Lemon Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Cookie Bites

If you're looking for a cookie that will travel and hold up well for summer picnics, my Lemon Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Cookie Bites will work perfectly.

The tartness of the lemon cake mix balances well with the sweetness of the semi sweet chocolate chips. I used a mini cookie scoop so that you would end with just a bite or two of each cookie, making them easier to handle. These cookies are topped with a simple lemon glaze but they taste great leaving them unglazed, too. I loved the extra tang from the lemon in the glaze but my kids loved the cookies without the glaze.

I love how quickly cake mix cookies come together. I chose to use semi sweet chocolate chips this time but you could easily sub sprinkles, white chocolate chips, walnuts, macadamia nuts or even sunflower seeds would create a nice texture and taste. If you choose to let the cookies plain, roll the cookie balls into sugar before baking for a pretty crinkled look. You could also drizzle melted chocolate over top of the baked cookies. Versatility...another reason that I love cake mix cookies!

Lemon Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Cookie Bites 
adapted from Duncan Hines

Cookies:

1 Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme Cake mix
1/3 c. vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tbsp. lemon juice (original calls for fresh lemon but I used bottled)
3/4 c. semi sweet chocolate chips

Glaze:

1 c. powdered sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice (original calls for fresh lemon but I used bottled and omitted the zest)

Preheat oven to 350*

Mix together cake mix, oil, eggs and lemon juice. The batter will be stiff.

Using a mini cookie scoop or a teaspoon, drop cookie batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-12 minutes or until the cookies start to turn brown around the edges. Remove from oven and cool cookies on the sheet for 1-2 minutes. Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet to cooling racks to cool completely. If you are going to glaze the cookies with lemon glaze, do so while the cookies are still slightly warm.

To make glaze: 

Stir together powdered sugar and lemon juice. Set aside for 5 minutes. Spoon glaze over warm cookies.

Tuscany Pasta

I haven't been inspired to try much of anything new lately but with all of the veggies and fruits coming into season right now, I don't want to miss out on them, either. My recipe for Tuscany Pasta came together rather quickly with some fresh ingredients that I had on hand. It's a light dish full packed full of flavor.

Tuscany Pasta

1 lb of shell pasta, cooked
2 cans of diced tomatoes with basil and oregano
3 tbsp Italian seasonings
 olive oil for cooking vegetables
1 16 oz container of button mushrooms, sliced
3 tbsp minced garlic in olive oil
1 bag of fresh spinach
freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for topping (optional)

Cook pasta, drain and set aside.

While the pasta is cooking, pour the two cans of tomatoes into a large sauce pot. (big enough to hold cooked pasta). Stir in Italian seasoning and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a large frying pan, drizzle two tbsp. of olive oil. Add mushrooms to the pan, along with the garlic and saute until the mushrooms start to soften. Remove the mushrooms to a bowl and keep warm.

In the same frying pan, drizzle in one more tbsp. of olive oil. Add entire bag of spinach to the pan. Toss the spinach to coat it with the olive oil. Cook over medium heat until the spinach just starts to wilt. This will happen very quickly so do not stop tossing the spinach while it is cooking. Spoon the spinach into the bowl with the mushrooms.

Once the tomatoes have cooked for 20 minutes, add the mushrooms and spinach to the sauce. Stir to mix well. Continue simmering for 5-10 minutes.

Pour the cooked shells into the pot of tomato sauce. Toss well to evenly coat the pasta.

To serve, spoon into bowls and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Buon Appetito!

Happy 8th Birthday Alexis!

My daughter and I celebrate our birthdays during the same week in May - her's on the 24th and mine on the 26th. I'm still finding it hard to believe that she turned 8 yrs. old yesterday. We took her on a shopping trip so that she could pick out some of her gifts - mostly clothes and shoes! She is a shoe fiend! The girl is madly obsessed with shoes!! She is at the point where she can wear girl's shoes or small sizes in ladies' shoes - lookout a whole new arena now. She has a great, quirky sense for fashion and needs little help when it comes to pulling whole outfits together. Plus, she is already loves searching for good sales, yard sales and thrift stores! Yay! Chalk one up for Mom for showing her the way!

She is growing up so quickly and becoming quite a little lady (and still partly tomboy, too). She cracks me up when she goes out the door wearing a dress and pretty shoes and is adorned from head to toe with earrings, a necklace, bracelets and a watch but then comes home with her hair pulled into a ponytail and her jewelry in her book bag. If you ask her why, she'll tell you that you can't play football the right way with the boys when you are wearing jewelry. Did you know that you can't beat the boys in relay races if you are wearing flip flops? That's why she will sneak out of her teacher's sight to kick them off to run in her bare feet so that she can win the races. ~ Ugh. ~ At least she is listening to part of what I've been telling her - absolutely no running around in flip flops because you will get hurt. I chose to ignore the latter part of her running around in bare feet. I know, bad Mom. But at that moment, I was ok with it.

She is loving and kind, lovable, stubborn, sometimes mouthy, rough yet gentle, smart, independent and already a leader. She is doing very well in school. She says that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. I think that children would greatly benefit from a teacher like her. She's a sports fanatic - she loves playing soccer, football, basketball and golf. Boys, watch out...she doesn't back down to challenges. She's also a die-hard Steelers fan!! (like her Mom - not like her Dad - he's a Jet's fan).

It took so long to bring her into this world and even though she drives us batty at times, we love each and every minute with her. We wouldn't change a thing.

Happy 8th Birthday Alexis! 

We love you!!

Singing 'Happy Birthday' in the dark

Alexis' cupcake request - homemade Funfetti Cupcakes topped with Nerds

May all of your troubles.....

Go Up....

In Bubbles!

Pastitsio

Pastitsio or "Greek lasagna" contains layers of pasta, meat sauce and bechamel sauce. Derived from the Italian word "pasticcio", it means mess or hodgepodge. There are many recipes out there for Pastitsio. Some of the recipes call for literally making everything from scratch. Since I don't usually have that kind of time, I opted to take some shortcuts to make this dish somewhat quicker and easier.

Once again I've used a recipe from Kraft as a base for my recipe. I added some spices and extra cheese into my recipe.  It was also another opportunity for me to use some of my flourishing cinnamon basil.

Pastitsio
adapted from Kraft

1 1/2 lbs  elbow macaroni, cooked al dente & drained well- (measured before cooking - I eyeballed pouring 1/2 a 3 lb box into a large pot of water. I used all but about 1 cup of the cooked mac in this recipe.)

Meat Sauce
1 1/2 lb ground beef
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
24 oz spaghetti sauce (I used jarred sauce)

Bechamel Sauce
4 tbsp butter
2 1/2 c milk
1/2 c. heavy cream
16 oz  Greek nonfat yogurt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 + 1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. cinnamon basil, chopped

Directions:

Cook elbow macaroni. Drain well and set aside.

For meat sauce:

Brown ground beef in a large skillet. Drain excess grease. Return ground beef to the skillet and stir in spices and spaghetti sauce. Simmer for 15 minutes on low heat. Stir occasionally. Stir in cinnamon basil. Remove from heat.

For Bechamel Sauce:

In a large frying pan, melt the butter over medium high heat. Stirring constantly, pour in milk and nutmeg, stirring to blend. Bring mixture to a boil and continue cooking over medium heat for 5 - 7 minutes or until mixture starts to thicken. Stir in 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese. Stir until melted. Remove from heat and stir in yogurt.

Add macaroni and stir until it is well coated.

Preheat oven to 350*

To assemble:

Pour ground beef mixture into the bottom of a 9 x 13 dish. Spread the macaroni over the beef. Top with 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes or until warmed through and the top has browned lightly. Cool in pan for 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

~*~* My thoughts *~

The dish was very tasty. All of the herbs and spices came shining through, especially the cinnamon basil and the nutmeg. If you don't like a heavy spice taste in your food, I would suggest cutting back on the spices or even leaving out the cinnamon basil.

This is a traditional Pastitsio by any means. As you can see in the pictures, it did not hold together in layers but it did hold true to the definition of it's name. All the same, it was really good.

If I were to make this recipe again, I would use penne pasta instead of the elbow macaroni. I would also add another layer of pasta to the bottom of the pan, and then add the beef in the middle and top with more pasta.

Sweet & Sour Pineapple Shrimp and Rice Bowls

I've been searching the Internet for recipe ideas that would be outside our normal everyday meals. I found a recipe on Kraft.com for Pineapple Shrimp Kabobs. Instead of making this a kabob meal, I made it a "stir fry" of sorts. It turned out to be a quick 30 minute meal with tons of flavor.

I made some changes to the recipe and in the end I was very pleased at how it turned out. My happiest moments came as my kids took their first bites and both surprisingly said "I really like this!" You had to be here while I was preparing the meal. My daughter kept insisting that she hated shrimp and that she wasn't going to eat dinner ...and, of course, she said that I was going to starve her on purpose. She ended up eating more shrimp than anyone else. My son admitted that he thought that he would hate but that he really liked it.

What more could I ask for?  :)

Sweet & Sour Pineapple Shrimp and Rice Bowls
adapted from Kraft.com

4 cups of cooked rice of your choice, kept warm
3/4 c. zesty Italian dressing
2 tbsp + 2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp minced garlic
3 - 4 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1/4 c. unsweetened pineapple juice
2 bags large size frozen shrimp, tails removed and thawed
3/4 can of unsweetened pineapple chunks
1/3 c. fresh basil, chopped

Prepare rice and keep it warm until ready to eat.

In a medium-sized frying pan, stir together Italian dressing, brown sugar, garlic, chili sauce and pineapple juice. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and starts to thicken just a bit.

Stir in shrimp. Cook for 5- 6 minutes.

Add pineapple and basil. Continue cooking for 2 more minutes.

To Serve:

Scoop rice into individual bowls.

Spoon the pineapple shrimp sauce over the rice.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Linking to:

Tempt My Tummy

Tuesdays at the Table 

Tasty Tuesdays