Sweet N Salty Bars

These are kind of like the Rice Krispie Treats that everyone seems to love with the peanut butter in the mix and chocolate/butterscotch chip mix on top. But they're different. Who doesn't love the sweet and salty combo?! The pretzels and the Crispex cereal mixed with the peanut butter give it the salty part, but the chocolate on top gives it the sweetness. They're heavenly. Try them!

-1 c. white sugar
-1 c. Karo Syrup (light corn syrup)
-1 c. peanut butter
-2 c. crushed pretzels
-2 c. crushed Crispex cereal (or corn chex/rice chex)
-1 c. Cheerios (I used honey nut)
-1 1/2 c. milk chocolate chips

Stir sugar and corn syrup together in a large pot until sugar is dissolved. Turn stove top on to medium/high heat (7 or 8 on your dial). Bring syrup mix to a boil, but stir occasionally. Let boil for one minute, no longer! Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter until well mixed. Stir in pretzels and cereals until coated. Pour into a 9X13 pan, sprayed with cooking spray. Spread out evenly, but don't push down  too much or they'll get hard. Put chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Microwave another 30 seconds. Stir. If not all the way melted, microwave in 10 second intervals, stirring in between. Spread on top of bars. Allow to set up for a few hours. If you need them sooner, put them in the fridge, covered for 20-30 minutes. Cut into bars.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Has it seriously been a month since I've posted on here?! Holy cow. Well I can at least say that we've been really busy lately. Trying to sell our house... trying to buy another one.. it makes for busy days! Anyway, we had a cold front come through the last few days so it was definitely time for some soup. I put this together today. It was great...obviously, that's why I'm sharing it!! I hadn't even taken my chicken breasts out to thaw before I put them in the crock pot, so that makes life even easier! They can be thawed, but they don't have to be.

-3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
-1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
-1 can original rotel
-1 can red enchilada sauce
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-1 can black beans
-1 10 oz. pkg frozen corn or 1 can of corn
-1 t. ground cumin

-1 t. chili powder
-1 t. garlic powder
-1/2 t. black pepper

Stir all ingredients together, except chicken breasts, in the crock pot. Place chicken breasts in the crock pot. Let cook on low 6-7 hours (if chicken was frozen) or 5-6 hours (if thawed prior to putting in the crock pot). Take chicken breasts out and shred. Put chicken back in the crock pot for another hour at least. Serve with tortilla chips or fritos. Top with cheese, sour cream, etc.

Cinnamon Rolls

I HAVE to share this recipe. I totally wish I could say it's mine, but it's not at all. It's the Pioneer Woman recipe. I can not even explain how soft the "bread" part is. It's not that hard, chewy dough that a lot of cinnamon rolls tend to have. The frosting is MAPLE! My favorite!! This recipe was probably the best thing I've ever googled. Thanks to my client, Laura, for the suggestion. She's awesome. I just wanted to share this recipe with everyone because it is tried and true. It also doesn't take near as long as some other homemade cinnamon roll recipes that I've tried. Totally worth it to take the little time these do take to make them. Hands down, winner winner chicken dinner.


http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/

Autumn Cake Dip

This is a spin off of the Cake Batter Dip. I love fall. I love all fall flavors. It was finally below 90 degrees today. It was cloudy, windy, rainy, stormy at times, and around 65 degrees. Perfect. So I needed to make something fall like. Ta-da! I give you Autumn Cake Dip!


-1 box Spice Cake Mix
-1 container (about 2 cups) Cool Whip (I used fat free)
-1 cup plain non fat yogurt
-1 t. maple extract
Mix cake mix and yogurt together first with a spoon. Add in cool whip. Stir in maple. Serve with cinnamon graham crackers!

I made a smaller version of this so I didn't have a giant bowl of dip sitting around my house waiting to make a permanent home on my thighs...even though I used fat free cool whip and yogurt.. there's still calories in this stuff. Or is there.. Eh let's not spend too much time on that tiny fact. Maybe if you get up, dip your cracker, go back to the couch, eat it, and then repeat, it would be kind of like celery and that whole negative calorie thing or whatever. Ok I'm tired and babbling. Go make this dip and thank me later.

Cake Batter Dip

I've been seeing this a lot on pinterest and finally decided to give it a try. After making it as directed, I made a few changes that I think made a huge difference!

-1 box White Cake Mix or Funfetti Cake mix if you want sprinkles :)
-1 small container (about 2 cups) Cool Whip (I used fat free)
-1 c. plain non fat yogurt
-1 t. clear vanilla extract

Mix cake mix and yogurt together with a spoon. Add in cool whip. Add in vanilla.
Serve with animal crackers, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, fruit, etc.

Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Okay, that name is a mouth full! So, the first pre-season game is tomorrow!! GO CHIEFS!! I didn't really plan on making anything that I felt would be blog worthy anytime soon, buuuut ya gotta have food while you're watching football, right?! Ok, well I think you do. I am also making stuffed peppers to munch on (they're on my blog if you'd like to make them too), along with some hot wings. Ahhh, love football food, as I call it. Anyway, it's like a rule that there has to be something sweet to eat as well (ugh, why can't I lose weight, haha!!). So I combined some of my favorites- chocolate and peanut butter- and put them in cookie form. I pretty much used my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe and tweaked it to add in these other flavors. MAKE THESE!!

-2 1/2 sticks butter, softened 
-1 1/3 c. white sugar
-2/3 c. brown sugar
-2 eggs
-2 t. vanilla extract
-2 c. flour
-3/4 c. cocoa
-pinch of cinnamon
-1 t. salt
-1 t. baking soda
-1 c. peanut butter chips
-3/4 c. white chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Stir the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Add to creamed mixture and mix until combined. Fold in chips. Bake for about 9 or 10 minutes. Let cool a few minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack. (They will look like they aren't quite done yet, but they are! They firm up as they cool!)

I think they serve these for dinner in Heaven. Pretty sure.

Once again, GO CHIEFS!

BORING!

Hello Blog, nice to see you again. Too bad I'm not even posting anything exciting. Just letting you all know that I'm still alive and will post recipes again one of these days. It's been so hot so I haven't been doing a whole lot of cooking. Mostly just grilling or simple stove top stuff like tacos or spaghetti. So I can't say that I've made anything new or blog worthy lately. Once it cools down a little, I'm sure I will be going insane with fall/pumpkin/spice/football/comfort food recipes, so check back when 100 degree weather is not in the 10 day forecast :)

I did make the frozen yogurt dots that had been flying around pinterest. They actually turned out really good. If you haven't seen them all you do is put any flavor of yogurt in a ziploc baggy, snip off a tiny corner, squeeze dots of yogurt onto a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet, and then freeze. Once they're frozen you can put them in a container and just keep them in the freezer. They are pretty refreshing and tasty on these hot days!

Fruit Kabobs

This isn't a recipe- just a fun way to serve fruit at a party. Cut up different fruits and put them on bamboo skewers to make fruit kabobs! So much easier than having to deal with a bunch of bowls of fruit. I like to do pineapple, green grapes, red (but they're actually purple-so weird) grapes, and strawberries. They all tend to stay on a skewer pretty well. Melon fruits tend to tear when you put them on the skewer, unless you do big enough chunks. These are really extra cute if you buy an extra pineapple and stab the kabobs into the pineapple. Makes for an awesome presentation!

Pina Colada Cupcakes

I just made these for a BBQ we had at our house this past weekend. They turned out soooo good! I think the coconut comes out a little more the next day, so if you make them and taste them right away and they don't taste very pina colada-ish, be patient grasshopper! You can top these however you'd like. I went pretty simple. I think a little slice of pineapple would look good on these or maybe a lime wedge? Maybe both together? I don't know. Get creative. Or do what I did with the cherry and the umbrella thingy! Oh, and this is so easy because it's a box mix base and canned frosting base as well! Wahoo for easiness!

-1 box white cake mix (I use Duncan Hines)
-3 egg whites
-1/4 c. canola oil
-3/4 c. pineapple juice
-1/2 c. Malibu Coconut Rum
-1 1/2 T. Coconut Extract
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat egg whites with oil, juice, and rum. Mix in cake mix. Stir in coconut extract. Fill 24 paper lined muffin cups with batter. Bake for about 16-19 minutes or until the top of the cupcake springs back when lightly touched. Let cool completely before frosting.
Frosting-
-1 can Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Frosting Starter
-1 T. Cream of Coconut
-1 T. Coconut Extract
Combine all ingredients together and mix well. Frost cupcakes. Top with rinsed and dried maraschino cherries and a paper parasol/umbrella thingy for an extra island-y feel!

Doritos Casserole

Super easy, super delicious casserole. The way I have this recipe written, it'll serve about 3 people. So if you're making this for just yourself and you like left overs, make it this way. But, if you've got a few kids you're also feeding, go ahead and double the recipe. The reason I love this is because it goes together so quickly. The longest part is waiting for the chicken to cook. However, I'm sure none of you ever have 5 hours with nothing to do, so it's nice to put it in the crock pot and get on with your afternoon. I'm sure you could use ground beef instead of chicken. I've never done that, but I bet it would be good still!

-2 large or 3 small chicken breasts
-1 can Rotel
-Nacho Cheese Doritos
-1/2 can Cream of Chicken Soup
-1 T. taco seasoning
-2 T. sour cream
-3/4 c. mexican style cheese or casserole style cheese
Put chicken breasts in a crock pot (they can be frozen- mine almost always are). Pour can of Rotel over them. Cook on low for 4-5 hours. Reserve liquid in crock pot. Shred cooked chicken and place in a bowl. Pour 1/2 cup of reserved Rotel liquid into the bowl of chicken. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir soup, taco seasoning, and sour cream into the chicken. Cover the bottom of a 9X9 pan with Doritos. Pour chicken mixture over the chips. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and everything is heated through. Top with crushed Doritos right before serving.

Use a 9X13 pan if you are doubling this recipe.

Watermelon Popsicles

These are a great treat for these hot days we've been having! These are adult popsicles. They can be made without the alcohol though! You can try adding in different fruits to get different flavors if ya want. Just make sure everything is totally pureed.

-2 c. pureed watermelon
-2 shots Peach Schnapps
-1 1/2 shots Strawberry Vodka
Puree watermelon until it is completely liquid. Mix in alcohol. Pour into popsicle molds. Freeze. After about an hour, remove the lids and use a knife to stir them again because the alcohol will settle to the bottom. I didn't do this the first time, and it made it difficult to even eat the popsicle. We ended up crushing them in a bowl and eat them with a spoon :-)

Thanks for the hand, Caley!!

Whopper Cake

Think Whopper candy, not Burger King! That was confusing for some ;-) I got this recipe from another blog- The Country Cook. Wish I could say it was my idea, but it wasn't! But, I did make it, and it was delicious! So now I'll share it with you all. I don't have any pictures of the process because I wasn't at my own house when I made this. With the 100+ degree heat we've been having for a while now, our poor air conditioner couldn't keep up and went out! So we had to obviously get a new one. But anyway, we went and stayed at my mom's so I made this cake there. I at least did get an end result picture though!

-1 box Milk Chocolate Cake mix
-3/4 c. Chocolate Malted Milk powder
-1 c. water
-1/2 c. oil
-3 eggs
Topping-
-1 tub Cool Whip
-3/4 c. Chocolate Malted Milk powder
-1 1/2 c. crushed Whoppers
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix water, oil, and eggs together in a bowl. Add in cake mix and malted milk. Stir until combined. Pour into a greased 9X13 pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the middle of the cake springs back when lightly touched. Allow to cool completely. Once cooled, stir Cool Whip and the remaining malted milk together. Spread on top of cake. Sprinkle with crushed whoppers. Refrigerate until ready to serve and refrigerate left overs.
*JUST AN FYI- the whoppers on top will become soft once the cake has been in the fridge. They get kind of caramely like. It's good, but if you like the crunch of whoppers, wait to top the cake until you're ready to serve. Or, top it with half the whoppers immediately and the other half right before serving. It's good no matter what, so don't worry! :)

Steak Marinade

I love to marinate steaks. I like steaks fine without being marinated, but I love all the extra flavor you can give a steak. This marinade has a hint of sweetness from the brown sugar but the garlic, pepper, and liquid smoke give it that savory, smoky flavor. Perfect combination.

(for 2 or 3 steaks)
-1/2 c. A-1 Steak Marinade
-1 t. garlic powder
-1 t. ground black pepper
-1 T. brown sugar
-1/2 t. liquid smoke
-Lawry's Seasoning Salt
Sprinkle both sides of the steak with the Seasoning Salt. Poke with a fork a few times on each side. Mix all other ingredients together in a bowl. Pour marinade over steaks in a shallow dish. You can also put the steaks in a large ziploc bag in the marinade, if you don't have a dish that will accommodate the steaks. Let marinate for at least a day in the fridge. I've marinated them for about 3 days before and they had sooo much flavor! Then just grill as desired.

give them a good sprinkling of seasoning salt

mix marinade

pour over steaks

Who's hungry?!

Cookie Dough S'Mores

This isn't as much of a recipe as it is an idea. Thought of this one while trying to sleep the other night. We went to the lake this weekend and tried them out. Faaaaaaabulous!!!! All we did was use a square of prepared chocolate chip cookie dough instead of Hershey's chocolate for the s'more. Buy a package of the "break n bake" chocolate chip cookie dough in the refrigerated section at the store. You could make your own cookie dough if you wanted, of course. We used cinnamon graham crackers as well. I would suggest flattening down the cookie dough just a little (not to the edges of the graham cracker otherwise it will spill over once it starts melting from the marshmallow), before putting on the toasted marshmallow. Sorry there's no photos to go with this. We must have been too busy eating them to take a picture :-)

Molasses Cookies

These molasses cookies are deliciously soft and chewy, the way I make them. You can probably bake them a little longer if you like crisp, crunchy cookies. These are my father in law's favorite cookie. Maybe they're just high in the rankings- not really sure. Anyway, his birthday and Father's Day were just a couple days apart so that warranted a batch of molasses cookies for him. This recipe will make A LOT of cookies! It is super easy to divide in half though. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas (I LOVE CHRISTMAS!), I make full batches and they go like crazy, just a little FYI.

-4 1/2 c. flour
-1 T. plus 1 t. ginger
-2 t. baking soda
-1/2 t. salt
-1 1/2 t. cinnamon
-1 t. cloves
-1 1/2 c. butter (3 sticks)
-1 c. sugar, plus more for rolling
-1 c. brown sugar
-2 eggs
-2 T. water
-1/2 c. molasses
Sift all dry ingredients together. Cream butter and sugars together in a mixer. Beat in eggs. Mix in water and molasses. Scrape down the sides to make sure everything is mixed well. Add dry mixture to creamed mixture slowly. Refrigerate dough in bowl for 1 hour. I refrigerate the dough to make it easier to roll into balls. After the dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in white sugar in a bowl. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes or until the tops start to crack. Let cool a minute before moving to a wire rack to cool.
*I've made the dough a few days ahead as a time saver, and it worked out great. I put the dough in a large ziploc bag and sealed out all the air. So just make sure that the dough is properly sealed if it's going to be sitting in the fridge longer than an hour.

Double Chocolate Pudding Cups

If you made my ChenChelseas, then you've probably got some Won Ton Wrappers left to use up. Here ya go! Make a dessert with them! I thought of this idea while I was working out today (weird and a little backwards, I'm sure). But these really aren't too "bad" of a dessert. You just can't eat 12 of them if you're wanting to keep the ol' calories down :-) You could use waffle bowls or waffle cones if you'd rather. I really liked the taste of the won ton mixed with the sweetness of the puddings, topped with the toasted pecans, though! You could top these with sliced fruit (strawberries or raspberries, probably) also.

-1 small box Fat Free, Sugar Free Chocolate Fudge Instant Pudding
-1 small box Fat Free, Sugar Free White Chocolate Instant Pudding
-3 1/2 c. milk, divided
-1 c. Fat Free Cool Whip
-Chopped Pecans, for topping
-Won Ton Wrappers or Waffle Bowls/Cones
Make chocolate pudding according to box directions, using 2 cups of the milk. Cover and refrigerate. Mix white chocolate pudding with 1 1/2 c. milk and beat for a couple minutes until smooth. Cover and refrigerate. If using Won Ton Wrappers, place a square in each of 12 muffin cups. Push down in the middles to make a "bowl". Bake at 275 degrees for about 15 minutes or until golden and crisp. Allow to cool. Place pecans on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven for about 5-7 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit on the baking sheet until you're ready to use them. Remove both puddings from the fridge. Fold cool whip into the white chocolate pudding with a rubber spatula. You can spoon about a tablespoon of each pudding into a won ton "cup" at this point. Top with toasted pecans.

**If you want to make them swirled like mine: Tear a piece of plastic wrap off the roll about a foot long. Spoon about half of the chocolate pudding into the center of it. Fold in half and roll up the long way. Tie a knot in one side. Repeat with the white chocolate pudding. Snip the untied end off so there's about an inch or so left. Cut about 2 inches off the end of a piping bag. Place both "bags" of pudding in the piping bag evenly. Squeeze the piping bag in a circular motion into the won ton "cup" or waffle bowl, and it will come out swirled! Top with toasted pecans.

Put the pudding in the middle, fold over.

Roll up and tie knots in the end.

Place both bags in a piping bag. The smaller the tip you cut off the piping bag, the more swirled effect you can get, but it may be kind of difficult to get each color out perfectly. So, just practice a little bit (if you care haha)!

hallllllelujah!

Cheesy Chicken and Rice

The other day when I made Chicken Spaghetti, I went ahead and put a couple extra chicken breasts in the crock pot to cook. I knew I would probably want them later in the week for something. This recipe is so basic. You can get more creative with spices and stuff I'm sure. You can add a vegetable in it if you want, too. I make another variation of this recipe where I use Nature's Way Long Grain and Wild Rice instead of Instant Rice. When I do that, I actually make the rice according to the box directions, then mix it with a can of cream of chicken soup but I omit the oil. Everything else is the same except the baking time. I just keep it in the oven until the cheese is melted. Both ways are good. I actually like the Long Grain and Wild Rice way a little better, but the Instant Rice is much faster and simpler! Try 'em out and see what you think!

-1 c. instant rice
-1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
-2 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-2 cooked chicken breasts, cubed or shredded
-3/4 c. shredded cheese (cheddar, casserole, fiesta, colby jack, pretty much whatever you want/have)
-salt/ pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry rice and soup together in an 11X7 or 8X8 pan. Stir in EVOO. Spread rice around pan evenly. Sprinkle salt and pepper on rice (you probably won't want much salt, just a sprinkle-ish). Put pieces of chicken on top of rice mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 15 minutes.

Scrambled Cheeseburgers

Tonight's dinner WAS going to be Hamburger Helper, but then I decided I was too tired to even make that. Is that possible? Too tired to make Hamburger Helper? Yep, it is. BUT, I did have a pound of hamburger already thawed so I thought I'd better do something with it. I thought I would just patty it up and throw em on the grill. But then I'd have to go turn on the grill...patty the burgers...seasoning...blahhh...oh, and we had HOT DOG buns but no hamburger buns = hamburgers are out. Meet Scrambled Cheeseburgers. Yes, I put them in hot dog buns. Bun is a bun is a bun. It works just the same! While I was getting the hamburger browning for these, I decided I'd better just toast the buns because that's pretty delicious :-)  Austin actually said that toasting the buns was what made these cheeseburgers perfect. TOAST YOUR BUNS! :-)

-1 lb. ground beef
-4 slices American cheese
-1/2 c. ketchup
-1 teaspoon(ish) mustard
-buns
-any additional hamburger toppings you'd like
Brown hamburger. Drain grease, if any. Tear (or cut, if you want to be fancy) up the slices of cheese into a little bit smaller pieces and put in the skillet with the hamburger. Turn burner to low (2 or 3 on the dial). Stir so cheese is evenly distributed and can melt. Stir in ketchup and mustard once cheese is melted. Keep mixture on low for about 5-10 minutes to let everything heat up together. While the meat is sitting, toast the buns! Put a little spray butter or butter spread on the middles. Sprinkle with a little garlic salt. Broil on LOW until they're golden on the edges. Spoon meat mixture onto buns. Top with any other toppings you would like.
*You don't HAVE to toast the buns, so I didn't list butter and garlic salt as ingredients for this recipe. You just should toast them, because it'll taste that much better!

toasty buns!

Bean Dip

This is not the "7 layer bean dip" everyone and their mom makes. It's even simpler. All it is is refried beans, Rotel, and Velveeta Queso Blanco. I have developed a recent obsession with that cheese. That is all THANKS TO BRANDON for introducing us to that marvelous stuff! I made this bean dip for Bunco last night. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it after I made it, so you'll just have to make it for yourself to see what it looks like. I'm sure I'll be making it again though, so someday there will be a picture of it :-)

-1 can Refried Beans
-1 can Original Rotel
-1 bag (2 cups-ish) shredded Velveeta Queso Blanco Cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix beans and rotel together in an oven safe bowl. **If you're like me and don't like the chunks in the rotel, blend it up before mixing it with the beans** Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted. The cheese doesn't have to be melted all the way, if you're okay with stirring it into the bean dip. It doesn't look as "fancy" when you serve it, but it still tastes great! Serve with chips. Or put it in a burrito. Or a taco. Or whatever makes you happy.

Chicken Spaghetti

Chicken Spaghetti is something that can be made very quickly. Especially if you use all my little time saving tricks! This is basically pasta, chicken, and a cheese sauce all mixed together. To save myself some time, I put 3 FROZEN chicken breasts in a crock pot with about a 1/2 c. of water and some seasonings in the morning (ish). I generously sprinkle some garlic powder, pepper, and a little Italian Seasoning all over the chicken breasts. You don't have to be too perfect because it's all going to cook together anyway. I say morningISH because it depends on what your schedule is. If it's a day I'm working, I usually put them in in the morning around 8 and by 1:00 (lunch hour), they're done. So then I can cut the chicken up and put it in a container for later that evening. I've made this on a day off (today) and I put the chicken in the crock pot around 11 and took it out at 5. So really, you need about 4-6 hours. Just do it whenever it works best for your schedule! I say to reserve 1/3 c. of chicken juice or pasta water in the recipe. I would recommend the chicken juice because it has more flavor, if you'll be cooking your chicken like this. I've also boiled the noodles ahead of time before too. Just don't forget to reserve your water if you are using pasta water! The rest of the recipe goes together very quickly! A couple other things: Sometimes I'll make this into 2 meals by using 2 8X8 square pans instead of a 9X13 pan. I bake one and freeze the other. If your family likes having leftovers though, go for the 9X13 pan. Also, you can pretty much do whatever you want as far as chicken goes. Buy a rotisserie chicken, do the crock pot idea, or bake it in the oven. I've even boiled it before and it was fine. You have to add a little more seasoning to the rest of the dish if you boil the chicken though. Lastly, the cheese. You can add more cheese if you so wish. Cheese is delicious. It ranks up there with my love for peanut butter. If you add a little more velveeta, it will be some cheesy lip smackin' deliciousness. Or sprinkle on some more cheddar cheese. Or, just don't add any more cheese and make it the way it's written ;-)

-1 13 oz. box/pkg. spaghetti noodles
-3 cooked chicken breasts
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-1/2 c. sour cream
-8 oz. velveeta cheese
-1/3 c. reserved pasta water or juice from cooking chicken breasts
-1 c. shredded cheese (use cheddar, colby jack, or casserole style)
-salt and pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil noodles according to package directions. While noodles are boiling, cut chicken breasts into bite sized chunks. Set aside. Cut 8 oz. of velveeta into small chunks. Place in a sauce pan, along with sour cream and cream of chicken soup. Heat over medium heat. Once the mixture starts melting, stir every couple of minutes to prevent from burning on the bottom. Once noodles are done, scoop a measuring cup into the water to obtain the "reserved pasta water", and set aside. Strain noodles. Stir cheese sauce again. Pour noodles into a 9X13 pan. Once cheese sauce is completely melted, stir in pasta/chicken water. Stir in chicken chunks. Pour mixture over the noodles. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (we go pretty generously on the pepper, but light on the salt. Then, I just allow people to salt their own dish if they want more). Top with shredded cheese. Put in the oven and bake for just about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and everything is heated through.

Who's hungry?!

ChenChelseas

Pretty crazy name for some food, huh? Well let's all give our thanks to Brooke Martens for making that one up! :) I'll tell you how these came about first. One of my parent's friends, Celeste, makes these little things that use a won ton wrapper as a "bowl" and then she mixes some sausage, ranch seasoning, cheese, and maybe jalepenos or something (I'm not totally sure what is all in them) and fills the won ton wrappers with the mixture. She bakes them and everyone just loves them. They call them Celesties. Brooke kept forgetting what they were called and kept saying chinchillas (ha!) So I got this idea to make something similar but do a taco version. This has probably been done before- I have no idea. But, I decided I'd give this a try. So that's where the name comes from: Celesties-Chinchillas-ChenChelseas. Voila!

-1 lb. ground beef
-3 T. taco seasoning
-3 T. water
-1/3 c. sour cream
-won ton wrappers (these are found in the produce section of the grocery store, usually by the "exotic" veggies)
-taco sauce
-mexican style cheese (or whatever you like on tacos...)
-you can also add any additional taco-type toppings you like
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Place won ton wrappers in a muffin tin. The easiest way is to just place the wrapper above the muffin cup and press down in the center and the wrapper should fold in there right. How many you need will depend on how full you fill them. It'll probably be around 18-24. Once you have a muffin tin full, bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes or until the won tons are golden and crispy. (My first batch I didn't bake long enough, so they were a little soft on the bottoms = not good. Make sure they're crispy!) While the won tons are baking, brown your hamburger. Rinse off any grease there is. Add taco seasoning and water. Simmer for a few minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed. Stir in sour cream. Place about a tablespoon of the meat into each cooled won ton wrapper. Put about a teaspoon of taco sauce on top of the meat. Then, sprinkle a little cheese on top. Put back in the oven for about 5-8 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
**If you are using any additional toppings, put them under the cheese. Traditionally, lettuce would also go on a taco, but I didn't want to put lettuce on them and then have it be soggy and nasty. I guess if you're dying for lettuce, you could top it with lettuce right before serving.
Also, the won tons keep really well. So, you can bake the won tons ahead of time if you want. Just store them in an airtight container. If you bake too many, just keep them in the airtight container and freeze them until you're ready for them again.

This is how browned the won ton wrappers should be

Fill with some meat (I took all these pics before I realized I didn't bake this batch of won tons long enough, so that's why they're not very golden :-(   )

add some sauce and cheese

eat em up

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake for One

I saw a recipe for this on pinterest first. I think it was called Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake maybe..? Well I tried it, and it was not quite up to par for this gal. It was pretty flavorless and DRY!! So I tweaked it a little bit to suit my taste buds and here it is! I used a fairly good sized mug. I think if you make this in a normal size coffee cup, it may puff up over the top, which is fine. BUT, if you're going to be putting a scoop of ice cream on top, you need a bigger mug! Or, the cake actually scoops out of the cup very easily, so you could just plop it out into a bowl and top 'er with a scoop of ice cream. Okay, get to cookin!

-1 egg
-1/2 t. vanilla extract
-3 T. brown sugar
-1/4 c. flour
-1 T. butter, softened
-sprinkle of cinnamon (optional!)
-3 T. milk chocolate chips, or 2 T. milk chocolate chips with 1 T. peanut butter chips (you can do whatever chips you want, really!)
Beat egg in a mug. Mix in vanilla and brown sugar. Stir in flour and butter (and cinnamon, if you're using it). Fold in chips. Microwave 2 minutes. It'll be really hot at first so I'd let it cool a little bit before eating. ORRRRR, put a scoop of ice cream on top of it.

You could certainly experiment with your spices and baking chips. You could use a tablespoon each of milk chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips to get a little trip chocolate sort of thing going on. I also think using white chocolate chips with pumpkin pie spice would be delicious. If you do that, I'd up your pumpkin pie spice to probably  a 1/2 t. at least to get that flavor in there. If anybody tries those, let me know how they turn out!

before you microwave

I ate part of it so you all could see what the inside looks like. How nice am I?...