Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cups

My mom brought this recipe last time she came out for a visit. They are to die for!




I large tube of Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough
24 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Take a heaping Teaspoon full of dough and roll it into a ball. Place the dough in a mini-muffin tin (one pan makes 24).
Using the back side of a melon baller (or something similar in shape) press the center of the dough down.
Bake 375 for 9-11 minutes
As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, press a Peanut Butter Cup into the center of the cookie and let them cool completely before trying to remove them from the muffin tin.

Tator Tot Casserole

If you grew up in the 80's, I am guessing this was a weekly recipe your mom would use. I have to whip it out now and then, it just reminds me of my childhood!



1 Lb. hamburger (I use lean meat)
1 can cream of chicken AND cream of mushroom soup (or 2 cans of cream of chicken) depeding on your likeings!! I use 2 cans of the 98% fat free cream of chicken
1 soup can full of milk (you can use skim milk to make it healthier)
shredded cheese
1 bag tator tots

Brown hamburger. Mix hamburger, soups, and can of milk. Pour mixture into bottom of pan. Sprinkle Cheese. Line the tator tots on top of the casserole. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until tots are brown and crisp.

Salsa

We went to a BBQ on Sunday, and our friend was telling us that she's got so many Tomatoes in her garden she needs a good recipe for Salsa. This is a Hernandez Family recipe, and it is to die for. Enjoy. P.s. you will need a large bag of chips to go with this, you will eat the entire batch!

Roma Tomatoes (6)
Green Onions (3)
Cloves Garlic (2)
Jalepeno's (2-3 depending on how hot you like your salsa )
Cilantro
Salt and pepper and juice from a lime.

Puree

Season to taste.

Semi-Homemade Mini-Pizza's

This is a SUPER quick and easy meal to fix.

1 pkg. of Rhodes White Rolls
1 small jar of pizza sauce (or the homemade sauce recipe on my blog)
Your favorite cheese (I use cheddar and mozerella on mine)
Your favorite toppings (We use Pepperoni and Olives, I know boring!!)
Corn Meal

Spray a couple cookie sheets with Cooking Spray. Defrost your Roll dough just enough that it's easy to roll into a mini-pizza crust. DON'T over defrost or it will dry out your dough. Using the palm of your hand flatten the roll to make a nice circle. I sprinkle a little bit of corn meal on the bottom of my pizza's but this is optional.

Spread about 1 Tbsp. pizza sauce on each pizza and then top with your cheese and favorite toppings. Bake 350 degrees until bottom of crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.

Red Lobster Cheese Garlic Biscuits

This one is for you dad!

Okay, so when I go to Red Lobster I swear I get full on these before my meal even comes out. I have an aunt who can go home and mock up a recipe in a couple of days, so here is her recipe:

2 c. buttermilk baking mix

1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 t. garlic powder

2/3 cup milk

1/4 c. melted butter

Combine baking mix, milk, and cheese. Stir with a wooden spoon till a soft dough forms (adding more milk if needed). Beat vigorously for 30 seconds. Drop dough by heaping Tbsp. full onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 450 for 8-10 minutes. Combine butter and garlic powder (if you want you can add parsley here too, to make it pretty). Brush over warm buscuits before removing from cookie sheet. Makes 10-12 biscuits.

**CHEATING** and for those of you who don't want to slave away in the kitchen, I found one of those packages (you know the betty crocker/Bisquick things that come in a package and all you have to do is add an egg and water to get brownies or cookies)..anywho..they make one that is called cheese-garlic bisquits. Ummm...so, try that one too!!

Homemade Pizza Sauce

In a couple nights, we are making homemade mini pizza's-my mother in law has a secret weapon when she makes her pizza's-the homemade sauce...here is the recipe...

64 oz. Tomato sauce
1/2 lg. onion
3 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
1 Tbsp. Oregano
1/2 cup Paremesan
9 cloves garlic (I know you can smell it in your head can't you?)
1/2 tsp. salt-to taste

Medium-low heat. Cover with a tilted lid-stir often- and cook 45 minutes or until thick

Hide your Pepperoni's, this stuff is so good, that Chris get's the pepperoni's out and dips the pepperoni's in the sauce and eats them just like that.

Because this makes such a large batch (keep your old salsa bottles or pickle bottles) and store the sauce in them and freeze for the next use.

Manhatten Rolls

This is a family recipe from Chris's family, it brings back lots of memories from his childhood. This is an AWESOME recipe for kids. They think they are getting a really yummy homemade roll from mom, but when they bite into it, it's a cheeseburger. You can double the batch and freeze the second batch and pull them out for "emergency" meal days. They are soooo yummy!

2 pkg. (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
3/4 cup warm milk (110-115 degrees)- I never check the temp., if it's warm, not hot, it's good!
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
3 1/2-4 cups flour
1 1/2 Lb. ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
8 slices American Cheese

In a mixing blowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk, sugar, shortening, egg, salt and 2 c. flour, beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 4-6 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes.

In a skillet, cook beef and onion until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in tomato sauce. Remove from heat, set aside. Punch dough down, divide into 16 pieces. On a lightly floured surface, gently roll out and stetch each piece into a 5 inch circle. Cut the cheese slices in half. Top each circle with one slice (1/2 piece) of cheese and about 3 Tbsp. beef mixture. Bring dough over filling to the top center and pinch the edges real tight to seal it.

Place seam side down on greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 20 minutes. Bake at 400 for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm. Refrigerate or freese leftovers. 16 sandwiches.

Mom's Lasagna

My mom came into town this weekend and so I made one of our family favorites and took it up to her and my grandpa to munch on. When I used to work at Bear River Head Start I would take leftovers for lunch the next day and I always had to bring an extra piece for my friend Kelli. It's the BEST!

9 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 to 1 1/2 pounds lean beef
Tomato Sauce
Tomato Paste
Garlic Salt
Italian Seasoning
Mozzerella
Cheddar
4 cheese Italian blend (parmesan, Romano, etc.) I just buy the wal-mart brand
olives

Cook your lasagna noodles as directed on package. Meanwhile, cook up your beef. Mix together 1 can of Tomatoa Sauce (just a small size) and 1 can Tomato Paste (small size)-mix them together so the paste is nice and smooth. Add this to your beef. Add quite a bit of Garlic Salt and Italian Seasoning. Let it come to boil and then simmer 5-10 minutes
Layer 1:3 noodles, meat mixture, mozerrella, cheddar and 4 cheese blend
Layer 2: same as Layer 1
Last Layer: Same as Layer 1 and 2, but top with sliced up olives (use a whole can) the salt in the olives makes this recipe Yum-O.

Bake 350 for 30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the center is hot.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

So I can't take the credit for this fab recipe, so I give all credit to my friend Haley. I did change a few things so I can add this to my cooking light recipes. But, I also love this recipe because I changed it from grilled chicken to using Rotisserie Chicken. Every other Monday I make a trip to Wal-mart to get 2 weeks worth of groceries. I hate grocery shopping soo bad, and it helps me stay on a budget to plan for 2 weeks. By the time I am done grocery shopping the last thing I want to do is spend another hour of my night cooking and cleaning up dinner. So, every other Monday is my Rotisserie Chicken night, I pick one up at Wal-mart and it's an easy dinner. So, this is one of my new Shopping Monday recipes. Enjoy!

So this is a no measurement recipe....but just do what tastes right.

1 Rotisserie Chicken OR Instead of using Rotisserie chicken, used grilled and chilled chicken.

Next add some celery. chopped.

Green onions. chopped.

Toasted Walnuts or Slivered almonds. (Great for crunch)

Purple grapes cut into halves or quarters

Add garlic salt.

Pepper.

Add a few dashes of lemon Juice.

Fat Free Cream Cheese at Room Temp. (make sure it's at Room Temp.)

Add softened cream cheese and Light mayo...maybe equal parts. It gives your chicken mixture a great rich taste.

Mix it all together, making sure that there is plenty of the mayo/cream cheese mixture...so it doesn't taste dry, and serve on a croissant or if you want it to be a light recipe, serve on Wheat Bread

Butter Caramel Popcorn

Okay, this is so far from a Cooking Light recipe. But, this weekend Chris and I had a movie night and made my dad's famous caramel popcorn. Most caramel popcorn I have tried is done by baking it and making it crunchy. This is more of a glaze that's poured over the top of air popped popcorn, and it's heaven. Enjoy this yummy splurge!

1/2 Lb. Butter (yes, you read that correctly, that's why it's so delicious!)
1 1/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. Light Corn Syrup

Bring to a boil for 1 minute
Take off heat and add 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Pour over large bowl of popcorn. I do 2 batches of popcorn in my popper, and that makes the perfect amount for this recipe.

Crackers and Cheese (a new twist)

I don't know if I would really call this a "recipe" but I had to share it. This weekend we headed to the lake with Chris's family. My sister in law brought up a box of

Wheatable crackers or Reduced Fat Ritz (or your favorite cracker)
Low fat Cottage Cheese

I know this sounds like an interesting combination, but I am so hooked. All you do is dip your crackers in the container of cottage cheese, and it's soooo yummy.

Homemade French Fries

Believe it or not this is a Cooking Light Recipe, and sooo yummy. Every time we have a BBQ at my in-laws, I'm requested to bring these French Fries.



Potatoes (as many as you want)
Extra virgin Olive Oil
Salt
Ground Pepper
Paprika
Emeril's Orignal Essence
Chilli Powder
Season All Salt
Cayenne Pepper


Cut your Potoatoes in half, and then each half, you can get about 4-6 slices of fries.
Coat a Cookie Sheet with PAM spray and then spread out your frech fries so they don't overlap. Coat them lightly with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and then sprinkle all of your seasonings on top.

Bake 350 for 1 hour. Half way through toss them so both sides get cooked. After one hour if they aren't as crispy as you'd like them, broil for a few minutes to make more crispy

Blackened Beef Stir Fry

Okay, so I have been a total slacker about adding new recipes to my blog. But with Young Women's camp and my parents coming to visit for the 4th of July who had time to cook. And let's be realistc, my cooking days are limited in the summer, who wants to cook when you can be outside soaking up the sun!!

But here's a new recipe I tried this week, it was delic and it's a Cooking Light Recips. the only confusion I had on this was that it called for Blackened seasoning. I had never heard of this, the closest thing I could find was seasoned black pepper. If anyone knows what this ingredient is, please let me know!!!

* 12 ounces boneless beef top sirloin steak or top round steak
* 2-1/4 teaspoons blackened seasoning for beef
* 2/3 cup water
* 2 tablespoons tomato paste
* 2 teaspoons cornstarch
* 1/2 teaspoon instant beef bouillon granules
* 1 tablespoon cooking oil
* 1 16-ounce package frozen stir-fry vegetables (any combination)
* 3 cups hot cooked rice

Directions

1. If desired, partially freeze beef for easier slicing. Trim fat from beef. Thinly slice beef across the grain into thin bite-size strips. Sprinkle steak strips with 2 teaspoons of the blackened seasoning; toss to coat well.

2. For sauce, in a small bowl stir together the water, tomato paste, cornstarch, beef bouillon granules, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon blackened seasoning; set aside.

3. In a wok or large skillet heat oil over medium-high heat. Add stir-fry vegetables. Cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove vegetables from wok. Add beef strips to hot wok. (Add more oil as necessary during cooking.) Cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until desired doneness.

4. Push meat from center of wok. Stir sauce. Add to center of wok. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Return vegetables to wok. Stir together to coat all ingredients with sauce. Heat through. Serve over rice.

5. Makes 4 servings

Taken from Better Homes and Garden

Iron Gate Grill Salad

1 pg. (5 oz.) mixed baby greens, I buy an extra bag of Spinach because this is really good with lots and lots of spinach greens

fresh sliced strawberries
crumbled feta cheese
toasted chopped walnuts

Dressing:
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. dry mustard
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. dry minced onion
3/4 cup vinegar (add more to thin)
Blend
Slowly pour in 2 cups vegetable or canola oil, then add 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds

Mix just right before you are ready to serve otherwise the strawberries get really soft and also turn the feta cheese red. So add the strawberries 2nd to last and mix real well with dressing, and top with feta

Mormon Strawberry Ice Tea

2 lb. fresh strawberries or 2-16 oz. pkg. frozen
1 cup packed br. sugar
1 cup water
2 lemons
3Tbsp. snipped fresh rosemary (opt.)
Ice Cubes
1 Liter CLub soda, chilled
Fresh strawberries (opt.)

In a large saucepan combine fresh or frozen strawberries, br. sugar and water and cook and stir over med. heat until sugar dissolves.

Using a veggie peeler, remove strips of peel from lemons, juice the lemons (should have about 1/2 cup)
Add strips of lemon peel, lemon juice and rosemary to mixture in saucepan. Bring mixture just to boiling, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Cover, cool to room temp.

Press mixture through fine mesh sieve, dissolve solids. You should have about 1 qt. syrup. To serve, fill glass with ice. To each glass add 1/2 cup club soda and syrup. Garnish with fresh strawberries.

Strawberry Lime Punch

1 1/2 cups pineapple juice
1/2 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp. lime juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen sliced strawberries with sugar, thawed
4 1/2 cups lemon-lime soda

Add all juices an sugar. Mix well. Add strawberries. Slowly add lemon lime soda. Garnish with fresh lemons or limes

Yields 16 (1/2 cup) servings
Approx, 86 calories

Clam Dip

This is really good with any kind of potato chips, but we really like the kettle cooked potato chips with these!

1 pkg. cream cheese
2 tsp. grated onion
1 tsp. worchestshire sauce (however you spell it)
1 can clams (7 oz.), drained, set juice aside
2 tsp. lemon juice
4 drops Tobasco
1 Tbsp. parsley
pinch salt

Mix and chill. As you mix add necessary juice from the clam juice to make it the right consistency.

Fried Ice Cream

This is soooo yummy!

3 cups crushed corn flakes
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup brown sugar

mix 3 ingredients with melted 1 cube of butter

sprinkle 2/3 on bottom of 9x13 pan
spread 1/2 gallon SOFTENEND vanilla ice cream (I use a frosting spreader, dipped in warm water, it spreads the ice cream really smooth)

Sprinkle remaining topping

Drizze with Mrs. Richardson's Butterscotch Caramel topping

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

I have been a slacker for a couple weeks, but I have been on vacation, and who cooks while they are on vacation? I am back and this is what we had for supper last night. It was delic, and healthy!!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 cup prechopped fresh onion
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
Dash of ground red pepper
2 (15.5-ounce) cans Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken
1 cup thinly sliced green onions, divided
1/2 cup sliced ripe olives, divided
18 (6-inch) corn tortillas, divided
Cooking spray
2 cups (8 ounces) preshredded reduced-fat 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese, divided
1 cup 1% low-fat milk
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 (16-ounce) jar green salsa
10 tablespoon reduced-fat sour cream
Cilantro sprigs (optional)


Preparation
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add prechopped onion; cook 3 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in cumin, chili powder, garlic salt, and pepper; cook 1 minute. Stir in beans; cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add chicken, 1/2 cup green onions, and 7 tablespoons ripe olives; stir well.
Preheat oven to 350°.

Layer 6 tortillas on bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spread 2 cups chicken mixture over tortillas; sprinkle with 3/4 cup cheese. Repeat layers once. Top with remaining 6 tortillas.

Combine milk, chopped cilantro, and salsa in a blender, and process until smooth. Pour over top of tortillas. Cover and bake at 350° for 35 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese, remaining 1/2 cup green onions, and remaining 1 tablespoon olives. Bake for 5 minutes or until cheese melts. Serve with sour cream. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired.

Yield
10 servings (serving size: 1 casserole slice and 1 tablespoon sour cream)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 353(30% from fat); FAT 11.8g (sat 4.2g,mono 4.2g,poly 1.8g); IRON 2.5mg; CHOLESTEROL 45mg; CALCIUM 396mg; CARBOHYDRATE 45.8g; SODIUM 734mg; PROTEIN 23.5g; FIBER 7.9g

Maureen Callahan , Cooking Light, MARCH 2006

Southwestern Chicken Wraps

These were so so fast and easy! This was taken from my Better Homes and Garden Cookbook.

4 servings

Ingredients
1/2 cup dairy sour cream (I use fat free, so that might make the nutritional value in fat and calories even lower)
Guacamole (Just purchase the packet in the produce isle, and 2 avacados)

4 10-inch dried tomato, spinach, and/or plain flour tortillas (I purchased Jalepeno and Cheddar tortillas from Wal-mart and they ended up being more healthy than plain tortillas)
2 5.5-ounce packages Southwestern-flavored refrigerated cooked chicken breast strips (I couldn't find this, so I purchased Chipotle flavored at Lee's marketplace, and they were just as tasty)
2 plum tomatoes, sliced
2 cups shredded lettuce
Directions
1. In a small bowl stir together sour cream and guacamole. Divide sour cream mixture among tortillas, spreading over one side of each tortilla. Divide chicken, tomatoes, and lettuce among tortillas. Roll up. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition facts per serving:
Servings Per Recipe 4 servings
Calories 395
Total Fat (g) 13
Saturated Fat (g) 4
Cholesterol (mg) 49
Sodium (mg) 1015
Carbohydrate (g) 45
Fiber (g) 2
Protein (g) 25