Burgers in Hawaii

We're just back from the islands.  I'm sure you're thinking, why would you go to Hawaii and have a hamburger.  Well,  I Love a good cheeseburger.  In fact a cheeseburger is just about my favorite food.  So, while away we thought we'd try out a few.  Some we'd had before.  Others were new to us.  I'll be sharing more in the coming days, but today I'll post about a good ole standby. 

Cheeseburger in Paradise.

We ate at the restaurant in Waikiki.  But there are others.  Check them out Here

It was a good burger.  Plenty of choices too.  I went with american cheese, my favorite.  I even tried the sauteed onions, which I generally don't like.  Mark went with the bacon swiss burger.  We also tried their cheese fries.  I loved the sauce on their burgers.  The service was poor but the food was good. 

Burgers were priced around $10.00.  Too expensive for a regular meal, but hey, we were in Hawaii!

My American Cheeseburger in Paradise

Mark's Bacon Swiss Burger

Cheese Fries,  good but not great

Conclusion: 

A really good burger.  Expensive but a great treat while on vacation.  

Have you eaten there?  What's your opinion?

Creamy Crockpot Chicken

I've been busy cooking and baking.  But not so good at putting it on the blog.  But I did capture some of our dinner.  This is an easy crockpot meal. It can be assembled in the crockpot (if it has removable inside pot) the night before and then just put in the heating unit and turned on in the morning.

Creamy Crockpot Chicken
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1 package Italian salad dressing mix (dry)
1 8 oz. package cream cheese, cubed
1-2 pounds chicken breasts

In crockpot combine soup, cream cheese, milk and dry salad dressing mix.  Stir to combine.  Then place chicken breasts in sauce.  Cook on low for 6 hours.

Some of my family like the meat shredded and some like it more whole.  The chicken will start to fall apart but if you like it that why, then go ahead and shred it.  We like this creamy chicken served over rice.

My daughter informed me that these pictures don't really look appetizing.  I agree. 

It really is yummy. Give it a try.

Banana Bread

My family loves banana bread.  So do I.  So when there are old bananas, it's time to make some bread.  I have my old standby recipe but I wanted to try something a little bit different.  While shopping I noticed Smart Balance buttery spread and thought I would try it out.  I don't usually buy margarines but I thought I might try this one out for cooking and baking.  So I substituted the shortening called for in my normal recipe and used Smart Balance spread instead.

The bread turned out great and I couldn't taste the difference.  Goodbye Crisco.

The recipe is pretty forgiving.  I usually double it but if i'm shy a banana I go ahead and make it with less.  It still turns out good.

Banana Bread

1/2 cup shortening

3 eggs

3 large ripe bananas

1 cup sugar

3 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup chopped pecans (optional-no one likes it that way at my house, so I never add the nuts)

Cream sugar and shortening together.  Add bananas, vanilla and eggs and mix well.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until all is incorporated.  Fill greased bread pans half full. 

I like to use small and large bread pans.

Bake at 350 degrees about one hour for large pans and around 40 minutes for small pans.  The toothpick test works well with this bread.  Cool for about 5 minutes in pans and remove from pans and cool on rack.  Or go ahead and slice it up, lather it with butter and enjoy! 

Latest Grocery Deals

Seeing that it is the end of the month and my food money was almost spent, I wasn't checking the ads this week.  But I got a call from my friend telling me the deals she just picked up at the grocery store.  I couldn't resist.  I counted up the remaining cash in the "Food" envelope. Yes, I'm working with cash only these days and using envelopes too.  I'm a fan of this method, but that's another post.  I still had $30.00 remaining for the month, so off I went to the store.

Here's what I bought.  I'm not much of a coupon shopper but I did use some coupons this time.  Although I didn't bring them with me.  They already had them at the store.  I ended up with

5 packages of Philsbury Grand biscuits

5 boxes of Betty Crocker scalloped potatoes

4 cans Hunts spaghetti sauce

8 packages American Beauty pasta, assorted

2 packages american cheese slices

1 bunch of bananas

The pasta was $.78 each but there was a $1.00 off coupon on the package when you bought 2 bags.  So they came out at $.28 each.  I already have my year supply of pasta but that was too good of a deal to pass up. 

The grand total spent was...$19.59

I just love it when I get some good deals!  And I still have a few bucks to last til the end of the month!

Easy, Easy Cookies

Homemade Oreos

I don't really like Oreo cookies.  So to me this name doesn't do these cookies justice.  They are much better than oreos.  This version is soft and chewy and easy to make.  It's another recipe that I can make anytime because I always have the ingredients on hand.

1 box any flavor cake mix
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
 

Place cake mix, oil and eggs in mixing bowl.  Mix until well blended.  You can use an electric mixer but a wooden spoon does the trick too.
Drop by rounded teaspoon onto a greased cookie sheet. (cookie scoops and parchment paper save time and cleanup)
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes.
Cool 3 minutes on cookie sheet then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
The cookies are puffed and full when they first come out of the oven.  While cooling they will flaten a bit.

These cookies can be eaten right away or made into oreo's by taking 2 equal sized cookies and adding frosting to the middle.  I had some cream cheese frosting left over in my fridge so that's what I used.

Makes about 3 dozen single cookies

New Cook Book

My daughter, Kelli, gave me this cook book for Christmas. 

It's The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drumond.  I was so excited I sat and looked through the whole book on christmas morning.

I've been following The Pioneer Woman's cooking blog for quite some time now.  It's fun and informative.  You ought to check out her blog HERE  I love the pictures and boy can she tell a story.  Anyway, I've been wanting this cookbook and with some hints from her aunts, Kelli got it for me.  There are many pictures, which I love, and not an overabundance of recipes, another thing I love about a cookbook.  I've already tried out a few recipes, but that's another post.

Here's a sampling from the book, PW's Potato Skins.  Yum! 
I think you'll like this cookbook as much as I am enjoying it.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is the easiest recipe I have! Without a doubt the easiest cookies ever. Plus I always (almost always) have all the ingredients on hand. Here goes...

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

2 spice flavored cake mixes (any brand will do-in a pinch i've even used one spice and one carrot cake)
1 29 oz. can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie-just plain pumpkin)
1 package chocolate chips (I like milk chocolate but any will do)

Dump dry cake mixes into a bowl.  Add canned pumpkin and stir together until well combined.  Add chocolate chips.   Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.  I always use parchment paper and my cookie scoop.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, depending on the size. 

This recipe makes ALOT.  I've halfed the recipe and it works great.  We don't ever have a problem with a whole recipe getting eaten around here.