Chocolate Chip Cookies with a hint of coconut

So...the other day I started making my favorite chocolate chip cookies. I took out the shortening, and it was rancid...really....I just bought it a week or two earlier. ...and it didn't 'expire' until March 22 2013. I was MAD...I had only used it a couple of times and that stuff is not cheap.


....anyway, I had some coconut oil in the pantry that my Mother-in-law gave us. I decided to use that instead of the shortening. I don't know if I will ever go back to using shortening. These cookies are SO good!! Just a hint of the coconut taste. Even my 11 year old that hates coconut, LOVES these!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies with a hint of coconut

(basically these cookies with coconut oil)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions: Preheat oven to 375. Cream together coconut oil, brown sugar and sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add salt, baking soda, and flour. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake at 375 for 9-10 minutes.

Spicy Grilled Shrimp

This is a quick simple recipe. I found this recipe in the newspaper 'Star Watch'.

Spicy Grilled Shrimp

Ingredients:

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions: Prepare grill for direct grilling on medium-high. In a large bowl, toss shrimp with vegetable oil, cayenne and salt to coat. Place shrimp on hot grill. Cook 3 to 5 minutes or until shrimp are opaque throughout, turning once. Transfer shrimp to plate and let cool 5 minutes. Serves 4.

Red Hot Cinnamon Candy Popcorn

My sister told me about this recipe. She found it here at cdkitchen. This popcorn is SO yummy!!

Red Hot Cinnamon Candy Popcorn

Ingredients:

6 quarts popped popcorn
12 oz red cinnamon candies (red hots)
sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions: Spread popcorn in a lightly buttered roasting pan; bake at 250 degrees while you prepare the syrup. Pour the cinnamon candies into a 2 cup measuring cup(I used my liquid measuring cup). Fill the remaining space up to two cups with sugar. Place in a heavy pan. Add butter, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil; boil for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat; carefully stir in baking soda. Pour over popcorn stirring to coat. Continue to bake at 250 for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven, stir one last time; let cool. Break into pieces; store in an airtight container.

Night Owl S'mores Treat

I found this recipe here at Real Mom Kitchen. We really enjoyed these.

The recipe says that these need to be made and eaten in the same day so that the cereal doesn't get soggy. We love dessert around here, but we don't eat a lot at one sitting(well...maybe I do, but we try not to let the kids). I didn't want to waste what we didn't eat, so I put the extra pieces in the freezer and we snacked on this all week long.

Night Owl S'mores Treat

Ingredients:
9 cups honey graham cereal (like Golden Grahams)
3/4 cup corn syrup
3 T butter
11-1/2 ounce package milk chocolate chips
1 t vanilla
3 cups mini marshmallows

Directions: Grease a cookie sheet butter. Measure 9 cups of honey graham cereal in a large mixing bowl. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine corn syrup, butter and milk chocolate chips. Stir constantly until chocolate chips are melted and ingredients are combined. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over cereal and stir quickly until cereal is coated with chocolate. Stir in the marshmallows. Pour mixture onto cookie sheet and using a slightly damp hand, press into pan.

This recipe needs to be made and eaten the same day. Otherwise the cereal gets soggy the next day.

Blackberry Cobbler Waffles

We LOVE breakfast food for dinner at my house!! This is really more like dessert! I did make some super healthy fruit shakes to go with this...so I think it all works itself out.

I found this recipe over at How Sweet It Is. I LOVE Jessica's blog. Seriously the yummiest recipes, best pictures and funniest posts you will ever see!!

Blackberry Cobbler Waffles

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cups rolled oats

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 pints fresh blackberries

vanilla ice cream + maple syrup for serving (I used buttermilk syrup)

Directions: Preheat your waffle iron and spray it with non-stick spray (I always spray again between each waffle.)

In a bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Stir in eggs, milk, vanilla and butter, mixing until combined and smooth. Fold in about 1 cup of black berries. Make waffles per your iron's directions.

Heat the remaining blackberries in a saucepan over low heat and mash with a fork until saucy. Serve waffles with warm mashed berries, syrup and vanilla ice cream.

quick and easy way to shred meat

Quick post today....just thought I would let you all know my favorite way to shred meat. The meat shreds SO quick and EASY.

Place your warm cooked meat in your KitchenAid with the cookie paddle and pulse until the meat is shredded to your desired consistency. It really doesn't take much, if you pulse it too much, it will end up looking like tuna fish. I only shred ~3 lbs. at a time. If I have more meat than that, I will shred part, empty the bowl and then shred more.

Orange Rolls

My sister-in-law made these for us and they are SO good! Thanks Rachele :)

Orange Rolls

Ingredients:
4 cans of biscuits (the type you pull paper off and they pop open - make sense?

Juice from one orange

1 orange rind - grated(small)

2 cubes(1 cup) butter or margarine

1 1/2 cup sugar

Directions: Open biscuits and place 2 stacks of biscuits from cans side by side in one loaf pan. Place the other two cans in another loaf pan. In a saucepan heat, but don't boil, the rest of the ingredients. Pour orange sauce over biscuits and bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Dump out of loaf pans onto a cookies sheet and serve.