Jello Pretzel Salad

Another pinterest recipe that is OH SO GOOD!  And easy  :)

Ingredients:
1 Big box of strawberry or raspberry jello (we used sugar free)
10-12 Strawberries cut into smaller slivers
2 1/2 Cups chopped up pretzels (as small as you like)
1 1/2 Sticks butter, melted (I used 1 3/4 sticks)
4 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Pkg cream cheese
1 Cup white sugar
1 Tub cool whip, thawed

Directions:
*Make the jello by boiling 2 cups of hot water.  Mix the hot water with the jello for 2 minutes.  Add the 2 cups of cold water  (I filled a 2 cup measuring cup up with ice, then filled with water so it settled quicker).  Mix well.

*Put the strawberry slices into the jello.

*Put strawberries and jello mixture into the fridge for about an hour to an hour and a half.  You want it to be jiggly without being liquidy or a solid yet.

*When the jello is just about at that perfectly jiggly stage, start these next steps.

*Mix your crushed up pretzels, melted butter, and brown sugar together in a mixing bowl.

*Spray a 9x13 glass dish down with baking spray.

*Pre-heat your oven to 350*F.

*Pour the pretzel mixture into the baking dish and press it all down firmly.  I made sure my edges weren't raised up with pretzel pieces too...just push those little pieces back down.

*Bake for 10 minutes.

*Remove from the oven and set aside until completely cooled (about 15-20 minutes).

*While the pretzels are cooling down, mix your cream cheese and 1 cup of white sugar together.

*Add the tub of cool whip to the sugar and cream cheese.  Mix well.

*Once the pretzels are cooled, pour the cream cheese mixture over it.  Make sure all the edges have the cream cheese mixture all the way to them.  You don't want the next mixture of jello to seep down to the pretzels.  So cover the pretzels well!

*Pour the jello mixture over the cream cheese.  Even it out if need be.

*Put in fridge until jello has settled (about 2 more hours).

Original recipe from here: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2009/07/jello-pretzel-salad.html   but ya'll know I changed it a bit  :)

Another Thing I Love

A few months ago I put a posting on here about a box of bread that I bought.  We really liked it so I figured I would let you guys all know that it passed our taste-bud test!  Then I've made a couple of recipes with Philadelphia cooking creme's that we really like too.  So, now for a new product we have recently fallen in love with...

It's poblano alfredo sauce.  If you guys don't like peppers its okay because these "poblano" peppers taste so much like basic table pepper.  Yup, like salt and pepper, pepper.  Its super mild, but oh so delicious.  Both kids loved it too.  I bought it and while making dinner I was looking at the package going "um, not too sure about this."  Once we were finished making it and took our first bites, wow.  It is so yummy!  So, go get yourself some and fall in love!  (We made it into a blackened chicken pasta by pan frying up some chicken pieces that were in a basic blackening spice that I googled up.  Took only a few seconds to do it.  Then I made some noodles, heated up the sauce, threw it all together and voila.  Dinner was served!)

Crock Pot Potato Soup

I found this recipe on pinterest.com  the other day and had to make it!  Actually...I lied.  Nick found it on pinterest and requested that I make it.  :)  I am so glad I did though because it was so yummy!  While it was cooking I smelled so much garlic and kept thinking "this can't be good."  I was amazed though, it wasn't overly garlicy to taste!  It was...well...perfect!  I also thawed some bacon out of the freezer (okay, another lie...I actually put it in the microwave to dethaw it because I forgot to de-freeze it...) and cooked it up at the end to top the soup.  PERFECT!  (To cook microwave fast, and mess free put about 6-7 paper towels on a microwave safe plate.  Put your bacon strips on it.  Now cover them up with another 1-2 paper towel sheets.  Put in the microwave for 8-12 minutes.  They will cook a little once the microwave stops too.  SUPER crunchy, best used to top soups and such.  Not the best way to cook if you are wanting to eat it plain).

Ingredients:
5 lbs Russet potatoes (washed, with skins on)
3/4 of an onion, diced into tiny pieces
4 large garlic cloves, diced really really small
6 Cups chicken broth (1 of the big containers)
2 teaspoons salt
Pepper to taste

Directions:
*Dice up your potatoes into small bites (about 1/2 inch pieces).  (Look at the very bottom of this blog post to see how many potatoes and the size's I used for a good estimate...I think I used a little less than 5 pounds because they wouldn't all fit into my crockpot!)

*Spray down your crockpot with baking spray.

*Put all of the potato pieces into the crockpot.

*Add your garlic pieces and onion pieces into the crockpot.

*This is  the big chicken broth I used in the next step:

*Pour your chicken broth over the potato mixture.  No need to mix since the onions will float once they start to cook.  But if you are like me you will have to stir it regardless, sigh*

*Sprinkle the salt over the mixture.

*Cover your crockpot and turn cook on HIGH for 6 hours, or low for 10 hours.  I did the 6 hour one...

*After the 6 or 10 hours, remove half of the potato/onions from the crockpot and put it into a blender with 2 packages of cream cheese.  I had to do 1 package of cream cheese with 1/4 the potatoes, then a second batch in the blender with the second block of cream cheese.

*Pour it back into the crockpot and mix well.

NOTE:  Originally I scooped out a bunch of the liquid because I thought "this is going to be a sloppy, overly liquidy soup.  If you want to you can do  this too...BUT, I eventually poured every single drop of the liquid back in and it was the perfect consistency!  hah!

*Mix it up well, stir in pepper to taste, and serve with your favorite toppings!

Here is the sized potatoes I used.  BUT please note that I didn't have enough room in my crockpot for the top 3 in the lefthand corner...So I used all the others except for those 3.  So I used 6 big, 1 small/medium for the soup.

I adapted my recipe from the one found here: http://www.mamalovesfood.com/2009/06/baked-potato-soup-slow-cooker-style.html
(her's didn't dice up the garlic cloves until the end and I used 2 cups less broth than she did.  Also, I used less salt and only 3/4 of an onion.)

Crockpot BBQ Pineapple Chicken

I have been obsessed with pinterest.com lately.  Recipes galore!  Its not only a recipe website, but I've found tons of them on there.  Anyways, I saw this one and made it the next day.  It was so delicious!  It cost me less than $7.00 to make it also!  I served it for Nick on a roll, as a sandwich.  For myself, I served it on white rice.  Both were awesome!

Ingredients:
4-6 Chicken breasts (I used 5 small ones)
1 LARGE can of crushed pineapple, undrained
1 Container of honey bbq sauce

Directions:
*Spray your crockpot with baking spray.

*Put your pineapples and bbq sauce into the crockpot and mix well.

*Place your chicken breasts into the crockpot and cover with the sauce.

*Cover and cook on low for 6 hours of high for 3 - 3 1/2.