Lemon Cheesecake Bars

You either love them or hate them. 2 of my 4 kids hated them! Which is ok, because that means more for me!:) I love lemon bars, but I've had some bad ones in the past. There's not much better if it's a good one...and I found a GOOD one!! The little layer of cheesecake makes a difference. This is a perfect spring time treat too!

Lemon Cheesecake Bars

Recipe from Your Homebased Mom

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Crust:

3/4 cup butter, chilled (I used margarine)

2 cups flour

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cheesecake:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

2 Tablespoons milk

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Lemon Layer:

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup flour

Crust: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut butter into pieces. In a food processor (or blender on low, or just use a pasty cutter which is what I did), process all ingredients until mixture becomes tiny and fine pieces. Sprinkle mixture into a 9 X 13 baking pan and press evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 12 minutes and remove from the oven.

Cheesecake: In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and mix well. Cream together the rest of the ingredients until smooth. Pour cheesecake evenly over hot crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove form oven and reduce oven temperature to 300.

Lemon Layer: In a bowl whisk together eggs and sugar until combined well. Stir in lemon juice and flour. (I used 4 lemons for this recipe and came up about 1/8 a cup short of juice so I just used water to make up for what I lacked and it came out just fine). Pour over semi-baked cheesecake. Bake at 300 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle powdered sugar over top if desired.

Cool for an hour and then refrigerate. Can be served warm but it is WAY better after it has been chilled. (about 30 minutes in the frige). Makes 24 bars.

BLT's made with homemade white bread!

To me there is nothing better than a BLT on homemade bread with crispy crunchy bacon and lettuce and garden fresh tomatoes!! We had just that last night (all except the garden fresh tomatoes...hopefully we'll get some this year!! I must have planted 10-15 tomato plants last year and we did not even get to eat one ripe tomato. But I'm optimistic for this year!) Anyway, back to the BLT...everyone knows how to put together a BLT, so I'm going to post my bread recipe that I used for it. I love this bread because you can have it fresh from the oven in about an hour and 15 minutes!! Gotta love that!! So anyway, here's the recipe!

Quick and Easy White Bread

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2 Tablespoons yeast

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups HOT water

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon salt

5 Tablespoons oil

6 cups flour, divided

Put the yeast in the 1/2 cup of warm water and let sit. Mix together the Hot water, sugar, salt, oil and 3 cups of the flour in a mixer (kitchen aide or bosch or whatever you have). Mix with whips until dough is smooth. Pour in the yeast and rest of the flour and trade in your dough arm in your mixer. Turn mixer on and add more flour if needed (the dough should "clean" your bowl) and let it knead the dough for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, grease 2 bread pans (I just spray mine!). When the dough is finished kneading separate it into 2 loaves and work it into a loaf. I've seen people roll their dough out and then roll it and pinch the ends...it's supposed to make it so there are no air pockets, but I just work mine with my hands and I've never had a problem with air pockets so whichever you perfer I guess!:) Place each loaf in a pan and cover with a dish towel and let raise for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place loaves in oven and cook for about 35-40 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Remove from the oven and butter the top while still warm. You can now take them out of the pans and eat. They are a little hard to cut when it is so warm, but so yummy.

For the BLT's I cut them after they had been sitting out for about 10 minutes and they were still pretty hot inside, but we toasted them which helped them hold together better for the sandwhich. So, toast your bread, spread Miracle whip (not mayo!!!!) place bacon, lettuce, and tomato...and cheese if you're that kind of person (I AM!) and then top with your other slice of bread. My kids and hubby also like mustard on theirs but I just like to use Miracle whip on both sides, so just do it how you like it and then ENJOY!

Hawaiian Cake (Vana's Cake)

This is one of my absolute favorite cakes...especially during spring and summer because it is so light and full of tropical flavors! I got the recipe from my Mom who in turn got it from a friend in my home town named Vana...thus we've always called it Vana's cake. It can also be made low-fat, low calorie which I also like!! Instructions will be posted at the end!

Hawaiian Cake

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1 White cake mix

1 large instant vanilla pudding

2 cups milk

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

12 oz. cool whip

1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple

Coconut (optional)

Pecans or walnuts (optional)

1. Mix together a white cake mix as on the box. Spray a large cookie sheet with Pam (or other brand) and pour cake mix into pan. Bake in the over at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Allow cake to cool completely.

2. Mix together the vanilla pudding mix with the milk. Soften the cream cheese and then mix pudding and cream cheese together until smooth. Pour onto the cake and put in the refigerator.

3. Mix cool whip with crushed pineapple, drained. (AGAIN...I can't find cool whip in the 12oz. size anymore so just use 1 1/2 of the 8oz. size or 3/4 of the 16oz. size!) Spread on top of the pudding layer. Top with coconut and pecans or walnuts. Refigerate for an hour or so and then dig in!

ENJOY!!

OH...and I almost forgot...to make it low-fat, low calorie here's what you do! When making the cake make sure to use the egg white only recipe. Use sugar free vanilla pudding, low-fat cream cheese, and light cool whip. It's as easy as that and is still just as good!

PW's Chocolate Sheet Cake

I just LOVE this recipe!! It reminds me of my Mom's chocolate fudge ice cream topping that is to DIE for, but in cake form!:) And this recipe is super easy and pretty quick. You can be done with the cake and eating it withing 40 minutes because you don't have to wait for the cake to cool to frost it, but just pour the frosting right on the warm cake and eat it warm!! How handy is that when you NEED some chocolate! So go and make some cake!:)

Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake

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Cake:

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa

2 sticks butter

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cups buttermilk

2 whole beaten eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting:

1/2 cups finely chopped pecans

1 3/4 sticks butter

4 Tablespoons (heaping) cocoa

6 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 pound (minus 1/2 cup) powdered sugar (I figured this out and that equals 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar...now isn't that so much easier!:))

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt.

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add the cocoa and stir together. Add the boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off the heat. Pour over the flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool. In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake. EAT...the cake is so good warm!!

Jello fluff

This is one of my families favorite recipes. It really is kid and adult friendly and there are so many ways to make it!

Jello fluff

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1 carton (16 oz.) whipped topping

1 pint cottage cheese

1 small package lime jello

1 can crushed pineapple, drained

Mix all ingredients together well and refigerate for about 30 minutes before serving.

You can mix and match any fruit and jello that you like. We've done strawberry jello with fresh sliced strawberries, strawberry jello with crushed pineapple, raspberry jello with raspberries, raspberry jello with triple berries (blueberries, raspberries and blackberries). Try whatever tickles your fancy!:) This one is strawberry jello with strawberries.

Also, if you are trying to watch your figure this can easily be made light and honestly I can't tell a difference so that's the way we always do it! You just use light whipped topping, fat free cottage cheese and sugar-free jello! Easy as that!! Enjoy!

Enchilada Casserole

I found these yesterday on Your Homebased Mom blog and thought I'd try them out. They were really yummy and it took the messiness out of traditional enchiladas. Ours turned out pretty spicy. The kids ate them, but also drank a lot of milk!! (me too!:)) Probabaly because I used medium enchilada sauce, so if you don't like it spicy find a mild sauce!

Enchilada Casserole

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2 lbs ground beef (I used 1 lb beef and 1 lb ground turkey...cause that's what I had!)

1 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 tsp. Chili powder

2 medium cans of enchilada sauce (I just used one large one, mine was 28oz.)

1 large can stewed tomatoes (I used diced tomatoes)

2 small cans sliced olives (I used 1 regular sized can and just sliced them myself with my nifty egg slicer...LOVE IT!)

2 dozen corn tortillas

1 lb. grated cheddar cheese

Fry meat, onion, and garlic. Drain off fat. Season with salt and pepper. Add everything but the olives, cheese, and tortillas. Cook for 20 minutes and then mix in the olives. Put in a 9 x 13 baking dish in layers. First layer half the tortillas, cover with sauce, layer of cheese. Repeat ending with cheese on top.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes!

This dish goes really well with SPANISH RICE & JELL-O FLUFF!

No-bake Cheesecake

This is a really light and fluffy no-bake cheesecake recipe. It make sa large sheet cake of cheesecake so it's good for a crowd and is really yummy. Just top with whatever fruit you like or eat it plain!

No-bake cheesecake

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3 pkgs. graham crackers

2 cubes butter or margarine, melted

Mix crackers and butter and press onto the bottom of a large cookie sheet. I like a nice thick crust on mine and this recipe makes a pretty thin crust, so if you like it thicker like I do you could either add another 1 1/2 packages of graham cracker and 1 cube melted butter or just double it to 6 packages crackers and 4 cubes of butter! Wow...that's A LOT of butter!:)

3 packages (8oz.) cream cheese, softened

2 cups sugar

Cream together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Add and mix just until combined 2 large (12oz.) cartons of cool whip (I couldn't find 12oz. cartons at walmart...just 8 and 16oz. sizes, so for those who are a little slow when it comes to math:) that is either 3-8oz. size or 1-16oz. size plus 1-8oz. size cool whip...the 2nd option seems to be a little cheaper if you're counting pennies unless you find the 8oz. size on sale:)).

Spread the cream cheese mixture over the graham cracker crust and refrigerate for an hour before serving. Top with fruit of your choice.