02.23.09 Banana pudding

This is a pretty standard banana pudding recipe, but it is simple to make and tastes delicious!

1 Large instant vanilla pudding
3 cups milk
1 can Eagle Brand (I used fat free)
12 oz Cool Whip, thawed (I bought two 8 oz containers)
6 bananas
Vanilla wafers (I used an entire box!)

Combine pudding mix and milk - stir with metal whisk until thickened. Stir in Eagle Brand, then fold in 1/2 of the Cool Whip. Layer with vanilla wafers and sliced bananas. Top with remaining Cool Whip and crushed vanilla wafers.

02.23.09 Blackened chicken pizza

Dinner tonight was Rachael Ray's blackened chicken pizza. This is one of our all-time favorites. The spices on the chicken are perfect, and the yellow tomato salsa is irresistible! (Sorry I don't have a picture - I was without my camera for a few days). But trust me, you HAVE to try this one!

Encore!

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. We've had several repeat performances - Italian paninis, baked meatballs, and chicken tender salad. We'll have something new and exciting for you next week!

02.16.09 Lemon ricotta cookies

Our Bachelor watch-party treat was lemon ricotta cookies from Giada on the Food Network. I'm not necessarily a fruity dessert fan, but this recipe intrigued me, and you can't argue with over 100 5-star reviews on the website! I wasn't disappointed - these were tangy and refreshing!

02.14.09 S'mores lava cakes

Dessert tonight was S'mores lava cakes from Rachael Ray. They were rich, decadent, and sooooooooo good!

02.14.09 French toast cups

We're at the lake this weekend taking it easy, and made something special for our Valentine's day breakfast - sausage and apple-stuffed french toast cups from Rachael Ray. These were fun to make and tasted great! There is a video at the top of the page that gives instructions on how to make the bread cups. We needed extra egg mixture to make our 6 cups (4 eggs instead of 3), and only used half of the maple syrup (3/4 cup instead of 1 1/2 cups).

02.13.09 Ancho chicken soft tacos

Dinner tonight was Ancho chicken soft tacos with guacamole from Rachael Ray. Don't let the ancho peppers scare you - since you seed them, they aren't very spicy. We found our peppers in the produce section of Wal-mart. Also, pomegranates aren't in season now, so we omitted that from the guacamole - but we added tomatoes. We served our tacos with yellow rice and chips and salsa - delicioso!

02.12.09 Homemade manicotti

Dinner tonight was Rachael Ray's three cheese manicotti. It was fun to make and tasted delicious! This was our first experience making crepes, and Robert was an instant pro! I made a homemade meat sauce instead of using jarred - I used Rachael Ray's simple marinara recipe again, omitting anchovy paste and adding 1/2 lb of Laura's Lean ground beef.

02.09.09 Graham cracker praline

Last night for our Bachelor watch-party I made graham cracker praline cookies. I don't really consider this a recipe since it's so simple, but everyone seemed to love them so I decided to post it anyway. After reading some of the reviews, I omitted the cream of tartar, and only boiled my butter/sugar mixture for a few seconds.

02.08.09 Adirondacker burger

Dinner tonight was the Adirondacker burger from Rachael Ray. It was enormous, but delicious! We ate ours on ciabatta bread because neither Kroger or Fresh Market had kaiser rolls today. A technique RR uses on her show but didn't mention in the recipe is to put a foil tent over the burgers when you're melting the cheese. Only other suggestion I have is to make them slightly smaller (each burger is 1/2 lb!), but to be totally honest, we cleaned our plates, so... :)

01.05.09 White pizza

Dinner tonight was White Pizza from Cooking Light. I was surprised we liked it for two reasons: 1) it's meatless (Robert), and 2) there isn't any marinara sauce (me). Just a couple of notes - I prepared the crust like I do for all of my pizzas: used a refrigerated Pillsbury pizza dough, sprinkled cornmeal on the baking sheet for crispness, brushed the crust with olive oil, and pre-cooked for 8 minutes. Delicious!

02.02.09 Creole meatloaves

Dinner tonight was Creole meatloaves with trinity gravy from Rachael Ray. I served ours with salad and cheese straws from Silvek's Bakery.

02.01.09 Super Bowl Sunday - Buffalo chicken nachos

I made Rachael Ray's buffalo chicken nachos for a Super Bowl party tonight. They were simple, spicy, and bite-size. It's like eating buffalo chicken wings - without the mess!