Cake Batter Milkshake

Ohhh yeah.

My obsessive food pinning on Pinterest brought me here, to A Beautiful Mess Blog, and their ridiculous cake batter milkshake recipes.

I decided to make the Funfetti Milkshake (Or what we call Rainbow Chip), so I took their recipe and made it more single-serving-oriented:

- 3 scoops vanilla ice cream

- about 3/4 cups soy milk (Because that's all I had. Regular milk will of course work, but DAMN was it good and vanilla-y.)

- about 2-3 tbsps of rainbow chip cake mix

NOTE: These measurements are very rough, because I really eyeballed everything.

Combine ingredients in your blender. Top the milkshake or rim the glass with sprinkles if you'd like. Drink and enjoy :)

NOW- I bet you're wondering what to do with that box of cake mix. Why would you open a box of cake mix only to use a few tablespoons? Stay tuned- I have a recipe coming where you can use up some more of that cake mix!

No-bake Nutella Cookies

As you all know, I have a bit of an unhealthy relationship with Pinterest.

I have this little routine where I roam the pages of the Food and Drink boards, repinning recipes to my heart's delight. And then, when the mood strikes me to bake something new and awesome (Which, obviously, strikes very frequently), I'll go onto my Pinterest boards and find something to try out.

This recipe was something I remember baking years ago as a kid in a baking class I took one year. I then found it on Pinterest, and decided to give it another go.

No regrets.

Here is the recipe (From Chef In Training):

- 2 cups sugar

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1/2 cup margarine

- 4 tablespoons cocoa

- 2 and 1/2 cup quick oats

- 2 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 cup nutella (You could use peanut butter instead if you'd rather have Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookies)

Cook the sugar, milk, margarine, and cocoa over moderate heat until the mixture comes to a full boil, and then cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add oats, vanilla and nutella. Mix until combined. Spoon onto parchment paper and let cool and firm up. Enjoy!

You'll notice the author from Chef at Training calls these cookies "Gorilla Poops." You'll also notice I do not. Ew.

Crockpot White Chicken Chili

Have you heard of white chili?

If you're anything like me, and you lurk food blogs and endlessly repin food posts on pinterest, and you even stalk the food section on reddit.com...

... Wait, only me?

Anyway. I've been hearing a great deal about white chili, which is a type of chili with more of a creamy/brothy base, rather than a tomato-y base.

So I went through many, MANY recipes until I found one I liked, and adapted it to fit my pantry!

Here it is (Adapted from food.com):

- 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

- 2 cans white kidney beans (You can also use great northern or navy beans... or whatever bean you have!)

- 2 cans corn

- 2 cans sliced mushrooms

- 1 envelope taco seasoning

- one medium onion, chopped

- 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

- 1 can chicken broth

- 1/2 cup sour cream

Adaptation Explanations: I used navy beans in my original recipe, but I didn't like the texture, so I would definitely recommend using kidney beans instead. I also added extra corn (Because who doesn't like corn?), omitted a can of green chilies (Because they are really pricey, but if you have the means, go for it!), added the mushrooms (Because I wanted some veggie in there- and yes, I classify mushrooms as vegetables) and added an onion.

Place the chicken, beans, corn, mushrooms and onion in the slow cooker. In a separate bowl, combine taco seasoning, soup and chicken broth. Pour the mixture over the other ingredients. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Before serving, stir the chili to break up the chicken, and add the 1/2 cup of sour cream. Enjoy!!

My husband was seriously skeptical of this chili. He devoured it. And also made shadow puppets while I was trying to take pictures of it.

Sigh.

Snicker-chip-doodle Cookies

I love cookies.

I mean, I SERIOUSLY love cookies. I've made my fair share of cookie recipes, and while there is nothing wrong with chocolate chip cookies, or snickerdoodles, or any of those lovely classics, I definitely like interesting cookies.

So, when I saw a recipe for these guys, I pretty much bolted to the kitchen and started making them immediately.

They did not disappoint.

Here is the recipe (Adapted from Jessica's recipe at How Sweet Eats):

- 1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)

- 1 cup sugar

- 1 egg

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 and 3/4 cups flour

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- 2 tbsp milk

- 1/2 cup chocolate chips

- 2/3 cup toffee chips (eg skor bits)

for coating cookies in: 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 tbsp cinnamon

I slightly adapted the recipe, because I like my cookies chip-y, and because I found the cinnamon-sugar coating for the cookies too cinnamon-y. You probably don't even need a full 1/4 cup of sugar.

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy, for about 5 minutes. Then, add in egg and vanilla, mixing for about 2 minutes. Next, add flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until dough comes together. Add in the 2 tbsp of milk, and if you find the dough is still crumbly, continue adding milk until the dough comes together, 1 tbsp at a time. Stir in chocolate chips and toffee. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Once the 30 minutes is over, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine your sugar and cinnamon for dipping in a small bowl. Take the dough and roll into 1 1/2 inch balls, and then roll in the sugar mixture. Place on baking sheet (I cook mine on parchment paper, because I find the toffee chips burn unless baked on parchment.) Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Try not to eat them all yourself. Although, seriously, that's much easier said than done...

Citrus & Cornmeal Crusted Sole with Orange-Pomegranate Salsa

I have a disturbing amount of frozen fish in my freezer.

I would show you, but it's kind of embarrassing.

So, after going through my freezer and wondering how in the world I ever thought it was a good idea to buy that much fish, I checked out my favourite food blog (www.howsweeteats.com), and, as the fates had it, a really tasty looking fish recipe had just been posted- Citrus crusted tilapia with blood orange salsa! (http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/01/citrus-crusted-tilapia-with-blood-orange-salsa/)

I went through my pantry and made a few changes to the recipe based on what I had on hand, and made this lovely dish:

Citrus & Cornmeal Crusted Sole (adapted from howsweeteats.com)

- 4 fresh (or frozen, thawed) filets of fish (I used sole because it's what I had)

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp pepper

- 3/4 cup breadcrumbs

- 1/4 cup flour

- 1/2 cup cornmeal

- a few dashes of cayenne pepper, depending on taste.

- zest of 2 oranges

- 2 eggs, lightly beaten

- about 2-3 tbsps of lemon/lime juice

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (My oven runs a bit low, so i did 450), and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. (Jessica from howsweeteats.com recommends baking the fish on a wire rack on top of the baking sheets, but I didn't have any that I could put in the oven, and mine turned out just fine cooked on a baking sheet).

Gently beat the 2 eggs and add the lime juice in one bowl. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients and orange zest. Coat each fish filet with the egg mixture, then the citrus breadcrumbs, pressing to adhere.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until breadcrumbs are golden.

Orange-Pomegranate Salsa (adapted from howsweeteats.com):

- 2 oranges, segmented

- seeds from one pomegranate

- about 1/2 of one red onion

- a few splashes of balsamic vinegar

- pinch of salt

- pinch of pepper

(If it's available to you, something like fresh parsley, or a bit of seeded, fresh japalenos would be awesome.)

Combine all ingredients, and allow to sit for about half an hour so flavours marry.

This stuff is seriously good. It makes it much easier to use all the fish in your freezer :)

Cookie Dough Dip

Ok everybody. Get ready for this.

I don't know about you guys, but when I make cookies, about 40% of the batter is reserved for being eaten raw. And, y'know, it isn't healthy because eggs and salmonella and blah blah blah...

But THIS recipe? No eggs. So you can eat this delicious dessert dip guilt free.

... Well, except for the guilt of eating the butter and sugar and cream cheese.

But I digress.

Here is the recipe, taken from Jessica at How Sweet It Is:

(http://www.howsweeteats.com/2010/12/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-dip/)

-1/2 cup butter

-1/3 cup brown sugar

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-1 8 oz. block of cream cheese

-1/2 cup powdered sugar

-3/4 cup chocolate chips

Melt the butter on the stovetop on medium heat. Add the brown sugar, and whisk until it dissolves and combines, and it starts to bubble. Take off heat, and mix in vanilla extract.

Next, cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar for about 60 seconds. With mixer on low, add in the brown sugar and butter mixture, and mix until combined. Put the mixture in the fridge and allow to cool a bit, then add in the chocolate chips.

You can eat this with graham crackers, animal crackers, apple slices, or pretzels.

And, if you're interested in mixing it up, check out Jessica's cookie dough flavour trio- either snickerdoodle, peanut butter chocolate chip, or double fudge cookie dough dip: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2010/12/cookie-dough-dip-trio-3-new-flavors/

.... OR.

You can do what I did, and make a glorious Frankenstein cookie dough dip creation by combining the best bits of all cookies, thereby making:

Snickerdoodle Toffee-Crunch Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip.

Simply follow the recipe above, but when mixing the entire mixture together, add in about 2-3 tablespoons of cinnamon. Then, after you refrigerate the mixture, add in chocolate chips and about a half cup of toffee bits (such as Skor bits).

This is the most delicious little monster I've ever created.

Fish Tacos

I know.

They sound so, so gross. I mean, fish tacos? They sound like something sketchy sold from an unclean food cart.

But hear me out.

These tacos are healthy, quick, and SO SO TASTY.

All you need is:

- deboned fresh or frozen fish, thawed (cod, sole, tilapia, etc), 4-6 filets.

- cumin

- cayenne pepper

-lemon or lime juice

- tortillas or taco shells

- taco toppings (tomatoes, lettuce, avocado, salsa, sour cream, etc)

Take fish and lay on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Sprinkle with lemon or lime juice, and then liberally sprinkle with cumin and a bit of cayenne pepper (depending on your taste). Broil for 8-10 minutes, then remove from oven and flake fish with a fork. Put in the tacos/tortillas, and top with favourite taco toppings!

Give it a try. You won't regret it.