Brownie Cookies

These cookies are addicting
I love brownies
I love cookies
It combines 2 of my loves
in one out of this world delicious cookie

I made them this weekend
for a friends’ birthday
per her request 🙂
Yeah,
they were gone in minutes!
Ingredients:
6oz Unsweetened Chocolate (I use Baker’s)
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Powdered sugar
In a bowl, heat the butter and the chocolate together in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds – until butter and chocolate stir smooth. You could also use a double boiler to do this. Allow to partially cool.
In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and eggs with an electric mixer at a high speed until light and airy – about 4-5 minutes. Add in the vanilla and partially cooled chocolate. Mix well. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir until dough is evenly mixed. The dough will be soft. Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours
Heat oven to 325. Grease cookie sheets. Shape dough – I personally use my little cookie scoop- and roll them in the powdered sugar and place on cookie sheet. Bake for about 13 minutes. The cookies will be puffed and feel very soft. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet at least 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack (in my house, they may not make it that far!!)
ENJOY!

Lentil Soup

We LOVE Lentil Soup
Everyone in the family will eat it
it is DELICIOUS
You just have to get over the color

We have a nickname
for this soup
I think you can probably guess what that is 🙂
but regardless of the color
it is a very good soup
We also adore Alton Brown
We have all the Good Eats cookbooks
and this is basically his recipe
Never had lentils?
Neither had I 
before I had this soup
and I became a convert
I love lentils now
so go ahead and try them!
Ingredients
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 onion – chopped; (don’t worry about making them too small, you will be blending the soup)
1/2 cup carrot – chopped; (don’t worry about making them too small, you will be blending the soup)
Salt
1 pound Lentils
1 14oz can of Tomatoes – or use fresh tomatoes
2 Quarts Chicken or Vegetable Broth
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot/dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and salt in the pot and sweat until the onions are translucent, about 6-7 minutes. Add the lentils, tomatoes, broth, coriander, and cumin – stir to combine. Increase heat to high and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook at low simmer until the lentils are tender, approx. 35-40 minutes. Be sure they are TENDER (it can cook longer if needed – I think mine simmered for an hour last night because I forgot about it!). Then use a stick blender and puree to your desired consistency. Love my Stick Blender for soups!
We served it with the other half of the bread dough from the rolled sandwich I made last night. Just baked the dough and and some yummy homemade dough to dunk in the soup! 
This freezes well! We always put our leftovers into the freezer, because this make ALOT of soup! too much for us to eat in one meal. 
Calories – my calculations put it at about 175 calories per serving. 

Rolled Sandwich

This is a FAVORITE around here
Seriously,
All the kids get excited when we make this!
And it is delicious 🙂

We take this to potlucks

and it is gone within seconds
and everyone wants the recipe
I am almost embarrassed to give it
because it is sooooo easy to make
but it is really good
It is the fresh, homemade bread
I think if you wrap almost anything
in fresh bread,
it would taste good!
To make this
You only need some homemade bread dough
your favorite lunch meat (a pound of meat per sandwich)
and cheese
That’s it!
You could add other things as you wish 🙂
Here is my recipe for the bread dough and the steps:
Dough: 
5 3/4 – 61/4 cups flour  (as you can tell from the picture, I put in half whole wheat flour and then half white flour)
1 Package dry active yeast (or if like me and buy yeast at Costco – 2.25 tsp of yeast)
2 1/4 cups milk
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
Directions:
Combine 2 cups of flour and the yeast in a bowl (or in your Kitchen Aid mixing bowl – I do ALL of this in the Kitchen Aid with a dough hook – makes it REALLY easy to make!) 
Mix milk, sugar, butter, and salt in a separate bowl or saucepan and heat until warm and butter just melts (I do this in the microwave for about 2 minutes… You could also do it in a saucepan on the stove top). 
Add the warm milk mixture to the flour and yeast. Beat until mixed in and then add in as much of the flour as you can until smooth and elastic and doesn’t stick to the bowl. If you are not using a Kitchen Aid, you will need to put it onto a floured surface and knead it until smooth, elastic and not sticky… If you are using a Kitchen Aid, it will do the work and kneading for you!  Cover the dough and let rise for an hour or double in size.
Now, this dough recipe will make enough for 2 rolled sandwiches. You can make 2 sandwiches, if you are feeding alot of people… or just bake half of the dough in a loaf pan (place half the dough in the pan and let rise again for about 40 minutes, then bake) in a 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes and you’ll have a delicious loaf of bread! Which is what we will be having with our Lentil soup tonight 🙂 (or may also freeze the dough for the next time you want to make this!)
Ingredients PER Sandwich:

  • Half the dough from above recipe, or your favorite bread dough recipe – any dough recipe should work fine
  • 1 pound of your favorite lunch meat (ham, turkey, chicken – we use the big packs of Buddig or Land O’ Frost lunch meat)
  • Cheese – whatever kind you want, as much or little as you want. We often use cheddar, because it is always in our fridge, but we also like Colby Jack or if we have random slices of Provolone or Swiss, we’ll add those in to. We often use more than one cheese. Use whatever kind or as many kinds as you want!
Directions:

Take half of the dough from the recipe above and spread out on a pan (cookie sheet or jelly roll)

Layer your meat and cheese. I personally layer half of the meat, then some cheese, then the other half of the meat and top it off with more cheese. I don’t measure the cheese, just cover it until it looks like how much you want.

Then roll your sandwich. My husband rolls it tight. I just fold in one side half way, and then pull and fold the other side over on top of that side. Roll however you wish!

Fold in and pinch the ends and top of the dough together, so that all openings are closed. Repeat all steps with the second sandwich, if you decide to make 2.  Here is what it looks like once all pinched shut and ready to go into the oven:

Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes, until slightly browned on top. 
Let is set for 10-15 minutes – for 2 reasons: it gives the dough in the middle of the sandwich time to finish baking through (so it is not all doughy in there). Another reason is, when you cut into the sandwich, if it is slightly cooled, the cheese won’t just come running out all over the place – it will still be melty, but not a lava flow out of the sandwich

Mmmm… Enjoy!  Now I want to go downstairs and have some of the leftovers for lunch 🙂

I would not recommend making 2 and freezing one – we’ve tried this, and it did not work well 🙁 They need eaten fresh or also works well as leftovers.

We will be using the other half of our dough with our lentil soup that we are having for dinner tonight. Just wrap-up half the dough and place it in the fridge – take it out a few hours before baking to rise in the pan and get to room temperature again.

You can also freeze the other half of the dough – just the dough. The dough itself freezes great! Just take the dough out and de-frost the night before or the morning (it needs to defrost several hours) that you want to use it

Calories: It really depends on what kind of cheese and what kind of meat you put into the sandwich. It should be just under 700 calories, if you split the one sandwich into 4 sections, however, that is alot of sandwich!

Carrot Cake

I LOVE Carrot Cake
Ok, I’ll be honest
I just LOVE dessert in general 🙂

When it comes to carrot cake
I am a purist
I don’t like pineapple and nuts in it
just straight carrot cake and cream cheese frosting
I am also picky and won’t eat any carrot cake
except homemade
(no boxes, or store bought… I am the same way with brownies – I’ll have to share my favorite, out of this world good brownie recipe next time I make them!)
So I decided I had a hankering for some Carrot Cake
over Mother’s Day weekend
so I whipped up my favorite recipe
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce (if you don’t like applesauce in recipes, use another 1/2 cup oil instead!)
3 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1tsp baking soda
1tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups carrots (5 medium)
Frosting
8oz cream cheese – I used 1/3 less fat
1/4 cup Butter – softened
2-3 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
Directions:
Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour (I use Pam for baking) a 13×9 pan or 2 round pans. I personally use the 2 round pans, because I made it in a 13×9 before, and the center didn’t cook right 😛
Grate your carrots – I personally use my food processor, but you could use a hand/box grater – just don’t grate your finger!

Beat Sugar, oil, applesauce, and eggs together until well blended (I use my kitchen aid for EVERYTHING!) Add in flour, cinnamon, baking sods, vanilla and salt. Mix until just combined. Stir in Carrots. Pour into pans
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes for round pans and 40-45 minutes for 13×9 pan. Cool completely before frosting. 
While cooling make frosting – whip the cream cheese, vanilla, and butter together. Add the powdered sugar. Add milk as needed to get desired consistency.  Frost your cake when cool
Calories – including the frosting – just under 400 calories per slice, 16 slices per cake…

Million Dollar Spaghetti

Last night was another
“Let’s try something new from Pinterest”
dinner
We tried the “Million Dollar Spaghetti”

I think the recipe I got
was missing an ingredient
because the picture looked like it had cheddar cheese
on the top
but the recipe did not call for cheddar at all
so I followed the recipe
Not sure if the cheddar would have made that big of a difference anyway
but if I make it again,
I’ll include some cheddar on the top
The recipe was good
I did not find it stellar
but is was good
Monkey (7) – the one who won’t eat anything
ate 2 helpings
so he must have liked it!!
(he likes cream cheese)
Not sure it will enter our regular rotation of dinners
but we do normally have most of the ingredients in the house
so I would make it again
Even though I didn’t find it stellar
I also wanted to keep eating it
I think there is something about the cream cheese
that flavor lingers in your mouth,
making you want to eat some more!
Here is the recipe I am going to add in suggestions that I think will improve it!
7 oz Thin Spaghetti – I used Whole Wheat and just eyeballed the amount
1lb of ground beef – we use ground chicken for everything here
Onion – chopped
1/2 Pepper – chopped
8oz cream cheese – I used the 1/3 less fat
1/4 cup sour cream – again, I used the low fat
8oz cottage cheese – you guessed it, used low fat
8oz can of tomato sauce – If I make this again, I think I will just use some jar Spaghetti Sauce to add another layer of flavor
1/2 stick of butter. melted – Now I skipped this step – I just couldn’t imagine pouring melted butter over the cheese, etc… maybe that is just me?
I also want to try it with some cheddar cheese on top – like the picture showed, but the recipe lacked.
Steps:
Heat oven to 350
Boil and prepare the spaghetti – drain when done. Cook the onion and pepper in a small amount of olive oil or butter – add the hamburger until browned. Add the tomato sauce (or Spaghetti Sauce). Mix the Cream cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese together in bowl. 
Now layer the spaghetti, cheese and meat. Repeat. If you see my picture above, I did put the cheese on top, because in the picture I had, it looked like there was cheese on top… However, I believe it was cheddar, so if I were to make this again, I would layer it spaghetti, cheese mix, meat, spaghetti, cheese mix, meat and then top it with some cheddar cheese. Not sure how needed more cheese is (but I do LOVE cheese!!!), but I think I will try it that way next time 🙂 You are then to pour the melted butter over the top… again, I can’t see myself doing this, but if you do, let me know how it is!  another recipe I saw, is that you put the butter on top of the layers of spaghetti – it seems unnecessary to me and just add unneeded fat, but to each their own!
So I’ll probably be making this again… only use Spaghetti Sauce and add some cheddar on top! And if my kids will eat it, I guess that makes it a winner!
Calories – just under 400 calories (w/all low fat) and feeds 6…  However, that is without the cheddar on top… My guess is that would add another 50ish calories per serving

Cream Cheese Filled Chicken

Last night,
I made a new recipe
I found on pinterest
Of course,
I had to put my own twist on it

The meal was a big success
Monkey (age 7) even ate it
he is going through a stage of
“I don’t want to eat it”
lately,
but he actually ate this and liked it
which I find to be a pretty good endorsement!
It was delicious!
My husband and I ate 2 pieces
(They were pretty small)
I think this will be entering our 
“favorite recipes” category
and entering our dinner rotation
Here ya go:
4-6 chicken breasts – (Now I have HUGE chicken breasts – so I actually take 2 large ones, cut off the bottom, thinner part of them, then take the thicker top part and cut them in half width-wise, thus making one chicken breast into 3 smaller pieces that are easier to cook/use and stay moister because they don’t take as long to cook!)
4oz Cream Cheese – I used low fat… Feel free to use a couple more oz, if you want them really creamy!
Garlic powder – I never measure, but probably around a 1tsp or so
Minced dry onion – again, don’t measure, but around 1tbsp
Fresh cracked pepper
1/4 cup of flour – no need to measure, just eyeball
1 egg beaten
1 cup of corn flakes slightly crushed or crushed, depends on your texture preference! You could probably also use bread crumbs and it would be just as good 🙂
Olive oil
Instructions:
Heat oven to 350
Pound out your chicken breasts thin. I put them between some plastic wrap and pound them out with my meat mallet – you could also use a rolling pin. Mix the cream cheese, garlic, onion, and pepper together. Divide the cream cheese mixture among the chicken breasts (just eyeball, but probably around 2tsp each) and spread on the breasts (no need to be precise about it!). Then roll up each chicken breast – the cream cheese helps keep the chicken together.
Heat up an oven safe skillet (otherwise, you can also prepare a pan to put them in after browning) with a little bit of Olive Oil. Dip the chicken into the flour, then into the egg, then roll in the cornflakes. Then brown the chicken in the skillet on all sides. Once browned, place skillet in the oven (or transfer chicken to baking dish) and cook until done through – 15-30 minutes – depends on the size of your chicken, mine only took about 15 minutes, but I used smaller breasts.
ENJOY! 
My calculations put each 6oz of chicken at 350 calories – not too bad for dinner!
We served it with Mashed Potatoes, fresh Strawberries, and this Cheddar Peasant bread from the book Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day. See my review of the book here. 

Confession

I have a confession to make
Don’t judge me too harshly for this

I have had an addiction lately

to the Tacos at Jack in the box
I know…
I am so ashamed 🙂
I am not a fast food person
Just not a fan
(my kids on the other hand… they think it is the biggest treat when we let them go :P)
I do enjoy Quiznos
(is that fast food?)
I prefer it to Subway and can’t really eat Subway any more
because I think Quiznos is by far superior
I also enjoy Arby’s once in awhile
and that’s about it
We have a local chain around here
called Burgerville
and I do occasionally enjoy them
especially their milkshakes
(Chocolate Hazelnut – so FREAKING good!)
But when we are out and about
on our many weekend adventures
we sometimes stop and get something for the kids
We found recently
that Jack in the Box had breakfast all day
and Talker doesn’t like things like burgers, tacos, etc
(he is a self imposed vegetarian at 2)
so we can get him pancakes
So I decided to try their tacos once
dang!
I have no idea why I like them
but even writing about them now
I am getting a craving
It started when I was pregnant with Smiley
a few months ago
Call it a pregnancy craving that hasn’t gone away
(Yes, blame the baby
Cravings and baby weight that won’t go away
all their fault!! 😉 
yes, that explains it!)
I make some REALLY good soft tacos here
(I’ll have to post my recipe soon – they are DELICIOUS!)
and they are one of my favorite things I make
(I think I could LIVE off of tacos, pizza, and chocolate – seriously!)
My family even used to own
some fast food Mexican type food restaurants
(maybe why I am not a fast food fan?!?!)
I mean the meat  in the tacos
seems to be a cross between beans and mystery meat
the cheese is just slices of American
but the shell seems to be fried around it
and the cheese gets all melty…
and now I am hungry….
I don’t know…
I don’t get it
but I like them
And now you know my secret…. 🙂

Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day!

                                                  Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
I LOVE bread
Seriously LOVE it
I don’t know what would happen
if we had to go gluten free
because we all love bread around here!

I love making and baking fresh bread
but with 4 kids
I don’t really have all day to do it
I’ll often hit up Safeway
or Fred Meyer
and pick up a loaf of french bread
for dinner
YUM!
However,
my baking/dinner life changed
when my cousin recommend me this book
I am not a big fan of buying cook books
mainly because I can find just about everything online
but you can’t really find these recipes online
(which is why, even though I may mention that I am making bread from this book, I will not be posting recipes where original creators haven’t already put online themselves)
and you really do need the cookbook
I love just having the dough in my fridge ready to go!
You put a little (very little)
time into making the initial dough
I do it on Saturday or Sunday afternoons
to have dough for the coming week
After you let it rise
you just put it in your fridge for the week
Then you take a section of the dough
for each night that you want some fresh bread
and bake it
Easy as that!
You have French Bread, Peasant bread,
all sorts of dough recipes
just ready for you to bake
in no time at all
I LOVE having fresh, HOT out of my oven bread
for our meals!
It is the perfect cookbook
if you LOVE bread like me
but don’t have all the time in the world
to stand in the kitchen and make it everyday
So go buy it here
and start enjoying Artisan bread
made by you
in relatively no time!
You won’t regret buying this book

On the menu

Here is what I am making this week
You can expect recipes and hopefully pictures after I make them – along with family reviews of the meal!

  • Cream cheese chicken – new recipe for us
  • Million Dollar Spaghetti – new recipe for us
  • Rolled Sandwich – one of our family’s favorite’s and go to for potluck lunches
  • Lentil Soup – tried and true favorite

I am also making some cheddar peasant bread to go with the first 2 meals listed. I will be providing a review of the book that it comes from soon, because it is worth the money to buy it!

Fisher Price Little Lamb Swing

play-toy
Any mom knows that getting anything done
when you have an infant around
is next to impossible!


Well, this morning
I was able to mow the back yard
(well, half of it, until our mower quit 😛 Luckily, husband fixed it later!)
then pressure washed the kids play equipment,
play house, the patio, and our picnic table
(getting ready for summer!!)
Then I came in
and made a carrot cake
(recipe to come!)
did all the dishes
and made myself some lunch
all while my 2 month old
had a very pleasant 2.5 hour nap!

Now normally,
he wakes up from a nap as soon as I move from him
(when he falls asleep nursing)
but this swing is a miracle machine in our house
it is the only way that I get dinner made!
(or ANYTHING done for that matter!!)

for our 3rd child
We had been given a swing from a garage sale
that we used for our first 2 kids
but then got rid of it
when our 2nd grew out of it
That swing worked well
but wasn’t nearly as nice as this swing
Honestly,
ANY swing, as long as it works,
it worth its weight in GOLD!
I was worried about it eating batteries
but we used it all the time for our 3rd child
and now we are on our 4th,
and we have yet to put new batteries in it!
I think that is pretty good 🙂

They love to sleep in it
When I go to take him out,
he often gets mad at me
because he was sleeping so well

Sometimes,
if he is not asleep
but I NEED to get dinner done,
I put him in there,
and he LOVES to just watch the mobile
and enjoy the ride

It is so soft and plush,
I want to sit in it, 
get swung back and forth
and take a nap
Too bad I’m an adult 😛
My older kids
and the 2 year old
are always trying to get in it
or putting their feet in it
or swinging it when it is not on
or hanging on it
and it still works like it is brand-new
Still LOOKS brand-new too!!!

I can’t think of any negatives I have about the swing
it does take up some space
but in my opinion
it is space well used!

They have a newer version
or
if you’re worried about batteries
They have one with an A/C adapter