Semi-Homemade

I got this recipe from a friend and made it for Easter. It makes tons and they were almost completely gone so I think it was a big hit. I just copied and pasted from the Pillsbury website so obviously you don't have to use the name brand stuff. The only thing I did differently was add 1/4 tsp salt when I added the vanilla to the chocolate mixture. You could easily substitute your favorite cookie dough recipe for the the bought stuff too, but I was making a lot this Easter and appreciated a semi-home recipe.  

INGREDIENTS

1/2

cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, melted

2

cups graham cracker crumbs (32 squares)

1

bag (8 oz) Heath® Bits 'O Brickle® toffee bits (1 1/2 cups)

1

roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated chocolate chip cookies

1

bag (12 oz) Hershey’s® semi-sweet chocolate baking chips (2 cups)

1

can (14 oz) Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk

1

tablespoon LAND O LAKES® Butter

1

teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract

DIRECTIONS

• 1Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray.
• 2In medium bowl, stir 1/2 cup melted butter, 1 1/2 cups of the cracker crumbs and 3/4 cup of the toffee bits. Press mixture evenly in bottom of pan. Refrigerate about 15 minutes or until firm.
• 3Meanwhile, let cookie dough stand at room temperature 10 minutes to soften. In 2-quart saucepan, heat chocolate chips, milk and 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat, stirring frequently, until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Spread mixture over cracker crust.
• 4In medium bowl, break up cookie dough. Mix in remaining 1/2 cup cracker crumbs with wooden spoon until well blended. Crumble mixture evenly over chocolate layer. Sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup toffee bits.
• 5Bake 25 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely, about 2 hours. For a firmer bar, refrigerate 30 minutes longer. For bars, cut into 8 rows by 4 rows.

Breakfast Cassrole

On Christmas and Easter morning growing up we had a special breakfast casserole, usually paired with something sweet and fruit of some sort. It's a good tradition because the casserole is put together the night before so all you have to do is pop it in the oven in the morning. I'm making a little bit of a different version than my moms, I got it from my aunt, and is more bready than eggy. We'll see if we like it better, we're an egg family so I could see switching back. I'm pairing this with Baked Oatmeal from over at Bless Us O Lord, and probably oranges.

Sausage Egg Casserole

1 lbs browned sausage

6 eggs

6 slices bread - cubed

3 cups milk

2 tsp dry mustard

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Instructions: 

Beat eggs well - stir in milk (beat)

Add dry mustard (bead). Stir in bread

Add sausage & cheese - stir

Let sit covered in fridge overnight

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes  

Healthy Snack

Here's a healthy little snack I read about in Rachael Ray's magazine. I actually lost the recipe after seeing it but it's not one where you need exact measurement luckily.

The Goods:
1 can of chick peas
some EVOO
garlic salt
basil

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees (again, I lost the recipe so I just chose the trusty 350 degrees and it worked well). Drain and rinse beans then put on a baking sheet. Drizzle EVOO over beans (I used very sparingly so it would be healthy) then sprinkle however much garlic salt and basil you want on them and roast away. Super easy and so good.

Dairy-free, Egg-free Cake

 

My mother-in-law brought this cake up to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday last month.  Since we're always looking for cake recipes that don't call for butter, she sent the recipe my way, but I don't know where she got it. If you're so inclined you can mix all the ingredients for the cake right in the pan, but I ended up dumping all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mixing them that way first.  It was easy enough to mix in the wet ingredients in the pan.  The cake itself is really tasty, too, nice and moist.  My kids loved it anyway, and so did I.  We made it to celebrate my husband's birthday this week.

Bonus: this cake also happens to be egg-free, if that's important to you!

Three Hole Cake

1 1/2 c flour

1 t baking soda

1 c sugar

1/4 c unsweetened cocoa

1/2 t salt

1 T white or cider vinegar

1 t vanilla

1/3 c oil

1 c water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 8 inch cake pan (you can serve it right from the pan in which case you don't have to bother greasing it).  Combine the flour, soda, sugar, cocoa and salt.  Sift together into the pan (I did not sift them, just mixed them together in a separate bowl first). Shake the pan to level the ingredients and make 3 holes in it it.  Vinegar in one hole, vanilla in the second, and oil in the third. Pour the water over the top.  Using a table forkk, mix vigorously making sure to get in all the corners and incorporate all the flour mixture.  

Bake at 350 for 30 mins (mine took 35) or until toothpick in center comes out clean.  Let cool for five minutes before turning out of pan or completely completely in pan. Then frost.