Strawberry Shake

For Taste & Create this month I was paired with My Kitchen Treasures. She has a delicious blog with lots of yummy things. However, I started Weight Watchers a week ago and have been very good. No baking and no cheating.

I had a hard time choosing something from her archives of deliciousness. But I finally found something that I could have.....Strawberry Shakes!

This was perfect, pretty and tasty. As well as simple. Strawberries, ice, milk and a blender.

Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches - CEiMB

I am back. I have been a TERRIBLE CEiMB participant over the past couple of months. Summer was busy and I have had an awful time keeping up with everything. The truth is....I have been cooking with Wildtree products the past several weeks and am very impressed. I attended a party and am hooked. Absolutely hooked. These products make healthy, simple and tasty meals. My family has loved just about everything I have made too. Unfortunately, Ellie has taken a backseat.

However, I could not pass up the recipe that Pamela chose this week. I am a sucker for anything that involves rotisserie chicken. Especially my ridiculously naughty chicken pot pie recipe. I have to get that back in my rotation soon! Maybe next week? Back to the BBQ chicken at hand. Be sure to check out Cookies with Boys and find how her choice turned out.

I thought that this is a really good recipe. I followed it exactly and am very impressed. I made the chicken up this morning and just reheated it in the microwave for dinner. However, I did not use whole wheat buns and added cheese to our sandwiches. Probably defeats a lot of the "healthiness" of it all. But I would make these again! My husband also reported that "Ellie didn't ruin this recipe". Quite a compliment coming from him. Seriously. The recipe can be found HERE.

TWD CATCH UP

I am going to cram 3 TWD posts into one. I have been so busy and have been baking along but have not been posting. Time to get my act together!

These applespice bars were OK. I thought that they tasted delicious right out of the oven after the frosting was just cooled. But the next day....not so much. I stored them in a Tupperware container and they were a little mushy and the frosting seemed to soak through the bars. The recipe was chosen by Karen from Something Sweet and can be found HERE. I think that if I would make them again I would halve the recipe and intend to eat them all at once maybe for a party.

This key lime pie was tasty. I might have left the pie under the broiler a tad too long though. It was almost black in spots. Still good though. The recipe was chosen by Linda of Tender Crumb and can be found HERE. My only criticism about this was too much butter. I should have used half. I would rather have more of a tart lime taste than a lime/butter combo.

These YUMMY espresso cheesecake brownies are PHENOMENAL! I wouldn't change a thing about them. I could sit down right now and eat half the pan they are that good. I used 4 oz of semi-sweet chocolate and reduced fat cream cheese. I also only had about a half cup of sour cream and about a quarter cup of powdered sugar. Therefore, my topping wasn't that thick. I don't think that it mattered though. The recipe was chosen by Melissa from Life In a Peanut Shell and can be found HERE. Thank you for such a great pick!!

Banana Cookies - Taste and Create

For Taste & Create this month I was paired with Quick & Easy, Cheap & Healthy. Anne does an awesome job reviewing recipes, products and ingredients for quickness, easyness, cheapness and healthiness. After searching through her blog I couldn't pass on the banana cookies. I always have issues with bananas going bad. I have recently started freezing those nasty black bananas that attract fruit flies in my kitchen. I was getting quite a collection of these nasty black things in the freezer and had to do something about it.

This is a very good recipe for banana cookies. What I really like about it is that the cookies are very light and soft. I added some toffee chips that I had leftover and they were perfect. Everyone seemed to enjoy them here and they will make a perfect after school snack!

Banana Cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup of mashed bananas (about 2 ½ large bananas)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 cups of flour
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground mace or nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 cup of pecans (walnuts and chocolate chips are fine alternatives) I used toffee chips

Method
1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
2 In a bowl, mix the mashed bananas and baking soda. Let sit for 2 minutes. The baking soda will react with the acid in the bananas which in turn will give the cookies their lift and rise.
3 Mix the banana mixture into the butter mixture. Mix together the flour, salt, and spices and sift into the butter and banana mixture and mix until just combined.
4 Fold into the batter the pecans or chocolate chips if using. Drop in dollops onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.
Makes about 30 cookies

Brownie Buttons - TWD

These were not my favorite. I don't think that I liked the orange flavor. And I probably overcooked mine. Or maybe it was the fact that I forgot to add the brown sugar until the batter was already in the mini muffin tins. I just happened to glance back at the perfectly measured brown sugar sitting on the counter. CWAP! I actually just divided up the brown sugar in each invidual muffin portion and then mixed it with a toothpick. I don't think that I would attempt them again!

The recipe was chosen by Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen. My batch made 24 buttons by doubling the recipe by 1/2.

Vanilla Ice Cream and Banana Bundt Cake

I have been awful about getting any blogging done lately. No excuses!

I made the vanilla ice cream last week. It was yummy and everyone enjoyed it. I followed Megan's recommendation and only used 3 eggs. The recipe was chosen by CafeLynnylu and can be found HERE.

Today I baked the banana bundt cake. Also a winner. It was moist and delicious. The recipe was chosen by The Food Librarian. I did use light sour cream though. I tried to make it less fattening. Yeah right:)!

Pretzels - Taste & Create

For Taste & Create this month, I was paired with foodie plus 4. There were lots of yummy recipes to choose from. But I couldn't resist the pretzels. I love stadium pretzels and these looked so good. I was going to make some mustard dip to serve with them but have been very unmotivated lately...especially with my blogging. So we are eating them plain. They are good. And so easy too. I was shocked at how much they taste like the real thing.

Pretzels
Makes about 12 medium pretzels.

1 package active dry yeast
1/8 cup warm water
1 1/3 cups warm water
1/3 cup light brown sugar
5 cups flour
6 cups water (for boiling)
12 Tbsp. baking soda
lots of coarse or kosher salt

Preheat oven to 475°F.
Sprinkle 2 baking sheets with coarse or kosher salt and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/8 cup warm water.
Stir in remaining 1 1/3 cups warm water, brown sugar, and flour.
Mix until smooth, then knead dough (with the kneading attachment on your mixer or by hand on a floured surface) until smooth and elastic (about 3 minutes).
In a wide saucepan, boil the water with baking soda.
Divide the dough and start rolling the pieces like a pencil. Shape as desired.

Gently lower pretzels into boiling water (we did two at a time) and let cook for about 20 seconds or until dough is slightly yellow in color.

Remove pretzel with a slotted spoon and place on salted baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt, and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Thanks for the delicious recipe my fellow Taste & Create partner. I am also going to have to try that poundcake that I had a hard time passing up too. It sure looks like a diet killer and I just couldn't do that one since I have been a good girl and working out all week. But I will someday soon.