Frozen Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon water
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, if desired

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in the vanilla, water, flour, chocolate chips,
and walnuts, if desired, and mix until well blended. (Mixture will look granulated until rolled together.) Roll dough into bite-sized balls or use a small ice cream scoop. Place on a baking sheet and freeze until firm, about 2 hours. Store balls in resealable plastic bags in the freezer.

**I had to freeze them on a plate, since a cookie sheet doesn't fit in my freezer. I covered the plate with suran wrap and then placed a sheet of suran wrap over the cookies as they froze.

Recipe was originally found on: Allrecipes.com

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

(This recipe is actually from my friend Amy. It's DELICIOUS!!!)

Mexican Manicotti

I adapted this recipe from Simplifysupper.com, which gives you a customizable calendar every month of different recipes (no recipe is repeated) as well as shopping lists. :)

1 pound ground beef
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 can refried beans
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon Oregano
1/2 package jumbo shells (I used 15)
1 can enchilada sauce, 10 ounce size
8 oz Mexican style cheese, shredded

Cook ground beef with onion. Boil jumbo shells according to package directions. In a bowl, combine cooked beef, refried beans, chili powder, oregano and 1/2 the cheese. Spoon into cooked shells. Arrange shells in the bottom of a 8*8 baking dish. Pour enchilada sauce over top. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with cheese. You can also top with diced green onions, sour cream, diced tomatoes, sliced olives, etc. Bake additional 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted.

The girls both asked for seconds, which means this recipe is a keeper.

Coconut Lemon Loaf

Thanks for the invite Tanya! I'm going to be lazy today and just put the link in for this recipe...it's too long to type out!

I saw this recipe for Coconut Lemon Loaf in Family Fun Magazine. I had to try it out. Don't forget to put on the yummy glaze too.

It was a big hit. I think it turned out better in my Pampered Chef Mini-Loaf stone than it did in a regular bread baking dish. It's not too sweet, but really good!

Note to self...get a lemon zester next time!

Hawaiian Chicken

Chicken
6-8 chicken breasts (3 or 4 large) 1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 c. flour 1 lg. green pepper, cut into circles
1/3 c. oil (I don't use the oil) 1 tsp. salt


Sauce
20 oz. can pineapple, slices work best 1/2 tsp. ginger
1 c. sugar 1/2 tsp. soy sauce
1 T. cornstarch 1 chicken bouillon cube (optional)
1/4 c. vinegar

Coat chicken with flour and brown chicken on both sides on skillet (using oil if desired). Remove and place in baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 350'. SAUCE: Drain Pineapple juice into a 2 cup measure, add water to make 1 1/4 cups. In saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch: mix well. Add pineapple juice, vinegar, ginger, soy sauce, and bouillon cube. Pour sauce over chicken and cook uncovered 20-30 min. Add pineapple and green pepper and bake additional 15-30 min placing foil unsealed on top.

I served over white rice and it was mighty tasty!