perfect Creator and counted as precious children in the great family of God. The only gift that really matters, and it’s free for us all. It’s too wonderful to understand. What great love!

Now I need to wrap up before I turn into a weepy puddle. Merry Christmas, my darlings!

PS. I made you some sparkling jello push-up pops for New Year’s Eve.

I miss you guys! What’s happening? What’s new? How’s your pumpkin carving/Halloween costuming/PSL consumption going this year?

We are a bit of a Halloween-neutral family. We will dress up if there’s a party to go to, take the kids trick-or-treating, buy a few pumpkins and hit the fall festival scene, but we don’t love Halloween. We like it just fine, but it’s not our favorite holiday. I am always last minute with the costumes and the candy and what not. This year E had planned on being a ghost (BEST DIY COSTUME EVER, SCORE!) but changed his mind and now wants to be a plane (!!?!?! How do I make that!?!) So now the plan is make a cardboard plane, and then little L can go along and dress as a cloud. We’ll see if this plan actually goes forward.

Making these cheesecake bites provided me the perfect opportunity to continue procrastinating on the costumes this week. There was a last minute opportunity to bring a dessert to our house church and I wanted to make something pumpkin-y, but not TOO pumpkin-y, if you know what I mean. Dessert spreads can really be pumpkin overkill this time of year.

The first thing that came to mind was to pumpkin-ize this old recipe for chocolate-covered cheesecake bites. I remember really loving them the first time around and I thought they’d be a great bite-size party treat. I tweaked the recipe a bit and everything turned out perfectly. I love when that happens!

If you are grain-free or gluten-free, you can still make this recipe. Try Carrie’s grain-free graham crackers or  Shauna’s gluten-free graham crackers. If you are dairy-free/vegan/paleo, I feel for you, I love you, but this one’s not gonna work for you. BUT, behold these amazing-looking vegan pumpkin cheesecake pops! They look very similar and would totally work for you, yay! Everyone’s tummies are happy.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites

 

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Prep time

10 hours

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

11 hours

 

adapted from Handle the Heat makes about 36 squares

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 36

Ingredients

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (regular, gluten-free or grain-free as needed)
• 1 stick butter, melted and cooled
• 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 5 oz mascarpone cheese, at room temperature (substitute more cream cheese here if you prefer)
• ½ cup granulated sugar (I used coconut sugar, you could use date sugar as well)
• ½ cup plain yogurt or sour cream
• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 16 ounces chocolate for melting (refined-sugar free, if necessary)
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• more crushed graham crackers, for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8×8 square baking dish with foil and grease with butter or non-stick spray.
2. To make the crust: Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter in a small dish. Press mixture evenly into your pan and bake 8-12 minutes, or until light golden and fragrant.
3. Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees.
4. To make the filling: Beat cream cheese, mascarpone (if using) and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Add in yogurt/sour cream, pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and beat until just combined. Pour mixture over the crust and bake 35-40 minutes or until the cheesecake is slightly puffed and the center is set. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
5. Refrigerate until chilled (about 2 hours) then place in the freezer, 8 hours or overnight.
6. To coat: Once the cheesecake is frozen, lift it out of the pan and gently peel away the foil. Using a sharp knife, cut the cheesecake into 36 squares. Place in the freezer until you’re ready to dip them.
7. Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave or double-boiler until smooth. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet. Dip the squares, one at a time, in the chocolate. Let the excess drip off and place on the prepared sheet. Top with graham cracker crumbs, if using. Then refrigerate or freeze until the chocolate is set.
8. Trim excess chocolate, if necessary, and serve cold. Store in the refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container.

3.1.09

We are headed up to the family cabin with my parents and my brother’s fam, so there won’t be much action on the blog until next week sometime. I’m going on my usual holiday hiatus. You know how I roll.

I’m not sure how much cooking I’ll be doing this weekend.. a break sounds mighty nice. I may just sit back and wait for someone else to take over. But.. if I was cooking… I’d be making some of this goodness to stuff in my face.

I’m thinking Patriotic Pancake Stacks for sure, because you gotta give it up to America at your first meal. (See also: whipped cream for breakfast). The fat almond pancake (above) is a crowd pleaser, too.

Some kind of popsicle.. I loved these mango swirl pops and I want more.

One of these 16 summer chicken recipes. Because, GAHH they all look so good.

For drinks, it’s a toss up between Sweet Sunset Cooler (above) and Quick Blackberry Thyme Lemonade. Both, you say? Okay. Let’s do that.

Of course, if you want to talk main dishes, we can’t forget the Crockpot BBQ Ribs. With a side of Grilled Corn with Garlic Herb Butter. And then an End of Summer Chopped Salad (above) with the leftover corn the next day.

We might also need some mint cookies and cream ice cream.. or chocolate covered cheesecake bites? Or a giant skillet cookie. Your choice.

Have a restful weekend and enjoy some time with the ones you love!

I am pumped about these Red, White and Blueberry Pancake Stacks that I’m sharing at MPMK today. Seriously, I love them. I want to feed them to everyone. They are adorable, are they not? Perfect for 4th of July breakfast or any other patriotic holiday. Let’s celebrate ‘Merica with a short stack this year!

Best thing about these is how versatile they are- you can use your favorite pancake recipe (gluten-free, grain-free, paleo, vegan, whatever) and use dairy-free coconut whip if you need to. Adaptable to all diets- you know I love that! Go forth and eat pancakes, my friends.

A few weeks ago, I pinned this Fat Almond Pancake from Green Kitchen Stories and I knew I had to make one. (Definitely check out their blog, it’s gorgeous!) The original recipe wasn’t exactly grain-free, but I knew I could do some tweaking and make easily make it GAPS-friendly. I just loved the look and ease of it. And mainly, I just loved that it was called a fat pancake.

And so I hit the kitchen and came up with this beautiful thing. I mean, don’t you just want dig your spoon in there? You do. Trust me. We ate it hot and fresh from the oven for breakfast.. and then we ate it cold in the back of the car as we watched a freak rain storm.. then the kids finished it off during their bath time. So, yeah. We liked it.

Surprisingly, we all preferred to eat this cold. You can taste more of the almond flavor and the sweetness. I couldn’t tell you if it keeps well.. I imagine you’d want to eat it all in a day or two- let me know if it lasts that long in your house, I’d love to know how it keeps.

If you’re wondering, the fruit on top is a mix of strawberries, white peaches, blueberries and cherries. Any fresh summer fruit will do, but I love the look of the red, white and blue. Especially with the 4th coming up! This would be a perfect dish to whip up if you’re having company for the holiday.

Fat pancakes! It’s a thing.

3.5 from 2 reviews

Fat Almond Pancake (Grain-Free, GAPS, Paleo)

 

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Author: Oven Love

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• 2 cups milk (cow’s, coconut, almond.. etc)
• ½ cup pureed squash, apple or pear (or more milk, if you like)
• 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons almond flour
• 2 tbsp organic butter or coconut oil
• chopped fresh fruit, mint, yogurt, honey and coconut chips for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place a 8×11 casserole dish in the oven to warm up.
2. While your dish is warming, whisk eggs, milk, squash and honey in a large bowl. (To make sure your honey is well incorporated, keep your ingredients at room temperature or whisk vigorously as you add the honey.) Make sure you have no lumps in your almond flour and add it to the liquid ingredients along with the salt.
3. Take the pan out of the oven and add the butter or coconut oil and swirl it around as it melts. Add the batter to the pan.
4. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the pancake is set and golden brown. Top with chopped fruit, honey, mint and coconut chips; then serve in bowls with yogurt.

#version#

Okay, all you husbands/children out there, here’s the plan for Mother’s Day:

Pick one of these recipes. Make it for your mom. Remember your manners and let her take the first bite. Then tell her how awesome she is at her job and hug her for as long as she lets you.

1: Chocolate Covered Cheesecake Bites, Salmon and Wild Rice Cakes, Make Ahead Baked Oatmeal, Chopped Salad

2: Caprese Salad Skewers, Pumpkin Streusel Muffins (paleo), Mint Cookies and Cream Ice Cream, Orange Creamsicles

3: Dark Chocolate Coconut Bites, Mini Asparagus Breakfast Galettes, Hoisin Glazed Salmon, Cream Puff Cupcakes

4: Fresh Strawberry Cake, Thai Chicken Lettuce Cups, Stuffed French Toast Cupcakes, Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

(inspired by Martha Stewart, Michael Ruhlman and Nom Nom Paleo.)

Chocolate Bacon Truffles (with a Dairy-Free option)

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

2 hours

Total time

2 hours 30 mins

 

Dairy-free changes are indicated in the recipe. If you’d like to lower the sugar content, you can always skip the candied bacon and just use cooked, crumbled bacon instead (saves time, too!).

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• 8 oz bittersweet or dark chocolate
• 8 oz milk, bittersweet or dark chocolate (this is based on what flavors you like- milk will make them smoother and sweeter if you aren’t into dark chocolate)
• 1⅓ cup heavy cream (or full fat coconut milk for dairy-free)
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 11 tablespoons good quality, unsalted butter at room temperature (or coconut oil for dairy-free)
• 8 oz good quality bacon (look for natural, pastured, nitrate-free, wood-smoked, amazingly delicious, etc)
• ½ cup Sucanat or turbinado sugar
• 3 tablespoons water
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 16 oz more chocolate, for dipping
• sea salt or smoked sea salt (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large glass bowl, melt the 16 ounces of chocolate in a large bowl.
2. In a small saucepan, heat the cream and vanilla bean/extract to 120 degrees (warm, but not boiling). Remove from the heat. If using the vanilla bean, let the milk steep for a few minutes and then remove the bean.
3. Add the cream mixture to the melted chocolate and stir until combined. Add the butter or coconut oil and combine with a stick blender (or whisk very, very quickly). Scrape down the sides of the bowl and put in the refrigerator to chill for 2 hours or up to overnight. Cover it with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.
4. To make the bacon topping, cut the bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp. Strain the bacon over a small bowl, reserving the bacon fat (you should have around ⅓ cup). Combine the cooked bacon pieces, sugar and water and bring to a boil. Cook until caramel-colored and most of the water is gone (about 275 degrees). Add the baking soda and quickly stir (it will foam up a little) and pour onto a parchment-lined pan. Refrigerate or freeze until firm. Break up with your fingers into small pieces or put into a food processor or blender to make it look more like bacon “dust.”
5. To finish the truffles, scoop out the cold truffle filling by the tablespoon and and roll into balls. Return to the fridge if they start to warm up too much. When you’re ready to dip them, melt the additional chocolate with the reserved bacon fat until smooth. Drop each ball into the melted chocolate, pull out with a long-tined fork and tap on the edge of the bowl to remove any excess chocolate. Place on a parchment-lined pan and sprinkle with the bacon topping and salt, if using. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

3.1.09

wonky family Christmas photo 2012!

I am currently typing this post on my iPhone, which I didn’t even know was possible until 5 minutes ago- hello, 2012! Our desktop iMac has taken a turn for the worst, so the already inefficient blogging machine that is Oven Love has stopped completely. Talk about a merry Christmas!

Just kidding again! Christmas is not about cool blog posts or getting extra holiday traffic to the blog, it’s about the totally miraculous and amazing birth of Jesus. So I’m not going to worry about this little spot of the web until the desktop is back.. And even then I might just wait until January and soak up the season with my family. I hope you do the same.

Wishing you all a lovely, memorable, twinkly-lit, tinsel-wrapped, angel-winged Christmas full of joy- can’t wait to debut the new website (if I ever get it done!) in the new year. Love all of you gorgeous people!

1: Double Apple Bundt Cake, Fall Harvest Salad, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Giants, Whole Wheat Sesame Oat Bread