Italian Sausage Mix

This week I've gotten into recreating left overs to make different things. I mixed the left over bell peppers and mixed them with italian sausage and sauteed onions. For the first day I stuffed crescent rolls with the mix and Monterrey jack cheese and baked for 10 minutes at 350, and let me say, this was soooo good. It's perfect for the cold weather.

The next day I put the mix in a quesadilla, and that was super good too! This time I used the leftover pepper jack cheese from the pizza. After all of that, I STILL have some of the sausage/onion/bell pepper mix left. Next I think I might mix it with the leftover corn and stewed tomatoes from making taco soup earlier this week.

I tried some other crafts and things I've found on pinterest. First, I tried washing my cookie sheets using a mix from this website. It mixes peroxide and baking soda, but it didn't work. Another website i found said to use vinegar and baking soda, but that didn't work either. So cleaning the baking sheets failed.


Second I tried making a candle out of an orange, and this worked! It was really cool! You cut around the middle of the orange, but just enough to cut the peel. Then pull the peel off the top. You sort of have to invert the peel to do this. For the top half, pull the peel off completely. For the bottom half, pull the strings through the middle keeping them attached to the peel. This part will be the wick. Fill the wick end with olive oil leaving enough of the "wick" sticking up so you can light it. Cut a hole in the top half and set it on top of the lit bottom!

Cool Right? I thought so!

Mexican Chicken Pizza

I found this recipe on pinterest, and I'm in love with it now! I didn't exactly follow the recipe because I was just throwing the ingredients together really fast to try and eat between meeting and Pigskin practice. It's very simple. I used store bough pizza dough and unrolled it on a greased pan. I used salsa where the pizza sauce would normally go then grated some pepper jack cheese over the whole pizza. I then sprinkled the shredded grilled chicken and the red and yellow peppers over the pizza and added another layer of cheese. I cooked it for about 12 minutes.

According to the recipe it's technically supposed to have onions in it too, and you're supposed to saute the onions and peppers, but I didn't have time to cut the onion and saute everything so I just skipped that part. The onions would make it a lot better, but it was still absolutely delicious how it was! Sorry, I didn't get a picture of it before I had eaten it! Here's the recipe:

Spicy Chicken and Pepper Jack Pizza

Yield: Serves 3 to 4

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. canola or olive oil
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
3 cups diced fresh red, yellow and green bell peppers
1 (13.8 oz.) tube refrigerated pizza dough
1/2 cup salsa
2 cups (8 oz.) Sargento® ChefStyle Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese
Chopped cilantro or dried oregano (optional)
1 ½ cups cooked and shredded chicken

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion; sauté 2 minutes. Add bell peppers; sauté 5 minutes or until crisp-tender.
2. Meanwhile, unroll pizza dough onto a 15 x 10-inch jelly roll pan coated with cooking spray; press dough evenly to all edges of pan. Bake in preheated 425°F 8 minutes. 3. Stir salsa into cooked vegetables; spread over partially baked crust. Top with chicken and cheese.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until crust is deep golden brown. Cut into squares; garnish with cilantro or oregano if desired.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Gooey Goodstuff

Sunday funday means baking day! Today I made this awesomely good easy thing. It's technically called "Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars", but I have another recipe similar to that so I'm just calling this Chocolate Peanut Butter Gooey Goodstuff! It's just a mix of yellow cake, eggs, butter, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and sweetened condensed milk! YUMMM

Here's the recipe:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars
by Greta White

1 (18.25) package plain yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 eggs

1 (12 oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup coconut (optional...my sister did not like the texture of it in there)

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2) Combine cake mix, melted butter, peanut butter, and eggs in a large bowl using a mixer or spoon. Press this into a 9X13 pan reserving 1 1/2 cup of the mixture to crumble on top.

3) In a small pot, melt chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and coconut.
4) Spread chocolate mixture over the mixture pressed in the pan and then crumble the 1 1/2 cups of reserved cake mixture on top evenly.
5) Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into bars. 

Also, I've decided to start a challenge to see how many recipes I can come up with using crescent rolls. My goal is 30! The first one I'll share with you is a good breakfast option or late night snack! You take an unbaked unrolled crescent roll and spread peanut butter on it then sprinkle chocolate chips. Roll it up and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350. It's another yummy gooey chocolate peanut butter thing! 

Well now I'm off to make this cool thing out of toilet paper rolls. Which by the way I'm collecting toilet paper and paper towel rolls, like the cardboard part. So PLEASE send yours my way!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

I'm back! After a long time of being away from the blog world, I finally found some new inspiration to get me blogging again. Pinterest. I have found so many recipes and crafts on this website that I want to try its not even funny. I'll have something new to make/bake for the next year.

The lucky recipe that gets a blog post this time is chocolate chip cookie dough balls. These wonderful things are made with eggless cookie dough so they're completely safe to consume raw. The idea is to make the dough, refrigerate it for an hour, roll it into balls, and cover the balls in chocolate. Basically the same thing as cake balls but with cookie dough!

My cookie dough did not exactly make it to the chocolate covered ball stage. It kind of got stuck in the bowl in the fridge where I've been eating it by the spoonful! I simply decided that adding the extra chocolate layer was 1) not worth the trip to the grocery store to buy the chocolate and 2) not worth the time to do so. But, maybe if I were making these for a party or something I would do that. I also had to half the recipe because I didn't have enough flour and it still made plenty.

Here's the recipe!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Makes approx. 3-4 dozen. Recipe from Love and Olive Oil.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk or soy milk
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
14 oz dark chocolate candy coating

Directions:

Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed (or stir by hand) until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.
Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.
When dough is firm enough to handle, form dough into 1″ balls and arrange on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Place sheets in freezer and let chill for 30 minutes.
Melt chocolate candy coating in microwave according to package directions. Using toothpicks as a dipping tool, dip cookie balls into candy coating to cover. Tap on side of pan to remove any excess coating, and return to waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Chill until set. Store, chilled, in an airtight container for up to 1 week.