Oatmeal S'mores Mug Cake

 I found a recipe for a Nutella Mug cake over at The Kitchn.  Sadly, I found myself without any Nutella.  I did the next best thing...make a s'mores mug cake instead!

 

 

Smores Mug Cake adapted from The Kitchn

3 T Almond milk

1 T olive oil

1 T sugar

3 T flour

1 1/2 T rolled oats
1 T finely chopped pecans, plus more to garnish

1/4 t baking powder

1/8 t salt
1/4 t cinnamon 

1 T chocolate chips

1 heaping T mini marshmallows

1 T Biscoff

In a 12oz(or larger) mug,mix milk, oil, and sugar. Stir in oats, pecans, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until smooth.  Add chips and marshmallows. Add Biscoff to top and gently push in so it's
partially submerged in the batter. Nuke 45-60 sec depending on your microwave strength.  Try not to burn your mouth on the ooey gooey goodness!

Frozen Golden Oreo Lemon Yum

There's just something about Golden Oreos and lemon that pair so nicely together.  

Then add frozen Cool Whip to the mix?

Sold!

I decided to make a whole huge dessert out of this and prepare it in a 9" Springform pan.  I did this basically because I only had a 8x8 pan, so my 9" springform pan was the only dish that was large enough.  I bought a 16 oz container of Cool Whip so I decided to use all of that instead of the 12 oz the original recipe called for.  I filled the spring form pan all the way to the top.

This made for lovely slices of "cake" that was nearly like ice cream.


Frozen Golden Oreo Lemon Yum adapted from Crazy For Crust
36 Golden Oreos, divided (This is one full package.  I may have only used 35 cookies because one might have fallen into my mouth.)
3 T butter, very soft
1 box (3.4 ounces) french vanilla pudding (you can switch up the pudding flavor if you prefer)
1 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk
18oz Cool Whip
1 cup lemon curd (jarred or homemade) (I used some homemade stuff that never thickened properly, but wound up working great)

Place 20 cookies in a gallon sized plastic zip bag. Seal bag except for 1 corner so air can escape and mash with a rolling pin to coarsely crush cookies. Place cookies and butter in lg bowl. Mix til combined. Place in bottom of 9” springform pan.  Wipe out bowl and add pudding mix and milk. Whisk til smooth and set aside for 2 min. Fold in heaping 1 c cool whip. Carefully spread over cookies in pan. Crush all but 2 remaining cookies in a new zip bag. Sprinkle over pudding.  Mix lemon curd gently with heaping cup cool whip. Spread over pudding. Spread remaining whipped topping over the curd mixture. Coarsely crush remaining 2 cookies and sprinkle over top.  Cover with plastic wrap and freeze overnight.

Vegan Lemon Curd

I attempted to make vegan lemon curd from this recipe via Lunchbox bunch.

It didn't turn out exactly as I'd hoped.

While it was good, it never set up like it should have so it was more like a thick lemon glaze.

It was still tasty.  I used it in a frozen dessert instead of as a topping for toast. 

Vegan Lemon Curd Spread via lunch box bunch makes 1 1/4 cups
1/2 cup almond milk, vanilla
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp corn starch
6 T sugar
6 T fresh lemon juice
1 t lemon zest
5 T vegan buttery spread
pinch of salt

Dissolve corn starch in the cold soy milk and water in pot. Turn heat to med-high and continuously stir. Add in spread, juice and sugar and continue to stir until mixture starts to bubble and thicken. Reduce heat to low and beat with a hand-held beater for about 90 sec.Transfer mixture to serving dish and refrigerate until chilled. Store in fridge and eat in 2-3 days.

Spanish Rice

We had tacos one night and I thought some Spanish rice would make a nice side dish. 

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I'd never made Spanish rice before so I took this recipe from Very Culinary and mashed it together with this one from Sunny Simple Life.

Spanish Rice
1.5 c uncooked rice
2T oil
1 onion, diced small
2 red pepper, chopped small
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T tomato paste
2.5 c water (I added drained juices from rotel to make up part of this measurement)
1 can Medium Rotel
2 t cumin
scant 1/2 t salt
1/4 t chili powder

Saute rice, onion, pepper, garlic, and tomato paste in oil until rice is slightly browned.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer 15 min, covered.  Let sit 5 min covered, off of heat.

Pepper and Pepperoni Pasta

I've gotten in a bad rut of not taking photos again.  What can you do eh?

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I made this dish for a dinner that my husband went to at church.  It went over so well that I got asked for the recipe. 

While it's a simple dish in that it's easy to make, it's not something I'd prepare on a regular basis.  It had a lot of ingredients that I don't normally buy.

I only made some very minor changes to this recipe.  First, I pre roasted and peeled the red peppers.  I hate the skins on peppers so that was my reasoning for that.  I swapped out the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses for a preshredded Italian blend that contained those cheeses in addition to a few others.  Finally I halved the pepperonis so they were a bit more evenly distributed when the dish was served.

Pepperoni and Pepper Pasta adapted from Half Baked Harvest

1 lb angel hair pasta, broken in half

1/3 c olive oil

1 T dried basil

2 t dried oregano

1 t dried parsley

1 t dried dill

1/2 t crushed red pepper

1/2 t pepper

1/4 t salt

heaping 1/3 c kalamata olives, halved

1/3 c oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained of excess oil, reserving oil-sliced

2 c shredded Italian blend cheese.

4 red bell peppers, roasted and peeled then slicced

Pepperonis-halved (enough to cover the top of the dish)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Boil pasta until al dente. Drain well. While water comes to a boil add olive oil (make sure oil covers entire bottom of baking dish, if not add more oil), dried basil, dried parsley, dried oregano, dried dill, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper to a 9 x 13 baking dish. To baking dish add 3/4 pasta, olives,and sliced tomatoes. Toss well. Drizzle pasta with reserved oil from  sun-dried tomato jar. If pasta seems a little oily add in a little more angel hair or if you would like to use all  pasta be sure to add more oil to evenly coat all pasta. Add 1/2 cheese and scatter sliced peppers over top.  Top with remaining cheese, pepperoni and another drizzle of oil. Bake 45-60 min til top browned.

Crockpot Fruity Ham

I made ham in the crockpot!  Like most crockpot recipes, it was super mega easy.

Here's what you need:

8or so lb bone in ham
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c maple syrup
2 c orange peach mango juice

Put the ham in the crockpot, flat side down.  Slather on the brown sugar.  Pour syrup and juice over the top.  Cover and cook 8 hrs, basting every few hours.

The fruit juice gives the ham a fun fruity flavor, while cooking the meat in the crockpot makes it tender and moist. 

Turkey Pot Pie

The pie crust recipe I used to make the Fauxberry Pie for April Fools made two crusts.  I decided to make Pioneer Woman's Turkey pot pie with the extra one I had stored in the fridge.

I'd never made any kind of pot pie that didn't come out of a cardboard box, so I was pretty excited about how this one turned out.

The recipe calls for a 2 quart casserole dish.  As I added extra veggies (corn and peas), my pie filling no longer fit in a 2 quart container!  I used the next biggest dish which held 3 qts, my 9x13 baking dish.  I just rolled the dough out thinner and longer to make do.

For some reason my pie crust just wouldn't brown like The Pioneer Woman's did.  I even baked it for an additional 20 min.  Even upon reheating the leftovers in the oven at 350F for 20 min, my crust didn't get that deep dark golden tan.  Looks aside this Turkey pot pie was scrumptious. The reheated leftovers were even better than the ones served on the first day.  The filling that had oozed out the side got this crust on it that was super yummy.  Just writing about it is making me salivate!

I will definitely make this dish again!

Turkey Pot Pie from Pioneer Woman
4 T Butter
1/2 c Finely Diced Onion
1/2 c Finely Diced Carrot
1/2 c Finely Diced Celery
(A few handfuls of frozen corn and/or peas if desired)
3 c Shredded Cooked Chicken Or Turkey
1/4 c Flour
3 c Low-sodium Chicken Broth, Plus More If Needed
Splash Of White Wine (optional) - I omitted because I didn't have any on hand
1/4 t Turmeric
Salt And Pepper, to taste
Chopped Fresh Thyme To Taste (I used a few shakes of dried thyme instead)
1/4 c Half-and-half Or Cream
1 whole Unbaked Pie Crust
1 whole Egg
2 TWater

Preheat oven to 375 F. Melt butter in a large pot over med-high heat, then add the onion, carrots, and celery. Stir them around until the onions start to turn translucent, about 3 min. Stir in meat, then sprinkle flour over top and stir til combined . Cook for 1 min, then add  broth (and wine if using) and stir it around and let it cook and thicken. Once it starts to thicken add turmeric, salt, pepper, and thyme (and frozen veggies, if using). Add half-and-half or cream, then stir and let thicken, about 3 min. If it seems overly thick, splash in a little more broth. Turn off heat. Pour filling into 2 (or 3)-quart baking dish. Roll out pie crust on a floured surface and lay it over  top of dish. Press dough so edges stick to outside of pan. Use a knife to cut little vents here and there in the surface of the dough. Mix egg with water and brush over surface of crust. (You will have some egg wash left over.)

Place pie on a rimmed baking sheet and bake 25-30 min, til crust is deep golden brown and filling is bubbly. To prevent crust from getting too brown, you might want to cover it lightly with foil for  first 15 min baking time (I omitted this step).