This is my last week of work for the summer, so I'm breaking out some summertime dessert recipes. I made these bars a week ago for a family dinner. They are creamy and cool, in addition to being delicious! 
CheeseCake Layer Bars
Layer 1- Crust
25 Large Marshmallows
1 TBSP Butter
4 Cups Cornflakes
Spray a 9x13 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a large bowl, microwave marshmallows and butter in 30 second increments. When marshmallows have puffed up, stir in cornflakes. Spread out on the bottom of your pan. Let sit for 30 minutes and smash down.
Layer 2- Chocolate
3 Chocolate Bunnies
6 Squares Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
Break up chocolate bunnies into a bowl. Mix in baking chocolate squares. Microwave in 10 second increments, stirring in between. When melted, spread chocolate over cornflake crust. Let sit 10-15 minutes.
Layer 3- Cheesecake Layer
1 Bar Cream Cheese
1 Cup Sour Cream
2 Boxes Pudding, Chocolate or Vanilla
1 Can Evaporated Milk
Soften cream cheese. Mix all ingredients until smooth and creamy. Pour over chocolate layer. Put in refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Good evening What's for Leftovers readers! We have had a whirlwind weekend, traveling to visit Andy's family. As always, we had a great time hanging out with all our loved ones. Lucky for us, that side of Missouri got 6 to 8 inches of snow. It was beautiful! Hopefully it's the last snow of the season since it's officially Spring. I am ready for flip flops and tank tops! Since it was so chilly this weekend, we ate a lot of cozy, comfort foods. For dinner on Friday, I prepared mashed sweet potatoes and acorn squash. We ate all of it, except a cup and a half. On Saturday morning, I took the leftovers and created muffins. They were fabulous, very moist and flavorful. In fact, I had to hide the two in the picture in the freezer to keep them from being eaten by all the little ones in the house.
Sweet Potato Muffins
Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups Mashed Sweet Potatoes
2 Eggs
1/2 Stick Butter- Softened
1/2 Cups White Sugar
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Vanilla
1 TBSP Baking Powder
1 1/2 Cups Flour
Cinnamon and Sugar
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix together sweet potatoes, eggs and butter until creamy and smooth. Next, add white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and baking powder. Mix until smooth.
3. Slowly add flour, mixing it in as you pour.
4. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Pour batter into muffin cups, filling them 3/4 of the way full.
5. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with cinnamon and sugar. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Makes 12 to 18 muffins.
It's funny how weekends are supposed to be filled with relaxing downtime, but they often end up being busier, but more fun, than the work week! We've had an exciting weekend hanging out with friends and family! In fact, some of them are still hanging out in our kitchen. We also got to eat out at some really great restaurants. But don't worry What's for Leftovers readers, I still managed to squeeze in a couple of new recipes. This one is a variation of a recipe I read in a Guideposts a while back. It's called a Finnish Pancake. I told Celia and Charlie it was a 'GIANT' pancake. No matter what you call it, it's delicious. After you finish baking it, make sure you let it completely cool. This gives the inside time to settle. Top with fried apples and powdered sugar for a breakfast treat or a great dessert!
Fried Apples
Ingredients:
8 Medium Apples
1/4 Cup Honey
2 TBSP Butter
1/2 Cup Water
Pinch of Salt
1. Spray a large frying pan.
2. Peel Apples. Cut into large slices and put into frying pan.
3. Add honey, butter, water and salt.
4. Cook on high heat until water has evaporated. While cooking, stir frequently so apples don't burn. Lower heat and continue cooking until apples are soft and smell like apple pie filling.
Finnish Pancakes
Ingredients:
1 Cup Pancake Mix
2 1/2 Cups Milk
4 Eggs
1/4 Cup Honey
4 TBSP Butter
Powdered Sugar
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Spray a 10"-11" round baking pan or skillet with PAM.
3. Pour pancake mix, milk, eggs, honey and butter into a blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into baking pan.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Top should be golden brown when 'Finnished'.
5. Let cool completely. After slicing, top with powdered sugar and fried apples.
This past weekend we celebrated Valentine's Day at a progressive dinner. Everybody's food was delicious. Lucky us, my friend Kimberly sent us home with a whole bunch of lasagna. It was delicious! I ate it again as soon as we got home. However, after a couple of days, lasagna starts to get a little dry, so when we ate if for dinner tonight, I jazzed it up again by turning it into an open-faced sandwich. It was totally different from anything we've had before. We really enjoyed it. I hope you do too!
Open-Faced Lasagna Sandwiches
Ingredients:
For the Sauce-
1 Cup Vitamin D Milk
1/2 Cup Grated Parmesean Cheese
1 Egg Yolk
2 TBSP Butter
1 Cup Spaghetti Sauce
For the Skillet-
2 1/2 Cups Cooked Veggies- Chopped
3 Cups Lasagna- Chopped
Garlic Bread
Cut up 2 1/2 Cups of cooked vegetables. I used frozen onions and peppers and leftover eggplant, mushrooms and peppers. Cut lasagna up, measure it after it's chopped. Set aside. Next prepare sauce. Turn stovetop burner onto medium. Pour milk into your sauce pan. Add parmesean cheese and egg yolk. Start whisking milk mixture. You want to be careful to keep whisking so your sauce won't burn. Add 2 TBSP of butter. Sauce will boil and start to thicken, continue stirring. After sauce thickens a bit, add red spaghetti sauce. Keep whisking while it boils for a minute. Then turn buner down and let it simmer while you cook your veggies and lasagna, stirring ocassionaly so it won't burn.
Before cooking veggies, warm up or make your garlic bread.
Drizzle olive oil on your frying pan. Put chopped veggies into the pan and saute them. When they are thoroughly warmed, add chopped lasagna to pan. Mix together and continue cooking and stirring until both are warm. Add sauce to mixture. Cook until lasagna mixture is bubbly. Turn the burner off and let cool for a minute to thicken up. Pour lasagna mixture on top of a slice of garlic bread. Enjoy!
I promise this is my last birthday cake recipe for a while, at least until April when Celia turns 4. I successfully used up all of our leftover birthday cake with this recipe. Now, in general, I am not a baker. I have every intention of baking cookies or cakes and breads, but it never happens. I don't like to follow recipes and if I make cookies my second batch always burns because I forget about them in the oven. Well tonight I baked! I made up my own recipe and since it was a cheese/custard cake, there wasn't a second batch to burn. The pie turned out absolutely fabulous and it was really easy and fast to make. I hope you enjoy making it and serving it as much as I did.
Birthday Cake Pie
Ingredients:
For the crust:
2 1/2 Cups Cake (mashed)
1 Stick Butter or Margarine
For the filling:
1- 8oz box Neufchatel or Cream Cheese (room temperature)
2/3 Cup Sugar
2/3 Cup Sour Cream
3 Eggs
1/3 Cup Mayo
1/2 tsp Vanilla
Smash up birthday cake with icing until crumbly. You need to have 2 1/2 cups after you finish mashing it up, not before. If your icing is pink and blue, your crust will have a bit of a grey tint- don't worry, it will still taste delicious! Melt margarine in the microwave completely, then mix in with cake. Spray a 9 and 1/2 inch glass pie pan (or a larger one) with PAM. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Smash cake mixture into bottom of pie pan, spreading it out all over the bottom of the pan. Put in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. The crust will puff up and start to turn light brown. Take it out at this point.
While the crust is baking, make the filling. Pour all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Beat with your mixer until it is a creamy, airy mixture. It is okay if there are a couple of lumps from the cream cheese left. Pour the mixture into your pie crust and bake at 350 degrees for around 35 minutes. It is finished when the center no longer jiggles and the edges and bottom have turned light brown. Take out of the oven and let cool.
This morning, Celia, Charlie and I sat down to a nice breakfast of bananas and yogurt. They promptly peeled (or took the tape off, as Charlie says) their bananas and said they were done. They didn't want to eat them. I did not want to eat three bananas, so I had to figure out something to do with them. I made a caramel sauce and cut them up into it. I put the sauce on top of their pancakes. You could also put it on top of ice cream or waffles. I thought it was great. Celia and Charlie still wouldn't eat their breakfast. I guess it wasn't a breakfast kind of day for my two and three year old. Oh well. Here's the recipe. It was just enough to top the pancakes for two little ones. You'll probably want to double or triple the recipe if you're going to serve more people.
Banana Caramel Sauce
Ingredients:
2 Bananas
3/8 Cup of Honey
1/4 Cup Olive Oil or Butter
3/4 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Cinnamon
Heat butter or olive oil up in skillet. Slice bananas into the hot oil. Add honey, vanilla, and cinnamon to the skillet. Stir constantly because the mixture will burn easily. You want the liquid to boil and become sticky. After boiling, turn stove off and mixture will continue to thicken. Serve warm.
