Mini Chicken Pot Pies

I love chicken pot pie. My children hate it. That means that I never get to make it at home. I went to a cousin's baby shower and decided to make these mini chicken pot pies for my contribution. I was worried that they would fail, but they were easy to make and very delicious. Several people told me that they were very good. I will be making them again whenever I'm doing a party or get together, when there will be people around to appreciate them (dumb kids).

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of cooked chicken breasts diced
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup frozen mixed veggies
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 tablespoon of  dried thyme
• 1/2 tablespoon of dried basil
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 2 (10 oz) cans Pillsbury biscuits

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400.
2. In a large bowl, combine the cooked chicken, cream of chicken soup, frozen veggies, cheese, herbs and spices.
3. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin and place the Pillsbury biscuits into each cup, pressing into the bottom and up the sides.
4. Evenly spoon the pot pie mixture into each biscuit cup. Slide into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Check at the 12 minute mark.
5. Let rest for about 3 minutes. 

Here is what mine looked like: 

Before  

After

 Original recipe found here: 

Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes

Shrimp Stuffed Potatoes

I ran across this recipe on pinterest and had to try it. Shrimp stuffed baked potatoes? Sounds absolutely amazing! I made these one night for me and the kids. It wasn't too much work, and they turned out perfect. They were good, but I think I'd make them next time without the shrimp. I know that's just a twice baked potato with cheese, but I'm totally okay with that.

Here is the recipe:

Servings: 6 servings

Prep Time: 45 min
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 min
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon dried parsley
2 cup sour cream
salt and pepper
8 ounce cheese, cheddar
1 lb sauteed shrimp, peeled
8 tablespoon butter
vegetable oil, for coating
6   large Idaho potatoes
paprika

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Begin by washing potatoes, drying them, and gently pricking them with a fork on the sides.  Coat each potato with vegetable oil, place on foil covered pan, and bake for approximately 1 hour.

Place the butter in a large bowl.  Remove the potatoes from the oven and slice the top third off of each potato.  Gently scoop out the potato and place in the bowl.  Using a mixer on high, mix the potatoes, butter, sour cream, salt, and pepper.  Fold in the shrimp and cheese into the mixture.  Gently stuff the mixture back into the potato shells, making sure not to break them.  Pile the mixture as high as you can on top of the potato shells.  Sprinkle each potato with cheese and paprika for color.  Bake in the oven for approximately 20 to 30 minutes until browned on top.

Here is what my potatoes looked like (excuse the crappy photography job): 

Original recipe found here: 

Paula Deen Shrimp Stuffed Potatoes

Strawberry Pie

Strawberry pie. Yummy!

My sister-in-law, Amber, loves strawberry cake and pie. I saw this one on pinterest and decided to make it for her. It was very easy to make and it turned out delicious.

Original recipe found here:

Strawberry Pie

Here is what mine looked like:

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

I grew up eating pineapple upside down cake that my mom made. It was one of my favorites growing up, and the only time I will eat warm pineapple. I found a recipe on pinterest that was cupcake sized versions and knew I had to try them. 

Here is where I found the original recipe:
http://www.bigmamashomekitchen.com/2010/10/mini-pineapple-upside-down-cakes.html
I omitted the cherries and did not use a mixer. I fell like it's just as easy to mix by hand as it is to get the mixer out of the cabinet.
Here is the recipe:


Cake Ingredients:
2 eggs
2/3 cup white sugar
4 tbsp pineapple juice
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt


Topping:
1/4 cup butter 
2/3 C brown sugar
1-can pineapple tidbits


Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray your muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.  

In a mixing bowl, add eggs, white sugar, and pineapple juice.  Beat for 2 minutes.  
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add to the wet ingredients and turn mixer back on for 2 minutes.  


In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and add the brown sugar.  Stir on low heat for one minute.


Spoon a layer of the warm brown sugar mixture into the bottom of each muffin tin, then spoon some pineapple tidbits on top.  Pour cake mixture over to fill muffin tin 3/4 of the way full.  

Bake regular cakes for 20 minutes.  The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.


Remove from the oven.  Let cool in pan for 3 minutes.  Run a knife around the edge of each cake to help loosen in case it sticks a little.  Place a wire cooling rack on top, and quickly flip over on top of sheet tray to catch extra drippings.


Here is what mine looked like: 

These turned out well. They looked so damn good when I took them out of the oven and flipped them onto the rack. I was really hoping they tasted as good as they looked. Guess what? They did! Not quite as good as the version my mom makes, but close enough and easy enough that I will definitely make these more often. And I love that they are individually portioned. Perfect! 

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.