None of us needs more than a couple of minutes of news each day get pretty down on the state of the world, or just our local region. Of course, when you kiss you kids at night before bed, or they run up to you when you arrive home from work, we are all quickly reminded of how wonderful a family is.

One of newest Kitchen Monki partners is a blog called Joy Makin’ Mamas. In their own words, “Joy Makin’ Mamas understand that making childhood special and instilling the values of thrift, creativity, and accomplishment takes mindfulness and planning. Parenthood may be a ‘Do It Yourself’ project, but nobody ever said it had to be ‘Do It All By Yourself’.” Check out their recipe tab, and remember to love the little things that kids bring each day. Cooking with them and family meals are most certainly some of those special moments to cherish every day.”

I hope many of you have experienced the direct connection between diet and health. While I try to keep an eye on this in my own life, nothing brought it home more than seeing a friend battle cancer to a standstill over a period of years through changing his lifestyle and diet. Duane and Tiffany at Transfer of Health (TOH) have a similar story.

Learn not only about healthy cooking, but so much additional research about simple changes to lifestyle that promote health and fitness in the whole family. Kitchen Monki works with many publishers promoting healthy lifestyles along with fun, fresh recipes. Join TOH’s healthy food community and try the great recipes Tiffany, a self-proclaimed “foodie”, makes available after testing them in her own kitchen.

Baking has always been enjoyable to me. Hearing people say, “There’s a party in my mouth!” is a tremendous feeling of accomplishment. Having a baking blog to share my recipes has been fun, although I’m really just getting started. My first blog started years ago as a way for me to show my mother, who lives about 800 miles away, the cakes I made for my kids’ birthdays. My decorating skills have improved over the years, and I’ve had people hire me to bake for them in recent months. I don’t really have the time it takes to manage a baking business, so I thought that sharing my recipes and tips would help other moms out when they need a great cake. In this economy, not everyone can afford gourmet bakery cakes that look like they were inspired by the Cake Boss, but maybe with my help, they can gain confidence in doing it themselves. I hope my blog will inspire people to give baking a try or take it to the next level. I’m not a pro by any means, but I would love to share my best recipes with anyone who wants them.

In order to share my recipes, I was looking for a way to let readers print the recipes without having to print the whole blog post. After running into a few glitches with some other programs, I found Kitchen Monki. Once I found Kitchen Monki, getting started was as simple as putting 2 lines of code into my blog. Not only does Kitchen Monki allow readers to print out a nice, organized sheet of paper with a recipe on it, it offers an incredible way to plan, organize, search, and share with the KM community. My readers can stay right on my blog page for my recipes, or they can click over to the main KM website and find endless recipes for their menus. I can hardly wait for my blog to pick up some more traffic so I can realize the immense potential the Kitchen Monki White Label holds.

The people of Kitchen Monki have been incredibly professional and kind as I’ve been getting things going. I hope I can make them proud that my blog ia a part of their community.

Jody
Red Mixer Bakery

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4. Make and Eat: Margarita Cupcakes Recipe
5. 7 Ways to avoid gas from beans (via Care2)

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3. Are Foodies evil and elitist? (via Care2)
4. Make and Eat: Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe
5. How to clean Leeks (via HowTo: Simplify)

1. NBC’s Next Great Restaurant looks like a winner (via Eater)
2. Why aren’t G.M.O. Foods Labeled? (via NY Times)
3. 5 Tips for Plastic Free Cooking (via Care2)
4. Winner of the Grocery Bagger championships gets $10,000 (via Globe & Mail)
5. Make and Eat: Chocolate Shamrock Bread Pudding Recipe

Kitchen Monki is very happy to welcome Alexa Besgen of the Boston-based blog, Simple Eats, to Monki Bread!  This New England foodie comes from a long line of food lovers.  A bit of trivia:  Pete Luger of the famous Pete Luger’s Steakhouse in New York City was Alexa’s great great uncle!    Her foodie mantra is “Sip. Savor. Celebrate.” which doubles as her life motto as well.  Alexa just recently became a member of the site and when we asked her to share some food for thought with our members, the thing that came to her mind is what most of us probably (should) have on our minds right now… Valentine’s Day!  Sweet.  Make sure to stop by Alexa’s blog, her Facebook page as well say hi to her on Twitter @Simple_Eats!

Valentine’s day means one thing: CHOCOLATE.  From cream-filled to double-chocolate covered, the varieties are endless.  This year, instead of handing your loved one a box of cheap, packaged candies from the drugstore, why not take the time to make your own?

Not only are they able to serve as the actual gift, but you can tailor them to according to your tastes.  Everyone loves chocolate, and nothing says “I love you” like a homemade treat.  Wrap up the bark in a pretty box or place the truffles in mini muffin cups, and you’ve got the perfect gift.

Double Chocolate Raspberry Bark

6 ounces dark chocolate chips
12 ounces white chocolate chips
4 tbsp. seedless raspberry jam
1. Melt dark chocolate in a microwave or double boiler. Pour onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper or foil. Freeze for 20 minutes, or until hardened.

2. Melt white chocolate in a microwave or double boiler. When dark chocolate has hardened, pour white chocolate on top of dark chocolate.

3. Melt raspberry jam in microwave until thin. Drizzle over white chocolate and using a knife or toothpick, swirl around to create a pretty pattern.

4. Freeze immediately for an additional 30 minutes.

5. Break apart into pieces. Keep refrigerated.

Dark chocolate truffles/milk chocolate truffles

12 ounces milk/dark chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt

Toppings:
cocoa powder
powdered sugar
chopped nuts
coconut
red sprinkles

1. Combine heavy cream and salt in a saucepan and heat until simmering, not boiling. Add vanilla and stir to combine.

2. Place chocolate chips in a bowl.
3. Pour cream mixture over chips and mix together until smooth

4. Cover and refrigerate for three hours, until firm.
5. After mixture is chilled, scoop out with two spoons or melon baller. Using hands, form mixture into balls and roll until even.

6. Roll truffles in toppings of choice. Chill until firm.

Note: Using latex gloves when making these prevents mess!

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5. A Farewell to Mark Bittman’s NY Times Minimalist Column (via Serious Eats)

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4. Make and Eat: Cheddar with Sauteed Apples Recipe
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