Counting down to Disney...and baking like crazy!!! - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Counting down to Disney...and baking like crazy!!!
Hi all!
We're getting ready to head down to Orlando this coming weekend. Yahoo!
Anyway, as with our past 2 trips, I try to pack somewhat nutritious breakfasts that we can eat on-the-go. With 2 little ones, I do all I can to push them along in the mornings when we need to get out the door...and to balance all the rich food we eat on the dining plan!
So, my week's to do list includes baking carrot cake cookies, oatmeal cookies, and pumpkin muffins for the kids; bran muffins for the adults. I just finished the carrot cake cookies and they are yum-o! I just hope DD6 will deign to eat them, as she is our pickiest eater.
The recipe (in case anyone wants it) is based on Carrot Cake Cookies Recipe - Allrecipes.com. I just "health-ified" it to make me feel better. The cookie is a moist cookie, not crunchy. So, it's more like a muffin but less crumbly, which I like because that's less mess in the back of our car!
Bon appetit!
Carol
Carrot Cake Cookies, health-ified
Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 Tbs. wheat germ
2 Tbs. ground flaxseed
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbl. cinnamon (yes! 2 Tbl, but you can use less if you want)
Mix the above ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup brown sugar (can cut down to 3/4 cup if you want it less sweet)
2 eggs
3/4 cup shredded carrots (about 2 carrots)
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained (or 1-8 oz. can of crushed pineapple)
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Cream the butter, applesauce & brown sugar till it's smooth.
Add the eggs, one at a time.
Mix in the carrots, pineapple & raisins.
Mix in the dry ingredients until just mixed.
Mix in walnuts, if using.
For large cookies (sort of like muffin tops), use a large cookie scoop (3 Tbl.) & bake for 15-18 minutes, until cookies are nicely browned.
For regular cookies, use a small cookie scoop (2 tsp.) & bake for 12-15 minutes.
Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
Yields about 18 large cookies; 3 1/2 dozen small cookies.
Anyone do Weight Watchers? I do and calculated the large cookies to be about 3 points; the small ones are 1 point each. Yeah!!!
__________________
DS-almost 3 & DD-6 with Meeko & Pocahontas in 2012
DH, "Commando" (Let's get a move on, folks!) ~ Me, "Pokey" (Just a moment...Look at this cool trinket!) ~ DD, born 4/2005, "Ride! Ride! Ride!" (Roller coaster! Cars! Dumbo!) ~ DS, born 3/2009, "Charge!" (I wanna goooooo!)
The applesauce is actually a substitution for butter! The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup butter. I usually cut butter amounts in half and sub in the applesauce. So you can go with all butter! Still yummy...probably moreso!
__________________
DS-almost 3 & DD-6 with Meeko & Pocahontas in 2012
DH, "Commando" (Let's get a move on, folks!) ~ Me, "Pokey" (Just a moment...Look at this cool trinket!) ~ DD, born 4/2005, "Ride! Ride! Ride!" (Roller coaster! Cars! Dumbo!) ~ DS, born 3/2009, "Charge!" (I wanna goooooo!)
The applesauce is actually a substitution for butter! The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup butter. I usually cut butter amounts in half and sub in the applesauce. So you can go with all butter! Still yummy...probably moreso!
Cool - I would never have thought that it was a substitute for that.
OK. Day 2 of my baking extravaganza. My goal is to bake 2 of my breakfast options today --- the oatmeal cookie & the pumpkin muffins. That leaves me 2 days to make the bran muffins and clean the house from top to bottom.
Before I launch into the recipe, I should explain that I try to "health-ify" the recipes by substituting up to 1/2 the flour with a mix of whole wheat flour and flaxseed/wheat germ. I also try to sub up to 1/2 the butter with applesauce. If you don't have these ingredients, feel free to go with all all-purpose flour or all butter. You'll get a tastier cookie/muffin!
So, onto today's cookie....
The oatmeal cookies are my least "health-ified" breakfast options, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to make (or at least try to make) a portable bowl of oatmeal. By the way, I love peanut butter in my oatmeal! It adds some great protein & staying power to combat the munchies for a few hours. So, I searched high & low for a good oatmeal-peanut-butter cookie and found one, of course, on allrecipes.com.
I couldn't "health-ify" this recipe too much because I think too many substitutions would throw off the wet/dry ingredient balance...leading either to an overly gooey mess or a dry brick. The original recipe is Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe - Allrecipes.com.
I just pulled a batch from the oven & sampled one with DS. He loved it. It was miraculously silent at the table for the 30 seconds it took him to devour his piece. As for me, I think it was too sweet! Next time, I might adjust the sugars down a bit (maybe just 1/3 cup of each type) and instead of all chocolate chips, I'll do 1/2 chocolate chips, 1/2 craisins. (Health-ify!)
Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies, health-ified
Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter
Cream the butter, applesauce, and sugars until smooth. Beat in the egg. Mix in vanilla & peanut butter. Mix in flour till just moistened.
1/2 cup rolled (old-fashioned) oats
1 cup chocolate chips
Mix the oats & chocolate chips into the batter.
For large cookies (like muffin tops), use large cookie scoop (3 Tbl) and bake for 14-18 minutes, until cookies are golden brown on top. Let cool on cooling rack for several minutes before storing. Yields 14 large cookies.
If you want smaller cookies, I'm guessing a small cookie scoop would yield about 3 to 3-1/2 dozen cookies. Reduce cooking time to 10-12 minutes.
Bon appetit!
Carol
__________________
DS-almost 3 & DD-6 with Meeko & Pocahontas in 2012
DH, "Commando" (Let's get a move on, folks!) ~ Me, "Pokey" (Just a moment...Look at this cool trinket!) ~ DD, born 4/2005, "Ride! Ride! Ride!" (Roller coaster! Cars! Dumbo!) ~ DS, born 3/2009, "Charge!" (I wanna goooooo!)
Oh wow that sounds so good with the pineapple, except I'm allergic to apple. I wonder what you could use in place of the apple sauce?
You can actually use just about any pureed fruit. I think banana would work nicely here too. In a pinch, I have used jarred baby food banana, applesauce, plums(especially good with chocolate recipes) and peaches. It's easier than pureeing your own for such a small amount :^).
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Linear Mode
