Strawberry Oat Muffins

Morning!  I thawed strawberries earlier this weekend for the delicious Strawberry Cheesecake Delight, but later made an adjustment to the recipe.  I wanted to use the strawberries before heading back to work this week, so I decided to try out a Strawberry Oat Muffin recipe from Spark People. 

Ingredients:
1 cup quick oats
1 cup buttermilk (I didn't have buttermilk, but found a simple substitute on About.com.  You'll need milk and lemon juice.  Put 1 tablespoon lemon juice into liquid measuring cup.  Add milk for total of 1 cup liquid.  Let stand for 5 minutes.)
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup applesauce, unsweetened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup strawberries, chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a muffin tin, or use paper liners.  Prep your buttermilk substitute if necessary. 

In a small bowl, mix oats and butter milk.  Let stand for 5 minutes.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together egg, applesauce, brown sugar and vanilla.  Add oat mixture.  Next, add the flour mixture, until just moistened.  Fold in strawberries.

Pour batter into each muffin cup 3/4 way full.  Bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cup is clean.

Makes 12 muffins.

These were wonderful!  I'm looking forward to trying this recipe with different fruits - peaches, blueberries, etc. 

Strawberry Cheesecake Delight

I'm always looking for quick and easy desserts.  I ran across a Strawberry Cheesecake Salad from the Time for Supper blog and decided to change it up a bit.

Ingredients:
8 oz. whipped topping
1 small package cheesecake pudding, powder only, sugar-free
3 strawberry greek yogurts, Yoplait Greek 100
miniature marshmallows
graham crackers

Directions:
Start by thawing whipped topping.  Mix whipped topping, pudding powder, and yogurt in a bowl.  At serving time, crush graham crackers into bottom of serving dish.  Spoon cheesecake mixture on top.  Top with mini marshmallows. 

Store leftover cheesecake mixture in airtight container in refrigerator. 

 

So simple, yet so delicious!

Enjoy!

Italian Ranch Pork Chops

Whew!  That last couple of days have been cah-razy!  Over 14 inches of snow fell within 48 hours.  While its definitely welcome and will certainly help with the Kansas drought, it becomes a pain when trying to get out and about.  And is a lot of work to shovel off the driveways and sidewalks! 

 

 

On my home from the office, I hit the post office this evening to mail wedding invitations! We're getting to so close to the big day! I'm so excited, but terrified I'll forget something at the same time! Must. Relax.

 

Tonight, to avoid being out on the roads, I made Italian Ranch Pork Chops from Crazy Horse's Ghost from Hubpages.  T approves, as do I. 

 

Ingredients:

Boneless Pork Chops

Bottle of Ranch Dressing

2 cups Fine Dry Italian Bread Crumbs

1 small package Italian Dressing Mix

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan

1 tablespoon Garlic Powder

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix bread crumbs, Italian dressing mix, parmesan and garlic powder together in bowl.  On a plate, pour ranch dressing.  Coat pork chop with ranch and then cover with bread crumb mixture.  Place onto raised pan.  Once all pork chops have been prepared, bake for approximately 20-30 minutes or until pork chops are fully cooked.  Serve immediately.

I served this with steamed green beans sprinkled with garlic salt and pepper.  Yum!

 

 

Homemade Sugar Scrub

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I hope you're all having a great week! 

I'm so excited as we're finally getting some snow!  We're at 3-4 inches, but they're estimating we could end up with 4-10!  Love it! 

But - with winter, cold and snow comes super dry skin. Ick!  Solution: Sugar scrub. 

Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
Optional: flavored body oil

Directions:
Simply mix the two ingredients together.  Super easy!  Store any leftover in an airtight container.

My skin felt super smooth!  The sugar helps remove dry layers and the olive oil helps moisturize the skin.  I will for sure be making this again! 

CAUTION: Please be cautious when using in the shower as olive oil can make the shower floor slippery.  I would definitely recommend using the scrub in a bath instead of a shower.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

I received a newsletter from a local quilt shop named Demelia's the other day with a sweet little recipe called Lazy Cake Cookies.  I immediately knew I was trying this out as part of T's Valentine's Day gift.  So glad I did!

Ingredients:
1 box butter yellow cake mix
6 tbsp melted butter
1 tsbp water
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients together and put into a greased cake pan.  Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick is clean.

So easy and so tasty!  Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for more deliciousness.

Garlic Parmesan Shrimp Pasta

Happy Valentine's Day!!  I hope everyone had a wonderful love day celebration!  T and I skipped the crowds and had our Valentine's dinner out earlier this week.  So tonight we celebrated with a delicious Garlic Parmesan Shrimp Pasta inspired by the blog called Normal Cooking.  Yum!

Ingredients:
1 lb raw, deveined and peeled shrimp
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp fresh, chopped parsley
2 tbsp white wine
salt and pepper
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup bread crumbs
pasta of your choice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cook pasta per package directions.

Remove the tails from the shrimp.  Combine the shrimp, white wine and garlic powder.  Pour into baking dish and spread out evenly. 

In a separate bowl, mix melted butter, parsley, parmesan and bread crumbs until well combined.  Sprinkle the mixture over the shrimp.  It's easier to sprinkly using your fingers.  Sprinkle desired amount of salt and pepper on top.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes until shrimp are completely cooked.

Serve shrimp over pasta.  So good!

 

 



Chips and Queso

Having a party?  Need something quick and easy for a food day at work?  How about chips and queso? 

Ingredients:
1 pound hamburger
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 pounds Velveeta
1 can Rotel

Directions:
Brown hamburger and drain.  Add onions and Rotel.  Break Velveeta into smaller chunks and add to the mixture.  Keep heat around medium low and stir as cheese melts.  Serve with chips.

Alternative: Brown hamburger and drain.  Add onions, Rotel and Velvetta to slow cooker at heat on low until cheese is melted.  Stir regularly.

Using the slow cooker is definitely ideal for parties and work.  On Super Bowl Sunday, we made this cheese dip for just the two of us.  Because of that, we opted to take the stove cooking route.  Either way - still yum!

Baked Apple Chips

My parents left for Florida today (so. jealous.) and dropped off their dogs and several apples they hadn't had a chance to eat before leaving.  T and both eat apples on occasion, but definitely not an apple a day.  So what better way to use the apples than making homemade apple chips?

Ingredients:
Apples, any kind, any number
Cinnamon, optional
Sugar, optional

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 225 degrees.  Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet.  If you choose to use cinnamon and sugar, spread the desired amount over the paper.  Thinly slice each apple and lay the slices flat onto the parchment paper.  Sprinkle the tops with additional cinnamon and sugar if you choose.  Bake for 1 hour.  Turn all apple slices over and bake for another hour.  As the apples dry, they will begin to look wrinkled and crispy.  Enjoy the fruits of your labor.  Store in an airtight container (if you have any leftover!).

I've added an mandolin to my list of kitchen wants.  It would definitely help in keeping a consistent thickness to the apples.  The thicker the apple slice the longer it will take to dry out.   Nevertheless, still delicious! 

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Hello, all!  I hope everyone had a great weekend!  T and I spent last night getting the house cleaned and grocery shopping so we'd have the rest of the weekend to relax.  We also took a few minutes to book our airline tickets and make reservations for our honeymoon to San Fransico!  So excited!

As part of our relaxing Saturday, we decided to stay in for breakfast instead of heading out like we normally do.  I found a great recipe on Pinterest for AlexandraCooks.com's Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake and thought it would be a great dish for this lazy Saturday morning.

Ingredients:
1/2 unsalted butter, softened
lemon zest from 1 lemon
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoons sugar - set aside 1 tablespoon
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour - set aside 1/4 cup
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions:
First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cream butter with lemon zest and 3/4 cup sugar.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combines.  In a separate bowl, mix 1/4 cup flour with blueberries.  In a third bowl, whisk together remaining flour, baking powder and salt.  Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet batter alternating with the buttermilk.  Once combined, add the blueberries.  Pour batter into a greased 9-inch dish and sprinkl with remaining sugar.  Bake 35-45 minutes.  Use toothpick to gauge doneness.  Wait 15 minutes before serving.

 

 



A piece of breakfast cake with a glass of milk = divine.