Energy bites

http://gimmesomeoven.com/no-bake-energy-bites/

I want to try this recipe this week. I am sure I will love it. :D

Yellow Squash Casserole

 

What do you do when you have too much yellow squash? You try to find as many cool and delicious recipes as you can.  I found this awesome casserole that totally changed my thinking about squash. I never liked it as much because it seemed that I always had too much of it and never any good recipes. This is going to be on my list of favorite recipes. :D


Side note: This recipe can be made ahead of time and refrigerated. Add the stuffing mix just before serving.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 3 crookneck yellow squash, peeled and diced
• 1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons water, or as needed
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
• 1/2 (6 ounce) box dry bread stuffing mix

What do you do when you have too much yellow squash? You try to find as many cool and delicious recipes as you can.  I found this awesome casserole that totally changed my thinking about squash. I never liked it as much because it seemed that I always had too much of it and never any good recipes. This is going to be on my list of favorite recipes. :D

Side note: This recipe can be made ahead of time and refrigerated. Add the stuffing mix just before serving. 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking dish.
2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat; cook and stir squash and onion until tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Add water and simmer to soften squash, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and Cheddar cheese into squash mixture; mix well.
3. Transfer squash mixture to the prepared baking dish; top with stuffing mix.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until cheese is bubbling and stuffing is browned, about 30 minutes. 

Zucchini Frittata with Herbs and Goat Cheese

I made THIS zucchini Frittata for lunch today and although it was good I thought that it was missing a few things so I decided to look up another one for next time. I have so much zucchini and it seems that people bring me some all the time; with that much zucchini I need to come up with some good recipes. This definitely looks tasty and I am pretty sure that any kind of cheese would be good with it. I personally love goat cheese and I am going to give this one a try.

Ingredients:

6 large eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk, well shaken
2 teaspoon oil
1 cup unpeeled shredded zucchini squash
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, diced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes (any color or variety), halved
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
 Coarse salt or sea salt and freshly-ground pepper, to taste
1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
1/4 cup salsa
2 tablespoons chopped green onions (white and green parts)

Preparation:

Preheat broiler and move oven rack up to broiling position.

In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the eggs and buttermilk until well combine. Add salt and pepper; set aside.

In a large oven-safe frying pan or skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add shredded zucchini, onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes, stirring occasionally, until the zucchini is tender (do not overcook as zucchini can get mushy). Stir in the cherry tomatoes, mint, basil, salt, and pepper.

Rasberry Trifle

Ingredients:

1 box white angel food cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
1 1/4 cups cold water
2 cups boiling water
1 box (8-serving size) sugar-free raspberry-flavored gelatin
2 packages (10 oz each) frozen sweetened raspberries, thawed
3 containers (6 oz each) red raspberry yogurt

Directions: 

1. Move oven rack to lowest position (remove other racks). Heat oven to 350°F.
2. In extra-large glass or metal bowl, beat cake mix and cold water on low speed 30 seconds; beat on medium speed 1 minute. Pour into ungreased 10-inch angel food (tube) cake pan. Do not use fluted tube cake pan or 9-inch angel food (tube) cake pan, or batter will overflow.
3. Bake 37 to 47 minutes or until top is dark golden brown and cracks feel very dry and not sticky. Do not underbake.
4. Immediately turn pan upside down onto glass bottle until cake is completely cool, about 1 hour. Run knife around edges; remove from pan. Tear cake into about 3/4-inch pieces.
5. Pour boiling water on gelatin in large bowl; stir until gelatin is dissolved. Add raspberries. (If desired, remove several raspberries and reserve for garnish.) Refrigerate gelatin mixture about 15 minutes or until thickened but not set.
6. Layer half each of the cake pieces, gelatin mixture and yogurt in 3-quart glass bowl; repeat. Garnish with reserved raspberries. Refrigerate at least 2 hours until firm. Cover and refrigerate any remaining dessert.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft) Heat oven to 325ºF. Stir 1/3 cup cornstarch into dry cake mix. Increase water to 1 1/3 cups. Beat on low speed 30 seconds; beat on medium speed 3 minutes. Bake 53 to 58 minutes.
Substitution
You can use two 4-serving-size packages of raspberry-flavored gelatin instead of one 8-serving-size package. Or replace the sugar-free raspberry gelatin with regular raspberry-flavored gelatin.
Variation
If you are serving a smaller group, you can easily cut this recipe in half. Bake cake as directed on package for two 9-inch loaf pans and freeze


If you want to make your own angel food cake and use your fluted tube then you can use THIS recipe (at the very end of the post). I actually liked the home made one a little bit better, but it takes longer to make it. 

Carousel Birthday Cake

 I have not been on my food blog for a while which does not mean that I did not cook. LOL I have been cooking lots of the recipes that I already have on my blog and I have been busy with life in general. I was also on a cleansing diet and I lost over 20 pounds and got back in shape. Go Here if you want to see my story, or go Here if you want to know more about what I did.

My baby girl turned one this week and I decided to do a carousel cake for her. I googled carousel cakes, but I am not an expert at decorating cakes so I just had to come up with my own version and I did.

• I made an angel food cake (out of a box this time), I put a vase in the middle,
•  I made some ginger bread cookies out of scratch (LOL). Go Here for the ginger bread recipe if you want it. You could probably half the recipe unless you make more shapes out of it and let the kids decorate it as an activity. We bought my oldest daughter some moon sand and it came with Pony shapes so I used them to make the ponies on the carousel. They turned out pretty cute and I just decorated them with frosting and nerds for the eyes. 
• I also sprinkled nerds on the angel food cake. 
• I put licorice in the vase to give the impression of poles
•  I used Lizzy's first tutu for extra decoration. 
• I thought about filling the vase with strawberries or candies, but licorice seemed a good choice too. I put the strawberry syrup in another container for the angle food cake.

The carousel cake would have looked good even without the top layer of cake, but I thought that there would be more people coming to the party, so I made another cake as well and it was a nice way to write my daughter's name on it and put a candle on it (which we couldn't even lit up because of the wind). This way the cake did not look to overcrowded. I used a boxed cake again because I did not want to stress about making a cake out of scratch; I had too much to decorate. I used a little cupcake to put on the top and I gave that to my daughter as her own cake to eat.This cake is easy to make and you could even buy the cakes already made from the store, just decorate it your own way.

Happy Birthday our little Lizzy!!!! You are so Loved!!!!!

Here is a recipe for an angle food cake that I used a few weeks ago and I really loved it. It is not that hard to make and it tastes so delicious too.

Angel Food Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups egg whites
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

1. Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks, and then add cream of tartar, vanilla extract, and almond extract.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, and salt. Repeat five times.
3. Gently combine the egg whites with the dry ingredients, and then pour into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan.
4. Place cake pan in a cold oven. Turn the oven on; set it to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Cook for about one hour, or until cake is golden brown.
5. Invert cake, and allow it to cool in the pan. When thoroughly cooled, remove from pan.

Layered Pasta, Veggie, and Cheese Skillet

I want to try this recipe out for my family; they love cheese. :D

Ingredients

• 1 (24 ounce) jar Prego® Veggie Smart® Chunky & Savory Italian Sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/4 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 4 cups fresh baby spinach or arugula, coarsely chopped
• 3 cups trumpet-shaped pasta (campanelle), cooked and drained

Directions

1. Stir the sauce and water in a medium bowl. Stir the ricotta cheese, 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, egg and spinach in a medium bowl.
2. Layer 1 cup sauce mixture, half the pasta and half the cheese mixture in a 12-inch skillet. Repeat the layers. Top with the remaining sauce mixture and the remaining Parmesan cheese. Cover the skillet.
3. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes or until the mixture is hot.