Please visit my co-host Diane at Simple Living and Eating.
Today’s recipe is brought to you by my husband Mark. He surprised me periodically with his creativity in the kitchen. Especially when what he is saying, doesn’t sound all that appetizing to me.
If you recall I’ve attempted, not once, but twice, to make mini Apple Pies using puff pastry, and failed both times. So we had a nice bowl of Apple Pie Filling sitting in our fridge. I knew I needed to use it, I just didn’t know how.
Then in comes Mark and he says
“Hey, you know that Apple Pie filling in the fridge?”
yes?
“I was thinking, let’s wrap it in a tortilla, and drizzle butter, cinnamon and sugar on the top.”
really? That sounds….not so great. But what the hey, let’s give it a go.
An hour later (with a small twist of chocolate and ice cream by me) – “Holy Moly! This is good! I need more apple pie filling!”
And that my dear readers is the story behind Apple Pie Burritos. A little late for Cinco De Mayo (my bad), but that’s OK because these are good anytime, anywhere.
Apple Pie Burritos
Very Berry Spinach Salad
from Ashley’s Dandelion Wishes
I love how simple this salad is, while still popping with pretty colors.
Pile-On-Tops
from A Handful of Everything
If your still looking for a Mothers Day Breakfast, this would be perfect!
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Mothers Day Breakfast In Bed
Mothers Day is coming up. That means it’s time to get those gifts ready, and make plans to remind Mom just how much you love her. As a mom, I will tell you right now, it’s the little things that mean the most – an acknowledgment of all she does and the little sacrifices that may not seem like much is all Mom is looking for.
Last week I shared 7 gifts Mom will love – today I’m giving you 2 simple recipes to make Mom’s breakfast in bed extra special.
Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 Bananas
- 1 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- Streusal Topping
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp Roasted Saigon Cinnamon (gives it a very light kick)
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
- Cream together shortening, sugar, eggs, and bananas. Set aside.
- Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together.
- Add dry to the wet ingredients, and mix until well combined.
- Fill muffin liners 1/3 full with batter.
- Add a few chocolate chips, and fill the muffin liner up to 2/3 full.
- In a bowl combine butter and sugars.
- Slowly add in flour and spices until just combined. Crumble on top of muffins.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes.
- Cool on a wire rack.
Oatmeal Yogurt Parfait
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup Rolled Oats
- 1/2 cup frozen mixed fruit, thawed
- 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
- Fresh blueberries and strawberries
- Boil water, and add the oats.
- Stir until well mixed.
- Layer a 1/4 cup oats in the bottom of a cup or parfait dish, top with 1/4 cup frozen fruit mix, then 1/4 yogurt.
- Repeat the layers.
- Top with a spoonful of fresh blueberries and a strawberry.
You can add that touch of special with a chocolate butterfly! Directions for that can be found at We Lived Happily Ever After.
Don’t forget to pretty up the breakfast tray! Add some fresh flowers, her favorite book, whatever it is your mom likes. Go ahead, spoil her!
Please visit my co-host Diane at Simple Living and Eating. She has a Sausage and Eggplant Cassoulet for you today.
Weekend Baking {Menu Plan}
I’ve never spent quite so much time in the kitchen as I did this last weekend. Maybe it was because I finally got some major cleaning done during the week, or maybe I was just really excited about some of the ideas I have cooked up for you. I don’t know. I do know, that by the end of the day yesterday my feet were killing me!
Here’s a little run down of what I made:
Sourdough bread. I made my first starter ever last Sunday, and was itching the whole week for it to be ready to use. Unfortunately my bread machine decided it can’t sit still anymore, so it pulled it’s own cord partway through rising. Thankfully my mom taught me bread making as a child, so I easily adapted and oven baked it.
Mini Apple pies. I tried making these a month or so ago and they failed. They failed again. I don’t think I’ll be attempting apple pie with phyllo dough anymore. It’s just too tricky to work with.
Chocolate Butterflies. These were so fun to create, and turned out so pretty. Although Mark’s reaction to the books in the fridge will be right up there on things I will never forget – “Umm, did you know there’s a couple of books in the fridge?” Yes honey, I put them there. Find the tutorial at We Lived Happily Ever After.
Chocolate chip Banana Muffins and Yogurt Oatmeal parfaits. I’ve made these before, and whipped them up quick Saturday so I could do a little photo shoot. I even bought some pretty flowers just for show (and really I love having fresh flowers in the house!)
Nutella Banana Fudgesicles. This happened. It oh so happened. Mark bought our very first jar of Nutella and I went wild! Last Sunday it was nutella no-bakes (just switch out the peanut butter in this recipe with nutella). This week it was fudgesicles and sandwiches. The girls loved their Nutella and Honey sandwiches.
May’s Freezer Cooking:
Italian Beef and Beans
Beefy Enchiladas
Chicken Tucson
Spaghetti Casserole
Ham and Corn Casserole
Nachos – Made for Dinner
After indulging in my Nachos made for dinner, head on over to my cohost Diane for some delicious looking Carrot Chickpea Soup!
Mark has requested a few more manly type meals. In truth he doesn’t request much, but he came home one day with a bag of chips and a #10 can of Nacho sauce. The challenge was on!
He of course only expected chips, cheese, salsa and sour cream. He was not expecting what he came home to – a high pile of chips, shredded chicken, beans, cheese, tomatoes, green onions, sour cream and guacamole.
I could not in good conscience serve my family nachos as a meal. Unless of course I found a way to balance it with a slightly more healthy take. This my friends, this was good. I even had some as leftovers for lunch one day.
- 2 chicken breasts
- 2 tsp Wildtree Fajita Seasoning
- 1 cup water
- 1 bag tortilla chips
- 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup cheese sauce, divided
- 1 avocado
- 1 TBS Wildtree guacamole mix
- 1 tomato , chopped
- 4 green onions, chopped
- sour cream dollops
- Place the chicken, fajita seasoning and water in your crockpot on high for 3-4 hours. Once the chicken is cooked through, use forks to shred the chicken. Set it aside.
- On a large baking sheet (a 9×13 baking dish would also work well) spread out half of the tortilla chips. Spread half of the chicken, and half of the pinto beans on top of the chips. Pour 1/2 cup of the cheese sauce over the first layer. Repeat the layer of chips, chicken, beans and cheese.
- Place your nachos in a 350 degree oven (can be preheated or not), for 30 minutes. While the nachos are heating up, cut the avocado in half. Remove the pit and peel. Mash the avocado with a fork, and stir in the guacamole mix. Place in fridge.
- Remove Nachos from oven. Top with tomatoes, green onions, and dollops of sour cream and guacamole. Enjoy!
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Peanut Free No-Bake Cookies {Foodie Friday}
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 cups sugar, separated
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder (I use Rodelle Dutch Processed)
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup Sunflower Butter
- 3 1/4 cups Oats
- 2 TBS Sunflower nuts
- Begin by chopping the sunflower nuts. If you have a food processor use that. I used the side of a large knife to press them down, and then spent a little time chopping them up finely. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat.
- Turn the heat down to medium, and add the milk.
- Mix 1 cup sugar and the cocoa powder together.
- Add the cocoa, sugar mixture to the saucepan, and add the second cup of sugar. Stir well.
- Bring to a full boil, and then time for 1 minute.
- REMOVE the pan from heat.
- Stir in the vanilla and Sunflower Butter. Mix well.
- Add the oats and nuts.
- Spread some wax/parchment paper on your counter or table.
- Using a spoon, or cookie scoop, scoop balls of the mixture onto the wax paper.
- Let cool until hardened.
- Since we used Sunflower butter, they seem to be a little more sticky on the bottom.
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Pizza Quesadilla’s {Foodie Friday}
Pepperoni Quesadilla
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Epic Birthday Cake {Menu Plan}
Mark had a birthday, shout Hooray! We left Friday afternoon to spend the weekend at my parents. They are kind enough to watch our kids for extended periods of time, while Mark and I go on dates. All he wanted for his birthday was a date with me…awe! It’s funny because that’s what I’m always telling him I want.
We left the kids a little before lunch to go pick up his specially ordered cake. Marks’ cousins wife has made some beautiful cakes (like his sisters Wedding Cake), so Mark decided he wanted to get a nice one this year. I didn’t really mind, since it meant I wouldn’t have to bake, and could focus more on him, and cleaning the house before we left.
Creamy Potato Cauliflower Soup
- 3 Beef Boullion cubes
- 3 cups of water
- 4 Russet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 2 cups cauliflower, chopped
- 2 TBS yellow onion, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 4 slices bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
- green onions, sliced
- cheddar cheese, grated
- Place the boullion, water, potatoes, cauliflower, onion, and salt and pepper into a crockpot. Turn on high for 4-5 hours.
- Cook bacon.
- When the potatoes and cauliflower are soft, pour the soup into a blender and add the cream cheese.
- Puree the soup until smooth and creamy.
- Serve topped with bacon, green onions, and cheddar cheese.
BLT and Swiss on Bacon Cheddar Bread {Foodie Friday}
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 package knor cream corn soup (I used the Japanese version my mother-in-law sent us.)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 TBS honey
- 3 cups All purpose flour
- 1/2 cup bacon bits
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- Put all the ingredients into your bread machine pan. Choose 2lb loaf, light crust, and then set for a Basic Cycle.
- If you don’t have a Bread Machine, good luck. ha ha, no just kidding, kind of.
- Mix the milk and corn soup together.
- In a small bowl combine the yeast and water; let sit.
- In a separate bowl mix the flour salt and cornmeal. Set aside.
- Combine the yeast and milk mixtures.
- Knead in the dry ingredients. Let rise until double.
- I would bake at 350, and just keep an eye on it until lightly browned. Cool and Enjoy.
- 2 slices Bacon Cheddar Bread
- 3 slices Bacon, cooked
- 2 red leaf lettuce leafs
- 1 Roma tomato, sliced
- 2 slices Swiss Cheese
- Salad Dressing (I interchange Mayo and Miracle Whip all the time. Choose what you like)
- Spread a fair amount of the dressing on each slice of bread.
- Layer on the lettuce, bacon, tomato and cheese.
- Top with the 2nd slice of bread.
- Enjoy a classic!
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Chicken Mango Wraps with Citrus Ginger Dressing
Chicken Mango Wraps with a Citrus Ginger Dressing
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