Freezer Meals for Matt: Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Like I said in my last post, Kraft is a really great place to find fast, easy & good recipes 🙂  The Bruschetta Chicken recipes they have are really good, I’ve made both the stuffed chicken and the chicken bake!

I made mine slightly different than the original, but not much.

Bruschetta Chicken Bake:

1 1/2 lbs. Chicken Breast, cooked & cut into bite sized pieces

1-2 c. Spinach (optional, we had leftover spinach from a spinach dip and figured I’d throw that in 🙂 ).

1 (14 oz.) can Diced Tomatoes, undrained

1 box Stuffing for Chicken

1/2 c. Water

1-2 tsp. Minced Garlic

1 tsp. Dried Basil Leaves

1 c. Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1. Spray a 9×13 baking dish & preheat oven to 400*.

2. Mix stuffing, tomatoes, garlic, basil, water & cheese.  Stir in chicken and spinach.

3. Pour into prepared baking dish, sprinkle with more cheese (if desired).  Bake for 20 min.

Freezer Meals for Matt: Chicken Sausage & Pepper Pasta

I had this entire week of Christmas off, so I decided to stock up on freezer meals for Matt.  I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to freezer meals for the hubs 🙂  So, Christmas night before he had to leave for WI, I sat him down with Pinterest and told him to look through the board and pick out stuff he’d like me to make next.  He chose  Chicken Sausage & Pepper Pasta, Bruschetta Chicken Bake, & Shredded Buffalo Chicken.

Both the Pasta & Chicken Bake I found on Kraft.  Kraft has some really good & easy recipes!  I used to go on their website all the time, until Pinterest came along…  but every once in a while I head over there to find some quick & easy meals!

Here’s the original recipe for the pasta dish and here’s what I did:

5 Chicken Sausage; cooked and sliced

1 each red, yellow & green pepper; sliced & sautéed

1 box (8 oz.) Penne Pasta; cooked & drained

2 cans (14 oz) Diced Tomatoes (I used Garlic & Onion, but you can choose), undrained

1 c. Shredded Parmesan/Asiago/Romano cheese blend

1-2 tsp. Italian Seasoning

Options:

Freezer: Mix everything together in a bowl until combined, place in freezer safe containers & freeze.  When ready to eat, thaw & move on to…

Ready to Eat: Prepare a baking dish & preheat oven to 350*.  Place pasta in dish, spinkle with cheese (if you want) & bake for 20-25 min.  Or, you can just microwave… 🙂

**I was able to fill 6-8 tupperware (I get the Gladware… I think it’s the 2nd smallest rectangle… 🙂 ).

Gingerbread Oreo Balls with Holiday Cheer

Who’s surprised I did a Christmas Oreo ball?  That’s right, no one 😉 It’s not my fault Nabisco keeps coming up with new Oreo flavors which in turn makes me create more balls!

When I saw Gingerbread Oreos at Walmart, I was super excited because that just meant I had another flavor to try!!!!  But of course I had to try them first to make sure they would make good Oreo balls, and they were fabulous!!!!!

I had a lot of errands to run after work on Friday.  My sister and I were making Christmas goodies on Saturday with her nieces so I was getting all the ingredients and decorations for that, as well as stuff for the Oreo balls I planned on making for Christmases with family.  It had been a really long day at work, by the time I got to Target it was 7:00pm and I still had to go to Walmart to get the Gingerbread Oreos (on top of making the dough for the cookies for Sat.)…  I did NOT want to go anywhere else, but I knew Target didn’t have them; so I improvised: Golden Oreos + Gingerbread Cookie mix!  I was pretty proud of myself for thinking of that  🙂

**I’ll give you the recipe as if I had the Gingerbread Oreos, but if you can’t find them it’s ok to use the Golden Oreos and Gingerbread cookie mix (crush the Oreos in the food processor and then mix the crumbs with the gingerbread mix–only about 1/2 the bag).

Gingerbread Oreo Balls

1 pkg. Gingerbread Oreos

1 (8 oz.) pkg. Cream Cheese (I used 1/3 less fat); softened

2 T. Powdered Sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla

Vanilla Almond Bark

Red & Green Chocolate coating

Squeeze Bottles

Red & Green Sprinkles

**you can also make your own sprinkles with food coloring and sugar!  Place sugar in a Ziplock bag, drop in some food coloring and mix until sugar is colored 🙂

1. In food processor, crush Oreos to make fine crumbs.

2. Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until well blended.

3. Roll dough into small balls and place on wax paper lined cookie sheet; place in fridge for a minimum of 30 min.

4. Melt Almond bark according to package (Vanilla Almond bark seems to be very testy so just make sure to follow directions and not heat too much or it’ll be ruined). Dip balls in Almond Bark, place onto wax paper lined cookie sheets and cool in fridge until bark has hardened.

5. Melt colored chocolate according to package and pour into squeeze bottles. Drizzle chocolate over balls (a few at a time) and immediately sprinkle with sprinkles 😉

Family Traditions: Monster Cookies

A few posts ago (and if you didn’t read it, you can here), I mentioned things I was excited for with one of them being Monster Cookies!  We make them every year; people really look forward to them and even ask when they are coming 🙂 If you are lucky enough to know or work with one of us, you have had the pleasure of eating our Monster Cookies.  We have been making them for years!!!!!  And if you don’t believe me, here’s proof 🙂

Wasn’t I adorable 😉  My parents started making them when they bought their first house and before my sister and I came along… which means these cookies have been made for 30+ years! 🙂

My parents have perfected these cookies.  It’s the same recipe that you’ll find elsewhere, but for some reason the way we make them are the BEST (I’m a little biased 😉 ).

The recipe makes roughly 12 dozen… yes you read that correctly, 12 DOZEN!!!!!  And to impress you even more, we make about 5-6 batches each holiday season.  For those of you good at math, that’s a lot of cookies (for those of you who need to grab a calculator, it’s about 864 cookies 😉 ).

What you’ll need:

Stand Mixer

GIANT bowl

Medium Dough Scoop

Food Scale

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. Unsalted Butter (softened)

12 eggs (room temp.)

2 lbs. Brown Sugar

4 c. Sugar

1 T. Vanilla

1 T. Karo Syrup

8 tsp. Baking Soda

3 lbs. Creamy Peanut Butter (we use Jiffy or Peter Pan)

1 lb. each M&Ms (we use Christmas colors), Milk Chocolate Chips

18 c. Instant Oats

1. Preheat oven to 350*.

2. Cut butter into small pieces, place in microwavable bowl and microwave for 25 sec.

3. Using stand mixer on low-speed, cream together (in the following order), eggs, brown sugar, sugar & butter.

4. Add vanilla, Karo Syrup, & baking soda; mix well.  Blend in peanut butter.

5. In your GIANT bowl, mix oatmeal, M&Ms and chocolate chips.

6. Here’s the fun part (but wash your hands first)…  Mix by hand, cream and oatmeal mixtures until everything is combined.  It’ll get a little tough and your forearms are going to get a good workout 🙂

See how much fun we have!!!!! 🙂  Before I washed my hands off, I let little Melvin have a taste 🙂

 7. Scoop dough onto cookie sheets, flatten slightly, and bake for 9-9 1/2 min.  Cool on cookie sheet 9 min before removing them to cool completely.  These cookies will be gooey, soft and addicting!!!! 🙂

Happy Holidays!!!!!

Food Fight for ALS: Peanut Butter Cake Mix Cookies

More than 5 years ago a great friend of our family passed away from ALS.  He was the father to one of my best friends growing up and I often thought of him as a second dad.  When he was diagnosed it was devasting for all who knew him.  He had a great sense of humor, stayed positive throughout the illness and kept his faith until the end.

Ever since he was diagnosed with ALS, his family, along with my family and others who knew him have been raising money and walking in his memory each year at the Walk to Defeat ALS event in Rochester, MN.

A few years ago I came up with an idea for a great fundraiser.  A cookbook!!!!!  I had created a cookbook for the nursing home I was working at, at the time and it was a huge succes, so I thought why not for this cause as well??  And what a fitting name: Food Fight for ALS!  People who had friends/family with ALS contributed recipes, along with others from the community.  It was a great way to see everyone working together for a common goal.

The Annual walk was a few weeks ago and I thought it was fitting to share one of the recipes.  There are a ton of really good recipes from the cookbook so I will start sharing in an effort to bring awarness to the cause.

Peanut Butter Cake Mix Cookies

1 box cake mix (yellow or chocolate)

1/2 c. Peanut Butter

4 oz. cream cheese

**I forgot cream cheese at the store so I used 1/2 c. plain greek yogurt, worked awesome!!!

1 egg

Sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375*.  Prepare cookie sheet(s).

2. Mix together cake mix, egg, cream cheese (or yogurt), and peanut butter until well combined.

3.  Roll dough into small balls (I always use my handy dandy ice cream scoop) and then roll in sugar.  Place on prepared cookie sheet(s), flatten slighty (I used a fork and made a criss-cross pattern like you see in most PB cookies).

4. Bake for 8-10 min., remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet(s) for another 2 min.  Remove to cool completely.

If you want to donate to the ALS Association MN/ND/SD chapter, please feel free to visit: http://webmn.alsa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=MN_homepage or find an ALS Association in your area!

The Inevitable Leftover Banana Recipe

Ahh, the inevitable leftover bunch of bananas….

I don’t know why, but lately the bananas in our house don’t seem to be consumed very fast.  We have so many other fruits and veggies that have to be eaten that we tend to forget about the bananas…  Sorry Bananas 😦

At least when bananas go bad, you can still use them 🙂  Banana bread, muffins, cakes, cookies, cupcakes, smoothies, etc.  The last time we went through a cycle of not eating our bananas, I was making a lot of banana bread and muffins.  I figured it was time to find a new recipe to use.  Good thing I did, cause these cookie were fabulous!!!!

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (via myrecipes.com: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/banana-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies-10000001906392/)

**I multiplied the original recipe by 1.5 cause I had 2 small-ish bananas to use; and I don’t always follow recipes so I kind of just make things up as I go…

1-2 ripe bananas, mashed

6 Tbsp. Splenda Brown Sugar

6 Tbsp. Butter, softened

1/4 C. sugar

1 tsp. Banana extract

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 3/4 c. flour

2-3 cups oatmeal

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

dash of salt

1 pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Blend together bananas, butter, sugars and extract until creamy.  Beat in eggs.

2. Combine dry ingredients; add to banana mixture, mix until well blended.

3. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Scoop dough into 2 Tbsp. balls (I used my handy ice cream scoop) onto sprayed cookie sheets; flatten slightly.  Bake 10-12 min. (after reading the comments I reduced the time significantly); cool on cookie sheets 2 min. then remove to cool completely on wire racks or cooling sheet.

**For a healthier recipe use applesauce instead of butter, agave nectar instead of sugar, omit the chocolate chips.

Mash-Up: Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Ahh, fall in FL 🙂  You wouldn’t believe we actually have seasons here, but we do–mild seasons, but seasons just the same.  I walked out of the house the other day and it was way less humid, leaves were turning and starting to fall.  It’s weird, it’s 90* but it doesn’t feel like summer anymore.

With fall comes Season Premiers!!!!!  I used the term Mash-Up because GLEE starts on Thursday!!!!  I love GLEE, I’m a huge musical genre person, and am a firm believer in the arts/dance/music and also breaking out into song and dance at any given moment.  I really don’t know why people don’t do it more often… 🙂

Anyway, I was in a baking mood due to the fact that I spent all last weekend in bed trying to get over a cold and did nothing else, and because it’s fall and felt the need to bake:)

Who knew combining Pumpkin & Snickerdoodles would be a fantastic idea?!?!  2 fall flavors I really love; great Mash-Up!!  (If you keep up with my blog, you might have noticed I have A LOT of favorite flavors.  Can you really blame me?? They are all wonderful 😉 )

I found this recipe on this blog:

http://abitchinkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/10/pumpkin-snickerdoodles.html

After reading a lot of the comments I made some adjustments and changes.  Here’s the recipe I used:

3 1/4 C. flour (I used a blend of whole wheat and white flour)

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1/2 C. Agave Nectar

1/8 C. sugar

1/2 C. dark brown sugar

1 C. Pumpkin puree

1 large egg

2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie extract

**based on the reviews I added extra spices and used pumpkin pie extract instead of vanilla.  Next time I make these I’ll probably use pumpkin pie filling instead of pumpkin puree for a little more pumpkin pie flavor.

**for the coating I ran out of cinnamon and didn’t have ginger so I used a blend of sugar and nutmeg.  I’m sure whatever combination you wanted to use would work.

1. Combine dry ingredients and set aside.

2. Mix together sugars and butter until creamy, add egg and extract.  Mix in pumpkin puree.

3. Add dry ingredients to cream mixture until well blended, but do not overmix.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

4. Preheat oven to 350*.  In a small bowl mix coating to your liking.

5. Scoop dough into roughly 2 Tbsp balls and roll in coating.  Place on sprayed cookie sheet and flatten slightly.  (I used the bottom of a measuring cup, but any flat surface would work).

6. Bake for 10-12 min. (Mine baked perfectly for 11 min; for a more chewy cookie, bake 9-10 min).  Let cool on cookie sheet for 2-5 min before removing to cool completely.

Coconut Sugar Cookies

Ok so first I have to show off my cutting board!!!  My Gma sent it to me for my b-day (all they way back in April) and I thought I should share:)  How cute??

Alright, back to baking:)

My favorite cookie is a Sugar Cookie or Snickerdoodle….  I don’t know what it is about Sugar Cookies but they are so good!!!!  I also love vanilla ice cream, I’m weird right?  Don’t get me wrong I love all other flavors, but there’s just something about plain & simple that I just love!  I’m also a big fan of coconut (my favorite oreo ball is the coconut).

Anyway, today I decided to experiment Sugar Cookie + Coconut = Coconut Sugar Cookies…  Sometimes it’s a good thing to try out new baking ideas and other times it’s a giant FAIL…

Today was a BIG SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!  Cookies usually don’t turn out for me, they are usually flat, taste good but flat.  These were perfect, a little on the small side, but they turned out really good!

Coconut Sugar Cookies:

3/4 c. butter

1/2 c. sugar

1 egg

1 tsp coconut extract

1 tsp. baking powder

2 c. flour

1-2 c. coconut flakes

1. Preheat oven to 350*, mix together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add egg and coconut extract, mix until well blended.

3. Add flour, baking powder and coconut flakes until combined.  **If it’s too soft add more flour**

4.  Roll dough into 1″ balls, roll in sugar, place on cookie sheet, & slightly flatten.

5. Bake for 9 min., let cool on cookie sheet for 2 min., and then remove to finish cooling.

6. Enjoy, while trying not to eat the whole batch;)

Triple Chocolate Oreo Balls, Say What?!?!

If you haven’t noticed or if you know me, you know that Oreo Balls are kind of my thing.  I started making them a few years ago and have been trying out new flavors ever since.

One of my friends got married in April and she had asked me (along with some Aunts and friends) to make mini desserts for the wedding.  You have no idea how excited I get when I get to create and make some thing, I pretty much obsess over what to make, and the flavors!  There’s so many options!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I decided on Triple Chocolate!!!!  Yes you read correctly, TRIPLE CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was pretty impressed with myself cause they looked fancy and they were FABULOUS!!!!

Here’s how you can make them as well:

—1 pkg Chocolate Oreos (you’re probably thinking duh oreos are chocolate, I’m talking about the chocolate cookie/chocolate filling oreos…. PURE GENIUS), you might even want to buy a pkg of regular oreos as well, and use 1 row just in case….  Depending on the dough you might need to add some extra so it’s not too runny… Plus I think there are less in the special flavors than in a regular pkg.

—1 container Philadelphia Milk Chocolate cream cheese (it comes in a golden container right by all the other cream cheese)

—2 Tbsp Powdered Sugar

—1 tsp vanilla extract

—2 containers each Milk & Dark melting chocolate

1. Use a food processor to crush cookies into crumbs.

2. Mix together crumbs, cream cheese, powdered sugar, & vanilla (should form a thick dough, if you roll it in a ball and if feels like it won’t hold it’s shape, add more crumbs or powdered sugar)

3. Roll dough in to balls (cherry size), and place on wax paper lined cookie sheets

4. Place cookie sheet(s) in freezer or refrigerator for about an hour

5. Melt chocolate and dip balls in chocolate and place back onto lined cookie sheets; place in the fridge/freezer to harden and ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!

**I used the extra chocolate to drizzle over the chocolate so we could distinguish between the ones dipped in milk or dark**

Dipped in Dark Chocolate drizzled with Milk Chocolate

Milk chocolate drizzled with white chocolate

Happy 4th of July!!!!

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend (a few weekends ago, since I’m a little behind… 😉 ).

If you read my preview post about the baby shower you know that I promised a tutorial on those Jello Cookies!!  I enjoyed them so much for the baby shower I decided to make some 4th of July themed cookies!!

Here’s the link that I used for the Jello Cookies: http://www.iheartnaptime.net/jello-cookies/

I did make slight changes to the recipe.  Depending on flavor I didn’t use all 4 boxes of Jello; plus I added food coloring for extra color.  I also added an extra tsp of baking powder which seemed to help keep them thicker and fluffier.  For some reason they didn’t all turn out nice and thick…  I am not a huge cookie person, they never turn out right:)  Oh well!  These are super easy and great for kids or themed parties where a pop of color is needed!!

**the blue cookies are made with blue raspberry and a whole lot of food coloring, the red is cherry & the white cookies are just plain sugar cookies, I used the same recipe just didn’t add Jello.  Also on the baby shower post, I used watermelon with a few drops of red to make a light pink, strawberry, & lemon**