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!