Lunch Lady Bars

I've been looking for years for a recipe similar to the chocolate chip bars that my high school cafeteria would serve. They were very soft and moist and tasted completely different than any other cookie I'd ever had or made. I think I've finally found something close! The recipe is from allrecipes.com . I stumbled upon it when I wanted to make cookies, but had no butter. I read in the reviews that someone preferred them as bars, so that's what I did. When I took my first bite, I realized they had a strong resemblance to the lunch lady bars! I've made a few changes of my own and they are noted below.
You can substitute 1/2 of the flour for wheat flour successfully, but they will not taste quite as lunch lady-esque.

Lunch Lady Bars
2 1/2 c. Flour
1 t. soda
3/4 t. salt
1 c. oil
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 c. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine dry ingredients. Set aside. In bowl mix together oil and sugars. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Gradually add dry ingredients. Mix in 3/4 c. of chocolate chips. Spread into 9x13 pan. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 c. chips on top. Bake at 350 for 15-25 minutes or until light golden brown.

Max's Fabulous Cinnamon Rolls

Don’t you love how this is one post away from the super healthy smoothie post??

This is a recipe I got from my Mother. I have no idea where she got it from, but it should be a “secret recipe”. Lucky for you- I’m horrible at keeping secrets! If you make these right, I guarantee they will be the best cinnamon rolls you’ve ever had! Please make them on a day that you will be having company or you will get very, very fat.

Max’s Fabulous Cinnamon Rolls

Rolls: 1/2c. water

1 1/2 T. sugar

2 pkgs. (4 1/2 tsp) dry yeast

1 (3.5 oz) pkg. Vanilla instant pudding

1 3/4 c. Milk

1/2 c. margarine, melted

2 eggs

1 t. salt

6 c. (I use somewhere between 5 and 6 c.) flour

Filling:

1 c. soft butter

2 c. brown sugar

4 t. cinnamon

Frosting:

8oz. cream cheese

1/2 c. margarine

1 t. vanilla

3 c. Confectioner’s sugar

1 t. milk

Rolls- In a bowl, combine water, yeast and sugar. Stir. Set aside. In large bowl combine pudding mix with 1 3/4 c. milk. Add margarine, eggs and salt. Mix. Add to yeast mixture. blend. Gradually add flour. Knead until smooth. Place in greased bowl. Cover and rise until doubled. Punch dough down and let rise again. Roll out onto floured surface to approximately 34″x22″ size. Spread 1 c. butter over surface and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll tightly. Cut 2″ slices. Place on greased cookie sheet(or in cake pan or casserole dish) 2″ apart. Lightly press down on each roll. Cover and let rise until doubled. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Do not over bake. Frost warm rolls with frosting.

Frosting- combine ingredients in mixer. Mix until smooth.

Bacon & Egg Pizza

I found this recipe at Blake Makes.
Bridget had blogged about this recipe and I thought it sounded fabulous! It really was just as fabulous as it sounded. I never would have thought I'd like this combination on a pizza (I don't even really like bacon) but it really works!
Ingredients:
Ready-made pizza crust (I like Boboli because it’s cheap, keeps awhile in the pantry and tastes good.)
Marinara sauce
Mozzarella (I used a combo of leftover bagged cheese and deli smoked mozzarella- the smoked cheese added tons of flavor, so I would definitely mix this in again.)
3 strips bacon (I used 5 strips)
I used 2 medium eggs, but would use 3 medium or 2 jumbo next time Handful chopped Fresh flat-leaf parsley (I omitted this because I didn't have it, but wish I did)
Salt and pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Cook bacon, crumble and put to the side. Spread thin layer of marinara over crust, and add a few handfuls of mozzarella. Bake pizza on the rack for about 4 minutes. Pull out oven rack, and make sure it’s level. Crack egg in center of pizza and add a little salt to yolk. Push oven rack back in, turn on broiler and bake for an additional 5-6 minutes, until yolk has thickened but is not hard (sunny-side up). Add bacon, parsley, grated Parmesan and black pepper to taste.

Green Smoothie

This post is really for my Mom. She doesn't believe me that a green smoothie can taste good. Well, they do! Greta begs me for them. Here's the recipe I use, but I'm sure it can be modified in many ways. I love these. I try to make one every day (if I have time). I feel so much better on the days that I get to have one. I hope you'll give it a try!
Green smoothie
3-4 large Romaine leaves (or about 2 c. spinach leaves works nice as well)
1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. frozen strawberries
2 bananas
a little honey if needed
Combine romaine and water in blender and blend until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend. You can add ice if you like and if the bananas are not perfectly ripe, you can add a little honey. Makes enough for 2 adults.

Hummus

mmmmm! Homemade hummus! I've made homemade hummus before, but have always used canned chickpeas. This time I spent the extra time to soak dried chickpeas, then cook them. I must say, it made a huge difference.

Hummus
2 c. dried chickpeas, soaked then cooked, then chilled
1T. olive oil
2T. lemon juice
1 T. Tahini
2 cloves garlic
1/8 T. cayenne pepper
1 t. salt
black pepper to taste
water to reach desired consistency, I used 2 T.

Combine all ingredients in food processor and blend until creamy. Serve with extra olive oil drizzled on top. Serve with veggies and pita chips.

Chocolate mint cookies

chocolate mint. April 14, 2008

Filed under: eat. — sherrilee @ 3:28 am Edit This

Whoah! I found this great “cheater” cookie recipe from the blog Blonde Ambition in the Kitchen. She made it with a yellow cake mix and chocolate chips but mentioned that she’s tried a chocolate cake mix and Andes mints. That’s when it happened…I started having flashbacks of Christmas as a kid when I would get my OWN box of Andes mints! If you know me, you know that they were always completely gone by the next morning. I was a bit hesitant to try this recipe as some cake-mix cookie recipes I’ve tried turn out all puffy and don’t taste like a real cookie. This were so good that Joe said they were going to make him go into convulsions and that’s when I decided it would be best to freeze the remaining dough to share with friends

This recipe is fabulous. I hope you enjoy!

Chocolate mint Cheater cookies

1 (18.25 ounce) package triple fudge cake mix (yellow or white work, too)

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 T Vegetable Oil

2 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1 cup Andes mints (or chocolate chips, nuts, candies, dried fruits, etc)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Sugar (for sprinkling on top)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, beat together the butter, oil and egg. Add cake mix and vanilla and blend well. Fold in chocolate chips or other add-ins.

Chill for 10 minutes.

Drop by spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets,sprinkle with sugar

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely as they will break easily if moved too soon.

Maybe if I hide them in the cookie jar, I’ll forget they exist!