RECIPE: Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

When zucchini is in abundance, grate it up and store it in the freezer.  Then when you want to make these muffins, thaw it, squeeze out the excess liquid and use it in this recipe.

 Somewhat healthy and you're getting the veggies in your kiddos!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 to 2 cups shredded zucchini
1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used mini in this picture), divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Combine eggs, sugar, applesauce, butter, vanilla and zucchini in large bowl, mix well.  Sift flour, cocoa, soda, cinnamon, powder and salt in separate bowl.  Sprinkle a little flour over 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips.  Mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Fold in the flour coated chocolate chips.  Scoop evenly into paper lined muffin tin.  (I got 15 muffins.)  Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips over the top of the muffins.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes, check doneness with toothpick.

I hope you'll give them a try!

Enjoy!

Tackling Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

These are so soft and delicious.  They are not low-calorie, but they are a yummy treat.

If you have a Kitchen-Aid mixer with the dough hook attachment, they work lovely.  If not, you can use a food processor to combine everything together.  You'll need to knead (haha!) the dough if you are using the food processor.  Only don't knead with flour, use vegetable oil. 

Cinnamon Roll Dough (adapted from What's Cooking America)

1 cup milk

1/4 cup hot water

1/2 cup melted butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

5 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon dry active yeast

In the mixing bowl on your Kitchen-Aid or the bowl on your food processor, mix milk, water, butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar.   Now add flour, salt and yeast.  Mix until a ball forms.  In the Kitchen-Aid, keep mixing for about 2-3 minutes.  Remove the dough ball from your food processor bowl and pour onto an oiled surface.  Knead for about 2-3 minutes.  Roll the mixture onto an oiled surface, press into a 15 x 24 rectangle.

Cinnamon Roll Filling

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/2 cup melted butter

In a bowl,  combine brown sugar and cinnamon.  I usually rub the mixture through my fingers to make sure it's completely combined.  It will feel like dry sand.  Pour melted butter over the cinnamon roll dough rectangle and then sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture evenly over it.  Spread it to the edges, making sure it soaks up the melted butter.  Roll up the dough and then slice into equal portions.  I make 12 rolls.  Cut the dough log in half.  Then cut each half into half.  You should have 4 smaller logs.  Now slice those into 3 equal slices. You can freeze them at this point.

If you want to bake them, place into a baking dish, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1-1.5 hours.

Bake at 350 degrees F for only 10 minutes.   

(after they have risen, before baking)

Cinnamon Roll Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

In a bowl, mix and stir everything together until smooth and creamy.  Immediately spread onto each cinnamon bun hot out of the oven.  

These are so yummy!

I made some Caramel Apple Sticky Buns for the bakery a few weeks ago.  They were a huge hit.  So yummy and soft and sticky and good and delicious and well, I could go on...

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns:

1/2 cup butter

1-1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tablespoon corn syrup

1 apple, finely diced*

Melt butter in skillet, add brown sugar.  Bring to a boil add corn syrup and apples.  Cook for another minute or two, stirring to coat the apples and making sure everything is melting nicely.

Line a 9" cake pan with tin foil and then place a 9" circle of parchment in the bottom.  Then pour the caramel apple mixture into the bottom.  Arrange cinnamon rolls over the apple mixture and allow rolls to rise for an hour or so.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  When you press on the center of the rolls, it should sink a little.  That's good.  

Flip them onto a serving plate and then peel the tin foil away and parchment circle.

*I've also made these with pears.  

They are so yummy and gooey!

RECIPE: Pork Posole

I love "double-duty" dinners.  You know what I'm talking about.  When you cook one thing, have leftovers and can make something else with it?

Last week I did that with a pork roast.  Initially I cooked the pork roast in the oven with only salsa verde on top (one of my new favorite ways to eat pork roast thanks to Donna!).  I made my Salsa Verde but you can buy it fairly reasonably priced.  I like La Constena brand.  You can find it in your Latin food aisle in the grocery store.

After it cooked, we shredded the pork and ate Pork Carnitas.  We used flour tortillas, but you can use corn tortillas just as well.  I like to drizzle a lime crema over them.  YUM!
 

Lime Crema
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 jalapeno, finely diced
fresh cilantro, chopped
lime juice

Mix everything together in a small bowl and add enough lime juice to make it fluid enough to drizzle.  You can add as much or as little as you like.

You might have noticed my wrinkled jalapeno pepper in the above picture.  I put them in the freezer in a zip lock baggie and when I need one, I'll pull it out and use it.

To make the carnitas, I add the shredded pork to a cast iron skillet and add 1/4 cup red salsa and 1/4 cup salsa verde to it.  Occasionally stir it around to get the pork caramelized.  Once it's heated through and browned, turn off the heat and start assembling your carnitas.

I put about 1 oz shredded pork in the flour tortilla, topped with thinly sliced iceberg lettuce, avocado slice, drizzle of the lime crema and fresh cilantro.  That's it.  Super easy and yummy!  We also like to squeeze extra lime on ours.

The second meal we ate from the pork was Pork Posole.  I've made this before, but couldn't remember the exact way I made it.  One of the reasons I like to blog is to keep track of recipes.  So here's how I made it this time.  Using inspirations from these two recipes:  chicken posole and turkey posole.

Pork Posole
1/2 onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons oil
2 guajillo chiles, (these are dried and I found them at Aldi)
10 cups water (or chicken broth)
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon (omit if you are using chicken broth)
2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
2 cups cooked, shredded pork
1 large can hominy, drained
limes

Heat large Dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add oil, onion and garlic.  Saute until translucent.  Prepare the guajillo peppers.  Use a pair of kitchen shears and cut the stem off.  Shake out the loose seeds into the trash and pull out the dried membrane.  Using the shears, cut the peppers into 1" pieces; set aside.  Add chicken broth (or water & bouillon) and peppers to the pot.  Simmer for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Place a little of the soup mixture at a time into a blender and blend until smooth, pour into another pot until all soup is pureed.  Return to the stove over medium heat and add cilantro, pork and hominy.  Cook for 15 minutes until heated through.  Serve with a lime and avocado if you like.

Super yum!

Recipe Review: Tuna Casserole

I love tuna salad.

I do not love hot, cooked tuna.

Since we are trying to clean out the freezer and pantry, and I have cans of tuna and boxes of pasta in the pantry, it only made sense to make Tuna Casserole.  I looked over several recipes on Pinterest.  I liked the look of this one.  However, my picky-eater (my hubs), doesn't like green leafy veggies.  What's girl to do?  Work around it.  I've tried sneaking in the green veggies.  Pretty successfully, I might add.  But to blatantly add the spinach in this dish would be a no-go with him.

Then I spotted a box of stuffing mix in the top of my pantry.  I must've picked it up at back in the fall when they were on sale.  I thought this might be yummy to add to a Tuna Casserole, and found this recipe.  But I didn't like the look of making it a "dressing" over noodles.  So I decided to combine the two and came up with this recipe.  I would share a picture, but have you tried taking a picture of a casserole??  Unless you are Kraft foods or The Pioneer Woman (both of which make everything look delicious no matter what it is), don't even ask me to post it.  It looks the least bit appetizing.  :)

Tuna Noodle Casserole with Stove Top Stuffing Crumble
1 box multi colored rotini pasta
2 cans cream of celery soup (or you could make your own)
1 cup crushed french fried onions
4 cans (5 oz each) tuna fish, drained
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used medium cheddar today)
1 box stuffing mix (I had savory herb flavor)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta for 8-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the celery soup, french fried onions and tuna fish together in 13x9 casserole dish.

Drain the pasta and add to the dish.  Sprinkle cheese over the top and stir everything together.  Add about 1/2-3/4 cup water to loosen up the mixture to the desired creaminess.

Sprinkle the stuffing mix evenly over the top and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

I served this with peas on the side, but you could easily just toss them right into the casserole for a one-pot wonder.  But alas, my picky-eater doesn't do peas either.

This was pretty tasty.  We had leftovers and the kids ate them for lunch on the weekend.

How do you eat tuna casserole? Or do you?

RECIPE: Hoppin' John Soup

My husband doesn't like vegetables.  In fact, he'll eat green beans, salad with no dressing, carrots and the occasional bean dish.  He does like black eyed peas, which is crazy because when I got married to him, I didn't like black eyed peas.  Now I love them.  Here's a yummy meal my friend Donna sent me.  I used frozen purple hull beans which taste similar to black eyed peas, you use what you have on hand.  

Hoppin' John Soup
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound kielbasa (I used smoked sausage), sliced on the bias
2 14.5 oz cans chicken broth
2 cups water
4 cups frozen purple hull beans (this is what I have on hand, you could easily substitute 2 cans black eyed peas, rinsed and drained)
14 oz can navy beans (I used Great Northern beans) rinsed and drained
2 cups brown rice, cooked (I had some in the freezer)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh cilantro, chopped

In Dutch oven, heat oven over medium heat.  Saute onions for 5 minute, stirring frequently.  Add garlic and stir until softened and fragrant.  Add sausage and cook for 10 minutes.  Pour in the chicken broth and water along with purple hull beans (If you are using canned black eyed peas, skip this next step), bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for 30 minutes.  Add navy beans, rice, seasonings and herbs, mash beans slightly to help thicken the soup.  Cook for another 10 minutes until thoroughly heated through.

Serve with cornbread.

Delicious!  We found it a little spicy from the sausage, but other than that it was great!

Enjoy!

RECIPE: Asian Chicken Dump

Dump recipes are really methods of filling a food storage bag with a protein and marinade and then popping it into the freezer.  Allow it to thaw overnight in the fridge and then pour everything into the crock pot or slow cooker the next day and cook it until done.

I love these.  Lately, I've been forgetting to cook the meal in the crock pot, but have had plenty of time to bake it off in the oven when I get home from work.

This is one of our favorites!

Asian Chicken Dump
4 chicken breasts
1 cup Asian Sesame dressing (such as Ken's Steakhouse)
2 Tablespoon freshly grated ginger root
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

Pour everything into a food storage bag.  Lay flat on cookie sheet and freeze.

To cook:  Allow to thaw in the fridge overnight (3 days maximum) and pour everything into a slow cooker and cook on high 3 hours or low 6 hours.  Be sure to check the on them periodically because slow cookers have random cook times and it might cook faster than anticipated.

Or pour everything into a 13x9 casserole dish and bake at 375 degrees F for 45-50 minutes.

Enjoy!

RECIPE: Pesto

Funny thing about pesto.   You can use pretty much whatever kind of leafy green thing you want.  I used to dislike fresh basil, it was just way too perfume-y for me to eat.  Then I grew basil in my little herb garden.  And I fell in love with it.  I made pesto last summer to put in ground turkey burgers, which were a huge hit with everyone in the family.  Surprising to me, since my husband isn't very fond of fresh basil.  But it takes on such a unique flavor when cooked.  At the bakery where I work, we make Arugula Pesto, which led me to think about replacing some of the store bought expensive basil leaves with fresh spinach.  Guess what?  It was delicious!  I made Kalyn's Baked Chicken Pesto and I loved it!  The hubby, not so much :/  That's okay, it left me lunch for a few days.  Another thing about pesto?  It can be frozen.  Wonderful since I plan on planting more this summer and making tons and tons of pesto and putting it in the freezer for future yummy recipes.  So here's how I made it. 

Pesto (adapted from Food Network)

4 cups packed fresh basil leaves (or a mixture of fresh spinach and basil)
4 cloves of fresh garlic
1/2 cup pine nuts (or almonds)
2/3 cups olive oil (or canola oil)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a food processor cup, combine, basil, garlic and nuts.

Pulse to combine and chop finely.  Slowly stream the oil into the processor and process until smooth.  Add Parmesan cheese and process until just incorporated.

You can use it now or pour everything into a freezer food storage bag and press all the air out.  Freeze flat so you can have more room in the freezer.  And don't forget to date and label the bag.

That's it!  Super easy and delicious!

Enjoy!

RECIPE: Southwestern Scramble

We love eating breakfast for dinner.  It's cheap, easy and fast.  Essential for our family.  We make it a tradition to eat breakfast for dinner each Wednesday night.  The kids feel special because it's like a "treat" to eat scrambled eggs or pancakes for supper.  And I feel special because Wooley is learning to cook supper for everyone.  Win-win in my book! 

This is a delicious concoction I came up with by using the basic principles from my sparkpeople account. 

Southwestern Scramble
1 tablespoon oil
8 eggs
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained (or about 2 cups cooked black beans)
1 can Rotel, drained
1 cup corn, canned & drained (if frozen, thaw before adding)
salt and pepper
avocado

Heat skillet over medium heat, add oil.  Beat eggs in bowl until scrambled.  Pour eggs into heated skillet and cook until almost done, still wet.  Add black beans, Rotel and corn.  Stir well and finish cooking eggs through.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve with cubed avocado.  This served 5 people. 

We ate this over half of a baked potato and turkey sausages.  It was so good!  Everyone loved it!

RECIPE: Publix Chicken Nuggets

A busy weeknight doesn’t have to mean fast food for dinner! Publix knows that the best meals happen at home, so they are excited to help you enjoy family mealtime without having to stress about what to prepare or spending hours in the kitchen. Stop by Publix during their “Best Meals Happen at Home” event to find great savings on some of your favorite products. Be sure to visit BestMealsatHome.com to find fantastic recipes, which can be cooked in 30 minutes or less, and your family is sure to love.

Take advantage of great savings on some of your favorite participating brands during the “Best Meals Happen at Home” event at Publix from January 26th through February 1st   As of Jan 26th look for in-store for coupons that will be valid through February 15th Visit BestMealsatHome.com to sign up and receive emails with weekly recipes and coupon offers that will help you save up to $200 this year To kick-off the great savings and enjoy valuable time around the dinner table with your family, Publix invites you to try one of the delicious recipes that you can find at BestMealsatHome.com, which uses Cheerios® to make Crunchy Chicken Nuggets: Prep time: 15 Min Cook time: 25 Min Makes: 4 servings Ingredients: 2 cups Cheerios® cereal 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1/4 cup milk 2 tablespoons honey 1 tablespoon mustard 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted Directions: Heat oven to 400°F. Spray with cooking spray or lightly grease 13x9-inch pan. Finely crush cereal. Stir together cereal, salt and pepper; set aside. In medium bowl, stir together milk, honey and mustard until blended. Dip chicken into milk mixture; coat with cereal mixture. Place chicken in pan; drizzle with melted butter. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until crust is golden and chicken is no longer pink in center. What's your go-to meal on those hectic nights?  MyBlogSpark provided me with a $25 gift card from Publix.  Be on the lookout for another giveaway in a few weeks.

RECIPE: Stuffed Pepper and Rice Casserole

I sort of mixed two recipes that I thought looked good and created this conglomeration.  I took the "saucy" component of Stuffed Bell Peppers and combined that with the "casserole" component of Deconstructed Stuffed Pepper Casserole.

Here's what I did:

Stuffed Pepper and Rice Casserole
1 green pepper, diced
1 tomato, diced
4 dashes Tabasco
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2-1 tsp ground fennel
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tsp onion powder (if you like onions, just chop up 1/2 an onion and add to peppers in the beginning)
1 pound ground turkey
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 cup precooked rice
1/2 cup water
salt
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Heat a large dry skillet over medium high heat.  Add peppers and stir around in pan until charred a little, about 5 minutes.  Lower heat to medium and add tomatoes, Tabasco, pepper, fennel, Italian seasoning, onion powder and ground turkey.  Cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally to break up turkey.  Add ketchup and Worcestershire sauce and cook another 3 minutes.  Add rice and water and stir until combined.  Pour mixture into an 8x8 casserole dish and top with shredded cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

This makes 6 servings at 323 calories, 17 grams fat, 22 carbs, 17.5 grams protein per serving.

I think this was totally yummy!!!  And it reheated well in the microwave with a wet paper towel. 

Enjoy!

RECIPE: Mexican Chicken & Rice Casserole

A few weeks ago we ate turkey dinner for my parent's anniversary.  It was a big bird, little over 20 lbs so we had quite a bit leftover.  I had originally planned to make Chicken & Rice casserole using leftover turkey, but then I thought it would be too similar to the original turkey dinner.  Then I had a hankering for Mexican and thought why not try to make a Mexican Chicken and Rice casserole.  So I perused the recipes on SparkRecipes and found this one.  We made this with a few tweaks to the original.

Here's what we did:

Mexican Chicken & Rice Casserole {so easy a 3 and 5 year old can do it!}
1 can cream of chicken soup (we used reduced calorie)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (we used reduced calorie)
1 can full of water
1 packet taco seasoning (or make your own and use about 3 Tablespoons)
1-1/2 cup brown rice, (pre-cooked will cut down on the cooking time)
15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
10 oz can diced tomatoes and green chiles (or Rotel)
2 cups precooked diced chicken (or turkey in our case)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (we used fat free cheddar)

In a bowl whisk the cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, water and taco seasoning packet.

Pour into the bottom of a 13x9 casserole dish.

Add brown rice, black beans and diced tomatoes and green chiles.  Mix in with a spoon.
Finish up with layering precooked chicken or turkey over the top.

(notice how Boo-Boo is eating turkey in one hand and tossing some in the pan with the other.)

Cover with tin foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until the rice appears fulled cooked.
** Some have noted this is taking them over an hour to bake.  Try using partially precooked rice to cut down on the cooking time.

Sprinkle shredded cheese over the top and bake 5 minutes more until cheese is melted.

We thought the Rotel made it very spicy, almost too spicy for the kids.  They barely touched it.  I thought it was really tasty.  

Enjoy!

RECIPE: Sausage & Lentil Soup

I found another yummy lentil recipe.  And I used breakfast sausage!  It was really good!  I precooked the lentils for another meal so I had some in the fridge. 

Here's what we did:

Lentil, Greens & Sausage Soup (adapted from epicurious)
1 lb roll breakfast sausage with sage
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1-1/2 cups chicken stock
1-1/2 cup water
3-4 cups cooked lentils*
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 bunch turnip greens, cleaned and veins removed, leaves chopped (about 2 cups)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

In Dutch oven, brown breakfast sausage, remove sausage and saute onion and garlic in the rendered fat until translucent. Add stock and water along with the precooked lentils and carrots.  Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer for 15 minutes.  Add greens and simmer for 10 minutes until wilted and cooked through.  Stir in the vinegar and serve.

It's so tasty!  Even my cousin's eldest daughter loved it!

Enjoy!

*To prepare soup with uncooked lentils:  Add 1-1/2 cups dried lentils to the water and broth and simmer covered for 30 minutes.  Then proceed with the recipe.  If the lentils absorb more broth than you anticipate, add extra water to compensate.

RECIPE: Carrot Souffle

We have a cafeteria style restaurant around town called Piccadilly.  I love this place.  I always get the veggie plate which consists of 3 vegetables and a piece of bread of your choice.  I almost always get broccoli rice and cheese casserole, greens of some sort and carrot souffle.  They have the best carrot souffle in my opinion.  It has a lightly crunchy top from the sugar in the mixture.  It's just delicious!

I finally found a similar recipe on allrecipes.com and had to try it.  It didn't disappoint.  I loved it!

Carrot Souffle (adapted from allrecipes)
2 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add carrots.  Cook until soft enough to mash, about 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Drain carrots and transfer to a large mixing bowl.  With electric mixer, blend and mash carrots. 

Add sugar, baking powder and vanilla.  Mix until smooth. Add flour, ginger and butter and beat until smooth.  Taste to see if you need to add more sugar.  Now add the eggs and beat completely.  Pour mixture into an 8x8 baking dish (or similar size).

Bake for 1 hour or until top is golden.

Cool slightly before serving.  I found it tasted so much better after allowing to cool about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

RECIPE: Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Some dear friends of ours are going to be serving as "need-greaters" in Thailand and Dominican Republic in the next few weeks.  They both have aversions to milk and to avoid this, they choose mostly vegan products.  My momma had a little tea for them and the regular pioneer sisters.  I was in charge of baking.  (Go figure!)

My hubby found me a great Milk-free cookbook at a flea market several weeks ago and I'm loving it!

Here's a yummy chocolate cupcake I made for the tea party.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
1-1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup hot water
2 Tablespoons coffee liqueur (like Kahlua) (or any extract you like)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line muffin pan with cupcake liners; set aside.

In large mixing bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together.  Add brown sugar (be sure to mix well to avoid any lumps).  In a separate bowl, mix oil, water and coffee liqueur together.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet in.  Mix together and evenly divide among the liners.

Bake mini cupcakes for 10 minutes or until done.

Bake regular cupcakes for 15 minutes or until done.

These are so soft and moist.  You'd never guess they were vegan.

I made a vegan frosting using margarine (dairy free), powdered sugar, Kahlua and water.
1 cup margarine, about 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 Tablespoons Kahlua and enough water to make the frosting soft enough to pipe.  It turned out really delicious!

Enjoy!

RECIPE and a Giveaway: Chex Party Mix

MyBlogSpark contacted me about a giveaway for Chex Party Mix, I couldn't refuse!

They sent me some great recipes to choose from, but in the end I decided to search their site for the Chex Muddy Buddies recipe.  I've heard this called "White Trash" and "Puppy Chow".  I've always wanted to make this and never tried it before.

Here's what we did:

Chex Muddy Buddies (courtesy of Chex)
3/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
9 cups Chex cereal (we used Rice Chex)
1-1/2 cup powdered sugar

In large microwaveable bowl, add butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter.  Microwave on high for 1 minute.

Remove and stir.  Return to microwave and cook on high for 30 seconds.  Remove and stir until creamy.  The butterscotch chips didn't melt all the way, but it worked fine.  Add vanilla extract and stir until combined.


Measure 9 cups of Rice Chex mix into the melted mixture and stir until coated.

In a large paper bag, pour the powdered sugar and then pour the Rice Chex coated mixture into the bag.

Close the top and and toss and shake until well coated.  Pour into a container and cool completely.

We measured out about 2 cups per 5 take out containers.  We loved it!  So yummy!

Now here's the best part!  You can have your own Chex Party Mix.  MyBlogSpark and Chex are going to send you 2 kinds of Chex cereal, 5 recipes cards to make various kinds of Chex Party Mix, 10 takeout containers and a $20 gift card to purchase the needed ingredients and decorating supplies.

If you are into Cookie Swapping, why not change it up this year and do a Chex Party Mix Swap?  How fun would that be to have a big group of friends bring their favorite kind of Chex Party Mix and swap with everyone?

This giveaway will end Sunday December 18, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. EST.  The winner will be chosen by Random.org and will be notified via email.  

AND THE WINNER IS:  #22 Brandy Stout.  Brandy has been notified.  

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment and tell me which Chex Party Mix recipe is your favorite.  You can browse the recipes here.

Hope you have a great week!

Enjoy! 


“Disclosure: The Chex Party Mix-Change product, information, and giveaway have been provided by Chex through MyBlogSpark.”

RECIPE: Pumpkin Sherbet

A few weeks ago, my husband and I traveled to North Carolina to celebrate our anniversary.  While there, we stopped at a little ice cream parlor and I ate the BEST pumpkin ice cream I've ever had.  It was delicious.  It was so good, I had it two days in a row.  Oh yes, I did!!!  The first time I had pumpkin and chocolate with hot caramel sauce and pecans.  The last time I had it without the chocolate.  Oh my goodness it was so good.  I'm sure it wasn't figure friendly.  So when I saw this yummy recipe for Pumpkin Sherbet, I knew I had to try it.  I wish I had an ice cream maker.  But I don't.  In the mean time, I figured I could make a faux Pumpkin ice cream by pouring the mixture into a Pyrex dish and freezing.  It sort of worked.  I forgot about it and the ice crystals got too large.  Next time, I'll remember.  it was really good.

So here's what I did:

Pumpkin Sherbet
2-1/4 cup fat free milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of cloves

Bring milk, sugar and pumpkin to a boil. reduce and to simmer 1 minute. add vanilla and spices. Pour into pyrex and freeze. remember to stir every 15-30 minutes. Freeze solid. Scoop and serve.

Serving Size: 5 - 1/2 cup servings;  132 calories, 0.2 gr fat, 28.3 gr carbs, 4.4 gr protein  

I removed it from the Pyrex to a plastic container with a lid.

Okay, so I drizzled a little caramel ice cream syrup and chopped walnuts over the top.  It was pretty tasty!  I have an idea I want to try with this.  If it works, I'll share it with you.

Enjoy!

RECIPE: Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

This is not a new recipe.  I first heard of it from my friend Tara (hi Tara!).  She's a great cook.  She's one of those people who rarely follows a recipe, but makes incredibly tasty food.

Here's the recipe:

Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 box yellow cake mix (or *spiced mix if you can find them)
4 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup milk
15 oz can pumpkin
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
2 cups chocolate chips, divided

*If you find a spiced cake mix, don't use the above spices.

Mix everything together except 1/2 cup chocolate chips.  Spray muffin pan with non stick cooking spray and scoop mixture evenly.  Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top and bake at 350 degrees F for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Makes 18 muffins.

Try this with chocolate cake mix too.  So good!

Enjoy!

• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace
• What's On Your Plate? at Good Cheap Eats
• Newlyweds Recipe Linky at The Newlyweds Blog 
• This Week's Craving - Pumpkin Linky at Mom's Crazy Cooking

RECIPE: Pumpkin and Sausage Pasta

I love pumpkin.  It's pretty obvious if you do a search on my blog for "pumpkin"...

anyway...

I've never made a savory pumpkin dish before, besides Pumpkin Oatmeal.  I've always thought of pumpkin as a dessert.  So when I saw this Pumpkin and Sausage Penne dish on the Newlyweds Blog, I knew I had to give it a try.  It was SO good!  I did tweak it a little bit to reduce some calories.  Here's what I did:

Pumpkin and Sausage Pasta
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 links Italian sausage (I used mild)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon rubbed sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups canned pumpkin (or 15 oz can pumpkin)
1 cup chicken broth
4 oz fat free evaporated milk
10 box pasta (I used whole wheat penne)
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Saute onion and garlic in oil over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook until done.  Add spices and cook for 1 minutes.  In separate bowl, whisk pumpkin, broth and evaporated milk.  Pour into hot skillet and stir well to combine.  Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. 

Boil pasta until al dente.  Drain pasta and pour sauce into the pot.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese over the top and serve with raw pepitas. 

Makes 8 servings;  284 calories, 11 gr fat, 35.2 gr carbs, 12.2 gr protein

Enjoy!

RECIPE: Creamy Carrot Soup

This was a warm and delicious soup.  It's not sweet by any stretch of the imagination.  I hope you'll give it a try!

Cream Carrot Soup (adapted from allrecipes)
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
4-1/2 cups sliced carrots
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
3-1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 teaspoon ground ginger (or 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger root)
2.5 oz fat free evaporated milk*
13.5 oz can light coconut milk*
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
dash of nutmeg

In a Dutch oven, saute onion in butter until tender.  I added the seasonings during this step to help cook the spices to avoid a raw flavor.

Add carrots, potato and broth. Cover and cook over medium heat for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Cool for 15 minutes.

Transfer to a blender or food processor in small batches;

cover and process until smooth.

Return all to the pan; stir in the milks* and season with salt and pepper.

Cook over low heat until heated through.  Taste and adjust the seasonings, don't be afraid to add extra ginger or cayenne.

Makes 6 - 1 cup servings; 221.7 calories, 12.1 gr fat, 24.2 g carbs, 3.9 g protein

*You can substitute 2 cups of half and half for the evaporated milk and coconut milk.

I would like to try this using sweet potatoes, but I think it might make it more sweet.  I love the savory flavor of this soup.  And don't be deterred by the coconut milk.  It doesn't even taste like coconut, but it adds a creamy texture to the soup with out the fat of heavy whipping cream.

Here's a quick kitchen tip from my mother-in-law.  When peeling skin from vegetables and fruit, peel onto a plastic grocery bag and then toss the whole thing into the trash or dump into your compost bin.  Super easy clean up!

Enjoy!