Colorful Nachos.

I came across the photos of the recipe in my library and couldn't believe I forgot to share!  Hubby and I have been enjoying this off and on as an after church lunch since November, when I found the recipe.  It's fairly quick, and very easy, and oh so rewarding in the end! And, bonus, it's a lot healthier than most nacho recipes out there. (I like to tell myself that, anyway.)

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1 (1 1/8 ounce) package taco seasoning(you can get this in low sodium, and there's no noticeable difference, I highly reccomend it.)
1 (16 ounce) can refried bean (Hubby and I are not fans of refried beans, so we just leave these out.)
2 cups monterey jack and cheddar cheese blend
1 (12 ounce) bag nacho cheese flavor Doritos
olives, sliced (optional)(we opt not to use these!)
tomato, diced (optional)(we like to use 3 or 4 romas, diced, without the seeds or juice(not as runny or gooey then!))
green onion, sliced (optional)(lots of these!)
jalapeno, sliced (optional)

Directions

Brown ground beef until all pink is gone.
Add taco packet plus 1/2 cup of water and stir until mixed in well.
Add can of refried beans to taco meat and add water until a good spreading consistency is reached (depends on how thick your beans are.).(Again, we leave the beans out, so this step is skipped. No harm comes of it, I assure you!)
In a 9x13 casserole dish, spread out half of the bag of doritos. Top with 1/2 of the meat/bean mixture and 1/2 of the cheese. Put any optional toppings on now.
Place the 2nd half of everything on top of the first layer in the same order.
Bake in a 350* oven for about 15 minutes until all the cheese is melted.
Serve with guacamole, sour cream and salsa. (Or none of the above.  Hubby and I prefer the nachos as is, out of the oven.)

PB&J Oatmeal.

PB&J Oatmeal

This oatmeal was lovely and light.  It was comprised of what has become the base recipe, (1 cup oats + 1 cup milk + 1 cup water, add banana and flaxseed meal/wheat germ when it begins to simmer.  Add vanilla, and sugar, if desired. Serve) topped with a dollop of both peanut butter and my favorite, strawberry preserves.  It was a refreshing breakfast after the fiasco that was the apple fritter oatmeal pancakes.  We made these the day before, and were sorely disappointed.  You had to almost burn the outsides of the pancakes to get the insides almost cooked, and the flavor was very bland.  I wouldn't recommend them.  Have a free day, and make up your own oatmeal concoction instead.

Baked French Toast

While I am editing the backlog of oatmeal photos, I thought I would leave you this lovely recipe for baked french toast. My cousins, Tony and Alex, (great guys who will forever be kids in my book, even though Tony is 16 and Alex is 12(I think)) gave me this recipe for my wedding shower.  I should explain.

My mom was wonderful enough to petition all the people we know, (and some we don't), for recipes to give me for my wedding in a recipe box, to get me started cooking for two. Tony and Alex submitted this recipe for that.

Anyway...I hadn't tried it yet because it's a huge recipe for two people. For some reason, it never occured to me to halve the recipe, but I tried that this week, and it worked wonderfully. We had it for dinner, but it could be served for breakfast, brunch, lunch....you get the idea.

Baked French Toast

Ingredients:

6 T. butter

1/2 c. maple syrup

1/4 c. brown sugar

8 slices bread (or texas toast)

7 eggs

4 T. milk

1/2 t. vanilla

fresh fruit (optional)

Directions:

Combine butter, sugar, and syrup in a 9x13" pan.  Set in a 375° oven to melt.  Add one layer of bread, pushing bread together tightly.  Beat eggs, milk and vanilla, pour over bread.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes at 375° (or until bread is firm).  Remove toast onto plate by flipping over so glazed side is up.

Serve with fresh fruit.

Above the full recipe is listed. From the pictures above you can see I halved this and used an 8x8 pan, and it worked fine, though I did have to really wedge the bread in.  I used 4 eggs, and frozen fruit, thawed, but otherwise, the recipe halved 'as is'.

Note: Torn up bread works wonderfully for this recipe, and fits better in the pan. Just be sure that it is in single layer, as anything piled atop will be dry.

Oatmeal, Six Ways.

Pumpkin Maple Oats with Pecans 

This was better than I thought it would be, considering there is cottage cheese in it.  The cottage cheese mostly melted though, and left the oatmeal with an extra creamy texture that was nice, if still a bit different.

Strawberry Cheesecake Oatmeal

This was originally supposed to be Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Oatmeal, but I ran out of raspberries and I couldn't get the swirl to work.  In any case, this was very good.  Next time I make this, (and yes, there will be a next time!) I'll use graham cracker on top instead of the granola, and I'll let my strawberries thaw a bit more. (I had to stir them in to warm them up.)  Delicious.

Gingersnap Oatmeal

I'm not a big fan of gingersnaps, and so it's not really a surprise that this wasn't my favorite oatmeal.  I think it's the snap....Cookies should be soft!  If you are a fan, I'm sure this oatmeal would be wonderful.  As it is, I enjoyed the oatmeal itself, but could have done without the cookie.  Also, I substituted brown sugar for white in this recipe.

Almond Joy Oatmeal

My dear Hubby made this for us for breakfast.  (I made the almond butter. Used peanut oil again.) He had more time than I that morning, and so decided to treat.  The dish was delicious, with the exception that I personally think there's too much almond extract called for.  Next time we'll reduce that a bit, and maybe up the chocolate chips.  Yum!

Cookies and Cream Oatmeal

This. Was. Decadent.

This oatmeal is definitely on my top 5 list for favorite desserts ever.  I took the liberty of adding some extra chocolate chips, but other than that, it's untouched.  Please, do yourself a favor and make this.  You won't be disappointed.

Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal Round 2

(This is in replacement of Turkey Huevos Rancheros Oatmeal, which I couldn't bring myself to make. If you're brave, go ahead and try it.) :)

As I've said before, I LOVE peanut butter and chocolate together.  Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed by the original recipe.  Consequently, I decided to try my own recipe. 

For one serving:

1/2 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk

1/3-1/2 banana (I used 1/3, hubby ate the rest of the banana for me.) :)

1 1/2 t. honey

2 T. flaxseed meal

1 1/2 T. cocoa powder

2 T. peanut butter, divided

handful mini chocolate chips, to taste

Directions:

Bring to boil oatmeal, water, and milk.  Once mixture begins to simmer, stir in sliced banana.  When banana is broken down, stir in honey, flaxseed meal*, cocoa powder, and 1-1 1/2 T. peanut butter.  Once incorporated, spoon into serving bowl and top with 1/2 T. of peanut butter and a handful of mini chocolate chips.

*The flaxseed meal isn't integral to the recipe, but I can't really taste it in there, and it's good for me, so I put a bunch in.  This is 'to taste'.

The recipe isn't too far different from the original, but the chocolate chips on top make the dish, and I prefer the honey in this to sweeten.

Red Velvet Cake.

Unfortunately, as I sat down to blog about oatmeal tonight, I realized I was on a time limit.  Consequently, I will type up the oatmeal post tonight when I get home from a previous engagement, and you all will see it in the morning.  Sorry about that!  In the meantime, have some cake!

When I made this, I edited the recipe a bit, (edits are in place here), and I loved the cake.  The icing, however, turned out terribly.  I was impatiant, and didn't let the butter get to room temp before blending it, and so the icing never fully mixed, and had bits of butter throughout.  NOT good.  Next time I'll do cream cheese frosting, as is traditional with red velvet cake anyway.  All in all, I'll definitely make this cake again and again, but the icing is not a keeper.

Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients:
3-4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
 2 ounces red food coloring
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup oil
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Directions:
Grease two 9 inch round pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Make a paste of cocoa and food coloring. Set aside.
Combine the buttermilk, salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the oil and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the cocoa mixture. Beat in the buttermilk mixture alternately with the flour, mixing just until incorporated. Stir together baking soda and vinegar, then gently fold into the cake batter.
Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy!