Caramel Corn

I have never been a big fan of caramel popcorn, until a few years back my neighbor Erin made me a batch of her recipe and I ate so much of it I was pretty much sick. We have been making this ever since and it is so gooey and rich and tasty! One bite of this and you can't stop eating it! So if you are not a big fan, try this recipe out, and it may change your mind like it did mine.

Caramel Corn
Print Recipe

2 cups of  Brown Sugar
1 cup Karo Syrup
2 sticks of butter

Over medium high heat, bring to boil, and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add one can of Sweetened Condensed Milk, stir until combined. Let cool for 1-2 minutes and pour over a big bowl of freshly popped popcorn. (pop approx. one cup of popcorn to yield the right amount of popped corn.) To kick this up a little more, I usualy salt my popcorn first and then pour the caramel over the top.

Recipe Source: Erin Winzler

Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes

I love this recipe!! So healthy, so yummy, and so amazing. I was so geeked out the first time I made this; I mean, you throw whole wheat kernels into your blender with some other stuff and out come pancakes!! I had tried a few recipes, but couldn't get the consistency just right so I created this one that is full-proof. The flavor is awesome, slightly nutty with honey mixed in. They are so good that even my picky twins eat them and just keep asking for more. (they have NO clue they're healthy, hee hee)
If you have never cooked with whole wheat kernels before or don't know where to get them and live in Arizona, there is this awesome place called Shar's Bosch Kitchen Center in Gilbert. I got my Bosch there years ago and Shar taught me how to make bread with it! They know their stuff there and only carry top-quality products. They are basically a kitchen super store, and they even have classes to teach you how to bake bread and cook delicious meals, desserts, you name it.  Here is their website, www.sharskitchen.com   You can also check their list of classes at this link: www.sharskitchen.com/classes/

Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes:
Recipe by ourcookingcafe.com
Print Recipe

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons Whole Wheat Kernels
1 cup Milk
Place in blender and blend for 3 minutes. Then add:
1/2 cup additional Milk
Blend for 2 more minutes, and add:
2 eggs
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder (yup, a Tablespoon)
2 (heaping) Tablespoons Honey
Blend together in blender til smooth.

Pour batter from your blender onto hot griddle. Serve with your favorite toppings. We love them with strawberries, fresh whipped cream, and syrup~yum.

But just good 'ole syrup and butter is awesome too!!

Chicken Caeser Snap Wraps

So have you checked out our weekly meal planner yet? I'm telling you, planning your meals for the week makes your life SO much easier and saves you a TON of money. I should know. I've tried just "winging" my weeks, making up excuses that I don't have time to plan and shop for meals in advance. And this is usually what happens. It's dinnertime, my kids are starving and eating a million otter pops and pretzels, and I'm opening cupboards. the fridge, the freezer wondering what in the world I can make for dinner that takes 10 minutes or less. (So I can at least offer my children some protein and a vegetable instead of popsicles and chips.) And then I decide there's nothing to eat, so I run to the nearest drive thru, call & order pizza, or open up a box of cereal. Sound familiar?
I absolutely LOVE having my dinners for the week on the fridge. I can wake up in the morning, see what dinner I've planned, and take meat out to defrost or start whatever it is. Then later when dinner is approaching, instead of wasting an hour deciding what to make, I spend that 30 min-hour making dinner and it's done! The other awesome thing is that shopping for your meals a week (or two-I'm not there yet but it's my goal!) in advance saves you time not running to the store every other day, and a lot of money. With gas and food costs, and your hectic life,meal planning is the way to go for sure!!
So here we have chicken Caesar snap wraps for dinner, which I named appropriately since they come together in the snap of a finger!! And here is an example of planning ahead I wanted to share with you. These were on our menu for the night, and I had planned to marinate and grill the chicken for them. But as my day unraveled with a preschool end of the year shindig and an after school track banquet, etc etc......the chicken wasn't getting done. So instead of heading for the drive thru, I called my husband and asked him to pick up a rotisserie chicken on his way home from work. Wa-La, it cost $5.00 (instead of the usual $15.00-$20.00 to feed our family of 8 @  the drive thru), and we had a healthy, delicious meal. Have any meal planning tricks you like to use? Let us know!

Chicken Caesar Snap Wraps
Print Recipe

Serves 8
8 Tortillas (we like the uncooked ones you buy at Costco in the refrigerator section)
1 recipe Grilled Italian Chicken (if you don't have the fresh basil called for just sprinkle on 1/2 teaspoon dried or leave it out, and don't worry @ the basil butter for this)
or 1 Rotisserie Chicken
Lettuce (I used a Dole Romaine Lettuce Blend I got at the 99 cent store-love that place!!)
Tomato
Cucumber (optional but yummy!)
Shredded Parmesan Cheese (I bought the already shredded Kraft kind in a bag)

Creamy Caesar Dressing:
2/3 cup Mayonnaise
1/3 cup Milk
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese (for the dressing I just use the good ole stuff from the canister)
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon Dijon Mustard or Spicy Brown Mustard
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/8 teaspoon Pepper

Whisk all ingredients together.

To assemble the wraps, take a tortilla and spread it with some Caesar dressing.
Then place some lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber on the dressing.
 Finish off with some chicken, Parmesan cheese, and another dollop of Caesar dressing. Fold tortilla up from the bottom and then fold each side over to close.

Recipe Source: Creamy Caesar Dressing adapted from http://www.cooks.com/, Wraps by www.ourcookingcafe.com



Secret Ingredient Tater Tot Casserole

Ok, ok I know this is pretty hilarious, posting a tater tot casserole in a food blog. And saying that it has a secret ingredient. I also realize that if any of our 10 readers are foodies, we're really in trouble because that will bring our numbers down to 9. But I will accept the consequences of posting about Napoleon Dynamite's favorite food. And I promise, I'm not even from Idaho. Or close. Although Idaho is beautiful. In the summer. But (some of) the hairstyles are scary.
Back to my point post.  I have been making this casserole since I was first married. And one night I thought "hmmm...since this tastes so good with ketchup, why not substitute half the milk called for with ketchup?" So I did!! And I could tell, just tasting the soup mixture with the ketchup, that this was a winner. Seriously! My secret ingredient is ketchup. This is the only casserole my kids will eat, even my picky 4 year old twins. It's really good, really easy, and totally kid proof. Even husband proof. My husband and I used to eat this even before we had kids. So there you have it. Tater tot casserole in a food blog, who knew?

Secret Ingredient Tater Tot Casserole
Print Recipe
 Makes about 6-8 servings

Ingredients:
1 pound Ground Beef
1 Tablespoon Dried Minced Onion
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/8-1/4  teaspoon Pepper
1 10 oz. can Cream of Chicken Soup
1/3 cup Milk
1/3 cup Ketchup
1 15 oz. can Yellow Corn, drained
1 32 oz. Bag Tater Tots (you will use roughly 2/3 of the bag)

Preheat oven to 400. Place ground beef in a skillet over the stove. Sprinkle with minced onion, salt, and pepper. Cook over heat until no longer pink. While meat is browning, spray a glass 8 x 11 (2 quart) dish generously with cooking spray. Place cream of chicken soup, milk, and ketchup right into the dish and stir til mixed together well. Add drained corn and stir. Add browned beef mixture and stir again. Place tater tots over casserole until completely covered. Like I said, you will probably use a little over half of the bag. Bake, uncovered, until tater tots have browned and casserole is bubbling, about 30 minutes. Serve with extra ketchup if desired! (we always desire this.)

Recipe Source: http://www.ourcookingcafe.com/

Hot Fudge Sauce

The weekend is finally here! It's time to relax and enjoy a yummy treat. But the weather is warming up and the week was crazy and you don't feel like baking, right? Gotcha. Why not buy some ice cream at the grocery store and whip up some homemade hot fudge sauce? That's what I did for mother's day. My husband grilled steak, and for dessert, we had Blue Bell Cookies & Cream ice cream with this sauce. It was pure, creamy, chocolate bliss. This hot fudge can also be used as a fondue; the next day my kids dipped strawberries and pretzels in it as an after school snack--yum. 

Hot Fudge Sauce

Print Recipe

1/4 cup Butter

1/2 cup Sugar

2/3 cup Evaporated Milk

3/4 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 teaspoon Vanilla

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in sugar and evaporated milk and bring to a boil. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes at a low rolling boil. Reduce heat to low, stir in chocolate chips and vanilla. Stir for about a minute or two longer, remove from heat. Sauce will thicken as it stands. Serve warm over ice cream, brownies, cake, or as a dipping sauce with fruit and pretzels.

Recipe Source: http://www.ourcookingcafe.com/

Oven Baked Macaroni and Cheese

This is my kind of meal!! Delicious, simple ingredients, family-friendly, and economical. I have always wanted a great baked mac-n-cheese recipe, and when I saw this in a magazine it looked so good I knew I had to try it. I was surprised at just how yummy it was! My husband and kids gobbled it up and asked me to make it again soon, a request I will very happily fulfill.
The recipe didn't call for ham, but I had some that I froze from Easter. It was awesome with the yummy baked cheese and other flavors, but it's optional. If you have bacon on hand, it would be a great addition as well, but not necessary.

Oven Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Print Recipe

12 oz. Elbow Macaroni
2 Tablespoons Dijon or Spicy Brown Mustard
1 1/4 cup Sour Cream, divided
1 small Onion, chopped ,
8 oz.  (2 cups) Cheddar and/or Smoked Provolone Cheese, divided (1 used 1 cup cheddar, 1 cup smoked provolone)
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
1 1/2 cups Chopped Ham or 1/2 cup Bacon Bits (optional)

Cook macaroni pasta for half the time recommended on package. I think I cooked mine for 5 minutes. Drain. While cooking, preheat oven to 400. Spray a 9x13 pan generously with cooking spray. Place 1 cup sour cream in pan, mix with dijon mustard. Stir in the onion, salt and pepper. Add the drained macaroni and stir to coat. Stir in 1 cup of cheese and the ham or bacon if using.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, until starting to brown. Remove from oven and stir in remaining 1/4 cup sour cream and 1 more cup of cheese. Return to oven and bake about 20 mintues more, until nicely browned. Yum! Hope you love it as much as we did!!

Recipe Source: Adapted from Woman's Day Magazine

Grasshopper Fudge Cake

Wow, have I got a treat for you!! I'm seriously drooling just thinking about it. A couple weeks ago I was thinking about what kind of cake to make for Easter. I was really craving chocolate, but that didn't sound so pastel-y or Easter-y. So I remembered my favorite mint frosting and thought, "What if I put that on a chocolate cake? That's pastel, it works, right?" Next thing I knew I was at Walmart buying the ingredients and this cake was born. And let me tell you, it has won a permanent place in my heart and our family's treat menu. It is SOOOO good! I couldn't even believe how yummy it turned out, seriously. I started out with a cake mix to make it easy, and made it into 3 layers. Then I topped each round cake with fudge and a generous layer of creamy mint frosting. What I love about this mint frosting is that the mint flavoring in it isn't too overpowering, it's just right. To top it all off I crushed some chocolate mint cookies, much like the ones the cute girl scouts sell. But since girl scout season is over, I found a Walmart brand that worked awesome. The result, wow. Let's just say this, I ate it for breakfast every morning til our family finished it off. No joke, I was thinking about this cake as soon as I woke up. Pretty sure since it had milk in it and lots of chocolate, the calcium and antioxidant levels were super high, making this the healthiest breakfast ever. Please, if you make this and live close by, remember how nice it is to share!!

Grasshopper Fudge Cake
Print Recipe

Cake :
1 package Devil's Food or Triple Chocolate Cake mix
Make cake according to package directions, substituting Milk for the water called for in the recipe. Bake in three 8 inch cake pans til done, ( a toothpick comes out clean), at 350. Start checking cakes for doneness at around 17-18 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes then invert cakes and cool completely on cooling racks. Tip: it is much easier to frost cakes if you wrap them in seran wrap and freeze them for a while.

Chocolate Fudge:
1 cup semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/4 teaspoon Peppermint Extract

Place chocolate chips in a bowl. Bring whipping cream to a boil in a sauce pan, then pour over chocolate chips. Let sit for 2 minutes and then stir. Stir in peppermint extract.

Creamy Mint Frosting:
1 cup Butter
4 Tablespoons Shortening
4 Tablespoons Corn Syrup
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons Peppermint Extract
2 pounds (a 32 oz. bag) Powdered Sugar
a few drops of Green Food Coloring
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Milk and/or Whipping Cream to dampen

Beat together butter, shortening, and corn syrup. Add in vanilla and peppermint flavoring. Beat in powdered sugar. Stir in salt. Add green food coloring. Add enough milk and/or whipping cream to make frosting a spreadable consistency, probably at least 3 tablespoons.

For Garnish: Chocolate Mint cookies, either mint oreos or a girl scout thin-mint knock off

To Assemble Cake:
Spread a cake layer with 1/3 of the chocolate fudge. Place in freezer or fridge for a few minutes to set. Once it's set, spread with a thick layer of mint frosting. Repeat with next chocolate cake layer. Then take the third chocolate cake layer and spread with remaining chocolate fudge, and set in fridge or freezer. Your cake will look like this:

Are you hungry yet? I am. Next you will spread entire cake with the remaining mint frosting. Then crush up some chocolate mint cookies and put on top.


Next, serve yourself a slice of creamy, fudgey, minty heaven. And once everyone leaves for school, be sure and snag some for a delicious yet (hopefully) nutritious breakfast.


 Recipe Source: http://www.ourcookingcafe.com/

Chicken Alfredo

This delicious dish is definitely a family favorite!! My 4 year old twins sometimes shun tomato-based spaghetti sauce, but when I serve this, they each eat like 2-3 helpings, no joke!! So when it seems they are on the brink of a complete malnutrition meltdown due to picky-eating-itis, I make this for dinner. It's super easy and quick to put together, even on a busy weeknight. I usually double the sauce and freeze half of it for another dinner. I got the alfredo sauce recipe from my friend Penny Hager, she is a cooking wonder woman. Coincidentally, the breadstick you see in the photo above is from her too, and is SO yummy when dipped in this creamy sauce!!

Chicken Alfredo

Print Recipe 

Sauce:

1/2 cup Butter

2-3 cloves Garlic, minced

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 cup Parmesan Cheese

2 cups Whole Milk or Evaporated Milk or Half and Half (I usually buy a little 16 oz. container of half and half at the 99 cent store)

a few Parsley Flakes or a few Tablespoons of fresh chopped Parsley, optional

Melt butter, saute garlic. Add chicken soup, whole milk or half and half, and parsley. Stir over medium/low heat until it starts to thicken, and then add the parmesan cheese. Cook and stir a few minutes longer.

Chicken:

To make this easy, I usually use chicken tenderloins. My rule of thumb for this is I use 1 tenderloin per person eating dinner that night.  You could marinate your chicken in Italian dressing and grill or broil it.

But here I just sprinkled my plain chicken with some garlic salt and pepper, heated some olive oil in a pan, and sauteed it,

Flipping it when browned.  

Cook pasta of your choice according to package directions, then top each serving with alfredo sauce and a chicken tenderloin. Voila!! Dinner is served.

White Chocolate Toffee Cookies

 A few weeks ago when we rented "Cool Runnings" from Netflix (totally LOVE their live streaming/mail you movies service!!), I made these cookies for a treat and OH BOY were they delicious!! My family went nutso over them. White chocolate and toffee are a match made in heaven. The secret to these cookies is slowly baking them at a lower temperature to give them that irresistible fresh-from-the bakery taste.

White Chocolate Toffee Cookies

Print Recipe

Makes about 20-24 cookies, goes without saying I always double this for my family of 8!

1/2 cup Butter, softened

1 cup Brown Sugar

1 Egg

1 Tablespoon Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla (most of you already know I LOVE the Watkins brand!)

1 1/2 cups Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 cup White Chocolate Chips

3/4 cup Toffee Bits

1/2 cup toasted Coconut, optional

Cream together the butter and sugar. Then add the egg, milk, and vanilla and blend again. Add the flour on top of this mixture and DON'T stir it in. Then add the baking soda, baking powder, and salt right on top of the flour. Grab a fork and gently blend the dry mixture while it sits on the wet, then blend all together. Stir in the white chocolate chips, toffee bits, and coconut if using. Refrigerate dough for 30-60 minutes. 

Preheat your oven to 300. Scoop out 2 Tablespoon-Balls of dough and place on cookie sheets. I use a pampered chef cookie scoop that is the perfect size for this--I think it's the medium one--love it!! Bake for 12-14 minutes, cookies should appear slightly browned but undercooked. These cookies can get a bit puffy, so I flatten them slightly with the bottom of a cup when they come out of the oven if needed. Yum!!

Recipe Source: Adapted from "Even More Top Secret Recipes" by Todd Wilbur