Monday Morning Mmmm: Sopapilla Cheesecake

May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

I wasn’t always a chocoholic. I wasn’t. I don’t think . . .

But no matter my past preferences (or memory gaps), I am a big fan of the chocolate now. As in, if I can’t have a chocolate dessert, I don’t want dessert.

Unless I have to have dessert. (Right? This situation happens in real life, doesn’t it?) And if MUST eat dessert and no chocolate dessert is available, well, then, I’ll settle for apple. Apple desserts come in a close second.

Last weekend we had some friends over for dinner. When Mark and I were planning the menu, we settled on shredded beef tacos and jalapeno popper dip pretty quickly.

But we got stuck at dessert.

I wanted to make brownies – the easiest (when made from a box, which mine always are) and chocolatey-est dessert ever. But Mark thought the fact that I recently made brownies (from a box) meant I should make something different.

Now, I suppose I could’ve informed him that if he was so particular about what desserts should be made or not made, he could just figure it out and make it himself. But the thing is, I really like making desserts. It’s practically the only reason I have a Pinterest account. So, a dessert challenge? Is pretty much the exact kind of challenge I was born for.

[Fine. Perhaps I was born for something more. Good grief, I hope so. But this post is about dessert, so let's just go with it.]

{Although…IS this post about dessert? Because now that I think about it, I’m nearly 400 words in and haven’t even told you what I ended up making on Saturday. (Granted, the title kinda gives that away. Never mind that.)}

So, to recap: Friends coming over for dinner. Taco dinner planned. Dessert challenge issued. My next step? Consult the Pinterest, of course – where I found a delightful photo or twenty of something called a “Sopapilla Cheesecake.”

Clearly this was The Recipe, and I would be the winner of The Dessert Challenge.

Mark loves cheesecake – and what better dessert to accompany a Mexican dinner of tacos than sopapillas? I mean, not actual sopapillas, because my mom and I tried to make those one time and it was a dismal failure. And on a day full of last-minute cleaning, a gymnastics birthday party for my daughter’s BFF, and deciding just how many types of salsa I wanted to fix for dinner, I really didn’t have room for attempting complicated puffy pastries.

So a fake sopapilla combined with a fake cheesecake seemed like the perfect solution. And it was.

Oh wait! I forgot to tell you the best part. In the comments of the recipe blog post, readers shared variations of this dessert – including one with apple pie filling. WHAT! Apple dessert. In a husband-approved cheesecake. And a Mexican dinner-complementing sopapilla. It was obviously a Dessert Challenge Trifecta.

Apple Sopapilla Cheesecake
Source: My Chocolate Therapy

2 cans crescent rolls
2 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 can apple filling
1/4 cup butter, melted
Cinnamon and sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (the recipe recommended 325 degrees if you’re using a glass pan, which I did, but it took an extra long time to bake). Unroll one can of crescents and smush the seams together, forming one 9×13 rectangle. Place that in a 9×13 pan (surprise!). Mix together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla, then spread the mixture over the dough. Pour can of apple filling (or can of fried apples) over the cream cheese mixture. Unroll, smush and spread the remaining can of crescent rolls, then place over the apples. Brush melted butter over the top of the dough, and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

You can serve it warm or cold. We ate it – and loved it – both ways. I didn’t actually add apples to the whole dish, because Mark wasn’t sure he’d like it. He was wrong, but that’s his loss. The apples cut the richness of the cream cheese mixture – and make the whole thing healthy.

What? It’s still WAY not healthy? Fine. But it was REALLY good – and I’ll definitely be making this again. Even if it’s not chocolate.

How was your weekend? What kind of dessert is your favorite?

Filed Under: Recipes & Food Tagged With: , , ,

Monday Morning Mmmm: Italian Chicken

April 29, 2013 By 3 Comments

First of all – don’t judge my two starchy vegetable sides on this plate.

Second of all – remember my sweet potato saga? This was my attempt to overcome it. And it failed.

Thirdly - just because this particular dinner ended in yelling (me) and crying (my child) doesn’t mean the meal was a complete bust. As a matter of fact, before I told my daughter to just go to her room if she was going to carry on like that, she claimed the bacon-wrapped Italian chicken we were eating was “the best chicken EVER.”

Yep, the reason for her dinner-ending fit was that I wouldn’t give her more chicken until she ate some more sweet potatoes. If it weren’t for the chicken, my stubborn child wouldn’t have eaten anything for dinner at all! (She doesn’t really like corn, either. Serving it was all part of my strategy to make the sweet potatoes look like the best option. #fail)

Bacon-Wrapped Italian Chicken is a recipe I found in Simply Summer by Kate at Modern Alternative Mama.

Bacon-Wrapped Italian Chicken

2 lbs chicken breast, boneless and skinless
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup water
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp sage
1/4 tsp basil
6 – 8 slices of bacon
6 – 8 thin slices of Gruyere cheese

Combine ingredients from lemon juice to basil, and use as marinade for chicken. Chicken should marinate for at least two hours (though overnight is best. If you think ahead. Which I didn’t.). Remove chicken and wrap each piece with one or two pieces of bacon. Thin bacon works best.

Heat a skillet on medium high (or medium, because medium high was too hot on my stove). Fry chicken until bacon is mostly cooked, about 5-8 minutes per side. Place chicken in a pan and top each piece with cheese slices (I actually used mozzarella, not Gruyere.). Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes to finish cooking.

Simply Summer suggests serving with Italian salsa with tomatoes, onions and Italian seasoning. Nobody in my house loves tomatoes, though, so we passed on that part. Next time I’m making sure to fix this meal for people who like tomatoes, because I think it sounds good that way!

What’s the best chicken YOU’VE ever eaten (or made)?

Affiliate links are used in this post.

Filed Under: Recipes & Food Tagged With: , , ,

Monday Morning Mmmm: Snickers & Apple “Salad”

April 1, 2013 By 2 Comments


On one hand, my cousin and her husband said this dish was amazing and swore they could eat the whole bowl. On the other hand, Annalyn informed me (quietly, as if only loud criticism would hurt my feelings) that she didn’t like it that much because it wasn’t “a real salad.”

Poor kiddo. She approached a creamy spoonful of fruit fluff her mom has called a “salad” all week expecting it to turn into a bowl of veggies, ranch dressing and croutons?!? Crazy girl.

Just to be clear, though: This dish is NOT a vegetable salad. Or a salad of any sort. Despite the apples that play a prominent role here, it can’t even be considered a fruit salad. Not really. What it can be considered, though, is delicious – so read on.

I can’t remember where I first saw a recipe for a Snickers and apple salad, but it was probably on Pinterest. (I say, as if I find new recipes anywhere else these days…) Easter lunch with my family seemed like the perfect occasion to try it out.

After doing a little search, I found a few different versions – but none answered my burning question, “Can I make this the night before?”

See, I just wasn’t sure if that would work. I know that a lot of dishes taste better when they’ve had time in the fridge, smushing all the flavors together. (Yep. Smushing. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know that technical term. Maybe someday when you’re a real fancy chef like me.) But, despite the smushing factor, I was afraid the apples would turn brown overnight. Or would they? Do whipped cream-covered apples turn brown? I DON’T KNOW.

I’m sorry to tell you I don’t have an answer for you. You know why? Because the apples were covered in whipped cream! So how was I supposed to know if they had turned brown? I couldn’t. So there was just no need to worry.

That’s not to say the fixing it the night before business went perfectly. I made the salad the night before, refrigerated it and then put it in the same box holding my piping hot Crockpot for the 40-minute drive to my cousin’s house. I’m not sure which part of that situation made the ingredients separate a bit by the time we ate lunch, but SOMETHING did.

Sure. It was probably the Crockpot commute that caused the problem, but I’m still not sold on the advance mixing. Next time, I’ll probably make it a few hours in advance, giving it time to be chilled but not enough time to separate.

No more ado. It’s recipe time!

Snickers & Apple “Salad”

4 large green apples
12-16 fun size Snickers bars
8 oz. Cool Whip
1 box vanilla pudding
1 cup milk

Mix together milk and pudding, then let it set up while you work on the other ingredients. Chop the apples and Snickers bars into small pieces. Mix together the Cool Whip and pudding, then fold in the apples and candy. Refrigerate for some time (I mean, you can do overnight, but I can give you no guarantees.*). Drizzle with caramel sauce before serving.

* I’m kidding, you guys. Refrigerating overnight is a great idea. Setting the salad next to a super hot Crockpot is a terrible idea.

Did you fix anything new and/or tasty for an Easter dinner over the weekend?

This post will be linked to Mouthwatering Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, 33 Shades of Green and Works for Me Wednesday.

Filed Under: Recipes & Food Tagged With: , , ,

The Saga of the Sweet Potatoes

March 26, 2013 By 4 Comments

I’m not very good about eating fruits and vegetables. But I’m constantly trying to be better – both for my health and my kiddo’s health and habits. Since I heard the suggestion earlier this year to simply eat either a fruit or veggie with every single meal and snack, I really have eaten a lot more produce than before. And Annalyn – despite her love of carbs (where could she have possibly gotten THAT?) – is GREAT about eating fruits and veggies.

My husband, though? Not so much.

We’ve long joked that the only vegetables he eats in his meat-and-potatoes diet are green beans and corn. Which, honestly, is fine. He DOES (for the record) eat more veggies than that, but even though he’s pickier than I’d prefer, it’s not normally a big deal. Annalyn has, for the most part, been brave and adventurous when it comes to trying new foods – so I push myself to try new foods along with her and leave Mark to his same old, same old.

But a while ago, this live-and-let-live-without-veggies approach failed our family.

I had made sweet potato fries before. We’d eaten them. They were good. But this night?
This night, Mark decided to make his true feelings known – and informed us that he didn’t like sweet potatoes.

Well, you know what happened next, right? Annalyn – who’d eaten them and loved them in the past – decided she ALSO didn’t like them. And then my head exploded.

[Seriously - who doesn't like sweet potatoes?! They're all the rage now FOR A REASON. They are delicious! And nutritious! What MORE could you ask for?! . . . Yes, this IS what it sounds like when my head is exploding.]

Well, not literally, but pretty darn close. Since then, Mark has (of course) apologized for making such a statement in front of Annalyn. And I can’t be mad [anymore], because I’ve said things without thinking [a million times]. But sorry or not, the damage is done.

Or so I thought.

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a conference call with several bloggers, The Motherhood and Michelle Dudash. Michelle is a registered dietitian, a Cordon Bleu-certified chef and author of Clean Eating for Busy Families. And more importantly, she’s down to earth, approachable, helpful and realistic – all things I love in my nutrition experts!

Michelle works with the Walmart Foundation and on the call, she told us about some great work that organization is doing to help fight hunger and then shared tons of great tips for shopping, cooking and eating healthy with our families.

I’ll get back to the sweet potatoes, but first I want to tell you about the Walmart Foundation, because what they’re doing is really cool.

This March, the Walmart Foundation donated $6.7 million in grants to 5 national nonprofits that are providing children with school breakfast and helping families develop better eating habits. The grants are part of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation’s $2 billion cash and in-kind commitment through 2015 to help fight hunger in America and Walmart’s 2011 initiative to provide customers with healthier and more affordable food choices.

In short, the Walmart Foundation is helping 250,000 Americans access school breakfast and nutrition education programs.

We all know that kids need to start their day with a healthy breakfast. But whether due to busy schedules, financial struggles or a lack of understanding of the importance of breakfast, way too many children go to school hungry anyway. My mom is an elementary teacher in a low-income district, and I’ve heard first-hand how hard it is for kids to concentrate on learning when their tummies are empty. So programs like the ones supported by the Walmart Foundation are desperately needed – and truly appreciated (at least by me!).

After she told us about what the Walmart Foundation is doing, Michelle went on to share tons of great tips for helping your family eat healthy. Here are a few of my favorites:

  • Cook once, eat twice. I try to do this whenever possible, chopping up extra veggies or browning extra ground beef when I have a few minutes to spare while cooking a meal.
  • Plan – and prep – ahead. But be realistic – how many meals will you really eat at home this week? Focus on planning for those. (See what I mean? I love how realistic Michelle’s approach to healthy family eating is.)
  • Semi-homemade can be healthy. Just remember to read the ingredient list and avoid mixes or other foods with ingredients you don’t recognize or can’t pronounce.
  • Stock up on essentials when they’re on sale or in a longer, kid-free grocery store trip, then keep a running list for other foods during the week or month.
  • To encourage kids to eat healthy or new foods, cut them into fun shapes, let them eat them with dips, or involve them in the shopping, cooking or both.

Once she shared those – and other – tips with us, Michelle took our questions. That’s when I brought up the sweet potato saga.

Michelle’s advice was to not make a big deal in front of my daughter (oops. too late.), and to make sure Mark makes a big deal out of eating other nutritious foods in front of her. And as good as that advice is, my biggest takeaway was the advice one of the other bloggers gave. She suggested I simply fix the sweet potatoes again and have Mark eat them and talk about how much he likes them.

Honestly? THAT will be enough to solve this dilemma. Strong-willed as she can be about oh-so-many things, Annalyn is quickly swayed by other people’s opinions on food (hence the original head-exploding problem). Mark has already agreed to this scheme, so I’m planning to make sweet potatoes later this week. I’ll keep you posted on how well it all works!

How do you encourage your kids (or yourself) to eat a variety of healthy foods?

Photo source

Disclosure: I was compensated for this project by The Motherhood, but all opinions and vegetable drama are my own. I also used an affiliate link, which doesn’t change the price of your purchase but does help support this site.

Filed Under: Family & Friends, Recipes & Food, Uncategorized Tagged With:

Monday Morning Mmmm: Pizza Poppers

March 18, 2013 By 5 Comments

Last night we got home from small group later than normal, which meant I put Annalyn to bed later than normal and we started talking about what to eat for dinner EVEN LATER. As in, we ordered a pizza just minutes before the store closed and after waiting 45 minutes for it to be delivered, decided the delivery guy probably took our pizza home. So after some hemming and hawing and lamenting the fact that only fast food places were open now, Mark jumped in the car to hit a drive thru. Of course, THAT is when the pizza FINALLY got to our house, which is why we ate dinner at an obscenely late hour.

And that is also why I don’t have a brain cell left to write something deeper than a recipe post right now. Well, that and the fact that I’m sitting on the couch next to my husband, who’s using his remote control powers for evil not good – flipping between Vanilla Ice’s home remodeling show and Finding Bigfoot.

I’m not even kidding. [Oh, and look! Now we - HE - found a show on the Cooking Channel with two girls who call themselves the "Beer Chicks." *sigh*]

So let me just tell you about the delicious {and spicy!} appetizer I made last weekend.

A hundred years ago (FINE. two years ago.), my friend Dana wrote about Pizza Snowballs. The short version is that she smushed canned biscuits, cheese and pepperoni into balls, baked them in a muffin tin, and had a quick, easy and tasty meal that her kids loved helping her make.

Sounds good, right?

I’ve thought about making them several times, but remembered Dana’s recipe most recently when I noticed I’d pinned something very similar. After comparing the two recipes, considering the pros and cons of each, calculating the cost of ingredients, and basically saying “eeny meeny miney moe,” I decided to go with the Rachael Ray recipe that Monica adapted on Lick the Bowl Good.

Because I needed more pizza pieces (Wow. Say THAT three times fast: “pizza pieces, pizza pieces, pizza pieces”!) than Monica’s recipe yielded, I adapted it even further – mainly by doubling it and adding sausage.

You know, just in case the original recipe wasn’t spicy or greasy enough for you.

BUT LOOK HOW TASTY THEY LOOK!

Pizza Poppers

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 cups Italian mix shredded cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup diced pepperoni
1 cup browned sausage
1 cup pizza (or spaghetti) sauce

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Mix dry ingredients, then stir in milk and egg. Fold in cheeses and let stand for 10 minutes. Pour or scoop batter into greased mini muffin tin. Bake 20-25 minutes. Yields 48 mini muffins. Serve with warmed pizza sauce.

AND TRY NOT TO EAT THEM ALL.

When I realized that I needed to add sausage to my batter because I didn’t have enough pepperoni for the doubled recipe, I wondered if I really needed to make so many. Then I tried one, and I thought, “Yeah, it’s probably a good thing I doubled the recipe. I hope my friends like them.”

THEY ATE THEM ALL. I’m pretty sure if I’d TRIPLED the recipe, they would’ve EATEN THEM ALL. And there I’d thought I’d bring home a few and call it good for dinner.

Because, as I may have mentioned earlier, dinner on small group nights is kind of an issue.

Oh, hey, you know what’s funny? The blog post where I found the recipe for the pizza poppers? Talks about HER husband watching horrible TV shows! Apparently this is a common problem.

What’s your favorite late-night dinner? And does anyone in your house watch horrible TV when he (OR SHE) gets control of the remote?

This post will be linked to Mouthwatering Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, 33 Shades of Green and Works for Me Wednesday.

Filed Under: Recipes & Food Tagged With: , , ,
« Older Posts

Switch to our mobile site