Caramel Dip

It has been a while since I have posted, but we are coming up on fall and I wanted to pass this so good, so simple caramel dip recipe along. I think it is great with granny smith apples and vanilla ice cream, or just licking off a spoon!! No, really it is so good. I am sure you could think of lots of things to put it on :)

CARAMEL DIP/SAUCE:

1/2 cup butter 
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup Karo® Light Corn Syrup
2 tablespoons water
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon Spice Islands® 100% Pure Bourbon Vanilla Extract

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Stir in sugar, corn syrup and water.
2. Bring to a full boil over medium-high heat. Add condensed milk, 
stirring constantly. Bring to a full boil for 3 minutes.

 3. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Serve immediately or keep warm in a 
slow cooker or fondue pot.

**Recipe tip: Prepare ahead and reheat in microwave. If sauce seems too 
thick, stir in 1 tablespoon water or milk.

No Bake Banana Pudding

So my husband prefers the one you cook on the stove. I seem to mess that one up! :) I got this recipe from Mr. Tom at church about 7 years ago. I do not even like bananas but I love wafers and pudding, so I can pick around the banana chunks. If I ever make this for an occasion, it is always gone. Quick and Easy! Just how I do things.
4-6 Bananas, sliced (drizzle with lemon juice so they will not brown)
3 cups milk
1 box Nilla Wafers or Chessman Cookies (someone recommend this-haven't tried yet, but I am sure it's de-lish)
2 small boxed of instant vanilla pudding
8 oz. cream cheese
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz) container of Cool Whip ( I use the extra creamy when I can find it! )

Take both packets of instant pudding and mix with the milk.
In a separate bowl mix together cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Do this separately so your cream cheese doesn't lump together. Then fold in the Cool Whip. Add cream cheese mixture to the pudding and mix until well blended.

Mmmm...the final product

Layer your pan with wafers,bananas, and cream cheese pudding mixture. Add remaining wafers on top! I also like to crush them for the top layer.
Mmmmm... you will want to lick the bowl clean.
Enjoy!!!

1st layer the wafers

Layer the bananas over the wafers

Fruit Dip!! Mmmmm...

I love summer fruit. I had never been a fan of fruit dip until I had some of Mrs. Cindy's fruit dip. Mmm... it is SO good and so simple of course too!! So I had to share :) There are a lot of different fruit dips out there, but this is my favorite. I LOVE it with grapes the best, but I am also a weirdo who doesn't like strawberries, but I have not had a disappointed friend who eats it.
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 container of Cool Whip

Mix all together and serve!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares

1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large mashed banana
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Mix together the quick cooking oats, light brown sugar, baking powder, kosher salt and ground cinnamon.

Add in the vanilla extract, milk and egg. Mix the ingredients together.

Then add in the mashed banana and peanut butter. Combine all of the ingredients.

Pour the mixture into a lightly greased 8 by 8 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. You may want to use a 9x13 pan for thinner bars. I actually prefer them that way.

Cut into squares and enjoy! Great for breakfast!

THE BEST CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE. EVER.

Mmmm....yummy! Cole gave his approval!

This recipe is from The Pioneer Woman. I found it from creative Nancy though (her link is below) and had to try it. Ok, so I know my title is "Its really easy I promise" and if you are totally new to cooking this may sound a little hard, but I promise it is not. If you just follow the recipe, which does not ask anything hard or crazy you will not be disappointed. It is not box and can frosting, but it is not much harder and SOOO good. Seriously, did you see the picture? Ohh Ahhh

Hope you enjoy!!!

CAKE:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 4 heaping Tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 cup boiling water
• ½ cup buttermilk (Or use this tip to make a buttermilk substitute: Place 1/2 Tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup. Add enough regular milk to bring the liquid up to the 1/2 cup line. Let stand for 5 minutes, then use in the recipe.)
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

FROSTING:

• 1 3/4 sticks butter
• 4 heaping Tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
• 6 Tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pound (minus 1/2 cup) powdered sugar (about 3 to 3 1/4 cups)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts, optional (I did not use them).
  

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.

Melt butter in a saucepan and add cocoa. Stir together. Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into 13 x 18″ sheet cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes (if using a 10 x 15″ jelly roll pan, you may need to bake 22 to 23 minutes). NOTE: I greased my pan, but the Pioneer Woman’s recipe doesn’t say to do that, so I guess that’s optional.

While cake is baking, make the icing. If using nuts, chop them finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the nuts, stir together, and pour over warm cake. (NOTE: if you follow these directions, you’ll notice your frosting is still a little lumpy. To make her frosting really nice and smooth, Jane simply cooked the frosting several minutes longer over low heat, stirring until the mixture was smooth; she also omitted the nuts. You could also leave the nuts out of the frosting mixture and sprinkle them on top of the icing instead). If you made your cake in a 13 x 18″ pan, pour on all the frosting–you may need to spread it a little so it covers the entire cake; if your cake is in a 10 x 15″ pan, just pour enough frosting on to cover the surface of the cake without going over the edges of the pan. You’ll probably have about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of frosting left over.

which I just warmed and had on the side for whoever wanted extra icing. :)

You can let the frosting cool and set before cutting into squares if you want, or cut into squares while it’s still warm and dig in! The frosting will start setting in about a half hour, but it needs between 1 and 2 hours to set more firmly; at 2 hours, it should be nice and firm.

http://nancycreative.com/2011/03/02/the-best-texas-chocolate-sheet-cake/

Fish and Veggies Baked in Foil Packets

Not a very fun name, but that is what it was called on the recipe I had gotten. I am not even sure where I got it from? I printed it off and it didn't have any type of web address on it. Anyways, I was looking for some fish recipes. Casey and I have a food delivery system called Blue Ribbon that delivers organic food to our house. In return I have new foods that I have never cooked before. So I was looking for some fish ideas and ran across this one. It seemed easy enough. Fish is something new I am experimenting with these days. I think a lot of people are like that with fish, but so far I have had great success and it has been very easy. The recipe called for Tilapia, which I had, but I also had orange roughy so I used some of that too! Casey said he preferred the orange rough, but they were both really good.
Tilapia Fillets ( 1 per packet)
Mrs. Dash seasoning (or any seasoning you prefer)
Tomatoes, sliced
Green Onions, Chopped
Green Peppers, sliced
Basil, chopped
Lemon Juice
Olive Oil
Aluminum Foil to wrap fish

I just cut off a few pieces of aluminum foil and shook some olive oil on it so the fish will not stick. Place a fillet in the middle of the foil. Shake your seasoning salt and basil on the fish. Next layer your veggies on top of the fish. Give each piece of fish a few shakes of lemon juice. Wrap the foil around the fish loosely to make a packet. Bake at 450 for 20 mins

Tada!! It was very good and definitely something I will try again. I may even add some more or different veggies to it like squash, zucchini, mushrooms, broccoli, etc...

I served it with Wild Rice (Uncle Ben's quick cooking-5 min rice) and Green Beans.
I forgot to take a picture, but I will next time and add it to the blog. I know for me I want to see it! Very visual :) I want to see the yummy-ness.

White Chicken Chili

This is a goody that I ran across. It is starting to get cold here in TN and this sounds like the perfect thing to make for dinner this week. I am not sure if I have altered the recipe or not, but the first time I had this was at Bunko with my good friend, Bethany. Hope you enjoy it as well.
However, if you want to make this dish as easy and as fast as possible, I find that rotisserie chicken is extra juicy and is the perfect texture for this recipe. Plus, it pulls apart into great shreds for this delicious white chicken chili recipe.

White Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cups cooked chicken (I usually use an oven-baked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store to save on time), shredded
• 2 cans Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 can (4 ounces) green chilies (optional-sometimes I leave these out)
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 box (32 ounces) chicken broth
•  salt (to taste)
• Pepper (to taste)
• 1 lime, juice

Directions:

1. In a large pot, saute the onion and cook until it starts to become translucent.
2. Once the onion is done, add shreds of chicken, Great Northern Beans, corn, green chilies (with juice from can), cumin and oregano to the large pot. Stir to combine all of the ingredients and then add the chicken broth.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes to allow the broth to reduce. Add salt and pepper (to taste) and juice from one whole lime. 
4. Leave simmering on stove until ready to serve.
5. Serve with sour cream, shredded Jack cheese, or tortilla chips.