Chocolate Hummus

I know I know what you’re thinking! CHOCOLATE HUMMUS? Isn’t that made with Chickpeas? Well… Yes it is actually!! I got this awesome recipe from Hannah of Bittersweet.

I ADORE Hummus so this totally caught my eye and I HAD to try it. It’s quite delicious! Definitely serve for breakfast with toast, a much healthier Nutella, or I had it with Apples for dessert. It’s more of a semi-sweet taste, probably because I used Dark Cocoa, but I’ll be experimenting with other’s in the future.

The only tweeks I did was remove the coffee powder and add more peanut butter. I started eating this with a spoon… so beware!

Thanks Hannah!! I could use some of your picture skills as well!

Chocolate Hummus: Recipe courteous of Hannah from Bittersweet Ingredients: 1 15-Ounce Can Chickpeas 3 oz (6 TBsp)  Peanut Butter 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil 1/2 Cup Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powder (I used Hershey’s Dark Choc. Powder) 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar 1 Teaspoon Instant Coffee Powder (opt.) 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract 1/2 Teaspoon Salt 2 – 4 Tablespoons Water Steps: Put everything in food processor minus the water. Scrape down sides and keep mixing till all blended. While it’s running slowly add the water, keep checking on it till you like the texture. (I used 3 Tbsps) Serve on Toast or fruit!

 

Homemade Ravioli ~ Spicy Spinach & Mushroom and Pumpkin Ricotta

This is the Cheating/Shortcut way to make Ravioli. I used Won-ton Wrappers/Egg roll Wrappers. Now I tried this a few ways… Frying the ravioli (picture above) and Boiling the ravioli (picture below) Both taste delicious, however the worst food is the better it tastes… [of course] so yes, the frying was better, slightly firmer texture which I think also made it better.I came up with this filling because I wanted something Fun and Vegetarian, but SUPER spicy. Before I cooked the ravioli it had a strong mushroom taste, but all the flavors evened out when we ate them.

Spicy Spinach & Mushroom Ravioli:    Ingredients: 1 (60 ct) package Won-ton Wrappers, or 1 package egg-roll wrappers 1 (10 oz) package chopped spinach, drained 6 oz chopped Bella Mushrooms 2 cups BelGioisio 4-cheese blend (Provolone, Parmesan, Fontina, Asiago) 1 egg (for filling) 2 egg whites (for sealing ravioli) 1 small onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced Cayenne Crushed Red pepper 1/2 TBsp Dried Basil Salt-n-pep Steps: Heat Olive oil in saute pan with 1 TBsp crushed red pepper. Then add onions, then garlic. Cook till Onions are soft, then add Mushrooms. Season with Cayenne, more crushed red pepper, and salt-n-pep to taste. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temp. After Mushroom mixture has cooled, throw in food processor with spinach, all the cheese, 1 egg, and Basil. Put egg whites into a bowl for dipping, lay out wonton wrappers and spoon ~1 TBsp in the center of each. Coat one side of a fresh wonton wrapper with egg and lay across, pushing out air and pressing all sides down to seal (Do this one at a time). After you have made all your Raviolis use a glass or cookie cutter to shape into round ravioli. (Won-ton’s are square..) Drop into boiling water for 3-4 mins and remove with a slotted spoon, and place on paper towel to absorb water OR fry in shallow olive oil, rotating sides for ~2 mins. Serve with Olive oil (or butter), Parmesan and Lemon Juice.

Now these Pumpkin ones I found the recipe too and was intrigued… Just tasting the filling after I made it I couldn’t tell if I liked the flavor or not… But after they cooked I REALLY enjoyed them. They’re harder to handle than the Spinach-Mushroom ones because they’re a lot softer, which causes the wonton to become slightly doughy (and in the end they’re kind of wrinkly!) But they still taste delicious. I would serve them with a buttery-sage sauce, but I just ate them with Parm on them.I had some extras which I froze, so I’m going to try thawing those out and frying them.. We’ll see how that goes!

Pumpkin Ravioli:  Ingredients:  1 (60 ct) package Won-ton Wrappers, or 1 package egg-roll wrappers  1 cup ricotta cheese  1/2 cup pumpkin puree  1/2 tsp salt  1/4 tsp nutmeg   2 egg whites (for sealing ravioli)     Sage-Butter Sauce: 1 stick butter 2 tsp dried sage 1/4 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts 2 Amoretti cookies, crushed (to top finished dish with) Steps: Mix all filling ingredients together, chill in fridge for 30 mins to stiffen a bit. Put egg whites into a bowl for dipping, lay out wonton wrappers and spoon ~1 TBsp in the center of each. Coat one side of a fresh wonton wrapper with egg and lay across, pushing out air and pressing all sides down to seal (Do this one at a time). After you have made all your Raviolis use a glass or cookie cutter to shape into round ravioli. (Won-ton’s are square..) Drop into boiling water for 3-4 mins and remove with a slotted spoon, and place on paper towel to absorb water OR fry in shallow olive oil, rotating sides for ~2 mins. FOR SAUCE: Melt butter in small saucepan, remove from heat and mix in dried sage. Pour over Ravioli with grated cookies, chopped hazelnuts and/or grated parmesan.

NOTE: The only difference between Won-ton wrappers and Egg-roll wrappers is the size. With the egg-rolls they’re large sheets, so you can put a smaller amount of filling and cut around for smaller ravioli’s.

Bon Appetite!

Butter Pecan Cookies

I made a batch of these to pair with my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies for the Bake Sale for the American Heart Association. I’m hoping I get a few more follower’s by sticking my tags on the bags… or even if you’re coming for the recipe!

These are awesome cookies, there are a TON of recipes out there, but I found one that seemed straight forward and of course… tweeked it! They’re pretty crumbly so next to the moist Pumpkin Cookies it could be a weird contrast… but they’re both delish, I just wish I could have squeezed more in each bag!!

Butter Pecan Cookies: Ingredients: 1-1/4cup crushed pecans (Honey roasted if possible) 2 sticks butter, room temp. 2/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating 2 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 tsp salt 2 cups all-purpose flour Steps: Preheat oven to 350F Crush the pecans with a food processor or rolling-pin. With an electric mixer cream butter and sugar for 2 mins. Beat in the vanilla, salt and flour scraping down the sides of the bowl. Just until dough comes together. Fold in the pecans. Squeeze and shape dough into 1.5″ diameter balls (it seems large but you want them thick) Roll in sugar, place 3″ apart on a baking sheet. Gently flatten with the bottom of a glass, reshaping the sides, then sprinkle with more sugar. Bake until golden brown, ~15 mins. Cool on wire rack.

Cranberry Brie Bites, Sweet Pumpkin Dip, Breaded Ravioli, & Spiked Apple Cider

I had a bunch of people over this past weekend and we all enjoyed some nice Fall food & drinks!

At the Care for Cancer Event, Ali, Larissa and I went CRAZY over this Brie Tart. It was a whole wheel of Brie with Pastry dough wrapped around it and baked… we were INHALING it! So both Ali and I had the idea of making something with Brie for this night, but I just happen to beat her to the grocery store [sorry little!  ] I made these easy and delicious Cranberry Brie Tarts.

Cranberry Brie Bites:   Ingredients:   1 Pillsbury Grands Biscuits 1 (10 oz) Triangle Brie Cheese 1-1.5 cups cranberry Sauce Steps: Preheat oven to 375F Spray Mini-muffin trays with Pam and peel layers of biscuits and shove in each muffin hole, edges sticking out slightly. (this step can be tough, try to get 3 layers per muffin) Bake 4-5 mins so they start to puff up. Cut slices of Brie and shove in each Biscuit, Top with Cranberry sauce. Bake 8-10 mins till Brie melts and Biscuits are golden brown.

Larissa made Breaded and Baked Ravioli’s which melt in your mouth and are the healthier version than Frying them. Served with our Family Marinara sauce of course

Breaded Ravioli: Ingredients:   1 (16oz) bag frozen cheese ravioli 1 egg 1-1/2 cups Italian breadcrumbs Sauce for dipping Steps: Allow ravioli to thaw. (I usually just let them sit for an hour or so, but I have also run them under cold water to thaw as well). Preheat oven to 350F Beat eggs in a small bowl and place breadcrumbs in a pie plate. Dip Ravioli in egg then roll around in Breadcrumbs and place on a sprayed or foiled baking sheet. Bake 10-15 mins until ravioli are brown

Ali made this Sweet Pumpkin dip which is SO ADDICTING! Serve with Ginger Snaps or Apple slices. Tastes like a whipped Pumpkin Pie filling… so goooood!

Sweet Pumpkin Dip:  Ingredients: 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 2 cups powdered sugar 1 (15oz) can pumpkin pie filling 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground ginger Steps: Beat cream cheese and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add pie filling, cinnamon, and ginger, beating well. Cover and chill 8 hours. Serve with Apple slices and Ginger Snaps!

And lastly we enjoyed Hot Spiked Apple Cider. Ali and I have been making this in Buffalo foreverrrrr and in massive batches and it still tastes just as good every time! Hiccup!

Hot Spiked Apple Cider:  Ingredients:   1 quart water 3 cinn. spiced tea bags 1/2 cup light brown sugar 2 cups apple cider 1 1/2 cups light rum 1 sliced apple Steps:   Pour water into a large saucepan and bring to a boil, toss in tea bags. Cover and let steep 5 minutes. Remove tea bags and stir in sugar, apple cider, and apple slices. Heat just to steaming — do not boil. Remove from heat and pour in rum!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Yes this is incredible…… ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!! This is my first cheesecake I’ve ever made believe-it-or-not, and I’m so happy it turned out well so now I’m encouraged to try harder dessert recipes.

It’s obvious I’m super into Pumpkin lately, this year has really solidified Fall being my absolute favorite season!

So this crust is to absolutely DIE for! I decided to mix Ginger Snaps & Graham crackers together in addition to sugar… I might just eat the crust alone, but the whole thing just WORKS so well!

 

I ended up cutting a few slices up to freeze for Friends & Family, and the rest of it I made bite-size portions to bring to the Team tonight for the girls.

Pumpkin Cheesecake: Ingredients: 1 cup graham cracker crumbs 1 cup Ginger snap cracker crumbs 5 TBsp melted butter 1 cup sugar, plus 1 Tbsp for crust 3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese 1 tsp vanilla 1 cup canned pumpkin 3 eggs 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp nutmeg 1/4 tsp allspice Whipped cream for topping Steps: Preheat oven to 350F Make the crust by combining the graham & Ginger snap crumbs with all the melted butter and 1 TBsp sugar in a medium bowl. Keep it crumbly. Put foil partway up the outside part of an 8-inch springform pan. Press the crumbs onto the bottom and about 1/2 the way up the sides of the pan. (You don’t want the crust to form the whole back of the cheesecake) Bake the crust for 5 mins, the set aside until you are ready to fill. In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add the pumpkin, eggs, cinn., nutmeg and allspice and continue until smooth and creamy. Pour the filling into the pan. Bake 80-70 minutes. The top will turn a bit darker at this point, and possibly crack. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and cool it till room temperature, then put it in the fridge. When it has chilled, remove it from the pan, cut and serve!

Vegetarian Meatballs / Vegballs!

Yes Yes I know what you’re thinking… How can these possibly be good without the meat? WELL I dare you to try them then!! These were SO EASY and so stinkin’ delicious I couldn’t even believe it. Absolutely packed with flavor, and the texture is so similar to meatballs you could serve it and no one would even know!

Ali made this recipe a few weeks ago, and we ended up throwing them in the crock, but missed a crucial step… the baking process… This is what firms them up, and also cooks the eggs. After you bake them you can do a few different things:

-Throw them in sauce for 30min-1 hr, this is perfect for day-of eating. These were nice and firm and got great flavor from the sauce. I would recommend this technique.

-Freeze them for later. Then you can throw them frozen in the crock, or thaw them out and throw in sauce.

-Bake them for an hour submerged in broth… This makes them SUPER moist, but they set after a day and become a firmer texture. (picture below) Just make sure that you empty whatever broth wasn’t absorbed before you throw it in the fridge.

I can’t believe how awesome these turned out and I can’t wait to make another batch! I make slightly larger meatballs so I ended up with 14. I would definitely double the recipe next time!

The basic recipe calls for 5 ingredients, plus the broth if you choose that method. I ended up throwing dried basil, oregano, cayenne, crushed red pepper and ground black pepper in there. It has plenty of salt with the Liptons onion soup mix. So play with it and make it your own! I also used Roasted Garlic breadcrumbs which were delish!

Vegetarian Meatballs: Ingredients: 4 eggs, slightly beaten 1 (1-1/4oz) envelop Lipton onion soup mix 2 cups grated Cheddar cheese 1 cup dry Italian breadcrumbs 1 cup crushed walnuts ~2 cups vegetarian broth (for additional baking method only) cayenne crushed red pepper dried basil Steps: Mix eggs, breadcrumbs, onion soup mix, cheese and seasonings together in bowl. Let it set in fridge for 30 mins. Preheat oven to 400F. Form 1-1/2″ balls and place on  sprayed baking sheet. Cook 20-25 mins until meatballs are brown. May be frozen now, or throw in sauce for 30 mins-1hr. Then serve. OR For moist option, place in casserole dish with vegetarian broth and balls within 1/2″ of being completely submerged in broth.  Bake, covered, 350F for 1 hour. Pour out excess broth and serve! WARNING! Your house is going to smell delicious

6 Cheese Tortellini in Spinach and Artichoke Sauce

This is actually a recipe Ali found which I stole from her before she got a chance to make it! Either way she enjoyed it and I sent her home with leftovers! I made this along with French Onion Soup as a belated b-day dinner for my friend Chris. They both brought over plenty of vino too!

VERY easy recipe! I snapped it up a notch, what else is new, and I ended up adding some more chicken broth to it since the sauce got a little too thick while we were waiting for the French Onion Soup in the broiler, so just add at your own discretion!

6 Cheese Tortellini in Spinach and Artichoke Sauce: Ingredients: 1 (10 oz) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well 3 garlic cloves 1 med onion, chopped 2 TBsp flour 1 cup chicken broth 1 cup heavy cream 1/8 tsp nutmeg 1/4 tsp cayenne t.t 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper t.t. 1 (14oz) can artichoke hearts, chopped 1 cup grated romano or Asiago cheese 1 LB cheese tortellini salt-n-pep t.t. Olive Oil Steps: Heat a deep skillet over med. heat with a good portion oil and onions, when onions become soft add garlic. Saute ~5 mins. Meanwhile cook the tortellini in salted water according to package directions, strain and set aside. Sprinkle the flour into the skillet and cook for 1 min. Whisk in broth, then cream and bring to a slight bubble. Season sauce with nutmeg, cayenne, crushed red pep, and salt-n-pep, reduce heat to low. Add spinach and artichokes still using whisk to blend well. Toss spinach-artichoke sauce with cooked tortellini and serve with additional grated cheese!

 

Chicken Cacciatore

In an effort to help one of my guy friends learn how to make a nice, semi-gourmet, filling dish, we attempted Giada’s Chicken Cacciatore.

Now the only real dissastor was I don’t have the proper size saute pan for this, so when the Chicken had to be thrown back into the sauce to finish cooking… we had to put it in a casserole dish and bake it instead… which ended up not being enough time given the size of the chicken pieces.. so we had to throw it back into the oven again to finish cooking…

It makes a TON of food though, and taste delicious! Not necessarily something I would make for a dinner party to W-O-W but the flavors are there for a hearty dish which is flavorful!

Chicken Cacciatore: Ingredients: 4 chicken thighs 2 chicken breasts with skin and backbone, halved crosswise 2 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste 1/2 cup all purpose flour, for dredging 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 large red bell pepper, chopped 1 onion, chopped 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped 3/4 cup dry white wine 3/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth 3 tablespoons drained capers 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves 1 ( 28-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice  Steps: Sprinkle the chicken pieces with 1 teaspoon of each salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour to coat lightly. In a large heavy saute pan, heat the oil over a medium-high flame. Add the chicken pieces to the pan and saute just until brown, about 5 minutes per side. If all the chicken does not fit in the pan, saute it in 2 batches. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside. Add the bell pepper, onion and garlic to the same pan and saute over medium heat until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the wine and simmer until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice, broth, capers and oregano. Return the chicken pieces to the pan and turn them to coat in the sauce. Bring the sauce to a simmer. Continue simmering over medium-low heat until the chicken is just cooked through, about 30 minutes for the breast pieces, and 20 minutes for the thighs.   Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a platter. If necessary, boil the sauce until it thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Spoon off any excess fat from atop the sauce. Spoon the sauce over the chicken, then sprinkle with the basil and serve.

 

Oreo Cookies!

This is another Heather Recipe from girlichef! I absolutely adore her site and the picture-by-picture steps that she does. Frankly, I give her major props because #1 I have a hard enough time just getting ONE good picture let alone #2 take them while I’m cooking and preparing! So props Heather, MAJOR props!

Which brings me to these delicious awesome cookies (photo taken with my phone haha… my point exactly!)

They really don’t need to cook that long, but of course I forgot the second batch in the oven because I was too busy watching pulp fiction (who doesn’t love Quentin Tarantino?) So they technically should have only gone about 8 mins instead of 12… WHOPS.

These remind me a lot of my Health drop cookies because of their thin but gooey texture, then after setting they become chewier. At any rate, they’re delicious and be careful not to eat half the batter like yours truly hence why I only came out with 16 cookies at the end…

Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies: From Heather of girlichef! Ingredients: 1 stick butter, softened 6 Tbs. sugar 6 Tbs. brown sugar 1 egg 1/2 tsp. vanilla 1 1/4 c. flour 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 8 Oreos, broken into pieces 1 c. chocolate chips Steps: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream your sugars and butter together. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and mix. Add dry ingredients to your wet ingredients. Mix until well combined. Fold in your crushed Oreos and chocolate chips. Drop by the scoop onto lined cookie sheet. Bake 7-9 minutes…they should still be soft. Let cool on sheet pan for 3 minutes, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling. Or eat them warm…YUM! Thanks Heather!

Peanut Butter Squares

Here are the Peanut Butter Squares I also made. Now… these are addiciting, but they do melt down a bit if they sit out too long… So keep them chilled until right before serving!

Click here for recipe!