Crazy Cooking Challenge: Oreo Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Bars

It's time again for the Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by Tina at Moms Crazy Cooking.  This month's theme was cheesecake.  I remember growing up I loved cheesecake.  As I've gotten older, I enjoy cheesecake, but it's definitely not one of my top favorite desserts.  So I don't really make cheesecake.  When I heard the theme I knew I was going to make a cheesecake bar of some sort.  To me, bars seem more casual and easy to eat.  After thinking about it I thought I'd try an oreo cookies and cream cheesecake bar.  I found my recipe at Thats so Yummy a new blog that I came across in my search for a recipe.  Boy am I glad that I made these bars!  They were really good and the kids were super excited since they don't get to eat Oreos very often!  Plus, they love cheesecake.  So these were definitely a hit in our house.

Oreo Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Bars
recipe from Thats so Yummy

Ingredients:

CRUST:
1 lb package Oreo cookies
4 Tbs (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

FILLING:
Three 8 ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup (5.25 ounces) granulated sugar
3/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a 9 x 13-inch pan with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides, spray with cooking spray.

Place 28 Oreos in a food processor and process until finely ground (or crush in a ziplock baggie with a can of soup like I did!). Pour the crushed Oreos into a large bowl.

Melt 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a small bowl. Add the melted butter, and stir crumbs and butter are all combined.

Place the cookie-crumb mixture in a foil-lined pan. Using your fingers, press the mixture firmly and evenly into the bottom. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack while you make the filling.

Crush up the remaining Oreos in half, so that your oreos are roughly chopped.

 Combine in a large bowl the cream cheese and sugar. Beat the combo with an electric mixer on medium speed for about two minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula and beat again until uniform. Beat in sour cream, vanilla and salt. Scrape down the bowl and mix again.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. After beating in the last egg, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat one more time, to make sure the mixture is fully combined.

Pour in the chopped/ crushed oreos into the filling mixture. Stir in chopped Oreos with the same rubber spatula. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the baked cookie crust. Smooth the top with the rubber spatula, and bake for 40 minutes or until the filling is set around the edges but still slightly wobbly in the center.

Remove the pan to a wire rack to cool to room temperature, about 1 hour or longer.

When the cheesecake has set and cooled cover it with aluminum foil and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or more.


Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

 

Meatless Monday: Ricotta Banana Pancakes

We were due for another breakfast for dinner.  Lately, my go-to has been pancakes.  They're really easy to make and the kids love them.  I had ricotta for another recipe and a frozen, really ripe banana that was perfect for this recipe.  When my daughter found out that I was making "ricotta" pancakes she was quick to tell me that she doesn't like ricotta.  I told her to wait until she tried them before she told me that she didn't like them.  After eating them her response was, "Oh, I do like these!"  I think the ricotta is used to add moistness because you really don't taste it.  This recipe was in an issue of All You Magazine that I subscribe to.  It was listed as a dessert, but if you don't add caramel sauce it definitely works as a breakfast (or in this case dinner!) dish. 

Ricotta Banana Pancakes
recipe from All You, March, 2012

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole-milk ricotta
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 small ripe banana

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 200ºF. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, whisk together ricotta, egg, milk, butter, vanilla and banana. Gently stir flour mixture into ricotta mixture until just blended.

2. Grease a large nonstick skillet over medium heat with cooking spray or melted butter. Drop tablespoonfuls of batter into skillet. Cook pancakes, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes total. Keep pancakes warm on a plate in oven while cooking remaining pancakes.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.

Picnic Potato Salad with No Mayonnaise

For our supper club picnic theme I had a difficult time choosing between making a pasta salad or a potato salad.  I finally decided on a potato salad.  I chose this one because there was no mayo in it and I thought that we'd be out in the hot sun picnicking.  Like I mentioned in my previous post, the weather wasn't very cooperative, so we ended up having our picnic inside.  I've made a couple of different potato salads now and I have to say that this is one of my favorites.  The blue cheese and bacon definitely helped make this so tasty! 

Picnic Potato Salad with No Mayonnaise
recipe slightly adapted from allrecipes.com by Maridele

Ingredients:
2 pounds small new potatoes, quartered
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped red onion
3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1/2 lb. bacon, cooked until crispy and crumbled

Directions:
1.Place potatoes into a large pot and cover with lightly salted water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until tender, 10 to 15 minutes; drain.

2.Whisk vinegar, olive oil, mustard, basil, salt, and pepper together in a large bowl; add the potatoes and onion. Toss gently to coat. Let stand until cool, about 30 minutes.

3.Fold blue cheese and chives into potato salad until blended.  Sprinkle bacon crumbles on top.
    Mommy & Daddy Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Blueberry Corn Salad

This month's supper club theme was "picnic."  Last year we did this theme too and got together at a local park.  We enjoyed it alot but it was fall and a bit chilly. We thought it would be nice to do the theme again while the weather was warmer.  Unfortunately, last Saturday it poured right when we were supposed to be picnicking!  Luckily we had a back-up plan and went to one of the couple's house for our dinner.  My husband made this salad.  We were late picking what we were going to make and needed to fill in the menu with sides.  He really wanted to make some kind of corn salad and I had just seen this posted the other day.  It sounded a lot better than the salad that he picked out!  I'm glad that he made it because it was light and tasty with a hint of spice.  It was easy enough to make and I can see us making this salad again for a family get-together before the summer is over.

Blueberry Corn Salad
recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod

Ingredients:
6 ears fresh sweet corn, husked
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cucumber, sliced
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:
1. In a large pot, bring water to boiling. Add corn. Cook for 5 minutes, or until tender. When cool enough to handle, cut corn from the cobs. Discard cobs.

2. In a large serving bowl, combine corn, blueberries, cucumber, red onion, cilantro, and jalapeno. To make the dressing, whisk together lime juice, oil, honey, cumin, salt, and pepper. Pour dressing over salad and stir until combined. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
  Mommy & Daddy Rating: 2 thumbs up.

Turkey and Onion Grilled Cheese

Normally, when I think of grilled cheese I think of the plastic wrapped yellow cheese on melted on some bread.....not a big fan.  So I don't really consider myself a grilled cheese lover.  I think I'm in the minority though as I recently saw a grilled cheese fast food type place at a rest stop last month!   My daughter has gymnastics on Wednesday afternoons which also coincides with shower nights so Wednesday dinners have to be easy and fast.  Besides caramelizing the onions, which is a bit time consuming, this recipe is really easy.  My 6 year old daughter can now make pretty good scrambled eggs on her own with adult supervision.  After this dinner, she can add grilled cheese to her repertoire!  She really wanted to help me make dinner so I had her do pretty much everything but cut the onions.  I didn't put onion on the kids' sandwiches and my daughter wanted the yellow American cheese in the plastic wrapper on hers. My hsuband and I had these sandwiches with the onions and all.  All I can say is yum!  But I think anything with caramelized onions gets a yum from me!  I could definitely eat a lot more of these. 

Turkey and Onion Grilled Cheese
recipe from SteakNPotatoesKindaGurl

Yield: 2 sandwiches

Ingredients:
1/2 of a red onion, sliced
2 tbsp butter
4 slices of bread of your choice
3 tbsp or so of butter, melted or softened
4 slices of maple turkey
4 slices of smoked gouda cheese

Directions:
In a medium skillet, add 2 tbsp butter until melted. Then add sliced red onion and saute until softened and golden brown.

Spread the bread slices with 3 tbsp softened butter. In a large skillet on medium-low, add 2 bread slices. . Top one slice of bread with 2 slices gouda. Then add 2 slices of maple turkey, then some sauteed red onions. Top with the other slice of bread. Press down with a spatula or heavy object. Once golden brown and delicious, flip and cook other side. Repeat with 2nd sandwich.

Mommy & Daddy Rating: 2 thumbs up!

Pasta with Roasted Garlic, White Cheddar & Wine Sauce

To me this recipe shouted grown-up mac and cheese....roasted garlic, cheddar, and wine sauce.....yum!  The original recipe called for broccoli and chicken.  I adapted the recipe to make it vegetarian and use some different veggies.  As much as I love roasted garlic I'm not sure that I ever did it myself before this recipe.  Instead of turning on the oven in the summer heat to roast two heads of garlic I ended up using my toaster oven.  It took a little longer but it got the job done and didn't make my kitchen a steam box!  The kids enjoyed this and ate everything including the one bite of mushroom that  I made them eat.  Overall, I thought it was just okay.  You definitely tasted the garlic paste, which I think overpowered some of the other flavors. 

Pasta with Roasted Garlic, White Cheddar & Wine Sauce
recipe adapted from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
8 oz. tube shaped pasta
1½ tbsp. butter
¼ cup roasted garlic paste*
1½ tbsp. flour
¼ cup dry white wine
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese
2 ears of fresh corn, cooked and cut off cob
1 8 oz. pkg. sliced, fresh, mushrooms
Salt and pepper, to taste

*To make roasted garlic paste, peel the outer papery skins off two heads of garlic, leaving the heads still intact. Slice about a quarter off the top of each head so that all of the cloves are partly exposed. Wrap the heads in foil and bake at 350˚ F for one hour. Remove from the oven and let cool. Once cool enough to touch, squeeze the garlic cloves out of the peels and smash with a fork to make roasted garlic paste.

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta until al dente according to the package directions.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet or saucepan set over medium heat, melt the butter. Once the butter is melted, whisk in the roasted garlic paste and cook just until fragrant, 30-60 seconds. Whisk the flour into the mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to turn golden brown, 1-2 minutes. Stir the white wine and broth into the pan. Add mushrooms to sauce.  Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the cheddar and stir until melted. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

Mix in the corn and cook just until heated through. Mix in the cooked pasta until evenly coated with the sauce. Serve warm.

Family Rating: 1 thumb up.

Italian Meatball Sliders

This recipe got moved up on my "to make pile" sooner after I saw a reader's rave review in my most recent issue of Cooking Light.  It worked out perfectly also that I had 8 ounces of leftover pork from another recipe and 2 sausage links in the freezer!  I was able to use our own basil that was grown on our deck.  These were really easy to make and tasted soooo good!  The kids enjoyed them too, another plus.  I would definitely make these again!

Italian Meatball Sliders
recipe slightly adapted from cooking light, March 2012


Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 shallots, finely diced
1/3 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 ounces lean ground pork
2 (4-ounce) links turkey Italian sausage, casings removed
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups lower-sodium marinara sauce
12 slider buns, toasted
12 basil leaves

Preparation:
1. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat; swirl to coat. Add garlic and shallots to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until shallots are softened, stirring frequently. Combine shallot mixture, ricotta, and next 6 ingredients (through egg) in a medium bowl. Shape mixture into 12 (1-inch) meatballs; flatten each meatball slightly.

2. Return pan to medium-high heat. Add remaining 2 teaspoons oil to pan. Add meatballs to pan; cook 6 minutes, turning once. Add marinara sauce; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 8 minutes or until meatballs are done. Top bottom half of each bun with 1 1/2 tablespoons sauce, 1 meatball, 1 basil leaf, and top half of bun.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.