S'more Cookies

One thing I love are graham crackers. I love them with some peanut butter on them. Some chocolate, whatever. They are just delicious. I have been eyeing my bag of mini marshmallows for the past few weeks and thought, well maybe I can make a s'more cookie.

I found this recipe on Hershey's but instead of making bar cookies I made individual ones.

S'More Cookie Bars
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 (1.55 oz. each) HERSHEY'S Milk Chocolate Bars
1 cup marshmallow creme
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 8-inch square baking pan.

2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Press half of dough into prepared pan.

3. Arrange chocolate bars over dough, breaking as needed to fit. Spread with marshmallow creme. Scatter bits of remaining dough over marshmallow; carefully press to form a layer.

4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. 16 bars.

So my adjustments are as follows:
I used mini chocolate chips in place of the bars
I used mini marshmallow's in place of the fluff
I made individual cookies instead of bars. Cooked for 12 mins at 350, cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then remove.
I think the only thing I would change would be to add more graham crackers or more chunks.

2 things, but no pictures

I thought I would slide these two in between some picture posts.

I needed to make something spicy-you know-kick labor into gear & all. It was snowing on Sunday-again. So a soup sounded good. I was going to go a tortilla soup, but then I came across this chiptole pepper soup on Cara's blog. This was really good. I added more chicken broth b/c it didn't seem to make as much as I wanted.

Secondly, in my bored state, I made some sugar cookies. I used this recipe from Ms Nemmie over at Cast Sugar. I omitted the zest & just used vanilla. They were pretty crispy, but they kept their shape and I never have a sugar cookie keep its shape, so this will go into the Christmas cookie rotation.

Beef & Noodle Bake

I am still cooking and baking away. I need to occupy my time until Baby R decides to grace us with his presence. The good thing is that at least I am able to put some of this stuff in the freezer.

Beef, Cheese, and Noodle Bake
Cooking Light

Ingredients
1 (8-ounce) package small elbow macaroni
Cooking spray
1 cup prechopped onion
1 cup preshredded carrot
2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
1 pound lean ground sirloin
1 cup tomato sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup fat-free milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) 2% reduced-fat shredded sharp cheddar cheese (such as Cracker Barrel), divided
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.

Cook pasta according to the package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain. Lightly coat pasta with cooking spray.

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion and carrot, and sauté 4 minutes. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add ground beef; cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add tomato sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes or until most of liquid evaporates.

Add pasta to beef mixture in pan, stirring to combine. Spoon pasta mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Place milk, flour, nutmeg, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan; stir with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat 2 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly with a whisk. Add 1 cup cheese, stirring until smooth. Pour cheese mixture over pasta mixture; stir. Top evenly with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

This was ok. It lacked some flavor-I don't know exactly what though. I think maybe I wanted some tomato chunks, but then it would have been more like an Italian bake.

Homestyle Chicken & Biscuits

I was looking for a nice casserole recipe for the hubs & I one night. I had all the meals planned for the week & wanted something easy. This was very easy. I have no clue where I got the recipe from, it was sitting in my recipe binder from 2004.

Homestyle chicken & biscuits

1 can cream of mushroom soup (i used healthy request)
1 can cream of broccoli soup
1 cup of milk
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp thyme
1 cups cooked cubed chicken
3 cups frozen cooked veggies (i used California mix)
1 cup cooked diced red potatoes
1 pkg biscuits (I used Grands 10 oz, quartered)

Mix soups, milk, thyme & pepper in a baking dish. Stir in veggies, chicken & potatoes.
Bake at 400F for about 15 minutes.
Stir the casserole, then top with biscuits. Bake for an additional 15 minutes or until the biscuits are brown.

Still here, counting down the days

Baby R isn't due until April 11, but I keep hoping he will make an early appearance. In the meantime, I am still cooking away. I did make a ton of freezer meals over the weekend, when we were snowed in. (Its SPRING mother nature!) All were recipes I have made before (mexican lasagna, chicken stroganoff & jambayla) I also stored some extra spaghetti sauce & chicken cacciatore in the freezer too. But hey, we also have to eat now right?

So while I am bored, I usually bake or cook. I made a loaf of the pumpkin cream cheese bread, and since I had about 1 cup of pumpkin left, I needed to find something else to use it in. I came across these pumpkin muffins on Smitten Kitchen.

Pumpkin Muffins
Smitten Kitchen (from Gourmet)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/4 cups sugar, plus 1 tbsp
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, 1 1/4 cup of sugar, baking soda & salt in a large bowl. Then whisk in flour & baking powder until just combined.

In a small separate bowl, stir together the cinnamon & sugar.

Divide batter in the muffin pans, then sprinkle the tops with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake until puffed & golden brown-about 25-30 minutes.