McD's Frozen Strawberry Lemonade

The homemade version, of course.

We discovered McDonald's frozen strawberry lemonade a few weeks back and both my husband and I have been completely hooked. I mean, have you tried those things?! Lemonade perfection! I'm normally not a big McDonald's fan, but they really scored big with this one in my book.

But, of course, heavenly lemonade doesn't come free. $1.80 (for a small) doesn't sound like much, but like I said...we've kind of been hooked and our "lemonade trips" have started to add up. So I set out to discover if a homemade version really could measure up. I basically followed this recipe, with a few changes. The Smuckers strawberry sauce I got ended up being chunky. I'm not the type who likes big chunks in my drink (and the McD's version definitely doesn't have chunks), so I adapted by throwing a few spoonfuls in the food processor and blending it. PERFECT strawberry smoothness.

I don't usually take pictures of my ingredients, but in this case I thought it might be helpful to see exactly what brands I used:

Frozen Strawberry Lemonade

3 cups Tropicana's Simply Lemonade (or make your own!)

3-4 heaping Tbsp. Smuckers strawberry topping, pureed in food processor

Pour lemonade in an ice cream maker and pack with rock salt/ice according to manufacturer's directions. Allow to run for 15-20 minutes or until desired consistency is reached.

To assemble, pour 1-2 tablespoons of strawberry sauce in bottom of each cup. Add frozen lemonade on top. Serve.

Spinach Mandarin Poppy Seed Salad

The recipe may be stolen, but the picture is by yours truly (as are all my other pictures). See? I'm not ALL thief. :)

I haven't been in much of a "cooking new recipes" mood lately. It's summer - I'd rather play than spend an hour slaving in the kitchen before dinner!

So I'm (once again) presenting another one of my favorite recipes I've gleaned from the Our Best Bites cookbook. I know it's easy to just go get it from there, but at least this way, I may point someone (and by that I mean the two people that read this blog) to the easiness and yumminess that is this salad.

Our family is small (three of us that eat big-people food), so I pretty much halved everything in the recipe below. The original makes 8-10 side dish servings. I also substituted chopped up mini cucumbers for avocados since my hubs doesn't like avocados. Like I said, it was really easy to throw together (especially if you just cook the bacon in the microwave), and tasted just like I expect summer foods to taste. Sweet. Tangy. Crisp. Light. Perfect. :)


Spinach Mandarin Poppy Seed Salad

8 ounces (1/2 bag) baby spinach
1/2-1 head Romaine lettuce, chopped
1/2 thinly sliced medium red onion
1 large avocado, cubed
8 oz. mozzarella or Swiss cheese, shredded
1 (12-oz.) package bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 (12-oz.) can Mandarin oranges, drained
Poppy seed dressing, to taste (I made it from scratch, but it would be just as easy to buy a bottle of the pre-made stuff)

Combine all ingredients except dressing in a large bowl. When ready to serve, toss with desired amount of salad dressing and serve immediately.

If you anticipate leftovers, just let your eaters dress their own salads because the dressing will make the greens wilt.

Taco Pizza

This recipe was posted on Pioneer Woman a while back. We tried it one night using my favorite homemade pizza dough recipe and loved it. I really like the idea of taco ingredients on a pizza! I think what really made this recipe, though, was the fried corn tortilla strips. It gave it an extra bit of crunch and reminded me a bit of the tortilla strips on Cafe Rio/Costa Vida's salad. In fact, now that I think about it, this recipe would me amazing with Cafe Rio/Costa Vida/Our Best Bites (phew!) Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing drizzled on it instead of the sour cream.

Yep, I just may have to remake this recipe this week using the salad dressing. (I just happen to have half of a batch in my fridge just waiting to be used.) Sigh...my mouth is watering just thinking about it...  :)


Taco Pizza

Favorite pizza dough recipe, prepared and rolled out
1 can (14-oz.) black beans
1 tsp. taco seasoning
4 whole corn tortillas, sliced into thin strips
½ cup canola oil, for frying
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 head green leaf lettuce, sliced/shredded thin
2 whole ripe tomatoes, diced
½ cups cilantro leaves
¼ cups sour cream
3 Tbsp. hot sauce
(Or substitute the two previous ingredients with your favorite creamy salad dressing. :))

Fajitas

Fajitas always remind me of the restaurant Chili's. Usually I've ordered something safe and boring - like chicken - and then immediately regret my choice when a waiter walks by with a sizzling pan of fajitas, the smell wafting over our table. Then, by the time we go back again, I've forgotten just how good those fajitas look and smell, so I do the same thing over again. Solution: make my own at home!

This recipe came from one of my husband's co-workers years ago and it's definitely become a keeper in our family. I made a few changes to the original recipe (and I like my changes much better, if I do say so myself). I simply added some honey into the marinade and used a lime instead of a lemon at the end. It makes a difference, trust me.

And just because the recipe calls for good old chicken doesn't mean you couldn't mix it up a little bit. Have fun with the toppings, too, of course.


Fajitas

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. chili powder
1 clove garlic, minced
1 dash hot pepper sauce (I didn't include this because I'm a spice-wimp and I think the chili powder gives it enough kick)
1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into strips
1 Tbsp. oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1/2 lime, juiced

In a medium bowl, combine Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, honey, chili powder, garlic, and hot pepper sauce. Place chicken in sauce, and turn once to coat. Marinate for 30 minutes at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate for several hours.

Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add chicken strips to the pan, and saute for 5 minutes. Add the onion and green pepper, and saute another 3 minutes. Remove from heat, and sprinkle with lime juice. Add additional toppings of your choice (we added some cheddar cheese and sour cream and it was perfect).

S'mores Cookies

I was looking for something different to take on our road trip to Yellowstone last week. I probably could have just stuck with a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but I saw this recipe on The Girl Who Ate Everything and thought, "Bingo!" We usually have S'mores when we camp with my husband's side of the family and they're, of course, a favorite treat. But there were no campfires this time around. The weather sentenced us to hotel stays, and hotels really aren't conducive to cooking around a fire. Enter: S'mores Cookies! The crunchy graham cracker bottom and little pockets of melted marshmallows were the perfect combination with a plain old classic chocolate chip cookie. They were almost as good as the real thing. :)


S'mores Cookies

11 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate because they're my favorite)
1 cup mini marshmallows
3 regular-sized Hershey bars, broken into pieces
1-2 pkgs. graham crackers, broken into squares

Line baking pan(s) with waxed paper. (I used one 12x16 cookie sheet and I had less than a cup of cookie dough leftover. I could have used it up in a second pan, but I really didn't want to bother. Plus the dough was really yummy, so it may have disappeared soon after anyways.) Lay out graham crackers side by side as close as possible. I could fit 24 graham cracker squares on mine, with a bit of extra room around the edges.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon to combine. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and combine on low speed. Fold in chocolate chips and marshmallows. Cover dough and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place a heaping tablespoon of dough on each graham cracker. Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from oven and press one Hershey bar piece on top of each cookie. You could also break the Hershey bar into smaller pieces and place 2-3 on each cookie, depending on how much chocolate flavor you want.

Bake for 5-7 more minutes or until dough turns golden brown at the edges. Let cool for 1-2 minutes, then cut between graham crackers to form separate cookies and remove to wire rack (this is important - if you let them cool all the way, the marshmallow gets stuck together and makes them kind of hard to get apart).

Creamy Chicken and Noodles

I was flipping through my Better Homes and Garden cookbook a couple of weeks ago and discovered that there's a previously-unknown "crockery cooking" section right smack in the middle of the book. WHY I didn't know about it beforehand, I'm not quite sure - I've flipped through that cookbook dozens of times. I actually think the "crockery" bit threw me off. I mean, who calls their slow cooker a crockery cooker anymore? It's a Crock Pot, people. Quit trying to be all technical. :)

Anyways, I found this recipe for Creamy Chicken and Noodles and it sounded just right to make for the dreary, rainy Sunday we had last week. (Sigh. Summer, where are you??) It turned out pretty good, so of course, I had to share. I made a few adjustments to the original recipe, which I've included below.


Creamy Chicken and Noodles

1 1/2 cups sliced carrots
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sliced celery
1 Tbsp. snipped fresh parsley
1 bay leaf (I used about 1 tsp. of the dried bay leaf I had in my spice cupboard)
3 medium chicken legs, skinned (I acutally used 3 chicken thighs because they shred really easily - and they're conveniently boneless)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp. dried thyme, crushed
1/2 tsp. salt (The original recipe didn't call for any salt and I thought it was a little bland, so this is my addition)
1/4 tsp. pepper
10 oz. wide egg noodles (about 5 cups)
1/2 cup frozen peas

In a 3 1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker place carrots, onion, celery, parsley, and bay leaf. Place chicken on top of vegetables. In a bowl stir together soup, water, thyme, salt, and pepper. Pour over chicken and vegetables.

Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or high for 4-5 hours. Remove chicken; shred and place back in cooker. Discard bay leaf (if you used a whole one - I obviously just left the flakes intact). Meanwhile, cook noodles according to package directions; drain. Stir peas into soup mixture in cooker.

To serve, pour chicken mixture over hot noodles; toss gently to combine. Season with additional salt and pepper.

No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies

There's a famous chocolate version of no-bake cookies out there that I think just about everyone has tried. While I really like that version as well, there's something about straight peanut butter that makes me choose this recipe almost every time. Of course, I should also mention that I'm a peanut butter-aholic. (Is that a word? It should be.) I love peanut butter. Like, eat-it-straight-off-the-spoon-for-a-snack kind of love.

If you're anything like me (and I know there are others out there!), this is the recipe for you. Even if you just like peanut butter without having a strange love affair with it (ahem.), you'll probably still think these are good.

But be warned: You will most definitely need a big, tall glass of milk with these babies!

No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup margarine or butter

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup creamy peanut butter

3 cups oatmeal (I prefer the quick oats because they grains are much smaller, but any kind will work)

Spread a piece of wax paper or aluminum foil out on a flat surface. You'll need about 2 feet.

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar, milk, and salt and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Boil for exactly one minute, then remove from heat. Add vanilla and peanut butter; stir until smooth. Mix in oatmeal.

Immediately drop in rounded tablespoonfuls on wax paper or foil. Let cool completely and enjoy.