Chicken Souvlaki Dinner

Opa is one of my favorite places to eat.. love their tzatziki sauce (which you can buy at Sobeys for those of you who are interested) their calamari, their chicken pita wrap, the chicken skewers.. yum!

So I decided to make my own chicken souvlaki. It turned out great, I think I'll be making this a lot more in the future.

2 large chicken breasts
2 lemons
2 palmfuls of  greek seasong (you can use more or less)
pinch of salt
Olive oil
2 pitas
seasoning salt
1/2 cup tzatziki sauce
I recommend marinating the chicken a day in advance.

Cut your chicken into good sized chunks (enough for 4 skewers). Put them into a large zip lock bag (the freezer kind). Cut the lemons in half and squeeze into the zip lock bag taking care to prevent the seeds from dropping into the bag. Add in the greek seasoning, a little bit of salt and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Seal the bag and sort of move the chicken around in the bag using your hands (from the outside of course! lol). Let this sit in the fridge overnight to marinate.

When you're ready to make your skewers, pull your bag of chicken chunks out and begin to slide them evenly onto wooden sheesh kebob skewers. Heat up your pan over medium-high heat (or a George Forman grill if you have it - that's what I used). Once the pan is hot add your chicken skewers and let cook evenly on each side (about 4 or 5 mins per side).

While your chicken's cooking you can make your pita. Warm up a pan over medium-high heat and drizzle a little bit of olive oil over your pitas. Once the pan is heated toss in your pitas (oiled side down) and let warm for about 1 - 2 minutes on that side, drizzle the un-oiled side with olive oil, flip and season with seasoning salt. Let other side warm for about 1 - 2 minutes. Take out and cut into 4 quarters.

Serve alongside your choice of salad (greek, cesar, etc.) along with tzatziki and you're all set!

Enjoy!!

Super Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Again with the pumpkin (I know, I know.. I just love it so much!). I tried some store bought pumpkin chocolate chip cookies last year and they were really good, so I figured I'd give them a try myself.

They turned out great, nice and soft and almost cakey.. they were delicious.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 corn syrup
1 large egg
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add in the corn syrup and egg, beat together, then mix in the pumpkin puree.

In another bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and pumpkin pie spice. Slowly add the dry mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Once combined, add in milk and mix that in well.

And now the most important part... add in those yummy chocolate chips and mix them in so they're distributed all throughout your delicious pumpkin dough.

Drop rounded (I did very large rounded) teaspoons of dough onto your cookie sheet (about an inch or two apart).

Bake for 11 minutes. Once they're done, allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Enjoy!!

Peach Cobbler

My summer addiction for the last couple years has been white flesh peaches. I don't like normal peaches, but I LOVE white flesh peaches. The skin texture's a bit different, the flesh is much sweeter and they're SO much juicer. They're just fantastic!

Anyways, I remember as a kid my mom had made peach cobbler a few times and I just loved it. So what to do with all the extra white flesh peaches I had?? Peach cobbler of course!!

We took it over to a friends Suzy and Carl's for dinner and Carl actually uttered the words "This is something else" and according to Suzy he has mentioned it again a few times since! It was just as good as I remembered when my Mom made it, but even better because it was with white flesh peaches. And nice thing is, it's super easy to make!

Serve it up warm with ice cream = deeeelish!!

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tbsp baking powder
6 to 8 peaches
1/4 cup brown sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350 F and grease 9 x 13 inch pan.

Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add in the eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Add in the dry ingredients and blend together (don't over mix).

Slice up the peaches, put the pieces into a bowl and sprinkle brown sugar and a little bit of flour (about a tbsp of flour - this prevents the peaches from sinking too much) overtop of them. mix up until peaches are coated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and then drop the peach mixture over the batter evenly (DO NOT mix peaches into the batter, just let them sit on top).

Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes (or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean).

Enjoy!

Chicken Enchiladas

I was at my best friends house for dinner a couple weeks back and she made some chicken enchiladas that were to die for!! I hadn't had an enchilada in so long and I had forgotten how much I loved them.

She gave me her recipe for them, so I used that - plus (I did as we all do) I added a little bit of my own flavor to it and winged it a bit, and they turned out awesome! I think this will probably end up being a regular meal for us for a while. So a big thank you to my bestie Cassandra for giving me her recipe and the inspiration and guidelines for this great dish!

This recipe makes 8 servings

2 chicken breasts (boiled and shredded)
8 medium sized whole wheat tortillas
1/2 a sweet onion (diced)
1 tsp minced garlic
salt and pepper for seasoning
1/2 pkg of old el paso taco seasoning
1 cup rice
2/3 cup of light cream cheese
1/2 cup refried black beans
1 can of corn niblets
2 cups shredded tex mex cheese
3 sliced green onion (cut off majority of green part)
2 cans enchilada sauce

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Start by boiling your chicken on high for about 20 minutes. When it is cooked through, take it out and shred it using 2 forks. While you're shredded the chicken, heat a bit of oil in a large skillet and add the onion. Once chicken is shredded, add it in with the onion.

Start your rice on it's own and also begin heating your enchilada sauce over medium-low heat (add a tsp of the taco seasoning into the enchilada sauce).

Add in the garlic, salt & pepper and taco seasoning into the chicken/onion mixture. Cook for a couple minutes on its own. Add in the cream cheese and refried black beans then mix well into the chicken mixture until the cheese is melted and gooey.

Drain your canned corn niblets and then add them and your rice into the chicken mixture and again mix well.

One at a time add about a tbsp of enchilada sauce to each tortilla and then fill each tortilla with a generous amount of the chicken mixture and about a tbsp of shredded cheese and roll it up (be prepared to get your hands messy) taking care to make sure all the fillings are tucked in well. Then lay the filled tortillas in your casseroll dish side by side nice and tight.

Pour the remaining enchilada sauce overtop of the tortillas in your casseroll dish and then add the remaning shredded cheese overtop. Bake in the oven uncovered for about 15 minutes, and once it reaches 15 minutes, put it on broil for about 2 minutes (watching to make sure it only reaches the point where the cheese bubbles a bit).

Top with sliced green onion and serve with your favorite toppings (We like guacamole and sour cream).

Enjoy!!

Super Moist Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Icing

I always forget how much I love autum. There's always that sadness at the end of summer, but as the fall creeps in I always look forward to the beautiful colors, the cool days when you need to wrap up in a cozy sweater, curling up on the couch with my honey and of course the delicious smells of fall foods... like pumpkin... mmmmm. Glorious pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin scones, pumpkin pies.. and my new guilty pleasure.. pumpkin spice cake!!

This cake was incredible! It tasted like pumpkin pie, but a cake! So delicious and moist and addicting. I made it Friday night and it was polished off by Sunday night (sad thing is, it was just me and the hubby who enjoyed that whoooole cake ourselves!).

I hope ya'll like it and that it puts you in the mood for autum just as much as it did for me!

For Cake
3/4 cup unsalted, softened butter (plus extra for greasing the pan)
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup canned pumpkin pie filling (not pure pumpkin, I think the pumpkin pie filling is a bit sweeter)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 tbsp icing sugar (to dust greased pan)

For Icing
2 8 oz. pkgs cream cheese (at room temp.)
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. maple extract (more if you want a stronger taste)
3 cups icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease your bundt pan and dust with icing sugar and set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl mix together pumpkin pie filling, buttermilk and vanilla.

Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl at medium-high speed until fluffy (about 4 mins). Add eggs and beat for 1 more minute. Reduce the speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Pour the batter into your bundt pan and smooth it across the top. Bake for about an hour (check after 50 mins) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool the cake on a rack for about a half hour, then place serving plate on top of pan opening and flip again, let it cool for a little while longer until you're able to remove the pan.

While the cake is cooling you can make your icing by creaming together the cream cheese and butter, add the maple extract and then icing sugar. Mix on medium-high until nice and smooth, pour over your cake and serve!

Enjoy!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Balls

Sooo turns out I've still been a very bad blogger.. even after my last post/promise. But what can I say? It's been an insanely busy summer and I've barely had time to bake let alone do any posts! With fall and winter approaching I'll be housebound and a little busier in the kitchen.

My hubby's birthday was last weekend and I made a lot of delish treats (chocolate peanut butter cake balls, butterfinger cheesecake tarts and chocolate chip cookie cups filled with macadamia nuts and white chocolate ganache) that I intended to make it onto the blog.. but in the excitement of the weekend (and of actually eating the treats) I completely spaced out on taking any pictures of them!!! :(

These cake balls were amazing.. super moist and delicious and since the outside is just chocolate, I have used a picture of a previous set of cake balls that I made that were also chocolate on the outside. Even though these aren't the exact same cakeballs, they look the same on the outside (except the pic is of semi-sweet chocolate and this post has milk chocolate). Next time I make these I PROMISE to take pictures!

1 box of chocolate cake mix (I used swiss chocolate) or your fave choc. cake recipe.
2 cups peanut butter
2 cups icing sugar
6 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
Approx. 1/4 cup of milk
About 2 - 3 cups of chocolate chips

Bake the cake as directed on box and let cool completely.

While the cake is cooling make your chocolate icing by mixing the peanut butter and butter together. Once mixed, slowly add the icing sugar in, then the vanilla. The icing will be kind of crumbly, not smooth, this is when you add the milk... slowly add the milk until you reach a really smooth creamy consistency (you may need a bit more than a 1/4 cup).

Once the cake is cooled completely, crumble it into a bowl and add the peanut butter icing to it. You'll have to get in there with your bare hands and mix it together until the cake is completely moist and saturated with icing.

Put the mixture into the fridge for a couple hours to chill and harden up a bit so it's easier to roll into balls. When ready, line 2 baking sheets with wax paper and roll the cake into 1.5 inch balls and place it on the wax paper. Once they're all laid out, put them in the freezer for about a half hour to harden.

Melt the chocolate chips (1 cup at a time as needed) in a microwaveable bowl for about two minutes- checking on them after 1 minute and stirring to make sure it doesn't burn.

Drop the cake balls into the chocolate mixture one at a time with a spoon and coat completely,  then put them back onto the wax lined baking sheet to cool again.

Once they're all coated, pop them back into the fridge for about an hour to harden the chocolate. Keep stored in the fridge afterwards as well.

Enjoy!!

Sea Salted Caramels

Hey Everyone!

I know I've been a very bad blogger, and it's been like 3 weeks since my last post, but this summer has been super hectic and it seems I have less time to blog. But trust me, this winter I'll be stuffing my face every weekend and there will be more to post! Summer is just so busy since we're always on the go and tend to go away on the weekends.

But I promise this post is a good one, these are super delish and are very addicting! Who knew salt and caramel could go together so well!

This recipe was adapted from Annie's Eats.

3 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp salted butter (cut into pieces)
2 cups heavy cream
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tbsp coarse sea salt

Line the bottom of a 9 x 9 baking pan with wax paper, and grease with cooking spray or butter. Set aside.

In a saucepan, combine the cream, butter, vanilla extract, and just a teensy-tiny pinch of sea salt and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large saucepan combine the sugar, corn syrup and water over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil without actually stirring, just gently swirling the pan occasionally until it reaches a light golden caramel color.

Strap your candy thermometer onto the side of your saucepan, then slowly stir the cream mixture into the caramel mixture - be careful because it will begin to bubble up, so you need to pour this slowly while stirring.

Continue simmering the mixture, stirring occasionally until your candy thermometer reaches 248 F.

Immediately remove it from the heat and pour into your prepared pan. After about 15 minutes, sprinkle the sea salt overtop. Then let it cool for about 30 minutes until it's completely set and cooled.

Cut into small pieces (a greased up pizza cutter works great). You can wrap these in wax paper or put them into mini cupcake papers.

I would store these babies in the fridge the next time I make them because they flattened out a bit when I left them out on the counter overnight. Keeping them in the fridge, should help them keep their thickness and prevent them from flattening out.

Enjoy!!!