Healthy Apple Strawberry Tart

Sometimes a rich dessert is just what you want, but other times a nice light dessert is really refreshing. I made a beautiful tart that was delicious AND low calorie.

I sliced up two large granny smith apples and a pound of strawberries. I tossed them with a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice and a cup of splenda.

I filled a store bought crust with my strawberry apple filling and brushed the edges with some melted butter. I baked the tart at 350° for 40 minutes. A nice healthy dessert from my kitchen to your table.

Easy Banana Poke Cakes

Need a dessert in a pinch? Only have twenty minutes? Then this is the dessert for you! All you need is two packages of six personal sponge cakes, two ripe bananas, one tub of cool whip some banana cream instant pudding and a plastic straw.

Make your pudding according to the directions on the box and let it set up in the fridge while you use the straw to poke hokes in six of the sponge cakes. Once your pudding has set spread a liberal dollop of it onto each cake. Add banana slices onto each cake and top with cool whip. Repeat these steps for the second layer, then add one more slice of banana to each cake for garnish. Then you have a super quick super easy dessert from my kitchen to your table.

Catfish Po'boy Sandwiches

My local butcher shop had fresh catfish nuggets on sale for $1.50 a pound. What is a catfish nugget you ask? Basically the leftover chunks of catfish fillets. Thats why its so cheap. I dont cook a lot of seafood and this was my first time cooking catfish. I am very pleased with how this turned out.

To start, I cut my catfish into bite size chunks, careful to trim off any skin that was left. Then I soaked it in a bowl full of milk to plump it up and leech out any extra fishy flavor.

Then I drained the milk off and prepared my shake n bake. I chose shake n bake for this because I wanted a healthier alternative to breaded, fried fish. I dropped in my catfish pieces and coated them well.

I baked my fish for 35 minutes at 350°. While my fish baked, I prepared the other componants to the sandwiches. Since I bought pre made cole slaw I only needed to jazz it up a bit. I added some hot sauce, cheddar cheese and cracked black pepper. Then I made a special sauce composed of honey mustard, buffalo sauce and sour cream. Then I split my beautiful ciabatta buns.

I put sauce on the buns, then the catfish. I topped the fish with some of my doctored cole slaw. I served these beauties with steamed broccoli and cheese sauce.

This is a delicious and quick meal for the whole family to enjoy. From my kitchen to your table!

Stuffed Pancakes

Sometimes you just get bored. You look in your freezer and sigh. Breakfast is my least favorite meal to make, because I find breakfast food monotonious to prepare. Today I decided to try something new.

The construction of a stuffed pancake is simple. Fry your sausage patty to the crispness you desire. Scramble an egg and fry it into a patty. Aim to make it a little smaller than your sausage patty, but a bit thicker. This can be accomplished by folding the egg over on itself as it cooks. Season the egg patty with pepper and salt.

Remove your eggs and sausage from your griddle or frying pan and prep your cooking surface to make pancakes. I use a griddle so I just used the sausage grease to grease the griddle and provide a non stick zone for my pancakes.

Using your favorite batter, make a pancake the is just a little bit bigger than your sausage patty. As the pancake starts to bubble and is ready to be flipped, place your egg and sausage patty on top and GENTLY press down. Top your egg and sausage with more pancake batter. Carefully flip and allow to cook through.

Now you have a stuffed pancake! Another tasty dish from my kitchen to your table!

Sweet Birds Nests

My nieces spent winter breal with me and Ive had a lot of fun coming up with activities to keep all the lovely ladies occupied. One such activity was making chocolate birds nests. Theres even a peep garnish because every nest needs a bird.

The nests themselves were easy to assemble. I melted a pound of chocolate chips and a cup of peanut butter in a large plastic bowl. I just microwaved them for a minute, stirred it up and microwaved it for another minute. Then I stirred in six cups of chow mein noodles. We made A LOT of nests, halving the recipe will give you ten good sized nests. We have 20.

Drop dollops of your chocolate covered chow mein noodles onto wax paper. With a spoon press down onto the top of each dollop, creating an indent. Allow these to harden for at least four hours. We made them in the evening and let them sit out overnight.

After your nests are hardened, place your eggs in. we used cookies n cream eggs and secured them in place with peanut butter. You can secure the peep to the side of the nest with peanut butter too.

These were a big hit, and very tasty to boot!

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Boneless Skinless chicken breasts are as tricky as they are versatile. They can be used in just about anything but they dry out easily. Especially in the oven. So to stop that from happening, I wrapped my chicken breasts in bacon. In addition to fantastic flavor, bacon adds fat to the dish, keeping it moist.

To start I trimmed off all the little extra bits of fat and meat that would just burn in the oven. Then I made a slit in the large part of the breast. I was very careful not to cut through any of the sides because I didnt want to ruin my pocket. Once I was done I had three chicken breasts ready to be filled.

I used pre made stuffing mix, but homemade would have been better. I didnt cook the stuffing, I just added the liquid. I also added an egg to help hold it all together and stay moist. I stuffed each pocket as full as I possibly could.

After the chicken breasts are stuffed I wrapped three slices of bacon around each breast. For larger breasts you may need more bacon, and for smaller you may need less. Then I seasoned liberally with salt pepper and garlic powder.

Bake at 350° for thirty minutes or until the juices run clear. Now you can serve these as they are or sear them in a frying pan to get some crisp on them. I left ours as is.

There you have it! Another easy and delicious meal from my kitchen to your table.

Loaded Baked Potatoes

In my house we enjoy potatoes. They're a very versatile tuber. Filling and loaded with nutrients, potatoes are a wonder food!

These fantastic roots saved my butt tonight! We don't have much but leftovers. So while surveying the fridge contents I came across some roasted carrots, seared kielbasa and not much else. I recently made a country bake so I figured we would just have leftover and baked potatoes. When text messaging my husband this information my phone decided to say we were having kielbasa and carrots IN baked potatoes.

Divine intervention aside, I thought it was a great idea. So I baked my potatoes,  scooped out the insides and smashed them with a half a stick of butter, a quarter cup of sour cream and a cup of shredded cheese. I then mixed in my chunks of kielbasa and roasted carrot, before putting the mixture back in the shell. I baked these for 20 minutes at 400°. The end result was a crispy skinned potato stuffed with a creamy mixture, only enhanced by the meat and carrots. I didn't add adirional seasonings because if how well my carrots were seasoned, but a half a teaspoon of garlic would do these taters good.

And there you have it! A quick and easy way to utilize leftovers! From my kitchen to your table!