I have to say the point of a “weekly” topic is for me to be regular and post it on the same day each week, right? Well, it’s still Sunday, so I’m not too late, but I’m sure cutting it close! This week my craft room was sadly forlorn, while I spent more time in the kitchen. I was able to try a few Pinterest recipes and they were all pretty successful. Goodness knows, I have had some failures, usually in the form of some sort of microwave mug cake.
The first one is a wonderful beef short rib slow cooker recipe, yes, you read me right, a slow cooker recipe. I find very few recipes made in a slow cooker fantastic. I don’t like the texture of the meat when it breaks down into a stringy mess. This recipe is a definite exception. I found the recipe at eat-yourself-skinny.com, a blog that focuses on healthier recipes and has a lot of calorie counts and weight watcher points for each recipe. I was able to get my hands on some beef short ribs, and I must admit I have never tried them before. Please, go look at the recipe, here’s the link. I popped these in and only changed a few things. I reduced the vinegar (to about a 1/3 cup), as my husband doesn’t like too much in his sauce. Also I was shocked to find I was out of sugar, *gasp*! So I reduced the sugar to a 1/2 cup of white sugar and then drizzled in some molasses. The ribs cooked all day, emitting tantalizing aromas throughout the entire house. My husband made some mashed potatoes to serve the ribs and gravy over. Yummy! This makes a lot of gravy! I have to confess that I actually had some mashed potatoes and gravy for breakfast one morning. You will not be disappointed!
The next recipe, I pinned quite awhile ago for some frozen s’more cups. I always try to make an ice cream type dessert for my husband’s birthday and I thought this would fit the bill. I used my Demarle muffin flexipan, as I could freeze the dessert in it and easily pop out the s’more cups. Otherwise you will need to use some sort of mini cheesecake pan, spring form pan or like item. I subbed in freshly whipped cream for the cool whip, as it is what I had on hand. They were very yummy and a wonderful cool treat for the warm week we’ve been having.
The finished product, I just had to try one!
The last recipe is for these broccoli cheddar biscuit cups sent to me by my friend as a good cooking with your kiddos recipe. I thought the recipe looked like a great starting off point. I made my own biscuits and opted for an herbed goat cheese filling, broccoli and parmesan on top. Even with my modifiers from the original recipe, you can still do a “busy gal” version or an “over achiever” version. Here are both options for you.
Busy Gal
- 1 can of refrigerated biscuit dough
- 1-2 packages of boursin cheese (depending on how much you like)
- 2 cups broccoli (blanched and chopped)
- 1/4-1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
Over Achiever
Herb Biscuits (from Barefoot Contessa)
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 T baking powder
- 1t salt
- 1 t sugar
- 1 stick cold unsalted butter (I put it in the freezer for an hour then grated it)
- 3/4 cup half and half
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment. Add grated butter and mix for a few seconds. Add half and half and combine on low speed. Mix in parsley. Dump dough onto a well floured surface or your Roul’Pat. You will be rolling them thinner than traditional biscuits since they will be stuffed into a muffin cup. Cut them out with a 2 and 1/2″ cutter. I made my biscuits ahead of time and put them on a cookie sheet in the fridge until dinner time.
Mmmm, biscuits!
Cheese filling
- 10 oz fresh goat cheese
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
- 1 t seasoning of your choice. I used Demarle’s Green Onion and Roasted Red Pepper herb blend
- Half and half to mix
With an electric mixer beat up cheese to break it up, add chives and seasoning. Mix in half and half slowly until your get a texture that can be piped or spooned. I put the filling into a ziploc bag and cut off the tip when I was ready to fill the cups.
You will also need 2 cups of blanched, chopped broccoli and 1/4 – 1/3 cup grated parmesan for the over achiever version. Baking and assembly will be the same for both recipes. Press dough into your muffin pan, if you’re using a metal pan, be sure to prepare with cooking spray. Cut tip off your ziploc bag and pipe cheese into each cup. Add broccoli and top each cup with some parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes for store bought dough and closer to 15 minutes for homemade dough. Serve up to your picky kids and enjoy a lovely vegetarian meal!
I prepped everything while my girls were napping so we could assemble it together before dinner.
Press in biscuit dough into your muffin pan.
Pipe in cheese, there may be some leftover.
Topped with broccoli and cheese. Ready to bake!
Dinnertime!
I hope you will have a chance to try out a few of these recipes. The short ribs recipe will definitely be on our regular rotation and will be especially delicious in the winter months when a warm, comforting meal is in order. Enjoy!
wholalahoots 