Sugar Cookies with Icing

Sugar Cookies:

2 ¾ cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
(Mix together & set aside)

¾ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat wet ingredients until light & fluffy.  Add flour mixture and mix until smooth.

Chill one hour.

Roll out on flour dusted surface and cut into shapes.

Bake cookies on greased baking sheet for 8 to 10 minutes.

Icing:

3 cups powdered sugar

1 Tbsp. light corn syrup

¾ cup warm water

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. almond extract

food coloring as desired

Combine and stir well.  Dip top of each cookie into icing. (If it seems a little thick for your liking, gently scrap some off with a knife.)  The icing will harden on the cookies within 10 minutes or so.  This means you want to mix up your icing right before you’re ready to use it and don’t let it sit too long. 

You will fall in love with these cookies & icing!  They taste like they're straight from the bakery!

Peanut Butter Banana Green Smoothie

So I've been attempting to get a little healthier by doing a workout a few days a week and also by making healthy fruit smoothies for either breakfast or a snack.  :)  I am not a big vegetable eater, so when I tried a fruit smoothie with spinach once, and found out how delicious it was, I was thrilled to be able to get a serving of veggies in my diet in a new, and yummy way!  So I have tried many different variations of smoothies lately, by just throwing things in the blender and seeing how it turns out... But today I came up with one that I think may be my favorite so far, so I thought I'd share it with you!  And if you think spinach is gross, or the thought of putting it in a smoothie is even more gross, trust me and just try it.  :)  You can't even taste the spinach at ALL (although there's enough in it to turn your smoothie green in color!)  So take it from a non-vegetable-loving individual: it's good, and you need to at least try it once.  Hope you enjoy this smoothie as much as I do...

Peanut Butter Banana Green Smoothie

1 banana (mine was frozen in chunks)
5 ice cubes
3/4 cup almond milk (more or less depending on how thick you like it)
1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
2 tsp. ground flax seed
handful of spinach (5 or 6 leaves)
1 Tbsp. peanut butter

Puree in blender till everything is mixed well, occasionally scraping down sides with spatula :) ENJOY!

Chicken and Sour Cream Enchiladas

 

2 cups chopped, cooked chicken

1 cup sour cream

1-1/2 cups shredded colby and monterey jack cheeses, divided

1- 1/4 cup salsa

2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

1 tsp. ground cumin

10  flour tortillas (6 inch)

1 cup shredded lettuce (optional)

1 tomato, chopped (optional)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350° F.

Combine chicken, 1 cup each sour cream and cheese, 1/4 cup salsa, cilantro and cumin.

 

Spoon about 1/4 cup chicken mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up.

Place, seam-sides down, in 13 x 9 baking dish; top with remaining salsa (I tend to use a bit more, to make sure they are really covered!). Cover dish with foil. 

Bake 30 minutes, then sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake a few more minutes uncovered, until cheese is melted. Top with lettuce, tomatoes and remaining sour cream if you wish.

My Notes:

What size tortillas you use, will determine how many enchiladas you make.  The recipe suggests 6 inch, but I used 8 inch.  I made these 4 flour ones and then 4 small corn tortillas for my gluten-free husband.  These are also great warmed up the next day for lunch!  Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 6 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (or smooth)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, peanut butter, eggs and milk until smooth. (FYI- I did not let my melted butter cool, and it still worked fine.  Also, I used creamy peanut butter!)

Pour into flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.

Divide batter into your paper-lined muffin tin. Each cup should be filled to the top.

Bake for 17-20 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the top of the muffin springs back when lightly pressed.

Cool on a wire rack.

My Notes:

I will definitely make these muffins again; they were very moist and very filling!  I actually had enough batter to make about 16 muffins :)

Chocolate Chip Muffin Cookies

I signed up to take 2 dozen cookies to the elementary school carnival. I didn't want to bake cookies completely from scratch, so I searched the pantry and all I had was this Betty Crocker chocolate chip muffin mix. So then I googled cookie recipes including this mix and sure enough, I found one! The end result? Amazingly fluffy, moist and awesomely delicious cookies, that were VERY easy to make!! Yes, you will love these. I am sure of it. :) (Needless to say, I am quite bummed about taking these to the school carnival for the cake walk, and not eating them ourselves!)

Chocolate Chip Muffin Cookies

1 box Betty Crocker chocolate chip muffin mix (16.4 oz)
4 Tbsp. milk
2 eggs
4 Tbsp. margarine or butter, softened


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine all ingredients and blend well.

Drop by spoonful onto baking sheet.

Bake 10–12 minutes.

Remove from baking sheet while still warm.

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Chocolate 'n Cinnamon Coffee Cake (gluten free)

Chocolate 'n Cinnamon Coffee Cake

· 2 cups Gluten Free Pantry French Bread & Pizza Mix (pictured above)

· 1 tsp. baking powder
· 1 tsp. baking soda
· 1 cup sugar
· 1 package instant vanilla pudding (1.85 oz. - usually Royal brand)
· 1 cup sour cream
· 4 eggs, beaten
· ½ cup oil
· 1 tsp. gluten-free vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and beat for 5 minutes.

Combine Sugar Mixture:
· ½ cup sugar
· 1 tsp. cinnamon
· 1 tsp. cocoa
· ½ cup chocolate chips (I prefer semi-sweet)
· ½ cup walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°. Sprinkle half of sugar mixture into a greased 10-cup bundt pan. Pour half of batter over the sugar mixture then sprinkle in remaining sugar mixture, and then add the rest of the batter on top. Bake 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes away clean.

I've done alot of gluten free baking and this is by far, one of the best cakes I've ever tasted & I know my gluten free husband would agree. :) You can't tell at ALL that it's gluten free. Needless to say, it didn't last long at our house.. and I would say it's best warm out of the oven. We omitted the nuts from the recipe and it still worked wonderfully. And the recipe only uses about half the box of the Gluten Free Pantry mix, so we can make yet another cake with it *yea!*

Simple baked salmon

Here is a simple way to make salmon for dinner. We typically buy our salmon at Meijer which looks like this...

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Line baking pan with foil and wrap excess foil around edges. Spray foil with butter spray or a spray like Pam. Rinse salmon with water. Place salmon on foil-lined pan and spray generously with butter. Sprinkle plenty of lemon pepper seasoning on the salmon. Place in oven for approximately 20-25 minutes.

We usually always enjoy ours with rice and a vegetable...

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