Maple-Bacon Breakfast Cookies

Last weekend I opened up the newest Our Iowa Magazine, flipped through, read some articles and came up on the following recipe in the small recipe section that each magazine contains.  This recipe immediately sparked my interest.  It had many things in it that sounded delicious, yet not terribly bad for you.  "A hearty breakfast in the form of a portable snack", as shared by the submitter who happens to be a pediatric surgeon.

I made these on Saturday night so that I could take them to our "after the Especially for You 5K race" brunch at my in-laws.  They were quite tasty and very well received.  The recipe was moved into my favorite recipe's binder!

Maple-Bacon Breakfast Cookies

 (from Our Iowa Magazine Oct/Nov 2011 - Stephanie Kapfer, VA)

Ingredients

1 cup butter (can substitute a 50/50 butter blend such as Smart Balance)

1 ½ cup packed dark brown sugar

1 egg

½ cup pure maple syrup

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups quick-cooking oats

½ cup crumbled cooked thick-sliced bacon

½ cup chopped pecans

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar.  Add egg and syrup; mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well.  Stir in the oats, bacon and pecans until well blended.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto nonstick cookie sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for 14-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove to brown paper or wire racks to cool.  Makes about 5 dozen.

To make about 2 dozen jumbo cookies: Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls and bake at 325 degrees for 16-18 minutes.

Red White & Blue Trifle

Is this not a beautiful dessert?  This is my own creation and it is as yummy as it is pretty!  The berries have been absolutely delicious this year.  The blueberries are big and juicy and the strawberries...what can I say!    Last year I made this for the first time and did it a little differently.  But this year's variation was the clear winner for taste.  It has moved into the "must haves" on our 4th of July party menu.

Red, White & Blue Trifle

Ingredients

Angel Food Cake (ready made, boxed and made at home, or made from scratch) - tear into bite size pieces
1 pound of blueberries - cleaned, stems removed
2 pounds of strawberries - cleaned, hulls removed, sliced
Cream cheese mixture - an 8 oz cream cheese, softened; mix with 1 cup powdered sugar, and an 8 oz container of cool whip, thawed

You are going to have to divide everything into thirds.  Layer the cake, cream cheese, berries, repeat.  I like to save back some of the strawberries for the top and instead of slices I cut them in half.  You can get as creative as you want on the top.

To make sure the berries are easily seen be sure to slide some blueberries and strawberries down the sides of the bowl as you layer.

Such a wonderful dessert.  Light, refreshing, and full of flavor.  Enjoy!!!

Freaky Fast Meal - Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches

Today we had a super fast, super easy lunch - Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches.  These are one of my all time favorite "comfort foods".  I had it in my head that I wanted to make these this weekend, so when we went to Sam's Friday night I picked up a package of sliced roast beef.  (Which by the way was Angus beef and it was wonderfully tender and tasty.)  The only real preparation to be done was making the mashed potatoes and gravy.  And to simplify the gravy I used Williams gravy mix.  (I use many of the Williams seasoning mixes for chili, white gravy, etc. - all are quite tasty.) 
So here is the rundown of what I did:
1) Make mashed potatoes
2) Make gravy
3) Heated sliced roast beef (in the microwave using low power - you don't want to "cook" it, just warm it)
4) Cook side vegetable
5)  Put roast beef sandwich together.  Slice in half and spread out on plate.
6)  Put mashed potatoes in between sandwich slices
7)  Pour gravy over the top of everything
8) Put vegetables on plate
9)  ENJOY!!!

This meal will be enjoyed at least twice more for lunches this next week.  It won't take any time at all to warm it up.

What's up with you? Here is what is up with me!!!

Okay, I've been very lax in blogging lately.  The last one was in November, but things have been crazy busy - with the holidays and all.  I'll bring you up to date with what has been going on at our house.

We had our Custom Hose party the first weekend of December and that meant LOTS of cookies had to be baked!  Each employee has to make 24 dozen cookies which then go into the cookie buckets that we send out to our out-of-town customers.  Those took pretty much a whole weekend.

Another weekend went into baking my sweet breads.  I made some as gifts (for our pastor and neighbors) and then made LOTS of mini-loaves to be given away to the guests at our open house.  We had our semi-annual Christmas Open House the weekend before Christmas.  Suffice it to say that there are lots of preps that go with that.  I should mention that we call it "semi-annual", although we hadn't had one since 2007.  We were supposed to have it in 2009 but with Jim's cancer diagnosis we opted out last year.  We had lots to be thankful for and to celebrate this Christmas so it was all done with great joy in our hearts!  We had a great turnout and all went well. (Thanks Vicki, Cathy and Becca for all your help that day!)

Jim had his follow-up visit with Dr. Nabi the day before our Christmas Open House.  Everything looked good and he doesn't go back till April.  On April 13th he has a CT scan and then on April 15th he sees the doctor.  He feels great and is stronger then he has ever been!  He is working out doing cardio and strength exercises at least 5 days a week. 

We are really busy at work so we have had lots of long days there, occasionally going in on the weekends to play "catch up".  We are thankful to have good jobs so we are not complaining.

The Christian women's group I belong too has me busy also.  We have our annual seminar coming up on April 16th and due to the Crowne Plaza closing up for remodeling we had to find a new venue for this year.  It was finally decided to use The Hotel at Kirkwood.  This facility is new and just opened in 2010.  Seating will be limited to 500 so we will have to limit our ticket sales for the first time ever.  We have Angela Thomas as our speaker and Bebo Norman as our musician. Check out our website (thanks to Rachelle): www.hiswomenseminar.org

Speaking of Rachelle, she has been staying with us the last couple weeks while doing some software work at Custom Hose.  The other day we were talking about the many "quick" lunches that I put together each work day.  (Jim & I come home for lunch every day.)  She suggested that I share some of my quick meal ideas on the blog.  I am thinking I may do something on a weekly basis.  You'll need to check back to see how this comes along!

Well this enough for tonight.  I'll try to be better about getting my posts up.  I have been taking lots of pictures of the various foods I've made over the last couple months, I just haven't sat down to type up the recipes.  I guess I need to get busy!  LOL

Honey Fruit Salad

Is this not the prettiest bowl of fruit you've ever seen?  Absolutely appetizing!  The dressing is not overpowering but the subtle honey sauce makes it an especially sweet treat!  It only takes about 10 minutes to assemble, so if you have your fruits ready to go you can put it together in no time!

Honey Fruit Salad (Taste of Home, Simple &Delicious Cookbook)


2 medium bananas, chopped
2 cups fresh blueberries
2 cups fresh raspberries  (I used blackberries)

2 cups sliced strawberries
5 Tbsp honey
1 tsp lemon juice
3/4 tsp poppy seeds


In a large bowl, combine the bananas and berries.  In a small bowl, combine the honey, lemon juice and poppy seeds.  Pour over fruit and toss to coat.  Yield: 8 servings


Fruit options:  depending on the time of year you can change out the fruit - you could use mangoes, peaches or blackberries.

Perfect Pumpkin Pie

I love pumpkin pie and I really love crustless pumpkin pie. It isn't about the crust for me. It is about the fabulous pumpkin filling. This recipe has great flavor and with a dollop of whipped topping on top, you won't even miss the crust.  Great for Thanksgiving or anytime!

Perfect Pumpkin Pie - Crustless

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin (2 cups)

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)

2 eggs

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. With wire whisk or mixer, beat all ingredients. Pour into a pie pan (that has been sprayed with a no stick spray). Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees F. Continue baking 35-40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean. Cool. Garnish as desired. Store covered in refrigerator.

Note: To cut more fat, I've made this with fat free sweetened condensed milk and with egg whites. (1/4 cup egg whites = 1 egg)

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

We had our camping club potluck last weekend.  I had already committed to bringing a turkey and crock-pot dressing, but I decided that I needed to take a dessert.  A new dessert!  I had come across this recipe recently and it sounded really good.  One of my favorite cheesecake recipes calls for sweetened condensed milk and no sour cream.  This recipe incorporated the same ingredients.  The crust is primarily made up of a cake mix.  The original recipe called for a pound cake mix - but do you think we could find one at our local grocery?  No.  So I made it using a yellow cake mix and it turned out great.  These bars went over very well and real quite tasty.  I would recommend them as a great addition to any Thanksgiving dinner (or anytime)!


Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars (from Taste of Home)


Ingredients
1 (16 oz) pkg pound cake mix (or use a yellow cake mix like I did)
3 large eggs, DIVIDED
2 Tbsp butter, melted
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, DIVIDED
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin (about 2 cups)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts


Directions
1) Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine cake mix, 1 egg, butter and 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice in large bowl until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Press into bottom of 15 X 10-inch jellyroll pan.
2) Beat cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy.  Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk; beat in remaining 2 eggs, pumpkin, remaining 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice and salt; mix well.  Pour over crust; sprinkle with nuts.
3) Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until set.  Cool.  Chill.  Cut into bars.
Yield: the recipe said 48 bars, I cut mine into 24 bars

The crust is pressed into the bottom of the jellyroll pan.

Ready to go int the oven.

Just out of the oven.

Plated and ready to eat!!!