Apple Pie Muffins

Dry Ingredients:

We are started a new system in my house today. It's my mission to get my girls to pick-up after themselves, not leave piles of things ALL over the house, grow up to be self-sufficient and be able to function in the real world like a normal human being.  I figure it takes 21 days to make a habit so in 21 days I hope to be able to report complete success on the first part.  I think I've already taken care of the last two. First up is "Clutter Jail".  I am soooo excited about this.  Them...not so much.  Anyway, on to the cute little muffin..We used to love Betty Crocker's Apple Streusel muffins.  Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find them in years.  These were just as good, but with lots of real apples.  They were delicious!  Of course they look even better in the cute little leopard cupcake liners.  I found these at Bella Cupcake Couture. They have many different ones to choose from, too many unfortunately.

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

3 cups diced apples, about 3 apples (I used Macintosh)

Topping:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

4 T melted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375

Mix dry ingredients in large mixing bowl, mix wet ingredients and apples in small bowl
Add wet mixture to dry mixture and mix well

Mix topping ingredients in small bowl

Grease muffin pan or use liners
Fill each muffin cup and sprinkle topping mix over batter
Bake 25 minutes

Servings: 12

Calories: 319
Fat: 15g
Fiber: 2g

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Leopard Rain Boots from The Pyramid Collection

Asian Flank Steak

  Asian steak sounded a little odd to me at first.  It took me years to love Asian food.  I'm not sure what my aversion to it was, but now I love it.  This was a nice twist on an ordinary steak.  I found a great website called Charcoal Bob that lets you enter the type and thickness of meat you are grilling and will tell you the desired time to cook. Unfortunately it didn't work for ours because we have an Infrared Cooker but if you have a charcoal or gas grill this would be a really helpful website.

1/2 cup Sherry

1/4 cup Honey
2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil

2 Tablespoons Ground Ginger

2 Tablespoons (3-5 cloves) Minced Garlic

1 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

2 Flat Iron Steaks

1/2 cup Soy Sauce

Whisk all ingredients (except steak of course) in a bowl.

Place the steaks and marinade in a Ziploc bag and chill in the refrigerator for 3-6 hours.

Grill steaks on high heat for 4 minutes on each side for medium rare steaks.

Allow steaks to rest for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Servings: 8

Calories: 273

Fat: 12g
Fiber: 0.3

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Lemon Velvet Cream Pie

This is by far the prettiest pie I've ever made! (out of the 3 total ones I've made :) It was really good! Megan has already asked for me to make another one. She practically inhaled the first piece she had. To do the whip cream I used the Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator which I've had for years and never actually used. I'm sure I bought it with good intentions, but now that I've used it I'm sure I'm going to be trying to put whip cream on everything.

1 frozen 9" pie crust (because I was too lazy to make my own) - I think I might like it even better with a graham cracker pie crust. I'm going to try that next time.

1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

2 tablespoons cold water

6 egg yolks

14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup lemon juice

1 pint of whipping cream - 1/4 cup for pie filling (add 1/8-1/

4 cup of sugar to remaining part for topping)

Lemon (optional for garnish)

Bake pie crust as directed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a small bowl soften gelatin in water for 5 minutes then heat in microwave for 14 seconds; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk.

With an electric mixer, beat on high speed for 2 to 3 minutes.

Mix in gelatin, whipping cream and salt on low speed.

Add lemon juice and beat on low speed for 30 seconds.

Pour into prepared crust (pie will be really full).

Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until center of pie looks set when gently shaken.

Cool on wire rack 1 hour.

Cover loosely and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Top with whipped cream just before serving.

10 servings

398 calories

23g fat

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Crock Pot Brisket Tacos

My learning's from this cooking adventure:

1) What a bunch of cilantro is (thank you Produce Converter!) They also have a cool app. You never know when you might be out on the town and the question comes up "how many tablespoons are in a parsnip?" Now you won't be caught off guard.

2) Garbage disposals like lemons but apparently aren't fond of limes

3) Don't make this one before a big date because I'm going to smell like cilantro and garlic for days

Ingredients:

4 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 red onion, peeled and sliced

1 head garlic, minced

2 teaspoons ground cloves

1 tablespoon kosher salt

Juice of 4 limes

1/2 cup cider vinegar

5 dry bay leaves

5 pound beef brisket

6 cups beef stock

Tortillas

Place the first 8 ingredients in a food processor if you have one. If not, stir together in crock pot.

Place the brisket on top and pour beef stock over top of meat.

Place bay leaves on top.

Cook on HIGH for 4 hours. Then change setting to WARM and let sit for 6 to 8 hours. (Mine is awesome and actually changes the setting for you. It's a Wolfgang Puck brand from JCPenney)

Remove meat from slow cooker and place on rimmed baking sheet. Use two forks to pull the meat apart. Discard the fat. Place shredded beef in large bowl and spoon liquid over the top a few scoops at a time. You want the meat to hold the liquid but not swim in it.

Serve with fresh tortillas, Mexican cheese and any other desired toppings.

Servings:15 (will make about 30 tacos) - note: by the time we got all the fat off of our 5 lb brisket, there was only about 2lbs of meat left. We got about 15 tacos out of this.

Calories (without toppings and tortillas): 371

Fat: 19g

Fiber: 0.1g

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Chicken Enchiladas with Chile Sauce

Notice my new Ralph Lauren Safari Leopard plates?? They have them at Dillard's. You can also find them at Replacements, Ltd. I love the Replacements website because they have everything. Luckily, I haven't needed it yet but it's nice to know it's there if I ever break something. You can buy individuals plate on there if you wanted to do an assorted set. I want an entire set, the only problem is I only like the salad plate and I haven't quite gotten Johnny on the smaller portion habit and the girls have to have nothing touching on their plate. So for now, I'm the only one that gets to use the magnificent leopard plates.

1 medium onion, chopped in food processor

1 jalapenos, seeded and chopped in food processor

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

3 medium cloves garlic, minced

3 Tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

3 teaspoons sugar

1 15oz can tomato sauce

1 cup water

1 large beefsteak tomato, seeded and chopped in food processor

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups Kraft 4 Cheese Mexican (2%)

1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro

12 6" corn tortillas

cooking spray

salt and ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 425.

Combine the onion, jalapeno, 1/2 teaspoon salt and oil in a large saucepan with lid.

Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often - about 8 minutes.

Stir in the garlic, chili powder, cumin and sugar.

Stir in the tomato sauce, water and chopped tomato.

Bring to a simmer and cook until slightly thickened - about 5 minutes.

Mix the chicken into the sauce.

Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until chicken is cooked through - about 20 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate and set aside to cool.

Season sauce with additional salt and pepper to taste.

Shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Add in 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce, 1 cup cheese and the cilantro.

Stack the tortillas on a plate and cover with plastic wrap.

Microwave on high 50 seconds.

Spread the tortillas on a clean work surface and spoon 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture evenly down the center of each.

Tightly roll each tortilla and lay seam-side down in a greased 9x13 inch baking dish.

Lightly spray the tops of the enchiladas with cooking spray. Place in the oven for about 7 minutes, or until the tortillas start to brown slightly.

Reduce heat to 400.

Remove enchiladas and pour sauce evenly on top.

Top with the remaining cheese.

Cover dish with foil and bake an additional 20 minutes.

Remove foil and bake another 5 minutes, until cheese browns.

Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Servings - 6

Calories - 362

Fat - 10

Fiber - 6g

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Chicken Lasagna Roll-ups

Found my new food processor (Penelope) waiting on my porch when I got home! What perfect timing. I only had a small one and was having trouble with a lot of my recipes. This one was perfect!!! A 9 cup Cuisinart from JCPenney. Although I've made this recipe without it before too. Now to the food...this is another winner! Everyone loves it. So happy when that happens. Nothing green in it probably helped. But they actually ate the one piece of broccoli I served with it! Baby steps here...

3 cups cooked chicken

1 cup reduced fat ricotta cheese

1/4 cup crumbled reduced fat feta cheese

1/4 cup grated reduced fat Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup fat free milk

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

8 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained

1 jar Prego spaghetti sauce

In medium bowl, combine chicken, cheeses, milk, and pepper (I prefer to place this in the food processor to get a less chunky filling)

Spread 1/2 cup mixture over each lasagna noodle and roll

In a 13 by 9-inch baking dish, spread 1 cup spaghetti sauce

Arrange lasagna rolls, seam-side down in sauce in baking dish

Top with remaining spaghetti sauce and cover with foil.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

8 servings - 276 calories

5.6g fat

1.0g fiber

Chocolate Brownie Pudding

I’m not sure what I would compare this dessert to but it was soooo good! Taylor wanted to make sure that there was going to be enough left for her to have leftovers the next night. The plan was to have vanilla ice cream on it but the girls insisted on theirs having their favorite…mint chocolate chip. Both were good. Would probably also be good with nuts sprinkled on it.

2 sticks unsalted butter

4 large eggs

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tablespoon Kahlua

Optional - Vanilla ice cream (or desired flavor)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Lightly butter a 9×9 baking dish.

Melt the 1/2 pound of butter and set aside to cool.

Sift the cocoa powder and flour together and set aside.

Beat the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for 10 minutes, until very thick and light yellow. After 10 minutes, reduce the speed to low and add the vanilla, Kahlua, and the cocoa powder and flour mixture.

Mix very slowly until just combined.

Slowly pour in the cooled butter and mix again until combined.

Pour the mixture into the baking dish and place it in a larger baking pan.

Add warm water to the pan until it comes halfway up the side of the dish.

Bake for 1 hour.

It will look like it’s under-baked but it isn't!

Remove from the water and place in the fridge to cool.

Serve alone or with ice cream.

8 servings

482 calories (without ice cream)

27g fat

3g fiber