Heath Bar Cake

This is one of those recipes I'd been wanting to try for a while and finally got around to making. And it didn't disappoint! If you like toffee you'll like this one. (I ended up giving most of it away because Tony...the hubby...doesn't like toffee and I really didn't want to have to eat the entire thing myself!) It is very moist and has wonderful flavor. Certainly one to give a try!

Heath Bar Cake

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1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 cups flour

8 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup buttermilk

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

5-6 chocolate covered toffee bars (like Heath or Skor), chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl combine the brown sugar, white sugar, flour and butter. Crumble these ingredients together with a pastry blender or forks until the mixture is crumbly and coarse.

Remove 1/2 a cup of the crumbs to a small bowl and set aside. To the large bowl with the remaining crumbs, add the buttermilk, egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Mix well.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it to the edges.

Chop up your toffee bars. The easiest way to do this, in my opinon, is to just leave them in their packaging and take the back end of a butter knife and hit it until it looks and feels all crumbly...like this!

Sprinkle the remaining crumbs over the cake...

and then the crumbled up toffee pieces.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the center is not longer gooey but a toothpick inserted comes out with moist crumbs.

Recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Chicken Primavera with Pasta (or rice)

This was our Valentine's Day dinner with the kiddo's. Something a little more sophisticated, but not too much so that the kids would still eat it!:)

These are the beautiful flowers I got from my hubby!!

Anyway, on to the dinner! You've probably seen or tried Philadelphia's new cooking creme's, but if not I have high recommendations for them!! (You can find them by the cream cheese!) They make pulling together a wonderful meal EASY! This one was sooooo good I'm excited to try many more of their recipes!

Chicken Primavera with Pasta (or rice)

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(I just served the Primavera over the pasta...you can't see it, but I promise it's under all that yumminess!)

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces

2 cups frozen stir-fry vegetables (we like the deluxe because the kids all really like the "mini corns", but whatever you like will work)

1 tub(10 oz.) Philadelphia Italian Cheese and Herb cooking creme

2 cups hot cooked fettuccine or rice

Cook and stir chicken in a skillet on medium heat for 5-7 minutes or until done. Add the vegetables and cook until heated through, stirring occasionally. Add the cooking creme and then cook an stir for 3 minutes. Stir in pasta or rice or serve over a bed of pasta or rice. (I've had it both way and can't say I prefer one over the other...they were both very good!)

Pizza Pasta

Sorry for the lack of posts lately...we've had the week off of school which means hubby and all kids have been home for the week, so we have had a project week! Kyla's room was the culprit. We made a closet and have been painting ALL. WEEK. LONG!!! But it's looking great!! Here's a look into what we've been doing!

After puting shelving into her closet...

After some (A LOT) of painting. (It took 3 coats of white to cover our beige... and that's our 2nd coat of red...gonna take at least 2 more coats! sigh)

(we're going to be adding a chair rail to divide the red from the white and also using that cool Metallic paint to make some vertical stripes in the red. Hope it turns out as good as we're hoping!!)

Anyway, I thought I'd post this recipe I found over at Do You Smell That? that is perfect for those "don't have too much time or energy to make dinner" nights (which is what my whole week has felt like), and was a big hit with my family!

Pizza Pasta

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1/2 box Rotini pasta (8 oz.)

1 jar Spaghetti sauce

2 cups Mozarella cheese, shredded

1/2 cup monterey jack cheese, shredded

1/2 a package of sausage (8 oz,)

Sliced pepperoni

3 cloves garlic, minced

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain; set aside. While pasta is cooking, brown & crumble sausage in a pan. Once cooked, drain off the fat. In the same pot the pasta boiled in, heat a drizzle of oil over medium heat; add garlic. Stir around for about 4-5 minutes. Add sausage, pasta & sauce to the pan with garlic. Stir well to combine.

Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray. Add half the pasta mixture, top with 1/2 the mozzarella cheese. Add remaining pasta, top with remaining mozzarella. Add pepperoni to the top, sprinkle with Cheddar/Jack cheese.

Bake in a 350 oven for 25-30 minutes.

Side note: I doubled the recipe for my family so we could have some leftover and just baked it in a 9 X 13 pan and it turned out really well. Also, we added a bunch of olives into the pasta mixture and on top because we LOVE olives!! I'm sure you could add whatever other pizza toppings you like!

Super Yummy!

Valentine S'more Bites

Honestly I cannot remember where I found this idea, and I searched through all my links and wasn't able to find it again...so I'm SORRY!! These were so stinkin' good. We made a whole bunch to take to the kids' Valentine class parties, but I just wanted to eat them all. And they are really cute as well. Perfect for a fun little treat on Valentine's Day!

Valentine S'more Bites

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1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup melted butter

dipping chocolate, homemade or store-bought (I just used the el-cheapo chocolate flavored almond bark...it was really good!)

heart-shaped marshmellows

Mix melted butter and graham crackers together and spread evenly into the bottom of a foil-lined 9"x13" pan and press down firmly. Place in the freezer for about an hour. Remove the foil from the pan and then use a mini heart cookie cutter to cut out heart shapes. I found a pack of heart cookie cutters at walmart that had about 6 different sizes and the smallest one was the perfect size. You want one that is pretty much the same size as the marshmellows.

Melt the dipping chocolate and then dip the bottom of each marshmellow and "attach" to the graham cracker crust.

Place back in the freezer for 15 minutes and then dip the entire thing in your dipping chocolate. Place it on wax paper and top with sprinkles. So adorable!!

Snickerdoodle Muffins

I LOVE muffins. They are one of the easiest things to make and there are so many different varieties to fit any craving I'm having! These muffins were super moist and the sugar/cinnamon tops were really yummy. Matter of fact my 3 year old just ate the top off the muffin and left the rest!

Snickerdoodle Muffins

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2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or use liners. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl or mixer, combine the butter, sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla and mix well. Combine this mixture with the dry ingredients and mix lightly just until combined.

Mix together the sugar and cinnamon. Fill your muffin tins with batter and then top each muffin with cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean.

Recipe from Your Homebased Mom.

Soups for the sickly!:)

Since I've been sick (I'm feeling so much better...thank you!) I haven't been cooking. If there is anyone else out there who's not feeling well or has family that isn't feeling well...this post is for you! There's something about warm soups that just make you feel so much better! Here are some of my favorites that are sure to warm the cold right out of you!

Baked Potato Soup

Black-eyed Pea Soup

The yummiest Taco Soup

Roasted Chicken Noodle Soup

And delicious Clam Chowder (I apparently deleted the photo cause it was so bad...but trust me when I say, the soup is delicious!!)

Enjoy some soups...hope to be back to cooking and posting more recipes by next week!