Blog What?

I obviously don't believe in sticking to anything, including the plan, and including my new boyfriend, this blog....sheesh.

So I don't normally do a New Years Resolution, but I picked a pretty easy one this year. I am going to try one new recipe a week.

For my very first one I decided to make Spinach and Artichoke dip. Andy came over and I tried this rockin' recipe.

Ingredientsssss!

4 cloves garlic

• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1 (10 ounce) container Alfredo-style pasta sauce
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

Directionssss

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Place garlic in a small baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven 20 to 30 minutes, until soft. Remove from heat. When cool enough to touch, squeeze softened garlic from skins.

In an 8x8 inch baking dish, spread the roasted garlic, spinach, artichoke hearts, Alfredo-style pasta sauce, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese and cream cheese.

Cover and bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until cheeses are melted and bubbly. Serve warm.

It was so good! So good that we ran out of crackers good.

Some tips: I just eyeballed the Spinach, which wasn't thawed when I was ready for it, so I ran it in a strainer under hot water and then wrapped it in a lot of paper towels and wrang it out in the sink, which was kinda gross, but worked out well. I will definitely do this recipe again! It was really so good!

So then today I did another recipe to account for this week cus I'm gonna be hella busy.

I made Banana Cinnemon muffins

Ingredientssss

1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
4 over-ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Directionssssss

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a muffin tin or line with baking cups.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat. Mix in the mashed banana. Stir in milk and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Fold dry ingredients into wet until just blended.

Spoon the batter evenly between the muffin cups and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Serve warm, with a small pat of butter, or at room temperature.

A few lessons I learned with this one:

I started to double the recipe, then remembered that I only had 4 bananas, it was a waste of ingredients.

Also, if a recipe calls for over-ripe bananas, you can't make perfectly ripe bananas work as well.

Sometimes your ingredients arn't ready for you to bake when you are.

But other than that they were pretty good!!!