Coconut Macaroons
1 bag shredded sweatened coconut
1 14 oz can sweetend condensed milk
2 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 block chocolate bark (for drizzling on top)
In a bowl mix coconut and sweetened condensed milk well. Seperately, beat 2 egg whites and salt in an electric mixure on high speed for about 4 minutes until stiff peaks form.
Fold in half of egg whites into coconut mixture to lighten. Once combined add in the other half of egg whites.
Place macaroons onto either parchment paper or silpats on cookie sheets. Do a dollop of cocnut mixture then top again with equal amount as the bottom layer.
Bake for 23-25 minutes on 325* until the tops are golden brown.
Let cool and drizzle with the chocolate bark. Store in airtight container. Can be made a day ahead.
Makes 30 macaroons
Getting a head start on dinner for tonight cause it’s a crazy night and we’re headed in lots of different directions. I made this ahead and it’s in the fridge till about 45 minutes before I need it I’ll just pop in into a 375 degree oven.
Sauté the following in some olive oil in your largest skillet: 1lb boneless skinless chicken breast chopped, 3/4 cup each onion, celery, carrotts, green beans, and corn salt and pepper. Stir and continue to cook all ingredients for about 10 minutes. Add in 2 cloves garlic and more s & p. Melt 2 tablspoons butter in with the ingredients and then sprinkle 3 tablepoons flour. Stir well then add 1 can of chicken broth. Let thicken.
Roll out a store bought refridergerated pie crust into your pie plate. Pour chicken filling into pie shell. Optional: top with crushed Ritz crackers that have been mixed with 1 tablspoon of melted butter.
Bake for 30 minutes at 375, let stand fir 15 minutes to cool.
OCTOBER 17, 2006
“It’s Thurs. night, home alone watching a Rachel Ray marathon on my DVR and had to obey a nagging sweet tooth. I went into the kitchen and thought this recipe up! Great news…it turned out super yummy! It’s a keeper!”
Note: Mix all in an electric stand mixer or in a bowl with an electric hand mixer
Gooey Paradise Cookie Bars
2 sticks butter (room temperature)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
*cream these together*
1 egg
*mix in for about 30 seconds*
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
*mix again on medium for about a minute*
1/2 cup sweet shredded coconut
1 cup chopped semi-sweet chocolate (chips work great too)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
*Mix briefly, you may need to use a rubber spatula and fold these ingredients in more by hand*
* Spray a round Teflon baking dish with cooking spray and sprinkle with flour, pour and press dough in, bake at 350 for 25-28 minutes until center is a bit firm and the top is light brown of this giant cookie*
* I cut these bars into pie shaped pieces and drizzle with chocolate bark that hardens before serving* SERVES: 10
Note: If you aren’t making bars and just individual cookies then add one more egg to the recipe above
My sister Jenna is 16 years old, in tenth grade and once she gets going has a laugh that is contagious! She is so much fun to be with. When we get together one of our favorite things to do is to cook and bake! She recently stayed the night at our house and we came up with our own take on the traditional Chicken Tortilla Soup. Our’s add’s yummy roasted red peppers and we throw in a store-bought rotisserie chicken for convenience!
Ingredients
Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Tortilla Soup
1 store-bought rotisserie chicken
2 large red bell peppers, sliced in half
1 medium sized pablano pepper, sliced in half
EVOO for drizzling
salt and pepper
1 red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup frozen corn kernels
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 packet taco seasoning
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 can black beans
6 cups chicken broth
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Take your store bought already cooked rotisserie chicken and pull off all the meat, and chop. Discard most of the skin and fat. Set aside ready to go chopped chicken =)
Now, get your pepper roasting by splitting both the red bell peppers and your pablano pepper in half and put flesh side down on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and liberally coat with cracked salt and pepper. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes turn the broil on and char the skin of the pepper for 90 seconds. When I say 90 second I mean it any more under the broiler and your pepper will be totally burned and unable to be used. Set aside and let cool.
Meanwhile, in a large stockpot drizzle EVOO in the bottom of the pot and saute chopped onion and garlic for a few minutes on medium to medium high heat. Season with salt and pepper. Add in corn, black beans and chili powder and stir. Kick stove back to med low and add in chicken, can of tomatoes, and taco seasoning packet and give a good stir! Put in all of the chicken broth and stir. Chop your already roasted peppers into bite sized pieces and add them as well. Stir, let simmer for a few minutes to let all of these flavors marry and then enjoy!
Head’s up this serves an army! Like 10-12 people.
Garnish with shredded cheddar or Monterey jack cheese, tortilla chips and sour cream!
These are so easy and are good enough to be a side dish for a holiday or just a nice vegetable staple to accompany your weeknight meatloaf! Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots
1 lb bag of baby carrots
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
cracked sea salt
In a saucepan, boil carrots for about 12 minutes. Drain the water, with carrots back in your saucepan add in butter, orange juice and brown sugar. Cook on low heat stirring constantly until everything melts. Take off the heat place in serving bowl and top with cracked sea salt! This is so good and could not be easier! Enjoy!!
Eddie, Bennett and I delivered this dinner last night to a sweet family in our church who just had a new baby girl named Taylor! She is as gorgeous as a porcelain doll and super tiny. We shot a few pictures so you could see her =) I’m glad her mommy and daddy, Rachel and Robby, liked the dinner we brought them!
Welcome sweet little Taylor Gingrow!
This is new mommy Rachel and I holding each other's babies! Bennett is 4 months and Taylor is 2 weeks!
Chicken Cutlets with Shallot Butter Sauce
6 chicken cutlets
about 3/4 cup flour
salt and pepper
EVOO (2 turns of the pan)
Sauce:
EVOO (drizzled in pan)
1 shallot sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
about 8 mushrooms chopped
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 stick butter
Grab out large skillet preheat to med-high and coat bottom of pan with EVOO. Season Chicken cutlets in salt and pepper and then dredge in the flour. Season a bit again with salt and pepper and place into skillet. Cook about 3 minutes on each side until a brown crust forms and then keep warm and crispy in a 325 degree oven for about 5-10 minutes or until your ready to plate them up and eat em’!
While the chicken is keeping warm in the oven, in the same skillet as you cooked chicken drizzle EVOO, put in shallot, garlic, and mushrooms and saute on medium-high for 2-3 minutes. Add in white wine vinegar and butter, let simmer on low heat until ready to
drizzle over the chicken.
Loaded Twice Baked Potatoes
EVOO (for drizzling)
6 potatoes
salt and pepper
1/2 stick butter, softened
2 oz. light cream cheese
3 green onions chopped
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup real bacon (I bought these in the bacon bits aisle at store)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Clean potatoes, place on baking sheet, drizzle them with EVOO and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 1 hour. When they are done baking, let them cool. Cut out the tops of potatoes with a small pairing knife then gently scoop out middle of potato into a mixing bowl. Set aside your hollowed out potato skins and work on the filling. Add butter, cream cheese, green onion, milk, salt and pepper into mixing bowl with potato and mix with an electric mixer. Once combined stir in the bacon. Stuff the potato shells and top with shredded cheese. Put in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes.
I came up with this recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies and it is the EASIEST EVER!! I can have these cookies mixed up and in the oven in ten minutes. Nothing hard about this, easy to grab ingredients, and big on the sweet factor! Last night I whipped these up for a sweet treat for a new mommy and daddy from our church! They just had a precious baby girl named Taylor! I made them eat them before their dinner while they were still hot out of the oven! Hey, life is short, eat dessert first!!
Peanut Butter Cookies
1 stick butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
Cream the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer. Add in all of the remaining ingredients and mix. If you have time, place the dough in the fridge for an hour to firm up a bit. If you don’t have time, no big deal it won’t wreck a single thing, that’s the beauty of this recipe. Just put them into balls, make the traditional criss-cross fork marks in the top of each cookie and bake at 375 for about 8 minutes!
Makes 2 dozen cookies
Here’s a great tip! When grocery shopping, shop the outside perimeter of your grocery store! This is where everything fresh lives. You can generally make healthier choices by focusing on this and you can keep your bill shorter at the checkout! In the middle is where all the cookies, snacks, and other impulse buys live!
Another way to save $ at the store is to make your list and stick with it! Which brings me back to only going in the middle for the things on your list. Perhaps you need to grab a can of black beans for your veggie and black bean quesadillas, then it’s ok to venture in the middle but always have a plan!!
One last way that can help you save at the store is to be willing to buy what’s on sale. You have to be creative on the spot to think how can I use this for a dinner this week? If it is on sale that week ask yourself….1.) Will we eat this? 2.) Is is truly a savings over what I normally buy?
Don’t give into EXTRA’s that aren’t PRACTICAL items for your family!
Normally when making bruschetta you buy a french loaf or a thin italian loaf, slice it and place in the oven drizzled with olive oil. When it’s done you top with the fresh tomato mixture. Well, I had an idea to pan-sear my bread and it works great. I think preparing the bread this way yeilds even more flavor and crispiness! I simply buttered both sides of each slice of bread and placed into a skillet that I drizzled with Extra Virgin Olive OIl (about 2 turns around the pan). Once it bubbles on med heat place bread down and cook until browned on once side then flipp! Both sides get gorgeously light brown and are so tasty cause they are laced with a crispy melted butter texture! After they are out of the pan top with the tomato mixture. This dish is simple, fresh…perfect!
Pan-Seared Bruschetta
1 French Loaf (any loaf skinny and long can work with this)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons butter
Topping:
6 small very ripe tomatoes ( the on the vine variety at the store work great)
1 clove garlic, chopped small
salt and pepper
4 fresh basil leaves (make basil confetti with how you chop it)
Grated Parmesan Cheese, topping
This is an amazing appetizer at a get together or as a side-dish at dinner. I just paired it with a sautéed chicken breast and voila a yummy and easy dinner! Make sure you add some green…some asparagus on the side would make this a very well-rounded meal!
Last night I discovered something HUGE! If you thaw your chicken breasts before sauteing them, they usually are still a bit wet when you place them in the pan. Well…last night I patted them dry with a paper towel and then sautéed them in EVOO! The skin became amazingly crispy with an oh so juicy, tender center! This could be huge for you…so try it!
