Monkey Pudding (Bananas, chocolate and vanilla pudding)

Vanilla, banana, chocolate, banana, vanilla layers of pudding goodness 

 I like sweets, I like sweets a lot.  However, in trying to eat healthier, I've tried to make better decisions on the sweets I'm eating.  This means that I've tried to limit sugar and fat in my sweets.  This pudding isn't the best thing out there since it uses sugar free, fat free Jello pudding, but it does have a banana in it.  I hate bananas, like really, really hate bananas.  The texture really bothers me; however, in this recipe, the banana doesn't bother me so much.  Once again, I apologize for these pictures, but it is really hard to take an amazing picture of pudding.  Pudding just isn't that photogenic, but let me tell you, it is delicious.  Buy yourself some chocolate and vanilla jello pudding and a few bananas and enjoy this sweet treat after dinner. The measurements aren't an exact science, but this is a super quick dessert and I normally make the two puddings before I start dinner and by the time I make and eat dinner, the dessert is ready to assemble.  This is easy peasy and tasty!

Ingredients:
1 pkg Sugar Free, Fat Free Chocolate Jello Pudding
1 pkg Sugar Free, Fat Free Vanilla Jello Pudding
1 cup of milk, divided
1 banana
2 containers
1 bowl (or two if you have to share)
a spoon

In one container, add half of the SF,FF chocolate pudding mix.  Then add half a cup of milk.  Mix the pudding until it starts to turn into pudding.  If you need to add more milk because it is too think, feel free to add it tablespoon by tablespoon.  If add too much milk, add a little bit of chocolate pudding mix.   Once the mixture has mixed the ideal consistency, put the lid on and put in the refrigerator.  In the other bowl, add half of the vanilla pudding mix and half a cup of milk.  Use the same process that you used for the chocolate pudding mix, until the desired consistency is met.  Place this in the refrigerator next to chocolate pudding.  Go do something for 20 to 30 minutes.

Come back in 30 minutes and grab yourself a bowl, spoon, the banana, and a knife.  Peel the banana and cut it into slices.  Grab your spoon, the two pudding containers, and the banana pieces.  Take your spoon and spoon some chocolate (or vanilla) pudding into the bottom of the bowl, then put in a layer of bananas, then spoon in the opposite flavor of pudding, and then put in another layer of bananas.  Keep layering pudding and bananas until you're out of pudding and bananas.  This can make one or two desserts, depending on if you need (or want) to share.  

Crockpot soup: Tequila, Lime, Chicken Fajita

Dinner with a cheddar cornbread muffin

So the calendar says that it is spring here in Central Pennsylvania, but Mother Nature missed that memo.  We've had rain, sun, clouds, and snow showers all within the last three days.   Therefore, when menu planning time came around for the week, I wanted something warm, comforting, and perfect for a rainy/snowy day.  At first, I started thinking about casserole, but casseroles are my go to food for winter and according to the calendar, it's spring!  So my next thought went to soup, however, I've to tell you, I'm not a huge soup fan.  Those clear broth soups with a few things floating around never seem to fill me up.  In fact, I'm often more hungry after eating soup than I was before I started.  So, when I started thinking about soup, I knew it needed to be a soup that had a hint of spice, was jam packed with tons of goodies, and would be easy to put together.  I started thinking that a Mexican style soup would be really good, but I wasn't feeling a chicken tortilla or black bean soup.  I wanted something that screamed SPRING IS HERE!!  I was this soup as I was browsing soup recipes and I instantly fell in love with the photos.  As you all know, my photo taking ability is not the best; but it gets the point across, it's accessible, and it fits into my crazy schedule.  Sometimes I truly wish I took better pictures, but you know what, to heck with it; the food tastes amazing and that is what counts.  So thanks everyone for  putting up with my less than stellar photos!

Without further ado then, let me introduce this Tequila, Lime, Chicken Fajita Crockpot Soup!  Yes, you read that right, CROCKPOT soup!  Whooo hooo! One of my favorite words is crockpot because it is a simple prepare and dump soup.  I've changed the original recipe from Chelsea's Messy Apron  and let me tell you, this recipe is probably the best soup recipe I've ever made!  It only takes 3 hours in the crockpot, so if you've got a timer on your crockpot, set it and go.  If not, set your crockpot up for three hours using one of those light timers and enjoy!  You'll come home and your house will smell like a fiesta is waiting for you! Mix up a margarita and enjoy!

Soup without the garnishes

Ingredients:
32 oz unsalted chicken stock (make sure it is unsalted)
1 can of Rotel with green chiles
1 can of Rotel with Cilantro and Lime
1 packet chicken fajita seasoning
1 lb chicken tenders (not the breaded kind, but the raw chicken kind, cut into bite-sized pieces)
1 can low sodium black beans
1 cup frozen corn
1 lime (zested and cut in half)
1 package Jalapeno Mango chicken sausage
3/4 cup roasted garlic quinoa  (this came in an ready to make, just add water package)
3 tbsps of tequila
4 fresh Roma tomato, cut into bite-sized pieces

Garnishes:
avocado
Mexican cheese
Sour cream or Greek yogurt
tortillas

In the bowl of your crockpot add the broth, the fajita seasoning packet, half of the lime zest, half of the lime juice, the tequila and corn.  In your food processor, puree the two cans of Rotel until they are a liquid and add to the crockpot.  Then, cut the chicken tenders and chicken sausage into bite size pieces and add them to the liquid.  Drain and rinse the black beans and add them.  Add the quinoa and then turn your crockpot on low and let cook for three hours.  When the three hours have passed and your house now smells like it's ready for fiesta,  add the fresh tomatoes, the other half of the lime juice and serve.  Garnish with your favorite toppings.  I enjoy avocado, cheese, and Greek yogurt.  This is a phenomenal soup and will definitely be added to my soup rotation!

My soup "doctored" up with Greek yogurt, avocado, and cheese

The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie EVER!

I know that this blog already has a brown butter chocolate chip cookie on it and it was amazing; however, this cookie is far superior to the other cookie.  Yes, the other cookie is much easier to make and has less steps, but trust me, the steps in this cookie are totally worth it!!!  Make sure you plan ahead of time to make these, but please, please make these at least once in your life.  I made them for a meeting and they disappeared completely within minutes.  These cookies are moist, fluffy, nutty, chocolaty, and just plain delicious.  I didn't make a whole lot of changes to this cookie except for the type of chocolate I used.  I'm normally a huge fan of semi-sweet chocolate chip morsels in chocolate chip cookies, but GASP, I was out of them!  (Definitely a crime against humanity to run out of semi-sweet chocolate chips and I immediately restocked them with a giant bag from Sam's Club).  So in this recipe I used dark chocolate morsels and a little less than called for.  Why did I do this?  Well I'm not sure but I'm not a huge chocolate chip fan, I actually love the cookie part!So the here is the original recipe from Sally's Baking Addition (a great site!)  So, since it's a raining and cold day here in State College, I highly suggest that you raid your pantry and start making these cookies NOW!  :-)

p.s. If you're into a nut in your chocolate chip cookies, I'm pretty sure you can add them.  I didn't, but that doesn't mean that the addition wouldn't be wonderful!  If you chose to add the nuts, add then when you add the chocolate chips and I would recommend toasting the nuts ahead of time and making sure they are cool when they are added.


Ingredients 
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 and 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons milk
1 cup dark chocolate chips  (or whatever you prefer & if you really like chocolate chips, add an additional 1/2 cup)


Directions:

1.  Brown the butter according to the instructions below this recipe. Once browned, immediately remove from heat and pour into a large Tupperware or a 9x13 baking pan. Try to leave some of the browned solids/bits in the pan because if you don't it will give the butter a  burnt-like flavor.  Discard these dark brown bits. Cover tightly, place in the refrigerator, and chill until solid - about 3 hours.  If you're rushed on time, pour it in a 9x9 and place it in the freezer for an hour.  This will harden the butter, which is what you want so that you can cream it with the sugar.

2.  Remove solid brown butter from the refrigerator and spoon into a large bowl. In a large bowl, add the chilled brown butter, the granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium high speed until fluffy and light in color. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla on high speed and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.

3.  In a separate bowl, add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt together. Using low speed, slowly mix into the wet ingredients until combined, then beat in the milk on medium speed. The cookie dough will be quite thick. Add the chocolate chips and mix on low for about 5-10 seconds until evenly disbursed. Cover dough tightly and chill for at least an hour up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory for this cookie dough. The longer the better; but I'm never that patient.
  * quick cheat here.  I like to use a tiny scoop for cookies.  I scoop them, roll them into balls, and then I put them on a cookie tray to freeze them for an hour.  This way, after the hour is up, I can either bake all the cookies or I can put them in a bag to freeze them for later.  Normally, they end up being slowly devoured as frozen cookie balls, but that's a whole different story.

4.  Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes-- if the cookie dough chilled longer than 4 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. This makes the cookie dough easier to scoop and roll.  (If you pre-scoop and roll, then there is no need to do this step, so skip ahead.).

5.  Preheat oven to 350F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.

6.  Scoop and roll balls of dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each, into balls. Bake the cookies in batches for 11-12 minutes, until slightly golden brown around the edges. If your oven has hot spots  be sure to rotate the pan once during bake time. The baked cookies will look extremely soft in the centers when you remove them from the oven. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet.

7.  If your into beautiful looking cookies (I'm am, but I never take the extra time to do this, I'm more a bake and eat type girl),  during this time, you can press a few extra chocolate chips into the top of the warm cookies. The cookies will slightly deflate as you let them cool. After the 5 minutes, transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.


Make ahead tip: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. Baked cookies freeze well - up to three months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well - up to three months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Apple Muffins

I felt like making muffins.  This urge comes on quite often and I ended up making a mess in my kitchen looking for ingredients that will make a great muffin.  Sometimes I find things that are amazing, other times I find things that make awful muffins.  One year I made blueberry muffins and tried to top them with a lime glaze.  Turns out lime glaze and and blueberry muffins take like industrial cleaner; therefore, not a successful muffin.  These however were incredibly successful muffins.  Left over apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, homemade buttermilk and some wheat pastry flour made these muffins slightly healthier than the average muffin.  Not to mention that these muffins make your house smell AMAZING!  Think the perfect combination of brown sugar, apples, and cinnamon.... yummmm!!!

So I made a few changes to this recipe, nothing major.  I never actually keep buttermilk on hand, so I normally have to make my own.  I make my buttermilk by using 2% or whole milk (1% will work, but it's not as thick).  In order to make a cup of buttermilk, I pour the milk into a glass measuring cup just to the very bottom of the one cup line.  Then, I add 1.5 tablespoons of white vinegar to the milk and let it sit.  In about 10 or 15 minutes, the milk will start to get kind of thick and slightly lumpy.  This is the buttermilk to use. I also used whole wheat pastry flour instead of whole wheat flour.  Here is the original recipe from King Arthur Flour.

The inside of this delicious muffin

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, divided
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups peeled, cored, and chopped apples; about 2 large apples, about 3/4 pound whole apples

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease and flour a 12-cup muffin pan, or line with papers and grease the insides of the papers.

2) Mix together the butter, granulated sugar, and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar, beating until fluffy.

3) Add the egg and mix well

4) Gently mix in the buttermilk.

5) Stir in the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

6) Fold in the chopped apples.

7) Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar on top.

8) Bake the muffins for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

9) Remove the muffins from the oven, cool them for 5 minutes in the pan, then turn them out onto a rack to finish cooling completely.

Yield: 12 muffins.

Ooey, Goey, Chocolate Brownie cookies

So you know those days when you're craving something ooey, gooey, and chocolaty, something like a brownie but with the ability to limit yourself to one or two instead of the entire pan?  Yeah, that was one of these days.  I was dying for a hot-out-of-the-oven brownie; that warm, deep, dark chocolate taste coating my tongue.  And, an icy cold glass of milk to wash it down.  The problem is, if I make an entire pan of brownies, I think that I need to eat the entire pan of brownies.  I mean, I do live alone, but an entire pan of brownies is still not a good idea.  So, Google became my best friend when I decided to try and find something called a brownie cookie. 
  When I first started this search, I wasn't sure that a brownie cookie actually existed.  I thought maybe I was going into uncharted territory and I was going to have to test out my culinary expertise.  However, much to my surprise, this miraculous thing called a Brownie cookie actually existed complete with a recipe.  So, once I found a recipe I liked, I went looking in my kitchen for the ingredients.  Well, part of the reason this blog hasn't been updated as frequently is because I started eating healthier.  I'm talking like roasted kale and salmon kind of healthy;  I've also tried to cut out sugar.  So needless to say, I've been doing a lot of experimenting with healthier treats.  Nothing has managed to make the blog so far, because I still need more practice to put it mildly.  However, once in a while I really, really want good old-fashioned sugar.  This craving led to these cookies.  Here is the original recipe from Food Network, Extreme Brownie Cookie, but when I started looking in my pantry, I didn't have any bittersweet chocolate.  So the handy girl that I am, I decided to proceed anyway with some improvisation.  Below please find the recipe for the ooey, gooey, chocolaty Chocolate Brownie Cookie

Ingredients:

12 ounces (2 cups) semi sweet chocolate, chopped

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

3 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup white

1/2 brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 ounces (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips  ( I didn't use these, but if you like chocolate chips in your brownies, feel free to add

 

 

 

In the microwave, gently melt the chocolate and butter, using 15 second intervals. Allow it to cool.

Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and vanilla in a mixing bowl until frothy. Slowly add the sugar and beat until the mixture drips off the beaters. Add the melted chocolate mixture and combine.
Add the dry ingredients together. Fold in the chips if you desire. The dough will seem more like cake batter than cookie dough. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the dough is well chilled (and more cookie-dough-like).   For this step, I actually just threw the bowl into the freezer for about 30 minutes until the butter re-hardened. 

Set the oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with baking parchment.

Scoop up the chilled dough and roll with your hands into small balls the size of a half dollar. Place the cookies on the prepared pans, about 1 1/2 inches apart.
Bake about 12 minutes or a bit longer. The tops of the cookies should look dry and cracked. Allow to cool for a minute on the baking sheet, then remove to cake racks for further cooling.