Chocolate Caramel Treats

Alright, here's a quick and yummy treat! (Warning: You may want to make 2 batches, one for yourself and one for the people with which you want to share!)

A friend told me about this idea coming from somewhere called the poor man's turtle. I'll take this one any day! I actually don't like pecans or nuts in my treats so I used M&M's instead. It's a great way to make these treats festive too.


Chocolate Caramel Treats

Bag of Rolos
Partial bag of pretzels
M&M's/Pecans/whatever you like with caramel and chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a jelly roll pan with wax paper for easy clean up. I opened my bag of Rolos first and counted them. (You'll want to use them all!) Lay out the same amount of pretzels in a single layer on the pan. They don't have to be spaced far apart; this was just my first time. Then you just open all the Rolos and put one in the center of each pretzel. Put pan in the oven and bake for about 3 or 4 minutes. Don't sit there and watch for the Rolos to melt all over the pretzels. They won't do it. (I found out the hard way and wasted a batch.) Remove the pan and immediately put your topping of choice on the Rolos, mushing them down with the topping. (Hint: If your topping isn't big like a pecan (plain M&M's that I used) you will need to mush the Rolos with a spoon before putting on the topping. (That is, if you want the Rolos to completely cover the pretzels.) Now you just need to refrigerate for a little while so the chocolate sets. Then just keep them in a sealed container.

Brian Regan on Cooking Shows

I love watching Food Network and I love comedian Brian Regan so of course I loved this bit of his...



(Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals do it the way Brian could learn!)

Spinach Artichoke Dip

This recipe originated from one of my Kraft magazines and I'm sure you can find the original on the Kraft website. I have made a few changes to mine though! For the better of course!


Spinach Artichoke Dip

1 10oz. package frozen chopped spinach
1 14oz. can artichoke hearts
12 oz. (1 1/2 packages) cream cheese
1/4 cup light mayo
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove spinach from packaging and place in a bowl of hot water. While the spinach is defrosting, put the cream cheese in a bowl and microwave for about a minute to soften it up. Add the other cheeses and the mayo to the bowl and set aside. Drain the can of artichoke hearts and chop them up into tiny bits. (I hate big chunks in my dip.) And I usually chop off and discard the end of the artichoke. (I don't use artichokes for anything but this recipe so I don't know if you're supposed to eat the end...) If the spinach isn't defrosted by now you can heat it up for 30 seconds to a minute in the microwave. Then drain the spinach really really well. I usually drain it then chop it up really small (of course) and then drain it in smaller portions again. Add the spinach and artichoke to your cheese bowl and mix well. You don't want big chunks of spinach sticking together. Scoop the mixture into an oven safe dish of your choosing. Sometimes I put mine in 2 separate dishes. (One for me and one for my husband so he doesn't hog it all!) Bake for 20 minutes.

I like to serve mine with bread. Take a baguette or a loaf about that size and cut it in half length wise. Then cut slices so you have bite size pieces. (This is what's in my picture above.) Then lay flat in one layer on a foil covered cookie sheet. (Easy clean up) Now just broil for about 2 minutes or until the bread looks lightly browned. Watch it closely though! I can't tell you how many times I've burnt mine!!

Chocolate Covered Cookie Dough?

I know, it's been too long. I've got a couple recipes so hopefully I'll be all caught up soon.

This recipe is something I did at the beginning of December for some friends and never got around to posting. It's super easy and it came from everywhere. Apparently most people know about it. I just asked someone how she made these delicious treats and she gave me the ingredients and I kinda figured the rest out on my own.

Oreo and Cream Cheese Balls
(They taste like chocolate covered cookie dough to me!!)
1 package of Oreos (or store brand) (DO NOT use double stuffed! The extra cream filling will mess up the consistency.)
1 8oz. block of cream cheese
About 10oz. chocolate for dipping (I didn't know how much chocolate to use and ended up with a ton extra so I rummaged through my cabinets and dipped a bunch of other stuff in chocolate too! Why waste it?!)

*Also, from the photographs you can see that I did 2 batches, one with vanilla Oreos and white chocolate and one with chocolate Oreos and milk chocolate.

In a blender or food processor, grind up entire package of Oreos into crumbs. Mix with the whole block of softened cream cheese. (This makes a ton if you're doing both flavors! I actually did just half a bag of vanilla and half a bag of chocolate Oreos.) Scoop 1/2 Tbsps of mixture and make into balls. Place on wax paper lined cookie sheet. Put in the fridge for at least 3 hours. An hour and a half or 2 in the freezer can work too. Dip in melted chocolate and return to lined cookie sheets. My house was really hot that day so I had to put them back in the fridge after dipping in chocolate. I have no idea whether you'll need to do this or not. I couldn't hurt though, to help seal it and firm up the chocolate quickly.

I just put a few balls in the corner of a ziploc bag and tied a ribbon around it, then cut off the excess bag.
These make great little basket fillers. Use any ribbon and even add food coloring to the white chocolate to convert to any holiday!

Chicken and Cream Cheese Packets

Well, these pictures are not the best examples of this recipe, but I don't make it very often and I wanted to put the recipe on my blog now. To explain the pictures, I had some leftover crescent dough so I cut out shapes with some Christmas cookie cutters I had and then painted them. Yep painted them. I didn't have any food coloring and the only thing I did have were these icing markers. They're really hard to color with so I just made do. Other than all of you seeing this, it was just for my husband and me so I didn't care how bad they looked. I was having fun. As for the recipe, my mom used to make these when I still lived at home and over the years I've changed the recipe at least a half dozen times. So here's how I made them the other night...

Chicken and Cream Cheese Packets

2 cans Crescent rolls
1 can Cream of chicken soup
4oz. Cream cheese (1/2 block) (+ maybe a little more)
5-6 Tbsp. Sour cream, divided
2 13oz. cans Chicken (or equivalent)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to the crescent roll package directions. Soften cream cheese in a microwavable bowl. Add the chicken (drained), 2-3 Tbsp. of the sour cream, and 2-3 Tbsp. of the cream of chicken soup. Mix well and add salt and pepper to taste, then set aside. Sometimes I need more cream cheese (if I don't use the sour cream or soup). Pinch together 2 crescent rolls to make a square/rectangle. You can do this to all the rolls at once or do them as you go. I don't like to mess up all my counter space so I usually do 2 at a time. Score your chicken mixture so you get an even amount in each packet. Put a really big spoonful (or 2) in the middle of each crescent square. You can do one of 2 things: bring the 4 points together in the middle to make another square, or bring one point over to its diagonal point to make a triangle. Then pinch the seams and turn the packet over (pretty side up) and place on a greased cookie sheet. When all of the packets are finished, bake according to crescent roll package directions. I usually have to add about 5 minutes. I almost doubled the cooking time when I made it with the Christmas shapes on top.
While the packets are in the oven, empty the remainder of the can of cream of chicken soup into a small saucepan. Heat over med-low until you're ready to eat, stirring occasionally. I also like to add a few Tbsp. of sour cream to this. When the packets are done and served, cover with the soup. Don't cover more than you want to eat or they'll be really soggy when you go to re-heat them the next day!

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken Breasts with Pesto Sauce

I know, this looks kinda nasty. My husband even told me he didn't want the green stuff on his chicken the first time I made this. (He didn't get a choice the second time.)
I found this recipe in my Rachael Ray: 30 minute Get Real Meals cookbook. She did some other things, but I'll tell you what I did. If you want her recipe I guess you gotta go buy the book!

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken Breasts with Pesto Sauce

2 Tbsp olive oil
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I always use tenderloins, 7-8)
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (the plain old sprinkle kind for spaghetti is best)
Pesto (you can get this next to the spaghetti sauces at the grocery store) -I don't like to waste my pesto so I didn't pre-measure this. I just used a teaspoon to scoop some out when it came time.
Salt and pepper

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium to medium-high heat with 2 Tbsp of evoo. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Dump the cheese onto a plate and press the chicken into the cheese, covering all the pieces in cheese on both sides. Add the chicken to the hot skillet, allowing it to cook for 6-7 minutes before moving it. Don't move the chicken around or lift it up to check it; the cheese is forming a crust and you don't want to mess that up. After 6-7 minutes, turn the chicken and cook for another 5-6 minutes. (I decreased my times by a minute or two since I was using tenderloins.) Top each chicken breast with a strip of pesto.

I served this with my favorite green beans. (I added a little butter this time too.)

Also, I fixed a little pasta. I filled a medium pot with half water and half chicken stock and boiled the pasta to the box directions. After draining the pasta, I added 1-2 Tbsp of butter, 1 Tbsp of pesto, and a half cup of Parmesan cheese. I mixed it all together and thought it needed some color so I chopped a few leaves of fresh basil and mixed that in too.

Broccoli Ham Ring

This recipe came right out of a cookbook that my mother put together for each of her daughters at least 5 years ago. I love this book. It's got all of my mom's best recipes. Some of them came from friends and most of those are given credit. This one didn't have anyone else's name on it so I'm assuming my mom made it up. Of course, 20 years ago, when she first made it, she could have found it in a Betty Crocker cookbook. But my mom is famous for changing recipes (that's where I get it from). So, if you look hard enough, you may find a recipe like this one out there somewhere...

Broccoli Ham Ring

1 cup chopped ham
1 cup chopped broccoli
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
2 Tbsp. Dijion mustard
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 packages refrig. crescent rolls

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together, except rolls. Set aside mixture. Unroll crescent dough and separate into 16 triangles. Arrange 4 triangles with the wide end corners touching to make a square. Fill the gaps with 4 more triangles (wide ends towards the middle). Now there are 8 gaps so fill them with the remaining 8 triangles. There will be lots of overlapping. (Maybe I should have photographed this part too!) Scoop the ham mixture evenly in a circle around the wide ends of the triangles. Bring the outside points over the mixture and tuck under the wide ends. Some of the mixture may still show through. After doing this, I molded mine into a circle by squishing a little here and there. Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden brown.

In case you have lots of leftover ham from Thanksgiving (or soon to be Christmas) and don't know what to do with it, this is a great time to use it! That's what I used in mine and it was FABULOUS! After I finished my little portion of dinner I thought about taking a picture of the inside too, but my husband had already eaten the rest of the circle!