Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Pinterest = BFF

I love Pinterest and I would think most people, especially the ladies, would agree with me.  I, guiltily, admit I spend entire too much time surfing around Pinterest, finding craft ideas and recipes!  I haven't spent much time completing any crafts, but I have tried my hand at quite a few recipes and I thought I would share the results.

Easy Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

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I made this one afternoon before Alex went to work.  Each member of his squad usually brings something for a dish, this week it was sloppy joes, and he was supposed to bring cheese.  I thought it would be nice if he also brought a dessert.  Plus, I had seen this recipe and I actually had all the ingredients on hand, very rare for most Pinterest recipes I find.

Ingredients needed
- One box of vanilla/yellow cake mix (I used white)
- One cup of plain yogurt (I used vanilla greek yogurt)
- One cup of fresh blueberries (I used frozen, thawed of course)
- 1/2 cup of water
- Zest and juice of a lemon (I didn't have this, but I used lemon instant pudding)
- One teaspoon of turmeric, optional (did not use)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to temp according to box for a bundt pan.
2. Grease and flour your bundt pan.
3.  Add blueberries and water to a small saucepan to simmer for 5 mins, or until thawed (if using frozen) then allow to cool.
4.  Mix all cake mix ingredients according to directions (I also put my instant lemon pudding in at this point), folding in the yogurt, lemon/zest (if using), and optional turmeric.
5. Puree your blueberries using a hand blender or food processor.
6. Pour puree into your cake batter, but do not stir (Make sure you do not have any excess water in your blueberry mixture).
7. Pour batter into bundt pan and bake according to box instructions.  (Mine took about 10 minutes longer).
8. Remove after baking and allow to cool before inverting and removing.
9. Glaze with powdered sugar!

This turned out amazing.  I thought it was delicious and Alex's coworkers did not complain!


Slow Cooker Herbed Drumsticks

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I have been using my Crockpot a lot more lately.  It's an easy way to have dinner ready for when Alex gets off work.  It also helps keep the house cool since I'm not running the oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

This recipe was a great find.  It was super easy to prepare and the crockpot did all the work. The added bonus is they look just like the picture when they were finished!

Ingredients needed
- 2 tbls olive oil
- 1.5 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp seasoned salt
- 1/2 tsp ground thyme
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp browning sauce (Kitchen Bouquet)
- 8 fresh chicken legs (drumsticks)
- 1 cup chicken broth

Directions
1.  In large mixing bowl, combine the first 8 ingredients ( I didn't have thyme or browning sauce so I used a dash of Worcerstershire sauce instead).
2. Toss chicken legs in the mixture and place in a 5-7 qt slow cooker.
3.  Pour the chicken broth in the slow cooker (I used 1 can).
4. Cover and cook on low for 4 - 5 hours, until tender (My drumsticks were frozen, so I cooked mine for 6 hours).

This recipe turned out amazing.  The meat literally fell off the bone.  In place of creating a rub, you could easily use a premade mixture of herbs/spices.  I didn't cook potatoes in the cooker, I fixed mashed potatoes and creamed corn instead.

CrockPot Zesty Italian Chicken Pasta

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I'm finding out anything I make in the CrockPot is super easy and this was no exception.

Ingredients Needed
- 4 chicken breast
- 1 packet of Zesty Italian dressing seasoning
- 1 8 oz cream cheese (softened)
- 2 cans cream of chicken soup

Directions
1. Place all ingredients in CrockPot.
2. Cook on low for 4 hours.
3. Serve over your favorite pasta.

I think you could probably use actual italian dressing instead of the packet and I would probably only use 1 can of the soup.  This was so delicious and will definitely make it into the rotation this fall when I start back school.

Crescent Cinnamon Rolls

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I pinned these a few weeks ago and have been dying to make them.  Since Alex finished off all the cereal before he went to work this morning, I figured it'd be the perfect time to fix them.  Even though I had to make the filling and the glaze, these took me a total of 15 minutes, including bake time, to fix.

Ingredients needed:
- 1 tube of Crescent Rolls (I used the Food Lion brand)
Filling
- 6 tbls butter, softened
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 2.5 tsp cinnamon
Glaze
- 2 tbls butter, melted
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbls powdered Sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Place the unrolled and separate crescent rolls on an un greased cookie sheet.
Filling
3. In a small bowl, mix together the butter, sugar, and cinnamon
4. Evenly spread the cinnamon butter mixture over the crescent rolls and roll up.
5. Place tip side down on the cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes
Glaze
7. While baking, mix together the melted butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
8. Place in a zip lock bag and snip a tiny corner off. (I didn't use this step, I just used my spoon to drizzle the glaze over the baked cinnamon rolls).
9. Drizzle the glaze over the cinnamon rolls.

Mine definitely didn't look like the picture from the recipe, but they sure were delicious.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these recipes.  They all were hits and I will definitely be making them all again.  I also enjoyed doing quick reviews and shares of these recipes, so I will definitely try to do this more often with some new recipes.  What are some Pinterest projects you have tried?

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