Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I recently found this recipe on  Pinterest and it looked so easy that I wanted to give it a try. I made a few small changes, but if you would like to see the original recipe you can find it at For the Love of Cooking. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/3 c heavy cream

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions:

Combine butter, egg, bananas, heavy cream, peanut butter, heavy cream, and vanilla and blend until smooth. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 

Add the dry mixture into the wet and mix until smooth. Then add the chocolate chips.  I coat the chocolate chips in a teaspoon of flour before mixing it into the batter so that they do not sink to the bottom. 

Spoon mixture into individual muffin cups. I use muffin liners and a scoop so that each muffin is about the same size. The original recipe says that it makes 12, but mine made 16 generously sized muffins.

Bake at 375* for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

These turned out wonderfully moist and will not last long around here!

Happy Eating!

Monlat

Slow Cooker Beef Sandwiches

I saw the recipe for Italian Beef sandwiches in a cookbook that I recently reviewed Come Home to Supper and it sounded so easy that I wanted to give it a try with just a few small changes. In Christy's version she sautes the peppers and onions separately before adding them on top of the beef after it's on the buns and she adds Zesty Italian Dressing. For some reason the Italian dressing didn't sound so good to me and I couldn't bring myself to add it and if I was going to use the slow cooker I didn't want to dirty another pan by sauteing the veggies later. (That's just pure laziness I know, but it's the truth!) Also, I had never used a jar gravy before but I wanted to give it a try and it actually turned out pretty good! I think that next time I will play around with different seasonings and do a repost in the future. But as for right now, here is my slightly lazier version!

Ingredients:

1 3lb boneless chuck roast 

1 jar of beef gravy

Half of 1 yellow onion sliced

1 yellow bell pepper sliced

 

(This is the jarred gravy I used)

Directions:

This is literally an assembly recipe with very little work! I just but the roast in the bottom of the slow coooker, sliced the onion and bell pepper, laid them on top then poured the gravy over the whole thing!

I set the cooker to slow and let it cook for about 8 hours. The roast was fall apart tender and I shredded it with a fork, placed them on buns and added a think slice of provolone and voila! Thursday night dinner with very little effort! I will definitely be doing this again! I may even go all out next time and toast the buns and add sliced tomato on top!

Happy Eating!

Monalt

Doctored Up Sloppy Joes

My family loves Sloppy Joes and I love how easy this recipe is. I use a standard store bought Sloppy Joe sauce and doctor it up to add more flavor.

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground beef

1-24 oz can of Sloppy Joe sauce (I used Manwich)

1-14 1/2 oz can of diced tomatoes

1 tsp each of black pepper, garlic powder, and oregano

1/2  small red onion (chopped)

1/2 red bell pepper (chopped)

Directions:

In a large skillet or pot brown ground beef with onion, bell pepper, and seasonings until cooked through.

Add sauce and tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes or until the sauce is thick. 

Enjoy!

Monlat

Lasagna

This is my version of lasagna that combines a little cheating by using jarred marina sauce and oven ready lasagna noodles. I add to the sauce to give it a little gilding to add more flavor. This version is super easy and beats a frozen lasagna any day. This is a perfect make ahead recipe that can be put together a day or two ahead and bake on the day you need it. This is also easy to freeze and bake later.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. black pepper
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
4 green onions-chopped
1 & 1/2 jars of your favorite marinara sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp sugar
15 oz container of ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried parsley
2 cups of shredded Italian cheese blend
1/2 c shredded Parmesan cheese
12 slices fresh mozzarella

 (These are the cheeses that I use)

Directions:

Meat Sauce:

Add the first 6 ingredients into a pan and cook until the meat is no longer pink. Drain the fat from the meat and then add the jarred sauce, oregano, and sugar, and heat through. 

Cheese mixture:

In a large bowl mix the ricotta cheese, eggs, basil, and parsley until all of the ingredients are incorporated. 

Now the assembly:

Generously spray the inside of a casserole dish. Add enough sauce (a little more than half a cup) to the bottom of your dish then add enough noodles to cover the bottom. You may have to break off pieces of noodles to make them fit.

Add half of the cheese mixture on top of the noodles then sprinkle 1/4 cup of shredded Parmesan on top of the cheese mix. Add half of what is left of the meat sauce on top of the cheese layer. (It's important to cover everything with sauce so that the noodles will cook.) Repeat the layer one more time. You will have two layers of noodles and should end with a layer of meat sauce. Then it's time to add the mozzarella.

Cover with aluminum foil. Lightly coat the underside of the foil with cooking spray and this will keep the foil from sticking to the cheese. Bake at 425* for 50 minutes with the foil on and then remove the foil and bake for about 15 minutes more until the cheese is bubbly. 

I always let the lasagna sit for about 15 minutes so that it has time to bind together a bit and this way it will cut nicely and not fall apart. 

Enjoy!

Monlat

Rice Casserole

This is my take on the rice casserole that so many of us have had and enjoyed over the years. This casserole is very rich so you can easily cut back on the cheese and make it a little less decadent. This can easily be made into a complete meal by adding cooked cubed chicken or ham to the mixture.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked and cooled rice

I head of broccoli (cut into florets)

1 pkg fresh sliced mushrooms (cleaned)

3 green onions (chopped)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp black pepper

2 Tbsp butter

1 lb Velveeta (cubed)

1 c. milk

1 c. shredded sharp cheddar or cheese of your choice

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Directions:

In a large skillet add broccoli, mushrooms, green onions, and butter. Heat until the broccoli turns a bright green, about 3-5 minutes. Do not overcook the broccoli at this point or the finished broccoli will be very limp.

Add in the Velveeta, cream of mushroom soup, and milk and heat until cheese has melted and well combined. Add mixture to the rice and combine. Poor into a casserole dish that has been sprayed well with cooking spray.  Top with the 1 cup of shredded cheese.

Bake at 350* for about 50 minutes or until heated through and cheese is bubbly. 

Happy Eating!

Monlat

Chicken Salad

This is one of the easiest chicken salads you can make. By using boneless skinless chicken thighs you get a lot of flavor at a very reasonable price. So here it is!

Ingredients:

6 boneless skinless chicken thighs 

1 tsp. chopped garlic

1 tsp. salt

3/4 cup seedless red grapes cut in half

3 green onions-chopped

1/2 c. Miracle Whip (I like this for chicken & tuna salad for its slight sweetness)

Directions:

Cover chicken thighs in a pot of water with the garlic and salt and boil until cooked through. When it's cooked through let cool down and cut into bite size pieces. 

In a bowl add the rest of the ingredients and mix completely.

This is great as a light supper or lunch spread on a hoagie or placed on a bed of lettuce. This is also good with crackers!

(Okay, so sometimes I add fries too!)

Happy Eating!

Monlat

Potato Soup

This is a very easy potato soup recipe that was given to me by a wonderful friend that I met during our time in Japan. Ms. Colleen was my neighbor in the apartment tower that we lived in. She was one of the first people to come by and introduce herself and offer help with anything we needed while we adjusted. Ms. Colleen and her husband Dan became close friends to my family and my girls loved them as well as any blood related grandparents. We lost Ms. Colleen to cancer a few years ago and I miss her terribly. She shared a few recipes with me over the years and they are all yummy, so whenever I make one of her them I think of her and I am so glad that I have her recipes to remember her by. 

Ingredients:

5 lbs of russet potatoes (cut into cubes)

1 white onion-chopped

8 cups of water

Chicken bouillon granules (2 Tbsp + 2tsp) or 8 bouillon  cubes

1 tsp of salt

1 tsp of ground black pepper (1/2 tsp if you don't like a stronger pepper flavor)

1/2 pint heavy whipping cream

 Tip: Don't buy one of those 5 lb bags of potatoes-you'll be peeling those suckers forever!! Buy 5-6 decent sized russet potatoes it will be MUCH faster!

Directions:

Peel, dice, and rinse potatoes,

Add all of the ingredients except for the heavy cream into a large pot and bring to a boil for 10 minutes. Then turn down and simmer for 40-50 minutes until the potatoes are cooked completely and are very fork tender.

Using a immersion blender blend until smooth. If you don't have a immersion blender you can blend in batches in a blender. 

Add the delicious heavy cream.

Thoroughly mix in the cream.

I like to gild the lily a bit by adding crumbled bacon and chopped green onions on top.

My kiddos also like to add a little shredded cheddar to theirs and that is yummy as well. If you want to be fancy you can saute shrimp in a little garlic and olive oil and add that to the top and that is a fabulous addition! Pinkies up!

Enjoy!

Monlat

Cheater Chili

The weather here in Arkansas is cold and we just had a front of sleet and snow come through so this is the perfect weather to make my Cheater Chili. I call this Cheater Chili because all it really is is a doctored up box chili mix. I figure if they will put all of the essential spices together for me and I can add to it to make it my own, why not? I hope you enjoy this one. Please leave a comment if you make a different version by adding other ingredients I'd love to try a different version!

Enjoy!

Monlat

Ingredients:

I box of your favorite chili kit

1 lb of ground beef

1 can of red kidney beans

1 can of black beans

1-14 1/2 oz can of diced tomatoes 

1-15 oz. can of tomato sauce

1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 white onion diced

Directions:

Cook the ground beef with the onion and black pepper

While the beef is cooking drain and rinse the two cans of beans.

Add the beans, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and all of the ingredient packets EXCEPT for the ground chili pepper and salt packets from the kit, but including the packet of masa to the ground beef. Mix well, then mix in  2 cans of water using the15 oz sauce can. I like to use crushed red pepper flakes in my chili. I don't really like the taste of the preground red chili. So I add the salt packet to the red chili flakes and grind it myself with a mortar and pestle. The flakes will not turn into fine powder, but will blend into the chili nicely. The instructions say to add the masa at the end, but because I usually cook this in the oven or the slow cooker I add it right away.

You can cook this chili one of three ways. I usually use the oven or slow cooker since I love to make things early and not have to worry about babysitting it. An added bonus is that this chili will make your house smell awesome!

1. On the stove top according to the instructions and let simmer for about 30 minutes.

2. In the oven on 350* for about an hour. 

3. In the slow cooker on low for about 6-8 hours.

I serve this chili over tortilla chips or corn chips (Fritos) or with my Southern cornbread recipe. We like to gild the lily with shredded cheese and sour cream.