Coffee Cake

So I decided I wanted to try making coffee cake, but since I am a very simple baker or wanna be baker, I have to try and find very simple recipes.  I found this one, and it was good, but tasted too much like Bisquick.  I think next time, I will add the toppings in the middle as well or find a new recipe.  It was fun and good with coffee!  I also added chopped walnuts to have of it, because my grandma cannot have nuts and I wanted her to try it.  See the ingredients below and the directions.

Cinnamon Streusel (Topping)

1/3  cup Original Bisquick® mix

1/3  cup packed brown sugar

1/2  teaspoon ground cinnamon

2  tablespoons firm butter or margarine

Coffee Cake

2  cups Original Bisquick® mix

2/3  cup milk or water

2  tablespoons sugar

1  egg

Directions: 

-Heat oven to 375°F. Grease 9-inch round pan. In small bowl, stir streusel ingredients until crumbly; set aside.

-In medium bowl, mix coffee cake ingredients until blended. Spread in pan. Sprinkle with streusel.

-Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.

Yummy Homemade Waffles

My waffle

Seans waffle with peanut butter 

Our awesome waffle maker from my cousins at our Wedding.

So one morning Sean and I were craving waffles.  Sean absolutely LOVES waffles.  Instead of saying, "I would love to make waffles from scratch instead of using the premade mix from the store" for a better taste, I said, "We are out of premade mix and I am too lazy to go to the store, so I am going to make waffles from scratch".  I wish I were creative enough for the first.  So I went looking up recipes and then took out any recipes that meant dividing the egg and egg white (come on) and then found an easy recipe that I forgot to save and made waffles.  And boy, let me tell you, they were delicious.  I think I will make them always from scratch.  I cannot remember the exact recipe, but this one is very similar.

Chicken Pot Pie with my Momma

Found recipe here.

My mom has never made one before and neither have I, but we were up to the challenge.

Ingredients:

Servings: 6-8

Units: US | Metric
1 cup potato , diced
1 cup onion , diced
1 cup celery , diced
1 cup carrot , diced
1/3 cup melted margarine
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 cups chicken , cooked and chopped
2 pie crusts (either store bought or your own recipe)  We used my great grandma's pie crust recipe

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 400°F.

-Saute onion, celery, carrots and potatoes in margarine for 10 minutes.

-Add flour to sauteed mixture, stirring well, cook one minute stirring constantly.

-Combine broth and half and half.

-Gradually stir into vegetable mixture.

-Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly.

-Stir in salt and pepper; add chicken and stir well.

Mom made homemade crust :)

-Pour into shallow 2 quart casserole dish and top with pie crust.

-Cut slits to allow steam to escape.

-Bake for 40-50 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly and cooked through.  We added foil around so the crust did not burn.

So yummy!  It served four people plus a lot of left overs.

Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

Source: via Sarah on Pinterest

Adding ingredients

So good!

Almost gone

This was awesome!  I found it on my friend, Sarah's Pinterest account.  Unfortunately, Sean and I did not have almonds so we used walnuts.  We also did not have soy yogurt or plain so we used raspberry with fruit on the bottom and I scrapped the plain yogurt from the top and it worked well!  My pictures are not as good, but it tasted awesome!

Banana Oatmeal Smoothie: ■2 whole Chiquita Bananas (best with brown flecks on peel) ■2 cups Ice ■1/3 soy yogurt ■1/2 cup Cooked oatmeal ■1/3 cup Almonds

Pour all ingredients in blender pouring ice in last. Blend on high for 30 seconds or until smoothie thickens.

Nutrition Information Per Serving:

Calories 380; Total Fat 15 g (Sat 2 g, Trans 0 g, Poly 4 g, Mono 8 g); Cholesterol 5 mg; Sodium 35 mg; Potassium 690 mg; Total Carbohydrates 53 g; Dietary Fiber 9 g; Total Sugars 19 g; Protein 12 g. Percent Daily Value: Vitamin A 2%; Vitamin B6 25%; Vitamin C 20%; Vitamin D 0%; Calcium 15%, Iron 15%.

The Chiquita Banana Recipe site was awesome!  They have different recipes for all stages of the ripeness of your banana which was sweet because I hate throwing old bananas out.  I am excited to try new fun recipes here.  

Easy Recipe

Use crescent rolls, I did no name brand, but it does not matter.  Unfold them one or two at a time.

Add peanut butter by spreading a knife.

Sprinkle chocolate chips or move them around to make it even.

Start rolling, it helps to tuck in the longer sides.

Finished with rolling.

See the beauty and how easy it is.

Yum!  Had to try it.  You can leave the peanut butter out, just do a jelly in your fridge.  Be creative and they are easy!  It is great for hosting.

You can find my inspiration here: pinterest.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups white sugar

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

4 eggs

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

I found the recipe here.  Preheat the oven for 350 degrees F.  Make sure to grease three pans then add flour.  You can use three 9x5 inch loaf pans, I just used what I had and checked on them more frequently.

Mix in large bowl, sugar, pumpkin, vegetable oil, water, and eggs.

Add flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. 

Then add chocolate chips :)

Mix it all together.

Pour into three pans about 1/2 to 3/4 full (they will rise).

Bake for about 1 hour or until knife comes out clean.  

Rudy was supporting me the whole way through.

So last Sunday for Rudy and my dad's birthday party, I decided to use a recipe from Urban Nester, a blog I love!  She made yummy pumpkin spice lattes in a crock pot.  It was easy and great for entertaining.  Well, I went to Costco and found a three pack of pumpkin in a can and only used 3/4 for the pumpkin spice latte mix.  I had to use the extra, so I googled pumpkin bread with chocolate chips because I love chocolate and I made some yummy treats.  You will have to try it, it was great and it made three loaves!

Great Thursday

I have the most amazing husband!  He cooked an amazing meal tonight.  He can look up a recipe he has never seen before and master it.  He made beef stroganoff in the crock pot and it was phenomenal.  I am so blessed to have such a great husband that can cook!  Since it was my night off, I am going to post one of my favorite meals that I got from my mom.  I made it last week and below are some pictures and recipe.

A really good casserole dish (can't remember the name)

8 oz chopped broccoli

 8 oz cream cheese

2 crescent rolls

1 pound hamburger meat

chopped onions

graded cheddar cheese

Directions:

First, you start off taking hamburger and onions and browning it in a pan then once it is about done you add the chopped broccoli (See below).

Then you add the 8 oz cream cheese into the broccoli and meat.  It looks weird, but trust me its good!

Line the pan with one crescent roll tin.  It always scares me when they eventually pop when you open them.

When the cream cheese is all mixed into the pan add it to the pan.

Then grade the cheddar cheese and add it to the top of the casserole.

 Love my cheese grader container.  It is so clean and easy.

The with the other crescent roll you lay it flat and cut it into thin slices to put on top of the casserole.

then you lay them flat one direction like so.

 Then criss cross them :)

Then put it in the oven for the temperature and time that the crescent rolls say on the container.  Pretty simple.

 So good!