Cinnamon Fruit Dip

Now I haven't had this one before, but my dear friend Susan served it at her son's birthday party and we couldn't keep our hands out of it! It's the marshmallow cream, cream cheese fruit dip, with a twist!!

Cinnamon Fruit Dip

1 container marshmallow cream
1 pkg cream cheese, softened
cinnamon to taste

Blend marshmallow cream and cream cheese well. Get out all the lumps (use your muscles)! Add cinnamon to taste...it gives it a little color too--makes me ready for fall (whatever that looks like in Texas)!!

Great with Granny Smith apples, grapes, and strawberries!



(Thanks Susan!)

Banana Buns

A great, family friendly breakfast solo or with some oatmeal! I've made these many times, but never shared on the blog, so here they are (as they bake in the oven on this wonderfully rainy Saturday)!

Banana Buns

1 1/2 T butter
1-2 bananas (use 2)
3 T brown sugar (I put almost a teaspoon in each muffin cup)
tube of buttermilk biscuit
Pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Drop a piece of butter in the bottom of 10 muffin cups (for 10 biscuits--you'll laugh at yourself if you use all 12--I've done it at least once!). Arrange banana slices (about 4 slices per cup if you use 2 bananas) on top. Sprinkle nuts (optional, of course) and brown sugar over bananas.


Top each with a biscuit.

Bake until golden brown, 8-10 minutes.

Place baking sheet on top of muffin tin while hot. Flip over carefully, tapping bottom to release buns. (This doesn't really work for me...I pretty much dig them out and flip onto a plate!)


(Real Simple magazine)

Beef, Cheese, and Noodle Bake

I told Greta I made homeade Hamburger Helper for dinner...that's basically what this is, but it was good and didn't come out of a box!

1 8-ounce pkg small elbow macaroni
Cooking spray
NOT 1 cup prechopped onion
1 cup preshredded carrot (I thought about adding shredded zucchini, but had none!)
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 lb. lean ground sirloin
1 cup tomato sauce
1 tsp. salt, divided
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 cup fat free milk
2 T flour
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain. Lightly coat pasta with cooking spray.

Heat dutch oven (I used spaghetti pot while spaghetti was draining) over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Do NOT add onion, add carrot, and saute 4 minutes. Add garlic; saute 1 minute. =Add ground beef; cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add tomato sauce, 1/2 tsp. salt an dpper. Cook for 2 mintues or until most of liquid evaporates.

Add pasta to beef mixture in pan, stirring to combine. Spoon pasta mixture into an 11x17 baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Place milk, flour, nutmeg, and remaining 1/2 tsp. salt and pepper in a medium saucepan (once again, I used the one that was already dirty!); stir with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat 2 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly with a whisk. Add 1 cup cheese, stirring until smooth. Pour cheese mixture over pasta mixture; stir. Top evenly with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until lighly browned. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

(Serves 8)
(Cooking Light, January 2006)

Swedish Meatballs

Swedish Meatballs

1 cup water
1 1.1 ounce envelope mushroom gravy mix
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
8 ounces sour cream
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1 16 ounce pkg. frozen cooked meatballs, thawed
1 4 1/2 ounce can sliced mushroom, drained (I used a bag of fresh)

In a large skillet, combine water, gravy mix, and pepper. Cook and stir over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. Remove skillet from heat; stir in sour cream and allspice. Stir in meatballs and mushrooms. Return skillet to heat; heat through.

I served with rice and asparagus. Riley ate his asparagus first! Everyone liked it!

(Serves 4)
(Mixing Bowl.com Magazine 2009)

Scotcheroos

Really, they're not Scotcheroos since I didn't use butterscotch chips, I used peanut butter. Butteroos? I think peanut butter made them 100% better!

Scotcheroos

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
6 cups toasted rice cereal
1 cup butterscotch chips (I used peanut butter)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Line bottom of 13x9 inch baking dish with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray.

Combine peanut butter, sugar, and corn syrup in a large saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until blended. Remove from heat. Add cereal; stir until thoroughly coated. Press onto bottom of baking pan.

Microwave butterscotch chips (ahem, peanut butter) and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl on high power for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave an additional 10-20 second intervals, stirring until smooth. Spread evenly over cereal mixture. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes or until topping is firm. (Or cover and let sit overnight). Cut into 24 bars.

(Makes 24? I didn't cut mine that small!)
(Mixing Bowl.com magazine 2009)

These are great and dangerous--they went quickly! Our neighbors enjoyed them too. Riley even ate more squash and zucchini so he could have another one!

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Rice

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Rice

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
2 cups instant white rice, uncoooked
1/2 lb. Velveeta, cut into cubes
1 pkg. frozen chopped broccoli *(I added half a bag of frozen broccoli crowns as well), thawed

Cook and stir chicken in large nonstick skillet on medium high heat 5 minutes or until done.

Stir in broth. Bring to a boil.

Add rice, Velveeta and broccoli; cover. Remove from heat. Let stand 10 minutes. Stir until Velveeta is completely melted and mixture is well blended.

(Serves 6)
(Kraft Food and Family Magazine, Fall '09)

Yummy and quick family-friendly comfort food!

Chicken and Summer Vegetable Tostadas

These are delicious, I highly recommend!

Chicken and Summer Vegetable Tostadas

1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. canola oil
12 ounces chicken breast tenders (I cut mine into bite-sized pieces, so if you do that, you could use breasts too)
NOT 1 cup chopped red oinion (about 1)
1 cup fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears) *I used frozen and added extra of each veggie since I omitted the onion
1 cup chopped zucchini
(I also added 1 cup of chopped yellow squash!)
1/2 cup green salsa (I used Central Market's Hatch Green Chile salsa--yum!)
3 T chopped fresh cilantro, divided
4 fat free flour tortillas *(I just couldn't imagine these tacos in a flour tortilla, so I used corn. They fell apart, of course! I recommend doubling the corn tortillas for each taco--not a guarantee it won't break, but it helped!)
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Preheat broiler. (not if you're using corn, just sprinkle them with water and warm them up in microwave if you don't have a tortilla warmer)

Combine first 3 ingredients, stirring well. Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the spice mixture evenly over chicken. Add chicken to pan; saute for 3 minutes. Don't add onion! Add corn zucchini, (and squash) to pan; saute for 2 minutes or until chicken is done. Stir in salsa and 2 T cilantro. Cook 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring frequently.


Working with 2 tortillas at a time, arrange tortillas in a single layer on a baking sheet; lightly coat them with cooking spray. Broil 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Spoon about 3/4 cup chicken mixture into center of each tortilla; sprinkle each serving with cheese. Broil an additional 2 minutes or until cheese melts. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Sprinkle each with cilantro and serve immediately.

*I used the chicken and veggie mixture as a taco filling and just made tacos. No broiling necessary!!


These are great--and I honestly think the corn tortillas make it...and the cheese and sour cream, of course! I served with Spanish rice and black beans.

(Serves 4...but with what I added, would've served at least 6)
(Cooking Light, August 2006)