Guest @AmandaFlower Peanut Butter Protein Balls #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here, delighted to host my uber-talented friend, Amanda Flower! Her new Truffle Trouble, the tenth Amish Candy Shop mystery, releases at the end of this month, and two lucky commenters will win an audiobook version of Gingerbread Danger, book nine in the series. Amanda brings us a recipe for peanut butter energy balls, something I'm sure she needs in order to write ten (or however many) books a year AND provide a home with her husband for many needy cats.

Take it away, Amanda.

In the name of research for the Amish Candy Shop Mysteries that have been a part of my life for over ten years, I eat a lot of candy. It’s research. It’s work. Don’t judge. However because of that, sometimes I want something sweet that I can at least claim is good for me.

If you are like me, you have seen the seemingly sudden craving for protein all over the place last couple of years. The love or protein is all well and good. However, I am always a vegetarian and sometimes a vegan, so there are challenges to get the protein that people keep telling me that I need. A girl can only eat so much tofu.

So one sweet way that I add more protein to my diet is with these energy balls. They are sweet, delicious, and a great pick me up during the afternoon slump. I should note that I make my with peanut butter and peanut butter chips, but if you have allergies to nuts, you can use any kind of nut butter or sunflower butter instead. Also, the sky is the limit on the kind of chips. I just love peanut butter. Another addition you can make to the recipe is adding protein powder if you are really want to up your grams per day.

Bailey King from the Amish Candy Shop Mysteries would certainly approve of this recipe because she is a woman on the go. With all the jobs she juggles plus solving multiple murders a year in Ohio’s Amish Country, she needs to keep her energy up. I could definitely see her adding these to her offerings at Swissmen Candyworks. She is going to need more offerings too after her wedding and the murder that occurs in during the reception at her candy factory! You can read all about it in Truffle Trouble, the tenth novel in the Amish Candy Shop Mysteries, releasing on March 31^st.

Peanut Butter Energy Balls

Ingredients

·       1 ¼ cups old fashioned rolled oats

·       ½ peanut butter

·       ¼ cup chia seeds

·       ½ cup walnuts

·       ¾ cup peanut butter chips

·       2 tablespoons of maple syrup

·       ¼ teaspoon salt

·       ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

·       Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

·       Refrigerate for at least thirty minutes. It makes the balls easier to roll.

·       Roll balls to the desired size.

Enjoy and store in the refrigerator.

Readers: How would you change this recipe to make it your own? I'll give a copy of the Gingerbread Danger audiobook to two lucky commenters (be sure to leave your email address).

Amanda Flower is a USA Today bestselling and three-time Agatha Award-winning author of over fifty mystery novels. Her novels have received starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Romantic Times, and she has been featured in USA Today, First for Women, and Woman’s World. Her first Emily Dickinson Mystery, Because I Could Not Stop for Death, was an Agatha Award winner and Mary Higgins Clark Nominee. Her first mystery featuring the Wright Brothers, To Slip the Bonds of Earth, was an Agatha Award and Ohio Book Award winner. A former librarian, Flower and her husband own a farm and recording studio, and they live in Northeast Ohio with their adorable cats.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authoramandaflower/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandaflowerauthor/

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Guest Amanda Flower #Recipe #Giveaway Emily Dickinson the Baker

Please welcome today's guest, Amanda Flower. An amazingly versatile author, she writes Amish Mysteries, Children’s Mysteries, Magical Mysteries, Contemporary, and Historical Mysteries. Besides sharing an original recipe for pumpkin-spiced zucchini bread, she’s telling us about her upcoming mystery series featuring 19th century American poet, Emily Dickinson, as a detective.

Leave a comment to win a copy of a book in Amanda's Amish Matchmaker series.

Take it away, Amanda!

My first novel featuring Emily Dickinson as sleuth is Because I Could Not Stop for Death, which comes out on September 20, 2022.  The title was inspired by one of Dickinson’s most famous poems. However, an interesting fact that many don’t know about the famous poet is that she was better known as a baker in her lifetime than as a writer. In fact, only a handful of her poems were published when she was alive, but she won multiple awards with her baking.

Since writing the series, I have found so many things that I have in common with Dickinson, and baking is one of them. I love to bake. I haven’t won anything for my baking, but maybe I will enter one someday just like Emily did.

You can learn even more lesser known facts about Dickinson in my novel. I hope you will check it out!

Below is my original recipe for Pumpkin Spiced Zucchini Bread that I think Dickinson would have approved of. It's super easy, and I promise the pumpkin spice makes all the difference! Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2-2 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Spray an 8x4 inch pan with baking spray.
- Mix flour, salt, baking powder, soda, nutmeg, and pumpkin spice together in a large bowl.

- Add eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla, brown sugar, an white sugar to flour mixture.
- Beat mixture together until smooth.

- Add zucchini and mix well.
- Add chopped walnuts and mix well.

- Put mixture into pan.

- Bake for 60 minutes.

- Allow to cool and enjoy!

Leave a comment by Aug 30th about zucchini or Emily Dickinson to enter a drawing for a signed copy of Marriage Can Be Mischief. (U.S. only)

About the Author

Amanda Flower is a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of over forty mystery novels. Her novels have received starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Romantic Times, and she had been featured in USA Today, First for Women, and Woman’s World. She currently writes for Penguin-Random House (Berkley), Kensington, and Sourcebooks. In addition to being a writer, she was a librarian for fifteen years. Today, Flower and her husband own a farm and recording studio, and they live in Northeast Ohio with their four adorable cats.

Welcome author Amanda Flower + book #giveaway

 

Please welcome our wonderful and prolific guest Amanda Flower.

Amanda , a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of over thirty cozy mystery novels, started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words. In addition to being an author, Amanda is a former librarian with fifteen years’ experience in Northeast Ohio. Her latest Amish mysteries are  Matchmaking Can Be Murder, the first in the Amish Matchmaker Mysteries and the next two Amish Candy Shop Mysteries are Botched Butterscotch (4/28/20) and Marshmallow Malice (5/26/20). Visit her online on her website, Facebook, and Instagram.

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Spring Smoothie to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth

By Amanda Flower

I have a sweet tooth. I love ice cream, cupcakes, candy, and pies. If there is refined sugar in it, I’m interested. To make matters worse, I write about candy and treats for the Amish Candy Shop Mysteries, including Marshmallow Malice, the latest book in the series. So as you can imagine I think about sweets… a lot.

However, I’m getting married in a few short months, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t trying to lose weight for the wedding. Every woman, and dare I say every man too, wants to look their best on their wedding day. To satisfy my sweet tooth but eat healthier, I bought a blender and have been going smoothie crazy. I have one at least three times a week, and it’s definitely helped me to feel and look healthier! I’ve tried many recipes and made up my own, but my favorite is my Berry Smoothie that I’m sharing here. It could not be easier to make!

Enjoy! To a healthier and happier 2020!

Ingredients
one cup frozen mixed berries
1/2 cup Greek plain yogurt
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
one banana
one tablespoon of chia seeds
handful of ice cubes

Directions
Put everything together in a blender and blend!

GIVEAWAY

Today, Amanda is offering a giveaway of TOXIC TOFFEE to one commenter.  

What do you do to eat healthy or watch calories?  Leave your email in case your name is selected.

Welcome guest author Amanda Flower + book #giveaway

Please welcome today's guest, Amanda Flower.   She's offering a giveaway below.

Amanda Flower, a USA Today bestselling and  Agatha Award-winning mystery author, started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words.  In addition to being an author, Amanda is former librarian in Northeast Ohio. 

Bailey’s Easy Easter Birds’ Nests

By Amanda Flower

Easter comes later this year at the end of April, which is a great thing because there is a promise of real spring weather. Where I live in Ohio, March Easters are known to come with snow; even some April Easters have been snowy. However with Easter on April 22^nd, there is a much better chance for spring flowers and blue skies even in Ohio. And I’m very ready for spring. Because of that, I am thinking of spring and Easter recipes. One of my favorites and the easiest by far from one of my books can be found in the back of Criminally Cocoa, an e-novella in the Amish Candy Shop Mysteries. If you read the series, the e-novella takes place between book three, Premeditated Peppermint and book four, Toxic Toffee, which comes out in July. The novella just released and it’s about a case of sabotage that Bailey King and her Amish cousin Charlotte Weaver have to solve in New York City, where Bailey lived before moving to Ohio’s Amish Country. While there, Bailey shares this Amish recipe in the midst of solving the crime. It’s a great one to do with kids too. Enjoy!

Ingredients

·      Container of pretzel sticks

·      1/4 cup caramel sauce

·      One bag candy-coated milk chocolate eggs

·      Parchment paper

Directions

1.              Warm caramel in a saucepan over medium heat until it’s melted and easy to stir

2.              Put pretzel into a large bowl. Pour caramel over the pretzel sticks; stir to coat the pretzels with the caramel.

3.              Scoop pretzel mixture from bowl with a large spoon onto parchment paper and form into small bowls. To make this easier, you can hollow the center out to create the nest with the back of the spoon.

4.              Arrange three chocolate eggs in each nest.

5.              Let cool and enjoy!

GIVEAWAY

Today, Amanda is offering a giveaway of ASSAULTED CARAMEL,  the 1st in the series, a delicious read. Leave a comment and your email address so she can contact you if you win, and tell her if you're looking forward to spring. 

Visit Amanda Online
Facebook  | Instagram | www.amandaflower.com

Easy Scottish Shortbread Cookies from Amanda Flower

 

A warm welcome to Amanda Flower who has a new book out! FLOWERS AND FOUL play takes place in Scotland, and poor Amanda had to take a trip there to get the scoop on magical gardens and shortbread!

Don't miss her giveaway at the bottom of the post!

When I was in Scotland researching Flowers and Foul Play, I think I may have eaten my weight in Scottish shortbread cookies. It seemed to me there was a Walkers Shortbread shop in every city I visited and even in many of the villages. When I went back to my B&B for the night after a day of research, I found that the maid put a piece of shortbread on my pillow. I became accustomed to having shortbread and tea every evening before bed, and I felt VERY Scottish, even though I don’t actually have a drop of Scottish blood in me.

Of course, you can buy Walkers shortbread here in the U.S., but after my trip to Scotland, I thought I would try my hand at making it. Enjoy this recipe inspired by my travels to research Flowers and Foul Play, the first in the Magic Garden Mysteries set in Scotland. My protagonist Fiona Knox inherits a magical garden in Scotland just in time to solve a murder!

Easy Scottish Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (softened)

4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar

9x 13 inch pan

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cream brown sugar and butter together.
3. Add half of the flour to the butter and sugar and begin to knead, slowly added the rest of the flour as you knead until the consistency is a little like Play-Doh.
4. Press dough firmly into a 9x13 inch pan and prick up and down the dough with a fork.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until a light golden brown.
6. Cut while still warm and cool cookies on a wire rack.
7. Enjoy with a cup of tea! Scottish breakfast is my favorite!

Amanda Flower, a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning mystery author, started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words.  In addition to being an author, Amanda is librarian in Northeast Ohio. Flowers and Foul Play is the first novel in her Magic Garden Mystery Series set in Scotland.

Amanda is giving away a copy of FLOWERS AND FOUL PLAY to one lucky person who leaves a comment here. Giveaway closes at midnight eastern time on Tuesday.

Welcome guest author Amanda Flower + book #giveaway

Amanda Flower is a national bestselling and Agatha Award- winning mystery author. She also writes mysteries as USA Today bestselling author Isabella Alan. In addition to being an author, Amanda is a librarian in Northeast Ohio. Her newest release is Lethal Licorice, an Amish Candy Shop Mystery. Follow Amanda on Social Media at: Facebook Twitter Instagram

Beet Pasta Salad

By Amanda Flower

I work full time as a librarian, and I write full time too. I don’t have a lot of opportunity to cook, and one the tasks I dislike the most is packing my lunch for days I’m at the library. After a while, PB and J really gets old. So I have made up recipes that I can make in bulk that will last me the whole week. And even though I write the Amish Candy Shop Mysteries, which are full of sweets, I try to eat as healthy as possible and try to stick to more fruits and veggies in my lunches than candy. Most of the time, I’m successful at that.

One of the recipes that I make a lot is Beet Pasta Salad. It’s fast and easy, and I can pack it perfectly proportioned containers of it for all five days of the work week. I came up with this recipe because I love pasta salad and I love beets. One day, I just decided to put them together. Since I’m a vegetarian, I always have fresh veggies in the house, so I just add whatever vegetables that I have on hand the day I made the salad.

If you are like me and really get tired of sandwiches day after day, this might be the recipe for you.

Enjoy!

Beet Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1 can of whole beets

1 16 oz box of penne pasta

Raw vegetables of your choice

Salt and pepper

Italian salad dressing or oil and vinegar

Directions:

1)    Boil pasta

2)    Rough chop vegetables

3)    Rough chop beets

4)    Mix pasta, vegetables, beets, and Italian salad dressing in a bowl

5)    Add salt and pepper to taste

6)    Refrigerate overnight

GIVEAWAY

Amanda is offering a copy of Assaulted Caramel today to one commenter. So do tell...what do you like for lunch? Leave your email (cryptic if necessary) so Amanda can get in contact with you should you win.

 Follow Amanda on Social Media at: Facebook Twitter Instagram