Favorite Recipes | Cupcakes and Commentary

Twenty-five minute tuna rice casserole

April 5, 2018 No Comments

I’ve shared this dish in the past, and this is just a remix with an added dose of rice and veggies. It’s super easy and will be done in less than twenty five minutes.

Ingredients

Two cans of tuna, drained

One can cream of celery

One bag of Green Giant Steamers Lightly Sauced Cheesy Rice & Broccoli Vegetables

Two cups of potato chips, lightly crushed

1/2 tsp paprika

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook the veggies for 3 minutes. Combine tuna, cream of celery, veggies, paprika, 1 cup potato chips. Pour into a lightly greased small casserole dish. Top with remaining potato chips. Cook for twenty minutes, or until heated through and potato chips are lightly browned.

Favorite Recipes

Deep dish pizza

March 13, 2018 No Comments

Saturday night dinner. Make the pizza sauce, save yourself time and buy canned pizza dough (or pick up fresh pizza dough from Publix). And definitely get the whole milk mozzarella and cut it into cubes instead of shredding. I made this in a 9×13 brownie pan, and only heated the oven to 475 (our oven is firmly against 500 degrees). And let it cool for at least five minutes before you eat it. You’ll probably need a knife and fork. It’ll be worth it. You may even need to make two. Just a thought. Enjoy!

Favorite Recipes, How was your weekend?, Mini Cupcakes

The in between season

March 12, 2018 No Comments

Right now we are living in the in between. Sometimes warm, sometimes cold. Sometimes rainy, sometimes sunny. Sometimes chili, sometimes salad. And sometimes that’s all in one day. So I’m running in and out to protect my tulips and daffodils, who have decided to shine this week:

And we’re making chili and cornbread on the rainy days:

And riding bikes and jumping on trampolines in between rain storms:

It may still be winter, but I can feel spring right around the corner!

Favorite Recipes, Mini Cupcakes

Lemon bars with A

March 6, 2018 2 Comments

At the boys’ book fair this week, A purchased an Auburn cookbook. I didn’t think I could love him more and then he goes and buys a cookbook so that we can cook together. This weekend we tried our first recipe from the cookbook: lemon bars.

He did all the slicing:

Mixing:

And helped clean-up:

And once they were baked and cooled we had lemon bars for dessert!

He did a great job!

Favorite Recipes

Tequila lime chicken & rice

February 27, 2018 No Comments

One of my favorite meals when I was in college was Applebee’s tequila lime chicken. It’s one of my favorites to recreate, with the Pioneer Woman’s chicken and rice, topped with special sauce, cheddar cheese, and tortilla strips. I put the sauce right on my chicken because none of my boys like it, but if you have a sauce loving family I recommend just swirling the amount you want right into the rice before serving and making some buttered tortillas to go on the side.

Special Sauce:

¼ Cup Mayonnaise

¼ Cup Sour Cream

2 Tablespoons Salsa

1 tsp chili powder, cumin, paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne

Favorite Recipes

Cast iron cornbread

February 21, 2018 No Comments

This is more method than recipe. All you need is a box of Krusteaz Honey Cornbread, a cast iron skillet, and half a stick of butter.

Heat your oven to 425 degrees. Place your half stick of butter in your cast iron skillet and place in oven for five minutes. Prepare the cornbread mix according to package directions. Pour in warmed skillet and then cook for 12-15 minutes.

While this is a lovely center piece, the edges are the true stars of this dish. They’re crispy, a bit caremelized and just a touch of sweetness. Serve it with a side of Mix and Match Mama’s chili because you can’t just eat cornbread for dinner….or can you?

Favorite Recipes

Molten lava cakes

February 13, 2018 No Comments

My nephew turned twelve this weekend. Twelve! He’s the oldest of all the cousins and I still look at him in wonder as it seemed like only yesterday B and I were exhausted from building Lincoln logs with him all afternoon (who knew kids were so exhausting?).

And checkout this awesome photo I took:

I’ll treasure it always. Ha! So, my nephew requested molten lava cakes for his birthday and my sister made these:

They’re a copycat of Chili’s and I can say as a former Chili’s employee, they’re better than Chili’s. They were AWESOME. I cannot even do justice to these. You will make them, eat them, and then want to make more.

Favorite Recipes

Broccoli cheese quiche

February 7, 2018 No Comments

As much as I love the convenience of tablets and smartphones, I love print. I love reading my checked out library books, I love when my Instyle magazine arrives each month, and I love when every quarter Magnolia Journal is in my mailbox. This quarter I tested out the quiche recipe, swapping out bacon for broccoli (and leaving out onion for B). I was a little worried about how it would turn out:

And it turned out fabulously! But then I was a little worried the boys wouldn’t eat it:

However, it turns out theylove quiche. And they didn’t even miss the meat! It’s kind of like Panera’s broccoli cheese soup in pie form. Yum!

Favorite Recipes, Milestones

Three cheese chicken enchiladas

January 23, 2018 No Comments

J got up on Saturday and declared that he could make his own breakfast. Not one to ruin a good thing I went through the steps with him, and he can now make his own bagel (not toasted, J is a bread purist) and applesauce breakfast. He was so proud! These moments are some of my favorite parenting moments…even if it was at 6:50 a.m. and I hadn’t had my coffee yet, and I was up at 6:50 a.m. on a Saturday.

And with that recipe accomplishment, I also spruced up this week’s chicken enchiladas with a mixture of cheddar cheese, super sharp white cheddar cheese, and Monterey Jack: