The Best Cake

One of my sister-in-law's friends made this cake. I was skeptical as I saw everyone dive into this non-frosted cake. Where was the frosting? Turns out the cake is perfect without frosting--a whole bag of chocolate chips inside the cake is all it needs! Try it out for yourself:

yellow cake mix
chocolate instant pudding
vanilla instant pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup water
1 package chocolate chips

Mix ingredients and pour into greased bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

The Best Cornbread Ever

This is a really great, sweet cornbread. It takes 5 minutes to prepare and 35 minutes to bake. I was experimenting with cornbread recipes for an upcoming missionary zone conference meal. This is the first and last recipe I made!

1/2 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups milk

Mix dry ingredients, make a well and add oil, butter, eggs, and milk into the center. Stir until just mixed (batter will be runny, but don’t be alarmed!). Bake in an 8" square pan at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. This doubles perfectly for a 9×13-inch pan.

My Favorite Soup--Broccoli Cheese Potato Soup

A friend at BYU made me this soup on a very cold, snowy Sunday. It was so delicious that, of course, I asked for the recipe. Twelve years later, it is still my favorite soup, and now I think it is Cameron's favorite soup--he ate 3 bowls of it tonight!

5 c. cubed potatoes
2 c. carrots, cubed diagonally
1 c. onions, chopped
1 ½ c. celery, chopped
10 oz. frozen broccoli
6 tsp. chicken granules (I used chicken bullion cubes)

8 T. butter
4 T. flour
2 c. milk
1 lb. cubed Velveeta
1 T. dry mustard
½ t. pepper

Bring water to a boil and dissolve chicken granules or cubes in water. Cook potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery until tender (about 20 minutes). Sometimes I add more water if the veggies absorb most of it.

Add broccoli towards the end, a couple of minutes before you add the cheese mixture. Broccoli will get mushy if you cook it too long.

Meanwhile, in another pan, melt butter and add flour. Gradually add milk. As it thickens, add Velveeta, dry mustard, pepper, and salt to taste. Pour all of this into steamed vegetables and broth.

Cereal and Yogurt Tips

I'm never quite sure how to tell if cereal is "healthy." I happened to catch short segments on a morning news program with information on how to choose healthy cereal and yogurt.

For cereal, you want the following:

1. At least 3 grams of fiber.
2. Less than 8 grams of sugar.
3. The word whole, grain, or oats in the first ingredient listed.

For yogurt, you want the following:

1. Zero grams of fat.
2. At least 20% of daily calcium, or 200 mg.
3. Around 12 twelve grams of sugar per 6-ounce container. Fruit added to the yogurt will increase the amount of sugar. Make sure sugar isn't coming from high fructose corn syrup.
4. 90-120 calories per 6-ounce container.

Sour Cream Chili Bake

This is the recipe that got Matt to eat chili! I didn't use the word chili (which Matt has always refused to eat) when serving this dish, and Matt loved it! And kids will eat anything with Fritos on top of it. I got this recipe from my favorite food storage blog.

1 lb. Ground Beef
¼ c. Chopped Onion
1 can (16 oz.) Kidney Beans, Drained
1 can (15 oz.) Tomato Sauce
1 envelope Taco Seasoning mix
1/4 c. Dehydrated Onions
1 can of Corn, Drained
1 c. (4 oz.) Shredded Cheddar Cheese
3½ c. Fritos
1¼ c. Sour Cream

Cook ground beef and onion until meat is browned and onion is tender; drain. Stir in beans, tomato sauce, taco seasoning, corn, onion and ¾ C. cheese. Sprinkle 2 ½ cups Fritos in bottom of 8×8 baking dish. Cover with Chili. Bake at 350 degree for 20-25 minutes. Spread sour cream of chili. Top with remaining corn chips and cheese. Bake 3-4 minutes longer.

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

This was a really yummy cookie. I liked the combination of cranberries and white chocolate chips. I'm not going to put the cookie recipe here because I really like my oatmeal cookie recipe better. So use my oatmeal cookie recipe and add 1 cup white chocolate chips and 6 ounces of dried cranberries instead of the chocolate chips it calls for.

Incredible 30-Minute Microwave Chicken

This recipe uses the Deep Covered Baker from The Pampered Chef.

1 whole chicken (3 ½ - 4 pounds)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Seasoning Mixture:

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon dried thyme leaves

1. Lightly spray deep covered baker with oil. Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken cavity. Rinse chicken with cold water; pat dry with paper towels. Trim excess fat, if necessary. Brush chicken with oil.

2. Combine ingredients for seasoning mixture and mix well. Completely coat outside of chicken with seasoning mixture. Place chicken, breast side up, in baker.

3. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 25-30 minutes or until instant read thermometer registers 165 degrees in thickest part of breast and juices run clear. Remove from microwave. Cover with lid and let rest 10 minutes (temperature will rise to 170 degrees).Yield: 4-6 servings

Variations:

1. Use rubs and seasoning mixes to give alternate flavors to your chicken.

2. All-in-one chicken dinner – prepare chicken as directed above and place in baker. Combine 1 cup each: celery and carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces, and 3 cups of red or russet potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces in bowl. Toss with additional seasoning, if desired. Arrange vegetables around chicken. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 35-40 minutes or until thermometer registers 165 degrees in thickest part of breast and juices run clear. Remove from microwave. Cover with lid and let rest 10 minutes.

Cookie Baking Day

So, finally, here are the recipes for the cookies we baked after Thanksgiving! We had a fun time and pretended we had an audience as we demonstrated our recipe. Hope you enjoy and get at least one new recipe idea. Happy holidays!

Heath Bar Cookies

This is the cookie Karissa made.

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

2 cups oatmeal

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

12 oz. chocolate chips

Skor or Heath bar pieces

Combine first five ingredients. Mix flour, oats, baking powder, and baking soda and mix with wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips and candy bar pieces.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Do not overbake. Remove from baking sheet immediately after baking.

Pinwheel Cookies

My mother made these cookies. She has memories of her mother making these cookies. They are rather time intensive. My grandmother says it is important to put the chocolate layer, which is more dry, on top of the white layer before you roll it and cut it out.

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg yolk

1 TBS. milk

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 oz. square unsweetened chocolate, melted

1 TBS. milk

Cream together shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Blend in egg yolk and milk. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into creamed mixture. Divide dough in half; to one half, add chocolate and milk. Mix.

Chill both layers 1 1/2 hours. Roll out dough separately to similar size. Place chocolate layer on top of white layer. Roll up dough into log and cut. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.