Pineapple Ice Cream

I had no idea you could make ice cream without an ice cream maker, but you can!

My mom found this recipe on our community website, GoDuBois.  Tomorrow is my dad's birthday so today at our weekly Sunday Dinner we'll have his birthday treat, which will be Strawberry Short Cake, yum!  My mom thought this ice cream would go perfect with it.

What you need

1-20 oz. can crushed pineapple in juice (NOT drained)
1-14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
3 TBS fresh lime juice
1 tsp grated lime peel
2 tsp vanilla extract
4-5 drops yellow food coloring
1 cup heavy cream

Whip cream in a medium bowl with mixer until stiff peaks form (about 12 min)

While that is mixing combine pineapple, milk, lime juice, peel, vanilla and food coloring in a large bowl and mix well.

Once cream is whipped fold into pineapple mixture

Here's a short and sweet video on how to fold if you're unfamiliar with it

Once you're finished pour into a 9x5 loaf pan or 2-quart freezer safe container

Cover and freeze until firm (about 3 hours)

Enjoy!

Ridiculously Easy Cookie Made Your Way

One of my favorite things about working in an office environment is the constant sharing of recipes, here is one that takes the cake, or should I say cookie.

This recipe is so stinking easy and you can get very creative.

1 package of cake mix, any flavor (pudding in the mix cakes will require a 1/2 cup of flour added to them)
1/2 cup of oil
2 eggs
Anything you want to add!

So easy, so many possibilities and a wonderful drop cookie

I only had a pudding in the mix cake mix and same with my mom so I added the 1/2 cup of flour and 2 eggs.  Then I added a can of fruit cocktail, syrup and all (since I had the syrup from the cocktail I left out the oil)
I used my standing mixer which pureed the fruit chunks and oh my what I had was a mouthful of tropical goodness!  They were seriously moist and yummy.

Next time I'd like to add white chocolate chips and some Macadamia nuts.

I imagine I'll be using this recipe a lot in the future with all kinds of new ideas.

Get creative and enjoy!

Potatoes, Chicken, Broccoli and Gravy

I love meals that are inexpensive and easy!  Last night I made this dish and my husbands loved it and said, "I would have mixed this all together anyways if you made this all separate, but it's so much better put together and seasoned."  Er, thanks?  Honestly he's not too hard to please when it comes to food, but I also really enjoyed this.  Try it yourself, let me know what you think!

In a medium skillet I heated 2 TBS of butter and added 5 boneless skinless chicken breast strips.  One decent sized breast would also work.  While they were cooking I added 2 TBS of onion flakes (I cook with onion flakes because I like the flavor onion puts into dished but really despise the texture of onions, I know it's strange, but you could add a small diced onion here)  Once the chicken was cooked through I cut it into 1/2 inch pieces and added 1 1/2 cup of frozen broccoli a 1/4 cup of water and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. 

While it was simmering I made a packet of chicken gravy and then added it to skillet.  I added 2 TBS of paprika for a little more flavor.

I let it simmer again while I made one package of instant mashed potatoes, placed them in the bottom of an 8x8 glass dish and put everything from the skillet on top.

I put it in the oven then and baked it at 350* for 30 min.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Yesterday I made the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes from Kevin & Amanda.  They are even more delicious than they look!  Below is the recipe, I made my cookie dough balls Saturday afternoon and froze them overnight.

For the cookie dough (there are no eggs, so no worries about eating raw dough, YAY!)
2 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips

I filled my cupcakes with 3 TBS of batter and it was a little bit too much, next time I'll put a little less.  You just plop the frozen cookie dough balls in the center and follow the baking directions for your cake mix.

I cheated and went the easy way with a plain yellow cake mix and chocolate frosting, but you can get more creative with your own recipes for cakes and icings or check out what Kevin & Amanda did, maybe some other day I'll be that ambitious!

It may not look like it, but there is a center of ooey gooey cookie dough deliciousness hiding in there!

Bacon Cheeseburger Chicken

There is another blog I have stumbled across that I absolutely adore, you can check it out HERE.  Kevin & Amanda have lots of great things and one thing I tried out last night was their Bacon Cheeseburger Chicken.  It was delicious, I cheated and opted for the bacon bits...it was a Monday night, give me a break, we're lucky we were fed!  My husband loved it because "it was chicken in a new way," he's a chicken fanatic.  Follow the link to check out the recipe and also take a look at their blog.  There are so many good ideas on it that I can't wait to try, like THESE.

Dinner in 20 minutes!

Earlier this week I took some chicken breasts out of the freezer to thaw and one of them was so big I was able to cut it half and we each still had a piece of chicken that was plenty big enough to eat.  Since the other breast was thawed and also a decent size I cubed it and marinated it overnight.

I put the chicken (and all of the excess marinade) in a skillet and heated on medium for about 10 minutes until all of the chicken was cooked through. Once that was done I added a 1/2 cup of water and 1 cup of frozen veggies, turned the heat to low and cooked for another 10 minutes.  Simultaneously I cooked 1 cup of rice which I seasoned with some garlic, pepper and a little chilli powder (we both really like garlic and spicy foods so you may want to alter this to your taste and also to compliment the marinade)  Once everything was done I put the chicken and veggies on top of the rice and voila! Easy dinner!

Cocoa Cupcakes

In November my nephew turned 3, when plans first came up I offered to make him a cupcake cake that went along with his Thomas the Train theme.  I  wanted to make sure on his big day the cake was perfect so I had lots of practice rounds and when I was finished I never wanted to look at another cupcake again!  Well, it's been nearly four months now so I guess I got over it.

This recipe originally came from an All You magazine but I tweaked it here and there.

Here is the original recipe.

My ingredients are basically the same except I used Maxwell House International Cafe Vanilla Caramel Latte Mix instead of Vanilla Extract, I had previously made a batch of cookies with this and really liked the flavor so I tossed it in here too.  And I used white chocolate chips instead of chocolate.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/8  teaspoon  salt
2  large eggs, separated
4  tablespoons  unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2  cup  sugar
1 TBS. Maxwell House International Cafe Vanilla Caramel Latte Mix
1/2  cup  low-fat buttermilk
1/4  cup  white chocolate chips
2  TBS. confectioners' sugar, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. In a bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

2. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until stiff peaks form. Rinse and dry beaters.  (This was really neat and something I have never done before.  When it was finished I had my husband come out and I asked if he knew what it was, he didn't believe me when I told him that all that it was was egg whites!)

3. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until light. Add yolks, one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla. With mixer on medium-low speed, beat in one-third of flour mixture, then half of buttermilk. Repeat, ending with flour.

4. Fold in one-third of egg whites. Fold in remaining whites and chocolate chips.

5. Divide batter among muffin cups; bake until a toothpick inserted into center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes to rack to cool completely.

 
6. Sift confectioners' sugar over cupcakes, if desired.

Enjoy!

Banana Cheesecake

We had some very ripe bananas at home and knowing what a huge fan of cheesecake my husband is I decided to make cheesecake instead of banana bread.

This recipe was really easy.

For the crust I used 1 1/2 cups of crushed vanilla wafers combined with 1/2 cup of melted butter. I pressed the mixture into a greased 9 inch pie pan

For the filling I used 2 (8 oz.) blocks of cream cheese softened and beaten, I added one cup of sugar, 2 eggs and my two very ripe and mashed bananas.

I poured the mixture into the pie plate and baked it at 300 degrees for one hour. Then I shut the oven off leaving the cheesecake in the oven for another hour and then kept it in the fridge until it was ready to serve.

The cheesecake served as double duty as one of my brother's birthday treats and satisfying my husbands sweet tooth!