Chocolate Covered Banana Pieces

This recipe is for my friend Alanna!  She "pinned" a picture of the yummiest looking banana pieces that were covered in chocolate onto Pinterest.com.   I saw it and decided I needed to make them.  Unfortunately when I clicked on the link it brought me to a Canadian meat market distributor.  So, I made this up.  It was amazing.  I will without a doubt make these again!  (Please excuse the pictures...I took this one before they chilled and before the chocolate hardened up.  Good thing because we ate them so fast I didn't have time to take a picture!)

Ingredients:
2 Bananas
1 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
6-8 Popscicle sticks
Sprinkles or nuts for decorating if you want

Directions:
*Cut your banana into round slices about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch thick.  Too thin and the popscicle stick will  break the banana slices.

*In a microwave safe bowl, add your chocolate chips.

*Microwave the chips for 20 seconds.  Stir, then microwave another 15 seconds.

*Be careful, chocolate burns easy, so make sure to stir it OFTEN.  Stir every 15 seconds or so.  Burning chocolate chips is a terrible smell!

*Continue to microwave and stir until the chips are melted.

*Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or tin foil.

*Put the popsicle sticks through 2 of the banana pieces.  My pieces still broke a bit, so go slow.  As long as you can pretend to put the banana pieces back together you will be fine.  The chocolate will make them stick back together perfectly.

*Take a spoon and cover your bananas everywhere in melted chocolate.  Any area of banana that is now covered will turn brown because of the air so be careful to cover fronts, backs, sides, and all edges in chocolate.

*Put your chocolate covered banana's onto the baking sheet.  Sprinkle with any toppings you would like (if you want any at all).

*Let air dry for best results.  Air drying will result in the hardest chocolate later. You can put it in the fridge, but as soon as you take it out it will re-melt a bit and go to a mushy chocolate.

Chicken Fried Steak

Another recipe by Nick!  So yummy.  I was impressed with how easily it came together too!

Ingredients:
2-3 Sirloin steaks (the cheap kind)
1 Cup flour
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 Tbsp pepper
2 eggs
Vegetable oil for frying

Directions:
*Take your steaks and dredge it in flour.  Completely coat them.

*Put your steaks onto a hard surface and pound the crap out of them with a mallet.

*Put the steak back into the flour to recoat.

*Remove them from the flour mixture.

*In a bowl whisk your two eggs.

*In the flour, pour the rest of the ingredients (pepper, paprika, garlic powder).

*Put your steaks into the egg and coat both sides.

*Remove from egg and coat in the new flour mixture.

*Heat one inch of oil in your skillet on medium heat.  DO NOT GO OVER MEDIUM OR IT COULD START A FIRE  :)

*After 4-5 minutes, put one piece of steak into the oil.  Let fry for 4-5 minutes per side.

*Remove from oil and place on a couple pieces of paper towels (to absorb extra oil) and place on a cookie sheet in your oven.  Set temperature to 225*F.

*Cook the other steak/s.

*Serve with peppered country gravy if you have it!  (Just buy one of those packets at your grocery store.  So much easier than making it home made!

Brushetta Topped Chicken

Holy amazing.  Yes, that is all I have to say.  Oh, and Mom, this is the recipe you said you wanted to try.  Okay, now I'm done.

Ingredients:
2-4 Chicken breasts
1/4 Cup balsamic vinegar or balsamic vinaigrette
1/4 Cup olive oil
Mozzarella cheese slices (2 per chicken)

Brushetta Toppings:
3-4 Roma tomatoes
8 Fresh basil leaves (I got mine at sprouts)
4-5 dash's garlic powder
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar or vinaigrette
Black olives, diced, OPTIONAL

Directions:
*Dice your tomatoes up into small bite sized pieces.  Throw all the inner junk out (seeds and slimy parts).

*Roll all of your basil into a roll, then cut it into small pieces.  Works amazing... (picture is before I picked the leaves off the stalk and before I diced them up...oops)

*Add your garlic powder, salt, and balsamic.  Put it in a bowl and throw it in your fridge.  We like ours cold so I make this hours ahead of time.  You can make it a minute or two before serving though.

*Cook your chicken breasts on the grill outside, indoor grill, or on the stovetop.  Just cook them however you want...

*Once the chicken is done, put the mozzarella slices on top of the chicken and continue to cook until they melt.

*Remove your chicken and put them on your plates.

*Spoon the brushetta topping on top.

*I added black olives to mine, Nick did not.  It was delicious...and we don't like tomatoes!

Sausage and Spinach Pizza

Holy amazing.  Totally made this recipe up on my own.  Will be making again very soon!

Ingredients:
1 Can pizza dough (I used pillsbury)
1-1 1/2 Cups alfredo sauce
1 Bag frozen spinach, thawed and well drained
1 lb mild italian sausage
2 Cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
*Pre-heat your oven to 400*F.  (Use the temperature your can says to use...mine was 400*F).

*On a baking sheet sprayed with baking spray, unroll your pizza dough.  Stretch it out to the size you want.  If you want to pinch the edges for a crust, do that now also.

*Pour your alfredo sauce onto the dough, not going all the way to the edges though...You need to have the edges without sauce to help pick your slices up with once cooked.

*Spread the sauce out.

*Cook your sausage in a skillet on the stove until cooked.

*Once cooked, add the spinach and cook until heated through.  Be careful to stir constantly because the spinach can easily burn.

*Pour your meat and spinach mixture onto the alfredo sauce.

*Top with shredded cheese.

*Put your pizza into the oven and bake for the amount of time that your pizza container told you to.  Mine was for about 18 minutes.  This is so so so good!

Pumpkin Pie

Here is our favorite pumpkin pie: Libby's with a slight spice change.  There are 2 kinds of pumpkin pie's: those that use molasses in them, and those that don't.  This one doesn't.  Nick mentioned to me a couple years back that he didn't like pumpkin pies with molasses because they taste burnt.  And I totally agree!  There was always some pumpkin pie's that I loved, and some that I could never finish the piece.  He figured it out for me!  (I am willing to try new kinds though if you have recipes for them!)

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
dash of cinnamon
dash of allspice
2 Large eggs
1 Can pumpkin (small can)
1 12 oz Can evaporated milk
1 frozen, uncooked pie crust (Deep dish)

Directions:
*In a mixer, mix the sugar, salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and allspice.

*Add the pumpkin to the spice mixture and mix well.

*While mixing the spices and pumpkin, add the eggs and mix well.

*Now, mix in the evaporated milk slowly while the mixer is going...

*Pre-heat your oven to 425*F.

*Take your frozen pie crust out of the freezer and put it on a baking sheet that has been lined with tinfoil.

*Pour your pumpkin mixture into the pie crust.  YES, it is supposed to be super liquidy.  Weird, I know.

*Very carefully put your pie into the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

*After 15 minutes, change the temperature of your oven from 425 down to 350*F.  Leave your pie in  the oven the whole time, even through this change in temperature.

*Bake for 50-55 minutes.  You want the top to brown slightly.

*After cooking, place pie on a cooling rack for 2 hours.  Yes, 2 hours.  After the 2 hours you can have a slice, or put it directly into the fridge, covered.  If you have a piece after the 2 hours it will be a soft pumpkin pie.  If you put it into the fridge and have a piece later, it will be a more solid pie.  YUM!

Spinach and Sausage Pasta

I took a few items out for dinner tonight, only to realize some of the ingredients I needed for the dish I planned on making were not in my pantry.  Sigh.  So, here's a recipe I came up with off the top of my head and boy was it good!  Nick has been asking if I wrote the recipe down yet because he really liked it!  (Sorry about the terrible pictures, I couldn't get the silly flash to work...again.)

Ingredients:
1/2-1 lb of italian sausage (I think we used sweet)
1 Bag of frozen spinach, thawed and fully drained
3/4 Box of ziti noodles
1 Container cooking creme, Italian herb blend
1 Cup alfredo sauce

Directions:
*Boil water for pasta.

*Cook meat in a skillet, drain fat.

*Pour the spinach into the meat once the meat is cooked.

*Add the cooking creme and alfredo sauce.

*Stir the meat mixture until well blended and warm.

*Pour the noodles into the sauce mixture and mix well.

Pumpkin Fudge

Fall season is finally here.  Living in Texas doesn't mean its fall weather, but the season itself is here.  We are still wearing tank tops and shorts because of how hot it is!  Yikes!  Anyways, back to the fall season.  YUM.  It is the only season pretty well based on good food: apples, cinnamon, vanilla, pumpkin, squash's...oh man...there goes my pants fitting!  Here is my first attempt at pumpkin fudge.  It turned out SO good that I highly doubt I will try any other one!  Yup, another winning recipe.

Ingredients:
2 Cups granulated sugar
1 Cup packed brown sugar
3/4 Cup butter or margarine
1/2 Cup canned pumpkin
1 Small (5 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
2 tsp's pumpkin pie spice
1 Pkg WHITE chocolate chips (12 ounces, or 2 cups)
1 Jar (7 ounces) Marshmallow Creme (see picture below)
1 Cup chopped pecans (I used 1/4 cup chopped walnuts...can omit if you want)
1 1/2 tsp's vanilla extract

Directions:
*Before we start, here is a picture of what marshmallow creme looks like: (find it in the baking aisle)

*Line a 9x13 glass dish with tin foil.  Don't spray it down...it won't stick; I promise!

*Combine the white sugar, brown sugar, butter (if its cold, cut it into pieces), pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, and evaporated milk into a large skillet/saucepan.

*Turn the stove onto medium and stir the mixture constantly until it comes to a rolling boil.

*Now that its boiling, continue to stir constantly for 11-12 minutes.  Yes, your hands will be tired.  I set the timer on my microwave (which is directly above my stove) so I knew when the time was up so I could finally stop stirring!  It will start to get thick towards the end of the 11-12 minutes.  (The directions from the website I got this recipe at said to check your temperature to make sure it was between 234 and 240*.  I don't have a candy thermometer and my fudge still turned out amazing!)

*Quickly stir in the bag of white chocolate chips, the entire container of marshmallow creme, the nuts, and the vanilla extract.  Stir really hard for a full minute, until everything is mixed and the chocolate pieces are dissolved.

*Immediately pour this mixture into the dish lined with tin foil.

*Let the dish sit on a wire rack for at least 2 hours to completely cool down.

*Once it has cooled down, pull the tin foil out.  The whole piece of tin foil will peel off the bottom of the fudge.  Now cut your fudge into 1 inch pieces.

*Store your fudge in a tightly sealed container in the fridge!  It has to be kept cold!

(I got this recipe from verybestbaking.com)