How I Make Homemade Break-n-Bake Cookies

Recently, the young women at my church got together to bake cookies to take to some of our widows for Valentine's Day; the idea was that each of the older women would not feel alone on a day that's meant to celebrate love and togetherness. We were each asked to brink either a package of brownie mix or a package of break-n-bake refrigerated cookies to bake and then package.

You already know that I'm not a huge fan of pre-packaged foods; while I'm not opposed to using them in a pinch, if I don't have to, I won't.

So I decided to just make my own cookie dough, freeze it, and take it to the party.

My cookie dough recipe is the one that I grew up with, the one from my mom's huge orange Betty Crocker cookbook. Sometimes, you just don't need to mess with fixing what's not broken.

I mixed up the dough, then I used my Pampered Chef scoop to divvy them up on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.

I put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes, then put them in Ziploc bags and labeled them.



 

 

How I Made Country BBQ Nachos

This is another one of those I-need-to-get-some-kind-of-meal-on-the-table-ASAP dinners. It's so easy and quick and crowd-pleasing! I think I originally saw this recipe in a Schwann's catalog a million years ago, and just adapted it to our family's taste.

You will need:
Tortilla Chips
Some kind of BBQ meat (I used chicken, but it's really good with pork or beef as well)
Frozen Corn
Black Beans, drained and rinsed
Cream Cheese (I used 2 oz)
Ranch Dressing
BBQ Sauce
Shredded Cheese (I used a Mexican blend simply because that's what I had on-hand)

On a large cookie sheet, lay down a layer of tortilla chips and BBQ meat....

....a layer of frozen corn and black beans (I used about 1/4 pkg. of corn and half a can of beans)...

....a layer of cubed cream cheese (you can put as little or as much as you like...my family likes me to take it easy on the cream cheese).....

....and then squizzle on some Ranch dressing and BBQ sauce......

....and lastly, sprinkle on the cheese.

Put it in a 350-degree oven until the cheese melts (about 15 minutes in my oven).

I'm not going to pretend like this is the healthiest dinner.

Or even a moderately healthy one.

But homemade fast food beats a fast-food-chain "dinner." Every. Single. Time.

What I Wore

Top: Gift (Old Navy)
Pants: $7 (Jennifer Lopez for Kohl's)
Shoes: Already had
Necklace: $4 (Body Central)

This necklace is another hoochie store purchase. I've been seeing similar ones all around (like here and also at Anthropologie), and you just can't beat a $4 price tag.

Linked up to The Pleated Poppy.