Doritos Casserole

I wanted to make Jam Hand's Doritos Casserole for ages, but figured it might be a tad much for just me and Mike on a weeknight. Two boys at the dinner table though? Completely different story! With a casserole that includes Doritos, cheese, cheese, and more cheese, how can you go wrong?

This recipe is great for a get together. It includes ingredients that are really hard to hate so you wont be left wondering if your company will eat it or not. Serve with copious amounts of salsa + chips and beer and you will surely have no complaints! The only change I would make if I whipped this up again would be to top the casserole off with additional Doritos for a crunchy top layer. The Doritos in the casserole add great flavor, but do get soft from all the wet ingredients. I double the recipe to fit into a 9 x 13 casserole dish.

4 cups cooked shredded chicken

2 cups cheese

1 large can of cream of chicken soup

1 cup milk

1 cup sour cream

1 large can of Ro-Tel tomatoes with the jalapeno peppers

1 packet of taco seasoning

1 bag of Doritos (I used Nacho Cheese, but use whatever you want!)

1. Preheat oven to 350° F
2. Combine all ingredients, excluding Doritos in a large bowl
3. Grease a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Add a layer of crushed Doritos to the bottom, then top with a layer of the chicken mixture. Repeat. Top with cheese and bake for 30-35 minutes
4. At 30 minutes, take casserole out of oven and top with additional Doritos if you want a bit of a crunch to your casserole! Bake for an additional 5 minutes.
5. Wait a few minutes to cool if you like having a layer of skin on the roof of your mouth.

Definitely not the prettiest dish I've made, but I'd still give it 4 out of 5 noms for how easy it was to prepare and how delicious it came out! Pin, pin, pin away!

Burger Bites

What's better than one pinterest idea? Two rolled together, clearly! Cheeseburger Casserole and Bacon Cheeseburger Balls sound good enough on their own, but combined they form Burger Bites: a dish worthy of heading home early on a Saturday night for.

While I highly recommend both recipes, here is my version.

Ingredient List: Yields 16 bites
* 1 pound of ground beef
* 1/2 onion diced
* 1/2 cup of ketchup
* couple squirts of mustard
* slice 16 pieces of cheese from a block
* relish or pickle slices
* 2 cans of Pillsbury Grand Rolls ( 8 buns in each sleeve)
* 1 egg
* sesame seeds


















Preheat oven to 425
1. Brown the beef and onion together and drain.
2. Add the ketchup and mustard to the beef mixture.
3. Flatten and spread the Grand Rolls in your palm.
4. Start by placing the cheese in the roll. Then add a spoonful of the beef mixture. Top off with either a squirt of relish or a dill pickle slice.
5. Fold the roll up into a little bun. The first one will be tricky, but don't give up! You'll figure out what technique works best for  you quickly.
6. Place the bun seam side down in a greased 9x13 casserole dish.
7. Brush the tops of all the buns with an egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

These are definitely a crowd pleaser. Dainty enough for girls to enjoy and delicious enough to satisfy guys. Not into burgers? You could fill these up with anything! Buffalo chicken, sloppy joe mix, pizza mixture! Don't skimp out on the egg wash. It really gives the buns a nice brown glazy appearance and tasty texture. My friends and I chanted "Burger Bites" the whole way home on a Saturday night in anticipation of eating the left overs.

Don't be afraid to tweak ideas you find online! Go ahead and pin any 3 of these burger creations or create your own. What modifications would you make?

Sirloin Steak & Pepper Sandwiches

Winter isn't over yet, no matter how much I try to will it away. The only thing I am remotely enjoying about the cold weather at this point is the crockpot. Meaty aroma floating through the house almost makes you forget that there's a a foot of snow out there still. I have a few more recipes left for the season before I retire the slowcooker for the year. We had the chicken tacos last week, so I thought I'd try beef this time after finding Where The Cookies Are's Slow Cooked Italian-Style Sirloin with Yellow Peppers. MMM beef.

It doesn't get much easier than this. Seasoning, Water, Pepper, Beef, and Buns are all you need to make these sammies. I opted for hot peppers, but you can use bell if you have wimps non-spicy fans at your dinner table. I was afraid I had overcooked the meat, a fear I often have when you using a crockpot. The meat seemed dry when it came time to shred it. However, when placed back in the pot, the beef absorbed the juices and the pepper water like a sponge. Problem solved. Make sure you use extra big buns that can accommodate and handle all the delicious juice. Simple and satisfying meal for any day of the week or for a large crowd. Pin away!

P.S - I served these sandwiches up with the brand new Sriracha Lays and green beans (out of guilt). I was disappointed with the chips. They delivered more of a ketchup taste rather than a traditionally hot rooster sauce flavor.  Hoping the garlic bread and chicken and waffles flavors are more promising!

Samoa Bars

Samoa/Samoas/Caramel deLites, whatever you want to call them, they are one of my favorite Girl Scout Cookies. While I always manage to eat a few (or a few boxes) every year, I love that are are so many recipes out there that play homage to these little guys. Here are a few of favorites that I've come across on pinterest lately:

Mini Baked Samoa Donuts
Samoa Popcorn
And finally my favorite, Samoa Bars. Foodologie's picture was so drool worthy that I needed to try to bake some!

Cookie, Caramel, Coconut, and Chocolate, these 4 C words combine to create one pretty amazing bar. The process of making them is somewhat time consuming as you have to wait for the cookies to cool before you top them with the caramel, then you have to wait for the caramel/coconut mixture to set before you cut them, and then finally as your patience is running out and your stomach is screaming at you to just shove one in your mouth already, you have to wait for the damn chocolate to harden. Is it worth it? Absolutely! The soft cookie base combines with the chewy caramels and the smooth chocolate drizzle to create an overly decadent treat.  I cut my bars as small as I could without them crumbling as they are so rich. One cookie goes a long way, even for a sugar junkie like myself.

If you're feeling ambitious and have a hankering for Girl Scout Cookies give this recipe a try! I give these 4 1/2 noms out of 5! (1/2 a star was taken off as they give me wicked bad heartburn. Maybe I'm just getting old and can't handle the same amount of sugar I used to!)

Crockpot Chicken Tacos

I am always on the lookout for crockpot recipes. Dump some ingredients in a pot, and bada bing, you have a meal ready for dinner time, and usually leftovers for the next day as well. I've seen these crockpot chicken tacos floating around pinterest for awhile and thought I'd give them a shot. I liked that these used something other than ground beef.

Key ingredient to any crockpot meal: electricity. Unfortunately ours went out the second I had stirred all the ingredients together as a heavy snow storm made it's way in. Mac, Mike, and I made our way outside to shovel and distract ourselves from the taunting uncooked meat. (Well, let's be realistic. Mike shoveled and I played in the snow with the pup). The electricity came on a few hours later and I cranked that pot up to ensure we had a meal ready for dinner. Building a snowman really builds up an appetite. The chicken cooked up within 3 hours and fell apart with ease. It absorbed the salsa and taco flavoring and provided a great base for additional toppings. My favorites: sour cream, lettuce, tomato, and cheese. This recipe was a breeze, and despite it's simplicity, is easily adaptable. With the eclectic range of taco seasonings and salsas available, the options are endless. I give this 4 noms out of 5 and recommend this pin for a weekday meal or a large gathering.

Banana Nutella Muffins

The kitchen in the new house is pretty great. Lots of counter space to make a mess on! Mike and I also went with a double oven so I can make dinner and dessert at the same time. I need my sweet treat right after I finish my meal! I've been putting the kitchen and oven to good use as the cold weather has been forcing me to spend so much time inside.

Pinterest led me to a recipe for Banana Nutella Muffins from the Novice Chef. Drool.

The hardest part of this recipe was waiting for the bananas to ripen! I must have bought extra green ones, because I had to wait about two weeks for the darn things to get even slightly spotty! It was pretty much smooth sailing after that. This is your basic banana muffin recipe spruced up with nutella and hazelnuts. These two ingredients however do not disappoint. They add at that smooth chocolate taste and a nice crunch, reminding me of a ferrero rocher. They only other bump I came across was swirling the nuttela into the muffins. I don’t know if my jar was just a little cold from sitting in the rather chilly pantry or what, but it didn’t mix as easily as I wanted. I reswirled the batter after the muffins had sat in the oven for a minute, which somewhat helped. I would try possibly microwaving the nutella in a cup next time before adding it into each muffin cup.

These were great with a cup of coffee in the morning, but also delicious enough for a sweet treat at night. Pin and bake for your next brunch!

Knit Cable Pillow

The Pin-Up Girl is back after a prolonged and unannounced hiatus. Mike, Macaroni, and I spent the summer building a house, a process that proved to be consuming both time wise and mentally. We are moved in and somewhat settled, so it’s back to blogging and now I can put all of those wonderful house ideas on pinterest to use!

I am not much of winter person, and this year seems to be especially harsh. -10 degrees? No thank you. I have pretty much been hibernating. This has given me plenty of time to do one of my favorite winter hobbies, knit! I taught myself a few years ago after finishing Graduate School. I needed something to keep my mind occupied while waiting to hear back on job applications! It’s often hard to find patterns online that aren't  well grandma-y. After much digging on pinterest, I came across AOK Corral’s Knit Cable Pillow Pattern that I thought would match my living room décor.

The pattern is easy to follow, even for a novice knitter. The size 10 needles give the fabric a nice stretch as well, so I didn’t worry too much about measuring an exact gauge. I made a few adjustments. I did not knit two separate pieces. I instead knit one large piece that measured 27 inches to avoid having to knit an extra seam. I also used a mattress stitch instead of a running stitch on the sides of the pillow. If you’re unfamiliar with this or need a reminder, head over to knitty, the tutorial has great visual aids. I thought this looked nicer and less visible than the running stitch. This took me about 2 weeks of on-and-off nightly knitting to complete and Mac now has a new favorite place on the couch to sit! Pin and knit up during the next blizzard!