Pillsbury Bake Off Winner

I was watching the Pillsbury Bake Off Contest on the Food Network when I saw this dish and it piqued my interest. It won the $10,000 prize in two separate categories: America's Favorite Recipe and 3-A-Day Dairy Award. The pineapples sounded interesting, and I could tell from looking at the recipe that it was fairly healthy.

I had read mixed reviews about this recipe online, but for the most part, people liked it. I really enjoyed it, and think it would also be great with chicken. The pineapple gives it a nice sweet flavor, and the chiles and enchilada sauce give it a great mild kick. I love cilantro, so next time I will probably add a little more cilantro (3/4 cup) into the filling.


Pineapple Black Bean Enchiladas
from Pillsbury.com


2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 can (20 oz) pineapple tidbits in juice, drained, 1/3 cup juice reserved
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained, rinsed
1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 cups shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese (12 oz)
1 can (10 oz) mild enchilada sauce
8 whole wheat flour tortillas (8 or 9 inch) (I used seven 10" regular flour tortillas)
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
8 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. In 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper; cook 4 to 5 minutes or until softened. Stir in pineapple, beans, green chiles and salt. Cook and stir until thoroughly heated. Remove skillet from heat. Stir in 1/2 cup cilantro and 2 cups of the cheese.

Spoon and spread 1 tablespoon enchilada sauce onto each tortilla. Spoon about 3/4 cup vegetable mixture over sauce on each. Roll up tortillas; place seam side down in baking dish.


In small bowl, mix reserved 1/3 cup pineapple juice and remaining enchilada sauce; pour over entire surface of enchiladas in dish. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese. Spray sheet of foil large enough to cover baking dish with cooking spray; place sprayed side down over baking dish and seal tightly.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes, removing foil during last 5 to 10 minutes of baking, until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly. Top each baked enchilada with 1 tablespoon sour cream and 1 teaspoon cilantro.

(Chicken) Meat and Potatoes...

This is a dinner I like to throw together in a pinch, as I usually have all the ingredients on hand. I usually like a lot of sauce/tomatoes with the chicken, so I make the recipe as is, but reduce the number of chicken breasts to just four. I also add a little brown sugar to the sauce to tone down the tang from the balsamic vinegar just a little bit. I'm not sure if you are supposed to drain the can of diced tomatoes or not, but I usually don't so at the end I make the sauce into a balsamic reduction.

I usually like to serve this with mashed potatoes, but tonight I decided to try a scalloped potatoes recipe I found in the November issue of Southern Living. These scalloped potatoes were so good! I only made a few changes, indicated below. The only other change I think I will make next time is I will probably substitute all of the cream with evaporated milk to make it a bit healthier.

Braised Balsamic Chicken
from Allrecipes.com


6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I only use 4)
ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon garlic salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced (I omit this)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch

Season chicken breasts with ground black pepper and garlic salt. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet, and brown the onion and seasoned chicken breasts.

Pour tomatoes and balsamic vinegar over chicken, and season with basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme. Simmer until chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear, about 15 minutes. I usually remove the chicken and tomatoes and then add the brown sugar and cornstarch to the balsamic liquid and simmer until reduced.


Classic Parmesan Scalloped Potatoes
from Southern Living


1/4 cup butter
2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3 cups whipping cream (I used 1-1/2 cups whipping cream, 1-1/2 cups evaporated milk)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (I used 4 tsp dried parsley)
1/2 cup (2 oz.) grated Parmesan cheese (I used 3/4 cup)


Preheat oven to 400°F.

Melt butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Stir in potatoes and next 5 ingredients, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring gently, 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish; sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 400°F for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown. Remove to a wire rack, and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Delectable Delights

Is it really my birthday? It's hard for me to believe that I'm 28 now. I don't feel 28. I still feel like a kid at heart... and I'm going to ignore the fact that I am rapidly approaching the big 3-0!

I'm blogging about some delectable delights I received this year, in case anyone is looking for gift ideas for their foodie friends :)

My friend Joy, who in previous years introduced me to the most wonderful chocolates at Woodhouse Chocolate (see my anniversary post about these chocolates!), is always sending me the most scrumptious gifts for my birthday. I am always eager to find out what she is going to send me next :) This year was no exception... and I was not disappointed when I opened my birthday package to find a beautiful gift box of Vosges exotic candy bars :)


The box includes 4 flavors:

- Gianduja Bar: almonds / caramelized hazelnuts / deep milk chocolate
- Black Pearl Bar: ginger / wasabi / black sesame seeds / dark chocolate
- Naga Bar: sweet Indian curry powder / coconut / deep milk chocolate
- Red Fire Bar: Mexican ancho y chipotle chillies / Ceylon cinnamon / dark chocolate


I've only sampled two of the bars so far, but the flavor combinations are amazing!

Another great food find that Joy introduced me to is an Ann Arbor favorite - Zingerman's. They have brownies that are to die for! This year, my friend Hannah sent me a box of their gigantic yummy cookies! Weighing in at nearly a quarter pound each, I received three wonderful types of cookies:

- Funky Chocolate Chunk with bittersweet Belgian chocolate chunks and toasted walnuts
- Big Oatmeal Raisin with real maple syrup and Red Flame raisins
- Ginger Jump-Ups with crystallized ginger, Indonesian Korintje cinnamon, and muscavado brown sugar


I have only tried the Ginger Jump-Ups so far, but WOW, can you taste that ginger! I see where they got the name for that cookie, because the ginger flavor really jumps out at you!

I would like to add that my cats are particularly thankful for my birthday as well, as they love nothing more than new boxes :)


Stitch, enjoying his new "bed"

Linus, trying to figure out what to do with his new box :)

Thank you, Joy and Hannah, for sending me these delectable delights! :)

A Fruity Twist on Oatmeal Cookies

I discovered these cranberry white chocolate chip oatmeal cookies in a food blog a few months ago and they have quickly become one of my favorites. The cranberry and white chocolate is a great flavor combination... it's a nice change from your traditional oatmeal raisin cookie.

I'm afraid that I accidentally saved the recipe without writing down whose blog the recipe came from, so if this is your recipe, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due :)
*Edit: I'm still not sure where the original recipe is from, but thanks to Annie's Eats for sharing this recipe with me :)

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies


3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 ½ cup flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup white chocolate chips

Combine eggs, dried cranberries and vanilla and let stand for 1 hour, covered with plastic wrap.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugars. Add flour, salt, cinnamon and soda to sugar mixture. Mix well. Blend in egg-cranberry mixture and oatmeal. Dough will be stiff. Fold in the white chocolate chips. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheet or roll in small balls and flatten slightly on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Yield - about 6 dozen cookies

Not Your Typical Peanut Butter Cookie

These are one of my favorite types of cookies. I love anything with peanut butter to begin with; combine that with one of my favorite candy bars - Snickers - and you've got one great cookie :)


This recipe can easily be adapted to include any other candy bar... if you don't like Snickers, try these with Milky Way bars, they are just as good. Another idea would be to include either a Reese's peanut butter cup, or chopped up Reese's cups. The recipe calls for "fun size" bars but those are way too big. You need to use the "bite size" pieces. You could use the fun size bars, but you'll just have to cut them in half first.


Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies
from Allrecipes

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
36 fun size bars milk chocolate covered caramel and nougat candy (I used bite size Snickers)

Cream together white sugar, brown sugar, butter or margarine, vanilla, peanut butter and the egg.

Add in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.


Wrap 1 heaping teaspoon of dough (I used a 2-tsp cookie scoop) around a bite sized milk chocolate covered caramel and nougat candy bar. Bake 13-16 minutes at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Let cool 5 minutes before removing from pan.

Lasagna Without Noodles?

This was my very first time cooking with spaghetti squash. I had heard that this squash was so named because once cooked, the meat forms threads that resemble spaghetti noodles, but I had never seen it before. I was worried that I wouldn't cook this right, and the 'noodles' wouldn't come out as they were supposed to. It was actually really simple and I was quite surprised when I scraped the squash with a fork and it instantly formed strands, just like that!


One of the reasons I decided to make this was because we are trying to eat healthier, and we tend to eat some pretty carb-heavy meals. In this recipe, the spaghetti squash is used as a substitute for traditional lasagna noodles. I thought this dish was pretty good; you just have to know/expect that the squash doesn't taste like pasta. It has a different texture from traditional lasagna... even cooked, the squash strands still retain a bit of crunch. While I enjoyed this, my husband, who is a pretty standard 'meat and potatoes' kind of guy, said he much preferred the World's Best Lasagna I made last time.


I did not have a dish large enough to fit the entire squash in my microwave so I had to bake it. For those that do, there are instructions below on how to cook the squash in the microwave to save some time. Otherwise, plan ahead, as the squash will take nearly an hour to cook in the oven.

I also had to make a semi-homemade tomato sauce for this recipe, based on what I had on hand in my pantry. You could probably double the homemade portion if you don't like using jarred sauces; or you could double the jarred sauce if you don't have a lot of time to prepare your meal. I truly think that the combination I used made for a really flavorful sauce and wouldn't really do it any differently next time.

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna
from Me!
(adapted from Allrecipes and Cooking Light)


1 (3-pound) spaghetti squash
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 (14 oz) cans stewed tomatoes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 lb 10 oz Jar of Prego Roasted Garlic & Herb Tomato Sauce
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 (15-ounce) carton fat-free ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cut squash in half lengthwise, discarding seeds. Place squash halves, cut sides down, in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish; add water to dish to a depth of 1/2 inch. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until squash is tender when pierced with a fork.

Remove squash from dish, and cool. Scrape inside of squash with a fork to remove spaghetti-like strands.

Alternative Microwave Method:

Make sure that your baking dish will fit into the microwave before adding the squash and water.

Cut squash in half lengthwise, discarding seeds. Place squash halves, cut sides down, in a baking dish; add 1/4 cup water to dish. Cover with heavy-duty plastic wrap; vent. Microwave at HIGH 15 minutes (or about 5 minutes per pound) until squash is tender when pierced with a fork.

Over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic until golden brown. Stir in tomatoes, salt, black pepper, oregano, and crushed red pepper. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until you have a medium thick sauce. Add the jar of Prego and simmer on low heat another 30 minutes.

Combine 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 cup Parmesan, oregano, thyme, and ricotta.

Spread one-third of the tomato sauce in the bottom of a 13x9" baking dish. Then layer half of the spaghetti squash strands and half of the ricotta mixture. Top with 1/3 cup mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers of sauce - spaghetti squash - ricotta - mozzarella. Top with remaining tomato sauce, 1/3 cup mozzarella, and 1 cup Parmesan cheese.

Bake at 350°F for 40-50 minutes, or until top layer of cheese is golden and bubbly.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Caramel Sauce

I have been wanting to make a pumpkin cheesecake for a while now. I wasn't sure which recipe I wanted to use, as I had seen this recipe on the Williams-Sonoma website and most of their recipes are pretty good. However, as I was searching for a recipe I came across this one from RecipeZaar. The only kind of pumpkin cheesecake I've ever had was from the Cheesecake Factory, so that was how I finally decided to try the recipe below. It has honestly been such a long time since I had the Cheesecake Factory version, so I can't really comment on how close of a copycat recipe this really is. Regardless, this turned out so good and everyone at work loved it... including those who don't like pumpkin! :) Everyone requested the recipe...


I had seen a few recipes in which the cheesecake was topped with a caramel sauce and thought that would be a great idea. So I went to my 'go-to' blog, Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, in search of a great caramel sauce. Wow, did I ever find a good recipe for caramel sauce! I could eat this stuff up by the spoonful alone! :) I don't think I will ever buy caramel ice cream topping again... this was so much better!


On a side note... you'll notice that the lighting in the photos in this post is not uniform. That's because by the time I finished this cheesecake, it was dark outside... so I took a set of photos with just our overhead/indoor lighting. Then I took another set the next day with natural lighting. For those who are working on their food photography skills, it's a great example of how lighting can affect the appearance of your photos.

The Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake
from RecipeZaar


1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
caramel sauce, recipe to follow


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make the crust by combining the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter and 1 tbsp sugar in a medium bowl. Stir well enough to coat all of the crumbs with the butter, but not so much as to turn the mixture into paste. Keep it crumbly. Put foil partway up the outside part of an 8-inch springform pan. Press the crumbs onto the bottom and about two-thirds of the way up the sides of the springform pan. You don't want the crust to form all of the way up the back of each slice of cheesecake. Bake the crust for 5 minutes, then set aside until you are ready to fill it.


In a large mixing bowl combine the cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, and vanilla. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the pumpkin, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice and continue beating until smooth and creamy. Pour the filling into the pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes. The top will turn a bit darker at this point. Remove from the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool.


When the cheesecake has come to room temperature, put it into the refrigerator. When the cheesecake has chilled, remove the pan sides and cut the cake into 8 equal pieces. Top each slice with caramel sauce.

Caramel Sauce
from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody (original recipe from Baking: From My Home To Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin 2006)


2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 tbsp light corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature


Put the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, stir just to combine the ingredients and then put the pan over medium-high heat. Heat, without stirring , until the caramel turns deep amber., 5-10 minutes. Lower the heat a bit and, standing back from the saucepan add the cream and butter. When the spatters are less vehement, stir to calm down the caramel and dissolve any lumps.