Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars

These bars are dangerously addictive and really easy to make! They are good straight out of the oven but I prefer them after they have been in chilled in the refrigerator for a while.

Ingredients:

1 can Pilsbury crescent rolls
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar cinnamon mixture
1 pkg cream cheese

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350
2. In a bowl mix together the cream cheese and 1/4 cup of sugar
3. In a pan lay out half of the crescent roll and spread the cream cheese mixture over it and layer with the other half of crescent roll dough
4. pour melted butter over the whole thing and cover with the cinnamon sugar mixture
5. Bake for 25 minutes

1 Minute, 4 Ingredient Molten Chocolate Mug Cake!

So, tonight I was sitting in my apartment studying for class and in need of a break when the craving for chocolate cake hit me which is a rareity as I am not a huge fan of either cake nor chocolate lol So, I stumbled across this amazing recipe which takes maybe 5 minutes to put together and only a minute to cook in the microwave, so needless to say I was back to studying in no time! I added the chocolate chips to make it even better; you can make it without them if you don't have them on hand. I had some mini choc chips in my fridge so I just put them to good use, and I'm sure if you ate it with some yummy vanilla ice cream it would be devine too!

Ingredients:
1 egg
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1-1/2 tbs cocoa powder
1 tbs choc chips

Directions:

1. Crack the egg into a mug and add in the cocoa powder and powdered sugar and mix it together well.

2. Microwave the mixture for 1 minute, it should be cooked through but still slightly gooey (don't worry if it starts overflowing while it microwaves it will go back down when it cools off a bit). You can add more choc chips or some Hershey's syrup on top, and ice cream if you like and enjoy!

Crazy Crockpot Gumbo with Rice and Red Beans!

I was craving gumbo when I stumbled upon an easy crockpot version in  a cookbook which I tweaked a bit and it turned out marvelous!

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
4 fully cooked chicken sausage links sliced
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups cut frozen okra
1 green or red bell pepper
1 small onion
1-1/2 tsp cajun seasoning
1 tsp paprika
1 clove garlic

Directions-

1. First add the chicken to the crockpot and then add all the other indgredients in on top

2. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours

3. When ingredients are fully cooked shred the chicken breasts into pieces using a fork and stir all the ingredients together.

4. When the gumbo is almost done cooking cook your rice heat up red beans and corn to go with it.

5. In a bowl first put in some rice and then cover with beans and corn and then finally ladle the gumbo on top!

Lasagna Cupcakes

These mini lasagnas are so cute and a perfect serving size, although I admit to eating more than one of them at a time because they are just so yummy! You can add whatever ingredients you want to this recipe, I just used what I had on hand at the time.

Ingredients:

1 small red onion
3 or 4 chopped mushrooms
1/2 jar or tomato sauce
1 chopped garlic clove
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
I pkg fresh spinach
1-1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1 egg
24 square wonton wrappers
1/2 cup mozzerella cheese
olive oil
butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. In a sauce pan with a tbs. or so of olive oil cook your onions until they start to soften up and then add the italian spices and garlic in with the mushrooms and add in the tomato sauce and let it simmer.

3. In a separate pan cook the spinach in with a bit of olive oil until it cooks down, then let it cool a few minutes

4. In a bowl add ricota cheese and an egg with the cooled off spinach.

5. Get out your muffin pan and grease it with butter then add a wonton wrapper into each muffin cup.

6. fill the wonton wrappers evenly with half of the ricotta mixture on the bottom and half the tomato sauce mixture on top. Then sprinkle with mozzerella cheese.

7. Bake for about 12 minutes or until the edges start to brown.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins!

Lately I've been so ready for the fall season to get here, this Texas heat is icky! So I was inspired to make pumpkin muffins which are my favorite and remind me of the cooler weather, I had some chocolate chips left over from a previous recipe so I added them into the muffin mixture. I also made them a  tad healthier by substituting in a half a cup of oat flour rather than using all bleached white flour, you could also use apple sauce instead of the vegetable oil to make them even healthier but I was out of apple sauce. I could eat these muffins all day long they are so yummy and I'll pretend it's not over 100 degress outside, think cool thoughts. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
8 oz canned pumpkin
3/4 cup vegetable oil (or apple sauce)
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

2. Mix the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil together

3. Add all the dry ingredients and mix it all together

4. Fold in the chocolate chips and pour into muffin tins

5. Cook for about 15 minutes or until they look slightly golden on top

Steamed Vegetables with Rice and Fried Shrimp Dumplings!

This is a recipe that is perfect for family dinners because it makes a lot of food, or just or in my case just to make lots of leftovers to eat over the week. This dinner invcludes, steamed vegetables and rice with fried shrimp dumplings, this is one of my favorite meals to make. Sometimes I just add cooked chicken to the steamed vegetables and rice and don't make the dumplings so it takes less time to make, but the dumplings are so yummy and I love shrimp!

Ingredients:

frozen stir fry mixed vegetables

steamed rice

1 pkg cream cheese

12 pre-cooked shrimp

1 pkg wonton wrappers

fresh ginger

soy sauce

1. steam your rice in the rice cooker (I use jasmine rice)

2. to start your dumpling filling add cream cheese and grate the ginger into a bowl, (I like a lot of ginger in mine but out enough for your taste), mix both ingredients together. Then, chop the shrimp into pieces and add it to the cream cheese mixture.

3. Take your wonton wrappers and with the tip of your finger dip it into a bowl of water and smear the water around the edge of the wonton wrapper, put a spoon full of the cream cheese mixture onto the wonton, fold the wonton over as the wonton package shows you.

4. Begin steaming your vegetables in a pan with a little bit of olive oil (I added some extra shrimp to my vegetables as well).

5. Fry the dumplings in a pan with hot oil until they are crispy and golden brown.

6. Add the steamed vegetables to your steamed rice and add soy sauce to taste.  Then, set the dumplings aside or add them in as well and you are done! Yummy!



Frogalicious Cupcakes!!

So, for my little bro's 5th birthday I made him frog cupcakes, they were fun and simple to create and super cute!!! I made the cupcakes a few hrs ahead of time so they were cooled off to ice them and decided to be lazy and bought a can of pre-made frosting.

Supplies:

12 cupcakes
mini M&M's and regular sized M&M's (green and brown)
white frosting
green dye
red licorice

1. I sorted out all the green and brown M&M's first to make it easier.

2. Cut the licorice into thin slices and angling the ends into a mouth shape.

3. Set aside a little of the white frosting and add green dye to the rest of the frosting

4. Frost the cupcakes with the green frosting and then place the eyes on by using the white frosting to stick a green and brown M&M together to create an eye.

5. Next, place the licorice mouth on and the mini M&M's aroud the rest of the space on the cupcake to create little spots on the frogs.