Posts Tagged ‘Recipes’

By Honey B, Contributor, “The Honey B“ (@thehoneyb)

I’m always completely intimidated by people who love to cook.

Our Mommyhood confession: I am not a cook. I hate cooking. And I have had more than my fair share of cooking disasters, a long list that may or may not include something I’ve cooked that made the dog sick.

I have never liked cooking, and consider people who do to be slightly bizarre. But as it is necessary for the survival of the members of my household, and I cannot possibly be the only one out there that hates cooking… here are some things I have learned:

Line every pan with aluminum foil. Nothing is worse than a total kitchen disaster so bad that you have to chip away at the bottom of the pan with a butter knife. I hate cooking almost as much as I hate doing dishes, but the combination is just miserable. Save yourself the suffering and line your pans.

In a pinch, never underestimate the power of sliding a frozen lasagna into your own pan. It will cook perfectly and you will be thought to be an amazing cook. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and serving McDonald’s chicken nuggets because you forgot company was coming is just uncomfortable.

Always have a back-up location to discard the evidence. I fed a particular batch of over-cayenne-peppered deviled eggs to the neighbor’s dog. Marmot would have seen the evidence in the garbage and bonus- if I have to suffer listening to the dog bark incessantly when he’s outside, I might as well smile in the knowledge that he’s outside because his gas is so putrid.

And finally, my last piece of advice…straight from the lips of my mother Queen B.

Set the expectations low. When I met Marmot, the first meal I ever made him was bag salad with fat free ranch dressing and microwaved baked potatoes with fat free sour cream. To this day, he was says it was the most awful meal he’s ever pretended to enjoy. We’ve been married for 2 ½ years and he still thinks my cooking repertoire is limited to frozen pizza, spaghetti, and takeout. This is a good thing, because when I do something special like make a dessert, he is absolutely floored. Who says you can’t have mystery in a marriage?!

And because I’m always looking for ways to make cooking just a little bit less miserable…what is your best cooking tip for the non-cook?

By Megan, Contributor, All a Bunch of Momsense (@TaxMegan)

Sometimes, we just need chocolate.

Occasionally, we need it in large quantities.

Allow me to introduce the Triple Chocolate Cookie.

We start out just like any good chocolate chip cookie, by creaming some butter and sugar.

Combine with that an egg and some vanilla. Then mix in your flour, salt, baking soda & powder, and cocoa powder. Finally, the all important baking chips.

Spoon out onto a foil or parchment lined baking sheet,

and bake at

for about 12 minutes.
If you make cookies in that miniscule, cute little size that means they are a “recommended serving”, you should get about 30. I think I got 22 in Real Women Cookies. (We started eating before I thought to count them. Sorry!)

The Details

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup white baking chips

*(I’ve also done these with milk chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, candy-covered chocolates, etc. Mix it up! I’ve not tried them yet, but my son mentioned mint chips, which you could use as well!)

Preheat your oven to 350? F.

Cream the butter and sugars in a large bowl using an electric mixer on high speed. Lower the speed to medium and add the egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, incorporate the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Fold in the chocolate/baking chips.
Form the dough into balls and place approximately 2 inches apart on a foil or parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until centers are set. Let rest on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then move to a wire cooling rack.

Be sure to have ample amounts of milk on hand for these chocolatey faves!

By Michaela

I’m not much of a cook… or a baker for that matter. It’s not that I can’t bake, it’s just that it usually takes longer than I have time for and let’s face it… I don’t like having to clean up the mess… and I make a big mess when I bake!

There are exceptions to the rule though and there are occasions when I actually like to bake and don’t mind the mess. Birthdays are one of those occasions.

It was my husband’s birthday the week after Abby was born. Since she decided to grace us with her presence earlier than expected, I wasn’t able to go out and buy him his gift like I had intended. Yes, I procrastinate… shoot me! Soooo, in addition to buying him a gift online, I busted out a box of Betty Crocker Yellow Cake mix and got a little domestic (yeah I took the easy way… you didn’t expect me to bake one from scratch did you?).

There was just one problem though… we had no frosting in the house!! I don’t keep any here for one simple reason… it would never survive long enough to make it on top of a cake. No, it would die a slow and delicious death… spoonful after glorious spoonful! Soooo… I needed to find a way to get frosting without having to go out to the store… and I needed it fast!

I know that my husband loves buttercream frosting. I thought to myself “How hard can it be to make that?” and started googling recipes. There were hundreds, no thousands of them. Some called for shortening… actually a lot of them did… I could rule them out, since we had none, besides it’s called BUTTERCREAM not shorteningcream. Finally after looking a few different recipes, I went to the one site I go to time and time again… FoodNetwork.com. I figured they would have something for me and I was not disappointed.

I did do some tweaking to the recipe I was following. That particular recipe was for vanilla frosting and Ray wanted chocolate. I wasn’t very sure of myself or my changes and hoped for the best. Once it finished beating, it was the sweet, buttery, chocolaty goodness that I had been searching for and it was so easy to make!!

It was so good and easy in fact, that I probably will never buy frosting from the tub again. Go ahead, try it out for yourself, I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup softened butter (2 sticks)
• 3 cups confectioners’ (powdered) sugar
• 1/3 cup Hershey’s Cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons whole milk 

1) In a standing mixer, attach the whisk attachment and mix together the butter, sugar and cocoa powder. Mix on low speed until it is well blended and then increase the speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes.

2) Add the vanilla and milk (I used whole milk, but you could use any milk or even whipping cream) and beat on medium speed for another 3 minutes. You can vary the amount of milk used to change the spreading consistency.

That’s it! Now all you have to do is frost your cake!!

I will admit that this frosting is sweet (it does have 3 cups of powdered sugar in it after all!) so if you’re not big on that, this may not be the right frosting for you. It also makes a lot of frosting! It was enough for me to frost the whole cake and have about a store bought tubs worth left over for later use (or in my case to be eaten by the spoonful throughout the following week). It passed the test in my house though and it is one that I will definitely be making again… and again… and again! Enjoy!

Don’t forget to add your favorite recipes to today’s Meal Planning Menu! Seven will be featured next week!

Michaela is a student, a wife and the mama of a rambunctious toddler and a newborn. She posts regularly at her blog Mama Michie’s Musings, where she writes about her family, her life and her inability to be more like June Cleaver!

Then, heat some butter up in a pan (butter is gooood…just keep repeating that…) and saute the peppers and onions for a few minutes. 

Let the hashbrowns cook a bit…they’re frozen, and they need to warm up a bit.

Mama M. is a thirtysomething mother of 5, wife to Mr. Wonderful, and part-time labor and delivery nurse. While her family is her passion, she’s quite certain her “moonlighting” gig as an L&D nurse has got to be the best career there is! You can find her over at her blog, My Little Life.

Our Meal Planning Menu got off to a great start last week! We only had 6 submissions, but that means you have a better shot of getting featured! Here is our list from last week… make sure to scroll down to add your recipe (new or old!) to our blog hop. Seven of YOUR recipes will be featured right here next Sunday!

Marcie’s Blog: Spinach Enchiladas

Kerri’s Klutter: Slow Cooker Sloppy Joe’s

Propagating Yankee Universe: Simple Chicken Pot Pie

The Mom Road: Greek-Style Stuffed Eggplant

Tales Of The Toot: Egg In The Hole

Sweet Jeanette: Fresh Peach Muffins