Granola Woes

I made some AMAZING granola a few weeks ago (not to toot my own horn... but it was GOOD). Of course, I ate it very quickly because it was GOOD. So, I needed to make some more. So a few nights ago, I mixed it up and put it in the oven.... and burned it. I burned beyond being edible. It was very sad. But, when you do something silly like that, you just have to "get back on the horse," right? So, I attempted my third batch tonight and I am now 2-1 ... 2 GOOD batches, 1 burned. Not great numbers by any means, but better than what they could be! I'm so looking forward to eating this next batch of homemade granola!!

Mini Turtle Cheesecakes

This was a fan favorite at one of the Christmas celebrations. It came from the fakeginger blog. They are tasty, and they don't feel as "bad for you" because they're so tiny!

Ingredients

For the crust:

• ¾ cup ground chocolate cookie crumbs
• ⅓ cup pecan meal
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

• 1½ packages (12 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup plain yogurt

For the caramel drizzle:

• ¼ cup butter
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

For the chocolate drizzle:

• ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons butter
• pecans, for topping

 
Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line a 12-muffin pan with aluminum liners and spray lightly with oil.
2. To make crust: Combine chocolate cookie crumbs, pecan meal, brown sugar, and melted butter. Spoon a tablespoon into bottom of each muffin liner and press lightly with your fingers. Bake for 5 minutes; remove from oven.
3. To make filling: Beat cream cheese in a large mixing bowl until creamy. With mixer running, gradually add sugar, salt, and vanilla; beat well. Add eggs one at a time, mixing just until blended. Stir in yogurt.
4. Spoon about ¼ cup of filling into each muffin liner. It should come almost to the top of the liner. Bake for 15 minutes or until tops of cheesecakes are puffed and only slightly jiggly in the very center. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least a couple hours, preferably overnight.
5. To make caramel drizzle, combine ¼ cup of butter, brown sugar, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Stir in cream. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool.
6. To make chocolate drizzle, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in saucepan over low heat. Add chocolate chips, remove from heat and stir until melted.
7. To assemble, carefully remove liners from cooled cheesecakes and put cheesecakes on wax paper. Place a pecan in the center of each cheesecake. Drizzle chocolate and caramel over tops. Keep refrigerated until serving.

I made them in mini muffin pans, so they're smaller than what I'm assuming this was calling for... I also didn't make the caramel and chocolate sauces - I just bought jars... for simplicity. Still yummy. :) and pretty. Next time I make them, I'll take a picture to show you! 

Chocolate Christmas Poke Cake

This recipe has been staring at me from Pinterest for months... and I was so excited to try it out on my family for Christmas. It comes from the Something Swanky blog. Her pictures are gorgeous and festive, and much better than mine... (I only got one phone picture of this beaut. -- just found the one other picture I took.. still not impressive, but maybe a little better) My family loved it, but it was very rich so it didn't go very quickly... and it didn't look so good as the days progressed. This would be a great to take to a holiday party when you're one of the only people bringing a dessert. There were too many things to choose from at the family holidays... so it just didn't end up being eaten up like it could have. So, without further ado, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 chocolate cake mix, prepared and baked according to the directions on the box.
1 cup peppermint dairy creamer
14.5 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 jar Smuckers hot fudge sundae sauce
1/4 cup peppermint dairy creamer
1 cup crushed Oreos
8 oz Cool Whip
Andes Peppermint Chips for topping (approximately 1 1/2 cups)
Crushed Oreos for topping (approximately 1 cup)


Instructions:

1. Once the cake has cool, use the bottom of a wooden spoon to poke 20+ holes in the cake.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk and 1 cup of the peppermint dairy creamer. Pour over the cake, trying to fill in the holes.
3. In the same bowl, whisk together the hot fudge sundae sauce and 1/4 cup peppermint dairy creamer. Mix in 1 cup crushed Oreos.
4. Pour and spread the fudge mixture over the cake as evenly as possible.
5. Spread the cool whip over the fudge. Sprinkle on the Andes candy bits and crushed Oreos (as much or as little as you want).
6. Refrigerate for 4-6 hours, until the sweetened condensed mixture has soaked into the cake and it's thoroughly chilled. Cut and serve.

Holiday Baking...

I just looked on here and realized that my last post was almost a month ago! I apologize for being so neglectful. The crazy thing is that I did bake over the holidays, and somehow never blogged them. (I think I've not been enjoying it quite so much since blogger hasn't been letting me post pictures - something about having taken up all my space!) So, now they're on their way. The new recipes from this Christmas that will be appearing very soon are...

*Christmas Poke Cake
*Mini Turtle Cheesecakes

Both were a hit, and I enjoyed making them! For this weekend, I've just got to get another batch of granola in the oven (I've eaten the entire first batch... a couple of weeks ago), and a second set of the mini cheesecakes for my sweet work friends.

Jalapeno Kettle Chip Crusted Chicken with Jalapeno Ranch

Via Pinterest {My Life as a Mrs.}

This recipe is something I've been wanting to try for a long time. Here's what I have concluded. yum. The sauce makes the recipe. So in case you're thinking about skipping that part and just using ranch or something, don't. This is so not ranch and so very good! Make it. Love it. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the Jalapeno Ranch Dipping Sauce:
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup lowfat sour cream
1/4 cup (plus 2 tablespoons) lowfat buttermilk
1 tablespoon Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (the powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
dash of cayenne
5-6 hot pickles jalapeno slices, finely chopped

For the Chicken:
4 chicken breasts (about 1 3/4 - 2 pounds total)
1 bag Jalapeno Kettle Chips, crushed
1 cup low fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
dash cayenne

Instructions:

For the Jalapeno Ranch Dipping Sauce:
Mix ingredients together (adding additional buttermilk until desired consistency). Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the Chicken:
Preheat oven to 375º. Place an oven safe cooling rack in a large jelly roll pan and spray with non-cooking spray. In a bowl, whisk together buttermilk, salt, and cayenne. Pound out chicken breasts to roughly 1/2" thickness and add to buttermilk mixture (toss to coat well).
Place crushed Kettle chips in a shallow baking dish. Pull one piece of chicken at a time out of the buttermilk and gently shake to remove some of the excess. Dip into the chips and coat thoroughly on both sides. Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all chicken breast are thoroughly coated.
Place into oven and bake for 25-35 minutes, until cooked through (cooking times vary based on chicken thickness and actual oven temperature). Serve hot with jalapeno ranch dipping sauce.

Kitty Chow

{picture here}

I found this website and recipe through Pinterest (Have I mentioned that I have more than 350 food & drink pins?? This could go on for a very long time!). I wanted to try it out because it claims to be a "skinny" version of puppy chow.

The first issue was that I was unable to find the reduced fat version of the chocolate almond bark... I'm thinking that probably causes a bit of a problem in the "skinny" part of the recipe.

The second issue was that I loved the cereal so much that I almost ate all of it before trying the recipe!

The third issue (personal issue,  but probably wouldn't be a problem for most people) is that it was a little bit too sweet for me. And I left out the Truvia (which was an accident, but that stuff is SUPER sweet!). I think the sweet cereal with all that chocolate and the vanilla pudding mix (I'm wondering if that added to the sweet effect).

I would like to try it with chex to see how that works.

I LOVED that it made a small portion - comparatively with a traditional puppy chow. This in itself will save me... a lot of puppy chow eating. You can't eat it if it's not there! Smaller portions are helpful for those of use with a huge lack of self-control... {who, me?}

And now, on to the recipe...

Ingredients:
2 Cups Fiber one Honey Squares
4 Tablespoons “I can’t believe it’s not butter”
2 Tablespoons Creamy All Natural Peanut Butter
2 Servings Truvia all Natural Sweetener.
1 Package of Fat Free Sugar Free Vanilla Pudding Mix
2 Squares of Reduced Fat Chocolate Almond Bark

Instructions:
In a large mixing bowl melt butter, chocolate almond bark and  peanut butter. (I used the microwave)
After melted pour cereal into mixture. Stir gently.

Let the mixture cool for a good 20 minutes.

After mixture has hardened pour the mix into a large zip lock bag, add the box of pudding mix and shake gently until coated.

My Suggestions:
*I don't see the need for the Truvia. You can try it, but I seriously can't understand why you'd want it to be sweeter...
*I'm going to try with chex to see if it works. I'll report back (hoping this will cut down a bit on the sweet)
*I did not use the "I can't believe..." ... because I can believe it's not butter. I don't like it. At all. So I use an olive oil spread - which is what I used instead.

Balsamic and Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower

This recipe was... interesting. I should start by saying that we (I made it with a friend) did this a bit wrong... We mixed all of the ingredients together and put them on the cauliflower prior to baking... which is not exactly as the recipe said to do it... We also weren't completely sure how we felt about the Parmesan and balsamic flavors together... Just something to think about. The pieces with just a little bit of the mixture were better than the pieces with lots on them. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 head(s) cauliflower, large, (8 cups 1-inch-thick slices), florets
2 tablespoon oil, olive, extra-virgin
1 teaspoon marjoram, dried
1/4 teaspoon salt
pepper, black ground, freshly ground, to taste
2 tablespoon vinegar balsamic
1/2 cup(s) cheese, Parmesan, finely shredded

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Toss cauliflower, oil, marjoram, salt and pepper. Roast on a large rimmed baking sheet until starting to soften and brown on the bottom, 15 to 20 minutes.

Toss the cauliflower with vinegar and sprinkle with cheese. Return to the oven and roast until the cheese is melted and any moisture has evaporated, 5 to 10 minutes more.