Sweet and Savory Chicken or Turkey Meatballs in the crockpot

This was super good. I tried it out on Husband and best friend, too. They agreed.

Here is the original source I used. I modified a few things.

Ingredients:

-1 lb ground chicken or turkey
-1 egg
-1 tsp kosher salt
-1 tsp ground black pepper
-1 green apple, peeled and shredded
-1/2 c shredded sharp cheddar
-1/2 c dried cranberries
-1/4-1/2 c panko bread crumbs
-1/2 onion, sliced or diced

1. Put the ground meat in the bottom of a large-ish bowl. Since you will soon be mixing this with your hands, I recommend you leave it at room temperature for a bit so you don't have icy meat hands.

2. Put everything on top of the meat EXCEPT the onions. 

3. Get in there with your hands and mix it all together. 

4. Make ping-pong sized balls and layer them sort of staggered in your crock pot. 

5. Throw the sliced onions on top. 

6. Turn on the crockpot and wait, excitedly. Wait, though, until they have browned, which they will. 

Okay so the original recipe uses onion salt instead of fresh onion, but I didn't have any onion salt and I did have fresh onion, so that's what I did. Also the original recipe doesn't include panko bread crumbs, but I just felt like adding them so I did. I also used plain Craisins because that's what I had and they weren't too sweet. The original recipe says she was able to pull the meatballs apart and mine were more stuck together, but no one cared. I think I might have let mine cook longer than the person from the blog above, but really it was awesome. I mean maybe not ideal for sophisticated company but you could easily use this same recipe and cook them on a baking sheet if you want them to look like actual meatballs. 

Husband thinks they need some sort of tangy sauce, even though they were really good. He is like that, rarely eats meat without some moist component. If I find one, I will add it here. 

Here are my raw meatballs in the crockpot: 

Cheesy bacon chicken and potatoes in a crockpot

This recipe is awesome.

I adapted it from here - fantastic website. I love the writing style of the author as well as her recipes.

Ingredients:

-Some potatoes (I used two russet potatoes and sliced them into small circular slices and then quartered those)
-Some chicken (I used about 6 strips, but honestly breasts or thighs would work, too. I recommend using a portion that does not have bones)
-1/2 c Ranch dressing
-1/4 c Teriyaki sauce
-A hearty serving of bacon, cooked extra crispy, crumbled
-Enough shredded cheddar to cover the entire concoction

1.Wash and slice the potatoes however you'd like, toss in the bottom of the crockpot.

2. Lay the raw chicken on top

3. In a separate bowl, combine the Ranch and Teriyaki sauce. It's good, trust me. I thought it would be weird but it wasn't. Then pour it over the chicken.

4. You can put the bacon in now, or you can wait until later. It will be less crispy if you add it now, but it will give you the sensation of "hey I just put everything in the crockpot and left it and came home and it was perfection. Sweet." So, whatever suits your fancy.

5. Definitely put some cheese in at the beginning, but I would also maybe just top the finished product with some extra cheese, or throw a bit more in about 30 minutes before serving, especially if you add the bacon later, too. Either way, deliciousness is sure to ensue.

Then you just leave it, because that's the beauty of cooking in a crockpot. It's the typical high for 4-6 hours, low for 8-9 cooking time. Perfect for leftovers.

So the original recipe cited above does not include potatoes, but I'm all about a one-stop shop when it comes to the crockpot.

I can't tell you how delicious it was. I mean, the chicken tenders can be weird to cook stove-top, but they were perfect here. And the weird sauce was just tasty, just plain tasty. The potatoes I thought were perfect thinly sliced, but again, you could do whatever. You could probably even use frozen hashbrowns or maybe even frozen chicken (!!!) but I haven't tried that yet so I am unaware of the effects the extra moisture might have.

Here are some kind of gross pictures because everything is raw. Enjoy!

Re-motivated

Well, it's been forever since I've made a post but the time has come, and I have returned. So here are two easy things I've made recently and then I'll tell you what has been going on.

1. Muffcakes. Pa-muffins. Whatever.

So here's what you do, you make pancake mix (I had some Bisquick so I used that but whatever your batter is will work, I'm sure)  and then you pour it into muffin tins. One Bisquick batch made 12 muffcakes. Then you can just bake them like that, or you can add stuff. I added thawed frozen blueberries, but bacon would be a good idea, or any other fruit, or brown sugar, or whatever. Mmm, bananas? Whatever. Just put it on top, maybe push it down a bit, if you feel creative and like you have extra time you could half fill the holes, put your fun stuff, and then cover it with the rest of the batter and sprinkle some more on top, whatever. They freeze well, stay good in the fridge for several days, basically a no lose situation.

2. Chicken (and probably most meats) with any marinade and any potatoes.

I defrosted 4 chicken thighs and tossed them in the crockpot. Then I washed and cut two small-ish russet potatoes into bite size pieces and threw them in the crockpot, too. Then I threw in about 1/4-1/3 a bottle of Lawry's marinade on top and let it cook. The husband smelled it and was like WHOA, awesome. Then we both tasted it and were like, WHOAAAAA AWESOME!!!!! It was ready after 5 hours but was totally fine after 9, I cooked it on low for a while and then left it on "simmer."


Okay so here are some accompanying thoughts:

You might recall a time when I was extremely domestic and picky about what I fed my family. Well, then I left the country for 3 weeks and came back realizing we had a bit of a budget issue. Once we figured out our food budget for the month, I was like OH CRAP and so we ate grilled cheese sandwiches and PBJ's a lot for a while. Well of course that led to eating out more than necessary which obviously is bad for the budget, right? So finally I was like, OKAY ENOUGH, back to being domestic. However I realized I had to make some choices: I can't fully devote myself to all of the following: God, my husband, my music, my fitness, my house, and my cooking. There must be balance, no one can do 100% to all things or something will suffer. My relationship with God and my husband trump everything, but my house, fitness, and cooking are certainly not disconnected from God and Husband, and my music is my music, it's my calling and my service (not to mention my job) so I certainly can't just totally neglect that. So I worked some things out:

Get up and be with God first thing.

By doing this, all things in my life went better (Matthew 6:33). I had strength and motivation again to be a good care-taker of my husband and household. I desired to be a good steward of money, it wasn't a burden.

Nurture your talent.

I'm ridden with guilt when I don't have make time for my music. Obviously I teach and perform, but what about actively listening and practicing and spending time finding God's path for my music? It's important and it needs SOME time, not all the time, some time. I wrote a long thing about practicing and balance and gave it to my students. Little did they know I was speaking directly to myself as well. Holding them accountable for their practicing impacts my practicing in a positive way.

Make some realistic choices.

At this current time, I am choosing NOT to go fully unprocessed, organic, etc. Sometimes we will eat Velveeta Shells and Cheese. Sometimes (obviously, you read above) I will use Bisquick and Lawry's overly-salted marinades. Sometimes we will have to order a pizza. I will not choose homemade tortillas over sleep or practice time (obviously I wouldn't choose it over time with Husband but I am rarely in a situation where that is the case). I WILL however make wise decisions about how we spend our grocery money and making sure we have portable food. (I commute 3 hours to and from work once day a week and I take food to the Husband 4 nights a week for dinner and send him with lunch three days a week. There are 0 nights a week when he and I sit down to an evening meal together and only one day a week when we have lunch together. We hope to have one morning a week where we can have coffee together…so you see how this is weird.) I have accepted that it is okay when I eat alone to have hummus, celery, and a fried egg and to make something for Husband that grosses me out (hamburger helper, Lord forbid) for me to take him at work. This doesn't mean I think processed food is acceptable or good, it just means I have to buy groceries and not go out to eat all the time, and right now that occasionally means getting Chef Boyardee if they are on sale for $.75/can. It also means printing the Food Lion $X off of $Y spent on produce coupons like it's my job. BUT IT ISN'T MY JOB, I HAVE A JOB, and so I can't do that all the time, AND THAT'S OKAY!!!!

But the crockpot…oh, the crockpot is going to help me. I generally have time to cook, it just isn't at times that make sense. The best solution to that is the crockpot. I can even prepare something the night before, stick the whole pot part in the fridge, take it out when I get up and leave it until it reaches room temperature, and then turn the thing on and leave it so that when I get home from teaching 6 lessons in 3 different locations or whatever, I can rush some over to Husband and then come home and eat some, myself, without having to microwave or whatever. HA! YES!!! So here are two sites I'll be exploring and sharing from:

Crockpot 365

Get Crocked

I am also on Pinterest and have this board for you to see the recipes I've pinned, but I'll generally post the recipes I've actually tried on this blog. 

Blessings!

CPK

Almond (or any type of nut) Butter

Dudes, look:

This is super creamy. So creamy, I poured it out of my food processor. And yes, into a former sour cream container. Don't judge. Or do, whatever.

Okay. Ready?

Ingredients:
Almonds

That's it.

Seriously. Just enough to about halfway fill your food processor.

Things you need:
Patience
A food processor
A cookie sheet

Okay. Step one, roast the almonds (or whatever nut). Do it! Don't skip. It draws out the oils and that is important. Roast them at 350 for about 10 minutes. Better to under roast than to over roast. If they smell hot and delicious, they're ready.

Then, dump them into your food processor. Now turn it on. Now wait about 15 minutes or until it is the desired consistency. Like I said, I like it really creamy. Like this:

See how it was pouring out? Amazing. But you have to wait! Just wait. If its like nut dust at first, great. Wait. Paste? Wait. Unless you want paste.

Reasons to make nut butter:
Cheap
Easy
Healthy

Reasons not to:
You don't possess patience or a food processor or are obsessed with chemicals in your food.

If you want sweetened nut butter, honey is great. Or sugar. But I like mine either with jelly, which makes the perfect sweetness, or on an apple. Same result.

Make it!

Fiesta Chicken with Corn Cakes

To me, this looks like summer:

I plan to try a recipe soon from scratch instead of using Jiffy corn cake mix, but whatever.

Ingredients:

1 box of Jiffy corn cake mix
1 3/4 tbs melted shortening (or butter, or margarine)
1 egg
1 1/4 cup milk (any fat content)
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
Chicken (I prefer thinly sliced boneless skinless breasts)
Some sort of lime-margarita-citrus something marinade
Salsa of choice
Avocado, sliced
Cilantro, chopped
Lime wedges
Thinly shredded cheese (a white Mexican cheese is best, mozzarella works well, too)

1. Marinate the chicken. The closer to an hour, the better. If they are frozen and you can somehow get them into the marinade as they thaw overnight, that is great, too.
2. Cook the chicken (in a skillet or bake it). Keep it warm while you make the corn cakes.
3. Combine the Jiffy, shortening, egg, milk, drained corn, drained beans, and diced jalapeño and mix until the dry lumps are gone.
4. On a hot griddle or large skillet, (greased if it isn't sufficiently non-stick) scoop about 1/4 cup of the corn cake mix on at a time. When there are bubbles coming up through the whole corn cake, it's ready to flip. You can watch the sides and edges to get a pretty good idea of when the other side is done.
5. Now you're ready to plate! Stack as follows: corn cake(s), shredded cheese, chicken, salsa, avocado, cilantro, then squeeze the lime over it and leave it on the plate for a garnish.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry White Chocolate Cookies or Cupcakes (yes you read that correctly)

Behold. Cookies first, cupcakes after.

Yes. They are delectable and extremely rich and horrible for you. Also very easy. 

Ingredients:

Cookies:

1 box of strawberry cake mix

Some white chocolate chips. I don't know, like, around 1/3-1/2 a bag. 

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

Ganache, for dipping:

1 cup chopped dark chocolate (any chocolate, really, I prefer dark)

1 cup heavy cream

1. Dump the cake mix, chocolate chips, oil, and eggs in a bowl and stir. 

2. Spoon them onto a cookie sheet (I use an ice cream scoop) and bake them at 350º for 12-15 minutes or until just the slightest bit brown. Let them cool ALL THE WAY. 

3. Make the ganache (heat the cream in a double boiler or a microwave, but not quite to the point of boiling and add the chopped chocolate and stir). Also let this cool quite a bit. If it is too hot, or the cookies are too hot, the cookies will just crumble into the ganache. 

4. Once the cookies and ganache are at acceptable temperature (the cookies should be room temperature, the ganache should be just warm), dip half the cookie into the ganache and return to a rack (if you want to dip the whole cookie, you can use a potato masher to fish it out of the ganache however they will likely break, just saying. The cupcakes that follow are better for complete dipping.) I sprinkled them with pearl sprinkles but those were just for looks. 

NOW, a cupcake variant. 

1. Make the strawberry cupcakes as the box directs. You can add white chocolate chips, but they don't work quite as well in cupcakes as they do in cookies. They just sink to the bottom.

2. If you used wrappers, unwrap them. If not, I trust you sprayed the pan, etc. 

3. Wait for the cupcakes to cool, and dip them in the ganache using a potato masher. It is the perfect size to scoop the cupcake out of the ganache with minimal contact and can gently push it down so that it is fully covered. Messy, but delicious. 

(I promise I unwrapped those, you can just see the little indentations through the shiny ganache.) 

Recipalooza

I have been taking a break from creating recipes and checking out some recipes from the sort of blogs from people who don't like processed food and who believe we are still capable of using yeast to make bread, etc. I have changed my perspective on food quite a bit. I am also getting a little apprehensive of eating such processed foods, etc. That being said, I have tried some recipes for myself and am excited to not only direct you to those wonderful people's blogs, but to share my experience on making them.

I made chickpea avacado salad and it was fantastic. The recipe suggests you remove the skins of the chick peas after you strain them from the can, and while tedious, I do think it made a difference. Because of the lime juice, it also lasted several days!!!!! WOW! Delicious. I put it on these…

Whole wheat tortillas.  These were delicious and extremely easy. I actually read this entire blog and pinned several pages from it, including the whole wheat pizza crust I will comment on later. They are also the only thing I took a picture of, sadly.

My husband doesn't love whole wheat so I also made these regular tortillas. They were scrumtrelescent [thanks, Will Ferrel as James Lipton on SNL]. I did not use lard, goodness no, and it said to roll the dough into ping pong sized balls. I found those too small as I do not like my tortillas as thin. 

I also love these make ahead and freeze egg (mc)muffins. I do not (yet) own a jumbo sized muffin pan, but I plan to buy a muffie pan actually - I think it will also bake the correct size. Anyway so I baked the eggs in a regular muffin pan, and while it created the several bites with no egg and then BAM egg effect, my husband and I still love love love these. I made 6 at a time with some almost ready to go bad deli ham that I tossed in a skillet a few times, and I even used shredded cheese. I also wrapped them in plain wax paper and those go in the microwave just fine, too. Everything she says, though, is spot on. My few adjustments weren't deal breakers for this great idea. 

This blueberry banana greek yogurt bread is fantastic. Loved it. No complains, can't wait to do it again. It is unbelievably moist and delicious. 

I made this regular white flour pizza crust and the directions were great and were, indeed, fail proof. I used a big more flour than she suggested however it worked out well. 

Of course I also tried this whole wheat pizza crust and it was alright, but I have a few things I think will help. I think the dough should rise at room temperature. The white pizza crust recipe rose at room temperature and was supple and easy to work with. This rose in the fridge and was a giant lump of hard as a rock dough that my awesome friend had to use her sweet muscles to roll out (and she uses those same muscles to make amazing jewelry which you should check out here! ) and it was the shape of Africa. I had only used half the dough so I left the other half out, re-coated it in some olive oil, and let it sit at room temperature over night and tried again the next day and it was better. SO - I'd say, let the dough go a bit longer than you think in the food processor or mixer with the dough hook so that it is more doughy and well mixed, then let it rise at room temperature. Olive oil is your friend. 

I also tried cauliflower pizza crust and loved it. SUPER flavorful. Maybe double the recipe and make it a little thicker than you might think, and I think, as she recommends, a cookie sheet is best. I used a pizza stone and it was a little hard to get off. I'd use something you can spray or use parchment or something. But it tasted fantastic. 

These strawberries and cream muffins and everything you'd hope they'd be and freeze very, very well. Feel free to add a few extra strawberries if you wish. 

I love these homemade healthy fudgesicles. They were very easy to make and extremely delicious. I did, however, triple the recipe to use the entire can of coconut milk. Maybe making 2.5 of the recipe instead of 3 might make them a tad bit creamier, but they were fantastic using 1 can of coconut milk and tripling everything else. I don't have a popsicle mold, though, so I used a muffin pan and it was great. HOWEVER, it says that it makes 5-6 popsicles for one batch? The tripled version made 6.5 regular sized muffin sized pops. Whatever, they taste awesome and are still healthy even tripled and condensed to 6.5 servings rather than 18 (still not sure how that worked out, but okay). 

Being that I love biscuits, and I love sweet potatoes, I made these sweet potato biscuits. Mine turned out a little chewy because the dough was sticking to my hand like whoa. It was very frustrating. I think I added an additional 3/4 cup of flour in the supposed rolling out and cutting stage and still I had monster blob hands. Not sure of a solution, but they were quite tasty. Oh, I should mention I used whole wheat flour and they taste great and weren't completely ruined, however I do think I will roll them into a big log and then cut them into biscuits instead of rolling the dough out and using a cookie cutter. I will try this recipe again one day and comment further. If you have suggestions on less insanely sticky dough even after adding (and adding, and adding) flour, please let me know. 

Then I made spicy sweet potato patties. They aren't *that* spicy, really. And they do go very well with ketchup. However frying them took quite a long time and they didn't quite stay together for me, but I used flour to substitute for corn starch because I purchased corn meal by mistake. Haha. They were really good and easy to make, but not so easy to cook. I might try baking them after a quick sear or something like that. 

These buffalo chicken rolls were quite possibly my very favorite of all. I didn't put blue cheese in the rolls and they still tasted good, but I might try it next time (I'm cheap and don't love the stuff so I just got some blue cheese dressing for dipping). I then made my own variation of the recipe and made turkey taco rolls. I had browned some ground turkey with some cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper and put some more of the shredded cabbage (I just bought a bag of dry cole slaw mixed greens stuff), and topped it with salsa (home made pico for me) and shredded cheese, wrapped them up, and baked them just like this recipe suggests. The husband went bonkers. We garnished with sour cream. Super good and the variations are endless!

I tried this "carb free cloud bread" stuff and it was…interesting. Honestly it worked just fine but I was kind of grossed out by it. But I put homemade almond butter (roast the nuts, put them in a food processor, wait patiently, enjoy) and some jelly on them and they tasted good but still…weirded out. 

I made Alton Brown's spinach and artichoke dip and it was the easiest recipe of his that I've ever tried. I'd chop up the artichoke hearts a bit before making it. I made mine with fat free everything, and it was definitely sub par. Not to mention since then I've become grossed out by the way they make things fat free so, the husband is happy I'll be using whole fat things from now on. 

This hummus recipe is awesome. So easy, super variable, and way cheaper than purchasing it. Yes, tahini is expensive, but it lasts forever and you don't need much at all. I mean really. If you eat hummus, this is great. AND I froze it and it was awesome, I didn't even need to add olive oil. Seriously be creative with this. I had a random jar of guacamole mix (random stuff like some onion in it, some green chiles, whatever) and I just dumped it in and it was amazing. I also used lime juice instead of lemon, also no problem. 

I made this whole wheat pie crust and since it sat in the fridge, it was again a giant lump of hard dough when I tried to roll it out. Oy. I may search around, or eventually (*gasp*) attempt to solve this problem some other way and post my own recipe.

Now, on a totally unrelated to the wholesome eating note, I made Mother's Day lunch for my mother in law and her family and so I adjusted the menu accordingly. I can say, however, that these recipes work very well. I made Paula Deen's lasagna as well as her lemon meringue pie and they were both delicious, but not healthy, and not un-processed. I highly recommend this extremely easy (you don't even need a bowl) pie crust which is very salty so it pairs well with the extremely sweet pie filling. 

I hope this has been helpful! I have a few old recipes to add in the next few posts which reflect the more processed version of food, but then I will probably be mostly wholesome, unprocessed food. :)

Oh, and this… this from Pinterest works very well. But you have to use a BIG mouthed bottle. I used one of those Viamin Water bottles.

Oatmeal Cup-cookies, Muffin-cakes, Or something.

This is a good "naked pantry" recipe. It is easy to vary and doesn't include anything too out-of-the-ordinary. These were my ingredients:

The black jar has sugar in it, but I bet Splenda or whatever would work. Also, I used real butter because I had some, but I'd use margarine any day. The honey is my personal substitution for brown sugar, and that is Almond extract which is extremely delicious but vanilla works, too. I jazz things up with white chocolate chips (because that is what I had at the moment) but the possibilities are endless. 

Okay, basic ingredients: 

1 1/2 c. oatmeal

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. honey/brown sugar

1 t. almond or vanilla extract

1 egg

1/3 c. butter, melted. 

"some" of whatever you want to add (nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruit, whatever)

Toss it all in a bowl and stir it up. Bake it in a 375º oven for 12-15 minutes. I bake them in a greased muffin pan, but admittedly, they don't stay together very well. Perhaps if you baked them a bit longer, but I'd rather have crumbly soft tastiness than perfectly shaped but overly hard cookies. You can put them in cupcake cups, but sometimes they stick to the paper. So, honestly, this is not a great recipe for company that you'd like to impress with presentation. I took it to girls night and we just ate them out of the muffin pan with forks. I'm sure if you have a silicone muffin pan, that would be better, but there still isn't a guarantee these will have the perfect shape. They make delicious, tasty morsels, though. Something else you could do is spread it out in a cookie sheet and turn it into granola. So, if you're home alone on a Friday night and craving something sweet but just have this assortment of randomness in your pantry, then have at it. Shove the crumbly mess in a plastic bag and I'm sure your kids or husband will not argue. 

Finished product:

Quiche

Finished Product:

The variations on this recipe are endless. The one above is spinach, tomatoes, and cheddar cheese with oregano, basil, salt and pepper. 

INGREDIENTS:

Pie crust OR crescent roll dough

3-4 large eggs

[about 1 c.] Milk (any)

Meat of choice

Veggies of choice

Cheese of choice

Oven: 375º and then 350º

Greased quiche dish, pie pan, or pre-packaged pie crust in aluminum pan

DIRECTIONS:

1. Lay pie crust or crescent dough (spread out) in dish. Poke a few holes with a fork.

2. Cook at 375º for 7 minutes

-meanwhile-

3. Beat 3-4 eggs (depending on how many other things you are adding) with the milk. Set aside.

4. Prepare meat, veggies, and cheese (cook, chop, etc). 

5. Remove crust, let cool for 10 minutes.

6. Place your ingredients in this order: meat, veggies, cheese, egg mixture.

7. Sprinkle top with spices of choice.

8. Bake right away at 350º for 45-60 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean OR refrigerate for a few hours or overnight, then bake. 

Here are a few prep photos: 

This one has salsa, bacon, and cheddar made with crescent roll dough spread out in the bottom.

I used fresh spinach and canned tomatoes. I think frozen spinach might be better, and fresh tomatoes. Obviously this is actual pie crust. 

and cheese. 

This is both quiches filled with the egg mixture It's okay for the eggs NOT to totally cover the ingredients. It really does work out just fine. 

Cooked bacon/salsa quiche.

Cooked spinach/tomato quiche. 

So this is actually my mom's base recipe. Here are some of our favorite variations:

Green chile, ham, cheddar cheese

Breakfast sausage, cheese

Turkey, broccoli, cheese

Tomatoes, turkey, cheese

Squash and zucchini 

Caramelized onions, gouda

Basil, tomato, mozzarella (Caprese)

I made these two tonight for our girls night. They were both big hits. I think the salsa would work really well in an actual pie crust. Oh! Also, when I use crescent dough, I sometimes fill in the edges and sometimes just make a base, kinda like a pizza. Depends on how much patience you have. 

This is great to make the night before, cook in the morning, and eat off of all week. Also, it's generally 4 Weight Watchers points per 1/8 of the quiche. Just in case you were wondering. 

S'mores Bars

Behold.

S'mores Bars, extra crispy marshmallows

Now, these have extra crispy marshmallows, as per request by some of the consumers of these delicious treats. However you can toast the marshmallows to whatever consistency you like.




INGREDIENTS:

2 C. Graham Cracker Crumbs
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
A lot of chocolate chips (about half a bag, at least)
1 t. vanilla extract
Dash Salt
Marshmallows

Oven: 375º
Dish: 8x8 or 5x3, greased

Simple Recipe, minimal commentary (detailed one below)

1. Mix all of that together except the marshmallows.
2. Spread the mixture in the pan.
3. Cook for 20ish minutes
4. Remove, sprinkle marshmallows on top.
5. Turn oven to BROIL. Return the pan to the oven, DO NOT SHUT THE DOOR ALL THE WAY.
6. Watch the marshmallows, remove when they reach desired state of toasted.

Recipe with commentary


1. Mix everything together except the marshmallows. This will be a pretty serious task. Be careful to mix all of the crumbs in, get them all moist, because the s/c milk will be soaked up quickly.
2. Spread the mixture in the pan. I found a fork to be helpful for this. Oddly enough a potato masher might help as well.
3. Cook for 20ish minutes. It should be a little brown on top, not too dark, just golden.
4. Remove, sprinkle marshmallows on top. You can do a lot or a little, your call.
5. Turn oven to BROIL. Return the pan to the oven, DO NOT SHUT THE DOOR ALL THE WAY. Seriously. The smoke detector went off and, needless to say, was disconcerting. But it was fine.
6. Watch the marshmallows, remove when they reach desired state of toasted. It might feel like nothing is happening, but seriously watch them, they toast quickly!



VARIATION


You can put half of the graham/chocolate mixture in the pan, add a layer of marshmallows, and then put the rest of the graham mixture, with or without also broiling more marshmallows on top. I tried both ways and they were great!


NOW the "bloggy" part. (When I read blogs for recipes, I sometimes care about what the people have to say as the "story" of the food, and sometimes I don't. So, I'm trying to make it easy to see the recipe but still write the "interesting" stuff.

Basically here's the deal. A bunch of girlfriends and I have a "girls night" every Wednesday. Most of us live in the same apartment complex so we alternate who hosts and it's just awesome, pot luck style, fun times. We often do a girly craft such as coloring, or decorating cookies. Yes. Seriously. So at one of these nights one of my friends made the graham cracker part of this recipe. I was addicted to it, I could not stop eating it. So then this past weekend I was having our group of "couples" over (my husband and I plus two other couples, and the women from each of these couples also comes to girls night) and I wanted to make S'mores bars because we all love s'mores. I was looking at the plethora of recipes on Pinterest but was dissatisfied with them all for one reason or another (I'm sure they are all wonderful but they lacked some aspect I was looking for). So, I remembered my friend's addictive graham cracker chocolate deliciousness and thought up the addition of marshmallows, both in the center AND on top, and just on top. I tried them out and while they are a disgusting amount of WW points (6 points for one little square!), they are amazing and easy.

I also realized post-posting that this is an odd first post for this blog, as I claim to hate recipes and amounts, etc. Future recipes, I think, will more accurately reflect my "style," which is making things up. So really the only part I "made up" about this recipe is the marshmallow part. However, tomorrow is girls night and I'm hosting and I'm making quiche, another recipe I didn't "make up" but the variations are ENDLESS which is definitely my style. It is a great meal you can assemble at night, cook the next morning, and eat from all week for any meal.

Greetings

Greetings. I have loved cooking for years and thanks to Pinterest I am starting a blog of my "recipes*" so that others can have access to them, and so that I can have them all in one place!

*I don't actually like recipes, so these are more like "ideas." There are a few dishes I will actually follow a legit recipe on, such as anything baked. But for most of the time, I just follow the ideas in my head. Therefore, if you like super exact instructions and amounts, then you might not like all of my "recipes." However, if you are like me, I hope this gives you some tasty meals and more importantly sparks ideas of your own!