Jell-O Cookies, Orange Creamsicle & Coconut Lime

Pantry Recipe:

I admit I am not a lover of jiggly Jell-o dishes. I keep Jell-o in my pantry for other purposes, mainly flavoring for other dishes. When I saw these bright Jell-O cookies on Pinterest, I thought my girls will think those are so fun to make.  But I wanted to give these sugar cookies even a little more flavor. Plus it always fun to play mad scientist in the kitchen with your daughters. So, I pulled out some of my flavored extracts. Which I always have in my spice cupboard because I am a cupcake girl. 

These cookies were so simple and quick to make. We made one batch of the orange creamsicle and decided we needed to make another batch.  My kids liked the Coconut Lime but I liked the especially tangy Orange Creamsicle.

A note for Lactose intolerant kids. We exchanged butter for a dairy free margarine with flax seed oil. The cookies still turned out great. 

The Recipe

For Orange Creamsicle - use orange gelatin and 1/2 tsp orange extract (a little less for a less intense orange flavor)

For Coconut Lime -- Use lime gelatin and 1/2 tsp coconut (more for more coconut flavor)

The Recipe

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 – 3oz. pkg of Jell-O

Cream the above ingredients.  

Add:

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 tsp of flavored extract

Cream the eggs and vanilla into the sugar mixture.  

Add:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400°.

Mix well.  The dough will be fairly soft, but not sticky.  You don’t need to refrigerate the dough before rolling.  

 

 Roll dough into 1″ to 1 1/4″ balls and then roll in a bowl with about 1/2 cup of granulated sugar in it, completely covering the exterior of the dough ball.  Place on the pan about 2″ apart.  Using a flat-bottomed glass (or bowl) press the dough to about a 3/8″ thickness. Sprinkle with chunky decorative sugar (found in the cookie and cupcake decorating section of your grocery or craft store)

Bake the cookies for 6 – 8 minutes.  6 minutes is long enough unless you like your cookies crisp. We did ours for about 7 and I wished I had only done 6 minutes. They do crisp up as they cool. I just really like a soft cookie. Cool on a rack.

 

Stuffed Italian - Mozzarella Meatballs & Gruyere Mushrooms

RECIPE TRIAL:

I love Italian food for so many reasons, but I especially love it because it has so many stuffed foods. Yummy delicious food on the outside -- more yummy (usually cheesy) stuff on the inside. It's all about the layers of goodness with Italian food. I have been wanting to try meatballs stuffed with mozzarella forever. And I love a good sausage meatball. So I came up with these tasty mammoth meatballs.

And on the side? I just had to serve some stuffed mushrooms. Mushrooms are how I get my husband to eat his vegetables or at least something resembling a vegetable. And who can resist these simple stuffed mushrooms? No one I tell you, No one. I used some Alouette and Gruyere for the mushrooms. The Gruyere comes from an artisan cheesemaker in Cedar City for all my Cedar City readers. Nature Hills Farms has some delicious cheeses and one of my faves is her gruyere.

Stuffed Meatballs

1 lb of mild Italian sausage, removed from casings

1/2 lb of ground pork

1/2 Cup of panko bread crumbs

1/4 Cup milk (we used soy milk and they turned out fine)

1 egg

1 Tb Worchestire sauce

1/4 tsp kosher salt (or to taste but the sausage is pretty well seasoned)

2 garlic cloves minced

Few dashes of ground pepper. 

Fresh mozzarella, drained well -- Fresh in the water mozzarella pearls work great. Don't use cheese sticks. The fresh stuff is just better for this recipe.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.

Combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl (minus the mozzarella) and stir until combined.

Form meatballs by taking approximately 1/4 cup of meat and forming into ball. Place on cookie sheet and form a well in top of each meatball. 

Add mozzarella  pearls to wells. 

Close tops of meatballs around pearls and cook for 35 to 40 minutes until golden on top and no longer pink.

Serve with your favorite marinara sauce (aka gravy) and some pasta. 

Stuffed Gruyere Mushrooms

So easy it is ridiculous.

Mushrooms, however many you want. Stems removed,

Herbed Alouette spread

Grated Gruyere

Heat oven to 425,

Stuff mushroom caps to top with Alouette.

Sprinkle with gruyere.

Place in a baking pan and bake for 10-12 minutes or until gruyere starts to get golden.

Serve warm.

Like I said -- Easy!

Pineapple Grape Bruschetta

Pantry Recipe:

I love the word bruschetta. Mostly because it means some sweet or savory or spicy mixture all served up on a bite size piece of toast. I am especially enamored with fruit bruschetta lately. I dreamed up this recipe because 1. I just bought a case of canned pineapple (my family goes through that stuff) and 2. it just sounded so perfect for spring and Easter. I love that this fresh tasting bruschetta can rely on a pantry staple like canned pineapple.

This recipe makes good use of a stale baguette or any baguette bread and one of my favorite spice mixes: Cinnamon and Sugar. I always keep a jar of half cinnamon and half sugar mixed together on hand for those cinnamon sugar moments and this is one of them.

I really think these will be lovely on a platter for your Easter celebration for breakfast, brunch or dinner. 

Pineapple Grape Bruschetta.

1 can of pineapple in 100 % pineapple juice

1 cup of grapes sliced in 1/2

4 oz of vanilla yogurt. ( I used a Greek vanilla honey yogurt)

1 tsp of honey (you don't need this if your yogurt is honey flavored)

About 20 slices of baugette bread sliced 1 inch thick

About 1 tsp Cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Butter baguettes and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Place on a cookie sheet and place in oven until lightly golden.

Remove and set aside. You can leave these without topping until about 10 minutes before ready to serve to keep bread crisp.

Combine yogurt and honey.

Chop pineapples and add to sliced grapes. Sprinkle with a dash of cinnamon sugar. 

Top prepared toasts with a tsp of yogurt and then about a TB of fruit mixture. 

Serve.