Caramel-Glazed Peaches & Pineapple Cobbler

Plato said this, and I have to agree!

Well, out of the “necessity” of my wish to make a dessert for my parents using only the contents I had on hand, the Caramel-Glazed Peaches & Pineapple Cobbler was “invented!”

Ingredients: 3/4 stick butter, 1-1/2 cup milk, 1-1/2 cup flour, and 1-1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 can pineapple chunks (drained), 1/2 can peach slices (not drained)

Directions:  (1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (2) Place butter in casserole dish (9x13, 8x11, 9” round) and put in oven to melt. (3) Mix milk, flour and sugar in a separate bowl. There will be a few lumps. (4) Take dish out of oven. Pour mixture into dish. Do not mix with butter, just pour over it. (5) Now, put pineapple and peach slices into dish, again not stirring in. (6) I usually pour the peach “juice” in as well, again not mixing. (7) To “glaze” the cobbler, I drizzled caramel ice cream syrup over the top of the dish. I added some more caramel about 1/2 way through baking. (8) Bake in oven for about 30 minutes, until top is starting to get brown and crusty.

The results? Yum-dilly-icious! It was a flavorful, scrumptious dessert! Oh cobblers, I love you, I do, I do. {This post may be linked to blog parties in my sidebar.}

Yums & Hugs, Laurie

So Easy Fuji Apple Cobbler (A 1-1-1 Recipe)

Dollar General never ceases to amaze me! Today, I found the following:

I love, love Fuji apples – have you tried them? So, I was thrilled to find some Fuji apple pie filling for $1 at DoGen. They really have unique canned food items, check em out!

Anyway, I used a simple 1-1-1 recipe to make a cobbler using this yummy filling. I call it 1-1-1 because it helps me remember the ingredients:

• 1 can filling
• 3/4 stick butter/margarine
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 cup milk
• cinnamon-sugar to taste

I microwaved the butter to melt it right in the 9-inch round glass casserole dish I used to bake the cobbler in. Then, I mixed up the sugar, flour, and milk in a separate bowl. Once it’s mixed (you’ll have some lumps, that’s okay), I poured the mixture into the casserole dish, right over the melted butter. Do not mix the mixture and butter together – just pour it in and leave it. Last, pour the apple filling in and, again, do NOT mix it in. Bake the dish in a 350 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes, until the crust is browning on top. (Another thing you can do is, when the crust is starting to solidify in the over, you can pull the rack out and sprinkle a cinnamon-sugar mixture over the top, then push the dish back in to finish baking.)

Here’s the finished dish:

Oh, goodness, was it yummy!!!! You can use this recipe with any fruit or fruit filling and it is easy to double for a 9”x13” size dish/pan. I’ve made dozens of peach cobblers (using canned peach slices) using the 1-1-1 (or 2-2-2) recipe and people always love them!

Hugs & Yums, Laurie

Dried, Not Fried ~ Nature’s Candy!

One of my favorite (healthy?) snacks is dried fruit.

 

I’m not sure it’s always health food exactly, but it’s got to be healthiER than snack cakes and chips, right?!

Dried fruit/fruit mixes can be expensive, but I find it to be very affordable at Dollar General and even Dollar Tree. And, I got the.most.scrumptious dried fruit at WalMart a couple weeks ago – it had dried cantaloupe and kiwi in it! Unbelievably good! Who knew? Go try it!

Hugs & Yums, Laurie

Strawberry Banana Cheesecake Bread

We made banana bread from a mix last week and the whole family enjoyed it. My Quirky Girl and I decided to snaz it up with some extra ingredients this time! You know we like snazzy!

Here’s what we did ~

Ingredients:

Banana bread mix, Water as called for in recipe, 1 jar strawberries, drained (reserve all juice from jar/can), 1 tub strawberry cream cheese (reserve a couple teaspoons)

Directions:

1-Mix banana bread mixture as directed on box

2-Pour 1/2 bread mix into loaf pan (I made up two batches at one time)

3-Mix softened cream cheese and strawberries together and carefully spoon on top of bread mix in pan, spooning it lengthwise but not all the way to the end edges of the loaf pan.

4-Carefully pour remainder of banana bread mix over top of cream cheese layer.

5-Bake as directed on banana bread package.

6-Mix remaining cream cheese and strawberry juice and heat for 30 sec in microwave.

7-Pour resulting glaze over loaf after removing from pain, let drip down the sides…yummmmm! My glaze turned out a little thin and lumpy, but the bread still tasted awesome!

{This post may be linked to blog parties in my sidebar.}

Hugs & Yums, Laurie

Juiced Up Ham & Green Beans Dinner

We had a rather normal dinner of ham, green beans and rolls this evening. But! I added a couple creative twists!

HAM – I cut slices of ham, then halved them. I grilled them for a little while on my trusty George Foreman grill (LOVE it!) which thoroughly heated them, enhanced their tastiness and marked them with appetizing grill marks. Next, I put some pineapple slices on the grill to serve with the ham. Yum! Pineapple and ham go together so well!

GREEN BEANS – I wanted to make a green bean casserole, but didn’t have the cream of mushroom soup or the french fried onion bits. So, I brainstormed and used what I had – cream of chicken soup (1 can) and Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing mixed in with 2 cans of green beans (I also included the juice from one of the cans of beans), topped it all with more stuffing and baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. It was yummy!

ROLLS – No creativity per se here, just wise enough to buy some always scrumptious crescent rolls!

All in all, a very affordable, easy-to-make, balanced, delicious dinner for my sweeties and me! Even Waffles the Hungry Cat got his share of ham (he looooves any kind of pork meat!).

Hugs & Yums, Laurie

PINEAPPLE CASSEROLE

I’d never eaten Pineapple Casserole until I met my sweet, sweet mother-in-law and boy, had I been missing a treat!  I love pineapple, most fruits in fact, and this recipe combines tasty sweet and savory ingredients that truly please the palate!
INGREDIENTS: 2-20 oz. cans of pineapple chunks, 1 cup sugar, 5 tsp. self-rising flour, 1 sleeve Ritz crackers, 1 stick butter
DIRECTIONS:  Drain pineapple chunks well. Place pineapple on bottom of 9x13 glass casserole dish. Mix sugar and flour together. Sprinkle sugar/flour mixture over pineapple chunks. Crush sleeve of crackers (I do this by beating the heck out of it!). Sprinkle crushed cracker crumbs over top of pineapple.  Melt butter and pour it on top of the crushed cracker layer. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
Every time I’ve made one of these casseroles, folks have raved about it and I never have much in the way of leftovers!  It’s fun to serve something a little unexpected and fun.  This dish food for holiday meals to summery lunches and everything in between!  Not to mention you’re getting at least one daily serving of fruit! Ha! Hope you enjoy trying it!
Hugs & Yums, Laurie

FRUITY BOUQUET

Happy Easter, everyone!  Hope you all had a blessed holiday and enjoyed a wonderful Easter dinner!  We spent the day with my hubby’s family and had a delicious midday meal.  We brought three contributions to the feast:  the swirly sugar cookies I posted about a couple days ago, brown rice casserole and this fruity beauty:

  

We used a hand-sculpted and glazed vase (a $2 thrift store find), accented with springy ribbons and filled it with fruit “flower” kabobs for a fresh seasonal side/dessert!  We had lots of fun presenting the goodies in a creative way.  So now that we have a fruit turkey and a fruit bouquet under our belts, what’s next?!  Fruit fireworks?  Hmmm…
Hugs & Yums,

EASTER KABOBS?

Last Thanksgiving, my Quirky Girl (my 10 year old) and I made an awesome Fruit Kabob Turkey to take to the big family dinner.  Boy, was the gobbler a hit!

I wanted to show you this because now I'm pondering if the same idea could be applied to an Easter creation?!  Maybe a flower pot or vase with spring flower kabobs? Or short grass kabobs with Easter eggs hidden among them?  What are your thoughts?

By the way, if you decide to make turkey next Thanksgiving, you'll be the most popular girl (or guy) at the party - ha!

Hugs & Yums,