Sunday, November 21, 2010

Gingerbread Bars (Land O Lakes)

1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1 egg
3 tablespoons molasses
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger

Heat oven to 350.
Combine sugar, butter, egg and molasses. Beat until creamy.
Add flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon and ground ginger. Beat until well mixed.
Press dough into ungreased jelly roll pan.
Sprinkle with colored sugar or plain sugar, if desired.
Bake for 16-20 minutes or until edges start to brown.
Cool completely. Cut into desired shapes or into bars.


Broccoli Salad (from ZoeAnn Yoshikawa)

4 cups raw broccoli
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 cup green onions sliced
6 slices cooked and crumbled bacon

Mix these ingredients together in a large bowl.

3/4 cup mayo or miracle whip
1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar

Mix these 3 ingredients together and then mix with the broccoli salad.
Serve.

Everyone loves it and it is so easy.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010


I want to try this soon.

Flat Bread Tacos


When my kids were little I had my list of “go to” meals. Things we had over and over again. I didn’t try new recipes and experiment as much back then as I do now. I just wanted to get dinner on the table!

One of our standard meals was tacos. It was quick and it was easy – a pound of hamburger, some pre made crispy taco shells and a few toppings. For my kids it was basically ketchup and grated cheese!

Today’s recipe is a stepped up version of those tacos. Still quick and easy to prepare but a little more fun to eat!

I found the idea over at Real Mom Kitchenmonths ago and we have made them several times since. It is one of those “no brainer” type of meals. Love it!

Instead of taco shells it uses flatbread made quickly and easily out of biscuits from a can. The flatbread is nice and sturdy too so you can load it up with your favorite taco ingredients.

I tweeked the recipe a little by adding some taco seasoning into sour cream for the base of the flatbread taco (she used ranch dressing mix).

Just grab yourself a can of those Grand size muffins in a tube.

Use your hand or a rolling pin to flatten them out.

Use a large frying pan or griddle and “dry” fry the bread. Do not use any oil or butter. Cook each side of the flatbread until golden brown, approximately one minute per side.

Then start piling on the toppings. We started with a base of sour cream and taco seasoning. I just started adding the packaged taco seasoning into the sour cream until I liked the taste.

The ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning is next. You could also add some beans here but I’m not a big bean fan. The sour cream base helps hold on the meat!

And then the cheese so it will melt into the warm meat.

Some crisp, crunchy lettuce.

And finally, at our house, black olives. Now I think it would have made a prettier picture with some chopped tomato on it too but we had no tomatoes so just imagine a pretty, red tomato chopped on top!

One of the great things about this meal is that everyone can personalize it to their taste. Just set out an assortment of toppings and let everyone put their own combination together.

Flatbread Tacos

Printable Recipe

1 C sour cream
2 -3 tsps taco seasoning mix
1 lb. ground beef
1 pkg taco seasoning (season to taste)
1 recipe of flatbread (see below)

Optional toppings: sliced ripe olives, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes and shredded cheese

In a bowl, mix together the sour cream and taco seasoning to taste. chill until serving.(at least 30 minutes)

In a large frying pan, cook the hamburger over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Add in the taco seasong and cook according to the directions on the back of the package.

To serve, spread each flatbread with 2 tablespoons sour cream mixture then top each with meat mixture. Add toppings if desired.

Flatbread

1 tube (16.3 ounces) Pillsbury Grand refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

With your hand or a rolling pin press out each biscuit into a 6-in. circle. You want a nice even thickness. In a nonstick skillet frying pan or griddle over medium heat, cook each biscuit for about 60 seconds per side or until golden brown. This is a “dry fry” Do not use any type of grease, oil, butter etc. You cook them in a completely dry pan.


Sunday, October 31, 2010



Cinnamon Bread

Next time I make this I will add way more cinnamon mixture to the inside. It sure did smell yummy though in the oven.



Now that I have basil - I'm trying new recipes to use the basil. I love the idea and the practicality of having basil on my patio.

I made a meal with 3 different dishes that took basil a few weeks ago.

Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/bruschetta_with_tomato_and_basil/

Homemade Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce
http://allrecipes.com//HowTo/homemade-tomato-sauce/Detail.aspx

The sauce didn't make enough - Al always likes to have leftovers of anything with pasta and there was only a couple of spoonfuls left, and that was because Bret didn't eat with us that night.


Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls

I didn't get to try these until they had sat around for a few days and then it wasn't so good. But the family liked them and we shared with others - and they seemed to like them too.

http://annies-eats.com/2010/09/30/caramel-apple-cinnamon-rolls/




Snickers Cupcakes

These were very time consuming to make. They looked amazing. However, next time I would use a regular cupcake mix (probably devil's food), as I thought this recipe was dry. I will also add more snickers in the "middle". And finally the frosting was delicious and I will use for other sweet treats.

YUM!

http://annies-eats.com/2010/09/03/snickers-cupcakes/


Saturday, October 9, 2010

In the oven now...

Apple Butter Bread

http://mywoodenspoon.com/simple-apple-butter-bread/
Creamy Chicken and Rigatoni

This made a ton and was ok. We shared some with a woman in our ward that just had a baby - I hope they enjoy it.
I liked the flavor and I enjoy this type of pasta. Not a top 10 but still good.

I think I got this figured out - it wasn't labor intensive just time intensive. I'm excited to make more fresh bread and have it on the toasted fresh bread tonight.
OR maybe I'll try this recipe
Apple Butter Bread for Bread Machine

http://www.food.com/recipe/apple-butter-bread-for-bread-machine-167188

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Southwest Appetizers by Sarah Moss

My BFF was trying to find a recipe to take a quick snack to playgroup. I thought of these and realized that I didn't have a card typed up digitally. As I typed it, I thought why not share it on the blog.....

12 flour tortillas
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
1 4 oz can chopped green chiles
3 tablespoons chopped green onion
2 tablespoons chopped red pepper
12 oz sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup salsa

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sour cream, chiles, onion, red pepper and cheddar cheese.
Mix and spread onto tortillas and roll up.
Cover tightly and chill for 2 hours or overnight.
When ready to serve, cut each roll into 1/2 inch thick slices.
Serve with salsa (I usually forget to save the salsa and mix it in with the other ingredients!)
Makes about 8 dozen bites!


Apples are in the air. On so many of the blogs that I try to keep up with everything is doing something with apples.
I decided to get ambitious and try something new.

APPLE BUTTER

I have it in the crock pot right now. I'm going to make some homemade bread to go with it. This treat doesn't really match what I'm making for dinner but that is ok. It will make the house smell like FALL!

Why am I blogging about this prior to making it? Because I had a great experience at Safeway and it reminds me of why I like to shop there over walmart. First I was meandering in the flower department. If I'm going to be home for an entire additional week, why not buy flowers!? So I bought some sunflowers.
Then I walked over to the fruit. My recipe from cooks.com called for apples but it didn't state what flavor. I asked the woman who was so gingerly stocking the apples if she had made apple butter before and if she had a suggestion. She went and got the produce guru guy, Gabriel.

He was so helpful - He suggested HONEY CRISP apples. Have you tried these? He offered to let me sample which I declined. I wish I would have bought a whole bushel of them - I'm definitely going back for more. They are yummy! As a side note, this apple was created in 1991 - interesting!

http://www.applesource.com/honey%20crisp.html

Wednesday, October 6, 2010


I made
this week.


I think they would have been better if I had completed them all in the same day. I started them last night. I let them rise and then "assembled" them. They needed to rise a 2nd time on the baking sheet for 75-90 minutes. In the middle of the 2nd rise, I gave up and went to bed and stuck them in the fridge.
Today I pulled them out and let them thaw out. They rose (for the most part) and baked them.

The other thing I will do different next time is that I would serve them warm. No one was home when they came out of the oven.

The pic is during the 2nd round of rising.

Bret liked them and I shared some with friends on our walk tonight and I believe they really liked theirs too!

These are a RE-DO!

http://annies-eats.com/2010/09/30/caramel-apple-cinnamon-rolls/

Monday, September 13, 2010

Quick Marinated Chicken

This was decent. It was easy and got eaten. Last night, those were the only two things that mattered to me.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe-Tools/Print/Recipe.aspx?RecipeID=124249&origin=detail&servings=4

Sunday, September 12, 2010


Banana Muffins
This recipe was a winner.

I didn't melt the right amount of butter. I noticed that the recipe called for butter - but it was listed twice. I had them all scooped into the tin when I figured it out. I decided to make it right and so took all of the dough out of their paper cups and mixed with the rest of the melted butter.

I only had a bite of one because each muffin is worth 6 weight watcher points. I only get 24 for the day. I might go and steal a 1/2 of one right now though. It was yummy.

Both Bret and Jasmine said that this was a different re-do.

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/banana-crumb-muffins/Detail.aspx