Super Simple Pecan Pie

First post in a while - looks like a trend here! What can I say, I'm super busy these days and find it hard to get the time to sit down and put up blog posts. As always, I'll try to do better, but can't promise anything! ;) I'm at home sick on my couch at the moment, so whaddya know?! I have some spare time to post!

I took a crack at Pecan Pie this past week and it turned out great!! I will definitely be making this again! It's the perfect fall dessert!

And this recipe is SO easy!!

1 (9") pie Crust (or you can do homemade, I'm lazy so I bought one!)
1 1/2 cups pecan halves
3 eggs (beaten)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp butter (melted)
1 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 F. and place your pie crust in your pie dish. Sprinkle the pecans evenly in the bottom of the pie crust.

Beat your eggs in a small bowl and set aside. Melt butter and set aside.

Combine eggs, sugars, melted butter, and mix. Add in your corn syrup, ground cinnamon and vanilla extract, whisk with your mixer until well combined.

Pour the mixture into your pie crust over your pecans, the pecans will rise to the top.

Pop in the oven and bake for about 45 - 50 minutes. You may need to cover the edges of your pie crust with tinfoil after about 20 minutes to prevent your crust from over-browning.

The middle of the pie should be a tad jiggly when you take it out. Let the pie set for about an hour and it will firm up.

Store uneaten pie in the fridge.

Enjoy!!! :)

Gingerbread Cake Balls

I really love holiday baking... and I really, really love gingerbread! These gingerbread cake balls are super moist and have a really strong yummy gingerbread taste!

You can use either milk or white chocolate dipping wafers when doing your coating, I've done both ways and both are good. (Milk chocolate pictured).

Cake 

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup molasses
1 cup boiling water

Preheat your oven to 375 F.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and ginger, then set aside.

In a mixing bowl beat together the butter and brown sugar until creamy (about 2 minutes) Beat in the eggs and then add in the molasses until well combined. Immediately stir in the boiling water. Add in the flour mixture and mix until smooth.

Pour the batter into a 9" x 13" pan and bake for about 30 minutes.

Let the cake cool. While the cake is cooling make your cream cheese icing.

Cream Cheese Icing

2 cups icing sugar
8 oz. pkg of cream cheese

Mix the icing sugar and cream cheese together with mixer until creamy and thin (you don't want it to be thick and creamy, it should be a bit runny - you can add some cream to it if you need to 1 tbsp at a time).

Store in the fridge until the cake is cooled completely.

Crumble the cake into a large bowl and pour the icing mixture overtop. Using your hands, mix the cake and the icing together until the cake is completely saturated with icing - pop into the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Line a couple of baking sheets with wax paper.

Once the cake/icing mixture is cold, roll the mixture into 1 inch balls and place on wax paper. Put back into the fridge for about 15 minutes.

While the balls are setting, you can start your chocolate coating.

Chocolate coating

3 cups chocolate dipping wafers (milk or white - whatever you prefer)

Place a saucepan filled about a quarter of the way full with water over low heat. Place a glass bowl into the saucepan (make sure it's not completely submerged in water, it should sit so only part of the bowl is in the saucepan).

Pour your chocolate dipping wafers about 1 cup at a time into the bowl and let them melt, stirring until thin and creamy (you can add a tsp or so of shortening to help thin it if you need to).

Drop the balls into the chocolate mixture one at a time coating completely. Retrieve them with a fork letting the extra chocolate mixture drip off. Place onto wax paper and top with nutmeg or sprinkles.

Let them set in the fridge for about 30 minutes, then they're ready to eat!

Store in the fridge.

Enjoy!!

Caprese Chicken with Gnocchi

This is my first blog post in FOREVER... I know, I know. But I have a good reason.

I've been a little down in the dumps lately in regards to cooking. My little girl is currently nursing and she's allergic to A LOT of things which means I've had to cut a lot out of my diet which really limits my cooking. When I say a lot, I mean a lot too... Milk, Soy, Egg, Nuts, Beans, Peas, Lentils, etc. So basically any kind of normal baking is not in the picture right now. She's 9 months old and I plan on weaning her to a milk alternative at 1 year, so I'll hopefully be posting a bit more come the fall... so please bare with me.

I posted a pic of tonights dinner on Instagram and a friend of mine asked for the recipe, so I figured it's a good opportunity for a blog post.

You can cook the chicken any way you'd like to, me personally I BBQ'd it... so that's what I'm going say to do for this recipe.

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
3 Tbsp EVOO
3 Tbsp Minced Garlic
1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes (cut in half)
1/2 Cup (loosely packed) Torn Basil Leaves
1/2 Cup Shredded Mozza Cheese
1 Pkg Gnocchi

Cook the chicken breasts however you prefer (I BBQ'd ours... or rather my hubby did!).

While your chicken is cooking, in a large skillet heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add in the minced garlic and saute until fragrant (a few minutes).

Add in the cherry tomatoes and cook for a few more minutes until the skin on the tomatoes starts getting wrinkled. Add in the torn basil and cook for another minute or so. Then move your tomato mixture to the side of the pan. Reduce the heat to low.

Boil your gnocchi. The nice thing about gnocchi is that it only take about 2 minutes to cook. Once they all float to the top you're done! Drain the gnocchi and set aside.

Add in your chicken breasts, top with about 2 tbsp of shredded mozza cheese (I used vegan cheese for this due to my dietary restrictions.. but I used real cheese for my hubby's). Spoon about 1 - 2 tbsp of the tomato mixture on top of each chicken breast, cover with a lid and let sit for a few minutes until the cheese is nice and melted. You'll have lots of leftover tomato mixture.. don't worry.. that goes with the gnocchi.

Remove the chicken breasts and turn the heat back up to medium-high, then add the cooked gnocchi to the skillet. Saute the gnocchi for about 4-5 minutes until it's a little bit browned, mixing it together with the leftover tomato mixture.

Plate you're meal and voila!! You're done! Easy as that.. this whole meal took all of about 20 minutes to make. :)

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup

This is a great soup for a cold snowy day.. creamy, delicious and healthy!

1 tbsp canola oil
1 small onion chopped
1 tbsp fresh minced ginger
1 pound butternut squash peeled and cubed
1 pound sweet potato peeled and cubed
1 medium potato
4 cups of chicken stock
2 cups of water
salt to taste

Heat the oil in a stock pot and add the onion and cook until tender, add in the minced ginger and cook until fragrant (about a minute). Add the sweet potato, squash, potato, chicken stock and water and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes or until sweet potato, squash and potato are tender.

Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth (if you don't have an immersion blender you can do it in the blender in batches).

Add salt to taste and you're done, easy as that!

Enjoy!

Corn and Black Bean Salad

I was always looking for a nice side dish to go along with my enchilada recipe  and this salad turned out to be perfect!! It's super healthy, super yummy and super easy to make!

2 cups canned black beans (drained)
1 1/2 cups corn niblets
1 1/2 cups diced tomato
1 cup diced bell peppers
1 1/2 medium avacados, diced
1/3 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 tbsp Presidents Choice green onion/cilantro/avacado salad dressing
(If you don't live in Canada and don't have Superstore, you can use 1 lime (juiced), 2 tbsp olive oil and salt and pepper for dressing instead).

Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl, top with the avacado dressing and toss until well coated. Let sit in the fridge for about a half hour or so before serving to let the flavors mingle!

Easy as that!

Enjoy!

Cookie Dough Fudge

I was craving something super sweet this week, so this weekend we were headed over to a friends house and I decided to make some cookie dough fudge to bring along!

It turned out awesome!! Perfectly gooey, perfectly yummy!

This was super easy and very quick to make!

 

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Line a 9" x 9" pan with parchment paper.

Cream together the butter and the sugar until well combined. Add in the vanilla. Then add in the flour 1 cup at a time until well mixed.

Beat in the sweetened condensed milk and mix until well combined. Add in the chocolate chips and pour into the pan.

Put into the fridge overnight to set. When ready to serve cut it up into bite size pieces.

Store uneaten fudge in the fridge.... although you might not have any uneaten fudge.. haha!

Enjoy!!

Spaghetti Squash Boats

Since I had my sweet little baby I've been looking for ideas for healthy meals since I'm back on Weight Watchers (and I'm happy to say I've already gotten back to my pre-baby weight!!). The skinnytaste blog is great and she posts WW points + values which is awesome.

I got the idea for these from her recipe. They turned out fantastic and I'll definitely be making these again!

1 medium sized spaghetti squash
2 chicken breasts (cut into chunks and cooked)
oregano/salt/pepper for taste
2 cups Light shredded mozza cheese
2 cups marinara sauce

Start by cutting a slice into the spaghetti squash (this is so it doesn't explode when you microwave it). Pop it into the microwave for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Put the halves onto a cookie sheet cut side up. Top each half with the chicken breasts, seasonings, 1 cup of marinara each followed by 1 cup each of cheese.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, once they're done cooking let them cool for about 5 minutes and you're done! Eat right out of the squash, the inside is like noodles only much healthier.

Enjoy!!