Kitchen Tools Tuesday

One day in June I went to the local restaurant store to buy some new tumblers for the kids for summertime. I walked past this fantastic cupcake pan and decided I really wanted it. It was around 9 dollars.
It made cupcakes a breeze...Love it.

Reese's Pieces Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

I made these for girls camp....12 went to girls camp, leaving 8. My kids were super excited about eating the rest. I was a bit nervous about making a cookie recipe without flour, but they turned out great. They tasted similar to my peanut butter cookie recipe and the added reeses pieces made them look great.
Recipe from: Make and Takes

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup Reese’s Pieces candy

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
2. Mix the peanut butter and sugars together until creamy and smooth.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4. Stir in the salt, baking soda, and Reese’s Pieces candy.
5. Spoon dough into balls, about 1 Tablespoon of dough for each cookie. Place them on the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Lightly flatten dough balls with the palm of your hand.
6. Bake cookies for 9 minutes, or until cookies are slightly golden brown around the edges. The cookies will still be soft. They will set up while cooling. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.

*I used my large purple scoop and got 20 cookies.

Kitchen Tools Tuesday

Metal Kabob Sticks.

For years I soaked the wooden sticks in water to keep them from burning on the grill. Then when I tried to turn them, I'd have to be careful not to burn my fingers. Then my brother introduced me to these metal sticks:
Now I love making kabobs and they are really easy to turn...since the handle hangs out of the grill and does not heat up. I have 10 of these sticks. I got them from Walmart some 4 or 5 years ago.

*Wonder what's on these kabobs? That is some chicken and pineapple marinated in teriyaki. Yum.

Jessica's Fruit Dip

There is probably another name for this dip, but my friend, Jessica, was the one that got me hooked on it...hence the name. Try it. You'll like it.
1 (8 oz) pkg of cream cheese, softened
1 jar marshmallow cream
1 to 2 Tbsp. orange juice concentrate

Blend cream cheese and marshmallow cream until well blended and smooth. Add orange juice concentrate until it has the desired orange flavor that you like.

Lemon Cajun Stir Fry

This recipe sounded interesting to me so I tried it. I'm glad I did because I loved it! John said this was a great dish for peppers (he can be a little picky on dishes with peppers). I was really worried when I made the sauce. It tasted like a sweet lemon meringue pie, but don't worry....when it mixes with the cajun seasoning it really tastes great on the chicken and peppers.
John's rating: 8 (almost 9)
1 1/4 lbs chicken, cut into cubes
8 small sweet peppers, diced (yellow, red and orange mixed)
1/2 large onion, diced
2 Tbsp. peanut oil
1 1/2 Tbsp. cajun seasoning

Sauce:
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. cornstarch

Cook chicken until almost done. Add chopped peppers and onion and sprinkle with cajun seasoning. Cook until chicken is done and veggies are tender.

(Meanwhile) Make sauce: Boil lemon juice, water and sugar together until sugar is dissolved. Add butter and stir until melted. Add your cornstarch (I used my VitaMix so I didn't have to worry about lumps).

Pour sauce over chicken and peppers and stir. The sauce will pick up some of the yummy cajun seasoning and be great!

Serve over warm rice.

Kitchen Tools Tuesday

My Apple Wedger from Pampered Chef.

Pampered Chef makes a great apple wedger. It is very sharp and comes with a blade cover for this reason. I have had mine for many years and it is still really sharp and in great shape!

Jamba's Cranberry Craze

I really liked this smoothie...but I'm a huge berry fan. I've loved all of these smoothies and enjoyed having such a great variety. I'm glad that Michelle at Do You Smell That!!? was so kind to share all of these fantastic recipes. My family has been spoiled and now when they hear my VitaMix my boys run in yelling "smoothie, smoothie!!" So fun. It's nice to have so much variety and they've been eating lots of strawberries that they wouldn't have eaten otherwise (don't you think it's crazy that only 1 of my 4 kids will eat strawberries!!) I did find small containers of plain yogurt at Fred Meyers, just in case anyone was wondering where to buy a small amount. Recipe from: Do You Smell That!!?

1 1/4 cups cranberry juice
2 oz plain yogurt
2 scoops of raspberry sherbet
2 handfuls frozen strawberries
1 handful frozen blueberries
ice if needed

Blend until smooth.

Jamba's Caribbean Passion

So I looked for passion-mango juice to make this smoothie, but I didn't have any luck. So I improvised and used mango-pineapple. All of my kids loved this one, John thought it was ok, but prefers his favorites now :) Spoiled man.
Recipe from: Do You Smell That!!?

1 1/2 cups mango-pineapple juice (passion-mango if you can find it)
2 scoops of orange sherbet (or pineapple)
2 handfuls frozen strawberries
1 handful frozen peaches (I used 3 bottled peach halves)
ice if needed

Blend until smooth.