Caramel - Peanut Butter Bars

I pulled this recipe out of Sandra Lee Semi Homemade in April of 2010 but only got around to making it the week before James was born. She lists it as a great bake sale idea but the bars would also be good to give as gifts to neighbors at Christmas or for some other occasion.  While they were pretty easy to make I will warn you that they are very rich and very peanut buttery!  So be prepared -- if you aren't a big peanut butter fan you won't like these bars, but if you like peanut butter then this might be just the dessert for you!  But the dessert did get better the longer it sat so I'd definitely recommend it if you're baking them ahead of time.

Caramel-Peanut Butter Bars

Makes one 9x13 dish to be cut into bars

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cup regular Oats

2/3 cup creamy Peanut Butter

1 large egg, slightly beaten

2-3 Tablespoons whole milk (I used 2% because it was as high fat content as I had)

8 oz Cream Cheese, softened

1 12.25 oz Jar Caramel Ice Cream Topping 

1 cup SemiSweet Chocolate Chips

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly grease a 9x13 baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix and oats.  Using a pastry blender or two forks, cut in peanut butter until mixture is crumbly.

3. In a small bowl, combine egg and milk.  Add to peanut butter mixture; stir until just combined.  Reserve 1 1/2 cups peanut butter mixture.  Press remaining mixture into prepared pan.

4. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy.  Add caramel topping; beat just until combined.  Carefully spread over peanut butter layer in pan.  Sprinkle remaining peanut butter mixture over cream cheese layer.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips.

5. Bake for 30 minutes, or until nearly set in center.  Cool completely in pan on a wire rack (about 1 hour).  Cut into bars.

Chicken Roll Up's

I love the blog world and the ability to catch up with people that you knew in college once you've left college life and are out in the real world.  Catherine is one of those people that I love to keep up with via blog's and I especially love all of the wonderful recipe's that she frequently post's!  Even though I wasn't an AOPi in Tuscaloosa, I can still appreciate the great meals that all of the sorority houses served so when I saw that she posted a recipe from the AOPi house I knew I needed to try it out.  

This recipe was really easy to put together -- especially since I cheated and went with precooked chicken from the store!  And it turned out great!  I halved the recipe so that I could freeze half of it and one half of it ended up being just enough for Jason, Charlotte, and I.  If you have more people in your family I'd go ahead and cook it all at one time, but for us it was the perfect size halved.  And the bonus with that is that there's another recipe in the freezer ready to pull out now that James is here!  The recipe below has my shortcut modifications of Catherine's recipe but you can check her's out by clicking on the recipe name.

As a sidenote, if anyone else has any great sorority house recipe's could you send them my way? I'd love to try them!

Chicken Roll Up's

Makes one 9x13 casserole or two smaller square dishes

Two 6 oz packages of pre cooked chicken, chopped

2 cans crescent rolls

1 3/4 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese

2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup

1 cup Milk

1. Open crescent rolls and press two crescent rolls together into a large rectangle.  Cut the rectangle in half to get two squares of rolls per two crescent rolls.

2. Mix soups, 1 1/2 cups of cheese, and milk.

3. Chop chicken and put a spoonful of chicken into the center of each crescent triangle and close.  (I sort of made little wonton shapes.)

4. Place chicken rolls into a greased baking dish.

5. Pour soup mixture over the rolls and spread mixture evenly over them.

6. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until the rolls are beginning to brown on the top.

7. Sprinkle rest of cheese over the top of the rolls and enjoy.

King Ranch Chicken

If you're looking for a spicy chicken dish to either serve as a meal or as a heavy topping to chips for a game day look no further than this recipe.  I found it off of a blog I love, Lamberts Lately, and made it a few weeks ago for us.  The recipe I'm going to give you is a much less spicy version than Leslie's because her version was pretty much more than I could handle!  But if you want to up the spice quotient follow her directions and you'll be there.  We liked it as a meal but will probably use it as a game day dip meal in the future.

King Ranch Chicken

Makes 1 packed to the brim square/small round casserole or a less full 9x13 casserole

1 lb Chicken

1/2 Tablespoon Chili Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Pepper

1/8 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 tub Philadelphia Cooking Cream (or 10 oz Cream Cheese)

1 can Rotel

3/4 cup Pepperjack Cheese

1 1/4 cup Cheddar Cheese

1 bag Tortilla Chips

1. Cut the chicken into small pieces and cook in a little bit of oil a skillet.  Add next four seasonings to chicken as it cooks.

2. Mix together soup, cooking cream, rotel, and half of each cheese.  Add in chicken once finished.

3. Put a good layer of tortilla chips on the bottom of a sprayed casserole dish, then top with the chicken mixture.  Add the rest of the cheese on top.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Slow Cooker Enchilada's

I'm pretty sure that I've never been more thankful for my slow cooker than I have these last few weeks of pregnancy.  It's next to impossible to handle preparing dinner with my pregnant self with Charlotte's "help" these days which leaves us options of eating out, having Jason make dinner, or me making it while Charlotte's asleep.  I am so thankful that I've found some really easy slow cooker meals that I've been able to put together during nap time and have been really good for dinner!  Jason is great at helping me out, but I hate to ask him to make complicated dinners as soon as he gets home from work so this has been our life saver.

This is, yet another, recipe that I found on Pinterest.  You should definitely check out my Recipe board on there if you need some new ideas.  Please note on this recipe that I didn't use any meat.

Slow Cooker Enchilada's

1/2 yellow onion, diced small
1/2 bell pepper, diced small (any color)
1 16-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cheese, shredded and divided - we like monterey jack
2 16-ounce jars of your favorite salsa
12 6”-8” tortillas, flour or corn
Optional: 1 cup leftover meat - chicken, pork, hamburger, or shredded beef

In a medium bowl, mix together the onion, pepper, black beans, corn, spices, meat (if using), and just 1/2 cup of the cheese. Pour about a cup of salsa (half a jar) into the bottom of the slow cooker and spread it around evenly.

Scoop about 1/3 cup into one of the tortillas, roll it up, and nestle it into the bottom of the crock pot. Repeat with the half of the remaining filling, rolling tortillas until the entire bottom of of the crock pot is filled. Spread another cup of salsa over this layer and sprinkle it with another 1/2 cup of cheese.

Continue with the remaining filling and tortillas to create a second layer. Top with another cup of salsa, but reserve the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese for later. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 2-4 hours. In the last 15 minutes of cooking, sprinkle the leftover cheese over the top and let it melt.

Serve the enchiladas with the remaining salsa. Leftovers will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator.

Creamy Crock Pot Chicken

This recipe from Pinterest is very similar to the Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken that I posted a while ago.  The main differences are the addition of corn and that you put the cream cheese in the crock pot from the beginning.  This gives the dish a little more creaminess since the cheese has been in the entire time and also a little healthier feel since there is corn in the dish.  Both are great and I'll probably go back and forth on which variation I cook depending on whether I have corn in the pantry or not!

Creamy Crock Pot Chicken

One package of chicken breasts (or more)

8 oz of Cream Cheese

1 can of Black Beans, drained and rinsed

1 can of Corn, drained and rinsed

1 can of Rotel

1. Put chicken in crock pot.

2. Put cream cheese over chicken -- cutting into blocks to spread over the entire area.

3. Put in the black beans, corn, and rotel.

4. Cover and cook -- 6 hours on low, or 3 hours on high.  Stir periodically if possible.

5. Serve over rice or on tortilla's.

Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken

One of the nicest things about Pinterest is that sometimes you not only find a good recipe but a good blog.  This is one such find.  Mama and Baby Love is a blog I stumbled upon and while I haven't spent a whole lot of time browsing it, it looks like a great blog and has some good recipes!  

This one is a freezer slow cooker one that I made recently and that we really enjoyed.  Here are some of my notes on it:

- I split it into two portions like she describes, but one portion was really just enough for the three of us.  If you have more than two adult eaters and one (very small portioned) child eater I would make the entire recipe for one meal.

- As I chopped I split into a gallon bag to go in the freezer and put the rest straight into the crock pot to cook.  Because of this I only cooked the crock pot portion on low for 5ish hours and it was plenty done.

- I might substitute regular potatoes (or half regular and half sweet) next time because I'm not a big sweet potato fan and this dish is really sweet potato heavy.

- I will also probably use regular chicken breasts next time.  It was different to use the drumsticks but I prefer less bones on my plate.  :)

Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken

3 medium unpeeled  sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 large green pepper, cut into strips
1 large red pepper, cut into strips
1 zucchini, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca
2 pounds chicken thighs or drumsticks
1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt

Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.

To cook, take bag out of freezer to thaw for 30 minutes then dump in slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8.  Or, simply put in the slow cooker fresh and cook for less time.

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Yet again, another Pinterest find.  Seriously, if you haven't checked out Pinterest and don't mind being sucked into a bottomless pit of ideas, go and check it out.  It's amazing...and a huge time waster....but still, amazing!

When I saw the picture that came with this pin I knew I wanted to try it.  I've been kind of blah about breakfast foods recently and have been jumping back and forth to things that only really sound good for a day or two.  So I really wanted to try this.  One negative about this cake is that it's hard to have all the ingredients on hand to make it any time.  It calls for buttermilk and unsalted butter which aren't staples at my house (the unsalted butter should be, but hasn't been).

So I made plans to pick up what I was lacking at home but then couldn't find a good time to make it.  Another downside is that it's not a really simple recipe so it wasn't something that I could simply whip up in the morning unless I wanted to get up and make it way before Charlotte got up and, lets face it, at 30 some odd weeks pregnant, that's not going to happen!

Finally, Jason suggested that he'd watch Charlotte after dinner so that I could make it then and just reheat what I wanted to eat each morning.  Stellar idea!  I started cooking and after a few measurement problems (I am pregnant remember and sometimes counting to 7 is hard!) I finally got it cooking.  It took a little longer than the 35 minutes the recipe called for but once it came out it looked delicious.  Jason and I had it for dessert that night and it was fantastic.  The next morning I heated up two pieces for Charlotte and I but Charlotte wouldn't touch it so she missed it and that left more for Jason and I!

I would highly recommend this recipe.  It's a really dense cake but it's not too sweet and perfect for breakfast or for a more tempered dessert.  It was good reheated for about 40 second in the microwave in the morning's but was also great fresh out of the oven.  Next time I might mix it the night before and bake it in the morning, but either way it's a great dish!

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Makes 1 square dish

1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature

7/8 cup + 1 T sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Cream butter with 7/8 cup of sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.  Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk.  Fold in the blueberries.

4. Grease a 9 inch square pan with non-stick spray.  Spread batter into pan.  Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar.  Bake for 35 minutes (or more).  Check with a toothpick for doneness.  Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving.