Yummy Fruit Pizzas

Today my sweet tooth was calling out to me to make something yummy to snack on. I didn't feel like making the usual cookies or brownies, so I decided to make Fruit Pizzas! What I love about these things is that they are sweet without being overly packed with sugar. I must give you fair warning before you eat these... it is nearly impossible to eat just one because they are extremely addicting! 

What you'll need:

Sugar Cookie Dough

1 Package of Cream Cheese

1/2 Cup Sugar

2 teaspoons Vanilla

Fresh Fruit cut up

What to Do:

Start by baking the sugar cookies on an un-greased cookie sheet (excuse how ugly my baking sheets are- they are used daily!) Flatten them out a little bit (I used a coffee mug to flatten them into circles)

 Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes (it's important to not over-do them)

While cookies are baking in the oven, Take the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla and mix in the blender until it's a creamy smooth consistency.

When cookies are done baking, put them in the fridge to cool, and then top them with the cream cheese mixture and put them back in the fridge

 Cut up the Fresh fruit you want to put on top. I used Kiwis, Strawberries, Blueberries, Banana, and Oranges. I found it works best to cut the fruit into cubes.

Take the cookies out of the fridge and top with the fresh fruit. If you don't eat them immediately, store them in the fridge (because of the fruit and cream cheese).

Egg in Toast

This recipe is one of my favorite go to recipes for a yummy breakfast without being too hard to make... it's been given a million names but I just call it eggs in toast.

What you'll need:

Eggs

Slices of Bread

Butter

Cooking spray

What to Do:

Start off by taking your slice(s) of bread and use a small glass, or really anything with a circular shape (I  used the top of a shaker) and press down and turn, so that it cuts a hole in the middle of the bread. Remove the piece of bread and set it to the side.

Spray a frying pan with non-stick spray, and place buttered bread in the pan and crack an egg in the hole of each piece of toast, and cook over Medium heat (i've tried cooking it at a higher temperature, but it usually ends up burning the toast and not fully cooking the egg).

Flip the toast over once the egg is cooked to desired amount and cook for the remaining time.

Once it's done cooking, put it on a plate, and you've got an egg in toast! Enjoy!

Chicken Ranch with Cheese Breading

I'm always looking for new ways to make chicken breasts, and I came across this recipe for Ranch chicken! so yummy!

What you'll need:

1/2 Cup of Ranch Dressing

1 Tablespoon Flour

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

1/4 Cup of Shredded Cheese

1/4 Cup of Parmesan Cheese

What to do:

Measure out ranch dressing, and pour it into a medium sized mixing bowl.

Add in Flour, and mix the flour and ranch dressing together until completely combined.

Spoon Ranch Dressing mix onto both sides of the chicken breasts in a baking dish.

Sprinkle the Chicken breasts with the shredded and parmesan cheeses.

Bake in oven at 375 degrees, for about 30 minutes. ( Use a meat thermometer to make sure they are completely done- it should read at least 165 degrees for the internal temperature)

Gingerbread cookies

With my family coming into town for the holidays, a christmas tradition is for us to decorate gingerbread houses. When heading to the store however, I was very disappointed to find that they were completely out of gingerbread houses, so this year I decided to make my own. I figured, while making the houses, might as well make some gingerbread cookies! Plus when baking them, it fills the house with the yummiest smell!


What you'll need:
1/2 Cup room temperature butter
1/2 Cup dark brown sugar
1/4 Cup molasses
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon ground ginger
1.5 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 Cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons water


What to do:
In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and baking soda together.

Mix until the contents are smooth and creamy (as pictured below)

Slowly add in flour and water into the mixture

Roll dough into a ball and refrigerate for about 15-30 minutes so the dough is a little stiff and easy to roll out.

Roll out dough on a flat surface. (If the dough is sticking, sprinkling a little flour will help prevent the dough from sticking, and also help your cookie shapes come up easily off the surface). once the dough is desired thickness, use cookie cutters to cut out shapes.

Place the cookies in the oven at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Roasted Veggies with Salad

One of my favorite go-to items to make when I want something quick to make and still be healthy are roasted veggies on top of a Salad.


What to Do:
Start off by putting the washed and ready to cook veggies you want to roast (my two favorites are asparagus and baby portobello mushrooms) on a baking sheet and drizzle with Olive Oil, and sprinkle with Seasoned Salt. Put them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes

I like to start my salad off with mixed spring greens, but of course you can use whatever kind of salad you want ( however fair warning- iceberg lettuce really has no nutritional value)

Then chop up some fresh veggies such as tomatoes, carrots, avocado... and put them on top of the salad to add extra flavor

Take roasted veggies and put on salad, and you'll have a very yummy healthy meal. If you use a lot of roasted veggies, you can get away with not using salad dressing at all if you're trying to cut back on calories, or for something light you could drizzle some olive oil and parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

French Toast with Hot Butter Syrup with Banana Milk Drink

This morning, I really wanted to make something sweet. I decided a French Toast was definitely the way to go, and to just put a spin on the normal syrup we keep in the cabinet.

What You'll Need:
1/2 Cup Half-and-Half
2 Eggs
1 Tablespoon of Sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla
a dash of salt
a dash of cinnamon
unsalted butter
Whole wheat bread slices
Syrup

What to do:
Take the half and half, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and whisk together

Melt about a Tablespoon of butter in a skillet over Medium Heat

Dip the toast in the egg mixture on each side to have it completely coated, and put in the frying pan until they brown on each side (about 2 minutes per side)

*If you want your toast to stay warm while cooking the other pieces, put on a baking sheet in the oven at about 250 degrees*

After making all the french toast (mine was about 8 slices), put 2 more Tablespoons of butter in the frying pan and add as much syrup as you want ( I used about 1/2 cup) and stir around for about 30 seconds

Take the syrup mixture and poor over French Toast. I love this syrup mixture because it seems to stick to the toast more than just plain old syrup that falls off the toast. My husband said this is the best syrup he's had.(which all you do is add butter) so thats a quick fix to make some awesome syrup!

I also made as my drink a Banana Milk Shake
I combined all these ingredients in my magic bullet, and had a yummy frothy tasting banana shake

Ingredients:
 1 Cup of Milk
1 Ripe Banana
2 Tablespoons of Syrup
1 teaspoon of vanilla
and a pinch of nutmeg

Mexican-Style Stuffed Bell Peppers

Last night I was looking through our fridge to make something different than the usual pasta and meat sauce. I found Bell Peppers, and thought, why not stuff them!? Well we had some great ingredients that would work great for a mexican style bell pepper, and they ended up tasting absolutely delicious!

You'll need:
Bell Peppers (sliced in half, and seeds and stem removed)
Chicken Breast (cut into thick cubes)
Tortilla Chips
Shredded Cheese
Refried Beans
Salsa
Avocados
Lawrys Seasoned Salt
Garlic Powder
Olive Oil


What to Do:

Place bell peppers in glass baking dish and drizzle with olive oil and season with garlic powder
Put them in oven at 425 degrees for about 15-20 minutes (until they are slightly browned around sides)

While peppers are cooking in the oven, put chicken in a frying pan over medium-high heat with olive oil and seasoned salt and cook until lightly browned on each side (a few minutes on each side)

Peel 2 avocados and put them in a bowl with about 2 teaspoons of garlic powder, and mash them up.

When Peppers are nearly done in the oven, take them out and crush tortilla chips in the bottom of them. (I used about 1 1/2 Tostito's scoops per pepper)

Cover the Tortilla chips with a light layer of shredded cheese, and place back in oven until cheese has melted. (about 3 minutes)

Mix a Can of Refried beans and about 1/2 cup Salsa together in a bowl.
Layer in each ingredient into the bell peppers. I layered them in this order:
Bean/Salsa
Avocado Mix
Chicken on top

After they are all stuffed, plate them and you've got a delicious stuffed Bell pepper! This recipe went over great with my husband, and a perfect compliment to an ice cold beer.

Apple Cider Chicken Breast

'Tis the season for having apple cider in stores! Looking for another use for the apple cider than just making a festive drink? I've got the perfect (and healthy) recipe for you.

Apple Cider Chicken Breast:

2 Boneless/ Skinless Chicken Breast

1 apple

A handful of baby carrots (or 1 full size carrot)

Fresh Thyme

Bay leaves

Salt & Pepper

Olive Oil

Start Off with drizzling the bottom of a frying pan with Olive Oil over Medium- High Heat

While the Olive Oil is heating in the pan, Season the chicken breasts with a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper on each side

Place the Chicken Breasts in the pan to sear them on both sides, they should look like this:

Once chicken breasts are seared on both sides, remove them from the skillet, and put them on a plate off to the side. Then take the sliced apples and carrots as well as the bay leaves, and thyme and put them in the skillet. Sprinkle them with about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Flour. If there is not much oil left from the chicken, add a little extra olive oil to make sure the veggies have soaked up the flour.

Then Pour in Apple Cider ( about 3 Cups) or until the pan is about half full . Let it soak in, and evaporate while turning occasionally with a wooden spoon. ( about 10 minutes) The apple cider should thicken a bit.

Once the apple cider is thickened, add the chicken and cook on each side for about 10 minutes.

Depending on the thickness of the chicken breasts the cooking times will vary, but the best way to tell if it's done is by using a meat thermometer. Chicken is done when it's at least 165 degrees.  Once it's done, put it on a plate, and you've got a delicious chicken breast with an apple/carrot glaze.

Quick and Easy Yogurt Parfait

Don't have time to make an extensive breakfast in the morning, but still want something to fill you up and not be coated in sugar? My trusty Yogurt parfait will always come to the rescue. What I like about this is that you can dress it up by putting it in some nice stemware and make it a nice side to a brunch with the family.

You'll need:
Yogurt (whatever flavor you want, I use strawberry)
Fresh sliced fruit (kiwis, strawberries, bananas, peaches, etc.)
Granola

 Start off by putting some yogurt in the bottom of your dish/ container, and then layer with your sliced fruit

Layer granola on top of the sliced fruit, and then create another layer of the same on top.

Garnish with a fruit wedge if you're serving this at a formal brunch, and you've got a simple, eye-catching, and palate-pleasing side!

Homemade hash browns

This morning I decided to make my husband's favorite breakfast food- hash browns. For the longest time I would always go to the freezer section in the grocery store and pick up the frozen bag of Ore Ida shredded hash browns. However, more recently when I was at my local farmers market I picked up some potatoes, and decided to try and spearhead hash browns from scratch. To my pleasant surprise they aren't too difficult to make, and they taste 10 times better than the frozen ones.
You'll need: Potatoes -washed free of all dirt
Vegetable oil (1-2Tablespoons)
Lawry's seasoned salt
Garlic powder

Start off by grating up the potatoes on a plate

While grating the potatoes, heat oil in a large skillet/frying pan over medium-high heat Evenly disperse the shredded potatoes in the skillet. Then Sprinkle with Lawry's Seasoned Salt and Garlic Powder

Let cook uncovered for about 8 minutes, or until browned on bottom, they should look like this when you flip them:

Cook them more on the other side, about another 5 minutes. If you like them more on the crispy side, you may have to cook them longer. I like to cook them over Medium heat so that I don't over cook them and have burnt potatoes!


* A nice side of scrambled eggs with some fresh veggies (I used green peppers and Mushrooms with a little shredded cheese) mixed in make a great filling and healthy meal  to start your day off right!