Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cake

Yeah that's right I made a cake with peanut butter and chocolate chips...amazing right?!!?  Where did I find this you ask?? Where else, Pinterest.  Here's a link to the recipe online.

So this was relatively easy.  Cake from scratch has all the basic ingredients.  I followed everything to a T except for the baking time.  I'm not quite sure if it's my oven or what but mine took about 20 more minutes to bake than the recipe stated so just keep checking it if it's not set up in the middle.  I actually made two of these cakes and both took longer.

But here it is, the recipe and my picture.  The cake is ridiculously moist and just melts in your mouth.  Have a big glass of milk next to you and you are set.  The cookie like crumble on top gets a little crunchy and wow it's just perfect.  This will be a go to cake recipe for me from now on!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake

 

2 & 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups light brown sugar 1 cup creamy peanut butter 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 eggs 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. Coat a 9″x 13″ baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, combine flour, brown sugar, peanut butter, and butter. Remove 1 cup of mixture and set aside. Mix in baking powder and baking soda. Mix in milk and vanilla. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Sprinkle top with reserved flour mixture and chocolate chips. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cheesy Chicken Rollups

Well first of all HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the mama, grandmamas and stepmamas out there!

I made this dinner a few nights ago but am only getting around to posting it right now.  I have a sick baby this week but he's finally doing better!  This is one of our favorite meals and we devour it, there's usually no leftovers! hahaha Who am I kidding, there's never any leftovers!!  Plus it's seriously so easy it's ridiculous!!

I got it originally from the Once A Month Mom website where I get a handful of my recipes.  I absolutely love it.  So go check out their hundreds of yummy recipes, she mostly does freezer cooking but of course a lot of the recipes are so good that I'll just make them for dinner. 

So here's the recipe, try it out, substitue the cheese or try different kinds of breading, mix it up!  I make it just like the recpie says and it's so absolutely amazing!

Cheesy Chicken Rollups

Ingredients:

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 0.5 cups Lawry’s Seasoned Salt Marinade
• 8 ounces Pepper Jack Cheese, shredded
• 1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
• 0.5 cups ground french fried onion rings

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking pan with cooking spray. Cut chicken breasts in half lengthwise, basically fillet the breast so that you have to long flat pieces.** Marinate chicken breasts in Lawry’s Seasoned Salt Marinade for 30-90 minutes in a gallon sized zippered bag. Remove chicken and add shredded cheese. Roll chicken and secure with toothpicks. Place bread crumbs and ground french fried onion rings in a shallow bowl. Dip the chicken back in the marinade, then place in the crumbs, coating the chicken evenly. Place the chicken on prepared pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 35 – 40 minutes or until done.
**If you are limited on time you can simply cut a pocket in the chicken breasts and insert cheese instead of rolling.

Here's my finished product:

Golden cookie cupcakes!

Happy 30-something birthday to my dear husband!! We always go out to eat for his birthday so I thought I'd make some cupcakes for him! I had a sleeping baby and had to work with what I had in the cupboard and all I had was one box of white cake mix but thought that was too boring. Golden Oreos are his favorite and he had just bought a new package of them so I decided to make the boxed cake mix as is and add in some crumbled cookies! I then made homemade frosting with shortening, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and almond extract. It turned out oh so delicious!!! Cupcakes are my absolute favorite thing to bake and decorate. I have this crazy dream of someday opening up my own cupcake shop!! So this wasn't anything too fancy but it just shows you can add anything to a white cake mix to 'jazz' it up a bit :)

My measurements for my frosting are approximate since I usually eyeball it. But I started with 1/2 cup shortening and added about 3 cups of powdered sugar and 1/4 cup of milk. I did add a cap full of vanilla and almond extract (does anyone actually measure these things!!) LOL

The finished product turned out pretty amazing I think!

Happy Birthday Derrick!!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Yummy yummy yummy!!  This is my go to dish for potlucks and social events.  We are huge buffalo chicken fans and I'm a sucker for dips.  So this is perfect.  I don't know how many times I've made it, we sometimes just eat it for supper! 

Well we had friends over Sunday night and we were ordering pizza but I insisted on making something so I chose this dip.  It was a bunch of guys so I figured they'd love the buffalo chicken part of it and I made it in the crockpot so I loved it!!

I got my original recipe from Allrecipes.com here:

Buffalo Chicken Dip

• 2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup Ranch dressing
• 3/4 cup pepper sauce (such as Frank's Red Hot®)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 bunch celery, cleaned and cut into 4 inch pieces
• 1 (8 ounce) box chicken-flavored crackers

Directions

1. Heat chicken and hot sauce in a skillet over medium heat, until heated through. Stir in cream cheese and ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. Mix in half of the shredded cheese, and transfer the mixture to a slow cooker. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, cover, and cook on Low setting until hot and bubbly. Serve with celery sticks and crackers.               

Now the only difference I make is I literally just throw everything (but the celery and crackers of course) into the crockpot and put it on either high or low depending on how fast I need it made.  I have also halved the recipe before as this recipe as is makes a TON! 

Of course I was in a hurry so I only got a picture of it after it was cooked and ready to eat in the crockpot.  It was oh so yummy and the boys gobbled it up!!  This photo makes it look less than appetizing but I swear if you like buffalo chicken you will LOVE this! LOL

Edamame...I love you!

So my first experience with Edamame was at a local sushi restaurant when I went with a friend and he got them as an appetizer.  I was hooked ever since.  I had gotten them a few more times and devoured them.  So as I was having a craving for them today I thought hey I wonder if I can make these myself and save a trip to my favorite sushi place, and money!
What is Edamame you ask???  All it is is a soy bean in a pod....or you can buy them not in the pod.  But they are so much fun in the pods!!  Soy beans, who knew!

So I scoped out our local grocery store and figured out I'd probably have to get these in the frozen section as we don't have very extensive produce in our area (North Dakota).  Sure enough there it was in the frozen section in our organic area of the grocery store.  They were screaming my name.  And for only $2.89 for a 10oz bag I thought I'd try it!

Well it was so ridiculously easy to prepare them that I may just have to stock my freezer with this tasty treat.

First I just started boiling some water in a pot on the stove.  I added quite a bit of salt as this is pretty much what gives these the flavor they have.  If you have to stay away from salt then just add what you are comfortable with.  Then after they started boiling I carefully dumped in the whole bag of frozen beans and simmered them for a few minutes.  I did taste test a couple first before taking them out of the water.  They should be easy to squeeze out of the pods but not mushy.

I then strained them in a colander and ran cold water over them to stop them from cooking.  Then I once again dusted them with sea salt.

And voila!!  A super easy dinner that is relatively good for you (besides the salt I suppose!) and I shamefully devoured the entire bag....

You can either squeeze the beans out with your fingers or just use your teeth to pull them out.  You'll be hooked!!  Try em, they're DELICIOUS!!!!

Chicken Broccoli Tater Tot Casserole

So this is of course a meal I found on the wonderful Pinterest.  I made it for my husband one night as his self proclaimed favorite meal is tater tot hotdish and I thought this would be an interesting twist on it!  We ate so much!!  I think it was the first time that the leftovers got eaten!  I knew this was going to be a staple in our home.  Well my parents were stumped on what to have for dinner tonight so I offered to make it.  They are very meat and potatoes people so it is always nice to try something new!! 

I spent a total of $7.93 for this meal.  Which for 3 adults who will be able to each have 2-3 servings that's not bad!  We did have the chicken already in the freezer which obviously helped save us on $$ and we had all the spices and milk and cheese. 

Groceries:

• Cream of Chicken soup (store brand) $0.99
• Oreida Tator Tots $3.64
• Birdseye Frozen Steamable Broccoli $1.93
• 8oz Sour Cream $1.37

Here's my version of the recipe: (originally found HERE) I did omit the bacon pieces as it doesn't really need em.

1 pound of chicken breast, cut into chunks and browned
2 pounds of frozen tater tots 2 cups of broccoli, cooked

2 cups of colby jack or your favorite cheddar cheese, shredded
1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 teaspoon of seasoning salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

First I cut up my chicken and browned it in a pan with a little bit of oil, salt and pepper.  Then you layer the chicken in the bottom of a 9x13 greased pan.  Then layer the broccoli (I buy the quick steamfresh packages of broccoli, steam em and then dump them on top of the chicken).

You mix the soup, sour cream and spices together in a bowl.  Then add the milk and 1.5 cups of the cheese.  When that's all mixed up you pour it evenly on top of the chicken and broccoli.  Then put the tater tots on top and finish by topping it off with the rest of the cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.  Then ENJOY!!!

It's so easy, and fairly cheap if you keep the main ingredients stocked in your cupboard/freezer.  If you make this dish let me know if you love it!!!

Sorry for the terrible picture, we all started digging in before I could snap one!!  LOL

So it begins...

Well well well I find myself once again with the attempt at a successful blog! LOL I had such a wonderful response from friends and fans on my Sally Stitches site during my food series (that I didn't finish out, ooops!) that I decided to solely devote a blog just to my cooking.  I love cooking and baking for others and I figured this would be a way I can share this with more than just my close friends and family!  Plus now with the amazing invention of Pinterest the possibilities are endless!

I have been battling some personal issues as of lately which has my husband and I temporarily (hopefully) separated at the moment.  But I do go over there occasionally and cook dinner for us as a family and it makes me so happy.  My plan is once I move back in to start a weekly meal plan.  It will help us save money and I will get to try all these new wonderful recipes I have pinned!! haha

If you would like to look back at the previous posts on my other blog here is a linky for that!

Now you may all be asking yourself, Cooking with Crossbones??  That's an interesting title!  Well frankly it just boils down to my love and slight obsession with skulls and crossbones and I liked the ring of it :) I won't be only cooking Halloween things or with deadly concoctions BUT there may be the occasional 'interesting' item thrown in there to spice things up a bit!!

So with that being said please subscribe and share with your friends and I will begin posting meals and treats very very soon!!!!

xoxo
SS