The Secret Recipe Club: Nutella-Chocolate Chip Cookies

I just joined a cool cooking blog club called The Secret Recipe Club. Each month you are given another person's blog. You can make anything form this person's blog, and however many recipes you want to. You just can't post til the given date or let that person know you have her blog. Pretty cool!

My blog for the month is Sara at Cupcake Muffin. Check her site out; she has a lot of nice looking recipes! I chose Nutella-Chocolate Chip Cookies. I was going to a picnic and thought these look heavenly and I had all the ingredients. These are super simple to make and are DELICIOUS! You must bake them!

Nutella-Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup Nutella

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips or coarsely chopped dark chocolate

1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts, optional (I omitted)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with foil or parchment paper.

2. Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside.

3. Beat together the butter and sugars; add Nutella and beat until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients, followed by chocolate chips or chunks, and nuts if using.

4. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls two inches apart on the cookie sheets and then flatten slightly by hand. Bake 8-10 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

About 4 dozen small cookies.

Simple Southern-Style "Unfried" Chicken

This recipe is from Kraft Recipes. This was under Healthy Living. It was soooo yummy! I want to double the recipe next time so I can put on a salad. My son and I are not big fans of Ranch dressing, so I used Light Creamy Caesar Dressing instead. I would think Creamy Italian would work too. I will definitely make this one again and again...

Simple Southern-Style "Unfried" Chicken

Ingredients:

1 broiler-fryer chicken (3 1/4 lbs), cut up (I used chicken breasts)

1/2 cup Kraft Light Ranch Dressing (I used Light Caesar)

1 pkt Shake 'n Bake Extra Crispy Seasoned Coating Mix

Directions:

Remove skin from all chicken pieces except wings (unless you use boneless, skinless like me). Place chicken in large resealable plastic bag. Add dressing. Seal bag; turn to evenly coat chicken with dressing. Refrigerate 30 minutes to marinade.

Heat oven to 400 degrees (I did 350). Place coating mix in pie plate or shallow dish. Dip chicken in coating mix, turning to evenly coat both sides of each piece. Place in single layer on baking sheet. Sprinkle with any remaining coating mix. Discard bag and marinade.

Bake 40-45 minutes or until chicken is done. (I did about 25 minutes).

Pasta Fagioli

I found this yummy recipe while looking through Ginas Skinny Recipes. She has lots of wonderful looking recipes! The best is the Weight Watchers points. Yes....I'm trying again. Now that I'm mid-40's I realize it's time to do better on watching my health. So, as of Sunday....it's a new me!

I was going to make this for dinner on Monday. I had it mostly made, but had to run my son somewhere. I decided on something else that night, but the pot in the fridge and finished in the morning before work. It made for a great filling lunch!

Pasta Fagioli

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil

1/2 onion

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

1-15 oz can cannellini beans

15 oz can tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes

1 large bay leaf

1 T basil

1 T parsley

1 tsp oregano

2 (14 oz each) cans chicken brother (fat free)

1 cup water

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups (6 oz) dry Ditalini pasta or other small pasta

grated Parmesan

Directions:

In a deep pot, saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat.

Add beans, tomato sauce, celery, carrots, chicken broth, basil, bay leaf, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper. Add water and bring to slow boil. Let simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.

Add pasta and cook uncovered until pasta is al dente, according to package directions.

Ladle soup into bowls and top with grated cheese.

5 servings (about 1 1/2 cups each)

6 WW+ points (grated cheese extra)

Easter Dessert: Fruit Ribbon Cake

Happy Easter everyone! I hope all who celebrate had a wonderful day! I went to see my in-laws for a while. Jimmy stayed for dinner. I ate with my parents.

I found this dessert in Better Homes and Gardens Simply Better booklet Easy Cakes. I think it was free with another book I received. I thought this was a really good cake for Easter. Colorful!

This was really delicious. I didn't have the raspberry preserves, but I had strawberry. I used that instead. Good substitution. I finally know what lemon curd is! Really good!

Fruit Ribbon Cake

Ingredients:

1 pkg 2 layer size white cake mix, and ingredients to make

1 1/3 cups seedless red raspberry preserves

2/3 cup lemon curd

1 8 oz container frozen whipped dessert topping, thawed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour two 8x1 1/2 inch or 9 x 1 1/2 inch round cake pans; set aside.

2. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake according to package directions. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Removed from pans. Cool on wire racks. Using long blade serrated knife, cut each layer in half horizontally.

3. To assemble, place one split cake layer on serving plate; spread with half of the preserves. Top with second layer; spread with lemon curd. Top with third layer; spread with remaining preserves. Top with fourth layer. Spread whipped topping over top and side of cake. If desired, cover and chill for up to 4 hours.

Store in fridge.

Good 'n Easy Apple Cake

I found this recipe in Southern Plate cookbook (Love, Love the book!). I didn't have the apple pie filling, so I substituted a can of peach pie filling. So, I actually made Good 'n Easy Peach Cake! Christie was right...very easy to make. And, man is it GOOD! Loved it hot and cold. I served mine once with Cool Whip and the next time with vanilla ice cream. Both ways are delicious. It took the cake over to my parents for dinner's dessert. My mom called me the next day to tell me that this was one of the best cakes she has ever had!

Good 'n Easy Peach Cake

Ingredients:

CAKE:

1-21 oz can apple (or peach) pie filling

1 box white cake mix

3 eggs

1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

TOPPING:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup chopped pecans

4 T margarine or butter, softened

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease 13"x9" pan. Pour out filling onto plate and coarsely chop with knife. Place in large bowl and add cake mix, eggs and 1 cup nuts; mix well. Pour into baking pan.

Mix all the topping ingredients well with a fork and sprinkle over top of the cake.

Bake 50-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Taste of Home Favorite Sugar Cookies

I was asked by a fellow scout mom to bake 100 cut out cookies for the Coral Springs, FL Relay for Life which was yesterday. I told Kim yes as long as I do not have to ice them. She said she would have the ones that purchased the cookies ice them. The cookie cutter was a little small so hard to deal with. It's in the shape of the cause ribbon you see on cars. I had a few rejects and re-dos, but all in all, I ended up with about 84 cookies.

I used this recipe at Christmas time and they came out wonderful. The second batch I only chilled for about 45 minutes and were easy to handle.

Favorite Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Combine flour and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill for 1-2 hours.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with 2 1/2 inch cookie cutters. Place on greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Crescent Lemon Honey Buns

I was in the mood to bake something this morning. I looked through the Pillsbury Breakfast & Brunch Made Easy, March/April 2011. I actually had all the ingredients for these. While my son was still sleeping I whipped them up. We ate them with scrambled eggs and sausage patties.

These buns are much smaller than the picture in the book, but they are so delicious! We loved them! The lemon flavor wasn't over bearing at all. We added the coconut which was great in them. I would definitely make these a lot.

Crescent Lemon Honey Buns

Ingredients:

1 pkg (3 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup flaked coconut, if desired

1 T honey

1 tsp lemon juice

1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp butter or margarine softened (I used a tablespoon. Came out great)

1 T lemon juice

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet with shortening or cooking spray. (I used a stone and it didn't stick)

2. In small bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar, coconut, honey and 1 tsp lemon juice with wooden spoon until smooth.

3. Unroll dough onto work surface and separate into 2 large rectangles. Overlap long sides to form 13x7 inch rectangle; firmly press edges and perforations to seal. Spread cream cheese mixture on rectangle. Starting with 1 long side, roll up; press edges to seal. With serrated knife, cut into 12 slices. Place cut side down on cookie sheet.

4. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. In small bowl, mix powdered sugar, butter and lemon juice; spread on warm rolls. Cover and refrigerate any remaining rolls.