Recipe

If you have kids, you need Mini Air Fryer Pizzas

by

Pizza and Air Fryer… Need I say more?

Bagel Bites are another thing that’s super convenient… But maybe not the healthiest. I love that an entire pack fits into my Power Air Fryer XL. I’m all about my Air Fryer, and we are all for pizza. 🍕 We are part Italian 🇮🇹, so it kinda makes sense. In trying to make room in our freezer before my Costco run, I found a pack of English muffins… I also saw an almost empty bottle bottle of Marinara in the fridge and a pack of pepperoni… And we always have shredded cheese. So… Mini Air Fryer Pizzas was invented… This morning. 😂

Super easy, the kids can even help!

They could have helped… Except I did it before they caught me. I was trying to get to Costco early, but that didn’t end up happening. First, I made a batch of Boiled Eggs in my Instant Pot because I wanted to make room for fresh eggs. Then I made these mini pizzas and by the time I got to Costco, I had missed the Clorox Wipes 😕. I saw a guy walking out with the prized possessions and when I got to the back corner there were none to be found. We don’t even use Clorox wipes at home, but it’s on the school supply list for second grade, so I’m on the hunt now.

Cut your English muffin in half to make 2 mini pizzas. Top with marinara, or your favorite sauce, add some shredded cheese, and some toppings, then a little more cheese. I would add more cheese on top to help with the casualty we had…

4 mini pizzas ready for the Air Fryer!

Gently place them into your basket.

Set the timer for 5 minutes.

And voila! We only had one major casualty… One pepperoni flew off and landed in the middle. I just put it back on top of the one pizza with only 2 pepperoni. Nobody knew. 🤷🏽‍♀️ But I would use more cheese next time to try to keep the pepperoni from flying. One did curl, I’m assuming the heavier cheese would have kept that one flat as well. I didn’t get to taste them since they were gone before I got home, so I’ll take that as a good sign that the kids approved!

I used whole grain English muffins since that’s what we had on hand. Next time I may try to make our own. 🤔 I did finally buy yeast for the first time ever, so watch out… This Mama is going to get to baking!

Meringue Cookies

by

I had never tried meringue cookies until a few years ago when we were visiting our friends that live in Las Vegas and they had a container of them in their pantry.

It’s not something I had ever seen in the grocery store, but I did find them at Whole Foods and bought myself a container… Once after trying them in Vegas. 😂

So that was the only two times… In my LIFE… that I had meringue cookies, until… I saw them on Pinterest recently. I don’t know how Pinterest knows just the right things to show me 🤷🏽‍♀️. I think I was actually looking up royal icing and since you make that with meringue powder it noticed the connection and had to throw it out to see if I’d bite… And I totally did.

But, I didn’t see any recipes that used the Wilton Meringue Powder, only recipes that say how important it is so make sure you only have egg white and nothing else… AT ALL. Sorry, but I don’t have time for all that madness, I just wanted an easy recipe using my cheater meringue powder… Which was also not easy to find.

I was trying to order from Amazon but they won’t ship to California… They’ll ship to every other state… But California 🤦🏽‍♀️. So I asked my trusty Facebook friends and they said I could find it at Wal-Mart. I went on my search for all things baking and there was no meringue powder to be found 🙄. But… I thought I remembered seeing baking things in the craft area as well on a previous visit, so I made the trek across the store and found it! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 If you are looking for meringue powder make sure you check by the baking pans in the craft area… Baking is an art after all! 😘

Since Pinterest wasn’t much help for a recipe using meringue powder, I had to try to navigate my way through the Wilton site… I did find a recipe but I wouldn’t say it was the most descriptive… So I’m going to write it in easier to understand (for me anyway) terms and hopefully you’ll me able to follow along.

What you’ll need…

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extra
  • 1/8 cup meringue powder
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 2/3 cups granulated sugar

You’ll also want to have:

  • A mixer (I used my mother-in-love’s old Kitchenaid mixer and am loving it, but this one looks like it has all the same attachments and is much more affordable)
  • Piping bags with tips (I bought this set and these bags are amazing! The tips are pretty cool too)
  • Icing color (I used these gel drops)
  • Baking mats… you could use parchment paper, but I didn’t have any so I ordered both parchment paper and these baking mats from Amazon at the same time and I don’t know how I lived without these mats before… LOVE them!

Before you get started, you should know that these need to cool in the oven for several hours, so they are best made at night so they can stay in the oven overnight and be ready in the morning.

Step 1

Preheat oven to 250°F. Place your baking mats into your baking pans.

Step 2

In large bowl, whip Meringue Powder and water with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form, do you even know what soft peaks are? If you don’t, I took a picture, essentially it’s when you see little lines forming and it isn’t a runny texture anymore. With mixer running, gradually add sugar. Whip until stiff peaks. Add vanilla extract and icing color and whip until well combined, scraping down bottom and sides of bowl as necessary.

Step 3

Fill your piping bag with the meringue and squeeze out 2 inch circles onto your baking mat about 1 inch apart from each other. I also did smaller little stars between my bigger circles and they turned out super cute as well.

Step 4

Bake 50 minutes or until outsides of meringues feel firm and crisp, turn off the over and let them cool for several hours on the pan. If you make these at night they can stay in the oven overnight. Once cooled, peel cooled meringues off of baking mat. Keep them in an airtight container at room temp for up 2 weeks.

Tips:

  • Use granulated sugar, I felt that it kept the consistency better for piping. I tried the second batch with powdered sugar and it seemed way too soft.
  • You can experiment with different flavors, but…. after trying 4 additional flavors, I think vanilla is still my favorite, even thought I love almond and coconut flavors, they just didn’t taste as great as the vanilla.
  • You can double the recipe. This is actually half of the recipe that Wilton has posted and it made so many cookies that I was glad I only did half because my oven wouldn’t have had the space for 4 pans.
  • I also bought these spatulas with my other baking goodies and they make it much easier to load your meringue into your piping bags towards the tip and not have to squeeze it down from the top.

Please let me know what you think and if you have any other fun ideas for me me to try!

Turkey Chili – Instant Pot Style

by

I made turkey chili a week or so ago and all three kids loved it!

When I started talking to Victoria about what she thinks would be good lunches to take to school, she had chili on her list 😁.

So… I was happy to add this recipe to my new list of go to recipes the family loves. It’s so easy too! You can certainly tweak it to make it your own, but this is how I made mine.

First, I set my Instant Pot to Saute – Normal, added some garlic powder, season salt, and onion powder in and browned my ground turkey 🦃 (I don’t know if it’s really “browned” since it goes from pink to white… But you know what I mean). After the turkey is cooked and I’ve used my spoon to break it into smaller chunks, I hit the cancel button to turn it off.

I ended up adding some pepper too, but it was after I took the picture. 🖼️

I then added a full can of diced tomatoes, a can of sweet corn (drained), a can of tomato paste, a corn sized can of water, two cans of black beans (rinsed until they ran clear), and seasonings (oregano, chili powder, cumin, and cayenne).

Stirred it up, closed the lid, made sure the lid was sealed, then did manual cook for 20 minutes.

Once your timer tells you it’s done, it still has pressure, say I throw a towel over the vent, twist the vent open, then walk away while the steam escapes for a few minutes (and doesn’t splatter all over my cabinets because of my handy towel). After the pin has dropped, it’s ready to open and enjoy!

It was delicious… And Alexandria thoroughly enjoyed it… So did her face… And her hair 🤦‍♀️


I didn’t measure anything… Just sprinkled in however much I thought looked good, I’ll try to provide estimates below. 😉

I used about a teaspoon of the garlic powder, seasoning salt, and onion powder. 

I used about half a teaspoon of the pepper, cilantro, cumin, and cayenne pepper.

I used about 2 tablespoons of the chili powder.

I’ll try to take more accurate measurements next time.

Chillier than the Fortress of Solitude Chili Corn Dip Recipe

by

Someone made this recipe at my work years ago, and it was delicious! So I’ve made it for parties here and there and it’s always been a hit. And even if it wasn’t… My hubby and I love it, so we don’t mind having leftovers 😂

But… Clearly I thought it had cream cheese in it, when I laid out the ingredients, when the original recipe actually didn’t have it, so I made it my own. 😉 And instead of buying the already diced jalapeños, I bought the huge Costco can and chopped them myself… I always love a bargain, and my hubby loves jalapeños anyway, so they won’t go to waste.

And, I’m making this recipe for mom’s group bunco night at my place, and we are doing a superhero theme, so I had to give the title a super twist.

Chile Corn Dip

Ingredients:

(3) 11 oz cans Green Giant Mexicorn (Sweet corn & diced peppers), drained

7 oz can chopped green chilies, drained

6 oz can chopped jalapenos, drain liquid into another container, so you can add as much liquid to suit your tastes

1 cup green onion, choped

1 cup mayonnaise

8 oz container sour cream

1/2 cup cream cheese

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

16 oz package shredded cheese (I used Cheddar Jack)

Tortilla Chips

Directions:

Mix all ingredients, except tortilla chips together and refrigerate. Serve with tortilla chips.

And… I saw that the Mexicorn had box tops on it! Score! Especially since my oldest is starting kindergarten next month! 🙌