Taco Pizza

Taco Pizza
Printable Recipe

1 pound pizza dough (recipe found here)

Taco Meat
Refried Beans (optional, I don't use them)
1/4 cup Taco Sauce
1 cup Cheddar Cheese
1 1/2 cup Lettuce, chopped
1 Tomato, chopped
1/4 cup Black Olives, chopped
1 cup Nacho Cheese Doritos, crushed

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Roll dough out onto a greased baking tray.  Peirce dough with a fork.  Bake for about 5 minutes. Remove from oven.

Spread Taco Sauce over dough.  If using beans mix them in with the meat.  Spread meat over the sauce.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Bake for 10 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.  Top with lettuce, tomato, black olives and Doritos.  You can also top with more cheese and serve with additional taco sauce as desired. 

Nutella Swirl Bars

Nutella Swirl Bars

By Erin at Dinners, Dishes and Desserts

1/2 cup Butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 Tbls Nutella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 8×8 pan.

Blend the butter and brown sugar together until smooth. Stir in egg and vanilla. Add flour and salt, mix until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Drop teaspoonfuls of Nutella across the top of the batter.  Use a knife to swirl the Nutella throughout the pan.

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until it is set, and slightly browned.  Allow to cool completely before cutting and serving. 

Chick Fil-A Chicken Nuggets

Chick Fil-A Nuggets

From My Name is Snickerdoodle

By Erin at Dinners, Dishes and Desserts

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
2 Tbls powdered sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Canola Oil for frying

Trim and cut the chicken into bit sized pieces.  Whisk egg and milk together. Place chicken in milk mixture, and cover. Let stand for 2-4 hours in the fridge.

Place 2 inches of oil into a deep pan.  Heat over medium high heat until the oil is hot (375 degrees).  If you don’t have a thermometer you can see the oil is hot enough by placing the handle of a wooden spoon straight up and down in the center of the pot.  If bubbles start to form around the spoon, your oil is hot and you are ready.

In a zip-lock bag mix together flour, powdered sugar, salt and pepper. Remove chicken from mix, and place in the flour mixture.  Shake to coat.  Put about 8 nuggets into the pan.  It depends on how big your pan is for how many you can fit in.  Just be careful not to overcrowd.  Cook for about 1 minute on each side, or until golden brown.  Remove chicken and drain on a paper towel.  You could place on a rack in a hot oven to keep them warm if you are making a lot of them. 

Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin and Sausage Baked Pasta

Pumpkin and Sausage Baked Pasta
Slightly adapted from I was Born to Cook

By Erin at Dinners, Dishes and Desserts

1 lb Italian Turkey sausage
1 small onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree

1 1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon dried sage
Salt
1/3 cup heavy cream (half and half or 2 % milk will work too)

1 box penne pasta, cooked
½ cup Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

In a large pan brown sausage, until cooked through.  Remove from pan and drain over paper towel.  Set aside.

Using any oil (up to 2 Tbls) from the sausage, sauté onion, garlic and crushed red pepper until soft.  Stir in pumpkin, chicken stock and sage.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Add a pinch of salt.

Stir in heavy cream and sausage.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until sauce comes together and thickens slightly.  Remove from heat, and add pasta.  Toss everything together.   

Place mixture in a casserole dish sprayed with non stick spray.  Top with Parmesan Cheese.  Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until top is golden brown.

M&M Candy Corn Blondies

M&M Candy Corn Blondies

Adapted from The Little Kitchen

By Erin at Dinners, Dishes and Desserts

1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla

½ cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup M&M white chocolate candy corn, chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare an 8 inch pan or line with foil.

Cream brown sugar and egg until it's light and fluffy. Add in vanilla and melted butter, mix well

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and incorporate with a spatula. Stir in M&Ms by hand. Do not over mix.

Pour batter to the prepared pan. Bake for about 25-28 minutes. The top will be dry.  Cool completely before cutting. 

Monster Snack Mix

Monster Snack Mix

Adapted from Gourmet Mom on the Go

By Erin at Dinners, Dishes and Desserts

Frankensteins

6 cups Corn Chex Cereal
1 package Lemon-Lime Kol-Aid
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Light corn syrup
1/3 cup Butter

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/3 cup chocolate chips, melted

Mix-Ins

Candy Corn

Marshmallows

Cheerios

Corn Chex

Raisins

Peanuts

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

In a saucepan heat sugar, corn syrup and butter over medium heat until boiling, stirring occasionally. Boil for 3 minutes (do not stir). Turn off heat and stir in baking soda and Kol-Aid.

Pour over 6 cups Chex cereal and mix together gently. Spread onto a lined or greased baking sheet.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Take out of the oven and set 40 pieces (or however many Frankensteins you want to make), onto another lined or greased cookie sheet.  Cool completely, stirring the rest of them occasionally.  (I did not do this and mine ended up in a big block of Green Chex.) 

To make Frankensteins

Dip one end of a Chex square into the melted chocolate for the hair.  Pour the rest of the chocolate into a small zip-loc bag.  Cut off a tiny bit of the end.  Pipe eyes and mouth onto the squares. 

After the chocolate has hardened Assemble your mix using whatever mix-ins you would like.  

Creepy Cookie Pizza's

Creepy Cookie Pizza’s

By Erin at Dinners, Dishes and Desserts

Round Sugar Cookies (recipe found here)

Red Frosting (recipe found here)

Candy for Decorations

                Gummi Worms

                Eyeball candy

                Chocolate covered Raisins

                Sprinkles

Spread red frosting over the cookies.  Decorate with your creepy toppings!  Enjoy!