Simple Veggie Wrap

Simple Veggie Wrap

So Yummy and wonderfully simple

Ingredients:

2 ounces Garlic and herb Cream Cheese
3  tablespoons  Mayo
3  tablespoons  Dijon mustard
shredded lettuce
thinly sliced veggies:  you can use tomato, and red pepper, cucumber, mushrooms,  and red onion just to name a few.
tortillas (You can also use flat-out bread)

Directions:

Mix together cream cheese, mayo and Dijon until smooth.

Spread a layer of the cream cheese mixture in the middle of the tortillas.    Then layer with lettuces and whatever veggies you plan on using.  Remember to thinly slice your veggies.

Dab the ends of the tortilla with some of the cream cheese mixture.  This seals it.

Roll the tortilla tightly and cut diagonally to the size that you want your wraps.

This would be so good at a pot luck, party or get together.

~Enjoy!~

Homemade Pancakes

Homemade Pancakes

This is my recipe for homemade pancakes.  I do make a lot to freeze and for left overs.  So the Ingredients may sound like a lot.  We just stretch it out to suit our family of 6 needs.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup plus  2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 5 cups milk
• 4 egg
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 Tablespoons of Vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Melt butter and let cool to room temperature.  Let Eggs also set out and come to room temperature.

2. In a Large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.  Creating a well in the center.

3. Pour the eggs, melted butter, milk and vanilla extract in the center of the well.

4.  Mix until smooth.  We like the batter consistency of our pancakes to not be to thick or to thin.  So add more milk a little at a time            to get the consistency you like.

5.  Pour batter (I use a quarter of a cup measuring cup…I do not fill it full) onto medium/high heat lightly oiled griddle.  Brown on both sides.  Serve hot!

Notes:  This recipe is made for freezing and for feeding a family of 6.  Which includes 3 growing boys.  You can spice this recipe up by adding Chocolate chips (my kids favorite) smashed bananas, nuts of  any kind, blueberries.  I have added strawberries to pancakes, which happens to be my daughters favorite.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

~Enjoy!~

Let’s Get Cookin’ Top 5 Recipes of 2011

Let’s Get Cookin’ Top 5 Recipes of 2011

I hope you are all having a wonderful start to 2012!  So far so good for us.  I thought I would share the top 5 recipes from my blog.  Plus, I will share my personal favorites.

Top 5 Recipes

1. Snicker’s Pie

2. Homemade Pudding Pops

3. Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies

4.  The “Best” Creamy Peanut Butter Fudge!

5. Red Velvet Cheesecake!

My Personal Favorites!

Luck ‘O The Irish Brownies

Irresistible Chocolate Chip Muffins

Eclair Cake

Pizza Lasagna

And my husband’s personal favorite! Snickerdoodle Brownies!

Thank you all for checking out my recipes!  And please be sure to comment and let me know if you make anything that you found on this blog!   Have a wonderful and prosperous 2012!

Chocolate Dipped Oreo’s

Chocolate Dipped Oreo’s

 Ingredients:

1-pkg Oreo Cookies
1-12 ounce bag of chocolate
1-tablespoon Crisco (optional)
Sprinkles, toppings…etc. (optional)

Directions:

1.  Pour Chocolate in a Microwave safe dish.  Microwave the chocolate and Crisco (optional) at 30 second intervals….until melted.

2.  One at a time dip Oreo’s in Chocolate making sure to fully coat each cookie.

3.  Using a fork lift the cookie out of the chocolate and let the excess chocolate drip off.  I kind of shimmy my fork back and forth.

4.  Place on Wax or Parchment paper to dry.

Notes:  You can use any type of chocolate, any kinds of toppings, and you can even dye the white chocolate to any color you wish using gel dyes.  I chose to go simple in the pictures and just top some of my dipped cookies with crushed Oreo’s.

~Enjoy!~

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup crisco butter shortening
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly-packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups AP (all purpose) flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar (set aside)
48 Chocolate Candy Kisses, unwrapped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream shortening and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add 1/2 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beating until light and fluffy.

Next add the  egg, milk, and vanilla extract; beat well.

Mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into creamed mixture until well mixed.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls (I use a cookie scoop to get uniform cookies) and roll into sugar that you have set aside.

Bake for 7 minutes.  After baking; press a chocolate Kiss into the center of each cookie.  Return to oven and bake an additional 2 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute.  Remove from cookie sheet and let cool on wire cooling racks.

 

Oreo Butter Cream Frosting Icing

Oreo Butter Cream Frosting Icing

Yummy, YUM!

Ingredients:

4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter (softened, room temp)
1 tsp. vanilla
10 Oreo’s Crushed
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

Directions:

1.  Crush Oreo’s in a food processor until fine.

2.  Mix powdered Sugar and butter on low-speed until combine.  Once combine, increase speed to medium speed and beat for 3 minutes.

3.  Add vanilla and mix for another minute.

4. Add whipping cream to get desire texture.  I sometimes do not even add it.  Sometimes I do.

I used this recipe to put finishing touches on my Oreo Cheesecake. Perfect for icing cupcakes and cakes as well!

~Enjoy!~

Oreo Cheesecake with Oreo Butter Cream Frosting

Oreo Cheesecake with Oreo Butter Cream Frosting

So very good!

Ingredients:

3- 8 oz blocks of cream cheese (softened)
1 cup sugar
6 eggs
1 tablespoon Vanilla
3 ounces  sour cream
10 to 12 crushed Oreos

For the bottom crust:

20 crushed Oreos
3 Tablespoons of melted butter

Directions:

1. Line a 8″ spring form pan with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. In a food processor crush 20 Oreo Cookies until fine and crumbly.   While crumbled cookies are still in the food processor add 3 tablespoons of Melted butter.  Give it a few good pulses.

3.  Dump it into the pan and with your fingers press it evenly covering the pan and up the sides just a bit. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl cream together the softened cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar.

5.  Once creamed slowly add one egg at a time.  You will notice the cream cheese mixture ‘break up’ and then come back together.    Once all eggs are added.  Add the tablespoon of vanilla extract and 3 ounces of sour cream. Then add the crushed Oreo’s.

6.  Pour into pan.

7.  Bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes to an hour.

When it is done the top will have some golden brown spots and it will be jiggly in the center but also it will be ‘set’.

8.  Let cool for at least an hour.  (I actually let mine cool overnight in the fridge).

9. Take butter knife around the edges.  And release the spring.  Garnish with Oreo butter cream frosting and Extra Oreos.

Oreo Butter Cream frosting can be found here!

~Enjoy!~

This recipe is linked to the following:

Pumpkin Pie Delight

Pumpkin Pie Delight

Pumpkin Pie in “Cake” form that is a delight to make and eat!  And it is really good the next day after baking!

Ingredients:

Yellow Cake Mix
1/2 cup melted butter
3 eggs
1-(29 ounce can) Pure Pumpkin
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter (FIRM)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 X 13 baking dish with cooking spray. Set Aside.

2. Reserve 1 cup of the cake mix and set aside!

3.  Mix cake mix, 1/2 cup melted butter and 1 egg.  This will be a doughy consistency.  Press into prepared pan.

4. Mix canned pumpkin, 2 eggs, brown sugar, milk and pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl.  Pour into pan and spread evenly.

5.  For the topping mix the reserved 1 cup cake mix, sugar, cinnamon, and 1/4 cup firm butter.  Until crumbly.  Sprinkle on top.  I do this with a pastry blender.  A fork will serve the same purpose.

6.  Bake for 50 to 55 minutes at 350 degrees.

7.  Serve warm or cold.  With Ice Cream or Cool Whip.

~Enjoy!~

Mummy Candy Bar Treats

Mummy Candy Bar Treats

So cute to give to your favorite Ghosts and Gobelins!

Supplies needed:

Scissors
White Crepe Paper (I found mine at the dollar tree.  I paid $1.00 for 2 rolls of it)
Black scrapbook paper or construction paper
Glue (stick or squeeze bottle-I actually used both)
Googlie Eyes ( I bought mine at the dollar tree for a $1.00.  It has 125 Googlie eyes.  It was the LAST package left. )
Full Size Hershey Chocolate Bar

Creating the *Mummy*

This is VERY simple to do!  Perfect craft for having those kiddo’s help!

Cut out a black square piece.  This does not have to be perfect and glue 2 google eyes to it.  Then glue it onto the candy bar.

I used the stick glue to place the paper onto the candy bar.  I used the squeeze glue on everything else.

Starting at the bottom on the front of the candy bar.  Glue down a piece of the crepe paper and hold it secure.  Then start wrapping your  candy bar to form your *mummy*.

My crepe paper was a little to wide for my liking.  So as I went around the candy bar, I folded it in half and it worked perfectly.  When finish tear off the crepe paper from the back of the Candy bar and glue in place!

I am going to be making up about 16 of these.  I am going to give some to the kids that ride the bus with my boys at the bus stop.  I might even make some for my kids teachers.  This took me less than 5 minutes to make.

I found this idea from The Idea Room.

~Enjoy, and have a Spooktacular Halloween!~

Halloween!

*Spooky* Halloween Bundt Cake

*Spooky* Halloween Bundt Cake

Tasty, Moist, & Fun

Adapted From:

Cooking With Sugar

Ingredients:

1 box white cake mix (Plus ingredients called for on package)
1 box Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix (Plus ingredients called for on package)
1 (16 oz) can Fluffy White Whipped Frosting by Duncan Hines
Black food coloring ( I used McCormick Black Liquid Food Coloring)
Purple food coloring ( I used Wilton Violet Gel Coloring)
Orange food coloring (I used AmeriColor #113 Orange Gel Food Coloring-Found at Hobby Lobby)

What I did:

Heat oven to 325 degrees.  I greased and FLOURED my bundt pan.  The ‘extra’ ingredients I need to make the cake batters  were 5 eggs, water, 1/3 cup of oil and 1/2 cup of oil. What ‘extra’ ingredients you may need will vary according to which store bought cake mix you purchase.

This recipe can get kind of confusing and you have to be careful not to over fill the pan because you will run into problems.

To keep my cake batters straight and my thought process together.  I made the cakes separately.  I started with the Chocolate cake mix.  Made it according to package directions and then added black food coloring.

I then took half of that batter (which was around 2  cups and poured it into the bundt pan.  I set the rest aside.

I then made the white cake mix.  I made it in a large bowl that had measurements on the side.  When completely mixed together.  It made just over 4 cups.  I divided the batter equally into two bowls.  I then colored them with my food coloring gels.  And poured the purple into the pan and then the orange.

I then took half what was left of the chocolate batter and drizzled it on top of the orange.  I really don’t think I used even half of the batter.

I had a lot of batter left over instead of tossing it or discarding it…(Who can afford to toss food  of any kind in this kind of economy??) I made cupcakes with the remainder of the batter.  They turned out so adorable.

I placed my bundt pan on top of a cookie sheet to bake because I was afraid of spillage.  Because the cake can rise….and rise it did.  But it was okay….and so was my oven.

Bake at 325 for 55 minutes to one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  

I let my cake cool for 10 minutes in the pan.  Then I turned it over onto a plate.  I am so glad I floured and greased my pan prior.  Even though my pan is non-stick, without the flour added the cake would have STUCK to the pan.

I then let it cool completely for about 45 minutes to an hour. 

Then I divided the frosting into 3rds. Again, I colored them one at a time. And placed each one in the microwave for about 10 to 15 seconds. Then I drizzeled each color over the cake.   

I am glad I purchased the bigger can of frosting.  Since I had enough batter to make cupcakes, I also had enough frosting to frost them.  I was able to take a picture of the only cupcake left.  My kids got to the others before I could get a ‘group’ shot of them.  :)

I didn’t set my cake aside to let it ‘dry’ it was fine to cut into once I was done icing.  I did place it in a cake holder with a lid to store what was left.

Total cost for me to make this cake  & cupcakes (I did have the black food coloring on hand already) was $9.34 cents. Now I will have the gels to use on more baking projects.  Which I love my food coloring gels.

My husband who generally does not like cake said the cake was awesome and very moist.  However, he probably liked it due to it has purple in it.  One of his favorite colors.  My kids raved about it.  It will be made again and again.

~Enjoy!~

This recipe is linked to the following: