Chocolate Coconut Coffee Cake

My mom used to make this every Christmas Day morning, so when we started having our own Christmas mornings I had to get the recipe from her, it is sooooo good.

2 cups biscuit/baking mix
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted, divided
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions
In a large bowl, combine the biscuit mix and 1/4 cup sugar. Whisk the egg, milk and 2 tablespoons butter; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Pour into a greased 8-in. square baking dish. Pour chocolate over the batter; cut through batter with a knife to swirl the chocolate.
Combine the coconut, nuts, and remaining sugar and butter; sprinkle over the top. Bake at 400° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 9 servings.

Sour Cream Rice

This is from one of my favorite What's Cooking girls, Carrie or Carrie's Sweet Life. She originally got this recipe from Allrecipes then I got it from her!

1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth
1 cup reduced fat sour cream
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chile peppers
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
1 (8.75 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
salt and ground black pepper to taste
In a large pot, bring the rice and chicken broth to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 1-1/2 quart casserole dish.

In the pot with the cooked rice, mix the sour cream, green chile peppers, 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese, corn, and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to the prepared casserole dish, and top with remaining cheese.

Bake uncovered 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until cheese is bubbly and lightly browned.

Weekly Menu 12/28-1/2

Monday: We stopped for a late lunch at Jose Peppers--kind of a last dinner before K went back to work!

Tuesday: Taco Pie, Sour Cream Rice

Wednesday: Cottage Cheese Chicken Enchilada's from Carrie's Sweet Life. I love Carrie and her great recipes, oh and her gorgeous new daughter!

Thursday: NYE: party at our friends house may make a dessert and bacon wrapped smokies for it, we are having apps and I think she was thinking a soup/chili!

Friday: New recipe out of my new Philsbury cookbook my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas! It's a braided crescent roll/meat/cheese creation!

Saturday: I am not sure as I think my hubby is cutting wood which means I'm on my own, so eggs or soup probably!

As you can tell my new craving is everything Mexican. I am usually not a huge van but K is and he is loving this!

Christmas Trays

We went to my mom & dads tonight and my mom pulls out these trays she has been working on. She had one she was going to make for me but nothing was put on it yet, so she let me work on it! I had a blast doing it and think it turned out cute!

White hot chocolate

I started making this 2 years ago for my cookie party and am tired of having to look it up every year so this year I am putting it in my blog. It is so good and my new fave!

From Sandra Lee

1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
4 cups half-and-half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
Vanilla whipped topping, for garnish
Candy cane, crushed or whole, for garnish
Peppermint liqueur, optional
White chocolate liqueur, optional

Directions
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine white chocolate chips and heavy cream. Stir continuously until white chocolate chips have completely melted. Stir in the half-and-half, vanilla extract and peppermint extract. Stir occasionally until heated through.

Pour into mugs and top with a dollop of vanilla whipped topping and a candy cane.

Steak, mushrooms and gravy

This was super easy and it was actually really good!

I used 4 cheap steaks
1 jar beef gravy
1 can mushroom pieces

I combined all of the above ingredients in my crockpot and set it to cook. My cook times were about 6 hours on low (my crockpot cooks really hot).

We served this shredded over mashed potatoes!

Hopefully I'm back, for awhile at least!

Well the reason for my absence is that we found out on 9/29 that we are expecting our first child. Between the exhaustion of first trimester and not wanting to eat I just wasn't cooking, but now I am. I even cooked a meal last night that is blog worthy if not easy! Today I am doing some Christmas candy making, but I'm using all exsisting recipes I have on my blog! So I really hope to be back in the kitchen for at least a while!