Berry Streusel Muffins

Berry Streusel Muffins 

I don't know about you but I love muffins! I like 'em big! I like 'em little! I like 'em sweet! I like 'em savory! I just plain like them.

In the past, being the supremely lazy cook that I am but still wanting a good muffin, I would buy box mixes.

There are some good ones (Jiffy), there are some great ones (Betty Crocker), and there are some HORRID ones (Martha White).

One evening, I needed a bread of some sort to go with dinner. We had recently already eaten rolls, garlic breadsticks, and corn bread (oh, I have the BEST recipe for that! I must remember to share it!!!). Heck, one night we had regualr sandwich bread with butter and honey on it (my kids love that!). I don't like to repeat any dinner items until at least a week or so has gone by, and on this particular night I wanted a good, moist, yet crumbly muffin!

I looked on pinterest but nothing stood out. Then I looked in an old cookbook I have had for years. Okay, five and a half years anyway. There it was. The Muffin. Calling out my name. Why hadn't I noticed it before? It clearly had all the ingredients in it that I usually have on hand.

The only ingredient I didn't have was fresh or frozen raspberries. I had a frozen berry medley, but not plain old raspberries.

Well, you know what they say; "Necessity is the mother of all invention", so we forged ahead and decided to give it a go anyway.

I am so glad we did!!! These were super yummy, super moist, and super crumbly!

Make them. Right this instant!!!

Berry Streusel Muffins
Muffin Batter:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup fresh or frozen berries

Streusel Topping: Prepare this and set aside
1/4 cup chopped pecans (I actually omitted this because some in our family are allergic to nuts and some are just plain picky! It turned out just fine without the nuts! Leave the other ingredient amounts the same)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin tin with liners (this recipe makes 12).

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar and baking powder. In a small bowl combine egg, milk and butter until blended. Stir wet mixture into dry mixture just until moistened.

Spoon half of the batter into the muffin cups. Drop a few berries on top of the batter in the cups. Top with remaining batter. (Note: Try to keep your berries away from the edges of the muffins because they stick to the liners when baking. Found out the hard way. You're welcome!).

Top with struesel topping and bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from pan. Enjoy!

I have resorted to doubling this recipe so that we have left-over muffins for breakfast the next day.
Mmm-mmmm!!!! I am getting hungry just thinking about eating these yummy-yummies!

I need to mix up a huge batch of just the dry ingredients and divide it into baggies so that I can trick myself into pretending that I am using a "convenient" box mix.

 

Happy Thursday!

Buffalo Ranch Chicken Taquitos, Spanish Rice and Pico de Gallo

Here is a trio of mexican food yumminess! I originally posted it on my other blog, but decided to put it here. I am telling you, everything here is great, but I especially love the rice! It is fantastico!

 

"Buffalo Ranch Chicken Taquitos"

Now, I'm not very scientific when I'm cooking. I rarely measure anything. I just throw it in the pot. And I substitute like crazy (Darn! I'm all out of vanilla extract so I'll just use rum extract instead! just kidding...sort of)

But I'll try to give as much direction as possible to all you "Rule Followers" out there (middle children). For all you "Rule Breakers" (first children, or is it last children? I can never remember) feel free to change and substitute as you see fit. Or as the ingredients in your refrigerator dictate. Coincidentally, I am a "middle child", but I have "first child tendencies" because of the age difference between my elder siblings and I. They moved out while I was still young and I was the oldest of the seven left at home for YEARS!!! So I am forever breaking rules and then berating myself for not following said rules. It's a constant battle in my head, which probably explains alot if you know me.

Back to the recipe: I like a recipe that can go along way, and by that I mean feed my whole family (7 people) for not a lot of money. I think this one fits the bill nicely in that I only used 4 chicken breasts but there was still plenty of food for second helpings--plus leftovers for lunch today! You might be wondering why there were any leftovers at all. Maybe this recipe is not so good, but rest assured--my family liked it. Well, most of them, anyway--but the ones that didn't, don't like anything! Not even hamburgers and hotdogs so they don't count!

Back to the recipe, again. You need:

4 chicken breasts
sliced onions
sliced bell peppers (we used red and yellow)
cream cheese (softened)
hot sauce (not salsa--I'm talking the skinny bottle of hot sauce that you use for buffalo hot wings)
bottled ranch dressing
shredded cheese (your choice)
sour cream (if desired)
tortillas
spray oil
cooking oil

Now, this does not seem like a lot of ingredients, but the taquitos/fajitas were bigger than I thought they'd be and are very filling! I was able to get 10 fa-quitos out of this. Some of my kids only had a half. Some of had one and a half, though!

1. In about a tbsp of hot oil in a skillet, cook chicken breasts. Don't worry about cutting them up, though you can if you want to. I find that the chicken is more tender when I leave intact.

2. When cooked through, remove chicken to a large-ish bowl. Add another tbsp of oil plus the onions and bell pepper strips to the same skillet. Saute.

3. While the onions and peppers are sauteeing, shred the chicken. Add the desired amount of hot sauce. It can get a little spicy but the ranch will tone it down. Add as much as you want. Me---I added about 3 tbsps.

4. Add a few squirts of ranch dressing. You want it to be creamy but not swimming!!! Mix it all up.

5. When onions and peppers are done (Don't over cook them! You still want them to have a little bite!) remove from the heat.

6. Spray a good amount of cooking spray on a baking sheet.

7. To make each taquito/fajita:
Spread cream cheese on tortilla (you choose how much cream cheese you want)
Add some of the chicken/hot sauce/ranch mixture (I used a couple tbsps. You can put more but you'll have less fa-quitos)
Add a few sauteed onions and pepper strips
Top with a little bit of shredded cheese (I used co-jack)

8. Roll up taquitos style, and place seam-side down on prepared cookie sheet.

9. Spray with cooking oil (you can also brush with olive oil if you prefer).

10. Bake for 8-9 minutes at 425 degrees. Watch closely toward the end, or the edges might get more brown than you want.

11. Serve with ranch or sour cream on top. Pico de Gallo also make s a nice addition.

I also served it with spanish rice. I am going to be upfront with you: I looooooove spanish rice. I just have never known how to make it right. For almost 20 years I have been trying (and failing) to recreate that authentic mexican restaurant rice. As I was perusing Pinterest yesterday I decided to search it and see if there was a recipe that stood out to me. Lo, and behold, there it was. Right there under my nose. I had all the ingredients on hand so I set out to make it and I was elated, ELATED I tell you, to finally find a recipe that rivals my favorite mexican food joint. Here is the recipe:

Picture disclaimer: this does not look like much food, but my plates are

ginormous! They make any meal look puny!

Spanish Rice

2 tbsp oil, divided
1 cup uncooked rice
1 onion, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped (I actually used red and orange instead because that's what I had)
1 clove garlic (I used dehydrated, minced)
2 cups chicken broth
1 10oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained
2 tsps chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
shredded cheese and sliced green onions (optional)

1. In a deep skillet over medium heat, heat 1 tbsp oil. Saute onion, bell pepper, and garlic until tender. Remove from skillet and set aside.

2. Add remaining 1 tbsp oil to skillet and add uncooked rice. Swirl to coat and saute until golden brown.

3. Add onion mixture back to the skillet along with the broth and tomatoes. Season with chili powder, cumin and salt. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed.

4. Top with shredded cheese, if desired and sliced green onions. I topped mine with fresh Pico de Gallo.

This rice was seriously yummy!!!

Here is a bonus recipe for Pico de Gallo. I love fresh pico. I make it all the time. I hardly ever buy store bought salsa. I just make a fresh batch of pico every week or so. It stays quite nicely in the fridge for several days. My 5 year old loves it with his cheese crisps. I love it with chips.

It turns out a little differently every time because I just use what I have on hand, and I season it to taste. Actually I season to everyone else's taste because almost every time I make it, I have a crowd of people standing around "testing" it as I go along.

"It needs more garlic" or "It needs more red pepper" is frequently heard.

If you have any mixture of the following, you can make it too:

Pico de Gallo

chopped tomatoes (if you have a slap-chop or other type of food chopper, you can use that to get your tomato pieces the size you want. If it gets foamy, don't worry...it'll settle down eventually)
diced onions (I like using red, but yellow and white work nicely)
chopped green onions (I like using these for their color, but if you are using fresh cilantro you may not need the green onions)
garlic, minced (I use dehydrated minced)
bell pepper, finely chopped
cilantro (sometimes I use dried, sometimes I use fresh--though fresh is best)
diced green chiles (Whenever I open a can of these I seldom use the whole can, so I just pop the extra chiles in an ice cube tray and pull a cube or two out of the freezer whenever I need them)
crushed red pepper (to taste)
salt and pepper (to taste)
lime juice (if desired)

Stir all the ingredients together and--Voila! You will amaze one and all!!!

Mini Cherry Tarts

This, our very first recipe, comes from "The Pampered Chef". I love this little tart. I can eat a whole bunch and nobody can keep track of how many I've already had. The trick is to make ALOT of them so everyone else loses count, and if 10 disappear from the plate, it won't be noticed.

You can fill them with canned pie filling, pudding or anything else that doesn't need it's own baking time (the tart shells bake separately, before you fill them). Top them with whipped cream and you're in heaven....sweet heaven.

The original recipe is actually for Pecan Tassies. I do not like eating, nor do I like shelling, pecans (Growing up we used to have a pecan tree and guess who's job it was to shell them! That's right! mine!!! Ugh.)

You are certainly welcome to go through all the trouble you want with the pecans. Here is the link even. Knock yourself out. However, I will continue using my beloved cherry pie filling. Maybe even a cheesecake flavored pudding, instead. Much prettier than a pecan pie, which looks like chopped up bark in a pie tin.

But I'm not judging!

Tart Shells
1/2	cup butter or margarine, softened
3	ounces cream cheese, softened
	1 cup all-purpose flour Preheat oven to 350°F. For tart shells, beat butter and cream cheese in Classic Batter Bowl until well blended. Add flour; mix until a soft dough forms. Using Small Scoop, shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls of dough into ungreased cups of Deluxe Mini-Muffin Pan. Dip Mini-Tart Shaper in flour; press into dough with even pressure until dough rises slightly above rim of pan.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from oven; cool in pan 3 minutes. Remove from pan to Stackable Cooling Rack; cool completely. For sure you can use all those fancy Pampered chef gadgets. I actually do own the mini muffin tins and the mini tart shaper, but you could use your thumb to press the dough into the well. Don't forget the whipped cream on top. Super yummy!!! Enjoy!