All of last weeks meals were pretty tasty! I probably won’t make the chili again, but everything else was a hit. This week, all of the chicken dishes are new recipes, so I will update next week on how we liked them.
Tuesday Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce Simple Seasoned Chicken Breast Halves (Seasoned with S&P, onion powder, garlic powder and a dash of Tony Chachere’s)
The only way I personally enjoy cornbread is if it is sweet. There is a certain restaurant we go to when we are in the mood for southern cooking, and with our meal they will bring us either biscuits or cornbread. I always excitedly order the cornbread, forgetting that I will be greatly disappointed when it arrives at our table and I bite into a dry, bland muffin.
These sweet cornbread muffins, however, have the perfect amount of sweetness for me. Not to mention, they only take a few minutes to whip up and pop in the oven. These are great with a dab of butter, a bit of honey, or enjoyed as is!
Ingredients 2 Tablespoons butter, melted 1/2 cup whole milk 1 large egg 2 Tablespoons honey 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 Tablespoon baking powder 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions Preheat oven to 400 F. Melt the butter in a medium bowl. Whisk in the milk, egg and honey and set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together all of the remaining dry ingredients. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir just until combined.
Spray 6 muffin tins with nonstick spray, or line with paper liners. Fill each tin until they are about 3/4 full. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Over the years, I have tried a few different methods of storing and organizing my coupons. At first, I only printed out coupons I needed immediately from the internet, so I never had too many on hand at once and it was easy just to stick them in my wallet.
Eventually, I started buying newspapers to get the weekly inserts, but if I were to stick every coupon from the paper in my wallet, I’m sure it would have made me go crazy. This brings me to my first attempt at organizing my coupons, which was one of the small, 10-pocket accordion files from Target. This worked well for awhile, but as I started accumulating more coupons, it started to become a tedious task to find one deodorant coupon in a section that held ALL personal care items.
Still, I stuck to this method because I knew that toting around a huge coupon binder was something that was not necessary for me to do, and I had no alternative way in mind to store them. One fortunate day, many of the home organization blogs I followed started posting about the new Martha Stewart line at Staples, and with her small 5 1/2” x 8 1/2” binder in hand, my mini coupon binder was born!
A few snapshots…
The first pocket holds envelopes with specific grocery store coupons and catalinas, plus my Target coupons.
The pink card sits on top of everything in the file, and as I add items to my cart that I have coupons for, I will put those coupons on top of the pink card to keep them separated from the rest.
There are three main categories – Food, Household and Personal Care. Each of these categories is arranged in alphabetical order with sub-categories:
My body is currently suffering from sugar overload. Why? Because my lovely husband suggested we make this delicious dessert.
My mom always made her dump cake with a mixture of cherries and pineapple, but pineapple kind of grosses me out, so I always just looked at it with my nose scrunched in disgust. But recently, I had a version where the pineapple was omitted and I fell in love. First, simply dump the can of cherries into the bottom of a 9x13 dish and spread it around. (Now would be the time to add a can of crushed pineapple and stir the two together if your heart desires.)
Next, sprinkle the cake mix evenly over the top of the cherry filling. Slice the stick of butter into thin slices and place along the top of the cake mix.
Place in the oven at 350 F for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the cake is nice and brown. It’s normal to have a few dry patches on top that the butter didn’t reach.
Serve with a scoop (or two!) of vanilla ice cream.
Cherry Dump Cake
Ingredients 1 box yellow cake mix 1 can cherry pie filling 1 stick margarine
Directions Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spread cherry filling along the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Evenly sprinkle the cake mix over the filling. Place thin slices of the margarine all across the top of the cake mix. Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the cake is golden brown. Enjoy with a side of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Lately, I’ve had a craving for strawberries. But the only time I ever see them on sale is when they are dark and mushy, and that doesn’t fly with me.
Today, I was out doing a little grocery shopping when I came across the most perfect, bright red strawberries. Most importantly, they were actually a good price so I had to pick some up!
Then I went to grab some bananas as well, and I heard some kiwis calling my name. That’s when a light bulb went off –- Fruit Salad!
Strawberries, grapes, kiwi, banana, apple, and a little squeeze of lemon juice…
It was 1 am, and the craving for something sweet hit me.
So I made my way into the kitchen and 5 minutes later, these granola bars were in the oven.
Yes, they are THAT simple to make.
I have to admit that I’m a pretty impatient person. With that being said, this sweet treat was only able to cool for a maximum of 5 minutes before I couldn’t stand it anymore and just HAD to dig in.
This is what happens when you don’t let them cool:
They turn into warm granola globs that MUST be accompanied with a nice, cold glass of milk.
And I may have put in a few too many chocolate chips.
Okay, I DID put in too many. I always measure out the amount the recipe says, and then I add more.
Because I’m a chocolate fiend.
The extra chips could be a blessing in disguise though, because if I hadn’t been heavy with the chocolate, I probably would have eaten the whole pan in one night.
Ingredients
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
2 Tablespoons of oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Add the egg, peanut butter, honey, oil and vanilla into the large bowl and mix until well blended.
Combine the oats, brown sugar and salt in a separate bowl; add to the wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in the chips. The batter will be sticky.
Transfer to a 9x13 baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes until set and edges are slightly browned. Cool on a wire rack, then cut into squares.
