cooking

Easy Heart Cookies and Brownies

February 13, 2013 by Morgan 4 Comments

Not everyone has time to create handcrafted Valentines cards, love notes, foot scrub, picture frames, wreaths, or an entire heart made out of burlap and beads.

I wanted to give something to my son’s teacher that was slightly unique but not too time consuming. Something easy and edible.

Here ya go – Easy brilliance.

Make a batch of cookies or brownies. Put them in the heart shaped cupcake tin you bought last year on clearance.

Bake

Results

Instant gifts that look cute. Edible, Easy, Cute. All words that I enjoy.

Filed Under: Holiday, recipes Tagged With: baking, cooking, Holidays, recipes, Valentines Day

Great meals for the family and the wallet

March 23, 2012 by Morgan Leave a Comment

When I cook I sometimes get stuck in a rut. My husband is a creature of habit and would happily eat the same three meals over and over again. I am completely the opposite and even though I find comfort in the regular fair, I like to change it up and find new and tasty meals for the family.

I have recently stumbled across a few meals that are not only huge crowd pleasers but easy on the wallet.

Braided Spaghetti Bread

Do not be intimidated by its title or picture! This meal is super easy to make and when you post your photo on Facebook about what is for dinner, everyone will be impressed with your skills. Plus, you probably have all the ingredients on hand.

Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Chicken

This is an unbelievably delicious meal that is actually low in fat and calories. My kids inhaled this and were asking for seconds. The only ingredient that you may not have on hand are Panko crumbs. They are not expensive and you can pick them up at almost every grocery store and they are a useful thing to always have on hand.

French Dip in a Crock Pot

(I forgot to take a picture) This meal was a huge hit with my family. The only thing I would change is the amount of soy sauce. A friend replaced half of the soy sauce with a beef broth and still had great results! One of the best features of this meal is CROCK POT. Put the roast in and walk away.

There are three easy and fairly inexpensive meals that you can add to your meal rotation. I found all of these on Pinterest and if you need any more ideas or want to share jump on and start following me!

Filed Under: Cooking, Ideas Tagged With: cooking, Ideas, meals

Breathing Dinner

August 26, 2011 by Morgan Leave a Comment

I do not enjoy cooking.

I know that I have said this before but the fact remains the same. I hate cooking. And it’s horrible truth because it conflicts directly with my love to eat. I sit for hours reading Paula Deen, the Pioneer Woman, and countless blogs that have mastered the art of making good food. I have romantic visions of myself sitting on a patio I don’t own, drinking wine with friends that I don’t have and laughing at lifes’ complexides while plates of delicious food sit before us. Plates filled with food that I just whipped up in my spare time.

My vision is really a catalog add for Pottery Barn mixed with Bobby Flay.

Occasionally I feel the urge to cook and as long as I have most of the ingredients readily available, there is no holding me back. The pots and pans are pulled out, the oven is preheated to the magic 350 and I am determined to make a dinner that all will enjoy. A recipe that I can turn around post about here on my blog.

I finally gave in to these cooking urges even though my cooking common sense told me not to. I looked up a Paula Deen recipe that was sure to please and feed the masses.

The cooking went well and my dish came out perfectly. It was worth warming up my house in the August heat. I proudly distributed dinner to my children and we all sat down to enjoy a family meal together….. Now, I am not sure how many of you have read Calvin and Hobbes but my children must have found mine and took notes from Calvin’s dinner time etiquette. Just seconds after their first bite the fake vomiting noises and suddenly they both asked if it was breathing.

Bobby Flay needs to be my personal chef to avoid faces like these

Cute kid huh?.

See that plate.

He still ate it even if it was breathing.

Filed Under: Complaining, Cooking Tagged With: Calvin and Hobbes, cooking, food, Pottery Barn

Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

August 3, 2011 by Morgan 3 Comments

Bacon seems to be all the rage right now. Its celebrity status is almost equal to the Deep Frying rage of the early 2000s. Pigs everywhere are running to the hills…

I recently stepped into the Bacon popularity and made a bacon lovin’ friend some cookies. Chocolate chip BACON cookies. Surprisingly, they turned out fairly good. It definitely is a different flavor but not a bad one.

How to make Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temp

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp maple extract

1/3 cup chopped COOKED bacon

1 cup BITTERSWEET chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt – set aside

3. Beat together the brown sugar, white sugar, butter with an electric mixer

4. Add the eggs one at a time and add the maple and vanilla extract

5. Stir in flour mixture until it is just combined.

6. Add the bacon and chocolate chips

7. Bake between 10-12 (I found 11 minutes did the best)

(recipe from all recipes.com)

Give it a try and let me know what you think. I would love to see pictures as well!

Filed Under: baking, How to, Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies Tagged With: cooking, Recipe

Apple-Bran Pancakes and Green Giant Giveaway winner

March 2, 2011 by Morgan Leave a Comment

Bran-Apple Pancakes. Does the word Bran make you shudder and cringe? Do images of backpacking, fast digestion, and the vegan hippie at your local organic store pop into your mind? It did for me.

Usually, as a rule, I stay away from anything that has high fiber and bran in the name. However, I am on a new eating routine and I do not want to gain all the weight that I lost so I sucked it up and pushed my digestive worries to the side and made some Bran-Apple Pancakes.

They look like normal pancakes!

Do you like my “decorative” placement of the strawberries?! That was just for you guys.

These pancakes were good. Seriously. I am not lying. They hit the spot and they did not taste weird healthy. You know what I mean, don’t deny it, that weird healthy after taste you get after consuming something that is extremely good for you… These pancakes had NO aftertaste, my kids gobbled them up and I did NOT GAIN one pound. The perfect pancake. Love it!

Alright, I also made these last Friday.

So not healthy.

Sooooo Good!

Sigh- I love you mini-cheesecakes.

Winner Time:

The winner of the Green Giant Giveaway is

# 29.

Kimberly

She said:

I like you on Facebook

Kimberly – You have 24 hours to contact me through my profile email contact!!!

Thank you everyone for playing and I do have another giveaway soon. CRAZY!

Filed Under: baking, recipes, winner Tagged With: cooking, desert, Pancakes, recipes, winner

Brookies.

February 15, 2011 by Morgan Leave a Comment

Are you asking right now – What are Brookies? I am about to tell you! Lucky you!

Brookies are the marriage of a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie and brownies squished together and dipped in chocolate. AH! What a great idea! Who came up with this?! All I know is that I found this culinary masterpiece over on Inside BruCrew Life. She made these when she was stuck indoors during the snowstorm and I made these for the Valentines day party at my sons school.

I will run you through this recipe:
You will need
Brownies (I used a boxed mix – Just like Joceyln at BruCrew)
Chocolate chip recipe. Everyone uses their own variation. I made white chocolate and chocolate chip cookies
Chocolate chip pieces for melting and dipping

I did not post all the individual requirements for each step. That is a lot of ingredients

1. First bake your brownies and leave them out to cool.

2. Next make your cookies. Like I mentioned previously, I made the standard chocolate chip cookie recipe and mixed in half white chocolate chips and chocolate chips.

3. Don’t make your cookies too big or they will be a pain to squish into balls after they have baked.

See. All mine are relatively small. I learned the hard way.

4. WAIT to squish them into balls. Not too long but until they are warm!!! I did not listen to previous bakers and apparently thought my hands were made of steel. They were HOT. It hurt.

5. Once the cookies are balled up put them in the freezer until they are frozen.

6. After freezing is done get those brownies that are waiting on the sidelines. Cut them into small squares and wrap it around the frozen cookie ball. Then put it BACK in the freezer. Wait until they are frozen again.

7. Once the balls are frozen pull them out and dip them in the melted chocolate chips and decorate.

Number 7 is where I failed. I can not dip ANYTHING into chocolate and have it come out and look beautiful. They look lumpy, odd, and a little sad. Kinda like this….

This was taken this morning as we were about to race out the door. I realized I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. My son added the two toned sprinkles after we dipped in chocolate the night before.

Eh, they may look weird but they were a hit at school today!

Filed Under: Cooking, Homemade, recipes Tagged With: Brookies, cooking, desert

Bruschetta and Melba Toast recipe – It’s really good! I promise!

February 7, 2011 by Morgan Leave a Comment

I have never enjoyed a no carb and no sugar diet. It always seems boring, meat filled, and just plain nasty. I typically crave bread endlessly, always want a sweet treat at the end of meal and feel unsatisfied if those two basic “needs” are unfulfilled. Well, I am hear to tell you that I have almost moved past my hatred of no carb/sugar diets. I still don’t love them but I learned I need to be more inventive!

Here is a recipe by ME! It is super good – No sugar – LOW carbs (Melba toast has a little bit- I mean a puny amount)

Bruschetta on Melba Toast

3 ripe tomatoes

2 teaspoons of Basil

2 1/2 teaspoons of Olive Oil

3 garlic cloves minced (I LOVE garlic)

Kosher salt

1. Chop the tomatoes and mince the garlic and combine them in a mixing bowl

2. Add the Basil, Olive Oil – Stir and the Kosher salt for your taste.

3. Spoon on Melba Toast and enjoy

This is NOT complicated at all and I am sure there are more ingredients you can add to the recipe. I am just felt special that I thought of it for myself and it tasted sooo good. I ate the whole bowl, in one day.

Make it, Eat it, and Be Merry!

Filed Under: 21 Day HCG, Cooking, recipes Tagged With: Bruschetta, cooking, HCG diet

Chicken Sandwich – similar to Chick-Fil-A?

January 22, 2011 by Morgan 1 Comment

Recipe day! I have not made this for a couple of weeks because of the diet but I thought I would share it with everyone anyways.

My husband is a Chick-Fil-A fanatic. He loves their chicken sandwiches but they are not always in the budget. One day he spent an afternoon finding a recipe that claims to be a chick-fil-a sandwich recipe. I don’t buy it but they are still good and EASY to make.

First get a skillet. I have a deep electric skillet. It works wonderfully!

Ingredients:
1 egg
1 cup of milk
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts halved. – I sometimes use four halved and it works
1 cup flour
2 1/2 teaspoons powdered sugar
1 tablespoon salt (The recipe called for two tablespoons but that turned into a salt-tastrophe. YUCK)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 cups peanut oil
hamburger buns

Mix together the egg and milk. Place the chicken in the milk mixture and let is sit for at LEAST and hour.

While the chicken in soaking mix together the flour, sugar, and pepper

When the chicken is done, dredge it in flour. Sometimes, I will dredge and then put it back in the milk bath and then re-dredge. Ya know, just to get more fat in there.

Make sure the Peanut Oil is at 375. Also make sure you are not an idiot like me and wear an apron. Oil splatters in case you didn’t know.

Put the chicken in the heated oil and cook until it is golden brown!

Voila! Yummy chicken sandwich.

NOW – I learned this recently from the Pioneer Woman’s sloopy joes recipe, butter you buns and lightly toast them on a griddle. OH.MY.GOSH. It is so good.

Try it soon!

Filed Under: Cooking, recipes Tagged With: Chick-Fil-A, cooking, recipes

Easy Recipe with leftover Ham and the Ugly Blackberry Cobbler

December 28, 2010 by Morgan 1 Comment

As I stated in my previous post, I am starting a diet on the 3rd of January. So between now and then I am enjoying certain foods and recipes that I have always wanted to try my hand at…..Now don’t get me wrong, I am not going on a pigging out fest! Just thought I would try it out, plus it got rid of a lot of our leftover ham!!

Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup butter
10 slices white bread – cubed
2 cups cubed and fully cooked ham
1/2 lb of cheese – I used Monterrey jack and mozz
6 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tsp ground mustard

1. In a skillet saute the green pepper in the butter until it is tender
2. Remove the pepper and leave the drippings
3. Combine the pepper, bread and ham in an UNGREASED 13x9x2 baking dish
4. Add the cheese to the drippings in the skilet and stir until the cheese melts.
5. Pour over the bread mixture
6. Beat the eggs, milk and mustard together and pour over everything in the pan
7. Cover and refrigerate overnight
8. Remove 30 minutes before baking and then bake at 300 for an hour
Recipe found on All Recipes

Now- THIS IS NOT a low cal meal!!! I made it yesterday morning and we ate it for dinner. I couldn’t eat too much because it was fairly heavy but it was VERY tasty! I can see making this for a group meeting or a get together…

Here is the picture of the outcome! I actually made it successfully! Nothing was burnt or overflowing from the dish.. sadly this does happen….See below….

I found a great recipe for Blackberry Cobbler on The Pioneer Woman website. We had a lot of blackberries and it looked great…. Hers looked like this when it was finished:

Here is what mine looked like:

It overflowed on the sides and the edges are too brown. It tasted good but I wanted it to be pretty too. *Sigh* I will have to try again. – Later – After the diet.

Filed Under: Cooking, diet, Disappointing, Homemade, How to, recipes Tagged With: cooking, food, Pioneer Woman, recipes

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