Ranch Chicken Kabobs

In the summertime, I like to grill most nights. I love finding new ways to grill up chicken! This recipe was great!  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup ranch dressing

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to

taste

5 skinless, boneless chicken breast

halves - cut into 1 inch cubes

Directions:

 Mix all the ingredients together. Pour over chicken(I marinaded the chicken after it was already on the skewers)and let it marinade for a minimum of 30 minutes in the refrigerator (longer is even better!). Grill and enjoy!

Recipe adapted from All Recipes.

Pineapple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Once again, here is another amazing recipe I found thanks to Pinterest. The recipe is courtesy of The Big Red Kitchen. It is sooo incredibly good! There are some updated baking tips for this recipe on their site, if you want to check it out. I did bake it at a lower temp. and a longer time then called for. Oh...I also cheated and bought pre-made cream cheese frosting. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cups AP flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
20 ounce can (about 2 cups) crushed pineapple, in juice, don’t drain
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup nuts- optional(I didn't add any)

Directions:

 Mix all together until smooth. Pour into greased 9×13 inch baking dish and bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Baking temp. and times WILL vary. (I baked mine at 325 for 50 minutes. The edges were dark, but not burned.) If your cake does not look done after 30 minutes, keep checking it at 5 minute increments.

Icing:

 8 ounces cream cheese
4 T. butter
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup nuts- optional

Directions:

 Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Add Vanilla. Slowly add sugar and blend after each addition. Fold in nuts if desired. Ice cake while still a bit warm.

Recipe courtesy of  The Big Red Kitchen.

Healthier Strawberry Banana Bread

In an effort to save some over-ripened strawberries and bananas, I decided to whip up a loaf of strawberry banana bread. I took my recipe for Healthier Banana Bread and added in about 1&1/2 cups of strawberries. This recipe is a first for me and one I will definitely add to the breakfast rotation! You can also use blueberries in place of the strawberries.

Ingredients:
2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teas. baking powder
1/2 teas. baking soda
1/2 teas. salt

2 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce (you can use 1/2c butter if you prefer)
3/4 cup sugar (you can use 1c sugar if you want it even sweeter)

2-3 medium ripe bananas
1&1/2 cups of strawberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Then mix or beat together eggs, applesauce and sugar. Add mashed bananas to the wet ingredients and mix well (I just throw the whole bananas into my kitchen aid mixer with the rest of the wet ingredients and beat, leaving it still a little lumpy). Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. Fold in strawberries.

Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for about 65 minutes.

German Chocolate Cake Bars

These bars were AMAZING! If you are a chocolate and coconut lover like me, then you'll love them. I found the recipe while looking around in the food section on Pinterest. Have you checked out Pinterest yet? If not, you really should. There are sooo many wonderful things to look at! My favorite, is the endless supply of delicious recipes! Just don't go on there hungry...you'll be sorry! This recipe was from Six Sister's Stuff. I love their blog! They have a ton of great recipes, so check them out.


Crust:
1 box devil's good cake mix (not the kind with pudding added)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg

Filling:
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup chopped pecans(I used only 1/2 cup)
1 cup shredded coconut (I used sweetened coconut)
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips(I think I used closer to 1 cup, and I used a combo of milk and semi-sweet chips)


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan (I used non-stick cooking spray).
In a medium bowl, mix together the cake mix, butter and egg, and press into the bottom of the prepared pan. The crust should not come up the sides. Bake for 7 minutes and remove from the oven. The crust will not look done.
While the crust is baking, mix together the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, egg, pecans and coconut. Pour evenly(IMPORTANT TO POUR EVENLY BECAUSE IT'S HARD TO SPREAD ON WARM CRUST WITHOUT THE CRUST SPREADING) over the warm crust and sprinkle evenly with the chocolate chips. Bake for 24-30 minutes, until the top is a light golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool completely before cutting into squares. Enjoy!!

Recipe found on www.sixsistersstuff.com and was originally by Paula Deen
 

Italian Bread

I love making homemade bread. I always make my dough in my bread maker first, then bake it in the oven. The  recipe  I found on Food.com was so easy! It is now my go to Italian bread recipe. The only thing I might do differently next time, is add a bit more salt.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup water, warmed
2. 2 tablespoons olive oil
3. 2 teaspoons sugar
4. 1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
5. 3 cups all-purpose flour
6. 1/2 teaspoon salt
7. 1 whole egg whites
8. 2 tablespoons cornmeal  (I didn't use)

Directions:

1. Add into bread machine container, warmed water, olive oil, sugar, yeast. Let yeast foam a bit.
2. Dump in flour (start with 2 1/2 cups); add salt on top of flour.
3. Turn on bread machine to dough setting. Watch for the first bit and add flour as needed to get a good dough. (elastic and not sticky).
4. Get cookie sheet ready by lightly oiling with olive oil and sprinkle on cornmeal.
5. Form dough into loaf and set on cookie sheet with tea towel to cover until doubled in size.
6. Preheat oven to 375*F.
7. Cut slits diagonally in loaf with sharp knife. Brush with egg white.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and when you knock the bottom of bread it sounds hollow.

Original recipe found over at Food.com.