Easy Cheaters Chocolate Cake

Easy Cheaters Chocolate Cake

1 German Chocolate Cake mix
3 heaping T cocoa powder
1 stick butter
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk

Melt stick of butter. Combine all ingredients. Bake at 350 until center of cake is no longer wet.

Vegetarian Peanut Noodles

Vegetarian Peanut Noodles

1 (8 oz.) linguine, cooked and hot (really, any type of long noodle will do)
1/2 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter
1/3 cup reserved pasta water (more or less to thin out the sauce)
1-2 T brown sugar
1-2 T soy sauce
1 tsp. fresh ginger or 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
2-3 green onions, thinly sliced, white and tender green parts only
cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Whisk together the peanut butter, brown sugar, soy sauce, and ginger. Add the water a little at a time until the sauce reaches desired consistency. Pour over the noodles and toss to coat. Add the veggies and toss again. Garnish and serve.

Teriyaki Sauce

Teriyaki Sauce

1 cup Soy Sauce
1 cup white sugar
1 cup water
fresh ginger and garlic, minced (to your taste)

Mix well to dissolve sugar. Store in the fridge.

Applesauce Cookies:

Applesauce Cookies

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups flour
• chocolate chips, nuts, raisins

Mix the first 5 ingredients together. Then add in the rest of the dry ingredients to it, combining well. Now add your chocolate chips, nuts, or raisins. Scoop onto a baking sheet. The dough will be very soft. It gets plopped on the baking sheet, but will cook up nicely. Bake for 8-11 minutes at 400* or until lightly brown. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Recipe from Marie

Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream Sauce

Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream Sauce

1 bag (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 C firmly packed powdered sugar

4 TB butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. almond extract

dash of salt

1/2 C milk, any kind

Place all ingredients except milk into a large glass bowl and microwave on high until boiling, stirring after 30 second intervals. Immediately pour chocolate mixture into a blender and add milk. Blend for 1 minute and add more milk if needed slowly until sauce is smooth and thick. Keep refrigerated.

Yields 3 small 8 oz. jars. To serve, warm in microwave for 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds. Spoon over ice cream, brownies or fresh fruit!

Sugar Candy

Sugar Candy

(picture from: mspmag.com)

Ingredients:
1 cup of water
3 cups of white granulated sugar
drinking glasses (as many colored candies you want)
food coloring
bamboo skewers (the ones in the photo above were done with a cord tied on a pencil and we didn't like the results as much.

Directions:

On medium to high heat, boil 2 cups of sugar and water while stirring continuosly. Once sugar is dissolved and looks clear, add remaining cup of sugar a little at a time. Once all is dissolved, turn off heat and let mixture cool for 20 minutes. Pour into glasses. Add whatever color of food color you want into the glasses. Put skewers into the glass with pointed side down. Leave overnight and check the next day. There should be sugar crystals formed onto skewer. Leave in glass longer and more will form. Recommend leaving skewers in glass at least 2 days.

White Chocolate Popcorn

White Chocolate Popcorn
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs of white almond bark
1 bag almond slivers (optional)
3 bags fat free popcorn (reg works but is more yellow)
Confectioners sugar
1-2 T shortening (optional)

Directions:
Pop popcorn in microwave and place in large bowl. Melt almond bark in microwave according to the package’s directions. If bark is not smooth after melting, stir in shortening until mixture is smooth and loose enough to coat popcorn. Mix over popcorn and almond slivers unit well coated. Sprinkle confectioners sugar over all and mix until the sheen is gone from chocolate. Add more sugar as needed.