Football Fiesta Casserole

by penji1

Football Fiesta Casserole When Bob asked me what I was going to make for the family dinner and I told him the name of this casserole, he said “You know it’s not the Super Bowl this weekend, right?”  🙂  I told him that I was pretty sure you could make this dish anytime not just for the Super Bowl but you know what?  It would be great for a Super Bowl party, easy and tasty and meaty for all those football loving men!  This recipe also is from “My Recipes”.

2 pounds lean ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

3 (15 oz each) cans tomato sauce

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

3 (16 oz each) cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 (6 0z) can black olives, drained and chopped (1 cup)

1 (9.75 oz) bag Fritos

1 pound Cheddar cheese, grated

1  Preheat oven to 350.  Saute beef over medium high heat until no longer pink, 5 – 7 minutes.  Add onion and saute for 3 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Add chili powder and cumin and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.  Add tomato sauce, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir in 2 tablespoons cilantro.  (I’ll confess, I put everything in the pan – hamburger, onion, garlic, chili powder and cumin and cooked it all at once and it worked just fine.)

2  Mist a deep 9 x 13″ pan with cooking spray.  Spread half the meat in the dish, then half the beans, then half the olives, then half the Fritos and then half the cheese.  Repeat the layering with remaining meat, beans, olives, chips and cheese.

3  Bake for 40 – 45 minutes, until golden and crispy on top and bubbling.  Sprinkle with remaining cilantro.

Cheesy Baked Penne with Vegetables

by penji1

Cheesy Baked Penne with Vegetables

I always want to try new recipes and I also don’t want to feed people something that they’ve already had at my house before so last night I decided to try out a couple of casserole recipes for the gang and this was the first.  The recipe is from “My Recipes” and it was very tasty.  The second casserole I made was quite different from this one (recipe to follow) and it was interesting to see who liked what.  We seemed to be pretty split with half the group deciding that this was their favorite and the other half deciding on the other casserole.  I liked them both!

salt and pepper

1 pound penne rigate (I didn’t have any penne so went with these which I think are called lumaconi rigati but I’m not positive)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 small red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped

1 small yellow squash, chopped

1 small zucchini, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups (32 oz) spaghetti sauce

1/2 cup torn fresh basil

2 cups ricotta

12 ounces shredded Mozzarella

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1  Preheat oven to 375.  Cook pasta according to package directions.

2  In a large skillet, warm oil over medium high heat.  Add onion and cook for 2 minutes, stirring.  Add bell pepper, squash, zucchini and garlic and saute for 7 minutes.  Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.

3  Drain pasta and return to pot.  Add spaghetti sauce, vegetables and basil and stir.  Taste and season with salt and pepper.  In a small bowl, mix together ricotta, 1 1/2 cups Mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan.

4  Mist a 9 x 13″ pan with cooking spray.  Spread half the pasta mixture in pan then drop spoonfuls of the ricotta mixture over the pasta and then cover with remaining pasta.  Sprinkle with remaining Mozzarella and Parmesan.  Bake until bubbling, about 35 minutes.  Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

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Green Salad with Apples and Toasted Walnuts

by penji1

Green Salad with Apples and Toasted Walnuts

Lots of family in town last night for a visit – my sister in law with the two grandchildren she is babysitting for the weekend and my niece (same sister in law’s daughter!), her husband and baby, Mason who we got to finally meet! And then of course Courtney and Jaren came over for a visit too so feeding a crowd.  All the recipes for the dinner came from MyRecipes.com.  This salad looks kind of boring probably because I forgot to put the dressing on it before I took the picture but it is really easy and tasty too, something you could throw together quickly if needed.

1/2 cup walnut pieces

2 Granny Smith apples or other tart apples, cored, halved and thinly sliced

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons minced shallots

1 teaspoon sugar

salt and pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

8 cups mixed salad greens (I used a head each of green leaf and red leaf lettuce)

1/2 cup craisins (the recipe didn’t call for these but I added some in)

1 Preheat oven to 350.  Spread walnut pieces on a baking sheet.  Bake 5 – 8 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes,  until just toasted.  Pour into a bowl to cool.

2  Place apples in bowl and toss with 1 tablespoon vinegar.  In a separate small bowl, whisk together remaining vinegar, mustard, shallot and sugar and season with salt and pepper.  Whisking constantly, drizzle in olive oil and continue to whisk until smoothly blended.

3  Place greens, apples and walnuts in a large bowl and toss with dressing before serving.

Mini Brownie Trifles

by penji1

Mini Brownie Trifles

Last night was our New Beginnings program at church for the Young Women and I got to make the treats!  Woo Hoo!  I like to make new and different things for them so that we’re not always having cupcakes so yesterday I made about 50 of these individual mini brownie trifles.  They were really easy to make but it did take a little while to put them all together.  I baked three 9 x 13″ pans of brownies right from a mix.  I lined the pans with parchment paper so that I could lift the brownies right out for cutting which made cutting them into bite size pieces so much easier than it would have been doing it right from the pan.  I then mixed up 4 large packages of instant chocolate pudding mixes according to the package directions.  Next up in my assembly line were 3 large tubs (16 oz each) of Cool Whip and then at the end of the line were a bag of Heath Toffee Bits and a tub of chocolate sprinkles.  Then I just started layering – about 4 – 5 brownie pieces at the bottom of the cup, a generous spoonful or two of the chocolate pudding, a generous dollop of Cool Whip and then repeat with brownie, pudding, Cool Whip and to finish, top with either the toffee bits or the chocolate sprinkles and done!  On Etsy I found these cute cupcake toppers with our Young Women theme for the year on them so I printed them off on white card stock and then cut them out and taped them to a green striped paper straw (which came from one of my favorite websites “Pick Your Plum”) and stuck one right in the middle of each cup.  I think they looked really cute and I heard they were pretty tasty too!  Here is a look at the whole dessert table:

Mini Brownie Trifle Dessert Table

And for those of you who might be interested and/or who might serve in Young Women like me, here is a picture of the gift we gave them last night with the theme for the year:

Young Women Theme 2014

I found these glass blocks at Hobby Lobby half off (so $5 instead of $10) and then I cut out the phrase with my Cricut in vinyl (which I also purchased from the “Pick Your Plum” website) in various colors so that the girls could find a color they liked to put in their rooms and then the leaders all got together one night and put the phrases on the blocks.  There was a place on the bottom for a tea light and I just happened to have a bunch of them that I bought for my daughter’s wedding reception when she was going to have an outdoor reception but then decided on an indoor one so they didn’t go to waste!  Easy, cute and a nice reminder for them all year long.

Baby Blue Fondant Wedding Cake with Purple Accents and Flower

by penji1

Purple and Baby Blue Wedding Cake

Courtney and I haven’t had a lot of time for cake making/decorating between our jobs and everything else.  We’ve had to turn down a few but we were able to squeeze this one in for one of Courtney’s friends.  In fact for this one we were never even together for the process as I baked and she decorated on different days.  Her friend just wanted a small, simple cake so this is a mini wedding cake with the bottom layer measuring 8″ and the top 6″.  The bottom layer is marble cake and the top layer is brown sugar.  I found some Wilton fondant in the right color blue and then Cort piped the design on the edges in the purple, her friend provided the flower.  Congrats to Brityn and Tyler on their wedding today!  Hope you like the cake!

Black Bean Soup

by penji1

Black Bean Soup

We love black beans around here and I’ve been looking for a recipe like this one with pureed beans and whole beans in it.  I’m aware that this soup doesn’t look all that appetizing but it was really yummy!  The recipe comes from “My Recipes” and was easy and pretty quick to make.

1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil (I used olive instead)

1 medium onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced

4 carrots, diced (about 1 cup)

3 stalks celery, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

6 cups low sodium chicken broth

4 (15 oz each) cans black beans, drained and rinsed

salt and pepper

6 tablespoons low fat Greek yogurt

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

1  Warm oil in large saucepan over medium high heat.  Add onion, garlic, pepper, carrots and celery and cool stirring occasionally, until softened, about 12 minutes.  Add chili powder and cumin and saute 3 minutes.

2  Stir in broth and beans and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove 2 cups of soup and puree in blender.  Stir puree back into soup and cook 5 minutes longer.  Season with salt and pepper.

3  Spoon into bowls and top with yogurt and cilantro.

Crock Pot Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta

by penji1

Crock Pot Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta

I got to make dinner for my cute neighbor Jean a few days ago, she has been feeling a bit under the weather probably because of the bad weather and air quality around here.  I found this on Pinterest from a blog called “Julie’s Eats and Treats” and it seemed like just the thing!  It was delicious and super easy.

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 package Ranch dressing mix

1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of chicken soup

1 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream (I used fat free sour cream)

1/2 cup real Bacon Bits

3 cups pasta

1  Place crock pot liner in crock pot or spray insert with cooking spray.  Place chicken breasts in liner.

2  Mix garlic, dressing mix, soup, yogurt or sour cream and bacon bits in a bowl then pour over chicken.

3  Cook on high 3 1/2 hours or on low 6 – 7 hours.

4  When chicken is almost done, cook pasta according to package directions.  Serve chicken over pasta.

Buttermilk Spice Cupcakes

by penji1

Buttermilk Spice Cupcakes

We have new neighbors in our cul-de-sac and we wanted to welcome them to our neighborhood so I made these cupcakes to take over to them.  They smelled so heavenly while baking and they tasted just as good as they smelled, comfort food at it’s best!  The recipe comes from “My Recipes” and they are very easy to make.

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

pinch of nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup low-fat buttermilk

powdered sugar for topping, if desired

1  Preheat oven to 350 or 325 for dark baking pans.  Line muffin pans with paper liners.  (This recipe yielded 21 cupcakes for me.)

2  Whisk flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.  On medium high, beat butter and sugar until light, about 3 minutes.  Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then mix in vanilla until smooth.

3  Add 1/3 flour mixture and beat on low until incorporated.  Beat in 1/2 cup buttermilk.  Repeat, ending with flour then turn speed to high and beat for 30 seconds.

4  Divided batter among muffin cups, filling 3/4 full.  Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 18 – 20 minutes.  Let cool 5 minutes before removing from pans.  Top with powdered sugar if desired.  (I sprinkled mine with my Alison’s Pantry Cinnamon Vanilla French Toast Sugar right before baking.)

Chocolate Bread with White Chocolate Chips and Toffee

by penji1

Chocolate Bread with White Chocolate Chips and Toffee

Gotta have some sweet to go with the savory at craft night so this bread fit the bill!  It is delicious, love the combination of flavors.  Next time I will bake it at a lower temperature, probably 325, because mine got a little dark on the outside as I was trying to get the inside baked all the way through.  It comes from a blog called “Crazy Little Projects”.

2 cups flour

1 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups buttermilk (the batter was so thick, next time I make this, I will probably add a little more butter milk, 1/2 – 1/3 cup more)

2 eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/3 cup oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

3/4 cup toffee bits

1  Preheat oven to 325 – 350.

2  Mix dry ingredients in bowl and set aside.

3  Mix buttermilk, eggs, butter, oil and vanilla in another bowl.

4  Gently fold in dry ingredients to wet ingredients.  (Do not overmix.)

5  Fold in chocolate chips and toffee.

6  Pour into mini loaf tins, filling about 2/3 full.  (She made 5 mini loaves, I made 1 large or regular size loaf and 1 mini.)

7  Bake 17 – 20 minutes for the mini and somewhere between 45 – 55 for the larger one (I lost track of how long it was actually in there.)

Broccoli Salad Dip

by penji1

Broccoli Salad Dip

Of the two dips that I made last night for the craft night, this seemed to be the winner.  It also comes from the My Recipes website and was very easy to make and really did taste like the broccoli salad that we all love.

1/2 pound fresh broccoli

6 ounces cream cheese, softened (I bought the lower fat version and it still tasted great)

2/3 cup low fat Greek yogurt

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

4 thick bacon slices, cooked and chopped (I added another slice here too so 5 total)

1/2 cup coarsely chopped cashews (I used sunflower seeds instead because that’s what I put in my broccoli salad)

1/2 cup (2 oz) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

1/3 cup minced red onion

1  Remove and discard large leaves and tough ends of stalks from broccoli.  Peel and coarsely chop stems and coarsely chop florets.

2  Process cream cheese, yogurt, vinegar, sugar and salt in food processor until smooth.  Add broccoli and pulse 12 – 15 times or until finely chopped.  Fold bacon and remaining ingredients into cream cheese mixture.  Chill until ready to serve.