Best Ever Puppy Chow

This really is the Best Ever Puppy Chow Recipe!

I've sampled a lot of different puppy chow recipes and this is the only one I can't stop eating! That's probably not a good thing. I would recommend measuring out how much you should eat, put it in a cute little dish and find a cozy spot to sit and savor each bite. I too often stand at the countertop and mindlessly eat until the guilt sets in. I don't recommend that method.

I've tried using various rice square cereals and each one creates a slightly different end result. My favorite has been Kellogg's® Crispix® cereal.

Best Ever Puppy Chow
10 cups rice square cereal
1/2 cup melted butter
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 3/4 cups (16 ounces) smooth peanut butter
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Place cereal in a large bowl. In a medium saucepan, melt chocolate chips over low heat. It's very important that it's low heat so the chocolate doesn't burn. Add peanut butter and butter, stirring until smooth. Once everything is melted and mixed together, remove from heat and pour over cereal. I usually stop pouring and mix it up a little to start coating the cereal. Better yet, if you have helping hands, one person can toss the cereal in the bowl while another slowly pours the mixture over the cereal.
Once all the chocolate mixture is in the cereal bowl, continue to toss to coat all the pieces.

Now I get a clean paper grocery bag and pour some powdered sugar in the bottom. Then I pour some of the coated cereal into the bag, add more powdered sugar over the cereal in the bag and repeat until all the cereal is in the bag and the powdered sugar is in the bag. I don't ever actually measure the powdered sugar. I just keep pouring more in until I think it's enough!

Fold the bag closed and gently flip the bag upside down and upright again repeatedly to get the cereal coated with the powdered sugar.

Lay out a long piece of waxed paper and slowly pour out the puppy chow onto the waxed paper to cool. I like to separate the big chunks into individual pieces and I then dunk the pieces into extra powdered sugar so each piece is covered in powdered sugar. This isn't always necessary if you use enough powdered sugar in the bag. 

Once cooled, about an hour, store in an airtight container.
Yield: about 13 cups of snack mix

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

One of my favorite things is to know that dinner is cooking in the crockpot while I'm busy about my day. This recipe is so easy to put together quickly and there is no measuring! You can also easily add extra items you have on hand. Sometimes I add corn and sometimes I don't. I like to soak my black beans ahead of time and keep them in a bag in the freezer for when I need them. If you like canned beans, you can use those but I prefer to use my own soaked beans to reduce the sodium in this meal.

Add beans, salsa, tomatoes, green peppers, corn or any other beans or veggies you like.

Place chicken breasts on top. I like to use frozen chicken to allow for a slow start to the cooking process. It's so disappointing to have dried out chicken.

When you're ready to eat, shred the chicken. This can be a great stew, but I also like to place it in a tortilla with cheese and sour cream. Alert!! When eating it this way, it is VERY messy! I use a slotted spoon and still there's a lot of dripping.

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

2 pounds frozen chicken breasts
2 cups black beans
1 green pepper
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup diced onion
1 can stewed Mexican tomatoes, diced
1 jar salsa

Place all the ingredients in your crockpot and cook 8 hours on low. Shred chicken before serving.

Vegetable Frittata

Frittatas should be called "easy omelettes". The challenge for me is the need to time when to add veggies and cheese to an omelette and when to fold it. I usually don't have good timing and it cracks when I fold it over and the veggies end up falling out. Frittatas are the way to go and like an omelette, you can add whatever you have on hand. You can easily leave out the cheese if you want to make it a more low calorie dish. I like to add some parmesan cheese to my serving while it's still hot. I found this recipe in my All You magazine. I've reduced the amount of salt and occasionally use feta cheese.

Vegetable Frittata 

8 large eggs

1/3 cup milk

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 medium zucchini, sliced

1 medium red bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup onion, chopped

2-3 cups spinach, chopped

4 oz. feta cheese (optional)

1/2 Tbsp. parmesan cheese per slice (optional) 

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, beat eggs with milk, salt and pepper. Warm oil in a 10" ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until softened then remove from pan and set aside to sauté more veggies.

Place zucchini in pan and brown then remove and set aside.

Stir in spinach and peppers. Sauté until spinach is wilted and peppers are softened.

Distribute all veggies evenly in skillet and pour in egg mixture. If using feta, crumble on top. Cook without stirring until eggs are just beginning to set around the edges, 2 to 3 minutes. Place skillet in oven. Bake frittata until set in center, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Let frittata rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Dinner's ready!

Crepes with cherry topping

Crepes are very easy and fun to make. They're also so versatile. You could have them for a meal or for dessert. Of course, dessert is my favorite and this recipe is delicious! I found it written on an index card in my recipe box so I don't know where it originally came from. It could have been from a Taste of Home magazine since they have fabulous recipes.

Crepes
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
butter, softened

In a bowl, whisk eggs, milk, sugar and salt. Add flour; beat until smooth. Let stand for 30 minutes. Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in 8" skillet. Pour just enough batter in pan to cover bottom - lift and turn the pan to cover the bottom. Cook until lightly browned; turn and brown other side. The first one usually doesn't turn out the best, expect that. Remove to a wire rack; cover with a paper towel. Once they're cool, I piled them up in a gallon baggie and put them in the refrigerator to enjoy over the next few days.

Filling:
2 pkgs. (3 oz. each) cream cheese softened
1/4 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat until smooth. Spoon 2 Tablespoons down the center of each crepe; roll up. Heat cherry pie filling in microwave and serve over crepes. If you think it would be wonderful with the cherry pie filling inside the crepe, you want to be careful not to overdo it. My taste testers thought they wanted a LOT of cherries inside and couldn't even eat one crepe dessert. I made mine like in the picture and I might have had two.

Pomegranate Seeds

I love eating pomegranate seeds. I have also passed this love onto my daughter and recently to my husband. This brings back wonderful memories of watching my mom seed a pomegranate and waiting to enjoy the sweet juice with each bite. The only problem is that they can be very messy to open. It is time consuming to extricate the seeds but definitely worth the effort.

I have learned a few tips to make the job a little less messy but probably not easier. I think my mom may have just taken a knife and cut the fruit in half and then began taking out the seeds. I don't like this method because it results in many seeds cut open. They're just prettier whole.

The first thing I do is peel the fruit with a paring knife. This has to be done carefully if you don't want to cut open seeds and squirt everything nearby. Oh! Don't forget to wear an apron! (I've made that mistake). Once it is peeled, I wriggle the tip of the knife into the top a little bit and then hold the fruit in two hands under water and gently break it in half. Continue to break it in pieces and remove the seeds from the white membrane.

Not only are pomegranate seeds delicious but they are very good for you. Besides the antioxidant properties, they provide numerous other health benefits. Read about it here.
Apparently, some people only eat the juice of the seed and then spit out the seed itself. You may eat the seed and if you eat about a tablespoon of seeds at a time, it is best. Eating one seed at a time is not as tasty or as much fun! The season is short and almost over, so hurry out a buy a pomegranate today! Enjoy!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I love roasting pumpkin seeds this time of year. I experimented with acorn squash seeds last year and they were just as good. My problem is that each year I forget how long I baked the seeds and at what temperature. I've tried searching the internet only to find differences of opinion in temperatures and baking time. So this year, I've decided I would pay attention to what worked and document it here so I only have to search my own blog for the answer!

I did something different this year. I let the seeds dry out overnight before baking them. I've never done this before but it really made sense. I absolutely do not like chewy pumpkin seeds.


I measured out 2 cups of pumpkin seeds in a bowl and added 1 teaspoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. I stirred it up to make sure all the seeds were coated well and then spread them out on a jelly roll pan and baked them at 350 for 15 minutes. If you use too much oil, they can't get crispy.

I probably could have baked them a little longer as I like them quite crunchy. The danger is that they can burn quite quickly at that point so you really have to pay attention if you want to cook them any longer.

This years roasted seeds were my best ever!

Apple Bread

This delicious bread almost seems more like coffee cake. It is baked with a streusel topping and after it cools, is topped with a cinnamon glaze. It's great with a warm glass of cider.

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups flour (I use 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1 cup all-purpose flour)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 heaping cups apple, chopped
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. buttermilk

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs and beat. Add flour, soda, baking powder and milk. Fold in apples and pour into greased bread pan(s). I make two medium loaves.

Topping:
2 Tbsp. melted butter
2 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix and crumble over batter in pan. I sometimes double the topping recipe since I'm making two loaves and I like ALOT of this topping.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. (until toothpick comes out clean)

Glaze:
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. water
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix well and drizzle over cooled loaves.
I double the glaze recipe as well. It's going to drizzle right down the bread and settle in the bottom of the container in which you store your bread. I like to use the leftover glaze to spread on a slice of bread.

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