Addicting, Fake, Key Lime Pie

1 small box lime jello- Use half the water recommended
2-6oz (Regular single serving size) Key Lime yogurts
8 oz cool whip (Half of a regular sized container)
1 prepared graham cracker crust or 4-6 of the mini sized ones.(Or homemade if you feel up to it.)

Mix the Jello and water, again, only using half of the water that it says on the box. Do not wait for it to set.
Add in the yogurt, blend together until incorporated.
Add cool whip and blend until smooth.
Pour into shells.
Chill 4-5 hours.
Decorate with cool whip or limes, but who has time for that?
Eat them like they are good for you. They are not*. I could eat seven of these without even breaking a sweat. Just saying.

* I've made this with non-fat yogurt and low-fat cool whip and it is still good. The tangy nature of the flavor covers a lot. But it is sooo much better with the regular ingredients.

Holiday treats?

So with Thanksgiving coming up and Christmas right around the corner I was thinking it would be cool to post your fav holiday treat recipe! Don't forget to label your recipe Holiday treats. I'll go first...

I love bite-sized food and I love pumpkin pie. A couple weeks ago I made Mini Pumpkin Pies! It's so simple. Just use your fav pumpkin pie filling recipe. Here's mine:

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 egg whites

In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks. Stir in 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold into pumpkin mixture.

Putting Your Mini Pies Together

Preheat the oven to 425. You will not be baking at this temperature. However, you want to make your oven nice and hot. Line your cupcake tins with cupcake liners.

I use ready-made pie crust to make my life easier. Remove half of the dough from the fridge and roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick. Use a 3 1/2 inch diameter circle cookie cutter to cut the dough into circles. Press the center of your circle into the bottom of a cupcake liner and work the rest into the bottom of the liner and up the sides. It should come about 3/4 of the way up the side.

Pour the pumpkin pie filling into the pie dough cups. Each cup should be slightly more than halfway full.

Lower the oven temp to 375. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the pie is set (doesn't wiggle around when you touch it.)

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Brats & Potatoes

These are so simple and will easily be the best brats you've ever eaten!Ingredients:
-Brats
-Potatoes
-Onion

1) Bake brats for 20-30 minutes turning once halfway through.
2) Peel and slice potatoes (however many you want, I've done anywhere from 4 to 8) and onion and place in the bottom of the crock pot. (Or, if you're opposed to eating an actual onion like we are, I just substitute with onion powder.)
3) Place the brats on top of the potatoes and cook on low for 4-5 hours.

Seriously, they will just melt in your mouth!

Easy, One-skillet Chicken Pasta- DELISH!

Ok ladies, this one is a total keeper. I've made it twice now and we LOVE it, plus it can all be made in one skillet on the stove. I made it just this week and Dan had 4 helpings!

I got the recipe from one of my favorite cooking blogs, and the blogger had gotten it from some skillet cookbook. Anyway, I changed a lot of things in the recipe (partly to make it healthier and partly to use what vegetables we had available) so I will post the recipe as I made it. If you want the original go here.

Ingredients:

2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into squares/chunks

salt/pepper

garlic powder

olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

Mushrooms, chopped

1/2 tsp dried oregano

8-12 oz. whole wheat penne (if you don't love whole wheat pasta like we do, you can use white, of course)

3 cups water

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

Frozen Sugar Snap peas (last time I used broccoli, and that is good too)

1/2 jar of roasted red peppers, chopped

1 to 1 1/2 c. milk

1 cup grated parmesean cheese (more if you like it extra cheesy)

1 lemon (optional)

Use your biggest non-stick skillet. Add a couple of drizzles of olive oil, add your chicken and diced onions, and season with salt/pepper, garlic powder and oregano; cook your chicken until almost all of the pink is gone. Add mushrooms and sautee until cooked. Add your pasta, 3 cups of water, and chicken broth. Bring to boil over high heat, and cook until much of the liquid is absorbed (12-15 minutes?), stirring occasionally. Stir in the snap peas and roasted red peppers. Turn heat to medium-high. Add the milk and the parmesean cheese. Simmer, uncovered for a few minutes until the cheese is melted through and the sauce is thickened. If your sauce is too thin, thicken with cornstarch (add 1-2 TB cornstarch in a small bowl of 1/4 c. milk. Mix until its totally dissolved BEFORE adding to the hot skillet, or else it will clump. Pour into the skillet mixture and stir until sauce is thickened). Once it's done, you can remove from heat and squeeze in a little lemon juice if you like. Season with more salt/pepper if it needs it, and top with a sprinkle of parmesean if you want. (PS, I didn't have any on hand, but I think this would be so pretty garnished with fresh parsley!)

Street Tacos

This isn't so much a recipe, as an assemblage. So, easy, easy, easy. I fell in love with "street tacos" in Tijuana and crave them about once a month. Here is our version.

Corn tortillas- Corn tortillas instead of flour. Much more flavor! I sprinkle them with water and then heat them in the microwave for about 25 seconds to make them pliable.

Chicken- Cut up into small pieces and sauteed with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. But you can season them however you like. The simpler the better.

OR/ But Not Both!

Hamburger- Browned with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. You could also use actual cuts of meat cut into small pieces and browned.

White Onions- Cut very small. Do not cook these!

Cilantro- Taken off the stems and roughly chopped.

Limes- Cut into wedges to squeeze onto the tacos.

And that is it. Five ingredients. Assemble. You can add avocado or salsa, or get creative, but I find I don't like them as much when we add too many ingredients. A super fast and relatively healthy dinner. Like I said, not exactly a secret recipe handed down from my grandmother, but I get requests every time I've made them for people. I tell them it's just what they see, but they swear there is some trick. No trick. You can double the tortillas for a heftier taco... but ya, no real science to this.

Turkey Bacon Biscuits

Dan made me these one Sunday morning for breakfast (apparently I was asking for them in my sleep LOL). I had to take a pic because they looked beautiful and they were DELICIOUS!

You can use any bacon you want - he substituted Morningstar veg bacon for me :)

Here is the recipe: Turkey Bacon Biscuits