Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

I got this recipe from my friend Evelyn. I knew they were a keeper when I couldn't stop eating these mini delights! I love the Costco jumbo sized muffins and these are an easy, healthy (from the pumpkin), mini replica.

It also makes a great food storage dessert recipe too since all 3 ingredients can be easily found in your pantry. And don't worry, they don't taste anything like pumpkin after they've been baked. Just chocolate goodness!

-1 box Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix (Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe) believe me, it has to be this cake mix, the other chocolate cake mixes don't produce the same rich taste to really pull this recipe off.

-1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips, regular size or mini (I usually use a little less than a bag. It can't be milk chocolate, won't taste right)

-1 can (14.5oz) canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie)

Using an electric mixer combine cake mix and pumpkin together in a large bowl until creamy. Do NOT add any ingredients for making a cake as found on the box. Then stir in chocolate chips.

Using cookie scoop, add the batter to the greased mini muffin pan. The secret to a nice looking muffin is the cookie scoop as this batter tends to stay in the same shape/form when baked as the original dough.

Bake for 15-18 minutes at 350 F degrees, or until done when tested with a toothpick.

Yield: 48 mini muffins

Zucchini Banana Bread

I got this yummy recipe from my friend Lisa! Thanks so much Lisa for sharing your recipe! This bread is so moist and you can't even tell that there's banana inside...or whole wheat flour. It is definitely going to be the only recipe I'll use for zucchini bread from now on. But don't take my word for it...

Zucchini Banana Bread
(taken from Lisa's blog with pictures by me)

Mix until creamy:
3 eggs
1/4 C. olive oil
1/2 C. apple sauce (trust me)
1/2 C. sour cream (trust me, this is the trick)
2t. vanilla
1 2/3 C. brown sugar

Add:
2 C. grated zucchini
2 smashed bananas

Mix and then add:
2 C. white wheat flour
1 1/2 C. white flour
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt

Makes 2 loaves. Spray pans and bake at 325 degrees for 60-70 minutes.

Pretty healthy and the kids will love it!

Watermelon & Peach Salsa with Cayenne Chips

What?!! Watermelon and peaches in salsa? Oh believe me, it's really good! Serve with regular tortilla chips, or go the extra mile and make these homemade cayenne chips! The cayenne chips are what make this recipe so good. These chips and salsa are just the perfect pair! This recipe is from The Pampered Chef.

Chips

1 lime

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp salt

8 (6 inch) flour tortillas

Salsa

1 jalepeno pepper (or to desired amount of spiceyness)

1/3 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

2-3 cups cubed watermelon

2 peaches

1 lime

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 F for the chips. Juice lime into a small bowl. In another small bowl, combine cayenne pepper and salt. Brush one side of each tortilla with lime juice (don't soak it though). Sprinkle cayenne mixture lightly over the top.

Cut each tortilla into 8 wedges using a pizza cutter. Arrange the tortillas onto a large baking sheet (or stone) in a single layer.

Bake 8-12 minutes, until edges are slightly browned and crisp. Repeat until all the tortillas are baked.

For the salsa, cut jalepeno in half and remove the white stem and seeds. Dice jalepeno and cilantro and place into a large bowl (holds 8 cups). Cut watermelon into small pieces and add to large bowl. Cut the peaches into small pieces, discarding the pits. Add peaches to the bowl. Juice the remaining lime into salsa. Add the salt. Mix well.

Serve with chips and ENJOY!

Yield: 16 servings (or consumed in 1 day for our household)

Pizza in 30 minutes!

I got this quick and easy pizza dough recipe from my friend Evelyn. We now make this recipe on a weekly basis. The girls love to help put the toppings on and to roll the dough.

Who doesn't love pizza?

Oh yeah, Raelyn doesn't...or at least she didn't until we started making our own. Now she gobbles up 3 pieces!

1 1/3 c. warm water

1 T yeast

1 tsp. salt

2 T oil

3 c. flour

1 can 15 oz. pizza sauce (I use Contadina brand, found by the tomato sauce)

16 oz. grated mozzarella cheese

Toppings of your choice

Preheat your oven to 425 F.

Mix all the ingredients together and knead for 5-7 minutes. (I usually just mix it in my bread mixer, then take it out after 7 minutes of kneading.)

Divide the dough in half. Roll out one of the dough halves onto a floured surface and shape onto a pizza pan to fit or in my case, pizza stone. We have a round one and a large cookie sheet size one.

Cook pizza crust in oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and spread half of the pizza sauce over the crust. Spread evenly. Sprinkle cheese and then the toppings on top.

Return to oven to cook for another 11 minutes and it's done!!

Repeat the process for the 2nd pizza, using the remaining dough.

This is the adult favorite.

Pepperoni with green bell peppers and pineapple.

The kids' favorite.

Just cheese with Italian seasoning sprinkled on top.

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

I LOVE these. They are pretty much my favorite cookie. Why didn't I ever make them from scratch before?!! I used the same dough from the chocolate chip recipe here, adding the white chocolate chips and the macademia nuts instead. Delicious!

2 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 2/3 c. white wheat flour (actually, remove about 2 tbsp from the 2 cups, because wheat flour absorbs more and you need to lessen the amount so the batter won't be too dry)
2 c. white flour
2 T. corn starch
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt

White chocolate chips, I used Trader Joe's brand

Macademia nuts (unsalted) got mine at Trader Joe's

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a small bowl, add dry ingredients and combine. Slowly add dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture. Hand stir in chocolate chips and nuts. The dough is kinda stiff, so I actually just used my hands to mix them in. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough before baking. You can do this while oven is preheating or refrigerate longer for an even better taste.

Using a 1.5" scoop, or a spoon, place cookie balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes or until dough looks cooked, but in between the cracks of dough, it still looks a little gooey. That's good for making the cookie chewy when completely cooled.

Yield: A ton. Enough to eat and give away to 2 more families as well. At least, that's what I do!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe from Stephanie's blog. These are my new favorite recipe. I especially love that I can use 2 cups of white wheat flour and can't even taste it! Plus, just look at them! Thick and so perfect.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
2 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/4 c. dark brown sugar (you can use reg. brown sugar too)
1 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. white wheat flour (actually, remove about 2 tbsp from the 2 cups, because wheat flour absorbs more and you need to lessen the amount so the batter won't be too dry)

1 2/3 white flour
2 T. corn starch
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
Milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Sea salt to sprinkle, if using milk chocolate chips

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a small bowl, add dry ingredients and combine. Slowly add dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture. Hand stir in chocolate chips. The dough is kinda stiff, so I actually just used my hands to mix the chocolate chips in. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough before baking. You can do this while oven is preheating or refrigerate longer for an even better taste.

Using a 1.5" scoop, or a spoon, place cookie balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. If using milk chocolate chips, sprinkle cookie balls with sea salt prior to baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes or until dough looks cooked, but in between the cracks of dough, it still looks a little gooey. That's good for making the cookie chewy when completely cooled.

Yield: 5 dozen cookies

*Tip! Use several baking sheets so that you can rotate and only place cookie dough on cooled sheets before baking. Placing dough on warm/hot sheets will make your dough spread too thin too fast and give you a flat and very crispy cookie.

Pizza Margherita

Actually, there's no alcohol content in this pizza! But the flavor will intoxicate you. And the crust, WOW! It tastes and feels like restaurant quality. The key is that you try to use the best ingredients you can find (and afford) since this recipe calls for only a few things to really bring out the flavor. Recipe by Williams Sonoma.

Crust

5 tsp active dry yeast

2 1/4 cups warm water (1-5-115F)

2 tsp sugar

1/4 cup oil

5 cups bread flour

1 tbsp sea salt

Topping

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup loosely packed fresh basil, finely shredded
6 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced

1 lb fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced 1/4" inch thick (the wet mozzarella that's sold as a chunk)

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Making the dough.

Dissolve yeast and warm water in large mixing bowl and let stand for 5 minutes, until slightly foamy. Add sugar, oil, salt and 4 cups of flour. Knead on low speed until soft smooth and elastic, adding the remaining cup of flour slowly as needed for the dough to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Prepare a large bowl, lightly greased with oil. Transfer dough into greased bowl and forming into a ball and rotating in the oil so the dough ball is round and smooth. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm area until double in size, about 1 hour.

For a more flavorful dough (and it's worth it), let rise as stated above, then punch down dough with palm of hand, recover with plastic wrap, and place in refrigerator in the morning so it's ready to work on a 4PM for dinner prep.

OR you can skip the refrigeration and just punch down dough (after the first rise, of course) with palm of hand and cut/divide dough in half. Lightly oil your counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Gently shape into loose balls and cover with plastic wrap for a short second rise of 10 min.

In your oven, move the rack to the lower third in your oven (in mine, it's the second to the bottom slot) place your baking stone on rack. Preheat oven with stone in, to 475 F degrees for 30 minutes.

Back to the dough. Lightly dust the dough with flour. Roll it out using a rolling pin and starting from the center, working out to the edges, until you have made a 12-14 inch round. If you have a baker's peel (a large spatula designed for lifting and transferring pizza dough) then you can skip the following step.

Lightly flour the top of an inverted half-sheet pan (turn your cookie sheet upside down basically). Transfer your spread out dough round to the floured sheet.

Add the toppings equally for each of the two pizzas in the following order: parmesan cheese, basil, tomatoes (make sure they're seeded & not too wet!). Add mozzarella slices, nestled around the tomatoes. Sprinkle with sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Remove hot pizza stone from oven and transfer the dough with a baker's peel or the cookie sheet method onto the stone. You may need a second set of hands for that part.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until crust is crisp and golden brown. Slice and Serve. Repeat process with second pizza. Enjoy!

Creamy Broccoli Soup

This is what The Sage Cafe is famous for. Well, as famous as you get in McMinnville, OR. I loved this comfort soup on a rainy or cold day, which was almost every day during the winter I worked there between college in 1999. It's heavenly and addicting.

Soup base:
7 cups water
1 1/2 tbsp Lawry's seasoned salt (No MSG)
1 onion, finely chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 cups green cabbage, chopped
4 cups broccoli, chopped
1+ cups carrots, peeled and chopped (or the pre-shredded kind in a bag if in a hurry)
1 cup light sour cream
2 cups grated cheddar, or monterey jack/cheddar blend cheese

Reux: (French name for thickening agent to make the soup thick)
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/a cups flour

Whisk together until all the little lumpies are gone.

Combine all but the sour cream and cheese soup base ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil. Make sure there is enough water to cover 2" over the top of the vegetables, adding more water if needed. Cook on high heat, until vegetables are lightly done and tender. Turn heat to the lowest setting.

Making sure soup is on lowest setting, slowing mix in the Reux. S.L.O.W.L.Y. mix in the Reux, stirring soup constantly.

Add sour cream, stir until smooth. Add cheese and stir until melted. Remove from heat and serve with fresh bread. YUM!

Feeds a small crowd.

Mexican Lasagna

Recipe from Jen Bolton's Sonoran Chicken Recipe

(Dufur High School) from her "how to" speech in 11th grade

I've changed it a little...

1 can (10.5 oz each) Cream of Chicken, reduced fat
2 cans (15 oz each) Hormel Chili Turkey with beans
1 can (4 oz or larger) diced green chiles
¼ cup milk
1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
10 Tortillas, burrito size

Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix all canned items and milk together in large bowl. Cut tortillas into 1 inch squares approx. Pour half the chili mixture into a 9x13 baking dish. Then layer half of the tortilla pieces onto the chili mixture, overlapping to cover completely. Pour remaining chili mixture into dish and cover with the rest of the tortillas. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly.

(picture demonstrating layering)

Yummy!
*This is one of Trevor’s favorite dishes*
**Note - we use Hormel Turkey chili w/ beans because it isn’t as spicey for the kids. The original recipe also called for cooked shredded chicken added to the bean mixture, but that was just too much work for me. Now it's just so SIMPLE to make!

100% Whole Wheat Bread

This delicous recipe comes from my dear friend Lisa. The crust is soft and you can hardly tell that it's wheat! It is by far my favorite bread recipe now! The first time I made it, Trevor told me this was the best bread I've ever made. I just love that it's 100% whole wheat and filled with wholesome ingredients for my family.

2 1/2 C. warm water (105-115F degrees)
1 1/2 tblsp. yeast (or 1 tblsp and 1 1/2 tsp = the same)
1 tblsp. salt
1/3 C. olive oil (you can use any.... just what I use)
1/3 C. honey (I alternate oil and than honey so the honey won't stick to the cup)
6 cups White wheat flour (Not white flour! I use King Arthur's white wheat brand)

Mix all water and yeast in mixing bowl and let sit for 5-10 minutes, until yeast is mostly dissolved and foamy. Add remaining ingredients and knead for 5-7 minutes. The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl. You can tell when the kneading process is done when your dough passes the "window pane" test. Stretch out a small piece of dough between your hands to create a small window. If the stretch looks shaggy and tears easily, it is not ready. If it is soft and stretchable and you can see light through it when stretched, it is now ready.





Lightly grease a large bowl with oil. Gently round your dough into a ball and place in oiled bowl. Rotate ball to cover with oil, then place it in the center. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm area to rise until it doubles in size, about 1 hour or so.


According to William Sonoma: "The dough is ready if it looks puffy and feels soft when gently poked with a finger. The indentation should remain, but not deflate the mass of dough. If the finger mark fills back in, the dough is not ready; re-cover and test again in 15 min."

Punch down the dough with the palm of hand to remove the gas and deflate the dough. Transfer dough to a lightly floured counter and shape into loaves using just hands (no rolling pin).

For the second rise, cover bread pans loosely with plastic wrap, (or a damp kitchen towel can be used) and place in a warm area to proof (second rise) until the dough has doubled in size again. It will end up being just at the top or slightly over the top of the pan (9x5x3 pan size).

Williams Sonoma: "When the dough is ready, it will be smooth and springy to the touch. To test, poke it with your finger. The indentation should remain, springing back only slightly. If it collapses on itself, it is overproofed. If it does not spring back, it is underproofed. If it is underproofed, cover and let rise for another 15 minutes to retest. If the dough is over proofed you can save it by punching it down, reshaping it and allowing it to proof again. Never try to bake overproofed dough, or you will end up with a flat, leaden loaf."

Second rise time will vary, mine took about 40 minutes. And the dough was as tall as the top of the pan!

Bake for 30 minutes at 350F degrees. This bread will rise only a little bit more in the oven for nice, and tall (for wheat bread) loaves! Remove from pan and using a stick of butter, smear the tops of the loaves. This is the secret to soft crusts!

Let cool completely before slicing. (Okay, sometimes I can't wait because I love the taste of fresh hot bread, but it IS better for the loaf to allow it to cool completely). Enjoy!

Yield: 2 loaves (9x5)

Shortbread Jelly Cookies

This recipe comes from my friend Evelyn. She brought us a plate of them and I selfishly ate not only my share, but the girls' too. Trevor doesn't like sugar cookies, but he loved these because they're shortbread. They're so good!

Cookies:
1 lb. butter, slightly softened
1 C sugar
4 egg yolks
2 tsp. grated lemon rind
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
4 C unsifted flour

Filling:
seedless jam or jelly (or you can strain regular jam/jelly. No seeds--pretty color) I used raspberry because I had that on hand, but the strawberry filled ones from Evelyn tasted even better

1 C powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar. Add yolks one at a time. Add lemon rind, vanilla and salt. Blend in 4 C flour, one at a time until to thick to mix with mixer. Put on floured board and knead in remaining flour. Wrap dough in waxed paper and chill one hour in the refridgerator.

Preheat oven to 375°. Roll dough 1/4" thick and cut with cookie cutter shape of choice. Cut tops with the same cutter and a smaller inside shape cutter (star, bell, etc.) to leave an opening for jam to show through. Bake all pieces (bottoms, hearts with cut-outs, small cut-outs) until lightly browned, about 10 minutes for big cookies. Let cool.

Generously spread jam on bottom cookie pieces, covering entire cookie to 1/8 inch from the edge. Dust powdered sugar (using a sifter or a fine mesh sieve) over the top pieces BEFORE placing on top of the jam. When dusted, sandwich top and bottom pieces together. Enjoy!

Number Of Servings: 24 sandwiched cookies (about the size of your palm)
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Easy BBQ Shredded Beef

All you need is a bottle of this from Trader Joes

(best part is that it's delicious and has no High Fructose Corn Syrup!)
And 2.5lbs london broil beef, top round.

Cook beef in a large crock pot with 1-2 inches water on low for 8-10 hours, or on high for 4-5 hours, until shreds easily.

Remove all but 1 cup of juice and discard or save for another meal later. Shred meat and mix in entire bottle of BBQ sauce. Cover and cook for another hour or until ready to serve! Goes great with hamburger buns or homemade bread!

Great meal to freeze as well!

Berry Delicious Crepes or Palatschinken

1 cup flour

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup milk

2 eggs

3 tblsp butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

Filling:

Vanilla yogurt

Fresh berries of your choice

In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar. Whisk in milk, eggs, butter, vanilla and salt until smooth.

Heat a lightly greased 6-8inch skillet over medium heat, adding about 3 tblsp batter to the skillet. Rotate the skillet to cover the entire bottom of pan. Cook until it starts to look a little doughy and slightly wet.

Flip it over and cook for another 30 seconds to 1 minute or until lightly golden. Remove to a plate to cool. Repeat with remaining batter.

Assemble your crepe on your plate, filling with as much yogurt and berries as you wish in the center. Roll up sides and it's ready to eat!

Yield: 12 approx.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

(photo by me)

We had this delicious meal at a friend's house for dinner (Thanks Molly!) We asked her for the recipe and found out it is a simple 30 minute dinner by Kraft. Original recipe here.


1-2/3 cups hot water
1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken
3 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen mixed vegetables
1 can (10-3/4 oz.) less sodium condensed cream of chicken soup 1 cup milk


In a large bowl, add hot water to stuffing mix and stir just until moistened. Set aside.

Open bag of frozen vegetables and spread evenly in a 9x13 baking dish. Add chicken and mix with vegetables.

In a small bowl, whisk soup and milk together and then pour evenly over chicken mixture. Spread stuffing on top.

Bake at 375F degrees for 30minutes. That's it!

SUPER EASY and quick!

Spinach and Ham Strata

This smells so good while it's baking. We made it for dinner, using up leftover Christmas dinner ham the first time I made it. The sourdough bread is a must to make this recipe really stand out!

1 large loaf fresh sourdough bread, cut into 1" chunks

1 glug of oil (I use canola)

1 pkg (10oz) frozen spinach, thawed and drained very well

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

1+ cup ham, cut into small bite size pieces

7 eggs

2 1/2 cups milk

2 handfuls Italian mix shredded cheese (parmesan & mozarella mix)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 shakes of ground nutmeg

In a saute pan, add oil, red bell pepper and onion. Cook until just tender. Add spinach and ham and cook for about 3 minutes on med-high heat. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Then whisk in milk. Set aside.

In another very large bowl, combine bread chunks with the spinach/ham mixture with 1 handful of cheese. Spread mixture into a 9x13 baking dish.

Pour egg mixture evenly ontop of bread/spinach in pan. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.

Bake at 350F degrees for 45-55 minutes or until set. YUMMY!

New York Cheesecake

photo by me
Recipe by Kraft

This is a delicious recipe and wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be! I'm definitely going to be making more cheesecakes in the future...which is good for my mouth but not for my waistline!

1 cup graham cracker crumbs (smash in a plastic ziplock for no mess)

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp butter, melted

5 pkg (8oz each) cream cheese, softened (take out of pkg and microwave for a few seconds)

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp flour

1 tbsp vanilla

1 cup sour cream (I use light)

4 eggs

1 can (21oz) cherry pie filling

Mix crumbs, 3 tbsp sugar and butter; press firmly onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan. Bake at 325 F degrees for 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour and vanilla with electric mixer until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.

Bake at 325 F degrees for 1 hour 5 minutes, or until center is ALMOST set if using a silver springform pan. (Or bake at 300 F for 1 hour 5 minutes if using a dark non stick springform pan). The cake will look really tall in the oven, right when you remove it. It will gradually settle down a few inches while cooling.

Loosen cake from side of pan; cool before removing rim of pan. Refridgerate 4 hours or overnight.

Top with pie filling right before serving. Store leftovers in fridge.

Makes 16 servings.