No Fry Fried Ice Cream Cake with Raspberry Topping

Marilee gave me a the "Favorite Family Recipes" cookbook for my birthday and I love it! (you can find their blog here)  This recipe is from that book and Mike has repeatedly requested this.   I am making this for Carter's ice cream social before he leaves so depending on when you see this, you may or may not have tried this already. Enjoy!

1 C. Butter
1 C. Brown Sugar
3 C. crispy rice cereal
1 C. sweetened, flaked coconut
1/2 C. chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream (recommended: use the square boxes so you can just open up and slice)

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.  Add brown sugar and mix until dissolved.  In a large bowl, combine cereal, coconut, and nuts.  Pour melted butter and brown sugar over cereal mixture and stir until coated.  Press half of cereal mix into the bottom of a 9x13 pan.  Cut ice cream in 1-inch slices and spread evenly over mixture in pan.  Spread remaining cereal mixture evenly over ice cream.  Place in freezer for at least one hour.  Cut into squares and serve with raspberry sauce, hot fudge, caramel, strawberries or any other topping you like.

Raspberry Sauce
2 T. cornstarch
3/4 C. water
1 pt fresh or frozen raspberries
1/3 C. sugar
1/3 C. orange juice

In a small bowl, whisk water and cornstarch until blended.  In a medium saucepan, combine raspberries, sugar, and orange juice.  Slowly add cornstarch mixture.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened.

Baked Black Bean Flautas

So....I'm not sure if anyone is still looking at this blog anymore but I still think of recipes to post on here all of the time.  So if nothing else, I know where they will always be, once I get them all posted haha

A friend of mine brought something very similar to this to us the week after I had Warren and we loved them so I found a recipe on Pinterest that is very comparable.  I've made it a few times for us (and I made it for Serena & Ryan's family recently too).  This is honestly a super easy recipe and I usually have all of the ingredients on hand.

The one change I made, was instead of adding water to the beans when cooking I added the juice drained from Rotel tomatoes.

(credit given to: http://vittlesandbits.blogspot.com/2010/05/oven-crisp-black-bean-flautas.html)

Oven-Crisp Black Bean Flautas

• 1 t. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed & drained
• 1/2 t. onion powder
• 1 t. chili powder
• 1 T. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 10 oz. can mild Rotel diced tomatoes & chiles, drained
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/2 C. Monterey Jack cheese (or whatever type you prefer)
• 5 10" flour tortillas
• canola oil, for brushing

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic and cook about 1 minute until fragrant.

Add 1/2 C. water along with beans, onion powder, chili powder and cilantro.  Reduce heat to medium low and simmer about 10 minutes until most of water is evaporated.

Remove pan from heat and smash beans with back of spoon or immersion blender until mixture is thickened but still chunky, with some whole beans left.  Stir in salt & Rotel, and allow mixture to cool.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Coat baking sheet with cooking spray, or line with nonstick foil.

Microwave tortillas in 10 second intervals until soft & pliable.  Spoon a heaping 1/3 C. mixture in a line down center of each tortilla and sprinkle cheese on top.

Fold in sides on either end of the line, and then roll tortilla tightly around filling.  Secure end with a toothpick and set on baking sheet with seam side down.

Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the tops of the flautas with oil and place baking sheet in oven until crisp, about 10 minutes.  Serve with guacamole, sour cream, and/or salsa.  (I would also recommend cutting them in half to let them cool... the filling stays really hot in the enclosed tortilla!)