Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

A friend of mine made these delicious cookies last week. I had to have the recipe! Now I can share it with all of you. Yum!

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups quick-cooking or regular rolled oats, uncooked

Heat oven to 375˚

Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla; blend thoroughly. Stir together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Mix in peanut butter until well blended. Stir in oats, mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes about 4 dozen

Honey Balsamic Fish Filets

My husband & I used to eat fish all the time. Since my pregnancy I've lost my taste for it, but this is a great recipe we've made a few times.

1 lb fresh or frozen skinless cod, orange roughy or tilapia filets, 3/4 to 1" thick
4 cups baby spinach leaves
1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges
1 medium red or yellow sweet pepper, cut into thin strips
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey

Thaw fish, if frozen. Rinse fish; pat dry with paper towels. Place spinach in a bowl and set aside. In a large skillet, cook onion in 1 tbsp of oil over medium heat for 5-6 minutes or until tender and slightly golden. Add sweet pepper; cook and stir 1 minute more. Remove from heat. Stir onion mixture into spinach; transfer to a serving platter. Set aside.

Sprinkle fish fillets with salt & pepper. In the same skillet, heat the remaining 2 tbsp oil over medium-high heat. Add fish; cook 4 minutes. Carefully turn fish. Reduce heat to medium; cook 3 minutes more or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Place fish fillets on top of wilted spinach; cover to keep warm.

In a small bowl stir together the balsamic vinegar and honey. Add to skillet. Cook and stir until heated through, scraping up any browned bits. To serve, spoon balsamic vinaigrette over fish and spinach.

Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken

I decided to try to make a special dinner for my husband last night since we both have to work on Valentines Day. I meant to surprise him, but duty called with Ash so dinner was way late. It was delicious though.

Prosciutto Wrapped  Chicken

1 package of boneless skinless chicken breast
1/2 lb of thinly sliced prosciutto
3 tbsp of crushed garlic
fresh basil
1 package of sliced portabello mushrooms
sliced provolone cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Trim the fat off of your chicken breasts. Smear some of the crushed garlic onto the chicken. This is really up to you on how much you want to put on there. We love garlic so we tend to be heavy handed with it. Place a piece or 2 of fresh basil on then wrap the chicken breast up in prosciutto. Once all of your chicken is in a large casserole dish, lay provolone slices on top. Add the mushrooms and bake for about 45 minutes. I found that this made a delicious broth and there was no oil necessary. I served this with mashed potatoes.

Snickerdoodle Bars

I love snickerdoodles!!!! A friend of mine gave me this recipe for snickerdoodle bars. I immediately had to try it out. You can try adding some extra cinnamon to the dough for extra flavor if you like. Enjoy!

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar + 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 8×8-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. (You can double this recipe and use a 9x13 baking dish)
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in salt, egg and vanilla extract until well combined. Add in flour and stir until no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Pour dough – it will be thick – into prepared baking dish and smooth it into an even layer- You will probably have to wash your hands and use your fingers to pat it down evenly.
Stir together remaining 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp ground cinnamon. Sprinkle dough evenly with cinnamon sugar mixture.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until bars are set and the edges are just very lightly browned. Cool in the pan before slicing.