Easy Risotto with Bacon and Peas

This recipe came straight out of an advertisement from BlueCross BlueShield, and it's pretty great!  More importantly, it's pretty darn easy.  This was my first attempt at risotto and I think I'll be making it again!

East Risotto with Bacon and Peas

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup risotto (Arborio) rice
• 6 slices thichk-cut bacon, cooked and chopped
• 32 ounces (4 cups) hot vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup frozen peas

Heat olive oil in a pan, add the onion and fry until lightly browned (about 7 minutes).  Add the bacon and fry about 5 minutes, until it starts to crisp.  Add the rice and stock, and bring to boil.  Stir well, reduce heat and cook, covered, for 15-20 minutes until the rice is almost tender.  Stir in the peas, add a little salt and pepper and cook 3 minutes, until the peas are cooked.  Serve sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.  Serves 4.

Happy Wednesday!!

There Was This One Time...

There was this one time that I got all geared up to make chocolate chip cookies for my sister's bachelorette party, and I opened my cupboard and realized I had no brown sugar!!  How in the heck do you make cookies without brown sugar?!  Well...apparently I figured it out, because my cookies turned out beautifully and I received many compliments at the party.  So I might as well share the recipe, it's not a secret.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

·         1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

·         3/4 cup granulated sugar

·         1 3.4 oz pkg of vanilla instant pudding

·         2 eggs

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·         2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         1/2 teaspoon salt

·         1 tablespoon cocoa powder

·         1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2.       Use a mixer to cream together the butter and sugar. Add the packet of instant pudding until well mixed.  Add the eggs and mix together. Pour in the vanilla and blend until combined.

3.       Pour the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt in a medium bowl and mix until combined. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix until combined.

4.       Fold in the chocolate chips.

5.       Use an scooper or spoon to form tablespoonfuls of the dough. Place the dough on the baking sheet two inches apart.

6.       Bake for 8-11 minutes.  They will not be as “golden” as a cookie with brown sugar, so remember that. Remove from the oven. Allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes. (I used a baking stone, cooked for 11 minutes in oven).

7.       Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

ENJOY! And happy hump day! :)

Chocolate Chip Pie

This is one of those pies for those people who don't like pie.  It's simple and delicious and it's great served with ice cream or whipped cream! 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I prefer the mini)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) melted butter
• 2 beaten eggs
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 Tbl flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 thawed pie crust

Press an unbaked pie crust into a pie plate and place the chocolate chips and walnuts in the pie crust.

Mix butter, eggs, sugar, and flour by hand.  After mixing ingredients, add vanilla.  Pour entire mixture on top of nuts and chocolate chips.

 Bake 30-35 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  It should not be jiggly, if it is, turn over to 300 and cook for a few more minutes.

 Served with vanilla ice cream (or whipped cream)!

 I hope that you find this recipe as easy and enjoyable as I did.  I owe credit for the recipe to Denise from St. Ann's.  I received the recipe after we ate the pie at a retreat I attended.  I received lots of good recipes, and I'm sure you'll see some more soon. Happy baking!

It's Been Awhile

I want to say that I haven't done a whole late lately, but that's not really true. I think that some of the things I have done haven't warranted pictures, and I have a hard time posting without any pictures. But I did notice that I failed to post about Thanksgiving weekend, and I have a couple pics from that!

On Thanksgiving, we went up to my Grandparent's house and spent the day with my dad's side of the family. All of the food was fantastic! No one was missing an ingredient, no one overcooked the turkey, it was wonderful (a rare feat at big family dinners). But even better, it was beautiful outside, so we got to spend a lot of time together outside after our big meal. I love my family.

Thanksgiving night, our friend Shawn and his fiance, Tara, stopped over to see the house and catch up (it's been awhile).  We enjoyed some awesome Mangria, which was really strong, but fantastic.  I recommend it. :)

The next day, Mom and Emily and I scored some excellent ugly Christmas sweaters at Goodwill and then did some mall shopping.  Later that night, Ryan and I spent a fun night with Laura and Jason.  

Oh, I forgot to mention that we made our first Apple Pie for Ryan's Thanksgiving at work, and it was awesome!  Even I liked it!  We attempted a second one for Thanksgiving, but didn't cook it long enough.  I think there was a difference between the glass pie plate and the stoneware one.

Our weekend finished off with another dinner with Ryan's family and then on Sunday, my choir performed at Pioneer Village for their annual Christmas walk.

The next weekend, my friends and I saw the new Twilight movie.  It was terrible, TERRIBLE, so we needed to get some drinks and martinis at Symposium did the trick!

Ryan and I saw Lincoln the next night.  Now that was a good movie!  And Sunday, I went to see my Little's choir concert.  

And finally, this past weekend was the Quad City Singers annual Christmas concert at Lavender Crest Winery.  I had a great time and I think we performed really well.  Saturday morning, I drove to Galesburg to meet my best friend Ashley for breakfast.  It was so great seeing her and talking with her.  I missed her (and still do) so much!  Sunday, I decided to be really productive and make some crock-pot freezer meals while watching the Vikings beat the Bears.  It's so weird to be sad and happy at the same time!

I think that's enough catching up for now...Happy Wednesday!!

Hot Chocolate Cookies

Oh wowza, I made some fantastic cookies yesterday and per the request of a reader, I am sharing the recipe that I found online.  It was so easy!  Basically a chocolate chip cookie recipe with some added hot chocolate packets and mini marshmallow bits (which are awesome!).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 package of milk chocolate chips
• 3 oz of hot chocolate mix (I used 4 packets)
• 2/3 cup marshmallow bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl for an electric mixer, or in my case, my kitchen aid stand mixer, cream together butter, shortening, and sugars.  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until well blended.  Stir in flour, salt, baking soda, and hot chocolate mix.  Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallow bits.

Scoop balls of dough onto baking sheet. (OPTIONAL STEP: I took more marshmallow bits and pressed them onto the top of the balls before baking for the look.) Bake for about 10 minutes.  Allow to cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Best. Dessert. Ever.

Ryan and I went to the farmer's market a couple of weeks ago and I just couldn't resist buying a bucket of peaches for $4.  They were good peaches, but there was no way I'd be able to finish them all before they went bad, so I looked to Pinterest for some recipes.  BAM! I found the greatest recipe on the face of this planet.  Behold, Peachy Keen Bars.  I photographed some of the steps, and you'll notice that the recipe calls for canned peaches, but I just used the fresh peaches (about 6-7) and left the skin on!  I would do it the same way again, it was so incredibly fantastic!

I wish my regular camera would have been working, the pictures would have been much better, but I just wanted to show how simple it really is!  I always like to make sure I give credit to the person who created the recipe, so please follow the link above for the recipe.  And trust me, you will not regret making this dessert!

Crockpot Chicken Tacos

I actually made this a long time ago, before I even got my new camera in February, so all of the pictures were taken on my phone. This recipe is so simple, just through a few things in the crock-pot and it comes out a Mexican mess of awesome!

This is the recipe I pulled from Pinterest:
"Bag of frozen chicken in the crock pot. Put the cream cheese, corn, salsa and black beans on top and let it go for 6-8 hours on low. shred when done. serve with chips or as tacos."

I didn't use a WHOLE bag of chicken, I think it was like four breasts. And it was a LOT for Ryan and me. Also, I took pictures of the specific ingredients I used.

As is typical of myself! I don't have a picture of the finished product. We served it as tacos for dinner, and for the next day's lunch...and the next day....and the next day. But it was good! Not that bad for you either, we used fat free cream cheese and all of those veggies and lean chicken added up to not be too bad!

I think it would be good, with something to water it down a little, as a dip for a party. And I would probably even downsize it a little bit too! Also, I saw that someone had served it on rice.

Now that it's summer time, nobody probably even wants to make stuff in the crock-pot, but save it for fall, I recommend it!

Three Party Recipes

Three recipes in one post?  I know you are thinking, "Score!" I'm kind of cheating though...because I didn't come up with these recipes on my own.  I just want to share where to find these three rocking recipes because Ryan, Mat, Ashley and myself give them 8 thumbs up!

Last weekend, Mat and Ashley came over for the evening on Saturday.  We started out with some Cyclone Basketball and Pizza Bread!

Trust me, the pictures taken on my phone don't do it justice!  It was wonderful.  The two things I changed on the recipe to make it a bit healthier was using only 8 oz. of cheese instead of 12-15 and I used spray butter on the top and sprinkled the seasonings on rather than melting real butter and drizzling on top.

Next up out of the oven was this fabulous Bacon Cheeseburger Dip.  I think this was everyone's favorite, but it was also the one that took the most prep time.  

The only substitution I made in this recipe was using light miracle whip instead of mayonnaise, otherwise it all pretty much stayed the same.  However, next time I make it, I would definitely use ground turkey, turkey bacon, low-fat cheese, and fat free cream cheese.  I think it still would have tasted just as indulgent. I bought a fresh baguette and sliced it up to serve it on, but it tasted just as good with bagel chips or tortilla chips as well.

The final recipe I made was super simple and super delicious.  It was a Jalapeno Popper Dip, fantastic!

 Again, the only substitution I made in the recipe was to use light Miracle Whip in place of mayonnaise.  But it probably would have tasted just fine with fat free cream cheese as well.  Also, I didn't measure out the jalapenos, but next time, I'll use a little more...we like our stuff spicy.  This tasted best on tortilla chips in my opinion, but the others were eating it on the sliced baguette as well.

Mini Kiss Pies

Many of my new dessert recipes come from my little friend, Pinterest.  And of course, these are no exception.  I saw the link to these cute little pies and had to give them a try!  As per usual, I added my own little twist and made half of them with Hershey Kisses as directed and the other half with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, because they are bomb (use of this word can be credited to Ashley F).
Alas, I must give credit where credit is due and Pinterest did not, of course, come up with this recipe.  It was actually discovered on this blog!  It's a cute blog with some fun recipes, you must check it out.  Even to get this recipe, because I don't want to type it out :)  I will, however, share my step-by-step photos AND mistakes!

See, they looked alright the second go around!  But here are some pictures of why you MUST pinch all the seams together.  Not doing so with caramel kisses resulted in caramel baked onto my pan, which we ended up throwing away.

They were still delicious.  I brought the presentable ones to my family Christmas and they were devoured quickly!  I definitely recommend giving these little cuties a shot, just be careful.