Creamy Lemon Squares

These lemon squares so delicious!! I found this recipe hiding in a Kraft foods magazine, shoved way to the back of my recipe cabinet. I am SO glad that I found this. I had some lemons that needed to be made into something yummy! I LOVE lemons!! I love their bright, cheery color, and their wonderful fresh smell.

Anyway, on to the recipe. Try these, you won't be disappointed. That is, if you love all things lemon like I do.

Creamy Lemon Squares

Ingredients:

• 20 vanilla wafers, finely crushed
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cold margarine
• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) Neufchatel Cheese, softened (I used regular cream cheese)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 T flour
• 1 T lemon zest
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 t baking powder

Directions: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lie 8-inch square pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides. Mix wafer crumbs, 1/2 cup flour, and brown sugar in a bowl. Cut in margarine with pastry lender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; press onto bottom of prepared pan.

Beat Neufchatel cheese and sugar with a mixer until blended. Add eggs and 2 T flour; mix well. Blend in 1 T lemon zest, lemon juice and baking powder; pour over crust.

Bake 25-28 minutes or until the center is set. Cool. Refrigerate 2 hours. Serve with strawberries and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Use foil handles to life dessert from pan before cutting.

**For a softer crust, bake crust initially at 350 for 5 minutes.

Hearty Fiesta Bean Soup

This soup is simple and delicious!

I found this recipe in my local Basha's Ad yesterday. My son actually made the soup to pass off a cub scout requirement. He did a GREAT job:)

Hearty Fiesta Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 oz) can chicken or vegetable broth (I used chicken)
• 1 (16 oz) can fat-free refried beans
• 1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15.25 oz) can corn, drained and rinsed
• 1 (10 oz) can tomatoes & chilies, like RO*TEL (I used the 15 oz generic brand petite diced tomatoes with green chilies)

Directions: Put the broth and refried beans into a soup pot and heat, while whisking together, until the beans have incorporated fully into the broth.

Add the rest of the ingredients and heat, while stirring until the soup is boiling.

Serve with cilantro, cheese, sour cream and a couple dashes of Tabasco.

Soft Sour Cream Sugar Cookies with Butter Cream Frosting

I LOVE these sugar cookies. I got this recipe from my mother-in-law. These are SO yummy and never last long at our house.

I made these for my sons to take to their teachers for Valentine's Day. My kindergarten son was SO excited to take them to school. He told me that these are his teacher's favorite kind of cookies. I have to say, they are mine too!

Soft Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shortening(I use Crisco)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 4 1/2 - 5 cups all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 2 t. baking powder

Directions: Mix first 5 ingredients together. Stir 4 1/2 cups flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. Add additional 1/2 cup flour if needed. Works best if you refrigerate the dough for one hour. Roll, cut and bake cookies at 400 degrees until just barely light golden brown on the bottom, ~10 minutes. After cookies have cooled, frost and decorate.

Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (1 cube), melted
• 2 t. vanilla
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 1/4 t. salt
• food coloring, if desired

Directions: Beat all ingredients together until smooth. This frosting is great on sugar cookies and also great on cinnamon rolls.

For the heart on the cookie: I mixed sugar with some food coloring in a bag, placed a cookie cutter on the frosted cookie and sprinkled the colored sugar inside the cookie cutter. These would be so cute with a green sugar shamrock next month!

Shepherd's Potatoes

This is a dish I remember my grandma making when I was a kid. I think she called them Shepherd's potatoes. These make a wonderful side dish. I added a little bacon to mine and served with some veggies and buttered homemade bread. These are simple and need only a few ingredients.

Shepherd's Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 4-5 baking potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 3-4 T Olive oil, or bacon grease
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions: Heat olive oil in a large frying pan. Add potatoes, salt and pepper. Cover and cook until potatoes are fork tender(stirring occasionally). When potatoes are fork tender add milk and cook uncovered until milk begins to be absorbed by the potatoes and is beginning to thicken. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.

I chopped up some bacon, cooked it and took it out of the pan. I cooked my potatoes in the pan with the bacon grease and then added the bacon back on top when the potatoes were finished. I also sprinkled some cayenne pepper on top of ours.

Beef and Black Bean Burgers

These little burgers were SO yummy! This is a great recipe to make your beef stretch. And the black beans add some extra fiber.

I actually made my little burgers with elk meat, but of course beef would be equally great(or more great depending on your taste:)). I have a freezer full of buffalo, elk and venison...so I use wild game in most of my recipes. I do occasionally buy beef if I am cooking for someone other than my family. My husband is a hunter, so we are always well supplied with red meat.

I thought I took several pictures of these little burgers, but only had a couple. I was in a hurry to get these to the family and the battery on my camera was almost dead. We will be eating these again soon, so I'll try again:) Sorry this one is SO blurry!

Beef and Black Bean Burgers

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 cup black beans, rinsed, drained and slightly mashed
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup grated onion
• 1 jalapeno, grated or chopped
• 1 1/2 t. McCormick's Grill Mates Montreal steak seasoning
• buns (I used Molly's roll recipe and made mini buns)
• Your favorite burger toppings

Directions: Mix first 6 ingredients together. Form into patties and grill. Place the patties on the buns and top with your favorite burger toppings. Makes ~5-6 servings

No Bake Cookies

I remember making these cookies often at my Grandma's house as a kid! I LOVE these cookies! This is a recipe from my Great Grandma.

No Bake Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup shortening(I use Crisco)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 T. cocoa powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 3 cups quick oats
• 1 cup shredded coconut(I used unsweetened)
• 1 t. vanilla

Directions: In a medium saucepan mix together the shortening, sugar, milk, salt and cocoa. Bring to a full boil. Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients and mix well. Spoon cookies(1 Tablespoon) onto wax paper to cool. When the cookies are cool and set, ENJOY!

Bean and Cheese Burritos with Red Sauce

We love beans at our house!! I usually cook a crock pot full of beans at LEAST once a week and then use it for a couple of different meals throughout the week. Bean and cheese burritos with red sauce is one of our favorites. They are quick, easy and cheap! I am planning to cook up another pot full of beans tomorrow. Maybe I'll get some pictures and let you know how WE cook up our beans.

I took this pictures AFTER my husband had already started to devour, I mean eat his burrito. I have a couple of different recipes for homemade red sauce that I will be trying out soon. IF the recipe or recipes prove to be something my family enjoys, you'll hear about it here:)

Bean and Cheese Burritos w/ Red Sauce

Ingredients:

• Beans
• Cheese
• Tortillas
• Red sauce(enchilada sauce)
• Toppings..(salsa, shredded lettuce, sour cream, sliced olives)

Directions: Spray cooking spray into a baking dish and pour a thin layer of red sauce to coat the bottom of the dish. Spread your beans onto your tortilla(I puree my beans in the food processor and spread them like THICK butter). I happened to have some whole black beans that I had cooked earlier in the week and needed to use up, so I threw some of those on too. Add some cheese and roll up. Place the burrito in the baking dish and continue until you have the desired amount of burritos. Top with red sauce. We like a lot of red sauce and the tortillas seem to soak it up, so I add A LOT:). Top with cheese and bake at 375 until hot, bubbly and the cheese starts to brown. Place the burrito on a plate and top.