Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars

I am not the greatest food photographer!

I am not the greatest food photographer!

I found this great recipe on the Pillsbury website here. It’s an easily prepared dessert for potlucks and the holidays. Please note you will need to refrigerate after baking, however, the bars taste best heated in the microwave for 10-15 seconds. For added authentic Tex Mex flavor, add honey to the top when serving.

2 cans (8 oz each) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F.

Unroll 1 can dough. Place in bottom of ungreased 13×9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish. Stretch to cover bottom of dish, firmly pressing perforations to seal.

In medium bowl, beat cream cheese and 1 cup of the sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Spread over dough in baking dish.

Unroll second can of dough. Carefully place on top of cream cheese layer. Pinch seams together.

Pour melted butter evenly over top. Mix remaining 1/2 cup sugar with the cinnamon, and sprinkle evenly over butter.

Bake about 30 minutes or until center is set. Cool slightly, about 20 minutes. Refrigerate for easy cutting. Cover and refrigerate any remaining bars.

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Yoga 4 Love’s Famous KarmelKorn

Lisa’s Famous KarmelKorn

1 Box each Rice Chex and Corn Chex

Snyder’s of Hanover square butter pretzels (omit if going Gluten Free)

Brown sugar

Light Karo syrup

Vanilla Extract

Whole popcorn (you’re going to make it homemade) or 2 bags of popcorn, cooked.

2 sticks Organic Butter

Baking soda

SmartBalance Oil

Organic Pam Cooking Spray

Cook the popcorn on the stove. Cover the bottom of a large pot with a light layer of oil and 2T butter.

 

 

Heat the oil to Medium High and add one kernel. Cover with a screen and wait for it to pop.

 

 

Add a layer of kernels filling most but not all of the bottom in a single layer. Let it pop, listening for it to slow down to a few pops then a second between. Shake around a little and remove from heat.

 

Let it pop a few more times then remove from pot by scooping out, not pouring so you don’t get any duds. (Duds really stink in KarmelKorn, and your dentist will appreciate this tip.)

Use 3 large mixing bowls and 2 large baking sheets lined with foil and sprayed with Pam and 2 wooden spoons and salad tongs sprayed with Pam. Have all ingredients ready.

Add 1/3 of the popcorn to each bowl, then several cups of each cereal, then use all of the pretzels splitting evenly, don’t pour the last bit so you don’t get a ton of salt in one bowl. Fill bowls 2/3 full of the mixture. You will have some cereal left but not a lot. Heat oven to 275.

Get a large saucepan and heat 1  1/3 stick of butter on medium heat. Add 1  1/4 C of brown sugar and stir until it begins to melt. Add 1  1/4 C Karo Syrup. (I really don’t measure, if it looks too buttery add more sugar). Turn heat up a bit and stir until it gets bubbly. Add 1t Vanilla and stir it in, making sure everything is melted. Turn heat off but keep pan near warm burner.

To get the Karmel to coat the dry mixture here is the trick, add 1-2 t Baking Soda. 1 t at a time. Watch it get puffy, and lighten in color. If it is not very puffy then quickly add 1/2 t more until it almost puffs to the top. Pour equal amounts over the 3 mixtures splitting up but very fast, scrape all out with a spatula. Then quickly get the 2 wooden spoons and mix as best as you can. If its too dry make a 1/2 batch and pour the rest over it and remix.


Lots will spill so snack away. =-) My dog loves this part.

Then pour the batches into the baking sheets in a layer not too thick. You may need a third baking sheet (or 9×13 pan or you an cook another batch after the first is done).

Put the KarmelKorn in the oven and wait 15 min or so. If it looks a little darker then its time to stir. Salad tongs are great. Mix it up (out of the oven!) and eat all that spills.

 

 

 

My dog loves this part too. My kids do as well. Put it back in for another 5-10 min to coat evenly then remove. If its cold outside you can set the pans out and it will harden almost immediately. Otherwise, wait a little, and try not to eat too much.

Wash and dry the three sticky bowls.

When hardened, but still pliable, take the foil and KarmelKorn off of the sheets.

 

 

 

 

Next, in one fell swoop, attempt to break it up into a bowl. Do this for the remaining Korn. Seal the bowls (mainly to prevent your family from eating it before you get to bring it to the party.)

This recipe stores great in gallon ziplocks and is lovely to give as a gift.

Enjoy.

=-)

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Easy Oreo Truffles

I found this recipe last year. The recipe is very easy and perfect for potlucks for dessert. I made the ones in the photo last year around Christmastime for my daughter’s teachers and they all loved them!

Ingredients:

1 Package of Oreo cookies, 1 – 8 ounce package of cream cheese, 2 – 8 ounce packages of semi-sweet baking chocolate

Instructions:

Crush 9 cookies into fine crumbs. Cookie can be crushed in either a food processor or in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin. Reserve these for later use. Crush remaining cookies into fine crumbs and place into a bowl. Add cream cheese and mix well until blended. Roll mixture into approximately 42 balls, 1 inch in diameter.

Dip balls into melted chocolate and place on wax sheet. Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs (I use colorful sprinkles also).

Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in the refrigerator.

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Easter Bunny Salads from my Nana Banana

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This recipe was always a family favorite because the little bunny salads make the Easter table so cute and festive!
We always had a formal down dinner with full China, where we still had our church clothes on. My nana would meticulously create these for each guest on a China salad plate. I really love the formality mixed with the fun.
Now as my family and in laws grow we don’t have formal Easter meals but all still get together to eat, visit and laugh together.

For this recipe you will need;
4 cans of pear halves
Carrots, julienne sliced, about 1″ long
Mini marshmallows
Almonds, raw
Cloves, whole
Jello, large box lime green
Unsweetened coconut shavings (optional)

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Make the jello using package quick set directions. Pour into a nonstick
Large baking sheet and refrigerate 30 minutes.
Dry pear halves with a paper towel an all pear halves Facing the same way in rows on the green Jello; wide side is the tail.
( if doing individual servings then serve jello first into each salad plate, otherwise leave on pan)

Assemble your bunnies:
Jello for the grass
Almonds for ears, point up, close together or they look like mice
Cloves for eyes- don’t eat!
Carrot noses
Mini marshmallow tails.
You can use red hots for the noses too.
We sprinkled coconut on some.

Present to your table. Enjoy!!

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Cake Pops are for Wine-o’s

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My daughter is turning having a birthday. With my super busy yoga career and studio, Dynamic Yoga 4 Love, I haven’t made a craft in forever. So when my friend showed me her iPhone photo of the cake pops she made I thought I’d step back into my crafty self and do this! I invited her over for a girls night of cake pops and wine! It’s a date!
Here’s the steps!

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Cake pops for her 9th birthday. Please eat slow, people. These took 4 hours, a bottle of wine, 10 hands and a good friend who can use the word fondant in a sentence.
What is fondant, you say? Exactly. Now pass the wine.

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Grandma Farrell’s Apple Dressing

 

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I have taught myself to cook by experimenting on my loving and patient family, with values that are important, such as utilizing whole foods, avoiding additives or anything artificial and eating the rainbow on your plate. So in this blog, I’ll share a fave from my experience in the kitchen and in life. I have has taken many family recipes and converted them to be a bit more pure, healthier + full of whole foods and nutrition, filled with love. This is one of those treasures.
When my grandma was at the end of her life I went to the nursing home quite a lot to visit her. My daughter was very small, maybe 3. Most kid would be super freaked out in that environment, as this was not a post retirement home, it was a state run facility. no one there seemed to care at all. Grandma was German English with an Irish temper. Sassy and funny as heck. As she aged she had to be moved from Colorado to Texas to be cared for by my father. She was in a posh facility in Bedford at the time. As her dementia progressed she became very hostile at times, and that temper flared. One day she socked the nurse right in the eye. Really. So, hence this is how she ended up where she was.
Music~Joan Baez Blowin’ in the Wind

My daughter and I went to visit her before Thanksgiving, the year before her passing in 2007. I know that I wanted her to teach me this recipe she made for apple dressing. Now whenever my dad or sister visited they came away stating that Grandma was totally out of it, making no sense etc. But when I visited she was ALWAYS clear. I also made sure to visit in the mornings, when they are clearer. So I arrived and my daughter ignored all the craziness that you witness in a state facility as we made our way to her room. She jumped down our of my arms and RAN to Grandma’s bed, wrapped her tiny arms around her great grandma and they looked eachother in the eyes, the same brown eyes, both of them. Ah. So we laughed and talked about Iowa, and her life up to about 8th grade, again.

The next visit I came alone, with all the ingredients in a bag, a bowl, two knives and a mission. This time we were going to make apple dressing like we used to do. I woke her up, and she smiled. I wheeled her out into the patio stoop. They had no place for the residents to enjoy the outdoors, so crappy, so we sat on the porch. She was able to get around ok. We found a spot without nurses watchful eyes and I handed her a knife, got out the apples, bowl and we went to work. I was scared for just a second, for handing her a knife, but trusted my intuition, and of course she began slicing and chatting as we filled the bowl. I was in heaven. She and I sat and visited until we had the recipe completed. She shared some tips I would not have known if it was simply written down. She really had fun, yes, fun! I was a tiny bit surprised that she just instinctively still knew what to do. Of course she did. The dementia was not there when she had a mission. Interesting correlation to my reality, when my vision is clear nothing stands in my way. Perhaps this is a quality I learned from her. Yes, it is true. My father would agree for sure. That and the sassyness, and the temper. Who me? I am Irish, so yes. I don’t put up with B.S.

She accepted what life gave her, as a farm girl from Iowa would, without expectations. As a yogi, I have recently began to learn so much from her memory. She is my angel and comes to my dream life frequently. Last night, in fact, I was dreaming of walking with her, but had so much to wrap up, she left ahead of me. I wrapped up two to three other things before leaving, as usual (this is why I am late frequently). After I finished flitting around I saw her walking slow and steady, moseying, actually. She barely went anywhere and I had been buzzing around like a bee. In my dream I thought, ‘Wow, that pace of life is almost non-existent anymore.’ This is a very direct message to me.
I will make an effort to slow down more, and think, and even mosey. Maybe I need to build a labyrinth. But that is another blog all together.
So, to share with you an all time fave recipe from my sweet Angel Grandma Edna. This sweet and tasty recipe is from day old bread, which back in the old times no one wasted! So my Grandma made this dressing, it a staple on the plate with Thanksgiving, Christmas + Easter meals.

Grandma Farrell’s Apple Dressing~

14 slices Whole grain white bread. Let it sit out in a bowl for a day, rotating top pieces a couple times to dry a bit.
4 cooking apples- Jonagold,. Cameo, Rome Beauty; washed
½ C Organic sugar
1 ½ tsp Cinnamon
¼ C Organic Milk
2 sm organic eggs
5-6 Tbsp organic butter, cut into 1Tbsp pads
2-5 Tbsp water to add during cooking, if needed.
Preheat oven to 350. Using a large mixing bowl, tear bread into bite sized pieces. Use apple slicer and cut/ core all apples, then chop into 1/2” pieces. Beat egg and milk, add to coat bread and apples lightly. Add sugar and cinnamon. Mix well. In a 3 Qt casserole, spray with organic non stick spray and add dressing mixture, dot top with pads of butter. Cover. Bake 2 hours stirring several times the last hour, if it gets dry, mix well and add water 1 Tbsp at a time to soften. Uncover and serve with the Holiday meal.

Take time this season to slow down and enjoy what life has right in front of you, not later, NOW. Life is happening NOW. Be present NOW.
In light and love,
LLW

 

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