Oatmeal Cream Pies

I was just searching the web for new and interesting recipes when I came across this yummy looking recipe for oatmeal cream pies. I LOVE the Little Debbie pies, so I decided to try to make these. I didn't love the filling and am on the prowl for a new recipe for the filling, but the cookies were SO good! I had to bring them to work to avoid eating the WHOLE plate!

Oatmeal Cream Pies
From The Amish Cooks Baking Book courtesy of the nest.com

Cookies:
1 and 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups quick cooking oats
2 tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp boiling water

Filling:
1 egg white
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup shortening, softened

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Grease baking sheet and set aside.
2. Cream the butter, sugar, and 2 eggs. Add in the salt, flour, and baking powder and beat until well incorporated, scraping sides of the bowl as needed. Add in the oats and cinnamon and mix until combined.
3. In a small bowl, put baking soda and boiling water together. Add to batter and mix to combine.
4. Drop dough by the Tablespoon onto greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
5. Bake at 425F until light golden, about 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
6. Cream the egg white, vanilla extract, milk, and 1 cup powdered sugar. Add in the shortening and remaining 1 cup of powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
7. When the cookies have cooled, match up with similar sized cookies (using a cookie scoop makes most the same size). Spread the filling on one cookie bottom and put other cookie together to make a sandwich.

YUM! So addicting, but I will work on the filling some.

Stuffed Zucchini Boats

So last night I wanted to make a homemade gyro. I needed some type of side dish recipe to go along with it. I knew I wanted to use up some rice I have and I also had 2 zucchinis that needed to be used up. Then I remembered watching 10 Dollar Dinners on the Food Network where she made stuffed veggies (peppers, zucchini and tomatoes). They were super easy and so good!

Stuffed Zucchini Boats

3/4 cup cooked rice (use whatever kind you like)
1 large zucchini cut in half lengthwise
1/2 cup baby portabello mushrooms
2 small garlic cloves
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 400F
2. Scoop the seeds out of the zucchini using a spoon. Make a boat in the center of the zucchini to fit the filling. Place the meat and seeds into a food processor. Place the zucchini on baking pan.
3. Put mushrooms, garlic, salt and pepper into food processor. Pulse until finely chopped.
4. Mix rice and chopped veggies in a bowl until well combined.
5. Fill zucchini boats with filling. Bake at 400F until filling is heated through and zucchini is at desired texture.

Tzatziki Sauce

Since I am now living at my mom's house and have other people besides my hubby and myself, I can make some recipes I have been wanting to try. As you may remember from previous posts, my hubby is a super picky eater. Normally I will make something he likes and add a few twists to make it interesting for me. Now with my brothers and parents here, I can make a more elaborate meal and have Scott help whip up something for him. So tonight I wanted to tackle homemade Gyros. I have made this in the past and it was so yummy. Tonight though, it didn't come out so good, so I am going to only blog about the yummiest parts.....the Tzatziki sauce and in the next post, stuff zucchini.

Tzatziki Sauce

1 6oz container plain greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
1/2 cucumber peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
2-3 small garlic cloves finely chopped
1-2 tsps red wine vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp oregano
Salt to taste

1. Place the chopped cucumber in a tea towel and squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine drained cucumber, garlic, red wine vinegar, oil, oregano, greek yogurt and salt. Mix well to combine.

So easy and so tasty! Zucchini boat recipe tomorrow!

Caramelized Banana Upside Down Bread

During our most recent cruise aboard the Carnival Legend, we had a pretty busy day at one of our stops. We hadn't eaten lunch and by the time we got back on the ship, it was getting near dinner time. We had to pass the buffet to get back to our room, so I decided to pick up a quick treat to get me through until dinner. When I saw this treat, I knew it had to be mine....there was what looked like banana bread (yummy enough in itself) topped with caramelized bananas. OMG! It was one of the top 5 most yummiest things I ate during that cruise....and I ate a lot, so it is really saying something! I had to have another piece, so after dinner I went back up to the buffet, but alas, it must have been a lunch treat, and there wasn't any to be had for dessert :(. I have been dreaming of this treat since we got off the cruise. We had friends over and my brothers were both in town, so I decided to try to recreate it. I found a few recipes and decided to try the following Rachel Ray recipe. I loved the caramelized banana topping, but was not 100% crazy about the banana bread...I think she makes a banana cake, and it was just too soft for me. I will definitley try again and repost, but if you want a banana cake try this one out!

Caramelized Banana Upside Down Cake (bread recipe to follow when I have more people to experiment on/feed)

4 bananas (yellow spotty ones)
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp butter
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used applesauce instead)

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.
2. Trim both ends off of 3 bananas and place ends in a separate bowl. Slice banana lengthwise into 3-4 long strips.
3. In a heavy skillet, put 1/4 cup of sugar and 2 Tbsp water over medium- medium-high heat. DO NOT STIR. Allow to come to a boil. Cook until water is evaporated and mixture comes to an amber color. Remove from the heat and add in butter. After butter has melted, add bananas cut side down into caramel mixture. Put over low heat for 1 minute. Transfer the bananas to the prepared loaf pan. Arrange cut side down trying to completely cover bottom of pan. Drizzle caramel over bananas.
4. In a medium bowl, mash remaining banana and trimmed edges. Add in 1/2 cup and mix well. Beat in the whole egg, egg white, and vanilla.
5. Mix together dry ingredients -flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt-in separate bowl (I never do this). Add to wet ingredients and add oil/applesauce. Stir until well combined. Pour batter over bananas and caramel in loaf pan.
6. Bake at 325F 50-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes, then invert over a platter.

YUM!!!

Mahi Mahi Tacos with Homemade Salsa

I first had fish tacos at Hooters and they were so yummy. Since having them, I was inspired to try them at home. I have made them a few times, but tonight they came out so good.

Mahi Mahi Tacos

1 lb mahi mahi
1 tsp season all (we use lowry's)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 pinch cayenne pepper
Tortillas
Toppings of your choice (I used cheese, shredded cabbage- or use coleslaw mix with no sauce- sour cream, and the homemade salsa)

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Combine all spices with lime juice (will be like a paste) and rub on mahi mahi. Place on baking sheet and bake about 10 minutes or until fish flakes with fork.
3. Put cooked mahi mahi along with toppings in tortilla and enjoy!

Homemade salsa
1 medium-large tomato
1 small piece jalapeno (I cut a small piece off the jalapeno and freeze the rest)
1/4 small onion
1 garlic clove
Small bunch of cilantro
Salt to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in blender and pulse until chopped to desired consistency.

Caramel Corn

We had planned a dinner and a movie date night, but we ended up taking our friend for a pretty big (and delicious) pizza lunch. We decided to make it a movie and dessert night. I decided popcorn might be a yummy snack. Now a few months ago, I bought the Orville Redenbaucher 100 calorie kettle corn snack bags. They have absolutley NO taste. Bleh....so I decided I wanted to use them up some how....I saw a few recipes for caramel corn and was inspired to make this. I decided to trust the amazing Mrs. Paula Deen and was not disappointed. So easy and so tasty! I made only 1/4 recipe and am super glad because it is addicting! (I used 3 snack bags and I think it was a little too much popcorn, so I suggest if you make 1/4 of the recipe, use 2 snack bags) I am going to post the whole recipe in case you want to make a big batch.

Caramel Corn
Courtesy of Paula Deen

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp salt (oops I left this out and it was still great)
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp baking powder
8 qts of popped plain popcorn
Melted chocolate (optional- unless you are a chocoholic like I am, then it is mandatory)

1. Preheat oven to 200F. Put popcorn in baking dish
2. Over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, salt, and corn syrup. Boil for 5 minutes. (Watch that it doesn't get too brown, it burns quickly....don't leave the stove!) Remove from heat and add baking powder.
3. Pour caramel over popped corn. Stir to coat.
4. Bake at 200F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes....I only baked mine 25 minutes because I slightly overcooked the sugar, and it was still great.
5. Drizzle melted chocolate over caramel corn...then enjoy when it has cooled!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese frosting

I had a block of cream cheese just waiting to expire in the refrigerator. It was pushed all the way to the back of the fridge...one of those extra ones I got because I had a coupon. Well I decided to make my stuffed chicken breasts (see previous post for those). That only used half of the block, and it was about to expire, so I decided I needed to use it up somehow. I decided then, a sweet treat was in order. I looked online for something and found a recipe for banana nut cake with cream cheese frosting by Paula Deen. I do have LOTS of leftover bananas in the freezer just waiting to be used....but I made a banana bread and brought it to work and nobody ate it...so I decided to nix that idea. I remembered that a lot of my co-workers love carrot cake and it is typically made with a cream cheese frosting...so that is what I made. This is my FIRST attempt at carrot cake....everyone raved about it. They were fighting over the cupcakes....yup, even mad at me for not making enough of them. One girl asked for the recipe! So here it is....

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting
Courtesy of Paula Deen

4 ounces of cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat) at room temperature
1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick) at room temperature
1/2 pound confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a bowl with a hand mixer, blend together the cream cheese and butter.
2. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the vanilla.
4. Store in refrigerator until cakes are baked and cool.

Carrot Cake
Courtesy of Allrecipes.com

2 eggs
1/2 cup all natural, no sugar added applesauce
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1-1/2 cups grated carrots

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Prepare muffin/cupcake tins- either grease them or use paper liners.
3. In a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat together eggs, applesauce, white sugar and vanilla.
4. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots.
5. Pour even amounts into prepared cupcake tin. Sometimes using an ice cream scoop or a measuring cup will allow for more even amounts and therefore more even cooking times.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
7. When cool, decorate or frost with cream cheese frosting.

If you let these sit in the refrigerator overnight they get so much more tasty!