Berry-berry Streusel Bars

The meeting I was supposed to go to tonight got canceled...thankfully. But, that means I know have these streusel bars sitting on my counter.....

I wanted to make something easy and quick, and this was pretty simple. They are still cooling but they smell delicious!



Berry-berry Streusel Bars
from Bon Appetit: Fast Easy Fresh

Crust:
1.5 cups old-fashioned oats 
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Filling:
1 12-oz. package frozen blueberries, thawed
2/3 cup raspberry jam
5 tsp all purpose flour
1.5 tsp minced lemon peel

For the crust: preheat oven to 375. Mix the first four ingredients together. Add the butter and rub into mixture with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Press half of the mixture into a buttered 9x13x2 glass baking dish. Bake crust until lightly brown, about 15 minutes. Cool slightly.

For the filling: Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

Spread the filling over the crust and sprinkle remaining crumb mixture over fruit. Bake until topping is golden, about 35 minutes. Cool in pan.

My phone is now not letting me send pictures to my email. I will have to edit this later.

Bourbon Stuffed Peppers

I've mentioned on here before that I've been to some Tastefully Simple parties (and am going to another one this Friday). I've bought some of there dip mixes and glazes, etc. I've been dying to try their Bayou Bourbon Glaze, and had a recipe planned for WEEKS. Sunday, I chose an all new recipe to use it in all-together. I went to the product's website, where they have tons of recipes you can use their products in and chose one that sounded more appealing. I went with stuffed peppers because I love the. Simple as that. One thing I do regret is not conferring my dinner plans with Mum. She made chili. I wanted her food, she wanted my food. Luckily there are leftovers.


Bourbon Stuffed Peppers
from here

4 -5 green bell peppers
1 lb. ground beef
1 Tbsp. Garlic Garlic™
1 Tbsp. Onion Onion™
3 Tbsp. Bayou Bourbon™ Glaze
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 cups cooked rice
2 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions
Cut tops off each pepper; remove seeds and set aside. In a large pan, brown ground beef and drain. Add remaining ingredients except for cheese; simmer for 2-3 minutes. Fill each pepper with mixture. Place in an 8 x 8 pan. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes. Top each pepper with cheese and bake an additional 10 minutes. Makes 4 servings. 


There was enough mix to fill 5 peppers. I also didn't have Worcestershire sauce like I thought I did, and I used Cheddar Jack cheese because I had it on hand. I also didn't have a charged phone to take photos. They looked good though...promise!


I have my dessert in the oven right now, and once it comes out I will snap a photo of it and it will be posted!

Rigatoni with Butternut-Gruyere Sauce

I am on a roll with using leftovers in my cooking. Today, I used up the leftover pureed squash I had for a pasta recipe that sounded super yummy. I did make one slight mistake when I was cooking, I set my herbs aside and never added them into the sauce. I never even noticed until I was cleaning up. Oh well! It was good regardless. I am saving then dessert I was going to make tonight for tomorrow to bring to a meeting I'm going to.

I have also decided today that they should have a channel that plays nothing but Alton Brown all day. I'm watching him on the Cooking Channel right now and he is eating lutefisk, which is making my pasta in belly not settle so well. I'd like to say that I'm adventurous in my appetite, but I'm not sure I could ever eat lutefisk, or haggis, or headcheese.

Let's go back to discussing really yummy foods...like butternut squash and gruyere cheese. Today, while grocery shopping I discovered smoked gruyere. How have I never seen this before??? I buy gruyere a few times a year and have bypassed the smoked gruyere somehow. I bought some just to try it and ended up putting it into my sauce. I'm not sure I can eat regular gruyere ever again...

Rigatoni with Butternut-Gruyere Sauce
adapted from here

1 medium, or 1 pound butternut squash (I used leftover pureed squash)
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, diced
olive oil
kosher salt
2 cups milk or cream
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup Gruyère cheese, grated
1 pound rigatoni pasta
1 cup fresh sage, chopped
2 tablespoons freshly chopped flat leaf parsley

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut butternut squash in half and remove seeds and stringy parts. Reserve seeds for roasting if desired. Drizzle halves with olive oil and sprinkle with a little kosher salt. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet and roast at 350 degrees until very fork tender, about 1 hour.
2.  Once squash is done, cook pasta according to package directions and drain well. Preheat large skillet. Drizzle with olive oil. Add onion and garlic. Saute over medium heat until translucent. Scoop roasted squash away from the skin and add to skillet. Add butter and milk. Heat through. Remove from heat and add sage, parsley and cheese. Mix until cheese has melted. Serve with crusty bread.

My sauce was thinner than this recipe calls for, just because the squash was pureed beforehand, but if you let the sauce sit for about 10 minutes it thickens up (I learned this when I was packing up leftovers). I also sprinkled some shredded smoked gruyere on top, and the bits with a lot of it on it were the yummiest. Oddly enough, and not planned at all, a recipe I'm planning on making later in the week calls for gruyere. I'll have to go buy some more as I used up quite a bit today, but I have a little leftover. The leftover cooking continues!

Lasagna Roll-ups

Yesterday, I made Butternut Squash Lasagna for Thanksgiving. The recipe can be found under my September archives. I decided to cook the entire box of lasagna noodles, just in case I wanted to make the lasagna bigger, and if not, then I would use them for roll-ups. The roll-ups won that battle.

I looked up some recipes trying to find one that incorporated what I had in my fridge. After reading many that required spinach (that I wish I had) and Italian sausage (which isn't my favorite), I decided that it would be easy enough to wing it. I crossed my fingers and got to work.

I started with the noodles

And topped them with a yummy cheesy mixture

Followed by some ground beef

And some marinara

Rolled them up tight

Baked them

Put one on a plate and ate it!

Lasagna Roll-ups

6-8 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente
7-8 oz. ricotta cheese (i used fat free ricotta)
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella + some to top
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1.5 tsp oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 to 1/2 lb of ground beef
marinara sauce

1.Preheat oven to 325.
2. Brown ground beef in a skillet over med-high heat.
3. In a bowl, mix together cheeses, eggs, oregano, garlic and onion powder.
4. Lay out lasagna noodles. Top with heaping spoonfuls of cheese mixture, ground beef, and marinara sauce. Roll up and place in a glass baking dish with marinara sauce on the bottom.
5. Top with more marinara and bake for 20 minutes.
6. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over rolls and bake for another 10 minutes.

I wish I had added in more garlic, either fresh minced garlic or cooked the ground beef in garlic. Other than that they were awesome. While I waited for them to cook I snacked on a warm Chocolate Chip Banana Muffin.

Can't beat a day of easy no-fuss cooking and relaxation!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

So today is using up leftovers day...except I mainly used non-Thanksgiving leftovers. For this recipe, I didn't use any Thanksgiving leftovers. I wanted to use up the rest of the bananas I had after my attempted Banana Cream Pie....which ended up more like Banana Cream Soup. Oh well, next time, I will perfect it.

I started by mashing some bananas with some melted butter

Then added vanilla, egg and sugar

Then sprinkled on some baking soda and salt from an elephant

Mixed in some flour

Folded in some chocolate chips

Which all magically mixed together and turned into muffins!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

3 or 4 mashed bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1.5 cups of flour
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease muffin tin.
2. Mix mashed bananas with the melted butter.
3. Add vanilla, sugar and egg and mix until incorporated.
4. Sprinkle baking soda and salt on top of mixtures and stir it in.
5. Add the flour and mix well.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips.
7. Pour mixture into muffin cups, filling cups 3/4 full.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes then cool on a wire rack.

I am not a huge banana fan, but apparently this week banana was just calling my name. At least I did not have 2 failed banana dishes. These were delicious and my kitchen smelled wonderful...until I made lasagna roll-ups and masked the banana scent.

Pizza Bites

I was waiting for the perfect time to make these. They looked so fun and yummy over at Annie's Eats, but then again, everything she makes looks delicious. There's not much to say about these other than they are super easy and super delicious. They were gone in about 3 minutes once I set them on the table for the game today.

Pizza Bites

from: Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
½ batch pizza dough (enough for 1 pizza)
4 oz. mozzarella cheese, cubed (about 20-24 pieces)
Sliced pepperoni

For topping:
Olive oil
Italian seasoning
Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400˚ F.  Lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate or cake pan.  Divide the pizza dough into 20-24 roughly equal sized pieces.  Take one of the dough pieces, top with a cube of cheese and a slice or two of pepperoni.  Pull the edges of the dough around the fillings and pinch closed.  Place seam-side down in the baking dish.  Repeat with the remaining dough pieces.

Lightly brush the tops of the dough balls with olive oil.  Sprinkle with Italian seasoning and grated Parmesan cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

I had marinara sauce to serve with them, but forgot it at home. They were great either way!

Chicken Enchilada Rollups

Game day. That really means finger food day to me. As much as I enjoy watching the Patriots, football isn't my sport. I'm more of a basketball and hockey girl. I saw this recipe over at Annie's Eats and wanted to try it. I have a similar recipe I've been using for a couple of years, so I wanted to compare. My recipe has no chicken and is a basic mix of cream cheese, sour cream, salsa and cheese. I think I kind of like mine better. Jaime and Tyler really liked these, so I was happy I made them. They are delicious, I think I just prefer the more basic one.

Chicken Enchilada Rollups 
from: Annie's Eats

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup shredded cheese (cheddar, Mexican blend, pepper jack, etc.)
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
2 tsp. chili powder
½ tsp. cumin
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
Salt, to taste
Handful of cilantro, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
10 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained well
4-6 8-inch tortillas

Directions:Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.  Cook in a skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned and cooked through.  Transfer to a plate and let cool.

In the meantime, combine all of the remaining ingredients except tortillas in a large mixing bowl.  Mix until well blended.  Once the chicken is cool, transfer to a cutting board and chop or shred into small pieces.  Add the chicken to the filling mixture and stir well to incorporate.

Spread a thin layer of the filling mixture over a tortilla, leaving a small border clear around the edge.  Roll the tortilla up tightly into a spiral.  Place the rolled up tortilla on a cutting board and use a sharp knife to cut into 1- to 1½-inch thick segments.  Transfer to a serving platter and serve chilled or at room temperature.