Oreo Cheesecake Bars

I'm very behind on blogging but I've been so busy lately. I was also sick for about 3 weeks so no cooking or baking for me! But right before I was laid up, I had a little ladies night at my home for some of my coworkers and friends to come eat, drink, and hang out. We had such a nice time and everyone brought delicious treats or wine. I made my pulled bbq chicken sliders and for the first time, I made oreo cheesecake bars. I am obsessed with cheesecake but I've only tried making it a few times and each of those times it just came out "ok". This time, I wanted to do something different. I found the recipe by just googling cheesecake bars, and I came across this one from KraftFoods.com. Not only was it delicious, but it was also very easy to make. And I was really excited because I got to use my magicbullet food processor to grind up the oreos for the crust. I will definitely make this again for any future get togethers. I hope you enjoy it, too!














Oreo Cheesecake Bars .. from Kraftfoods.com

What You Need!

1 pkg. (1 lb. 2 oz.) OREO Cookies, divided

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted

4 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

4 eggs

Make It!

HEAT oven to 325ºF.

LINE 13x9-inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides. Process 30 cookies in food processor until finely ground. Add butter; mix well. Press onto bottom of pan.

BEAT cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each. Chop remaining cookies; stir 1-1/2 cups into batter. Pour over crust; top with remaining chopped cookies.

BAKE 45 min. or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours. Use foil handles to lift cheesecake from pan before cutting to serve.

Mexican Chicken

This meal came together completely on a whim, and it rocked! I saw some yummy looking avocados at the grocery store so I thought I would make a salad or something with them. Brett had wanted to grill up some chicken so he spiced it up with his favorite chicken rubs -- Emmeril's Chicken Rub and Everglades Seasoning.
I decided to use the avocado to make something Mexican-inspired, because Mexican food is definitely my favorite ethnic food. My mom says I love it because when I was a little baby in her belly, she used to eat nachos at T.G.I.Friday's literally every day because she worked there. And this dish kind of ended up being like Friday's chicken nachos, without the chips! :)

















Mexican Chicken

Ingredients
Boneless Chicken Breasts
Your favorite seasonings
1 avocado
Cherry tomatoes
Chopped fresh cilantro (I only use 2 leaves because it is a strong herb)
Mexican shredded cheese
Reduced Fat Sour Cream

Directions
Chop up avocado and tomatoes into small pieces. Chop up cilantro and add to mixture. Toss mixture in bowl so they slightly combine.
Grill chicken (or bake) with your favorite spices. While chicken is still hot, immediately sprinkle Mexican cheese on top, then add salsa mixture. Top with 1 dollop of sour cream.

Cake Truffles

I have made lots of chocolate chip pumpkin breads in the past, but this year I found some really cute tin buckets from Target in the $1 section so I wanted to fill them with some goodies. I found this recipe on another Shauna's blog, which was originally adapted from Bakerella's blog (she is crazy talented) and I am SO glad I made these cake truffles.
I have never had such a positive response to my cooking or baking. Ever. I literally had teachers coming to my classroom the entire day and next several days seeing if I had any leftover. I also had a teacher tell me that her day wasn't going very well until she ate one of these truffles. I promise you I am not exaggerating with you, people loved them so much that I started calling them crack truffles instead of cake truffled (yes, I have a weird sense of humor).
Anyway, I will definitely be making these for years to come and I like this recipe because 1. It's easy 2. It looks hard and 3. You can make so many different variations of it.

Here is the recipe from Foodietwoshoes' blog

Cake Truffles

adapted from Good Things Catered, originally from Bakerella

1 box of cake mix (I used red velvet for one batch, and double chocolate for another)
1 can of frosting (I used cream cheese frosting with the red velvet, and chocolate with the chocolate)
1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 bag of dark chocolate morsels
crushed almonds for sprinkling on top

Prepare a 9×13 baking pan and bake your cake according to directions and let cool completely.

Slightly crumble your baked and cooled cake into a large mixer bowl, add the frosting and almond extract, stir to combine completely.

Take small amounts of cake mixture and roll into 1-inch balls, placing onto a parchment or wax paper lined

baking sheet.

When all cake balls are rolled, place baking sheet into fridge overnight (this will form a crust around the edges and make the cake mixture much easier to work with)

In a double boiler, heat the chocolate morsels until they are completely melted and smooth.

Line a backing sheet with parchment or wax paper. For each truffle place a small dollop of the melted chocolate on the paper, place the cake ball on top of the chocolate and then spoon more chocolate over the top of the ball so it drizzles down the sides. Sprinkle crushed almonds over the top. Continue this proce

ss with each cake ball.

When finished, place the pan in the refrigerator until the the chocolate is completely cooled and set. You can then remove them from the paper and serve.

And here are my little cake truffle gifts for my coworkers...

Blueberry Coffee Cake

I recently discovered these new recipe cards at my local Publix. They are not the Publix Apron's Meals, but a different group of individual recipes called "recipes that make cents", and I found them in some racks over in the produce section. I grabbed about 10 of them, excited to try some new things. The first recipe I attempted was for a blueberry-filled coffee cake.

I am in a book club that meets every month and the month of November was my turn to host. We read the book "Sundays at Tiffany's" by James Patterson, which I really enjoyed, and because the main character had brunch with her mother every Sunday, I decided my theme would be brunch! Coincidentally, brunch is my favorite meal ever. Plus, this was a great opportunity for me to try out this new recipe.

It was a definite success. Everyone brought a different brunch item and we stuffed ourselves with deliciousness. Lani (Pleasurecooker blogger) made an amazing breakfast cheesecake that I will be trying to make very soon - check out her blog for some awesome recipes. Another fellow book club member, Kelly, made delicious potato casserole, and she has a great blog as well.

If you like blueberries, you will love this recipe. The bread has a cake-like texture and it's very light and moist. I think it could double as a dessert served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The cinnamon/brown sugar topping is just the right amount of sweetness. And my favorite part - this recipe is so EASY. Enjoy!














Blueberry-Filled Coffee Cake (recipe found at Publix by Try-Foods Intl')
Prep time: 25 minutes Cook time: 35 minutes

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries (I used frozen blueberries, thawed)

Cinnamon topping ingredients
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat an 8x8 pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a small bowl, stir together flour and baking powder. Then add sugar, oil, and egg and beat together. Stir in orange juice and vanilla to combine.
2. For cinnamon topping - in seperate bowl, stir together brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon ingredients for topping. Add oil and stir until crumbly. Set aside.
3. Spread half of the batter into baking pan. Sprinkle with half the blueberries, and half the cinnamon topping. Repeat layers.
4. Bake 35-45 minutes (use toothpick test.. I had to bake for 45 minutes). Let cool before cutting.

Halloween Festivities!

On the night before Halloween this year, we hosted a party at our home and invited several friends and coworkers. We had about 25 people show up and I made some treats for everyone which were gone within about 2 hours. Since the party didn't start until about 8pm, I mostly made finger foods. My dishes were -- crockpot meatballs, mexican dip, brie and raspberry puffs, and pumpkin cream cheese brownies.

Crockpot meatballs

Ingredients
1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce
1 can of cranberry sauce, with berries
1 cup of orange juice
1 bag of frozen meatballs (I buy the Armor brand)

Directions
Pour all ingredients into crockpot (including frozen meatballs - no need to thaw). Mix around and make sure all meatballs are covered. Cook on high for 5-6 hours, and stir a few times every couple of hours if possible.














Mexican Dip

Ingredients
1 can refried beans (I use non-fat)
1 16 oz tub of sour cream (I use low-fat)
2 ripe avocados
1 packet of taco seasoning
2 large tomatoes
1 bag of mexican cheese
1 small can of black olives sliced (optional.. I opted out because most of my friends do not like black olives)

Directions
Mix sour cream with about 1/2 packet of taco seasoning. Mash up avocados with fork in separate bowl. In 8x13 dish, layer ingredients in this order: beans, mashed avocado, sour cream mixture, cheese, and chopped tomatoes.
~For spider web design, I put aside about 2 spoonfulls of sour cream and put it in a small zip lock bag. I cut the corner of the bag with scissors, and then squeezed it out into the spiderweb design.














Brie and Raspberry Puffs

Ingredients
1 can of crescent rolls
Raspberry preserves
Brie cheese

Directions
Rolls out crescent roll dough. It is already cut into triangles, so simple cut each triangle in half to make 2 triangles. Put a very small slice of brie cheese in the middle with a small dallop of the jam. Then take the corners of the pastry dough and fold them over, basically wrapping it like a present. Try to crease edges so that the pastry is sealed. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until puffs are slightly browned.














Pumpkin Cream Cheese Brownies
(Adapted from Lowfatcooking website)

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 13-16 ounce box Brownie mix
  
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree (pure pumpkin, not pie mix)
• 1 egg
• For the topping:
• 4 ounces fat-free tub cream cheese
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I did not use this)
  

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch by 8-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Place brownie mix in a large mixing bowl with canned pumpkin and egg. Beat with an electric mixer until batter is smooth. Spoon batter into prepared pan.

In a small bowl, beat cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar and pumpkin pie spice until smooth and creamy. Drop spoonfuls of cream cheese mixture on to brownie batter. Swirl with a knife.

Bake for 30-35 minutes. (I had to cook 40 minutes for it to be done with a toothpick test)

Makes 16 brownies.

Per Brownie: Calories 118, Calories from Fat 10, Total Fat 1g (sat 0.2g), Cholesterol 14mg, Sodium 95mg, Carbohydrate 24.9g, Fiber 1g, Protein 2.1g

















Roast Beef Pinwheels

I've seen a lot of variations on this, such as using herb cream cheese and chopped vegetables. I did roast beef pinwheels since I know we had a lot of meat eaters coming. But if meat isn't your thing, this recipe can be adapted with basically any ingredients.

Ingredients
Large tortillas
Sliced deli meat (I used roast beef)
Whipped cream cheese
Boar's head horseradish sauce

Directions
Spread cream cheese and a few drops of horseradish sauce onto tortilla (only a few drops because horseradish is pretty strong). Then spread 1-2 slices of deli meat, and roll up tortilla. Slice rolled up tortilla into small rounds. Secure with a toothpick. You can also make these ahead of time for a party and put them in the fridge, then slice up right before the party.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

School is back in session, and in addition to working for a wedding planning company, I am also a full-time teacher. I switched from middle school to high school this year so my life has changed a lot and everything is new. I am also coaching our high school dance team, which is very time consuming but has been fun and fulfilling so far. This Monday we had a parent performance night where we performed our halftime show with the band for all of our parents. It started off with a pot luck, and the dance team was responsible for bringing desserts. I wanted to make something that was easy to grab at a pot luck (as opposed to having to cut slices and stuff like that) so I found these PB cup cookies on Joy of Baking and decided to give them a try. I mean, how could you go wrong with peanut butter cups and cookies combined?


















From Joy of Baking --

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter, or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, 48 miniature muffins tins.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. Fill each miniature muffin cup with about one tablespoon of batter.

Bake the cookies for about 8 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges but still soft in the center. (Note: While the cookies are baking remove the foil wraps and paper liners from each peanut butter cup.) Remove the cookies from the oven, and gently press one miniature peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie. The peanut butter cup should be even with the top of the batter. Return the cookies to the oven and bake an additional 3 minutes or until cookies are golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely (about two hours) on a wire rack before removing the cookies from the pan. These can be stored for several days at room temperature or in the refrigerator, or they can be frozen.

Sources:

Wilson, Dede. A Baker's Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies. The Harvard Common Press. Boston: 2004.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies:

2 1/2 cups (325 grams) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup (160 grams) light brown sugar

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

I own a crock pot and rarely get use out of it except sometimes when I make meatballs during football season. So right before school went back in session, when I was home for a few more long summer days, I decided to utilize my crock pot and make some bbq pulled chicken! It came out SO delicious and it was so easy to make. I'm definitely going to make them again very soon.
The recipe was kind of a compilation of several recipes I found online where I could use things I already had in the house. It seems like the kind of recipe where you could add in whatever you wanted to your liking. Here is what I used:

Ingredients
3 boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup ketchup
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce (I used a honey BBQ sauce)
2 tbs of brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 package of Hawaiian rolls or regular sized rolls

Directions
Place all ingredients in crock pot and mix around with spoon. Make sure chicken is covered by the liquid. If not, you can add some more water until chicken is immersed.
Cook on low for 5 1/2 hours
Take chicken out of crock pot and shred/pull apart with 2 forks
Put pulled chicken back in crock pot and re-warm for about 10 minutes
Serve on rolls!