Avocado Egg Bake

It is time for this months Improv Challenge hosted by Kristen at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. The two ingredients for this months challenge are bacon and eggs. When I realized I had not yet published this post but still had it as a draft, I decided it would be perfect for this months ingredients. It is truly a great idea for an egg bake! It uses the hollow created by the pit in the avocado as the cup for the egg! You can't hardly beat avocado, egg and bacon together. I found this recipe for Avocado Bacon and Eggs at Steak 'N Potatoes Kinda Girl. Since we love all these ingredients I knew it would be a hit. However, I would do one thing different next time. John's eggs I broke the yolks, mine I did not, so they did not cook evenly. His cooked faster. Either way will work but they all need to be the same. Also something to be aware of is that the avocado halves do not always sit balanced. I placed small bits of foil under the smaller end of the avocado to hold it up and prevent the egg from spilling out. Super yummy breakfast, just add some toast and your set!

2 lg avocados
4 eggs
salt and pepper or other seasoning to taste
4 slices bacon, cooked crisp

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, 400 for RV ovens. Cut avocados in half and remove the pits. Scoop out enough of the avocado to make a hole large enough to hold the egg. Set aside the avocado that you scoop out.

Crack an egg into each avocado half. Break yolk slightly, if desired. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Crumble one slice of bacon on top of each egg. Bake for about 15 minutes or until egg whites are set.

While eggs are baking, mix reserved avocado with salt and lime juice to taste.

When eggs are done top with a little of the avocado mixture.

Serve and enjoy!

Spicy Chicken Breasts with Fruit

I pinned this recipe about a month and a half ago from HERE and could hardly wait to give it a try. I have had this on my menu plan a couple of times but something always seemed to come up and I would put it off another week. I am sooo glad I finally got around to making it. This chicken is the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. Add rice and you have a perfect meal!

2 tsp Jamaican jerk seasoning
1 serrano pepper, chopped and divided
2 lg boneless skinless chicken breasts, 10 - 12 oz each
nonstick cooking spray
5 Tbsp peach nectar, divided
2 green onions, cut into one inch pieces
1 cup frozen peach slices, thawed and divided
1/2 cup plum slices (about one average sized plum), divided
1/2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
dash salt
1/4 cup frozen pitted dark cherries, thawed
cooked rice (optional)

In small bowl mix together the Jamaican seasoning and half of the chopped serrano.

Rub seasoning mixture on both sides of chicken breasts. Spray skillet lightly with nonstick cooking spray and heat over medium heat.

Add chicken to skillet and cook for about eight minutes on each side or until fully cooked.

While chicken is cooking mix together three Tbsp peach nectar, half of the peach slices, half of the plum slices, the remaining serrano, brown sugar and salt. Set aside. When chicken is done, transfer to serving plates and keep warm.

Add the remaining two Tbsp peach nectar and the onion to the skillet, cooking and stirring over medium heat for three to four minutes or until onion is tender.

Stir in the fruit/brown sugar mixture. Continue cooking and stirring for about two minutes or until slightly thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat.

Stir in cherries and the remaining peach and plum slices.

Spoon the fruit mixture over the chicken breasts and rice. Serve and enjoy!

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Caramelized Apple Blondie Pie with Salted Butter Caramel Sauce

Getting ready for another Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by Tina at Moms Crazy Cooking. This month's challenge was Apple Pie. As soon as I saw this recipe for Caramel Apple Blondie Pie topped with Salted Butter Caramel Sauce over at Crunchy Creamy Sweet I just knew it was the Ultimate Apple Pie recipe for this challenge! I must admit though that I had a bit of a tough time with the sauce - the first batch I tried to change up a bit and ended up with a batch of yummy butter toffee candy bits; the second batch I burned. Third time's a charm, right? Yep, the third batch turned out perfect. Not only was it good on the pie but it is also very yummy in coffee!




Caramelized Apple Blondie Pie
3 granny smith apples; washed, cored and chopped
2 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup liquid egg substitute or 1 whole egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

In pan saute apples in 2 Tbsp butter until soft.

Add the 1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar and cook till sugar is dissolved and apples appear caramelized. Transfer to heat proof bowl and allow to cool. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease pie plate and set aside. In small mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. In separate mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter and remaining brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Fold in the flour mix, do not over mix, some lumps are normal.

Spread half the batter into the bottom of the pie dish.

Top with the apples. Spread the remaining batter over the apples. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.

Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Top with Caramel Sauce. Serve and enjoy!


Salted Butter Caramel Sauce
If you are a very visual person, you will definitely want to click the link above for Crunchy Creamy Sweet's recipe. She posted VERY detailed, VERY helpful photos on making this sauce. After two flops, I was totally focused on making the sauce - not taking many pics, lol.
1 cup sugar
6 Tbsp salted butter, room temp
2/3 cup half-n-half
dash of sea salt, optional

Pour sugar into medium saucepan and melt over medium heat. Watch as it starts to melt, whisk every 15-20 seconds. It will start to clump as it melts. Once the sugar is completely melted and golden brown, remove from heat. Add the salt. Add butter all at once, it will foam up, this is normal but be careful of the steam. Whisk until the butter is completely melted. Place back over medium heat and slowly pour in the half-n-half. Whisk together. Keep whisking until the sauce is a uniform color, no stripes. Cook the sauce over med-low heat for one minute, whisking constantly.

Remove from heat and pour into a heat proof jar(s) or measuring cup. Allow to sit on counter to cool for 15 minutes. The sauce will be very thin. Cover and refrigerate till thickened.

Serve with the above apple pie or with coffee. Enjoy!

Apple Pie Crisp

I had some left over apple pie filling from THIS recipe. Yesterday morning I decided to use it up and make us a treat for breakfast. This is what I came up with:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 Tbsp almond extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
dash of salt
1/2 cup quick cook oats
1 Tbsp almond slivers
1 cup apple pie filling

In small saucepan combine butter, sugar, almond extract, cinnamon and salt.

Heat over low heat till butter melts and mixture is bubbly. Remove from heat.

Stir in oats and almond slivers. Set aside 1/4 cup of the oat mixture. Add pie filling to the remaining mixture in the saucepan and stir till well combined. Divide apple mixture between two one-cup prep bowls.

Top each with some of the oat mixture. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until bubbly.

Serve and enjoy!

Vanilla Banana Smoothie and Changes are Here!

We received a call from our boss Wednesday morning asking us if we would move to another gate. And WOW! is this gate a dream! It is near a decent sized town, Pearsall, the gate is electric (woohoo), trash is picked up for us here at the RV, meals to the rig are catered and they typically bring two plates for the gate guards! Oh, and we have a nice shade tree by the RV and lots of pretty green grass! The catering could cause some changes to this blog as I may be cooking less, it's also making meal planning a little more flexible, as on any given day I may or may not be cooking and will probably not know for sure until the day before. This is going to make shopping a little tricky but possibly a little cheaper as well. Here is a sample of the last two days:
Wednesday - Pork Steaks with Mushroom Gravy, Mac & Cheese and Green Beans

Thursday - Brisket and Ribs (That is a lot of meat) I had already made plans for King Ranch Casserole so it will be Brisket Sandwiches on Friday!

Vanilla Banana Smoothie
I found this recipe for a Vanilla Strawberry Smoothie and wanted to try it. I ended up with some really ripe bananas that were about to go bad so I substituted banana for the strawberries since the strawberries were frozen they would keep. It was very yummy!! Can't wait to try this again with the strawberries!

2-5 ice cubes
1 cup milk
1/3 cup cottage cheese
1 large banana, cut into chunks and frozen
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pour all ingredients into blender. Blend for 45 to 60 seconds.

Serve and enjoy!

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http://katherinescorner.com/2012/07/19/thursday-favorite-things-blog-hop-linky-party-45/  Check out all the amazing things that will be posted there this week!

Menu Plan - July 1 and Super Easy Guacamole

I know you will find this hard to believe but the only change to the past week's menu plan was to switch Monday and Tuesday around, but everything on the week's menu was consumed during the same week it appeared on the menu! Now for this week's menu - there are several yummy thing's planned for this week, but not all will be revealed immediately as they are for a couple of challenges that will take place later in the month.

Sunday
Fried Chicken* with Lemon-Butter Ravioli**

Monday
ChiliMac with Green Beans

Tuesday
Brats with Sweet-n-Spicy Oven Fries

Wednesday
Pepe Boudreaux's

Thursday
Corn and Butter Dish*** with Chips and Dip

Friday
Mexican Pasta with Jalapeno Poppers

Saturday
Little Caesar's

*Fried Chicken recipe will post on Saturday July 7 as part of the Crazy Cooking Challenge

**Will post as soon as possible

***Corn and Butter Dish - corn and butter are the two ingredients in this month's Improv Challenge and this recipe will post on Thursday July 19

Super Easy Guacamole

I actually made this as a spread for our fish sandwiches, so I didn't make very much. I did use it as a spread on my sandwich, John wanted tartar sauce on his so he had the remainder of the "spread" as a dip. In the future I will quadruple this recipe and we will both have it as a dip.

1 avocado, peeled and diced

juice of half a lime

1 clove garlic, minced

sea salt, fresh ground black pepper and red pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients, mashing the avocado. 

Enjoy as a dip or a yummy sandwich spread!

Chocolate Tunnel of Love

Yes! I did let my husband name this recipe. Of course for the most part it was his idea. After I made these Banana Chimis, John suggested I make a Chocolate Tunnel of Love for the next Improv Challenge. Well I decided to run with that idea and it is finally time for this month's Improv Challenge hosted by Kristen at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. This month's challenge was to make a new-to-your-blog recipe using cherries and almonds.  I changed the "tunnel" from a tortilla to pizza dough since it would be easier to fill and bake. It turned out super yummy - and super rich, a little goes a long way. With John's help this is what I came up with:

dough for one pizza crust
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1 cup nutella
10 oz jar maraschino cherries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tsp cornstarch
slivered almonds


Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Divide pizza dough into 4 portions. Place 1/4 cup nutella down center of each portion. 

Press closed and brush with melted butter. Bake for  minutes, turn over, continue baking for an additional 5-6 minutes or till browned. 

Meanwhile, drain cherries, reserving juice. In sauce pan combine cherries, sugar and vanilla. Heat over medium heat until sugar is liquified. Mix cornstarch with 1/2 cup of the reserved juice from cherries. Slowly add to cherry-sugar mix. Continue stirring till mixture is thick and bubbly. Pour cherry sauce over chocolate pastries. 

Sprinkle with almond slivers. Serve and enjoy!

Nutella Banana Smoothie

It is time once again for the Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by Tina at Mom's Crazy Cooking. This month's challenge is fruit smoothies. I actually had a little trouble finding a smoothie I wanted to make, that is until I came across this blog, Free Fruit Smoothie Recipes. This is a blog with nothing but smoothie recipes. Any type of smoothie you could want is on this blog! If you are wanting a good smoothie, but don't know where to start I would recommend checking out this blog!!

I modified this recipe slightly, to serve one instead of two and to suit our tastes a bit. This is the original version: The Great Chocolate Banana Smoothie Recipe. I used:

1 cup small ice cubes

1 large banana

3/4 cup 2% milk

1/4 cup vanilla yogurt

1 Tbsp nutella

Place ice in bottom of a single serve blender.

Adjust ice according to how you like your smoothie - less ice for more of a juice drink, more ice for more of a milkshake. (I actually did not know this before reading this blog.)

Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Banana Chimis - My 100th Post!

Wow, I can't believe that this is my 100th post!! For this special post I wanted a special recipe. These chimis fit the bill! I found this unusual and amazing recipe over at Crumbs and Chaos, an amazing blog with lots of wonderful recipes!

4 bananas
4 flour tortillas
1/4 cup canola oil
ice cream
chocolate syrup

Wrap bananas in tortillas, securing with toothpicks.

Fry in canola oil till tortillas are browned.

Drain on paper-towels. Drizzle chimi with chocolate syrup. Top with ice cream and drizzle with additional chocolate syrup.

Serve and enjoy!

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Check out all the amazing things linked up this week!

Strawberry and Chocolate Cream "Pie"

It is time once again for the Improv Challenge. Hosted by Kristen at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker, the Improv Challenge is a fun, monthly linky where all participating bloggers are given the same two ingredients, this month is strawberries and cream, and challenged to make a new to their blog recipe using both ingredients. It can be their own original recipe, from another blog, cookbook, etc. as long as it has never before appeared on their blog. For more details on the Improv Challenge click HERE. 

This month's Improv Challenge proved somewhat difficult for me. Not coming up with the recipe itself, that was easy. The hard part was naming it! I still think the name I ended up using is a bit too wordy. Recipe names should be short and sweet. My husband made several suggestions, my favorite being Strawberry Sex. In the end though I thought I would go with a name that described the recipe a little better. First I was going to go with Strawberry and Chocolate Cream "Pie" in a PB Cookie Crust, very descriptive,way too long. Then I thought of going with The BEST PB Cookie Pie Ever, and trust me, this IS the best ever PB cookie pie, but that name doesn't tell you much about the desert. I ended up just shortening the original title. Think I'll be making this again very soon!

1 21 oz pkg peanut butter cookie mix
1/2 cup Philadelphia indulgence, dark chocolate
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups strawberry slices
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 Tbsp corn starch mixed with 1/2 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix cookie dough according to directions on package. Spray deep dish pie plate with nonstick cooking spray. Press dough into bottom of the deep dish pie plate.

Bake for about 30 minutes, checking every five to ten minutes, till done. Let cool. Heat the dark chocolate Phili indulgence in microwave for 30 seconds, mix in sour cream till smooth.

Pour over cookie in pie pan. In small saucepan mix together strawberry slices, vanilla and sugar. Heat over medium heat till sugar is liguified. Slowly stir in corn starch/water mixture. Continue to stir, heating till mixture is thick and bubbly.

Pour over chocolate.

Serve and enjoy.

Make sure to check out all the strawberry and cream recipes linked up this month.

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 Check out all he amazing things linked up this week!


Shared with: Check out all the great berry recipes shared this week!