Oreo Ice Cream Cake

This is a great cake - very rich and sweet.  It also looks pretty fancy, but it's actually really easy to make!  The first time I had it was when I went home one weekend during college and my family surprised me with one for my 22nd birthday.  I've made it a total of two times since, both of which took place before I started this blog so no step-by-step pictures this time :(  Also, I didn't take pictures of the cake the second time I did it and I messed up the first a little...  The cake should not be an "interesting" brown color on the outside, but we'll get to that in a bit.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup hot fudge topping, warmed

8 oz. whipped cream, thawed (1 tub)

3.9 oz chocolate instant pudding (1 package)

1 cup chopped Oreos (we used minis to make it easier)

12 vanilla ice cream sandwiches

Directions:

1.  Pour fudge topping into bowl and whisk in half of the whipped cream (the first time, I dumped it all in so I had none left for frosting).  Then add the dry pudding mix.  If the fudge mixture is too thick, add some milk.  Stir in chopped Oreos.

2.  Get out a 24-inch long sheet of foil and arrange 4 ice cream sandwiches on the center of it, side-by-side.  Spread half of the fudge mixture on it.  Repeat and top with final layer of sandwiches.  Frost the top and sides with the other half of the whipped cream.

3.  Bring up foil and double fold top and ends to loosely seal packet.

4.  Freeze 4 hours or until firm.

Verdict: I made this for Joseph's birthday last year and he shared it with his friends later that week.  I then received a phone call from him and the phone got passed around to each of his friends so they could each praise the cake.  They were very impressed with it, but they didn't know that the secret was ice cream sandwiches!  I got a request from his roommate to make this for his birthday so that should be a pretty good indication of how awesome this cake is!


I bet you can guess that it isn't very healthy.  But if you're eating it, you're probably celebrating something or other (at the very least, celebrating that you get to eat cake!) so calories don't count then, right?  In any case, I'll add that information in small font so you can pretend not to see it.


Recipe serves 12.  Calories per serving: 340.

Turkey Chili and Homemade White Bread (with the help of a bread machine)

This was one of the first meals I made this year when I began learning how to cook.  It was a perfect, hearty meal for the winter months.  It still tastes good now, but you'll probably be sweating while eating it - the weather around here's been up in the 90's.  Actually, you'd probably be sweating just sitting around here so go ahead and make it!  These recipes came from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and my bread machine book.


Chili - serves 4


Ingredients:
12 ounces lean ground turkey
1 cup chopped onion (1 large)
1/2 cup chopped green sweet pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15-ounce can dark red kidney beans, drained
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
2-3 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dried crushed basil
1/4 tsp black pepper


Directions:
1.  In a large saucepan cook ground beef, onion, sweet pepper, and garlic until meat is brown and onion is tender.  Drain fat if needed.  

2.  Stir in kidney beans, undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, basil, and black pepper.  

3.  Bring to boiling; reduce heat.  
4.  Simmer, covered for 20 minutes.


Traditional White Bread - 1.5 pound loaf


Ingredients:
1-1/8 cups water
1 tbs margarine
1-3/4 tsp salt
3 cups flour
1 tbs dry milk
2 tbs sugar
2 3/4 tsp active dry yeast


1)  Add ingredients to bread pan in order.  For the yeast, form a hole with your finger in the dry ingredients and pour yeast into hole.  Yeast should not come into contact with liquid.
2)  Put bread pan into the bread machine and set the machine to break your bread!
This is pretty easy, but the baking will probably take around an hour and a half so plan ahead when making the bread. 

Verdict: I like it!  I've made the chili several times and found that it freezes pretty well so you can make individual-sized dinners for the week.  I've also recently discovered a love of   pickled jalapenos so I throw that in my chili too.  The bread's good, but doesn't last that long. I ended up having to throw some of it out because I don't eat bread that often.


Nutrition: Turkey Chili has around 275 calories per serving.  White bread has around 125 calories per slice if the loaf gets cut into 12 pieces.

Feta-stuffed Chicken Breasts

Found this recipe off the Better Homes and Gardens website.  I made it for the first time a couple weeks ago and have made it multiple times since because it's a fairly easy and quick dinner.  Plus, it tastes good!


Ingredients:
1 tbs sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed)
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (1 to 1-1/2 pounds total) - I usually use two from the HEB brand ones and cut them in half
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (fat free still tastes good!)
2 tbs softened fat-free cream cheese
1/2 tsp dried, crushed basil
1/8 tsp pepper


Directions:
1.  Defrost chicken (I've only bought frozen chicken and I don't have the foresight to take it out of the freezer in the morning).  I usually do around 4 minutes, then cut pockets in it, then defrost for another 3 minutes.  To cut the pockets, I recommend cutting length-wise on the top of the chicken breast and then slicing horizontal pockets.  Try to not cut through the sides of the chicken.
2.  Place sun-dried tomatoes in bowl and pour boiling water over it.  Let soak for 10 minutes.  Then drain, pat dry, and cut into small pieces.
3.  Combine feta, cream cheese, basil, and tomatoes.

4.  Spoon a quarter of the mixture into each chicken breast's pocket.

5.  And pop them into the George Foreman grill!  I was actually really excited to use the one I got last year for my birthday because I've only used it for grilled cheese sandwiches so far.  I believe it took around ten minutes, but it depends on the thickness of your chicken.  Just check on it every once in a while and take it out when it's cooked through.  Another option is to pan fry it on medium-high heat for 12-14 minutes.

I like it with couscous.  This one's the Near East pearled Basil  & Herb one. 

Look how domesticated looking our dinner was!  I guess that's what living in a small, conservative college town will do to you :)

Verdict: Well, I obviously like it because I keep making it :)  It's a fairly easy recipe without too many ingredients.  I would recommend keeping an eye on it while grilling because I overcooked the chicken the first time so it was a little dry.  Also, couscous is awesome!  I hadn't had it before this recipe (a reviewer of the recipe had recommended it) and now I use it in place of rice or pasta because it's way easier and faster to make.  Do note though that some of the Near East ones are very salty/strongly flavored so it may overwhelm the flavor of your meat.


Is it healthy?  I'd say so!  If you make 4 of them from 2 large chicken breasts, each one is around 97 calories.  Couscous is around 110 calories for half a cup so together you have a low-calorie meal that can fill you up!

Easy Coffee Cake

And yet another recipe extolling the virtues of Bisquick... This time in a sweet form!  I got this recipe from the Salad In a Jar blog. 


Ingredients:
Batter
1-1/3 cup Bisquick
3 tbs sugar
2 tsp melted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
Topping
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup Bisquick
1/4 cup melted butter


Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and preheat the pan (I used an 8 inch square pan).
2.  Whisk together melted butter, milk, and egg.  Add to medium bowl of Bisquick and sugar.

 3.  Pour into pan.

 4.  For the topping, mix all the ingredients together.

 5.  Add it on top of your batter.

 6.  Bake for 20-21 minutes until it looks delicious, like mine!

Verdict: Another yum recipe!  It came out very fluffy and light.  Joseph likened it to a pancake with coffee cake topping, which sounds delicious to me! Perfect for after dinner with ice cream!  Or with coffee, I suppose, if you're into that stuff.  Or breakfast.  You can basically eat it any time you're craving something sweet.  I also feel like it'd be nice to bring (if I took it out of the old pan) to a get together with friends.  Also, according to the blog I got this from, the coffee cake should work well if mixed beforehand, covered, and refrigerated before baking it when you need it (although the baking time will increase).  However, I'm the kind of person where if I've made it, I want to eat it right away so I can't attest to that.


To my best calculation, if the cake were divided into 12 servings, each serving would have around 130 calories.

Easy Cheesy Garlic Biscuits

Another super easy recipe that's super tasty.  This time, with some help from Bisquick!  This recipe actually came directly off the Bisquick website.


Ingredients:
2 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons margarine
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder


Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2.  Stir Bisquick, milk, and cheese together.  And that's your dough.  Easy, right?

 3.  Drop onto cookie sheet.  Should make around 9 biscuits.

 4.  Bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown.  Stir together melted butter and garlic powder and brush over biscuits.

Verdict: First off, I have to say "look how pretty and grown up they look!".  These are soooo good, especially when paired with pasta (my favorite).  They taste very similar to those from Red Lobster, but with a little less garlic flavoring and a lot more cheese.  And cheese makes me happy.  I would buy Bisquick just so I could easily make these biscuits.


Note: Be wary of them these biscuits, each has around 160 calories.

Super Easy Reese's Cookies!

First off, I'm sorry for the lack of posts.  I actually have been cooking/baking (at one point, I made something new for 7 days in a row!) and now have a backlog of around fifteen items I need to write up.  Grad school's been crazy busy lately, but I should be finishing up my first semester within the next two weeks!  And now, on to the first cookies I've managed to bake!  (It's very hard to mess these up...)

This is THE easiest cookie recipe I've ever seen and the results are delicious!  This semester, I've developed an odd affinity to cooking blogs and I stumbled upon this one.  It uses a total of two ingredients!  Yes, you read that right - TWO!


Ingredients:
40 mini Reese's Peanut Butter cups
1 egg


Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Unwrap the mini Reese's.  Easy enough, especially when you sneakily taste test a few of them while you work :)

2.  Break up the Reese's.  The recipe I found recommended using a food processor to smoothly blend them, but I don't have one.  I ended up just using a fork to coarsely break them up since we'll be using a mixer later.
3.  Add an egg.

4.  Grab a mixer and mix it all together.

  5.  Drop onto cookie sheet.

 6.  And bake for 10-11 minutes!  That's how easy it is!

Verdict:  These are so easy and tasty!  Since I didn't have a food processor, my cookies ended up having chunks of Reese's in it.  And you know what?  It worked out for the best because I had melty chocolate and peanut butter bits when they came out of the oven!  I'd definitely do it that way again.  One thing though, since it is made with many Reese's candies, it does have that slightly sickly sweet taste to it which gets overpowering if you eat eight in a row.  I know from experience.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Let me preface this by saying: I love sweet potatoes.  Last year, I found out how to bake them so I baked four to last me the week.  They were gone by the end of the night.  Anyways, I recently went out to eat and had sweet potato fries, which I'd never had before, and they were delicious!  The juxtaposition of sweet and salty was amazing so I had to learn how to make them myself.  And imagine how happy I was too learn that it wasn't difficult AND it's healthier than regular french fries (another one of my favorite foods)!

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato

1/2 tbs olive oil

salt

pepper

any spices you've got around that you think will taste good on the fries

     garlic powder

     ground cumin

     ground cinnamon (this makes them smell amazing!)

Directions:

1.  Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Wash and peel the sweet potato.

2.  Cut the ends off the sweet potato and then cut it into strips.  I wanted smaller fries (so it feels like I'm eating more of them!) so I cut them to be 1/2" thick and I ended up with around 45 fries.

3.  Mix the slices of potato up with the olive oil and spices.  You want each piece to be coated with plenty of seasoning.  Then lay them out in one layer on a baking sheet.

4.  Bake for around ten minutes, then flip the fries over and bake for another seven minutes or so.

And that's all there is to it!  From my best estimation, fries from potato are around 230 calories so it's a pretty healthy snack or side dish.


Lessons learned:  I should have made these sooner and more often :) 


Verdict:  These are delicious.  I might try using different seasonings in the future (I saw recipes with paprika, taco seasoning, brown sugar, etc.) because I'm pretty sure it'd all taste great on these fries.  And a heads up: they're more like steak fries than crispy french fries you'd get from McDonalds.  I love both types so it's great for me!

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Fudge

I found a recipe for fudge from www.recipegirl.com that looked so delicious and easy, I had to try it! It only takes around 30 minutes to make - and that's factoring in my usual bumbling about in the kitchen. I'd say someone who was a bit more comfortable being in a kitchen could get it all done in 15. Easy, fast fudge? Let's go!

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter chips

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

2.25 cups granulated sugar

1 (7 oz) jar marshmallow creme

1 (5 oz) can evaporated milk

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Did you get all that? You just know you can't go wrong with those ingredients...

Directions:

1. Line an 8" X 8" pan with foil and spray with nonstick spray.

2. In 2 separate heat-safe medium bowls, place 1 cup peanut butter chips in one and chocolate chips in the other.

3. In a 3 quart sauce pan (you can do it in a 2 quart one like I did, but you need to be careful because the marshmallow creme expands a lot), combine sugar, marshmallow creme, evaporated milk, and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil and continue to stir for 5 minutes. Then remove from heat and quickly stir in vanilla.

4. Quickly stir half of the hot mixture into the peanut butter chips and the other half into the chocolate chips. Stir the peanut butter mixture until fully melted and quickly pour into prepared pan. Stir the chocolate chip mixture until fully melted and carefully spread over top of peanut butter layer. Be sure to do this all quickly because the mixture doesn't take long to set.

The peanut butter layer.

And now with the chocolate layer.

5. Refrigerate until completely cool. Cut into small squares.

Yields 36 pieces of fudge (each around 145 calories).

Lessons learned: Don't just dump in the chocolate layer on the top and expect it to spread evenly over the peanut butter layer. It actually melts and displaces the peanut butter fudge so that the center is mostly chocolate while the outer edges are mostly peanut butter. If you want variances in the chocolate/peanut butter composition though, then by all means, go for it! I also found that the texture was slightly grainy when I tried letting the fudge cool at room temperature and then eating it. My dorky engineering background came into play trying to figure out if it was due to not heating it long enough to allow the sugar to dissolve or if I heated it too long and something akin to grain growth occurred. Turns out it just needed some refrigeration for a smoother texture.

Verdict: I'm definitely making this again! But I need to make sure there are plenty of people I can give this away to so I don't end up eating as much all by myself. Everyone that tried it (from my research group to my college friends to Joseph) loved it so I highly recommend the recipe!

Baked Kale Chips

First off, the question is: what is kale? I wasn't too sure when I stumbled upon a baked kale chips recipe on allrecipes.com, but I figured I'd give it a shot because I love chips but was trying to eat healthy while training for a half marathon. Turns out, it's a type of cabbage and looks a little something like this:

Not too appetizing looking when raw, huh?

My cat sniffed it and then left. And that's saying something coming from a cat that eats paper. Yes, my pet has eaten my homework before. No, that excuse does not work on professors.

So the ingredients list is short and the directions are very simple.

Ingredients

1 bunch kale

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp seasoned salt (I used Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and dry thoroughly with a salad spinner (I don't have one of those yet so I just dried it with a paper towl). Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.

3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

Lessons learned: Spread the kale out in one layer on your baking sheet so that it'll all get crispy. The kale will shrink a lot after baking. Also, watch the time carefully. I only baked mine for 7.5 minutes, but I think it was still overdone. Reading through some of the reviews online, it seems that there's about a 30 second difference between it being done and it being burnt. And mine tasted like super crispy (not crunchy) charcoal, which is super appetizing.

Verdict: I only had time to make one batch so there's still half a thing of kale sitting in my fridge. I'll probably make this again to finish it off and cut down the baking time to see if it tastes better. If it doesn't, then this recipe's out for me.

Rum Cookies

Quick background: So one of the vets at Joseph's clinic just got back from a cruise and brought everyone Caribbean Rum Cake. Joseph picked out an amazing pineapple flavored one and it was absolutely delicious. I've been craving rum desserts ever since so I went off in search of an easy recipe that I could make with ingredients in my kitchen. Thank goodness for the internet because I found this cookie recipe fairly easily. I halved the recipe since I was only making cookies for 2 people, but here's the full one:

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter

1.5 cups granulated sugar

4 cups self-rising flour (you can use all purpose with 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt)

2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

2 tbsp rum

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Mix butter, sugar. Add eggs and mix. Add flour, baking powder, and rum and mix.

3. Drop 1 tbs portions and press with fork.

4. Bake 8-15 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen cookies. (With my half recipe, I made small cookies and ended up with around 40 of them. The baking time was also shortened to around 6 minutes.)

Reaction: They turned out... interesting (family code word for "not so great"). They both looked and tasted like biscuits, although very sweet biscuits to be sure. I don't know if it's because I used the all purpose flour substitution or that I used light margarine rather than butter. Then there's also the fact that I lost count of the amount of baking powder I put in and may have put in an extra teaspoon... But the dough was very thick and sticky, which made it difficult to work with. And I didn't enjoy using my hands as much as I usually do because the batter was too rum-full to lick off my fingers. However, they lost the rum flavoring while baking :(

Lessons learned: If the dough doesn't look right, then the cookies probably won't turn out right.

Verdict: I'm giving up on cookies. I've only had success with one type (peanut butter), but I like the Girl Scout peanut butter sandwiches more. I also like Oreos a whole lot. My advice is that if you want a rum dessert, go for a cake.

Easy Chicken Jambalaya

Background: My mom got this recipe from her local HEB and recommended it to me since it was easy and tasty. I set out to buy ingredients on my next grocery shopping trip (I buy what's needed for one dish each trip) and here we are!

Ingredients:

12 oz cooked chicken

1 tbs olive oil

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

2 to 3 tsp Cajun or Creole seasoning, as desired

2 cups chicken broth

1 can (14.5 oz) stewed or diced tomatoes

1 cup uncooked white rice

1 dried bay leaf

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet. Saute celery, onion, and bell pepper for 5 minutes; add Cajun-style seasoning and cook 3 minutes until vegetables are tender.

2. Stir in broth, tomatoes, rice, and bay leaf; bring to boil. Reduce to low; cover and simmer 20 minutes or until rice is tender.

3. In the meantime, cook chicken and cut into bite-size pieces. Toss chicken with cooked rice mixture.

This should be enough for 4-6 servings. If it's for 6, it'll be around 215 calories per serving.

Verdict: Easy peasy. And I love it! Joseph had two heaping helpings of this so I know it's good. This will definitely be part of our everyday meal rotation from now on!

Chicken Marsala

I made chicken marsala for dinner tonight and it was delicious! The recipe came from my pink Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It was pretty simple, but still took me forever to make (it usually takes me 2 to 3 times the amount of time the recipe suggests). I think I spent around an hour on it, but it can definitely be shortened to about half that time if you plan it correctly.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

1/4 cup sliced green onions

3 tbs butter or margarine

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup Marsala (I got a small bottle of cooking wine from HEB for around 2 or 3 dollars)

Hot cooked pasta like capellini or linguine (optional)

Directions:

1. In a shallow bowl stir together flour, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp black pepper. Place a chicken breast half between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and pound chicken with meat mallet until its about 1/4 inch thick (I don't own a meat mallet being a beginner cook and all so I used a hammer... Just be sure to pound gently and have a couple layers of wax paper between the hammer and the chicken.) Lightly coat chicken pieces on both sides with flour mixture; shake off excess.

2. In a 12-inch skillet cook mushrooms and green onions in 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium-high heat until tender; remove from skillet. In the same skillet cook chicken in remaining 2 tablespoons butter for 5 to 6 minutes, turning to brown evenly.

3. Remove skillet from heat. Return mushrooms and green onions to skillet. Carefully add broth and Marsala to skillet. Bring mixture to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer chicken to a serving platter. Spoon mushroom mixture over chicken. If desired, serve over pasta.

Lessons learned: Tenderized meat = goooood. Also, boiling the chicken and letting it simmer for two minutes was great. The flavoring was tasty and it really got soaked up by the chicken. I think next time, I'd serve this dish over rice or with potatoes because the noodles just didn't seem to fit to me. It'd also be good to eat it on a plate for easy maneuverability of your knife to cup up the amazing chicken.

Verdict: Delicious! I'm definitely going to be making this again. Joseph absolutely loved the chicken and has requested it already.