Category: Blondes can cook too!

Vegan, gluten free chewy chocolate chip peanut butter cookies!

• 1 cup peanut butter (or half peanut half almond butter)

• 1 cup maple syrup

• 2 cups almond flour

• 1/4 cup chocolate chips

• 1/2 chopped pecans

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients in a bowl with rubber spatula. Roll into 1 inch balls and use fork to press down. (Wet fork so it doesn’t stick). Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350.

Cuban Potatoes

 

Made these tonight with am chicken wings tossed in a jerk chicken sauce I got from fresh market! Also paired it with a coleslaw that fit the theme but I did what I normally do and combined 12 recipes so I’ll need to sit down and figure that out before I share!

These were SO YUMMY + easy & would pair well with any Caribbean/Mexicany type dinner. It’s a good side if you want a little change to spice it up!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 Pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes, or other high starch potatoes Large Dice
  • 1 Teaspoon Salt
  • 1/2 Lime Cut into wedges
  • 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
  • 1 Cup Red Onion Sliced
  • 6 Cloves Garlic Crushed and Chopped
  • 3 Scallions, white and green parts Chopped
  • 1 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1/2 Cup Cilantro Rough Chopped

Instructions

  • Lay a sheet of aluminum foil on the countertop, place all the ingredients (except cilantro) on top of the foil
  • Fold up the foil to create a tightly sealed package
  • Lay a second sheet of aluminum foil on the counter and double wrap the potatoes. Make sure the package is tightly sealed
  • Place the potatoes over the hottest part of the grill, turn every 10 minutes, for about 40-50 minutes.
  • Open the foil packet and pour the potatoes, add cilantro and stir to combine

Frozen S’mores Recipe

Hey guys! Cooked these with my mom yesterday they were so yummy! … in the end I would spread a little bit of the whipped cream on the underside of the gram cracker before putting it in the freezer, so it’s layered with white, chocolate & then white! Just to hold the gram cracker to the chocolate!

1 large box instant chocolate pudding
2 1/2 cups cold milk
16 graham crackers
7 oz marshmallow creme
4 oz cream cheese, softened
8 oz whipped cream

Line a 9×13 pan with foil or parchment paper, allowing paper to overhang pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together pudding mix and milk until smooth and creamy. Pour into 9×13 pan and spread into an even layer.

Chill pudding layer while you mix up the marshmallow layer.

In a medium bowl, beat together cream cheese and marshmallow cream until smooth. Fold in whipped cream.

Spread marshmallow layer over chocolate layer. Cover with foil.

Freeze layers about 6 hours, until firm enough to cut through. Use the foil or parchment paper to remove layers from 9×13 pan and place on a cutting board.

Break 15 graham crackers in half. Remove frozen layers from pan and slice pudding/marshmallow layers into 15 squares the same size as the graham crackers.

Place the graham crackers on each square.

Place a cutting board on top of the graham crackers and using the parchment paper flip the board over.

Peel off the parchment paper and cover the sections with the graham crackers.

Eat right away or store sandwiches in the freezer in an airtight bag or container. Graham crackers will soften slightly if stored in the freezer for a while.

Allow them to rest at room temperature about 5 minutes before eating for the best texture. 

Korean Beef Lettuce Wraps

It’s taco Tuesday y’all! Korean taco Tuesday to be exact! We love this recipe because it’s simple and easy thanks to the slow cooker! All you have to do is get home and throw the cucumber salad together! Great for lower carb days! Recipe below!

Ingredients

Slow Cooker Korean Beef

• 1.5-2 lb beef roast (I used chuck!that’s too fatty for some but it creates more flavor, Use a leaner cut if you wish! )

• 1/4 cup soy sauce

• 1/4 cup honey

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 2 tbsp rice vinegar

• 2 tbsp sesame oil

• 2 tbsp garlic chili paste

Sesame Cucumber Salad

• 3 tbsp sesame oil

• 4 tbsp rice vinegar

• 2 tsp sugar

• 3 cups cucumber cut into matchsticks

• 1 1/2 cups bean sprouts rinsed

• 3 cups radishes sliced thinly

To Serve

• 12-16 lettuce leaves I recommend bibb lettuce

• 6-8 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

Slow Cooker Korean Beef

• In the base of a slow cooker combine soy sauce, honey, brown sugar, vinegar, sesame oil and garlic chili paste.

• Cut beef in half lengthwise, toss in the sauce, and arrange the two pieces of beef side by side in the base of the slow cooker.

• Cook on LOWEST setting for 6-8 hours. *keep an eye on the beef during the last 2 hours of cooking. If sauce starts to reduce too much, add some water. (beef should have a dark exterior, but not burnt)

• Remove beef from slow cooker to a large bowl. Shred with two forks. Toss with some remaining cooking liquid to taste.

Sesame Cucumber Salad

• Combine the sesame oil, rice vinegar and sugar, mix until all sugar is dissolved.

• Toss with veggies.

• Serve immediately, sprinkled with sesame seeds.

*** we place the beef in the lettuce leaf and put the cucumber salad on top to keep low carb! Ryan needs something with a little more substance so he does add rice to his lettuce wrap. Rice first then layering the rest as I do!

Tonight we served with a salad & Trader Joe’s toasted sesame dressing! SO YUMMY!!

XoXo, Chelsey Rae

picture of ingredients (minus sugars) + toasted sesame dressing

Texas Caviar

P.S. – this is basically just a repost! If your a struggler when it comes to cooking CLICK HERE to refer to my original post that’s more in depth … with pics!

I love this dip for summer time partys or even to make ahead of time and bring on a beach vacation because it’s a VERY light + refreshing dip!! Most dips require creams or lots of cheese! This is mostly veggies & no creams! Perfect to chomp on while wearing your bikini 😜 haaaa, as if we want to chomp on anything while we’re wearing a bikini but hey, a sistas gotta eat regardless right?!

Sooo, let’s get it goin’

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

• Medium size green bell pepper, diced.

• Small red onion, diced.

• One Small jalapeño, seeds removed & diced.

• 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels.

• 1/3 cup cilantro, finely chopped.

• 1/2 can drained and rinsed rotel diced tomatoes.

• 1 can black eyed peas.

• 1 can pinto beans.

• 1 can black beans.

FOR DRESSING:

• 1/4 cup olive oil.

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar.

• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar.

• 2 tablespoons lime juice.

• 1 tablespoon sugar.

• 1 teaspoon salt.

• 1/2 tablespoon pepper.

• 1/2 garlic powder.

SERVE WITH:

• tortilla chips.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• drain and RINSE all canned products.

• throw all beans + tomatoes in mixing bowl.

• add all diced veggies + cilantro & corn to mixing bowl.

• in separate bowl mix all dressing ingredients and stir well.

• pour dressing into mixing bowl with bean & veggie mixture.

• let marinate in fridge for at least 2 hours mixing at the one hour make! (overnight is the best though, mix a few times whenever it crosses your mind!)

SERVE COLD WITH TORTILLA CHIPS! Or even cucumber chips if your trying to be healthy!

XoXo, Chelsey Rae

Christmas Stuffing

Who here would love to be able to bring something super easy + impressive to the Holiday table this year?! If your answer is yes, your in luck! I’m sharing my sausage stuffing with you guys today! #notaprofessionalchef

I promise it’s a easy dish! The first time I made it I was like, oh, that was way simpler than I thought!

If you’ve read my blog before you know I say to make cooking your own! Feel free to follow this, or spice it up a little for yourself!

What you’ll need:

• 8 x 8 baking pan or casserole dish with deep sides

• 16 oz Pork sausage roll (like jimmy dean) this will be in the frozen section by your breakfast foods

• 1/2 cup diced celery

• diced medium size yellow onion

• 1 diced medium green bell pepper

• 1 heavy tsp minced garlic

• salt & pepper (eye it up)

• 14 oz package of seasoned stuffing (like Pepperidge farm)

• 3 tbsp melted butter

• extra non-melted butter on hand

• 2 (14 oz) cans of low-sodium chicken broth

What you’ll do:

1. Put a large skillet over medium heat and brown the sausage while breaking it up into little bits. Once cooked drain the sausage and put it into LARGE mixing bowl.

2. In the same pan add the onion, bell pepper, and celery (if needed add a tsp olive oil, but there should be enough grease from the sausage coking off), cook for about 2 minutes and add in garlic. season with salt + pepper to your liking and continue to cook the veggies until they are tender and the onions become clear. Mixing frequently. Once they are all tender and cooked through, add it to the bowl with the sausage.

3. Add the stuffing to the bowl and mix it with the sausage, bell pepper, onion, and celery. Mix everything together really well!

4. Pour the cans of chicken broth over the mixture and mix well. Drizzle the butter over it and mix well. When I’m saying mix I like to think of this more as a fluff well, you don’t want to be smushing all the bread crumbs and making them total mush! Just give it a fluffy mix (I normally do so with my hands).

5. Cover the bowl with Saran warp and let sit for 5 – 10 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. and grease a 8 x 8 casserole or baking pan with deep sides. Taste the stuffing and make sure it’s seasoned to your liking. Give it one more good fluff and then spoon it into the pan. Cut a tablespoon of butter into small pieces and dot the top with it.

7. Bake 25 minutes, uncovered for a crunchy top or cover with foil for a soft top. (I like crunchy better, but I bake for 15 minutes with it on and take it off for 10 sometimes)

Let me know if y’all have any questions!

XoXo, Chelsey

(P.s.-If it looks super dry in pictures, that’s cause we fake made it 😂 I probably just poured a bag of the crumbs into a dish)

Fish In A Bag

Happy Monday y’all! Sharing a little recipe today because it’s been a while since I’ve shared some cookin’ stuff! How delicious does this look?! (P.S.- that’s Ryan’s hands not mine)

If you’ve been following along for a while, you know my cooking drill – if you haven’t, I like quick recipes & don’t normally tend to have measurements for you guys! I know, what the hell right?! But honestly the whole deal is, you shouldn’t take cooking too seriously & should make it your own!! If you like spicy add more spice, if you hate lemon, leave it out! It’s your meal, do whateverrrr you want to do! This is just an easy outline!

This recipe is super fast & easy! Not to mention it’s healthy! It only takes about 20 minutes! One of the reasons I love to cook fish!

– HERES WHAT YOU’LL NEED –

• 6oz Fish Filet, a white flakey fish does best. (we used trout in this particular recipe)

• Mixed cherry tomatoes cut in halves

• Mushrooms of choice (we used sliced portobellos & oyster mushrooms)

• Dry White Wine

• Extra-Virgin olive oil

• Lemon Juice

• Butter

paul prudhomme seafood magic

• Salt & Pepper

• parchment Paper

– HERES WHAT YOU’LL DO –

• Preheat oven to 425 *

• Fold parchment paper into a large square & use your grammar school cutting skills to cut a heart off of the fold, like the photo above.

• choose a side of the parchment paper heart to work with. Fold a small end over about half a inch all around that side of the heart. This is just to keep the liquid inside. See picture above again for example, bottom left.

• In the middle of the parchment paper place your mushrooms & tomatoes (or whatever veggies of choice).

• Drizzle veggies with olive oil and lightly season with salt and pepper.

• Pour about 2-3 table spoons of white wine depending on how much juice you’d like.

• To the side, lightly season the front and back of your fish filet with the seafood magic seasoning.

• Place fish directly on top of your veggies.

• Drizzle a tad more olive oil, season with more salt and pepper if you’d like and also squeeze a little bit of lemon juice as well.

• Add two pats of butter to the top. And at this point you are done seasoning fish.

• Fold over other side of parchment paper heart covering fish. Take bottom and top edges together and tightly roll them towards the fish all the way around the heart. This is too make sure no juices leak out.

• Place on baking sheet and put in oven for about 15-20 minutes.

– HOW YOU’LL EAT IT –

• When fish is done carefully transfer parchment bag from the baking sheet to your plate!

• Use a knife and fork to pierce top of bag and cut open. (think like your making a bowl so all the yummy juices stay in the bag & don’t run all over your plate).

• Dig in & listen to everyone you cooked for y’all about how delicious it is, not to mention impressive.

• Don’t tell them it only took 20 minutes and was super easy.

If you guys have any questions feel free to ask um’ & thank you for baring with my non-professional cooking skills!

XoXo, Chelsey Rae

📸 : Krista Cheramie Co.

Texas Caviar

Happy Tuesday people! With tomorrow being Fourth of July I wanted to hop on and share a super quick & easy recipe with you guys!!

Having family/friend get togethers is always a blast and if your headed to someone’s house it’s always nice to be able to bring a little somethin’ to the party!

I love this dip for summer time partys or even to make ahead of time and bring on a beach vacation because it’s a VERY light + refreshing dip!! Most dips require creams or lots of cheese! This is mostly veggies & no creams! Perfect to chomp on while wearing your bikini 😜 haaaa, as if we want to chomp on anything while we’re wearing a bikini but hey, a sistas gotta eat regardless right?!

Sooo, let’s get it goin’

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

• Medium size green bell pepper, diced.

• Small red onion, diced.

• One Small jalapeño, seeds removed & diced.

• 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels.

• 1/3 cup cilantro, finely chopped.

• 1/2 can drained and rinsed rotel diced tomatoes.

• 1 can black eyed peas.

• 1 can pinto beans.

• 1 can black beans.

FOR DRESSING:

• 1/4 cup olive oil.

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar.

• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar.

• 2 tablespoons lime juice.

• 1 tablespoon sugar.

• 1 teaspoon salt.

• 1/2 tablespoon pepper.

• 1/2 garlic powder.

SERVE WITH:

• tortilla chips.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• drain and RINSE all canned products.

• throw all beans + tomatoes in mixing bowl.

• add all diced veggies + cilantro & corn to mixing bowl.

• in separate bowl mix all dressing ingredients and stir well.

• pour dressing into mixing bowl with bean & veggie mixture.

• let marinate in fridge for at least 2 hours mixing at the one hour make! (overnight is the best though, mix a few times whenever it crosses your mind!)

SERVE COLD WITH TORTILLA CHIPS! Or even cucumber chips if your trying to be healthy!

Y’all this dip is so stupiddd easy & it’s pretty addictive!! You can obviously make it your own too! Admit a can of beans and maybe add more corn, or maybe if you like a little bit more spice add a little more jalapeño! Make it however you please! Let me know if y’all have any questions about making it, I know my directions might not be up to expert level! 😜

Hope everyone has a safe & fabulous fourth!

XOXO, Chelsey Rae

Lucky Charm Milkshakes

St. Patrick’s day is only a few days away!! It’s going to be rainy and I know we’re all supposed to be wearing green, but I figure why not drink some green too? Especially when it’s extra yummy!!

This shake is so fun – for kids & adults if you ask me 😜 opening a box of lucky charms for this definitely brought back some childhood cereal memories!

This is quick & easy so let’s get down to it!List of things you’ll need & directions down below!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup heavy cream

• 2/3 cup lucky charms cereal (without marshmallows)

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 2/3 lucky charms marshmallows

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

• 3 cups vanilla ice cream

TOPPING

• whipped cream

• vanilla icing

• sprinkles of choice

• lucky charms marshmallows

DIRECTIONS

1| Add marshmallows & cereal to a food processors and blend until it becomes very powdered.

2 | put ice cream, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar in blender and blend to desired consistency. (You can add extra ice cream or heavy cream to make as thick or thin as you like).

3 | create a icing rim on cup and pour sprinkles over it ( like salting the rim but with yummy sugary stuff, duh! ).

4 | pour shake in cup and top with a pretty swirl of whipped cream. Add marshmallows on top for the cutest shake ever!

P.S. – how cute are these pink glass cups from target? I’m obsessed with them! …. I bet Ryan is too! Pahahaha! SIKE! Linking them below for y’all!

Target | $4

That’s all for my St. Patrick day post! Y’all have to let me know if y’all end up makin’ a shake!

XoXo, Chelsey Rae

📸 : Krista Cheramie Co.

Banana+Nutella Crescents

Valentine’s Day is for baking when it really comes down to it right?! Especially when it’s only 3 ingredient baking and takes under 15 minutes!

Everyone loves a good crescent roll, but a crescent roll stuffed with Nutella and some banana? Now THATS true love!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• one pack of original Pilsbery crescent rolls

• Nutella

• 1 ripe banana

Here’s what you’ll do:

• Preheat oven to 375

• While oven is heating open crescent rolls and spread them out on parchment paper that you will bake on.

• Using a knife softly spread Nutella down the crescent dough.

• Cut banana slices and place them on Nutella.

• Roll up crescent dough as you normally would & align them on parchment paper.

• Place in oven and cook according to package time. I believe it is around 9-12 minutes (I went for 9).

• REMOVE & EAT!

These are honestly SOOOOO the best when they come out and are warm because everything is all gooey & delicious!

Side note : this is even great for little ones because they are obviously in love with Nutella too! It was a hit with Hayden when I made a few leaving out the banana pieces!

I’m sure you could spice this up with any sort of filling as well! I’ve have some ideas for Nutella & Strawberry’s or even peanut butter with bananas! Let me know if you guys try any different ways!

Happy Valentine’s baking y’all!

XoXo, Chelsey Rae