Cookie Monster Salad

1 Cup buttermilk (If you don't have buttermilk measure 1 cup milk + 2 tsp lemon juice, let set for 5 minutes)
1 sm. Pkg. intsant vanilla pudding
12 oz. Cool whip
2 cans mandarine oranges, drained
1 20oz. can pineapple tidbits, drained
1 pkg, fudge stripe cookies, crushed

Mix pudding and buttermilk, add cool whip. Add. Fruit. Add crushed cookies just before serving.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

2 Cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/3 cup jam (any kind)

1. Preheat oven to 350* and spray mini-muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
(Makes 24 mini muffins/12 regular size muffins)
2. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in small bowl.
3. In another bowl, whisk together peanut butter, egg, and melted butter.
4. Add dry ingredients and stir until flour disappears. Be sure not to stir too much!
5. Fill muffin tins half full with batter. Top each with 1/2 tsp. jam, then spoon the rest of the batter on top.
6. Bake for 20 mins or until lightly browned.
Enjoy!

Chocolate Scotcheroos

Ingredients

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup peanut butter

6 cups Rice Krispies cereal

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions

1. Place corn syrup and sugar into 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter. Mix well. Add Rice Krispies cereal. Stir until well coated. Press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together in 1-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Spread evenly over cereal mixture. Let stand until firm. Cut into 2 x 1-inch bars when cool.

New Food Website

Well this is probably not new but I just found it and I love all of the fresh new ideas. They even have some great restaurant copycat recipes under the budget section. Enjoy!
http://family.go.com/food/

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

This is a traditional side dish at the Cook family Thanksgiving dinner table.

Crust:
3 cups broken pretzels
1/4 cup melted butter
1 Tbs. sugar

Mix together and press into a 9x13 pan. Bake at 400* for 6 minutes. Let it cool.

1 cup sugar
8 oz. cream cheese
8 oz. Cool Whip
1 6-oz. strawberry jello
1 1/2 c boiling water
1 16-oz. pkg. strawberries, thawed and slightly smashed

Cream 1 cup sugar and cream cheese, fold in cool whip and spread on cooled down crust. Mix Jello and water, add strawberries. Cool and pour over cream cheese mixture. Chill before serving. Top with more Cool whip and strawberries when serving.

Chocolate chip oatmeal raisin Cookies

2 cups sugar
6 cups oatmeal
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
2 cups raisins
2 cups chocolate chips

Mix together the following and then add to the dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
1 cup milk

Stir well. Chill several hours or overnight. (Can skip this part and it still turns out great) Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375*F for 12-15 minutes.

Yield: 8 dozen
If you don't have time to bake them all, the dough can keep in the fridge for several days and you can make cookies on demand.

Tangy Meatball Subs

I made this one up as I had thawed some hamburger and wanted to try something new. Enjoy!!
(Picture courtesy of allrecipes.com)
Meatballs
1 pound ground meat
1 cup Italian bread crumbs/or crackers mashed with Italian seasoning
1 tsp. black ground pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 small onion, chopped fine
Mix all ingredients together with your hands and roll into 1-2 inch balls. Place on baking sheet covered with foil.(Helps with the clean up). Bake at 400*F for 15-20 minutes.

After the meatballs are baked place them all in a sauce pan with:

1 bottle of Heinz Chili Sauce

Let simmer for about 5 minutes. Then place on split hoagie buns. Top with:

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese, split between 6 subs.

Place in oven on broil for about 3 minutes. WATCH IT OR IT WILL BURN!!!

Enjoy. Goes great with Doritos Nacho flavored chips and root beer floats.

Christmas Rocky Road

1 pkg. chocolate chips
1 pkg. butterscotch chips
1 c. peanut butter
1 pkg. marshmallows
1 can peanuts/or nut of choice. I prefer walnuts

Melt Chocolate chips and butterscotch chips on medium power for three minutes or until melted, stirring every minute. Add peanut butter. Heat for 1 more minute. Stir. Add mallows and nuts. Stir well. Put into a greased pan. Let set in the fridge. Perfect in about 1 hour.

Cheese Zombies

A couple people have been asking for this recipe and I thought that I already posted it. Sorry...I guess I forgot. So here it is. (I'll post a picture with it the next time that I make these)

Dough
(I use my bread machine and use the dough setting. Add all ingredients in this order so the yeast and water are on top. If you don't have a bread machine mix the water and yeast together and let it dissolve. Then add the remaining ingredients and let it rise for about an hour or until doubled.)
3 cups all purpose flour
3 Tbs. sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs. butter/margarine
2 Tbs. powdered milk
2 Tbs. yeast
1 1/8 c. water(warm to cold-Not Hot)

After the dough has risen and is done in the bread machine, split the dough into about 12-16 balls. Use a little bit of flour so it doesn't stick to your counter.

Flatten each ball into a disk and place 1 inch cubes of cheese in the middle. I use Velveeta because it melts really well but any kind is fine.

Then cover the cheese with the dough and make sure that you pinch it really well and seal it up, otherwise the cheese will melt out when you bake it.

Place all balls onto a greased cookie sheet and let rise until the desired size. About 1-2 hours. (If you cover it with seran wrap sprayed with PAM then it seems to rise faster.)

Bake in the over at 350*F for 12-15 mins or until lightly brown on top. When you remove it from the oven brush with butter. Let cool slightly and ENJOY!!

Pumpkin Bread

This bread is delicious and moist. It tastes better the next day!

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
2 cups white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans (I used PAM).

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, applesauce, oil, water and sugars until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake for about 50 minutes. Insert toothpick to test for doneness.

**This recipe makes a LOT!! I used this amount of batter to make 12 muffins and four small loaves. The muffins turn out great. I put the loaves and muffins in at the same time and the muffins were done in about 20 minutes and loaves about 40.

**I love breads to have a glaze, so after the loaves came out of the oven, I punched holes with a fork and poured a glaze mix of butter, powdered sugar and cinnamon over it. But it still tastes great without!

Edible Play-Doh

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk

Mix all the ingredients. You will probably need to use more powdered milk to make the dough not super sticky and dry enough to handle. Sophie liked using the cookie cutters on it, and I love that I can let her play without saying, "yuck, don't eat that" every other second.

As a warning, the instant it goes in the fridge it gets brittle, a little hard and difficult to work with. The girl I got this from says that after they are done she rolls it into a snake and puts it in the fridge. After they are firm she cuts them into little "cookies" and they eat their snacks. Sophie didn't care about that, she just liked eating any old piece.

Quesadillas

This recipe is from the Food Network show Quick Fix Meals. These quesadillas are absolutely delicious!

Cooking spray

2 cooked chicken breast halves

8 (6 to 8-inch) flour tortillas

1/2 cup chopped red onions

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup sliced roasted red peppers (from water-packed jar)

1/2 cup sliced artichokes (from water-packed can or jar)

1/4 cup shredded Monterey jack or pepper jack cheese, for each quesadilla

Coat a large skillet or griddle with cooking spray. Set pan over medium heat to preheat. Using a fork, pull chicken meat in shreds.

Arrange tortillas on a flat surface. Top 1 side of each tortilla with an equal amount of chicken, mushrooms, red peppers, and artichokes. Top vegetables with shredded cheese. Fold over tortillas, making a half moon. Place quesadillas in (or on) prepared pan and cook 3 minutes per side, until golden brown and cheese melts.

**I mixed the chicken and vegetables in a bowl (see photo) and then placed on tortilla. It was much easier.

Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole

5 1/2 c. prepared mashed potatoes
1/2 c. milk
1 pkg. cream cheese
1 c. sour cream
2 tsp. parsley flakes
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese
12 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Place first seven ingredients in a large bowl. Beat on med-high. speed until smooth and creamy. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 13 x 9 in. dish. Sprinkle with cheese and bacon. Cover and bake at 350*F for 30 mins. or until heated through.
Yield: 12 servings

Chinese Noodle Candy

1 c. chocolate chips
2 c. peanuts
2 c. butterscotch chips
2 c. Chinese noodles

Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together. Stir in remaining ingredients and drop by spoonfuls into waxed paper. Sets up in a few minutes.

Chocolate-Banana Snacks

10 toothpicks

1/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 medium bananas

1/3 c. milk chocolate ready-to-spread frosting

1 tsp. multicolored candy sprinkles

Line small cookie sheet or plate with wax paper. Peel bananas and cut each banana into 5 chunks. Place banana chunks on wax paper. Insert toothpicks into each chunk. Place in freezer for 20 mins or until bananas are frozen.

Meanwhile, place chocolate chips in glass bowl and heat in microwave for 60-90 secs or until chocolate is melted. Add frosting and mix well. Microwave for another 15-20 secs. or until desired dipping consistency.

Dip each banana chunk into chocolate mixture. Sprinkle with candy sprinkles. Return to wax paper. (If chocolate mixture becomes too stiff to dip, microwave on High for 5-10 secs. or until softened.) Freeze dipped banana chunks for 1 hour or until chocolate is firm and bananas are frozen.

Tortillas

1. Mix together 3 cups of flour and 1 tsp salt.
2. Add 1 cup of water and 1 Tbs vegetable oil and stir until it comes together. (I needed a little more water to get all the flour to be part of the party).
3. Make 12 balls of dough. (I only got 11.)
4.Flatten the dough with your hands or a rolling pin.
5. Spray a pan with Pam (or other such ingredient) and cook each tortilla over medium heat for 2 minutes each side. (Because I didn't roll them out very well I thought they would take more time, but it really only ended up being 5 minutes total to cook all the way through.)

I tried this recipe tonight, and though it was really quite tasty, I think I need to roll them out better, they were a little thick. Also, they tasted best with melted cheese, but what doesn't?!?

Neiman-Marcus Cookies

(Recipe may be halved)
2 cups butter
24 oz. Chocolate chips
4 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. Soda
1 tsp. Salt
2 cups sugar
1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
5 cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 tsp. Baking powder
2 tsp. Vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar, and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie Sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.
Makes 112 cookies.

Mini Deep Dish Pizzas

Pillsbury Grands Refrigerator Biscuits (Home style, Butter, whatever)
Your favorite spaghetti/pizza sauce
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Pepperoni, sausage, ect.

Preheat oven as directed on the biscuit package (I think it was 375*, but I could be totally wrong). Grease a muffin tin. Place biscuits, one to an opening, in muffin tin. Gently press the biscuit to form a cup around the sides of the muffin tin ... sort of like making a little cup to hold sauce, toppings, and cheese. Bake empty 'cups' for 8 minutes until puffy and just slightly brown. Remove from oven. Add a TBS of sauce, then sprinkle cheese, then sprinkle toppings. Return to oven and continue baking until cheese is melted and toppings are golden. Kids will love it!

South-of-the-border-Calzones

INGREDIENTS
1 can (11 oz) Green Giant® Mexicorn® whole kernel corn, with red and green peppers, well drained
1 cup Old El Paso® refried beans
1 cup Old El Paso® Thick 'n Chunky salsa
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend (8 oz)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (1 lb. 1.3-oz.) can Pillsbury® Grands!® refrigerated golden corn biscuits or 1 (1 lb. 0.3-oz.) can Pillsbury® Grands!® refrigerated buttermilk biscuits




DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray large cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. In medium bowl, combine all ingredients except biscuits; mix well.
2. Separate dough into 8 biscuits. Press or roll each biscuit to form 5 1/2-inch round. Spoon 1/4 cup bean mixture onto center of each round. Fold dough over filling; press edges firmly with fork to seal. Place on sprayed cookie sheet.
3. Bake at 350°F. for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 2 minutes before serving. If desired, garnish with sour cream.

Taco Salad Bowls

Prep Time:
20 min
Total Time:
20 min
Makes:
4 servings
4 flour tortillas (8 inch)
1 Tbsp. chili powder, divided
3/4 lb. extra lean ground beef
1 cup matchlike carrot sticks
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa, divided
2 Tbsp. KRAFT Mayo Light Mayonnaise
4 cups torn salad greens
1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Reduced Fat Four Cheese Mexican Style Cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

PREHEAT oven to 425°F. Crumple four large sheets of foil to make four 3-inch balls; place on baking sheet. Place 1 tortilla on top of each ball; spray tortilla with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with 1/2 tsp. of the chili powder. Bake 6 to 8 min. or until tortillas are golden brown. (Tortillas will drape over balls as they bake.)

MEANWHILE, brown meat with carrots and remaining 2-1/2 tsp. chili powder in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Add 1/2 cup of the salsa; cook 2 min. or until heated through, stirring occasionally.

MIX mayo and remaining 2 Tbsp. salsa in large bowl. Add salad greens and tomatoes; toss to coat. Spoon into tortilla shells; top with meat mixture, cheese and cilantro.