Green Monster Smoothie

I am trying harder to eat healthy and work out more. I've heard raves about the Green Monster smoothie, so I decided to finally give it a try! It's actually really good and filling! As someone who just recently started eating spinach salads (and will not eat lettuce ones, yuck) and will probably tire of that quickly, this is another great way to get some fruits and veggies in me! I have no idea where this recipe came from, if it's yours and you want credit, let me know! :)

1 cup soy or almond milk
3 handfulls spinach
1 banana
5 frozen strawberries


It will be green in color due to the spinach, which freaked me out, but it's tasty! I mostly taste banana, which is great! :D

Truffles

I entered a bake-off at my summer job and decided to make these truffles. They're pretty easy, but this recipe makes A LOT of dough for the truffles (I actually refrigerated some of the dough because I got tired of making truffles) and no matter what you do, this is a really messy recipe. I recommend taking off any wedding/engagement rings and wearing an apron while making these. The recipe is from my good friend Shannon.

Ingredients:

(1) 1 bag of Dark Chocolate melts (candy making chocolate, you can buy it at Party City or Michaels). I had to use semi sweet chocolate chips because the recipe had to be nut free for work and the baking chocolate was made in a factory with peanuts. It worked just fine.
(2) 1 pound packages of Oreos
(3) 8 oz of Cream Cheese

Directions:

(1) Let the cream cheese sit out a little so it is soft

(2) Dump all the Oreos into a ziploc bag, seal the bag and then smash the oreos into crumbs (I used a heavy coffee mug to do the smashing). Be careful because my bag ripped in a few spots, so my counter got a bit messy. I think maybe smashing less Oreos at a time would be a good idea. I stuck both packages in the bag at the same time.

(3) In a large bowl mix the Cream Cheese and Oreo Crumbs with an electric mixer until no white is visible. That takes a lot of arm work and a lot of time to thoroughly blend them together. It will look like it is impossible when you start out, but stick with it. My mixer wasn't big enough to handle all of it at once, so I had to scoop some out and add it in again later. This step was annoying, messy, and took forever, but it was worth it!

(4) When you are done mixing put the dough in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

(5) Melt the chocolate melts in the microwave stopping to stir every 30 seconds until they are all melted.

Once the dough is cold enough and chocolate is melted, create 1 inch round balls with the dough (I do it the same way I made balls out of play doh when I was younger, just roll it around in your hands.)  Then dunk the ball into the chocolate and spoon out onto a tray that is covered with Parchment Paper (the chocolate will not stick to the paper and will just peel off). Once they are dry (I popped mine into the fridge for awhile to speed this up) peel them off and put them in a tupperware container. You should keep them in the fridge.

These truffles are really rich and chocolately, but sooo good! My personal opinion is that you can't have more than 1 or maybe 2 at a time, but everyone I know that has tried these loves them! I'll be sure to let you all know if I win the bake-off this week! :)

Swiss Stuffing Chicken

Got this yummy recipe from Kelly. 

2 large skinless boneless chicken breasts
6 oz. Mozerella or Swiss cheese slices (I used shredded mozzarella since Jeff hates Swiss cheese and it was great! I need to try it with Swiss another time though!)
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1/4 cup white cooking wine (I used Chardonnay that I found in the fridge and it was fine.)
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup herb-flavored crushed up stuffing mix (I used the Stop and Shop brand for chicken)
1/2 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place uncooked chicken in shallow buttered casserole dish. Layer cheese on top. Mix soup, wine, salt, pepper; pour over cheese. Sprinkle stuffing mix on top and drizzle with melted butter. Bake for 35-60 min. depending on your oven. I used thin chicken breasts, so my cook time was around 35 min.

Homemade Candy!

I got this recipe from my friend Shannon, who I write about quite a bit on my main blog. I don't know if I ever mentioned it on here, but Shannon and I lived together for about 6 months before Jeff bought a house and asked me to move in. I came in one night and she was making this candy. I tried some, loved it, and asked her for the recipe! She said her sister used to make this during the holidays, and now that her sister is sadly no longer with us, she makes it to honor her. It's so good and such an easy recipe! I make a batch for my family and Jeff's family every Christmas and everyone loves it!

You need:

• 1 8 x 8 pan 1 stick of butter 
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar 
• 1 cup crushed nuts. I used walnuts, but you can use pecans of whatever you want! I also tend to just pour in almost the entire bag because 1 cup doesn't cover the bottom of the pan and I don't like that.
• 2 cups of chocolate chips. I used milk chocolate chips, but you can use semi sweet as well. I personally hate the taste of semi sweet.

Pour the nuts into the pan, making sure the entire bottom is covered.

Melt the butter on lowish heat. I tend to set it to the notch just below medium. DO NOT do it on high like I did the first time a couple years ago! The butter/sugar combo was black, burnt, smelled awful, and I set off the smoke alarm!

Once the butter is completely melted, add the brown sugar in and stir. You have to stir it constantly for 7 minutes with a fork which will make your arm tired, but it's important. The butter will kind of sit on top of the sugar until it's stirred for a few minutes.

This is about 6 minutes into stirring. I like to call this the "brain stage." This is how you can tell it's almost done! This mixture tastes like toffee.

Pour the butter/sugar combo onto the nuts. Try to get it somewhat evenly on all of the nuts (if you're not perfect, no worries.) It's trickier than it looks because the mixture tends to move in one huge piece.

Pour the chocolate chips on top. Be sure to spread them so the entire thing is covered.

Cover the pan for a couple minutes.

Use a spatula to spread the somewhat melted chocolate chips across the entire thing, then re-cover the pan.

Put the candy in the fridge for several hours so the chocolate hardens.

Cut the candy up into pieces. Sometimes it breaks on its own when you're cutting it. I suggest putting a cutting board under the pan if you used a foil one like I did. I learned the hard way that the knife will cut through the pan and onto your counter which makes some unattractive scratches! You may also notice some nuts that didn't stick to anything leftover in the pan. I like to eat them afterwards! :)

Wrap up in a cute container or just eat them and enjoy!

Chicken Dumplings

Another chicken dish! All we eat at our house is chicken or turkey, we're very picky! Anyway, I got this recipe from my mom and I think she got it from Rachel Ray. It's pretty easy to do and tastes sooooo good!

You will need:

* 2 cans of cream of chicken soup

* 1-2 packs of crescent rolls. I did 2 because we love having leftovers!

* Chicken broth, which I forgot to buy, so I just used a can of soup. Get the smallest can of broth you can find because you only need a tiny bit!

* Chicken breasts. I chose to get a rotisserie chicken because it was easier for me. You can easily cook chicken breasts and slice them up, I just wanted to take out the extra step of having to cook the chicken, and it HAS to be cooked before you make the dumplings!

Coat the dish with about 1/2 can of cream of chicken soup.

Put some chicken in the middle of each crescent roll. You want to put enough to get the taste, but not too much where you can't close the dumpling!

Close the dumpling up! There's no special way to do this, just wrap it up! They will all look different!

Use the remaining 1 1/2 cans of cream of chicken soup to cover the dumplings, then pour a little bit of chicken broth on top. Be careful not to do too much otherwise the dumplings will be really soggy!

Cook at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Enjoy! I chose to make corn with ours dumplings since I love the flavors together, but you can do whatever you want! This meal is kind of fattening, but so yummy and filling! This is one of our favorites!

Pumpkin Dip

Jeff and I are throwing a Halloween costume party tomorrow night for a bunch of our friends. I found this recipe for pumpkin dip. It tastes like liquid pumpkin pie and is to die for! This took like 10 minutes to make and was so incredibly easy!

You will need:

* 1 8oz. package of cream cheese (softened)

* 1 150c. can of pure pumpkin

* 2 cups confectioner's sugar

* 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie seasoning

* 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

* 1 teaspoon frozen orange juice from concentrate

Put cream cheese and confectioner's sugar into a bowl.

Mix until creamy and well blended.

Gradually add in the pumpkin.

Add in the spices and orange juice. I found that the Kitchenaid Mixer didn't mix it perfectly, so I had to stir it too. This made A LOT of dip! We plan to serve it with honey graham crackers and Nilla Wafers! 

Chicken Barbeque

In an effort to work on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days I decided to use my Cooking Light Slow Cooker Cookbook (which I registered for and got as a bridal shower gift) to make a meal called Chicken Barbeque.

What you will need:

* 1/2 lemon sliced and seeded (I used a whole one because we love lemon!)

* 1.5 cups cut onion (I don't like onions very much, so I left this out)

* 3 chicken breasts, each cut in half

* 1 bottle (18oz) of BBQ sauce (your choice of brand. I used Sweet Baby Ray's)

* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

* 1/2 cup of Coke (NOT DIET! It has to be regular Coke!)

* 1/2 cup water

Put the sliced lemon into the crockpot. Hopefully you can slice it more evenly than me!

Place the chicken breast halves on a slice of lemon. This made the chicken have a hint of lemony taste and it was sooo good!

Squeeze the entire bottle of BBQ sauce into a bowl.

Add in the 1/2 cup of Coke and stir until blended.

Pour the mixture over the chicken and cook on HIGH for 1 hour. After that, cook on low for 3-4 hours. The cookbook told me to do 4 hours, but we found that the chicken was a bit overcooked, so I will definitely shorten the time next time I make this dish!

Once chicken is tender several hours later, remove it with a slotted spoon (so you preserve the sauce) and put it aside. Get the lemons out and throw them away.

Put the flour in a bowl and gradually whisk in 1/2 cup of HOT water.

Mix the flour/water mixture in with the leftover sauce from the crockpot. Turn the crockpot back to HIGH and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes. The sauce should be nice and thick, that's how you can tell that it's done.

It will look something like this.

Not sure why this pic won't go horizontally! Anyway, spoon the sauce over the chicken, serve with a veggie of your choice and enjoy!

Jeff and I really liked this and will definitely eat it again. I just need to make sure not to overcook the chicken! Since there's not a ton of liquid in with the chicken, it dried out, so one less hour would have made a huge difference!