Recipe: Delicious Whipped Cinnamon Honey Butter

This past weekend Ellie and I got our holiday baking on! We baked and mixed into the night on Saturday and I love having her as my little helper in the kitchen. She even has her own reindeer apron that is just the cutest thing I've ever seen on her.

Recipe: Candied Nuts

Today I have one of my favorite recipes to share with you, I'm so excited! My grandmother was a wonderful baker and two things I learned from her is there's always room for treats and that treats have a season. I loved everything she baked and always looked forward to holidays and celebrations to have our special treats. Divinity for weddings, strawberry cake with coconut frosting for Valentines, raisin cake for birthdays, rice balls for Halloween, and sugar cookies for Christmas. It was a fun tradition and made each celebration even more special.

I don't have a lot of treats under my belt yet (I'm going to try her pecan crunch this year!), but I make some amazing candied nuts! I make them every Christmas and they're so easy! I love any recipe that has items I have on hand and is simple to make. Matt asks for these every year earlier and earlier, they're great for camping, snacks, crushed up in salads, and treats for neighbors, friends, and coworkers.

Baby Food Recipes with Gerber Lil' Bits

When we started Emma on solids, I did the same thing for her as I did for Eleanor and made all of her food myself. It’s important to me to know what I’m feeding them, the ingredients that went into making it, and ensuring that they’re getting the best to help their bodies develop. I also wanted to make sure that as I was introducing them to a wide variety of food with different flavors and textures.

Easy and Delicious Pot Roast Stew

Ingredients:
- 2 lbs roast beef
- 2-3 potatoes, cut
- 1 onion cut in large pieces
- 1/2 of a small bag of baby carrots
- 3-4 celery stalks, cut
- 1 box beef broth
- Red pepper flakes (adds some extra taste, don't add to much!)
- 1 Knorr vegetable soup mix (in the soup aisle, on the top shelf)
- Seasons of preference (we use Trader Joe's 21 seasonings and a bit of garlic salt)

Directions:
Place roast beef in crock pot and cover in veggies. Add beef broth and make sure all the meat and veggies are covered, you can add water if needed. I have a 5 quart Crock Pot and don't have to add any water, but you might depending on your cut of meat and the size of your slow cooker. Then add all your seasonings and mix it up. Let cook on high 3-4 hours, or low 4-6 hours. Once meat is fully cooked, we take it out and shred it and put it back in the pot.

This is one of my favorite meals, it's so perfect in cold weather. It's warm and yummy, and is a good hearty meal. It's perfect to put on Sunday morning and have it ready after church and football. We always pair is with buttered bread. It's so simple and makes me feel all cozy and nostalgic for childhood on the inside. I've had lots of pot roast in my day, but the combination of using broth and the Knorr seasonings makes such a huge difference in flavor. This recipe has a ton of flavor and is one of the easiest things I've ever made in my life. We've made it a ton these last few months, even using pork roasts instead of beef- which was also yummy! 

Recipe Review: Tomato Salad

My co-worker often makes this salad and it smells amazing so I asked her for the recipe because I had to have it. This is a really common salad, I've had this same salad at lots of parties/showers, but I've never made it myself. It's really simple, delicious, healthy and we've been loving it at our house!

Here's what you need:
- Cucumber (one whole one, or half of a large one)
- Tomatoes (you can use whole or baby)
- Bell Peppers
- Cilantro
- Onion
- Vinegar (2 Tablespoons)
- Olive Oil (1 Tablespoon)
- Salt and Pepper

Optional Ingredients:
- Dash Seasoning
- Basil
- Garlic
- Mozzarella
- Infused Vinegar (we use mango infused vinegar and it's delicious)

There's no perfect amount of vegetables to use, you can make it with more or less depending on your tastes. If you choose to include mozzarella, I wouldn't mix that in until it's served or slice it into medallions and put the salad mix on top.

Chop up all your vegetables to bite size portions and mince the cilantro

I'm craving some right now...

Add your vinegar and olive oil. Since we use a mango infused one, I do one tablespoon of regular and one tablespoon of the infused.

Mix it all together and let chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes!

Serve and enjoy!

The salad lasts for about 2 days in the fridge, but the tomatoes and possibly the cucumbers will get soggy by that last day. When using half of a large cucumber and two whole tomatoes, I get about 4-5 servings for Matt and I. There's always extra dressing with those portions so I could definitely add more veggies without having to increase the olive oil/vinegar ratio. We also use a lot of cilantro and about two slices off of an onion for our own preferences.

This is one of my favorite and easiest recipes I've tried. It's so good and is a great side dish. 

What are some of your favorite recipes? 

Recipe Review: Biscuit Chicken Pot Pie

In no way am I a chef of any kind. Yes, I cook/bake, but it's rare. Matt gets home before me and loves to cook (just like his dad!) so he usually cooks around these parts. On days I'm off work or am off before him, I'll cook a few of my tried and true recipes. When on Pinterest, I saw this pin and had to try it for myself. We love chicken pot pie and this sounded easy and delicious!

(Their picture is so much prettier than mine!)

The original recipe is from Six Sisters' Stuff and I'm so glad they shared it because it was a big hit in our house! Here is their recipe, straight from their site:

Easy Biscuit Chicken Pot Pie
Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 30 mins
Serves: 8

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped fine
½ cup of chopped carrots
½ cup of chopped broccoli
½ cup of chopped cauliflower
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup of all-purpose flour
1½ cups milk
2 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
1 regular size can of cream of chicken soup
½ teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups (about 1 pound) of cooked, shredded chicken
¾ cup frozen peas, thawed
1 refrigerated package of Pilsbury Grands Biscuits (8 biscuits)

Instructions
-Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
-In a large pan heat your oil on medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, saute the onions, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and peas until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer cooked vegetables to a bowl with the chicken; set aside.
-Reduce the heat to medium and add the butter to the same pot. When melted, stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk, chicken broth, cream of chicken soup and thyme. Allow the sauce to come to a simmer and let it simmer for 1 minute to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.
-Turn off the heat and transfer the vegetables and chicken to the pot, stirring until the filling is well-combined. -If the filling is too thick, stir in some extra chicken broth milk.
-Pour the filling into a 13x9-inch baking dish and bake for 18 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven (keeping the oven on and door closed) and top the filling with 8 biscuits (yes, raw biscuits). Return the baking dish to the oven and bake for an additional 10-12 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown and the filling is bubbly. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Here are the changes/suggestion I made to the recipe:
- For the chicken, I put two frozen chicken breasts in a crock pot on low and covered it with 16 ounces of chicken broth. Since I used a large crock pot, I also had to add some water to make sure the chicken was entirely covered. A rotisserie chicken would be perfect to use as well!
- I skipped the cauliflower and plan on trying celery and corn with the next round
- For my recipe, I only used half of an onion and I sauteed the onion and carrots (I chopped them in to small pieces) first and longer before adding the other vegetables to make sure they were soft
-I'll definitely use more broccoli and carrots in the next batch. I didn't think there was enough to my liking with only 1/2 cup
- In the comments on their post, someone commented about making the biscuits separately and putting a biscuit in a bowl and pouring the mixture on top. I think it would all turn out the same, but wanted to share that idea too.
- The recipe says it takes 15 minutes to prep and 15 minutes to cook and that is entirely not true. I think it took me about 45 minutes from start to finish (once the chicken was already cooked).
- There is no way it serves 8 people, more like 4-5

Mmmmmm this was such a delicious dinner, I can't wait to have it for my lunch! I'll definitely be making it again and again. Matt said it was one of the best things I've ever made and he had 3 helpings! Ellie liked it too and it was really simple to make. It was a lot of fun to make and I liked that it was from "scratch" (minus the biscuits of course!). It makes me so happy when I try something and it turns out just as I imagined and Matt enjoys it. Maybe I'll do more in the kitchen!

....Let's not hold our breath on that one........

What are some of your favorite cold weather recipes?

Our Baby Food Journey

Introducing Ellie to food has been something we've been looking forward to and we chose to wait until she was 6 months before trying any solids or purees. As the 6 month mark approached, I began to feel nervous about what types of food to start with, how I wanted to introduce them, the order of foods to try, etc. Who knew feeding a baby would bring about so many questions? The only question I didn’t have was that I wanted to make my own food.

Most of the women in my family have made their own food, my mother did with both my sister and I, and my sister in law did with both of her children. Then Kristin, of Mama and Mou has also posted a lot about it and I’ve emailed her a few times with different questions I had- she was a great resource and thanks again for all your help!

We started Ellie off with organic rice cereal and with her first taste, she wasn’t a big fan of it (as you can see in the above pic!). The face she made was hilarious, and she was a good sport. She tried a few more bites before showing no interest and turning her head away. With her second taste, we couldn’t feed her fast enough! The first few bites she would make a face, but still want more. I think she was just getting used to the new texture.

My SIL and I got together after a grocery store run, and she helped me steam and puree all my veggies for Ellie. We used the book, Cooking for Baby for reference on how long to cook items and how to prepare them (steam, boil, or bake and whether the peels/skin were ok) and in 2.5-3 hours time, we made enough food for several weeks! I couldn’t believe how easy it was and couldn’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to do it. Now, I don’t judge any mother for what/how she chooses to feed her baby, maybe making food doesn’t appeal to everyone, so whatever floats your boat and works for your family.

The entire process was really simple, we would use a double boiler for most of the veggies (the butternut squash and sweet potato we baked), putting water in the bottom pot and the veggies in the top pot. After a few minutes we would check to see if the vegetables were steamed all the way through and were easy to pierce with a fork. If they were ready, we would pop them into the baby bullet and puree them to smithereens. Most of the veggies pureed thin enough on their own, but the peas, carrots, and green beans I had to add a little bit of water to get them to the right consistency. Once the veggies cooled down, I poured them into ice cube trays to freeze. Then after they were frozen, I popped them out and placed them in freezer bags with the date they were made. Each night I would place the amount of ice cubes for her serving in a bowl with a lid to thaw for lunch/dinner the next day.

We started Ellie off with vegetables and began with peas, then zucchini, butternut squash, yellow squash, carrots, sweet potato, and green beans. She has absolutely loved everything so far and thankfully, we haven’t had any bad experiences either with tummy aches or rashes. This weekend we moved onto fruits starting with pears and apples. Unfortunately, there’s not a large variety of fruit in season at this time so I’ve also picked up Gerber Organic Peaches in the meantime so Ellie can try a variety of foods. I’ve also started to mix some of the veggies together to create new flavors for her.

She’s so funny, because you can’t feed her fast enough. If you wait to give her another bite, she fusses and gets mad. I love it! We also give her Gerber Puffs and Baby Mum-Mums (which she loves) and have started to give her water with her dinner as well. Before officially starting on fruits, we have given Ellie a banana in a mesh eater and a sliced apple to gnaw on, both of which she did not care for whatsoever. They were both new textures and are much sweeter than the veggies we’ve been giving her so I’m not surprised at her reaction. We will just keep trying new things to get her used to a variety of flavors and textures. Our experience so far has been really good and fortunately, Ellie has been a great eater. She's loved everything we've actually fed to her and has been a great eater. I hope she stays this way and I look forward to the time when I can just give her smaller portions of what Matt and I eat.

Right now she still drinks the same amount of milk as before, that has not weaned yet. She sometimes has rice cereal in the mornings, and sometimes not. Just depends on how our mornings go and how long of a nursing she gets when she wakes up. She eats lunch at daycare and 3-4 bottles, then Matt and I feed her dinner while the other one is cooking. After she eats her dinner, she gets some puffs, mums, and a bottle of water while we eat. We've tried giving her sippy cups at dinner, but she hasn't got the hang of how they work yet so for the meantime we're just giving her a bottle with water for now.

Here are some of my favorite food items so far:

Gerber Graduates BPA Free Bunch-A-Bowls with Lids

Munchkin Soft-Tip Infant Spoons

Pullover Towel Bibs

Gerber Graduates Puffs 

Baby Mum-Mums

Earth's Best Organic Rice Cereal

Baby Bullet Complete Baby Care System 

Be sure to check out Mama and Mou today, I have a guest post up about my baby blue experience! I'm so honored to be featured. If you have a little one, be sure to link up every Tuesday!

Spice Up Your Life- Delish Recipe!

So we all know around here that I'm a one trick pony when it comes to cooking good food. Salmon is my specialty! Now I can cook other things that are edible and good, but fish is my dish. If you come over for dinner that's what I'll make you. It's quick, easy, and I always get compliments on it. However, once you've had my fish I can't invite you over for dinner anymore because it's kind of embarrassing to always serve the same thing. I mean, I cook fish all different kinds of ways, but still, salmon EVERY TIME? So I took to Pinterest to find a good chicken dish for the hubs and any future dinner guests. I found this pin for Honey-Lime Chicken Skewers from Kitchen Meets Girl and tried it right away.

Here's what you need, directly from her site:

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• juice of one lime
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-2 teaspoon Siracha
• red pepper flakes, to taste (I left this out of my dish only because we didn't have any)
• 2 tablespoon cilantro
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I used two frozen chicken breasts)

This is with fish- more on that below

Now, Ashley made hers into kabobs that look amazing in the picture, but I hate kabobs. I feel like the meat always gets dried out. So I mixed together the ingredients into a square dish and plopped my thawed chicken breasts in. Then I cut up some red, yellow, and orange peppers for fun and added that to it. I let the food marinade on each side for one hour. The above ingredients did not make enough for my chicken to be completely covered in my dish so that's why I had to flip them. I did an hour marinade on each side because I had the time, but I think 30 minutes would also work.

Then I put the entire mixture into a pan with the lid on the stovetop set to Medium. The chicken cooked really fast and I flipped them over at around 7 minutes. With the lid on, all the moisture was held inside and the meat was so juicy! Matt and I absolutely loved this dish! He even asked me to make the marinade for his hunting trip next week. It was delicious and so tasty, the peppers were an amazing addition! I'm not a big chicken person so to have a good marinade under my belt will help spice up plain boring chicken.

Since we loved the marinade so much, I had to try it on salmon right (first pic above)? Well, it was okay. It's so dang good on chicken I thought it would be good on everything. Salmon has enough flavor by itself, the marinade didn't compliment it very well. Hey, I tried it right? Now you know too.

So if you're bored with chicken, I couldn't recommend this enough- it is so dang good! I've made it each week since I first tried the recipe. Yummmmmy!

What are some of your favorite Pinterest recipes? Isn't is the best when they turn out well?

Lactation Cookies

Breastfeeding is really important to me and I hope to b/f Eleanor for the first year and then start to wean. B/f is not easy though, it's hard work! I drink 2 cups of Mother's Milk a day, take fenugreek, and I made these lactation cookies that I'm going to be sharing with you guys. I've had a hard time increasing my supply and am meeting with a Lactation Consultant this week to help me build it up and ensure that our little Ellie is getting enough. I know there's only so much I can do and if we go to just formula or have to supplement that I didn't fail, it just didn't work out as awesomely as I had envisioned.

Anyways, from all the talk amongst my mommy friends and in my Mommy and Me group (which is so awesome, if you have the opportunity to join one do it! Meeting women with babies close in age to your own and having somewhere to go to vent, celebrate and learn has been an incredible experience to me. Check out your local Healthy Beginnings to see what's available in your area) lactation cookies is one way to help build your supply and they are delicious! My father-in-law couldn't stop eating them, and not he didn't lactate as a result. They're super easy too!

The recipe I used is from Belly Belly:

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter or margarine
1 & 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats, thick cut if you can get them
1 cup or more chocolate chips/sultanas/almonds/macadamia nuts
2-4 tablespoons of brewers yeast

DIRECTIONS:
Preparation time is around 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 356F.
Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes.
Cream (beat well) margarine and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mix well.
Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the margarine mix. Beat until blended.
Sift together dry ingredients, except oats and chips. I actually used a freaking sifter and it took forever, next time I'm just going to mix it!
Add to margarine mixture. Stir in oats then chips.
Scoop or drop onto a greased or lined baking tray. Because the dough is a little crumbly, it might be easier if you use a scoop.

Bake for 8-12 minutes. I used a cookie scoop and it made about 30 cookies and I ate the rest of the dough.

On their site they have a ton of ideas for variations (I used white chocolate chips for mine), ways to make it healthier and some more tips/tricks. So be sure to check out their recipe!

I found the flaxseed and brewer's yeast at my local Sprout's shop, but any health food store should work. The brewer's yeast is the magic ingredient that helps your supply and it's a huge freaking tub that I had to buy because I couldn't find anything smaller, but I plan on putting it into my smoothies and other food. I mean why not right? If you know another pregger, I would suggest splitting those ingredients because there's just so much of it! I know I'll be giving mine away or sharing it with whoever is interested!

Hope you're all having a great week, I have an awesome giveaway later this week for you ladies!

My Go-To Recipes + Must-Reads

So we all know that I'm not a big cook, anything I do cook I try to always document and post about it because I consider it a small miracle. Here, I share 3 of my favorite recipes, ones I've made over and over again and have shared the recipes with guests- that's my sign that they're just as delicious to others as they are to me!

Here are some of my favorite recipes and links to past posts about them.

Dessert/Breakfast: Sopapilla Cheesecake 

(post and recipe here)

I got this recipe from a friend and made it the following weekend, where I shared the recipe with three people at the party. So in one week, the recipe was shared a total of 4 times! That's a winner in any book. It's so delicious, easy to make, and is great like I said for breakfast (with berries) or dessert (berries and ice cream).

Drinks: Starbucks Passion Iced Tea

Regardless of the time of year, I'm a sucker for a good lemonade. This drink is one of my favorites and I make it at home and at work all the time.
Ingredients: 
Tazo Passion Tea bags (you can buy the individual bags for a single glass or the pitcher bags for home)
Simply Lemonade (I'm sure any lemonade would work, but this one is my favorite)

Optional: 
Sweetener (the hubs and I bought the sweetener straight from Starbucks, but I usually make it without)

Directions:
 Depending on whether or not you're making the individual/pitcher size, bring half of the amount water needed to boil and let tea bag seep. The longer you let it sit, the stronger the flavor.
(I also use all cold water and let it seep when I'm being lazy, still tastes great)
Once the tea is ready, add the remaining half of water to it cold.
Mix in lemonade- I usually add a 1/3 of lemonade to whatever size my drink holder is.
Ex: 12 oz glass = 8 oz tea and 4 oz of lemonade.
Sweeten to taste.
There's no real science behind it, although I'm sure Starbucks has one, I just kind of mix it to my liking. You make enjoy it with more/less lemonade. I think the Simply Lemonade is sweet enough on its own too that no sweetener is needed.

Dinner: Spicy Mustard Salmon

If I'm being honest, when it comes to a really good dinner, I'm a one trick pony. Yes I can make a few things, but the one thing I can make that's delicious is salmon. Any seafood really, but salmon especially. 

Ingredients:

Thawed salmon

Spicy Mustard

Honey

Lemon

Soy Sauce

Directions: 

For each salmon steak, I drizzle the above ingredients and let it marinade for at least 30 minutes. You can put all the salmon together in a cake pan to marinade or marinade them in a zip lock depending on how many you're making. There's no science to the amounts I use, just make sure that both sides of the fish get doused in everything. 

Put salmon in cold oven, set temperature to 350 and bake 20 minutes. Keep the lemon wedges/halves and cook them along side of the salmon for extra flavor.

Anytime we've had people over for dinner this is what I serve and it's always been a big hit. It's super simple and the flavors mix together giving it an awesome flavor. I like to serve it with a salad and veggies (usually asparagus and peppers).

What are some of your favorite recipes? 

 

Question of the month from Kristen: "What's your go-to recipe? Drink, dinner, dessert, whatever..."

• Alison*Elle - Alison is giving white denim another go this season
• Beautygirl24 - Target did it again - Noelle found the perfect Summer wedges from the Sam & Libby collection.
• Ella Pretty - Ella's got a brand new bag!
• Love, Lipstick & Pearls - Kristen is all ready for baby's arrival and shared her nursery with us.
• Schnelle Couture - Danielle talks makeup and highlights where to save and where to splurge.
• Sequins and Stilettos - Skylette has finally found her perfect striped skirt!
• The Currently Obsessed - Mehreen organized Makeup drawers.

Pinterest Recipe: Sopapilla Cheesecake

Ok, so this post is kind of a cheat because I wasn't the first to make it, but I had to share it! The hubs and I had my carpool buddy and his wife over (they are amazing and we can't wait to hang out again!) for dinner and asked them to bring a dessert. They brought the most amazing, mouth watering dish EVER. I could have eaten the entire pan as a meal. I couldn't let them go without getting the recipe and it was actually the first time she had tried tried it herself and said it was super easy. Ummm, I'm totally going to make this all the dang time.

Here's the recipe from this Pinterest Pin:

2 cans pillsbury butter crescent rolls
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup melted butter
Cinnamon & sugar

Unroll and spread 1 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased 9x13 pan. If you half this recipe, it fits in an 8x8 pan. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls.

Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

They served it with vanilla ice cream and strawberries and I nearly had a heart attack. Delicious! It's also great as a breakfast item as well (but skip the ice cream). They were sweet enough to leave us the extra so the hubs and I had it for dessert another night and it was perfect reheated, tasted just as good as it was fresh. Gotta love food that works that tastes just as good when reheated.

This weekend we celebrated Mother's Day with my husband's side of the family on Saturday with a brunch at our home. Matt and I made this dish and it was gone in seconds. The cream cheese/sugar/vanilla mix is tasty and so melty and creamy right out of the oven. I ended up giving the recipe to all three of my sister in laws! Here's how ours looked on Saturday:

Thank you again guys for the delicious treat and recipe! It's my new go-to.

Recipe: Candied Almonds

So this is totally a re-post, but too good not to share again. I made these delicious nuts last year after finding them on Pinterest and my husband has been bugging me to make them again for him. I've decided that the nuts are a Christmas only treat so he'd have to wait. Sometimes, goodies are only special because you get them at only one time a year. 

Bavarian Vanilla Almonds via My Baking Addiction

Ingredients
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract if you are using regular granulated sugar instead of vanilla sugar)
1 tablespoon water
1 pound almonds or pecans (I used raw almonds)
3/4 cup of vanilla sugar (if you do have vanilla sugar, simply substitute regular granulated sugar)
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons of Vanilla Fleur de Sel (if you do not have Vanilla Fleur de Sel simply substitute fine grain sea salt- I used regular table salt)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper (I covered mine in aluminum foil).

2. In a large bowl, combine egg white, vanilla extract and water. Beat mixture until frothy. Stir in almonds and mix to coat.

3. Gently combine sugar, cinnamon, and sea salt and stir into almond mixture, thoroughly coating all nuts.

4. Evenly spread nuts onto prepared baking sheet and place into oven.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
6. When cool, pack in an airtight jar. They will keep at room temperature for about 2 weeks.

Our friends and family have already started putting in orders. You really can't have just a handful, you have to have several!

What do you like baking around the holidays?

Recipe: Peppermint Chex Mix

From my Pinterest To-Do list, I finally made the Peppermint Chex Mix. I'm so proud of myself for finally crossing something off my list. My husband's extended family had an early Christmas party, so it was the perfect time to try this out. It's really easy, but kind of messy to make. 

The ingredients are super simple, and pretty much on sale everywhere during the holidays. The recipe is from Butter, with a side of bread- she's a genius. It would be really fun to make with kids too. 

-6 cups Rice Chex® or Chocolate Chex® cereal

-1 bag (12 oz) white vanilla baking chips (2 cups)

-1/3 cup coarsely crushed peppermint candy canes 

(I did half the candy cane box and it was way too much)

I lined our counter top with Saran Wrap and then layered Wax Paper on top. That way I had lots of room and easy clean up. 

I broke up my candy canes by putting the ones I wanted to use in a plastic Ziploc and then using a glass measuring cup to crush them by rolling it over and over them. Word of advice: do this where the wax paper is, because the canes will create little holes in the bag and powder will come out creating a mess. I don't know why I didn't do it on my prepped counter. 

Melt the chocolates in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval. Do this until thoroughly melted. Then stir in half of the crushed candy canes. 

Pour melted chocolate and candy cane mix over chex and toss for an even coat. Then mix in remaining candy canes. Let stand for 20 minutes. Then break apart and put in an air tight container. 

Next time I make it, I plan on doubling the batch. 6 cups really doesn't make that much. Especially when the men don't leave it's side. Pretzels would also be an awesome add-in, I thought about it before, but didn't have any on hand. 

What's your favorite Chex mix combo?

Recipe: Homemade Cheesecake

For Thanksgiving, I made Cherry Cheesecake and it was delicious! It literally went in seconds at the family party. It's not too sweet, and very light so in my opinion it's perfection. I love cheesecake, but hate when it's too sweet that I can't even finish a slice. A woman I work with gave me this recipe after she brought it in for a potluck and I couldn't believe it wasn't store bought. It looked as good as it tasted. After making it for the holiday, my husband asked for me to make it again for another family party- but with an extra one to keep at home for him to eat himself! That's huge. He's even pickier about his cheesecakes! 

Here's what you need for ONE pie. The pics show the ingredients for the two pies I made this weekend.

1 pie crust 

 (graham cracker or Oreo)

8 oz Cool Whip 

(light tastes good too, but the fat free is not a good substitute flavor/texture wise)

8 oz Cream Cheese

1/4 cup Sugar

1 can Comstock filling 

(you can choose what you like, cherry, strawberry, etc. The cake is also good by itself, so it's just really a matter of preference) 

When I'm getting ready to make the cheesecake, I leave the cream cheese out for a bit to soften it up, making it easier to blend.

Then blend all three ingredients together until smooth.

Spread the mix into your chosen crust and let sit at least 8 hours. My GF also advised to make each cake individually because if you do a double batch it doesn't turn out right. I haven't tried this myself, but she's been making this cheesecake for 20+ years so I just take her word for it! Also, the Comstock filling is kind of too much for one pie alone so I split it between two. Again, just personal preference! Top with your favorite filling and serve! Easy peasy.

What are your go-to desserts? Have you found any new ones recently?

Pinterest Recipe Review: Oven Toasted Ravioli

My hubs and I have been hearing about toasted ravioli's and have really wanted to try them. I mean we love raviolis and we like crunchy food so it would be amazing right? Then I saw this recipe on Pinterest and I was sold- it was easy too!

Here is the recipe, directly from Plain Chicken:

12 round frozen ravioli, thawed
1 egg
1 Tbsp milk
6 Tbps Italian bread crumbs (I used Progresso brand)
2 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Whisk together egg and milk in shallow bowl.  In another bowl or pie plate, combine bread crumbs and parmesan cheese.  Dip ravioli in egg and then in bread crumbs.  Place on baking sheet.  Repeat until all ravioli are coated.  Spray ravioli with cooking spray.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve with warm marinara or pesto.

Ok, I followed the recipe to a T and it was super bland. Matt and I didn't really care at all about it, and we were pretty bummed after being so excited about it. I want to try it again and here is what I plan on doing differently:
-Use only 4-5 Tbps of bread crumbs
-Mix in garlic and basil with the crumbs
-Maybe sprinkle on some cayenne?

If you have any toasted ravioli recipes, please share! This is a dish we want to try again!

Easy Recipe: Fish Tacos + Veggies

I almost want to say "I'm on a roll with cooking", but really, let's not push it. Last week I was in Trader Joe's and they had some delicious fish taco samples. I'm not usually a big fish taco person, although I love seafood. These were just so amazing, I had to re-create them!

Now, you can make these with a variety of brands and condiments, but I literally just bought everything they used at Trader Joes. Easy enough right?

Here is the display of products they used at the sample counter:
-Oven Ready Breaded Cod Fillets
-Shredded Green Cabbage
-Pico de Gallo
-Corn Tortillas
-Tartar Sauce with Jalapeno (you could also use their Creamy Cilantro dressing)
- Four Cheese Mexican Blend Cheese

Cook the fillets, warm up the tortillas, and top with your goodies! Guacamole and a squeeze of lime would also be delicious! For the tartar sauce, I thinned it out with some half and half which also tones down the jalapeno spice.

I served the tacos with asparagus and zucchini, both topped with olive oil and garlic salt and baked for 30 minutes. I also added shredded parmesan cheese on the asparagus and cayenne pepper on the zucchini. It's best to put the veggies in first because the fillets only take 20 minutes.

We're totally making these tacos over and over again! They were so super easy and the family ate them right up! I'm so happy I tried something new and found a completely amazing and easy meal!