Blueberry-Peach Cobbler

I researched a few recipes for this, namely epicurious and Paula Deen, not really feeling any of the ones I found, so I just kinda came up with my own rendition of a few others.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar - divided
• 1 cup water
• 1 stick butter
• 2 peaches - peeled, pitted, sliced
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 3/4 cup skim milk

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Place peaches and blueberries in medium sauce pan, add water and 1 cup of sugar, stir.

• Turn stove on medium-high until it comes to a boil, stirring occasionally.

• Once pot comes to a boil, turn to low and simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.

• While fruit is simmering, place stick of butter in a baking dish, place in oven and allow to melt.

• In medium sized bowl, add last cup of sugar and 3/4 cup flour and mix - gradually add in milk.

• Once butter is melted, pour in flour mix

• Next spoon in fruit mix, and then gradually pour in liquid from fruit.

• Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes
• Let cool and serve with ice cream (or whipped cream if you prefer)

ENJOY!

Tip: You could definitely use more fruit, I think next time I will add at least 1-2 more peaches....but it was still delicious this way.

Buffalo Chicken Tacos

Every time I ask Jeremy what he wants for dinner, it always seems to end up being something involving "Buffalo Chicken"..... I think it's his favorite. So tonight, I asked him what he wanted when he got home from this business trip to Mississippi, and of course he said "Buffalo Chicken Tacos"....we both LOVE the Buffalo Chicken Taco's at Taco Mac (substituting the bleu cheese for pepper jack....yum!).....BUT I don't fry chicken, so I made up my own version.

Ingredients:

(I left the onion out of the picture -- oops)

• 1 lb chicken tenderloins
• 1 box of chicken broth
• 1/4 cup of wing sauce (or  how much you prefer)
• 1 tomato - diced
• 1 onion - diced
• 1 avocado - diced
• shredded lettuce
• pepper jack cheese
• 1 jalapeno - diced
• fresh cilantro - chopped
• soft taco shells
• salsa - if you want - we didn't use any
• I served mine with black beans and corn.

Steps:

• I boiled my chicken in 1 box of chicken broth and water for about 45 minutes
• remove boiled chicken from pot, shred with a fork, place in skillet

• Add wing sauce to your liking, and heat on low to medium heat for about 5-10 minutes

• Make your taco as you like! Very EASY and DELICIOUS!

• Serve along side black beans and corn, or just put the beans and corn in your taco like Jeremy did!

(Jeremy's Plate)

My Plate!

ENJOY!

Easy Dinner: Chicken Sausage with Tomato, basil and mozzarella ravioli

I didn't really put much thought into this, everything was pre-packaged, but sometimes that's easier! Jeremy loves sausage, and I am not really a huge fan, but when I saw Chicken Sausage, I figured I'd give it a try.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of Al Fresco Chicken Sausage
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 package Monterrey Ravioli (Tomato, Basil, Mozarella)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 Jar Tomato Sauce
• Caesar Salad
• Garlic bread

Steps:

• Follow the directions on the packages!
• I put the sausage on a skillet, medium heat, with a tbsp olive oil for about 8-10 minutes until the sides were golden brown

• For the ravioli, I boiled water in a large pot, but barely boiling the water, I added in the ravioli for 5 minutes, drained, and topped with tomato sauce.

The food was delicious, I definitely recommend trying the chicken sausage. And dinner took me about 15 minutes to prepare and cook.

My Mom's Meat Loaf

My mom made her own rendition of Paula Deen's "Basic Meat Loaf," It was delicious, so I wanted to make it. It has a little spice to it.....very good. Definitely good if you are not a HUGE meat loaf fan....I have never really liked it until my mom made it this way. 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1.25 tbsp salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped vidalia onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 10oz can of rotel w/ chili's (this is the difference between paula deen's and my moms recipes)
• 1/2 cup quaker oats (quick cooking oats)

Sauce for Topping:

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. mustard

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• In a large bowl, mix beef, salt, pepper, onion, pepper, beaten egg, Rotel, and oats

• Mix all ingredients well and pour into lightly greased loaf pan

• Mix topping ingredients together, and spread on top of loaf

• Put loaf pan in oven and cook for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 min.
• Let cool for a minute, slice and serve.

• I served mine with a side salad and steamed green beans.

Enjoy!

Ceviche Tacos

My sister recommended this recipe to me....it came from Epicurious, I adapted it to fit my own needs....but didn't need to change that much! You have to enjoy tuna....and be okay w/ eating semi-raw fish!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 lbs sushi-grade fish ( I used sashimi Tuna)
• 1 tbsp. sea salt
• 1 tbsp. fresh crushed black pepper
• 3 tbsp. lime juice
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 cup chopped, seeded tomatoes
• 3/4 cup chopped red onion (about 1/2 an onion)
• 2 tbsp. fresh jalapenos ( recipe calls for jarred....no thanks) you will need a little over half a jalapeno, chopped and seeded.
• 1 tbsp. jarred jalapeno juice ( yes, you still need to buy the jarred jalapeno's....but the freshness of using the new jalapeno's will make you want to use them over the jarred)
• 1 large avocado, peeled, pitted and chopped
• 1/2 head romaine lettuce, chopped (3-4 cups)
• 3 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• Hard taco shells (we bought soft shells too)
• Salsa

Steps:

• Cut tuna into 1/2 inch pieces (or smaller)
• Place tuna in a glass bowl, add in lemon juice, lime juice, salt, pepper, and sugar, mix until incorporated, cover dish and chill for 4-6 hours, tossing occasionally.

• Mix tomato, onions, jalapenos, jalapeno juice, and olive oil in a medium bowl, cover and chill for up to 2 hours.

• When tuna is finished, strain all the juices out and  toss together with tomato mixture.

• Heat taco shells
• Make the taco's as you wish (recipe calls to mix lettuce, avocado's, and salsa with the tuna mixture, but I chose just to add what you wished to your taco.

• ENJOY....they taste SO fresh....Delicious!
• I served mine with white corn (and I cut a small corner of my tuna off before making the ceviche and saved it to make a small appetizer of ahi tuna to eat before dinner....just marinated it in soy sauce and seared it in a skillet for 2 minutes on each side)

Grilled Buffalo Chicken Burgers

If you know me, you know I do not eat hamburgers (not based on anything other than I do not think they taste good).....but I was craving something similar. So....ground chicken burgers it is. But I didn't just want a plain ole burger......So i started searching, and finally decided on Buffalo Chicken Burgers. I came up with the recipe on my own, and it could probably still use some tweaking, but they were still very good.

Ingredients: (makes 4 burgers)

• 1 lb. ground chicken
• 1/2 cup Wing Sauce (your choice on how hot)
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 4 Hamburger buns
• sliced pepperjack cheese (you could use bleu cheese, but I don't like it)
• 1 tomato, sliced
• condiments of your choice to top (ranch/ketchup/lettuce...etc)

Directions:

• In a large bowl, add chicken, wing sauce, bread crumbs, and diced onion. 
• Mix until well incorporated. 
• Form the meat into 4 patties, place on a plate and put in the refrigerator for about 30min-1 hour to help form and stay together during cooking. 

• Start the grill.
• Place chicken patties on the grill, turning occasionally, cooking for about 15-20 minutes on med-low heat.  ( Jeremy cooked the chicken, I am not a griller)

• Put the chicken, tomato and cheese on a hamburger bun and ENJOY!

• We cooked some sweet potato fries as our side. 

Jeremy's Birthday Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

I've been MIA for awhile....I had to take a small Vacation for 7 days. 
We just got back from a 7 day Southern Caribbean Cruise, in which we had a wonderful time, and celebrated Jeremy's Birthday! Since we were gone for his birthday, I waited till we got back to make him his cheesecake.  He loves cheesecake, and last year I made him a reese's peanut butter cup cheesecake, so I had to try to one up myself this year. I adapted my recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, check her out!


Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake
Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 box chocolate Teddy Grahams (crushed) (2.5 cups to be exact, but I ended up using the whole box)
• 4 tbsp. butter (melted)

Cookie dough

• 1/2 C. softened butter
• 1/2 C.  granulated sugar
• 1/2 C. packed light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. whole milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 C. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 C. mini chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling:

• 4- 8oz packages of cream cheese, at room temp. (I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp. all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup light sour cream (1 8oz container)
• 3/4 C. mini chocolate chips (to be added after half of batter poured into crust)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325

Crust:

• Crush up teddy grahams (I used to ziplock bag and a rolling pin...but you could make it easy and use a food processor)
• Add in 4 tbsp. melted butter and mix
• Grease 9 inch springform pan, liberally
• Press the crushed cookie/butter mixture into the bottom of the pan and half way up the sides of the pan.
• Set aside

Cookie Dough:

• In medium bowl, mix together butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, flour, salt and chocolate chips. Mix until incorporated. 

• Roll cookie dough into small balls (do whatever size you like, but they need to be about marble sized to fit them, plus....they will expand a bit inside the cheesecake.
• Place on a plate (you can use wax paper, but I didn't need it) and put in the freezer for about 10 min. to harden a bit.

Cheesecake Filling:

• In large bowl, add cream cheese, sugar, eggs and flour, beat with an electric mixer on high until smooth. 
• Add in vanilla and sour cream. Beat only until incorporated. If you beat it too much, you will get too much air into the mixture which could cause cracks while cooking.

Now to put it all together:

• Pour about 1/4- 1/3 of the cheesecake filling over the crust. Smooth out with a spatula
• Remove cookie dough from freezer
• Press cookie dough into the filling all around the bottom.
• Pour and mix the 3/4 C. mini choc. chips into the rest of the filling.
• Pour another 1/3 of filling into the pan, and press the rest of your cookie dough into the filling, trying to push it far enough down so only a bit of the top of the cookie dough is showing.
• Pour the remainder of the filling into the pan and smooth out the best you can so it looks even when its cooked.

• Place springform pan on a baking sheet and place into the oven.
• Cook on 325 for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 min. The middle may still be a little soft, but the sides should have a slight light to golden brown.

• Turn the oven off, and crack the door a few inches and leave the cheesecake in the oven for an additional 30 min.

• Remove cheesecake from the oven, and place on metal rack to cool completely.
• Once completely cooled, cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator (for SEVERAL hours, but best would be over night to make sure the whole thing sets up)

• Right before serving, I drizzled some chocolate over the top.

It is VERY rich, so only a small slice is necessary, but Jeremy loved it, and that's all that matters to me!