Holiday Baking....Jalapeno's, Smokies and Peppermint Bars!

Stuffed Jalapeno's

Ingredients:
1 pound of sausage
20 jalapeno's
1 8oz block of cream cheese
red sweet chili sauce

Directions:
1. Cook sausage and drain
2. Remove stems from jalapeno's and slice into 2 halves, emptying the seeds
3. Combine cooked sausage and cream cheese
4. Add cream cheese mixture to inside of jalapeno's
5. Place on cookie sheet and drizzle sweet chili sauce on
6. Cook at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes

Bacon Wrapped Smokies

Ingredients:
2 package of little smokies
1 package of bacon 16(0z)
2 cups of brown sugar
1 stick of butter

Directions:
1. Foil line pan, I use a 9x13 cake pan because the mixture is liquidy
2. Cut bacon into 3rds, and wrapped pieces around smokies and place in pan
3. Melt butter and add almost all of brown sugar until mixed well
4. Spread butter mixture over smokies and add remaining brown sugar to top
5. Cook at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes until bacon is cooked


Peppermint Brownie Bars

Ingredients:
Family size box of fudge brownies
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
15 tbsp of butter....almost 2 sticks
1 1/2 tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp peppermint extract
12oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
optional peppermint candies

Directions:
1. Foil line 9x13 brownie pan
2. Preheat oven as directed on box
3. Prepare brownies as directed on box
4.Beat powdered sugar, 7 tbsp of melted butter, cream and peppermint extract in large bowl with electric better until smooth, pour over cooled brownies and refrigerate for 10 minutes
5. After 30 minutes, microwave chocolate chips and 1 stick of butter in large bowl for 2 minutes. Stir until butter and chips are combined and completely melted.
6. Spread over chilled brownies.
7. Add candies or sprinkles as desired

Spinach Tomato Tortellini

Spinach Tomato Tortellini

Personally one of the better dinners I have made recently.

Ingredients:
1(20oz) pkg of three cheese tortellini...I found this with the canned biscuits at my grocery store
2 tbsp of butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp onion powder
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 (14.5oz) can petite diced tomatoes(undrained)
1 1/2 cups(packed) chopped fresh spinach
3tbsp chopped fresh basil
2 tsp chopped oregano
salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste
shredded parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Cook tortellini according to package directions
2. In large and deep saucepan, melt better over medium heat, add garlic and saute for 30 seconds then add flour and onion powder cooking for one more minute while constantly stirring. While whisking slowly pour in milk and cream until smooth.
3. Cook until mixture begins to simmer, then add tomatoes, spinach, basil and oregano. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Cook several more minutes till sauce has thickened and spinach has wilted. Add parmesan cheese as desired and warm until melted, then remove from heat.
4. Toss cooked and drained tortellini with sauce mixture.

Cherry Cream Cheese Crumb Cake

Ingredients: 

3 cups flour 

2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter 

1 egg 

24oz cream cheese 

2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2-21 oz cans of cherry pie filling 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease 9x13 pan.

2. To make the crumbs, whisk 3 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and slowly mix the cubed butter into the batter( it will be clumpy). After all the butter is added, add egg and continue until mixed well. Pour half the mixture into the pan and press into bottom until covered. Then bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown. 

3. To make cream cheese mix together cream cheese and one cup of sugar on medium with electric mixer. Then add vanilla extract until all ingredients are mixed together. 

4. After crust has cooled, spread cream cheese on top of crust, then add cherry pie filling on top of cream cheese. Crumble the remaining dough on top of the cherries. 

5. Bake for 45-50 minutes at 375 until golden brown. 

6. After cooled, serve or refrigerate. 

Beef Enchiladias

Beef Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1 pound hamburger
8 soft tortilias
Refried beans
2 cans of Enchilada sauce
Shredded cheese
Onion-if wanted

Directions:

Cut onions if wanted

Place onions and ground beef in skillet and brown, then drain after finished

In casserole dish, cover bottom of dish with enchilada sauce

Dread refried beans on tortilla, then fill with hamburger - onion mix, and cheese.

Roll tortilla into burrito and place in dish, repeat 8 times..

After all burrito's are rolled cover in enchilada sauce and cheese.

Bake on 350 degrees until cheese is bubbly. 

The amount of cheese and sauce that is used is dependent on how much you want. But make sure to put extra sauce on because some of it will dry up as you bake.

 




 

Strawberry Pie

Strawberry Pie

Strawberry pie is one of the easiest things you can make and great for the summertime.

Ingredients:
Strawberries
Pie crust
Strawberry Glaze- normally I find this in the area of the store close to the fruits and veggies.

Directions:
Bake the pie crust as directed on package
While baking, slice or cube strawberries. I normally use about 1 and 1/2 package per pie
Let pie crust cool
Stir one container of strawberry glaze with strawberries
Fill pie crust with strawberry glaze mix
Refridgerate until ready to serve

Spinach Lasanga Roll-Up's

Ingredients:
8 Lasagna noodles
2 cups finely chopped baby spinach
1 cup cottage cheese
2/3 cup shredded cheese-I used an Italian blend
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves finely minced
1/2 tsp salt
Ground pepper
1 cup spaghetti sauce

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease 9x9 baking dish
Cook lasagna noodles per package directions then lay out to dry and cool
Mix spinach, cottage cheese, 1/3 cup shredded cheese, Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt and black pepper to taste.
Place mixture on noodle spreading the mixture over the entire length of the noodle
Roll up the noodle from top to bottom and place in pan side by side
Pour about one large spoonful of spaghetti sauce on each roll up and then sprinkle remaining cheese on top
Bake 20-25 minutes until sauce is bubbling

Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas

Ingredients:
15 oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cup corns- I used frozen. I would thaw them if you are going to bake this right away. I made the enchiladas about 8 hours before so I used frozen
6 oz baby spinach
6 green onions thinly sliced
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
2 tsp cumin
3 cups shredded cheese- I used a Mexican blend
8 large flour tortillas
2 cans on enchilada sauce

Directions:
Heat oven to 375
Lightly spray 9x 13 baking dish then pour small amouth of enchilada sauce on bottom
Saute spinach in olive oil over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until slightly wilted
In large bowl mix spinach, beans, 2 cups of cheese, corn, green onions, cilantro and cumin
Fill each tortilla with mixture then tuck ends in and wrap. Place in pan with seam side down
Cover enchiladas with remaining cheese and enchilada sauce- I used alot of sauce because I like mine saucy
Bake 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling

I did not know how to chop cilantro so I found this video helpful

Chicken Enchiladas

Chicken Enchiladas

This is one of my favorite recipes, I believe I originally pinned it on Pinterest but my cousin Jennifer made it first and said they were delicious and they are! I have since made them about 5 times.

Ingredients
16 oz of skinless boneless chicken breast
8 oz of sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup
1 can of Rotel
1 cup of chopped onion- I like onion so I use one whole medium size onion
8 tortillas, I buy the taco size NOT burrito
1/2 cup of shredded Mexican cheese, I buy Kroger brand mexican blend and I use the whole bag because my motto is the more cheese the better
1 4.5oz can of diced green chilies

Instructions
1. Cook chicken and then shredded to get about 2.5 cups.
2. In a sauce pan on medium heat mix together sour cream, soup and milk. Heat throughouly, watch carefully because it boils quickly. When heated seat aside.
3. In different pan, heat onions until they are transparent. Then add chicken, rotel and green chili's. I drain the rotel and chili's just alittle but leave some of the juices.
4. Warm tortilla until flexable, put them in microwave sandwiched between two damp paper towels for about 30 seconds.
5. Spray 8x11 dish with cooking spray and preheat oven to 350 degrees. I have also made these and stored them in the fridge for a day or so before baking
6. Fill each tortilla with one spoonful of soup mixture and then two spoonfuls of chicken mixture. Roll tortilla and place in pan. Repeat 8 times till pan is full
7. I usually have chicken mixture left so I had that to my remaining soup mixture then more soup/chicken remaing mixture over enchiladas
8. Sprinkle cheese over top of enchiladas
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 monites until cheese is melted and bubbly

Corn Bread

This recipe has taken some time to perfect and this time was perfect either. Recipe says to bake 45 minutes, after 30 it was still jiggly but at 45 it was burnt. I did cut out the middle and they were delicious.

Ingredients:

4 eggs white and yolks separated 

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla 

3/4 cup melted butter 

1 cup cornmeal 

2 cups flour 

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In medium size bowel mix together egg yolk, milk, vanilla, and cooled melted butter, and stir 

Mix in cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Do not over mix, some chunks might still remain 

In separate bowl beat egg whites until small stiff peaks form, fold into mixture 

Pour into greased 8x8 pan and bake until done. No more then 45 minutes.

Cooking fool......Chicken Noodle Casserole

I feel like I have been cooking up a storm this weekend, while most of it was just normal stuff I did make a few new recipes.

Chicken Noodle Casserole

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked egg noodles- I used more then this

2 cups cooked chicken 

1-16 oz frozen bag of corn,peas,beans and carrots

1 cup milk

1 can Cream of Chicken 

1 can Cream of Mushroom 

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of pepper

1/2 cup chopped onion- I will probably leave this out next time 

2 tbsp melted butter 

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning 

Directions:

1- Cook chicken and noodles 

2- mix together all ingredients in large bowl

3- Add chicken and noodles once they are cooked

4- Transfer to greased pan

5- Bake at 350 degrees covered for 30 minutes 

6- Bake uncovered for 10-15 minutes 

   

 

Cookie Dough

Who doesn't love cookie dough?!?!?!? We'll as we all know you aren't suppose to eat raw cookie dough because of the eggs we'll this is a recipe for cookie dough that's meant to be ate raw! 

Ingredients: 

1 stick of butter 

1 cup of flour 

3/4 cup brown sugar 

1 cup chocolate chips 

1/2 tsp salt 

2 tsp vanilla 

2 tbsp milk 

Add all ingredients to bowl and mix well 

Refrigerate and then ENJOY with a spoon! 

Chicken Lo Mein

Tonight I made a chicken Lo Mein which turned out delicious and you can use almost anything you want.

Ingredients: 

2 skinless boneless chicken breast 

4 carrots- I used a handful of baby carrots 

1 bunch of green onions

1 red pepper 

1 green pepper

Sliced mushrooms 

4 garlic cloves- I used minced garlic 

 

1 tsp garlic powder

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth 

1/4 cup soy sauce 

12 oz of linguini/fettuccini noodles 

1 tsp corn starch 

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes 

1 tbsp sugar 

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup water 

1. Cook chicken 

2. Cut vegetable and chicken 

3. Put all ingredients in pot and cook on med/high for 20 minutes 

This was very easy to make and you can put whatever veggies in it you want. I just cooked until the noodles were done. 

New Years Eve Cooking

For the past several years I have spent New Years Eve at my friend Ariel and David's house, and this year was no different. I did not make anything to exciting but thought I would share with you the things I did make.


Little Smokies- these seem to always be a big hit at any place I go and they are so easy to make.

Ingredients
Little Smokies- Hillshire Farms Original are the ones I buy
Honey BBQ sauce
Grape Jelly

Directions

I use no real measuring when making these so I will do my best when explaining.

Pour smokies in crock pot, add 1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce, and one spoonful of grape jelly for every bag of smokies.

I find it best when cooking lots of smokies to layer the ingredients.

You could use any kind of BBQ, I prefer my sweet.


The next thing I made was called Chocolate Lasagna, I found a picture on Pinterest and just kind of winged it.

Ingredients

One package of Oreo's
Butter
2- 8 oz of Cream Cheese
Sugar
Vanilla
Chocolate Pudding
Milk
One container of Cool Whip
Chocolate topping of any kind- I used chocolate sprinkles

Directions
1. Smash Oreo's into small pieces to make a Oreo crust, I used a 9 x 13 casserole dish and used almost all the Oreo's.
2. Add melted butter to Oreo's- 4 tbsp
3. Smash Oreo crust to bottom of dish, bake at 325 degrees for 5 minutes and let cool.
4. Beat soften cream cheese, one cup of sugar and 1 tbsp of vanilla until mixed well together.
5. Spread cream cheese over Oreo crust. This was not the easiest step because the crust wanted to spread with the mixture, so some of the Oreo's mixed with the cream cheese which is okay. It's like lasagna, not perfect!
6. Mix together chocolate pudding per package directions and refrigerate 5 minutes
7. Pour pudding over cream cheese
8. Refrigerate until pudding is solid, I waited until the next morning to add remaining toppings.
9. After pudding is solid spread cool whip over pudding.
10. Top with chocolate topping of your liking
11. Refrigerate until ready to serve!