Chocolate Strawberry Chocolate Cake

Bake at 350*
1 Devil's Food Cake Mix
3 eggs
1/2 C. Vegetable Oil
1 1/4 C. Water
1 C. Instant Chocolate pudding prepared (makes cake super moist!)
Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting (Recipe Below)
Fresh Strawberries
Powdered Sugar

Combine cake mix, oil, water, eggs. Mix until well combined. Fold in Chocolate pudding. Grease with shortening then lightly flour two 8-inch circle pans, pour batter into both pans, distributing batter equaly. Cook for 30-34 minutes. I cook mine for 31 min. and that works perfectly for my oven. Set cakes on counter to cool for about 10-15 mins. Take butter knife and loosen edges. Cakes need to be somewhat cooled before removing them from pans. Place cooling rack against cake pans, turn both rack and cake over so cake is resting on rack. Cool thouroughly on rack. Cakes are great made the night before and stored in an airtight container. Make Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting. (Recipe Below) Take a small amount of frosting and put it on center of cake board or cake stand. This will keep the cake from slipping while decorating. Once cooled, take the cakes turning it right side up and place it on cake board or stand. Remove crowns from cakes center so that the tops of the cakes are flat. To Tort the cakes place one hand on top of cake and slide knife evenly through cake to divide it into two equal layers. Carefully remove top layer and set aside. Spread some of the Chocolate Butter Cream frosting on bottom layer evenly, replace top layer. Frost top layer with frosting. Take 2nd cakes bottom and place on top. Frost and then top with final layer. Frost top and sides of cake. Layer strawberries in a ring around edge of cake and dust the cake with powdered sugar.

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting
1/3 C. Butter
4 C. Powdered Sugar
1/2 C. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/4 C. Milk
1 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla

In mixing bowl beat butter and cocoa until fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups of the sugar, beat well. Slowly beat in 1/4 C. Milk and vanilla. Add rest of sugar. Add more milk if too thick and more powdered sugar if too thin!



Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

Chocolate Pan-Crepes

So this is kind of a semi-homemade quick fix breakfast! I love Krusteaz Pancake mix because all you have to add is water and it's great for food storage. I like thin pancakes, almost crepe thin! So I took my pancake mix and thinned it down so I could do a rolled filling and fast!
Serves 4
2 Cups Krusteaz Pancake Mix
2 Cups Water (equal parts, so if you use 1 1/2 C. mix use same amount of water)
1/2 C. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
Sugar and Cinnamon
Vanilla Yogurt
Fresh Cut Strawberries
Honey or Maple Syrup
Powdered Sugar

Combine Pancake mix and water, not thin enough, add more water, too thin add more mix. Add cocoa. You want these pretty thin and crepe like. Cook one side until bubbles form and do not pop, flip to other side. Take cooked pan-crepe and spread butter, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar, follow with a layer of vanilla yogurt, strawberries, and drizzle with either honey or maple syrup. Rollup and top with more fresh strawberries, a drizzle of the syrup or honey, and dust with powdered sugar!

Baked Penne Lasagna

1lb. Penne Pasta
1lb. Hamburger
1/2 of a sweet onion
2 tsp. garlic minced
1 15oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 C. Parslery chopped plus about 2 T. chopped
1 C. Cottage/Ricotta Cheese
1 egg
1/2 lemon squeezed juice
1/2 C. Parmesan cheese
2 C. Mozzarella Cheese

Bring water in pot to boil, add penne pasta, cook about 11 min. until Al dente, Meanwhile brown hamburger, add onion and garlic, when hamburger is cooked through, add tomato sauce, and 1/2 C. parsley. In a mixing bowl mix cottage cheese, 2 T. parsley, egg, lemon juice and parmesan cheese. In bakeware layer half of the pasta, then half of the cottage cheese mixture, than half of the meat sauce and then 1 C. of the Mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers with other halves in same order, topping with the Mozzarealla. Heat oven to 400* you want it to get a crust. Cheese should golden but don't burn. About 10 min. Just watch it!

Easy Shrimp Tacos with Sweet Rice

Sweet Rice
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1 1/3 C. Rice
4 cups chicken broth, very important
1/2 cup sugar

Heat butter in pan, add onion and cook until translucent add cilantro and cook an additional minute. Stir in the rice, saute until brown, be careful not to let it burn. Add broth, then sugar to rice mixture, stir rice once, Cover and let simmer until a small amount of water is left. Take off heat and keep covered until ready to serve.

8 Corn Tortillas
1lb. Uncooked, easy peel shrimp
1 T. Butter
1T. EVOO
1 mango or bag of frozen chopped mango
1/2 of a red onion
1/2 C. Cilantro
12 Cherry tomatoes Halved
Juice from 1 lime
Lime Zest
Bag of pre-shredded cabbage
1 C. Shredded Cheddar Cheese
In a bowl combine mango chopped into cubes, add chopped red onion, chopped cilantro, tomato halves and a pinch of salt. Zest lime and add to salsa, squeeze juice from one lime over the mix and stir.






Heat tortillas in microwave for 30 seconds, they need to be warm so they don't crack. Put frozen shrimp in colander and rinse. Peel and remove tails from uncooked shrimip.


Heat Butter and EVOO in pan, mixing the fats.
Add a single layer of shrimp to pan and cook for about 45 seconds, on each side over med-high heat, I set mine to a 6. Don't get to many shrimp in the pan or it will start to boil or steam it. After it turns pink and browns and carmalizes on one side, turn to cook on other side. It cooks really fast.

Take tortilla and do a layer of shrimp, then a layer of shredded cabbage, followed by the mango salsa, and top with shredded cheese. Add a dollop of sour cream, or make it healthy and use plain yogurt. That's what I have in the picture. Serve with a side of the sweet rice, or add the sweet rice as a layer to your tacos! Enjoy!