Halloween Cookies

by penji1

Yesterday was Halloween cookie day here!  Woo Hoo!  Love this time of year when I can bake to my heart’s content!  So here are a couple of super easy and super quick Halloween cookie ideas for you.

First, Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies, just get a pouch of Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix (or any peanut butter cookie mix for that matter), follow the package directions for preparing the dough, scoop or shape into 1″ balls and bake for about 8 – 10 minutes at 350.  Right when the cookies come out of the oven, squish a Hersheys Kiss right in the middle!  Let sit for 10 minutes then remove from cookie sheets.

Next, Candy Pumpkin Sugar Cookies, saw this idea on Pinterest and just made it a little easier.  Again, get a pouch or box of sugar cookie mix (I used a box of Krustaez Snickerdoodle cookie mix and just left off the pouch of cinnamon and sugar), prepare dough according to package directions, shape or scoop into 1″ balls, bake 8 – 10 minutes at 350 then squish a candy pumpkin in the center when they come out of the oven, let sit before removing.

I made over 5 dozen cookie in less than an hour!  Happy Baking!

Easy No Bake Cookies aka Gorilla Poops

by penji1

After we went through the school lunch ideas, I had the girls make some no bake cookies.  This recipe is from a blog called “Six Sister’s Stuff”.  They have a post with 50 No Bake dessert ideas, how great is that?  These were really easy to make and the girls had fun making them and, best of all, they are delicious!

Mix and bring to a boil:

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 cup milk

Take off burner and add:

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup peanut butter, crunchy or smooth

Mix well until peanut butter is dissolved.

Quickly add 2 cups of quick uncooked oatmeal and mix.  Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper or foil.  Let cool before eating (which turned out to be the hardest part of the recipe).

School Lunch Ideas

by penji1

The girls all came over to my house last night for our weekly activity where I gave them some school lunch ideas and then we made some no bake treats.  The genesis for all these lunch ideas came from a blog called “Easy Lunchboxes”.  Her blog is amazing so I would recommend checking it out if you need some lunchtime inspiration.  She makes all her kid’s school lunches for the week on Sundays.  I gave the girls just a small sample of about 10 lunch boxes but on her blog she has around 180 ideas!  Also, one last note, I found these cool lunch containers at Dollar Tree, 2 for $1!

Crunchy peanut butter and 1/2 a sliced Fuji apple on a flour tortilla, baby carrots and a couple of graham cracker and Nutella sandwiches

Ham, cheese and Ranch dressing wrapped in a flour tortilla, baby carrots, 1/2 a Fuji apple and a bag of chocolate bunny grahams

Crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jelly on a whole grain sandwich thin, cheese stick, veggie chips and a Ghiradelli chocolate

Ham and cheese on Ritz crackers, red grapes and 2 Hershey Bliss chocolates

Shredded cheese wrapped in a whole grain tortilla, homemade guacamole, tortilla chips and a Ghiradelli chocolate

Tuna salad on lettuce with pickles, cheese stick, 1/2 whole wheat Pita flat bread, a package of 100 calorie fudge stripe cookies

Tuna and lettuce wrapped in a whole grain tortilla, pretzels, cheese stick, banana chocolate chip muffin

Cheese cubes, pepperoni, cheddar bunny crackers, baby carrots, Jr Mints

Cheese cubes, Wheat Thins, sliced strawberries, honey bunny grahams

Mixed greens with Feta and craisins, Ranch dressing, 1/2 whole wheat Pita flat bread, 100 calorie pack mini brownies

Garlic Lime Chicken Fajitas

by penji1

My daughter Courtney recently got engaged and so last night we invited her future in laws over for dinner so that we could meet them.  We decided to do a fajita bar which I’ve never made before.  They turned out pretty great!  We did both chicken and steak fajitas as well as lime rice (recipe already on blog) and black beans and refried beans plus Southern Style Salsa (recipe also already on blog) and Bob’s homemade salsa and guacamole plus all the fixings (lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, etc) and then Tres Leches cake with Cool Whip and strawberries for dessert (this recipe too is already on the blog).  It was yum-o!  Here is the recipe for the chicken fajitas and I’ll throw in the steak fajitas too at the end.

1 package McCormick Recipe Inspirations Garlic Lime Chicken Fajitas (here is what is in that pack if you want to make your own – 1 teaspoon minced garlic, 1 teaspoon minced onions, 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin, 3/4 teaspoon oregano leaves, 1/2 teaspoon cilantro leaves, 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper)

1/4 cup each lime and orange juices (I didn’t have any orange juice so just added 1/4 cup water)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips

1 medium green or red bell pepper, cut into thin strips (I ended up using 1 green, 1 red, 1 orange and 1 yellow bell pepper)

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

8 (8″) flour tortillas

1  Mix juices, oil, spices and salt in small bowl.  Reserve 1/4 cup of marinade.  Place chicken in large resealable plastic bag or glass dish.  Add remaining marinade; turn to coat well.  Refrigerate 30 minutes or longer for extra flavor.

2  Cook and stir chicken in large heated skillet on medium high heat 3 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove from skillet.  Add bell pepper, onion and reserved marinade; cook and stir 5 minutes or until tender.  Return chicken to skillet.  Cook 2 – 3 minutes or until heated through.

Here are the beef fajitas which were prepared very similarly to the chicken, just used an envelope of McCormick Fajita seasoning in place of the garlic lime pack for the chicken, just follow the directions on the package.

Breakfast at Fanny’s Grill

by penji1

 

Today is my 27th anniversary!  27 years ago I married my sweetie and best friend Bob!  We celebrated on Monday night by going out to dinner at La Jolla Groves restaurant in the Riverwoods and then we went up and spent the night at the Homestead resort in Midway.  After we checked out Tuesday morning, we ate breakfast at the little restaurant on the property there called Fanny’s Grill.  We both ordered the Cinnamon Bun French Toast which, as you can see from the picture, is enormous!  We should have ordered just 1!  I ate in about 1″ and that was it, in fact, Cort and I each had a wedge for breakfast today and there is still over 1/2 the thing left.  So if you ever find yourself in Midway, near the Homestead Resort, around breakfast time, I encourage you to check out Fanny’s Grill where you can feed your family of 4 – 6 the Giant Cinnamon Bun French Toast for $10!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

by penji1

So, I was craving muffins this morning (oh, who am I kidding?  I crave muffins EVERY morning!) and wanted a quick and easy recipe so I went right to Betty Crocker’s website and found this one.  Quick, easy and delicious!

1 egg

2 cups Original Bisquick mix

1 1/4 cups mashed very ripe bananas (2 – 3 medium)

1/3 cup sugar (I used Splenda to take the calorie count down)

3 tablespoons oil

1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (I used regular sized chips and doubled the amount to 2/3 cup)

1  Heat oven to 400 (or 375 for dark pans).  Place paper baking cups in each of 12 regular size muffin cups or grease bottoms of muffin cups.

2  Beat egg slightly in medium bowl; stir in remaining ingredients just until moistened.  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

3  Bake about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

 

Nutella Cookies

by penji1

This recipe comes from a website called “Tasty Kitchen”.  They are super simple and super delicious!  🙂

1 cup Nutella

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 egg (the batter was so crumbly that I couldn’t get it to stick together to form balls so I added another egg)

Preheat oven to 350.  Blend all ingredients together well.  Form into 1″ balls (I used my mini scoop) and place on cookie sheets.  Press down firmly with the bottom of a glass.  (I didn’t have to do this since I added that extra egg.)  Bake 7 – 8 minutes (mine needed about 10 – 12) or until set.  Cool a few minutes before removing from cookie sheets.  (I was thinking they would be even yummier with some more Nutella smeared on the top like frosting!)

This recipe yielded about 36 cookies.

 

Chocolate Covered Oreo Cookie Cake

by penji1

Today is my son Zach’s 24th birthday!  And he requested this cake which I have made for him before on previous birthdays.  It is a Kraft recipe and is pretty quick and easy to make and looks pretty impressive and is really tasty!

cake:

1 Devil’s food cake mix + ingredients listed on box to make cake

glaze:

4 squares semi sweet baking chocolate

1/4 cup butter, cut up

filling:

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups thawed Cool Whip (a regular size tub of Cool Whip is about 3 cups, I just add it all in!)

12 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped

1  For the cake, heat oven to 350.  Prepare and bake cake as directed on package in 2 (9″) round cake pans.  Cool in pan 5 minutes.  Invert onto wire rack.  Cool completely.

2  For the glaze, melt the chocolate in microwave on high 1 – 2 minutes or until chocolate is melted, stirring after 30 seconds.  Blend in butter.  Set aside to slightly thicken, about 5 minutes.

3  For the filling, beat cream cheese and sugar until well blended.  Gently stir in Cool Whip and cookies.  Place 1 cake on serving plate, top side down.  Spread evenly with cream cheese mixture.  Place second cake on top, top side up.  Spoon glaze to cover top of cake only.  (I put some more crushed Oreos on the top in the center for decoration.)

Light Chocolate Chunk Coffee Cake

by penji1

My friend LaRobyn and I go to the Taste of Home Cooking School almost every year when it comes to our area.  We just went on Tuesday, September 11 and for the first time since we’ve been going, I won a bag of groceries!  They give all kinds of prizes away including all of the dishes that they make there that night, prizes from their sponsors, etc.  Walmart was one of the sponsors and I won a bag of Walmart groceries!  This was one of the recipes that they prepared that night and I so wanted to win it but didn’t so I made it for breakfast this morning and it was delicious!  I didn’t have all of the ingredients so had to change a few things which mostly means that there was nothing light about my version at all.  I’ll give you the original version and my changes.  If the Taste of Home Cooking School comes to your area, I highly recommend that you give it a try; if you’re a foodie like me, I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy it!  You can find the schedule for the cooking schools here.

topping:

10 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used a 12 oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips)

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/3 cup Domino or C & H Light, Sugar and Stevia Blend (didn’t have this so used sugar, just have to double the amount of sugar)

cake:

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons Domino or C & H Light, Sugar and Stevia Blend (again just double for sugar)

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups light sour cream (I used regular)

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 10″ tube pan.

2  In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients.

3  Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, sour cream and vanilla until well mixed.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  On low, add flour mixture to batter, beating until smooth.

4  Spoon 1/3 of the batter (about 2 cups) into prepared pan, spreading evenly.  Sprinkle with 1/3 of the topping (scant 1 cup).  Repeat layering 2 more times.  Bake 55 – 65 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on wire rack 20 minutes before removing.

Colorful Topsy Turvy Fondant Wedding Cake

by penji1

I’ve been working so much that we haven’t really been able to make many cakes this year but my friend Charles at work got engaged so I asked him if we could help out and make the cake and they said yes so here it is!  They had a whimsical color scheme with lots of colors so we tried to get all of those colors on the cake and I think it came out pretty good especially given that it was a topsy turvy cake.  The bottom and top layers are Funfetti cake and then the second layer is chocolate and the third layer down is brown sugar.  Most of the fondant is Duff fondant from Michaels.  Congratulations to Charles and Jyllian!