Kate Creates: Caramel Apple Bites

Here's a snack recipe to use any extra dulce de leche you may have from making Snickers Brownie Cupcakes. 

Caramel Apple Bites

Prep time:  5 minutes
Makes:  1 serving, about 4 slices. 

Ingredients

1 apple
2 tbsp. dulce de leche
1 tbsp. chopped peanuts

Directions: 

1.  Slice Apples.  I cut mine so the slices were in the shape of crackers.
2.  Spread dulce de leche over apple slices.
3.  Top dulce de leche with chopped peanuts. 

This was a delicious way to use up the bit of extra ingredients I had from my brownie recipe and probably had way fewer calories! :)

à bientôt!

Thrifty Tip: Use Your Freezer!

For the longest time I was totally against putting food in the freezer. The main reason I felt that way was because I knew that if I put it in there I was never going to use it! I'm a single gal and this meant that if I bought 1 pound of ground beef that I was going to be eating it all week. As a result, my recipes usually had way too much meat in them. A few months ago, I decided that I wanted to move away from meat heavy recipes and use meat sparingly in addition to lots of veggies, beans, and whole grains. So...I investigated ways to end my aversion to freezing food. Here are some tips I came up with:

The first tip is to plan ahead. The proper way to defrost anything is slowly in the refrigerator. I have a few recipes that I can throw things in frozen (pre-cooked ground beef in Chili for example) but for the most part, I defrost food before cooking it. So I need to plan ahead and transfer the food I want to cook to the fridge the evening before I need it.

Another tip is to prep or even cook food before freezing it. Like I mentioned above, I like to cook ground beef before I freeze it. I will buy a value pack of 1.25 pounds of ground beef and divide into portions for about 3 meals once it’s cooked. Let’s say I’m using it for spaghetti, I’ll add some mushrooms and squash to the dish. If I’m making chili, I’ll fill the pot with beans and frozen corn. Less meat, more veggies!

If I know I’m going to use a cut of meat for a stew or soup, I’ll dice it before I put it in the freezer. When I buy veggies for a stew (usually carrots, green beans, onions, and celery) I’ll chop up everything and divide it into recipe sized portions and freeze it.




Frozen veggies that are ready for a stew!



HEB had a great deal on pork roast. Way too much for just me though!

1/3 went right into the crock pot to become pulled pork.  I diced the remaining roast into bite sized portions for soup or stew.  

Then it got sealed, labeled and frozen.  

The last tip is to think about investing in an at home vacuum sealer. I purchased a FoodSaver machine a few months ago and I am very happy with it!

à bientôt!

 

Kate Creates: Snickers Brownie Cupcakes

I'm not going to lie...there is a bit of prep work that go into these delicious dessert bites, but they're worth it!  In this recipe, I used a boxed brownie mix but made the toppings from scratch.  I think you'll find that making your own frosting is fairly easy and is way better than the store bought stuff! 

So back to the prep work part...I made dulce de leche yesterday to serve as the caramel topping on my brownies.  This whole process takes about 3 hours plus it needs to have a few hours to cool.  Here's how I did it...

I took this...

 

 

 I removed the label and submerged it in boiling water for 3 hours....

 

An ended up with this after some cooling in the fridge.

Now, here's the rest of the recipe!

Snickers Brownie Cupcakes

Prep time:  45 minutes
Bake time:  20 minutes
Makes: 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 19.5 oz boxed brownie mix, plus required ingredients
1 can dulce de leche (see above!)
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped 
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. milk, if frosting is too thick!


Directions: 

1. Prepare brownie mix according to package instructions. 
2. Fill cupcake liners 1/2-3/4 full.  
3. Bake for around 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted to the middle of the brownie. 
4. Meanwhile, cream softened butter, creamy peanut butter, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer until combined.

 

5. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. The frosting should have a light and fluffy consistency. If it is too thick, you can add milk a tsp. at a time until it reaches the desired consistency. I filled my piping tool and set it aside until I was ready to frost. 

  6. Chop 1/4 cup of peanuts and mix with the can of dulce de leche. 

Notice that I followed my thrifty tip advice for spices for peanuts.  I spent 25 cents instead of buying a whole jar of peanuts!

 

 

 

  7. Once brownies cool, spoon desired amount of dulce de leche over brownie and pipe frosting over the dulce de leche. 

The finished product!



   
 I hope you enjoy!

à bientôt!

Kate Creates: Lasagna Rolls

When I looked in my fridge this afternoon, I noticed that I had some ingredients left over from my last recipe.  One of my thrifty tips is to not let food go to waste!  So, here's another recipe to use those groceries up!

Lasagna Rolls
Prep time:  30 minutes
Bake time:  30 minutes

Ingredients: 

4 lasagna noodles 

3/4 cup store bought alfredo sauce

1 cup store bought marinara sauce

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup onion, diced
1tsp. garlic, minced
1/3 cup cooked spinach drained of excess moisture

1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese

1 tbsp. grated parmesan cheese, plus extra for topping

1 tsp. Italian season (I use HEB Tuscan herb blend available with bulk spices)

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Prepare lasagna noodles according to package instructions. 
3. Dice onion and mince garlic.  Sauté over medium heat in a small amount of olive oil until translucent.  Add spinach and mix until incorporated. 

4.  Combine spinach mixture with the last 6 ingredients. 
5.  Separate mixture into 4 equal parts.  Spread over the length of the lasagna noodles and roll. 

Ready for assembly!

 

6.  Spread marinara sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. 
7.  Place the rolls seam side down in the marinara sauce. 
8.  Spoon alfredo sauce over the top of the rolls.
9.  Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 20 minutes. 
10.  Remove foil and sprinkle rolls with mozzarella cheese. 
11.  Continue baking uncovered for an additional 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

Ready for the oven.

Ready for my tummy!!!

 

I hope you enjoy it. 

 

à bientôt!

 



Kate Creates: Pizza Florentine

I saw this calzone recipe a few days ago and couldn't wait to try it out this weekend.  I knew that I wanted to make a few changes...for example, I'm not a fan of nutmeg unless it's in pumpkin pie or egg nog.  Then when I went to buy my ingredients after work yesterday, just the thought of making pizza dough from scratch made me exhausted so I bought a Pillsbury ready made crust instead.  Here's what I came up with:   

Pizza Florentine Recipe

Prep time:  20 minutes
Bake time:  13 minutes

Ingredients: 
1 can Pillsbury pizza crust
1/2 cup store bought alfredo sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese
1/3 cup cooked spinach drained of excess moisture
1 tbs grated parmesean cheese, plus extra for topping
1/2 tsp Italian season (I use HEB Tuscan herb blend available with bulk spices)
1/2 tsps garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine the last 7 ingredients in a medium bowl and mix with a fork until combined.
3. Prepare the crust according to package instructions.
4. After crust has baked for 5 minutes, use a spoon to spread the spinach and cheese mixture over the warm crust.
5. Spread the alfredo sauce over the spinach and cheese mixture.
6. Top with shredded mozzarealla cheese (I also added an extra sprinkle of grated parmesean, Italian seasoning, and black pepper before I popped it in the oven).
7. Bake for an additional 7 minutes or until crust is brown and cheese is bubbly.

 

 

Dinner is served!  I also tried making the pizza with tomato sauce in place of alfredo.  Both were delicious.  Pizza is so fun to experiment with because you can top it with just about anything.  I think next time I'll add onion and proscuitto to the recipe.  What will you add?

à bientôt!

Thrifty Tip: Save $ On Spices

Have you ever found an awesome recipe you wanted to try and then realized you're going to spend $30 just on spices alone?!  Next time you find that you need a pinch of tumeric or small quantity of any spice, check on the bulk foods aisle of your grocery store where you can buy just the amount of spice that you need.  You'll spend cents on what you need rather than dollars on a huge bottle that will likely spoil before you use it all. 

 

 

I buy almost all of my spices by weight and store them in these jars.  

 

 

à bientôt!  

 

Kate Creates: Cherry Blossom Lamp Shade

Welcome to my blog!  Today I'm going to share with you how I created a copycat version of a lamp shade that I saw while browsing in Hobby Lobby. 

I liked the idea of this shade but it was much too expensive and didn't quite match the color scheme of my bedroom.  I knew this would be simple to recreate...

While I was at Hobby Lobby, I picked up a few necessary materials for my future project...brown puff paint and Spare Parts brand craft flowers. 

Unfortunately, the project was put on hold for a few weeks while I looked for the perfect lamp shade to decorate.  I find lamp shades to be ridiculously overpriced in stores and I refuse to buy them new.  Instead, I buy them at Goodwill for around $3.  It may take a while for one to appear that suits my project, but I find that the savings are worth the wait. 

 

This was my finished product with a total cost of around $6. 

Once I had all my materials (brown acrylic paint, paint brush, brown puff paint, pencil, glue gun, flowers, lamp shade), it only took about 30 minutes to put it all together.  I first sketched the branches with a pencil and then filled it in using a thin brush and brown acrylic paint.  Then, I used a hot glue gun to attach the flowers.  Finally, I used the puff paint to outline the edges and create a textured look on the branches. 

I absolutely love how it turned out!

à bientôt (See you soon)!