Week 30

Sunday  March 6, 2010

Super Easy Tortilla Soup, German Chocolate Bars

This week we have a special Guest-- Alexis!!!! She's spending the week with us on our spring break.  I drove down with the girls and met my sister half way between our houses for the exchange.  Since we spent the day driving on saturday, the name "Super Easy" jumped off the page as I strummed through our ward cook book that night. This was the recipe for me.  I remembered some  delicious sounding dessert from a Lionhouse Entertaining book we have. When I saw the German chocolate bars I thought it was a wonderful fusion of two loves, cookie bars and coconut pecan frosting--mmm mmm!

I guess this recipe isn't "super easy" for all the cooks!

The girls were in charge of rinsing the beans

Every thing goes straight into the crockpot. I just had to brown some chicken.

I love recipes like this. Especially on Sunday when we get home ravenous at 4:30.  It's wonderful to walk in to the aroma of dinner. 

 I think I like it so much because it brings back memories of Sunday dinners as a kid. My dad worked long hours and my siblings who were left at home were already teenagers from the time I can remember-- they were busy during the week and so, as I recall, traditional family dinners were not an every night occurance. But on Sunday, my mom often put in a roast before church, and we would come home to the delicous smell of a cooked dinner. Most importantly we had a family dinner in the dining room and we all ate together--I loved it.

After church, the kids were a bit distracted and I had a difficult time getting them to come help. I finally told them if they wanted the dessert, they had to make it themselves and left out the recipe. For Isabel-- who loves german chocolate-- that was all she needed to hear to make a bee line for the kitchen. Nothing like a threat to command attention. This one I thought was justified. Let the person who cares the most do the work. Today, it turned out to be Isabel!

While Elayna and Alexis started out helping.  This was about as far as they made it.

After that, they spent the time doing this...

Even rain can't keep the kids inside...

While Isabel did this...

and this...

And this...

and cooked the frosting...

And baked them...

She said she didn't mind. She loves to cook and she definitely has the attention span for it!

Luckily for her everyone got to enjoy these!

Lion House German Chocolate Bars

Bars:

2/3 cup butter

1 pkg. German Chocolate Cake Mix

1 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 tub coconut pecan frosting

 ( the actual recipe called for canned frosting-- are you serious? that is something I might expect from a pillsbury published pamphlet, but Lionhouse? so we tried a new frosting recipe from our ward cook book.  I just thought that was funny)

Frosting

1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
3 eggs yolks
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/3 cups coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Frosting directions: Combine the first 5 ingrediants in a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat for about 12 min. Remove from heat. Add coconut and pecans. Stir.

Cookie Bar Directions:

Cut butter into cake mix. press into greased  9x13 pan. Bake 10 minutes. spread choc chips over crust, and frosting (see frosting below) and then bake another 25 min or so. Cool and cut into bars. 

Review

These were yummy, but they were quite the sugar bomb. Of course that didn't stop us from gobbling them up. The best part was the frosting, and that is why the idea of a German chocolate bar is genious, it solves the frosting ratio issue that I have with cake. Too much cake not enough frosting. These bars were a little too dense and sugary since you only add butter to the cake mix. Next time I would try making a traditional cake mix cookie recipe and either follow the directions the same, or just spread on the frosting after they are baked. These will definitely be experimented with in the future, they were tasty. Thank you little red hen Isabel!

Super Easy Tortialla Soup

1 can condensed chicken with rice soup

1 1/3 cup water

1 cup salsa

1 can pinto beans

1 can black beans

1 can corn

1 cup diced cooked chicken

1 tsp. gr. cumin

Directions:

In a large sauces pan combine all ingrediants. Cook over medium heat 5-7 min. Until heated through. Serve with tortilla chips, cheese, and sour cream.

(we doubled the recipe and put everything in the crock pot before church. and cooked it on high for 4 hours or so. )

Review:

This was a big hit. Isabel even said it might rival Chicken Courdon Blue for her. This recipe was super easy and super tasty-- thumbs way up! I like the chicken alternative to a popular Taco Soup recipe we like to make.  I am sure we will be revisiting this one many times in the years to come!