Copycat Shamrock Shake

With it being St. Patrick's Day this week I have been making Irish/St. Patty's Day Food. I made Copycat Shamrock Shake for an after dinner snack last night.

Copycat Shamrock Shake

Yummy!

Copy Cat Shamrock Shake

• 3 cups of vanilla ice cream, slightly softened
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract (I did 3/8 tsp. which was not really strong enough.)
• 8 drops of green food coloring
• green sprinkles, if desired
• sweetened whipped cream
• Place the ingredients in the order listed above in a blender. Start out with 1/4 tsp extract and taste after blending to see if you want a stronger mint flavor, if so add another 1/4 tsp extract. Blend in the blender until smooth. Pour mixture into 2 glasses and top with whipped cream and sprinkles if desired. Makes 2 shakes. (I made 4 small shakes.)

I loved the peppermint! 

Before Mixing

After Mixing

Things I've Learned

• I love peppermint in my shakes!
• Not really much else to learn... with this one.

Irish Soda Bread

With it being St. Patrick's Day yesterday I have been making Irish/St. Patty's Day Food this week. I made Irish Soda Bread yesterday.

Irish Soda Bread

A very yummy sweet raisin bread!

Irish Soda Bread Recipe

• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• dash of salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 2 1/2 cups raisins
• 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Use a 10-12 inch ovenproof skillet with 2-inch or better sides or 2 cake pans. Cut a circle of parchment paper out and line your pan (s). Whisk the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl until blended. Add in the butter and raisins and stir well. Add buttermilk and egg to the dry ingredients and stir until incorporates - do not overmix. Pour mixture into pan(s) and cook for one hour or until toothpick comes out dry. For smaller loaves, check after 45 minutes. (I didn't have the right pan or parchement paper, so I sprayed a 9"x13" pan with cooking spray and baked for 45 minutes.)

A bunch of ingredients!

This was pretty hard to mix!

Before Baking

After Baking

It is so delicious and moist!

Things I've Learned

• This recipe is actually kind of large. Luckily we had a play date otherwise we would have been eating Irish bread for weeks!

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have fallen behind again with blogging. I made these AMAZING Chocolate Chip Cookies this last weekend.

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies

Seriously, these are AMAZING chocolate chip cookies!!!!

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe (Crisco)

This is another recipe from my mom's cookbook. Yummy!
I am not a fan of pecans, so I left them out.

You could tell these cookies were going to be delicious,
 because the cookie dough was so smooth.

Before Baking

After Baking

Things I've Learned

• I don't know if I have said this before, but I swear baking isn't too hard as long as you have a good recipe and follow it. 

Soy Sauce Chicken

I have fallen behind again with blogging. I made this yummy soy sauce chicken last week.

Soy Sauce Chicken

Still yummy even though the sauce didn't work out perfectly.

3 Ingredient Soy Sauce Coca-Cola Crockpot Chicken Recipe

• 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
• 8oz Coca-Cola
• About a dozen Chicken Drumsticks
• Throw it all in a crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours. (I cooked ours on high for 3 hours.)

1/2 cup Soy Sauce

8oz Coke

Everything in the beginning.

After cooking.

I couldn't figure out how to "reduce the liquid". 

So I threw in a brown gravy mix... which ended up being clumpy.

It was so delicious even with the sauce hiccup.

Things I've Learned

• The crockpot works excellent at cooking chicken drumsticks. They were so moist and delicious!!!!

Kalua Pork... kind of

I made this pork roast last week, but it really turned out nothing like the recipe I used.

Kalua Pork

So good, but not really what the recipe had in mind.

Kalua Pork Recipe

• 1 2.5-3.5 (lb?) boneless pork shoulder (butt) roast
• pink Hawaiian sea salt
• hickory-flavored liquid smoke
• Basically I rinsed the pork roast and patted it dry. I pierced the entire roast with a fork. I covered in the barbecue sauce and cooked on low for 6 hours. I cut it then I cooked on high for 1 hour. It was a little dry, since I hardly ever have meat though, it was delicious!

I couldn't find 2 of the 3 ingredients I needed,
so I improvised.

I cut the roast open, and checked the temp.

Plus, I cooked on high another hour after cutting.

Good, but a little dry.

Things I've Learned

• I don't feel like I learned anything. If anything the recipe had me a little confused.

Hard Boiled Eggs- FAIL

I don't know how I manage to do this, but I failed at making hard boiled eggs this morning. I guess it's a good thing Easter isn't here yet, so I will be ready by then. Maybe?

Hard Boiled Eggs

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

• 4 eggs with no cracks
• enough water to cover eggs
• Place eggs in a medium pan, and cover with about an inch of cold water. Turn heat on medium and bring the water to a boil. When the water boils, shut the flame off and cover for 20 minutes. Run under cold water and let the eggs cool.

Did I use enough water?

The whites were not cooked well enough.

I am an over-easy egg eater,
so I loved the yoke on these under cooked hard boiled eggs.

Things I've Learned

• I don't know why these eggs didn't turn out. Did I not cook in enough water? Did I need to let them cool longer?

Crock Pot Chili

Yesterday, I had every intention to make Kalua Pork for lunch, but I failed again to read the recipe in advance. Oh well, this chili recipe was delicious!

Chili

Yummy!

Easy 3 Ingredient Chili Recipe

• 1 pound cooked and drained ground beef
• 1 can of chili beans (undrained)
• 1 can of chili ready diced tomatoes
• (I don't really like having too much beef, so I did 2 cans of each of the above.)
• Combine all ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Divide into bowls, add your favorite toppings and enjoy!

Yup that's it!

Brown the beef.

Add everything to the crockpot and basically done.

Things I've Learned

• I thought this was a little silly for a crockpot. It made my house smell great, but all that the crockpot really did was warm the beans and tomatoes up. 
• It was so delicious!!!

Applesauce Pancakes

Yesterday, I made these pancakes for breakfast. They were okay, but I really expected them to be sweeter.

Applesauce Pancake

Applesauce Pancakes Recipes

• 2 cups dry pancake mix
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup milk
• Combine all your ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir everything together. Heat a griddle over medium high heat. Butter or oil your griddle. Pour pancake batter onto the griddle in desired size. Cook until batter starts to bubble and bottom turns golden brown. Flip and cook until bottom side is fully cooked too. Serve hot topped with butter and syrup. Enjoy!

All you need

It doesn't really make a lot of pancakes.

It was super thick.

Pretty healthy though.

Things I've Learned

• This recipe really wasn't that great. I was hoping it would have been a little sweeter. I think I need to find a pancake recipe where syrup is inside the mix, since little hands can get pretty sticky with syrup.

Biscuits and Gravy

I absolutely LOVE this 3 ingredient slow cooker biscuits and gravy recipe. We had it for lunch today. Yummy!

Biscuits and Gravy

So delicious!

3 Ingredient Slow Cooker Biscuits and Gravy Recipe

• 1 lb breakfast sausage
• 2 cans refrigerator biscuits
• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup (I used cream of celery)
• Brown and drain sausage. Layer 1 can of biscuits in the bottom of a greased slow cooker. Top with half the sausage and then 1 can of cream of mushroom soup. Repeat the layers once more. Cook on high for 2 hours.

Brown the sausage.

Place 1 can of biscuits into bottom of crockpot.

Cover with cream soup and sausage.

This made our house smell amazing!!!!

Things I've Learned

• Who would have guessed that cream of celery soup tastes so amazing as a gravy. I would have never thought to try.
• I love breakfast for lunch. Yummy!

Easy Muffins

I made this super easy muffin recipe this morning. 

Easy Muffins

Yummy!

Easy Breakfast Muffins Recipe

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup milk
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and stir together. Add in eggs, oil, and milk and mix until combined. Don't beat or overmix! Scoop into prepared muffin tin and bake for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!

Pretty much basic ingredients.

Adding the wet ingredients to the dry.

The girls and I loved them!

Things I've Learned

• I am still amazed at how easy throwing together a homemade batch of muffins or pancakes can be. Not really that much harder than throwing together a mix.
• This is a sweeter recipe than the other muffin recipe I made. If you like sweet these are the muffins for you.