Cheesy Chicken Casserole

I made this the other night and not only was it so easy, it was so yummy! I halved the recipe but this is the full recipe. (It would make a ton) I also added cheese on top before putting on the Ritz crackers. Delicious. This will be a regular at my house because of how easy it was.

Recipe from: Mandys Recipe Box

3-4 chicken breasts, chopped and cooked or 1 (14 oz.) can chicken

16 oz. egg noodles, cooked

24 oz. sour cream

2 cans cream of chicken soup

8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese

8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed

1/4 c. margarine, melted

2 Tbsp. Poppy seeds (optional)

Combine chicken, sour cream, soup; cheeses in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add the noodles and gently stir till coated. Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Mix crackers and margarine; sprinkle over the top. Sprinkle with Poppy seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or till crackers are crispy and golden brown and cheese is melted

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

I made these the other night and they were so good. I did forget to take a picture so you'll have to go to ourbestbites.com if you want to see what they look like. They were a little to spicy for my kids so I think next time I make them I will use less cumin and less chili powder. Also, I could only find medium green salsa, no mild, so that may be why they were so spicy. But, still so good. We just dipped them in sour cream, but there is a recipe for a ranch sauce that I'll make next time.

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos
Recipe by: Our Best Bites
1/3 C (3 oz) cream cheese
1/4 C green salsa
1T fresh lime juice
1/2 t cumin
1 t chili powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t granulated garlic
3 T chopped cilantro
2 T sliced green onions

2 C shredded cooked chicken (my chicken was not shredded. I cut it into small pieces)
1 C grated pepperjack cheese

small corn tortillas
kosher salt
cooking spray

Heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.

Heat cream cheese in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds so it's soft and easy to stir. Add green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder and granulated garlic. Stir to combine and then add cilantro and green onions. Add chicken and cheese and combine well.

You can prepare up to this step ahead of time. Just keep the mixture in the fridge.

Work with a few tortillas at a time and heat in the microwave until they are soft enough to roll without cracking. It helps to place them between damp paper towels. Usually 20-30 seconds will do it. If you find yours are cracking when you roll them or come unrolled right away, just try heating them longer and try the paper towel thing.

Place 2-3 T of chicken mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edges.

Then roll it up as tight as you can.

Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Lay all of the taquitos on the baking sheet and make sure they are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray or an oil mister and sprinkle some kosher salt on top.

Place pan in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown.

Dip 'em in salsa, sour cream, guacamole, or the dressing below.

Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing
Recipe by Ourbestbites.com

1 pack (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix (regular or buttermilk, and ignore directions on the packet)
1C mayo
1/2 C milk (or buttermilk depending on which packet you buy)
1 lime
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 C green salsa
hot sauce

Place milk, mayo, and ranch mix in a blender. Juice the lime in there too, you should get about 2T juice. Toss in the garlic, cilantro and green salsa. Blend 'er up. Sample it and add hot sauce to taste. Make it several hours ahead of time to allow it to thicken.

No Bake Cookie Bars

I am so far behind on my receipes. I have probably 15 -20 recipes in draft, just no time. These were incredibly rich, but so yummy. They were easy, but a little time consuming. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookie Bars by Sweet Treats and More

For the cookie bar:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 stick margarine (approx 56 grammes)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
3 TBS cocoa
2 cup sugar
2 1/4 cup quick oats
1/2 cup peanut butter

In a medium saucepan, melt butter, milk, sugar, vanilla, salt and cocoa. Bring to a boil and let boil for about 90 seconds. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter, then oats one cup at a time. Pour mixture into a greased 8 x 8 in. glass pan. If you want a thinner bar you can use a 9 x 13 in. glass pan. Place in the fridge and let cool completely.

Peanut Butter Filling:
1/2 cup peanut butter
Once cooled completely spread 1/2 cup peanut butter over the top of the bars. Next make your chocolate frosting.

Chocolate Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
4 tbs cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
6 tbs milk
4 cups powdered sugar

Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium-high heat. Stir in cocoa, vanilla, and milk. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Immediately stir in powdered sugar, mixing in one cup at a time until smooth.

Spread the frosting over the bars, cut into squares and serve.

S'mores Cookies

I saw these on The Girl Who Ate Everything's blog and had to try them. I made them for my 2 year old's birthday party and everyone said they were great. I made them again yesterday because I've been craving them for a few weeks now. They are so good. The chocolate on top stays melted for hours.

S'mores Cookies

Source: Ice Cream Before Dinner

11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 ½ cups flour

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup mini marshmallows

3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces

1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper. 

Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching). You may have to add or remove graham crackers according to how much dough you have. If you want your cookies thicker you will use more dough and less graham crackers.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.

Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight (The recipe says to chill the dough. I did no do this either time I made these)

Place tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart. I averaged about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per graham cracker square as seen in the picture above. Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top. You can place as many pieces or as little as you want depending how much chocolate flavor you want.

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool

Buttermilk Caramel Syrup

Oh my goodness, this is soooo yummy! I'm not sure why I've never made this before. I've had it before, so I have people I could get the recipe from, but I just never did. Until I had to buy buttermilk for something else and my friend gave me this recipe. It was so good. We had it with our french toast, but then we ate it on chocolate chip cookie pie as the caramel topping. That was so good too.  I will be making this much more often!

Buttermilk Syrup

Ingredients

3/4 c. buttermilk

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 stick real butter

2 Tbsp. corn syrup

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

Directions
Combine buttermilk, sugar, butter, corn syrup, and baking soda in a large pot (My friend said she puts the baking soda in after it starts to boil but then I read online that you can still taste it if you wait so I put it in with everything else.)
Bring ingredients to a boil and reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring very frequently, for 8-9 minutes.
When it's done, it should be golden brown. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Enjoy!

Grilled Chicken Pasta Salad

What do you do with a three year supply of pasta? Figure out different ways to eat pasta. I'm not even kidding, I got 10 boxes of pasta for free with coupons and two great sales recently. That means I need to make pasta often. This was just an experiment but it worked. It was very yummy. 

Ingredients:

Pasta, I used about half of this box

grilled chicken (you could grill your own but I had this package of chicken that I just warmed on the stove)

ranch dressing

avocado

Cook pasta according to package directions, add chicken, avocado and as much ranch as you want. Mix everything together. We ate this warm. I thought it tasted better but this could be served cold as well.

Taco Braid

Another recipe from Life as a Lofthouse. I liked this recipe, but I liked the spaghetti braid, that I posted a while back also from Life as a Lofthouse, more. However, I think Kyle liked this one more.

Taco Braid

Recipe By: Holly Lofthouse

1 lb ground beef

1 pkg taco seasoning

1 cup water

1 can refried beans

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup salsa

1 can Pillsbury Pizza Dough

Unroll the Pizza Dough and let it sit out on a greased cookie sheet while you brown the ground beef. Once beef is cooked, add the taco seasoning and 1 cu water. Mix well and let simmer for 5 - 10 minutes on low.

Now that dough is room temp and easy to work with, shape out into a large rectangle. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut one inch strips along sides of dough. In the center spread out the refried beans.

Next spread the seasoned ground beef on top of the beans, and then drizzle the salsa over the meat. Least sprinkle the cheese evenly. Now start braiding the one inch strips over the top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes.

Salsa

I finally made home made salsa. First time ever. I need to change the recipe a bit, but I still am in love with it already. It was a little to runny and it had to much cilantro. Other than that I think it was pretty dang good.

A few weeks ago I posted on Facebook asking for salsa recipes. Kyle's aunt suggested this one from the Pioneer Woman. I have a few others I want to try, but this was the one I decided to make first. Click on the Pioneer Woman's link, she has a ton of pictures...

Ingredients

1 can (28 oz) Whole Tomatoes

2 cans (10 oz) Rotel (diced tomatoes w green chilies)

1/2 cup Onion, chopped (I didn't put ANY in because I hate onions, even in Salsa)

1 clove Garlic, minced

1 whole Jalapeno, chopped

1/2 tsp Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Ground Cumin

1/3 cup Cilantro (I think the recipe called for a 1/2 cup to 1 cup. I only used 1/3 cup and it was still very strong)

juice from 1/2 a Lime

Directions: Chop your garlic and jalapeno. Pour the canned tomatoes, garlic, jalapeno, sugar, salt, cumin, cilantro and lime juice in a blender OR a food processor. Pulse about 12-15 times, depending on how chunky you like your salsa. Pour into a bowl. Let sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour to chill . Serve with tortilla chips 

I don't have a food processor so I used my blender. I think it worked fine, other than like I said it was a little runny so I probably just pulsed it to many times.

Cake Batter Truffles

I saw this recipe HERE. Then a short time later my niece made them for her little boys birthday party and I made myself sick eating them. They were so good. So I decided to try them for Karson's little Preschool graduation program. I should know that anything that involves dipping isn't my thing. They weren't terribly hard, but they were much more time consuming than I like. And, I think they looked pretty sad. They did taste good though.

Cake Batter Truffles
by The Girl Who Ate Everything

1 ½ cups flour
1 cup yellow cake mix
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
3-4 Tablespoons milk
2 Tablespoons sprinkles

Truffle Coating:
16 ounces (8 squares) almond bark (or white candy melts)
4 Tablespoons yellow cake mix
sprinkles

Beat together butter and sugar using an electric mixer until combined. Add cake mix, flour, salt, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add 3 Tablespoons of milk or more if needed to make a dough consistency. Mix in sprinkles by hand. Roll dough into one inch balls and place on a parchment or wax paper lined cookie sheet. Chill balls in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm up.

While dough balls are chilling, melt almond bark in the microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. Stir between intervals. Once melted, quickly stir in cake mix until incorporated completely. Using a fork, dip truffles into almond bark and shake of excess bark by tapping the bottom of the fork on the side of your bowl. Place truffle back on the cookie sheet and top with sprinkles. Repeat with remaining balls until finished.

Chill cake batter truffles in the refrigerator until serving. Makes around 24-30 truffles.

Bean Dip

One of my co-workers brought this dip for our Cinco de Mayo party. It was so good. When I made it, it wasn't as good. But, my husband loved it and I ended up loving it the next day.

Ingredients:
1 can refried beans
1 package (8 oz) Cream Cheese, softened
1 package dry ranch dressing mix
1 can peppers (I didn't have any so this was left out. Maybe that's why it tasted different.)
Directions:
Warm the cream cheese until softened. Beat with beaters until well blended and serve with chips. It's that easy!

Marshmallow Peep Monkey Bread

Sorry, one more Easter recipe. I saw this recipe on Good Things Utah. It came from HERE. It seemed interesting, yet I wanted to try it. It was pretty good. Karson thought that monkey bread was pretty cool. I almost forgot to take a picture so there wasn't much left when I remembered. I'm pretty sure I halved this recipe, but I posted the full recipe.

Marshmallow Peeps Monkey Bread
Dough:
2 cans (16.3 ounces) reduced fat buttermilk biscuits (or homemade recipe)
Coating:
3/4 cup pink granulated sugar
16 pink marshmallow Peep bunnies
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Lightly spray a 9″ circular pan, bread pan, bunt pan, or other pan of choice. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Open both cans of biscuits. Cut each biscuit into fourths. Set aside.
In a large microwave-safe bowl, microwave marshmallow Peeps, butter, and vanilla extract on high for 1-2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Whisk until smooth.
Lightly dip each biscuit fourth into marshmallow mixture, letting excess syrup drip off. Roll lightly in pink sugar and place in prepared pan. Repeat with all remaining biscuit fourths. Pour remaining mixture over biscuits.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.

Cadbury Mini Egg Cookies My Version

I know more Cadbury Mini Egg cookies. I've been slacking on my recipes. And Easter is long gone, which means so are the Cadbury Mini Eggs, but these cookies were so good. Make them next year! Everyone was raving over the chocolate Cadbury Mini Egg cookies, in my last post, but I didn't love them. I decided to make just my regular chocolate chip cookies and add these. They were so delicious! Especially warm when the chocolate was all melty. Yum

1 Cup sugar
1 Cup brown sugar
1 Cup butter or margarine (I use butter)
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 Cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 package of Cadbury Mini Eggs (I think the bag is like 10 ounces)
Mix sugars, butter, eggs and vanilla well. Sift flour, salt and baking soda together. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture until well mixed. Stir in chopped candy. (you can add some pieces on to the top) Drop by teaspoon onto greased baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes or until they start to crack. They may not look done.

Cadbury Mini Egg Cookies

I saw these on a few different recipe sites and I don't remember exactly which one I got this recipe from. I'd been planning to make them for an Easter party and a few days before I was going to make them my sister sent me a picture of these and had to try them. I thought I'd love them and I didn't. I think it goes back to the to chocolatey issues I have. But, they were good. I have another package of mini eggs so I'm going to experiment and make my regular chocolate chip coookie recipe and add these.

Cadbury Egg Cookies
1/2 C Crisco
1/2 C Butter
1 C brown sugar
1 C white sugar
2 Eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 1/2 C flour
6T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 10 oz bag Cadbury Mini-Eggs

Preheat oven to 350. You’ll need to chop the Cadbury Eggs. I put them in a ziplock bag and gave my 4 year old his toy hammer and he went outside on the porch and beat them to pieces.

Cream together the butter, crisco, brown sugar and white sugar. Add in eggs one at at a time and the vanilla. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. Add to the butter mixture to combine and then mix in the candies. I pressed a few candy pieces into each cookie after placing it on the cookie sheet. Drop onto a cookie sheet and cook for about 8-10 minutes.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

I made Strawberry freezer jam and I'm so proud of myself, even though it was super easy. I'm still proud of myself.

I found strawberries on sale so I bought much more than usual. I'm all about good deals. I just started using coupons back in October and I can see why it's addicting. If you have any couponing tips, I'd love to hear them! I love when I save money on my groceries. I headed to the store early, the first day of the sale, and I got 4 boxes of cereal for only $3, cereal I actually eat like Golden Grahams, Honey Nut Cheerios, etc. I also got 4 boxes of fruit snacks, and 4 boxes of fruit by the foot all for $6. Now I have to hide those from the kids because they will eat them as fast as they can. And I got the large packs of Strawberries for $3. I'm actually not sure how great of a deal that is, but I know it's less than what I've been paying for small packs. Anyway, this is a recipe blog. Sorry, I got side tracked. I thought I'd freeze some strawberries. We have smoothies all the time and frozen fruit is expensive so I though I'd give it a try. (I've never froze Strawberries before so I'll have to see how it actually turns out.) I also thought I'd give freezer jam a try. Holy cow, it was so easy. If I would have known how easy it was I would have made it 10 plus years ago. I was always scared of the word Pectin. Ha ha, if I don't know what something is, I don't make it. But, time to learn I guess. I just googled freezer jam and found lots of very similar recipes, but the one I used was from allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:
2 cups crushed fresh strawberries
4 cups sugar
1 (1.75 ounce) package dry pectin (I used the brand Surejell)
3/4 cup water

Directions:
1. Mix crushed strawberries with sugar, and let stand for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, stir the pectin into the water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 1 minute. Stir the boiling water into the strawberries. Allow to stand for 3 minutes before pouring into jars or other storage containers.
2. Place tops on the containers, and leave for 24 hours. Place into freezer, and store frozen until ready to use.
I've read a couple of different things about how long you can store it. Most say it's good in the freezer for up to a year and in the fridge for up to a month. I didn't fill my containers very full because I don't think I'd use a whole container in one month.

Oatmeal S'mores Cookies

Two recipes for cookies with marshmallows in two weeks. Eeek...And I have a recipe for cadbury mini egg cookies I've been wanting to make for a few weeks. I guess it's good to have my appetite back after last year of not being able to eat anything, but man I need to stop baking! These cookies were so dang good, especially when they were warm and the marshmallows were gooey and the chocolate chips were melted. Yum. I got this recipe from Mandy's Recipe Box

1/2 c soft butter
1/2 c shortening
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 c oats
1 c milk chocolate chips (the original recipe called for semi-sweet but I always use milk chocolate)
1 c mini marshmallows
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, shortening, and sugars. Add the eggs. Beat in the vanilla. Add flour, salt, baking soda, oats, chocolate chips and marshmallows. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 11-14 minutes. Let them sit for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Ham & Cheese Crepes

I had left over crepes but no leftover fruit so why not come up with something else to make out of them. I had ham for something else and decided to just make a ham & cheese crepe. Again you don't need a recipe but this is what I made and they turned out yummy.

Diced ham
Cream Cheese
Cheddar Cheese

Mix all ingredients until warm and cheese is melted. Put in crepe and roll up.

Easy Fruit Salad

I had to make a salad for dinner last night and wanted to make something with fruit but really I had no idea what to make. I had made crepes earlier in the day and had leftover fruit and cream so I decided to just combine them and it was super good. Not that you need a recipe to make this, but here it is anyway. Strawberries

Grapes

Bananas

and anything else. Kiwi's would be good with this.

Ingredients for cream

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 tbsp vanilla

3 tbsp sugar

Beat with mixer until it thickens. Mix all the fruit and cream together.

Strawberry & Kiwi Crepes

I love Crepes! This is a recipe that I've had on here but I updated it so here it is again. I've been craving Strawberry & Kiwi Crepes for a few weeks. I went to three different stores and no one had pre made crepes. No one even had a clue what I was talking about. The times I've made crepes before I've bought pre made ones from Target that were in the produce section. I wonder if it's a seasonal item or if I was just lucky the times I've seen them. My sister gave me her recipe and they turned out fabulous and were easy. I still would prefer to avoid having to make them but oh well. I also couldn't find any kiwis so we just had strawberries.

Ingredients for the crepe:
3 eggs
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp butter (I didn't melt or soften this at all)
dash of salt
1 tbsp sugar

Directions:
Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth, warm a little oil on a frying pan. (I just used pam spray) then fry until done.

Ingredients for filling:
2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp sugar (approx)
sliced strawberries, sliced kiwis or whatever else you want.

Directions:
Beat the cream to medium peaks. Add the sugar and the vanilla and whip to stiff peaks. Spread a small amount of cream down the center of the crepe, add fruit and roll it up. Top with more cream, powdered sugar and strawberries.

Three Cheese baked Ziti

I saw this in the November 2010 People magazine. I'm not sure where it actually came from. I loved it. Karson of course complained. Which actually surprised me because he usually loves this type of food. He said he didn't like the cheese on top. Oh well I'll make it again for me. Karson may just starve until he decides he'll eat what I cook. Ingredients

1 16 oz package ziti pasta (I think that's about 2 cups uncooked)

2 10 oz jars Alfredo sauce (The recipe actually says refrigerated, I just used Ragu and it wasn't refrigerated)

1 8 oz container sour cream

2 cups chopped, cooked chicken (I cubed it and cooked it in a little bit of oil on the stove)

15 oz ricotta cheese (I only used about half of that)

2 large eggs, lightly beaten (I only used 1 since I used less ricotta cheese)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used a little more)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I didn't use fresh)

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I used 2 cups)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350

degrees Cook Ziti according to package directions; drain and return to pot.

Stir together Alfredo sauce, sour cream and chicken; toss with ziti until evenly coated.

Spoon half of ziti mixture into a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish.

Stir together ricotta cheese, eggs, Parmesan cheese and parsley; spread evenly over pasta mixture.

Spoon remaining pasta mixture evenly over ricotta cheese layer; sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly and brown. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Pudding Cookies

I got this recipe from Taste and Tell. I'm a chocolate lover, but I'm actually not a fan of to much chocolate if that makes sense. I'd rather have a chocolate chip cookie than a chocolate cookie. I'd rather have yellow cake with chocolate frosting then chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. You get my point. But the gooey marshmallows in these cookies were screaming at me. I debated making them because my doctor says E shouldn't have peanut butter until he's three and he's not even two. He wants to eat everything! But, I made them anyway and I just don't let him see me eating them :) They tasted great!

Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Pudding Cookies

from Picky Palate

Ingredients

2 sticks softened butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt 4 oz. box instant chocolate pudding mix (I was sure I had this in my pantry, which I did but I think the box I had was only 2 oz. It worked, they still tasted fine)

10 ounce bag peanut butter chips (I actually only used half a bg)

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix the sugars and butter together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until completely combined. Place the flour, baking soda, salt and chocolate pudding mix in a large bowl and stir to combine. Slowly add to the wet ingredients along with the peanut butter chips and marshmallows. Mix just until combined. With a medium cookie scoop, place on baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Caramel Sticky Buns

One of my favorite cook books is one that I get in the mail from Pillsbury. The recipes are always easy and good. I tried these a few weeks ago. Caramel Sticky Buns March/April 2011 Issue of Pillsbury Recipes (Breakfast & Brunch Made Easy)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/4 cup chopped pecans (I left these out)

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 can (12 oz) Pillsbury Grands Jr. Golden Layers refrigerated biscuits (I didn't have Jr. Layers, but used the regular but I think the container is more like 16 oz)

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 12 regular-size muffin cups with shortening. In small bowl, mix butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and pecans. Spoon scant tablespoon mixture into each muffin cup.

In large resealable food-storage plastic bag, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon. Separate dough into 10 biscuits; cut each biscuit into 6 pieces. Place biscuit pieces in bag; seal bag and shake to coat. Place 5 biscuit pieces in each muffin cup (I used more because I think I had 12 biscuits) Place muffin pan on foil or cookie sheet. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 minute. Invert pan onto waxed paper; remove pan. Serve warm (the last step didn't work so well because the stuck to the pan so I had to scoop them out with a fork)

Spacing...

I'm so annoyed with blogger...Each post is posting double spaced even though I go in and delete all the extra spaces. It always looks fine on my preview page but messes up when it posts. It's driving me crazy! Anyone else having this problem and how can I fix it?

Crockpot Italian Chicken

I've been making this recipe for years. I don't remember where I actually got it. It was in a stack of photocopied recipes that I either got from my sister in law or my friend Mandi. Anyway this is another one that I had on my list to add on here and a month or so ago I also saw this on The Girl Who Ate Everything's blog. We actually ate this a few weeks ago and I forgot to take a picture so I'll have to try to remember to take one the next time we have it.

Crock pot Italian Chicken

4 chicken breasts

1 packet dry Italian dressing

1 8oz package cream cheese

1-2 cans cream of chicken soup (I only use one can the last time I made it and the sauce was pretty thick)

Place chicken in crock pot, sprinkle Italian dressing on to, cut up cream cheese and place on top, pour soup on top. Cook on low for at least 4 hours. You can leave it in all day and it will still be fine. I pull the chicken out once it's ready and just shred it using a fork then put it back in for a few minutes. If the sauce is to thick, add milk. Serve over pasta or rice. We eat it both ways. Last time was over pasta. I think I like it over rice better.

(Some recipes say to mix the cream cheese and soup on the stove then our over the chicken in the crock pot. I don't do it this way because the cream cheese melts and you can mix it all together in the crock pot anyway)

Saltine Cracker Toffee

I first had this several years ago at Bunco. I've wanted to make it but I just kept forgetting. I was reading my November 2010 issue of People magazine, and this recipe was featured. It reminded me of it so I finally tried it. It was funny because I was getting ready to make it and I saw it on The Girl Who Ate Everything's blog and it was the same recipe.Saltine Cracker Toffee

40 salted saltine crackers or enough to line your pan (next time I'm going to try graham crackers instead)

1 cup butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 cups milk chocolate chocolate chips

3/4 cup chopped pecans (optional) I left these out

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with saltine crackers in a single layer. In a small pot combine sugar and butter and bring to a boil. Once mixture is at a boil, continue boiling for 3 minutes. Mixture should be a deep caramel color. Immediately pour over saltines and spread to cover crackers completely. Bake at 400 degrees 5 to 6 minutes. It will get all bubbly. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top and let sit a couple of minutes to melt. (I melted the chocolate chips in the microwave for about 1 minute then spread it on.) Spread melted chocolate and top with chopped nuts if desired. Cool completely and break into pieces.

Spaghetti Braid

Ever since I've been married, we have eaten out one, two, three maybe even more times per week. A lot of reasons, lack of time to cook, fast, easy, and just because we could. Even when we had Karson we went out to eat more than we ate at home. But once Easton came along and we realized how stubborn he was, eating out became more of a stress than worth it. Even now, he won't sit still and we have to eat so fast. He gets very impatient while we wait for our food so we have to go somewhere super fast. It's not fun, plain and simple. Anyway, because of this I've been cooking more than ever. It's been fun trying new things and thank goodness for the blogging world these days. It makes it SO easy. Right now just in my drafts I have like 20 things I want to try. It makes it so nice when planning my menu for the week. The one thing I used to hate about cooking was thinking about what to make. I felt like I made the same things over and over again. Now I can look at a variety of different foods with a few clicks and plan my menu. I love it. I have a lot of blogs I follow, but I have a few favorites as you can probably tell from my posts. The ones I love are ones that seem to cook easy stuff, just like me. If I read a recipe and I don't know what the ingredient is, I won't make it. I apologize for writing nothing of importance, but now I'll share this recipe.

I got this from one of my favorites. (Life as a Lofthouse) You should click her link. Her pictures are great. Mine, yeah not so much. Mine turned out nothing like hers, but it sure was fantastic so it doesn't matter. So so so good. This is definitely a must try! Another one Karson ate, THREE times. He never eats leftovers, ever. But this he did. He even told me I'm such a good cook. And also that I needed to get a lot on my plate because I was going to love it. I forgot to get a picture after I cut it. SPAGHETTI BRAID Recipe By: Holly Lofthouse

1 can Pillsbury Pizza Dough

1 pound lean Ground Beef

1 1/2 cups Spaghetti Sauce

2 tablespoons Cream Cheese (I didn't measure, but I spread this on the pizza crust before putting the meat on)

2 cups shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Glaze for the top:

2 tablespoons Butter, melted

1/8 tsp Garlic Salt

1/8 tsp Garlic Powder

1/8 tsp Dill Weed

1/8 tsp Italian Seasoning

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Unravel roll of pizza dough and lay out onto a greased cookie sheet. Set aside. Cook the ground beef in a large skillet and cook until browned. Drain the grease. Pour in the spaghetti sauce and heat to boiling. Reduce heat and let simmer 5-10 minutes or until sauce is thoroughly heated. Dough should now be room temp and easy to work with. Shape it out onto the cookie sheet and form into a large rectangle. Down each side of dough, cut 2 inch wide slits with a pizza cutter. Spread cream cheese down center of dough, spread beef mixture on top of cream cheese. Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the top and start to braid the dough over the top of the filling. Cris-crossing to form a 'braid' and making sure to cover any holes. Microwave butter to melt completely. Add in all the seasonings and mix well. Brush evenly over the top of the braid. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Sprinkle the braid evenly with Parmesan cheese. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing. (I didn't read this well, I added the Parmesan cheese to the butter mixture. Although it made a paste it still tasted great. but next time I'll just add it once I take it out of the oven.)

Cheesy Chicken & Rice Casserole

My friend was telling me about this recipe and although it sounded a little strange, with the corn, it sounded good so I decided to try it. It was good and it was another recipe that Karson ate. Anything he eats will be made again. I got the recipe from HERE. (sorry about the horrible spacing. I keep fixing it but it keeps posting this way) Mandy's recipes Cheesy Rice and Chicken Casserole

1 Box Yellow Rice (I didn't have yellow rice so I used white rice and probably would just use white rice next time I make it)

1 Stick Margarine (I'm not sure what the butter is for. I only cut a small piece of butter and stirred it in with my rice)

1 Can Cream Of Chicken Soup

1-2 Cups shredded, cooked chicken (I bought a rotisserie chicken so I could make this quick)

1 can Whole Kernel Corn (drained)

1 1/2 Cups Cheddar Cheese (I'm guessing I used more like two cups)

Cook rice according to package directions. Add rice and all other ingredients, except for 1/2 C of cheese, into a bowl and stir until well combined. Spoon into casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for about thirty minutes, or until bubbly.

Baked Chicken Fingers

I saw these on Life as a Lofthouse and they have been on my list of things to try for like a month. I got this recipe from HERE. I have a hard time getting Karson to eat chicken in anything unless it's chicken nuggets. He liked these a lot so they get thumbs up from me.

BAKED CHICKEN FINGERS
Recipe by: Holly Lofthouse

2 lbs uncooked, chicken breast strips
1 cup plain bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon ranch seasoning mix
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 eggs, beaten

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. In a small bowl beat eggs. In a medium bowl mix together bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, ranch seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix together well. Pour the olive oil over the bread crumb mixture and mix with a fork until combined.
With each chicken strip, dip in egg bowl first. Then dip into bread mix bowl. Shake off excess. Place strip onto cookie sheet and repeat with all remaining chicken. Bake for 20 minutes.

Neiman-Marcus Choclate Chip Cookies

I've had this recipe for many years and you probably have too. It went around by email like crazy several years ago. You know the story, some lady paid what she thought was $2.50 but turned out to be $250.00 for the recipe. I wanted to make some cookies but wanted something other than my normal chocolate chip or oatmeal butterscotch cookies so I tried these but changed a few things. I added butterscotch chips and didn't use nuts or the candy bar. They turned out super good and I'm sure I'll be making them often. They were especially good the first day when they were soft and warm. Yum!
Neiman-Marcus Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups uncooked regular oats
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used a little over a cup of milk chocolate an a little over a cup of butterscotch)
4 ounces milk chocolate candy bar, coarsely chopped (didn't use because I didn't have one)
1 cup chopped pecans (didn't use because I don't like nuts in cookies

Preheat oven to 375°.
Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender or food processor to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Stir in chocolate chips, milk chocolate bar, and pecans.

I use my pampered chef cookie scoop and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. *I always use parchment paper. I don't know why I just discovered this but I don't ever make cookies without parchment paper anymore. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly on baking sheets. Then, remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Fruit Smoothies

I have made so many different smoothies over the years. I love them. Plus it's a good way to get more fruit into my kids. Especially in the winter when I seem to buy much less fruit. You don't need a recipe for this, it's not anything fancy but this drink is one of my favorites. It is super thick. Simple yet so yummy. 1 bag frozen fruit any variety, strawberries, raspberries, mixed 1 cup milk 1 cup water 1 cup sugar ice cubes

Combine all ingredients and blend in blender. I add slowly, blend a little and add some more.

*My favorite combo is Mango, Pineapple and Strawberries, its sold as a combo frozen fruit. Yum

**Add a little spinach for a hint of a green smoothie...

Oreo Pudding Cookies

My friend was telling me about these cookies and they sounded good. I happened to be going to the store that day so I picked up what I needed and tried them a few days later. They were pretty good and I'm sure I'll make them again. I really don't know what my deal is, I have to have treats in my house at all times. So bad!

I got this recipe from here (Sweet Treats & More)

Oreo Pudding Cookies

1 cup butter, room temp
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 small package instant Oreo Pudding mix (I for the life of me couldn't even find Oreo pudding. I finally did, but only in one size so I have no idea what the size was)
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 Hershey's Cookies N Cream Candy Bars broken into small pieces (I used one king size)
2 cups milk chocolate chips (I only used 1 cup of chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour and soda in a small bowl and set aside. Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in pudding mix until blended, then eggs and vanilla. Add flour and soda mixture. Stir in cookies n cream pieces and chocolate chips. Using a cookie dough scooper, place dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before moving to a cooking rack. Store in air-tight container. Makes two dozen.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Once again, I saw this and I just HAD to make it. I got it from HERE, Life as a Lofthouse blog. I may have just made the same dessert, two times in one week...However, I did have people over both times, but still. It was so fabulous, warm from the oven. And it seriously takes like 3 minutes to put together. So so easy and has my mouth watering just thinking about it again. This is so my kind of pie. Yummy, you must try this.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
Recipe By: Nestle

1 unbaked, 9 inch pie crust (just a frozen one)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup real butter, softened
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use milk chocolate because that is what I prefer)

Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat eggs in a large bowl and beat on high speed until their foamy. ( about 1 minute) Beat in flour, and both sugars. Beat in butter, and then stir in chocolate chips. Carefully spoon into the unbaked pie crust. Bake for 55 minutes. (check for doneness by inserting a knife halfway between center and edge and it comes out clean) Let cool atleast 30 minutes to an hour before slicing! Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, chocolate and caramel.

Caramel Popcorn

One of my favorite treats ever is caramel popcorn. And, I've never made it before, until last week. I'm not really sure why. I just never thought it would turn out. But this stuff is seriously amazing! I made it twice, in one week, and pretty much ate it all myself. The first night I was literally sick to my stomach because I couldn't stop eating it. This is going to be a bad recipe for me to have because I have a feeling I will me making it a little to often!I got this recipe from The Girl Who ate Everything Blog
Tiffany's Soft Caramel Popcorn
by Tiffany Thornton
3 bags microwave popcorn, popped
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (I like to use salted butter since the rest of the popcorn is so sweet)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Pop popcorn according to package directions and make sure you get rid of any unpopped kernels. In a large saucepan melt together the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup. Bring mixture to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, reduce to medium heat and add the can of sweetened condensed milk. With the rubber spatula, stir constantly for 5 minutes scraping the sides and especially the bottom of the pan to
prevent any burning. The longer you cook it the firmer the caramel will be. I like mine a little on the soft side so I like to cook it shy of 5 minutes...around 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

Pour caramel over popcorn and stir until coated. This will take a lot of stirring to get it all incorporated. It's great warm or at room temperature. Feel free to add in M&Ms, nuts, or drizzle it with chocolate. I like it plain and classic. Enjoy!

Salsa Cream Cheese Pasta Bake

When I saw this recipe it looked yummy, and I just happened to have all of the ingredients already so I gave it a try. I know I make a lot of casserole type food and it may not be for some, but I love having leftovers for my husband and I love anything easy. This was way good.

I saw this recipe on Good Things Utah
by: Freshmarketstores.com

1 (8 oz.) pkg. egg noodles
1½ lb. lean ground beef
16 oz. salsa
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cottage cheese
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 (16 oz.) pkg. sour cream
1 (8 oz.) pkg. shredded sharp cheddar

Brown beef, add salsa and seasoning mix. In separate bowl, mix cottage cheese, cream cheese and sour cream together. In greased 9x13 casserole dish, place half of the cooked noodles, then ½ of beef mixture, then ½ of sour cream mixture. Repeat all 3 layers. Top with grated cheddar. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes

Twix Ice Cream Cake

Another recipe from HERE! I don't eat ice cream much, hardly ever. It actually makes me incredibly sick. But, this was very tempting. I'm not very good with temptation. I kept looking at her blog thinking how delightful this looked and kept trying to talk myself out of it. I finally decided I'd make it and just eat a small portion...This picture was taken before it was frozen.

TWIX ICE CREAM CAKE
Recipe By: Holly Lofthouse

1 (1.5 quart) Vanilla Ice cream, slightly softened
1 (16 oz) jar of Caramel Sauce
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions: In a 9x13 glass dish spread out the ice cream evenly. Cover and place in freezer. Freeze to set for 2 hours.
While the ice cream is setting start making the cookie topping. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars in a medium bowl. Stir in vanilla and flour until well mixed. Spread dough into a foil-lined 8x8 baking dish. Bake for 15 minutes or slightly golden. Remove from heat and let stand until completely cooled.
Once Ice cream is all set and cookie topping is completely cooled, take ice cream out of freezer. Pour the caramel sauce evenly over ice cream. Break apart the cookie topping into big chunks and sprinkle evenly over caramel.
Melt chocolate chips in a microwavable bowl. Heat at 30 second intervals until melted. Stir and then drizzle over the cookie topping. Re-cover and place back into freezer for 6 hours or overnight to completely re-freeze. Slice into squares and serve! : )

***edited to add the next time I make this I won't put the chocolate chips on top. It was hard to cut through once they were frozen. Next time I will just use choclate fudge sauce and pour it over the top each time I dish it out***

Easy Rice & Bean Wraps

I guess one good thing of laying on the couch feeling super sick is I've been able to post several recipes in my stack. But it's also making me hungry and I can't eat anything. This is another recipe I've been making for at least 10 years, probably more. It seems like my original recipe came from Albertsons way back when they used to have recipe cards by certain ingredients. These are easy and yummy.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp margarine or butter

1 package (6.8 oz.) Rice A Roni Spanish Rice (the last time I made these I used Uncle Bens Spanish rice and it was actually easier. I always had hard rice in my burritos when I used the Rice A Roni because I could never cook it just right)

1 jar (16 oz.) salsa

1 can (15 oz.) black or red kidney beans, drained, rinsed

1 cup Green Giant Mexicorn, drained (I use the small can, I'm not sure how many ounces it is, but I don't measure a cup out, I use the whole can.)

8 flour tortillas, warmed (I of course only use the tortillas you have to brown on the stove)

shredded cheddar cheese, optional

sour cream, optional

Directions:
In large skillet over medium-high heat, saute rice-vermicelli mix with margarine until vermicelli is golden brown (I used microwavable Uncle Ben's Spanish rice then just put in the pan)

Add 2 cups water, salsa and special seasonings (again if you use the Uncle Ben's you won't have special seasonings to ad and you probably don't need to add water either) bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.

Cover; simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until rice is tender (probably only about 5 minutes if you use the Uncle Ben's

Stir in beans and corn; cook just a few minutes; let stand 5 minutes before serving

Serve in tortillas with cheese and sour cream

Cheesy Chicken Pizza

This is a super fast and easy chicken pizza. If you like barbecue sauce then you could use that instead of pizza sauce. I however don't like BBQ sauce but I'm sure my husband would prefer it. I have no idea where this recipe came from. I've made it for probably 10 years. I think it was probably a Kraft Foods magazine or something like that.
Ingredients:
1/2 package Chicken Breast (probably 2 chicken breasts
1 prepared pizza crust (12 inch)
1/2 cup pizza sauce (or BBQ sauce)
1/2 cup sliced green peppers (I like it with peppers but I know my son won't eat it with peppers so I've been leaving them off.)
1 pkg (8 oz)shredded Mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Cook chicken in 1 Tbsp. hot oil on medium-high heat until cooked through.
Spread crust with sauce. Top with chicken, peppers, mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.

Baked Macaroni & Cheese

My sister n law made this macaroni and cheese and it was the best I'd ever had. I made it and didn't think it turned out good at all. I'm not sure what I did wrong. So, even though I made it and thought it didn't turn out, I'm posting it and hopefully the next time I try it it will be as good as when my sister in law made it. I found the recipe on Food Network. You can google Alton Brown baked macaroni and cheese and it should pull up a video link where he shows you step by step how to make it.

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, Food Network

Ingredients
1/2 lb elbow macaroni (I don't know exactly how much this is. I googled it, but I didn't write down how much I used. I'm thinking about 2 cups, non cooked)
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon mustard powder
3 cups milk
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt
fresh black pepper

Topping
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup panko bread crumbs (At the time I made this I only had regular bread crumbs, next time I'll use Panko bread crumbs for sure.)

Directions:
Prep Time: 15 mins

Total Time: 45 mins
1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta according to package directions.
2 While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes making sure it's free of lumps.
3 Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.
4 Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. (watch the video if you don't know what temper means. Basically you can't pour a cold egg into the hot mixture or it will turn to scrambled eggs so you have to slowly mix a little of the warm mixture with the egg to get it warm before pouring it in the pan.)
5 Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
6 For the topping, melt the butter in a sauté pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes.
7 Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving

Mozzarella Sticks

I saw this recipe on the Pioneer Woman Cooks and wanted to try them but actually forgot about them. Then recently I saw this recipe posted HERE. And of course you can click HERE for a great step by step by the Pioneer Woman and of course better pictures. I finally made these and they were way better than I was expecting them to be. I have been craving them since.

8 sticks mozzarella string cheese
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1 1/2 TBSP milk
1 cup Panko Japanese bread crumbs
1/2 TBSP parsley
salt
canola oil (I only had Olive Oil so I used that instead of canoloa)
marinara sauce

Prep:
Unwrap string cheese. Cut in half.
Put flour in small bowl/plate.
Mix egg and milk in a small bowl, stirring with fork.
Add a few shakes of salt (from the salt shaker) to a small bowl or plate holding the Panko crumbs.

How to:
Roll cheese through flour to coat.
Dip flour-coated cheese in egg/milk mixture so that egg/milk is absorbed into flour coating.
Roll through Panko crumbs to coat.
When finished coating, place prepped cheese sticks in freezer for 20-30 min (to flash freeze).
Fry in 1-2" canola oil until golden brown. Allow to dry on paper-towel.

Serve with marinara sauce.

Makes 16 mozzarella sticks