Banana Nutella Cinnamon Toaster

Heath saw Bobby Flay making this on Food Network one day last week, and told me about it. He said, " Is Nutella good? I've never had it." I said, "WHAAAAAAT?" Bananas and Nutella is my all-time favorite filling for crepes (which I might add, I haven't gotten to eat since my sweet Daddy made them for me on my birthday last year). So when Heath said he wanted to try this for breakfast one day, I told him to have at it! He made it Wednesday morning, and I thought it was really good- still not as drool-inducing as my favorite crepes, but I wouldn't refuse them. *wink wink*.

~Banana Nutella Cinnamon Toaster~

* bananas

* Nutella

* slices of your favorite sandwich bread

* butter

* sugar

* cinnamon

1.) create a sandwich by spreading some Nutella on one slice of bread, and slice banana on top (just to your liking, however much banana you like...and Nutella for that matter).

2.) spread margarine or butter on both sides of sandwich and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

3.) Heat skillet over med/med high heat, and make your sandwich just like you would a grilled cheese. Enjoy!!

Pioneer Woman's Ranch-Style Chicken

Y'all...this is good. Really good. You should make it, and you should make it today. This recipe comes from The Pioneer Woman. If you haven't seen her site, go and take a peek. In addition to the delicious recipes she posts, she also blogs about photography, homeschooling, and home and garden. The marinade for this chicken is great and it is the perfect copycat of Outback Steakhouse's Alice Springs Chicken (which I order every time I go there). The Pioneer Woman says nothing about Alice Springs Chicken, but that's what it tastes like to me.Instead of following the directions the first time, we grilled it. Don't get me wrong- the flavor of the marinade still came through. It was just not the version of Alice Springs I had hoped for. So, the next time I made it, I followed directions...and it was pure yumminess (is that a word?)! Too bad I didn't get a picture the second time around- so you get the grilled version. =) We also added mushrooms the second time, which made it even better. I served it with fries, and a copycat version of Outback's honey mustard, which you'll find below. If you make it, let me know how you like it!

~Pioneer Woman's Ranch-Style Chicken~ I used 5 smallish boneless skinless breasts

Marinade:

* 1/2 c. dijon mustard

* 1/2 c. honey

* juice of 1/2 a lemon ( I didn't have one, so I used a couple of teaspoons of the bottled stuff)

* 1/2 teaspoon paprika

* 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix together in a large bowl.

1.) Rinse your chicken breasts under cool water, and pat them dry.

2.) Placing them between two sheets of wax paper (one at a time), pound them to about 1/2-3/4 inch thickness.

3.) Add the chicken to the marinade bowl, and make sure they are coated well. Place in the fridge for at least an hour (I did mine more like 3 hours).

4.) While the chicken is marinating, go ahead and fry your bacon (we used 1/2 pound I believe- the kids didn't eat it on theirs).

5.) Clean out your skillet, but reserve about 1/4 of the bacon grease.

6.) Preheat oven to 400.

7.) Remove chicken from fridge and pour off excess marinade.

8.) Heat reserved bacon grease with an equal amount of canola oil in your clean skillet over med-high to high heat.

9.) When the grease is sufficiently heated, add chicken to skillet, taking care not to overcrowd. (I split it up and did 3 the first time, then the other 2.)

10.) Watch the chicken, and when it starts to get brown/black on the underside- flip, and do the same to the other side. Each side should cook for a maximum of 1-1 1/2 minutes. (I'm pretty sure mine took a little longer, but I have OCD when it comes to the doneness of meat or poultry).

11.) Place all chicken breasts on a baking sheet (I used a 9x13 dish), and put them in the oven to continue cooking for about 10 minutes.

12.) Remove the pan from the oven, and place a couple of bacon slices on each piece (and mushrooms if you are using them).

13.) Top with grated sharp cheddar cheese (we used a mexican blend), and return to the oven for an additional 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bacon is sizzling.

Serve immediately.

~Outback Honey Mustard~ so good! We all even dipped our fries in it instead of ketchup.

1 1/2 cups real mayonnaise

1/2 cup dijon mustard

1/2 cup honey

Stir all together, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.

No-Cook Peach Ice Cream

I love this time of year, when we can go to our local orchard and get fresh peaches. I am not crazy about the summer months, I am more of a fall/winter girl. However, I do love all the fresh fruits, and vegetables that are a product of the summer. As soon as I saw this no-cook ice cream recipe, I immediately knew that I wanted to make it with peaches. I have been having those peach milkshakes from Chick-Fil-A all summer, and they are delish, but I wanted to make some ice cream for everyone to enjoy. We had some friends over for dinner on the day I made this, and they seemed to enjoy it- as did Heath. I think he has eaten the majority of it on his own. =) I adapted this recipe from Spork or Foon. I thought with all the half-and-half, that it would be too icy or watery. So I switched the amounts of heavy cream, and half-and-half, and I think it turned out great- so my recipe below reflects those changes. FYI- you can leave this recipe as is for plain vanilla ice cream, or add other fruits or flavorings to it. It seems to be pretty versatile. I made some more for my dad with bananas, and it was good as well.

~No-Cook Ice Cream~

1 cup of half and half
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
2 cups of heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 very ripe peaches (or if using bananas- use 2 very ripe ones)
2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice (I didn't use this for my peach, but I did for the banana)

1.) Mix together the first four ingredients until combined, making sure the condensed milk is well blended with the other liquids. Chill until cold.
2.) Pour mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze accordingly.
3.) Mash the peaches and add to the ice cream maker 2 minutes before it's finished. ( I went ahead and mixed the peaches in and skipped the refrigerating part, and it turned out fine.) 4.) Transfer ice cream to a freezer safe container, cover and freeze for at least 3 hours.

Oatmeal Carmelitas

Ok...so this is really not the best picture in the world, but I can assure you- these are really good! I saw them on Mermaid Sweets, and decided they were just what my sweet tooth was calling for. They were chocolaty, gooey, crumbly, and a little salty all at the same time...SCORE! I will definitely make them again. Next time, I'll bake the bottom crust for a little less time, because it turned out a little too hard for my liking...but overall- delicious!

~Oatmeal Carmelitas~

Base

2 cups AP flour
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups butter or margarine, room temperature

Filling

1 jar caramel topping (1 cup)
3 tablespoons AP flour
1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
½ cup chopped nuts (salted) (I left them out)

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.) Line 13x9-inch pan with tin foil and leave some hanging over the edge. Grease tin foil with butter or cooking spray.
3.) In large bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking soda and salt.
4.) In the bowl of a stand mixer (or another bowl with hand mixer) mix together the butter and brown sugar until combined.
5.) Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until crumbly (do not over-mix or you will have a dough rather than crumbs).
6.)Reserve half of crumb mixture (about 3 cups) for topping. Press other half into bottom of pan and bake 10 minutes.
7.) In a small bowl mix caramel topping and 3 tablespoons of flour.
8.)When crust is done partially baking, sprinkle with chocolate chips or chunks and nuts.
9.) Drizzle evenly with caramel mixture.
10.) Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

Bake 18-22 minutes longer until top is golden brown. Cool completely in pan on cooling rack, about 1 hour. Refrigerate until filling is set, 1-2 hours. Cut into bars.

Guacamole

Today's recipe is one of Heath's favorites- guacamole! I can't understand how I love the smell of avocados, but don't really care for guacamole. I make it for him anyway, just because he loves it, and he says this is some of the best he's had. I got the recipe at Allrecipes, and it was a highly rated one. The only thing I left out of this, was the cilantro- just because I forgot to tell him to get it at the store, and I used only half a lime since Heath thinks the whole thing is too much for him. It is really simple to put together, so anyone who is a guacamole lover should try it!

~Guacamole~ from Allrecipes

Ingredients:

* 3 avocados - peeled, pitted, and mashed
* 1 lime, juiced
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup diced onion
* 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
* 2 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
* 1 teaspoon minced garlic
* 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)

Have a great day everyone!

Hamburger Buns

Heath and I decided to go out one night, and his parents agreed to keep the boys. I told them not to worry with dinner before they came- that we would grill them a burger for dinner before we left. Then it hit me. I didn't have any buns! I had wanted to try them ever since I saw this recipe at The Sisters Dish- so I figured it was a sign that it was time to break down and give it a try. Even though I make yeast breads quite a bit, new recipes still intimidate me. I'll usually think about it for some time before I finally do it. I'm glad I was out of buns that day, because I don't know that I would have ever made them. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I had built it up in my head to be. They had a really nice, crispy outer crust, and the inside was perfectly soft. I snuck a taste before serving them to his parents, and I thought they were pretty good! They seemed to enjoy them too, so I'll probably make this again. Maybe next time with pulled pork!

~Hamburger Buns~

Ingredients:
* 1 cup lukewarm water
* 2 T unsalted butter, room temperature, creamed
* 1 egg
* 3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup Castor sugar (very fine sugar, I didn't have any- so I put regular sugar into a pyrex bowl, and attacked it with my immersion blender stick)
* 1 t salt
* 1 T instant yeast
* 1 egg yolk (+1 T water)
* sesame seeds (optional)

Directions:

1.) Sprinkle the yeast into the water and leave for 5-10 minutes, until frothy. Stir to dissolve.

2.) Add remaining ingredients and mix well(I do this in my kitchen-aid). I let this knead in my Kitchen-Aid for ~10 minutes, until it is a soft, smooth dough. You could knead by hand on a lightly floured surface. I leave it in my mixer bowl, cover and let rise for 1 - 1 1/2 hour, until doubled in size.

3.) Divide dough into 8 pieces and shape into a flattened ball.

4.) Place the buns on a greased baking sheet, cover and let rise again for 30-40 minutes until puffy and doubled in size.

5.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

6.)Glaze the buns with egg yolk and water mixture, then sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.

7.) Bake the buns for 12 - 15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove them from the oven and cool them on a wire rack.

Pizza Hut Pan-Style Pizza

Today's recipe comes from Laura over at Real Mom Kitchen (she got it from Day2Day with Holly J). I loved how this wasn't the traditional "roll out and bake on a pizza pan" recipe. I love a thick crust on my pizza sometimes, and this looked so delicious. The pizza you see above was Heath's. I made one for me and the kids with only pepperoni and cheese (of course I had to pick all the pepperoni off for the boys). His was made in a 9-inch round pie plate and the rest of the dough made up a nice-sized 9x13 pan for the rest of us. I took Laura's advice and only used a fraction of the oil the recipe called for. I also used Laura's homemade sauce recipe instead of the one that goes with this recipe. You can find her sauce recipe here. It is really good, and we had used it on other pizzas before so I knew I couldn't go wrong with it. Here is the original recipe- hope you try it soon, because it really is worth it!

~Pizza Hut Pan Pizza~

Dough:

* 1 1/3 C Warm water (105F)

* 1/4 C Non−fat dry milk

* 1/2 tsp Salt

* 4 C Flour

* 1 Tbsp Sugar

* 1 pk Dry yeast

* 2 Tbsp Vegetable oil (for dough)

* 9 Oz Vegetable oil (3 oz. per pan) - (I just use enough to coat the pan)

* Butter flavored Pam ( I didn't use this)

1. Put yeast, sugar, salt, and dry milk in a large (2 qt.) bowl. Add water and stir to mix well. Allow to sit for two minutes. Add oil and stir again. Add flour and stir until dough forms and flour is absorbed. Turn out on to a flat surface and knead for about 10 minutes.

2. Divide dough into three balls. In three 9" cake pans ( or can use 1 - 9 inch pie plate and 1 - 9 x 13 dish) , put 3 Oz. of oil in each making sure it is spread evenly.

4. Using a rolling pin, roll out each dough ball to about a 9" circle. Place in cake pans. Spray the outer edge of dough with Pam. Cover with a plate.

5. Place in warm area and allow to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

~Sauce~

* 1 (8 Oz) Can Tomato Sauce

* 1 tsp Dry Oregano

* 1/2 tsp Marjoram

* 1/2 tsp Dry Basil

* 1/2 tsp Garlic salt

1. Combine and let sit for 1 hour while the dough rises.

2. For Each Nine Inch Pizza:Preheat oven to 475F (I cooked at 450).

3. Spoon 1/3 cup sauce on dough and spread to within 1" of edge.

4. Distribute 1 1/2 Oz. shredded mozzarella cheese on sauce. Place toppings of your choice in this order: Pepperoni or Ham, Vegetables, Meats (cooked ground sausage or beef). Top with 3 Oz. mozzarella cheese.

5. Cook until cheese is bubbling and outer crust is brown (about 15 minutes). I then brush outer edge of crust with garlic butter.