I'll Take S'more

I've got a laundry list of reasons I love to run. Personal growth, challenging myself, having an outlet, being outdoors. But the most fun thing about running to me is knowing that after a hard workout I can pretty much eat what I want guilt-free. Let's be real, I'm pretty sure I would devour 20 of these whether I ran that day or not. But a good hard run earlier in the morning makes me feel like I deserve to eat 20 of them. My track coach, however, might disagree... let's hope he doesn't find my blog :)

Nothing says summertime like S'mores and these little guys are insanely quick, easy and addicting. I love that I can keep all the ingredients on hand so I can make them at a moments notice and I love that the kids can help make them.

Mini Muffin S'mores

(Pampered Chef Recipe)

7 Honey Graham Crackers

6 tablespoons Butter

1/4 cup Powdered Sugar

12 marshmallows

2 Hershey's chocolate bars

First preheat the oven to 350. Then melt the butter in a large microwaveable bowl (about 45 seconds)
While that is in the microwave, use a meat tenderizer or a rolling pin to finely crush the graham crackers

I don't know who's more excited, me or them...
Add the crushed graham crackers to the butter
Add 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Mix well

Scoop about a table spoon worth into every tin of a mini muffin pan
Like so
use a tart shaper to press these down WELL
Ready to go... stick them in the oven for just 2 minutes.

WARNING: Once I made these and put them in the oven for 5 minutes. I may or may not have started eating the leftover graham cracker/warm butter/sugar mixture and completely forgotten all about the ones in the oven. They burned, and they sucked. So... 2 minutes!!

WARNING 2: Another time I made these I decided to skip this step altogether and the finished product was all crumbled , so the moral of the story is... do as I say, not as I do.

On this occasion they worked out, and if you're wondering yeah I made these 3 times in a 2 day period, get over it.

In those 2 minutes, use some shears to cut 12 marshmallows in half
And get the chocolate ready to go
did I mention already that if you have extra time while the graham crackers are in the oven stay far far from away from the leftovers
When they come out of the oven, add one chocolate square to each tin
then top with one marshmallow
annnd back in the oven for 3 minutes

You MUST let them cool for 10 minutes before you pop them out or they will fall apart. But, really, how CUTE are these???
Bite-sized

The kids plus my nephew helped make them on father's day. This is the night I skipped the first bake and they fell apart... we ate them anyway. :)

Chicken Pineapple Quesadillas

I'm always on the hunt for a meal that I can get all 5 of us to eat without anyone whining at me. I Saw this on Pioneer Woman's blog a few weeks back and figured it might be a meal that fit the bill. Of course I had to leave out the cilantro and jalapenos for Superman, but all in all it was a meal everyone could get into.

Now that it is grilling season, I like to make sure we grill a little extra meat on the weekends to use throughout the week. This is a great way to put some leftover grilled chicken to use!

Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas

1 pineapple, grilled

1 to 2 chicken breasts, grilled

Monterey Jack or Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese

jalapenos (jar or fresh)

handful of cilantro

flour tortillas

any BBQ sauce

First I pounded out the chicken breast because I grilled this inside using a grill pan and press, so I wanted to be sure it cooked evenly.

A little olive oil, salt and pep on both sides and then to the grill pan for 5 minutes on each side. Next time I did this I marinated it in BBQ sauce and then grilled... much better
While that's going, I sliced the pineapple. Take off the top and bottom...
Slice into quarters
Then into 8ths
And then cut down both sides so that just the sweet tender part remains

Chicken is done!
While the pineapple grills, make a little assembly line.. rub olive oil on one side of each tortilla, then layer cheese on the other side of half of them

The rest of the assembly line ready to go; sliced grilled pineapple, grilled chicken, and chopped cilantro
On top of the cheese layer the chicken, pineapple, cilantro, jalapeno, and drizzle the BBQ sauce
Transfer to a warmed skillet or saute pan (olive oiled sides out) and brown on both sides. The flip will be tricky, but you have to let the cheese get melty enough to hold everything together, and then flip

Served it with some straight up Greek Yogurt. Yum! Love the combo of spicy, salt and sweet.

HungrySister Presents: Iron Chef - Honey

HungrySister hijacks the blog while HungryMom's vacationing!

The first Monday of every month, my account team's Games and Recreation Committee releases a 'secret ingredient' for the monthly Iron Chef competition. We have a week to plan our entries for the great unveiling of our dishes the following Monday, where we reserve a conference room so everyone can sample each other's dishes and vote for their favorite. The winner receives a cooking tool and a trophy (and glory). As you can imagine this makes the first week of every month way more awesome. Spoiler alert - I've lost both competitions so far, but my day will come...eventually.

May's secret ingredient was honey. I decided to make a baked brie because it is fairly simple and a crowd-pleaser. Looking back, I should have used WAY more honey. Refer to the pictures below as a starting point and then just go ape-wild with the honey.

You'll need:

1 sheet puff pastry. Puff pastry needs to defrost for 40 minutes before you use it, which I learned the hard way.

1 wheel of brie

1 bee hive or 1 c or so of honey

1/2 cup walnuts/pecans/almonds - whatever you happen to have. I used walnuts because I like the texture!

1 egg, for the egg wash

2 tbsp sugar to sprinkle on top

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cut the wheel of brie in half and proceed to fill the brie with an unnatural amount of honey (about 1/2 to 3/4 c honey). I attempted to do this here but was wildly unsuccessful.

Add the nuts - more or less, depending on how nutty of a person you are. Roll the puff pastry out on a floured surface and place your honey brie sandwich in the middle. now ADD MORE HONEY! Imagine this with honey all over the place. Wrap the puff pastry up like a present. I wish I had a more instructive way of saying this, but all the recipe just said 'like a present,' so there you go. Make the egg wash by mixing the egg with a little water, and then brush over the pastry. I don't have a pastry brush so I had to use my hands, which was less than ideal. Sprinkle the top with the sugar. Cover a baking sheet with tin foil (unless you love scrubbing dishes like I do, apparently) and place the brie in the center. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until golden. Behold, my losing entry! Let me know how it turns out with the extra honey! I think it could also be delicious with a little cinnamon or nutmeg sprinkled in the center, or chopped dried fruit.