BakeAwayGirl

Homemade Cornbread Adapted from here 1 cup yellow cornmeal 1 cup whole milk 1 cup flour 2/3 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 large egg 1/3 cup unsalted butter melted Preheat oven to 400* Mix the cornmeal and whole milk together in a mixing bowl. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. DON'T TOUCH. After 10 minutes, stir in the rest of the ingredients. Make sure you stir well to incorporate all of the ingredients. Pour into a greased 8x8 pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.

Another fantastic crockpot dish to add to the long list of ways to cook lazily.  My favorite type of cooking!  I prefer to prep, go to work, and come home to a house that smells like I don't have to do anything.  It's my favorite smell of all. Wow, this one is spicy.  We went to my cousin's annual pumpkin party, where there is always copious amounts of delicious food, and this year was no exception.  The hostess with the mostest made this chili and it was a big hit.  We quickly added it to our to-do list, and quickly learned a critical component. All jalapenos are different sizes! The original recipe calls for 5 jalapenos, but doesn't specify size and it DEFINITELY matters.  We used 3 large-ish jalapenos.  So be as bold or as cautious as you prefer.  I love spicy, Jeff does not.  That said, this was perfectly spicy for me, but it would still be delicious with significantly less heat.  Jalapeno Popper Chicken Chili Adapted f...

This recipe was a find years ago, but I never remembered to take a picture for the blog until this last time.  It combines two delicious things into one.  As the name indicates, it is a combination of taco salad and pasta salad.  I will admit, I was skeptical at first.  First off, I'm not a fan of French or Western dressings (which this recipe uses), however it does work with the other ingredients. I've played with a few different ingredients, but the nice thing about both tacos and pasta salads is that you can add anything you'd like.  Besides the basics (taco meat, lettuce, pasta), I use cheese, black beans, and tomatoes.  You can do corn, any kind of peppers, or other types of beans.  This practically begs  for black olives, but I hate them so... no. Important:   We ate this the very first time without the crushed fritos.  We decided we wouldn't make it again.  Then we ate the leftovers with  the crushed chips and i...

Salad from the top view You may have noticed that I love Southwestern American food.  I love Mexican food, but I think I like the Tex Mex better.  It has a lot of spice and flavor and cheese.  The best way to do this, in my opinion, is salads.  They taste so fresh but have so much more flavor than your every day salad. Last month, we had a potluck at work.  Potluck at my work is code for snacks and desserts, but usually no real food.  I had a recipe in my To-Do List Pinterest board, and decided it was perfect for a more substantial aspect of the potluck.  The recipe made way more salad than I anticipated, but it was no problem!  The recipe was a hit, and I even sent the bit of leftovers home with people because they loved it so much. Here's the catch.  The recipe for the dressing wasn't very good, in my opinion.  Some people really liked it, but I wouldn't do it again.  I'll include it here because some people loved it. ...

I stole this one from Budget Savy Diva Mine never turn out quite as evenly brown. Now, I always thought southwestern egg rolls sounded disgusting when I saw them on the menu at restaurants.  Come on, stop mixing cultures together, that's just weird. WRONG.  It's delicious. When I finally tried these for the first time two years ago at Rock Bottom Brewery, I was hooked.  Spicy, flavorful, and delicious.  I craved them all the time, but they're kind of a pricey appetizer because you really don't get many of them.  So when I saw this one on Pinterest, I jumped right on it.  Not to mention, because these are baked (not fried, like traditional egg rolls), there's really nothing wrong with these... honestly, folks, it's another accidental healthy recipe from yours truly. You know how much I try to avoid that.  But this was so delicious, even I couldn't stop eating them once I realized they were healthy.  Besides, it still has an avocado ranch...

I have been eating like a pig lately.  I mean, it doesn't bother me too much because I just love food.  Yes, I've got my warm winter padding on my body all year, but I'll keep my brownies and you can have the bikini :)  But still, I like my jeans and the way they fit so I will cut back on the onion rings for a few days. Maybe. When I stumbled upon the recipe for a chopped salad, I thought, "Hot damn, nothing better than a Portillos chopped salad."  Even better, this one was a southwestern chopped salad!  I was a little skeptical on this one, to be honest.  Salads can really easily be bland and not very filling, and I love me some good flavor.  But, we had most of the ingredients already and had to go to the grocery store anyway, so picking up the last few ingredients was easy. Mostly, though, I was worried that the salad dressing would be gross.  I love ranch dressing.  Mmmm.  Judge away, but I would douse everything in some good...