Who doesn't love some rocking' chicken wings and french fries?!

Here is a new play on the popular bar meals. A much healthier version...

This simple recipe is a simple baked chicken wing, lightly breaded, and a dinner-style potatoes obrien. 

You will need to start with my Holy Trinity of Veggies- Potatoes, onions and peppers. 

I add a little garlic for some delicious pizzaz. 

Soak the cut potatoes in ice water- this step is IMPORTANT.

The ice water will soak out lots of the starches, causing your cooked results to be crispier!

While they're soaking, chop the remainder of the veggies! 

I want to eat the veggies just like that!! 

OK- drain your potatoes and rinse them! 

Microwave them for 10 minutes.

Moving onto the wings...

I am a huge fan of the Mccormick Buffalo Wing seasoning. It's so good, you don't even need wing sauce. 

I drizzle my wings in olive oil and toss them in one packet of seasoning and 1/3 c flour.

Bake at 450 for 30-45 minutes along with the veggie medley. They will cook at nearly the same pace!

VOILA!

Christmas Piñata Cookies

Merry Christmas y'all!

I'm back with a vengeance! School is finally done for good and I will finally have the time to dedicate to sharing my mindless crafting with the world!

This year, instead of Christmas cards, I decided to make Christmas cookies. Not just ANY cookies- I scoured the internet for ideas to really make these cookies the best! My friends deserve THE BEST!

Now I will share this with you!

These cookies are absolutely to-die-for. They taste wonderful and were easier to make then they look.

First, I baked a double batch of these no-fail cut out cookies that I found on this blog here. I copied it below. So easy. So yummy!

Best Sugar Cookie Recipe

PRINT

YIELD: 3 dozen cookies

PREP TIME: 30 minutes

COOK TIME: 6-8 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 38 minutes

Soft cut out sugar cookie recipe that keeps its shape and dough does not need to be chilled before baking- perfect edges every time!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 Cup granulated white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 cups all purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. In the bowl of your mixer cream butter and sugar until smooth.
3. Beat in extracts and egg.
4. In a separate bowl combine baking powder with flour and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients. The dough will be very stiff. If it becomes too stiff for your mixer turn out the dough onto a countertop surface. Wet your hands and finish off kneading the dough by hand.
5. DO NOT CHILL THE DOUGH. Divide into workable batches, roll out onto a floured surface and cut. You want these cookies to be on the thicker side (closer to 1/4 inch rather than 1/8).
6. Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.

Now we prepare a batch of royal icing to assemble the cookies!

I used this recipe:

RECIPE

Now, using a smaller cookie cutter, cut the centers out of 1/3 of your cookies. 

**TIP** If you find that the cookies are too hard to cut through, microwave them at half power with a cup of hot water**

Trace the outline of a whole cookie and place your cut cookie on top.

Now fill them with sprinkles!

Pipe another outline of royal icing on the cookie to seal it and place the top cookie on

FROST AWAY! I even added the centers that I cut out of the cookies at the little heart in the front.

Wrap them in something pretty!! I downloaded these printable tags from HERE

ALL DONE!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

DIY Photo Coasters!

Today, we are going to talk about an incident in my kitchen that is NOT edible.

This is a CRAFT!



...I know what you're thinking..."WHY are you posting arts and crafts on a cooking blog?!"


well, SHUT UP. It's MY blog and I made these in my kitchen, so it counts.

Plus, these gifts were a HIT at our annual ladies christmas bash!

EASY...CHEAP photo coasters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, for supplies, you will need the following:

 

 

• Photos of your choice. Printed on normal paper with a TONER printer. NOT the inkjets you have at home
• TUMBLED MARBLE 4x4 tiles. <---don't deviate. It won't work. They're like $2 at Lowes for 9 tiles
• Spongey brushes
• Golden brand Heavy Gel Medium
• Golden brand Matte medium
• A spoon

 

 

Step ONE!



Cover the entire tile with a thick layer of Golden matte medium. Let dry.

Step TWO

Cut out the photo with a little bit of a border. Cover them with the Golden heavy gel.

Stick the photo face down onto the dry tile, use the back of a spoon to rub ALL of the air bubbles out of the image.

Step THREE

 

 

Bake the tiles on a cookie sheet with newspaper lining at 200 degrees for 15 minutes

 

Step FOUR

 

Once the tiles are cool, use the soft side of a wet sponge to rub off the paper. The image will remain on the tile!

 

Step FIVE

 

Apply a few layers of Golden matte medium to the completed tile to seal it.

 

 

**WARNING: These tiles won't hold well against heat, so keep the steamy coffee mug away**

 

CHEAP.

 

AWESOME.

 

QUICK!

 

Enjoy!

 

<3S



Two-Toned, strawberries and whipped cream filled low-fat cupcakes.

I couldn't think of a shorter title...

 

 

Are you ready for some blow-your-mind cupcakes?!

 

Yeah, neither was I. But it happened...OHHHH yeah, it happened.

 

Two-toned icing, Strawberries and whipped cream filled, low-fat cupcakes

 

 

 

 

So, now that you've seen their beauty. Let's break it down.

 

 

 

I'm pretty simple. No need to make them from scratch, you can use the $1 mix from Publix and still make them taste like heaven on earth.

*To keep the fat content low, I prefer to use unsweetened applesauce in place of the oil.

This drops the calorie count by half and typically make much more moist cupcakes*

 

BAKE AS DIRECTED...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pour yourself some wine while you wait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's prepare our filling.

This strawberry filling is AHHHmazing and has never failed me.

It's super easy and always a big hit

 

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg (16 ounces) frozen sliced strawberries , packed in sugar and thawed
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Makes:

2 cups of filling.

Instructions:

Step 1

Drain strawberries; reserving liquid. Add enough water to liquid to equal 1 1/4 cups. In large saucepan, combine strawberry liquid, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice; mix well. Heat and stir until mixture boils and thickens. Cool completely. Stir strawberries into the cooled mixture. Refrigerate until ready to use. Refrigerate until ready to serve

 

(http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Strawberry-Filling-1)

 

 

Whipped cream filling

1 Cup of heavy whipping cream

1 Tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbl Powdered Sugar

 

Whip the cream until it starts to stiffen.

DON'T OVER WHIP OR YOU WILL FAIL.

Add vanilla and sugar and whip until peaks form.

DID I MENTION: DON'T OVER WHIP!?

 

OK- Set these aside.

 

NOW- frosting!!

 

I believe that I have mastered my icing recipe. It is based on this recipe.

 

You need:

1/2c Crisco

1 stick of butter (1/2c)

4c Powdered Sugar

1t Vanilla extract

1t Almond extract

 

Whip together the crisco and butter and extracts. Add sugar slowly. (Go ahead, try and add it fast...see what happens. HA! Powder face!!)

 

This icing will appear almost dry when done correctly. Add a small amount of skim milk to soften it up.

 

Now, split the icing into 2 batches and color them. I chose pink and yellow because it is a baby shower.

 

Alrighty, are your cupcakes cooled? Freeze them or something. Get them to be cool. Now.

 

Now, return to your filling. I DO NOT like to use to filling tip

 

I think it's too long and narrow. Remember, we are using REAL strawberries in our filling. They will clog this tip. Use a wide plain 'ol icing tip and fill your bag.

 

Shhh--Spoiler alert!

 

TIRED OF THE MESS INVOLVED IN GETTING FILLINGS AND ICINGS INTO YOUR PIPING BAG??

 

GOT ONE OF THOSE MASSIVE PLASTIC CUPS FROM RESTAURANTS (IE. DICKEYS) LYING AROUND??

 

Game changer!! Welcome to the simple life.

 

Ok, poke the middle of your cupcake and squeeze until the cupcake puffs up just a teeny bit.

 

OK, I know what you're thinking. IT CAN'T BE THAT EASY.

Um, it so IS!

 

OK, return to frosting. I use the large closed-star tip

Returning your piping bag to the big cup, carefully spoon in your pink frosting on one side of the bag

yellow on the other

 

 

Knead it slightly to get excess air out.

Here's what you should look like:

 

 

Now check it out!!!!!

 

 

How pretty!

 

 

Marbled two tone filled cupcakes.

 

Now, if you're planning a baby shower, here's a cute little decorating idea:

 

Use Jelly Beans and Gummy Life Savers to make little pacifiers to decorate the cupcake

 

 

 

 

 

How pretty!

You're welcome!

Now go enjoy!

 

 

Fouth of July treats!

Happy Fourth of July Folks!!!!

Wahoo Independence day! The greatest mid-summer excuse to not go to work and throw a big BBQ bash!!

I bet you're dying to know what I'm doing! <--I'm just THAT interesting

Well, wonder no more!

My honey and I have been invited to a bash at our neighbors place.

These are neighbors we have only met once, and though I'm sure we made a fine (PSH, AWESOME!)  impression, it is in my nature to go overboard in attempting to better that impression.

SO, I went to super target this morning...an hour and $70 later, I came out with

-Meatballs

-Frozen mixed berries

-Hawaiian bread rolls

-Fresh strawberries

-BBQ sauce

-White chocolate

-Pink Moscato champagne

-A Korean BBQ slow cooker sauce

-Blue sprinkles

-Diet sprite

-Wax paper

-Frozen raspberry lemonade concentrate

Then I threw it all in a crock pot and waited 2 hours.

JUST KIDDING!

BUT....in less than 2 hours you can do all of these fun and easy party platters!

Start here:

Meatballs. Crock pot. 2 sauces. Plop them in and let them work.

Now, while that's working, take your bread rolls, squish them flatter (cuz they're big suckers!)

Mix oil, melted butter, parsley and garlic powder into a bowl.

Slice each roll in half and spread your sauce

Bake at 350 until they're crispy.

I only made one package of the rolls into garlic rolls. I left the remainder plain so that people can choose.

These rolls are going to serve as buns for your meatballs.

BAM- instant meatball sliders!!!

Next, melt your white chocolate in the microwave. It only took a minute for me.

Setup a little conveyor belt

Strawberries>Melted white chocolate>Blue sprinkles>Cookie sheet covered in wax paper

Dip your strawberries in the chocolate and then the sprinkles. Careful to leave some of the white chocolate showing. 

Yummmm

CRAP- Now I have leftover chocolate AND sprinkles!

At this point, I begin frantically searching my house for something that I can dip into these spare ingredients.

SCORE!

POPCORN.

This idea is genius and freaking DELISH

pop a bag of popcorn, while it's still hot, mix in your sprinkles and melted chocolate.





THAT's some good stuff!

NEXT we're going to made the pink champagne punch!!...But I haven't made it yet, so that'll be posted later!

Have fun today! Be SAFE!

<3S

Skinny Asian!

Skinny Asian day!!

Yes- those people are so damn skinny...

If I ate Chinese food every day, I would NOT look like that...

I LOVE Chinese food...like LOVE!!!

The inventor of Lo Mein is a dang genius.

But it's SO GREASY! UGH!!!

Want to have a quick, delicious, take-out worthy HEALTHY dinner tonight?!

I threw this meal together in less than 30 minutes-

YUP, move over Rachel Ray...

I already had all of these ingredients lying around the house.

Grab:

1. A box of whole wheat or veggie sketti. (I used veggie 'guini)
2. Low Sodium Soy Sauce (Don't have that lying around?? Use Dale's...it's the same dang thing...)
3. Hoisin Sauce
4. 1/2 a chicken bullion cube
5. Fresh garlic
6. Chicken breast (sliced and cooked...go buy that boxed stuff in the lunchmeat isle...or, like me, use your left over fajita meat from Chillis...)
7. Veggies (I ONLY like onion, so that's all I'm using...but go ahead and grab some brocolli and those little mini corn thingeys...)
8. Oil (You're supposed to use dark oil like sesame, but who has that lying around?? I went EVOO..)
9. Crushed or ground red pepper

So, OBVIOUSLY...the first thing you want to do is cook your pasta.

Go ahead- boil the water...add some EVOO and make your noodles...

I'll wait...

Are you still cooking??

Hurry up...

Attention: If your meat and veggies ARE NOT precooked- heat up your wok with EVOO and START NOW.

OKAY- Now that your noodles are almost done, throw some oil in a WOK.

"S, you forgot to give me any measurments?!"

NO, I didn't...I don't measure. Just pour in enough oil to cover the bottom.

Wait until that oil gets hot...the secret to cooking in a wok is HOT HOT HOT.

Next- I toss in my garlic. I DID NOT use enough garlic in this recipe. I would mince up at least 6 cloves because I am using an entire box of pasta.

Once the garlic browns, toss in your meat and veggies

For a little pop of flavor, I added half of a chicken bullion cube (that's solid chicken broth) and a small amount of water to liquify the bullion.

Mix in about 3T of Hoisin sauce and almost double the soy sauce.

Like heat? I do!!! ---Add some red pepper. As much as your heart desires

TOSS AWAAAYYYY...

TOSS TOSS!!!

OKAY- everything hot and steamy? Take it off the heat and toss it occasionally. Let it soak up the liquids

OMG- how GOOD is that?!?!?!?!

Do you know how many calories are in that?!

Neither do I...but you can't go wrong with those ingredients!!

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!

Until next time!!

<3 S