Strawberry Marshmallow Creme Fruit Dip

For this week's post, I thought I'd share a very simple recipe- one that takes only 60 seconds to prepare!

It looked so good that Cole stole a few bites before I could take a picture.

Cole and I were craving something sweet the other night (when aren't we?) but we were exhausted from a long day and didn't feel like spending a lot of time on a recipe.

So, what do I do? Pull up Pinterest, of course. I scrolled through a few delicious samples and found this gem.

Strawberry Marshmallow Creme Dip was described as a two-ingredient and 60-second recipe. 

Needless to say, I was sold. We had to run to Giant Eagle to pick up the ingredients, but I swear we got to the store and back AND finished the recipe within 20 minutes.

Ingredients:
8 oz Strawberry Cream Cheese
7 oz Marshmallow Fluff
Fresh strawberries for dipping

7 oz is half of this tub of fluff.

There's only one direction for this dip: Mix well.

Mix it up!

Seriously. That's all you have to do aside from cutting the tops off your strawberries and rinsing them off.

This cream cheese was the Giant Eagle brand and had bits of strawberry in it- Not bad.

My Tips:

The dip was a little less sweet than we would have liked, so we dipped our strawberries in sugar after coating them with the creme. It worked well, but next time I'm going to add about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar to the mixture instead.

Even though it is strawberry flavored, this dip would be tasty with other fruits as well. My suggestions? I would try blueberries, raspberries or bananas.

So, how many of you have tried one (or more!) of these recipes? Feel free to leave some comments with your own ideas! I would be more than happy to try them out.

A Variation of Slutty Brownies

Slutty brownies are one of those desserts that you just can't get enough of. Cole and I were sitting around watching movies the other day and decided that we just had to have a pan full of the delectable treat.


So, we made a trip to Giant Eagle. As we stood in the baking aisle, we stared at all the different boxes of cookie mix and took our good old time deciding which to use. We ended up choosing Betty Crocker's Rainbow Cookie Mix after hashing out the possibilities.


We stuck with the original Betty Crocker Triple Chunk Brownie mix because we like the taste of it better than most other brands. As for the Oreos, we decided that we wanted to try the golden ones instead of the regular chocolate ones.

We used the original Slutty Brownies recipe- just with different ingredients.

Mmm.. can I just eat the dough?

Cole is a wonderful baking associate! This is his handiwork and photography.

Fresh from the oven.

Are you drooling yet?

What I Think:

These. Were. Spectacular.

Let me just say that I may never make Slutty Brownies with regular Oreos again. 

Okay okay.. I'm fibbing. But the brilliant idea of mixing both types of Oreo into the same pan of brownies hit me as I was reflecting on the recipe, so I will definitely have to try that next time.

Cole's dad praised this variation, saying that the original batch I made was too sweet and this one was perfect.

I'd have to agree with that statement for the most part. I love Golden Oreos, so the different flavor was welcome to my taste buds.

Recipes are meant to be changed and adapted for each chef's preference, so switch it up. Try out some new combinations and let me know how they turn out!

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats

I have a confession to make, guys. The recipe I was planning on sharing with you all this week didn't really turn out the way I would have liked.

My boyfriend, Cole, and I were prepared to make Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats, but we didn't realize we had an incomplete recipe until I did some more research and found the real one today.

Here's how they're supposed to look: 

  Photo Credit Ali Ebright

    

Ingredients:
3 tbsp butter
1 bag of mini marshmallows
1/3 cup yellow cake mix (the dry cake mix, not prepared into a batter!)
5 cups crispy rice cereal
Sprinkles

First, melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat, then add marshmallows.

Stir in the dry cake mix a spoonful at a time.

Pour in the cereal (add some sprinkles, if you'd like) and stir until covered in marshmallow goo.

Smoosh the mixture into a baking dish, top with sprinkles and set aside to cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Ali Ebright, of Gimme Some Oven, posted the original recipe.

My Tips:

The recipe that Cole and I used was very vague regarding the cake batter. We assumed that we should actually prepare the batter and mix it in with the marshmallow- and that's what we did. 

It didn't ruin it, but I definitely want to make these treats the correct way soon.

I would also suggest not mixing the sprinkles in with the cereal/marshmallow mixture. We mixed a bunch in and it turned the whole thing a grayish color. Everyone still thought it was pretty good, don't get me wrong. Gray just isn't a very appetizing color for dessert!

Shopping Tip:

Instead of buying bottles of sprinkles at your local grocery store, make a trip to Dairy Queen. They gave us about 8 oz of sprinkles and only charged $1.04. 

Chicken with a Crunch

This week, I thought I would let you guys in on a secret: the recipe behind my favorite breaded chicken. It's super tasty, easy to make and has the perfect amount of crunch that your dinner guests will request again and again.

My dad even likes this recipe, and he doesn't like chicken much at all. 

I learned to make this dish by watching my Aunt Jean in the kitchen when I was younger, and my grandma and I have made it countless times for family reunions.

I like making it when I have an hour to wait around and relish in the decadent aromas.

The best thing about this recipe is: there is no set recipe. You can adjust the amount of ingredients you need based on the amount of chicken you need to serve.

Here's what you'll need.

Ingredients: 
Chicken breast (I prefer tenders.)
Cornflakes
Potato Chips (I use the original flavor of Lays.)
Vegetable/olive oil
Pan large enough for the amount of chicken you need to bake.

Now, you'll all have to understand that I will go to great lengths to avoid a mess, and even greater lengths to avoid washing dishes. This means that I almost always line my pans with parchment paper (for baking desserts) or aluminum foil (for baking chicken, pork, etc.) Try it out. I guarantee you'll be impressed with the easy clean up.

Here we go! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line your pan with aluminum foil. It doesn't matter what size pan you use, just make sure it's big enough for the amount of chicken you need to prepare.

Place a few handfuls of Cornflakes in a Ziploc bag and seal it. Crumple the bag between your fingers to pulverize the cereal into tiny pieces. When you have a bag full of crumbs, pour them into a small bowl.

Then, repeat this process with the chips.

After you've added the chip crumbs to the Cornflake crumbs, mix them together.

Pour some of this mixture into the bottom of your pan so the bottoms of the tenders will be properly breaded.

Grab another bowl and pour about a half an inch of oil into the bottom.

Dip breasts in oil, then the crumb mixture.

Take a piece of chicken and dip it into the oil. When it is thoroughly coated, drop it in the bowl with your Cornflake/chip mix. The mix will, for the most part, stick to the chicken.

Arrange neatly in a baking dish.

Nest the chicken pieces into your pan so they will bake evenly, and pour another layer of the Cornflake/chip mix on the very top.
*This picture doesn't have the aforementioned top layer.

Stick it in the oven for 45-60 minutes. Just keep an eye on it and when the top layer is a crisp golden brown, cut into one of the pieces to ensure the inside is no longer pink. Here's some tips for knowing when it's done.

Crispy, crunchy and tasty.

I like to serve mine fresh from the oven with scalloped or roasted potatoes and a vegetable side dish.

Try it out, mix it up and most importantly, enjoy!

My Tips:

When I'm gathering ingredients at the grocery store, I like choosing the chicken tenders over any other cut. They are the easiest to work with and they bake the quickest. Plus, you can fit quite a few tenders in a decent sized pan and each guest can have two or three pieces.

I'm thinking about using Doritos or Cool Ranch Doritos to switch up the flavor next time. I'd also like to add some different kinds of shredded cheese to really kick up the tastiness.

If you don't feel like mixing your own breading ingredients, there is a wonderful product in your cheese aisle at the grocery store called "Kraft Fresh Take" and it is available in flavors including cheddar jack and bacon, Southwest three cheese, roasted garlic and rosemary, and Italian Parmesan.

I've tried the cheddar jack and bacon, and it really is simple to make and definitely enticing.