mini baked corndogs

I adapted this recipe from Six Sisters Stuff, as in I halved this recipe for one muffin pan.

I love corndogs, but between the hotdog and the deep frying I think we can agree that they aren't exactly healthy.  I love this recipe because it has no frying, homemade cornbread is always tasty, and you can portion control as much or little as you want.

This recipe is for one mini muffin pan (24 mini muffins)

6 hotdogs, cut each hotdog into 4 equal pieces

1/4 cup butter, melted (can do 1/8 cup butter and 1/8 cup applesauce)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup flour

Stir together melted butter and sugar.  Whisk in egg.  Stir in buttermilk.
In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients.  Slowly incorporate dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix together (will be lumpy).

Grease muffin tin and add 1 Tbsp of cornbread batter to each cup.  Place 1 hotdog piece in the center of each cup.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes, until golden brown.  Serve with ketchup and mustart, honey, etc.

Italian Pasta Salad

This salad is great for a potluck, simple, and tasty.

24 oz Rotini pasta, cooked al dente (8-10 cups)
16 oz Kraft Zesty Italian dressing (fat-free is fine)
2 (3.8 oz) cans sliced olives
1 package mini pepperoni or 1/2 package turkey pepperoni, cut into 4 parts
4 Roma Tomatoes, diced
1/2-1 lb cheddar cheese cubed.

Cook pasta, drain, and rinse to cool.
Chop all ingredients and toss with pasta in a large bowl.
Toss with dressing.
Refrigerate until served.

Rumor has it you can add chopped broccoli or other veggies to this if you would like.

Avenger's Shwarma

Remember that after the credits scene at the end of Avengers where they are all finally trying some Shawarma? 

Anyway for dinner before seeing Avengers: Age of Ultron I decided to make up some of Tony Starks favorite shawarma as well as some quick other character inspired stuff.

-Thor's Hummus.
-Black Widow Brownie Bites:  Buy premade brownie round bites or make brownies and cut into small squares.  Pipe with vanilla frosting and top with a maraschino cherry.
-Hulk Punch:  I just bought some strawberry kiwi Hawaiian punch and printed up a label, 3 inches tall and centered in the middle of a word document.  Cut out to be the perfect length to wrap.

-Hawkeye Fruit Arrows:  Use the strawberry for the arrow tip and cut out some feathery end to complete the arrow.  Served with 8oz of cream cheese, softened and mixed with 1 cup brown sugar.
-Nick Fury Fries:  Just cooked up some frozen Ore-Ida garlic and parmesan fries and added cheese in the last few minutes.
-Captain America Cookies:  Some store bought red-velvet cookies

I got this particular shawarma recipe from KSLs Studio5.   This is my slight variation:

Shawarma:

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/3 cup olive oil

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cayenne (optional)

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp salt, to taste

1/2 tsp black pepper, to taste

 

Place chicken thighs in gallon-sized Ziploc bag and seal, pound with a rolling pin to flatten chicken a bit.

In a bowl stir together the rest of the ingredients.

Pour over chicken in the bag, reseal, and squish around to make sure chicken is coated. 

Marinate in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, the longer the better.

Broil on a broiling pan (you can grill on an actual grill as well, and probably cook on a regular pan, but I haven't tried it) for 10 minutes on each side, until juices run clear and temperature is at least 165. 

Allow to rest and cool a bit.  Rough chop it into thin strips.  Serve.

 

 

 

To Serve:

 

Pita pocket bread

Jerusalem Salad

Tzatziki sauce

 

Jerusalem Salad:

the original recipe also found on the KSL studio5 link above.

 

1 large cucumber, chopped into small pieces

4 Roma tomatoes, chopped into small pieces

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped into small pieces

rough chop handful of mint leaves

rough chop handful of fresh parsley

1/2-1 cup tahini sauce

 

Stir all ingredients together.  You can eat this on the side or stuff in the Pita with the Shawarma.

Cookie Salad

I have made this twice the spring already.  Cookie salad is easy, delicious, and a fun change from other fruit and side salads. Also it doubles as dessert.  We enjoyed this salad today for a family Easter dinner along with Resurrection Potatoes (What we call Mormon Funeral Potatoes during the Easter season), ham, glazed carrots, Cottage Cheese Jello salad, and awesome cupcakes.

6 oz of vanilla instant pudding (2 small boxes)
2 cups buttermilk
16 oz cool whip
2 lbs strawberries
4 bananas
11 oz can of mandarin oranges
1 package of Keebler Fudge Stripe cookies

Stir together vanilla pudding packets and buttermilk.
Add cool whip.
Chop or slice strawberries, slice bananas, and drain mandarin oranges. 
Stir fruit into vanilla pudding and cool whip mixture. 
Crumble up all of the fudge stripe cookies.  Stir in 3 rows worth of cookies, and top with last row of cookie crumbs.

*For a fun tropical version, use Samoa Girl Scout cookies and replace strawberries with 1-2 cans of pineapple tidbits.  Also double mandarin oranges.

Molten Chocolate Bread Pudding.

I adapted this recipe from the Purple Chocolate Home.  Check out the link where you can find two divine looking sauces to pour over the bread pudding for an even more decadent dessert.

10-12 cups French bread, dried out and chopped into 1 inch pieces.  (I used 1/2 of a round French country loaf from Costco.)
1 quart heavy cream
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup orange juice

additional 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup chocolate chips

1.  Cut up bread and place in large bowl.
2.  In a separate bowl whisk together cream, sugars, egg, vanilla, and cinnamon.
3.  In a microwave safe bowl stir together chocolate chips and orange juice.  Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth (I melted for a total of 1 minute 30 seconds.
4.  Stir melted chocolate into the cream and sugar mixture. 
5. Pour over bread and toss.  Allow to sit for 30 minutes.
6.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and spray grease a 9x13 pan.
7.  Pour bread into pan and sprinkle additional brown sugar and chocolate chips on top.
8.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Pudding will be gooey.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Another way to dress up this dessert would be to serve with a berry syrup and/or fresh raspberries.

Baked Tacos + Homemade Taco Seasoning

I've been cooking a lot from the "A Year With Six Sister's Stuff" Cookbook.  I decided to try the Baked Tacos recipe and it was delicious. I did adapt it a little bit since I don't like black beans and home-make my own taco seasoning.  See the original recipe here.

Baked Tacos:

1 lb ground beef
1 diced medium onion
2 tsp minced garlic (2 cloves)
1 packet of taco seasoning or 1 homemade batch of taco seasoning (see below)
1/2 cup salsa
1 can fat-free refried beans
shredded cheddar cheese
12 hard taco shells (can also make as soft tacos with tortillas)

sour cream
fresh guacamole (I used my friend Vivian Thu's recipe found here)

1.  Sautee onion and garlic in a skillet with a bit of oil.  When onions become translucent, add beef and taco seasoning mixture. Cook through.
2.  Once beef is cooked, reduce to lower heat and stir in salsa and refried beans, allow to simmer.
3.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spoon beef mixture into taco shells and top with shredded cheese.  Line them up in a 9x13 pan so they are standing up.  If using tortillas, roll up as soft tacos and line up in pan.
4.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Top with sour cream and guacamole.

Taco Seasoning:

2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt

Stir together.

2 recipes I can't stop making.

I am a major fan of easy dinners that are also delicious. Here are 2 dinners I have been making a lot lately for myself, my family, and for a crowd.

1.  Cornbread waffles.  This recipe is from Dessert Now, Dinner Later!  I actually didn't alter this recipe in any way.  It is good topped with any type of chili from canned to homemade.  We had it with Antelope chili at work and it was a major hit.

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted

Top with chili, shredded cheese, and sour cream.

I made mine in a hotel-style Belgium waffle maker, so this recipe yielded 4 large waffles. Just mix dry ingredients together, whisk in the wet ingredients and bake in the waffle iron at a low-medium setting as these cook quickly.  For the original recipe click here.

2.  Honey Lime Taquitos.  This recipe is from Six Sister's Stuff.  I learned how to make it at their quick and easy dinner class during Pinner's conference.  For this recipe I altered it slightly by brushing to tops with butter and broiling after baking for a minute to make them extra crispy.  I also always double the recipe which makes 14-18 taquitos depending on how much you fill them.  You can find the original recipe here.

Doubled recipe:

8 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and shredded  (I boil 12 frozen chicken tenderloins, until cooked through, allow to cool a bit, and then shred with a fork).
3/4 cup honey
10 Tbsp lime juice (this is just over 1/2 cup of juice; if using fresh limes, each 1/2 of a lime is equivalent to 1 Tbsp).
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder

14-18 medium Tortillas
2 cups shredded cheddar or mixed cheese
1 can green enchilada sauce
1 container sour cream

Shred chicken breast.  In a ziplock bag mix honey, lime juice, chili powder, and garlic powder.  Add shredded chicken. Marinate for 30 minutes but the longer the better.  Scoop chicken into a line on top half of each tortilla and sprinkle with cheese.  Roll tight and place face down in a sprayed 9x13 pan (this double recipe uses one 9x13 and one 8x8 pan).  Brush with butter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, turn to broil and broil for 1-2 minutes.  Stir together sour cream and enchilada sauce for a fun dipping sauce.