Chicken Fajitas and Guacomole

I had sour cream and cheese. So of course I needed to make chicken fajitas. And what are fajitas without guacamole?!

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts. 
• 2 tsp. chilli
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 tsp. corn starch.
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped

Directions

1. Cut up chicken in slices.
2. Mix ingredients in bowl.
3. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
4. Heat up some oil in a pan.
5. Cook for 6 minutes or until browned.

Guacamole

Ingredients

• 1 avocado.
• 1 tbsp. chopped onion.
• 1 tsp. garlic
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp cumin.

Directions

1. Mix items in plastic ziplock bag. (i put it in a bag because it is easier to small up the avocado that way if you dont have mortar and pestle)
2. Smash up avocado.
3. Eaaaat.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

I like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and I like cheesecake.
So why not mix them together and make something awesome?
This is kind of my own recipe. I merged a bunch into what I thought was best.

Ingredients
Crust

• 3 cups crushed Oreo cookies
• 1 cup crushed roasted peanuts (unsalted)
• 1/2 cup melted butter

Filling

• 3 8 oz. packages of cream cheese
• 1/2 sugar
• 1/2 brown sugar
• 1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 24 Reese's mini Peanut butter cups, cut up into pieces

Topping

• Reese's Mini Peanut Butter Cups
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup sour cream 

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 275 F.
2. Heat up some water for the water bath.
3. Crush up peanuts and Oreos. If you have  a grinder, grind some of them. 
4. Mix the Oreo/peanut mixture with the melted butter. Pat the mixture into the pans and up the sides.
5. Beat cream cheese and sugars in bowl until creamy. 
6. Beat in eggs and vanilla. 
7. Beat in sour cream.
8. Mix in cut up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
9. Pour filling into pan. *I used a springform pan and would recommend using one otherwise it will be hard to get the cheesecake out without breaking it.
10. Wrap tin foil around the bottom of the pan and sides. Make sure to not cover top.
11. Put in a bigger a pan. Pour in warmed water.
12. Place in oven and bake for 1-1.5 hours or until set.
13. Once baked, turn off oven and leave cheesecake in oven for another hour or two. This will help prevent cracks from happening.
14. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a little bit.
15. Heat up chocolate chips and sour cream on the stove.
16. Once melted, start adding the mixture on top of the cheesecake. Use a silicone spatula to spread over the whole top of the cheesecake.
17. Decorate with mini peanut butter cups. Push down slightly into cheesecake.

Enjoy :-)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know, I know. They are probably the simplest thing to make, but they are so good to eat! I took a picture, but it seems to have gotten lost. 

So imagine this. A warm chocolate chip cookie. With melted chocolate chips. Melts as soon as you bite into it.

yummm

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 tbsp. milk
• 1 tbsp. vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (or more! ;-))

See if I had different types of chocolate chips I would add them. 

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375F.
2. Combine sugar, vegetable oil, butter, milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat until well belnded.
3. Beat in egg.
4. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in separate bowl. Mix into sugar mixture.
5. Stir in chocolate chip cookies. 
6. Drop by the tablespoonfuls onto pan.
7. Bake for 8 minutes.

Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macroons!

So I am not a huge fan coconut, but I had a bag of coconut flakes and this was the first idea to come to mind of what to make. I got this recipe from one of my cookbooks.

Ingredients:

• 1 package (14 ounces) coconut flakes
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 6 tbsp. flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 egg whites
• 1 trsp. almond extract
• Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 325F. 
2. Mix coconut flakes, sugar, flour, and salt in bowl.
3. Stir in egg whites and almond extract.
4. Drop by the teaspoonfuls onto greased pan.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until edges of cookies are golden brown.
6. Place on wire racks.
7. Once completely cooled dip halfway into melted chocolate.
8. Let stand until chocolate is firm.

Enjoyyy!

Pasta and Herbs

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp. butter
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• salt
• 1/4 tsp. rosemary
• 1 tsp. basil
• 1 tsp. parsley flakes
• 1 tsp. marjoram
• 1/8 cup Parmesan cheese
• Lemon juice

Directions

1. Cook pasta as directed on the box. Add some salt and garlic powder in the water before you add the pasta.
2. Once cooked, strain the pasta. Return to pot.
3. Add pasta all of herbs and cheese. Mix well.
4. Add a  little bit of lemon juice. I always find that lemon brings out the flavor.

Oreo Cheescake

Ingredients:

• Package of Oreo cookies or the same type of cookies
• 1/3 cup butter
• 3-8oz packages of cream cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Finely crush 30 cookies. 
3. Mix crushed cookies with butter. And press on bottom of pan you are going to use. Set aside.
4. Finely chop ~15 cookies or as how man you want.
5. Beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy.
6. Blend in eggs, sour cream, and vanilla.
7. Fold in cookies into mixture.
8. Spread mixture into prepared crusts.
9. OK so I didn't do this, but if you put your pan in a water bath it helps to stop any cracks in the cheesecake.
10. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until set. 
11. Again, I didn't do this, but in the cookbook I used it says to place foil for final 15-20 minutes of baking to prevent overbrowning. 
12. Allow to cool, then refrigerate.
13. Garnish with cookies. 

Shepherd's Pie

My mom is out of town so I am left fending for myself. Which means I will be cooking a lot more, but it also means I might not be able to update as often as I would like.

I kind of just threw a bunch of things together.

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil
• 1.5 lb ground beef
• 1 onion
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1.5 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 tbsp. rosemary leaves
• 1 tbsp. parsley flakes
• Mashed Potatoes prepared from a box! (After a long day of work I do not feel dealing with potatoes) 2-3 servings should be enough.
• Optional
• Extra paprika
• Butter
• Mozzarella Cheese

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 F.
2. Pour some vegetable oil in a pot.
3. Add onions.
4. Once the onions have a slight color to them, add the ground beef and all the spices and tomato past.
5. Keep stirring and mixing up the ground beef until it turns brown.
6. I also added a little bit of grated mozzarella cheese.
7. Continue to cook for 15-20 minutes.
8. Once thoroughly cooked, place in a 9X11 pan. Smoothen it out.
9. Prepare mashed potatoes according to box.
10. Add mashed potatoes on top of meat. Smoothen out. Make sure the mashed potatoes are up against the sides.
11. Sprinkle some paprika on top.
12. Use fork to create lines across dish.
13.  Cut up slice of butter and place on top too. or until potatoes start to brown.
14. Bake for 20 minutes