Chocolate Chip Muffins with Pecan Streusel Topping

I made these muffins for our Saturday morning breakfast, they were a hit with my whole family! And sorry if the pics are fuzzy, my (little) kids broke my camera so I'm taking pictures with my daughter's I-Pod Touch til I can have an awesome garage sale and raise money for the new camera I want!! Or maybe a bake sale!! Would you please come??? hmmmmm............

Chocolate Chip Muffins
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Muffins:
1/2 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 cup (8 oz) plain Yogurt or Sour Cream, reduced fat would work fine
1 tsp Vanilla
2 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 cup semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

Topping
3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 cup semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
1/4 cup chopped Pecans
2 Tablespoons Butter



Heat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add yogurt and vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill paper lined muffin cups two-thirds full.

For the topping:
Stir together brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Add chocolate chips and pecans, stir. Crumble in butter with a pastry blender or use your fingers til it's crumbly. Spread topping over muffins.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes 1 dozen.


Recipe adapted from the Worldwide Ward Cookbook

Creamy Tomato Veggie Soup

This soup is SOOOO yumarama. We ate it for dinner last night and I made some cheesy breadsticks to dip in it, and I was so very very sad that my family ate it all and there were no leftovers for lunch today!! So I remembered last time I made this I doubled it--note to self: Double this every time!! While we were eating my health conscious 11 year old daughter asked me "Mom, is this soup healthy?" And I was so happy to respond "Yes, Rachel. This soup is basically cancer prevention in a bowl." But I promise it's super yummy too. You must serve this with something cheesy, either breadsticks or grilled cheese sandwiches.

Creamy Tomato Veggie Soup
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1 Tablespoon Butter
1 small-medium Onion, chopped
1 cup shredded Carrots
1 Tablespoon fresh Garlic, minced (about 3-4 garlic cloves)
1 teaspoon Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup fresh Basil leaves, roughly chopped or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried Basil
1/2 cup Sun Dried Tomatoes in oil
2 14 oz. cans Tomatoes, undrained
3 cups Water
3 teaspoons Chicken Bouillon Powder
4 oz. Cream Cheese (regular or 1/3 less fat work great here)


Heat butter in a saucepan, add onion, carrots and garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes or until soft. Add sugar, salt, and pepper and stir for 1 minute. Add basil, sun dried tomatoes, canned tomatoes, water, and chicken bouillon. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add cream cheese and stir til melted. Next you will take your blender or food processor, and working in 2-3 batches, blend your soup together to mix up all the yummy veggies and cream cheese til it's creamy. Serve with grilled cheese sandwiches or cheesy breadsticks. Go and hide an extra bowl of this dreamy soup to serve yourself tomorrow for lunch. The back of the fridge where no one wants to see or smell the leftover stuffing from Thanksgiving is a perfect place.

Pina Colada

So these drinks are not low fat, they are not low calorie, but they are OH SO GOOD. I am really embarrassed to say that we made these three nights in a row! They are really addicting. I find myself craving them a little too often.

Pina Colada

1 cup Coconut Milk

1 cup pineapple juice

1/4 cup crushed pineapple

4 Tbls white sugar

3 cups ice

Blend well, make sure it is the right consistency, or add more ice if needed. Then add

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 Tbls sugar

Blend well but not too long or it will be too thick and have a butter flavor.

Pour into frosted glasses and garnish with sprinkled cinnamon.

recipe source: my friend Shannan

Pork Carnitas

I can not tell you how many times we have made this recipe, these are a great dinner, and great to serve a crowd. We had them for the Superbowl and tonight with the leftovers, we are going to make them into nachos! Yummy!!

Pork Carnitas
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1 Tablespoon packed brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried oregano leaves
1 Tbls beef base
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 (4 lb) pork loin roast
1/2 cup water
Juice of 1 fresh orange
Juice of 1 fresh lime
2 Tbls soy sauce
2 Tbls chopped fresh cilantro or 1 Tbls dried

1. In a small bowl combine the brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano leaves, beef base, salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Brown pork roast on all sides in large cooking pot over medium heat.
3. Reduce heat and evenly coat the roast on all sides with spice mixture
4. Add the water, orange juice, lime juice, soy sauce, and cilantro. Heat to boiling; put lid on and put in a 300 degree oven for 3-4 hours until roast is so tender it falls apart.
5. Discard any fat and shred roast with a fork, allowing meat to absorb any juices left in the pan.
6. Serve on tortillas and top how you like!

We like ours either on corn or flour tortillas and topped with cheese, guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes, and more fresh cilantro. Served with a side of Spanish Rice.

Recipe from:cooksrecipes.com

Shrimp Coconut Curry Soup

Our family loves Thai food, but not the price tag of eating out. So, like I said in an earlier post, I have been on a quest in the past 2 years to learn to re-create ethnic restaurant quality food at home. I created this soup and it was a definite winner! My husband, who is crazy about Thai food, really oohed and ahhed over this soup.
Note: If you don't like fish, no problemo (sorry I don't know how to say problem in Thai-ese, just Spanish). Just substitute 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced. Sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper and brown them in the olive oil with your onions and red peppers.

Shrimp Coconut Curry Soup
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Serves 6-8

1 lb. cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined (I just buy the bag of those cooked, peeled little frozen shrimps at the store. It's actually cheaper than raw shrimp. Go figure. Why it's cheaper for them to cook, peel, and de-vein it for me is a mystery that ranks right up there with why fresh pineapples cost more in Hawaii than they do on the mainland.)
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 white or yellow Onion, chopped
1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
2 cups Water
2 teaspoons Chicken Bouillon Powder, (or 2 cubes chicken bouillon)
2 14 oz. cans unsweetened light Coconut Milk
1 cup Carrots, shredded or sliced thin
1 16 oz. bag frozen Sugar Snap Peas, or 2 cups fresh Sugar Snap Peas
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce (a large bottle of this can be found @ Walmart in the Asian Food Section, it's cheap.)
2 Tablespoons Red Curry Paste (again, Asian Food Section of your grocery store.)
1 1/2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Lime Juice
1/2 cup Cilantro, chopped

4 cups cooked Brown Rice for serving (white works too)

Rinse shrimp to defrost it with warm water. Drain and pat dry. I usually marinate it for a little while before making this in 1 tablespoon melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, a dash of fresh ground pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon sugar. This brings out and improves the flavor of your little shrimps! I just do this the morning I plan on cooking this or like 1 hour before. This is optional.
In a saucepan, heat olive oil. Add red pepper and onion, cook for about 3 minutes til softened a bit. Add water, bouillon powder, coconut milk, shrimp, carrots, peas, fish sauce, curry paste, and brown sugar. Simmer this together for about 15 minutes. Add in the lime juice and cilantro. To serve, scoop warm rice into individual bowls and ladle soup over rice. Garnish with extra cilantro if desired.

Beach Street Lemon Chicken Linguine

This is the yummiest, yet healthiest pasta dinner EVER!! I have a lemon tree so I'm always looking for ways to use my lemons this time of year. I've tried other lemon chicken recipes, but they were too sour and the flavors were just off, but this one is perfect. My family LOVED it. It was so good the next day too, we had a little leftover and my daughter packed it in her lunch kind of as a cold pasta salad. She said her friend tried a bite and said "YUM! I need to come over to your house for dinner sometime!!" I got this recipe from Deals to Meals, an awesome grocery saving site! They are in several states now and they list all the best grocery deals of the week for you, and allow you to click on what you want to buy each week from each store and then you can even print out a shopping list, rocks my world since I'm not a coupon clipper.

**NOTE: I made this for my husband's 40th birthday and tweaked the recipe a bit, so I'm including that recipe after the first one. So if you came and ate it at my house, the "tweaked" recipe is the one you tried! :)

Beach Street Lemon Chicken Linguine
adapted from Deals to Meals
Print Recipe

1 lb. Linguine
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
Zest from one Lemon
Juice from one Lemon
1/4 cup Green Onions, chopped (white and green parts)
1/4 cup chopped fresh Parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Marinade:
½ cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup Green Onions, Chopped
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
2 tablespoons minced fresh Parsley
2 1 /2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 lb. boneless skinless Chicken Breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl and whisk lightly before pouring into a tupperware bowl. Pat chicken dry and toss in marinade to coat. Refrigerate 3-12 hours.

When ready to cook, preheat skillet over medium heat and pour contents of plastic bag (both marinade and chicken) into the skillet. Saute over medium-high heat until chicken is cooked.

Combine juice of one lemon, lemon zest, olive oil, green onions and fresh parsley together in a small bowl. Set aside.

While the chicken is sauteing, cook linguine in boiling salted water until done; drain and return to warm pot. Pour lemon juice/olive oil/green onion mixture over pasta and mix lightly. When chicken is finished cooking, add chicken and marinade to pot of pasta with lemon sauce mixture. Stir in parmesan cheese, add salt and pepper to taste. (I didn't add any salt or pepper.) Serve warm.

**Tweaked Recipe:
Marinade: After cooking the chicken and marinade and before putting it on the pasta, add 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream and stir for 1-2 minutes. The rest of the marinade is exactly the same.

In the main recipe portion, instead of adding the zest from an entire lemon, just grate 2 teaspoons zest and add that to the cooked linguine. The rest of the ingredients are exactly the same.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Danish

My sister told me she made some delecious danishes from over at Jamie Cook's It Up and told me I had to try it. I am so gald I did. I made a batch Saturday night so we could have a yummy breakfast before our early church on Sunday. It is delecious and makes a lot. We shared with a lot of poeple and everyone loved it. This is a much try recipe! Thanks Jamie for all your great recipes!

Easy Cream Cheese Danish
recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up
Printable Recipe
Dough:1 1/2 C warm water
2 T sugar
1 T yeast (I use active dry)
1 t salt
3 1/2- 4 C flour
2 T melted butter
Filling:
1 -8 oz package cream cheese softened
3/4 C sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
dash salt
1 C raspberry, mixed berry, or strawberry jam
Glaze:
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
1/4 t vanilla
2 T milk
1 T butter
The Dough
1. Mix the water sugar, sugar and yeast in the bottom of your Kitchen Aid, or mixing bowl. Let it sit for 5 minutes until nice and bubbly.
2. Add the salt and the flour 1 C at a time while mixing  until the dough scrapes the edges of the bowl clean. When all of the flour is added mix on high for 5 minutes.
3. Pour the 2 T of butter into the bottom of a large jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. Spread it all around to cover the pan. Set the dough on the buttered pan and let it rest for 5 minutes. Don't skip this step friends. Your dough will be hard to handle unless it rests.
4. Press the dough out to the corners of the pan.
The Filling
1. In a small mixing bowl mix the softened cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, egg and salt together. Mix on high for about 2 minutes or until all ingredients are smoothly incorporated.
2. Spoon the cream cheese filling onto the dough and spread it around to cover the dough with a knife.
3. Warm your jam up in the microwave for about 30 seconds. This will make it easier to spread. Spoon it onto the cream cheese filling in little globs.
4. Run a knife or spoon through the cream cheese filling and jam to make a marble like pattern.
5. With a pizza cutter cut the dough into 12 large (5 inches or so) squares. Then cut each square in half diagonally to make 24 triangles.
6. Let the dough rest and rise for about 10 minutes. You don't want it to rise very much. It should only rise up to be even with the rim of the pan. Just watch it carefully then  bake it when it reaches the rim of the jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until the top and the bottom both get golden brown. When they are done take out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
7. Run your pizza wheel back through the cutting lines you cut before baking. It will be kind of sticky and gooey. Clean off your pizza wheel several times as you go.
The Glaze
1. In a small bowl whisk together the ingredients for the glaze until smooth and silky. Put into a Ziploc bag and cut a very small opening in the corner. After the danish is mostly cool separate the danishes from each other and remove from the pan, pipe the glaze onto the danish and serve!