Two Valentines Day Treats

Just had to share two new things we tried for Valentines Day. Both recipes I got from Disney's Family Fun website.

The first recipe was for secret decoder cookies. Sounds intriguing right? Click here to see it. I have to tell you, the cookies were much more successful then the message part. We had a hard time making it secret. But the kids still loved the novelty of it and the recipe gives you something to do with all those red valentine suckers your kids get at Valentines Day.

The second recipes was for cinammon apple sauce. Basically you just throw apples in a crockpot with water and some cinammon candies. My friend Megan clued me into the idea and it was fabulous!! See the recipe here.

Hope you have a great Valentines Day!!

Pizza Bites

So have you tried pizza bites yet?? I found them on one blog, made them superbowl night, and now I'm seeing them everywhere. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, they are easy to make, fun to eat, and taste delicious.

I found the recipe at Annie's Eats. I omitted the pepperoni and added mushrooms, onions, and green peppers instead.

Ingredients:
½ batch pizza dough (enough for 1 pizza)
4 oz. mozzarella cheese, cubed (about 20-24 pieces)
Sliced pepperoni

For topping:
Olive oil
Italian seasoning
Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400˚ F. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate or cake pan. Divide the pizza dough into 20-24 roughly equal sized pieces. Take one of the dough pieces, top with a cube of cheese and a slice or two of pepperoni. Pull the edges of the dough around the fillings and pinch closed. Place seam-side down in the baking dish. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces.

Lightly brush the tops of the dough balls with olive oil. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning and grated Parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Serve warm, with dipping sauce as desired.

Touchdown Taco Dip

So this maybe a little late, but really, is it ever too later for a yummy dip??

1 (9 ounce) can refried beans
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon taco seasoning mix
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 medium tomato, seeded and diced (about 1/2 cup)
2 green onions with tops, thinly sliced
1/4 cup pitted ripe olives, sliced (I go oliveless)
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
Additional sour cream (optional)
Tortilla chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the beans across the pan. Mix the cream cheese, sour cream, taco seasoning, and the garlic. Spread across the bean dip. Top with cheese. Put in over for 20 minutes (or until heated through). Top with remaining ingredients and use chips to dip.

P & P veggie tacos

(sorry, i can't find where i got the recipe but it was somewhere online. somewhere fabulous where they had a thread of "meatless monday" dishes. If you see it somewhere let me know. These were quite tasty)

INGREDIENTS:

4 Poblano peppers

2 teaspoons olive oil

4 Large Portabello Mushroom caps, sliced

2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, thinly sliced and cut into half-moon shapes

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

2 cups thinly sliced red onion

2-3 tsp cumin (I like, so I add more!)

2-3 tsp chili powder (heat preference)

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

3/4 cup dark beer

12 white corn tortillas (I used La Tortilla Factory- my fav!!)

3/4 cup reduced fat Mexican blend cheese

The juice of one lime

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat broiler.

Cut poblanos in half lengthwise, and discard the seeds and membranes. Place poblano halves (skin sides up), on a foil-lined baking sheet. Broil for 12 minutes or until poblanos are blackened. Place the poblanos in a zip-top plastic bag, and seal. Let stand 10 minutes. While Poblanos are roasting (and standing) heat a large saucepan over medium-high. Saute mushrooms, garlic, and onion until softened, about 8 minutes. Add potatoes and garlic, continue to cook until potatoes are softened, another 10 minutes longer. Season with cumin, chili powder, and coriander. De-glaze the pan with the beer and allow to simmer until potatoes are completely soft (but still holding shape) and liquid is reduced by half and almost completely absorbed- about 5-6 minutes. While mushroom/potato mixture is reducing, remove skin from poblano peppers and rough chop into sliced. Stir into mushroom mixture. Squeeze over the juice of one lime.

Assemble tacos by spooning a heaping 1/4 cup of veggie mixture onto each of two tortillas. Sprinkle with about 1 tablespoon cheese, cilantro, and additional lime wedges as desired. Repeat taco assemble for remaining servings.

Creamy Tomato and Peas Pasta

(my friend kammy sent me this after seeing my request for meatless. she's coming to visitme in two months and I can't stand it I'm so excited. It really has nothing to do with this meal, I just like to say it.)

After Christmas I had a carton of whipping cream left from making caramels and had a few slices of bacon left over from a salad recipe. So, I was thinking of a yummy creamy tomatoey pasta dish I've had a resturaunts before.

I found this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Farfalle-Special/Detail.aspx but pretty much changed more than I kept the same. Here's what I had and I LOVED it. Not good for dieting, however.

Creamy Tomato and Peas Pasta

bacon slices chopped up (obviously omit for meat less)
1/2 onion chopped up
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup spaghetti sauce (I keep lots of Hunt's pasta sauce in my food storage)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup fresh shredded parmasean
1/4 cup of crumbled sharp cheddar (this amazing cheese we were given in a gift basket, YUM)

1 cup frozen peas, cooked (I would totally mix these into the sauce if I didn't have a couple of purists in my fam)
1 box of mini penne pasta

I cooked the pasta. I cooked the bacon and onion in a pan, drained it off, and then added the cream and salt and pepper. Then I added to pasta sauce, and slowly added the cheeses stiring until it was smooth. I microwaved the peas, and put a heaping helping in the bottom of my bowl before I added my pasta. Then topped it with the sauce.

I could eat it everyday. EVERY DAY!

Kammy

Bubble Up Enchiladas

Bubble Up Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1 pound extra lean ground beef (93/7)
1 (10 ounce) can mild enchilada sauce
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 can Pillsbury Grands Jr. Golden Layers Flaky Biscuits (I used the Pillsbury Grands! Flaky Butter Tastin' so there was more of a bread texture.) It worked well.
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown ground beef and drain if needed. Mix in can of enchilada sauce and can of tomato sauce. Cut the biscuits into fourths and stir into the meat mixture. Pour it all in a greased casserole dish and bake for 25 mins. Take out of oven and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake an additonal 10 mins. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Nutritonal value :

Servings per recipe: 8

Amount per serving: 1 cup
Calories: 272.5
Total Fat: 12.0 g
Cholesterol: 45.0 mg
Sodium: 842.5 mg
Total Carbs: 22.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.5 g
Protein: 17.5g

This was really simple and my kids liked it!

Black Bean Pitas with Avocado Salsa

I've been looking for some meatless recipes (see side bar) and found this one which looks fantastic. I haven't made it yet, but will let you know how it goes once I've tried it. I found the recipe at I heart naptime which is a great place to go for menus. Every Sunday she posts her menu for the week. She got this recipe from Craftaholics Anonymous which looks like a really dangerous site if you have craft addiction problems (colby, you're girls do not need anymore rosette hair clips.)

So for the recipe:

Black Bean Pitas with Avocado Salsa

avocado salsa

2 avocados pitted and diced

1 1/2 to 2 cups roma tomatoes diced

4 green onions chopped

2 tbl lime juice

2 tbl frest cilantro chopped

1/4 tsp salt

Combinge all ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside

black bean pitas

1 tbl olive oil

1/2 c chopped onions (sweet or red work well)

1 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1 16 oz black beans, rinse and drained

1/4 tsp salt (optional)

1/4 C mayonnaise

1/2 tsp minced chipotle peppers in adobo

1 C chopped lettuce

Pitas or wraps (I'm going to try Heatherly's pita recipe found here)

Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, cook until clear. Stir in garlic and cumin. Add beans and salt. Heat thoroughly. Lightly mash the bean mixture, cover and set aside.

Combine the mayonnaise and chipotle in a small bowl. Taste and see how spicy/mild the misture is and add more of mayo or peppers as needed.

To make the pitas, spread the mayonnaise over the pita/wrap, then add the bean ixture on top of the mayo, and top with salsa and lettuce.

(This sounds so good. Can't wait for payday this fri to get the ingredients;)

Planting Donuts

My mom sent this "kit" to my girls so they could plant donuts.  It was a BIG hit, they loved it.

What you need:

Soil: Crushed Oreo's (just the cookie part, not the creme)

Donut Seeds: Cheerios

Cups

Forks

Donuts for the next morning

Instructions for the kids:

 Soil with donut seeds:

Cups all planted with forks in them:

In the morning, get up before the kids and put donuts on the forks and cover back up with a cloth (unfortunately I wasn't thinking and didn't take a picture of this).  

When they wake up they will be AMAZED that they grew donuts.

You might want to emphasize that you used SPECIAL soil, and that if you try planting cheerios outside nothing will happen. :)

2 Versions of Peppermint Oreos

Seriously, these look so good, I feel like reaching into the computer screen and grabbing one. I kept seeing these on people's blogs and wanted to give them a try. They. were. delicious. There are lots of versions of these. I combined two recipes that met my requirements of ease, and not having to buy cream cheese.

For the cookies and general inspiration, I used the recipe off of I heart naptime (the girl who ate everything was guest blogging). You've probably seen this cookie recipe before. They are the easiest and softest chocolate cookies ever.

Cookie:

2 boxes Devil's food cake mix

4 eggs

2/3 C vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix the cake mix, eggs, and oil with a mixer. The batter will be very stiff. Pinch off pieces of batter and roll into 1 inch balls. Place 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheeta nd flatten slightly with fingertips. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove immediately from the cookie sheets and let cool on a wire rack (like I have a wire rack!!)

Filling:

Since I didn't have cream cheese, I went over to Cupcake Project for the filling (you could also use her cookie recipe if you don't have the cake mix lying around).

Ingredients:

1/4 C room temp unsalted butter

1/4 C vegetable shortening

2 C sifted powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp peppermint extract for these cookies)

Directions:

Place butter and shortening in mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn mixer on high and beat until filling is light and fluffy.

To make the cookies, we (yes, the children helped!!) used pastry bags to pipe the frosting into the center of the cookies. You could just spread it on with a knife too. After putting on the top cookie, we rolled the cookies into candy cane bits (the kids used the end of an ice cream scooper to smash the candy canes while the plastic was still on. It was a big hit with them, no pun intended).

Then try and restrain yourself from eating the whole batch.

The very day after we went to all the trouble to make these, I found another version of peppermint oreo's on my sister in laws blog. She takes oreos, dips them in white chocolate bark, and then in crushed candy canes. I bought some white chocolate and we are doing those next.

Don' they look fun?

(picture stolen from Alicia Warnock. wahaha)

Red Beans and Rice

Yummy and very filling.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound fully cooked smoked sausage (such as hot links or Kielbasa), sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds

1 onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, chopped

3 14 1/2- to 16-ounce cans kidney beans

1 cup canned low-salt chicken broth

1 teaspoon Creole or Cajun seasoning or 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 cups cooked rice

Directions

Heat olive oil in heavy large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add sausage, onion and garlic and sauté until onion is brown, about 15 minutes. Mix in kidney beans with their juices, broth and Creole seasoning. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer until flavors are blended and mixture is very thick, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes.

Divide cooked rice among large shallow soup bowls. Spoon bean mixture over rice and serve.

pizza muffins, a christmas tree, and one more snowman

Since we moved to VA, I only shop twice a month, once each pay day. (Well theoretically anyway). The commissary is too far to justify more than that, and the prices at the grocery stores are too much to justify shopping anywhere but the commissary. Since I'm not that great of a planner, I have to get pretty creative just before pay day.

Here are some recipes I made earlier this week based on desperation, that we happened to enjoy:

I had a bag of maybe 10 pepperonis and some cheddar cheese in the fridge, so I was thinking of doing some kind of pizza for the kid's lunch on Monday. But I was not in the mood to make dough or sauce. I searched around online and found this cute recipe which was fabulously transportable and yummy.

Behold, the pizza muffin:

I found the recipe at FreezerDinner.com. You can go here for the recipe. We will definitely be making these again, especially when we have more pepperoni and green onions (we just used white). I wanted to save some for the freezer, but they were too good. We'll be making a bigger batch when we do them again.

My next food crisis was family home evening, where a dessert is required. I had just used my last egg on the pizza muffins which seriously eliminated a lot of possibilities. I dug through the cabinets and found a box of ice cream cones (they were from my witch cupcakes). Perfect to make Christmas Trees. Luckily, I had about a 4th of a can of frosting in the fridge, but I could have made frosting. I have a cookie jar full of smarties from Sophie's candy girl costumes, so those were my ornaments. And I raided the kids halloween bags for starburst tree toppers. Cole put these together and I think he did a fabulous job.

The night before, Sunday, is also a night where dessert is essential, don't you think?? I had cupcakes in my freezer (again, cupcakes I put aside when doing the halloween ones) and snowmen still on my mind. I have the book Hello, Cupcake!, and have always wanted to try their snowmen which are darling. I didn't have all their accesories, but used what I could find. The only thing I bought was the pull apart licorice for the scarf and earmuffs, but I used my extra care bucks from CVS to do it (in case you are concerned that I went to the store before pay day;).

Spicy Shrimp and Mushroom Casserole

One of the benefits of my gym is watching the cooking show Mexican Made Easy. Its a little counter productive to work out and think about food the whole time, but there aren't a lot of channels on the eliptical tv. Its the food network, Oxygen, or MTV2, so its pretty obvious what the best choice is.

And when you are working out, almost everything looks good to eat. This is the first recipe of Marcela Valladolid's that I tried and it was fabulous!! Bry loved it. He's kind of the Chef Ramsay of our house, so if he thinks it's good, it probably is.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 cups (about 8 ounces) white button mushrooms, thinly sliced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 poblano chiles, charred, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 2-inch by 1/4-inch strips
• 1 cup fresh, or frozen and thawed, corn kernels
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Shrimp:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound large shrimp, deveined, tails intact
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup vegetable stock
• 
  
• Directions
• In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over high heat. Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the juices have evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add the poblano strips, corn and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes to blend flavors.
• For the shrimp: Mix together the flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl. Dredge the shrimp in the seasoned flour. In a medium skillet, melt the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and cook until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Transfer the shrimp to the mushroom mixture. Add the wine and vegetable stock to the skillet and increase the heat to high, scraping up the brown bits that stick to the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Stir until thickened.
• Pour the sauce over the shrimp and mushroom mixture and stir to coat. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

We've also tried the Sauteed Potatoes with Chorizo which was easy and tasty. You should check out her site. Or work out to her in the mornings.

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman

Once there was a snowman, tall tall tall

In Cole's mouth it melted, melted, melted

In Cole's mouth it melted, small, small small.

We were feeling silly tonight.

After Halloween, I would never dream of doing 31 days of Christmas foods. However; I could be talked in to 31 days of snowmen;)

Pork Loin

For some reason I had never made pork loin before. This was easy, cheap, and yummy. What was I thinking in waiting so long to try it??

Ingredients

filling:
2/3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage or thyme leaves
1/3 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2/3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
dash salt
dash ground black pepper

pork loin:
2/3 lbs boneless center loin pork roast
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Fresh sage leaves, for garnish
Sprigs rosemary, for garnish

Directions
To make the filling: In a small bowl, combine the parsley, sage or thyme, rosemary, garlic, oil, mustard, salt, and pepper. To make the pork loin: Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Butterfly the pork loin. Sprinkle the top side of the butterflied loin with half of the salt and pepper. Spread the filling evenly across the loin, leaving a 1/2" border along the edge where you made the first cut. Beginning at the opposite edge, roll the loin up to wrap the filling. Using kitchen twine, tie the loin every 1 1/2 " to hold its shape.

Rub the loin with the oil and sprinkle with the remaining salt and pepper. Place the loin in a small roasting pan and position on the center rack of the oven. Roast for 1 hour, or until a thermometer inserted in the center registers 155°F and the juices run clear. Let stand for 10 minutes before carving. To prevent slices from unrolling, skewer the roast every 1/4" with wooden picks along the edge where the roll ends. Slice crosswise between the wooden picks and ties. Remove the kitchen twine before serving. Garnish with the sage leaves and rosemary sprigs.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares

Ingredients:
2 boxes Jell-o No Bake Pumpkin Style Pie Dessert
4 Tbsp. Sugar
10 Tbsp. Butter, melted
5 cups cold Milk
8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup Confectioner's Sugar
16 oz. Cool Whip, separated

Mix the crust mix from the box mixes with the sugar and butter and press in the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Beat together the cream cheese and the powdered sugar in a bowl then fold in 8 oz. of the Cool Whip. Spread on top of the crust. In another bowl, mix the pumpkin part of the boxed mixes with the milk as directed on the box. Pour on top of the cream cheese layer. After it sets for a bit, spread the rest of the cool whip on top. One of my all time favorite creations!!

Crock Pot Beef Stew

I was craving beef stew, and I had a certain idea in my head of what it should taste like, but didn't have a recipe for it. I found this one on All Recipes and we loved it. It tasted just as I thought it was supposed to. I combined the recipe given with some of the comments posted under it:

Ingredients:

2 lbs beef stew meat cut into 1 inch cubes

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp seasoned salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 onion chopped

1 1/2 C beef broth

1 tbl worcestershire sauce

1/2 C red wine

2 bay leaves

1 tsp paprika

1 packet McCormick's Beef Stew Seasoning mix

3 potatoes diced

4 carrots sliced

1 stalk celery chopped

Mix flour, salt, and pepper. Pour flour mixture into a gallon sized zipper bag. Shake beef in bag to coat. Saute coated beef in 1-2 tbl olive oil until browned. Add chopped onion to beef to saute and soften. Transfer to slow cooker. Mix beef broth with worcestershire and red wine. Pour into hot skillet to deglaze, the pour over the beef and onions in cooker. Add remaining ingredients to the crock pot. Cook on low 10-12 hours or on high 4-6 hours.

2 cloves garlic

Curry Beef Soup

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 pound cubed beef stew meat
6 cups beef stock
2 tablespoons curry powder
2 bay leaves
2 potatoes, sliced
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons salt

Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Cook onions and beef cubes until beef is browned and onions are tender. (Original recipe called for 2 onions, I only used 1.)

2. Add the beef stock, curry and bay leaves. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes. (I cooked it more like an hour to make sure the beef got really tender. I also made stock with boullion and water since I didn't have any on hand.)

3. Add the potatoes, vinegar and salt. Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour until all is tender. Remove bay leaves and serve hot.

This recipe was so delicious. I added a little cornstarch and water to thicken it a little and served it over cooked brown rice. In the future I will thicken it a little more. You could also add cauliflower, broccoli, carrots or other veggies. Very easy and all the kids liked it! You could easily do this in the crockpot too.

Lipton Baked Pork Chops

This one is so easy, I almost didn't post it. But this is the kind of recipe I love to get-easy, fast, cheap, and tasty, so I thought I'd share it in hopes to get more easy recipes like this from you.

1 envelope Lipton Recipe Secrets onion Soup Mix

1/3 cup plain dry bread crumbs

4 bone-in pork chops, 1 inch thick (I did it boneless)

1 egg well beaten

Preheat oven to 400. Combine onion soup mix with bread crumbs. Dip chops in egg, then bread crumb mixture until evenly coated. Arrange chops on baking sheet. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

Penne Rustica

(Makes 2 large pans, recipe can be frozen and/or halved as well)

12 oz Grilled Chicken cut into small strips (Marinate in Olive Oil about 3/4 cup & Garlic Salt over night in ziplock, then grill on bbq or cook in pan)
½ pack of Bacon
48 oz (3 boxes of Penne Pasta)
2 Large Red Bell Peppers, diced
1 Cup grated Parmesan Cheese
½ Tsp Paprika
Enough Mozzarella Cheese to cover tops

Gratinata Sauce

2 Tsp butter
2 Tsp Chopped Garlic
1/3 Cup Apple juice plus enough chicken broth to equal 1 Cup.
1 Tsp Dry Mustard or Dijon
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp chopped Rosemary
¼ Tsp Cayenne Pepper
8 cups Heavy Cream

Directions -

Have chicken cooked and ready.

Saute garlic and butter in large pan. Add apple juice, dry or Dijon mustard, salt, rosemary, cayenne, and heavy cream.

Cook Pasta and Bacon and set aside.

Combine sauce, cooked chicken, pasta, red peppers, cooked bacon, Parmesan cheese, and paprika and mix thoroughly. Spread in pans. Top with Rosemary and Mozzarella cheese.
Bake 475 for 10 min. If frozen, thaw in fridge the day of cover with foil and bake at 375 for 1 hour. Remove foil the last 15 min.

by Alicia Warnock

Italian Sausage creamy pasta

So this is the first of 14 recipes my fabulous sis in law sent today. I'm so excited, because some of my favorite recipes have come from her. . .now what to try first???

Package of Italian Sausage or Fresh Italian Sausage from Meat Dept.
Parmesan Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese
1 cup or more of Half & Half
1 Squash- Yellow & Green
1 Can of Fire Roasted Tomatos
1 or ½ of Onion (depending on how much you like onion, I usually do half)
Olive Oil
1 Garlic clove, minced
Linguine Pasta

Put Olive Oil in pan and cook Italian sausage until fully cooked inside and outside. Set aside.
Put Olive Oil in large pan, bring to medium heat and add onion and diced prosciutto. (Be sure to salt and pepper your sauce along the way!) (Meanwhile in pot, boil water for noodles.) Then, add your diced squash and grate in garlic to your prosciutto & onion that has been cooking until its all caramelized. Add Cooked Italian Sausage In pan now. Then… Add in half and half and bits of Mozzarella cheese until you get a thickish sauce…Just add enough to cover the veggies and sausage. Add a cup or more of Parmesan Cheese and your drained Fire Roasted Tomato’s (as much or little of the can as you want) Let sauce simmer for 5-10 min. Once your pasta is cooked, dump it in with your sauce and mix it all together in pan.
Great with French bread and Salad.

Alicia Warnock