Tortellini Soup

This is one of my mom's go-to soups as it's really easy to make and delicious.  It's one of my fiance's favorites.  I'll definitely be adding some fresh vegetables to this in the summer.

What a photogenic soup! 

What you'll need:

• Mild Italian sausage (or spicy if you're into that kind of thing)
• 1 can beef broth
• 1 can water
• 2 cans Italian diced tomatoes 
• 1 can green beans (french or regular)
• Cheese tortellini 
• Oregano and basil 

Pudding Batter Cookies

These cookies ROCKED.  They are very simple, nothing fancy about them, but this is what I thought made them so great.  They are the perfect base cookie and I definitely plan on trying to do more with them soon.  They are soft and fluffy and buttery, which means I ate 20 of them in one sitting. Mmmmmm

What you'll need: 

• 1-1/2 sticks butter 
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 package instant vanilla pudding mix (3.4 oz)
• 3/4 dry yellow cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2-1/4 cups flour 
• 1/2 tsp salt 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir together flour, salt, and baking soda.  Separately cream butter and sugar.  Add the pudding/cake mix, eggs, and vanilla to the butter mixture. Slowly add the flour mixture.  Roll into 1" balls and place on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  

Adapted from Chef in Training

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

 I've also been trying to use more whole wheat flour so I'm going to piggyback right off of Laura's delicious looking Honey Whole Wheat Bread with a dessert.  This whole wheat banana bread is moist and yummy despite the lack of white sugar/flour.  It is very filling and I didn't feel as guilty eating it for breakfast.

What you'll need...

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 packed light or dark brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I added a lot more because I do not believe cinnamon needs to be measured) 
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (see my above measuring technique when it comes to delicious spices)  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups (about 3-4) mashed very ripe bananas 
• 1/4 cup honey 
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional) 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9x5 in. loaf pan

Beat together butter, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla in a bowl until creamy.  Add the mashed bananas, honey, and eggs and beat until smooth.  Add the flour and chocolate chips.  Spoon batter into the pan and let sit uncovered for 10 minutes.

Bake for 50 minutes.  Then, place a piece of foil across the top and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 in the pan and then place onto rack until cooled completely.

I made muffins too! If you do this, make sure you grease the muffin liners.  I filled them about 3/4 of the way with batter.

And last but not least, Percy!  I haven't seen any cats on here and I have a perfectly cute gymnast one laying around so, here he is!

Crock Pot Hot Chocolate

I told you I was obsessed with my crock pot. This hot chocolate is a thick, creamy, sweet, ultimate winter comfort drink.

You'll need

• 1.5 cups whipping cream
• 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 6 cups milk (I ended up adding more milk because it was too sweet) 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

I cut everything in half because this makes a lot of hot chocolate and there's only two of us.

Combine all ingredients together in the crock pot. Cook on low for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. 

Adapted from Mrs. Happy Homemaker

Crock Pot Barbecue Beer Chicken

I love my crock pot.  As a working grad student, there's nothing better than waking up, throwing a bunch of stuff in it, and ending up with a delicious meal at the end of a long day.  Here is the first of many crock pot recipes.

This BBQ beer chicken was delicious.  I love chicken, I love BBQ sauce, and I LOVE LOVE good beer.  So this was definitely a winner.  The only downside was that it tastes like summer and I made it on a freezing day in January, which was depressing.  It really would be a great picnic food.

All you need is...

• 5-6 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts--make sure they're thawed because if you put them in frozen there will be too much liquid at the end
• 32 oz. BBQ sauce
• 8 oz. beer, I used Shock Top End of the World Midnight Wheat but any kind will work.  Do yourself a favor and use a nice amber or wheat craft brew, you don't want to cheat on the beer because you can really taste it in the recipe 

Season the chicken to your liking.  I used garlic salt, pepper, paprika, and cayenne pepper. 

Put in crock pot and cover with beer.  

Add about 3/4 of the BBQ sauce.

Cook on low for 8 hours...about 7 hours in, shred the chicken and add the remaining sauce.

And then, devour.

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Peppermint Meltaways

Hi everyone! Laura invited me to this blog after spending hours at work discussing the many uses of pumpkin, crock pot recipes, and just generally how much we love food.  Here is my first contribution and, of course, it is a Christmas cookie.  I just made these this evening and they turned out so delicious.  They literally do melt in your mouth and the peppermint makes your taste buds feel extra festive. 

For the cookie...
1 cup softened butter, at lease at room temp.
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch (I know that this is a scary amount of cornstarch, just trust me)

For the frosting...
2 tablespoons softened butter
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons 2% milk
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
Crushed up candy canes for garnish

In a small bowl, mix the butter and confectioners' sugar together until light and well-whipped.  Beat in peppermint extract.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour and cornstarch.  Slowly add it to the butter/sugar mixture and stir well.

The mixture will be very lumpy/tough to stir once you add all of the cornstarch and flour.  I don't have a mixer so I used my hands to knead it out really well and it worked fine.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on an un-greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  Remove once the bottoms of the cookies are a light brown.  The tops will remain very light colored and will not look finished to the eye, but as long as the bottom is light brown it's fine.   Immediately place on wire racks to cook. 

To make the frosting add the butter to a small bowl and beat until fluffy.  Add the confectioners' sugar, extract, and milk and stir until smooth.  Once the cookies are cool, frost them and beautify with some crushed candy canes!

And here's a picture of my very happy dog Roma to finish up