Stuffed Pizza Cupcakes

Another recipe I found on pinterest. The blog I found this on has great step-by-step photos, so I am not going to include any here. These were very easy to make, but very messy. Also, pretty darn delicious!

I'm pretty sure I'll be making these again.


Here is the recipe:


Ingredients
1 pkg Store-Bought Pizza Dough
1/2 Jar Pizza Sauce
1 c. Mini Pepperonis, Divided
1/2 c. Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
6 Mozzarella String Cheese, cut into 1 inch pieces

Instructions
1. Preheat oven according to pizza dough's directions.
2. Begin by rolling out the pizza dough flat. Spread the pizza sauce over the dough, leaving 1 inch around the edges.
Sprinkle with 1/2 c. mini pepperonis. Cut the dough in half.
3. Lay 4-5 pieces of string cheese across the dough, adding more as you roll. Do this with both of the pizza doughs.
4. Cut into 1 inch pieces and place in a greased muffin pan with the swirled side up.
5. Bake according to your pizza dough's directions checking after about 12 minutes. When tops begin to brown,
remove from oven.
6. Use a knife to separate from the pan and cool.

Spinach Parmesan Quinoa

So about a month ago, the lovely Colleen post this recipe to her blog. It looked really good, and I've never tried quinoa, so I really wanted to give it a try. The only problem is that quinoa is really expensive and since I don't know if I like it, I didn't want to spend $8 for a huge box of it. So this recipe just sat in the back of my head for a while. Then, I was at The Fresh Market the other day to pick up some gummi peaches (I can't stop eating them. Okay, I can, but they are really good and I keep going back to get more.) and as I was getting in line to check out, I saw that they had a bag of quinoa on sale for $3. Definitely a better price! So I picked up a bag, and decided to make it tonight. I was really excited to try this. I let it sit in a covered bowl for about 15 minutes while I made some cheesy Texas toast to go alongside. The quinoa was very mushy looking, so I was a little worried. I tasted it and it was terrible. I don't know if I just hate quinoa, or if I did something wrong. I'm leaning towards did something wrong, because I'm not a very good cook. I let the kids taste it and they hated it too. I threw it out and made sandwiches for the kids and I ate 3 pieces of Texas toast. Sigh.

Here is the photo of the finished product:

I don't know if you can tell, but it's a big pile of mush. Yuck!

And if you don't follow Colleen's blog, you should. It's great. Right now she is doing a writing challenge that is interesting and very...challenging.

http://collwrites.com/

Mexican Stuffed Shells

I tried another new recipe. This is one of the first recipes that I pinned on pinterest. Decided it was finally time to give it a try. My children love Mexican food, but they were very apprehensive about this recipe. I think they were just being difficult. I was a little apprehensive because it involved cream cheese (which I hate the taste of), but thankfully you could not taste it.

Here is where I found the recipe:
http://www.thewaytohisheartblog.com/mexican-stuffed-shells/


Here is a photo of the finished product:

I thought this recipe tasted very good. When I asked the kids what they thought, they said it was okay. But they had seconds so I'm pretty sure they liked it. I may have to make this again.

Freshening my Towels - or Not!

I found a pin on pinterest about freshening up your old towels so I thought I would give it a try. My towels are pretty old and they definitely need freshening! The directions said to wash towels in hot water with 1 cup of vinegar and then wash towels (again) in hot water with half a cup of baking soda. I did a load of towels and they are just as dingy and old as when I wash them the usual way. How disappointing!

Caramel Apple Cake

It's game night at my house and I like to bake for my guests. This time I made something new, Caramel Apple Cake. The recipe is found here:

http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/2011/08/caramel-apple-cake.html

I omitted the nuts, used fresh apples, and cut the butter in the topping in half.

The finished cake looked like this:

After it cooled for a while, I cut off a little piece of the corner to make sure it was good. Holy shit, that was delicious! I was so excited! It actually got rave reviews from several people at game night, and was nearly gone by the time it was over. This recipe is definitely going in my arsenal of go-to desserts!

As I'm typing up this post the next morning, I'm shoving another piece down my pie hole. :)

Apple Cinnamon Rolls

I can't remember where I saw this recipe, but it was somewhere online.

Ingredients:

tube of cinnamon rolls
apple pie filling


Directions:

Place cinnamon rolls on baking sheet, place a few apples on top of each, and bake as directed on the package. After baking, drizzle icing on top.

It took twice as long as the package directed to bake these because of the apples on top. The kids really liked them. I thought they were pretty good, but I think I like regular cinnamon rolls instead.

Don't worry, all of my posts won't be about food. I have some other things that I will be working on soon.

Breakfast Muffins

Today I tried these "French Toast Muffins" that I found on pinterest. The kids really wanted me to give them a try so I decided to make them for breakfast. Halfway through, I realized that I made these same muffins a few months ago, but they were called something else.

Here is the recipe I used:

http://velvetlava.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-am-now-in-muffin-loop.html

Here is my finished product:

My children really like these, but I'm going to guess that it's because of the cinnamon and sugar on the outside. The actual muffin itself is very very heavy and not very flavorful. These in no way taste anything like french toast to me. I just really don't like them very much. Just like the first time I made them.

Oven Roasted Parmesan Potatoes

So today I tried a new recipe: oven roasted Parmesan potatoes. I found the recipe here:

http://www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com/oven-roasted-parmesan-garlic-potatoes/

I'm teaching Gavin to cook so he actually did most of it, and it was fairly easy. It turned out really good, except that some of the potatoes were not quite cooked all the way. Since it already took so long to cook, next time I will probably just cut the potatoes much smaller. I also eliminated the rosemary because I don't like it.

Here is my finished product:

Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup

I'm starting out with something old and new. I make this homemade chicken noodle soup that is delicious, but I have never made it in the crockpot before. I'm giving it a try today and I hope it will turn out as good as it does usually.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or about 6 boneless skinless thighs (I used thighs, I prefer dark meat)
About 4 stalks of celery
About 3/4 of a 16oz. bag of baby carrots
32 oz. of chicken stock
12 oz. bag of extra wide egg noodles

 Directions:

Place the chicken thighs (or breasts) in the bottom of the crockpot.

Cut up and add the celery and carrots. (I just threw the carrots in there whole.)

Add the chicken stock, then cover and cook on low approximately 6 - 8 hours.

Just before dinner time, boil egg noodles according to package directions.

Skim the fat from the broth and break up the chicken with a wooden spoon.

Add the noodles and serve it up!

So this turned out great in the crockpot. I will definitely do it this way again. So much less work and mess. And there's nothing better than coming home to a hot dinner that is basically ready to eat.

Let me know if you try the recipe and what you think about it.

2013 - A Year to Try New Things

In the past few months I have become addicted to pinterest. I love that it's like my own personal bookmark website. Anything I want to try, from recipes to crafts, can be pinned and viewed at any time. With the app on my phone, I can even look for ideas on the go. When I'm at the grocery store wondering what to have for dinner, I can pull up pinterest and get inspiration, and a list of ingredients needed. Pinterest has inspired me to be more crafty, to cook more, and to want to try new things. This year, I am going to dedicate my blog to these new projects. I am going to post my efforts and let you know if it was a success or a failure. I will try and post many photos too. Hopefully this is not something that I will get bored of in a week, but I can't make any promises!