Rice Cooker Fried Rice

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Did you know that you can cook almost anything in a rice cooker?  Well I didn't.  I am all about easy and this my friends is almost too easy!  You throw everything in and turn the rice cooker on and set it and forget it! (Isn't that an infomercial?  Haha)  It is delicious!!  Flavor is awesome and rice is cooked perfectly.  It makes a great side to any meal!

Rating: 4 stars  Difficulty of Recipe: 1 star

Things that I changed: I didn't add the onion or bacon.  So I skipped the part of cooking the onion and bacon in the oil before adding the rice.  I did add Spam to my rice though.  (I never have used Spam until my sister in law made her delicious fried rice.  It is so good!)  

Things that I would do differently next time: Nothing

Recipe From: Food.com

Ingredients:

2 cups beef stock

2 cups rice

1 Tbsp oil (flavor infused oil works really well)

250 grams of bacon (or chicken, spam, ham, any meat you like!)

1 onion sliced

1 tsp minced garlic

1 cup frozen vegetables (I used peas and carrots)

2 tbsp soy sauce

1. Turn Rice Cooker to cook and add oil, bacon, onion, and garlic.  Stir frequently until onion is soft.

2. Add rice to rice cooker and coat in oil.  

3.  Add the frozen vegetables and beef stock and mix well.

4. Turn the rice cooker on and let it do its thing!

5.  When finished stir in soy sauce and serve!  Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

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I think this recipe topped my list of all time favorite meals.  It was beyond amazing.  This tasted like it was from a restaurant.  Everything about this recipe was perfect.  The sauce was thick, the chicken was cooked to perfection, and the entire family loved it.  My 5 year old that hates everything kept taking bites saying, 'Mom this is so good!'   I promise this is a recipe that you need in your family too!  

Rating: 5 stars  Difficulty of Recipe: 2 stars

Things that I changed:  I kept it the same

Things that I would do differently next time: Nothing at all

Will I make it again?  For sure

Recipe From: The Pursuit of Happiness

Ingredients:

3-4 Boneless Chicken Breasts, chopped into small pieces

1/3 cup flour

olive oil

1/2 t salt

1 t balsamic vinegar

3 T ketchup

6 oz frozen orange juice concentrate (thawed or put in the microwave for 45 seconds)

4 T brown sugar

1. In a bowl mix the orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, salt, and ketchup. 

2. Pour a small amount of oil in the skillet and brown the sides of the flour covered chicken.  The chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked since it is going in the crockpot.

3. After the chicken is done cooking, pour the pieces into the crockpot.  Then cover the chicken with the sauce mixture and give the pot a stir.

4.  Cook on low 5-6 hours or high 2-3 hours.

Cherry Pie Bars

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My favorite pie is cherry pie.  I just love me some cherry pie.  I have never liked pumpkin pie, so cherry pie is my top choice for Thanksgiving.   These cherry pie bars are the bomb!  It was just like biting into a cherry pie and served warm with a side of vanilla ice cream.... wow.  I think I want some more now!

Rating: 5 stars  Difficulty of Recipe: 2 stars
Things that I changed:  Nothing
Things that I would do differently next time: It suggests baking them in a 15x10x1 pan or a 9x13.  Next time I am going to bake them in a 15x10 pan so they aren't so thick and don't take so long to bake.
Will I make this again?  Yes
Recipe Adapted From: Julies treats

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 (21 ounce) cherry pie filling 2 if you like cherries (highly recommend)

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 Tbs milk

1. Cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs and beat well.  Beat in extracts.

2. In a separate bowl combine flour and salt.  Add to the creamed mixture.  Mix until combined.

3. Grease a 15x10x1 pan or 9x13, whichever one you decide to use.  Spread 3 cups batter in a 15x10x1 (Also works with 9x13- baking time will at least be 35 minutes)  Spread with pie filling.  Drop remaining batter on top of pie filling.

4. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes clean.  Cool on wire rack.  Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over the bars.  

Pumpkin Spice Buddies

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If you live in Utah, please come and take these away from me.  I am obsessed with muddy buddies, but this takes muddy buddies to a 'whole nother level'.  I seriously just found the BEST fall snack ever invented.  They are so easy and addicting.  These are made with cinnamon chex mix and oh my.  These are good!  Make them and join me in my new addiction.

Rating: 5 stars  Difficulty of Recipe: 1 star
How I changed them:  I added about half as much of the chex they required because I felt like my chocolate wouldn't cover them all.  I also added a little more powdered sugar.
Things that I would do differently next time: Nothing
Will I make these again?  Yes
Recipe From: Tablespoon

Ingredients:

• 1 box (13.5 oz) Cinnamon Chex® Cereal
• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
• 1 cup dried unsweetened cranberries
• 1 cup roasted and salted pumpkin seeds
• 2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, divided
• 
  
• 1. In a large bowl combine Cinnamon Chex Cereal, cranberries and pumpkin seeds.  Set aside.
• 2. In a double broiler or microvave carefully melt the white choocolate.  Add the pumpkin pie spice until fully incorporated.
• 3.Pour the white chocolate mix over the chex cereal and fold it into the cereal, fruit, and seeds are all covered evenly.
• 4. Divide the powdered sugar between 2 large bags.  Add half of the cereal to each bag.  Shake until the powdered sugar fully coats the cereal.
• 5. Lay on a baking sheet to dry.  Store in airtight container.

Pancake Squares

I love pancakes but really stink at making them!  I either burn the outside, they are too thick, or they just look plain funny!  I envy perfect pancake makers.  I never make them but I love them.  I found this recipe and I instantly fell in love.  I was in search of a breakfast for the picky 5 year old's birthday.  The best part is that I had all of the ingredients and they were almost too easy!!  Did they pass the birthday boy's test?  He ate 2 big squares and couldn't get enough!!  You should make these right now!  It gave me hope that I can have a decent breakfast before school.  My 9 year old asked me if I would make them every morning.... now that's pushing it! :)

Rating: 5 stars  Difficulty of Recipe: 1 star
Things that I changed:  My first batch I cooked them longer for about 20 minutes.  The second I cooked for about 17 and they were still a little moist and perfect!
Things that I would do differently next time: Nothing
Will I make these again?  I will try my best to be a good mom and make them once a week!
Recipe From: Big Red Kitchen

Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk
2 T. melted butter
1 Large egg
1 T. sugar
1 cup flour
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t salt

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly grease a 8x8 Baking dish.  

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together milk, butter, and egg.  Add sugar, then gradually beat in the flour.  Carefully stir in the baking powder and salt.

3. Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Serves 4-6

Banana Bread

This recipe was submitted to me by one of my readers, Penny.  She told me that I had to give it a try.  I love the banana bread recipe that I have.  It is just very heavy and cake-like.  This recipe was lighter and more like bread.  It was the awesome, and more like what you would expect in a banana bread.  Penny told me that this recipe has been in her family for 30 years.  She sent me a picture of the recipe card and it looked used and like it was 30 years old!  This recipe is definitely a keeper.  I am so glad that we have it for those over-ripe bananas!

Rating: 5 stars  Difficulty Of Recipe: 2 stars
Things that I changed: Nothing
Things that I would do differently next time:  I would love to try it with walnuts!
Will I make it again?  Yes
Recipe from: Penny

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas mashed (about 1 cup)
1 t baking soda
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup sugar
2 beaten eggs
pinch of salt
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour

Mix the ingredients in order given without over mixing the flour.  Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees until toothpick comes out clean.  (The recipe didn't say for how long but mine took 37 minutes.)  

Saucy Asian Meatballs

I should just start basing my rating system on the pickiest 4 year old known to man.   He ate these delicious meatballs and loved them.  If he liked them, everyone will like them.  I loved the flavor combination of this sauce and it was awesome.  We served ours over rice and had a side of broccoli and the family loved them!

Rating: 4 stars  Difficulty of Recipe: 3 stars

Things that I changed:  I cooked mine in the slow cooker all day and they turned out great!  I have also seen a similar recipe that put in 1/4 c BBQ sauce.  I added it in towards the end.

Things that I would do differently next time:  Nothing

Will I make it again?  Yes

Recipe From: Gimme some oven

Meatball Ingredients:

2 lbs. ground pork or ground beef

2 tsp. sesame oil

1 cup Panko or breadcrumbs

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

2 eggs

3 tsp. minced garlic

1/2 cup thinly-sliced green onions

optional garnish: toasted sesame seeds, sliced scallions

Asian Sauce Ingredients:

2/3 cup hoisin sauce

1/4 cup rice vinegar

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. sesame oil

1 tsp. ground ginger

In a large bowl, mix together meatball ingredients until well-combined. Shape into balls (I made mine about 1.5 inches, which yielded about 35 meatballs, but 1 inch is probably standard), and place on a greased baking sheet or in a 9x13 baking dish. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until meatballs are golden on the outside and no longer pink on the inside.

Preheat oven to 400.

While the meatballs are baking, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients until blended. Once meatballs have finished cooking, you can either dip each meatball individually (using a toothpick) in the sauce mixture. Or you can pour the sauce over the meatballs and gently stir them until covered.

Serve warm, and sprinkle with additional garnish if desired.

500 Calories Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

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I have a weakness for bread.  And bread is one of the worst things for you and so high in carbs.  So I was a little skeptical about this recipe being 500 calories for the entire loaf.  Usually things with cream cheese in it are never under 10,000 calories... so I put it to the test!  And it is true.  It came just around 500 calories for the entire loaf.  But is it any good?  It is delicious!  And you would never know that you use applesauce and wheat flour in it.  It didn't last long in our house, it was too yummy!

Rating: 5 stars  Difficulty of Recipe: 2 stars
Things that I changed:  I kept it the same
Things that I would do differently next time: Nothing
Will I make it again?  Yes
Recipe From: Pincookie

Ingredients:
Batter:

1-1/2 c. pureed pumpkin
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
1 whole egg
3 egg whites
1 c. all-purpose flour
2/3 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. Stevia Cup For Cup sweetener
1/2 c. granulated sugar1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. ground cinnamon1/2 t. ground nutmeg

Cream filling
8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 T. all-purpose flour
2 egg whites
1 t. vanilla extract

1. For the Batter: With an electric mixer, beat the pumpkin, applesauce, egg, and egg whites on medium speed until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the flours, Stevia, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Slowly mix the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture.

2. For the cream cheese filling: Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, egg whites and flour until creamy and smooth.

3. Grease 2 8x4x2″ loaf pans. Divide half of the batter between the two pans. Pour half of the filling in one pan and the other half in the second pan and smooth with the back of a spoon. Top with the remaining batter.

4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Don’t overbake or your bread will be dry on the edges. Cool and remove from pans. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Cheesy Pizza Casserole

I didn't use my slow cooker tonight... are you surprised?  I would marry my slow cooker if it was legal.  I love that thing.  But instead tonight I made this delicious pizza casserole.  The family loved it of course.  Pizza in a casserole form?  The best of both worlds!  And let me tell you, the homemade breadtwists are a must!

Rating: 4 stars  Difficulty of Recipe: 3 stars
Things that I changed:  I just used one big 4 cup bag of cheese.  Also didn't use the onion.
Things that I would do differently next time:  It makes a ton.  I would half the recipe if you have a family of 4 and make it in a 9x9.  We are going to be having pizza casserole leftovers for a week! :)
Will I make it again?  Yes
Recipe From: All Recipes

Ingredients:

1 lb bow tie pasta

1 lb mild pork sausage

1 large onion, chopped

2 (26 oz) jar of spaghetti sauce

1 lb cubed ham

1/2- 1 lb sliced pepperoni

3 (8 oz) bags shredded mozzarella cheese

6 Tbs grated parmesan cheese

2 Tbs chopped garlic

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Cook pasta in water until al dente.  Cook sausage, garlic, onion and oregano until juices run clear.  In a lightly greased 9x13 pan, pour a small amount of sauce to lightly coat the bottom.  

1st Layer- 1/3 of the pasta, 1/3 of the sauce, 1 bag of mozzarella cheese, 2 Tbs parmesan cheese, and sausage and oinions.

2nd layer- 1/2 of the remaining pasta, 1/2 sauce, 1 bag of mozzarella cheese, 2 Tbs parmesan cheese, and ham.

3rd layer- All remaining pasta, all remaining sauce, 1 bag of mozzarella, 2 Tbs parmesan cheese, all the pepperoni completely covering the top.

Bake at 375 for 40 minutes.  Let sit for 5 minutes before serving!

Click HERE for recipe

Mummy Cookie Bites

We made these for Family Night.  Everyone had so much fun decorating their mummy.  I even think my hubby had funner than my kids did making these!  These are such an easy and fun treat for Halloween!  And I love oreo truffles!

Rating: 5 Stars Difficulty of Recipe: 2 stars
Things that I changed: The first batch I used regular oreos.  (The Recipe says that you can use both).  It makes them too dark.  So I used the golden oreos the second time around and they turned out great!
Things that I would do differently next time: Nothing
Will I make this again?  Yes
Recipe From: Kraft Recipes

Ingredients:

1 Package (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened

36 finely crushed golden oreo cookies

14 oz Bakers white chocolate

Suggested Decorations: Mini chocolate chips (eyes), colored decors, 

Mix cream cheese and cookie crumbs until blended.  Shape into 1 inch balls.  Freeze for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, melt the Baker's chocolate as directed.  DIP balls in melted chocolate; place in single layer on waxed paper-covered rimmed baking sheet. (Re-freeze balls if they become too soft to dip.) Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.  MELT remaining chocolate as directed on package; spoon into small resealable plastic bag. Press out excess air from bag; seal bag. Cut 1/8-inch piece from one bottom corner of bag. Squeeze bag to pipe chocolate onto each ball for the mummy's eyes; immediately add desired decorations for the eyeballs. Pipe remaining chocolate onto balls to resemble gauze strips. Refrigerate until firm.

Homemade Breadtwists

If you are from Utah then you know of the amazing pizza factory breadsticks.  Sometimes when I go there, I just order the breadsticks.  They are to die for.  Well I am pretty sure this is the same recipe.  I can't even explain how good these turned out.  This pizza dough is the best!  It is so soft and easy to roll out!  And if you are afraid of making bread, or think it is hard, this is easy.  I made mine in my kitchen aid with a dough hook and it was simple.  I am surprised I even got a picture of these because they were so good, we all couldn't get enough!  This dough can also be used for pizza dough.  I made a second batch and we are making pizza tonight.

Rating: 5 stars  Difficulty of Recipe: 3 stars

Things that I changed:  Nothing

Things that I would do differently next time: Nothing

Will I make this again?  Yes.  They were so delicious and simple, they make an awesome side to every meal!

Recipe From: Favorite Family Recipes

Ingredients:

1½ cups warm water

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. yeast

3½ cups flour

1 tsp Salt
3 T butter 
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Garlic Salt

1.  Mix warm water, sugar and yeast together.  Let that sit for 5 minutes.  
2. Add flour and salt to the water, sugar, and yeast.  Mix this until smooth and let it raise for 10 minutes.  I used my kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook and it was so easy and worked great!
3.  Roll out the dough in a large square on a floured surface.  Brush the dough with the melted butter and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and garlic salt.  
4.  Fold the dough in half.  Cut the dough into one inch strips.  A pizza cutter worked great for me!
5.  Twist the one inch strips of dough and place on a cookie sheet.  Let that sit for another 10-15 minutes to raise.
6. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown.  My oven took about 17 minutes for these to be lightly brown.
7.  Immediately after baking brush with more garlic butter and sprinkle with garlic salt and grated parmesan cheese.  Serve with marinara sauce, alfredo sauce, or ranch.

This also makes an excellent pizza dough.  When I make this recipe, I half it.  It makes quite a bit of dough.  I use half of the dough for breadtwists and half of it for four personal size pizzas.  If you are making one pizza or mini pizzas, oven temperature and cooking time will still be the same.

Pumpkin Roll Bars

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These are seriously amazing.  And you get the same deliciousness without all of the hard work of making a pumpkin roll.  Easy, delicious, cheesecake, pumpkin, fall, this is my kind of recipe!

Rating: 5 stars  Difficulty of Recipe: 2 stars

Things that I changed:  I didn't have cloves.  They still tasted great without!

Things that I would do differently next time: Nothing

Will I make it again?  Yes

Recipe From: Family Cookbook Project

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin 
1/4 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Filling
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth. Beat in 2 eggs, pumpkin, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and water until well blended. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin/butter mixture and combine until well blended. Spread about 2/3 of the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/4 cup sugar, and ½ teaspoon of vanilla until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over the pumpkin batter. Dollop the remaining pumpkin batter over the cream cheese batter and spread out as evenly as possible. Use a table knife to swirl together the cream cheese and top layer of pumpkin batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the center of the pumpkin batter springs back when touched. Cool completely in pan, then cut into bars.