COOKIN WITH PEPPER

Cinnamon sugar muffins

2012-04-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

What can I say about these cinnamon sugar donut muffins......well I can say that Zane was excited just by the sight of them. He screamed as I sat it on his high chair tray and it had barely touched before he shoved it in his mouth. And my husband and I thought they were delicious too. These would be perfect with a cup of coffee and some fresh fruit.

Or just to eat anytime not just for breakfast. I can't say these are WW friendly they probably aren't but I will try to calculate the points later and update. In case you hadn't guessed I have slightly fallen off the WW wagon lol not entirely but I could be doing alot better than I am. Anyways not to be a Debbie downer on these awesome muffins lets get on with it!

Cinnamon sugar donut muffins

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup of milk plus 3 tablespoons

cinnamon sugar coating

1/4 cup butter melted

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup sugar

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together and set aside. cream butter and sugar then add the egg, vanilla and milk and combine dry ingredients. Pour into muffin tin makes 12 regular muffins or 24 mini muffins. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. When they are cooled dip each muffin into the melted butter and then dip into sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg mixture and enjoy!

easy butter cream frosting

2012-04-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

I have always loathed making cupcakes. I know I know but you love baking?! Well I do love baking anything but cupcakes.
But now that I have Zane I feel the need to come to terms with cupcakes as I see myself wanting to make them frequently for daycare events, birthdays and such. I think what I have always hated so much about cupcakes is frosting them. Finding the perfect whippy stand up butter cream frosting. And then how do you get it to look so good? Well I finally found the butter cream I've been looking for and it's super easy which is right up my alley.

easy butter cream frosting

6 sticks of unsalted butter (real butter not margarine) and room temp
2lbs of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Beat butter until fluffy. Then add the vanilla until just blended then start adding in the powdered sugar a little at a time until it all in there. And now beat that until it is nice and fluffy and awesome oh and this would be the time to add food coloring if you want to.

Crock pot turkey Chili

2012-03-15T06:44:00.000-07:00

Chili is always my go to recipe. You can use the left overs for so many things chili mac, nachos, chili spaghetti I could go on trust me. But this turkey chili not only is so good you might not even have left overs but it's also good for you! I like to make my chili in the crock pot because you can just throw it in there and forget about!

Crock pot turkey chili

1lbs ground turkey breast
1 can campbells tomato soup
1 can chili beans in chili sauce ( I use the hot kind)
1 can red kidney beans drained
1 bag of frozen green and red peppers and onions ( I get the kroger brand)
1 small can of chili peppers diced
1 can of diced tomatoes with chili's in them
1 can of stewed tomatoes
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tbsp of cumin (I like a lot more than that so go crazy if you want to same with the chili powder)
2 tbsp chili powder
1 bunch of green onions chopped (reserve half for serving)
1 bunch of cilantro chopped (reserve half for serving)
1 jalapeno seeded and sliced into rings
salt and pepper to taste
couple shakes of hot sauce

Okay now I know that list of stuff may look like a lot but trust me this is easier than that list makes it out to be :) you start by browning your ground turkey and I would season it with a little salt and pepper while you do this. Then we are going to throw that in the crock pot on low. Add all of your canned ingredients and pepper mixture. Then add the rest of that list into the mix and give it a small taste right now to see if you need to kick up the spice factor a notch. This is when I normally add about half the jar of cumin and chili powder because I like it hot! Now let that bad boy cook on low for about 8 hours and by the time you get home from work you will be in business! Serve it up with the rest of those green onions and cilantro on top along with some shredded cheddar, sour cream and jarred jalapenos and you will be lovin life!

Spicy chickpeas

2012-03-10T05:53:00.000-08:00

I have tried making these for a long time and they either come out mushy or burnt. This time they were just about perfect. I let them sit in the oven at 350 for about an hour and a half they were super crunchy and spicy. The spice all really depends on how hot you like them. I like them hot so I put in about double the recipe I've put on here but they were spicy and I mean that with double the spice they would especially not be great for kids lol.

Spicy crunchy chickpeas
1 can = 3 servings
1 serving= 3 WW pts

1 can chickpeas drained rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
1/2 tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp chili powder
1/2tsp Tbsp cayanne
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp olive oil

Drain and rinse the chickpeas and pat dry with a paper towel. In a medium bowl mix all dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl place chickpeas and drizzle with olive oil and mix around till they are all coated. then transfer chickpeas to spice bowl and mix until coated with spice mixture. Then spread out evenly over parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 1 1/2 on 350 degrees to get super crunchy. If you don't want them to be as crunchy you can do a higher heat and less time.

WW Pineapple angel food cake

2012-02-26T14:53:00.001-08:00

Wow it's been awhile since my last post! Life has been crazy at our house! We have remodeled a bathroom and now are in process of changing the floors in our kitchen. So I have felt like a crazy person I don't really handle stress real well lol. Also I have decided to become annoyingly dedicated to Weight Watchers again. It's been 16 months since Zane was born so it's about time to put the excuses to rest. Don't worry I will still be posting some non WW recipes I just can't help myself I'll just have to save my weekly points for such occasions.

In my quest to get skinny again I will have a section just for WW friendly recipes and not so WW friendly recipes. Please feel free to email me any of your favorite WW recipes I could feature on the site. So here is 4pt pineapple angel food cake. Oh ya by the way (disclaimer) I am in no way affiliated with weight watchers lol.

Pineapple angel food cake
8 servings
1 serving 4pts!!

1 box of angel food cake mix
1 can of crushed pineapples in juice (not syrup)

Mix together cake mix and entire can of pineapples and bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Gooey peanut butter chocolate cake

2012-02-12T10:38:00.000-08:00

This cake was inspired by the great Paula Dean's Gooey butter cake from her cookbook Southern Cooking Bible. I liked how simple she made this cake. She uses a boxed cake mix (yellow in hers) she also gives lots of add in options in this book so that's what I went with a chocolate peanut butter combo. My favorite!

Gooey peanut butter chocolate cake
adapted from Paula Deans
Southern Cooking Bible

first layer

1 box devils food cake
1 stick butter melted
1 egg

topping
2 eggs
1 stick butter melted
1 package of cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 16oz box of powder sugar

melt 1 stick of butter and mix together with cake mix and egg. Then spread evenly into a greased 9x13 cake pan. In a stand mixer cream the eggs and cream cheese together add melted butter, vanilla then peanut butter. Once that is all combined well start to add powder sugar a little at a time until combined. Spread topping onto the first layer and bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with only crumbles or clean. You don't want to over bake it or it won't really be gooey.

pecan shortbread cookies

2012-02-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

I started out just wanting to make shortbread cookies then I realized that I had a about 2 cups of chopped pecans that were needing used. That was perfect for my husband he loves pecans! The real reason I wanted to make shortbread cookies is that I have these awesome Peanuts cookie cutters that I have been wanting to use. There's Snoopy and Charlie Brown, the whole gang! Unfortunately my dough was a little thick for my cookie cutters and then I couldn't find my heart cutters so I settled for stars. So here they are Pecan shortbread cookies!

Pecan shortbread cookies

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 pound butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped pecans

Cream the butter and sugar together. Then add vanilla. In separate bowl sift the flour and salt together then add to the butter mixture. Roll out onto floured surface and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees until just golden. About 15-20 minutes.

Pizza bagels

2012-02-09T17:08:00.000-08:00

Pizza bagels are my go to easy toddler dinner. Zane LOVES pizza bagels! I sometimes find when I pick Zane up from daycare and get home he is starving way before I can get dinner on the table. When that happens I don't always want to give him chicken nuggets and meatballs (his other favorites lol) I like to mix it up and these take only minutes. This was actually my dinner tonight too my husband was gone for the night so it worked out perfectly because I secretly love pizza bagels and smiley fries with chili sauce :)

Pizza bagels

1 bagel for every person
1 tablespoon of marinara or pizza sauce ( I like prego basil and garlic )
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese per bagel

Preheat oven to 425. Cut bagels in half with a bread knife and toast in the toaster. Place bagel halves on cookie sheet and top with 1tablespoon of marinara and then 1/4 cup of cheese and bake until cheese gets bubbly and golden. Keep the rest of the open marinara or pizza sauce in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Fire sauce bean dip

2012-02-06T05:10:00.000-08:00

This dip was inspired by my love of Taco Bell fire sauce and the need to clean out my cabinets and fridge :) and I've made this several times and everytime I find something new to add to it so don't be afraid to mix it up!

Fire sauce bean dip

1 can refried beans
1 can of chili beans (drained)
1 can of diced chili peppers
1 block of cream cheese
1/2 cup of frozen corn
1/4 cup chopped jalapenos
about 10-20 taco bell fire sauce packets (yes I keep packets of condiments in my fridge no I'm not a hoarder)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 a red onion chopped
1 bunch of green onions
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 cup shedded cheddar cheese

Let the cream cheese soften to room temperature and spread in the bottom of a 9x13 casserole. Mix refried beans, chili beans, chili peppers, jalapenos, corn, red onion and chili powder together. Top with taco bell fire sauce green onions and cilantro. then sprinkle cheese over mix and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips.

Iron skillet pineapple upside down cake

2012-02-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

This cake could not have turned have turned out better! It's beautiful and delicious. I make pineapple upside down cakes a lot for my husband it's his favorite. I usually just take the more lazy route and use a box cake mix but he just remodeled our bathroom and felt I should make the extra effort :)

Iron skillet upside down cake

1 can diced pineapple
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup 2 tbsp cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)

Melt butter in a 10 inch iron skillet. Sprinkle brown sugar over butter then drain pineapples and reserve 5 Tbsp of juice for cake. Spread pineapple over brown sugar and kinda mush up the pieces as you do that. Then sprinkle the pecans over evenly and set skillet aside. In a bowl mix cake flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. In your mixer beat eggs then add in sugar, vanilla and pineapple juice. Once well blended add in flour mixture then pour over butter mixture in your iron skillet and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown on top. Once cooled off a bit flip over onto serving plate and enjoy!

Spicy party meatballs

2012-02-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a great recipe for party meatballs in case you are a super procrastinator like me and haven't thought about super bowl Sunday yet until today. These are super easy, super tasty and have a spicy kick to them. Wanna see how many times I can fit super into this post?

Spicy party meatballs
1 bag of frozen homestyle meatballs (I like Kroger brand the best)
1 jar of peach preserves
1 jar of Kraft original bbq sauce
1 jar of City bbq original or hot bbq sauce
Sriracha hot sauce (I put in about 1/4 of a cup but I like it hot)
a few shakes of red pepper flakes
1 bunch of green onions chopped

Combine all ingredients into a crock pot and place on low for about an hour before serving or until meatballs are hot thru out.

Tropical carrot salad

2012-01-24T17:16:00.000-08:00

I don't know how but I have 3 huge bags of carrots in my fridge..... so here is a carrot salad recipe. This would be a great side dish to take to a picnic or potluck. It's easy and not that I think you should have to be sneaky with your vegetables or anything but this stuff is so sweet and delicious. It's a very fun way to get your veggies in.

Tropical carrot salad

4 cups shredded carrots

1 cup golden raisins

1 can 20oz crushed pineapple

2 Tbsp sugar (could swap for agave)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

3/4 cup mayo

1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

Dissolve sugar into crushed pineapple and lemon juice. Add mayo then carrots, raisins, and pecans. Let sit in the fridge for and hour or so and enjoy!

Easy Popovers

2012-01-22T12:47:00.000-08:00

Ok so when I say easy popovers I do mean that. Having said that my popovers didn't exactly POP well they did but then they dropped. But these popovers were delicious and Zane loved them. We ate them with home made apple butter. They were light, fluffy, and super easy.

Easy Popovers

Ingredients

4 eggs
1 1/4 cups whole milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
Apple butter for serving

Preheat oven to 425 degrees heavily grease a 12 cup muffin tin or popover tin if your extra fancy :)

combine eggs, oil, and milk in a food processor and blend for 10 seconds. Add flour and salt and blend until combines 20 seconds or so.

Fill muffin tin to about 3/4 full in each cup.

Bake popovers until they are puffed and browned. about 25-30 minutes. when done immediately remove from pan and pierce with a toothpick to release steam.

WW pumpkin brownie muffins!

2012-01-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

I got this recipe from my best friend and I could not believe first off that anything with devils food cake could be WW friendly and secondly that it would taste good. Wow was I wrong! Two of these mini muffins are only 5pts and they are delicious! Plus this recipe is so easy it takes only minutes to make. Now that's what I'm talkin about! Mom friendly, diet friendly and cake lovers every where friendly!

Pumpkin brownie mini muffins

WW 5 pts for 2 mini muffins

1 box of devils food cake mix

1 can of pumpkin puree (smaller can)

just mix these 2 together and fill a greased mini muffin tin (makes about 20) and bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean :)

Crayon stars

2012-01-16T17:20:00.000-08:00

Got a bunch of broken crayons? Or just feel like making crayon stars? I made these for Zane because right now with him being so little these will be much easier for him to grab and color with.

I got this star mold from Joanne Fabrics in the cake decorating section. They also had hearts so we might be giving Zanes cousins crayon hearts for Valentines day ;) I don't know yet if it was necessary or not but I sprayed my mold with nonstick spray just in case lol. Then I took all our broken crayons and took off the paper from them, put them in the molds and melted them down at 250 degrees. After I took them out I put them in the freezer so they wouldn't break when I got them out and that seemed to work.

Peanut butter fluff bars

2012-01-16T06:32:00.000-08:00

I have been seriously craving peanut butter and chocolate lately so expect alot of recipes involving those to come :) I found this recipe I based this off of in an old cookbook with Kentucky recipes and it only had half the peanut butter and fluff I just figured if a small jar of marshmallow fluff is good why wouldn't the bigger jar be even better lol.

Peanut butter fluff bars

1 package of devils food cake

1 stick of butter melted

1 14oz jar of marshmallow fluff

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

melt butter and mix in with cake mix. Grease a 9x13 baking dish put all but 1 1/2 cups of cake mix in baking dish. Then in a separate bowl mix peanut butter and fluff together and spread over the cake mixure. Then crumble the remaining 1 1/2 cups of cake mix on top bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and enjoy!

Sensory bottles

2011-12-31T18:00:00.000-08:00

For about a week straight every day when I dropped off Zane at daycare he went straight to these bottles of water with junk in them. So I decided he needed some for home. These are our super easy to make sensory bottles.

I took 2 mini coke bottles filled them with water and food coloring. I went to the craft store and bought some shiny pom poms and any other shiny stuff I could find and ta-da! Oh and glue the tops down so they don't become a choking hazard.

Pico De Gallo

2011-12-31T16:03:00.000-08:00

Last night I had no desire at all to cook and when that happens I always end up making something taco related. Something you may not have noticed yet from my blog but soon will is that I am obsessed with tacos
. I had some left over rotisserie chicken so we made chicken tacos and what else? Well Pico de gallo of course! Normally I wouldn't have that many tomatoes in the house but it so happened that I did!

Recipe

6 vine ripened tomatoes

2 limes

2 jalapenos

1 red onion

1 bunch of cilantro

1-2 splashes of red wine vinegar

dash of sea salt

Chop tomatoes, cilantro and onion mix together in a big bowl. Then dice the jalapenos being careful of what you touch while doing this as in don't go take your contacts out right now. Then juice your lime over all that and give it a couple splashes of red wine vinegar and a dash of sea salt and your done!

reindeer candy canes

2011-12-22T19:25:00.000-08:00

This is a super simple craft you could make with the kids during that long winter break. All you need is a box of candy canes, green pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and red craft balls for the nose.
On this you could use hot glue if your kids are old enough for a hot glue gun otherwise just craft glue will work too it will just take longer to dry. If you had kids of different ages this might be a good one to get every one involved in just for some family togetherness :) After you glue the eyes and the nose on all you have left is to wrap the pipe cleaner around the candy cane then twist. Then take your finger and wrap the pipe cleaner around it to make it curly to look like antlers. You could put these on the tree. Maybe attach to a card or present. Or just have the kids give them out to friends and family.

These reindeer candy canes were courtesy of Marie from my work. Marie oozes Christmas spirit and I saw these and had to post this cute idea! Thanks Marie!!

Becca

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Dinosaur Hoodie!

2011-12-22T14:52:00.000-08:00

This year for X-mas I wanted to make some homemade presents that I hope Zane will love for years to come. This is the Dino hoodie project. It was super simple I found this on pinterest originally.
First you buy a hoodie and 1/4 of a yard of felt fabric in your choice of color. then I folded over the felt long ways and ironed a crease in it. Then I cut out triangle shaped pieces of felt. Actually it would be a double triangle because of the fold. I then hand sewed the triangles right down thru the middle of them onto the hood part of the sweatshirt. Then I used my sewing machine to sew the rest of the dino spikes down the back but you can hand sew these as well if you don't have a sewing machine. You will also want to pin these in position before you sew these :) It helps if you iron a crease down the back of the hoodie so that it is straight. After sewing the triangles on the hoodie we are going to pin the triangles together and hand sew these together. This sounds like it would take alot longer than it does. I did alot of the hand stitching part while on lunch at work. Check out this most awesome tutorial! And happy sewing!

Becca

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Felt Christmas Tree

2011-12-14T13:37:00.000-08:00

I love pinterest!! There I said it. I love love love it! I saw this project on there and I think it is the most awesome idea I have ever seen!
All you hear from people with kids is how the kids try to help decorate the tree. So here it is their very own tree to decorate made of felt and a little hot glue. All you do is cut out a tree shape out of about a yard of felt fabric. Cut out some presents and glue them to the tree. Cut some ornament shaped felt and Bam hang have fun! This is Zanes felt tree I made it in the time of 1 nap!

Becca

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My Dog

2011-11-13T14:13:00.000-08:00

Since I have absolutly no business working a camera I'm trying to learn to take better pictures. So enjoy my random post of my dog. His name is Coleslaw yes you heard me right his name is Coleslaw or Slawdog.

Becca

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It's a boy snack mix!

2011-11-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

I can't wait for this weekend to come! My best friend is having her first baby and I'm so excited to help plan the shower. 

I made these super easy snack mix favors for the party and I hope every one loves them as much as I do :)

1 box of Golden grahams

1 bag of mini marshmellows

2 bags of kettle corn ( I used Indiana brand)

1 bag of Teddy grahams

1 bag (color of your choice) sixlets (usually found at party supply stores)

1 bag chocolate chips

1 bag of melted choc chips

1 jar of caramel

treat bags

first spread popcorn and marshmellows over as many cookie sheets as you have. I had to do this a couple of times because of my lack of cookie sheets I only have two. Take the melted chocolate and drizzle over the popcorn and marshmellows as much as you think you need ;) and follow with a drizzling of caramel. I like to take my caramel and put it in a wilton squeeze bottle as soon as I get it otherwise it becomes a huge mess at our house and it makes it super easy to drizzle. Now your going to put the cookie sheets in the freezer until the chocolate is not melty anymore. Just a few minutes is all it will take.

While that mix is in the freezer find the biggest bowl you have. I'm talking huge the stainless steel kind you seem to only be able to find at Ikea if you have one :) if not you will have to do this in shifts to. so in your huge bowl combine everything else. By this time your chocolate should be solid again so you can get that out from the freezer and start to break it apart and throw it in the bowl as well. And then start

bagging it up in treat bags. If you have a canning funnel nows the time to bust that baby out of storage (thats were mine lives 10 months out of the year) it will be extremely helpful because the caramel will stay somewhat sticky and make it really hard to get in the bags. If you don't have one you can always leave the caramel out I won't tell! 

Thanks for stopping by Cookin with Pepper! Hope you enjoy some It's a boy snack mix!

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2011-09-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

Apple Puree

This is one of Zane's favorite purees he loves apples! And other than pealing the apples (which I loath) it's super easy!

4-6 apples (I like fuji)
1/4 cup water
1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

Peel apples and cut into slices. Now to cook the apples you can either just stick them in a steamer for 15-20 minutes or if you don't have a steamer you can place the sliced apples in a large skillet with enough water to almost cover the apples and let cook until tender. Once done cooking place apples in a food processor and pulse you will need to add back in water to thin out to a apple sauce type consistency depending on your baby's age you may need it thinner. If you cooked them in a skillet you can add the water from the skillet back in. Also you can add cinnamon or nutmeg for a little extra kick :) once pureed let cool to room temp then you can freeze. Frozen cubes can be thawed and eaten by themselves or mixed with cereal, bananas, chicken or just about anything. Hope your little one enjoys this as much as Zane does!

Baby banana mash!

2011-03-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

Baby banana mash is a great first food to start with for your little one. It's simple it's fast and most importantly it's fresh and has no preservatives in it.
I like the idea of not feeding Zane things I wouldn't enjoy. Everyone has been to the baby shower where you play the awful guess the baby food game and its hard to tell the difference between the fruit and the meat baby food Blech!! So with my journey into motherhood I hope to be able to give my wee one the best nutritional food I can. So with this first post come with me on my journey. It may not always be pretty but hopefully it will be entertaining lol!

First recipe Baby Banana Mash

1 banana
breast milk or formula

tools needed
bowl
potato masher

Peel banana and cut in half mash banana in bowl and then stir in breast milk or formula until it reaches the desired consistency. That really just depends on the age of your little one. As they get older you can mix in other fruits or even roast the bananas in the oven and leave out the formula or breastmilk. Thats it thats the end of the recipe!! You jut made fresh baby food! Oh ya the other half of the banana enjoy for yourself!

Variations
slice banana longways and put on a baking sheet and put under broiler for a few minutes for a roasted banana mash. This is super yummy for adults too!

Tips banana mash is best if served right away. This does not freeze.