Chicken Salad Sandwich

This is Courtney Peacock's recipe as well - I know there were some other people that wanted these recipes so that is why I am posting them. This one is really yummy as well!

4 c. cooked chicken, diced or shredded
1 8 oz. cream cheese
1 1/4 c. crushed pineapple, drained
2 Tbsp sugar, optional (if needed)
1 c. diced celery
1/3 c. yellow onion, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. mayonnaise
pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients well and serve.

Banana Bread

This is Courtney Peacock's AWESOME!!! Banana Bread Recipe:

1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter or margarine
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp soda
2 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
shake of salt (I do about 10 shakes with my salt shaker)
1 c. chopped walnuts, optional

Grease and flour (or use cooking spray) 4-5 small or 2 large loaf pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients except nuts. Beat well. Add nuts. Pour into pans and bake small pans 40 minutes, large pans 45 minutes. (Better to overcook a few minutes than to undercook).

The BEST Waffles

-1 1/2 Cups flour
-3 tsp sugar
-2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-2 egg yolks, beaten
-1/3 Cup oil
-1 1/2 Cups milk
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 egg whites, beaten stiff

*Mix dry ingredients. Combine egg yolk, milk, and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients, add oil and mix well. Fold in egg whites. Cook in waffle cooker.

(We like to cook the waffles in a Belgium waffle maker, and top with sliced strawberries and whip cream)

Creamy Black Bean Chicken

Sorry there is no picture but this is an easy and really tasty recipe. The recipe is from my friend Laura Miner.

Creamy black bean salsa

2-4 boneless chicken breast
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup salsa*
1 can (15oz) corn, drained
1 can (15oz) black beans, washed & drained
1 pkg taco seasoning
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup cheese

*I don't like chunky salsa so I use taco sauce or enchillada sauce instead of salsa

Put all ingredients in slow cooker, except the sour cream and cheese. Let cook until chicken is done, 3-4 hours. After, top with sour cream and cheese. Serve with warm tortillas and Spanish rice. Yum

My spanish rice recipe

1 cup rice
1 tblsp oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup tomato sauce

Brown rice lightly in oil. Add other ingredients. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20-25 min

Padded Bath Mat

I stole this idea from a shower, but I thought it was a great and wanted to share it. This is prefect for putting your babies on after they get out of the bath - it's so soft!! I am not totally in love with this towel, but I couldn't find a little girl one that I liked so I just decided to go with a fun bath theme!

You will need:
A large bath towel (I found that Target and Kohl's had the best selection)
Matching thread
Matching DMC floss (found in the needlework area of JoAnn's)
Large bag of batting

Directions:
Sew up both sides and the bottom of the towel, leaving a small opening to stuff in the batting. The towel moved alot on me when I was sewing so I started with the sides starting at the end and sewing toward the fold - this way you can't tell if it's a little off. I left an opening at the bottom in the middle. Once you have the batting in, stitch up the opening. Take the DMC floss and make "darts" throughout the towel by going down and coming up close to the same spot. Tie with a sqare knot and wahlah - you are done! (I just eyeballed where I did my darts and it isn't great so please don't look too close! )

For anyone with girls

I know Molly doesn't have a whole lot to work with yet, but I came across this blog and thought some of you cute moms out there might like it. It is all about hair styles for little girls. There are a lot of really cute ides and it made me very excited for Molly's hair to start growing. enjoy!!!

http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/

Carmelitas

This is a Kristie Crockett original with a little easier twist. Still the same great, yummy results.


1 jar Mrs. Richardson's caramel/butterscotch topping
12 oz. package chocolate chips (I like Guittards or Ghiradelli)
2 C. flour
2 C. oatmeal
1 1/2 C. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 C. butter (melted)

Combine flour, oatmeal, melted butter, brown sugar, soda and salt. Press 1/2 mixture into the bottom of greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 17 minutes at 325 degrees. Take out and layer chocolate chips and then the jar of caramel/butterscotch topping. Crumble the remaining crumbs over the topping and return to oven to bake for another 17 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for at least 5 hours before serving. (If you put it in the fridge or somewhere cool, you won't need to let it sit as long.)

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Steaks

Okay, this is Alder's recipe, but Eric and I adjusted it a little to fit us. It's really easy and super yummy!

You will need:
Steak
Cream cheese (tub or block)
Jarred jalapenos, sliced
Bacon
Honey
Toothpicks

This recipe is really easy to make just a few steaks or alot - just get however much meat you think you will need. I just buy whatever is thinest and cheapest.

Cut steak into 1-1/2 to 2 inch strips. Season with onion salt and garlic powder as desired (or any other seasonings you like.) Pound meat until desired thickness. We have noticed they taste better and cook much faster the thinner the steaks are! *If you want the meat to be extra spicy, marinate them in some of the juice from the jalapenos for 30 minutes.

Spread cream cheese over steaks and add 3-4 sliced jalapenos in the middle. (Remove the seeds if you don't want them too spicy.) Drizzle honey down the middle of the steaks and roll steaks up. *Eric does the honey and the rolling up one at a time so the honey doesn't run off.

Wrap each steak with 2 pieces of bacon - one running around the opening of the steak and one running in the opposite direction. Secure with toothpicks.

Place steaks on grill and continue turning and drizzling with honey until cooked! (If the steak is thicker we will finish cooking the steak in the micowave if needed.)

Brown Sugar Muffins

I had a few people request this recipe, so here it is. They are really easy and so yummy.

1/2 cup butter softened*
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Make sure to use muffin liners.

*I always substitute half of the butter for applesauce and then I don't feel so bad about eating all of them by myself.

Kay, Do you remember these Peanut Butter Bars from school lunch? These were my favorites all growing up! Keep them in the refrig. The recipe makes tons! Marci



Peanut Butter Bars:

Cream together in mixer-
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup ( 2 sticks) softened butter


Then add and mix together-
1 teas. vanilla
2 lg. eggs
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups oatmeal (can use quick)
2 cups flour
1 teas. baking soda
1 teas. salt


Press dough into a greased cookie sheet or cake pan & bake at 350' for 15 minutes or until brown. (better if you don't over cook them!)


Warm up 1 1/2 cups peanut butter in the microwave and spread evenly over warm dough.
Put in refrig to set up. Top with Chocolate Frosting! Delicious!


Chocolate Frosting:
1 pd powdered sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 stick softened butter
1/2 teas. salt
1 teas. vanilla

Triple Chocolate Cookies

I got this recipe from my sister in law a while back and it is still one of my favorites. They don't keep long, which usually isn't a problem for us!

Triple Chocolate Cookies

1/2 c. butter
4 1 oz squares unsweetened chocolate
3 c. semi sweet chocolate chips (divided)
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 t. vanilla
1 c. white,peanut butter or swirl chips (or nuts)

In a saucepan combine butter, chocolate squares and 1 1/2 c. semi sweet chocolate chips. Melt on low then cool to luke warm.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt.
In a mixer combine eggs, sugar and vanilla together. Gradually add flour mixture. Beat together then add cholocate mixture. Beat until combined then add rest of chips or nuts.
Drop on parchment paper by tablespoon fulls. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Cute new website!

Living in Utah does have its perks! But now you can feel like you live here too! I just found out about this great website with adorable LDS themed fabric. Now I feel like I need to make something. Check it out.

www.ldsfabric.com

Best Cinnamon Rolls Ever

This is not my recipe, this is Tonya's and it is the best cinnamon roll recipe ever. My family is always requesting it. Since it was Conference this past weekend, we had to make some. She put the recipe for sixty rolls in the past cookbook that Leesa put together. She revised it to make twenty rolls. I find the twenty roll recipe is perfect for our family and it is super easy to make. The recipe made three of the above pans, which I ate one, Jarren ate one and then we finished the third one off the next day.

Twenty Rolls:

1 cup 2 Tbs. 2 tsp. Water

3 1/3 tsp. yeast

1/3 cup sugar

5 1/3 Tbs melted butter

1 egg

1 1/3 tsp salt

2 Tbs. 2 tsp. canned milk

4 1/4 cup flour

Split the dough, roll it out. Take softened butter spread out on dough, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on roll. Then cut about an inch thick. Raise until double. Cook 350 for about ten minutes. This time really depends on your oven.

Cream Cheese Frosting (you cannot forget the best part)

1 package powdered sugar

1 cube melted butter

8 oz. package softened cream cheese

1/4 cup hot water

1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 tsp. lemon juice

Add canned milk until runny

1 1/2 - 2 Tbs. vanilla

The frosting recipe is enough to put on sixty rolls so I usually half it for twenty rolls. My family loves orange extract so I will substitute the almond extract.

Bloom Blocks

This is a sample I made of the craft we are going to do for our craft night next week.
I got the kit's from Alison Ward. She made up this kit by what I described to her I wanted over the phone. If you want to see some of her other kits this is her website: Ali's Attic.
And like I did, you can customize them to get exactly what you want!
Here are the paint colors I used:
B- Bayberry (FolkArt)
L- Lavender (AppleBarrel)
O- Yellow Ochre (Americana)
O- Sky Blue (FolkArt)
M- Rose Pink (FolkArt)

Snickerdoodles

These are the yummiest! I got this recipe from Jamie Lamb, and when she brought them over to us, we ate the entire plate in about 15 minutes! (It's probably because of the shortening, but they are great!)


1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
2 Tbl. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

Combine shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Cream together. Next add flour, salt, soda and cream of tartar. Mix well. Combine sugar and cinnamon. Roll cough into 1-inch balls and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 6-7 minutes.

(Don't over cook these or they will be crunchy. Also, I would avoid using an airbake pan, because it takes double the time)