Barrel of Monkeys Cake

So, the actual concept here (and above photo) is my own, for my son's 1st birthday, but it was inspired by the following pin:

http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/247868093/kit-kat-cake/










I made a layered banana cake from this recipe, and used this chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe, and simply stuck the kit kat bars to the sides, and decorated the top with the monkeys and candle. So tasty and so cute!

Greek Yogurt Banana Bread/Scones/Muffins

I pinned this when I had some greek yogurt to use up, and it turned out fantastic! So moist and yummy. It did go bad faster than regular banana bread though - I didn't notice at first read that she suggests keeping it in the fridge. Mine lasted at least 3-4 days out of the fridge (wasn't as good as fresh, but it was still edible, unlike a couple days later when it clearly went bad), but I imagine it might have lasted longer if I'd kept it in the fridge.




Recipe found at: http://www.cafeterrablog.com/2012/08/05/banana-bread-with-greek-yogurt/

Creme Brulee French Toast

I made this for Christmas morning this year, and it was SO good, and SO easy! I didn't even prep it the night before - just did it in the morning, and it still came out perfect. Definitely pintastic!

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/01/overnight-creme-brulee-french-toast/

Pintastic: Hearty Chicken Stew with Butternut Squash & Quinoa Recipe

I tried this recipe back in the fall, to rave reviews and it has now become a comfort food staple in our meal rotation. Hearty, delicious and healthy. It is a multi-step recipe that takes time but, is so worth it! It feeds the four of us for 2 meals.

Original pin here...Hearty Chicken Stew with Butternut Squash & Quinoa

I took this photo as soon as I finished cooking this stew on this very cold New York afternoon. Notice the lack of olives in my version (because, well, gross).

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb. butternut squash, peeled, seeded & chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 1/2 cups chicken broth (I use the full 32 oz carton)
• 1 1/2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt (I use Penzy's 4S seasoned salt)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 can (14 oz) petite diced tomatoes
• 2/3 cup uncooked quinoa
• 3/4 cup pitted and quartered kalamata olives (I omit)
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Steam the butternut squash until barely tender, about 10 minutes. Remove half of the squash pieces and set aside.
2. Steam the remaining squash until very tender, an additional 4 to 6 minutes. Mash this squash with the back of a fork. Set aside.
3. In a large saucepan set over medium-high heat, bring the chicken broth to a simmer.
4. Add chicken thighs, cover, and cook until chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes.
5. Transfer the chicken thighs to a plate and allow to cool. Pour broth into a medium-sized bowl.
6. Return the saucepan to the stovetop and lower heat to medium. Add olive oil.
7. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is starting to turn brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
8. Add minced garlic and oregano. Cook, stirring, for 1 additional minute.
9. To the saucepan, add tomatoes, butternut squash pieces, mashed butternut squash. Stir to combine.
10. Stir in reserved chicken broth and quinoa. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook until the quinoa turns translucent, about 15 minutes.
11. Shred the chicken with your fingers or a fork.
12. Stir the chicken, olives and pepper into the stew and simmer, uncovered, to heat, about 5 minutes.
13. Stir in parsley and serve.

Notes: Calories 329 / Total Fat 14.1g / Saturated Fat 1.0 / Cholesterol 15.2mg / Sodium 1209mg / Total Carbohydrates 32.8g / Fiber 5.4g / Sugars 3.0g / Protein 19.4g / WW (Old Points) 7 / WW (Points+) 9

Enjoy!

Jen

Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

It took me probably 4 or 5 times putting this on my menu plan before I finally remembered to take our pork tenderloin out of the freezer to defrost in time! But honestly? That was the hardest part of this recipe, haha. It was SO easy, and so good! The only thing I would do differently, is to double the glaze amount. I used it all to baste the pork on the outside, and had none left to drizzle on the sliced meat once served, which would have taken this dish from good to absolutely amazing. The flavor on the outside of the pork was delicious, and the inside was tender and juicy, but it really needed extra glaze to take it over the top, and make it pintastic!!

Roasted Parmesan Sweet Potatoes

I've made this recipe a few times now. They taste fantastic, but it's really tricky to get them crisp but not burnt, especially if you cut them quite small like I did (I had to halve the cooking time, but I wanted them small for my baby to eat as finger food). Watch them VERY carefully. And if you want them crisp at all, you will probably burn the edges of some of them, but most will be ok if you catch it at the right time. My husband hates it when I set off the smoke detector, so personally I think I'm just to give up on crisping them and skip the broiling step. They taste great whether they are crisp or not - definitely pintastic! Original recipe can be found here: http://www.teeniecakes.com/2010/12/roasted-parmesan-sweet-potatoes/

S'mores Snack Mix

This was a treat I made for Spiderman and a couple of the neighborhood kiddoes.  I already had the chocolate chips.  The mini marshmallows were only a couple dollars, as were the teddy bear cookies.  Once again, I like bang for the buck!  It only took a few minutes to make, and the kids were VERY impressed(chocolate, grahams and marshmellows are all wins). 

The only thing I would caution is to leave PLENTY of cooling time.  It took forever, and I ended up tossing it in the fridge.  The issue was that I used chocolate chips that you'd use for making cookies.  The chocolate is designed to stay kind of melty after baking.  Next time, I will be sure to use candy melts.  Also, the teeny marshmellow bits are NOT with the marshmellows.  They are over by the hot chocolate mixes(save some search time).  You can find full instructions here---  http://cookiesandcups.com/smores-snack-mix/  PINTASTIC!!!

Baked Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

Last night I decided to try this recipe for baked garlic brown sugar chicken. I followed the recipe to the 

Click for original recipe

letter. It's a super easy and simple recipe that only takes four ingredients (including the chicken!) It smelled amazing. The brown sugar/garlic mixture was more like a rub texture than a sauce, so we rubbed it into the chicken on both sides before putting it in the oven. I cooked the chicken for the recommended amount of time. It came out great. As you can see from my pictures, the sauce around the chicken burnt.  I think this could be rectified by adding water to the pan.

The chicken was good. On the outside. It was pretty bland inside though. My husband and I both decided that it would be better if the chicken were marinated in this mixture for a few hours before baking it (or grilling!). The sauce is delicious, but you don't get the full flavor of it by cooking it on the chicken for twenty-thirty minutes. I'll keep the sauce recipe, but next time we'll try marinating the chicken first.

Spicy [Chicken] Tortilla Roll Ups

 I was really excited about this pin for Spicy Chicken Roll Ups found on this blog. I literally had pin-nesia and pinned it four different times because every time I saw it, I wanted to eat my screen. As the resident Vegetarian of our board, I knew I was going to have to make a few changes to the recipe.

The first time I made it, I subbed a can of drained black beans for the chicken. It made my wraps watery and they were difficult to roll up but they were still delicious. The second time I made them with refried beans and they were a thousand million times better! They rolled up nicely, they stuck together well, and they were like crack. I made them for a game night and every single roll up was gone by the end of the night. Even our non-vegetarian friends were obsessed with them. They are just the right kind of spicy. Not burn-your-mouth-hot, but completely flavorful. They are so easy to make, even my husband can do it!

Super Delicious Spicy Roll Ups

Verdict: Super Pintastic and a hit with everyone.

-AM

Hocus Pocus, or "Resurrection" Rolls

I had been seeing this pin float around Pinterest, but I resisted pinning it for quite a while. Lord knows why, because I love bread. Anyway, once I did pin it, I couldn't get it out of my mind. I had a certain idea of how these rolls would taste, and I just had to cook them.

Recipe

I've seen these rolls called two things: "hocus pocus" rolls because a marshmallow supposedly disappears inside of them, or "Resurrection" rolls because you can tell the story of Jesus's resurrection as you prepare the rolls with your children. The story is detailed in the blog I linked to the above picture, but off the top of my head I remember the dough representing the Jesus's tomb, and Jesus is represented by the marshmallow. When you break the bread open after it's cooked, you'll notice there is no marshmallow anymore. Just like Jesus wasn't in the tomb after three days. Love the idea of the story, but there was no way I was waiting until Easter to make these rolls. My baby is only eight months old, so she sat in her high chair while I explained the story of Jesus to her...because I felt bad about making something related to a Bible story and not including it!

Well, mine didn't turn out quite like the above. And I COULD see the marshmallow after I baked it, because it leaked out everywhere, even though I was careful to pinch the dough together. Also, I learned that I don't really like cinnamon. My fingers were coated with the melted butter/cinnamon mixture while I was preparing the rolls, and it smelled like I had dug around in a piggy bank. My husband wouldn't try a roll, and I was disappointed with mine. Not like I had imagined at all.

My Version

Are you disappointed because you had the ingredients and wanted to try it? Here are the croissants I blogged about a while back:

Here's a better recipe with similar ingredients!

Verdict: Pintastrophe
-Betsy

White Chicken Enchiladas

I found this pin a few weeks ago and loved the step by step directions. It reminded me that I used to cook chicken enchiladas for my husband all the time using his mom's recipe, but I haven't done it in quite a while because I stopped liking to cook. Well, Pinterest has renewed my interest in cooking, so I decided to try this recipe:

Recipe

It turned out pretty good. As Louisianians, we love very spicy food and this wasn't as spicy as we would have hoped for. Maybe Rotel would add a lot to the sauce. Also, I didn't add the corn. I don't think it's something we'll have ALL the time, but it's good once in a while. Great weeknight dinner!

My Version

Verdict: Pintastic!

-Betsy

Spaghetti Squash au Gratin

OMG. Best way to get your veggies, ever! I ate half of a fairly large spaghetti squash tonight...

I was running a bit short on time and didn't do the onions, red peppers, or thyme - just added a couple tablespoons of margarine and the sour cream and cheese. The top got nicely brown and it tasted amazing. Definitely pintastic - this will probably be the only way I make spaghetti squash from now on!

http://dandydishes.blogspot.ca/2011/10/spaghetti-squash-au-gratin.html#.UGj-K5hJJmw

Baked Apples with Oatmeal Streusel Topping

This is basically a lazy man (or woman)'s apple crisp, and I love it! So much faster than peeling and slicing apples, and it has another advantage of being healthier, since you're eating the skin and there's no sugary coating on the apples themselves - just some sugar in the streusel. And it was T-A-S-T-Y! And pintastic, of course :)

http://nonrecipe.blogspot.ca/2012/03/baked-apples-with-oatmeal-streusel.html

Copy Cat Zupa's Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup

I love Zupas.  Love love love them.  Honestly I could probably eat their soup every day (if I was rich and could afford to eat out every day).  I don't normally put much trust in copy cat recipes, but I have been craving good soup for a while now so I decided to give this recipe a shot.

Click here for the original recipe

I have a tendency to alter recipes as I go.  Since I was reviewing this recipe I tried to stick to the recipe as closely as possible, but some changes were still made.  First I started out with 3 Tb. of butter instead of two.  I felt like two was going to disappear really quickly when I added the onions.  When I added my diced onions to the pan, I knew that 3 Tb. was much better.

The part of the recipe that I had an issue with was the adding flour and salt.  The original recipe says to let this cook for two minutes.  1/4 cup of flour added to 3 Tb. of butter and onions is sucked up really quickly.  If you wanted to make a thinner roux (which I'm assuming the recipe was trying to achieve at this point) you would only add a tablespoon or so of flour before adding more liquids.  So if you wanted to more closely follow the recipe I would suggest flour then liquid and repeat until you're out of flour.  I added all of the flour, whisked it around and then added some of my milk.  

I did straight milk instead of water because I wanted my soup to be creamy and thick.  After adding all of the liquids, I added the cauliflower as directed.  I let the cauliflower reach a boil and then turned it down.  I simmered mine for closer to fifteen minutes.  I wanted it to be pretty soft when I threw it in my food processor.  

After processing the soup (I did mine in two batches, but my food processor is pretty large), I added it all back to the pan.  At this point I added a lot more salt, some pepper, the mustard, and my cheeses (I did 1 1/2 of pepper jack and 1/2 cup of extra sharp cheddar to start).  After letting it cook for a minute (so yeah I ignored that part of the recipe too) I added more salt and another 1/2 cup of extra sharp cheddar.

The end result was a tasty soup.  Was it as good as Zupas?  Not even close.  But it was a good homemade soup.  Personally I would have added another cup of cheese, but my family isn't as cheese happy as me.  I added some to my bowl though and it was quite tasty.  Before I try this again, I might visit Zupas and try to figure out what flavors I'm missing.  Like I said, this is a good cauliflower soup and it's pretty simple to make.  But if you're expecting it to taste like Zupa's cauliflower soup, I think you'll be disappointed.  

-KP

Hamburger Cupcakes and Sugar Cookie Fries

A few days before our Labor Day cookout, I decided to search Pinterest for a fun dessert. I found this pin that linked to this blog with a super fun cupcake idea. The basic idea was to make cupcakes, cut them in half, put a brownie as a burger and then jazz it up with some colored "ketchup" and "mustard" icing. It sounded easy enough and I was so excited to make a super cute dessert.

The first thing I did was make a batch of cupcakes with liners. I thought I'd be sneaky and do the "add a diet soda to cake mix" trick that's floating around pinterest too. I mean, I was putting a brownie in the middle of the cupcake... I had to 'skinny' them up somehow. I used a yellow cake mix and diet ginger ale. I always have a problem with my cupcakes (or muffins) sticking to the paper liners... and that caused a bit of a problem. I put a few in the fridge over night to see if that would help and left a few out. The ones I left out fared the best. Don't put them in the fridge. It didn't work and I had to toss out a few cupcakes.

So, now I had a couple "skinny" cupcakes to work with. (and the diet soda trick - Super Pintastic except for the sticking. It was so easy and you really couldn't taste a difference. I think it makes them more moist).

 

 

The next day I baked my brownies. You can do the diet coke trick here too, but I didn't since I've never tried it with brownies before and didn't know how it would change them. I didn't have a round cookie cutter, and found out that an Avent bottle cap made the perfect sized 'burgers.' Mom ingenuity at its best!



 

 

Here's where it got messy. I wanted to get a bunch of 'burgers' so I started punching holes right at the edge. Well, you know the nice, crunchy edge brownies get? It's not very good for cutting with a plastic bottle cap. Just start more in from the edge and you'll be fine. I was afraid I wouldn't have enough, but I did. As you can see, the most you could get would be about 14 burgers anyway, so my cupcake disaster didn't make a difference anyway. 

 

 

Now you'll have a bunch of extra brownie pieces left over. I'm sure you'll figure out something you can do with them... I'll wait while you stuff your face with them... Mmm.

 

 

I bought a box of sugar cookie mix and followed the direction on the blog to make roll out cookies. I didn't really have a problem with the fries at all. Mine expanded like she said they would. I just cut them in half again when they came out of the oven with a pizza cutter. Warning: The sugar cookie fries are addicting. You will eat a ton of them. Some will break or won't be perfect and you will have to dispose of them accordingly. Don't worry. I won't tell.

 

I decided to skip the "lettuce" icing and just stick with the "ketchup" and "mustard." It was really hard to find get a shade of red that didn't look pink, but it worked and everyone drooled over my adorable little burger cupcakes and fries. It fooled almost everyone.

"Burger and Fries" cupcakes and cookies

The verdict: These turned out super adorable and I got a lot of attention for making them (and who doesn't LOVE that!) so overall I would say they were Pintastic. The only problem was they took forever to make. I really didn't put it together that I would have to bake cupcakes, brownies, and cookies for two days. It was a lot of baking and then assembling. These would be great to take to party, but if you're HOSTING the party (like me), save some time and don't make these. You have more important things to worry about... you know, like the actual hamburgers.

 

 

-AM

 

 

 

Honey Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Icing

Original Pin

When I was planning for a family party, I knew I wanted to make cupcakes, and I found these in a Pinterest search.  They looked and sounded delicious, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make them look as attractive as these pictured.  I tested my talents anyway, and the recipe turned out to be easy to follow, and the cupcakes were a hit at the party.

I actually doubled the recipe to get 24 cupcakes instead of 12, which still worked well.  I will say that it's important to follow the recipe - when combining the liquid and dry ingredients, it is important to end on the dry ingredients.  When you add the liquid ingredients, the batter becomes runny, but the dry ingredients makes it the right consistency again.




The cupcakes themselves were delicious, and the icing definitely kicked them up a notch.  The icing was easy to make, though I think if I had used the amount of confectioner's sugar that was called for in the recipe, it would have been too sweet.  I only used four cups instead of six (again, I doubled the recipe).  I will warn, however, if you are making the cup cakes a day or two ahead of time, plan to make the icing the day of.

I had kept the icing in the fridge over night, which caused the sugar to draw in a lot of moisture before I iced the cups.  I warmed the icing in my hands to try and keep it from getting too warm or falling over on the cup cakes. As the day went on, they went from being nice swirls to droopy.  You can see in the pictures to the right, this is about 30 minutes after icing them 24 hours after making the icing.  They were already starting to fall.



All in all, though, I found the recipe easy to follow, the cupcakes were absolutely delicious!  There is a perfect amount of honey flavoring, and they were very moist.

No Bake Energy Bites

http://richestoragsbydori.blogspot.ca/2012/03/no-bake-energy-bites.html

So, the first time I made these, I suddenly realized I was out of smooth peanut butter, after having mixed most of the ingredients already. So I used some chunky peanut butter that had been sitting in our pantry for a couple of years (my husband prefers it, but never thinks to use it). BAD IDEA. Did you know peanut butter can go rancid? And that it's even worse with chunky peanut butter, because the little chunks of peanut are rancid? Yeah, that batch went into the garbage...

The second time I made them, with fresh ingredients, they turned out fabulous. Healthy, tasty, and SO EASY! Plus, bonus for breastfeeding mothers - both oats and flax seed are supposed to help with milk supply. If you're not, don't worry, you're not going to suddenly start squirting milk ;)

Beer Crockpot Chicken

the picture from the website of the chicken...not so sure why it looks browned

I decided to menu plan for the next two weeks, as I have gone back to work and needed a way to make sure my husband had some food at some point! So this recipe made it onto my menu, simply as a result of it being uber easy to make! This morning while getting ready for work, I plopped L down in the living room with cartoons on (don't judge me...I only had 2 hours of sleep). Anywho, I started to pull out the ingredients for this recipe - 5 chicken breasts (frozen), some garlic powder, salt, pepper, basil, and beer (we used Sam Adams Octoberfest). I also added in some Frankie's Creole Seasoning (yummo - it makes its way onto many of our dishes). As I tried to pry the frozen chicken from it's styrofoam home (I mean seriously - could they make it even harder to get off that thing?) it kept sticking. So the chicken went in the microwave for a few minutes.

I finally got the chicken into the crockpot, added the spices and beer and set for 10 hours on low. It was 6 am and I would be home around 4 pm, and we would eat maybe around 530ish. So it worked out.

And it was great! This recipe will remain in our arsenal. I may try it with different types of beer and sodas even. Of course, I will update if I do :)

Go here for the recipe :)

<3 Kari

Slow Cooker Bacon-Wrapped Apple BBQ Chicken

I liked this chicken, but 8 hours is WAY too long. The BBQ sauce started to burn and we took it out early - can't remember exactly how long, but I'm sure it would only need 2-3 hours.
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/08/slow-cooker-bacon-wrapped-apple-bbq.html

"Sand" Pudding

Growing up, my amazing Aunt always made this dessert called Dirt Pudding. Us kids would literally fight over who could get the last bite and the seasoned older cousins knew to hit the dirt pudding first before your dinner so you'd have it before it was all gone.

When I needed to make a dessert for a Fourth of July Beach Party, I thought dirt pudding would be yummy until I found this super Pintastic variation called "Sand Pudding" It was basically the same concept as dirt pudding, alternating layers of pudding and crushed cookies, but instead of using Oreos to make dirt, you use vanilla wafers and just a few Oreos to add some black specks into the sand. Don't buy a whole bag of Oreos (unless you want them for later). I just got a snack pack of Oreos. I found them in the checkout line.

The only problem I ran into was my lack of a food processor. I hastily threw in a whole box of Vanilla Wafers into my blender and hit pulse. My little blender couldn't handle all of those cookies at one time, so if when I make this again, I'll split the box in half.

When I went to "pimp out my pudding" with cream cheese, vanilla pudding, and cool whip, I opted to use the reduced/low/no fat versions (as well as the Vanilla Wafers). Guess what, with all that powdered sugar in the mix, no one was the wiser anyway and I didn't feel one ounce of remorse when I went back for a second serving.

I got SO many complements on this dessert. Everyone wanted to know how I made the sand. I told all the little kids that I scooped it off the beach (until I realized this was freaking them out and then none of them would eat it). I let the adults in on the secret.

The directions split the up the pudding between two buckets, but I found that everything fit into one bucket. At 99 cents, it was great to take to the party and leave there for the littles to keep.

"Sand" Pudding