Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

The boys and I made these Friday. I don't have any nuts at the moment, or that would have been a good addition. They were yummy. I brought some to one of the ladies I visit teach, other wise I would have eaten too many!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chicken Rotini Stovetop Casserole

I made this last night. It was great. I just wish I had more Parmesan. I dumped the entire can and it wasn't even 1/3 cup :( I also didn't have half-and-half, just milk, so it wasn't very creamy and I had to add 2 Tbsp of flour to thicken. But I did get to use my fresh herbs, chives, parsley and basil!!! I also used whole wheat rotini.

Chicken Rotini Stovetop Casserole

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (12 ounce) package rotini pasta
• 2 cups half-and-half cream
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente; drain.
2. Combine half-and-half and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Boil gently, stirring, until mixture has reduced to 1 1/2 to 1 2/3 cups. Remove pan from heat; whisk in cheese, basil, oregano, chives, and parsley. Cover, and set aside.
3. Saute chicken in a large skillet until lightly browned on both sides. Stir in green and red bell pepper, and cook until vegetables are tender, and chicken is no longer pink in the middle.
4. In a casserole dish, combine the hot cooked pasta, chicken mixture, and sauce. Mix well, and serve immediately.

Blackberry Cobbler

Aaron made this out of our yummy blackberries. We don't have self rising flour so Aaron added 1 Tbsp. baking powder and 1 tsp. salt. It was so good especially with cool whip on top, but it would have been even better with ice cream.

Blackberry Cobbler

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups milk
• 3 1/2 cups blackberries

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Once oven temperature is reached melt butter in a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl stir together the flour, sugar and milk; batter will be slightly lumpy. Pour mixture on top of melted butter in baking pan. Do not mix butter and mixture together.
3. Drop blackberries into batter; if more crust is desired add less blackberries. Bake in preheated oven for one hour or until golden brown.

Veggie Pizza

This is a recipe we got from Aaron's Grandma P*. It has become a Superbowl party necessity. It's great for a get together. We took it to Pia's for a Sea Fair party to watch the fireworks.
2 pkg. refrigerated biscuits
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1-3 Tbsp. mayo
Worcestershire sauce
1 capful lemon juice
chopped veggies and cheese (eg olives, green pepper, green onions, celery, tomatoes etc.)

Spread biscuits onto a greased large cookie sheet to make a crust. Bake at 450 for 8 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool.
Mix cream cheese, mayo, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice together and spread onto crust. sprinkle veggies and cheese all over. Cut into squares. Makes about 24 (depending on how big you cut them).

Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

I used some more of my fresh basil for this one. So yummy! I used whole wheat rotini instead of the penne, and canned tomatoes (14.5 oz) in place of the fresh romas (I didn't have that many) the dressing was also fat-free. It turned out great even with the substitutions I made. Some people recommended adding minced garlic. I didn't, but that would have been a nice touch.

Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (16 ounce) package dry penne pasta
• 8 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup Italian dressing
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place the penne pasta in the pot, cook 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.
2. In a large bowl, toss the cooked pasta with the tomatoes, Italian dressing, basil, red onion, and Parmesan cheese.

banana bread

This is a great simple recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I made it this morning with the boys, because I had ripe bananas and I felt like it.

1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
2 eggs
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. oil
1 c. mashed banana (about 3 medium)
1/2 c. nuts (optional)

Mix the first five ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, make a well in the center and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl beat together remaining ingredients, except for nuts. Pour egg mixture all at once into the well in the dry ingredients. Stir until just mixed, may be lumpy. Fold in nuts, if desired. Bake in 350 oven for 1 hour.
I put it into 4 mini loaves and baked for 35 minutes. I forgot to take a picture until I was typing this up so there were only 2 loaves left. Ha Ha!!

Ashley's bean salad

This is a great recipe from a friend of ours from med school. I wish we could have afforded the avocado ($1.50 each, when I'm used to 3 for a $1 or cheaper) and remembered to get the jalepeno. We took this to an international medicine meeting. Yum, lots of good food!

1-2 cans black beans
1 can white shoe-peg corn
fresh cilantro -
1/4 c. red onion, diced
tomatoes, chopped (add at the end)
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and diced
1-4 garlic cloves, minced
avocado chunks (optional)
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tsp. cumin
salt and pepper to taste

I should have taken a picture. I used regular corn because... that's stuff's expensive! And Aaron hates cilantro, so I used fresh parsley - from my herb garden!