Saltine cracker toffee
Ever since I made firecrackers, I’ve been looking for another recipe that I can make with saltine crackers. I found this recipe on Pinterest that looked really good. Anything with toffee and chocolate has to be good, right!? Tomorrow is our pot luck end of the school year party, so I figured this is a good a time as any to try and make this recipe that was pinned from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog.
Ingredients:
40 salted saltine crackers…or as many that cover your pan
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips (I used the semi sweet)
(optional) 3/4 cup chopped pecans…since I’m making this for potluck, I didn’t use the pecans. You never know who is allergic.
Line up the crackers on a pan covered in foil or parchment paper
Mix the butter and brown sugar and bring to a boil.
After comes to a boil, let it boil for 3 more minutes.
Pour the mixture over the crackers and spread it as evenly as possible.
Bake at 400 degrees for 5 – 6 minutes. It will get bubbly.
Right when you take it out of the oven, put the chocolate chips on the mixture and let it begin to melt.
Spread the melted chocolate as evenly as you can over the saltine cracker/toffee mixture.
Let it all cool down completely and then break in to pieces.
These are really good. The chocolate kind of overpowers the toffee though. I think I used more than 2 cups of chips, so you may not want to use as much as I did. I also put them in the fridge to cool them down. I was in a hurry to try them!!
My favorite meal
Everyone that knows me knows that I LOVE nachos. I have even eaten nachos for breakfast before. I figured since I am eating them for dinner tonight, I would share my recipe with everyone. This is the moment that I’m sure EVERYONE has been waiting for!!!
Ingredients:
Chips
Cheese
You put chips on a plate. I prefer Tostito Rounds, but you can use any kind you want.
Put shredded cheese all over the chips. I use colby/jack pre-shredded cheese, but this time I didn’t have enough, so I also added sharp cheddar pre-shredded cheese. 
Put in microwave for 1 minute or until melted.
Voila! You have an instant meal!
Southwestern Chicken Cornbread Salad
This weekend I signed up to climb to the top of the Frost Building to raise money for the American Lung Association. You would think that knowing I’d be climbing about 33 flights of stairs that I would train a little bit for it. Nope. Not me. I have let it go until the last minute and now I am going to just have to do it. I’m really nervous, but I’m going to make it no matter what!! I’m not sure why I thought I would be better off making something to eat rather than training this week, but I found this and it seemed easy enough.
I got this recipe off Pinterest. I copied it exactly from the recipe on Martha Stewart’s website. The only major prep to this was making the cornbread, grilling the chicken and dicing some of the vegetables. Other than that, it was an easy recipe to make!!
- 6 cornbread muffins, very dry, coarsely crumbled, divided… I used a box of jiffy cornbread muffins and just made it in a small dish
- 1 (2.25 ounce) can sliced ripe olives drained
- 1 (16 ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (11 ounce) can whole kernel sweet corn, drained
- 1 cup Hidden Valley® Spicy Ranch Dressing, divided
- 1 cup bell pepper, diced, assorted colors
- 2 chicken breasts, grilled*
- 1/2 cup red onion, diced
- 1 cup tomatoes, seeded and diced
- 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
- In large clear salad bowl or trifle dish, layer half of the cornbread followed by olives, pinto beans and corn. Top with 1/2 cup of the dressing. Layer with bell pepper, chicken, onion, tomatoes, remaining cornbread and remaining dressing. Sprinkle with cheese.
- Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.
Taco Salad
A bunch of the teachers at my school decided to participate in the National Screen Free Week this year along with about 120 of the students. We wrote down some of the things that we wanted to do instead of playing on computers/games and watching TV. Several of us wrote that we would cook more. I got the bright idea that maybe we should have a potluck with some of the new recipes that we were going to try. The first person that responded said she was going to make enchiladas, so I had to find something that would somewhat go with that. It also happened to be May 4th, so the potluck kind of turned in to a Cinco de Mayo theme. I’ve always liked taco salad, so that is what I decided to make. I found this recipe on Pinterest. It was pretty good, but I think it would have been easier if I just would have used a packet of taco seasoning. If you don’t like to use pre-made mixes though, this is a great recipe to try! I got this recipe from Taste of Home website.
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 medium head iceberg lettuce, torn
- 2 medium tomatoes, diced
- 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Mexican cheese blend
- 1 can (2-1/4 ounces) sliced ripe olives, drained
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup taco sauce
- 1 package (10-1/2 ounces) corn chips
Nutritional Facts1 serving (1 cup) equals 245 calories, 17 g fat (4 g saturated fat), 22 mg cholesterol, 398 mg sodium, 14 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 8 g protein.
Cook the meat over medium heat until it is no longer pink, then drain.
Stir in the ketchup, oregano, chili powder, salt and pepper. After it boils, reduce the heat and let it simmer with a lid on it for 10 minutes.
To make the dressing, Mix the taco sauce and the mayonnaise. I had to use my hand blender to get the lumps out.
Since it was for a potluck, I served everything separate and let people add all the ingredients the way they wanted for their plate. It can be pre-made for a family if you wanted, but you would need to serve it immediately.
Carmelitas
Last week was National Screen Free Week. I’ve never participated before, but this year I decided to give it a try. I didn’t get on the internet other than for work or to research something and I didn’t watch any TV. I thought I would be miserable, but the week actually was quite nice. I haven’t even reactivated my facebook account yet. I’m pretty sure I will do that this evening though. One of the things I said I would do with my free time was to cook something new. I decided I would make carmelitas and bring them to the office for everyone to try! I really liked them, but they are REALLY sweet! I got the recipe from Lulu the Baker Her picture of the carmelita is so much better than the one I took.
32 caramel squares, unwrapped…I used a bag of caramel morsels
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
Mix the caramels and cream in a saucepan over a low heat.
You will know the caramel is ready once you see it get really creamy. Once it’s done, put it to the side until the cookie part is ready. 
Mix the rest of the ingredients (minus the chocolate morsels) in a bowl and then put half of the mixture in the bottom of the 8×8 pan. Put it in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes.
Top the mixture with the semi sweet chocolate morsels.
Cover the chocolate with the caramel.
Put a layer of the left over cookie recipe over the caramel and put it in the oven and bake on 350 for 15 to 20 minutes or until the edges are brown.
Let it sit out until it cools. You can refrigerate it if you want it faster, but they should be stored at room temperature. 
My husband said he wishes he had some ice cream to top it. I think it would be too sweet.
Kahlua Cake/Trifle
Hummus!
Recipe:
2 cans of chick peas (19 oz.) 90% drained
Juice of 1 lemon
7 Roasted garlic cloves plus 1 fresh clove of garlic
7.5 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp tahini paste
1 tsp salt or garlic salt
**Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
It makes A LOT, so be prepared to feed an army!
Fabulous after FIFTY 