Dinosaur cookies

Carter found a box of dinosaur cookie cutters when we were unpacking boxes a few weeks ago.  He's been  begging to make cookies since then.  There was no preschool today because of Presidents' Day, so I decide it was the perfect day to make cookies.  

 I pre-made the dough last night after the boys went to bed using this recipe.  I knew they wouldn't be patient enough to wait for it to chill.  I would highly recommend this recipe because it wasn't a sticky mess like some sugar cookie recipes tend to be.  The boys took turns helping me roll out the dough and cutting out the cookies.  While the cookies baked, the boys took a break to go play.
After lunch we decorated the cookies.  I adapted my frosting from this recipe, using butter instead of corn oil and doubling the milk to make the frosting easier to spread.  The only thing I would do differently next time is to give Jack his own small frosting bowls because the knives kept ending up in his mouth.  The boys loved it!

Chipotle-Inspired Crockpot rice

Chipotle is one of my favorite places to eat.  Unfortunately my children tend to have major melt downs every time we go there.  I think it's just way too overstimulating for them.  Attempting to re-create my favorite aspects of Chipotle has been a challenge I've been working on for awhile.  Most of the recipes are too labor intensive or require ingredients that I don't usually have in my kitchen. 
This is an adaptation of a crock pot rice recipe from Moms with crock pots and the Cilantro Lime rice recipe from Budget Savvy Diva . 

Easy Cilantro Lime Rice

Ingredients:
1 cup rice
2 cups water
dash of salt
juice from one lime
3 TSP Olive Oil
3 TSP finely chopped cilantro

Spray crock pot with cooking spray.  Add the rice and water.  Cook for 1.5-2.5 hours on high.  Mix the rest of the ingredients and let sit.   When rice is fully cooked, mix with cilantro/oil/lime mixture.  Eat alone or in a burrito. 

Strawberry Muffins

We're big breakfast fans around here.  And since baking is one of my favorite stress relievers/procrastination tools, I'm almost always up for trying something new.  Last week when I made blueberry muffins, Carter requested that I make strawberry muffins next. 

Strawberry Muffins

(Based on this recipe for Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup white sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup chopped strawberries (I diced into 1/8th)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Line muffin tray with muffin liners or spray with cooking spray.
3. Combine oil, milk, and egg.  Add flour, salt, baking powder and sugar.  Fold in strawberries.               
4. Fill muffin cups. Sprinkle with sugar (optional)
5. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 15 minutes, or until the tops bounce back from the touch.                 





My critics said they were delicious!

Tinfoil Dinners

DH is a meat and potatoes kind of guy and I am pretty much a chicken and pasta kind of girl. Finding a meal that includes beef that I like is a little more of a challenge. Tinfoil dinners are one of the meals that I grew up with my mom making. They're pretty easy to make and something that even my two year old will eat.

Ingredients: Ground Beef (You can do this with chicken too if you like that better)

Carrots

Potatoes (I use red, but any works)

Cooking Spray

Butter

Tinfoil

Directions: Lay out tinfoil and spray with cooking spray. I usually use about 18 inches of tinfoil per serving. Cut up carrots and potatoes. Make beef into hamburger patties and place in the center of the tinfoil. Surround with potatoes and carrots.

Fold up tinfoil. Place on a cookie sheet and cook in the oven at 425 degrees. Bake for 45-60 minutes. Check the potatoes and carrots with a fork to see if they are fully cooked.

Homemade Baby Teething Biscuit

Jack has been teething like crazy lately. I always kind of wonder what's really in of the pre-packaged foods for kids, so I decided to try to make my own. There are tons of recipes online for teething biscuit. I decided to experiment with making my own.

Ingredients:

1 cup rice cereal

1 cup flour

1 cup applesauce
3 tablespoons oil

cold water (add as needed)

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients together.

Add applesauce and oil. Slowly add water as needed. It should form a very sticky dough.

Roll out on floured surface. Cut out using cookie cutters. I choose bunnies for Easter (although some of them look more like pigs than bunnies). Bake at 425 degrees for 12-13 minutes. You can tell they are done when the edges turn a golden brown.

Jack really seemed to enjoy munching on them. I will definitely be making them again.

Amazing Blueberry Muffins

Tim and Carter made blueberry muffins while I was at work yesterday. There is pretty much nothing better than coming home to made from scratch baked good from 2/3 of my favorite guys. (I was amazed by the fact they were able to get this done while crabby teething Jack took a 20 minute nap.) The muffins were so good that they were pretty much gone by breakfast this morning. Since we still had a ton of blueberries left, we made another batch.

Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
2 tablespoons white sugar
a pinch of cinnamon


Directions
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2.Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top.
3. Mix white sugar and cinnamon. Use to top the muffins.
4.Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Parmasan chicken

Ingredients
1c bread crumbs
½ c grated Parmesan cheese
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp Olive Oil
½ tsp salt
Pepper
4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
¼ c basil
¼ c Mayo

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine bread crumbs, parmesan, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste in bowl.
Mix basil and mayo in small bowl and spread mixture evenly over the chicken. Sprinkle bread-crumb mixture evenly over mayo and press lightly to adhere. Place chicken in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Bake the chicken until crumbs are golden brown for 18-22 minutes.

I'm planning on freezing half of this for another meal, serving it with pasta and tomato sauce.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I'm determined to have at least a week or two of meals frozen before baby comes. I'm too worried for the time that Tim (He's a pretty decent cook) is off work, but more so when he goes back to work. I'll try to post the recipes as I go.
This is one of my favorite sweet breads. I make it all the time.

Banana Bread
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
1 cup chocolate chips (can skip if you just want plain banana bread)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all ingredients together. Pour into two bread pans. Bake 45-50 minutes.

Buca Di Beppo Lemon Green Beans

I had Bucas over the weekend with some of my girlfriends. I forget how much I completely love their food. This is a pretty good replica of their green beans. :)

Ingredients
1 lb fresh green beans
1/4 cup butterr
2 medium lemons (juice)
salt, to taste (I used sea salt)

Directions
1. Prepare the green beans by clipping off the stem end.
2. Melt the butter in a sauté pan on low heat. Squeeze the juice out of two medium-size lemons. Strain the pulp and the seeds out of the lemon juice.
3. When butter is melted, carefully add the lemon juice to the pan.
4. Raise the temperature to medium and reduce until the lemon juice and butter become a sauce. Do not brown the butter.
5. Place the clipped, fresh green beans in boiling water for two to three minutes. Do not overcook. The green beans should remain crisp.
6. Strain the green beans and add to the sauce in the sauté pan. Toss the green beans in the sauce and season with salt to taste. Serve immediately.

Another Recipe/ Honey Lime Chicken

I really liked this one, but Tim wasn't a fan. I think it could be improved with green peppers.

Honey Lime Chicken

2 lbs chicken tenders
1/2 Tbl garlic salt
1 Tbl oil
1 20 oz can pineapple rings (I used chunks since that was what we had)
1/4 cup honey
3 Tbl lime juice
2 Tbl soy sauce
1 Tbl cornstarch
Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt. Brown in oil. Drain pineapple. Add one fourth of the pineapple juice to skillet. Cover and simmer 6 to 8 minutes until chicken is golden. Remove chicken. Add honey, lime juice, soy sauce, cornstarch and remainder of pineapple juice. Bring to boil. Cook and stir until thick and clear, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Allow to cool. Place chicken, pineapple rings and sauce in freezer bag. Label and freeze.
To serve: Thaw. Heat until sauce is hot and bubbly and chicken is heated through.

Easy Hummus

This is a combonation of a couple recipes I looked at

Ingredients
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed
1 clove garlic (I like to use two)
1⁄4 cup olive oil, plus more for serving
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (I didn't really measure, just used half a lemon)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¾ teaspoon kosher salt

Directions
In a food processor (or good blender), puree the chickpeas and garlic with the olive oil, lemon uice, cumin, and ¾ teaspoon salt until smooth and creamy. You may need to add a couple tablespoons water to achieve the desired consistency.

So simple, cheap, and delicious!

Margarita Chicken

This recipe really couldn't get any easier.

Marinate chicken breasts in 2 cups of margarita mix for a minimum of 4-6 hours (I would probably do longer). (I also added some pepper, garlic, and dried onions to the fix to give it a little more flavor.)

Grill.

We chopped it up and used it in tacos. It would also be good served with some Spanish rice.

Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken

Ingredients
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (I used the bottled stuff)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used more, but I love garlic)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

Place all ingrediants (minus the parseley) in the slow cooker. Cover, and cook on High for 3 hours, or Low for 6 hours. Add the parsley to the slow cooker 15 to 30 minutes before the end of the cook time.

Times may vary depend on how hot your slow cooker runs. Mine runs fast and was slightly overdone at 5.5 hours on low.

I served it with au gratin potatoes and peas.