Indian Tacos

I grew up literally less than a mile from the largest Native reserve in North America, which means I got to grow up learning a lot about their culture. One of my favorites were Indian Tacos, but I only had them a few times growing up.I looked and looked for an 'authentic' Indian Tacos recipe all over online and had my mom ask all of her friends but according to all of them, you make taco meat and do normal tacos over fry bread, what?! How could they have been that good growing up if they were just simple tacos? Very doubtful I tried it, THEY WERE SO GOOD! I used Emily's Fry Bread recipe and then we just made simple tacos. Yum!

Ingredients
taco meat
lettuce
tomatoes
cheese
etc

Place all ingredients on cooked fry bread and enjoy!

Nutella Cheesecake

are you in for a really, really, really, really, REALLY rich cheese cake? Corbyn decided he wanted this for his birthday cake this year, it was pretty easy to whip up, but it was too rich for all of us. Kase was the only one who was able to pound it!
If you are like me and prefer to watch the video on how she made it go here

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 ¼ cups of Ground Graham Crackers
6 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
2 Tbsp of Nutella
¼ cup of Granulated Sugar
¼ cup of Chopped Hazelnuts, finely ground in a food processor

For the Filling:
2 8oz Blocks of Cream Cheese, softened at room temperature
1 cup of Powder Sugar
1 ½ cups of Nutella
½ tsp of Vanilla Extract
¼ cup of Heavy Cream

For the Topping:
1/2 cup of Heavy Cream
4 oz of MILK chocolate chips
1 tsp of Butter, softened at room temperature

1) In a food processor, add all the ingredients for the crust and whiz it up until everything is finely crushed and when you pinch the mixture together, it holds well.
2) Press the mixture in the bottom and one inch up the sides of a 9” springform pan, set it in the fridge.
3) In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the cream cheese and nutella and mix it on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
4) Add the remaining ingredients and keep mixing it for another minute or so or until you have a smooth batter.
5) Pour the batter into the prepared crust, cover the top of the pan with a plate and set it in the fridge overnight.
6) About an hour before you are ready to serve it, make the ganache.
7) In a small saucepan, add the cream and bring it to a simmer.
8) Pour the cream in a bowl with the chocolate chips and let it sit for about 3 minutes.
9) Whisk it all together until the chocolate chips have melted, and whisk in the butter as well.
10) Place it back in the fridge for about an hour to set a bit.

Tip:

Wipe your knife in between cutting each slice so that all the slices come out nice and neat.

Recipe By: Laura Vitale

NEXT TIME for ME!!!

It would be just as good with Deana's Cheesecake crust, that way I wouldn't have to buy expensive hazelnuts. 

We didn't wait the hour after putting on the ganache, and I like the drip effect it had on the cake. I prefer this cake 'warm' sitting out on the counter for a bit. 

Holly's Buttermilk Pancake Recipe!

I haven't had much luck making pancakes in the past, but these are good and they turn out for me pretty good. They could be fluffier (Holly's were fluffy) for me, but these are super tasty and EASY! Yay! I make them with Stephanie's Pancake Syrup

The only bad thing about these pancakes is how much I miss Holly when I make them!

Glazed Pecans

We crush these and put them on our Steel Cut Oats…so good!

Ingredients

1 egg white

4 teaspoons water

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat an oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Beat the egg in a bowl until frothy; whisk the water and vanilla into the egg. Stir the sugar, cinnamon, and salt into the egg mixture. Add the pecans; stir to coat completely. Spread the pecans onto the prepared baking sheet.

Roast the pecans in the preheated oven, stirring about every 15 minutes, until the coating forms a glaze, about 1 hour. Allow to cool on the baking sheet at least 10 minutes before serving.

Steel Cut Oats

3 C Water
1 C Steel Cut Oats

You can replace the water with a 1/2-1 C of milk/Almond milk for a sweeter taste
You can also add a tsp of cinnamon while cooking to spice it up a little

Bring them to a boil and let them sit overnight, the next morning scoop out what you want (a little goes a LONG way) and heat that up and save the rest in a air tight container in the refrigerator. It keeps 5-7 days really well, after that it starts to get a mucus type texture to it, ha ha!

Frozen Hot Chocolate in the Vitamix

I have been to the Serendipity's in Vegas and I have tried their 'famous' frozen hot chocolate, and although it was super yummers, I couldn't believe the price tag on the stuff! Found this online and it is different than the real deal stuff at Serendipity's but it is still hecka good (see what I did there?)

Ingredients
2 C Whole Milk (I used 2%, and didn't quite fill it to the 2 cup mark, and then topped it off with cream)
5 Packages of Preferred Hot Chocolate. I used Swiss Miss
4 C Ice

Put them in the blender in the order listed. Blend to desired consistancy, then pour into cups and enjoy!
You can garnish with homemade whip cream, or we used store bought ( we eat a lot of breakfast food around here) and chocolate shavings or chips if you are in a pinch.

*** the real deal has flakes of chocolate all through out it. I thought this drink was divine, but if you wanted it more like the real deal I would throw a bar of chocolate in there as well.

Shrek Smoothie

This Smoothie is super easy and so far the boys LOVE it! I love it when I can get them to eat/drink a few greens.

This smoothie is the exact same as the 'Get Up and Goji" Smoothie except instead of the Goji berries add
3-4 C Kale/Spinach

We find Kale doesn't have as much taste as Spinach, so my boys prefer the Kale. Cheers!

Even Hims likes them! 

Get Up and Goji

When T and I lived in Vegas, we frequented the Tropical Smoothie there by our place, probably more than we should. By far our favorite smoothie there was the 'Get Up and Goji' it was SO good. Since I got the Vitamix last week, I really wanted to try and make a smoothie as close as possible. Although we don't have a Tropical Smoothie close to our place to compare, the whole family really really like this smoothie, SCORE!

Ingredients:
1/2- 3/4 C Vanilla Yogurt
1 Orange Peeled (but keep the good white stuff on)
1/2 of a Circle of Fresh Pineapple *
1-2 TBsp of Goji Berries 'bloomed' in 1/2 C of Water**
1/4 of a Banana
2-3 C Ice
1-2 TBsp Chia Seeds (optional)

Place ingredients into blender in the order they apear in ingredients list. Blend as you normally would. Enjoy!!! So yummy!

Note: you can forgo the Goji berries and the smoothie would still be super yummy, but I think they are what make this smoothie seriously AMAZING!

NOTE TO MYSELF: Try Peaches instead of Pineapple next time!
* I cut the pinapple into circles about an inch think, and then I peel them and cut them in half. You don't need to cut out the core for the Vitamix, how great is that?
** I am sure the vitamix could handle them in their dry state. I 'bloom' the goji berries by putting them into the water a half hour to an hour before I am going to blend (or overnight) if you forgot and are pressed for time and still want them in your smoothie you can stick them in the microwave for 20-50 seconds to bloom them faster, I just really don't like using the microwave if I can help it.

BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies, Yet!

These turned out for me, yay! I loved them too! I am so excited! 

The dough is huge and the cookies are super yummy, enjoy! 

Ingredients:

1 Cup Vegetable Shortening
1 Cup Butter (don’t use margarine)
1 1/2 cups White Sugar
1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp Vanilla

5 1/4 to 5 1/2 cups Flour (I need less, rather than more)
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp Salt

2 bags choc chips (12 oz bags) I didn't need this many, you can choose your preferred. 

Directions:

1. Start by mixing the shortening(don't use butter, use shortening) and butter with white and brown sugar. Add the three eggs and vanilla .

2. Mix the buttery/egg mixture for a full THREE minutes. The time is important for the eggs and butter to become fully whipped and to develop new chemistry. You’ll watch the buttery mix go from gushy liquid to beautiful cream

3. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, and salt). Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix. Then add the other 1/2 and mix.
3. Use a lot of good chocolate chips and mix semi-sweet with milk chips. Some recipes call for one bag of chocolate chips. This recipe is large so we’re using 2 bags. 

4. Then use a small cookie scoop to make 15 uniform balls on an ungreased cookie sheet (do NOT use a non-stick pan–the cookies won’t bake as evenly)

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-9 minutes or just until the cookies are slightly golden on top. If you wait till the cookies are entirely golden on the outside, it’s too late. They’ll be overcooked. You want them to be soft inside. Allow them to cool for a few minutes and transfer to a cooking rack, though they may not make it that far.

Making Cookie Dough Loaves:
Now if you’re making cookies for a big party, go ahead and keeping scooping/baking all the dough. But cookies are only good for a day or two (in my opinion), so why bake the whole batch and have them go to waste? If you freeze the dough, you can have fresh cookies any time you want! 

* Divide the dough up into 3 or 4 piles on wax paper sheets.
* Use the paper and your hands to shape each pile into a loaf.
* Roll them up inside of the wax paper.

Then wrap each loaf with plastic wrap (to avoid freezer burn or freezer smells). Or….simply place them all in a ziplock bag together. Then put them in the freezer!

When you’re ready to bake a few cookies, take out a cookie loaf. Microwave it for about 20 seconds. Pull off a bit of dough and bake them just as we did above for 8-9 minutes.

This LINK has some great ideas too!

Granola Bars

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups quick cooking oats {not rolled oats!}
1 cup crispy rice cereal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together. Set aside. In a small pot, melt butter, honey and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes or until just above softball stage. Pour in vanilla and stir. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients. Pour into lightly greased small jelly roll pan {about 12x8x1} and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness. {If your pan isn't small enough, pack the mixture into one side. You really want to press them down so they stick together.} Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and press down lightly. Cool on a countertop to room temperature for two hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

NOTE: These were really really good! You need to cook them with a candy thermometer. I ended up cooking them twice. The first time I just boiled the mixture for the two minutes and they never set properly, we ended up eating them as cereal. The second time I cooked them with a candy thermometer and waited for just above soft ball stage and they came out much nicer! 235-245 is softball so above 245 just by a little. (to be technical J)

Also I used wax paper and a rolling pin to roll them out to get them super tight, you can do as you wish. 

***