What's Cookin' Wednesday: A little meal planning goes a long way!

I tried a little meal planning for these two weeks. (We buy groceries in two week increments, as that's how I'm paid.) I'm pretty boring about dinner foods, so I took a look at one of my friend's (Katy's) meal plan. She does it every month and her ideas sounded fresh and new, so I borrowed a few! Check hers out. Thanks, Katy!

This is what our two week plan looked like.

-Spaghetti
-Greek chicken, spinach and feta puff pockets
-Chili dogs
-BBQ Chicken sandwiches
-Hamburgers
-Pasta salad
-Grilled chicken
-Lentil Soup (fave!)

Then we'll eat some leftovers and have sandwiches and sometimes we're not home. So, yea. You can definitely tell it's a beginner's plan. :) Hopefully I'll get more creative and search through my millions of cook books (thanks, Mom!) for some new staple meals, 'cause let me tell you, I'm tired of spaghetti! :)

But the point is, we save money by only buying the ingredients on the list, rather than a basketful of disjointed ingredients that I don't know what to do with when I get home.

ANYWAYS. I made the BBQ chicken sandwiches last week and they were divine. And SO simple.

All you need is:

3-4 thawed, boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or more if you want to make it last longer)
BBQ sauce, any kind (I used Sweet Baby Rays) :)
buns

I like my chicken LEAN... those are the scraps on the left.

Place in crock pot on low. Salt and pepper. 

Cover with BBQ sauce, generously.

After several hours, get in there with a fork and knife, and shred the chicken up. I added a little more BBQ sauce and let it cook for maybe an hour more.

There it is! It was delicious!

It actually tasted like BBQ pork or beef.. not sure why.. (looks like it too, huh?) It didn't need that extra hour though. It really was a good meal.. I was able to take some to work for one of my lunches, too! 

Give it a try!

What's Cookin' Wednesday -- Thursday Edition!

So, about 6-10 times a year I get on a baking kick. Like it will be 9:30pm and I'll NEED a cupcake to save my life. But it's not like we keep cupcakes in the pantry and we don't have the Sprinkles ATM yet..

Therefore, I will browse pinterest and blogs for a couple minutes until I find a recipe worth trying. Then I'll dart out in the middle of the night to buy cupcake ingredients. Yea, it's a little crazy.

I came across Glorious Treats. This chick claimed to have finally found the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe. Who doesn't love a good vanilla cupcake? I certainly do. She said she tried and tried, batch after batch all week long until she found it. Please note, she was tweaking her own recipe. I hugely respect bakers who can even make up their own recipes. Like on Chopped, when they don't even measure their ingredients and somehow come out with a cupcake? or crepe? or whathaveyou? That's amazing. I am by the book only when it comes to baking. Or anything, for that matter.

I am pasting this recipe directly from the Glorious Treats blog.

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup oil (vegetable, canola or extra light olive oil)

1/2 cup buttermilk

(or 1/2 cup milk plus 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice- add acid to the milk then set aside for 5 minutes before using)

Directions-

* Preheat oven to 350*F.

* In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir together with whisk, and set aside.

* In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds.  Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds.  Add vanilla and oil, beat.

* Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture.  Add half of the milk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk.  Beat until just combined.  Scrap down the side of the bowl.  

* The batter will be thin.   Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with paper liners.  Fill liners about 2/3 full. 

* Bake cupcakes in pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes. 

* Cool in pan 1-2 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan (carefully) and finish cooling on a wire rack.

* Frost as desired when fully cool.  I love to use my favorite Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. 

Mix dry ingredients, minus sugar. Set aside.

Eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil.

Add in the flour mixture. 

Only fill them 1/2-2/3 full. I think I always do more like 3/4 so they are way too full and bubble over.

Taadaaa! I think they looked great!

Now for her American Buttercream Frosting. Again, pasted from her blog.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter (salted, or unsalted)
1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (best quality available)
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream, half and half or milk.

*Optional- As mentioned above, I like a cream cheese version of this frosting best.  The cream cheese adds to the creamy texture, and cuts down on the sweetness just a bit.  If desired, for a very light cream cheese flavor add 1/2 block (4 oz). cream cheese, leaving the other ingredients (as listed above) the same.  For a more traditional cream cheese flavor, reduce the butter to 1/2 cup, and add 1 block (8 oz.) of cream cheese.  If using a full block of cream cheese, you can reduce the cream or milk to 1 tablespoon total.
    
Flavoring options- An almost unlimited number of flavoring options can be added in addition to, or instead of the vanilla.  Orange and/or lemon zest, citrus extracts, mint extract, coconut extract or the seeds of a vanilla bean are all wonderful options.  In most cases I'll still add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, then 1/2 teaspoon of the other flavoring.  For zest, add about 1 teaspoon fresh zest.  For chocolate buttercream, add 1/2 cup (good quality) unsweetened cocoa powder.

Directions-
* In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute). (If you are adding cream cheese, add it now, then beat until smooth)
* Add salt (if needed).
* One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition.
* Add vanilla, or other flavorings and beat to combine. 
* Add about 1 tablespoon of cream, and continue beating.
* Add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, one at a time.
* Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons cream until desired consistency is reached.  If you want to pipe the frosting on cupcakes, the frosting should be nice and thick.  Continue to beat another minute or so.  The frosting should now be smooth and fluffy.

I made my frosting green. :)

My goofy frosting skills. :)

A couple other trials.

Hubby eating a perfect vanilla cupcake!

Please pardon the no makeup face....... 

And baby boy liked them! *note to self* no more cupcakes before bedtime..

So, these were really good. I think I left them baking for a tad too long. But that's so hard to tell.. 

And another thing. Buttercream. I thought I could never get it right.. that it was always missing something. But you know what? I think I do it perfectly, but that I just don't love buttercream! You know? It is SO buttery. Next time I want to try her Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting. 

So, I definitely recommend this cupcake recipe! They were light and fluffy, but mine got a tiny bit crispy around the edges. Hope you enjoy them too!

Happy baking!

What's Cookin' Wednesday

These were really from yesterday, I just didn't get a chance to post. :)

I had seen these floating around on pinterest, and we were making fiesta food for our group night, so I jumped on the opportunity! (And who doesn't love a good margarita?)

Beer-garitas
2 cups of limeade (recipe follows) ((or you can use a can of frozen limeade))
2 bottles of beer (I used Tecate, to keep with the Mexican theme)
1/2 cup of tequila


It's that easy! You mix those three ingredients together and freeze overnight. Take them out a couple hours before you need them, so they can slush up. 


Now for the limeade.
1 cup of fresh lime juice, plus the zest from 2 limes
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup Splenda


Heat the water, zest and Splenda in a saucepan until Splenda is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and return to room temperature. Add the lime juice. Freeze until ready to use. 


Now, for my margaritas, I just mixed the beer and tequila with liquid (not frozen) limeade.


This recipe makes 4 nice-sized margaritas.

I quadrupled the recipe four our group of 8.

Zest the lime into the water.

I had a TON of zest.. I only ended up zesting 5 limes, not 8!

Measure out the Splenda...

Add the Splenda..

Stir and heat until the sugar is dissolved completely.

Add lime juice once it has cooled.

So for one pitcher of doubled recipe (I made two pitchers, total)... 4 cups of limeade, 4 beers and 1 cup of tequila.

Add beer, 

Add tequila,

And freeze!

I guess I forgot to take a picture of these once I poured them up, but this is EXACTLY what they looked like! ;) 

We even had the fancy margarita glasses. (my friends gave me a set of them back in college and I've been looking for a great opportunity to bust them out!)

The beer-garitas were very yummy! They had a great slushy consistency. 

So, I used the Splenda because the girl at Eat Yourself Skinny did. That's where this recipe comes from. I don't love Splenda. It definitely gave it a fake sweet taste. But I get it, she used it because her website is called "Eat Yourself Skinny" :) Also, I think a lighter beer might make them a little tastier. There was definitely a strong beer flavor. In the original, the girl used MGD 64, to get less calories. 

Anyways, everyone seemed to like them! Thanks for being my guinea pigs, group! :)

What's Cookin' Wednesday *Bonus Recipe*

Ok, I felt bad that I gave you a recipe that a) I've already done on the blog and b) flopped miserably this time around. So, I've decided to include today's crock pot meal for your culinary fancy.

I made beef stew today! Very simple.

Gather up a few of your favorite veggies.. carrots and potatoes for us. I put in some LARGE leek slices for Hector and so I could pick around them.

I cut up my own beef roast, it was manager's special at Kroger. You need about 2 pounds. 

Toss it with salt, pepper and flour. Then brown it in a pan with vegetable oil.

Just brown it! Don't cook it! :)

While meat was browning, I put 2 cups of beef stock, 1 1/2 cups water and 1/2 cup of red wine (we had open and on hand) into the crock pot.. Oh, and this handy beef stew seasoning mix. ;)

I put it on high, since it was already 1 pm when I was putting this together.

Chop up the veggies. I had too much potato... I get it.

.

.

5 hours later:

Yummy beef stew!

It was so tasty! I feel like it was too easy? Did I leave something out? We just ate it with rolls. Coco even loved it. 

What do you put in your beef stew?

:)

What's Cookin' Wednesday

Sorry this is a day late, guys... life got in the way.

Yesterday I wanted to make some cookies to take to our community group dinner.

I remembered back to these cookies.

Yes. These were the ones I'd decided on. Straight from the KitchenAid cookbook that comes with the mixer. They were divine last time I made them. Why not attempt again, and cheat a little on my recipe for this week?

Ingredients:
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup brown sugar
2 sticks of butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
3 Cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 bag)

Cream sugars, butter, vanilla and eggs together.

Slowly add in the flour, baking soda and salt, slowly over 2 minutes.

Resist the urge to bail on the cookies and eat all of this dough.

Add in the chocolate chips with mixer on "stir" for 15 seconds.

Dollop rounded spoonfuls onto baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

Out pop cookies!

So, I'm not sure what happened to mine. They turned out verrry crispy. I think problem #1 was that I made them too large. #2, because they were so large, I kept taking them out of the oven, deciding they were still raw, and putting them back in. I read that maybe I stirred the dough too much? I dunno. I was SO disappointed in these cookies. I nearly didn't take them, but I figured I had to have something to show for being 25 minutes late to dinner. (flour fiasco..don't ask) I just remember them being fluffy mounds of chocolatey Heaven last time. 


I did reheat one tonight and it was pretty decent. A little chewy, but decent. :) Any suggestions?
Happy baking!

What's Cookin' Wednesday *Bonus Recipe*

I'm gonna be generous today and share this little gem with you. I was looking for an appetizer recipe that incorporated two of my faves: chicken and bacon. Pinterest saved the day and hooked me up with Diary of a Recipe Addict.

Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken

Ingredients: 
chicken breast, cut into tender-sized pieces or two-bite pieces (like mine)
bacon, lots of bacon (I ran out and had to really cheat a few of the chicken pieces)
salt & pepper
chili powder
garlic powder
light brown sugar


Cut up your chicken breasts.

Sprinkle with all spices.. generously.

Wrap in half a strip of bacon (or thirds of bacon, in some of our poor chick pieces towards the end) and roll in light brown sugar.

 Place in oven safe dish, coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400* for 30-40 minutes, until chicken is done and bacon is crispy. We let ours go for nearly 45 minutes. I do have one tip: take them out 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through and pour out the grease. I felt this grease was keeping the bacon from crisping up. Problem solved. 

And Voila! 


These were enjoyed by my community group ladies tonight. (And I left some for the guys, who hung out at our apartment.) I think... they liked them. :) Who wouldn't? I hope you enjoy them too! Happy cooking!