Recipe Review: Monkey Bars

I found this new awesome recipe, or what I thought was a new awesome recipe and wanted to share it with everyone! The other day while cleaning up the kitchen, I was faced with the option of using my browned bananas for something or just throwing them away

 I hate to waste food so I looked for a recipe that would be great for my too ripe bananas and stumbled across a little something called Monkey Bars! I actually lost my recipe I was using but this recipe by A Girl who Ate Everything, is the exact same thing only she calls it monkey squares.

 

I will give this recipe a 4.0/5. I love them, I nearly fell out of my chair after first bite. But then they just sat on the counter and sat on the counter and no one would eat them.  So I assume the only person who loved them was myself. 

 

This recipe is copied directly from A Girl who Ate Everything and I take no credit for this recipe, I just tried it and wanted to share it!

 

Ingredients

 

Banana Bread Bars:

• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 ¾ cups (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Browned Butter Frosting:

• ½ cup butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
• about 3 tablespoons milk or half and half

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour 10x15 jelly roll pan or line with parchment paper (for thicker bars use a 9x13 pan). Beat first four ingredients until creamy. Blend in bananas and vanilla for one minute. Add dry ingredients and blend for one minute. Stir in nuts and spread in pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Cool slighty until warm but not hot and frost with Browned Butter Frosting (recipe below).
2. For the Browned Butter Frosting: Heat butter in saucepan over medium heat past the melting point until it is boiling and a delicate brown. Remove from the heat and immediately add the remaining ingredients. This should be thicker than a glaze and thinner than frosting. Using a spatula smooth over the top of the Monkey Squares immediately. The frosting will be easier to spread once it's on the warm bread.

 

So I'm on to my next recipe, with a stick of butter in my sweatshirt to speed up the "room temp process".  And no I can't stick it in the microwave :)  

Beer Dip

 Whats better than hot wings, chips and dip and a cold beer on Game day??  I haven't found a way to combined all three just yet but I have found a way to combined chip dip and beer to make... beer dip!
This recipe would be great for tailgating or a Super Bowl Party. It's really easy too!

Ingredients:
1- 8oz Cream Cheese
1-pack of dry Ranch dressing mix
2/3 Cup Beer
2-3 cups Shredded Cheese

Instructions:
1.In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, beer and dressing mix until blended.
2.Stir in cheese.
3.Serve with chips or pretzels.

Adapted from Lady Behind The Curtain 

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Crockpot Sweet BBQ Chicken

This week I am busy catching up. Catching up on cleaning, house work, blogging and just life in general.   There are so many demands in our daily life and it's hard to stay caught up. So easy meals for supper is ideal for our busy life's, and thankfully this one is super easy!

Sweet BBQ Chicken Recipe:

Ingredients:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 (17.5 oz) bottle barbecue sauce

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

Place chicken breasts in the bottom of slow cooker.  In a mixing bowl, combine barbecue sauce, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce.  Pour sauce over chicken.  Cover and cook on high 3-4 hours or low for 4-6 hours.

Adapted from Six Sisters Stuff

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Strawberry Kiwi Fruit Pizza

Strawberry Kiwi has always been my favorite flavor. If strawberry kiwi was an option it was the option I picked! So it was a no brainer when I needed to make a quick and easy snack. This recipe is great for any party and if you can forget about the cream cheese and sugar, its healthy too ;)

Strawberry Kiwi Fruit Pizza

Ingredients:

1 package (18 oz) refrigerated Cookie dough.

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup Sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll cookie dough out onto greased pizza pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned.  Allow to cool completely

2. While your cooked cookie dough is cooling begin slicing up your fruits. I used about 2 kiwis and 4-5  good size strawberries.

3. In a small bowl combine Cream Cheese and Sugar, mix well. Spread mixture evenly over top of cookie.

4. Arrange kiwi and strawberries on top of mixture. Enjoy!

There you have it, a super easy dessert pizza to take to parties or just enjoy at home!

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Lucky Charms Chex Mix



My favorite cereal when I was a little girl was Lucky Charms.  Who wouldn't love a bowl full of sugar and marshmallows! So you could imagine my excitement when I ran across this super easy recipe and the main ingredient was Lucky Charms.  If you love Lucky Charms, you've got to give this recipe a try!

Here's what you'll need.

A box of Lucky charms Cereal
A box of Vanilla Chex Cereal
Sprinkles and Nestle Premier White Chips


Instructions:
 Pour out about 3 cups of Lucky Charms Cereal and pick out Marshmallows.
Set Marshmallows aside, you'll use them later.
Mix equal amount of Chex cereal with Lucky Charms cereal in a bowl.
Microwave white vanilla baking chips until it can be stirred smooth. Pour over cereal mixture in large bowl; toss to evenly coat.
Spread mixture in single layer on cookie sheet lined with foil or waxed paper. Immediately sprinkle with candy sprinkles. Let stand until set, about 20 minutes.
Toss in the marshmallows and enjoy!

There you have it. I hope you enjoy it!

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Carmel Apple Cake

Fall is near... I can taste it!

I'm so excited to fall, I can't hardly stand it. What's better than crisp cool mornings, beautiful mums, pumpkins and Carmel Apples (or is it caramel, who knows?!)!!

Carmel Apples are one of my favorite fall treats, so I thought I could make a cake to get my fall fever started!

I introduce to you the....

This cake is so easy to make! There's only 4 ingredients ya'll!

Ingredients:

1 (18.5oz) Box Yellow Cake Mix

1(21oz) Can Apple Pie Filling

2 Eggs, beaten

1 (12oz) Jar Carmel Ice Cream Topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine dry cake mix, pie filling, beaten eggs and 1/4 cup caramel topping.

Using an electric or stand mixer, mix on low speed for one to 2 minutes. I wanted my apple chunks to be very small. If you want your apple chunks larger,be careful not to mix too vigorously.

Pour batter into prepared baking dish. Batter will be thick.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes.

Remove cake from oven and pour remaining caramel topping over warm cake.

Some of the caramel topping will go over the sides as you spread it out, that's ok!

The warm cake is going to absorb most of the sauce as it begins to cool.

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

This cake is best served straight from the oven, but it's good when reheated in the microwave.  I like it better warm than room temperature.

There ya'll have it!  Ready for fall, try this cake!!

Recipe adapted from Gooseberry Patch- The Harvest Table

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Super Easy Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream

I don't know about ya'll, but one of my favorite things to do during the summer is make homemade ice cream. Homemade ice cream is always better than store bought in my opinion. And what girl doesn't love chocolate?  So here is my  super easy and fatting recipe!

Super Easy Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream

6 Cups of Milk
3 Large cans Condensed Milk
15 tbsp. Cocoa
Ice Cream Machine

In a large mixing bowl, combine milk and condensed milk
-Dissolve cocoa in a bit of hot water
-Once dissolved, stir cocoa into the milk mixture until completely blended.
-Pour ingredients into ice cream canister and follow ice cream machines directions.

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Strawberry doughnut cake

While browsing Pinterest I found this amazing cake recipe and thought I would give it a go! It's way to pretty to not want to try!

The recipe was in grams and after some googling I got everything converted to measurements I could understand.

Strawberry 'Doughnut' Bundt Cake
(Adapted from this recipe, makes one small bundt cake or 6 cupcakes)

1/3 cup softened butter
1/2 cup white sugar  sugar
1 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup self rising flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
A pinch of salt
1/4 cup sour cream
1 cup  strawberries, hulled and pureed

For the strawberry jam icing:
1 cup powdered sugar,
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup strawberry jam
A pinch of salt
Sprinkles, to decorate

Preheat oven to 320F and butter a bundt pan. Whisk strawberry puree in a medium bowl with sour cream and set aside. Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs, then add vanilla extract. Meanwhile, mix flour and cinnamon into a bowl with a pinch of salt. With mixer on low speed, add half the flour mixture, then half the strawberry mixture. Repeat, then spoon mixture into cake pan. Smooth top, then bake until cake is golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean  about 45-50 minutes. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then invert onto a rack and cool completely.

Place sifted icing sugar and butter in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add strawberry jam and salt and beat to combine. Use a spatula to ice the cake and top with sprinkles. Can be stored in an airtight container for a few days.

 

 

The sad thing about this was I was so proud at how pretty my cake turned out, and now that I look at my picture and compare it to this other bloggers picture I'm almost ashamed haha! I have got to work on my picture taking skills!

 

 

Philly cheesesteak stuffed bell peppers

As part of the 6 week Pinterest challenge, I decided to make these awesome bell peppers. Let me first say I'm not a stuffed bell pepper kind of person but I thought these looked to amazing not to try.

For this recipe, you need some bell peppers, I bought two because four halves would be plenty. You also need some roast beef, an onion, mushrooms and provolone cheese. I used deli roast beef and had them shred it for me to save me some time. I also used canned mushrooms to save some time cutting.

First thing you want to do is cut your peppers in half and removed the seeds. Also preheat oven to 400.

Next you want to sauté your onion and mushrooms. You want to saute this mixture until the onion is carmelized, this should take about 15-20 minutes. After you have your mixture sautéed, add your roast beef. Cook for about 5-10 until it has browned. Afterwards remove from heat.

Okay here comes the fun part, stuffing the pepper. First stuff a slice of provolone cheese into each pepper. Add the sautéed mixture until the peppers are nearly overflowing, then place another slice of provolone cheese over top of the mixture.
Place into preheated oven and cook for 15-20 minutes or until top is golden brown.

And there you have it. Ah-mazing stuffed bell peppers! 

 

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