GIVEAWAY!!!! Biscoff Spread

 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!

Because those few of you who actually READ this blog  allow me to justify my passion for trying new stuff, I want to give away a jar of this Biscoff Spread to SIX of you! (That MIGHT be every single one of you!!! :D )

To be entered to win, simply leave me a comment on this post. Tell me what recipe or review you thought most interesting and why. It's that easy. :) (If you're long-distance, I will do my best to get this to you quickly!) We'll pick a winner on WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20. Please enter by NOON! :)

I won a 8-pack case of this from the company, so I'm sharing the love. :) We opened one, so I could let you know a bit about it. If you've seen Biscoff in the stores, you might have wondered about it. Or, you might have tried it - I first had a Biscoff cookie on an airplane. Biscoff cookies played a key role in this recipe I reviewed toward the end of the year. This spread tastes just like the cookies, except creamy! My mom said it tastes like gingerbread. :) It kind of does - the cookies are a type of spice cookie. The product is from Belgium. And the spread bills itself as "a delicious alternative to peanut butter" - but it's much sweeter, in my opinion. You have to try this stuff to understand how difficult it is to describe! LOL

Don't you want to try it? Don't you want to win? :D 

OK, I'm outta here. We're having a nice dinner with my parents tonight; I'm making dessert, which you KNOW means it'll get a review next week. :D Enjoy your day!!!!

Oreo Truffles

 Happy Wednesday! I hope you're having a great week, and have something a little fun planned for tomorrow.

IF you don't, I wanted to share this easy recipe with you! This one's from Just a Pinch, but it's floating around in a LOT of places. :)

Now, you'll notice that the recipe calls for coating these in melted chocolate chips. Personally, that's just too much deep chocolate for me to handle. So I coated some of them in leftover white coating from Christmas, and some I rolled completely in Valentine's sprinkles I picked up last year. My favorites, though, were the ones I simply rolled in confectioner's sugar!

I also used some Oreos that I'd never had before, called Ice Cream Berry Burst. They have pink centers, and I was hoping some of that pink might show up in the centers. Obviously, it didn't. :D But it gave them an interesting flavor. My mom said they had a "nice, mild" flavor; Kenn said they were "very sweet". :D I found them yummy! LOL! And since they were so easy, they're

 Stay tuned for a special post (hopefully tomorrow!) for a GIVEAWAY!

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL day! Be BLESSED!

Crockpot "Refried" Beans

Good Monday afternoon! :) I know it's a bit later than normal, but I wasn't home much this weekend. I'm house managing for Lamplighter's Theater Company, and between church and the show, there wasn't a lot of spare time to be found! :)

That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about what to post. :D I made this recipe last week; it's from Pennies & Pancakes, for Crockpot "Refried" Beans.

Let me just say, from the start, this gets a YES, PLEASE! :) It's a great, inexpensive, adjustable recipe. The only thing I measured was the water, because I didn't want to have it be too soupy or too dry.

The flavor is GREAT on these! I found I didn't need all the cooking time listed; be sure your beans aren't crunchy, for sure, but mine were done about a half-hour after I turned my pot down to LOW. I cut the recipe in half; we don't eat a LOT of refried beans, and I didn't want them going to waste - even though they're so inexpensive to make!

I will recommend this to you, too: keep some of the liquid if you drain off some from your beans. I was worried when I mashed them that I hadn't gotten rid of enough liquid. But they really tightened up, and I now wish I'd left just a bit more. If you keep some of the liquid, you can add it when your beans start to cool. But I don't think I'll be using canned beans if I can do a little planning ahead; these really were tasty!!!!!!

I had these vegetarian beans and melted cheese with organic blue corn tortilla chips for dinner one night; I felt so virtuous! :D And I highly recommend that, if you like cilantro, you sprinkle a little on whatever you serve these beans with. It's one of the top 5 nutrient-dense foods on the PLANET, and it gives a great freshness to the taste. But whatever floats your boat! :)

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL week! Be BLESSED!!! (And be sure to come back Wednesday, for a Valentine's suggestion!)

Gingerbread

Happy Friday! I hope you've had a great week!

Here's another one of those recipes you really want to have on-hand; it's a Martha Stewart recipe for gingerbread.

These are the gingerbread men I made for the open house; I had a bit of a time with the icing being too runny, but it was mostly being glue for the mini M&Ms. :D

Don't omit the pepper in the recipe. I thought about it, but left this one as-is (except for the currants for the eyes!); it's a really GOOD gingerbread, not too crunchy but not super-soft, either. It rolls beautifully.

I really need to get a gingerbread GIRL cookie cutter....

This is one of two cookie recipes I'm going to use with my nieces and nephews - they want to decorate cookies, so that will be one of our craft projects. :)

Of course you don't have to go all out with these; just making a basic shape with no icing would be fine. I won't say it's BORING, but.... :D

OK, I'm outta here! It's another BUSY weekend! I hope YOU get a chance to rest, and try something new! :) Be BLESSED!

Cream Cheese Lemon Bars

Happy Wednesday! How's your week going? If you're in middle Tennessee, are you enjoying our spastic weather patterns?!?! Sheesh. Is it any wonder so many people are sick right now?!?

Anyway. :D

This recipe is for cream cheese lemon bars from a site called Recipetips.com.

 I'm afraid I'm rather ambivalent about this one. It wasn't really lemony, it wasn't really cream cheese-y. I'd gotten the lemon cake mix to keep in the closet, because several of my Pinned recipes call for one. So I decided to use the mix for this recipe.

My dad had to help me get the crust ingredients all mixed; I don't know if I've mentioned, but I have trouble with my wrists and my family sometimes helps me out when I'm cooking. :D It was an interesting crust, kind of crumbly (as a dough) like a shortbread, except it had an egg in it.

You mix up the lemon juice and zest and cream cheese with the powdered sugar, then divide that in half. Part is for the middle layer, and the rest acts as the icing. It was really lemony, but it wasn't enough to really brighten the whole thing, in my opinion.

Normally, I'll add lemon extract as well, but I wanted to make this one as straight as *I* could. :D I didn't tweak anything.

So I think I'll move it to my "A good recipe to have" board, but not plan to use it unless I'm a little desperate. :D I think my sentiment was echoed through the house - but it's almost all gone, anyway. :D

OK, I'm outta here! Make your week great!!! Be BLESSED! :)

Tex-Mex Chicken and Tortilla Stack

Good Monday midday! :D I've been busy this weekend, and not in the mood to really blog today, but here I am anyway! :D

Dad was gone last week, but Kenn also had a really bad infection in his tooth. So I wasn't sure I was going to get to make this - but I did. On Tuesday night, I tried this Tex-Mex Chicken and Tortilla Stack from Recipe.com.

First of all, I will admit: I took the METHOD of this recipe more than the recipe itself. Every place I looked for jicama, it was sold out. So we didn't have jicama in ours.

And I don't like precooked chicken, unless it's in a can (and I still don't LOVE it, then!); it almost always gives me heartburn, and I don't care for the chemicals they use. So, I used two boneless, skinless chicken breasts and poached them in water with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dried minced onion. When they were done, I shredded the chicken and let it cool.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this recipe; it's served cold, and I tend to like COOKED Mexican food. :D You know, HOT and a little spicy. :D But we really did like it! It got a YES, PLEASE! from both of us! And of course, I personalized it. :D

For instance, I made our guacamole. Doing it myself saved at least a dollar - and it's not a CHEAP recipe, although it's not too bad. Part of the cost for US, though, is that I need to use low-carb tortillas. To cut down on the whopping cost of my favorite white flour LC tortillas, I alternated them with whole wheat ones. (I tend to not like those at all because of texture and flavor. It's a personal thing! :D) I would say this, by itself, serves 4 - it makes 8 pieces, if you cut it like a cake. :D but we didn't have anything WITH it.

I also didn't put red peppers in it - again, they don't like me. I also added cilantro to the cheese layers - did you know it's one of the top 5 nutrient-dense foods on the planet?!? - because Kenn LOVES it, and I like it. My mom says its flavor is too "loud" - it overpowers everything else. :D

I used fat free regular refried beans. Kenn doesn't tend to like things too spicy, so no jalapeno, either. And his system is sometimes intolerant of the colors they use in cheeses, so I used Velveeta queso blanco shredded cheese. I also added tomato to the top!

I guess what I'm trying to express is this: don't be afraid to play! :D I wouldn't have tried a "stack" if I hadn't found this recipe. I'd have loved to have had the jicama for the recipe, but oh, well. :D I know what we like, and if I can get things that are good for us into a recipe, I'm gonna! :D

OK, I'm outta here. LOTS to do! :D Have a WONDERFUL day! Be BLESSED!!!!

Cheryl's Chocolate Chip Blonde Brownies

Good Friday Morning! I hope you've had a great week, and are looking forward to your weekend. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Michael and Haley, our groom and bride tomorrow. :)

Anyway. Today's another share that I learned to only make around Christmas, because I absolutely LOVE these. They're fantastic, soft and chewy. They're from BettyCrocker.com, and are called Cheryl's Chocolate Chip Blonde Brownies.

Well, I'll admit it: part of my reasoning for posting these is so I have the link to the recipe while we're in Oregon. :D They're SO simple to make, but would be wonderful to have on-hand for weekend guests.... :D

I don't tweak these at all. I accidentally added too much brown sugar one time, and don't recommend doing that if you can help it. :D These kind of taste like chocolate chip cookies, but a little different, and a lot easier. :D

I can't think of anything else to tell you about them, except you won't regret making them! :D

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!!! Be BLESSED - and try something new!