Thursday, November 29, 2012

Show Your Stuff #52 - Preparation, Cooking Tips, and Leftovers, What to do?

It is time again for another edition of Show Your Stuff . This week I have an article about preparation, cooking tips, and left overs






Sunday, November 25, 2012

Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Pancakes


Our son had learned to make pancakes when dad became laid up with foot surgery. Using dad's recipe, Charlie has come up with these cinnamon chocolate chip pancakes.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving -Show Your Stuff #51


Visiting my daughter for Thanksgiving. Her turkey looks good! So now go ahead and show off what you are proud of.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Butterfinger Cookie Cake


I made this cake for my son's 18th birthday.  It is cookies layered with  Butterfingers and pudding. The pudding makes the cookies soft like cake in about 8 hours.  This is similar to my Butterfinger Dessert,  using chocolate chip cookies instead of angle food cake. So be warned that this will be a little heavy and rich, but oh it is soooo good!

So here is how you make it.

Make a batch of chocolate chip cookies, I have the original Nestle Toll House Recipe here.
make sure the cookies are cool.

Make the pudding:
1 Large box vanilla instant pudding mix
3 Cups milk
1 Large tub of Cool Whip
About 6-8 Butterfingers candy bars or a package of fun size bars.

Combine milk and pudding mix. Crush candy bars and add to pudding mix ( you can reserve some for garnish). Fold in Cool Whip.

I made my cake on a regular dinner plate. Put a small amount of pudding on the plate, add a layer of cookies. Cover cookies with pudding, Repeat adding cookies and pudding. finishing with pudding and garnish with crushed Butterfinger.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Cookies will get soft. Keep refridgerated.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Frito Crusted Chicken


Frito Corn Chips creates this tasty Chicken Recipe.

Twisted Chicken

4 chicken breasts
2 cups Frito corn chips crushed fine
1 cup salsa (your choice of heat)
salt and white pepper to taste
3T Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Mix corn chips, and Parmesan cheese in bowl. Place salsa in separate bowl. Salt and pepper chicken to taste, dip chicken in salsa, then into corn chip mix. Place on a cooking sheet coated in olive oil, after all chicken is coated and on pan spoon rest of salsa over chicken. bake 1 hour or until chicken is done internally.
Serve over a bed of Mexican rice.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Show your Stuff #50 - Easy Frito Pie


This week I am showing off an Easy Frito Pie. This recipe is similar to the Mexican Fun Food recipe I have listed, but this has more ingredients in it.

You will need:

1 Large Bag Fritos Corn Chips
1 pound ground beef
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 can of diced tomatos
1 can of dark red kidney beans
1 can nacho cheese sauce
8 oz package of Mexican Blend Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, brown ground beef in skillet and drain. Add the taco seasoning, tomatoes, beans, and nacho cheese. In a 2 quart casserole dish, layer Frito's on the the bottom, add the hamberger mix, add another layer of Frito's and top with the Mexican Cheese blend. Bake uncover for 20 minutes, Serve with salsa and sour cream, if desired.


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Salmon Croquet Patties


My husband made these yesterday for dinner with roasted potatoes and green beans.

Salmon croquet patties

1 can salmon
1 T mustard
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
2 eggs
3 T Parmesan cheese
1/4 C shredded cheddar
salt and pepper to taste
1 C panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350. Pick all bones out of salmon and drain, place all ingredients in mixing bowl and mix well. Form into patties and place on a sheet pan coated with olive oil.. sprinkle additional Parmesan cheese over top of patties. Bake 30 minutes.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Thanksgiving with a twist!

Over the years, I don't know about you but I get tired of the same "classic" meal year after year.I'm going to put a "twist" on some of your classic dishes to break up the routine year after year:

1) Cheesy potatoes - 1 bag shredded hash browns, 1 can cream of celery soup, 1 cup sour cream(substitute bacon and cheddar chip dip), 1 cup crushed corn flakes (substitute frosted flakes), and 8 oz. mixed cheese. Mix hash browns, soup, and dip, layer on baking sheet,salt and pepper to taste, and frosted flakes then cheese. bake 375 for 45 minutes.

2) Green bean casserole - 4 cans cut green beans drained, 2 cans cream of mushroom soup, 1 can nacho cheese sauce, 1 cup cooked and crumbled bacon, salt and pepper to taste, 1 small can sliced mushrooms (drained), 1 lg can fried onions. Mix all ingredients except fried onions and place in casserole dish, top with onions and bake 375 for 45 minutes.

3) Instead of biscuits try this: 2 boxes corn muffin mix, 1 egg, 1 can whole kernel corn (drained), 1/2 cup sour cream, Mix well. fill muffins tins 3/4 full and bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.

4) This one is quick and easy. Instead if pumpkin pie do this - buy individual tart shells, 3 cans of assorted fruit pie filling, 1 tub cool whip. Fill tart shells with assorted pie filling, put cool whip in pastry bag and top the pie filling. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

5) Garlic baked mashed potatoes -peel and cook 8 russet potatoes until done, add salt and pepper to taste, 3 tablespoons garlic powder, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (grated). Mash and place in casserole dish, top with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Notice I kept all baking temperatures the same since most of us only have access to 1 oven. keep watching in days and weeks to come for more delicious ans easy ideas for the holidays.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

No Bake Healthy Cookies



I was in the mood to make no bake Nutella cookies, when I found that the link I had for the recipe did not work. After doing some search on the web, I found a healthy no bake cookie. So I altered it a little to include some Nutella. So here is the recipe.

3 T Milk
1/3 cup Sugar
1 T cocoa, However, I did not have cocoa on hand so I used about 2T chocolate chips.
1 1/2 t Vanilla
1/3 cup peanut butter and/or Nutella (I used a combination of both)
1/8 (or 2T) wheat germ
1 1/2 t flax seed (optional) - I used graham cracker crumbs
1 Cup oatmeal

Heat the milk, sugar, and chocolate. Add the peanut butter and/or nutella and vanilla, ounce it is melted, add the remaining ingredients. Drop by teaspoon size onto a platter and refrigerate until set. Store in refrigerator.
It did not make a lot. I got all my cookies to fit onto a dinner plate.

How To Save On Your Budget Without Depending On Coupons!

With all the stores competing for your business there are plenty of sales to take advantage of. Here are some tips to make that budget crunch stretch that much further:

1. Know what stores you want to patronize (in my area ie. Russ's IGA (r), Super Saver (ss), Hy-vee(hv)) I use 3 or 4 stores that are close to home so gas and milage does not factor in.

2. Know the basic prices of all your stores of items you use an a regular basis that are not on sale.

3. Sales flyers hit in Wednesdays. Read your flyers, look-up you stores on the internet (most websites have internet only ads.), take advantage of the 2 day sales or limited time offers. if ththe store has an"once in a life time price break" that you know will never happen again STOCK UP! If your store is out of a sales item get a rain check, it's not your fault they were not ready for you, they are usely good for 1 month and can add up in savings.

4. Make your weekly menu from the sales ads (of course combined with what your family likes). Be smart (if there is only 2 of you and they have whole chickens on sale make plans for 2 meals out of that chicken.)

5. Make your shopping list: item by item, place a note by each item where you are going to purchase from. If a sale item note that also by item, if not on sale and not sure where to buy list all places.

Example of my list:
Items                                           Sales
* Ground beef* hv                      Hy vee
Hot sauce hv, ss, r                      Ground beef 2.99 lb
chicken  
milk hv,ss,r                                Super saver
                                                   Whole chickens .79 lb.

6. Start shopping at the store you think has the best overall prices. Buy all sales items, and complete your list with all the items you know are cheapest at this store, repeat at the next store, then finish your list at the last store.

7. Be creative, be flexible, and use your common sense, When shopping for an item the store will display items at different eye levels, the most expensive will be at eye level and the cheapest is usually on the top shelf or the bottom shelf. You can be brand loyal if you want but most of the time the house brand is made by a major brand you just don't pay for the advertising.

8. Take a calculator if your not good with numbers and do the math for the best price, per ounce, per serving , or whatever the common denominator is. I have found if you use coupons use zero in on that products and there is another brand (usually the house brand) right next to it without a coupon. Good luck and have fun with it. Try new items and flavors, it will open a whole new world.

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Show Your Stuff #49


This week I am showing off the Cornflake Cookie again. This time I added white chocolate chips. It still turned out really tasty.  So........

It is time again for another edition of Show Your Stuff. 


Saturday, November 03, 2012

Nutella Banana Chocolate Smoothie


Yum! You know you want to make one. You will need:

Frozen slices of a banana
1 cup milk
2-4 tablespoon Nutella
2-4 tablespoon chocolate syrup

Add all ingredients in blender, mix until combined. Enjoy!

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Show Your Stuff #48




It is time again for another edition of Show Your Stuff. Instead of showing off a food item, I am showing off a new baby hat pattern I wrote. You can find the pattern here on my other blog, Treasures Made From Yarn.