Chocolate Crazy Cake

This cake is so delicious and easy! I first found the recipe over on Sweet Little Bluebird. Make sure to check her out; she has a variety of different flavors to go with this cake! This cake has no eggs, no milk and no butter, plus it is so simple you don't even need a mixer. This is a cake that was created during the Depression, where eggs, butter and milk were not as easy to acquire. This is the 2nd time that I have made this cake this week.

The recipe is so basic and simple I decided to make up three bags of dry ingredients to speed up the next time that I make it. With as simple as this cake is to make I taped a little direction sheet to each bag, so no matter who makes it they can do it easily without having to go look for the recipe.

Chocolate Crazy Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

3 Tbsp. cocoa (unsweetened)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp.  salt

1 tsp. white vinegar

1 tsp.  pure vanilla extract

5 Tbsp. vegetable oil 

1 cup water 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8x8 pan. Simply mix all of the dry ingredients together. Create 3 wells or holes in the dry ingredients; dump vinegar, vanilla, and oil into those holes. Dump the water all over the top of the cake. Mix everything together until smooth and put it in the pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until done.

Note:

I made these into cupcakes and one batch made 12 regular cupcakes.

I frosted them using my Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting. I simply made a half batch of frosting (I only use 4 ounces Cream Cheese instead of 5). The white frosting is the same recipe minus the chocolate, and with a tsp more vanilla.

Homemade Mac & Cheese

I'm not a huge fan of mac and cheese but this stuff is really good. I have made it many times and the last few times I have been tweaking it.

This is the basic recipe:

Ingredients:  

2 cups dried pasta

2½ cups milk

1 cup shredded cheese

4 oz. cream cheese

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

Directions:

In a small saucepan, add pasta and milk. Bring to simmer, then reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes, until pasta is soft, stirring frequently and ensuring milk does not boil. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Turn heat off, add cheese, salt and stir to combine. Stir in the mustard a little at a time to taste. Cover and let stand for about 5 minutes, then stir again and serve. If not creamy enough, add milk a little at a time, and gently stir. If you would like to bake it at this point, place in a baking dish and top with a generous sprinkling of cheese. Bake for approximately 10 minutes until cheese has melted.

NOTE: I never bake it in the oven and I also don't turn off the heat when adding the cheese, I just turn it down.

Tweak 1: I added 6 oz of cream cheese instead of 4. Good but almost too creamy.

Tweak 2: I have started doing a heaping tsp of mustard. I do the regular amounts of everything but I have added two oz of Velveeta cheese. It gave a little more of a cheesy flavor and added nice texture.

Shake 'N Bake Steak Fries

We decided we wanted to try a new twist on steak fries, so this time we cut up the potatoes and tossed it in Ranch & Herb Shake 'N Bake. We then baked it at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes or until tender. They were really good.

Crockpot Chicken Tacos

This is meat is delicious! We've made this with chicken and pork, I prefered the chicken but both were really good. The recipe came from Chocolate Therapy and is very simple. Dump the meat, 1 oz taco seasoning, and 16 oz salsa in the crockpot then give it a stir. We cooked it for 6 to 8 hours on low. After it was done it go shredded and put back in the crockpot and stirred up. It made leftovers that were just as good the second or third day as it was the first.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

I really like taco seasoning but it always seems to give me indigestion. I found this homemade taco seasoning on pinterest and decided to give it a try. Super easy to make and NO indigestion!

Ingredients

6 T. chili powder

9 tsp. ground cumin

6 tsp. fine sea salt

6 tsp. ground black pepper

3 tsp. smoked paprika

1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 1/2 tsp. onion powder

1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp. granulated sugar

Directions

In a small bowl, stir all ingredients together until well-combined. Store in an air-tight container. Makes 5.2oz.