Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

I got this recipe from Pinterest.  Of course.  It's all the rage.  They tasted exactly as you would imagine.  Cheesecake with cookie dough.  Maybe one of the best combinations out there!  Besides chocolate and peanut butter.  I loved everything about these bars!  Just be careful because they are rich!!  Recipe found here.

APPLEBEES BLONDE WALNUT BROWNIE

If you haven't been to Applebee's and eaten this dish of deliciousness; you must. But now you don't have to--you can make it yourself. I'm not a huge fan of Applebee's menu but have been known to frequent their establishment for just this dessert (shared with a friend, OF COURSE)! I prefer pecans to walnuts, so usually at home we make the switch.

Ingredients
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional to leave out or use pecans)
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

• Sauce:
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 ounce cream cheese (2 tablespoons), softened
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8 pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
In a bowl add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and walnuts. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and brown sugar with a mixer. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture a little at a time until combined. Stir in white chocolate chips. Spread into the 8x8 pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until center passes the toothpick test. I like mine a little on the gooey side. Remember right out of the oven they may seem gooey but once they cool they set up more.
Serve warm with ice cream and Maple Butter Sauce.

For the Maple Butter Sauce:
In a small bowl add the butter, powdered sugar, cream cheese, and maple syrup. Blend with a mixer until smooth.
When ready to serve, heat the maple butter sauce for about 30 seconds in the microwave and pour over warmed blondie and ice cream.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

I have been wanting to make these for a while, but kept putting it off for two reasons:  #1) macadamia nuts are not cheap and I never want to buy them and #2) I knew my kids wouldn't like them so I needed to have somewhere to take them or somebody to give them to.  I finally got around to it this week and now I remember how much I love this combo in a cookie.

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbs. vanilla
2 3/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup macadamia nuts

*Mix butter and brown sugar until nice a fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.  Add flour, soda and salt and mix well.  Add chips and nuts and mix to combine.  Scoop onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 11 minutes at 350.  Let cool for a couple of minutes on sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Crisp Mustard-Glazed Chicken

I got this recipe from Martha Stewart.  Sometimes her recipes seem too complicated or have fancy ingredients that I don't have in my pantry.  But this recipe was neither of those things!  I had all the ingredients and it was easy to make.  Word.  This chicken is tender and flavorful with a hint of honey mustard.  I thought it was delicious and a fun change from the regular chicken I make.  I will definitely be making this again!

• 4 boneless chicken breasts, skin on
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for breasts
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (I used honey mustard)
• 3/4 cup coarse breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme, plus more for garnish
• 3/4 cup homemade or low-sodium canned chicken stock
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Rub chicken breasts lightly with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Combine 2 tablespoons butter with the mustard; reserve 2 teaspoons for sauce. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter; mix with breadcrumbs and thyme, and season with salt and pepper.
3. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Sear chicken skin side down until crispy, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Smear with mustard mixture, and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Turn skin side up; apply mustard mixture and breadcrumbs.
4. Transfer skillet to oven, and roast until chicken is cooked through and top is golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
5. Transfer chicken to serving platter. Add stock and cream to skillet over medium heat, and stir with wooden spoon until creamy and reduced to 3/4 cup, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in reserved mustard mixture. Strain through a fine sieve, and serve with chicken. Garnish with thyme.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Crisp Mustard-Glazed Chicken Breasts - Martha Stewart Recipes

BREAKFAST CASSEROLE

It seems to be the season for showers (baby and bridal) and I have used this recipe many times for a brunch menu for above said showers. It is really good to make ahead if you have company and you want to have a delicious breakfast and "wow" them. It's always an option to leave out the green chile--but we like our food spicy around here. Credit goes to my good friend, Kaylene for this recipe!!

BREAKFAST CASSEROLE
(can be doubled)

Mix together:

1 small can chopped green chilis (optional)
1 large bag of shredded hashbrowns
diced green onion (amount of your preference)
1 med container cottage cheese
2 cups grated chedder cheese
2 cups cubed ham, cooked bacon, or sausage (pick your fav)
Beat 1 doz eggs and pour over the mixture.
Mix well.

Bake at 350 uncovered for 1 hour or until set and slightly brown on top. This can also be made ahead and frozen (raw) and brought out for guests. When frozen cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. 1st hour covered 2nd hour uncovered.

Homemade Snickers Bars

Our good friend, Cassie Kerby, sent me this recipe after she tried it out and loved it.  She found it on Pinterest.  I think the original source of the recipe is Chow.com.

I haven't tried making these, yet, but I will take Cassie's word for it that they were delicious and her family loved them.  Thanks, Cassie!!

• 
  
  Homemade Snickers Bars:
  
  (makes one 9×13 pan)
  
  Bottom chocolate layer:
  
  1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips
  1/4 cup peanut butter
  
  Thoroughly grease you baking pan. (I used parchment paper) Melt ingredients together in a saucepan or microwave, then pour into the baking dish and spread until even. Let cool and harden completely.
  
  Nougat layer:
  
  1/4 cup unsalted butter
  1 cup granulated sugar
  1/4 cup evaporated milk
  1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff
  1/4 cup peanut butter
  1 1/2 cup salted peanuts chopped, roughly chopped
  1 tsp vanilla extract
  
  Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in sugar and milk, stirring until dissolved and bring to a boil. Let cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in fluff, peanut butter and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Turn off heat and fold in peanuts, then pour over bottom chocolate layer. Let cool completely.
  
  Caramel layer:
  
  1 14-ounce bag of caramels
  1/4 cup whipping cream
  
  Combine ingredients in a saucepan over low heat. Let melt, stirring occasionally, until smooth – this took about 10 minutes for me. Pour over nougat layer and let cool completely.
  
  Top chocolate layer:
  
  1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips
  1/4 cup peanut butter
  
  Melt ingredients together in a saucepan or microwave, then pour over caramel and spread until even. Let cool and harden completely.
  
  Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving, then cut as desired. These can stay at room temperature, but they do get gooey. I like them refrigerated best.
  
  
  *I had trouble downloading the picture so just imagine a Snickers bar, but in a pan.  Of course, anything made with chocolate and peanut butter is going to be good, right?!*

Crockpot Chicken Tacos

For some reason it is not letting me type above the picture today so I'll skip the small talk and just cut to the chase.  The recipe:

4-5 chicken breasts (mine were frozen)

salt/pepper/garlic powder

1/2 of an onion, diced

1 (4oz.) can green chilies

2 tomatoes, diced

taco seasoning

*Put chicken breasts in crockpot and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.  As much as you like.  Put about an inch of water in the bottom and cook on low for 4-5 hours.  Take out chicken and shred up with a fork.  Drain water out of crockpot and put chicken back in.  Cover chicken with onion, green chilies, tomatoes and a little more garlic powder.  Put a tiny bit of water so the bottom isn't dry.  Sprinkle about a Tablespoon of taco seasoning over the mixture and stir all together.  Cook on low for another couple of hours.  Serve in tortillas with cheese and whatever else you like.

Meatballs

 Griffin has been requesting meatballs for dinner for the past few weeks.  I finally made them last night and he was quite pleased.  He ate 4 in fact!  I've never made them before so I just turned to google for a recipe and found this one from Betty Crocker.  We love Betty!  Anyways, it's a simple recipe and only took about 30 minutes start to finish.  I'm not really a meatball girl but these were really good.  And with 3 hungry boys to feed, you can't go wrong with meatballs!

Meatballs

1 lb. ground beef
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup italian style breadcrumbs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 egg

Line 9x13 pan with foil and spray with Pam.  Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  Shape into 1 1/2 inch balls.  Should make about 20 meatballs.  Place on greased foil and cook for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  Serve with marina sauce.

Homemade Magic Shell

Everywhere I turn lately, people are talking about coconut oil.

And not just for cooking/baking.

They're rubbing it on their faces for moisturizer, putting it in their hair for deep conditioning, using it on their lips as a natural lip balm and sunscreen, and lathering it on their pregnant bellies to prevent stretch marks.  It's like the miracle oil.

I finally broke down and bought a tub of it so I could try it for myself.  I'm a little weird about putting stuff on my face and hair, so I started with a simple recipe for homemade Magic Shell.

If you are on Pinterest, then chances are you have seen this recipe about a thousand times.  But in case you haven't come across it yet, here it is.

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used a whole bag of Ghirardelli)
2 Tbs. coconut oil (in solid form)

*Put chocolate chips and coconut oil in a glass container.  Microwave on high for 1 minute.  Stir well and then microwave again for 30 seconds or so until smooth and runny.  Stir well again and pour into a mason jar to cool.  You don't have to refrigerate it.  Just store it in the pantry for up to 3 weeks.  If it gets too hard, microwave it a little before using again.  When we ate it on our ice cream, it was still warm and it worked like a charm.  Tasted way better than the stuff from the store, too.  Easy, fun and tasty!!

Cake Bites

 My beautiful friend, Stephanie from BS Recipe, came over today to make cake bites.  She made the cake and frosting ahead of time, so we just mixed it together, cut out the shapes then dipped them in chocolate.  It was so much fun and easy to do!  Such a cute Valentine's Day treat! 

1 cake mix (we used coconut)
1 package of vanilla oreos, blended until resembles crumbs
1 container of frosting or homemade frosting (we used homemade coconut frosting)
dipping chocolate
sprinkles

Make cake according to box directions and bake.  When cooled, crumble completely and mix with frosting and ground oreos.  Mixture should be thick.  Form into balls or roll out to desired thickness cut out shapes using small cookie cutters.  Chill in fridge for 20 minutes.  Melt chocolate then dip cold cake bites into chocolate.  Make sure to cover completely with chocolate and tap any extra chocolate off.  Place on wax paper and top with sprinkles.

*When using vanilla, yellow or coconut cake mix - use vanilla oreos.  When using a chocolate cake mix - use regular oreos.