Fruit Pizza Minis

Recipe: 

Crust: 

2 pkgs. Sugar cookie dough 

(Store-bought or homemade for 48 cookies)

1st Layer:

1 1/2 - 8 oz pkgs cream cheese

3/4 c. sugar

3 t. vanilla

2nd Layer:

Fruit of choice 

I typically use kiwi, strawberries, canned pineapple, and canned mandarine oranges.

Glaze

1/2 c. sugar

1 T. + 1 t. cornstarch

dash salt

1/2 c. orange juice

1/4 c. water

2 T. lemon juice

Combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, orange juice, water, and lemon juice together and bring to a boil.

Boil at least 2 minutes, or until thick like pudding. 

Allow to cool. {To rush cooling process, place in freezer.}

Arrange cookies on cookie sheet.

Bake.  Allow them to cool.

While cookies are baking and cooling, cream together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla.  

{You might want to take a lick of this to make sure that it is satisfactory ( : }

For the fruit, make sure to have enough pieces of each type of fruit to put onto 48 cookies.  

Slice the kiwi and halve them.  

Slice the strawberries.

Drain off the juices (I ONLY get canned fruit in 100% juice).  

{Go ahead and drink the juice, or save it.} 

Spread the cream cheese mixture all over each cookie.

MMMmmmm.

Arrange the fruit prettily on each cookie. 

Spoon the glaze over each cookie. 

OH YEAH.  

Now try one or two or three.

Enjoy!

To make this into a single pizza, make the changes according to the following recipe: 

Crust: 

1 pkg Sugar Cookie Dough 

(store-bought or homemade for 24 cookies)  

1st Layer:

1- 8 oz pkg cream cheese

1/2 c. sugar

2 t. vanilla

2nd Layer:

Fruit of choice 

I typically use kiwi, strawberries, canned pineapple, and canned mandarine oranges.

Glaze

1 c. sugar

2 1/2 T. cornstarch

dash salt

3/4 c. orange juice

3/4 c. water

1/4 c. lemon juice

Grease pizza pan and press sugar cookie dough evenly onto it. {It helps to slice it into 1/8" slices and then press together.}  Bake at 350* for 10 min.  DO NOT OVER BAKE.   Follow the remaining steps in the Fruit Pizza Minis recipe.  

You'll notice that the Minis dough is doubled, the 1st layer is 1 1/2 batch and the glaze is 1/2 batch. 

Balsamic Steak Alfredo

Start with steak.

Cover it with some olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, and rosemary.  

Cook your pasta according to the directions. 

ook your steak in a Cast Iron Skillet.  It should take about 3-4 minutes per side.  Once it is finished, let it rest while you finish up the sauce. 

While the steak is cooking, slice grape tomatoes in half.  Drizzle them with oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.  Broil them until they are starting to blister slightly, turn them over and broil them a bit longer. 

In the same pan, pour in the Alfredo sauce. You can make your own, or you can use your favorite store-bought sauce.   Using the same pan allows the flavors from the steak to permeate the sauce. 

Mmmm.

Mix in the noodles.  

Place the noodles and sauce on the plate.  Top with some steak.  Drizzle with balsamic glaze.  Sprinkle Feta cheese and tomatoes on top.  Mmmm. 

Enjoy!

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

This simple salad is SO tasty and SUPER refreshing!  All you need is cucumber, tomatoes, black olives, feta cheese, coarsely ground black pepper, a little salt and olive oil.  Toss all of the ingredients together and enjoy!  It's so easy because the proportions are all up to you.  If you like hothouse cucumbers the best, use those.  Grape tomatoes?  Ok. Roma tomatoes instead? That works too. Minced black olives instead of sliced?  That's fine.  Plain Feta or Garlic Herb Feta?  Either will work (or leave out for paleo).  So fresh. So tasty. 

Enjoy!

Healthy(er) Mini PB Kiss Cookies

Ingredients: 

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. butter, margarine, or crisco

1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce

1/2 c. wheat flour

3/4 c. all-purpose flour

3/4 t. baking soda

3/4 t. baking powder

1/4. t salt

chocolate chips (can easily be dairy free)

Mix the sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, butter, and applesauce together. 

Then add all of the dry ingredients. 

Scoop onto a cookie sheet using a teaspoon and a knife {who am I kidding} your finger.  You should be  to fit about 2 dozen cookies on the cookie sheet.  Press each ball down in a criss-cross pattern with a fork dipped in water {with the excess shaken off}.  Bake them for about 8 minutes {of course it really depends on your oven} at 350*.    As soon as they come out of the oven, place a chocolate chip in the center of each cookie.  MMMMmmmm. Tasty!  Now don't feel too guilty for eating 3-4 cookies.  Remember that is still only like eating 1 or 2 cookies. ( :

Enjoy!

Apple Zucchini Bread

2 cups wheat flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

½ t. ground nutmeg

4 eggs

½ cup vegetable oil

¾ cup apple sauce

3 cups white sugar

2 cups grated zucchini

 1 cup peeled, grated apple

Grease and flour desired size pans, (makes about 3 large loaves, or 6 mini loaves).  Preheat oven to 350*

Combine dry ingredients.  Combine wet ingredients. Mix them together. Pour into the pans filling them half to two-thirds full. 

Bake for 40-60 min. or until golden brown and a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Who doesn't love the peanut-buttery goodness of peanut butter cups?  I, for one, LOVE them... they are pretty easy to make too.  They just take a little time.  Here's what you need:

2 c. peanuts

2/3 c. powdered sugar

chocolate chips (can be dairy free)

silicon trays (any shape)

CLEAN paintbrush (high quality)

sprinkles (optional)

In a food processor, combine peanuts and powdered sugar.  Blend until right before it turns creamy (so that it's texture is similar to Reese's Peanut Butter). 

I decided to use heart silicon trays. 

Melt the chocolate.  

Paint the chocolate into the trays to generously cover.  Refrigerate this until solid. 

Pack it full of peanut butter and paint chocolate on top of peanut butter.

This is when you should put the sprinkles on.  

Refrigerate these again until they are totally firm all the way through. 

Pop them out of the tray. 

Wrap with foil to store more easily. 

Enjoy!

Pizzazzy Marinara

The hubby and I have one particular Pampered Chef recipe that we really enjoy: Penne Al Fresca.  It's a super easy recipe that is made the the Deep Covered Baker in the microwave.  It's pretty flavorful, but the sauce can also be somewhat watery. I was going to make that tonight, but then I decided that I wanted to add a little something extra to the sauce... a different flavor... and I wanted to cook it down so it would be a little bit thicker, so this is what I came up with. 

a little oil

2 c. tomato

4 cloves garlic

2 t. Italian seasoning

1/4 t. cayenne pepper

1/4 c. white wine, water, or chicken stock

1 c. chicken or vegetable broth

2 T. tomato paste

3/4 c. 1" diced red and yellow bell peppers

2 T. fresh basil

1/4 c. grated fresh parmesan cheese (optional)

First put the oil, tomatoes, and garlic in the pan over medium heat.  Cook the tomatoes down and use a potato masher to break them up.  Add Italian seasoning, cayenne pepper, wine, broth, tomato paste, and bell peppers to the sauce.  Simmer for 1/2 hour or so to allow some of the liquid to evaporate and let the flavors meld together.  Add the basil and the parmesan cheese.  Simmer until desired consistency is reached.  Serve over favorite type of pasta or, even better, Spaghetti Squash or Zucchini "Pasta". 

I wasn't very good about taking pictures tonight... but it was indeed delicious.

Enjoy!

Honey Chicken

Ingredients:

2/3 c. honey

1/2 c. lime juice

2 T. soy sauce or coconut aminos

2 t. sesame oil

2 dried red peppers, crushed (~1 T.)

Combine all of the ingredients and heat over medium until the honey has melted.  The soy sauce acts as the salt and the red peppers are the pepper, so feel free to add more or less of these ingredients to taste.

I used about 10 chicken tenders and poured half of the marinade over the chicken and poke the chicken to allow the flavors to mingle.  Let this rest for about 30 min. (Set the rest of the marinade aside to serve with the meal and/or use as a dressing later.)

Place the chicken on a broiling pan. I don't have a broiling pan, so I just use cooling racks over a baking sheet. Bake it at 375* for about 12-14 minutes.  About every 4-5 minutes, I spooned over some of the marinade.  Since it was going to cook, I used the marinade that the chicken had been in, however the last time you coat it right before serving, make sure to use the fresh marinade so that it is not contaminated with raw chicken.  I served the chicken with green beans and coconut rice.  

Mmmm. 

Cut any leftover chicken up over some fresh romaine lettuce.  Use the remaining marinade as the dressing.  If you desire, saute some Ramen Noodles and almonds together for just a few minutes with some butter until golden and use them as the croutons on the salad.  Enjoy your leftovers as new meal!

Enjoy!

S'more Cookies

S'mores... Yum! 

S'mores are so delicious.  I love the ooey-gooey marshmallows and the melted chocolate that 

oozes out with every bite.  MMMMmmmm.  So I thought to myself, 

"If S'mores are so good,  Why not make S'more cookies?"  

What goes in the dough?

1 c. (2 sticks) of softened butter

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

1 c. graham cracker crumbs (about 5 1/2 crackers)

1 1/2 c. flour - 2 c. flour

1 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

1 1/2 c. mini chocolate chips (dairy free)

3/4 c. marshmallows (cut up into chocolate chip-sized pieces)

Combine the butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix until well blended.  Combine the graham cracker crumbs, flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl and add them to the wet mixture until the dough is all blended together.  Stir in the chocolate chips and the marshmallows. 

Scoop by heaping tablespoons onto a baking stone or cookie sheet.  

Bake at 350* for about 10 min. or until golden brown.  

Oooh, that chocolaty, roasted marshmallow flavor.  

Enjoy!