Vanilla bean sugar cookie bars

I love vanilla.  Especially vanilla bean.  I'll take a scoop of good vanilla ice cream any day over chocolate.  So I was excited to see this recipe.  I made these yesterday and the kids told me that they're so good, I need to make them every day.  I told them that they're crazy, so Josh said he'd settle for once a month.  Ha!  Well, I don't know if they're THAT good, but they are really good.  I was totally going to take a picture of mine with a little Johnny Jump Up flower on it, like this one but the stupid, stupid rabbits ate all of my flowers.  : (  Stupid rabbits.
I didn't buy half & half so I just used milk for the frosting, which worked fine.

Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookie Bars with Vanilla Bean Frosting

Yield: About 20 bars

Ingredients

Bars
• 2 1/2 cups (354g) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 10 Tbsp (5 oz) unsalted butter, softened slightly*
• 1 cup (215g) granulated sugar
• Seeds of 1 small vanilla bean
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 3 Tbsp sour cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Frosting
• 1/2 cup (4 oz) butter (I like to use 1/4 cup salted and 1/4 cup unsalted)
• Seeds of 1 small vanilla bean
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups (240g) powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp half and half

Directions

• For the bars:
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 13" x 9" baking dish, set aside.
• In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt for 20 seconds, set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, whip together butter, sugar and vanilla bean seeds until pale and fluffy. Stir in egg then egg white. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until combined. Slowly add dry mixture and mix just until combined.
• Spray hands with non-stick cooking spray and gently press mixture into prepared baking dish. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and bars are set, about 15 - 16 minutes. Cool completely, then frost and cut into squares.
• For the frosting:
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter with vanilla bean seeds until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla, powdered sugar and half and half and mix until light an fluffy.
• *You want the butter to still be cool, this is so the dough isn't too warm and sticky to work with when pressing into the baking dish.
• Recipe and photo source: Cooking Classy

Pina Colada Chicken Salad

This is so yummy! Of course, I'm a sucker for most things with coconut, so...
I've cut the dressing ingredients in half here, which is what I made, and it still makes like 1 1/2 cups of dressing! So, you could definitely reduce it even more if you want less.

Pina Colada Chicken Salad

• 2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
• 1 cup of Italian Bread Crumbs
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 can of pineapple tidbits, (save the pineapple juice)
• 6 cups of spinach 
• Feta Cheese, optional

Dressing:

• 3/4 cups coconut milk
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice (not the pineapple juice from above)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt (may sub sour cream)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoons honey

Instructions

1. Whisk together all dressing ingredients, reserving the remaining pineapple juice. Cover and chill until ready to use.
2. Preheat oven to 400 and heavily grease a baking sheet with cooking spray or use a silpat mat.
3. Mix together the  coconut flakes, breadcrumbs and garlic salt.
4. Place your cut chicken pieces in the remaining pineapple juice (you can add a little water if don't have enough juice).  Toss the chicken in the coconut and breadcrumb mixture and coat well.
5. Place coated chicken on baking sheet and spray chicken chunks with cooking spray.
6. Bake 6-8 minutes, then flip them all over and cook on the other side another 6-8 minutes or until cooked through and lightly browned. (The coconut flakes might get dark brown, but that is okay).
7. Place your spinach on your plate and put your chicken tenders, pineapple tidbits, and optional Feta on top. Serve with pina colada dressing.

Adapted from Six Sisters' Stuff

Wow - these got an "excellent" from Jeff, and he's not a huge cherry fan.  I love that these use bing cherries, so it's another way to use them during cherry season.  Yum!

Cherry Muffins

Author: Mary Ellen @ That's My Home

Prep time:  15 mins

Cook time:  18 mins

Total time:  33 mins

Serves: 16

A perfect summer calls for sweet cherry muffins.

Ingredients

• 3½ cups flour
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ⅔ cup oil
• 1½ cups brown sugar, tightly packed
• 2 large eggs
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla
• ½ teaspoon. almond extract
• 1¼ cups buttermilk
• 2 cups pitted, quartered, sweet cherries
• coarse sugar (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pit the cherries and cut into quarters.
2. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Add the oil and brown sugar to a mixing bowl. When thoroughly combined add eggs. Mix well. Add the vanilla and almond extract.
4. Add the buttermilk and stir until combined.
5. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Stir in the cherries.
6. Use a large scoop and put the batter into cupcake tins that are lined with papers almost to the top. Sprinkle with the coarse sugar.
7. Bake muffins at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Turn oven down to 375 degrees. Bake for another 10 - 13 minutes.

Banana Crumb Cake

This is great for dessert or breakfast.  Or both!  I left the nuts out so that my picky people would eat it. The recipe called for self-rising flour for the cake but I just used all-purpose and it was fine, but I added their instructions to make self rising flour, in case you're interested.  I baked mine in loaf pans and it took about 1 hour.   Also, I have no idea where I got this recipe, so if it was from one of you - thanks!  Ha ha!  

Banana Crumb Cake

3 ripe bananas

2 C. sugar

1 stick butter, softened

1 C. milk

2 C. flour*

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 C. chopped nuts (optional)

Crumb Topping:

1 stick butter

1 C. brown sugar (dark or light)

1 C. flour

Preheat oven to 350°.

Spray 2 loaf pans or 2 8x8 pans with cooking spray.  Place the peeled bananas in mixing bowl, add sugar.  Mix until bananas are liquefied.  Add butter, mix until creamed together with banana mixture.  Add all other ingredients and blend well.  

In medium bowl, place all topping ingredients.  Cut together with a fork or pastry blender until well blended.  

Pour 1/4 of batter into each pan, top with 1/4 crumb mixture.  Pour remaing batter over and top with remaining crumb mixture.  

Bake at 350° for 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. 

*To make your own self rising flour, simply add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt for EACH cup of all purpose flour.