Peanut butter, banana & chocolate puff pastry traingles!

Last night we were looking for a lunch snack idea, we had bananas and leftover puff pastry in the freezer. I found a handful of chocolate chips in the fridge, and right in front of me was a fantastic idea for a sweet but filling snack or dessert.

These peanut butter, banana and chocolate puff pastries were delicious and really didn't last longer than half a day in my house. They are super easy to make, and best with just ripening bananas so they are not too soft or too hard.

One thing that I use to cut up bananas evenly (especially for my toddler) is an egg slicer, it cuts them into the perfect coin shapes for these pastries (and little hands to snack on).

You'll need:

2 puff pastries (1 box); if frozen - thaw

1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)

1/2tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400°F

In a boxed puff pastry, it will come folded into thirds like a brochure. Once this thaws you can unfold it without breaking. Cut pastry at the folds then each fold three times to create 9 individual squares. Do the same with both puff pastries until you have 9 thawed squares. (TIP: I used a rolling pizza cutter to slice these lines, made it MUCH faster and easier)

For the unfolded sheet of puff pastry, follow this guide and cut as the dotted lines show.

In a small bowl mix peanut butter and vanilla extract. Spread an even layer of the mixed peanut butter on one side of each square and sprinkle a pinch of chocolate chips on the peanut butter side.

Next cut up your banana slices and place 2-3 on one corner of each peanut buttered side. Then fold the opposite corner over and pinch the joined corners together as shown below.

Bake these for about 15-20 minutes or untill puffed open and a golden color. Let cool 5-10 minutes. Enjoy!

Your pastries should look like this once baked and cooled.

Casandra

Savory and cheesy moist meatballs!

I wanted to share my super easy meatball recipe today, these are a hit even with picky eaters! These meatballs are super moist, savory and cheesy!

We usually get about 3lb packs of ground beef to freeze and save for dinners so when I have a leftover pound or so after making meat sauce for spaghetti, I like to use up that last pound to make these yummy meatballs.

You'll need a cookie sheet with a broiler rack on top, to let the grease drip into the pan.

The recipe is as follows:

1lb ground beef (or ground turkey if you want a healthier meat choice); uncooked
1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 extra large/jumbo egg
1 small yellow onion
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 Tsp Seasoning salt
1-2 slices of soft white or wheat bread; broken into 1- 1/2 inch bits

Preheat oven to 375°
In a bowl add ground beef (or ground turkey), Worcestershire sauce, Italian seasoning, and seasoning salt. Mix well then add egg, onion, bread and cheese. Mix well and form into 3 inch balls, place on rack on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 20 minutes.

These go great with pasta or even on their own (I like to cover mine in pasta sauce).


Casandra

Paula Dean's buttery pound cake with fresh strawberry drizzle!

Lately I've been searching for a super yummy dessert that incorporates fresh fruit without needing to bake the fruit and lose that fresh flavor.

I was perusing the Food Network recipe list (900+ pages, OH MY GOODNESS) and came across Paula Dean's mother's recipe for buttery pound cake and decided to make my own yummy strawberry topping for it.

I used my KitchenAid stand mixer (greatest cooking aid EVER in my opinion), and a tube pan (you could use a deep bundt pan if you want too).

The recipe from FoodNetwork.com is as follows:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (and some extra to grease the pan before flouring)
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour (some extra to flour the pan after greasing)
1/2 tsp fine salt (as always I used fine sea salt)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350°F

In mixer, cream butter and shortening together. Add sugar gradually. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beat into creamed mixture after adding each egg is added. Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with flour and ending with the flour. Mix until combined then mix in vanilla extract.
Grease your tube pan then coat the grease with a light layer of flour. Pour batter into the greased and floured tube pan and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the came comes out clean.*

*I ended up only baking this for 1 hour and 15 minutes, it turned out perfect!

My family devoured a good chunk of this cake before I could get a picture of the finished product, but at least you can see the inside and how delicious it looks!

For the strawberry topping all you need is a blender or in my case a Baby Bullet:

1 pound fresh strawberries, de-stemmed and cut into 1/2 inch bits
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Once your strawberries are cut, separate a little less than half of the mixture (I'd say bout 1/3 of it) and set aside.

In a saucepan over medium heat, add the strawberries that are left, sugar and vanilla. Stirring occasionally until the mixture melts down the sugar and begins to thicken, about 5 minutes or so. Remove from heat and let cool. Once cooled pour the mixture from the saucepan into your blender and puree. Add pureed mixture to your fresh cut strawberries you first set aside and mix. Let cool in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes and then you should be good to spoon this over your servings of pound cake!

The family loved it so much, and my 16 month old went nuts over the strawberry sauce topping (especially when she found bits of fresh strawberry in it)!
Both the pound cake and the topping were extremely easy to make and next time I think I will try and do this with blueberries or blackberries to see how those turn out as well! Plus this gives me an excuse to use my Baby Bullet now that my daughter is off of pureed foods!!!


Casandra

Ham Green Bean & Potato Soup!!! My favorite!

I have a great ham, green bean & potato soup recipe to use up that leftover ham and stock from last night's dinner!

This is one of my favorite meals of all time! Especially during winter when I need a great warm-up and when I am sick (everyone at home is soooo very sick right now, it is completely miserable).

Trim some but NOT all fat off of your ham (bone-in is best) add about 3/4 cup water to the bottom of the baking pan. Bake 15 minutes per pound at 350°. When your ham is done cooking let sit in the juices to cool and pour some more juicy fatty goodness to seep out. Trim off a few strips for a couple hot ham and cheese sandwiches ;) and then cube the rest of the ham for the soup. Save the fat and juices that are left in the pan for the soup.

3 cups ham cubed
2 cups water
all fat and juices left from baked ham
2 tsp black pepper
2 cans green beans (or 2 cups fresh green beans with 1/3 cup water); half drained
5 large potatoes cubed

In a soup pot over medium heat, add 2 cups of water, 2tsp black pepper (freshly ground tastes best), the saved fat and juices from the baked ham. Cook until congealed fat bits have melted and you have a pot of liquid. Add ham, potatoes and black pepper (add more to taste at the end if needed). Once the potatoes have cooked add in the cans of green beans (if using fresh green beans I suggest adding them with the potatoes). Let simmer until the liquids cook down a bit and the beans and potatoes have cooked. Remove from heat and ladle into bowls, enjoy with a piece of buttered bread (as my Memmy used to do).

Casandra

Putting to use a Christmas gift, Hershey's recipe tin!

This Christmas I received an old fashioned style Hershey's tin filled with 99 recipes in 5 categories. All with some sort of Hershey's product (obviously), be it chocolate chips, Reese's brand peanut butter, candy bars or cocoa powder. There are

My mom's side of the family gets together just a couple times annually and these recipes are perfect for those functions. Typically we get together shortly after the holidays for a Christmas party and again on Independence Day/ 4th of July. This Christmas party I figured I would try a couple recipes from my new Hershey's recipe tin.

From the Desserts section I chose, REESE'S Haystacks, they turned out exactly like the picture showed and to make them festive I sprinkled red and green colored sugar crystals over the still tacky peanut butter melt! *The recipe is as follows (direct from the card):

1 2/3 cups (one 10 ounce package) REESE'S Peanut Butter Chips
1 Tablespoon shortening (do not use butter, margarine, spread or oil)
2 1/2 cups (5 ounce can) Chow Mein noodles

1. Line baking tray with wax paper or parchment paper.
2. Place peanut butter chips and shortening in medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at MEDIUM 1 minute; stir. If necessary, microwave at MEDIUM an additional 15 seconds at a time, stirring after each heating, just until chips are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred. Immediately add chow mein noodles; stir to coat.
3. Drop mixture by heaping teaspoons onto prepared tray or into paper candy cups. Let stand until firm. If necessary, cover and refrigerate several minutes until firm. Store in tightly covered container or tin.

* I followed this recipe to a 'T' and found that I did need to reheat in the microwave a total of 30-45 more seconds, stirring after each 15 second interval. I stored mine in a cookie tin as they were to be eaten shortly after cooling and firming. I would suggest a snap tight container for longer keeping.

The other recipe I wanted to try for the party (since there are a lot of young kids) was the Peanut Butter Chips and Jelly Bars. *The recipe is as follows (direct from the card):

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter or margarine
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup grape jelly
1 2/3 cups (one 10 ounce package) REESE'S Peanut Butter Chips

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Grease 9-inch square baking pan
2. Stir together flour, sugar and baking powder in large bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add egg; blend well. Reserve 1 cup miture; press remaining mixture onto bottom of prepared pan. Stir jelly to soften; spread evenly over crust. Sprinkle 1 cup peanut butter chips over jelly. Stir together reserved crumb mixture with remaining 2/3 cup pb chips; sprinkle over top.
3. Bake 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars

TIP from Hershey: For a whimsical twist on this tried-and-true classic, use cookie cutters to cut out shapes for added fun.

*I followed this one relatively the same except I used about a 1/8th of a cup more jelly than suggested, and I used a glass Pyrex 9-inch square dish for baking. We baked for about 25 minutes. After cooling I wanted to try the cookie cutter tip they mentioned but it was just too crispy to work with my old school tin cutters.


Casandra