Monday's Munchie

Pudding Pie

It seems like every summer we eat alot of this pudding pie dessert.  It is just light, cool and refreshing!

1- 3.9 ounce box of instant pudding (we prefer chocolate)
 
1 standard size graham cracker crust

OR

Our favorite.....individual size graham cracker crusts (comes in a pack of 6)


Prepare the instant pudding to the directions on the box.
    (usually it calls for 2 cups of milk.  Whisk in the pudding mix into the milk.  Whisk for 2 minutes & let  
      sit for 5 minutes to thicken.)
Pour into crust & refridgerate for 15-30 minutes.

Eat as is or top with whip cream & cookie crumbs if you are so inclined!

Monday's Munchie (a day late)

Yesterday for our family Memorial Day BBQ, I made a grape salad. I didn't take a picture, but it is probably a good thing because the salad's look can be a little deceiving. I think the common question was "what is that?" with their nose crunched in disgust. Not what you want when you bring a dish to a gathering, but everyone's soon changed their tune when they tasted this glorious salad! It was completely devoured by everyone! So, with further ado, requested by my sister-in-laws the recipe........


Grape salad

2 pounds red seedless grapes
2 pounds green grapes

1- 8 ounce package softened cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 container of cool whip
2 Tbl white sugar
1cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup chopped (toasted & glazed w/ brown sugar) pecans
2-3Tbl brown sugar

Wash & dry grapes

Combine cream cheese, sour cream & beat together
Add sugars & vanilla.
Beat until light & fluffy
Fold in whip cream

Add grapes to a 9x13 dish
Add 3/4 of cream mixture to grapes & stir well to cover all the grapes
Pour remaining cream mixture over all the grapes & smooth out

Toast pecans in a dry skillet on stovetop over medium- medium low for 5 minutes. (your nose will know when they are done)
Add a Tablespoon (or 2 or 3) of brown sugar to the pecans and stir to cover all the pecans.
Chop pecans and scatter over grapes.
Spinkle a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar over the entire salad to finish it off.

Refrigerate for an hour & serve it chilled.

( I found 2 different recipes for this salad & took things from both & did my own thing with my salad. 1 recipe used cream cheese, sour cream & white sugar. The other used cream cheese, whip cream & powdered sugar. I think I came up with the best of both worlds :)

Hope you enjoy!

Monday's Munchie

Egg Salad BLT

In Leu of Easter leftovers I thought I would share a recipe I tried from Our Best Bites a couple weeks ago for Egg Salad Sandwhiches.  It was really yummy and light feeling with adding lemon zest into the egg mixture.  This is what we are having for dinner tonight!

1/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions
3 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind
8 hard boiled eggs

4 Rolls, (or 8 slices peasant bread/firm sandwich bread), toasted
8 bacon slices, cooked
8 slices tomato
4 large lettuce leaves

*if you like it extra tangy, add a teaspoon of vinegar too.

Quick & Simple Bread

My good friend Vicky introduced me to this fabulous product/recipe called Pantry Secrets.  It is a fabulous dough recipe that makes wonderful bread in less than an hour.  Not only is it a bread recipe, but this dough can make tons of things, like cinnamon rolls, breadsticks, bread bowls, dinner rolls, hot dog/hamburger buns and pizza (to only name a few...there are many other things it can make).  On their website they have a starter kit that you can buy that I would recommend.  If you are into making your own bread this is just great and a huge time saver! It is just fantastic!  

All the ingredients in one of my favorite things; The Bosch Mixer

This is what it looks like once it is mixed.  

Here it is after rising for 25 minutes.

TaDa!  After baking for 30 minutes!

Yummy!!!!!!

Monday's Munchie

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

My husband LOVES these cookies!  They are light, soft and oh so yummy!  I got this recipe from watching Paula Deen on the Food Network. You can go HERE if you want a video tutorial. They are very easy to mix together because you only need a few ingredients.

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (18-ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls. Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls and then roll them in confectioner's sugar.

 I use a cookie scoop to make my life easier. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and lightly smoosh the cookies. 

Bake for 12 minutes and tada...yummy chocolate cookies!

Monday's Munchie

Cinnabon Caramel Corn

I made this for Family Home Evening last week and it was delicious!  It was fairly easy and I had everything already in my pantry; a win, win in my recipe book!

Recipe from:
Our Best Bites

12 C popped popcorn (about 1/2 C kernels)*
1 C roughly chopped pecans
1 C brown sugar
3/4 t cinnamon
1/4 C Karo syrup (or honey makes a good substitution)
1 stick real butter (1/2 C)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
3 squares almond bark


Go to the website for a video tutorial!

Monday's Munchie

This is my all time favorite banana bread!  It is so easy and quick to put together and it comes out so moist and yummy!  My 2 year old can't get enough of it and loves when I make them into muffins for breakfast.

  I found this recipe off one of my FAVORITE blogs, I Heart Naptime.  Follow THIS link to check it out!

1 stick butter                              

11/3 c sugar

2 eggs

 1 tsp vanilla

1 c sour cream

2 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 c mashed bananas

1 c milk chocolate chips

1/2 c chopped pecans (optional - I left these out!)

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, vanilla and sour cream. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in separate bowl. Slowly add to sugar mixture. Fold in bananas, nuts, and chocolate chips.  Pour into 2 loaf pans or 2 muffin pans-or 1 of each. Bake at 325 for 1 hour in a loaf pan or 25 min in a muffin pan.

My little spin on these little yummies.....

*  I don't add the chocolate chips in when I make it because I usually make muffin for breakfast but I am sure it would be quite yummy to have chocolate chips in there!  I also like to substitute plain yogurt instead of sour cream to make them a little more figure friendly (you can't even tell...they are still very moist)!

Hope you enjoy!

Monday's Munchie

I am letting you in on a little secret of mine.....my go to recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  This is by no means a crunchy cookie that spreads out flat once it enters the oven.  I am not a fan of hard cookies at all!  I like soft, moist, chocolaty little pieces of heaven. If you are like me you will LOVE this cookie.  This is my husbands favorite cookie and it just happens to be SUPER SIMPLE to make.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 box of yellow cake mix
1 stick of (softened) butter or margarine
1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter (sometimes I do 1/4 cup creamy, 1/4 cup crunchy)
2 Eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (I never measure.....just put in how much you want)

Combine all the ingredients together (except the choc. chips) and mix.  I wouldn't use a hand mixer because the dough is quite thick.  I just take the opportunity to burn a few calories (since I will be devouring cookies) and mix by hand.  Once combined add in the chocolate chips.

I use a cookie dough scoop to measure and form my cookies but you can just eye it if that is what you are used to. I do highly recommend a scoop, though.  It is just a time saver and makes your cookies all come out the same size and they are all done at the same time!

Bake @ 350
9-11 minutes
(these cookies stay light in color and will burn on the bottoms if you don't keep an eye on them, so once you see they are set take them out!)
Let them set on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

* you can also try a chocolate or devils food cake mix for double chocolate chip peanut butter cookies.  Both are fantastic!

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!