Peanut Butter, Banana & Marshmallow Cream

Some of you may remember my post where I mixed marshmallow cream with peanut butter and served it on crackers.  Well, a few days ago I wanted something sweet so I made myself a delicious sandwich.  I used 2 tortillas for my bread.  I spread a thin coat of peanut butter on one, added slices of banana and sprinkled them with a little cinnamon.  On the other tortilla I spread a THIN (not thick, it will be too sweet) coating of marshmallow cream.  Put the 2 together and sliced.  This is delicious!  I think kids would like it better than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I know I did.

Cara Cara Smoothy

On February 27, 2012, Sunkist® held its first Cara Cara Cooking Class at Sur La Table at the Original Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles. Guests rolled up their sleeves alongside renowned Chef Danhi to chop, grill, juice and candy Sunkist® Cara Cara oranges.  Want to know what they cooked?  Visit Sunkist to view a recap of the event.

The Cara Cara orange, also known as the “Power Orange®”, is packed with vitamin A and C, fiber, folate and potassium, and lycopene: the disease-fighting antioxidant. It is a seedless orange with a tangy-cranberry like zing and it's delicious!  The coloring has a slight red tint making your finished dish even more appealing.

I went to the Sunkist site to check out their recipes and decided to come up with one of my own.  To do this, I enlisted the help of 3 of my grandkids and a friend.  We created the Cara Cara Smoothy and boy is it good!  If you don't believe these 4 kids, try it yourself.

Cara Cara Smoothy
3 Cara Cara Oranges, peeled and cut into pieces
1 1/2 cups Vanilla Yogurt
2 Tbsp. Coconut Cream
1 cup Ice

Place everything into a blender.  Blend until smooth.  Serve!



 

Woopie Pies

Until recently I had never heard of a Woopie Pie but now there are recipes popping up all over the place.  Some are made from scratch and some are made with a cake mix.  Well I like to keep it simple so I decided to give them a try using a cake mix.  So here is the recipe I used.

1 cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix cake mix, eggs, water and oil.  Spoon 1 Tbsp. on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or non-stick foil.  Bake about 8 - 10 minutes or until done.  Cool completely on a rack.

Icing -
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 jar (13 oz.) Marshmallow Fluff
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 oz. cream cheese, softened

On med. speed, mix until combined.  Spread over flat side of one cookie and top with the flat side of another making a sandwich. 

Now comes the fun part.  I always like to Think With My Taste Buds so to keep from having to make several batches I decided to add my flavors to the icing.  After spreading icing on one of my cookies I sprinkled some with coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, toffee, finely chopped nuts and some with combinations using coconut and chocolate chips, etc.  I also made a few mini cakes by putting about 1 1/2 Tbsp. of the cake mix into muffin tins and baking them for about 8-10 minutes or until done.  These were cooled and iced with my icing and topped with different flavors such as cherries, sprinkles and even a mix of coconut and pecans.  These cookies are perfect to make with the kids.

Satisfying Spaghetti Bolognese

From time to time my friend Angelina Foster from the UK will be doing a guest post.  This is her 1st and I must say it looks and sounds delicious!

Satisfying Spaghetti Bolognese

You may think a spaghetti Bolognese is the choice for students on a budget as it’s easy to make, but it doesn’t mean this meal isn’t delicious and you can’t enjoy it as well. 

I like to add different vegetables into the mixture because not only does it taste great, it helps make the meal more interesting and healthier. To make a homemade spaghetti Bolognese that everyone can enjoy you’ll need the following ingredients-

Ingredients to serve 4

·         1lb/450g lean beef mince

·         2 tbsp vegetable oil

·         2 garlic cloves, chopped

·         1 onion, finely chopped

·         150g/5oz mushrooms, sliced

·         1 green pepper, finely chopped

·         1 red pepper, finely chopped

·         200g/7z tomato puree

·         400g/14oz chopped tomatoes

·         2 bay leaves

·         Salt and pepper (to taste)

·         A dash of thyme, parsley and oregano (optional)

·         400g/14oz spaghetti to serve, cooked according to instructions

·         Parmesan to serve, finely grated

Method – Prep time 20-30 min, cooking time 45 min to 1 hour

1.     Over a medium heat, heat up the vegetable oil in a large pan.

2.     Add the mince and cook until slightly browned, then drain the excess water.

3.     Add the onion for 3 minutes, and then add the garlic, mushrooms, green and red peppers for an extra 5 minutes until lightly coloured and softened.

4.     Next, add the bay leaves and tomato puree and leave to cook for another 5 minutes.

5.     Then add the tomatoes and bring to the boil.

6.     Turn the heat down and simmer for around 20-30 minutes.

7. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly pepper.
8. Add the thyme, parsley and oregano and stir well to combine (optional).
9. The Bolognese is ready to be served. Place equal portions of cooked spaghetti into four serving bowls (or maybe a little bit extra for yourself).
10. To serve, place equal portions of cooked spaghetti into four serving bowls. Spoon equal amounts of Bolognese sauce over each portion and sprinkle with finely grated parmesan.

I also like to add tinned sweet corn into the Bolognese. Other vegetable ideas for the dish include courgettes, carrots or even peas. Spaghetti Bolognese is easy to make at home and can be more tasty and satisfying than eating the same dish in an expensive restaurant with commercial restaurant insurance.

Catch All Snacks

This is another of my "clean out the cabinet" snacks.  I used shredded wheat, honey flavored cherrios, pretzels, left over M&Ms, mini-marshmallows, about 3/4 can of salted mixed nuts and I cut up about 1/2 bag of toasted coconut covered marshmallows. I put all of this into a LARGE bowl, drizzled melted white chocolate over everything, tossed to coat.  So good!
And I feel it is actually healthy due to the shredded wheat and cherrios.  Right?

White Chocolate Bugles

I was pretty busy this weekend putting down a new floor in my living room so I didn't have time to do much cooking but since everyone at work expects a new dish on Monday I didn't want to let them down.  So...this is what I came up with.  I love sweet and salty so I decided to drizzle white chocolate over Bugles with a few pretzels and cashews added.  This is PERFECT!  It's simple to make and the kids can even help.  You simply pour your Bugles and whatever else you want to add, into a large bowl.  Melt your white chocolate, drizzle it over the Bugles and stir until evenly coated.  Cool and you have the perfect treat with a sweet and salty taste that I can't get enough of. 

This can be done with milk chocolate but I promise you the taste isn't as good as you get when using the white chocolate. 

Changes - Instead of the pretzels and cashews, add whatever salty or non-salty snack items you might want.  This would be delicious with pecans and I think using butterscotch instead of white chocolate would probably be pretty good too.  Just play with this one and Think With Your Taste Buds.

Cookies and Brownies

Get creative with your cookies and brownies.  The brownies above are from a mix and I simply added about 1/2 cup of chocolate covered peanuts and 1/2 cup of Milk Duds cut in half.  Mix and bake according to the package.  I'm not a chocolate fan but these became a really big hit with some of my testers.

The cookies are simply nothing but a package of peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips added.  You can also add a few nuts if you like or use caramel chips instead of the chocolate.  Or throw in some of the chocolate covered peanuts and Milk Duds. 

Kibbles & Bits For Humans

My Niece ask for some simple recipes to work up for the super bowl game.  I referred her to the wonderful Pace Stuffed Mushrooms but decided to see what else I could work up.  So, this is what I came up with.

I'm sure most of you have found yourself with packages of just a little of this and a little of that but not enough to do anything with.  I've found a way to use those almost ready to throw away packages.  I looked around my kitchen and found a few thin pretzels (about 2/3 cup after I broke them in half), a few corn tortilla chips that I had used for scooping salsa (about 1/2 cup after breaking them into bite size pieces), about 3-4 cups of oat cereal waiting for someone to finish off.  I dumped everything in a large baking pan, added some pecan halves, a stick of butter chopped up, a few splashes of hot sauce and enough Montreal steak seasoning to fit my taste.

After mixing everything together I placed the pan in a 325 degree oven for about an hour stirring about every 15 minutes and testing to make sure I have enough seasoning. 

Changes - I really love the combined taste of all the items I put in my Kibbles but the flavors can be changed just by adding different seasonings as well as main ingredients.  You change or add to the nuts.  I will admit that I added walnuts and didn't like them so I took them out but you might like the addition.  You can add the small cheese crackers such as "fish" or use the traditional square cereals.  Remember - Think With Your Taste Buds.