Jam filled cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, melted (that's two sticks)
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder (or 1 teaspoon non-alcoholic vanilla extract)
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
Strawberry jam (or any kind of jam you like)

-Preheat oven to 350
-Melt butter and while it cools off mix dry ingredients.
-Mix all ingredients together with a spoon until well blended.
-spread dough with rolling pin and cut into circles using a small cup.
-Place dough circles onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 13 minutes or until light golden.
-Let cookies cool and then spread some jam on one cookie and place another one on top.
-Sprinkle with some confectioners sugar for decoration

If you'd like to make the cookies with a hole in the middle, cut out a smaller circle from the dough before you bake the cookies. From each pair of cookies cut out a smaller circle from one of them.

Chicken Alfredo

(dinner for two, and you may have an extra plate to pack for your husband's lunch the next day)

1/2 box of pasta (any kind you like, I prefer tri-colored pasta)
4 chicken breast cutlets
1/2 cup of zesty Italian dressing
fresh ground pepper
mushrooms, washed and sliced (small box)
1/2 stick of butter
2 tablespoons flour
milk
salt
Parmesan cheese

-Marinade chicken in dressing and some pepper, keep it in the fridge for half an hour before cooking time.
-grill chicken on non-stick grill pan. After chicken is cooked through slice it into strips.
-saute chopped mushrooms in non-stick pan with a tiny bit of oil or butter and some salt. Toss cooked mushrooms with chicken when done.
-Boil pasta until cooked, drain, don't wash it. Then toss with chicken and mushrooms.
-When you're ready to eat -or about a half hour before your husband comes home :) ... start to make the alfredo sauce.
-Melt butter in sauce pan, add flour, mix with wire whisk. Add milk gradually and continue to whisk over medium heat. Keep adding milk until sauce is nice and creamy yet not too thick.
-Add some Parmesan cheese if you like and add salt to taste... sometimes I add 1 or 2 tablespoons of sour cream for more flavor...
-Mix sauce with the pasta mixture and serve.
-Add some chopped parsley for garnish or some chopped sundried tomatoes.

Enjoy! :)

Pancakes

I tried this recipe this morning, I made the banana pancakes, they were so easy to make and everyone loved them. Enjoy! :)

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

-Beat egg and vanilla with whisk
-add remaining ingredients, mix well.

Grease heated griddle if necessary (I just used an ungreased non-stick pan). To test griddle/pan, sprinle with few drops of water. If bubbles skitter around, heat is just right.

-Pour batter onto pan from large pitcher or half cup measure. Cook pancakes until puffed and dry around edges. Turn and cook other side until golden brown. (To keep pancakes hot, stack on hot plate with paper towels in between)
-Makes about 6 4-inch pancakes.

Banana Pancakes: beat into mixture, 1 medium banana, cut into 1/4 inch pieces.

Whole Wheat Pancakes: subtitute whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour and packed brown sugar for the granulated sugar. (I tried this but the whole wheat flour made my pancakes too dry, you might want to only substitute half a cup of flour with whole wheat and use white flour for the other half)

Yogurt Pancakes: substitute 1 1/4 cups plain yogurt for the milk. Decrease baking powder to 2 teaspoons and beat in 1/4 teaspoon baking soda.

Cornmeal Pancakes: Substitute 1/2 cup cornmeal for 1/2 cup of the flour. Subtitute dark molasses for the sugar if desired.

Nut Pancakes: Stir in 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped nuts.

Blueberry Pancakes: Stir in 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (thawed and well drained).

Buttermilk Pancakes: Substitute 1 cup buttermilk for the milk. Decrease baking powder to 1 teaspoon and beat in 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.

Ice cream cake

Taken from kraft's food & family magazine.

1/2 cup hot fudge ice cream topping, warmed

1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided

1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Chocolate Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

8 OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, chopped (about 1 cup)

12 vanilla ice cream sandwiches, unwrapped

POUR fudge topping into medium bowl. Add 1 cup of the whipped topping; stir with wire whisk until well blended. Add dry pudding mix; stir 2 min. or until well blended. Gently stir in chopped cookies; set aside.

ARRANGE 4 of the ice cream sandwiches, side-by-side, on 24-inch-long piece of foil; top with half of the whipped topping mixture. Repeat layers. Top with remaining 4 ice cream sandwiches. Frost top and sides of dessert with remaining whipped topping. Bring up foil sides. Double fold top and ends to loosely seal packet.

FREEZE at least 4 hours before serving. Store leftover dessert in freezer.

Peach dessert

Ingredients:
cake:
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 egg
zest of half an orange
1 tsp. Baking powder
2 Tbs. butter

Syrup:
1 Large can of sliced Peaches in syrup
2 Tbs. confectioners sugar
2 Tbs. corn starch
Juice of 1 orange
2 drops of lemon juice

Preparation:
-Preheat oven to 350
-Mix cake ingredients together with a spoon, then spread in half cookie sheet pan. (it's going to spread really thin, this is really the crust for the dessert). (for a normal size cookie sheet just double up the ingredients).
-Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until light golden.
-Let is cool, then spread the peach slices on top.
-In sauce pan, combine: orange juice, lemon juice, peach juice, corn starch and sugar. Bring to boil, and let thicken.
-Remove from heat, pour over cake and peaches.
-Let cool and enjoy!

Chinese chicken and broccoli

Ingredients:
3 chicken breast cutlets (or more, depends on how much you need), cut into thin strips
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 tsp sugar
4 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs corn startch
4 tsps corn starch
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 broccoli bunch, cut
1 1/4 cups water

Preparation:
-Combine: 1 Tbs corn startch, with 1 Tbs soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and garlic with chicken. Mix well.
-Heat 1 Tbs of oil in non-stick skillet, add chicken and stir fry until chicken is done.
-In another pot or skillet, heat Tbs oil, add broccoli and onion. I usually put the lid on for a few minutes so the broccoli can cook from the steam, don't over cook though. Stir in chicken.
- In another bowl. Combine: water, 4 tsp corn startch, and 3 Tbs soy sauce, mix well. Then add this mixture to the broccoli and chicken. Bring to boil, cook and stir until sauce thickens.

Tip: You can add some sliced carrots to this recipe, try it with beef strips too!

Easy Banana Pudding Parfaits

This recipe is taken from Food & Family magazine.

12 NILLA Wafers (or a similar wafer), divided

1/4 cup thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping

10 slices banana (about 1 small)

2 Vanilla pudding snacks (the ready made ones)

CRUSH 10 of the wafers to form coarse crumbs. Place one-fourth of the wafer crumbs in each of two parfait glasses or dessert dishes; top each with 1 Tbsp. of the whipped topping, 2 banana slices and one-half of the contents of 1 pudding snack cup. Repeat layers of crumbs, banana slices and pudding snack; cover. REFRIGERATE at least 15 min. or up to 4 hours. Meanwhile, wrap reserved banana slices tightly in plastic wrap; refrigerate until ready to use. TOP each parfait with 1 Tbsp. of the remaining whipped topping, 1 of the remaining wafers and remaining banana slices just before serving.

TIP

How to Prevent the Banana Slices from Turning Brown
Toss banana slices with small amount of lemon juice.

Everyone who's tried this dessert LOVED it, and it looks pretty too! I used the clear disposable plastic cups! :)