This was so easy and everyone loved it. Mix one box of angel food cake mix with one 20 oz can of crushed pineapple, juice and all. Do NOT add the water that is called for on the box, just the dry mix and entire can of pineapple with juice.
Mix well, it will foam. Pour into a 9×13 pan and put into a preheated 350 oven for 20-25 minutes.
Enjoy!
We’re in bagel making heaven here. Yesterday morning I saw this post as soon as I woke up and decided I’d try right away. They are SO easy and SO yummy.
In a bread maker, or kitchen aid or Bosch or whatever, combine:
1 cup warm water (I needed a bit more)
3 cups of bread flour
2 TBS white sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
If you’re using a breadmaker, set it to dough cycle. If you’re not, I’d knead well for about 10 minutes and let the dough rest about 45 minutes.
Then shape the dough into 8-10 balls, flatten, and poke holes. Let them rest for about 30-60 minutes.
Then you’ll boil a pot of water with 3T sugar to be ready when the bagels are done rising. Boil each bagel for 1 minute; 30 seconds on each side. We fit 3 bagels into our pot at a time.
Put the boiled bagels on an ungreased pan that is either sprinkled with 1T cornmeal, or use a silpat (which I did), and bake at 375 for 20 minutes, or until they look just browned enough.
They’re not beautiful, but they are delicious!
Our first batch of 8 was gone not long after the kids came home from school, so last night I made a second batch of raisin cinnamon. SO YUMMY! I added maybe 3/4 t cinnamon to the dough mixture at the very beginning, along with about 2 handfuls of raisins. It was perfect!
We LOVED this.
4-6 tilapia fillets (about 2 pounds)
1 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
4 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons grated ginger (from about a 2-inch piece that has been peeled)
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2/3 cup chopped cilantro
Chopped green onions for garnish
Extra cilantro for garnish
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. Pat the tilapia fillets dry and season lightly with salt and pepper on both sides. Place the fish in a glass or ceramic baking dish.
Place the jalapenos, garlic, ginger, soy sauce,stock, sesame oil and cilantro in a blender or food processor. Pulse or process until very well blended. Pour the sauce over the fish. Bake for 8-12 minutes until the fish flakes easily and is cooked through. Serve immediately.
Adapted from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
So for Shanelle and Lauren the others who asked what meals I made on the marathon cooking morning the other month, here is the info for you, finally.
My favorite freezer cooking books have been Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer, and Fix, Freeze, Feast. I am picking up Don’t Panic, More Dinner’s in the Freezer from the library this weekend. Really, though, you don’t have to stick to fancy cookbooks or special pinterest recipes. I haven’t had good luck freezing recipes with potatoes well, but most of your “go-to” family recipes are likely freezer friendly. Some people say don’t freeze recipes with milk, cream or cream cheese – we’ve usually done just fine with those. Most soups freeze amazingly well and they’re so easy to double and triple.
And also – if a big cooking morning (which means a big kitchen cleaning afternoon for me) is too much for you – one of the other tricks I like to do is once or twice a week, cook two or three of whatever you’re making that night for dinner. Eat one, freeze the other one (or two). Ta da. Much more manageable than planning a big cooking day.
I usually put each meal in a ziploc, then put that ziploc inside Food Saver bag and sealed it on up. This time I bought super cheap tin pans (18-25 cents) from the restaurant supply store so I could just place each meal in the pan, stick the pan inside a Food Saver bag, and seal it there. On cooking day we cut the bag open and just stick the pan in the oven, then throw the pan away. Sweet.
Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole x3
Chicken Parmigana x3
Cream cheese salsa chicken x 3 (was supposed to be Mariachi chicken rolls but I forgot to buy two ingredients, so made this instead – was just cream cheese and salsa blended, poured over breasts)
Chicken Satay x3
Buttermilk Herb Chicken Breasts x3
Chicken with Pesto Butter x3
Lemon Glazed Chicken Breasts x3
Loaded Baked Potato Soup x3 (was advertised as a freezer recipe but didn’t do great in the freezer – needed a bunch of work to make good the next day, so I won’t link until I figure out a better freezer version)
This manicotti is another of our freezer faves. I’ve been bad at adding the new recipes we’ve tried and loved; should get back in the habit again.
We ended up with 23 frozen meals for later (ate one of the potato soups that night). As for cost? I don’t know. I bought all the chicken the night before, on sale for $1.79/lb for the boneless skinless breasts. I spent about $75 on the chicken alone. I tried adding everything together but am guessing – I feel safe saying it was all well under $125 for 24 meals, which averages what…about $5/meal?. Some things like cream cheese were on sale for $1/8 oz, which is a huge sale and really helped – the potato soup and salsa chicken used a bunch of that.
Any questions?
We all loved this! It’s from Taste of Home. I was going to add just 4 cups of milk instead of the 2 cups of half and half but the calories were relatively low with it, so I added it for extra flavor. The store was out of fat free half and half. We’ll try that next time.
1 package (9 ounces) refrigerated cheese tortellini (I used prob 2/3 of a 19 oz bag of frozen)
2 cans (10-3/4 ounces each) reduced-sodium condensed tomato soup, undiluted
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups 2% milk
2 cups half-and-half
1/2 cup chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
Cook tortellini according to package directions.
Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, combine the soup, broth, milk, cream, tomatoes and seasonings. Heat through, stirring frequently. Drain tortellini; carefully add to soup. Yield: 10 servings (2-1/2 quarts).
Nutritional Facts
1 cup equals 245 calories, 11 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 42 mg cholesterol, 756 mg sodium, 27 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 10 g protein.
This is going to be a lame, pictureless post for all of you, but I’m writing it down so I can remember to put it in my recipe binder.
I pinned a recipe for Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole and Sunday when we wanted chicken cordon bleu (but I didn’t want to do the work) I remembered the recipe. Looked it up: it was kind of complicated. I was looking for help in being…lazy. Googled, found a few more, but they all had substitutes for cream of chicken soup or fancy toppings. Blah.
We just pounded down some chicken breasts and put them in a baking dish. Topped with cheese (I had mozz, I’d use swiss if I had it). Topped with Canadian bacon since we didn’t have ‘real’ ham. Mixed up 1 can of cream of chicken soup and maybe a cup of sour cream, then poured about half or a bit more than half of that on top of the bacon. Then I had bread crumbs in the freezer. I melted a few tablespoons butter, and threw into that some dried onion, some of Paula Deen’s House Seasoning I had in a bag leftover from something else, and 2 cups of bread crumbs. Stir. Put that on top of the the sauce. Cover with foil. We baked it for an hour.
NEXT TIME: I’d leave off the bread crumbs until the last 20 minutes or so, they got a bit over-browned on the edges.
Yum.
OH MY GOSH: I just had a thought: I bet that would be easy to do in the CROCK POT!! Boo ya.
First: this blog is on my nerves. When I open the main page, the categories and search function don’t show up. WHAT A PAIN. I’m kind of over wordpress but don’t know where else to go. Anyway, when I come to this blog to search my own archives I usually know exactly what I’m looking for, so in google I’ll type juliecooks sugar cookies. Or juliecooks french bread. Anyway, I know there’s not many friends and family that read here, but if you do, maybe that will help.
Now, the yum.
via Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
Do you read that blog? It is one of my stand by blogs for recipes. They’re family friendly, usually easier/faster, use normal ingredients, and her archives are nice and easy to search. Anyway. This was the treat we made this week. It was super easy and super yummy. She calls it “salted chocolate toffee pretzel bark” and if you want, add a sprinkle of sea salt on top of the chocolate when it’s done. I wasn’t in the mood.
It’s super easy: Preheat oven to 375. Take 8 oz (1/2 a one lb bag) small pretzels, broken into little pieces, and put them on a foil lined jelly roll pan. Then in a pot combine 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter. Nice and healthy. Stir until combined and then when the little bubbles show up, let it cook without stirring for 3 minutes. Right away, pour over the pretzels. Don’t worry if every pretzel isn’t covered because it will spread out more in the oven. Bake for 5 minutes inside the oven. As soon as you take it out, sprinkle 1 cup to 1.5 cups of chocolate chips on top. Let them sit for 2-3 minutes and then use an offset spatula to spread them around and make a nice chocolate layer. It will harden in awhile if you leave the pan out, we put it in the fridge to harden the chocolate. When it’s hard, peel off the foil and break into little pieces.
I haven’t done Christmas neighbor gifts for a few years but I might do this in December for the neighborhood. It’s SO good.
This is going on frequent snack rotation at our house.
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups quick cooking oats {not rolled oats!}
1 cup crispy rice cereal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips
Directions:
In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together. Set aside. In a small pot, melt butter, honey and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes. Pour in vanilla and stir. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients. Pour into lightly greased small jelly roll pan {about 12x8x1} and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness. {If your pan isn’t small enough, pack the mixture into one side. You really want to press them down so they stick together.} Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and press down lightly. Cool on a countertop to room temperature for two hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.
Recipe Notes: If your granola bars don’t seem to be staying together when you cut them, you may have made them too thin or you didn’t pack them in tight enough. Stick them in the fridge for 20 minutes and that should help keep them together. {Be sure not to keep them in there too long or else they’ll become super hard!} The next time you make them, try reducing the butter to 3 tablespoons and really packing them down.
From Lauren’s Latest (who adapted it from Rachael Ray)
These were on one of her food network episodes. We really liked them. Instead of evaporated milk we had used half almond milk half regular old cow milk. On her website, she swears by the evaporated milk. Maybe next time… Since the recipe says it makes four servings, we doubled it and had a ton left over. Nothing wrong with that, though – we have breakfast ready for tomorrow!
Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients, plus zest. Combine. Add blueberries. Cook. Ta da.
I wanted to make this and yesterday couldn’t find this recipe on here. After googling around I finally found it, phew. Super yummy, super easy.
6-8 oz cream cheese
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
1 egg
Mix well.
Unwrap one can of crescent rolls and place on a baking sheet. Pinch seams together. Put the cream cheese mixture down the middle third. Sometimes we do just cream cheese, sometimes we’ll put jam or fresh fruit on top. Whatever floats your boat that day.Then you’ll need a sharp knife to make cuts that look like this onto the side thirds:
Then you pull the bottom up, and take a piece from the left, piece from the right – wrap it all up nice.
Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes.
YUM. From Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook. I think I’ve mentioned before that I have a small springform pan and when I make cheesecake, I usually make 1/3 of a recipe so I can use a small pan, and it gives just 6 servings instead of 18. Perfect for a smaller group.
Crust
2 cups Graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbsp sugar
Pinch salt
5 Tbsp butter, melted
Filling
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
Top
2 cups sour cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
First, wrap a springform pan with foil so it covers the bottom and sides. Then, DO IT AGAIN with a 2nd piece of foil.
For the crust, combine the ingredients, mixing well with your hands, and press at the bottom of a well greased springform pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
While it’s baking, beat the cream cheese until soft. Add sugar, beat well. Add vanilla and salt, beat well. Add eggs, beat well. Add whipping cream and sour cream. Beat well.
When the crust is done, remove it from the oven, and turn the oven down to 325. Boil 2 quarts or so of water. Fill the crust with the cheesecake, and place the springform pan into a roasting pan. Pour the boiling water around the springform pan, into the roasting pan, about half way up the springform pan. Carefully place in the oven. Bake for 90 minutes.
If you want to try to avoid cracks on the cheesecake, open the oven a bit and turn the oven off when it’s done baking. Allow the cake to cool in the oven for about 2 hours. I don’t do this because we have little kids running around. If it cracks, so be it. Place a piece of foil over the pan, but not touching the top of the cake, and place it in the oven for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Before serving mix the ingredients for the topping. Unmold the cheesecake and add the topping. It makes a lot of topping, so you can reduce or just use the extra for fruit dip.
This was so, so very good. Yum. We left off the bacon and the grocery store didn’t have chives, but I’d put them on next time. It’s rich and light and delicious.
8 medium baking potatoes, about 4 pounds
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 pint sour cream
2 cups ( ½ pound) shredded sharp cheddar cheese (divided)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup chopped chives, for garnish
6 slices bacon, cooked crisp, drained and crumbled, for garnish
Preheat oven to 350 F. Pierce potatoes and place on baking pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until very soft. (to speed up the process, we just peeled and boiled them like if we were making regular mashed potatoes)
Peel and mash potatoes in large bowl with potato masher or back of fork. Add cream cheese, butter, sour cream and 1 cup of cheddar. Stir well. Add garlic, salt and pepper, and stir again.
Spray a 13×9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place potato mixture in dish, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate casserole until ready to bake.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 F, remove plastic wrap and bake casserole 30 to 35 minutes until hot. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup cheddar over casserole and return to oven for about 5 minutes, until cheese melts. Garnish with chopped chives and crumbled bacon before serving.
Made these for lunch today. Yum. I don’t know how “south of the border” they taste, but they’re good!
1/4-1/3 cup olives, chopped (amount to taste)
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch salt
1/3 cup lite mayonnaise
1/3 cup nonfat sour cream
1/3 cup green onions, chopped
1 pound sliced turkey
2 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced (if all you have is cherry, halve and use those!)
1/2 cup guacamole (original called for 2 avocados, sliced – we didn’t have fresh avocados)
¾ cup cheddar cheese, shredded
¾ cup pepper jack or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, combine olives, chili powder, cumin, and salt. Add the mayonnaise, sour cream, and green onions to the olive mixture.
Place bread on an ungreased baking sheet and spread mayonnaise mixture on each slice. Top with slices of turkey and tomatoes. Top with guac (or avocados) and cheeses. Bake @ 350 for 15 min. Makes 8-10 servings.
We saw our first popcorn tree of the season on Thursday night, so Friday we made popcorn balls. This was a hit.
Recipe from OurBestBites.com
Easy Caramel Corn
from ourbestbites.com
12 C popped popcorn (about 1/2 C kernels)
1 C brown sugar
1/4 C white Karo syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt (if you are using salted microwave popcorn then omit salt here)
1 stick real butter
1/2 t baking soda
1 t vanilla
Pop popcorn and set aside. Place brown sugar, Karo syrup, salt, and butter in a microwave safe dish. Microwave for 30 seconds. That should be enough to melt the butter at least half way. Stir it all to combine. No microwave on high for 2 minutes. Take it out and stir. Microwave for 2 more minutes.
While the caramel is cooking, put the popcorn in a big bowl. Use one that is way bigger than you think you’ll need. Also, remove any un-popped kernels. When the caramel is done cooking, take out of microwave and add baking soda and vanilla. Stir well and then pour over popcorn and stir up popcorn immediately to coat.
Eat warm straight out of the bowl, or spread out onto waxed paper or foil and let cool to room temperature (for soft, gooey popcorn).
This is my picture:
Based on it, you might think…hmmm…maybe, maybe not.
Here is her picture:
That should do a better job of showing you how yummy these are.
1lb ground beef
1 package taco seasoning
1 4 once package cream cheese
12 large pasta shells
1 cup salsa
1 cup taco sauce
1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)
1 cup Monterey jack cheese (shredded)
1 ½ cups tortilla chips (crushed)
3 green onions (chopped)
1 cup sour cream
Step 1: In a fry pan cook ground beef and add taco seasoning and prepare according to package directions. Add cream cheese cover and simmer until cheese is melted. Blend well. Set aside and allow to fully cool. While burger is cooking cook the pasta shells, drain and toss well with butter.
Step 2: Pour salsa in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Step 3: Stuff each shell with the meat mixture. Place the stuffed shells in the baking dish and cover the tops of the shells with taco sauce.
Step 4: Cover and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Step 5: After 30 minutes, uncover, and sprinkle crushed chips and shredded cheddar and Monterey jack cheeses on top. Cook for about 15 more minutes. Serve with sour cream, additional salsa, black olives or whatever you think goes good with tacos!
