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



 

Yum VEGGIES!

I just wanted to make a quick post about my veggie garden that I have started. Me and my husband recently bought a house and we've always loved gardening but never had the room! Well now we do! Yippeeeee! And now that I have my lovely new hobby, growing my own ingredients feels like the next step in the circle of life! Haha. No but seriously, it'll be fun! That is if they turn out. My mom has a green thumb, and I've had my doubts on whether I hav inherited that or not, but look at this---->

Ahhh! Isn't that awesome! I planted these seeds Maybe a week ago(if that! I lose track of time a lot!). Maybe I do have my mom's green thumb afterall! I'll keep you updated on my garden throughout the summer! Hopefully my last update on them will be when I'm cooking them! But who knows! I live in Idaho and it's hard to plant stuff without having it freeze! Brrr! I'm crossing my fingers though that all my little baby veggies will turn out to be big grown up yummy adult vegetables that will fill me and my family's tummys! =]


I've planted brussel sprouts, corn, carrots, jalepenos, turnips, banana peppers...and countless others that I can't remember right now because it's late! I'll post a full list of stuff I've planted in a later post!
I used Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Mix and Lawn and Garden Mini-Greenhouse Seed Starter! I can't wait to watch these little babies grow into edible veggies!(at least I hope that's what I'll be watching them do lol! I'm new to this!) I'll keep you updated!

Chicken Pot Pie MUFFINS! say what?!

These are so yummy! And pretty simple to make! I made three batches and each one got decidedly better and easier! Gotta love when what you're making starts out looking like crap, and by the time you're completely finished looks like it came straight out of a cooking magazine! Ok, well maybe not that good! Ha!

So here is the Recipe I KINDA followed.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tbsp. butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, diced
• 1 bag(16 ounces) frozen vegetables
• 2 cans(8 ct.) flaky butter tastin biscuits
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• nonstick cooking spray

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cook frozen vegetables as directed on the bag. In seperate pan, heat cream of chicken soup.

*Now this is where I kinda stopped following the recipe- I didn't use frozen vegetables. I used canned ones. I used a can of whole-kernel corn, a can of cut green beans, and a can of chopped carrots. All drained. and I threw them in a sauce pan with the 2 cans of  cream of chicken soup and turned it on to a low heat and let it cook, stirring often. I thawed some leftover shredded, cooked chicken I had from the other day earlier, and threw that in there as well.
Can I tell you how much chicken I used exactly? No. I didn't measure. I threw it in until I figured there was a balanced chicken to veggie ratio lol. So really, I feel like its all up to you! You want lots of chicken? Throw it on in! You want less? Then have a mostly veggie pot pie! It will still turn out scrumtous I am sure!*

3.Lightly spray muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray. Seperate dough into eight biscuits; seperate each biscuit into two layers. Place light biscuit halves in sprayed muffin cups, pressing to cover the sides and bottom.
4. Once the frozen veggies are done, drain and combine with the cream of chicken soup. Add the diced cooked chicken breast, garlic powder and black pepper and combine well.

*Obviously during number four I just added the garlic powder and black pepper. And again I didn't use the exact measurments just did it to my tastes and stirred it in. It saved so much time to do it this way. And I should add that you could use a can or two of mixed veggies if you wanted instead of the canned veggies I used. I didn't because my hubby does not like peas and canned mixed veggies has peas! Lol so I just picked what I knew we both would like! I'm sure you could add or take out whatever kind of  vegetable you like! Maybe next time I will add some new things to make it a litte different! (zucchini? Spinach? Asparagus? YUM!)*

5. Add a little over a tablespoon of the mixture into the lined muffin cups. Place the remaining biscuit halves over the filled muffin cups and gently seal each biscuit.

*I doubt I used only a little over a tablespoon in the muffin cups...I gooped it in there! lol*

6. Spread each biscuit top with melted butter and sprinkle with Italian seasoning.
7.Bake for 15-17 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

8. STUFF YOUR FACE =]

I really enjoyed making these and they were sooo easy! The way I made the mixture made about 30 muffins! Yeah a lot! I used 4 things of biscuits(I had to run to the store to get more) but I like to share the food I make with my parents, or my mom when my dad is away working, and my grandparents who live a few doors down! They're gettin some tomorrow! So this would also be a good recipe for a get together, or if you have a big family which a lot of people around here do! This recipe was really easy to tweak and make my own and is really versatile! It's something I will definitely be making again and will probably add a few different things next time! If you tried something new, let me know how it was! =]

HAPPY COOKING!

BANANA STRAWBERRY MUFFINS!!!

So I've always been a fan of banana bread and now that my 1 1/2 year old looooves bananas we always have an abundance, but they don't always get eaten before they get overly ripe which doesnt seem to take more than a day or so I swear! So I was looking for something new to try besides your run of the mill banana bread. I found a recipe for lightened banana muffins and thought that would be a nice change from a loaf of bread! So much easier! Well the other day I also made some cheesecake filled strawberries and had about a million strawberries left over because my little guy also loooooves strawberries! So I thought "What the heck!" I'll throw some strawberries in and see what happens!


I only cut up about three medium to large sized strawberries and threw it in with the banana mixture and I wish I would have done more! It turned out better than I thought it would! It was my first shot at adding something to a recipe that wasn't called for and I am just so pleased with how it turned out!

So here they are! The finished product!

And here is the recipe...I found it online on allrecipes.com I THINK! I tried to find it again but I couldn't so I'm glad I wrote it down!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp. baking Soda
• 4-5 large strawberries, chopped(more or less depending on your tastes)-optional
• 1 cup walnuts(more or less depending on your tastes)-optional   

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Lightly grease or line 10 muffin cups.

2. In a medium bowl, combine eggs and bananas(I also added the chopped strawberries here) In a seperate bowl, mix together flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture. Fold in walnuts if desired. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center come out clean.

mmmmm! They are so good! I'm taking a couple over to my grandparents tomorrow to hopefully brighten their day! Happy cooking everyone!

It all started...

I've never been a fantastic cook. I actually just started learning to cook MAYBE six months ago...I don't even know if it's been that long. Looking back on those first recipes I stumbled through makes me smile now. I was so proud! I don't think they were really that good though. I couldn't even cook ground beef back then!

See I always had this fear of cooking something for people and then they all get food poisoning because I didn't cook it long enough! I'm slowly getting over that fear and my cooking is improving so much! If you would have told me a year ago about all the stuff I'd be cooking now, I would've called you crazy! I've really enjoyed learning how to cook new things and I haven't hardly made the same thing for dinner all but a few times! I'm glad that I've started learning because it's becoming one of my favorite things to do! And I'd like to share that here with you as I hopefully just keep improving and maybe I'll even Invent some new recipes along the way!

That brings me to my next point...I don't claim any of these recipes as my own. Most I find online and some in cookbooks or that my family has had around forever since I can remember. So unless I specify otherwise, I do not claim these recipes in any way.

So here's my first recipe post! I made this just the other day and my grandparents absolutely loved it! It was my first shot at fudge and i'm happy to say it turned out great!

Found this recipe at:  http://forkfulofcomfort.blogspot.com/2012/04/birthday-cake-fudge.html

Birthday Cake Fudge

3 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter, unsalted
2/3 cup evaporated milk (5oz)
pinch of salt
12 oz white chocolate chips
7 oz marshmallow creme
3 Tablespoons yellow cake mix
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
rainbow sprinkles




*Line a 9 inch square pan with foil and the ends hanging over the edge. Spray lightly with cooking spray.


Place sugar, butter, salt, and milk in a heavy bottom sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly, and let boil for exactly 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
Add chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, and cake mix, stirring until chocolate chips are melted. Add vanilla and mix well.


Pour fudge into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Top with sprinkles. Let cool at room temperature then place in refrigerator until firm.

Here's the pic of the finished product! It turned out so yummy!