Chicken tortilla casserole

Cooking, what't that? I could count on 2 hands how many times I've cooked from scratch in the last month. I cannot stand to look at another pizza slice or hamburger so yesterday, I looked up an easy recipe involving cream cheese, chicken and tortillas.

What you need:
3 tortillas - 8-10 inch rounds
shredded chicken - about 3 cups (I used 2 cans of cooked chicken total 25 ounces)

1 can diced tomatoes drained

1 can black beans rinsed and drained

the recipe asked for 2 green onions chopped but I didn't have any so I used 1 medium white onion chopped

1 container Kraft Philly cooking creme (for future, I think cream cheese blended with some sour cream, salt, pepper, and any spices you like would be good too)

3/4 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese

What you do:
Mix the chicken, beans, tomatoes and onion well. Add 3/4 of the spread to the mix.

Spread 1/3 of the mix into a pie pan, cover with 1 tortilla.

Spread another 1/3rd of the mix on top of the tortilla and then spread 1/ cup of the shredded cheese and cover with 1 tortilla. Repeat this step again.

Cover with remaining Philly creme and then the cheese.

Bake at 375, covered, for 20 minutes and then uncovered for 5 minutes.

Cut into pie wedges and enjoy!

You can see their image at the site; here are mine. It tasted pretty good, I would have added hot peppers to the mix. A salad would have been nice because the meal itself is very rich ad heavy.

Caramel Crunch Bars

                   

I'll post the recipe here for those who might not want to go to the site itself but this was exactly the one I followed: Kraft Caramel Crunch Bars. As you can see, mine don't look as pretty. I think I used too many toppings because some of them are loose but it still tastes yummy.

What You Need

4-1/2 HONEY MAID Honey Grahams

1 pkg.  (11 oz.) KRAFT Caramel Bits

2 Tbsp. milk

1/2 cup  PLANTERS COCKTAIL Peanuts

1/2 cup JET-PUFFED Miniature Marshmallows

1/2 cup  coarsely crushed pretzels

4 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted

Make It

LINE 8-inch square pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Grease foil generously with shortening. Place grahams on bottom of pan, cutting to fit if necessary.
MICROWAVE caramel bits and milk in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until caramel bits are completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring every 30 sec. Pour over grahams; top with next 3 ingredients. Drizzle with chocolate.
REFRIGERATE at least 1 hour. Use foil handles to remove dessert from pan before cutting into bars to serve.

Texas Caviar

From my dear frien Donna Camp

Ingredients:

• 1 can (14 oz) black eyed peas, drained
• 1 can (15 1/2 oz) white hominy, drained
• 2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 medium green pepper, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup cilantro, chopped fresh
• 1 cup picante sauce

Combine all ingredients
Mix and chill at least 2 hours
Serve with tortilla chips

Pina colada cupcakes

Finally, a recipe from scratch that I like:

Ingredients:

1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 c. granulated sugar I used 3/4 c. sugar but they came out way too sweet
1/4 c. canola oil
1 egg
1/3 c. coconut milk Original recipe asked for buttermilk but I wanted more coconut flavor
1/2 c. crushed pineapple, undrained
1/2 t. coconut extract or coconut rum I used the rum, couldn't tell the difference really
1/2 c. sweetened coconut Could probably use more if you like the crunchiness

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl whisk together sugar, oil, coconut extract or coconut rum and egg until smooth.

Beginning and ending with dry ingredients, alternately whisk in flour mixture and coconut milk, beating until smooth. Stir in pineapple and sweetened coconut.

Fill muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake 22 minutes, or until the tops spring back lightly when touched. Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely. Frost & enjoy! I didn't really wait the 10 minutes, the cupcakes were eaten within 45 seconds, I believe.

I made 24 mini cupcakes

Peanut butter caramel surprise cookies

I finally have a recipe for peanut butter cookies from scratch that I love and they were perfect. I would not change a single thing. I got this recipe from somebody else's blog and I wish I could remember but it's been sitting in my email box since last year. Here's the proof of that:

Here's the recipe:

• 2-¼ cups All Purpose Flour
• ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 1-¼ cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 1-¼ cup Sugar
• 1 cup Butter, Softened
• 1-½ cup Creamy Peanut Butter
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 3 Eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F. 
Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
In a large mixing bowl, mix sugars on medium with your stand or hand mixer.
Add butter and mix until incorporated.
Add peanut butter and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
Beat in eggs ONE AT A TIME. Once all eggs are incorporated, mix till fluffy.
Add flour mixture on low speed till just mixed. Don’t over mix or you’ll make gluten and hard cookies!
Chill for half an hour in the fridge. Yes, this really does make a difference.
Drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet. With a wet fork, make a crisscross pattern on each cookie.
Bake for 15 minutes (my oven cooks low, so I have to cook for closer to 20 minutes) or until SLIGHT browning occurs on the edges. DO NOT OVER BAKE or chewiness will be gone.

If you do this, you'll get a chewy yummy cookie that looks like this: 

 

But, maybe you'd like a cookie that surprises you, that when you break in half, gives you a gooey, chocolatey center, like this:

You'll need a bag of Rolos. Grab a good tablespoon full of cookie dough and form it into a ball around the Rolo. The Rolo should be completely encased inside the cookie dough. Drop it on the cookie sheet and bake for 17 minutes. Take the cookies out when they are just slightly browned on top. Cool for a couple minutes, then ENJOY!

Homemade donuts

Ever since I tried a glazed donut from Dunkin Donuts, warmed, I wanted to make them at home. So, I got a mini donut pan from Amazon.

And, I made some mini glazed donuts tonight. The recipe that came with the pan was for cake donuts. They are yummy. This weekend, I'll try some regular donut recipes.





I'll post recipes used after I try another one.

Recipes for the future

Things I want to make in the future when I have some time:

• fruit cake (not the Christmas fruit you guys are used to, this is somethign we got in India, moist cake full of fresh fruit int he cake and in the icing)
• bread pudding
• chicken pot pie