Homemade Frozen Waffles

I love waffles on the weekends, but hate getting up to make them. I have to admit that my hubby has had more Eggos than homemade. So I decided to make a batch of homemade waffles and freeze them. That way, I can sleep in yet still eat homemade waffles! I got the recipe from
Solid Gold Cooking. After you cook the waffles, let them cool completely and then put in freezer bags. To reheat them, place them in your toaster oven and enjoy waffles!


3 eggs, separated
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 cup flour (wheat or white)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

Beat whites until light and fluffy and soft peaks form. Combine wet ingredients. Combine dry ingredients, then combine with wet. VERY GENTLY fold in whites. Cook on hot waffle iron.

Oh Yes!

Just got this Friday and can't wait to try some cookies!

Weekly Menu

Monday: Home-made Waffles (I will explain why later)
Tuesday: Crock Pot Beef Strogonaff
Wednesday: Thanksgiving in a cup (I made up a new recipe!)
Thursday: Going to the University of Utah Football Game!
Friday: Lasagna and garlic bread (Store bought because we will probably be out and about)

Daring Bakers Gone Wild-I Mean Vegan!

Amy, Ariel and Cami-The Victims/Co-Workers
In our BEAUTIFUL break room at work!

Lavish Crackers and the dip

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge comes to us from Natalie from Gluten A Go Go and Shel of Musings From the Fishbowl and they decided to go vegan (the recipe for the crackers is on their pages). When I think of vegan, I think tofu and "weird" things like that. But as I was talking to my friend Ariel, who used to be vegan, she explained to me what it really was and I actually ate a lot of things that were vegan (like salsa). As I read over the recipe I got really confused about the gluten, non -gluten thing and got really scared about screwing this up. So I kept putting off making the crackers. On Wednesday night I finally decided to make them and it was way easy! My brain was just over thinking things-like usual. The trick to making these crackers truly is rolling them very, very thin. If not, you get a product more like pita chips. For the dip, I chose a tapenade. I have to admit that I have never had tapenade and was scared, but it was really good! Thanks to Natalie and Shel for allowing me to experience new foods and branch out from my little box!

Sun-Dried Tomato and Olive Tapenade (From About.com)

Ingredients:

• 1 4 ounce jar sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained (reserve the oil)
• 1 cup fresh black olives
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup capers
• 1 1/2 tsp Parmesan cheese or vegan Parmesan substitute (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Place all ingredients in a food processor. Add 2 - 3 tablespoons of the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. Process until desired consistency is reached. Olive tapenade should be course with some chunks, not smooth and creamy.

Weekly Menu

I've been slacking lately. Yes, we've been eating, but I haven't done much cooking. I've cooked, but it's nothing blog worthy to share with the 3 people that I know read my blog. But we have company staying with us this week though, so I am going to cook!

Monday: Tacos
Tuesday: Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo and Garlic Bread
Wednesday: Pot Stickers-found a recipe for the picky hubby with mashed potatoes and cheese-I hope it turns out ok!
Thursday: Pork Chops and Stuffing
Friday: Burgers and Corn

Take Me To A Picnic Cake

We had the annual Brand Family (my dad's side) Reunion last week. My assignment was to bring a dessert. As I was looking through my Hershey Cookbook and I found THIS wonderful cake. You can't go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate so I knew that I had to make it. The cake was super moist and the peanut butter frosting is to die for, you could use it on so many other things! And the cake feeds a ton of people, so you could definitely half or third it to make a smaller size! Or just make the whole darn pan and pick at it for days!

Rain, Dogs and Lasagna

When your top soil turns to mud because of the rain...

And your dogs get covered in mud...

You need lasagna!

I love lasagna!! It is my most favorite food in the whole world and I could eat it everyday. Although nothing can beat Stouffers, this homemade lasagna is worth the effort. Is is wrong that I love a frozen lasagna over homemade? Oh well. This recipe is from Kraftfoods. What I have learned about Kraftfoods recipes is that you need to double some things to make it extra good! This is the original recipe so make sure to double the filling and sauce.

1 lb. ground beef

1 egg, beaten

2-1/2 cups KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese, divided

1 container (15 oz.) POLLY-O Natural Part Skim Ricotta Cheese

1/2 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce

1 cup water

12 lasagna noodles, uncooked

Heat oven to 350°F. Brown meat in large skillet on medium-high heat. Meanwhile, mix egg, 1-1/4 cups mozzarella cheese, the ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and the parsley until well blended; set aside.
DRAIN meat; return to skillet. Stir in spaghetti sauce. Add water to empty sauce jar; cover with lid and shake well. Add to meat mixture; stir until well blended. Spread 1 cup of the sauce onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish; top with layers of 3 lasagna noodles, 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture and 1 cup sauce. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining 3 noodles and the remaining meat sauce. Sprinkle with remaining 1-1/4 cups mozzarella cheese and remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Cover with greased foil.
BAKE 45 min. Remove foil; bake an additional 15 min. or until heated through. Let stand 15 min. before cutting to serve.

Thank God for the Internet!

I found this recipe for Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies and was dying to make them. So I started reading the recipe, but everything was in grams. I though that I would never be able to make them, but found this website and it helped me to convert the grams into tablespoons and then I converted from tablespoons to cups on my own. It took about 30 minutes to do all of the conversions, but I finally got them done and made the cookies! So now you don't have to waste your time and can just use the recipe below.

Some tips:
1. Do not over cook the cookies, I did and they were a little too hard.
2. The dough really doesn't come together until you roll them into balls.

3. Use your medium sized ice cream scoop and you can make 18 cookies.

The Dough

Before Baking

Finished and ready to eat!

Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies:
3 1/2 T. Softened butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Heaping 1/4 light brown soft sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup plain chocolate cut into large chunks (or you can just buy the bag of choc. chunks)
1 cup white chocolate cut into large chunks (or just use chocolate chips)

Cream butter until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients except chocolate, and mix. Add chocolate and mix in well. At this point it will look like a bowl full of chocolate chunks, with the tiniest amount of dough holding it all together.

Place large dollops well spaced on a greased baking tray and bake (180C/350F) for around 10 minutes. They should just start to be turning brown when they come out. Don't overcook - they are supposed to be soft in the center.

Leave on baking tray for ten minutes to rest and then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

The Best Dam Chicken Ever!

I swear this is the best chicken that you will ever taste and the easiest to make!


Take some chicken breasts and marinate them overnight (if you're in a pinch at least an hour) in ceasar dressing. Stick on the grill and the last 5 minutes of grilling slather those babies with your favorite bbq sauce. That's it! Pretty easy huh?

So you say you don't like caesar dressing? Well it doesn't matter, use it. You don't really taste it, it just makes the chicken super juicy. But I guess if you really don't want to use it, you could try something like Italian Dressing or a vinegrette. Enjoy!