Heavenly Morsels

Now, you may be thinking that this name might be a bit of an overstatement, but it really isn't!  The best thing about this one is just how simple it!  The basic version is just 3 simple ingredients, that's it!

Everyone that has tried these has been amazed at how wonderfully simple they are.

Crushed graham crackers, a can of sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips, nothing more!  Mixing those three ingredients, scooping them onto a lined cookie sheet and baking them results in so much goodness!

By adding marshmallows they become Heavenly S'mores too.  Though, take my advice, only add 2-3 marshmallows to each cookie sized portion just before baking!

Bake for about 8-10 minutes and enjoy!

Heavenly Morsels

Ingredients

16 whole graham crackers crushed
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
Mini marshmallows (Optional)

Directions:

1. Mix the first 3 ingredients together and scoop onto a lined cookie sheet.  Lining is a must!  Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes.  Let them cool on the cookie sheet.
2. For S'mores version, push 2-3 marshmallows onto the top of each cookie.  Bake the same, but keep an eye on them.

Streusel Zucchini Bread

I promised another zucchini bread recipe and I am ready to deliver!

This one is good enough that I made it twice, double batches both times, in about 7 days time!  I can't get enough of it, the streusel oat topping really puts it over the top!  This is gonna be a short post, I would rather send you to the site where I found this recipe.

Just know that if you like a traditional zucchini bread that has chocolate chips, you will love this one!  It has all the same basic ingredients, if you are planning on making some bread in the near future, I have no doubt you will have everything on hand.

So do yourself a favor, visit Sally's Baking Addiction to see how to make this oh so amazing bread!
Beware though, it is hard to cut and then hard to stay away from.  I am going to be trying the muffin versions next time, since those don't require cutting!

S'mores Treats

Who doesn't love a perfectly toasted and melted s'mores?  Ok, who has actually ever managed to make one where the marshmallow is nicely toasted and actually melts the chocolate a bit?!  Definitely not me!  Also, it is not every day, or in my case every year that I manage to be someplace where I can make s'mores over the fire, so these tasty little treats are the perfect substitute!

These come together the same way as a traditional rice krispie treat, but instead of a rice cereal you substitute Golden Grahams and then add chocolate chips in at the end.  So simple and brilliant!

This is pretty basic in how it comes together.  You melt the butter and then add the marshmallows.

Once melted, remove from heat and dump in the cereal and stir to coat.  Once coated, stir in the chocolate chips and pour into prepared pan.

The recipe does say to put it into a square 9x9 pan, mine ended up being very thick so next time I might increase the marshmallows by a cup and a cup more of cereal and just put it into a 9x13 pan.  Once in the pan, sprinkle some more chocolate chips on top and light press on them. Let it cool before cutting into squares.
Enjoy!


S'mores Treats

As originally found on Country Cleaver

Ingredients:

1 10oz bag of mini marshmallows

1 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips, divided

1 12oz box of Golden Grahams cereal

6 tbls butter or margarine

1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat and then stir in the marshmallows.  Stir until everything is melted and smooth.  Stir in vanilla.

2. Remove from heat and stir in the cereal until everything is coated.  Add 1 cup of chocolate chips, stirring quickly before transferring to your 9x9 pan. Spread the mixture into the pan, pressing it into the corners.  Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over the top, lightly pressing them down into it.  Let cool either on the counter or on the fridge before cutting into squares.

Lemon Zucchini Bread

It is officially fall and man alive, the zucchini plants are exploding!  I don't actually own a plant, but a co-worker of mine has already supplied me several from his garden.  Zucchini is great in just about everything as it doesn't really have a lot of flavor.  It is absolutely perfect in bread as it brings so much moisture to the table.  I would bet that most of you have tried the traditional kind that comes with chocolate chips.  I love that variety and will hopefully be posting about one I recently tried real soon!  But this one is different, but still oh so good!

It isn't super sweet, but that lemon just makes it so refreshing!

The lemon glaze on top is a lovely touch and will have everyone reaching for the end pieces instead of going straight for the middle.

Just looking at these pictures makes me wish I had some right now!

To get started, gather your normal ingredients like four, sugar, eggs, salt, oil and of course the zucchini!  The additions to this variety are the lemon juice, fresh lemon and buttermilk.  Mix the dry ingredient first and set aside.  Beat your eggs in a separate bowl and add the oil and sugar.  Add the buttermilk, lemon juice and lemon zest next.  Blend everything and fold in the zucchini and stir until everything is evenly distributed.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and blend.  Be careful not to over mix.

Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for around 45 minutes.  If you divide this into smaller loaf pans, the baking time will be less.

When toothpick comes out clean, it is done.  Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the loaf is cooling you can make the glaze.  I have found that even when I double the recipe, I don't need to double the glaze.  Spoon that over the bread, don't be afraid to be heavy handed and use it all.

I doubled this batch and put it into 3 smaller loaf pans.  I had a lot of people I needed to share this with!
Cut and serve.

Lemon Zucchini Bread
As found on Nancy Creative

Ingredients:
 
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
Juice of 1 lemon (or 2 Tablespoons lemon juice)
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup grated zucchini (you don’t need to peel the zucchini before grating it)

Glaze: 
1 cup powdered sugar
Juice of 1 lemon or 2 tbls lemon juice

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, blend flour, baking powder and salt.  In a medium bowl beat eggs well, add oil and sugar, blend well.  Add buttermilk, lemon juice and lemon zest and blend everything well.  Fold in zucchini and stir until evenly distributed in mixture.
2. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and blend everything, be careful not to overmix.  Pour batter in greased 9x5 loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.  If you are like me, check it at 35 minutes!  When toothpick comes out clean, remove. 
3. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan and then remove to wire rack.  While the bread is cooling, mix up sugar and lemon juice for the glaze.  Spoon glaze over cooled bread.  Once glaze is set, cut and serve.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ribbon Dessert

One last frozen dessert, before it gets to be pumpkin dessert season!  At least I think this is the last one....might be one more in the near future!

Anyway, back to the recipe at hand.  This is one of my favorite types of desserts: layers, no baking, cream cheese and a high impression factor!  I seem to struggle to make baked goods and actually have them turn out, so that makes this no bake dessert perfect!

And of course, anything that combines chocolate and peanut butter is a guaranteed crowd pleaser!

Another nice thing about this one is that it doesn't make a ton.  If you have a group around 8 in number it works perfectly.  If it is pretty hard and frozen and you wait to add the cookies on top, you could even cut the pieces smaller to serve more people.

Ok, to get started, get your cream cheese out so it can soften to room temperature.

While makes this I had one of my absent minded moments.  After the cookies get crushed and mixed with the melted butter, the recipe says to line a loaf pan.  So yeah, I didn't notice that part and put my crushed cookies directly into my pan!

This doesn't affect the taste, just potentially how easily it comes out of the pan for serving.  I'll explain what I did at the end.  Next step is to mix the cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla until well blended.  If your cream cheese was at room temperature you won't have any little bumps.  Whisk in 3 cups of the cool whip and then spoon 1/2 cup of that mixture into a smaller bowl.  Add your melted chocolate to the 1/2 cup amount.  Of what is left of the cream cheese mixture, spread half of that onto the cookie crumbs.  Top with the chocolate layer and then the balance of the cream cheese mixture.

Freeze that for 4 hours or until firm.  Can leave overnight.  If you lined your pan, then you should be able to easily remove the dessert from the pan so you can put it on a platter for serving.  Now I forgot to line the pan, but I think it worked out better for me in the long run.  Using a hot knife (I ran it under hot water) I loosened the dessert around the edge.  I then set it into a small amount of hot water.  I was then able to flip it over and get the dessert to fall out.  I quickly flipped it back on to my platter and voila!  Dessert was ready to go!  I think removing the aluminum foil from the creases might prove annoying!  Once it is out of the pan, top with renaming cool whip and some coarsely chopped cookies.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ribbon Dessert
As found on Taste of Home

Ingredients:

12-15 Nutter Butter cookies, divided
2 Tbls butter or margarine, melted
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 tub (12oz) cool whip, thawed & divided
2 oz semi sweet baking chocolate, melted

Directions:

1. Crush about 8-10 cookies and mix with butter.  Press onto the bottom of a foil-lined 9x5 loaf pan.
2. Mix cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla together until blended.  Whisk in 3 cups of cool whip.  Spoon 1/2 cup of that mixture into a small bowl and add the melted chocolate to it.  Spread half of the remaining cream cheese mixture onto the crust layer.  Top with the chocolate layer and remaining cream cheese mixture.
3. Freeze 4 hours or until firm.  Invert onto plate.  Remove the foil, then re-invert dessert onto platter so that the crumb layer is on the bottom.  (If you opted not to line the pan, us a hot knife and a shallow hot water bath to loosen dessert to get it out of the pan).  Top dessert with remaining cool whip and some coarsely chopped cookies.

Creamy Chicken Enchilada's

I really do love enchilada's, especially those that are creamy and not just chicken wrapped up and then covered in the red enchilada sauce.  These totally fit the bill!  Sadly I don't have pictures that show amazing this dish tastes, so use your imagination! 

This recipe is a compilation of one I found on the Philly website using their now impossible to find Cooking Creams and the one on the back side of a can of green enchilada sauce.  It is really very good and makes a lot.  I have made it a couple of times already and plan on making it again, so that is the main reason for putting it on here!

If you are still lucky enough to find the cooking creams, this one works best with Zesty SW.  If not, you can soften a cube of cream cheese and add some southwest style seasons or a pack of dry enchilada seasoning.  Sorry I am not more precise here!  I used pre-cooked and shredded chicken since I had access to it.  Minus the shells, most of the enchilada sauce and some cheese, everything gets combined together and stirred well.  Try to make sure there aren't pockets of just cream cheese.

It may look a little strange cause of the black beans, but it's really very good!  Put about 1/3 cup of the filling in each tortilla and roll up.  You can fold the ends in or not, your choice.  In a 9x13 pan, pour just enough of the green enchilada sauce to cover the bottom (if you are like me and increase the size of the batch, you may need to save some to line another pan as well!).
Place the enchilada's seam side down in the pan.  Pour additional enchilada sauce over the tops.  At this point you could cover and freeze or refrigerate until you are ready to bake.

If you are eating immediately, bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes total.  At around the 10 minute mark, you can pull out and sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake until that is melted and bubbling.
Enjoy!

Creamy Chicken Enchilada's

Ingredients
1 lb of boneless chicken breasts cut into small pieces
1 Tbl chicken taco seasoning mix
2 tsp oil
1 can of black beans, rinsed
1 8oz block of cream cheese mixed with 1 tablespoon of taco seasoning mix
1 8oz bock of cream cheese
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 large can of green chilies
1 large can of green enchilada sauce, divided
10-12 soft tortilla's

Directions:
1. Toss chicken with taco seasoning.  Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat.  Add chicken and cook 6-7 minutes or until done, stirring frequently.
2. In a large bowl mix beans, both cream cheeses, seasoning, green chilies, 1/2 cup of cheese and 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce.  Add chicken to the bowl and mix together.
3.  In a 9x13 pan, pour just enough enchilada sauce to cover the bottom of the pan.  Start to fill your tortilla's, using about 1/3 cup of filling per tortilla.  Roll up and place seam side down in the pan.  Continue until the filling is gone.  Pour remaining green enchilada sauce over the enchilada's.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes in 350 oven.  Pull out and sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake 3-7 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubble.
Note: Can freeze or refrigerate after step 3.  If freezing, make sure pan is well covered.  Will need to bake, covered, up to 1 hour, depending on how cold it is.