Cookie Dough Brownies

If the name of this recipe doesn't make your mouth water, then just wait until you taste these!  These are my favorite variation of a brownie.  My sister K gave me this recipe, though I am not sure where she got it... but whoever invented these gets my thumbs up.

COOKIE DOUGH BROWNIES

Layer 1: The Brownie

Brownie Mix

Eggs

Water

Oil

Make brownie mix according to package directions, baking in a 9x13 pan.

Layer 2: The Cookie Dough

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

Mix together in a mixer and spread over completely cooled brownies.

Layer 3: The Chocolate

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tbsp oil

Microwave ingredients together in a microwave safe bowl in 1 minute increments until melted.  Spread over brownie cookie dough bars and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Omelets

 For January, I tried to plan meals that were more on the low carb side of life to fulfill some New Year's resolutions for me and the hubby.  I wasn't sure how the kids would take to omelets as they have never been big egg eaters.  So to make the adventure more enjoyable, I used my mini-muffin pans and whipped up a batch of banana muffins to go with the meal.  You can see that T-Man made his a banana muffin man.

 To make meals more exciting at our house, I think it is always fun to have a lot of different choices for mix-ins.  The kids feel some independence in making their own creations and are willing to try new things because they feel like they are inventing a recipe.

The omelets were a hit, even Buddy ate his all gone!

Directions:

I gave each child a mixing bowl, whisk, and two eggs.  I let them each crack their own eggs (even Buddy who is 3).  Letting them crack their own eggs makes the meal even that much better for them!  Then I had them beat the eggs in their mixing bowls.

Next, the kids got to choose their own mix-ins from the following:

Peppers

Mushrooms

Onions

Cheese

Ham

Turkey

Bacon

This was our list of mix-ins, but there are so many more ingredients that you could use.  Each took their desired amount of mix-ins and added them to their mixing bowls and then whisked them all together.

Finally, heat a frying pan to medium-high heat, melt some butter.  Dump the whole content of the child's mixing bowl, fry for a few minutes until browned, then flip.  Give it a few minutes more and TA-DA, individualized omelets.  If you want to be fancy, you could sprinkle some parsley on top!

Chicken Noodle Soup with Homemade Noodles

I love making this recipe for my family in the winter when a nice warm soup is so comforting.  Making noodles always reminds me of my Grandma F., who was a master at making the thinnest noodles by hand.  Whenever she made it, she always told me a story about Mrs. ?, who she worked for at a young age as a housekeeper and a nanny.  Mrs. ?, she claimed could make the noodles so thin that you almost couldn't see them.  Now every time I make noodles, it is my goal to see how thin I get get them.

But, this time Sweetheart, Buddy, and T-Man wanted to get in on the action and I love cooking with my kids, so I had to live with a few fat noodles, but the soup was still delicious.  Z says he likes the fat noodles the best anyways :)

 I gave each child a section of the noodle dough and a pizza cutter and let them go to town.

 Even Buddy was very careful and did a terrific job and he is only 3!

 T-Man works his tongue when he is thinking hard, just like his dad.

Our finished product ready to boil in the soup!

Homemade Noodles

Combine 1 beaten egg, 2 tablespoons milk, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Add enough sifted all-purpose flour to make stiff dough, about 1 cup.  Roll very thin on floured surface; let stand 20 minutes.  Roll up loosely; slice 1/4 inch wide; unroll, spread out and let dry 2 hours.  (If desired, store in container until needed.)  Drop into boiling soup or boiling, salted water and cook uncovered about 10 minutes.  Makes 3 cups cooked noodles.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

4 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth

1 (14.5 ounce) can vegetable broth

1/2 pound chicken breast, sliced into bite-sized pieces

2 cups frozen mixed vegetables, thawed (or fresh vegetables if you want to go the extra mile)

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Cook onion and celery in butter until just tender, 5 minutes. Pour in chicken and vegetable broths and stir in chicken, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, boil for 10-15 minutes until chicken is cooked through, add vegetables and noodles and cook for 10 more minutes, simmer until ready to serve.



Caramelized Beef Skewers

 This is one of my FAVORITE fast, easy, and delicious meals.

I got this from the Kraft foods recipe site.  Kraft's recipes are the best.  Not only are they generally inexpensive, and easy to prepare, but they actually have recipes for foods that my family will EAT!

 Start with a sirloin steak and thinly slice it into long strips.  Then, put in a ziplock bag and toss with A-1, marinade for 10 minutes.

Thread the beef onto the skewers just so, I threaded mine with onions, because I love grilled onions, but kept my kids skewers with just the meat.  Then brush with mustard, A-1, barbecue sauce mixture and grill on medium heat, brushing with more sauce as needed.  I like the way the meat turns out with these better than with your average shish-ka-bobs, because the meat seems to stay more tender in the long strips.  This is seriously SO GOOD!

Ingredients:

1 lb. beef sirloin steak, thinly sliced

1/4 cup  A.1. Steak Sauce, divided

1/4 cup Barbecue Sauce

1 tsp. Dijon Mustard

Directions:

1.  Heat grill to medium-high heat.

2.  Toss meat with 2 Tbsp. steak sauce; let stand 10 min. Meanwhile, combine remaining steak sauce, barbecue sauce and mustard.

3.  Thread meat onto 8 skewers.

4.  Grill 6 min. or until meat is done, turning after 3 min. and brushing occasionally with barbecue sauce mixture.

To see more awesome Kraft recipes, click here!

Dinner Pinwheels

This is T-Man's favorite dinner of all times and a surefire hit with all of my kids.  The thing that they love the most is that this meal always ends with cinammon rolls at the end!

  

I like to buy frozen dough because it is so fast and easy, however you can use your own roll dough recipe as well.  I have a great roll dough recipe that I will share with you later.

First I buy Rhodes frozen bread loaves.  They already come in three perfectly portioned lumps of dough.  I place them in three well greased bowls first thing in the morning and by dinner time they have thawed and risen enough to use.  Next, I roll each dough piece out into a large rectanglar section.

The next step is to spread with butter and then your choice of toppings.  I forgot to take a picture, but that's okay because there are so many different topping choices.  Some that we have tried are, dijon mustard, deli ham, and cheddar cheese.  I have also done veggie cream cheese instead of butter, deli turkey, and swiss cheese.  We have done a little pizza sauce (don't do too much or they don't work!), pepperoni, and cheese.  And they have all been delicious.

After your toppings are added, roll it all up into a large snake.  The same way you would do cinnamon rolls.  And cut into 12 approx 1-1 1/2 inch pieces.

Place in a pan to rise.  I would give them at least 30 minutes if not more.  You will know they are ready when they are filling the pan. 

And then bake those beauties at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes (check on them after about 15 minutes).

And voila a meal any kid will eat!

I usually use two of the bread loaf sections for dinner rolls and then the last section is saved for cinnamon rolls for dessert.  Just roll the cinnamon rolls out the same with your favorite cinnamon roll filling and follow the same baking directions. 

Best Ever Rolls

2 cups milk

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup luke warm water

2 tablespoons yeast

2 teaspoons sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 beaten eggs

8-11 cups of flour

1. In a saucepan combine milk, shortening and 1/2 cup of sugar. Bring to a boil and then cool.

2. In a small bowl combine luke warm water, yeast, and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Set aside and let dissolve.

3. When the milk mixture cools, pour it into a mixing bowl. Add 1 cup of the flour and all of the yeast mixture, salt, and eggs. Beat until smooth, then add the rest of the flour.

4. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until double in size, then punch down, re-cover and let rise again.

5. When the dough has risen again, punch down and shape (here is where you would divide it into three sections and roll them out for pinwheels, BUT this recipe is also awesome for dinner rolls if you want to shape them accordingly.)

6.  Place on a greased cookie sheet and let rise until almost touching (about 30 min.)

7.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

 

My Favorite Cinnamon Roll Filling

4 Tbsp melted butter spread all over rolled out dough

 

In a Bowl, mix:

1/2 cup sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/4 cup brown sugar.  Sprinkle over melted butter all the way to the edges.  Add raisins if desired.

 

Awesome Cinnamon Roll Glaze

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 1/2 tbsp milk

2 tbsp butter

a couple of drops of vanilla.

 

Mix until smooth and flowing, but not overly runny.  Add a little extra milk if needed.

Turkey Feather Twists

How lame am I to finally get around to posting my Thanksgiving treat in January.  I was going to save it until next November, but then I got worried that I would forget or lose the pictures.  So next Thanksgiving, if you need something creative and fun, search my Thanksgiving treats!

TURKEY FEATHER TWISTS

 Aren't they cute, there are so many different ways to present them.

Here's what I did...

Ingredients:

Refrigerated or frozen breadstick dough (or your favorite breadstick recipe), enough for 12 breadsticks

2 Tbsp butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Glaze:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tbsp butter, softened

2 ½ Tbsp milk

¼ tsp vanilla

Food coloring

Colored sprinkles (optional)

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.        Prepare breadsticks according to package directions, or if using your own recipe make breadstick dough and shape into 12 long bread sticks, but don’t bake yet. 

NOTE:  I used 12 portions of frozen roll dough.  I let the portions thaw for 2-3 hours and then rolled into uniform size breadsticks.

3.        Pour melted butter into a pie tin or a shallow baking dish.  Mix sugar and cinnamon in a separate pie tin or baking dish.  Dip each breadstick first into the butter, making sure to coat evenly, and then into the cinnamon sugar mixture.

4.       Twist each breadstick from both ends, until you have twisted them to your satisfaction.  Lay breadsticks on a greased cookie sheet.

5.       Bake for 15 minutes.

6.       When the breadsticks have cooled prepare glaze mixture.  Pour powdered sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla into a mixing bowl and mix until well blended.

7.       Pour glaze into small bowls, one for each color of feather desired.  Add drops of food coloring to tint glaze and stir until well blended.  Evenly coat each Feather Twist with tinted glaze and add colored sprinkles if desired.