Strawberry Cream Cupcake Desserts(ROTW)

A couple weeks ago, for the ROTW,  I picked these incredibly delicious Strawberry Cream Cupcake Desserts. I found the recipe in a Pampered Chef catalog. You can also get the recipe on their website. Their version is much cuter than mine. I didn't take the time to make the cupcakes. I just doubled the cake part of the recipe and put it in a 9X13 pan. I also used yellow cake mix instead of white. It still tasted wonderful! I loved the pretzel crust!

Check out the recipe here.

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Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I have been wanting to try making my own spaghetti sauce for awhile now. I came across this recipe for Mom's spaghetti sauce on FoodNetwork.com a few weeks ago. It was really yummy with a ton of flavor! The sauce wasn't difficult to make, but it seemed to take a long time to put it all together. I guess anything would compared to just dumping a jar of premade sauce into a slow cooker. If you want to try making your own sauce, I recommend giving this recipe a try. Be forewarned though...it makes a ton! I made it in my large slow cooker instead of a pot and it was practically overflowing! The only thing I didn't love about this recipe was the sausage, so if you don't like Italian sausage just leave it out.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound ground pork(I didn't use pork. It had plenty of meat without it)
• 1 pound Italian sausage
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed
• 5 large cans tomato paste
• 10 tomato paste cans water
• 4 tablespoons Parmesan
• 1 1/2 tablespoons salt
• 6 leaves fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Directions

In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute the ground beef, pork and sausage until it is brown. Drain off excess fat. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until smooth. Cook for 3 to 4 hours on medium heat, stirring often to prevent scorching.

Recipe courtesy Chris Divito

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Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Chicken Tetrazzini and garlic bread

Tuesday: Tortilla Casserole (This has been on my list for 3 weeks and I still have yet to make it)

Wednesday: Cheesy Chicken Enchilada soup

Thursday: Bourbon Chicken

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday and Sunday we will be having Easter Dinners with family.:)

Go to I'm an Organizing Junkie for more great meal plans! Pin It

Candy Apple Pie

Ok, Ok I know it is not a great pic but it is by far the best and this pie was so great I just had to share it with you. It is an apple pie but not in the terms of a fall/winter time but more of a summer apple pie. As you can see in the picture, it barely contains itself when you cut into it but, it is so yummy to eat. This would still go perfect with a big scoop off ice cream, perhaps butter pecan?

Candy Apple Pie

courtesy of Sherry Knackstept

For the crust:

3 TBL sugar

11/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 tsp group cinnamon

1/3 cup butter, melted

(with all of that posted I will say that I used 11/2 cup honey Ohs (the cereal), 1/4 cup stick melted butter, no sugar, and 1 tsp cinnamon) I am trying cereals as bases right now

For the Filling:

5 granny Smith Apples, peeled and sliced

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

5 tbl butter

For the cream cheese topping:

1 (8oz) package of cream cheese, softened

1 TBL fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

11/2 tsp vanilla

For the topping:

3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat Oven to 370〫

In large bowl combine the sugar, graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon and melted butter. Mix well and evenly pressing into a 9" pie pan. Bake for 16 min. Cool on Wire rack.

For filling, in a medium sauce pan oven medium heat, combine apples, brown sugar, salt and butter. Stir occasionally, cook until apples just start to soften, about 10 min. Pour into crust, juice and all.

For the cream cheese topping, combine cream cheese, lemon juice, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl. Mix well and spread the cream cheese evenly over the apples.

Bake until golden brown crust forms, about 30 min. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.

Top with carmel sauce and pecans.

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Meatballs (I used for meatball sandwiches)

 

I have never made meatball sandwiches before, but decided to give it a try this week. I found a great recipe for meatballs at recipezaar.com. I put them in toasted sourdough buns with provolone cheese melted on the top of  the meatballs. Mmmm...they were sooo good.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef (a mixture of 1 pound ground beef and 1/2 pound ground pork will work well also)
• 1 large egg, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup breadcrumbs (or use enough to hold the meat together)
• 1-2 tablespoon fresh minced garlic (or use 1 teaspoon garlic powder or to taste)
• 1-2 teaspoon salt (or to taste, I use 2 teaspoons seasoned salt)
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/3 cup milk (can use up to 1/2 cup milk)
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• favorite spaghetti sauce(1 jar)

1. Mix all ingredients(except sauce) together in a large bowl.
2. Shape into small meatballs (at this point you can place on a jelly-roll/baking sheet and freeze to use later, or cover with plastic wrap refrigerate up to 24 hours before using).
3. Drop the meatballs into simmering pasta sauce, do not stir for at least 20 minutes or you will risk breaking the meatballs.
4. Continue cooking in the simmering sauce for another 20 minutes (depending on how fast your sauce is simmering 40 minutes total should fully cook the meatballs).
5. After the 40 minutes cooking time continue cooking your sauce with the meatballs in for as long as desired.
6. **note** you may also bake the meatballs at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes or until cooked through. 

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Chocolate Muffins with Peanut Butter Chips

Yummy! These were made at the request of my husband who just needed something made of chocolate. He is easy to please :). I added the peanut butter chips to my half of the muffins and dark chocolate chips to his half. These are moist and full of chocolate flavor, not too sweet and not a chocolate cupcake.

8 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup fat free milk (can be made with whole or 2% milk)

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 TBL vanilla extract

1 2/3 cup AP flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup mini chocolate chips (reg size works) or peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 400〫

Grease 12 muffin pan or 6 jump muffin pan

In a small sauce pan over low heat, heat butter to melting, turn off heat and add chocolate chips. Leave to melt, stirring a few time to mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool a little (about 10 min).

In a bowl using a electric mixer, mix milk, sugar, egg, sour cream and vanilla together. Lightly beat eggs in small bowl and add to milk mixture. Mix until mixture lightens up, about 3 min. You want to add some air to the eggs without over mixing. Add cooled chocolate mixture and mix until just incorporated.

In large bowl sift together all dry ingredients. Add chocolate mixture to dry ingredients and blend until just incorporated. Do not over mix, should stay light and airy (you can add the chocolate chips/butter chips at this point or wait). Mix in chips now if desired.

Fill muffin pans 1/2 full (sprinkle with a few chocolate chips/peanut butter chips/both) and bake until toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean, about 15-20 min. Remove from oven, let stand for 5 min in pan, then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling or serve warm. Can be frozen too.

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Homemade Pizza

I make homemade pizza quite often, but I have finally found my all time favorite homemade pizza recipe. This was Soooo good! It took A LOT of self control not to devour enough to make me sick. I used a crust recipe that I have used before, but I think what made this pizza even better than usual was the combination of the toppings I chose.

Crust:

• 1 1/3 cups water
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Sauce:

The best sauce I have found for pizza, is Lawry's spaghetti sauce. It comes in a packet. You add water, oil and tomato paste.

Toppings:

pepperoni
hard salami, thinly sliced(I buy the pre-sliced)
parmesan cheese
shredded mozzarella  cheese
onions, thinly sliced and sauteed in oil
sliced black olives

Add crust ingredients in order given, to your bread machine and set it to the dough cycle. When the dough is complete, roll it out on a floured surface. The original recipe makes enough for a thick crust in a 9X13 pan. This time I rolled it out to fit a medium to large size pizza pan and I also used some for a smaller size pizza for the kids. The larger pizza had a very thick crust. We could have made 2 in the bigger pizza pan with thinner crusts. When using a 9X13 pan, I oil it first. Let the dough rise again for 20-30 minutes. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Take out of the oven. Add sauce(I don't use very much sauce. I think it takes away from the flavor of the toppings), Parmesan cheese(sprinkle over sauce), salami, pepperoni, cheese, onions and olives. Bake ate 375 for approx. 15-25 minutes (time will vary depending on size of pizza).

Crust recipe inspiration

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