Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake

One of our friends here makes this amazing cake and just gave me her recipe. I've made one similar to it and it's delicious, but hers is even better. It's cake taken to a whole new level! Even Brons likes it and he doesn't usually like cake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 3/4 C boiling water
1 C packed brown sugar
1 C white sugar
1 C uncooked oats (quick or old fashioned)
1 stick butter, softened
2 eggs
1 3/4 C flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon (optional - I like to add it in for more flavor)
4 Tbsp. cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 C chocolate chips
1/4 C chopped nuts (optional)

Combine oats, sugars and butter. Stir in boiling water until butter melts completely. Stir in eggs.

In separate bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa. Add to wet mixture and mix well. Add vanilla and 1 C of the chocolate chips.

Pour into greased and floured 9x13 pan. Sprinkle remaining cup of chocolate chips (I add a few extra) over the top and nuts, covering well and evenly.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 mins. 

Enjoy! 
 

Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I'm just copying and pasting this chocolate chip cookie recipe my friend found on pinterest. Adri, Pat and I were talking about good chocolate chip cookie recipes while we were in LA and I told them this is my favorite one. Although you have to chill the dough before baking, it's definitely worth it!  The link for the actual blog is at the bottom.

Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/4 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170 grams) unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) light brown sugar, loosely packed
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk*
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup (180 grams) chocolate chips or chocolate chunks

Directions:

Toss together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

In a medium size bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg, then the egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft, yet thick. Fold in the chocolate chips. They may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to have them evenly dispersed among the dough. Cover the dough and chill for 2 hours, or up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325F degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.

Roll the dough into balls, about 3 Tablespoons of dough each. The dough will be crumbly, but the warmth of your hands will allow the balls to stay intact. Roll the cookie dough balls to be taller rather than wide, to ensure the cookies will bake up to be thick. See this post for more clarity and a photo. Put 8 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet. Press a few more chocolate chips/chunks on top of the dough balls for looks, if desired. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and underbaked. They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookies stay soft and fresh for 7 whole days at room temperature. Cookies may be frozen up to 3 months. Rolled cookie dough may be frozen up to three months and baked in their frozen state for 12 minutes.

http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/05/13/chewy-chocolate-chunk-cookies/ 

Slow Cooker Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

I absolutely LOVE mac n cheese. But I'm really picky about it because not all of them are good.  Actually, very, VERY few are. I had never made homemade mac n cheese before and when I saw this recipe I decided to give it a try and see how it turned out. Oh. My. Gosh. We ALL love it!!! Never in a million years did I think Gabe would be drooling over some mac n cheese. And they're so easy too. Hope you all love them as much as we do!

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni

4 tablespoons butter

2 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cheddar cheese soup

1 cup milk 
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions: 
Boil the macaroni in water for six minutes and drain. In a medium saucepan, mix butter and cheese. Heat over medium high heat and stir until the cheese melts. Spray your slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Combine cheese mixture, sour cream, soup, salt, milk, mustard and pepper in your slow cooker. Add the drained macaroni and stir again. Cook on low for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally (I cooked mine for about 2 hours and stirred it twice and it was perfect).

Raspberry Pretzel JELL-O

After hearing that Jodi was making this for Thanksgiving TOO, I decided that we should post one of my family's favorite recipe. We have had it every Thanksgiving for about 8 years. Brooks doesn't like it because of his allergy to dairy, but the rest of us down it. This is for a casserole dish size. I would half it if you can't eat it all in one sitting. It's okay-ish the 2nd day for leftovers but after that, forget it.

2 cups crushed pretzels
3 T sugar
1/2 c. butter melted
Mix and press in the bottom of 9x13 pan. Bake at 400 for 5 minutes. Take out and cool. (HAVE TO cool it!!!)

1  8oz. of softened cream cheese
1 c. sugar
12 oz. cool whip
16 oz. crushed pineapple, drained
Mix and spread on top of pretzels. Make SURE it covers even in the corners. This is the middle layer and if you don't get it spread everywhere then the top layer will get down into the pretzels and change the consistency. Put in fridge and chill for at least 2 hours. I usually make this the night before. Mine (up to this step) is in the fridge right now like this.

6 oz. JELLO raspberry or strawberry
3 cups boiling water
10 oz. frozen raspberries
Mix JELLO in water until it is dissolved and add raspberries. Let it sit for a little bit to cool down before pouring this last layer on top. If it's too hot it will bore a hole right through the white layer. ;) Pour on top and put back in the fridge to chill until set and firm on top. (2-ish hours)

7-Up Biscuits

I love biscuits! I make them every week with our grits on Sunday. I've tried lots and lots of recipes and this one is my favorite. They are the lightest, fluffiest biscuits I have made. The only thing I don't love about it is that it calls for Bisquick and you cannot substitute flour for the Bisquick (it's disgusting if you do, I tried it). However, it's super simple. This is the full recipe, but I half it for Brons and I.

4 Cups Bisquick
1 Cup Sour Cream
1 Cup 7-Up
1/4 Cup Butter - I don't use all the butter and it tastes fine

Preheat oven to 425 and melt 1-2 tablespoons butter in 9x13 dish while oven is heating up. 

Mix Bisquick, sour cream and 7-Up together in mixing bowl. Roll out dough onto a floured or Bisquick covered surface. Cut biscuits out (I use a glass to cut them) and place them side-by-side in a 9x13 baking dish (if you half it, an 8x8 works great). Brush biscuits with remaining 1-2 tablespoons of butter. Bake for 15-18 mins. 

Avocado Chicken Enchiladas

It's no secret that we love tacos, fajitas and enchiladas around here. I probably make either tacos or fajitas once a week around here, that's how much we love them. And frankly, it's always an easy meal.  With that said, I found this enchilada recipe and I cannot tell you how unbelievably easy and tasty it is!! As soon as I saw that avocado was one of the main ingredients I was sold. This one is definitely going  to become a regular in my house. Plus, with the exception of one or two ingredients, I always have these ingredients on hand. 

Ingredients for the Enchilada Sauce

1 tablespoon butter

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp flour

1 cup chicken stock  - (I used chicken broth which is the same thing or you could do vegetable stock too)

2 teaspoons of cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1/2 cup chopped cilantro (I omitted the cilantro, Gabe hates it) 

1 cup mild or medium salsa verde (depending on how hot you want it)

1/2 cup fat free sour cream (I just used regular)

Ingredients for the Enchiladas

3-4 cups cooked chicken breasts, chopped or shredded

2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese

3 avocados, peeled and chopped

8 flour tortillas

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In medium sauce pan, saute garlic in butter  for about 1 minute on Medium - High Heat. Stir in flour let it cook for about 2 more minutes.

 2. Next stir in the chicken broth, cumin, salt, pepper and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream, salsa verde and cilantro until smooth (or at least as smooth as you can get.)

3. Prepare a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Add about 1/2 cup sauce to the bottom of the pan. and spread out until bottom of the baking dish is evenly coated.

4. Lay out a tortilla and add chicken, shredded cheese, and avocado to the end of the tortilla and roll. Then place the rolled tortilla seam-side down and repeat until the pan is full. 

5. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas. Cover with 1 cup of cheese and bake for about 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbling.

*I usually just get medium size tortillas so our enchiladas where bigger and I only made 5 and still had leftovers. 

Pat's Frito Salad

Pat makes this salad in the summer. Casey loves it. The kids really like it too, especially Diddy. He keeps asking me to make "that bean salad." It is super fast and yummy.

Green Pepper
Red Pepper
Yellow Pepper
Purple Onion
Frozen Corn
Black beans
Chili Fritos

Dice ingredients and toss in a bowl with mayo. Stir in Chili Fritos close to serving time, so they don't get soggy. I just try to add equal amounts of all the ingredients and I found a little mayo goes a long way. The family loves it. Thanks Pat!!