White Pizza

... is my FAVORITE and it's so so so easy to make! And that makes me love it even more!

But, truth, I'm so not into making my own crust. So skip ahead to instructions after you buy a pre-made crust.  =)

To make EITHER Spinach Pizza OR Margherita Pizza

Brush the crust with olive oil.
Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over crust mostly covering it.
Lay on torn up pieces of fresh spinach (or pieces of fresh basil and tomato slices).
Sprinkle with a little more mozzarella cheese.
Add some feta cheese or ricotta cheese. (or neither)
Sprinkle a pretty heavy amount of garlic powder (and some dried basil if doing spinach pizza) over all of the pizza.
Bake about 10 minutes at 425, til melted.

ENJOY!

THE creamiest and THE easiest cheesecake

This recipe is really from my friend Jaesi.  It's soo easy and sooo yummy, it quickly became a FAVORITE and do again and again dessert!  Ready for it?

8 oz cream cheese, softened
tub of whipped cream
1/4-1/3 cup powered sugar
graham cracker crust

With a mixer, cream together the cream cheese and whipped cream and add powered sugar to desired sweetness. Spread into a pre-made crust (either vanilla crumbs or graham cracker crust) and refrigerate til it firms up again.  I like this one topped with cherry pie filling but plain is yummy too.  ENJOY!

Recipe: Mini Crab Cups

My friend Bonnie made these for a ladies fellowship night at church, and they were so good I asked her for the recipe!  Then I (with mom's wonderful help) made them for Carter's birthday party!  Something yummy, something fun, and something different from the norm!

Mini Crab Cups 
(I don't actually know what they're called)

24 sq wonton wrappers
1 Tbl butter/margarine melted
10 oz chopped crab meat
2 green onions w tops finally chopped (I should've thrown mine in the chopper so they were smaller than what you see in the picture)
1/3 c grated carrot
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp worchestershire sauce
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly spray mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Brush butter over each square of wonton and put in mini muffin cups.  Bake for 8 minutes.  LET COOL.  (I put that in caps because it's good to notice so you can add it in the time)  Mix all other ingredients together and spoon into cooled wontons.  Place back in oven for another 5 minutes or until filling is bubbly around edges.  Serve and enjoy!

* I threw each thing in my chopper (small food processor) and stirred it all in a medium-sized bowl.  Putting the wontons in the little cups is probably the hardest part.  Just takes a little time, so don't try to be rushed about it.

Yummy Fresh Taco Salad

  

Black Bean Taco Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

This was good! Took me all afternoon it seems to cut up all the produce, grate the lime peel, rinse the beans, etc but ohhh I liked it!  Made for a fresh kind of salad and definitely one to add to the recipe book!  For the kids I saved a separate bowl of salad and left off the dressing, using Ranch for them instead.  Worked great!  AND I bet you could use some of that leftover turkey in replace of the chicken... just an idea!

Answer Me This: Crockpot Recipes

I'm not very good at the crockpot.  If it's supposed to cook for 8hrs and I want it done at 6pm, that means it needs to go in by 10am.  And by 10am I'm well into my day and I plumb forget to get the darn thing started and it's already 4pm and then I have to scramble around to get an alternate dinner prepared.  But I want to get better.  I love the feeling of dinner being "done" already in the morning!  Plus, it's easy for my little girl to throw things in there for me and help!  Now that Eli's first year in AWANA is starting up, meaning early dinner on Wednesday nights, I'm thinking of doing more crockpot meals.  I have a crockpot cookbook, but it doesn't have pictures so things don't look very appealing. So what are your favorite meals and recipes for the crockpot??

Perfect summer treat!

I was just remembering these the other day and thinking how it's a perfect time to make them! Yumm...



Frozen Fruit Cups

3 bananas
1 sm can frozen orange juice
1 sm can frozen lemonade
8 oz sliced strawberries
16 oz crushed pineapple and juice
8 oz maraschino cherries
1/2 c sugar

Heat 2 1/2 c water and add sugar. Let cool. Mix all the fruit with the cooled sugar water. Put in small plastic cups and freeze. Set out 20 minutes before serving, so they can soften up just a bit. (makes about 10 cups)

Enjoy!

A new yummy secret!

Today at lunch I was having leftover soft taco in which we wrap like an open burrito. Anyway... As I was eating it I was thinking about how much I like Taco Bell's grilled stuff burrito and the yummy sauce they put in it, wondering what it might be made of. I still don't have a clue, but I mixed together some ranch with a little taco sauce mixed in, stirred it in to my burrito stuffing and mmmm, that was GOOD! Definitely going to do that one again!!

And because I love y'all so much, I thought I'd share the goodness! =)

One more goodie

Ooo, I forgot to mention one of my very favorites of the year yesterday in my post of new recipes!! A really great appetizer/snack to make for parties or for not parties! It's soooo soooooooo good anytime of the day--super yummy to eat the leftovers (if there are any) for breakfast the next morning. You HAVE to try this one!!

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

I followed the recipe and fried the cinnamon chips, but next time I'm going to bake them, using this recipe. Should be just as good! And goodness the cinnamon chips are good all by themselves too!

Recipe Love

Just some recipes I've tried lately and loved. Thought I'd share...

Tri-Color Pasta Salad
Very yummy. I couldn't stop! I added even more tomatoes because it added a nice freshness to the salad (this is coming from a girl who never used to like tomatoes at all!!) This recipe is a keeper! Kids did OK with it.

Cheesy Cauliflower Bake
Mostly I liked this. Kevin wasn't home that night. The kids didn't like the crunchies on top but otherwise I think it would've been okay for them. Also good with a little sour scream stirred in with it.

Cheddar Spirals
I usually use this recipe (super good!) for homemade mac n cheese but this was a new take using condensed cheddar soup and the crockpot. Kids approved! (sorry for the small pic, that's all there was)

Honey-Spiced Chai Bundt Cake
I made this for our MOPS brunch last week. Who says you can't have cake in the morning?! LOL I really liked this, especially with the delicious cream cheese frosting all over it. It's basically just a good spice cake. Real mild flavored and yummy!
Southern Mashed Potatoes
I've figured out how to make 'em "southern style" (from a girl who's not really from the south at all). LOL I suppose I'm comparing to what you might get at Cracker Barrell. Smash the potatoes with a mixer (learned this from Kevin's family and it's so easy that way). Add in lots of butter. For 4 potatoes, that's at least 1/2 stick of butter. Add milk to consistency and a moderate amount of salt. And here's what I learned, LOTS of pepper. Keep adding it 'til it tastes like what you want. It had to have been at least a teaspoon when I made it last. Soo good! (That was all so vague, did that even count as a recipe?? LOL)

*All the photos are from the recipe websites.

Have you tried any new recipes lately that have been delicious successes?? Do share!!

New discoveries.

{is that redundant??}

Anyway...

Discovery #1 Scooping chili with tortilla chips instead of crackers. Makes it like a dip (which is common in the first place) instead of soup. And it's even better topped with a little cheese. We had tortilla chips left from something, and we're almost out of Saltines, thus leading to this yummy surprise.

Discovery #2 Microwaving cookies. Just pop your cookie in the microwave for about 20 seconds and it comes out like it was just freshly baked. Yumm...

And that, my friends, was my important work for today.

Added to my recipe book!

I tried a new recipe this week for Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup and let me tell you, it was GOOD and will definitely be added to my recipe binder! Both kids had THIRDS the night we had it and when we had it for lunch again the next day they both had seconds! That's certainly a good sign of a keeper!


Clink the link above for the recipe, but after looking at the reviews here's how I made it:

Ingredients:
4 c. chicken broth
2 c. water
2 cooked boneless chicken breast halves, shredded
1 (4.5 oz) package quick cooking long grain and wild rice w. seasoning packet (I used a box of Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice Quick Cook)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup flour
2 cup heavy cream (add in additional milk if soup is too thick)

Directions:
1. In 1 Tbl butter saute a clove of garlic and 1/2 cup each of onion, carrot, and celery (I didn't have celery so didn't add it. It was an extra anyway).
2. Add in broth, water, and chicken. Over medium heat bring just to boiling, then stir in rice, reserving seasoning packet. Cover and reduce heat.
3. In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper, and flour. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in contents of seasoning packet until mixture is bubbly. Reduce heat to low, then stir in flour mixture by tablespoons, to form a roux. Whisk in cream, a little at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth. Cook until thickened. (mine was already super super thick so I didn't really continue cooking it)
4. Stir cream mixture into broth and rice. Cook over medium heat until heated through.

* Note: It thickened a lot after sitting in the fridge so when we reheated for lunch I just added in a little milk, and it was just right again!

My new favorite sandwich.

Toasted Italian sub. From my very own kitchen. I made this last night and it was so good I couldn't wait to make it again for lunch today!

- sub buns (mine were actually just bakery hot dog buns because that was the only choice at the store)

- pepperoni

- hard salami

- deli ham

- sliced cheese of choice (I got muenster this time just to switch things up)

For the meats I tried to find the really thin sliced stuff, in the deli section instead of the lunch meat section. The pepperoni were big ones and the salami was thin. Layer up your sandwich--pepperoni, salami, ham, and cheese. Then pop in the oven for just a couple minutes, 'til it's starting to look toasty and the cheese is melty. (I did 425 degrees for about 3-4 minutes) After it's toasted, then spread mayonnaise on the bun and THEN...(here's the yummy part!)...brush the top of the sandwich half with balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing. I was going to use Italian but when I saw last minute that we were out of it, I found the next closest thing in our fridge, gave it a sniff to see what it would taste like, and went with it, and it turned out really good! It would have been good with a little lettuce on it too, but we didn't have any so that was that! It was still great without!

For Kevin's sandwich instead of making it with the mayo and dressing, I spread a layer of warmed-up leftover marinara sauce after toasting. Yumm...

So there you have it, my new favorite sandwich!

Zucchini Everything!

We had a pleasant surprise in our garden the other day--we have zucchini! We planted them so late (end of July!) that we didn't really expect to get anything but just gave it a shot anyway. I didn't even know they had started to grow let alone turned into ginormous ones! So now that we all of a sudden we have lots of zucchini to use, I've been pretty creative about what we can make!

So far this week we've had these Zucchini Grinders (turned out good!) and last night I made lasagna using zucchini, and it also turned out really good and was our lunch for today! I just followed a regular lasagna recipe but used less meat and added in sliced n diced zucchini with it and since I was halving the recipe I could use extra sauce than originally called for and extra mozzarella cheese on top of the cheese layers. Now this weekend I'll be making these zucchini brownies (I'll let you know how they turn out) and maybe tomorrow I'll bake some good ol' zucchini bread. And though it's not in the menu for us this week, I do love Mediterranean pasta: simmer a can (or 2) of Italian seasoned diced tomatoes, diced zucchini, and sliced olives until the zucchini is tender. serve over noodles of your choice. The original recipe I got this from also used garbanzo beans, but since I don't care for them I leave them out, but for those of you who like them, they'd add protein to the meal!


Hannah's is the store-bought zucchini I'd just got before I knew we had our own in the garden. And Eli's zucchini is from our garden. BIG!
So there you have it, everything zucchini! What are your favorite zucchini recipes??

Recipe: Curried Chicken Divan

I don't really know if this is a standard recipe or not. This is the one my mom always used when I was growing up and the one I choose still today because I just love it and the kids do too!

Curried Chicken Divan

1 1/4 cup rice, cooked
1 pkg (10oz) frozen broccoli florets, cooked
1 1/2 c. cooked chicken
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese + some for the top
1/2 tsp curry powder

Put cooked rice in the bottom of baking dish. Then lay broccoli and chicken. Mix everything else together and cover over broccoli, chicken, and rice. Top with cheese. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Yumm...

Orange-Banana Smoothie

I made up this recipe last week after I'd served our family a scrappy dinner and I wanted to offer them something delicious. We had a couple bananas needing to be eaten before we left town and we happened to still have orange juice in the fridge from something else. Turned out really delicious for being basic ingredients!

Orange-Banana Smoothie

1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup milk
1 banana
1/4 cup sugar
splash of vanilla
8 ice cubes

Blend in blender.

Recipe time!

Alrighty, it always takes me awhile to get recipes up, so today I'm getting caught up! Some of my new favorites...

YUMMY Chocolate Cake
My mom made this sometime back in November or so, and when it came my birthday I knew that it was the cake I wanted to make. We did our best to remember how it was made and came up with this:

Devil chocolate cake mix, prepared and cooked according to the box directions
Oreos (about 1.5 sleeves maybe?), crushed
8 oz package cream cheese, softened
tub of whipped cream
container of chocolate frosting

1. Bake cake in two round pans. When cool, slice each half so you have a total of four thin layers.
2. Stir together crushed Oreos and cream cheese (like making oreo balls), fold in whipped cream.
3. Use your Oreo fluff to "frost" in between the layers but not on the top of the cake.
4. On the top of the cake spread a thin layer of chocolate frosting and then on top of that spread more Oreo fluff.
5. Now cover around the sides with Oreo fluff. (I suppose I could have put a layer of chocolate frosting under here too. Hmm)
6. Now use your finger to clean around the plate and eat it!
7. Store in fridge.

For my birthday I didn't even bother making it look pretty. I just wanted to eat it, and ohhh, it's sooo good!

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Homemade Granola
I bookmarked this at the Biblical Womanhood website but when I went to open it the other day, there was something goofy with their site. Kevin worked his magic and got if for me, but in case you can't open it, here's the recipe. I made it to top over baked apples as dessert, but it turns out it's really yummy as plain cereal too. Now I can start experimenting with add-ins, like slivered almonds or craisins. But I was seeking a simple recipe that didn't include wheat germ and other nuts, and this is a good one!

Mix 1/2 cup each of brown sugar, oil, and honey in saucepan.

Bring to low boil.

Add 1 tsp. cinnamon and 2 tsp. vanilla.

Pour over 7 cups of oats in a large pan.

Stir until coated.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

Take out and stir. Put back in oven, turn off, and go to bed. [that's what their directions said! haha]

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Curried Rice Pilaf
I tried this recipe for Easter and it is also a new favorite. It's very mild and just a yummy side dish. Kevin doesn't like raisins so I left them out, but since I already had almond pieces I put 'em in, and that was a nice add, especially considering I'm not usually a fan of nuts. Oh, and I'm not really sure how to toast them as the recipe called for, but I just sauted them in butter for a couple minutes and called it good. You can get the recipe HERE.

THE best alfredo sauce!

I've got it! I've found my new favorite alfredo sauce! No need to keep experimenting with recipes anymore! Here she is: taken from this recipe and following some comment suggestions, it's DELICIOUS!

Easy Alfredo Sauce

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
several shakes of Italian seasonings, parsley, basil

Directions: in saucepan melt butter, pour in whipping cream, SLOWLY stir in parmesan cheese 1/2 cup at a time, add garlic powder and seasonings, and woo-la! done!

This takes less than 10 minutes to make and is fabulous! It can go on anything-- I've put it on butter beans and served it to the kids for lunch; I've put it on pasta, chicken, and broccoli,; and I know it would be good scrumptious on pasta and shrimp but we're avoiding shellfish for the kids' sake. So go, try it! This is such an easy meal but definitely as good as Olive Garden!!

My specialty.

Deliciously fluffy scrambled eggs. When I was enlisting your help with over-easy eggs, a reader asked what my tricks were for scrambled eggs, so I'm going to share!

1. I cook 2 eggs for every adult + 1 egg per child, just as a general rule.
2. If I'm cooking more than 3 eggs (or so) I pre-crack them into a bowl. Otherwise the first eggs start cooking too fast before I'm done cracking the eggs into the pan.
3. Melt 1-2 Tbl butter in frying pan.
4. Get plates or serving bowl on standby.
5. Add eggs.
6. Stir eggs continuously, pushing them to middle of pan.
7. While they're still runny, quickly add a little salt and pepper. It tastes better when can cook into the eggs.
8. Continue pushing eggs around.
9. IMPORTANT ONE: as soon as they're not runny anymore, take them out of the pan and dish onto plates or transfer to serving bowl. If they cook even 5 seconds too long, then they're not all that fluffy the way I like 'em best.

That's it. That's my secret! I know, they're just scrambled eggs, not anything fancy, but something that can be delicious.

A new favorite

Last week in my need to finish off some green chiles from previously making breakfast burritos, I found a recipe in my computer bookmarks for Chicken Chili. And mmm, Kevin and I both decided it was a new favorite. Even Eli gobbled it up with having to prod him along through his meal! Perfect for these cold winter days!

Holiday goodness

Back in college my friend Angie introduced me to oreo balls. I loved 'em so much we made them for our wedding reception, but for whatever reason we haven't had them since! I remembered them this year and thought it would be fun to make these "snowball cookies" with Eli! The recipe is oh so easy and sooo yummy!

8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
package of Oreos, crushed
package of almond bark

Stir together Oreos and cream cheese. Form them into ~1 inch balls. Put them in the freezer for a few minutes while you melt the almond bark. Then dip the balls into almond bark and return to freezer until set. Store leftovers in the fridge.

Since it's holiday season I thought it might be fun to try mint Oreos instead of just regular, and it definitely was a yummy variation!

The ingredients

Oreos in a bag

Kevin's smashing the Oreoscrushed cookiessoftened cream cheesestir together cream cheese and cookies
Eli's helping put balls on the panballs made and set in freezernow we can "clean" the spoon!chocolate face!melting the almond barkcoating the oreo balls with almond barkwe had some troubles with the almond bark overcooking and getting way too thick instantly, so you'll see most of them are chunky. done and ready to go back into the freezer for a few minutes.Snow balls!ready to eat!mmm....a little someone enjoying his treat