Red velvet cheesecake cookies

In addition to my chicken (successful or not), broccoli, and smoothies, I also made these cookies this past weekend. 

Don't these look great?

That's obviously not my picture because we've seen what mine turn out like. I found this recipe on one of the blogs I read and this is her picture (click on the link under it to see her blog). Below is my attempt at creating something that looked equally as delicious (which I don't think I achieved but they tasted great, ha!) 

I usually don't even pay attention to recipes that use box mixes (yes, I'm a snob but my grandmother and father taught me to cook and a box of cake was NEVER included!) but the blogger said that you couldn't even tell and that it was worth it. 

Ingredients

This is the batter after refrigeration. Doesn't it kinda look like a heart? So gross, but delicious when finished!

The original recipe warned about the cookies getting really big and spreading out so I cooked four at a time. That picture is of a normal sized cookie sheet so they really are huge!

This is where it got tricky, the original recipe said to drizzle the white chocolate but mine was way too thick to drizzle so I dipped half (kinda like the black/white cookies? No?)

And this was the final product. Not bad, eh?

The cookies turned out great! These were a little messy with the batter and the cheesecake but the final product was definitely worth it. If I make them again I'm going to try and figure out a different solution for the white chocolate. I will also admit that for a box cake recipe, it was very good!

Red Velvet Cheesecake cookies

Original Recipe

ingredients:

For the cookies:
1 box red velvet cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cheesecake filling:
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature *I used 1/3 less fat
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the white chocolate drizzle:
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted

directions:

1. To make cookies, in a large bowl combine cake mix and flour. Whisk until clumps disappear. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake mix, flour, eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. The dough will be oily. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

2. To make the cheesecake filling, using a mixer, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Using a teaspoon, scoop out cheesecake filling and place on a plate. Continue scooping out cheesecake filling into teaspoon balls until you have 10. Place plate in the freezer and freeze for at least two hours.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. To assemble the cookies, take about 1/4 cup of red velvet cookie dough and flatten in your hands. Place a teaspoon of cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. Gently roll into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet. Scoop onto lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheets. Only bake 3 cookies at a time. The cookies are large and will spread. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crackle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from baking sheet to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.

4. Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set until the chocolate hardens. Serve and enjoy!

Note: if you are going to store the cookies for more than a day, you may want to keep them in the refrigerator. You can make the cookies smaller. Just use less dough and filling. You want to make sure you completely wrap the cookie dough around the filling before baking-so it doesn't leak. Enjoy!

Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Have y'all ever had the chicken lettuce wraps from P. F. Changs? They are delicious! My mom and I have been known to make a meal out of them even though they are supposed to be appetizers (there's nothing wrong with ordering two of the same appetizer!)

Oh, we do!

Unfortunately, we don't have a P.F. Chang's here in Columbia so these are not often within my reach. Luckily, thanks to skinnytaste, I have found something to satisfy my cravings. I give to you

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture but this is exactly what ours looked like!

Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 2 taco wraps • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4 pts
Calories: 134.1 • Fat: 1.7 g • Carb: 9.7 g • Fiber: 2.4 g • Protein: 21.3 g • Sugar: 4.3

Ingredients: 

• 1.3 lbs 99% lean ground turkey
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 small onion, minced
• 2 tbsp bell pepper, minced
• 3/4 cup water
• 4 oz can tomato sauce
• 8 large lettuce leaves from Iceberg lettuce

Directions: 

Brown turkey in a large skillet. When no longer pink add dry seasoning and mix well.Add onion, pepper, water and tomato sauce and cover. Simmer on low for about 20 minutes.

Wash and dry the lettuce. Place meat in the center of leaf and top with tomatoes, cheese and salsa or whatever you prefer. (Toppings extra points)

Skinnytaste is one of my favorite blogs that I follow. She creates amazing dishes that are healthy and she lists weight watcher's points as well as nutritional facts. So helpful! And if you aren't big on the health craze, don't worry, you can still totally utilize this recipe. You can use any type of meat you want but this homemade taco seasoning is hard to beat! We enjoyed the guilt-less turkey option but I could easily cook this with ground beef for a house full of guys who could care less about diets and they would be thoroughly satisfied. They are also super easy and quick to throw together. Yum! Try it out and let me know what you think!

I am such a chicken!

... at least when it comes to raw meat. And this is a fairly new development. I don't know what the deal is, but recently (ok, like the last 6 months but over the course of my life, 6 months is pretty recent. No? Whatev) raw meat has begun to really get to me. I grew up in a kitchen where meat was cooked for almost every meal. I was never grossed out by my dad taking the neck and stuff out of the thanksgiving turkey, never minded hamburger meat, thought chickens were even kinda funny looking. 

Who came up with this?

My dad was also the one who told me that the red stuff the ground beef was in was just "juice." (sidenote: I'm the biggest daddy's girl there could ever be and what daddy says is true!) To this day, I still only think of it as juice (which is may or may not be true, jury is out). So what is my deal?!?

IDONTKNOW!!!!

But whatever has changed makes it really difficult to cook sometimes. I think raw ground beef smells funny (anybody else?) but once I get past that and throw it in the pan to cook with some delish spices and what-not, I think it smells great! So thats not a real problem. The problem is with chicken. Raw chicken. Blech! I shiver thinking about it sometimes. This may stem from my encounter with salmonella my junior year of college (chicken may not have even been the culprit, who knows!) but whatever it is, I can't deal. Which leads me to my most recent disasters in the kitchen concerning chicken.

This is probably a sign that I definitely need to incorporate meatless mondays...

Before we get started, I should also mention that I'm super picky about chicken. In my humble opinion, dry, overcooked chicken is one of the very worst things that you could ever have to eat. Yuck! Sometimes ranch can save it but I don't believe that should be necessary (although I do love some ranch on my chicken!) I'm also really worried about undercooked chicken (salmonella say what?) so there is a fine line that chicken walks and it is hard to please me. It's just the way it is. Sorry I'm not sorry.

First off, we have the chicken wing fiasco*

*if you're squeamish and don't like raw chicken, completely skip this post and I'll see you tomorrow!

Some of Dt's fav things to eat are hot wings. In the past, a friend grilled wings for us which we thought were great but when Dt tried to recreate them, they were not exactly cooked through (GAG!) Even though he was willing to cook them more, seeing them a little raw ruined my appetite for them. We haven't attempted since. 

Nope, not our chicken... but this was the goal...

But since we had our last big football game of the season (we still don't speak of the score from that night), I figured I would attempt to make some wings for him in our kitchen. I'm not a big fryer, and I obvi wasn't going to attempt to grill them (that's Dt's department), so I found a recipe for baked chicken wings. Sounds perfect right?!? Well, not so fast...

I asked Dt to stop by the store and pick up some wings the night before the game. He thought he bought what I was looking for (and at first glance, so did I) and this is what he brought home.

Mmmm, raw chicken.

Does anything look a little off to you? These do not look like chicken wings from a restaurant! Ok, whatever, maybe I'm just not used to what they look like raw. But as I'm rinsing the chicken to put in the marinade (I always rinse raw chicken, anybody else?), I started to notice that something was def off. First of all, there were only like 4 actual drumstick and those babies were huge! Weird, but I'll go with it. Then I got to the leg things (yuck, is this grossing anyone else out? I'm dying just thinking about it but I shall proceed for your sake). See them over there in the right corner? Those were super gross looking (and I'd never seen them serve those at Wild Wings) but I knew what they looked like cooked so I kept on keeping on. Then I got to those middle pieces. What the hell where they? They were huuuuuuge pieces of chicken with a bone in them. But it basically looked like a gross chicken breast with a bone in it. After the fact, Dt said they were thighs but either way, no me gusta! So after I had discovered all the weird pieces of chicken I was working with, I decided to go ahead and marinate them because I knew I was just overreacting and my boy was looking forward to homemade wings while watching his last football game. 

Kinda look like normal marinating chicken here

Fast forward to the next day after the chicken had marinated and I'm taking it out of the bag to put in the oven. I lose it! I don't know if I was just grossed out from the day before or if the hot sauce combined with the chicken got me, but whatever it was, I couldn't stop gagging and Dt had to come to the rescue. The poor boy who thought he was just responsible for cheering on his tigers and dancing during touchdowns had to come handle the raw chicken for me. He did a great job and this is what it ended up looking like.

The chicken had actually shrunk to normal size and looked similar to something you would find in a restaurant but I was still scarred from the raw version of it so even though it looked better, I was not eating it. I didn't even cook the final sauce that you are supposed to cover the chicken in. Dt has been munching on this chicken throughout the week for lunch or when I'm at work and he thinks it turned out great (even without the final sauce) but I'll take his word for it because I'm not eating it. Epic fail. 

If you are a grown up and can deal with raw chicken here is the recipe I was originally attempting. I may try again one day with actual chicken wings instead of the combination pieces of chicken that we ended up with but it will take some time (maybe next football season). 

My next attempt at cooking chicken was this stuffed chicken 

I got the recipe from one of the blogs I read and it sounded really simple and delicious. Overall it was, but somehow I managed to overcook it or something because it turned out really dry. Another fail. 

Pre-cooked 

Cooked

Served

The only bad part of this recipe was cutting the chicken breasts in half which is just a pain and kind of hard to do. But the rest of it was pretty easy and other than being dry, it was pretty good. But I love artichoke hearts and mozzarella so it's pretty hard to go wrong. Here's the recipe and hopefully yours turns out better than mine!

Artichoke and Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts

4-6 boneless skinnless chicken breasts

1/2 cup spinach (I used frozen spinach and thawed it)

1/2 jar artchokes, drained and chopped

1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup bread crumbs

Italian seasoning, pepper and salt to taste

Split the chicken breasts in half and stuff each with spinach, mozzarella and artichokes. Top with a few bread crumbs. Season with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste. Cook at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

So, overall I had one disaster and one near miss. As much as I like to brag about my fabulous cooking successes, I think that a lot of cooks have mistakes and it's part of becoming better at cooking so that's why I decided to share these experiences. But don't worry, that broccoli up there in that picture turned out perfect (it's one of our faves!) and I'll post that gem and some successful dinners later this week. 

Spinach Smoothies, yum!

Have y'all heard about spinach smoothies? They're great!!! Growing up, my health-crazed mother drank these things that we referred to as "the green drink." Back then, I thought it was the grossest thing I had ever seen. Mom's were comprised of just lettuce and water but they looked horrendous! Well, as I've aged and matured, I've realized that mom was right about a lot of stuff (don't you hate it when that happens?), including her "green drink." These days, I refer to my "green drink" as the "green monster" and it has a little more involved than lettuce and water.

So this is what my smoothies usually consist of. Lots of fruit (I always have frozen fruit on hand because there's not telling how long my fresh fruit will last but when you do use fresh fruit I suggest adding some ice to thicken it and make it more like a smoothie), some milk or coconut water, greek yogurt (little bit of protein?), and lots and lots of spinach! Now, most people think that blended spinach would be gross, and the thought of it is, but you actually can't taste the spinach at all! It tastes just like a normal fruit smoothie but with a really fugly green color. I always shove as much spinach in there as possible because I think this is the easiest way to get a few extra servings of my daily fruit and vegetables. 

This is what it looks like before blending. Sometimes I add a little honey to make it sweeter or some flax seed. You can throw just about anything in there but remember that the more honey and non-veggie/fruit things you put in there, the less healthy it becomes...

This is the blended product. In the picture it looks nice and pink and pretty but in reality, it was dark purple/brown. But just picture it as this lovely normal color so you'll be more likely to drink it!

One spinach smoothie, size large! These make a great snack or breakfast and are full of veggies, fruits, and nutrients!

Let me know if you try it!

Still proud to be a tiger!

You may have heard, my tigers lost on Wednesday. Lost may not be the best word to describe what happened in that game... we were obliterated. I think it was a record breaking high score for a bowl game and not because of Clemson. It was a very sad night for the tigers.

Very fitting. 

As hard as it was for me to watch my team self-destruct, it was even harder for me to deal with the aftermath. Unfortunately, since it was such a huge loss and a national bowl game, the whole country witnessed our implosion. Including all of those super classy gamecocks that I'm surrounded by. It was hard to see all of the horrible comments about my team on facebook and every where else (especially since I'm not sure how this game even affected the gamecocks but that's another rant for another time). People seem to expect us to be embarrassed for being tigers or think that we will give up on our team after that horrible loss. What people don't seem to realize is that Clemson is soooo much more than our football program. Yes, that is a huge part of Clemson but it will never make or break our school spirit.

To me, Clemson is...

my alma mater

a top 25 public university in the country

solid orange

where the tigers play

where I received my top of the line education

where I grew into the person that I am today

Tiger Town Tavern on a friday night

Bid day on bowman field

where I met the love of my life

about pride

searching for the perfect shade of orange all year round

waking up at 6 a.m. to tailgate for a noon game

first friday

running down the hill

homecoming floats on bowman field

Mac's diner

the cadence count

tiger paws

home to clemson blue cheese and ice cream

sundresses and bowties on gameday

purple and orange sunsets over Lake Hartwell

Howard's rock

in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains

listening to the bells in Tillman on your way to class
home to the band that shakes the southland

the botanical gardens in the spring

home to Death Valley

tailgating in the fraternity quad

a feeling that you can't explain to an outsider

traditions

a family

All of these things make up Clemson. Many relate to football but have absolutely nothing to do with winning or losing. That is why I proudly wear my orange and purple in a town full of garnet and I will do so until the day I die. Go Tigers!

It's Gameday in Miami!!!

Well it all comes down to this. We've won our ACC championship title, won a bid to a national BCS bowl, and tonight we will play our last game of the season. And win!

That's our coach, Dabo. You know how I feel about him!

So all week Clemson Tigers have been funneling into Miami. Miami has probably never seen so much orange or so many $2 bills. Now, the $2 bills are a tradition that have long been in place but that many people are actually unaware of. This traditions started way back in 1977 when GA Tech wanted to change our schedule in Atlanta. In order to show them what a dumb idea that was, tigers decided to spend 2 dollar bills stamped with tiger paws throughout Atlanta on game weekend so they could see how important our game was to Atlanta's economy. Ever since, it has become a tradition to spend these bills at any away game, especially bowl games (and we still play GA Tech every year). Also, upon graduating from the great university that is Clemson, every student is given two $2. One to donate back to Clemson to begin the strong tradition of giving back to a school that we love, and one to spend out in the world as we choose. I know I have a $2 bill somewhere with a tiger paw on it and after this week, many lucky miamians will too.

Dt and I will be cheering our boys on from the couch tonight. I'm making some wings (last chance for tailgate food until the superbowl) which I'm a little weary about but I'll let you know how they turn out. Do me a favor and cheer on the Tigers if you have nothing else to do tonight.

Let's go Tigers, fight like hell damnit, and win!!!!!

Shrimp, feta, and fresh herb mac and cheese

As you may or may not have previously read on this blog, I love to cook! Now, you may be wondering, why hasn't this girl talked about cooking at all even though she's a self professed foodie? Oh, well, that's because my retail job took over my life during the month of december and I didn't get around to cooking anything fun or much less document it. Fortunately for you, me, and Dt's appetite, my job has slowed down tremendously so I have time to mess around in the kitchen again! Woooo!

So this is a recipe that I found on Pinterest and decided that I would try it. Dt is a huge fan of mac and cheese and shrimp so I thought this would be a good way to combine the two and adult-ify it!

This is the picture that caught my eye on pinterest.
Unfortunately, my pics look nothing like this. Courtesy of  Annie's Eats

The ingredients, pretty simple!

So the ingredients are all really basic and easy to find. When possible, I substitute low-fat, fat-free, or wheat ingredients. The original recipe just calls for milk and pasta. I used organic skim milk and whole grain pasta but that's just my preference, def not required. In the past, I have found recipes where you need to use regular ingredients or the recipe doesn't work, but I found out this was not one of them. This dish also disguises the whole grain pasta if you have picky eaters or boyfriends who don't like anything but normal pasta. 

Also, do you see that huge bunch of parsley off to the left? Does anyone else hate buying that huge bunch just to throw 1/2 of it away? It only costs $.99 but it still feels wasteful because no recipe calls for 5 cups of parsley and I don't use it in every day life. Anyone have any suggestions so I feel less like a wasteful person? Hmpf.

This was prior to cooking. It looks really blah and white but that's probably because of my horrible camera. I apologize for all of these pictures because I am not a photographer or in possession of a baller Nikon. 

Hungry much? Ha!

So this is the final product minus a serving. Oops! We may have gotten carried away and forgotten to take a pic before serving up. Whatever, you get the picture and you get to see what the deliciousness looks like inside (even though it looks really gross...). Overall, this was a huge success! We paired it with large salads and it was super filling. The shrimp were actually done perfectly which I was pleasantly surprised with because I was worried they would get overcooked in the dish but they didn't. I'll def be making this one again.

You can find the original recipe here but I've copied it below to make it easier. Also, check out her awesome pictures because they're much more appetizing than mine!


Ingredients:
1 lb. pasta shapes *I used whole grain shells
1 lb. raw shrimp (31-40 ct.), peeled and deveined, cut in half (if desired)
10 oz. feta cheese, crumbled and divided
Zest of 1 lemon, divided
½ cup Panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped, divided
5 tbsp. butter, divided
4 tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 cups milk *I used organic skim
2 tbsp. fresh dill, chopped
8 oz. Gruyere cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. ground black pepper

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.  Cook the pasta until al dente according to the package directions.  Drain well; set aside.  Add the raw shrimp to the warm pasta and toss together.  The heat from the pasta will partially cook the shrimp.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400˚ F.  In a small bowl, combine a handful of the feta, a pinch of the lemon zest, the panko, 2 teaspoons of the parsley and 1 tablespoon of the butter, melted.  Toss with a fork to combine; set aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat.  Once the butter is melted, whisk in the flour  to form a paste.  Cook 1-2 minutes, whisking constantly, until light golden brown.  Whisk in the milk.  Continue to heat the mixture, stirring frequently, until it bubbles and thickens, about 5 minutes.  As soon as the sauce has thickened, remove from the heat and stir in the remaining feta, Gruyere, remaining parsley, remaining lemon zest, dill, salt and pepper.  Pour the mixture over the pasta and shrimp; toss well to coat.

Transfer the mixture to a lightly greased 2½ or 3-quart baking dish.  Sprinkle the breadcrumb-feta mixture evenly over the top.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned and bubbling.  Remove from the oven and let cool 5-10 minutes before serving.

Let me know what you think!