Bran Muffins

Normally I like to start out the week with some sort of ridiculous dessert recipe.

I decided to be nice today.

Have a bran muffin.  No, not that kind - the dry, cardboard-like ones that you're probably imagining.  Try this one - it's sweet, super moist, and totally un-cardboard-like.  It's all in the buttermilk and the oil, people.  Nothing can be dry with these things inside.

I like mine warm with butter.

Happy Monday, y'all.

Tomorrow I'm posting a salad.  What has happened to my life?


Bran Muffins

1 1/2 cups wheat bran

1 cup buttermilk

1/3 vegetable oil

2 eggs

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Stir together the wheat bran and buttermilk; let it stand for 10 minutes.  Whisk together the oil, eggs, molasses, sugar and vanilla.  Add it to the buttermilk/bran mixture and stir to combine.  Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.

Scoop the batter into 12 muffin cups lined with paper liners and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15-17 minutes until done. Serve with butter.

Tex-Mex Pasta Salad

I just love salads.  Especially salads starring pasta.

This is my mom's recipe, and she's been making it my whole life.  My girls have been eating this since they could have pasta.  My husband even loves this.  (Who said that guys don't eat pasta salad???)

It's so easy and makes a LOT.  The good thing is that you can serve a lot of people OR it will keep in your fridge all week and you don't have to share!  I love versatility.

Chop up lots of veggies...

And add some corn, green chiles and beans

And you'll need this kind of pasta

If you add the pasta while it's a little warm, it will just drink up the dressing.

So let's mix up the dressing now, because our pasta needs a drink.

Since mayonnaise makes for a perfect drink, mix it with some Italian dressing (I always use light, and you can't tell a difference!) and cumin.

Yum!

Tex-Mex Pasta Salad

12 oz. box tri-color rotini pasta, cooked according to package directions and drained

4 ribs celery, diced

1 bunch green onions, sliced thin

1 small green pepper, diced

1 pint grape tomatoes, sliced in half

4.5 oz. can diced green chiles

15 oz. can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

15 oz. can white sweet corn, drained

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup Italian dressing 

2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder

In a large bowl, stir all ingredients together.  The flavors marry best if you combine when the pasta is still warm (it will soak up the dressing and flavors).  Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

This recipe is linked up at the Country Cook!

Salty.

Sweet.

Crunchy.

Creamy.

The perfect combo.

There are two rules for this salad.  One: make it the day you eat it, or it will be soggy and will not live up to its potential as one of the best things at your party.  Two: make sure the Jello/strawberry mixture is almost set before you pour it on, otherwise it won't stay on top where it belongs.

And one more thing.  My mom has been making this for Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember, and it would not be okay if it did not make its annual appearance on our Thanksgiving table.  It's festive!  PLUS, there's a bonus here.  This salad could easily double as a dessert, and you know how I feel about eating dessert for salad.  Ahem.

Okay, so if you live in the South, you've had this salad.

If you don't, you should make it and introduce your friends to its sweet/salty, crunchy/creamy deliciousness.

Here's the crust:

pretzels, butter, sugar.  A good foundation for almost anything.

The middle layer:

cream cheese, (more) sugar, and Cool Whip.

The top:

strawberry jello and frozen sliced strawberries.  Remember: almost set before you pour them on top!  Otherwise you end up with jello on the bottom and cream cheese on the top, and it's just all wrong.

I've done it, so I know.  Now I let my Jello mixture almost congeal completely before topping the salad with it.  It should look like this

And it's perfect!  And absolutely delicious.

You should make this for Easter.  I made it for our annual Palm Sunday family day at my aunt and uncle's house, and I brought home a clean dish.

And yes, I got up early on Sunday morning to make it (see Rule 2 above).  It's that important.

Strawberry Pretzel Salad


2 cups crushed pretzels
1 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
8 oz. Cool Whip
Two 3-oz. packages Strawberry-flavored Jello
2 cups pineapple juice
24 oz. frozen sliced sweetened strawberries, still frozen

For the crust, mix together the crushed pretzels, butter and sugar in a 9x13 baking dish sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  Spread into an even layer and press lightly in the bottom.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.  Remove and cool completely.

For the creamy layer, mix together the cream cheese and sugar until no lumps remain.  Carefully fold in the Cool Whip until combined, but do not deflate the Cool Whip.  Spread evenly on the cooled crust.

For the Jello layer, heat the pineapple juice until almost boiling.  Stir in the Jello packets and stir until dissolved.  Add the frozen sliced strawberries and stir until the strawberries are broken up and evenly distributed (I use a fork to stab the strawberries and stir them up).  Place in the refrigerator for about 2 hours, until the Jello is mushy and almost set.  It should not be runny at all.  Pour on top of the cream cheese layer and refrigerate for another two hours, until completely set.  Cut into squares and serve.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Oat Bars

I'm not really sure if these quality as dessert.  How did I determine that?

Well...they have wheat germ in them.

So that qualifies them as healthy.

AND!  This blackberry jam looks homemade.

Therefore, these bars are either breakfast or a snack.

Think of them like a cereal bar!  Yeah, that's it.

I totally made these for the kids.  It's one of the sacrifices that I made as a mother.

I would show you a picture of one of these cut so you could see the wonderful layers of peanut butter and oats and the blackberry jam, but these bars went from this

to this

very quickly.

We ate them for breakfast, snack and dessert.

We don't discriminate in this house.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Oat Bars
Inspired by Pioneer Woman and Barefoot Contessa

1 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
12-13 oz. jar blackberry or strawberry jam (or any flavor jam)

Stir together the butter, peanut butter, vanilla and egg.  Add the remaining ingredients, except for the jam, and combine.  The mixture will be crumbly.  Press 2/3 of the mixture in the bottom of a greased 7x11 inch baking dish.  Evenly spread the jam on top.  Cover with the remaining 1/3 oat mixture.  Bake in a 325 degree oven 30-35 minutes.  Cool and cut into squares.

Curry Chicken Salad

I've not been normal since the bar exam.

I know you wish I would stop talking about the bar.

I wish I would, too.

I just can't get my groove back.  I don't know where it went or where I should go to find it.

I have started every sentence in this post with "I."

I'm pretty sure that's a sign of something.  I'm done now.

So anyway.  My cousin had a beautiful baby girl and I made her these Curry Chicken Salad wraps.  I made them for my cousin, not her baby.

They were yummy.

Here's how I made the chicken salad:

Roast the chicken.  It's so moist and yummy that way.

Dice up the celery and the green onions.

Add some raisins, because every chicken salad needs a little sweet.

Now the dressing: mayo (low-fat is fine), mango chutney, curry powder, salt and pepper.  Whisk it together.

Stir it all up.  Delicious at room temperature or cold.  Right before you serve it, sprinkle the cashews on top.

Okay!  Here's the way I like to serve it

In a wrap.

I don't know why, but this salad wrapped up in a warmed tortilla is just perfect.

Not my original idea, but I have no problem copying Barefoot.

Go wrap some of this stuff up.  It's creamy and crunchy; spicy and sweet.  Absolutely delicious.

Curry Chicken Salad
Adapted from Barefoot Contessa


2 large split chicken breasts, bone in, skin on, roasted
2 stalks celery, diced
4 green onions, diced
1/4 cup raisins
2/3 cup mayonnaise (I use Hellman's with olive oil)
1/4 cup mango chutney (I use Major Grey's)
1 1/2 T curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup salted cashews, roasted

Remove the skin and bones from the chicken.  Roughly shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces.  Combine it with the celery, green onions and raisins.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, chutney, curry powder and salt and pepper.  Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat.  Right before serving, toss the cashews in so they don't get soggy.  Serve chilled or at room temperature.  I like to wrap it in a warmed tortilla for a chicken salad wrap!

Brownie Fruit Tart

I have a problem with brownies.

I love them.  The boxed kind are my fave.

Remember these?

Crazy easy, awesomely delicious.

So here's another installment of a dessert made from a brownie mix.  It's a brownie topped with a cream cheese mixture and fresh fruit.

You'll have to let me know what you think.

I think the best part is that you get to put hot fudge over the whole thing.

Ya think?

Brownie Fruit Tart


1 box brownie mix (you want fudgy brownies that say on the box that it makes a 9x13 pan), baked according to package directions in a 9x13 inch baking dish
8 oz. cream cheese
8 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
2 T powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste (or extract)
3 bananas, sliced
1 lb. strawberries, hulled and sliced thin
Hot fudge sauce

Bake the brownies (not too long!  We want them fudgy) and cool completely.  Cream together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and crushed pineapple.  Spread the cream cheese mixture over the brownie evenly.  Top with bananas and strawberries.  Before serving, heat the hot fudge sauce and drizzle it over the whole thing.

Pesto Cream Sauce

People.

I'm not joking on this one.

Go whip up some angel hair pasta.

And pour this sauce over it.

You'll just die.

Figuratively.  And literally, if you eat too much of it.

It's rich, and a little goes a long way (I don't say that about too many things, so tread lightly).

You start with cream, and then you heat it just below the boiling point (little tiny bubbles will form around the edges when you're at that point).

Remove it from the heat, and stir in the pesto and parm.

You'll need Parmesan cheese that you actually grated yourself - it will melt a million times better and smoother.

It's so worth the forty million calories it contains.

Go forth.

Eat pesto cream sauce.

So here's how I cut the richness - I toss my pasta with some marinara

and then ladle the pesto sauce over only half of the pasta.

My brother used it as a dipping sauce for his bread, and he highly recommends eating it that way.

Whatever you want to put it in, just put it on something.

It's ridiculous.  Make this today, because it's Tuesday.

Pesto Cream Sauce
Inspired by Bella Notte's fabulous Pesto Alfredo sauce


1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half-and-half
3/4 cup pesto
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan

Heat the cream and half-and-half in a sauce pan over medium heat until it almost boils.  You're just below the boiling point when little tiny bubbles form around the edges.  Remove from the heat and stir in the pesto and cheese.  Stir until the cheese melts and the sauce thickens.  Serve over hot cooked pasta immediately.

Roasted Onion Dip

Okay, so most of you know by now that I'm obsessed with onion dip.

Remember this?

So this is just another type of onion dip that I make sometimes.  Different, but still onion-y delicious.

My husband likes this version better, because the onion flavor is a little more subtle.  I guess the roasting process mellowed the flavor a bit.

Here's what the onions look like BEFORE you roast them:

And here's the after shot:

Then you just process the onions with some yummy stuff:

It makes a LOT so you can easily halve the recipe if needed.  Make this soon.

You won't be sorry.

I know I'm not.

I took a picture of the finished product in my UK chip & dip in honor of March Madness, but apparently my camera ate that shot.  This dip is so good!


Roasted Onion Dip
Inspired by Food Network Kitchens


2 onions, unpeeled
2 T olive oil
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
Several dashes Tabasco sauce (or 3/4 tsp cayenne pepper)
1 T white wine vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 scallions, cut into thirds

Place the onions in an oven-proof dish.  Use your hands to spread the olive oil over the onions.  Roast in a 425 degree oven for about 45 minutes, until very soft.  Remove and cool to room temperature.

Place the remaining ingredients in the bowl of a food processor.  When the onions are cool enough to handle, peel the onions and add them to the food processor.

Pulse until combined and the onions are chopped fine.  Serve with potato chips (I like Ruffles Ridges with this).