Valentine's Day Chocolate Cupcakes

Happy Valentine's Day! I love making cupcakes! Made special ones for my two love bugs. Found the chocolate cupcake recipe from Joy of Baking's website. Topped them with yummy buttercream frosting, also from the Joy of Baking. Used a little food color to make them more festive :)

INGREDIENTS:
*1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (used Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate & Cocoa)
*1 cup boiling water
*1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
*2 tsp baking powder
*1/2 tsp salt
*1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
*1 cup granulated white sugar
*2 large eggs
*2 tsp pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.
5. Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing.


Buttercream Frosting:
*2 cups confectioner's sugar
*1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), room temp
*1 tsp pure vanilla extract
*2 T milk
*Assorted food colors, if desired

In an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter
until smooth and well blended. Add the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the milk and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add a little more milk or sugar, if needed. Tint the frosting with desired food color

Cheesy Chicken Roll-ups

This is a great recipe...found it on this blog. It's a yummy variation from the Polish hamburger recipe I have.

INGREDIENTS:
*8 ounces cream cheese (used reduced-fat)
*4 T. melted butter (used about 2-3 T. instead)
*2-3 cups cooked chicken (shredded it)
*1/2 tsp salt
*1/4 tsp pepper
*2 cans crescent rolls (used reduced-fat)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Mix first five ingredients together.
3. Unroll crescent rolls and separate into squares. Press seams together so they stay squares.
4. Put a spoonful of mix in the middle of each square. Bring corners together to center on top. Seal the edges/seams.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes (we placed the rack toward the top so the bottoms of the roll-ups wouldn't burn).

Lindsay's Buffalo "Crack" Dip

This is absolutely amazing! It's so good, I had it the next day for lunch! Nate is not much of a dip guy, which worked out well for me :) This was one of our appetizers for Super Bowl Sunday. I found it on Linday's blog...she has great recipes! I halved the recipe...

INGREDIENTS:
*8 oz cream cheese, softened (used reduced-fat)
*6 oz Frank's buffalo sauce
*4 oz Ranch dressing (used reduced-fat)
*2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
*1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese, dressing, and buffalo sauce until well blended. Add shredded chicken and mix well.
3. Spread into a glass baking dish. Top with cheese.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes. (After baking, I transferred the dip into my Little Dipper to keep warm)

Tortilla Ham Pinwheels

We had a pitch-in for work since it was Super Bowl Sunday, and I was trying to find something simple and easy to make that didn't need to be heated. I found this recipe , and it was a hit!

INGREDIENTS:
*12 ounces cream cheese, softened
*1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix (I used about 3/4 packet of Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix)
*1 pkg 6" flour tortillas
*12 ounces thinly sliced (not shaved) deli ham

DIRECTIONS:
In a small mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and salad dressing mix. Spread over one side of each tortilla. Top with ham; roll up. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Cut into 1-in. slices.

Cottage Cheese Beef Enchiladas

Saw this recipe on Lindsay's blog, and wanted to try this enchiladas recipe. It was absolutely delicious! We used ground beef instead of chicken. Nate is not a lover of cottage cheese at all, and when he saw me cooking it, I think he was ready to get a Hot 'n Ready from Little Caesar's. To his surprise, they were delicious! I served the enchiladas with rice and refried beans.

INGREDIENTS:
*1 lb ground beef (used 96% lean)
*1/2 C. chopped onion
*1 (4oz) can chopped green chilies
*1 pkg taco seasoning mix
*1/2 C. sour cream (used reduced-fat)
*2 C. cottage cheese (used small curd 2%)
*1 tsp salt
*dash of pepper
*12 (6-inch) corn tortillas (used flour)
*2 C. Mexican-blend (Sargento Mexican Bistro Blend) shredded cheese
*1 can (10oz) red enchilada sauce (used 1 1/2 cans)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

DIRECTIONS:
1. Meat mixture: Brown beef, leave in pan. Add chopped onion and green chilies, saute until onions & green chilies browned. Add taco seasoning mix, and prepare according to package directions.
2. Cheese mixture: In large bowl, mix sour cream with cottage cheese. Add salt and pepper. Stir, until well-blended.
3. Add meat mixture to cheese mixture, stir well.
4. Assembling enchiladas: Heat tortillas until soft. In each tortilla, place meat/cheese mixture and a bit of shredded cheese. Roll tortillas and place in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Top with enchilada sauce and remaining shredded cheese. (We ended up with two baking dishes of the enchiladas)
5. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.