Super Delicious White Chip Brownies

This is one of our all time favorite brownie recipes. It calls for White Chips but you can use, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and we have even used mint chips. So fun to mix it up and have a different brownie with the same recipe.

1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups white chips

cream butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs together. Mix dry ingredients together and mix them into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in 1 1/2 cups chips. Melt the rest of the chips and drizzle them over the brownine after if you want, or just use all 2 cups in the mix. Cook at 350 for 25-30 min.

Ice Cream Cake.... Any flavor

The cake we made for Kayla's friend party

What was left of the cake we took to Julian's birthday party (a friend from Brady's work)

I've made this Ice Cream Cake a few times in the last year. The first time I made it was for Brady's Birthday last year, and it's almost his birthday again. I made it again for the first time just after my birthday a month ago and then for Kayla's friend birthday party and we had to provide the birthday cake for a colleagues of Brady's birthday party. Hence, we've made it quite a few times in the last month and could stand a few more times too. I totally made up this recipe and it is very versitile so you can do what you like with it. Have fun!!!

The great thing about this cake is that you can make it any flavor combination you like. Whatever Ice Cream your family likes- use that. If you like a flavor that goes well with chocolate, make the crust out of chocolate oreos. If it's more fruit flavored, use the vanilla oreos.

1 pkg. chocolate or vanilla oreos

1/2 stick butter, melted

carmel, chocolate, chopped nuts (whatever you want), strawberry sauce........

2 different flavor cartons of ice cream

1 10 in round springform pan ( I don't recommend any other kind of pan- the springform pan you can remove the sides so that you can cut the cake and serve it)

The top cake, I used vanilla oreos. Crush and stir in the melted butter. Use all but 1/2 cup to press down on the bottom of the springform pan. Save the rest to sprinkle on top. Place the crust in the freezer for about 10-15 min. so that you can easily spread the ice cream on it without it pulling up. Then you melt your bottom flavor of ice cream enough to spoon out thin layers so you can press it along the top of the crust. I used strawberry ice cream on the top picture, and chocolate fudge brownie on the bottom picture. Then you top that ice cream with chocolate/carmel/nuts (if you're using a chocolate crust) or strawberry sauce (if you're using a fruity ice cream. (this is a totally optional ingredient). Place inthe freezer for 10-15 min. to harden the ice cream. Then spread the second flavor of ice cream on top. On the top picture we use Birthday Cake flavor ice cream and the bottom picture I use Vanilla Bean. Then top with the same stuff you put in the middle and sprinkle with the remaining crushed oreos. Freeze for 1- 2 hours. Remove from freezer about 20 min. before you want to cut it. Remove the sides of the springform pan. Place the cake on a cookie sheet because it tends to get pretty messy cutting it up. It is SOOOO yummy!!! My favorite cake for the summer.

Meat Loaf

I know that not everyone is a meat loaf fan- but my family really is. All of us really like it and I really like this recipe. It has shredded carrots in it so they get some extra veggies hidden in it.

Meat Loaf

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef (I always us the leanest you can buy- usually the 90 or 93% lean)

1 egg beaten

2/3 cup milk

3 slices bread crumbled up really small (I always use wheat bread and break it up very small instead of blending it and making crumbs)

1 cup cheddar cheese

1 med. onion, chopped

2 med. carrots, shredded

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Combine all ingredients together and put in a 9 X5X3 in. loaf pan. Cook at 350 for 60-75 min. or until meat thermometer reads 160. The last 15 min I make a sauce and put it on the top. The original recipe says place it on there the whole time, but I think you loose less sauce if you put it on at the end and just let the brown sugar melt and get hot.

Sauce:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup ketchup

2 TBSP mustard

(the original recipe calls for half of this (I double the sauce) but we think it's better with doubled sauce- the recipe above is already doubled)

Rosemary Roasted Red Potatoes

These are easy and very yummy.

6-7 Large Red Potatoes, washed and cut up
1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp crushed Rosemary

Put all ingredients in a large bowl and stir together to distribute oil and spices on all the potatoes.
Put on a jelly rolls cake pan/cookie sheet with sides and bake at 425 for 40 min. Stir them around halfway through cooking. They are really great when they brown up on the bottom and get crispy. Enjoy

Flutter Dogs

This was a fun idea we did for my daughter's birthday party we found in a magazine. We used cresent rolls- cut each triangle in 2- or each rectangle that unrolls from the tube into 4. You should get 16 balls of dough. Lay them out with a small space between each pair. Cut a slit for the antennas and press it between the wings. Cook at 375 for 15 min. and ENJOY them before they fly away.

Blueberry Pancakes with Blueberry Syrup

I made these Easter Sunday morning and this will for sure be our new Easter Sunday Breakfast tradition. It was SOOOO yummy!! The girls said it was just like being at IHOP.

I made regular pancakes (the just add water kind- Krusteaz). It made about 16 pancakes. I added 2 tsp Vanilla (mine is double strength vanilla). I used a 12 oz package of frozen blueberries thawed- take out 1 cup of the blueberries for the syrup and add the rest of them to the pancake mix.

Blueberry Syrup Recipe:
1 cup sugar
2 TBSP Cornstarch
1 cup water
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 TBSP Butter

Add sugar and cornstarch to a saucepan and mix together. Add Water and bring to a boil- cook for 3 min. Stir in blueberries and reduce heat. Simmer for 8-10 min until berries burst and syrup is thick. Stir in butter until melted. Serve over pancakes with a squirt of whipped cream.
*Note: We didn't eat all the pancakes, but all the syrup was gone- you may want to double the sauce if you want it to go on all of the pancakes. We used the leftover pancakes the next day with just maple syrup.

Fusilli with Creamed Leek and Spinach

I found this pasta dish on the internet. It was easy and we all liked it. I served it with Chicken Sausages. Now that I've tried it once though, I would had a few cloves of garlic to the recipe when you cook the leek in the olive oil for flavor.

3/4 lb (12oz) Fusilli or Rotinni

1 1/2 TBSP olive oil

1 leek (white and light green parts only, thinly sliced)

1 cup heavy cream

4 cups baby spinach (coarsely chopped) (I just used a large handful)

1/2 cup lightly packed basil leaves (finely chopped) (or 1 tsp dried basil)

1/2-1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

I sprinkled a little shredded parmesan (not the canned kind) cheese on top and stired it in.

Boil pasta and set aside (add a little salt to the water). In a deep skillet, heat olive oil and add the chopped leek (a leek is the vegetable that looks like a monster sized green onion- they are usually sold in bunches of 3) and cook over med. heat until softened. Add cream and simmer until slightly thick- about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and the basil (if using dry), salt, and pepper and cook until spinach wilts- about 2 minutes. Add the cooked pasta into the skillet and toss with sauce. Remove from heat and add basil (if using fresh) and sprinkle parmasean cheese.