Pear Muffins

I found this recipe on frostbakeshop.blogspot.com.

 

3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. salt

4 tsp. baking powder

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

approximately 1/2 cup milk

2 cups peeled and diced pears

Crumb topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup cubed butter

1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and spray muffin tins with cooking spray.

Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 2 cup measuring cup, add the eggs and then add enough milk to take it up to 2 cups (if you don't have a 2 cup measuring cup, then half the oil, eggs and milk into a 1 cup measuring cup and do that twice). Mix the flour mixture with the oil mixture and then add the pears.

In a medium bowl, mix the crumb topping ingredients and cut with a fork until the butter is in very small pieces. This works best when the butter is still a little bit cold, if it is too warm it will just mush with pressure from the fork.  or use a pastry mixer.

Fill the muffin tins right to the top and the sprinkle with the crumb topping mixture. Bake for 15 minutes - again, I take it out as soon as possible! If you are using the little mini tins, then about 10 minutes. You can put a toothpick in to see if it is done, but they are so much better if they aren't over baked.

 

REVIEW:  These muffins were very yummy!  The recipe made 24 reg. size muffins.  I did use canned pears and they tasted just fine. I only filled the muffin tins about 2/3 full....not to the top.

No Fat Ranch Dressing

I also received this recipe at that Relief Society Meeting.  It was pretty good!

1 C Cottage Cheese
3-4 tsp Buttermilk Ranch Dressing packet
2-4 T Water

Blend ingredients in blender and enjoy as a dip or over salad.

Protein Balls

Received this recipe at a Relief Society Meeting.  They called them Tone it Up Protein Balls.  She said to eat 1-2 after working out.....but no more.  I'm sure you can substitute any dried fruit for the apricots.  I had to guess if you didn't want to add the protein powder you don't need to.

1 C Peanut Butter
1 C Honey
1 C Oats
1 C dried Apricots
1 C Sliced Almond
3 Scoops of Vanilla Protein Powder
Cinnamon to taste

Heat P.B. & Honey until runny. Stir in all ingredients and cool in fridge. Roll into bite sized balls.

Slow Cooker Black Beans

I found this at budgetbytes.blogspot.com.

This worked really well, the last time I did this.  I love that I can freeze them and they are ready to use when I need them and I don't have to use salt-infused canned beans from the store.

Here is how it's done:

STEP 1: Pour one pound (2 cups of dry black beans) (or two for an extra large batch) of beans out onto a baking sheet and sort through to remove any stones or debris. Transfer the beans to a colander to rinse off any dust.

STEP 2: Place the cleaned and sorted beans in a slow cooker and add 6 cups of water for every pound of beans. Put the lid on, set the cooker to HIGH and let her go. Beans that have not been presoaked will take 4-6 hours to cook on HIGH.

STEP 3: Once the beans are tender, pour them into a colander and give them a quick rinse. Divide the beans into containers (re-sealable or zip top freezer bags), label, date and freeze until ready to use! Easy as that.

One pound of dry beans will yield about 6 cups of cooked beans, equal to about 3 cans.

*one comment recommended adding 1/8th tsp of baking soda if your water is heavily calcified to help soften them.  I didn't do that one time and the beans never became soft and I have added the baking soda in my last two batches and the beans were perfect.  So I will be doing that from now on!

Sweet Baby Rays Slow Cooker Chicken

I found this recipe on Pinterest on this website forkinit.blogspot.com.  I love pinterest!  Its fun place to find ideas for ALL kinds of things, not just recipes!

4-6 pieces boneless skinless chicken breasts (i threw them in frozen... even easier!)
1 bottle BBQ sauce (sweet baby ray's all the way!)
1/4 c vinegar
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp. garlic powder

Mix BBQ sauce with all ingredients listed under it. Place chicken in slow cooker. Pour sauce over it and cook on LOW for 4-6 hours.

*I bet this would freeze wonderfully!  I guess I'll to try it and let you know!

REVIEW: oh my! YUM! YUM! YUM!  My chicken didn't look like that picture.  I don't know where they would of gotten the crispy looking parts.  However, it was very yummy.  We shredded the chicken b/c the sauce so thin that the chicken seemed to soak it up a bit more.  We had it was baked beans, mac and cheese and some veggies.  The next day I cooked up some rice and ate it on top of that.  I bet it would be good on a sub or roll.  Definitely recommend this and must use Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce. So yum!

Beef Stew

Original recipe found on allrecipes.com.

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound beef for stew, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 of yellow onion, chopped

1 (10.5 ounce) can Beef Broth

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon dried Italian Seasoning

1 bay leaf

3 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 medium potatoes, cut into quarters

1.	Stir the flour and black pepper on a plate. Coat the beef with the flour mixture.
2.	Heat the oil in a 6-quart saucepot over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until well browned, stirring often. Remove the beef from the saucepot. Pour off any fat.  Saute onions in a little bit of olive oil until translucent.
3.	Stir the broth, water, Italian seasoning, and bay leaf in the saucepot and heat to a boil. Return the beef to the saucepot. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
4.	Add the carrots and potatoes to the saucepot. Cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the beef is fork-tender and the vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Suggestions: -Cook diced onions when browning beef. -Add frozen peas at the last moment. -Use olive oil instead of vegetable oil. -Add cornstarch to thicken. -Cook in slow cooker after browning beef. REVIEW:  Made this recipe tonight and it was great!  I did however make some changes, so I changed the recipe to reflect that, mostly.  I left the potatoes the way the original recipe had them b/c maybe in the future I will try it that way.  But this time i made the potatoes like one reviewer suggested on allrecipes and served it over mashed potatoes.  I also sauteed some mushrooms and added them to the stew with the carrots.  I made the broth from some stuff saying it was better than boullion.  I did also add 16 oz of broth, not the 10.5 oz.  Truthfully, I just wasn't paying attention and I thought that's what it said.   I thought it was just fine, but maybe a little too much juice.  I also add about 1T of cornstarch at the end to see if it would thicken it up.  I don't think it did much.  Maybe I need to add it at the beginning of the 1 1/2 hrs or maybe it wasn't enough cornstarch to do anything.  I will play around next time to see if I can get different results.  and oh the biggest change I made was use my hubby's deer meat that we butchered ourselves!  So the recipe is definitely a keeper and will be going into my recipebook!

Donut Muffins

I found this recipe on Smashed Peas and Carrots.

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup milk (soy milk works nicely too!)
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and grease a mini-muffin tin, set aside. Mix up the 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter and nutmeg in a large bowl. Then, add in the milk, baking powder and flour until just combined. Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full and bake for 15-20 minutes.  During baking get your cinnamon-sugar topping mixed up! Melt 1/4 cup butter in a small bowl and then in a separate bowl mix together the cinnamon and sugar. When the muffins are done, remove them from the pan. Dip the tops in the melter butter and then roll the WHOLE muffin in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Let cool.

*makes 18 mini muffins or 6-8 reg. muffins

REVIEW:  I made these this morning for my playgroup and they were a HIT!

Homemade Maple Syrup

I've always wanted to try to make syrup.  I hope this recipe from melskitchencafe.com tastes yummy.  Then we never have to worry about if we have enough syrup for dinner.....oh oops, uhh.....I mean.... breakfast.  Okay, who are we kidding, we hardily ever have breakfast for breakfast.  Its always a quick and easy dinner for us.  I don't think my daughter even knows most people eat pancakes and waffles for breakfast.  oh well.  I think I will try this in small batch first.  I don't we would use that much in 2 months either.

*Makes about 10 cups (2 1/2 quarts) of syrup

8 cups granulated sugar

1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

4 cups water

2 teaspoons pure maple extract

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

In a large 5-6 quart pot, combine the sugars, honey and water. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to low so the mixture gently simmers. Cover the pot and simmer the mixture for 15 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and let it cool for 20 minutes before stirring in the maple and vanilla extracts. Let the syrup cool in the pot for another 40 minutes, or so, stirring occasionally, before filling jars/containers. Once the containers are filled, let them cool to room temperature uncovered.

Store covered in jars or other containers in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to 2 months in the refrigerator. Gently reheat before serving, if desired.

*Notes from Mel: 

I like to use pure maple extract because the additives are minimal (I think it has caramel coloring in it and that's it) but if you can't find it, you can use the artificial Mapleine extract from the store with similar results.

I’ve had the same issue with crystallization now and again but for me, it only happens when there is just a bit of syrup left in the jar. When I make large batches of this syrup, I let the syrup cool in the pot for about an hour before pouring into mason jars. Then, I leave the mason jars uncovered until the syrup has cooled completely before covering and storing in the refrigerator. I’ve never had an issue with the syrup crystallizing that way. The only times I’ve gotten the sugary crystals is when there is only an inch of syrup in the quart sized mason jar and then sometimes I get sugary layer. Also, I make an effort to pour the syrup that I want warmed up into a separate liquid measure. And if there are leftovers of that warmed syrup, I don’t readd it to the syrup in the mason jar until it is completely cooled. I noticed one time when I warmed up all the syrup in the jar at once that when I refrigerated it again, it formed a crusty, sugary shell. Hope that helps a little bit!

REVIEW:  I thought this good but not wow.  I think it was missing a little flavoring or something.  However, I do like the buttery flavor of Mrs. Butterworth.  But I will stick with this recipe instead of buying the store kind.  Also, I only made a quarter of this recipe because I wasn't sure I wanted to make that much at first and I don't think we would go through that much in a 2 months!

Snickerdoodles

Okay I already have a recipe for snickerdoodles but uses shortening and I'm trying to get away from using partially hydrogenated oils.  This recipe from jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com uses all butter and adds baking powder, less salt, tad bit more flour.  Also the coating is at different ratios also.  Whenever I make my recipe with all butter, they don't turn out quite right, so I'm hoping with these changes I will be making yummy snickerdoodles again!

Cookie Dough:
1 C butter, softened
1 1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
3 C flour
2 t cream of tartar
1 t baking soda
2 t baking powder
1/8 t salt

Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
3 T sugar
1 1/2 t cinnamon
 

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes folks.  Add the eggs and cream for about 2 minutes more. This is a really important step. Creaming the dough at this point will give you soft chewy cookies later on in the game. 
2. In a separate bowl combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add it to your creamed mixture. Mix until all ingredients are combined.
3. In a small bowl mix together the cinnamon sugar coating. Roll the dough into balls and roll it around in the coating.
4. Place the cookies on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Don't set them too close to each other. You want them to have room to spread out and not have to touch each other while they bake.
5. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes. You only want to bake them until the outsides crack. Then take them out and let them finish cooking on the hot cookie sheet.  Yields 48 cookies.  Enjoy!

REVIEW:  I made these tonight and they were yum!  I have found my new snickerdoodles recipe!

Fabulous Pizza Dough

I have a pizza dough that I use that is really simple that I use for my pizza rolls, but I'm not sure its the best recipe for just a regular pizza dough.  I'll try this one out for jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com.

1 t yeast
1 1/2 C warm water
4 C flour
1 t salt
1/3 C olive oil

1. Sprinkle yeast over the top of your warm water.
2. Combine the flour and salt in the bottom of your mixer.
3. Pour the olive oil in and mix just just until combined.
4. Pour the yeast and water mixture into the flour.
5. Mix just until combined.
6. Cover and set aside. Let it rise until double in size. OR....and the beauty is.....you can put it in the fridge and let it rise throughout the day.
7. Punch the dough down and divide it in half. Let each piece rest on a pizza stone or sprayed cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Then stretch it out as thin or thick as you like.

REVIEW:  I made this dough for a youth activity.  I made them into individual pizzas.  I cooked them for about 7 minutes and then I had the girls put the topping on it that they like and cooked it for about 5 more minutes.  The girls said it was really good!!  I thought so too.  I made this in my KitchenAid but I think I could of very well made it by hand.

Slow Cooker Chicken Nachos

A friend posted this on her facebook page.

3 frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can drained corn(or 1.5 cups of frozen corn)
1 can black beans, rinsed (or 1.5-2 cups of black beans, if you cook them from scratch, like I did this time)
2 - 10oz. can of Rotel (tomatoes with chilies)
8 oz cream cheese (lowfat worked just fine!)
Tortilla chips
Cheddar cheese, shredded

Place chicken, corn, black beans and salsa in crockpot on high for 4-6 hours. When it is 30 minutes before serving, put in cream cheese and shred the chicken. Serve on a bed of tortilla chips and cover in shredded cheese.

REVIEW:  I have changed the recipe to how I fixed it yesterday.  It definitely smelled soo yummy when we came in the door after church.  I tasted pretty good.  But I think it needed more than just sitting on top of some of tortilla chips.  Maybe it would of been better with all the fixing for nachos, like lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, avocados, rice?  Hmmm.  I'll try that next we eat it.  Which will be soon b/c it made a lot!  I'm going to try freezing some of it, to see if it freezes well.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

Okay something other than strawberries.  I think I'm going to have to make this for dinner this week.  We love enchiladas!  and this looks scrumptious!

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

6 Tbsp honey

4.5 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 lb cooked chicken, shredded (you can also use shredded pork. That's what I did here.)

flour tortillas

colby or monterey jack cheese, shredded

10 oz. can green enchilada sauce

Mix first 4 ingredients together and toss with shredded chicken. Let it "marinate" for at least a half hour. Pour some green enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 10x10 casserole dish or 9x13 pan. Fill flour tortillas with chicken and shredded cheese. Pour the rest of the can of green enchilada sauce over enchiladas then sprinkle with more cheese. (When using a 9x13 I like to use 1 1/2 10 oz. cans) Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. (Put it under the broiler at the end to make the cheese brown and crispy on the top.) 

REVIEW (6/29/11):  Made this last night.  It was good but a little too sweet for us.  But we're not big sweet meat people.  Also, we could not taste the hotness of the chili powder at all.  So next time, I think we will double the chili powder or add Tabasco sauce  or something to make it more spicy to counteract the sweetness.  I used chicken but I'm sure it would be good with pork too, as she suggested.

Strawberry Quick Bread

I can't wait for strawberries to come in season to try this yummy looking bread!  I saw this recipe on mandysrecipebox.blogspot.com.

Strawberry Quick Bread
1 cup fresh strawberries
1-1/2 cups and 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Slice strawberries, and place in medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and set aside while preparing bread mixture.

Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in large bowl: mix well. Blend oil and eggs into strawberries. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn loaf out, and cool completely.

REVIEW:  Great for the strawberries that are getting close to being overripe!  We loved this recipe!

French Dip Sandwiches

 I found this on ourbestbites.com.

1 2.5-3 lb. beef roast (you can use a frozen roast if you want)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper
2 1-ounce packages dry onion soup mix
2 c. water
2 cans beef broth
8 oz. Mozzarella cheese, shredded
6-8 large buns (or more...6 would be VERY generous servings!)
Swiss, provolone, or mozzarella cheese, shredded or sliced.

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat and rub roast with salt and pepper.

When very hot, carefully place roast in pan and sear on all sides. You're not cooking the meat, you're just browning it quickly on all sides to add flavor and seal in the juices.

Place in crockpot and sprinkle with onion soup mixes. Pour water and beef broth over roast.

Cook 8-10 hours on low or cook 4-5 hours on high and another 3-4 hours on low. It's hard to screw this part up; basically, the longer it cooks, the more tender it will be. But you know it's done when you pop a fork in it and the meat just falls apart. When meat is ready, shred with a fork.

Place meat in crusty rolls. Top with cheese and broil open-faced in the oven or toaster oven for a few minutes, until bread is golden and cheese is melty.

Ladle juices into small cups for dipping and enjoy!

FREEZER DIRECTIONS:
Prepare roast through the searing step; after meat has cooled, place in a plastic freezer-safe container (think Gladware), cover with onion soup mix and boullion, and freeze. When ready to cook, pop it straight into the crockpot (frozen), add 2 cups of water, and set to high until warm or, even better, simmering. Turn to low; cook for a total of 8-10 hours.

REVIEW:  I made this and it is YUM, YUM, YUM!!!!  Definitely recommend!

Guitless Alfredo Sauce

I found this recipe on bestbites.com!  I think I will trying this one very soon.  We love alfredo in our house! We might have to reduce or cut out the garlic in this house....for the picky eaters!

2 C low-fat milk
1/3 C (3 oz) low fat cream cheese
2 T flour
1 t salt
1 T butter
3 garlic cloves
1 C grated Parmesan cheese


Toss the milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender.Process until smooth and set aside.

In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Stand above the pan (but not close enough to scald your face) and inhale. Ahhh...butter and garlic. Okay, now get cooking again. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don't want to burn it. It should be nice and bubbly.

Then add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.

When it's nice and thickened remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in the fridge, the sauce will thicken almost into a solid. Just re-heat and add a little milk and it will be back to normal again.

This sauce can used for so many things. Here's a few ideas:

-Over pasta (obviously)
-As a dip for breadsticks
-As a sauce on pizza (this is the garlic cream sauce I was referring to in this recipe) and a half batch of sauce covers 2 medium pizza's.
-Mix it with pesto for a creamy pesto sauce
-Mix it with marinara for a creamy marinara sauce

**UPDATE/REVIEW - I made this the other night and the kids loved it!  Dylan said it tastes just like Brick Oven!  I guess it must be good!  I only used 1 clove of garlic and it was good for us.  Next time I might experiment and put in 2 cloves and see if we can handle it.  I also forgot to put the salt in it and I think it needed it.  It was really easy to make and we will make it again!

Super Soft Sour Cream Sugar Cookies, Buttercream Frosting & Sugar Gem Frosting

I made this recipe yesterday my church's youth group last night.  I found this on sisterscafe.blogspot.com.  Another recipe site that I love!  Everyone seemed to like them and they definitely were very soft!  I didn't make the buttercream frosting, but I used the sugar gem's icing from their site.

I did not put in the almond extract in the cookies because well....I didn't have any.  They tasted fine without it, but I think adding the almond favoring would make them more yummy!  Also, I found out if you want white icing and you want to use vanilla flavoring...don't use the brown vanilla extract....find the clear kind!  I wanted white icing, but it turned out light brown. So I added some food coloring to make it orange and that worked nicely!

Super Soft Sour Cream Sugar Cookies:

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 cups flour

Cream together softened butter with sugar, sour cream and eggs.  Add vanilla, almond extract, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.  Slowly add flour, 1 cup at a time. Dough should be sticky.  Refrigerate one hour.  Knead dough on floured board.  Roll out and cut with cookie cutters.  Bake for 9 to 12 minutes at 350.  Frost with Buttercream Frosting.


Buttercream Frosting:
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups butter


Sugar Gem Frosting
2-2 ½ cups powdered sugar
½ cup oil
2 tsp flavoring (almond, vanilla etc.)-sister's cafe prefers 1 tsp of almond
3-4 Tbsp milk
Coloring if wanted

Mix well and add a little more milk or powdered sugar to get the right consistency.

Apple Crisp

I made this tonight for our ward's elders' quorum social.  It was a hit!  I got this recipe from allrecipes.com, however I did change it a bit.  I will post it how I prepared it.  If you want to the original recipe go here

10 cups apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup water

1 1/2 cups oats, quick cook
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.   Mix the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and ground cinnamon together, and then combine with apples.  Pour water evenly over all and mix again.  Place the apple mixture in a 9x13 inch pan.  Combine the oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.  Cut the softened butter into the oat mixture. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes.

*Okay, truthful I forgot to add the baking powder and baking soda and it didn't seem to effect it.  But I'm sure they are in there for a reason!