Orange Chicken - Quick, Easy, Delicious!

Ingredients:
2 Lbs of chicken tenderloins
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 Tsp lemon juice
1 Cup orange marmalade
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt
Pepper

Other Utensils:
Skillet
Tongs
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Baster/brush

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Melt butter/oil in skillet. 

Salt and pepper chicken. 

Brown both sides of the chicken lightly. 

Mix mustard, marmalade, and lemon juice together - whisk vigorously for 1 minute. If you don't do it for an entire minute exactly - we will know. And the chicken police will be headed to your location. 

Remove chicken from pan. 

Drain skillet. 

Return chicken to pan and cover with orange mixture, coating chicken thoroughly. 

Cook on each side 1-2 minutes on stovetop. 

Slide into oven for 3 minutes. 

Flip chicken. Baste/brush chicken with orange sauce. 

Return to oven for 3 more minutes. 

Continue process until chicken is cooked through. Mine only took the one on each side, but every chicken is - if nothing else - a special snowflake in its own right. Only tastier than snowflakes. Way way tastier. 

Broil on low for just a few moments. To get the slightly browned look you see in the pictures above. Maybe 2 minutes on low, tops.

Remove chicken from pan and return pan and sauce to stovetop. 

Cook until sauce reduces slightly and pour glaze over chicken. 

Serve. 

I made this first with bone-in chicken thighs. They work wonderfully, too. Here's their closeup, Mr. Deville. 

But I find you have to work harder to eat bone-in chicken thighs. And, selfishly, I just wanted to eat all of them. So we tried the next time with boneless tenderloins. The result was nothing short of amazing.

I wish I would have snapped a better shot of both times I made this in the last week or two. But, seriously, it vanishes so quick - I haven't had an opportunity to!

Good luck, let me know if you make your own version and how it turns out! 

Banana Bread Muffins - Only 3 Ingredients (Gluten Free Option)

My favorite - okay, only - sister has been eating wheat free. While you do not have to eat gluten free to eat wheat free, wheat is pretty much in - well, everything. Except for gluten free flours, of course. We have been experimenting with all the different flours (I'm on a tapioca/potato starch kick lately), and we try to pick up gluten free mixes or treats when we're out to try which are best. One of the grocery stores near us had a huge selection of GF one day. She was stoked. While going to stock up the other day she was informed they were just running it as a test and they would not be carrying more gluten free products. She bought all the yellow gluten-free cake mixes that she could find, because that's all there really was left. 

So we have a lot of cake mixes. I ran across an idea for banana bread with cake mix, eggs, and bananas. We also had 3 over-ripened bananas sitting in the fruit basket at home. We thought to try to make them gluten-free and then made them into muffins. We're all about portion control. I lie, I ate two that night. We then decided to try some of them with the chocolate chips. These were, of course, even better than the "regular" ones. They're banana bread-y without being too heavy and positively divine while still warm out of the oven. 

While I'm a huge supporter of  making things from scratch when you can? I'm also a big supporter of being able to make something tasty and quick when possible, and I hate wasting fruit. So we solved all of those in one night. Bonus that we made our gluten-free. But I imagine they are just as wonderful with all the tasty glutens. 

So, try them for yourself. Let us know what you think. Go ahead, you know you want to. Go bananas. See what I did there? 

Ingredients:
3-4 ripe bananas
1 box yellow cake mix
2 eggs

chocolate chips (optional)

Other utensils: 

Bowl

Spoon

Cooking Spray

Muffin pan

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mash ripened (over is better!) bananas with fork until smooth.

Add 2 eggs and mix well.

Stir in cake mix and incorporate well.

Spray muffin tins with cooking spray.

Fill muffin tins 3/4 of the way. 

If you're adding chocolate chips I suggest adding a few to each tin and then stirring in well. You can add a bunch to the mix before pouring into the tins, but adding to the individual tin  promotes even distribution and stops you from having way too many or too little. 

Bake for 17-20 minutes or until tops spring back and toothpick inserted is clean upon insertion. 

Lemon Honey Rosemary Chicken

I made this the other night and posted it to Facebook. A few friends asked for the recipe. I have done my best to recreate it here (I stink at remembering how I cook things, at times, but really I don't think I forgot anything here..? Heh!) Here it is! It was marvelous, really. I feel like there's something wrong with saying that about your own cooking - but I suppose I never followed the rules anyway, right? 

Ingredients:
2-3 lbs of chicken breasts (I used bone in)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
2 lemons
2 shallots
6-10 "stalks" of rosemary
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil cooking spray

Other Utensils:
Skillet
Tongs
Food processor (or excellent chopping skills)
Measuring cups
Knife
Cutting board
Lemon juicer


Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 

Take half of the rosemary sprigs and de-leaf them. (You know that's not the technical term for any of that, right? This isn't the Food Network. This is a blog that a hungry girl is typing up...I think you'll be okay though. Just keep up, kids.)

Throw two shallots and the rosemary into the food processor and pulse for a few moments.

Juice lemons until you reach 1/4 of a cup. Try not to get yourself in the eyeball. Good luck, my friends. I'm rooting for you. 

Combine the lemon juice, oil olive, and honey. Add to food processor. Pulse well. 

Cut the remaining lemons into cute little thin circles. I made sure I had two lemon circles for each piece of chicken. They really weren't paying attention to how many they received though, those fowl are flighty sometimes - see what I did there?

Spray chicken with olive oil cooking spray. Salt and pepper. Flip after a few minutes and do the same to the other sides, of course. Again, not technical cooking skills here,people. I don't know what you were expecting. I'm sorry. Sorrynotsorry?

When both sides of the chicken look sufficiently tanned (but not Snooki orange) pour the liquid over the chicken. Stand back and enjoy the smell, because seriously? So good.

Add remaining "stalks" (Someone with culinary experience reading this is dying as I butcher what to call rosemary stuff) and lemon circles to the skillet. Make it look pretty, there will be awards appointed to the best looking ones.

Cover with foil. 

Pop into oven.

Cook for 20 minutes.

Remove pan and foil carefully. Spoon liquid over chicken. 

Cover with foil and return to the oven. The chicken, not you. This isn't Hansel and Gretel, people. 

Cook another 20 minutes. 

Remove from oven. Let sit briefly. It has been a long journey for these birds. They need a nap. Or to cool so you don't burn your mouth off.

Enjoy!

Here's where it gets weird. My sister came in from work and started eating it and said it was missing something. She ended up cutting into a whole breast and eating it that way. I was so sad to see she wanted barbeque sauce. But then I tasted it. It wasn't flavorful enough. But the chicken breasts were huge. When I went in for mine, I sliced off a few big piece of the breast and let it sit in the liquid in the pan. I added salt and pepper to taste when I removed the pieces from the pan and plopped them (lovingly of course) onto my plate... and it was divine. Try it both ways. I think you'll agree with me. I think next time I make it I will toss it into the crock pot after browning instead to let the flavors meld and marry more (equal rights for food, guys, let them marry) because the flavors were outstanding. Also if your chicken breasts aren't gigantic you may not have that same issue that we did.

This was a big experiment. So if you try it let me know what you thought and if you tried the letting it sit in the juices for a few and enjoyed it as much as I did!

Note: You don't need a food processor. You could chop and stir all of that. I'm just lazy and have an amazing "Ninja" processor. Thanks, Grandma! You have enabled my laziness.

Lemon Squares - The Cheaters Edition

The other day I was missing my dad. He loved lemon squares. And food in general. I wanted to make some but didn't have enough lemons to even attempt it. After some Internet browsing we came across a lot of tips on how to do them with angel food cake mixes. Which of course I didn't have. So we made a crust (from another recipe) and crumble from a yellow cake mix and added pie filling, which had been done in the angel food cake mix recipes. I am sure I wasn't the first to come up with this idea. But I love it.  

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1 box yellow cake mix
1 can lemon pie filling

Other utensils: 

Bowl

Spoon

Cooking Spray

13 X 9 inch glass pan

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix (room temperature) butter and cake mix together until combined well. 

Spray pan with cooking spray.

Reserve 2/3 cup mixture of cake/butter mixing.

 

Press mixture from cake/butter into the bottom of the pan to form a crust.

Pour lemon pie filling on top of the formed crust.

Spread evenly.

Crumble remaining mixture over the top of the lemon pie filling. 

Cook for 25 minutes. 

That's it. It's seriously that easy. They were delicious. I like mine cold, so I waited a few minutes and then cut out two pieces and slid them into the fridge for Mom and I to try. I can't say enough how easy and tasty they were. And three ingredients. Voila. 

We're debating on what we want to try as the pie filling next: cherry or peach. Either way, I think we hit the nail on the head with a tasty and easy way to make dessert next time we are craving a sweet treat.

Tip: I know that they have a great gluten free yellow cake mix. This could easily be a great crust for many gluten free desserts, for sure.

Stuffed Red Pepper Soup

Yesterday we realized that we had a lot of red peppers. We had intended on making stuffed peppers, but then stuffed pepper soup sounded better. With February 4th being Homemade Soup Day - we decided to try this instead. It turned out to be a good decision. It's warm, filling, and with the turkey and brown rice, maybe even better for you than our stuffed peppers would have turned out! 

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
1 large yellow onion
3 shallots
4 medium to large red peppers
1 can crushed tomatoes
4 cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon onion salt
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup cooked brown rice

Other Utensils:
Large soup pot
Knife
Wooden Spoon
Cutting Board
Strainer

Directions 

Brown turkey in soup pot.

Strain.

Return to pot. 

Dice onion, red peppers, shallots. 

Add to pan. 

 

Cook for 5 minutes. 

Add in crushed tomatoes, chicken stock, onion salt, and Italian seasoning. 

Bring to a boil. 

Reduce heat. 

Cover. 

Simmer for 30 minutes, at least. 

Cook brown rice. 

Stir in rice before serving. 

Try not to eat it all in one sitting. 

Enjoy!

Mashed Cauliflower

I have a serious love affair with potatoes. I feel guilty cheating on them. But sometimes you have to be a little responsible, I suppose. And so I sometimes (sorry taters) make a mashed cauliflower. Tonight I omitted the chicken stock I usually use for a healthier take and it was actually fantastic. I was surprised and felt guiltier than ever. I still love you potatoes!

Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon butter
salt and pepper to taste

Other Utensils:
Large pot
Strainer
Food processor/blender/potato masher
Bowl
Spoon
Cutting Board
Knife

Directions 

 

Set large pot of water to boil. Salt water!

 

Cut head of cauliflower into small florets and wash.

 

When water reaches a roaring boil, toss in all the cauliflower.

 

Cook for 10 minutes or until veggie is very tender.

 

Strain, reserving 1/4 cup of the water.

 

Pour cauliflower into blender or processor (or mash by hand if you're not as lazy as I). Blend.

 

Add 1/2 of the extra virgin olive oil.

 

Add 1/2 of the reserved water.

 

Process (or mash) further.

Add the remaining oil.

 

Process more!

 

At this point it is up to you if you want to add more of the reserved water or not. As little or as much as you'd like to get the consistency you're looking for. The cauliflower retains water as you cook it, so if you "over water" it will be runnier. Still tasty, but watery.

 

Add butter, salt, and pepper and stir until butter melts completely. You can add more butter, I imagine a lot of people would. I just err on the side of letting people add it as they wish when they eat it.

 

Now then, taste it! Marvel at how you're eating cauliflower and not potatoes.

 

Tip: Not everyone loves cauliflower. To help those people along I suggest some parmesan cheese (grated) just sprinkled on top. Also awesome? Topped with green onions.

 

Note: Depending on size and consistency I would say a medium to large head will feed 3-4 adults very comfortably. But sometimes it doesn't seem like much when you're done. (Maybe because I am so hungry by the time it's over.)

 

Enjoy, but please don't tell potatoes I let you in on this secret. I think I'm already in hot water with them!

Crock Pot Apple Butter

Apple butter has no butter in it. I know, I know. Your mind is blown. You are welcome. Instead it is just a wonderful buttery like substance that comes from cooking down the apples with the right amount of spices and water. And then blending until perfection. It's easy.

This is how you take this:

And turn it into this:

And  yes, even with them being little apples. And even with them having bad spots (or some of them being that bad) you can turn them into delicious apple butter. Listen carefully, kids. (I'm kidding. It's so easy you don't even have to pay attention.)

• Get some minions. Have them core, peel, and cut the apples. I make them into smaller chunks because...well, my apples are small. It's easier that way. Plus, less blending.
• Throw the apples into a huge bowl. 

I used probably 30-35 of these small apples that someone graciously donated my way so I could figure out how to make excellent apple butter. I would imagine that a dozen or dozen and a half "normal" sized apples would suffice.

• The trick is take the amount of mixture I'm about to lay forth and make sure the apples are coated thoroughly. Not sprinkled upon. Coated. That's the trick, folks. They need to look brown and tasty. If you have extra "stuff" leftover after you coat your apples? Cut another. Seriously. Just do it. (If you need more to make them look coated? Make some. You seriously can't mess this up. Throw in a spoon of brown sugar, a pinch of cinnamon and half a pinch of allspice and go!)

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

• After you have coated them thoroughly, throw them in the crock pot. Take the bowl you were thinking about licking and don't. Instead add 1 cup of water. Swish around to get every speck of tastiness and then dump it into the crock pot. Stir it around. There should be enough water to at least cover the bottom of the crock pot. The apples do NOT need to all be covered.

• I cook mine on med or med/high until I go to bed and then turn it down to low. In the morning it will look like tarry, sticky (barely juicy) mess, more than likely. If it doesn't? Pop the lid and vent it and cook on high for a bit longer until it does. If you have too much juice (This has only happened to me once) just use a slotted spoon to remove everything else. Or strain it and reserve the juice in case your apple butter needs more liquid (mine didn't but you can never be too careful I suppose.)
  
• I have a ninja food processor. So I just throw it all in there and blend for maybe 20 seconds and it's butter consistency. Use your immersion blender or counter top blender the same way.  

Voila. Seriously. That easy.

Feel free to tell me how wonderful your version was.

I will say I used a Splenda blend on one batch and no one knows the difference. It tastes just the same to me, for sugar content conscious folks.

It is seriously that easy. And while it's good right away? It is even better after you put it into the fridge and let it get cold. It will firm up wonderfully and the spices seem to marry even more. It's fabulous on toast, biscuits, English muffin - pretty much anything.

I was given a ton of zuchinni around the same time and was making mass amounts of zuke bread, too. I had a few people put it on their loaf of zuchinni bread and rave about it, too.

Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash

I have a food problem. Meaning I am one of those people who will fill your Facebook feed with pictures of what I am cooking. I feel like I should apologize, but I just don't. Because it usually is amazing food. So...you're welcome? Instead of I'm sorry...? Heh.

This particular picture was met with many - "ew, that looks gross." or "What is that?" or "Interesting...?" instead of the usual "That looks great!" I would like to pretend that this swayed me not to post this here. But I can't, not. Because a.) It's tasty b.) It's easy. So ignore the fact that you think it looks gross (it isn't pretty, I won't pretend it is...) and just try it!

Ingredients:
2 Acorn Squash
1 lb. breakfast sausage
1 medium onion
2 stalks of celery
1/3 cup sour cream


Other Utensils:
Skillet
Knife
Wooden Spoon
Cutting Board
Baking Dish large enough to fit all 4 halves of squash

Directions 

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees  

 

Cut acorn squash in half and scoop out seeds

 

Cover bottom of baking dish with water (just enough to barely cover the bottom)

 

Place squash into pan cut side down

 

Cook for 35-40 minutes (until it is almost fork tender when you remove it from oven)

 

While that cooks

 

Brown one pound of sausage with onion and celery, making sure to crumble it as it cooks

 

Remove from heat when cooked and stir in sour cream 

 

When acorn squash is fork tender, stuff them with the meat mixture

Return to oven for 15 minutes until heated through

 

Enjoy!

GLUTEN NOTE: Gluten free is easy here. But as always, check your ingredients to make sure there are no hidden things you weren't aware of. 

HEALTHY NOTE: I usually use turkey sausage and a low-fat sour cream just to make it healthier as you go along. But it is just as delicious without these modifications, I imagine.

Black Bean and Corn Tortilla Bake

I try to make a few meat free options when possible. Because why not? Also beans are fabulous. Especially black beans when you mix them with corn. So when I found a recipe much like this one (I have only done a little tweaking) in a cookbook my mother bought me for Christmas a few years ago, I knew I had to try it. 

The chopping and prep time for this was a little much. In terms of time before you actually cook the dish. So don't worry, I thought "ugh" as well. But there IS a payoff. Also some of it could be prepped earlier in a day or even the day before, I would imagine. And then you could throw it all together. It's most definitely worth it. I'm debating on making the "filling" just for rollups inside romaine lettuce or to put on top of rice for easy lunches. That's how good it is. Summation: It's worth it, trust me!

Ingredients:
1 large onion
1 medium green pepper
1 shallots (or garlic clove if you aren't a vampire and don't have shallots)     

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cans (15 oz each) black beans
1 can (14-15 oz) vegetable broth
1 package (10 oz) frozen corn * thawed
4 green onions
Flour tortillas
1 cup shredded cheese (any kind would work)
Cooking Spray

Other Utensils:
Cutting board
Knife
Skillet
Spring form pan (I used non- spring form, it's just messier, but doable)
Spoons
Colander 

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Chop onions, shallots, and green peppers (Author's note: You know how you always want a way to chop onions without crying? My sister has found the perfect solution. ....are you ready for it? Just let your big sister do the chopping. She was a very good supervisor. I only cried once. It was the onions, not her management tactics, I think. )

Heat oil in skillet and add onions, shallots, green peppers, cumin, and pepper to the skillet. Just heat until a bit tender.

Rinse the black beans. 

Add beans and vegetable broth to veggies in skillet. Bring the mixture to a boil. You will boil in until the liquid is almost gone. (That's a pretty exact measurement for you. Almost gone.) 

In the meantime, grab your green onions and slice them thinly.

Since you're bored and waiting for the liquid to vanish from your skillet feel free to add the corn and green onions together as they look so pretty in the same bowl, don't they? Not necessary...but hey, it's your cooking show. Do it how you like. 

When liquid is almost gone from your tasty concoction, stir in the green onions and corn mixture. Remove from heat. (Marvel at how tasty it looks. Feel free to grab a spoon and try it out. Because, seriously - it's good....)  

Here's where it gets messy. Grab a round pan. Springform would be best, but I didn't have one and so oh well. Which means my tiny 6 inch tortillas were a little bit too small. Just adds to the fun of trying to put it together. Who needs perfection?

Spray the round pan with a little cooking spray. 

Start your layering. It should go like this. 

Tortilla

Mixture

Cheese

Tortilla

Mixture

Cheese

Tortilla

Mixture 

Cheese

Tortilla

Cheese

I was messy. I only got two layers out of it and then I made two pans instead of one. Either way it's going to be tasty. Here's my messy little thing before it went into the oven and then after. 

To get from picture A to picture B just throw it into the oven for 17-20 minutes. It should be heated through and the cheese should be melty and fabulous. And when you cut it should look all messy and fantastic like: 

Tips: I am looking for a healthier tortilla for the next time I make these. The carbs and calories in a regular tortilla are a bit out there if you're trying to eat healthy. But if you eat a slice or two of this? I wouldn't worry. It's when you want to eat the whole thing you have some issues, I think.  (Which I wanted to.)

A gluten free version would definitely be possible if you used a corn tortilla or if you used another gluten free option. Or just skip the tortilla, make the filling, and enjoy. It's fantastic.

 

Easy Slow-Cooker Pot Roast

Ingredients:
1 medium sized beef roast
1 packet of dried onion soup mix
1 can or small bottle of soda/pop/coke
salt and pepper



Other Utensils:
Slow cooker
Fork

Directions

Salt and pepper the roast on both sides 

Add to slow cooker

Empty one packet of onion soup mix over meat

 

Pour coke over the meat

 

 

This is the part where it fizzes and I feel slightly like a mad scientist and cackle maniacally 

(feel free to improvise here and become your character..)

  

Cook on low for 6+ hours

That's really it. You eat it. You love it. You think - "Wow, that was easy. I should never tell anyone how easy that was..."

If you're around, turn the roast every so often, but I've found that isn't really imperative. And when you do turn it near the end? Be prepare for it to fall apart and be so tender you lose chunks in the process. As evidence I submit the following picture to the jury:

The only evidence of this that exists is photographic. And it was hard to wait to take the picture and not just to eat it. But then I did. I thought of you all while doing so. So that has to count for something, right?

Seriously. It's that easy. And that fabulous. Serve it with whatever you want! Mashed potatoes. Rice. Boiled potatoes. Veggies.

Soon I will make a post that outlines the crazy things we do with the leftovers from a roast. Usually we make Italian beefs or BBQ beef. But it's one roast that usually makes two to three (separate but equally amazing) dinners.

Note: I used Diet Coke here to cut out sugars, sure, but mainly because it was what I had on hand. You can use regular Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, anything in place of it. I could go on about how it tenderizes the meat and caramelizes some of the onion flavor - but do you care or do you just want to eat? Just eat it.

Gluten Tip: Lipton's was gluten-free for as long as I can remember. But they had reformulated and added barley. I'm unsure if that's still the case or not. Feel free to read up on it: here. And if you're looking to make sure the onion soup mix is totally gluten free here is a good recipe for that.

Gluten Free Onion Soup Mix

3/4 cup instant minced onion
1/3 cup beef bouillon powder
4 teaspoons onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed celery seed
1/4 teaspoon sugar

One package = 5 tablespoons.

Onion Soup Recipe Credit: Food.com  I've used it once and found it to be a great substitute. 

Easy Potato Soup (Gluten-free, vegetarian option, 6 Ingredients!)

My mom is my best food critic and lover. Sometimes we can't agree on food, however. This is one of those days. I love my potato soup full of cheese. I want it to be stringy with melted cheese with every bite. She does not. Unfortunately, besides just adding tons of heavy cream, I wasn't sure how to make it really creamy without the cheese. I just dump in a lot. And there you go - voila! Tasty and thick wonderful potato soup. This weekend we tried to figure out a good non-cheesey but creamy potato soup. I think, after putting together a few ideas from different recipes we were browsing through, we have found a winner! We both agreed the soup was good. And I settled with some cheese and bacon on top of mine to still make it the way I like it. Best of all? Incredibly easy. This could easily be adapted for vegetarians, as well. No garlic, no flour, gluten-free. And all around awesome.




Ingredients:

10-12 potatoes
Chicken Broth (8 cups or so)
1 1/2 packages cream cheese
Onion
salt
pepper
bacon (for topping, if desired)
cheese (for topping, if desired)

Other Utensils:

Peeler
Knife
Large pot
Potato masher thingamabob
Empty stomach with which to enjoy all the tasty treats


Directions:

Peel and dice potatoes. Big chunks are totally acceptable.

Cut the onion into large chunks and toss into the pot.

Cover potatoes and onion with chicken broth (I use a lot, for many leftovers and because I usually put mine over bread which thickens it. You decide, after they boil, if you'd like less or more juice and drain or add, easy peasy.)

Bring to a boil.

Turn to low heat.

Add salt and pepper for taste (Remember it is a large pot of soup, so you may need more)

Let potatoes turn tender and then use potato masher for thickening. Mash as few or as many as you want. Don't worry about doing it in a pretty or uniform way. You're just going to be enjoying how tasty it is. I don't mash much because the potatoes are so soft and they're falling apart by now, anyway. But the mixture of chunks and creamy soup is perfect. So you may want to mash just a bit. You can't screw this up, so do whatever you think, at this point! It's still going to taste wonderful. 

Here's where it gets weird. Toss in the cream cheese. Mine didn't always melt totally when I tried this, so you may want to let it get to room temperature. And maybe cut it up. I didn't and I had to scoop some chunks out because I wasn't ready to bite into pieces of cream cheese. Heh.

Let the cream cheese melt, stirring from time to time. When it melts completely, turn the pot off, leave the lid on and move aside until ready to eat.

Pour into a bowl and seriously get ready to be overfull in no time.

Note: This had tons of leftovers. I froze over half of what I made. But I'm excited to eat it again. Also I used less cream cheese than I reccommended for you to use, here. And it wasn't thick enough for my mother's liking (and that's what we were going for) If that happens to you, too? We fixed it easily by throwing some of the bread we had heated up onto the bottom of the bowl and pouring the soup over the top. Perfect. Thick, chunky, tasty. And soft potato soup soaked bread to eat at the end of the bowl? One of the best "mistakes" you can make in a kitchen setting if you ask me. Next time we'll just use more cream cheese, however.

I topped mine with the bacon and cheese pieces. If you're looking for a vegatarian option, use veggie broth instead and omit the bacon. And without the flour rue that many soups call for - this also makes a great gluten-free option, too. (I use homemade chicken brothe, more often - but Swanson's is gluten free as well!)

Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (No Nuts, No Flour!)

This is, without a doubt, one of the easiest recipes I have ever found. I keep adding to it and trying it different ways. And they're always fabulous.

I first made these, years ago, for a special little girl in my life with Celiac Disease. It's so hard to find good treats for them. And it's hard enough when you're an adult - but to be a child and not have a decent cookie? Ridiculous. So we tried everything. This was one that stuck and we still make today. Only now we add chocolate chips, because - why not?!

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Other Utensils:

Large bowl
Spoon
Cookie sheet
Cooling Racks


Directions:

Preheat oven to: 350 degrees.

In large bowl, combine the sugar and peanut butter until well mixed. Add the egg. Stir until combined completely. Fold in chocolate chips.

(I would use mini-chips, only I never have them. So I usually take almost 1/2 cup of large chips and throw them into my food processor to create a small - albeit not well formed and pretty - chocolate piece. You could use the normal sized chips, as well. I just find that they're a bit large for the small cookies I prefer to make mine into and the small pieces fit better and melt a tad better). 

Drop the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and press down slightly. I make my cookies almost bite-sized. So I usually get at least 20 cookies from this recipe.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cookies sit for 5 minutes (this is important! moving them too soon is not only difficult, but messy as they will crumble) and then transfer to a wire cooking rack to cool.


Most importantly: ENJOY!

Variations:
These are great without the chocolate chips.
These are also just as great with Splenda as a substitute for sugar.

Meatloaf Muffins

I live alone and love to cook. This poses a problem when making things like meatloaf. Then one day I ran across a meatloaf muffin recipe. It cooks quicker, which helps as I am a late-worker, and it produces small little meatloafs instead of one huge meatloaf that I will never eat all alone.


I then combined the idea of muffins with the easiest meatloaf recipe ever.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of meat (I use turkey and beef often. Or all turkey. Pork and beef are fabulous too.)
2 eggs
3/4 cup water
One box of stuffing (I use Chicken flavored Stove Top, as I know it is garlic-free.)
About 1/4 cup Ketchup

Other Utensils:

Two large bowls
Rolling pin (or a plastic cup)
Muffin pans
Cooking spray.

Directions:

Preheat oven to: 350 degrees.

In one bowl combine:
Both pounds of meat.
Mix well if using more than one type of meant. Break it up either way, trust me, it will make it easier!

Remove the bag from inside the box of stuffing and use a rolling pin to crush up the contents. I made this, this evening, at my parents house. They do not have a rolling pin (I must have been adopted?) so I used a large plastic cup and rolled it back and forth. Worked just fine! And what a clean-up time saver - you roll the pin over the closed bag. NO CRUMBS!

In the other bowl combine:
Crushed contents of stuffing mix
3/4 cup water
Two eggs
A few big squirts of ketchup

Mix well.

Combine the contents of both bowls and mix well. There is no need to add additional seasonings or any breadcrumbs, thanks to the stuffing mix!

Grease the bottom of the muffin tins. I use an off-brand spray. I know everyone has their preference.
Fill muffin tins to the top of each tin. Press flat.
Small squirt of ketchup on top of each.
I prefer to then use a knife to spread a thin layer on top. Again, your preference.

This 2 lbs of meat made me 19 muffins. Sometimes it ranges from 17-20 small meatloafs.

Cook for 35 minutes at 350. After 35 minutes I always choose the largest one and cut it open. Make sure they are cooked well before removing them all from the oven. On average they are fully cooked after 35-45 minutes.

I try to remove mine quickly from the pan. It doesn't always happen and there is no real consequence. I just prefer they get out of the "grease" at the bottom of the tin as quickly as possible. I have heard that some people have drilled holes in their pans to let the grease drain out. This seems even messier. So I haven't tried it!

Enjoy!

This is the extremely easy meatloaf version. It also seems to be the one that pleases everyone at once.

I prefer veggies in my meatloaf sometimes. Here are some good add-ins. Just throw a few handfuls in as you mix everything together in one bowl:

Green peppers
Red peppers
Onions
Carrots
Mushrooms

I have tried all of the above and they're all wonderful! A few handfuls of each works just as great.

Other substitutions:

I have made homemade bbq sauce and substituted all the ketchup for this sauce.

If you have any other suggestions for add-ins? Let me hear them!

These freeze so well! This is why I make so many at once. I freeze them sitting flat in a container. When you want to have one or two? Pop them out a few hours beforehand. Or reheat them from frozen. They do great!

Another note: I have made this with a gluten-free stuffing and they turned out extremely tasty!