BJ's Chocolate Chunk Pizookie Copycat

Ingredients(for Chocolate Chunk):

2 1/2 tablespoons butter, softened

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon beaten egg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.

2. Combine all ingredients for cookie of your choice up to, but not including, the flour, in a small bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until smooth. Add flour and baking soda (plus oats and cinnamon if making the oatmeal raisin walnut cookie) and stir well by hand. Stir in remaining ingredients then press the dough into a small buttered pie pan, cake pan or 6-inch deep-dish pizza pan.

3. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes or until cookie begins to brown. Cool for a minute or so, add 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, and serve.

Rating: 4.5 of 5

This recipe is pretty close to the pizookie that we love at BJ's. Lots of chocolate, not too sweet, and soft. So delicious. I don't have any ice cream in the house, but it's still so good without it!

Source: http://www.recipesecrets.net/forums/recipe-exchange/20316-bjs-restaurant-brewhouse-famous-pizookie.html (Also has recipes for other type of pizookie flavors if chocolate chunk isn't your thing)

Banana Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
1 egg, room temperature *
1 cup of mashed bananas (about 2 ½ large bananas)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 cups of flour
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground mace or nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 cup of pecans (walnuts and chocolate chips are fine alternatives) **

* I didn't let the egg sit until room temperature.

** I definitely used chocolate chips.

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
2. In a bowl, mix the mashed bananas and baking soda. Let sit for 2 minutes. The baking soda will react with the acid in the bananas which in turn will give the cookies their lift and rise.
3. Mix the banana mixture into the butter mixture. Mix together the flour, salt, and spices and sift into the butter and banana mixture and mix until just combined.
4. Fold into the batter the pecans or chocolate chips if using. Drop in dollops onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.

Rating: 3.5 of 5

These cookies are pretty good. I really liked the chocolate chips. One thing I didn't like about this cookie recipe is that the cookies turn out more like muffin texture. They aren't the easiest to get off the cookie sheet and can't be dunked in milk. But, that being said, the spices are great and the banana taste isn't overpowering.

Source: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_cookies/

Sweet Chicken

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts

vegetable oil
spoonful of white sugar
3-4 spoonfulls of brown sugar, split
4 shakes of chili powder, split
2 shakes of garlic powder
1 shake of Italian seasoning
1 shake of black pepper


Recipe:
Mix the ingredients together in a sauce pan. Add chicken and cook until chicken is white and juices run clear. Drain out the juices. Add the other half of brown sugar and chili powder. Let simmer 5 more minutes or so.

Remove from heat and shred.

Rating: 4 of 5
We really liked this chicken and the best part of it was that Ally liked it and ate it!! It's sweet with a little spicy kick. It went super well with the Creamy Tomatillo Dressing~Cafe Rio Style. It was strong enough to be tasted amongst all the other things in the salad, but not so strong as to drown out the dressing taste. We will definitely be having this again!

Source: from the wanna-be-inventive side of my brain

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing ~ Cafe Rio Style

(This picture is not of the completed dressing. I forgot to take one, so imagine little pieces of cilantro and jalapeno blended in there and you got it.)

Ingredients:

2 c. prepared Ranch dressing (can use buttermilk ranch recipe) *

1 small bunch cilantro, large stems removed (about 1/2 c. chopped cilantro)

2 large or 4 small tomatillos

1/2 t. minced garlic

2 T. fresh lime juice

1 diced jalapeno pepper

* I made according to the directions on the package, but instead of mayo I used sour cream

Recipe:

Prepare Ranch dressing according to directions on the package or recipe you're following and set aside.
Remove large cilantro stems, then wash leaves and spin dry or dry with paper towels. Add cilantro to food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse until finely chopped. (If you don't have a food processor, I'd chop all ingredients well by hand and then blend dressing in a blender.) * Add tomatillos, garlic, lime juice, and Green Tabasco or chopped jalapeno to the food processor and pulse until ingredients are finely pureed. Add the 2 cups of prepared dressing and pulse just a few times, until ingredients are well combined. Chill dressing for an hour or two and serve.

* I don't have a food processor and just used my blender. I thought it did a fine job of getting everything all blended.

Rating: 4 of 5
If you are looking for a spot-on Cafe Rio dressing recipe, then this is not it. But it is pretty darn close. I think the problem with my batch of dressing is that I put in a larger jalapeno and not one of the smaller ones. I have never cooked with tomatillos or jalapenos so I'm not familiar with the strength of the taste. Next time I will just use a smaller jalapeno. All in all, we liked it. LaDon kept saying, "This is so good," so I think it's a keeper and repeat. Also, it makes a pretty big batch!

Source: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/07/recipe-favorites-cafe-rio-style-creamy.html

Baked Potato Soup

Pretty lazy job this week. No picture. Just a link to the recipe this week.

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/baked-potato-soup-i/Detail.aspx

Rating: 3.5 of 5

We liked this recipe. LaDon doesn't like soup but said this was good. It's really, really thick...more like mashed potatoes with baked potato garnishings than soup. Put together pretty quick. Perfect for a bag of potatoes about to go bad, right?

Creamy Enchiladas Verde

Ingredients:

1 can (10.5 oz.) Campbell's Condensed Creamy Chicken Verde Soup *

1/2 t. garlic powder **

1 1/2 c. chopped cooked chicken ***

2/3 c. shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese ****

8 corn tortillas (6-inch), warmed *****

1/4 c. milk

* I couldn't find this soup at the store, so I just used a can of Cream of Chicken soup and added a few spoonfuls of salsa. Wasn't green, but it worked.

** The only garlic powder I had was garlic powder with parsley.

*** I, of course, shredded it because that's my favorite way to eat chicken.

**** We never measure out the cheese. I put it on until it looks like it would satisfy.

***** I used flour(LaDon doesn't like corn), only 4 of them, and the big ones.

Oh and we garnished it with sour cream and tomatoes.

Recipe:

1. Stir 1/2 can of the soup, garlic powder, chicken, and 1/3 c. of the cheese in a medium bowl.

2. Spoon about 1/3 c. of the chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up the tortillas and place them seam-side down in a 12x8x2-inch shallow baking dish.

3. Stir the remaining soup and milk in a small bowl. Pour the soup mixture over the filled tortillas. Top with the remaining cheese.

4. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until the enchiladas are hot and bubbly.

Rating: 3.75 of 5

We liked this recipe even though in all honesty.....what I made wasn't the recipe at all. I should probably change the name to something like Creamy Chicken Salsa Enchiladas. It turned out well, we felt full, it was flavorful enough for us and went great with chocolate milk! I'll make this again, and possibly with the actually ingredients it calls for!

Source: Campbell's Cooking Companion, pg. 105

Mom's Frosting

This isn't a new recipe, but I haven't been able to make it set up at all for several years until this weekend. The new thing I tried this week was just making a Jessie doll shaped cake.

(I think it looks like an elephant with earmuffs at this point!)

Ingredients:

2 lbs. powder sugar

1 c. crisco

1/2 c. water

1 T. vanilla

Recipe:

Cut crisco into powder sugar. Add water and vanilla. * Beat 15 minutes with mixer.

* I actually cut the crisco and vanilla together with the sugar. And then added the water by 1/8 c and beat it for a little bit until all water was added.

Rating: 3.5 of 5

Tastes like the frosting a grew up with!