Hawaiian Haystacks

 

This is one of my top 5 favorite meals of all time, easily. Remember I am the one who loves all 5 food groups in one bite! This is one of those meals. You got your rice, chicken, tomatoes, cheese, pineapple and creams chicken sauce. Those little chow mein noodles give great texture and taste too! Oh I really do love my Hawaiian Haystacks. These are such a cinch to make and I always have the ingredients on hand. To make it even easier, just use canned chicken, so easy. You can make them your own by adding whatever you like! Sometimes we use olives, green onions, even grapes! Yum!

Hawaiian Haystacks

Cooked rice, as much as you need to feed your family. *I use a mix of brown and white rice

Chicken broth

Cream of chicken soup *mix with chicken broth to give it the consistency of gravy

Shredded cheese

Chopped tomatoes, or cherry tomatoes

Cooked or canned diced chicken

Chow mein noodles, the hard kind

Crushed pineapple

Diced onion, or green onion, give it a little color too

Sliced olives

Salt and pepper to taste

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

I've seen this chocolate chip cookie recipe floating around on the internet for awhile. It seemed to be calling my name every where I looked. Then I got an email from my sister with the same recipe! I think the universe was telling me that I really needed to try these cookies. My sister tried them first and her reviews were so good ( that she threw all her other chocolate chip cookie recipes away! As soon as I heard that, I stopped what I was doing and made these amazing little cookies.  The secret to them is that they have a package of vanilla pudding in them. It makes them soft and sweet and oh so delicious. You will love these! 

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies
adapted from Kraft Kitchens

Makes 3 dozen cookies

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

3/4 cup  packed brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 pkg.  (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

1 tsp. vanilla

2   eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

2-1/4 cups  flour

1 pkg. (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips

*optional 1/2 tsp salt, OR you can sprinkle sea salt on top of cookie dough balls.

Heat oven to 375°F. Beat butter, sugars, dry pudding mix and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add eggs and baking soda *(and salt if desired); mix well. Gradually beat in flour. Stir in chocolate. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough, 2 inches apart, onto baking sheets. Bake 7 to 9 min. or until golden brown. Cool 3 min. on baking sheets. Remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

*The recipe does not call for any salt. If you like that little saltiness to your chocolate chip cookies, just add a 1/2 tsp of salt to your dough. Or you can do what I love to do with all my chocolate chip cookies, sprinkle a little sea salt on top! 

**Also, feel free to switch up the pudding mixes to your liking. Try a butterscotch pudding with butterscotch chips. I think next time I might try a chocolate pudding mix!

Her Aunt Carolyn's Famous Casserole

This is one of Becoming Betty's favorite dishes, so much that she even posted it twice on her own blog. It was definitely worthy of a two blog post. :) My husband LOVED this dish. I don't really get much from him besides "I like it" or "It's good". If I get a "I love this!" Then I know it is for sure a keeper. It is a hearty, warm, delicious meal!

Her Aunt' Carolyn's Famous Casserole

recipe from Becoming Betty

1 lb. ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 can tomato soup

1 can tomato sauce (15 oz.)

1 can corn, drained

1 T. chili powder

1 tsp. salt

8 oz. pasta cooked *You can use uncooked pasta, just add a little bit of water to the mix. It turned out fine, and I used maybe a half a can or so of water. Just make sure all the noodles are submerged into the liquid before cooking, to prevent any uncooked edges.

Brown beef and onion. Drain the extra fat.  Add the rest of ingredients and mix well.  Pour into a casserole dish and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Butterscotch Banana Bread

I had a bunch of old bananas that I needed to get rid of. What better use of old bananas than banana bread. I wanted to make something a little different this time so I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. Butterscotch banana bread? I'll take it! I gave half to Brian's study group and they really liked it too. So if you are bored of just regular banana bread, then give this one a try. You won 't be disappointed. I think it could even use more butterscotch flavor, maybe next time I'll add a butterscotch pudding mix to the recipe!

Butterscotch Banana Bread
adapted from allrecipes.com via Kwarren

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup butterscotch chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 
  
• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan and set aside. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a bowl. Set aside. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Beat in the egg, then stir in the mashed bananas. Pour in the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Fold in the butterscotch chips and walnuts *optional; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Pour the batter evenly into the loaf pan. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 60 minutes, but watch closely.  Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Creamy Corn Chowder

This soup has quickly climbed to the top of my favorite soup list. It is so, so simple and delicious every time. I have made it a time or two, or a hundred, so you can trust me on this one. It will warm you from your toes to your top and keep you feeling nice and full without being too heavy. I love its creamy, smoky flavor. Enjoy!

Creamy Corn Chowder
Recipe by Our Best Bites

2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. water
2 1/2 c. milk
2 regular-sized chicken bouillon cubes, 1 Knorr chicken bouillon cube, or 2 tsp. chicken base
1/2 lb. bacon (optional, but I highly recommend it. If you don't use bacon, use a few shakes of smoked paprika, to give it the smoky flavor. Mmmmm!)
1 small onion, minced
2 red potatoes, diced into small cubes
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can corn, drained or about 1 1/2 C frozen fresh corn
Salt and pepper to taste 
A few dashes of hot sauce (like Tabasco or Cholula)

Fry bacon until crisp. In the meantime, melt butter over low heat in a soup pot. When melted, add flour to make a roux and whisk until it comes together in a little ball. Add water and whisk until completely combined and there are no lumps. Add milk and chicken base or bouillon and bring to a simmer. Add potatoes, onions, and garlic, and simmer (but don't boil!), stirring very frequently, for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add crumbled bacon and corn and heat through. Add a few drops of hot sauce and then salt to taste. The reason why I don't have an exact measurement is that while the soup REALLY needs salt, bacon also really differs in its saltiness, so it can be super easy to make this soup waaaaay too salty. Start with about 1/4 tsp., give it a few minutes, and then add more if you need it. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with extra bacon and/or cheese if you want.

German Pancakes

I love breakfast. My favorite breakfasts usually involve syrup...pancakes, waffles, french toasts etc. I'm not sure these qualify as a "pancake", but they are called pancakes, and that works for me. They are just plain delicious. I love pulling them out of the oven all big and puffy.  My favorite are the browned edges, drizzled with syrup. In this case, orange syrup. It was pretty delicious. Now go and make some German pancakes for dinner or breakfast! German Pancakes adapted from Mandy's Recipe Box

6 eggs 3/4 c milk 3/4 c flour ½ tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 6 T butter (or 3 T each pan if doing two circle pans. I usually don't use the full amount) Melt butter and pour into a 9x13, or two circle cake pans. Spread butter out evenly on bottom. Mix rest of ingredients until fluffy. Pour batter onto butter. Bake @ 425 for 20 min. *The picture above, the recipe has been halved.

Triple Layer Peanut Butter Brownies

I'm just going to be honest with you now. You'll probably be seeing a lot of brownie recipes on this blog, and I'm not apologizing! Why? Because brownies, in all shapes and sizes, are my absolute favorite dessert ever, and I love it when someone comes up with a brilliant recipe idea that includes brownies. Just like this one from one of my favorite food bloggers, One Crazy Cookie. It knocked my socks off and I enjoyed every single bite....all by myself thank you. Okay I might have shared one or two with the family, but that's it! Thank goodness they were sick in bed, or I might have had to share more. :) They really were so yummy, and I kinda miss them. This is probably my favorite brownie recipe so far. Please try them, you'll be glad you did. 

Start with the ultimate brownie mix...

Bake em up according to box directions and let cool. (the recipe calls for a full box, but I was using a bag mix and didn't have enough to make a full pan, so I halved the recipe)

 Make up the second layer. Mix peanut butter, powdered sugar, rice cripies, and butter.

 Spread on top of the cooled brownies. 

 Make the third and final layer. Mix cocoa powder, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and butter. 

 Pour over peanut butter layer and spread evenly.

 I refrigerated mine to help it set up and stored them in the fridge. They aged very well. They were like fudgy Reese's peanut butter cups! Delicious? I think so. 

Triple Layer Peanut Butter Brownies

from One Crazy Cookie

Brownie Layer:

1 box brownie mix

Peanut Butter Layer:

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 cup crusted crispy rice cereal

Frosting Layer:

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Prepare brownie mix according to directions. Bake and let cool. When brownies are cool make your peanut butter layer. Mix ingredients together until smooth and well blended. Spread over top of brownie layer. Then make your frosting layer. Mix all the ingredients until smooth. It may be a but runny but will firm up in the fridge.  Spread over top of peanut butter layer. Yum!