Chicken Alfredo

WARNING! By no means is this dish healthy for you! It's got heavy cream and butter. But what this dish is is YUMMY. Alex loves alfredo sauce and it's just as easy to make the sauce than it is to buy it in a jar.

1 lb. any type of pasta
1/2 c. butter (that's one stick - yikes!)
1 c. heavy cream (double yikes!!)
1 c. grated parmesan (~4 oz.)
Salt & Pepper
Chicken (optional)
Peas or broccoli (optional)

Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a large skillet, melt butter. Stir cooked pasta into butter. Add cream & parmesan. Toss over low heat until pasta is well coated and cheese is melted. Toss in chicken and peas and heat through.

Toaster Oven Chicken

This is my new hassle-free way of cooking chicken. I got the idea from this online recipe, but most of the time I just put salt and pepper.

Preheat toaster oven to 350 deg. Slice two chicken breasts to make thinner. Pat dry with paper towels. Season both sides of each piece with salt & pepper. In a rimmed baking dish, drizzle some olive oil to coat. Place chicken breasts in a single layer on dish. Drizzle more olive oil on top of each piece. Bake in toaster oven for 35 minutes until thickest piece is done. Remove from oven and let rest a few minutes before serving or putting into another dish.

Sweet Potato Crisp

I went to a potluck the other night and thought about what to bring. With my recent craving for sweet potatoes I happened to have about half a dozen sweet potatoes sitting in the fridge. Perfect! What a great way to get rid of them...but how? Pioneer Woman had the answer....Sweet Potatoes!! After making this I realized she had poorly named the recipe. Sweet Potatoes just wasn't enough. I'm adding Crisp to the end because that's pretty much what it is. And just an FYI: This is a very sweet sweet potato recipe. I think next time I may add less sugar.

Sweet Potato Crisp

4 whole Medium Sweet Potatoes
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Milk
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Pecans
½ cups Flour
¾ sticks Butter

Wash 4 medium sweet potatoes and bake them in a 375-degree oven until fork tender, about 30-35 minutes. When they are finished cooking slice them open and scrape out the flesh into a large bowl.

Add 1 cup of (regular grandulated) sugar, 1 cup of milk, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of salt. With a potato masher, mash them up just enough—you don’t want to be perfectly smooth.

Now, in a separate bowl, add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup pecans, chopped (that means measure a cup of pecans, then chop them), ½ cup flour, and ¾ stick of butter. With a pastry cutter or fork, mash together until thoroughly combined.

Spread the sweet potato mixture into a regular baking dish and sprinkle the crumb mixture all over the top.

Bake in a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Monkey Bread

I LOVE Monkey Bread!! Who could resist the ooey-gooey goodness of it?! This is the first time I've made it on my own and it was fantastic!! And the best part was that Annie helped me make it.

I'm sure most Monkey Bread recipes are all alike. I got this one from Pioneer Woman - love her blog!!

3 cans of Buttermilk Biscuits (the non-flaky ones)
1 c. sugar
2-3 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 sticks of butter (1 c.)

Preheat that oven to 350.

Open each can of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters.

In a gallon-sized seal-able bag, mix 1 c. sugar with cinnamon. Toss biscuit bites into the bag, seal, and shake until all bites are coated with sugar mixture. Place coated biscuit bites into 12-cup bundt pan and set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add the 1/2 c. brown sugar and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and pour over biscuit bites.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until top has a nice dark brown color to it. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15-30 minutes. Place a serving plate on top of the bundt cake pan and invert to remove the monkey bread from the pan. Enjoy!!

Peel this...

My current toddler distractions in the kitchen:

1. Peel this orange please
2. Peel the garlic cloves please
3. Peel this banand (although I rarely do this b/c I don't like bananas)
4. Don't peel anything, but wipe down the kitchen table with clean washcloth or wipey.

So I think I need a few more distraction techniques in the kitchen because peeling things is going to get pretty boring for her later. Please let me know if you have any ideas!

Potato Chip Clusters

Just made these today and they're just another addition to my sweet and salty collection. It's a recipe from my Taste of Home: Fun Food Magazine.

9 squares (1 oz. each) white baking chocolate

2 c. crushed potato chips

1/2 c. chopped pecans

In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt white chocolate. Sitr in potato chips and pecans. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate until set. Makes about 3 dozen.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

I don't know if it's because it's the holidays, or if it's because the little person inside of me is making me crave them, but lately I've had a thing for sweet potatoes. Mmmmm...I get excited just thinking about them...I know...sad. But it's true. So what's my solution for this strange addiction I've been having? It's SIMPLE...Baked Sweet Potatoes.

Wash and scrub some sweet potatoes and dry them. Poke them with a fork all over. Pop them in a oven at 425 deg for about an hour until soft. Cut a slit in them and pinch in the sides to fluff. It's that easy!

But a plain baked sweet potato may leave much to be desired. My desire...a little bit of butter and cinnamon sugar to taste. YUM!