Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Tonight I had the urge to bake so I made chocolate peanut butter bars, yum yum! This recipe is so incredibly easy and so delicious!


Ingredients:


1 Cup Peanut Butter (creamy)
6 Tb Butter, softened
1 1/4 Cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Flour
1/4 Tsp. Salt
2 Cups Chocolate Chips, divided


Process:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat peanut butter and butter until smooth. Add sugar, eggs and vanilla, and mix until creamy. Blend in flour and salt. Stir in 1 cup of the chocolate chips. Spread into ungreased 13x9 inch baking pan. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until edges begin to brown.

Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle all remaining chocolate chips over the top of the dish. Let stand 5 minutes, this should give the chocolate enough time to start melting. After 5 minutes, use a spoon to spread the chocolate to an even layer across the entire top of this dish of deliciousness! Let it cool completely before serving.

DIG IN!

Suggestions/changes:

The recipe says to let the dish cool completely before serving... I definitely jumped in and cut myself a bar after about 15 minutes out of the oven and it was still extremely tasty! Also, the recipe calls for creamy peanut butter- I used fresh ground and it worked just fine. I could see how creamy peanut butter would work butter, but fresh ground was all we had and it did the trick!

Kale Chips

Something Rob and I recently started making rather frequently are kale chips. They are super easy to make and delicious! Something nice about cooking with kale is that it is SO good for you. Whole Foods uses a scale to measure nutrition called ANDI that basically rates foods 1-1000, 1 being least nutritious and 1000 being most. Kale is 1000 on that scale. However, I believe by making them chips it diminishes some of the nutrition but they are still fantastic!

Ingredients:


1 Bunch of kale
1 Tb Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Process:


Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Wash all kale but do not dry completely. Rip leafy part of kale away from the stem in medium-large sized pieces. Once you have all leafy pieces pulled away from stems, place leafy kale pieces in a bowl and toss completely with olive oil (throw stems away). Once covered in olive oil, sprinkle a small amount of pepper and toss again. Then, spread kale onto a cookie sheet (I cover mine with aluminum foil). It is okay if the pieces overlap, but try to spread it out the best you can. Place in the oven for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, take kale out of the oven and flip over. Some pieces should be starting to slightly brown and become smaller. Once pieces are flipped, place them back in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Make sure to keep your eye on it- it can easily burn. Kale is done when all pieces are crispy. Remove from oven and sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Serve immediately!

Yummy yummy! We enjoyed our kale chips with spaghetti with meat sauce but they really go with so many different types of meals! They also make a great snack.

Enjoy!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This Sunday, and for the past 3 Sundays, Rob and I have made Chicken Tortilla Soup. Needless to say.. we are addicted. The nice thing about this dish is that it provides dinner for the night you make it and at least 2 lunches afterwards and it only costs around $10! See a picture below (before we add cheese and chips of course):

Ingredients:

4 Boneless, Skinless chicken thighs

1 Cup Chicken Broth (Pacific Natural Foods Organic Free Range Chicken Broth, 32-Ounce Containers (Pack of 12))

2 Cans Organic diced tomatoes with garlic, oregano and olive oil (Muir Glen Organic Tomatoes, Diced, 14.5-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12))

1 Can of Organic Black Beans, drained and rinsed (Eden Organic Black Beans, No Salt Added, 15-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12)_

1 4oz. Can of diced green chilies (Chi Chi's Green Chilies Diced, 4.25-Ounce Units (Pack of 12))

1 Yellow Onion, diced

3-5 Cloves of garlic, minced

1-3 Tsp. Cumin

Lawry's seasoning salt

Pepper

Garlic Pepper

Italian Seasoning

Sprinkle of Chili Powder

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Tortilla Chips

Process:

To begin, take out your crockpot and turn it onto high heat. Add chicken to the crockpot and cover chicken with chicken broth, diced tomatoes, black beans, onions, garlic and all spices. (I did not specify quantity of seasoning to put in but use your judgement, you do not need a ton of each spice; spice to your own taste). Mix items in crockpot until well blended, make sure chicken is covered completely. Let cook for approximately 3 hours on high heat. After 3 hours, spoon chicken out of the crockpot and shred it with a fork. Once shredded, return chicken to crockpot and turn it down to low heat. After about 10 minutes, add your diced cilantro to the crockpot; mix well and turn crockpot down to "keep warm" setting (basically whatever setting stops cooking but keeps the food hot). Let sit for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, serve. I choose to serve it in bowls with shredded cheese over the top and pieces of tortilla chips spread around the sides of the bowl. See below:

You can also serve it with chips on the side however I like serving it with the chips in the bowl so they slightly soften in the broth.

Serve hot and enjoy! Per usual, if you have comments or suggestions on this recipe or any of my other recipes, please feel free to share and leave a comment.

Oven Baked BBQ Wings

Tonight Rob and I made oven baked BBQ wings and they turned out beautifully (And, were incredibly simple)! To make them, we partially used a recipe we found online but subtracted a few things and added a few things of our own. We served them with oven roasted red bliss potatoes and salad.

Ingredients:

1.5-2 lbs chicken wings

1 Jar BBQ sauce (Bone Suckin' BBQ Sauce Original Flavor 1 pint)

1 Medium yellow onion, diced

1 Tb Butter, chopped into small pieces

3-5 cloves of fresh garlic, minced

Lawry's Seasoning Salt (Lawry's Seasoned Salt, 16 oz * Economy Size)

Garlic pepper (McCormick - Garlic Pepper Seasoning - 1.23-Oz. Grinder (Pack of 3))

Italian Seasoning (McCormick - Italian Herb Seasoning - Grinder - .77 Oz. (Pack of 3))

Pepper (William Bounds Key Mill "WB-1" Pepper Mill)

Process:

Preheat your oven to 420 degrees. Spray the bottom of a baking dish with cooking spray and spread pieces of butter around the dish (leaving the butter in chunks). Then, place chicken in the dish and cover with the onions and garlic. After, sprinkle your desired amount of seasonings onto the chicken. Finally, drizzle BBQ sauce over the wings in a criss-cross pattern. DO NOT use all your BBQ sauce now, use about half of your total desired amount. Then, cover the dish completely with aluminum foil; poke about 5 or 6 small knife holes in the aluminum foil. Place dish into the over for 45-50 minutes. After the amount of time, remove the dish from the oven and take off the aluminum foil. Mix up everything in the dish, making sure the chicken is coated. Once mixed, pour your remaining amount of BBQ sauce over the chicken. Place dish back in the oven, uncovered, for another 30 minutes. After time is up, remove the dish from the oven and let it cool for at least 5 minutes before eating-waiting this amount of time will allow the sauce to thicken. After 5 minutes- DIG IN! The wings will literally be fall of the bone delicious!

As you can see from the picture, I used a ton of BBQ sauce. I probably did not need to use the extreme amount that I did but oh well, they tasted amazing!

I hope you get a chance to try this dish- they were truly the easiest wings I have ever made. Very little prep time and nothing I had to keep my eye on while they were cooking. It definitely was a pop it in the oven, set a timer and go watch TV, kind of meal!

Homemade Apple Pie (with gluten free crust!)

For months Rob has been wanting us to make a homemade apple pie and we just never got around to it. Yesterday we gave in and made not only 1 but 2 apple pies! And... lets just say, it has been less than 24 hours and only 1 pie is left. Check them out:

As you can see, we did not use a top crust for the apple pie, instead we created a crumbling topping to cover it. Now, I am not going to lie to you--we bought the gluten free crust premade at Whole Foods (it came 2 to a pack) BUT every other part of this pie is homemade! See below how you too can make your own delicious apple pie! NOTE: Ingredient list below is for 1 pie


Ingredients:


1 Premade, gluten free pie crust
5 Peeled granny smith apples, diced into thin pieces
Cinnamon (Frontier Cinnamon Powder Certified Organic (3% Oil), 16 Ounce Bags (Pack of 2))
Nutmeg (Cole and Mason H277130 Classic Nutmeg Grinder)
Vanilla extract (Simply Organic Vanilla Extract Certified Organic, 4-Ounce Glass Bottles (Pack of 2))
1 Egg, beaten with 2 Tb of cold water and set aside
________________________
1 Stick unsalted butter
3 Tb Flour
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup White Sugar
1/4 cup Water
________________________
1/2 Stick of butter, partially melted
1 Cup of granola (we used vanilla almond from Whole Foods)
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Brown Sugar
White Sugar

Process:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. First, take all of your diced apples and place them in a large bowl (you need to be able to mix them). Then, sprinkle about 1-2 tsp vanilla extract and some cinnamon and nutmeg over the apples; mix until it looks like the cinnamon and nutmeg have spread out/no clumps. Each apple should have a little bit of spice on it. Note: You should use more cinnamon than nutmeg. Once the apples are coated, set them aside.

Now, in a medium skillet melt the unsalted butter over medium heat. Once melted, add flour. Whisk until smooth. Then add in both sugars and water; turn heat to medium high and whisk until smooth. Once smooth, turn down to low and let it simmer for about 5 minutes; whisk occasionally.

While the mixture on the stove is cooking, lets make the topping for the pie. With a fork, mix the butter with the granola. Once combined, mix in both sugars, a small amount of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. Mix until well combined. This mixture should be crumbly.

Now lets assemble the pie! Take your apple mixture and pour them into the bottom of the pie. Then, take the stove mixture and pour over the apples. Finally, carefully spread the crumb mixture over the top of the entire pie-taking the time to cover the top and the sides. Once the top of the pie is coated bake the pie for about 40-50 minutes on 325. After 40-50 minutes, take the pie out and lightly brush the visible crust with the egg & water mixture. Once you are done with that, put the pie back in the oven at 350 degrees for about another 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take out the pie and voila! Complete! Let the pie sit for at least 15 minutes before you serve it.

This picture was taken after I made my first helping! YUMMY!

Oven Roasted Chicken Leg Quarters

I made chicken leg quarters tonight just how my mom always tells me-- and they came out fantastically!  The best part about getting this type of chicken is that its CHEAP; two legs cost us under $2 (from Whole Foods, with skin on)! There are multiple flavors you can make your chicken leg quarters (BBQ, Buffalo, etc) but tonight I just went with a traditional flavoring. Here's how we make them:

Ingredients:

Chicken Leg Quarters, washed and dried
Italian Salad Dressing
Olive Oil Bertolli Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 51-Ounce Bottle
Garlic Pepper Simply Organic Garlic Pepper Certified Organic, 3.73 Ounce Containers (Pack of 3)
Lawrys Seasoning Salt Lawry's Seasoned Salt, 16 oz * Economy Size

Process:

Preheat your oven to 350 and make sure it is completely preheated before putting food into it. Take your washed chicken and place it into a glass cooking dish that has a small amount of olive oil in it. Gently pull the skin away from the chicken (do not rip it off!!! just gently pull it so there is space between the chicken and the skin). Drizzle italian dressing and crack garlic pepper into the space you have just created. Then, drizzle olive oil and italian dressing over the top of the chicken (on top of the skin). Finally, sprinkle lawry's seasoning salt and garlic pepper over the top of the pieces of chicken. Put the chicken in the oven for approx 1 hour at 350 and up the heat to 375 for the last 10 minutes. Flip twice while cooking. Finally, before you take the chicken out of the oven, broil the skin for about 1-2 minutes so it starts to get a little crispy, YUM! Let the chicken sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.

Our Prep:

Tonight we served the chicken with bow tie pasta with pesto basil sauce and shredded cheddar cheese on it and peas (Rob had salad since he loathes peas). But--- its chicken--- serve it with whatever you want and enjoy it!

Baked Zitti and Homemade Sauce with Chicken

Tonight I made everyone's (my family and Rob) all time favorite, my homemade sauce and baked zitti. It literally just got done cooking so I want to go eat it... but here is a picture (UPDATED, RECIPE BELOW):

Alright-- so I am back and let me tell you it was delicious!!! Here is the recipe for the sauce (cooked in a crock pot of course! I love using the crock pot):

Ingredients:

1 to 2 whole yellow onions, diced

4+ cloves of garlic, minced (I say 4+ because everyone likes a different amount of garlic.. I used about 8 cloves)

1 Lg. can crushed tomatos (do not strain)

3 Reg. Cans of diced tomatos with basil, oregano and garlic (do not strain)

1 Sm. Can of tomato paste

2 tomato paste cans full of water

8+ Large fresh basil leaves, chopped (I like to use ALOT of basil)

1/8-1/4 cup of olive oil (approx)

1 Tb butter

1 Lb. Chicken, parboiled

Pepper (approx 1/4-1/2 tsp)

Lawrys seasoning salt (1/4-1/2 tsp)

Oregano (1/4 tsp)

Parsley (1/4 tsp)

Minced, dried garlic (1/2-1 tsp)

Italia seasoning (1/2 tsp)

Garlic salt (1/4 tsp)

Process:

First saute onions in a little olive oil and butter until soft over medium heat. Once onions are soft, add all fresh minced garlic cloves and saute for about 2 minutes (make sure the garlic does not burn). Then, add the onions are garlic into your crock pot. Turn to high heat. All everything else except for the chicken. Let it cook for about 1 hour on high heat, once hour is up, add chicken. Cook for an additional 3 hours. After 3 hours-- open the crock pot and gently shred the chicken apart. Once chicken is shredded, turn it down to low and let it cook for a least 1 more hour (preferably 2-3 more hours). Before serving, turn crock pot down to the "keep warm" setting for at least 10 minutes. And... that is it! With almost no work you have yourself a delicious and homemade sauce! YUM!!!

Baked Ziti assembly:

To make the beautiful dish you see at the top of this page... first cook 1 box of pasta so its almost fully cooked, but not quite. Once cooked and drained, take half the pasta and spread it into a 9 X 13 inch glass baking dish. Cover that pasta with lots and lots of the delicious sauce you made. Then, cover that with lots of shredded sharp cheddar cheese and an italian mix blend of cheeses. Once you have your desired amount of cheese... cover it with the rest of the pasta and cover the pasta with more yummy sauce. Make sure the pasta is completely covered with sauce. Then, sprinkle more cheddar and italian blend cheese over the top of it. Finally...cover the top of the dish with circular pieces of provolone cheese. Pop the dish in the over for 28-30 minutes on 350. Make sure you watch it so the provolone does not burn... it should turn brown, but not burn. After it is cooked, let it sit for 10-15 minutes before serving,this will allow the dish to come together and settle. Cut and ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!