Cinnamon Bread

Like cinnamon rolls? Then this bread is a no-brainer! Tastes super yummy, makes your house smell fabulous, and can be eaten at for a few days (if it lasts that long!). I had to look at a few stores to find the cinnamon chips. They are by Hershey's, and I found them at Albertson's. Worth the hunt...let me tell ya!



Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 sugar
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup cinnamon chips
Cinnamon sugar mix, for topping

In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, yeast, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the milk, butter, and egg. Combine the wet and dry ingredients until smooth. Cover and let mixture rest at room temperature for 1 hour, then stir in the baking powder and cinnamon chips.

Set oven at 350.

Spoon the batter into a greased loaf pan. Sprinkle the top with the cinnamon sugar.

Bake the bread for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven, let it rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer it to a rack to cool completely. Wait until bread cools to slice.

**And because I love my mixer...here she is in all her glory, helping me out in the kitchen ;)

Heaven in a pan

Actually, these are called Chocolate-peanut butter mallow bars. But that's a mouthful. And they really are heaven in a pan!! They are even better than brownies. Try them.



Ingredients:

1 pkg devil's food cake mix
1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup cold milk, divided
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 7oz jar Jet-Puffed marshmallow creme
1/2 cup planters salted peanuts
4-6 squares Baker's semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Heat oven to 350. Mix dry cake mix, butter and 1/3 cup milk until blended. Press 2/3 onto bottom of a 9/13 pan. Bake 12-14 minutes until almost set. Cool for 3 min. Mix peanut butter and remaining milk. Spread onto cake. Top with spoonfuls of marshmallow creme and remaining cake mixture. Sprinkle with nuts and chocolate; pres gently into cake mixture to make a flat surface.
Bake 18 min. Cool before cutting into bars.

The BEST $4.00 I ever spent!

Ok, so my new found technique is to parooze the sale ads, see what meat is on sale, and then search for recipes using those meats. This week, whole chickens were on sale. Little did I know how much I was actually going to get out of that one little chicken! I made Beer Butt Chicken for dinner. Then I picked off all of the remaining meat and made Chicken Salad. Then I boiled the carcass with some herbs and veggies I had laying around and made chicken stock! Holy Moly! Like I said...best $4 I ever spent!!

Beer Butt Chicken

1 12 oz can beer
1 whole chicken (about 3 lbs)
1 large onion, sliced
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
Salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning to taste
1 (14.5 oz) can low-sodium chicken broth
4 red potatoes, sliced


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking dish. Pour out half the beer from the can, spray the can with cooking spray, and set it upright in the center of the baking sheet. Loosen the skin over the breast of the chicken, and insert an onion slice, and 1 rosemary sprig under the skin of each side of the breast. Place about half the onion, cracked garlic cloves, and 2 sprigs of rosemary into the cavity of the chicken. Spray the outside of the chicken with cooking oil spray, and sprinkle with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning to taste. Place the chicken onto the beer can in an upright position, with the can inserted into the cavity of the chicken. Pour the chicken broth into the baking dish, and place the rest of the sliced onion and the potatoes into the broth. Roast about 1 1/2 hours. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before slicing.


Chicken Salad

Chicken pieces removed from whole chicken
Mayo or Miracle Whip to desired consistency
Sliced celery
Sliced black olives
salt & pepper
Dill (I use dried)

Combine and refrigerate overnight. There is no exact measurements, since this depends on how much chicken you have leftover.




Chicken Stock

1 chicken carcass
1 large onion, quartered
1 carrot, sliced
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 bay leafs
2 sprigs rosemary
salt
pepper
6-8 cups water

Combine everything in a large pot, bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer, cover and let cook for 2 hours. Strain through a fine strainer or line yours with a cheese cloth to get out all small bits. Allow fat to come to the top and skim it off with a spoon. Allow stock to get to room temp before placing it in the fridge. Make some yummy soup for dinner tomorrow!!

Owl Cupcakes!

I saw these on a fellow foodie's blog and gave them a try!! I won't bother reposting the recipe, since she did it so well, but I did take a shortcut; she made her own frosting and I used store-bought. Call me lazy...but they were still a HUGE hit!




Ingredients:

Storebought cake mix
Chocolate frosting
Oreo cookies, divided, only using side with frosting
Brown M&M's or Reeses Pieces
Candy corn

Bake cupcakes as directed, frost and assemble!

Chicken Hashbrown Casserole

This is another one of those times when I needed to scrounge through and see what I could make with what I had on hand. This is when I love using allrecipes.com. If you click on the ingredients link, you can type in a few main things you have on hand and it'll give you recipes including those ingredients. I changed this one around a tad, and it was really good!




Ingredients:

1 2lb pkg frozen hash browns, thawed
2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and sliced into bite size pieces
1/2 cup melted butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 8oz container sour cream
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup french fried onions

Preheat oven to 350
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except french fried onions and 1/4 cup of the cheese. Bake covered in a 3 qt casserole dish for 30 minutes. In a small bowl, combine french fried onions and cheese. Uncover and top with onion/cheese mix and bake 10 more minutes.

**I made fried eggs to serve on top of this, and it was a really yummy combination, but you can skip that if you'd like.

Sausage Hashbrown Bake

I made this for our friends who came over for a playdate one morning last week. Delicious and easy!




Ingredients:

1 lb ground pork sausage
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 of a 10.75 oz can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup french onion dip
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup chopped red pepper
salt & pepper
15 oz shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed

In a skillet, cook sausage until no longer pink. In a large bowl, combine 3/4 of the cheese, and the next 7 ingredients. Fold in potatoes. Spread half of the potatoe mixture into a 2 qt baking dish, top with the sausage and cover with remaining potatoe mix. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes, uncover and bake 5 minutes more until heated through.

Banana Pancakes

Another great idea for using up those over ripe bananas! I also read online that you can freeze the bananas until you are ready to use them. So now I have a few in there just waiting for the mood to strike to make banana bread again!

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 tbs white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, combine egg, milk, oil, banana, vanilla and cinnamon. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be lumpy. Spray a griddle with cooking spray and use aprox 1/4 cup batter for each pancake.

These were amazing. I didn't take a picture, you all know what pancakes look like. I tweaked this recipe from it's original version, using only 1 banana instead of 2 because I thought it would be too mushy. After eating them I know I was right, they were soft, but would've been way too mushy with one more banana. I also added the vanilla and cinnamon - I like those flavors. You could also add nuts!