Hawaiian Haystacks

I was buying some groceries at the store the other day when one of my friends asked me what I was making. Then she said it was probably something fancy "per my usual". Which got me thinking that maybe I've been losing my grip on keeping things simple. Which is what I set out to do in the first place. So...this week I am going to be blogging some of my easiest meals! So, to start things off, we have Hawaiian Haystacks!

This is a super fast and easy recipe. The chicken and sauce cook up great in a crock pot if you want to go that route. Plus you can choose whatever toppings you want. So everyone can have what they want. And I usually have all these ingredients on hand. You probably do to! So next time you're in a hurry give these a try!

Hawaiian Haystacks
2 cups cooked shredded chicken
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cups milk (if you want thinner sauce add more)
black pepper (to taste)
3 cups cooked rice
shredded cheese
Toppings of your choice!

Topping Ideas: Pineapple, mandarin oranges, chopped tomato, green bell pepper, shredded coconut, celery, olives, water chestnuts, chow mein noodles, etc. etc. etc.

Cook rice. Meanwhile, heat cream of chicken soup and milk in a large saucepan. Add chicken and pepper. Add extra milk to thin sauce if desired. Top rice with chicken mixture. Then top with cheese and other toppings of your choice! See...easy!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

So after I made those pumpkin donuts a few weeks ago I had half a can of pumpkin leftover that I needed to make into something! So when I saw this recipe on Pinterest that only needed 1 cup pumpkin puree...I was there! You can see the original recipe at http://gourmadeathome.com/pumpkin-muffins. She has some cool pictures of each step!

I was hoping they would taste like the pumpkin cream cheese cupcakes at Starbucks (one thing our town does have is a Starbucks!) They weren't quite as sweet as the Starbucks version but they were still really yummy! Although, I usually love anything pumpkin.

These mixed up quick and were easy to bake. You just put a dallop of the cream cheese mixture in each of the muffin cups and then the pumpkin muffin bakes up around it! So it looks fancy without a lot of extra work! And I'm all about being fake fancy!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, or to taste
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg + 1 egg white
3/4 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup whipped cream cheese (I just used regular and whipped it myself)
1 TB confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray muffin tins with nonstick spray. In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup whipped cream cheese with 1 TB confectioners sugar. If you are using regular cream cheese...whip it by itself first and then add confectioners sugar. Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. In another bowl whisk together the pumpkin puree, sugar, oil, buttermilk, egg, egg white, and vanilla. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, being careful not to over mix.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 of the way full with batter mixture. Place a dollop of the cream cheese mixture in the center of each muffin. (I thought that I could just set the dollop on top and it would bake down in...but it worked better if I pushed the cream cheese down in the batter a little bit before I baked it)

Bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into muffins comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Santa Fe Chicken Bake and a New Trick for Shredding Chicken!

A few months ago I went to a demonstration cooking party for Philadelphia brand's new cooking cremes. My friend had us over and made some different dishes with it and they were all really yummy! She also gave us these little cookbooks with ideas for using the cooking creme. I tucked it away and had forgotten about it but then my girls were playing with all my cookbooks the other day and there it was! So I decided to give one of the recipes a try.

They have a few different flavors. One is Santa Fe blend for Mexican dishes. Italian cheese and herb or Savory garlic that you can use in Italian dishes. And Original that you can use in casseroles like tuna noodle or things like that. They are $2.99 here, which seems a bit steep for a little container. But when I started considering all the things I would put into a homemade sauce it was probably around $2.99 in most of my recipes!

This casserole came out very creamy and flavorful. My kids even ate all the chicken in it...which was awesome! It was kind of like a big creamy chicken enchilada. I also like it because instead of using a whole pack of tortillas like you would for enchiladas, you only use 3 for the whole family! You bake it in a pie plate...so it might seem small to feed the whole family but it is very rich and has a ton of chicken...so for 4 of us we only ate about 1/2 the casserole.

Lastly, I learned a new trick from Pinterest that I got to use last night! For shredded chicken I usually just cook it all day in the crock pot and it shreds up nicely. But I forgot to stick it in yesterday and had to cook it on the stove. Anyway, when you cook it that way it is a little harder to shred. So stick it in your kitchen aide after you cook it and use the regular beater attachment. Beat on medium for about 2 minutes and you get perfectly shredded chicken! It worked great and I should have remembered to take a picture. Try it out for yourself and see what I mean!

Santa Fe Chicken Bake (using Philadelphia Cooking Creme)
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, rinsed
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
2 green onions, sliced
1 tub (10 oz.) Philadelphia Santa Fe Blend cooking creme, divided
3 flour tortillas
3/4 cup shredded cheese (I used the mexican blend but you could use any kind)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine the first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Add 3/4 cup of the cooking creme and mix lightly.

Spoon 1/3 of the chicken mixture into a 9-in. pie plate. Top with 1 tortilla, half of the remaining chicken mixture and 1/4 cup of the cheese. Cover with 2nd tortilla, the remaining chicken mixture and another 1/4 cup of cheese. Top with remaining tortilla, remaining cooking creme and the last of the cheese. Cover.

Bake, covered, for 20 minutes or until heated through. Uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and casserole is golden brown.

Halloween Ideas

Here are some of the Halloween ideas I posted last year. I've noticed quite a few people looking for these on my blog. You can get to them by looking under Holiday Fun Foods on the recipe index page or by clicking here! Happy haunting!

Halloween Cupcakes That Kids Can Decorate!

This post isn't so much a recipe as it is just ideas of cupcakes you and your kids can make together. My oldest had a really bad day at school a few weeks ago so I decided to have an un-birthday party for her. (Something my Dad used to do for us growing up). Anyway, she'd seen some halloween cupcakes in one of my magazines and been wanting to make some like it. So I went to the store and bought a bunch of toppings, baked some cupcakes and had it ready for her when she got home! The girls and I had a great time decorating these and it was really an easy activity to set up for the kids!


First step is to get some toppings. The picture above shows a lot of the things we used. Some good ideas are vanilla and chocolate icing, different colors of frosting, chow mein noodles, pull apart licorice, gummy lifesavers, gummy worms, nerds, mini m&m's, oreos, vanilla wafers, candy corn, colored coconut, etc etc etc! I got out the toppings ahead of time and made up a plate for each kid so they weren't ripping into all the packages. It kept things neat and prevented them from eating a ton of candy...because I only let them each have one plate of toppings. So they didn't eat a ton because they wanted to use it on their cupcakes! (A little trick I learned teaching school!)

The first idea is a graveyard cupcake. It's made with chocolate frosting, flaked coconut tinted green, a sour gummy worm, pull apart licorice and a vanilla wafer. To tint the coconut place about 1/2 cup coconut in a plastic bag with 1 or 2 drops of food coloring. Close the bag and shake until coconut is completely dyed.

Spider Cupcake! Made with chocolate frosting, green tinted coconut, oreo, mini m&m's, pull apart licorice, and vanilla icing.


For the Frankenstein cupcake you'll need green frosting, gummy lifesavers, candy corn, pull apart licorice and chocolate icing.

For the cat you can use pink icing, chow mein noodles, pull apart licorice, mini m&m's, candy corn and vanilla m&m's.

Pumpkin patch cupcake! For this one I used orange frosting, green coconut, chocolate icing and a green gummy worm cut in half.

The ghost was easy! Chocolate and vanilla frosting with mini m&m eyes!

Don't be afraid of using too many sprinkles! The girls had a blast! (but I must admit I was sweeping these up for about 3 weeks afterward...Worth it!)

Here's my 5 year old's version of the graveyard cupcake. She had a great time trying to recreate the cupcakes that I decorated! My 2 year old on the other hand liked to freestyle decorate!

BBQ Chicken Salad

Maybe it's a little late in the year for grilling outside. But truth be told I've made Alex grill stuff out in the snow before! It's a small price to pay for deliciousness!

Since the twins were born we don't get to go out to dinner much anymore. So I've been experimenting with making a few of my favorites at home! This is kind of like the Mesquite Grilled Chicken Salad from Chili's. I'm sure there are better copycat recipe's out there...but this turned out very yummy and super quick to throw together.

I know that BBQ sauce on a salad might seem strange to some but trust me when I say it is delicious. The seasoning on the chicken and the veggies in this salad make it so flavorful that you really only need a dab of ranch and BBQ sauce. Give it a try!

BBQ Chicken Salad (serves 6)
3-4 chicken breast halves
3 T. Chipotle Rub (I used Pampered Chef's blend but you can find different rubs in the spice aisle or you can make your own. A Mesquite seasoning or marinade would also work well too)
2 T. Olive oil
2 bags chopped romaine salad blend (chopped romaine, shredded carrots, and shredded cabbage)
1 jalapeno (minced)
2 Roma tomatoes (diced)
1 can white shoepeg corn (drained)
1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 cup shredded cheddar
Ranch Dressing (to taste)
BBQ sauce (to taste)
Tortilla strips (optional)

Wash chicken. Brush chicken with olive oil and cover with the chipotle rub (or whatever seasoning you are using). Grill until cooked completely then chop into 1 in. sized pieces. In a large bowl toss cooked chicken, romaine blend, jalapeno, tomatoes, corn, beans and cheddar. Top with BBQ sauce, Ranch Dressing, and tortilla strips if desired.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

So I already had these on my menu for this week, but then in the last few days there's been stuffed bell peppers all over facebook and pinterest. Apparently they are enjoying their 15 minutes of fame! So allow me to throw this recipe into the ring as well.

My younger sister Christina is an awesome cook and this is her recipe. She is much fancier than me in her cooking so I was a little nervous to try it at first but they are incredibly easy! Fancy looking, incredibly easy to make, and kid friendly food wrapped in a vegetable :)

I've been making them for about 7 years now so I don't even measure out the ingredients too much anymore. It is really one of those recipes where you can change around the measurements to taste. Maybe you like it with more rice, or sauce, or meat. Go ahead! Also, the recipe below makes more filling than can fit in the bell peppers. We usually cut the peppers open after we bake them and put the extra filling on top. If you don't want extra then you could probably 1/2 the filling recipe and still have enough to fill the peppers. Or you can always add more peppers to fill.

I also usually top them with extra cheese after they've baked. The kiddos especially like the extra cheese. Veggies are always better with cheese. Anyway, basically what I'm saying is that this recipe is yummy but definitely open to changes. Just play around with it until you find what your family likes!

Stuffed Bell Peppers
4 green bell peppers
1 lb. ground beef
1 T. Worchestershire sauce
2 cups uncooked instant rice
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans (8 oz.) tomato sauce (divided)
2 T. dried minced onion
2 T. parsley
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup sliced almonds
extra cheddar (to top)

In a large pot boil enough water to fully submerge bell peppers. Cut a 2 in. hole in the top of each pepper. Remove the core and all the seeds from the peppers.

Add some salt and the peppers to the water and boil just until tender. Meanwhile, cook ground beef with Worchestershire in another large pot. Cook rice according to package directions. Add rice to cooked beef. Add diced tomatoes and 1 1/2 can of the tomato sauce (reserving the other 1/2 can for topping), dried onion and parsley. Cook together until heated through.

Stuff each pepper to the top with rice and beef mixture. Top each pepper with a dallop of reserved tomato sauce. Then top with cheese and sliced almonds. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until heated through and cheese is completely melted.

To eat...cut in half and top with extra filling and cheese if desired.