Super Easy Fruit Salad

One time my friend Cami invited my family over for dinner and made us this yummy fruit salad. I have made this salad many of times since that dinner. The recipe calls for just a few simple ingredients and it has a really good flavor that we all like to gobble down with dinner. Maybe we like it so much because it kind of tastes more like dessert than a side dish.

Raspberry Fruit Salad
Printable Recipe

1 (8oz) container of Cool Whip
2 (6 oz) containers of Raspberry Yoplait yogurt
1 package of frozen Raspberries
1/2 package of mini marshmallows

Let Cool Whip and raspberries get to room temperature. Mix all ingredients together and serve. Simple as that!

Smoky Jalapeno Popper Dip

So here is another delicious, easy, appetizer to get you ready for the Superbowl!! I love this dip and have made it for lots of get togethers and even a few block parties, and it always disappears quickly!

Print Recipe
Smoky Jalapeno Popper Dip:
2 8 oz. packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup Mayonnaise
1 cup Parmesan Cheese
3/4 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
1 4oz. can green chilies, undrained
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped **

Preheat oven to 375. Mix cream cheese and mayonnaise til combined. Add Parmesan cheese, smoked paprika, the entire can of green chilies including the liquid, and the jalapeno peppers. Stir well to combine and place mixture in a 9 inch glass pie plate sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes until browning on top and bubbly. Serve warm with tortilla chips.

**NOTE Be careful when working with jalapeno peppers. Instead of plastic gloves, I always use the plastic produce bags from the grocery store and just kind of wrap them around my hands before I chop. You can just double bag your jalapenos at the store and Wa-La, when you get home you have "gloves"! Then wash your hands after seeding and chopping your jalapenos.**

Apple Syrup

I have never been a fan of maple syrup and so growing up I would only eat peanut butter and jam on my pancakes, but every once in awhile my Mom would make this yummy syrup and I would gobble it. So I have passed this love on to my kids, this is pretty much the only thing we eat on pancakes around here. I make it pretty much weekly here. This syrup is extra good on these buttermilk pancakes.

Apple Syrup
Print Recipe

1 cup sugar
2 Tbls corn starch
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 cups apple cider (or juice)
2 Tbls lemon juice
1/4 c butter

Mix first 3 ingredients, stir in cider and lemon. Cook over stove top until mixture boils and thickens (about 1 minute). Remove from heat and stir in butter.

Caramel Apple/Fruit Dip

With the Superbowl Game right around the corner, you will be needing some yummy, easy appetizer ideas, right? Don't worry, we've got you covered. This dip is delicious and quick! I love it served with apples and bananas. I sometimes just throw it together to serve my family with dinner, and usually when I'm in a rush like that I leave the nuts out. But if you are serving guests or taking this somewhere to share, the caramelized nuts in it are really yummy.
Commercials

Caramel Apple Dip:

Print Recipe

1 8 oz. package Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/3 cup Caramelized Walnuts or Pecans

Beat cream cheese, brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon together til smooth. Stir in nuts and serve with fruit. You could even get creative and fill in a litle bit of space on your platter with graham crackers or pretzel sticks for eating with this caramel dip.

Turkey Minestrone Soup

This minestrone soup is SOOO good! Turkey sausage makes it healthy, and a secret ingredient makes it delicious. Several years ago I was at a recipe exchange party and one of my friends there had a recipe for minestrone soup. I was looking over her recipe and it was very similar to mine except for 1 ingredient: apple cider vinegar. I asked her about it and she told me it was the secret to her minestrone soup. Who knew??? I added it to mine and wow, it made such a difference! This is a yummy meal you can put on the table in 30 minutes, wouldn't Rachael Ray be proud? This soup tastes even better when served with french bread.

Print Recipe
Turkey Minestrone Soup:
1 lb. Italian Turkey Sausage, sweet or hot (spicy), depending on what you like
1 medium Onion, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced
6 cups Beef Broth (or use 6 cups water + 6 teaspoons beef bouillon powder)
2 14 oz. cans Italian Stewed Tomatoes
2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tablespoons dried Parsley
1 teaspoon Oregano
1 teaspoon Basil
2 medium Zucchinis, sliced
1 10 oz. package Frozen Mixed Veggies (I usually use one with green beans, carrots, & corn. Sometimes if I don't have that I thinly slice fresh carrots and add frozen green beans or a can of them drained.)
1 can Kidney or Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup dried elbow macaroni or other small pasta **(I cook mine separate while my soup simmers. I know it sounds like more work, but I just cook it on the stove next to the soup. I've tried adding the uncooked pasta directly in the soup and for some reason with this soup it just doesn't work out for me, the noodles either get too soggy or not cooked--I have MUCH better luck cooking the macaroni al dente and adding it at the last minute. If you have some secret to get this to work right, then add your pasta with your veggies and simmer together.)
Parmesan Cheese

In a soup pot, brown turkey sausage and onion. You can drain off a little fat if you want to. Add garlic and stir in for 1 minute. Add beef broth, stewed tomatoes, apple cider vinegar, and spices. Add vegetables and beans. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add in cooked pasta and serve hot topped with Parmesan cheese.

Homemade Soft "Oreos"

So these aren't really "oreos", so to speak, (they're much better :) but I have been making them forever and that's just what we call them! Bar none, these are my 6 kiddos' most favorite cookies ever. In fact, true story: My 13 year old son would not clean/keep clean his room no matter what privileges I took away, or anything I said or did. Negative consequences weren't working so I said "o.k. if you will keep your room picked up for one week, I'll make you homemade oreos." I'm telling you, no joke, he literally bolted up the stairs, cleaned his room lickety-split, and kept it clean for an entire week. Even when my mom came over to babysit my twins, she peeked in his room and said "wow, this is really clean!!!" (So I had to tell her about the bribe.)

Homemade Soft Oreos



Hopefully you can see in the pic above that I am using Betty Crocker "Triple Chocolate Fudge" Cake mix. That is my favorite cake mix with these cookies, it is filled with little mini chocolate chips that just melt in your mouth when you bite into these cream-cheese frosting filled chocolatey, dreamy cookies.

Ingredients: Makes about 3 dozen Oreos
Print Recipe
2 boxes Triple Chocolate Fudge or Devil's Food Cake Mix (both turn out great)
1 cup + 1 Tablespoon Butter Flavored Shortening
4 Eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Beat eggs, add shortening and beat together. Add cake mixes and stir til blended well. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheets, I line mine with parchment paper.
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. As soon as you take your cookies out of the oven, flatten them slightly with the bottom of a cup. They will look slightly cracked.

Cool cookies and then frost insides with Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows. You will just take a cookie, turn it upside-down, so that the bottom of the cookie is facing up, and frost the inside. Then take a second cookie and place it on top of the frosting with the bottom of your cookie resting on top of the frosting. So the end result is the tops of your cookies, or cracked sides, are each facing out, like the picture at the top of this post.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/4 cup Butter, softened
3 cups Powdered Sugar

Beat cream cheese and vanilla together til smooth. Beat in butter until lumps are gone. Mix in powdered sugar.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Once you taste these pancakes you will never go back to a box mix for pancakes. These are always a hit. And the possibilities are endless with them. My cute husband is always coming up with yummy things to put in our pancakes. Some of our favorites are to add banana slices as they cook, or bananas and chocolate chip, or just plain chocolate chip, or blueberries. All super delicious! We just add them right after we pour the batter on the griddle. These are also amazing just plain served with your favorite syrup.

Buttermilk Pancakes
Yield: Makes about 20 pancakes; 5 to 6 servings
Ingredients
Print Recipe
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups buttermilk (use the real stuff, no substitutions)
1/4 cup (1/8 lb.) butter, melted
Pam
Preparation
1. In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk eggs, buttermilk, and butter until blended. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture.
2. Place a nonstick griddle or a 12-inch nonstick frying pan over medium heat (350°). When hot, coat griddle lightly with Pa, and adjust heat to maintain temperature. Spoon batter in 1/3-cup portions onto griddle and cook until pancakes are browned on the bottom and edges begin to look dry, about 2 minutes; turn with a wide spatula and brown other sides, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes longer. Coat pan with more oil as necessary to cook remaining pancakes.
3. Serve pancakes as cooked, or keep warm in a single layer on baking sheets in a 200° oven for up to 15 minutes.
(This recipe  and picture from Sunset Magazine, MAY 2002)

Sandwich Time

Here is a recipe for a super yummy sandwich, and who doesn't love a super yummy sandwich??

Croissants
Chive and Onion Cream Cheese
Turkey
Swiss Cheese (or Provolone)
Lettuce
Tomato
Avocado Slices (or Guacamole is good too)
Sunflower Seeds (gives it an amazing crunch)
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Spread the cream cheese on both top and bottom of croissant. Add the rest of the ingredients, and enjoy!!

Easy, Delicious Chicken and Dumplings

This is one of the ultimate comfort foods, and here in Arizona I love to take advantage of our very short but sweet winter to make soup for dinner. I LOVE soup, don't you? I first saw this chicken and dumplings recipe in a Family Fun magazine several years ago. I have simplified it a bit by using boneless, skinless chicken thighs (instead of whole chicken pieces you have to tear apart later) and I totally cheat on the dumplings! But if you want to make your own, I am going to include a recipe for those too! The ingredients for this are super simple, but you won't believe how good this tastes! Don't even think about skipping the step below where you brown your chicken, that's what makes this taste so amazing. You can have this delicious dinner on the table for your family in an hour, so let's get cooking!!

Chicken and Dumplings, serves 4-5. *I double this to feed my family of 8*
Recipe adapted from Family Fun
Print Recipe

2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1 pound boneless, skinless Chicken Thighs
1 small onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
3 cups + 1/2 cup water, divided
1 Bay Leaf
1 teaspoon dried Parsley
3 Chicken Bouillon Cubes or 3 teaspoons Chicken Bouillon Powder
Black Pepper, to taste (I use 1/4 teaspoon)
5 Carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1/3 cup all purpose flour

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add chicken thighs and brown them on each side for 2 minutes. Stir in the onion and celery and saute briefly. Then add the carrots, 3 cups of water, bay leaf, bouillon, parsley, and pepper to your chicken and veggies. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer the chicken for 30 minutes. While chicken simmers, "prepare" your dumplings~Yay! This is where I cheat.

Dumplings (please don't tattle tale to your grandma)
5 small refrigerated biscuits.
So you will just buy a package of 10 small biscuits like this:
I say "small" because you can buy a package of like 4-6 "grand" biscuits or just a package of regular sized ones, just buy the smaller ones. Ok so now you will take 5 biscuits and cut each one into 4 small pieces like this:
Once chicken thighs and veggies are done simmering, remove thighs from the saucepan and place on a cutting board. Whisk the 1/3 cup flour together with the 1/2 cup water, stir into to the soup. Cut chicken into bite size pieces and add back into soup. Simmer together for 1 minute and then drop in your dumplings. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Check your dumplings, they should be kind of soft and "dough-ey" on the outside, but on the inside they should be cake-like, like the inside of a biscuit like this:
If dumplings aren't done, just cover your pan and cook for a couple more minutes. Yum!

Homemade Dumplings if you don't have biscuits:
1 1/2 cups all purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
2/3 cup Milk
1 Egg
1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in this mixture and add milk, egg, and oil. Stir briskly to make a batter. Spoon rounded tablespoons of batter into your simmering broth and cook, covered, for 15 minutes.

**A quick note, I always buy extra biscuits when they go on sale and bake them while the chicken and dumplings are cooking to serve on the side!

*Update*

Yesterday I made oatmeal cookie pancakes for my birthday for breakfast and I tested them using a little extra flour to make them easier to work with/flip. It worked great and so I have updated the recipe, just FYI :)

Coca Cola Cake

Moist, Fudgy, Delicious...........This cake is a favorite in the south and of mine, since that is where my dad is from! And all growing up whenever we would visit my grandparents in Alabama, my grandma would make us this wonderful cake. She is now 95 years old. I have to tell you a little bit about her, she is not only an amazing cook, but TOTALLY skinny and beautiful~ and has been her whole life. And she puts the food away! In fact, she (and my grandpa when he was alive) ALWAYS eats dessert after lunch and dinner. Every time. Whenever I visit, she has a freezer/fridge full of goodies she has baked. And did I inherit this fabulous super revved up metabolism? No I did not. And that is not fair, so I will be talking to the Big Man In Charge~You Know Who~someday when I meet Him in the hereafter. I need an explanation as to why, when that gene set was TOTALLY available to me, I did not receive it.
Ok so 3 summers ago we took all of our 6 children to Alabama to meet/see their great grandma while we still had the chance and had an awesome trip. And here are a couple of photos to show you my beautiful grandma. The first is of my daughter Annie, who is named after her. So here are the 2 Annies:
And the next is of my 6 kiddos eating ice cream with her on her front porch one evening, this photo is priceless:

So when our family visited, we were all sitting around the table one day after lunch and eating, of course, dessert. It was brownie ice cream sundaes, yum. My dad was with us on this trip and everyone had licked their bowls clean except for him, he had left half his brownies and ice cream because he was full. So my grandma has eaten all of hers too, a big brownie with ice cream and looks at my dad, noticing he isn't finishing his, and says "Bobby, give me some of that." She's totally serious, grabs his bowl and FINISHES HIS BROWNIES WITH ICE CREAM TOO. No joke. She was like 92 at the time. And she's a beanpole. You hear about people's metabolism slowing down with age. Not hers. Again, how is this fair? I only ate like 1/2 half a brownie and a tiny scoop of ice cream. Sigh.

This is my very favorite dessert recipe from my grandma, the frosting is the best, it tastes exactly like fudge!!

Coca Cola Cake
Print Recipe

2 cups All Purpose Flour
2 cups Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
1 cup Coca Cola
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Buttermilk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 1/2 cups Mini Marshmallows

Heat oven to 350. Spray a 10x15 sheet cake pan with cooking spray or grease it. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and baking soda. Over a stove in a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Add coca cola, and whisk in cocoa powder til smooth over low heat. Remove from heat and add oil. Stir in buttermilk and vanilla. Whisk in egg with a wire whisk or beat into coca cola mixture with a fork til smooth. Stir wet ingredients from saucepan into dry flour/sugar mixture with a wooden spoon and mix until smooth, scraping flour from the bottom of your mixing bowl. Stir in marshmallows. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean, with maybe 1 or 2 moist crumbs on it.

When cake is finished make this heavenly, fudgy, non-diety frosting:
Coca Cola Frosting:
1/2 cup Butter
6 Tablespoons Coca Cola
5 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
1 teaspoon Vanilla
16 ounces Powdered Sugar
3/4 cup Pecans, chopped

In medium saucepan over low heat, melt butter. Add coca cola and stir. Whisk in cocoa powder, increase heat to medium and bring to a boil. As soon as mixture boils, remove from heat and stir in vanilla, powdered sugar and pecans. Pour this delicious warm frosting over warm cake. :
Just let your cake rest/cool once it comes out of the oven for at least 10-15 minutes before frosting, but your cake can still be warm when you frost it.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

So my daughter recently turned 6 and I asked her what she wanted me to make for her special dinner. She didn't blink and said "shrimp potstickers!!" Since those don't really make a meal, I decided to make lettuce wraps to go with them. Over the years, I have made various lettuce wrap recipes, and they were all good. But they weren't great. Til my daughter's birthday. I looked at all my recipes and created this one that's definitely a keeper and my new "go to" asian lettuce wrap recipe. This one is all I'll ever use from now on. My husband, who is brutally honest about my cooking, whether good :) or bad :(, looked up while he was eating his 4th helping and said "Amy, these aren't as good as P.F. Chang's. They're better." And when my kids agreed, I knew this was a winner!!

NOTE:Lots of lettuce wrap recipes call for ground chicken, and if you have easy access to that or have a friend who's a butcher, feel free to substitute ground chicken where it calls for ground turkey. I just use ground turkey because it's easy to buy that way.



Asian Lettuce Wraps: Serves 6-8
Print Recipe

2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1.25 pounds Ground Turkey
1 Tablespoon Fresh Ginger,minced
2 Garlic Cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
2 cups Carrots, shredded or chopped small
8-10 oz. Portobello Mushrooms (or regular),chopped small
1/2 cup Green Onions, chopped
1 8oz. can Water Chestnuts, drained and diced
1 red, orange, or yellow Bell Pepper, diced
1/3 cup Cilantro, chopped.

Stir Fry Sauce:
4 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
4 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Rice Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Sesame Oil
Mix all stir fry sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, set aside.

Large pieces of iceberg, romaine, or dark green lettuce leaves. Just use what you have and what your family likes!

Special Topping Sauce:
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Rice Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Water
1 Tablespoon Ginger, minced
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Ketchup (sounds weird, just trust me ;)
1/4 teaspoon Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce (start with 1/8 teaspoon and add more according to how spicy you like your food, you may wind up using more than 1/4 tsp.)
Mix all your topping sauce ingredients together and set aside. You will use this sauce later to top your lettuce wraps right before you eat them, yum!

Note: Do you own the wondrous apparatus that is a food processor? I didn't til I ordered one for myself for my upcoming birthday. And I seriously cannot EVEN BELIEVE I went through 15 years of marriage without one!! I researched the internet and reviews to find the best inexpensive one and I LOVE IT!! So if you own one of these beautiful, divinely inspired machines, just put your veggies in there to chop all together, except for your carrots, ginger and garlic. (You should probably do those separate. You can do the ginger and garlic together since you'll be cooking them with your meat). I actually bought carrots already shredded in a big bag from the 99 cent only store. In fact, the 99 cent only store has gone metro-chic on me!! I actually bought portobello mushrooms there for this, along with a yellow bell pepper and other yummy veggies. And I'm telling you, the produce I get from there is better than Walmart. I haven't ever tried their fruit, but I've always had great luck with their veggies.

Heat 1 Tbsp. of oil over medium-high heat in a wok or large skillet. Add garlic and ginger, stir for 15-20 seconds til fragrant. Add ground turkey, cook til no longer pink. If you have a lot of liquid from cooking your turkey, you can drain a little off but try not to drain your ginger and garlic. Push your turkey mixture aside/to the back of your wok, and heat another tablespoon of oil over the heat. You will want to move your wok backwards so that the oil is heating directly over the heat, and the cooked turkey is resting kind of away from the heat. Once oil is hot, add all your veggies except for your cilantro. It should look like this:

Then top your veggies with 1/2 tsp. of kosher salt and cook til softened. Then blend together with your turkey, and pour stir fry sauce over all. Cook for a couple minutes to blend flavors over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.


Serve lettuce wraps like this: Place a piece of lettuce on a plate, top with meat/veggie mixture, and then spoon "special sauce" over individual servings. Yummy!

Country Chicken with Gravy

I recently received a subscription to Taste of Home Magazine from my Mom, thanks Mom!! I pulled out a bunch of recipes that I wanted to try, and this was one of them. It was such a yummy chicken dinner and this gravy that you put on top of the chicken just puts it over the top! My husband and I both feel like this is a "keeper" recipe! I can't wait to make it again!

Country Chicken with Gravy
photo and slightly adapted recipe from www.Taste of Home.com

Print Recipe
3/4 cup crushed cornflakes
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 Tbls evaporated milk
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (my kids like "chicken fingers" better so I cut my chicken into smaller chunks)
2 tsp canola oil

GRAVY:
1 Tbls butter
1 Tbls flour
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tsp sherry or additional broth (I just used a little extra broth)
2 Tbls minced chives

In a shallow bowl (I use a pie tin) combine the first six ingredients. Place milk in another shallow bowl. Dip chicken in milk, then roll in cornflake mixture.

In a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook chicken in oil over med heat for 6-8 min on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 170 degrees (so I hate cooking chicken like this because it never turns out good for me, so instead, I put mine in a 9 x 13 pan sprayed with cooking spray. I then cook it in a 350 oven for 45 min - 1 hour).

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt butter. Stir in the flour, pepper and salt until smooth. Gradually stir in the milk, broth, and sherry. Bring to boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in chives. Serve with chicken.

Recipe Source:  Photo and Recipe from www.TasteofHome.com

Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake

Please look me in the eyes and tell me you don't want this for breakfast this weekend. That's what I thought. This is the BEST coffee cake EVER! And telling you about this cake involves admitting to a very blonde moment. Even though I'm a certified brunette. So back in the day when I was in college I was home on break and I made this yummiest ever breakfast cake for a church potluck. I just got the recipe off of a Bisquick box and decided to try it, and WOW was it amazing! And everyone at the potluck agreed, there were only a few crumbs left in the pan. So eventually, unfortunately, my mom threw that empty Bisquick box away. Fast forward to my married life, and I suddenly one day remembered that cherry coffee cake and wanted to make it again. So what did I do? Searched Bisquick boxes high and low, the one in my pantry, every single one at the supermarket and Costco, for YEARS and never could find the recipe. I thought all hope was lost forever and I was very, very sad. Here comes the blonde part. Ummm, so like a year ago, (yup, just one year), I'm on my computer one evening and I think of the coffee cake again and all of a sudden the LIGHT FINALLY COMES ON!!! "Hey Amy! I know when you first made this cake it was like 1990, but guess what???? We have the INTERNET NOW!! You betcha! You could GOOGLE IT!!!" Oh my gosh, was I excited! And within 1 minute, I had found the recipe!! Aren't I SOOOOO smart?????

EARTH TO BISQUICK: If you put this recipe back on your box, you're guaranteed to increase your sales. Thank you.

**Note: When I made this again the 1st time, I tried to spread all the batter in a 10x15 sheet cake pan and it was really hard to spread, the batter is very thick. So the recipe says to either use a sheet cake pan or two 9 inch square pans, but I'm just saying here definitely go with the 2 square pans, it is MUCH easier to spread that way. Also, below the recipe I will give you the recipe I always make now, I increased it by like 1 1/2 and I bake it in a 10x15 sheet pan, that way it's easier to spread and I can freeze half of it for another delicious weekend breakfast treat. This freezes and warms up in the microwave perfectly. Or if you were having a breakfast/brunch party like a baby shower or something, this would be awesome and you could use the larger recipe!

Original Bisquick Recipe, (frosting slightly adapted to include vanilla and butter:)

Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake~Recipe from Bisquick via the very modern Internet:
Print Recipe

4 cups Bisquick® mix
1/2 cups Sugar
1/4 cup Butter, melted
1/2 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 teaspoon Almond extract(I have made both with the almond extract and just using 2 teaspoons of vanilla when I was out of almond flavor, it's delicious either way.)
3 eggs
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons Butter, melted
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 Tablespoons Milk or Cream or French Vanilla Coffee Creamer---this makes an OUT OF THIS WORLD GLAZE. I used the vanilla creamer last time, never ever ever had a better tasting glaze in my life. (I happened to have some leftover from making chocolate chip scones
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom and sides of 2 (8 or 9-inch) square pans with shortening or cooking spray. In large bowl, stir all coffee cake ingredients except pie filling; beat vigorously with spoon 30 seconds.
Spread one-third of the batter (about 1 1/4 cups) in each square pan. Spread pie filling over batter (filling may not cover batter completely). Drop remaining batter by tablespoonfuls onto pie filling.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until light brown. Meanwhile, in small bowl, stir glaze ingredients until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle glaze over warm coffee cake.
Try to just eat 1 piece.

**Larger Recipe, See Note**
Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake for a Crowd or Freezing for Later:
6 cups Bisquick
3/4 cup Sugar
6 Tablespoons Butter, melted
3/4 cup Milk
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons Almond Extract
4 eggs + 1 Egg Yolk
2 cans (21 oz) Cherry Pie Filling

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla
2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
1-2 Tablespoons Milk or Cream

Follow directions listed above, except spray a 10 x 15 sheet cake pan with cooking spray. Spread 2/3 batter in sheet cake pan. Spread 2 cans of cherry pie filling over this. Top with tablespoons of remaining batter.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, you may need a couple extra minutes in your oven with this bigger recipe, just watch it. Spread glaze over warm coffee cake.

Meatball Subs

Who would have ever thought that a meatball sub would be one of my favorites??!! I never would have thought that, I had never even dared try one until a friend of mine at work 9 years ago made these, she is an amazing cook and so I tried them, I have been hooked on them ever since. I have made this recipe for MANY people and they all fall in love with them too.


Meatball Subs

Print Recipe

1-pound ground beef
1 yellow onion, finely chopped (I just sprinkle onion powder on though –I don’t like chunks of onion)
1 ½ tsp oregano
1 ½ tsp Italian seasonings
½ cup bread crumbs
½ cup oatmeal
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic salt

1 bottle of spaghetti or marinara sauce (I have bought super expensive Marinara Sauce all the way down to the $1 spaghetti sauce, and they are good any way you do it.)

French Bread hoagie rolls

Sliced Provolone Cheese

Fresh grated Parmesan Cheese


Combine onion, ground beef, oregano, Italian seasonings, eggs, bread crumbs, salt, and garlic. Roll into balls; place on cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 375. Remove meatballs from cookie sheet, place in crock pot, pour sauce over and cook on LOW 2-3 hours. Butter rolls, placed sliced Provolone on rolls and toast in oven 5 minutes (or until light brown and cheese is melted). Place meatballs on rolls
and top with Parmesan cheese.

Thai Honey Peanut Noodles with Chicken

You HAVE to make this dish! Seriously. It's like the best thing ever. Ever. If you have leftover turkey from the holidays just use that instead of chicken and you're pretty much good to go! The sweet and spicy peanut butter sauce is just to die for topped with yummy stuff including honey roasted peanuts--it'll get some "wows" from family and friends, guaranteed. Our family is big on ethnic food--think Mexican and Asian, and in the past few years we've cut back---like many families have, on eating out. So I have been on a quest to learn how to prepare authentic restaurant quality food at home. And I've found and created some awesome recipes I'll be sharing with you. This is one of them, and it's up there in our family's "Dinner Hall of Fame." This recipe is made super easy by throwing the sauce ingredients in the blender, method follows.

Another note here, I am so sure you will LOVE this recipe that I'm giving you a doubled recipe for sauce. Yup. This amount of sauce should feed roughly 4-6 people for 2 nights. Now because my little twins don't eat the sauce-just the noodles and chicken-this even feeds my family for 2 yummy nights. So here's the deal. I make this sauce and then after dinner, I freeze half of it in a tupperware container. Then when we want this again, I just pull the sauce out of the freezer, nuke it, cook some chicken and Wa-La, there's dinner again! Or of course there's always the option of eating leftovers the next night, or serving all of this to company, which I've done a few times!! **See note below about how much pasta to cook.**


Thai Honey Peanut Noodles with Grilled Chicken Sauce, put the following ingredients in your blender:


Print Recipe

1 cup Water
1 teaspoon Chicken Bullion Powder
1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon Creamy Peanut Butter
1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
4 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon Honey
5 Garlic Cloves-just peel and throw into your blender whole
3 1/2 Tablespoons Fresh Ginger, peeled and chopped into tablespoon-sized pieces (see example below) Basically you cut segments of ginger to fit into your tablespoon, and throw it into your blender.
You'll want to make at least 1 of your tablespoons a heaping tablespoon, to make sure you get all the ginger in! Does that make sense? So since you're chopping ginger into your spoon, there will be a few little gaps, so like on your last one, put extra ginger in so it's flowing over the top, that way you should have 3 Tablespoons! The ginger makes this dish just amazing, so if there's a little extra, that's even better :)

Blend all this together til smooth, put into a saucepan and season with:

1-2 teaspoons Thai Hot Chili Sauce or if you don't have this then red pepper flakes to taste, or 1/2-1 tsp. Sriracha Hot Sauce (the hot sauce with the rooster on it-you can buy this at Walmart) Just add slowly and taste for spiciness.

Heat all ingredients together over medium or medium-low heat. The idea here is to heat up your sauce, but NOT to overheat or burn it, because once peanut butter scorches it is nasty.

Serve over 8 ounces Linguine pasta, cooked. NOTE**If you are having company or are planning on serving more than 6 adults, then cook 16 ounces of pasta and just plan on using all your sauce**


To Serve, place noodles on plates, bowls. Then spoon sauce over individual servings and top with:
Chopped Cilantro
Chopped Green Onions
Honey Roasted Peanuts
Fresh Cut Lime Wedges
1 pound Grilled or Cooked Chicken, Rotisserie Chicken, or leftover Turkey! Here are some easy ways to cook your chicken for this dish:
1.You can stir fry chicken with some fresh ginger and garlic and a little oil in a pan.
2.You could also use the marinade below and if pressed for time just put some foil on a broiling pan, spray with cooking spray, remove chicken breasts from marinade, and broil your chicken for about 12 minutes, depending on thickness. Watch closely!
3. You could use this Easy Grilled Chicken Recipe:
1/3 cup Soy Sauce
1/3 cup Italian Dressing
1 Tablespoon Sugar
Pour this mixture over your chicken, poke chicken with fork, and marinate in fridge for 30 minutes or several hours. Grill!

Bakery French Bread

So the other day when I posted the Grilled Italian Chicken with Basil Butter, I mentioned making french bread. I still can't even believe I made this and how easy it was! And it is SO yummy and fresh from the bakery tasting, crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. You know when you are at the grocery store and they bring out fresh baked french bread and it smells so heavenly? That is what your house will smell like while you are baking this. I got this recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up, and she says it's her very favorite recipe. I totally get why.

Bakery French Bread~ Recipe from Jamie Cooks it Up

Print Recipe

1/3 cup warm Water
1 Tablespoon Yeast
1 Tablespoon Shortening
1 Tablespoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 C Boiling Water
1 C Cold Water
5 - 6 C Bread Flour or All Purpose Flour (I used bread flour)
1 egg

Stir yeast into 1/3 cup warm water in a small bowl, set aside. In the bowl of your mixer, stir together the shortening, salt, and sugar with a fork until crumbly. Your dough hook won't work, just do it with the fork! Pour boiling water over shortening mixture, then pour cold water over the mixture. Add yeast and warm water to mixture and turn on your mixer! Add flour one cup at a time, til it is dough is pulling away from the sides of your mixing bowl. Mix for 8 minutes, Jamie says to mix it on high, but I just set it to "1", I was worried about making the dough too tough. Cover your dough and let it sit for 15-20 minutes. (If you are really pressed for time, you can skip this.)
Separate your dough into 3 portions and sit them on a 15 x 10 inch sheet cake pan sprayed with cooking spray. Let rest for 5 minutes, this will make your dough much easier to handle.

Heat your oven to 170.

Roll out each portion of dough, one at a time, into a rectangle touching the sides of the pan like this:
Then roll up from long end so each portion looks like this:
Then you will want to fold each end in so they overlap like this:

Then just flip over your little future french bread loaf like this:

Next you will want to score three slits in the top of each loaf like this:
I have a bread scorer but you can just use a sharp knife sprayed with cooking spray.
Next just beat your egg and brush it all over each uncooked loaf, even the sides.

Place your loaves in warm oven at 170 and let rise for 15 minutes. While loaves are still in your oven, turn it up to 400 degrees. Once oven reaches that temperature, bake them for 15 minutes until they are golden brown and crusty. Open oven door and turn pan around. Close oven and reduce temperature to 350. Bake for 10 minutes more.

This did not last long at our house! My family LOVED it and even though it seems like a lot of steps, it was really easy! I can't wait to make this again! You can too, you will love it :)