Perfect Pasta Salad

Hey All and Happy Monday to ya! My birthday celebration just keeps going and it's wonderful! This weekend we had some of our close friends and family over to have a cook out, enjoy the amazing weather and celebrate me getting older more fabulous!

We had hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, fruit...

chips, my apple cinnamon cupcakes, and my favorite dish that I make a million times every spring/summer: my Perfect Pasta Salad!

Why is it perfect? Because it's fast, simple, inexpensive and can easily be changed up anyway you want! Just cut up a block of your favorite cheese and your favorite peppers, throw in your favorite pasta and add some Italian dressing. Boom. Done. Let's eat!!

My college roomy showed me this salad a while back and I love her so much for it! Thanks Barton!

Ingredients:

3-4 Cups rainbow twist pasta
1 red pepper
1 orange pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 8oz block colby jack cheese
1/2 bottle Italian dressing

Directions:

Cook the pasta as directed on the box. Drain and set aside to cool. 

Cut up all three peppers and the block of cheese into small squares.

Check to make sure the pasta is no longer hot. If it is, run some cold water over it. Once cooled, pour pasta into a large bowl. Add the peppers, cheese and Italian dressing and stir until everything is covered in dressing.

Refrigerate over night, or serve immediately.

That's it. See I told you it's easy. And there are so many things I've added over the years, but it always tastes great. One time I added chopped up pepperoni and black olives. I also once did this with a little bit of chopped red onion for a work pitch in. No matter what I do this recipe never fails me! 

So what fun things did you get into this weekend? Anyone have a birthday this time of year? If so, I hope it is wonderful!

Thanks for stopping by!

**I linked up to frugal crafty home, much ado about monday, sunday soiree, amaze me monday, weekend bloggy reading, creativity unleashed, creativity unleashed, weekend potluck, friday link party, kitchen fun and crafty friday, tidy mom, thursday style, friday flash blog, the homeacre hop, bloom designs, all things thursday, full plate thursday, create it thursday, work it wednesday, buns in my oven, wicked awesome wednesday, flusters creative muster, create link inspire, simple supper tuesday, titus 2 tuesday, tasty tuesday, the scoop

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

It's my Birthday!!! 

Well, it was three days ago anyway. This one was a little different for me because it was the first one I wasn't really that excited about. Usually I'm screaming it from the rooftops that it's my birthday, but not this year. You see, it's my last year in my 20's (even typing that was hard) and I'm not walking into this year as gracefully as I usually do. But I'm slowly getting over the fact that my 20's are slipping away. You get better with age, right?! And since it's my birthday I get my birthday week!

What does a birthday week entail you ask? Well it's basically a week where you get whatever you want, no questions asked. So for me, instead of cooking every night, it was Hub's job. Instead of cleaning out the cat litter, it was Hub's job. Instead of Hub playing his video games, he had to watch my terrible tv shows with me. If I wanted a back rub all I had to do was ask instead of begging for one. It's a pretty awesome week. 

So for my birthday week I a) took a break from blogging, b) ate anything I wanted and c) made my own birthday cupcakes. I received this wonderful gift from one of my many sisters and just had to use it right away. 

The Ultimate Cupcake Kit

I decided to break these in with my Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing!

And there's a surprise in the middle! They're filled with apple butter! These cupcakes are so moist and bursting with flavor. The sweetness of the apple is dulled by the bitterness of the lemon. And since I had my new "coring" tool, I was able to scoop out the middle of the cupcakes easily. 

It's a birthday party!!

Whether you have a birthday coming up, or just want to make something sweet, these are a must try!

Ingredients:
1 Can Apple Cinnamon pie filling
1 1/2 Cup sugar
3 eggs
3/4 Cup vegetable oil
1/2 Cup milk
1 1/2 Cups flour
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Filling:
1 jar Apple Butter

Frosting:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
12 oz cream cheese (1 1/2 blocks), softened
1 Cup powdered sugar
1 lemon, squeezed (about 1/2 cup)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line your cupcake pan with liners. Set aside.

Mash the apple cinnamon filling with a pastry cutter until it's a smooth consistency. 

Combine the apple mix with the sugar, eggs, oil and milk in a large bowl until smooth.

In a small bowl stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the dry mix to the apple mix using a spatula. Stir until fully combined.

Pour the cupcake mix into the Batter Bottle and pour into the cupcake liners. If you don't have a batter bottle, just spoon the mix into the pan. The bottle just makes it a little easier :)

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Place them on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes. Don't core them until you can touch the bottom and the cupcake is cool. 

Place the corer in the center of the cupcake and slightly press down while turning the corer. Stop once the plastic disk hits the cupcake. Throw out the middle or eat most of them like I did. 

Fill each cupcake with as much apple butter as you want.

For the frosting:

Combine the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon juice in your mixer on high speed for about 3-4 minutes or until the frosting is smooth and doesn't have lumps. 

Scoop frosting into your decorating bottle with whatever tip you want to use and pile it on the cupcakes! If you don't have a decorating bottle, just use a knife. Refrigerate until serving and enjoy!

Are you an April baby, too?! Best month to be born in! Can I get some love from my Aries people!? Probably not, because we're stubborn firey people :)

Thanks for stopping by! 

** I linked up to weekend potluck, kitchen fun and crafty friday, tidy mom, thursday style, the homeacre hop, bloom designs, all things thursday, full plate thursday, work it wednesday, buns in my oven, wicked awesome wednesday, flusters creative muster, create link inspire, simple supper tuesday, titus 2 tuesday, tasty tuesday, the scoop, showlicious saturday, best of the weekend

Cheesy Chicken Bacon Pasta

Happy Hump Day everyone! Hope your week is going fabulously. To all you spring breakers out there somewhere warm...please bring me some heat!! The Midwest is trying so hard to get to spring temperatures, but it is very slow moving. 

We have been lucky to have a few warm days here and there, and I've been taking full advantage! This Monday was one of those days. I took the pup on a super long walk, I cleaned out the back of my car, and I finally dug through the garage and found all of our outdoor furniture and set it back up. I love how warm weather gets me motivated to clean and organize!

Another thing I love about warm weather is I can use my grill! Yes my Hub knows how to use the grill, but he thinks it's a hassle. I think "Woot one more dish I don't have to clean! And Woot fire grilled food tastes awesome!" So I fired up the grill and got some chicken cooked up and ready to go for my Cheesy Chicken Bacon Pasta.

It's so creamy and cheesy. And you don't have to make the chicken on the grill if you don't want to. I did because it was nice out and I think everything cooked on the grill tastes amazing...and I didn't feel like scrubbing a pan.

 

This recipe is delicious and the best part is you probably already have all the ingredients. I served this with green beans, but you could easily add broccoli to yours and have everything together in one dish! Boom! Dinner rocked!

Ingredients:
(This meal serves two)
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
4 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
2 Cups elbow macaroni, cooked
1 Cup mozzarella (or more if you love cheese like me), divided
1 jar alfredo, divided
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt and pepper

Directions:

Make your bacon and macaroni while you grill your chicken breast. Let the chicken cool until its easy to handle and cut it into bite size pieces.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 

Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.

Stir together the Alfredo, garlic, salt and pepper and set aside.

Now you can either layer this dish like I did, or get out a large bowl and mix everything together before pouring it in the casserole dish. If you want to layer it, I did this order:

-Macaroni
-Half the Alfredo
-Half the mozzarella 
-Grilled chicken
-Bacon
-Remaining mozzarella
-Remaining Alfredo

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until it starts to bubble. Enjoy!

I chose to layer this dish because it ended up leaving some macaroni not entirely saturated in the Alfredo and I like it like that. Feel free to mix everything together instead and bake for the same amount of time. 

Hopefully we'll be saying good bye to winter weather soon enough so I can get back to grilling all the time. I never thought I'd look forward to April showers so much :)

Thanks for stopping by!

**I linked up to wake up wednesday, flusters creative muster, tutorial tuesday, titus 2 tuesday, the scoop, show me what you got, make it pretty monday, nifty thrifty tuesday, meal planning monday,  the diyers, made by you monday, metamorphosis monday, frugal crafty home, much ado about monday, clever chicks blog hop, the sunday soiree, amaze me monday, think pink sunday, simple living eating, im lovin it, kitchen fun and crafty friday, thursday style, bloom designs, all things thursday, full plate thursday, create it thursday

Pull Apart Easter Bread

Happy April Fools Day everyone!! This day is soo under appreciated! My roommates in college had the great joy unfortunateness of being my friend on this day. I got them so good our first year of college, that they now remember this day every year and I'm actually not even allowed to call them on today because they won't answer. I am ruthless. I go waaay too far and then some. It's only once a year, and it's totally worth it to freak someone out!

Here's an example of some of the things I've done in the past. One year I called my sister; she was driving so I made her pull over. I told her I was dying of some extremely rare disease, there was no cure, and Dad and I were moving to Australia because that's where I wanted to spend my last few months. She started bawling and said she was moving with us. I started cracking up and yelled April Fools!! She hung up and wouldn't answer my calls for a week!!! That's a long time for us seeing as we talk almost every day. 

This year I waited until Hub was in the shower to enact my plan. I ran downstairs and grabbed the ketchup bottle and squirted it all over my hand. Then I busted into the bathroom, while he was in the shower (knowing he didn't have his contacts in and therefore wouldn't be able to see well), and started screaming I had cut off my finger. He.flipped.out. I'm not kidding when I say he almost fell out of the shower he was shaking so hard at the sight of (what he thought was) blood. Oh yeah, did I mention my Hub passes out at the sight of blood? I'm a bad person. But I immediately shouted April Fools and he eventually recovered. He was a little paler than usual when he left for work, but I had made his whole staff some Pull Apart Easter Bread, so all was forgiven...I hope!

This bread is a little complex, but so worth all the steps. Really for the most part this recipe is all about waiting. You just have to wait until the dough rises so you get a nice fluffy bread in the end. 

So first you roll out the dough. Then cut it into fourths. Then cut each fourth four more times. Roll two strips together a few times and twist those into a bun. Do that nine more times, until they are all rolled up. Let it rise, bake and you're done!

Make this recipe your own. Instead of strawberries and cream cheese, try butter and cinnamon. Or almonds. Or fresh berries. Possibilities are endless.

Ingredients:

6 Cups Flour
1 package rapid rise yeast
1/2 Cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt

1 lemon, zested and juiced
3 eggs
1 3/4 Cup milk
1/2 Cup butter
1 tsp almond extract

1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp water

2 Cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Lemon juice from above
2 oz cream cheese, softened
1 Cup strawberry jam

Directions:


In a large bowl whisk together 4 cups of flour, yeast, sugar and the salt. Set aside. Grease another large bowl and set that aside, too.

Zest and juice your lemon and set aside. Whisk the three eggs into a small bowl.

Melt the butter and milk together in a small sauce pan on low heat until warm (about 110 degrees). Scoop out 2/3 cup of the buttermilk and whisk it into the eggs.

Dump that whole egg mix back into the sauce pan and add the lemon zest and almond extract. Save lemon juice for later.

Slowly whisk in the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until fully combined. Add in the rest of the flour a cup at a time and knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Make sure it comes together easily. If the dough is still too sticky, add more flour. 

Turn the dough around in the greased bowl to coat it with a light layer of oil. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about an hour.

Remove the dough and split into two halves. Roll one half out onto a floured surface to make a 12-15 inch circle. Place a clean drinking glass upside down in the middle. This will keep you from cutting in too far. 

Cut the circle into fourths, then cut each fourth four more times. This will leave you with 20 strips. Remove the glass.

Preheat the oven for 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with a silpat or parchment paper.

Grab two strips and twist them together 4-8 times. Pinch the ends together. Twist those pieces into a bun shape and place the rolled up dough onto the center where the glass was. 

Continue this with the remaining strips until all are rolled up. There will be nine buns surrounding the middle one (so ten altogether). Transfer the breads to the baking sheets and correct any buns that came apart in the transfer.

Place a clean kitchen towel over the breads and allow to rise again for another 45 minutes.

Combine the egg yolk and water together in a small bowl and spread the egg mix over both breads. 

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until nice and brown on top. Let cool. Using your thumb, push an indention into the middle of the little buns to allow room for the strawberry jam and cream cheese filling.

For the icing:

Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice and vanilla together until it forms a shiny white icing. Add more powdered sugar if you need to. Set aside about a 1/4 cup of the icing and drizzle the rest over both breads. 

Add the cream cheese to the remaining 1/4 cup and scoop into half the buns in each bread. Add the strawberry jam to the ones you didn't put the cream cheese in. 

Serve immediately, or place in the fridge over night and serve the next day. This bread is amazing warm or cold. I can't stop eating it!


So are you a Fooler on today? Or were you like "Oh yeah, it's April Fool's Day"? Let me know your best tricks...maybe I'll use them next year :)

Thanks for stopping by!

**I linked up to tutorial tuesday, titus 2 tuesday, the scoop, show me what you got, nifty thrifty tuesday, meal planning monday, the diyers, made by you monday, metamorphosis monday, frugal crafty home, much ado about monday, clever chicks blog hop, the sunday soiree, amaze me monday, think pink sunday, link party palooza, simple living eating, im lovin it, kitchen fun and crafty friday, thursday style, bloom designs, all things thursday, inspire me wednesday, whats cookin wednesday, wicked awesome wednesday, wake up wednesday, fluster's creative muster

***recipe modified from here