My Little Cooking Addiction

I love cooking.  Seriously, cooking is my art form.  I love making meals for my love and my family and friends.  Cooking makes me happy.  So yesterday and today I have gone on a cooking/baking binge.  And by binge, I mean I was at the grocery store buying raspberries at 9:00 last night because I felt the desire to bake.  But before I get to that, I'll start with what I made for dinner.

Easy Crockpot Pork Tenderloin

• 2-2/3 lb. Pork Tenderloin
• 1 c. Water
• 2 cans Campbell's Golden Mushroom Soup
• 1 Onion (sliced)
• Black Pepper

Place pork tenderloin in Crockpot, and cover with Golden Mushroom Soup and the cup of water.  Add a dash of pepper.  Place the sliced onion on top of the pork loin.  Cook on High for 6 hours.

Yes, that is the whole recipe.  Simple, I know, but so good!  The loin came out very moist and had tons of flavor!

Confession Time:  I don't like potatoes.  I'll eat them, but I don't love them.  At least I didn't until this next recipe.  They were by far the best potatoes I've ever had.  They are super easy to make, but they do take about an hour to cook.  However, they are most definitely worth the wait, and one of my new favorite dishes!

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

• 4 c. cubed Russet Potatoes
• 3 T. Olive Oil
• 1 t. Garlic Powder
• 1/2 t. Salt
• 2 t. Paprika
• 4 T. Grated Parmesan Cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Spray your baking dish with cooking spray (otherwise, these WILL stick!)  Place the potatoes in the dish.

2.  Top with the remaining ingredients.  Use either your hands or a spoon to mix the potatoes with the seasonings, making sure to coat them completely.

3.  Bake for 30 minutes, then take them out of the oven.  Toss the potatoes with tongs, making sure to coat with remaining seasoning left in the pan.

4.  Bake for another 20-25 minutes until golden colored and crisp.  Serve while hot!

After dinner, I wasn't done cooking.  I had only begun.  I decided to try making a fruit-filled pastry

Chocolate-Raspberry "Hearts"

• 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations refrigerated
• 1/2 c. Nutella
• 24 Raspberries
• 2 T. Dark Chocolate Chips
• 1 Beaten Egg
• 1 T. Powdered Sugar

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

2. Unroll the dough and slice into four squares

3. Spread 2 t. of Nutella onto each square.  Place three raspberries and four dark chocolate chips in the middle of each square.  Fold the dough over them, making sure to seal the edges tightly.  Brush with the beaten egg.

4. Bake 13-15 minutes, or until golden brown.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

5. Mix 1 T. of Nutella and 1 T. of the dark chocolate chips and microwave for 45 seconds until melted.  Stir well.  Use a fork to drizzle the chocolate mixture over each pastry.

These were incredible!  The fresh raspberry filling is fantastic, and goes perfectly with the chocolate and Nutella!  However, (as you can see from the picture) very few of the pastries ended up even vaguely resembling a heart.  They tasted fantastic, and anything drizzled with chocolate looks fantastic anyways, but I wouldn't bother trying to make them into hearts or expect them to come out like hearts.

Today, my fiance and I spent a good portion of our morning buying ingredients for other things I want to cook (yes, I have a problem.  yes, I love my problem.), and ended up nearly forgetting to eat!  I whipped up some easy and healthy dip to go with some cut up fresh fruit!

 Peanut Butter and Yogurt Dip

• 1/2 c. Skippy Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Spread
• 1 c. Nonfat Vanilla Yogurt

Mix the two ingredients together well, until it becomes a light and creamy texture.  Serve with a variety of fresh fruit.

Because we ate our brunch so late (almost 2 in the afternoon), I decided to only make an entree for dinner.  I mean, we need to make sure we have room for dessert, right?  So I settled on making...

Simply Great Chicken

• Chicken Breasts (I used 2, that weighed about 1.7 lbs together)
• 1/2 c. Brown Sugar
• 1 packet Italian Dressing Mix

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Rinse chicken breasts and pat dry with a paper towel.

2. Grease a 9x13 baking dish, then line with foil.  (The brown sugar will become very sticky and difficult to clean.

3. Mix brown sugar and italian dressing mix in a bowl, then dip the chicken breasts in the mixture, making sure to coat them well.  Place in baking dish, then sprinkle remaining mix on top of the chicken breasts.

4. Bake for 50 minutes.  Take them out of the oven periodically to flip and spoon more sauce over them.

This chicken was incredibly flavorful and moist!  It was so easy to make!  The only thing I would change about this recipe, is possibly doubling the brown sugar and italian dressing mix.  I loved the sauce, and would have been perfectly happy to have more!

Then for dessert, we made...

Sugar Cookie Fresh Fruit Tacos

• 1 pkg 18 oz. Refrigerated Sugar Cookie Dough (the kind in a roll, NOT the precut dough)
• 1 T. Cinnamon
• 2 c. Fresh Fruit of your choosing (we used berries)
• 1 c. Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1/4 c. Sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cover paper towel tubes with foil.  You will use these to drape the cookies.

2. Cut cookie dough into thick slices.  Press down on the slices so that they spread a little, then sprinkle with cinnamon.  Place on a greased cookie sheet.

3. Bake 7-9 minutes, then immediately drape onto the foil-covered paper towel tubes.  Allow to cool for about 2 minutes or until firm.

4. While the cookies are baking and/or cooling, beat the whipping cream and sugar until it forms stiff peaks.

5. Fill your cookies with the whipped cream and add fresh fruit on top.

These tasted delicious, but most of the cookies ended up breaking while we were draping them.  The one pictured above, along with several others turned out perfectly.  We ended up just frosting the remaining broken cookies with whipped cream and eating them with fresh fruit on top.

As you can see, I may have a slight baking/cooking addiction.  6 new recipes in 2 days?  I can live with that.