Oreo Cheesecake Bites!

I made these for a treat at my grandpa's 77th birthday and they were suuuuper yummy! I seriously probably ate half myself!

I found this recipe at sixsistersstuff.com


Ingredients:

36 OREO Cookies, divided

1/4 cup butter or margarine, divided

4 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened (I used Neufchatel cheese)

1 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream (I used light)

1 tsp. vanilla

 4 eggs

1/2 pound (8 oz) chocolate candy coating (or other chocolate that can be melted)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325°F.
2. Line 13x9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends extending over sides. Finely crush 24 cookies (I placed them in a Ziploc bag and crushed them with my rolling pin). Melt 1/4 cup butter; mix with crumbs. Press onto bottom of prepared pan.
3. Beat softened cream cheese and sugar with mixer until blended. Add sour cream and vanilla; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each just until blended. Chop remaining 12 Oreo cookies. Gently stir into batter; pour over crust.
4. Bake 45 min. or until center is almost set. Cool (I stuck mine into the fridge for about 2 hours). Meanwhile, microwave chocolate microwaveable bowl until melted (follow directions on packaging); stir until smooth. Use foil handles to lift cheesecake from pan and cut into bite-size pieces. Place on baking sheet covered in wax paper. Drizzle melted chocolate over each piece of cheesecake using a spoon. Stick in the fridge until chocolate has hardened. 

 ENJOY!

Banana Split Cream Puffs

I made these over the weekend and they were a HUGE hit! I'm definitely doubling the recipe next time because it doesn't make a whole lot and we definitely needed more!


INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs
• 12 scoops vanilla ice cream(or whipped cream)(I used whipped cream)
• 1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
• 1 large banana, thinly sliced
• 1(8oz.) can pineapple tidbits(I didn't use pineapple)
• 1/2 cup hot fudge sauce

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring water and butter to a boil. Add flour and salt all at once; stir until a smooth ball forms.
2. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat until mixture is smooth and shiny, about 3 minutes.
3. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
4. Transfer to a wire rack. Immediately split puffs open; Remove tops and set aside. Discard soft dough from inside. Cool puffs.
5. Fill each with a scoop of chosen filling and top with fruit. Drizzle with hot fudge sauce. Replace tops and serve immediately.

Using the whipped cream I was able to stick them in the fridge until I took them to a get together. That's the main reason I used whipped cream instead of Ice Cream. These were SO delicious and you could really make them whatever you want with whatever fruit you want. Wouldn't they be amazing with blueberries?!  Or just regular cream puffs with just the cream! Yum! I can't wait to make these again!

Homemade Tortillas

So I've been gonna try to make my own tortillas for a while and just now got around to it. I'm so glad I did! I was actually shocked the first bite I took and it tasted like a store bought one only better. I don't know about you guys but I use tortillas on a semi-regular basis and this is gonna save me so much money!

 

So do you guys want the recipe? OK here it is!

 

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups of white flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup warm water

How easy is that? I had all these supplies already!

 

DIRECTIONS:

 

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In another bowl combine the warm water and oil.

 Add the water/oil mixture to the flour mixture, one tablespoon at a time(or a little more) and mix the dough with a fork. Once the water is mixed in, add another tablespoon of water and repeat the process until all the water is mixed into the dough.
The dough will be sticky.

Lightly flour a wooden cutting board and knead the dough.
Kneading is done by pushing the dough with the heals and palms of both hands down onto the board. Fold the dough back onto itself, give a quarter turn and push again with the palms and heels of you hands. Just repeat this process for about 4 to 5 minutes, adding flour when the dough gets sticky. Eventually the stickiness will go away and you will have smooth dough.

Place the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp towel or damp paper towel. Let rest for 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into golf ball sized balls by pinching of the dough. Form each piece of dough into a nice ball shape. Place the balls on a flat dish making sure they don't touch and cover with the damp cloth and let rest for another 10 minutes.

Lightly dust your wooden cutting board with flour. Take one of the balls of dough and flatten it out to a 4 inch or so circle. Rub flour on the rolling pin and begin rolling out your dough. Roll until dough is about 1/8 inch thick.

Preheat a skillet or cast iron pan on medium high heat. Place the tortilla on the preheated skillet, You don't need any oil or butter, for about 30 seconds. Flip over and cook on the other side for another 30 seconds. Seriously, That's all it takes! Try not to over cook it or your tortilla will get hard.(I know from experience :])

Keep your tortillas warm by covering them on a plate with a towel or in a tortilla warmer. You can also refrigerate or freeze them. If you freeze the tortillas, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and put them in a Ziploc bag. When you are ready to use them, first thaw at room temperature and then wrap them in foil and place them in a 250 degree oven for a 10 to 15 minutes. Easy right! I'm so excited I found this recipe at http://www.cooking-mexican-recipes.com/flour_tortilla_recipe.html

I had chicken tacos with these and it was so yummy. Oh yeah, did I mention these are low fat! Easy, money saving, and low fat. What more could you ask for?

 

This Weekend

Sorry I haven't posted much lately on my Facebook page. I have been preparing for school and actually just started orientation yesterday! So things have been kinda busy and I haven't had much time to cook anything really! But here's a few different recipes from over the weekend.

I ended up making those fruit skewers I posted on Facebook about a week ago! I used pineapple, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew melon, and strawberries! MMMMM! a whole lot of healthy goodness! :)

Then my husband made these. I'm not sure what kind of spices he uses but they are sausage and cream cheese stuffed jalapenos w/ cheddar cheese! There isn't any specific measurements to these..just to taste!

And then these are cream cheese stuffed portebellos. I kinda messed them up because I was in a hurry and accidentally drenched them with cayenne pepper...they were a little spicy lol. I'm actually not gonna put the recipe on here because I feel like they could have been about a billion times better and I've found several recipes that sound a lot better than this one. All I can really suggest is searching for stuffed mushrooms and you won't be disappointed!

I hope everyone else had some yummy food over the weekend! Hopefully this week I'll be able to cook a lot more!

Are You Ready For Some Homemade Pizza Goodness?!?

Who doesn't like homemade pizza? No one that I can think of! Can you think of a better comfort food and stress reliever than rollin out some dough and assembling whatever kind of pizza you want! Oh the possibilities are endless!

Also there are so many ways to make pizza dough! This one is low-fat and super easy! But I don't know if you have a couple cans of beer handy like we did so if you don't then another recipe will probably work a bit better!

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 12 ounce can of any beer
• 1 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine all ingredients well in a mixing bowl. Since this low fat pizza crust uses baking powder, it doesn't need time to rise like pizza crusts with yeast.

       2. Turn out onto a floured surface and roll to your desired thickness.

             3. Place on a greased baking sheet. Top with sauce and pizza toppings and bake in a 400 degree oven until crust is brown on the bottom.

PIZZA! I just used a can of pizza sauce, but I'd really love to try and make my own sometime! I used pizza blend cheese. Also I rolled up some string cheese around the edges, and voila! Stuffed crust!
It took about 20 minutes for the pizza to cook in my oven, but cooking times will vary. You just have to keep an eye on it! HAPPY COOKING!

Crazy Fun Weekend!

So I haven't had a chance to post anything for a few days! I had a really fun weekend..and well I needed a few days to recover! I also am in the application process to start school which has been taking up a lot of the time I use to blog, and also my husband switched from nights to days at work, so it's all made it hard to adjust to the real world this week!
But don't worry! I tried a new recipe today and am ready to share it with you! So here it is!
I found this recipe at http://www.tasteandtellblog.com/2012/01/baked-buffalo-chicken-taquitos/

this isn't the recipe I followed, but it's pretty close and this one sounds even BETTER!

BUFFALO CHICKEN TAQUITOS

 Ingredients
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/8 cup buffalo sauce
1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese
1/8 cup blue cheese crumbles
1 can (12.5-ounce) Swanson® Premium Chunk Chicken Breast in Water, drained
8 8-inch flour tortillas
coarse Kosher salt

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a bowl, combine the cream cheese and buffalo sauce. Mix well. Stir in the Monterey jack cheese, blue cheese crumbles and chicken; mix well.
Place 2-3 tablespoons of the mixture down the center of each tortilla and roll up. If needed, microwave the tortillas for about 30 seconds to make them soft and pliable enough to roll. Place on a baking sheet. Spray the taquitos with cooking spray, then sprinkle with coarse salt.
Bake in the preheated oven for 17-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with blue cheese dressing for dipping, if desired.

It was so yummy! And easy too! Hope you guys enjoy! Happy COOKING!

Cookie Disaster and Homemade Sideshots

So today I attempted to make my own cookie recipe. At least make cookies without really following a specific recipe(which I've never done). I'm sure there is probably someone somewhere with a recipe with what I was trying to make but I didn't look! They didn't turn out well! Haha which just goes to show I am in no way a super, great, amazing cook. I'm new at this! So just be patient with me! :)

I will be trying it again, and hopefully soon. I'm pretty sure I know what I need to do to tweak because the last batch I made turned out looking like a cookie at least! Haha so as soon as I do get cookies out of the recipe then I will certainly post it on here and it will be delicous!

However, I did have some success in my cooking adventures today! I started out to make Mini Cheeseburgers that I found on pauladeen.com. I quit following the recipe, though, after the first few steps.

If you've ever had Hotpocket Cheeseburger Sideshots then you can imagine what these taste like, but (in my opinion) these are better. Homemade stuff usually is! So I will call them Homemade Sideshots!

These measurements might not be exactly what I used, I'm still getting used to cooking with sharing the recipe being my intention! Before I know it, I've thrown the ingredients in and then I remember how I probably should have measured them for you all! I'll get better I promise!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1-2 tablespoon(s) ketchup
• 1-2 tablespoon(s) Dijon mustard
• 1 package shredded low-fat cheddar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tablespoon of butter, melted
• 2 containers of crescent rolls
• salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Put ground beef, ketchup, Dijon mustard, 1 cup cheddar, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix together thoroughly. In a small bowl mix egg and butter.(I don't feel like the egg and butter are necessary steps. That's just what I did.)
3. Shape ground beef mixture into small meatballs(about 2-3 tablespoons each is my guess) and put in skillet. Cover and cook until beef is browned, flipping once halfway through, about 15 minutes.(I think)

    4.Roll out one can of crescent rolls. Place a meatball in the center of each crescent roll and top with some of the shredded cheddar(to taste). Roll up. *There is no specific way I rolled these up. I just made sure most, if not all, the beef mixture was covered*

 

5.Spread butter and egg mixture over top and put in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Note: I didn't use all of my crescent rolls but there wasn't enough in one package for all my meatballs so I used too and just filled the remaining crescent rolls with cheese! Also, next time I will probably use 2 pounds beef because it doesn't make much! At least probably not enough for a whole family! So if you're cooking for a family I would use 2 pounds ground beef and adjust the other measurements for that as well!

 And Voila! Homemade Sideshots! Let me just say again that this recipe may not be exactly what I used! I will get better at measuring my ingredients so you're all not cooking in the dark! But this recipe is fairly easy to just go with your gut on and it's mostly about your tastes! So Let me know how they turned out for you!

HAPPY COOKING!=] Now I'm gonna go crank up some music and do the millions of dishes I used today! Can't they just do themselves just once!

Oh and here's a pic of my little guy enjoying a strawberry today while mommy messed up her cookies! lol