Oreo Dream Cupcakes

I want to take a moment to apologize for my lack of food blogging these past several days. I have been a little under the weather and haven't been cooking quite as much because I haven't had much of an appetite. Once again we had our family dinner on Saturday night and we went pretty easy, I made a big pot of sloppy joes and some macaroni and cheese out of the box, please forgive me father for I have sinned...lol. If it makes you feel any better I did make these fabulous cupcakes which are some what of a spin off of Christy's Kitchen Creations blog. She called hers Mississippi Mud Cupcakes and everything was made from scratch, I cheated and used the box cake mix.

The measurements aren't exact since I pretty much flew by the seat of my pants but the extras I had of everything made great snacks.

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
1 box of milk chocolate cake mix (Make as instructed on the box)
10-12 Oreo Cookies, crushed
Lg. box Vanilla Pudding, instant
Icing:
2 blocks of cream cheese (16 oz.)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 C. powdered sugar

6-7 oreos crushed

1.) Take oreos and crush, placing about two teaspoons into each cupcake wrapper.
2.) Pour batter into each cupcake wrapper over top of the crushed oreos. Bake as directed and allow to cool.
3.) Once cupcakes are cooled, make your vanilla pudding as instructed on the box. With a pastry bag fill each cupcake with the pudding mixture after the vanilla has had time to set up.
4.) In a large bowl beat together room temperature cream cheese with vanilla extract and powdered sugar. Add crushed oreos and gently mix. Top each cupcake with icing.

I used the large box of vanilla pudding and had two little dessert bowls left over. You can either do the same as I did and just have some vanilla pudding for a snack later or you can use the smaller box. I also had quite a bit of the icing left over which my Uncle Dan and I found to be quite tasty on graham crackers. If you don't want to make extra just cut everything in half.

Chicken and Broccoli Spaghetti

I love Italian food, especially anything made with spaghetti noodles, so when my step-mom started making this dish for us years ago I definitely made sure to keep track of how it was done and make sure it was stored away upstairs for when I needed it. Now that she and my Dad are divorced it's a pretty safe bet to say it's a good thing I was paying attention. This is a simple dish that has simple ingredients. The addition of the ranch seasoning should get all kids excited because come on...what kid does not love ranch?

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 sm. bag frozen broccoli,thawed
1/2 lb. spaghetti noodles
1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning
butter
Parmesan Cheese

Directions:
1.)Bring water to a boil for spaghetti noodles, cook as directed on the box.
2.) In a food processor, take your broccoli which has been thawed and process into fine pieces. You do not want to cook the broccoli as it will cook in the saute pan.
3.) In a large saute pan melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and add shredded chicken, broccoli, and ranch seasoning. Cook until everything is warmed through.
4.) After spaghetti noodles are done boiling add about a couple of tablespoons of the liquid to your saute pan. Drain noodles and then add to saute pan.
5.) Toss ingredients and serve. Top each plate of spaghetti with the Parmesan cheese.The picture I have posted is missing a very important ingredient! I make this dish so often that I usually always keep a bag of frozen broccoli in the freezer, for once I did not have any. I was in the mood for this dish though so it was full steam ahead. It was good without it, but I definitely enjoy it better with it.