Self-Filling Cupcakes!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Everyone!

I love exchanging recipes. If I can get my hands on a REALLY good one, chances are my family are going to be eating in within a few days or weeks.

In the middle of December I had a Recipe Exchange & Christmas Party at my house with some of the other Mom's from Pre-School. Tracy, brought these cucakes....ok so you're thinking cupcakes BIG DEAL....UH HELLO...THEY WERE A BIG DEAL!! I was unable to try one while she was at the house, but I grabbed one before going to bed. Ok so that's a lie, I ate the last 2...oops..lol.

These cupcakes are HEAVENLY! Tracy made white cupcakes, but being a try Chocoholic, tonight I made chocolate ones.

The recipe is simple, and not to sweet. It took me no time at all to get them made, and because it was cold outside, I put them on the front stairs to cool off...however I obviously did not leave them long enough because the frosting became more of a glaze. Still totally DELISH!

Thanks Tracy!

Enjoy Everyone!

Self-Filled Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 (8 ounce) pkg of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips ( I think next time I make chocolate ones I am going to use Peanut Butter Chips.......k...now Iam drooling)

1 (18.25 ounce) pkg chocolate cake or white cake mix (whichever you prefer)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, or to the temperature recommended on the cake mix package

2. Prepare cake mix according to package directions, but do not bake. In seperate bowl cream together cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg util well blended, then stir in the chocolate chips.

3. Line cupcake tins with papers. Fill 2/3 full with chocolate ake batter. Add 1 teaspoon cream cheese mixture to the center, and top woth more cake batter.

4. Bake according to package directions for cupcakes. Cool and frost.

Christmas Traditions!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! I could live at the North Pole, work for Santa and be the happiest person in the world!!! I can't get enough of Christmas. I start planning the week after for the following year...yeah ok so that's a bit much, but hey....it's one of my secret indulgences.

Now that I have kids, I am trying to keep some of the traditions that I remember growing up. Especially the baking!!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS BAKING!! It's the only time of year that I do mass baking and instead of freezing it, it goes right into the cookie jar or on to a Christmas themed serving plate and on the table. This year, I have decided to just do a small amount of baking, since I am not having the Turkey dinner at the house there really won't be that many people around and with my Cruise and trip to Mexcio less thatn 3 months away, I don't want to indulge to much and have to work overtime on the treadmill or live at the gym!

This year when deciding what to make, I obviously inculded homemade Nuts & Bolts. I use the same recipe that Aunty Janelle uses. It never fails. It fills my large roasting pan, and even though you can freeze it or store it in tupperware type containers to keep for awhile, it never lasts more than a week or so around my house. My kids and husband LOVE it!

The recipe calls for:

1 box of Cheerios

1 box of Shreddies

1 bag of Peanuts (I use Planters Salted Cocktail Peanuts)

1 bag of Preztels (I use Rold Gold Sticks)

1 cup of butter or margarine

2 tbsp Seasoning Salt

1 tbsp Onion Powder

1 tsp Garlic Powder

Mix Cheerios, Shreddies, Peanuts & Pretzels in large roasting pan. In saucepan melt butter, add seasoning salt, onion powder, garlic powder and stir until mixed together/almost dissolved. Pour over Cheerio mix. Roast in oven at 250 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, mixing every 20 mins. I like Aunty Janelle, double the seasoning recipe (including the butter) to get more flavor.

Also this year when searching for things to bake, I came across a Betty Crocker Recipe for Layered Peanut Butter Bars....anything with peanut butter and chocolate is AWESOME and this recipe does not disappoint!

Cooke Base:
1pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® peanut butter cookie mix
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
1 egg

Filling:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk

(sorry I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like before the Chocolate went on top)

Frosting
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter

1.Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray.
2.In large bowl, stir all Cookie Base ingredients until soft dough forms. Press dough in bottom of pan using floured fingers. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
3.In small bowl, beat all Filling ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Spread mixture evenly over cookie base.
4.In microwavable bowl, microwave all Frosting ingredients on High 30 seconds; stir until smooth. (I used a quick double boiler becuase my microwave died last week and we haven't bought a new one)Cool 10 minutes; spread over filling. Refrigerate 30 minutes or until set. For bars, cut into 9 rows by 4 rows.

(adapted from Betty Crocker)

THESE BARS ARE AWESOME!! THEY TASTE JUST LIKE A PEANUT BUTTER CUP!!! They are defniatley on my list of things to make over and over again!

ENJOY!!!

MERRY CHISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

UPDATE: I AM NOW HAVING CHRISTMAS DINNER AT MY HOUSE....SOOO MORE BAKING AND COOKING IS NOW IN ORDER......!!

Fall Comfort!

One thing I love about Fall is, it means that I can make comfort food again! I LOVE making all the things that Grandma made as we grew up...with the exception of Hamburger Stew!

Today was a perfect fall day! It was sunny, crisp and you could smell fall in the air. So I thought Meatloaf! I never really cared for Meatloaf, until a couple of years ago. I think it's because I changed the recipe that Grandma used to make. Hers always was kinda dry.

So to start with I take 1 package of Ground Beef, and mix it with 1/2 a chopped onion., 1 box of Stove Top Stuffing (either Chicken or Turkey) and a probably 1/4 cup of BBQ Sauce. Although tonight I didn't use BBQ Sauce, I used a Dutch Ketchup that I grew up eating with my Dad. I mix everything together by hand, and put it in a casserole dish. That's it, then I put it in the oven at 350 for about 40-60min, depending on how big the package of ground beef is. Tonight was 40 min cause it was a small package.

Then about 10 min before the Meatloaf is done, I mix 1 can of Tomato Soup with 3/4 can of Milk, and pour it over top. Again tonight I didn't have Tomato Soup so I opted for Mushroom Soup...sooooooooooooo good! I think I might use Mushroom soup more often. I then put it back in the oven for about 10 min, or until it's starting to bubble and go a bit brown.

Viola! A Yummy, easy Fall Comfort Food Dinner!

I like having the soup on top becuase I like putting on the mashed potatoes. Tonight we had rice, because I uesed the last potaotes last night. We also had peas and cream corn! But enjoy anyway you want!

Easy Chicken Stir-Fry

A big thing with me is being able to make fast, easy dinners for my family. Each of us is a big Chicken fan. So anytime I make a dinner involving chicken it's a good thing. Everyone will eat it! One big hit in our house is Teryaki Chicken Stir-Fry. I used to make the sauce from scratch, but have learn that in a house where we have 2 toddlers; time is of the essance!

For this recipe I usually start with 3 frozen chicken breasts, (sometimes they are thawed, it just depends on when I remember I am making this for dinner), and pop them in the microwave on defrost for 4 min. This usually thaws them enough so I can cut through them and make them in to bite size pieces. I start cutting and dropping into our stove-top wok, that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Once the chicken is in the Wok, I let it brown. This usually takes about 8 or so min on a med/high heat. While the Chicken is browning, I add a variety of spices/sauces. It depends on what type of stir-fry I am making. Tonight I added prepared crushed garlic, and some onion salt to the Chicken for flavor. I also added a cap full of soy sauce.

Once the Chicken is browned, I add the bag of Fajita Mixed Frozen Veggies (red, green & yellow peppers and pieces of onions) You can use any kind of frozen veggies you like. I just happened to have this bag in my freezer.

I then mixed the veggies and Chicken together. On top of this I added the bag of Farkay Chow Mein Noodles, and about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of water. Turn heat down to medium. The steam from the water and the frozen veggies thawing will make the noodles soft. Stir a couple of times to prevent things from sticking to the bottom of the Wok, and from burning.

Once the noodles are soft, I add the VH Teryaki Sauce. This is excellent stuff! It's nice and thick and coats everything. It also gives the Stir-Fry a nice kick. Not to much, that my kids can't or won't eat it...it's just right! Once the VH Sauce is heated through....ENJOY!

You can use any number of sauces with this stir-fry. There was one that I saw, a Mild Chili Sauce that I might try.....maybe on our next shopping trip!

My Version of Chip Chicken and My Favorit Salad (a version of it)

Ok, so I love to cook. Even better I LOVE TO EAT, this would be why I am always searching for new recipes to try. This would also be the reason why I have joined Weight Watchers....lol. So now I am committed to finding Healthy Recipes that I can feed my family and maintain and continue my wegith loss.

I "borrowed" this recipe from my cousin Dale. I saw it on her blog and HAD TO TRY IT! I am definatley not dissappointed!

I started with 4 chicken breasts. (Dale used 2, but I have more people to feed..lol) and cut them in to bite size pieces. I then placed the chicken into a "milk bath". While Dale used Buttermilk, I just used the regular 2% milk that was in my fridge..I don't care much for Buttermilk!

I then dredged the Chicken through a bowl full of a crushed bag of Old Dutch BBQ Chips. I have to pause here for a minute and tell a little story that I remembered while I was crushing the bag of the chips. I was standing there pounding away on the chips and rembered as kids that the 4 of us cousins (Dale, Myriah, Melissa and I) would ALWAYS crush the bags of chips that we would buy. For some reason we thought that by crushing the chips we would have more...lol.....ahh the thoughts of a child....lol

I then placed the chicken pieces on a foil covered cookie sheet and into the oven at 425F for 25 min. The only reason that I chose this setting for the oven was becuase both the French Fries that I made for the boys and my Sweet Potatoe Fries needed to be cooked at this temperature for that long. It worked! Everything came out cooked perfectly!
The fries were nice and crispy (thanks to McCain) and my new favorite Sweet Potato Fries were great!

While the Chicken and the French Fries were in the oven, I made my version of my favorite salad. A local Pub (The Barley Mill) makes this Spinach Salad that has; baby spinach leaves, roasted pecan pieces, red onion slices and feta cheese in it! IT"S TO DIE FOR!!! I have it everytime we go to the pub!

Normally I make it just as it is in the restaurant and use whatever salad dressing I have in the fridge. Tonight though I changed it up a bit. I for some reason grabbed a Baby Spinach Salad KIT, not just baby spinah leaves. So in to the bowl went Baby Spinach leaves and the walnuts and dried cranberries from the kit. I then added the red onion slices and peacn pieces ( I didn't roast them). I also forgot to get Feta Cheese....lol...so I cubed up some Marbled Cheddar Cheese. While I prefer the Feta because it gives a bit of a salty taste to the salad, the cheddar was fine. To compensate for the lack of Feta Cheese, I used Kraft Greek, Feta & Oregano salad dressing. HOWEVER; Hillside Estate Winery makes a Garlic Vinagarette dressing that is sold at the Wine Shop here in town. I think this dressing would be FABULOUS on top of the salad!.

I really enjoyed dinner tonight! I LOVED the Chip Chicken, and even thought about a couple of other flavors of chips (like; Doritos Sweet Chili Heat or the Cool Ranch) that would be great on the chicken. I can never eat enough of the salad, I could eat it everyday!

Thanks Dale for the great inspiration for tonights dinner! It was awesome!