New Recipes!

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Pinterest and if you aren't, you must check it out, NOW! I'm obsessed and have found many new crafts, photography ideas, recipes, organizing tips, and so many more! I wanted to share with you 2 new recipes I made this past weekend and will have many others over time!

White Chicken Lasagna Cups

• 18 lasagna noodles
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 chicken breasts, cooked
• 1 small package fresh spinach

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and rinse with cold water. Once cooled, lay noodles out to dry.
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic in the butter until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in the flour and salt, and simmer until bubbly. Mix in the broth and milk, and boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in cooked chicken, spinach, 2 cups mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Remove from heat, and set aside.
3. Line each muffin tin with a lasagna noodle. Layer each cup with sauce, cheese, noodle, sauce, cheese, noodle and top with cheese.
4. Bake 25 to 30 minutes.

I got thumbs up approval from both boys!




Samaos Cookie Bars


Cookie Base:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly, like wet sand. The dough does not need to come together. Pour crumbly dough into prepapred pan and press into an even layer.

I would do this part differently - I should have rolled out the dough thinly and used cookie cutters to make each cookie, the cookie crust is too thick in the 9x13 pan, or don't use all the dough.


Bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.


Topping:
3 cups shredded coconut, sweetened
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
10 oz. semisweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 300F. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a pot with milk and salt. Stir continuously to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula. Spread topping into an even layer. Let topping cool.

When cooled, cut into bars.

Once bars are cut, melt chocolate over bowling water.


This is where things didn't work out so well for me :) I spread the chocolate evenly over the caramel/coconut mixture but this is how the recipe was supposed to be completed...


Dip the base of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle bars with chocolate to finish.


Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

This was delicious! But, like I said, try not to make the cookie base too thick.

I hope you enjoy these great recipes as much as we did!