2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies
3 cups miniature marshmallows

1. In a large microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter at medium power for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes.  Stir until smooth. Add remaining ingredients.  Stir until well coated.
2. Using buttered spatula or waxed paper, press mixture evenly into 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Chill in refrigerator about 45 minutes.  Cut into bars.

Tips/Tricks/Notes

I'm so glad I came apon this recipe online, it is so quick and easy to do and the best part?  It was a BIG hit with the family and co-workers!!  I was able to throw this recipe together in about 10 minutes and with it only taking about 45 minutes in the fridge it's a good recipe if you need something sweet last minute!  My only recommendation is to keep the bars stored in the fridge.  Once they warm up a bit they crumble a lot when you are trying to eat them!

12 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
2 to 3 jalapeno peppers, chopped
2 tbsp chili powder
1 garlic clove, minced
1 can (10 oz) condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
3 tbsp tomato paste
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1. Cook the noodles according to the package directions.  Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook beef, onion, peppers and chili powder.  Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer.  Drain.  Add the soup, tomato sauce and tomato paste; simmer until heated through.
2. Drain noodles.  Spread 1/2 cup meat sauce in a greased 13 x 9 baking dish.  Layer with four noodles, half of the remaining sauce and a third of the cheese.  Repeat layers once.  Top with remaining noodles and cheese.
3. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Uncover; bake 15 minutes longer or until cheese in melted.  Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.

Tip/Tricks/Notes 

This had to be one of the best lasagna's I've ever had!  I found this recipe in a Taste of Home magazine that I bought well waiting in line at the grocery store one day.  The recipe was super easy to follow and turned out perfect!  The only tip I have is to be careful when cutting the jalapeno peppers.  You will either want to use disposable gloves or make sure to wash you hands throughly and definitely avoid touching your face!

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed lasagna, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

Recently I decided to join "You Want Pies With That?".  Each month a theme is posted and you have to create a creative and unique pie to go with that theme.  April's theme is "Spring", below is the pie recipe that I feel is very springy!

Crust:
17 oz roasted macadamia nuts
3/4 cup ground vanilla wafer cookies
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
2 cups fresh pink grapefruit juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 tsp unflavoured gelatin
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
9 oz white chocolate
1/4 whipping cream

Topping:
1 cup chilled whipping cream
2 tbsp sugar
lime slices

Crust Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Finely chop nuts and then add ground cookies, sugar and butter.  Blend until moist crumbs form.
2. Press firmly onto bottom and sides of a 9 1/2 inch deep dish glass pie dish.  Bake crush until golden, about 10 minutes.  Cool.

Filling Directions
1. Boil grapefruit juice and 1/4 cup sugar in heavy medium saucepan over high heat until reduced to 3/4 cup; about 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatin over lime juice and let stand 10 minutes.
2. Add gelatin mixture, white chocolate and 1/4 cup cream to grapefruit mixture and whisk over low heat until white chocolate and gelatin melt and mixture is smooth.  Pour into large bowl.
3. Refrigerate until cool but not set, whisking occasionally and scraping down sides of bowl with rubber spatula, about 2 hours.
4. Pour into cooled pie crust and return to refrigerator.

Topping Directions
1. Beat cream and sugar to stiff peaks.  Spoon whipped cream into pastry bag fitted with star tip.  Pipe rosettes of cream around edge of pie.  Place lime slices rounded side up on pie.

Tips/Tricks/Notes

I was a little worried about how this pie would turn out when I first started, but I needed a springy pie and I thought, this is it!  The colours, the flavours all scream Spring to me!  Happily, it turned out to be wonderful!

In the future I plan on making a coconut cream pie with the crust, it tasted great on its own!  Also, a note on the crust; if macadamia nuts are out of your budge then trying walnuts or almonds instead.

The filling tasted just as I had hoped!  I was concerned only because I had never heard of such a idea and never tried using grapefruit for anything.  Also, when I planned the pie I wasn't sure how the colour would come out and it ended up so bright.  The only change I would make next time is I would up the amounts of each ingredient, maybe one and a half, as the filling could have come up a little higher on the crust.

All and all I am very glad I decided to join "You Want Pies With That?" and I can't wait to continue to try out more pies!

The Rules for this award:
 
1. When you have received this award you must thank the person that awarded you the award in a new post.

I'd like to thanks Brattypants for giving me my first award!  I am very honored and so pleased to have been given this award!  Thanks again! :D

2. Name 10 things that make you happy.

• My Boyfriend; Kevin
• My Family
• My Close Friends!  You know who you are ;)
• My 2 Wonderfully Adorable Cats; Sunny and Zephyr
• Baking & Cooking
• Fresh Air & Sun
• Gardening
• Reading a Good Book
• Watching my Fav TV Shows
• Winning an Award
  

3. Pass this award on to 10 bloggers & inform them.

1. Brattypants; I definitely must pass this award back to her!
   
2. Corrine at Lost for Words; My Best Friend, who inspired me to blog!
3. Barbara at Barbara Bakes
4. Sarah at Maison Cupcake
5. Stormie at Bite Size Baker
6. Christine at Christine's Cuisine
7. Amy at Sing for your Supper
8. Jessica at My Baking Heart
9. Nancy at My Home Cook-N Blog
10. Kelsey at Apple a Day

This was a hard one, picking 10 blogs to pass the award on to!  I got to 6 easily and then realized, I don't regularly view 10 blogs, so I just spent the last 2-3 hours looking at food blogs.  I found 4 more that I quite enjoyed reading through and can not wait to see what they bring in the future!

Now back to finishing my pie for tonight's Easter dinner at my Grandparents!  I will inform all the winners I picked sometime tomorrow!

Thanks Again! 

• Add one teaspoon of lemon juice to each quart of water when cooking rice, this will keep rice fluffy.
• For crisper salads: Place a saucer upside down in the bottom of the salad bowl before filling with salad. Excess moisture will run underneath the saucer and this will help keep the salad crisp and fresh.
• You can substitute crumbled cornflakes for bread crumbs when making meatloaf.
• A teaspoon of sugar mixed with your yeast and water makes it raise better. Even if you are making bread you can use some sugar. Never mix salt directly with the yeast and water mixture as the salt kills the raising action.
• If it is a meringue pie you are making…add four or five marshmallows cut into pieces or 1/2 cup miniature ones, to meringue just before spreading. These marshmallows give both flavor and body to the meringue. The latter is important if pie is to stand for sometime before serving.
• A wire cheese cutter is ideal for cutting chilled refrigerator cookie dough.

1 package (16 oz) hot dogs
2 cups uncooked corkscrew pasta
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups 1% milk

1. Slice hot dogs into bite sized pieces; set aside.
2. In large saucepan, cook pasta according to package directions; drain and return to saucepan.
3. Stir in hot dogs, cheese and milk.  Cook over medium heat 10 minutes or until cheese is melted, stirring occasionally.

Tips/Tricks/Notes

I LOVE this recipe!  It is so quick and so easy, and brings back memories of being a kid!  My only tip for this recipe is to do with the amount of milk.  I found the pasta ended up a little more runny then I would like.  Next time I will probably put a little less then the 2 cups of milk, but not too much less.

Also, I wanted to share with everyone my camera/picture experiment.  I've been a little unhappy with my food pictures and have been trying to figure out why they aren't as good as others I have seen.  I had Kev bring his camera home from work and took pictures of the pasta with his and with mine.  As you can see in the comparison pictures below, his camera is definitely much better then mine!



















The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed macaroni, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

Meatloaf:
1 can (10 oz) Campbell's condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1/3 cup water

1. Thoroughly mix 1/2 cup soup, onion, egg, beef, and bread crumbs in a large bowl.  Place the mixture into a 13x9x2 inch baking pan and firmly shape into an 8x4 inch loaf.
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the meatloaf is cooked through.
3. Heat 2 tbsp pan drippings, remaining soup and water in a 1 quart sauce pan over medium heat until the mixture is hot and bubbling.  Serve the sauce with the meatloaf.

Cauliflower:
1 can (10 oz) Campbell's condensed cheddar cheese soup
1/4 cup milk
4 cups fresh or frozen cauliflower

1. Stir the soup and milk in a 2 quart microwavable casserole.  Add the cauliflower.  Cover the dish with plastic wrap.
2. Microwave on high for 8 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender-crisp, stirring once.


Tips/Tricks/Notes

I'll start with the meatloaf because it was a bit of a learning experience.  I had never done meatloaf until today, so this was a first time thing!  I found this recipe in my Campbell's recipe book and figured it would be pretty good since it's called "Best-Ever".  Not to say it's bad, but it's definitely not the "Best-Ever".  I thought something was missing, however Kevin quite enjoyed it.  I'm wondering if anyone can give me tips on meatloaf, something I could add or change about this recipe?  It always throws me off when I'm not into the recipe, but Kevin on the other hand enjoys it!  If he likes the recipe, I am always happy to give it another shot, but I am hoping someone can suggest something that might "spice" it up for me!

If you plan on trying this recipe, my only tip is, when it says "firmly shape into an 8x4 inch loaf", it means FIRMLY!  Maybe it is just because I had never tried meatloaf before, but my loaf definitely crumbled a lot!

As for the cauliflower, I have done this simple recipe many times and not always with cauliflower.  Broccoli of course is another big hit!

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed meatloaf and cauliflower, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.