probably mostly easy dinners for busy moms and a few cake baking/decorating thingys
Hosting a Superbowl party this year? or attending one and need to bring food? Try making walking tacos.
You may want to make White Chicken Chili as well. We like it best with Fritos.
As to recipes for red and white chili, I swear by the McCormick seasoning packets.
These are also great to bring to ball games, and picnics.
Caleb is my cute little camera man 
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I love sugared walnuts in my salads, so when I found out you could do them in the microwave in about five minutes, I had to pass the info. on.
2 cups walnuts
1 cup brown sugar
1 T water
Mix it together and set your microwave on high for 5 minutes. Be sure to stir after each minute. The concoction is going to look liquidy first, then thicken up, finally it will have crystals and look like the sugared walnuts you get in a restaurant.
Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with Pam and spread the walnuts on it to cool.
voila! good enough to make a salad more like dessert.
This is the best recipe for carrot cake I have ever had or made. I got it from allrecipes.com and it is really called “Best Carrot Cake Ever”.
6 cups grated carrots
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup raisins
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup crushed pineapple,
drained
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts
In a medium bowl, combine grated carrots and brown sugar. Set aside for 60 minutes, then stir in raisins.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 10 inch cake pans.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light. Gradually beat in the white sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in the pineapple. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, stir into the wet mixture until absorbed. Finally stir in the carrot mixture and the walnuts. Pour evenly into the prepared pans.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. When completely cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting.
A few notes:
I haven’t made it with raisins yet…too many people in my circle are anti-raisin in their baked goods .
I made it as jumbo cupcakes for Abby’s birthday. I used an ice cream scoop to measure the batter (two scoops per cup) so they all cooked evenly. I also used a whole scoop full of cream cheese icing. Can never have too much cream cheese icing in my opinion.
I also made this for our church picnic a few weeks ago. I tripled my icing recipe, torted each layer of the 8 inch round cake (cut two layers in half to equal four), and iced in between all of the layers to give more icing to cake ratio. I also added more powdered sugar to the outer layer of icing just so the cake would stand up to the heat.
Any cream cheese recipe that calls for cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and confectioner’s sugar should do. Here is the one I use (again, i triple it every time).
Beat 8 oz. cold cream cheese (not rock solid, but it means you can use it straight out of the refrigerator) with
5 Tbsp. softened butter and
2 tsp. vanilla until combined. Gradually add
2 c. powdered sugar that has been sifted after measuring. Continue to add more sifted powdered sugar until you reach a consistency and sweetness that fits your taste.
No softening the cream cheese (though you do have to plan ahead with the butter). No whipping to a certain point that occurs for all of ten seconds before it’s ruined.
Enjoy!!
Here’s a yummy recipe for the next time you have overripe bananas! This is one of our favorites for breakfast or snack time.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
Instructions:
*originally found at allrecipes.com right here
Here are a few of my favorite alternatives to chips and dip, salsa, etc. These are a fun to bring to caregroup if you have snack, or to have at your next party or celebration. They are easy, require little to no preparation, and taste yummy. You may want to still have a “normal” munchie in case your group isn’t adventurous. But honestly, all of my kids eat this stuff, and so does my meat and potatoes husband.
Pita Chips and Hummus
We love these chips (we get ours at Sam’s Club) with hummus. You can either make your own Hummus or buy some – we like it both ways!
Steamed Edamame with Sea Salt
If you haven’t discovered Edamame (soy beans in pods), let me introduce you. It is more addictive than popcorn, and healthier at that! You pop the beans from the pod, directly into your mouth. You will want to have an empty bowl for the leftover pods. This is sooooo yummy! Look in your freezer section for the least expensive. Our Wal Mart Supercenter carries them fresh and frozen.
Pretzels with southwestern ranch dip
My sister-in-law Abby turned me on to this combo. We use the tic tac toe style pretzel and a southwestern ranch dip from the refrigerator section of the grocery store. You can find hundreds of Southwestern ranch dip online if you google for a recipe. So simple and so tasty.
Hot Artichoke dip (served with butter crackers and tortilla chips)
I first had this years ago at Peggy Carr’s house when she had a scrapbooking party. I never caught on with the scrapbooking but I’ve been using this recipe ever since! I usually double it for a big group.
1 (14 oz.) can artichoke hearts, drained
1 c. Parmesan cheese
1/2 c. Best Foods real mayo
1/2 c. sour cream
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 small onion finely chopped (I like red)
Top with chopped tomatoes for a prettier presentation and a little bit of flavor.
Chop artichoke hearts and combine all ingredients together and pour into greased oven proof dish. Cook 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with chips and crackers. Bruschetta
You can actually buy bruschetta topping in a jar, and toast/chips in a bag. It’s so easy that way and tastes great.
Your turn! What are your favorite, easy recipes for munchies?
I bought Maggie a Tiny Treats “cook book” for Christmas and we finally made one of the recipes. These are supposed to resemble cakes the perfect size for an American Girl doll. Basically you take two oreo-type cookies and glue them together with butter cream icing. then ice the cookie cake, smooth it, and decorate with sprinkles. Maggie was really able to ice and decorate these herself. If you leave the cookie cakes over night, the cookies will soften and taste more cakey. We couldn’t wait that long and enjoyed them crunchy (warning to moms…these are verrrrrry sweet!) . Maggs brought them to her friends’ house and the girls loved them.
I mean fruit-dates, not the romantic evenings we plan with our husbands… although I’m always happy to hear advice about “date night” as well, if you care to share.
Do any of you have a good recipe that calls for chopped dates? I seem to remember a really good bar cookie from years back that contained dates. Anyway, I am trying to use up all of my odd pantry items, and for some crazy reason I have a bag of chopped dates. If you have a good recipe, would you mind emailing it, linking to it, or posting it on your blog? I would google a recipe but seems to me that dates are one of those things that could make for a really fabulous dessert, or something very nasty. So I’d rather get a recipe from real-life people .
10 boxes down, ??? to go!!!
I have been on the lookout for whole grain breakfast recipes that are easy to make (so if you have a good one, please do post it!). My latest find is this oatmeal pancake recipe. You make the dry mix, keep it in the fridge and add the eggs, water, and oil when you’re ready to make a batch. These are very filling so you don’t need to make quite as many as you would a regular pancake. We top them with sweet apples (cut up apples, add a little butter, a little sugar & cinnamon, and microwave til they’re soft).Ingredients
Directions
Our new obsession in the Reyes house:
Jim and Marcia Walter’s Hummus Recipe (one of the first things I’m doing in Akron is copying every recipe from Marcia’s recipe box. She is an outstanding cook!)
1 can garbanzo beans
3 T. lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
3 T. tahini
3/4 t. salt
2 T. olive oil
dash o’ tobasco
Combine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
*we had hummus at Red Brick Station last Monday and they served it with finely diced red onion, black olives, jalepenos, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We loaded our pita triangles with whatever combo suited our fancy. Really yummy stuff!
*if you want to make a big batch of this, I have the amounts for a large recipe. Just request them in the “contact me” section.
GRILLED LONDON BROIL from COOKS.COM
1 1/2 – 2 lb. London Broil steakMARINADE:1/2 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 tbsp. molasses
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. dry mustard
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 med. onion, thinly slicedMix well all ingredients except onion. Add onion. Marinate meat at least 3 hours or overnight. Heat grill. Grill 3 minutes on high on each side with lid closed. Reduce heat to low. Cook another 15 minutes with lid closed. Do not peek. Let steak rest 5 to 10 minutes, then slice across grain in thin slices. Strain marinade and serve warm with sliced meat.
