Coconut lemon bars

1 1/2 C flour
1/2 C powdered sugar
3/4 C cold butter
4 eggs
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C lemon juice
1 tsp baking powder
1 C coconut

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 13x9 with foil and lightly coat with non-stick cooking spray.
Mix together flour, powdered sugar and butter till crumbly and press into bottom of pan. Bake for 15 minutes.
Combine eggs, sugar, lemon juice and baking powder and pour over hot crust. Sprinkle with coconut and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Lift them out of the pan using the sides of the foil and let cool on a wire rack.

Herb and Garlic BowTtie Chicken

4  boneless, skinless chicken breasts (frozen is ok)

2  14oz cans Italian Style Diced Tomatoes

1 envelope Lipton Savory Herb & Garlic Soup Mix (next to onion soup mix)

16 oz package of Bow Tie pasta

Parmesan Cheese (fresh grated is best)

• Mix tomatoes and soup mix in crockpot, then add chicken. 
• Cook on Low for 6-8 hours or on High for 4-5 hours. 
• When chicken is fully cooked, pull it out and cut it into 1 inch chunks. (If you used fresh chicken, you can cut it up at the very beginning.) 
• Return chicken to crockpot.
• Prepare bow tie pasta according to package directions. Drain.
• Add cooked pasta to crockpot and stir it together.
• Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Serve with garlic bread, caesar salad and more grated parmesan cheese. (You can never have too much parmesan cheese.)

Spicy Lettuce Wraps

(recipe from my friend Jamie)

chicken from large rotisserie
3 Tbls peanut oil
3 Tbsp soy sauce
Bangkok peanut sauce (about a 3/4C, Less if you want it less spicy) I can only find this at Walmart
2 cans sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 1/2 C shredded carrots (I use the bagged ones that are in little strips)
1 C chopped green onions
Large head of iceberg lettuce

Remove chicken from bone into bite sized pieces, brown chicken in peanut oil in large skillet. Add everything else (except lettuce) and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve in iceberg lettuce leaves.
This is a bit spicy. Some of my kids can eat it, the others think it's too hot.

Chocolate sour cream cake

I've made this cake 4 times in the past month. It's so good so I figured I'd better post it so you all can enjoy it as well.

image and recipe

1 3/4 C flour (I use whole wheat flour)

1 3/4 C sugar

3/4 C cocoa

1 1/2 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

2/3 C butter

1 tub of sour cream (16oz)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

mix everything from flour to salt. Add butter, sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Mix for about 3 minutes in the kitchenaid. Pour into greased and floured 13x9.

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes

Cool completely. frost with recipe below

Frosting

3 T butter

1/3 C cocoa

1 1/3 C powdered sugar (plus more)

3 T milk

1/2  tsp vanilla (I use 1 tsp)

Melt butter over LOW heat. stir in cocoa and bubble for just a second. Dump into mixing bowl and add powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. mix until frosting consistency. Adding more powdered sugar as needed. 

Easy Apple Cinnamon Sugar Cake

 

image and recipe

1 1/2 C brown Sugar
1/3 C oil
1 egg
1 C butter milk (1T lemon juice in a 1 C measuring cup filled the rest of the way with milk)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 1/2 C chopped apples (pink ladies are good)
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 T butter

Combine everything from brown sugar to apples, Pour into a grease 13x9
Combine sugar cinnamon and butter with a fork to make a crumbly mixture.
Sprinkle it over the top of the batter
bake for 45 mins
Serve warm

Quick and Easy Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese
4 T butter
1-1 1/2 C powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
food coloring

In the kitchenaid with the wire whisk attachment, cream together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Add food coloring.
Makes about 1 1/2C frosting

This frosting works great on these SUGAR COOKIE BARS

Seasoned Popcorn

1 cup Popcorn (unpopped)
2-3 TB coconut oil melted
3-4 TB nutritional yeast
popcorn salt*
1 large paper bag

*to make popcorn salt, just blend salt into powder in your blender. It sticks to the popcorn so much better.

Pop the popcorn in an air popper 1/2 cup at a time.  Pour it into the paper bag.  Pour in the coconut oil (trying not to get it all over the bag) and sprinkle in the nutritional yeast and popcorn salt.  Shake and serve.


This recipe makes a A LOT of really good popcorn.

Peanut Dressing (for cabbage salad)

3T peanut butter
3/4 C oil
1/2 C sugar
1/4C vinegar
2 T soy sauce

Combine peanut butter and oil. Stick in the microwave for 30 secs. Stir really well.
In a saucepan over medium heat combine everything and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute and let cool.
I chopped up cabbage and drizzled this over top. So very tasty. Next time I'll do carrots and craisins and maybe almonds in with the cabbage too.

Baked Bean Burritos

(The only thing worse than a crappy picture is a blog post without pictures. This one will have to do)

1 can pork and beans (throw away the pork chunks)

1 can black beans (rinsed and drained)

1 can green chilies

1/4 C onion chopped

1 clove garlic

1/2 tsp cumin

2 T oil

1 C frozen corn

1 1/2C rice (minute rice 1 C water 1 cup rice)

shredded cheddar cheese

12 flour tortillas (8")

Butter

Heat oil in pan and saute onion, chilies, garlic and cumin for about 2 minutes until onion is tender. add can of pork and beans. Cook for 2 minutes. Add black beans and frozen corn, cook for an additional 5 minutes. Stir in prepared rice. Remove from heat.

Butter one side of each tortilla, fill the un-buttered side with bean mixture, add a little cheese. Roll up and place seem side down on cookie sheet (butter side should be on the outside. Bake at 475 for 12 minutes. till light brown and crispy. 

Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes

I have heard recipes for these before whenever people talk about what to do with the wheat in your food storage. Today I figured I would try them. (I wanted to use a recipe from a neighborhood cookbook I had but the recipe was missing ingredients so I combined a couple different recipe and came up with this one.)

I didn’t expect  the kids to like whole wheat pancakes because they look browner than regular pancakes, but they did. The kids all had at least two (even the picky ones).   Try them, they are good and fast to make.

2 ½ Cups Water

2 Cups wheat (the whole kernels)

2 Tbl. Oil

2 Tbl. Honey

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp salt

Put wheat and water in blender*. Blend for 3-5 minutes until smooth. Add oil, honey, eggs, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Blend until combined. (If batter seems thick, add a little more water.)Pour batter onto hot greased griddle.  They cook quickly.

Makes approx. 20 4-inch pancakes.

*I used my Blendtec  for this, if I was using a smaller blender I would definitely cut this recipe in half and also I would blend the wheat a little longer.