Actually Delicious Gingerbread House and Cookies!

Each year I make homemade gingerbread houses for my kids and preschoolers. For the life of myself I couldn't find my recipe, so I searched the internet for hours for a good recipe that didn't require any boiling or weird ingredients. After a few other recipe failures, I came upon these 2 recipes from allrecipes.com. They are the bomb!! The house recipe tastes like graham crackers. My kids begged me to make more just so they could eat them. And I had numerous requests from my preschool mommies for the cookie recipe... it's that good!! One thing to note is that I had to add more flour to both recipes. So if your dough is still too creamy and not stiff and rollable then keep adding flour! (I hesitate to say how much more because I live 6500 ft above sea level and so it's going to be different depending on where you live :)

Gingerbread Man Cookies

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup brown sugar

2/3 cup molasses

2 eggs

4 cups flour, divided

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp cloves

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, craem together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the molasses and eggs Combine 1 ½ cups of the flour, baking soda, salt, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger; beat into the molasses mixture. Gradually stir in the remaining flour by hand to form a stiff dough. (I had to add a lot more flour). On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8” thickness. Cut out and place 1” apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 min in the oven.

Gingerbread House Dough

¾ cup butter

7/8 cup packed light brown sugar

1 ½ tsp lemon juice

½ cup molasses

2 eggs

3 cups flour (I had to add 2 ½ more cups)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp ginger

2 tsp allspice

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, and molasses. Gradually beat in 2 eggs. Sift the flour, baking powder and spices together; stir into creamed mixture. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out and cut out your house shapes. In a preheated 375F oven, bake for 10 min. Transfer to wire racks. Leave overnight to harden.

Hamburger Surprise!! :)

When we were first married and I told Mr. Amazing I was going to make "Hamburger Surprise" he got rather nervous. Usually any recipe with the word "surprise" is just another way to say "disgusting" haha. When I pulled them out of the oven and he tried one, he didn't like it. Then I added the MUST HAVE ingredient of Lawry's Season Salt. Bam! It instantly became one of his favorite meals. Which is a good thing, because I make them often!

Dough:

1 tbsp yeast

3 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

½ tsp salt

1 egg

¼ c shortening 

1 cup warm water

Inside:

Browned, seasoned hamburger to taste

Cheese slices

Put warm water, egg, sugar, salt and shortening into mixer. Start mixing and add 1 cup of flour. Mix until blended then add the yeast. Finish adding flour until the texture is just right then let it raise.

Take a small amount of dough and pull it until very thin a little bigger than your palm. Put a small scoop of cooked hamburger and a small cheddar cheese slice (like the size you’d put on a saltine cracker). Roll up into a ball. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. When hot put butter on top and sprinkle with seasoning salt.

Zesty Italian Chicken (Easy Peazy!!)

Comfort food. That is how Mr. Amazing described this meal! So good. So easy. Perfect!! Another freezer meal from Jessi that turned out to be a family fav and for sure going on the monthly list!

1 8 oz cream cheese

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 pkg Zesty Italian Dressing Seasoning (the packet)

3 chicken breasts

Put cream cheese, soup and Italian packet into the slow cooker on high for 30 minutes. This will soften it and make it easy to stir until well combined. Add the chicken and cook on low for 5-6 hours (this is a meal that you definitely don't want to overcook). You can serve the chicken breasts whole or do as we do and use 2 forks and pull into smaller chunks. Serve over hot rice! (We have to double this recipe for our family of 6). 

Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake

Oh my! This cheesecake is the real deal!!! Stacey is a rock on baker and this is just more proof of her incredible skills in the kitchen! Pumpkin only appeals to me in small amounts of flavor, and this recipe has it just right! This is the perfect recipe for Thanksgiving Dessert!!!

Crust:

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs

5 tbsp butter, melted

1 tbsp sugar

Filling:

3- 8 oz pkgs cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup canned pumpkin

3 eggs

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp allspice

Whipped cream

Mix crust ingredients together, just til coated and crumbly. Press onto the bottom and 2/3 cup the sides of an 8” spring form pan. Bake at 350 for 5 minutes. Set aside. Combine cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl, mix smoothly with an electric mixer, add pumpkin, eggs and spices, beat until smooth and creamy. Pour into the crust. Bake for 60-70 minutes or till the top turns a bit darker. Remove from oven and allow to come to room temp and then refrigerate. After it has thoroughly chilled, remove the pan sides and cut. Serve with whipped cream.

Mini Fruit Pizzas

Oh I wish I would've taken my camera to recipe group last month! Every single item brought was delicious and all of them made the dang good list! So I'll post them for you even with no picture because you will totally want these recipes!! 

1 pkg Pillsbury refrigerator sugar cookie dough

8 oz cool whip

4 oz. cream cheese at room temp.

Roll dough into 48 ¾” balls. Place balls in mini cupcake pan. Bake for 6-7 min at 350. Let cool for a few minutes then remove from pan (dough will cave in while cooling). Whip softened cream cheese and then add in cool whip until nice and smooth. Place in baggie, cut off tip and pip into cookies. Decorate with fruit. (From Samantha).

Unstuffed Pepper Bake

This pic is before it's baked and topped with the cheese and tomato sauce so you could see what it looks like :)

I got this recipe in the mail from Smith's Food and Drug with coupons for all the ingredients a couple years ago and thought I'd give it a try. Well, from that moment on it was on "the list." So much less work that actually stuffing a pepper (any easy way out haha...), this meal tastes great and freezes beautifully! I personally prefer it with ranch dressing, but the fam will stick with sour cream any day. And tortilla chips (in my humble opinion) are a must!! It must be good when our buddy had 3 or 4 platefuls in one sitting :) 

1 lb ground beef

1/3 cup chopped onion

1 ½ cups peppers chopped

2 garlic cloves

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 can diced tomatoes

1 ½ cups rice

1 tsp Worcestershire

1 tsp Italian seasoning

8 oz shredded cheddar cheese

1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 375. Saute hamburger, onions, peppers and garlic. Stir in tomatoes, rice, Worcestershire and Italian seasoning. Remove from heat, add 1 cup cheese

Spread mixture in 13x9 pan. Top with tomato sauce and remaining cheese. Bake uncovered for 20 min. Serve with tortilla chips.

Applesauce Chocolate Chip Cookies

To eat these cookies is to step into the memories of my wonderful childhood, with the iconic mom who is baking away in the kitchen making delicious, enticing and aromatic goodies for her kids, friends and guests. These have been my favorite since I was a little kid and because of that, I'm sure they always will be :) More a cake like texture than cookie itself, these are best right off the pan with at least 16 oz of milk!

1 cup applesauce

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sugar

½ cup shortening

2 eggs

¾ tsp cloves

1 tsp salt

¾ tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups flour

1 bag chocolate chips

In a small bowl add applesauce and baking soda. Stir and set aside. In a larger bowl cream sugar and shortening. Add egg and cream. Add applesauce mixture and stir well. Add all dry ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips. (Dough will be fairly sticky). Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes.

Vampires

I had to post this pic of these adorable cupcakes my friend (and preschool student's mom) Angie made for our party!!! Didn't she do an awesome job!!

Taco Salad

Ahhh, taco salad. The food that fed my pregnant self (and got me addicted to salad) for 5 months straight with my 2nd child. This one is completely versatile. Start with the basics and expand from there! The crucial part (in my opinion) is the taco bowls. You can buy the molds I think at Walmart. (My dad bought mine over 10 years ago, I think from an As Seen On TV ad haha). Anyway, just bake your shells and get started!

Basics:

Lettuce, rinsed and chopped

Meat (seasoned hamburger, chicken, steak or pork)

Shredded Cheese

Salsa

Sour cream

Green Onions, diced

Add-ins:

Guacamole

Red Onion

Black beans

Cilantro

Pico de Gallo

And anything else you like!

Layer your salad and enjoy!  

White Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

Call the cookie police, I cannot stop eating these!!!!!! These are by far my new favorite pumpkin cookies! My sweet friend Candy brought our family a couple plates full and I am ashamed to admit I ate 9 of the 14 of them. Any attempt at self-control flies out the window with these little babies!!!

2 cups (4 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
1 can ( about 16 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin
2 eggs
4 cups flour
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 pkg. (12 oz) white chocolate chips
1 container (16 oz.) cream cheese frosting
1/4 cup brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease cookie sheets.

2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer at med speed until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin and eggs; beat until we'll blended. Add flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and baking powder; beat just until blended. Stir in white chocolate chips.

3. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on to prepared cookie sheets. Bake about  16 minutes or until set and bottoms are browned. Cool 1 min. On cookie sheets. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

4. Combine frosting and brown sugar in small bowl. Spread on warm cookies.

BEST EVER!!! White Chicken Chili

Oh. My. Heck. Seriously. Heaven in bowl right here!! This is so good that I went and bought enough ingredients to make this meal at least 4 more times! My family doesn't really care for chili. I've tried numerous recipes, but unfortunately there has never been one good enough to repeat. Until now! My church was having a Halloween party and asked for people to bring in Chili for the dinner. So I went on a search to find the best chili ever. And I found it on sweetannas.com! I made it for my family a week in  before just to make sure and after my family ate the entire pot in 20 minutes, I knew I had a winner. I also made 2 more batches for the freezer for even less, quicker gratification :) (Note to Wyoming, USA friends: I could only find these beans at Walmart).

3 chicken breasts (raw or cooked), cut into bite-sized pieces

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cans white beans, drained

1 regular can pink beans (pinquitos)

1 large can diced green chilies

1 cup frozen corn

2 cups chicken stock

1 jalapeno, minced

2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup finely crushed tortilla chips

2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese

Throw all the ingredients (except for the crushed tortilla chips and cheese) into your slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours. During the last 30 minutes, stir in the crushed tortilla chips and the shredded cheese and heat until cheese is melted and the chili has thickened up. Serve with sour cream, chips, salsa or whatever else you want!

Sloppy Joes

Are you a Sloppy Joe fan? If my only introduction to these easy little babies were from the school cafeteria, I have to admit, I'd never eat them again. But thankfully my wonderful mom knew how to make good Sloppy Joes. As in, REALLY GOOD (especially to an Idaho meat and potato every night kind of girl)! With 3 ingredients! To this day I could care less for the "sloppy" part of the Joe that looks like it's from the can, all runny and making my bread soggy. But this way is perfect. And you can give it as much or as little umph as you want. And best of all, this meal is ready in less than 15 minutes!

2 lbs hamburger (or adjust the amount to whatever your family will eat)

BBQ sauce

Ketchup

Here I must say, the brand of BBQ sauce and Ketchup does make a huge difference! If you want some serious flavor, you gotta use Heinz Ketchup and a good BBQ sauce (my fav is Bullseye Carolina Flavor).

Brown your hamburger. Then add your BBQ and Ketchup. (Sorry for the vague amount here... it really is just to taste!). I would say it's 3 parts BBQ to 1 part Ketchup (for less kick and a more ketchupy flavor use 1/2 and 1/2) Start with a smaller amount of each, and stir to see if it coats the meat nicely. If not, add more. These aren't meant to be saucy so less can definitely be more with these!