I only wish I would have found this a bit earlier, but that’s okay! That just means this will be a fast and furious giveaway, and you won’t have to wait very long to find out whether or not you’ve won! As you may have guessed by this point, I’ve decided to participate in the Winter ‘08 Bloggy Giveaways. So stick around, get yourself entered here, but don’t forget to go check out the other contests. As of right now, there are 874 others listed and there are some seriously awesome things being offered!

What I’m giving Away

I’m giving away a $20 gift certificate to Pampered Chef.

Who is Eligible

I’m willing to send the gift certificate anywhere. But I suggest logging on to the Pampered Chef website and making sure they will ship to you… I’d hate for someone to end up with a $20 piece of paper that they can’t use.

How to Enter

Leave a comment on this post. It’s that simple! You don’t have to have a blog to enter this contest, but make sure you enter a valid email address… if I can’t contact you, I can’t give you the prize!

The rest of the details…

Submissions will be open until 6pm on Sunday February 3rd. Any comments received after that point (if I haven’t closed the comment form yet) will not be valid. The winner will be announced Monday February 4th and the prize will be on it’s way as soon as I have the necessary information. Don’t enter if you aren’t willing to share your first and last names, and your shipping address.

I believe that’s all! Good luck! Feel free to share your recipes with me while you are here– email jenn at jenncooks.com!

Edited to add: All first-time commenters will need to have their comments approved before they show up on the post. Don’t worry- they’re in the moderation queue, and I’ll approve them as soon as I can!

Apparently I don’t want to ever lose the weight because for this week’s Monday’s Menu, I chose to make No Bake Cookies. The kind you make on the stove top and don’t bother waiting until it’s completely set before you start eating them. They just so happened to be one of the only things I had all the ingredients on hand for tonight. Kind of telling isn’t it? That I have ingredients for cookies, but not for dinner? There are cookies to make and eat, so let’s get started.

You’ll need oatmeal, milk, sugar, cocoa, butter or margarine, peanut butter and salt.

In a saucepan, combine 1 stick margarine or butter… As you can see, I really need new pans.

1/2 cup milk…

1/2 cup cocoa…

2 cups of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt whose picture didn’t turn out.

Get it all stirred up together… it might take a minute if you’re waiting on your butter to melt.

Bring to a boil, and cook for one minute. Incidentally, it is hard to get a picture of a boiling pot… all you get is steam!

Remove from the heat. You can’t tell, but in this picture I’ve just added 1/2 cup of peanut butter.

Add 3 cups of oatmeal.

Stir until well-combined. You can usually tell right away if you’ve done it right because it will be starting to thicken up as you stir it.

Drop spoonfuls onto wax paper. Let the cookies cool until they are set. Or some of them anyways. Feel free to pick up the still warm, half-set cookies and enjoy them! And don’t stress out too much if the cookies don’t set… the “goop” still tastes wonderful when scraped off the wax paper with a spoon. Ask me how I know.

The Recipe
No Bake Cookies

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir together, and bring to a boil. Cook for one minute. Add in

1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups oatmeal

Stir well to combine. Drop spoonfuls onto wax paper and let cool until set. Enjoy!

Today’s Monday’s Menu comes from a Light and Tasty cookbook I borrowed from my mom. I did manage to find the recipe online though, so I’ll link you to the Chili Mac. To make the Chili Mac, you’ll need two pounds of extra lean ground beef, 1 cup elbow macaroni, 28oz diced tomatoes, 6oz. tomato paste,, 2 cloves of garlic, 16 oz. kidney beans, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. The recipe lists a couple other ingredients (onion, and green chiles) but I left these out and it still turned out great!

I forgot to add the garlic in this picture, so I took another one. But that one turned out blurry and I just couldn’t bring myself to post a picture that blurry so imagine my little jar of minced garlic sitting next to my tomatoes.

First up, brown the two pounds of ground beef with 2 cloves minced garlic (or the equivalent from a jar of pre-minced garlic as I have done).

Steam makes pictures blurry too!

Meanwhile, cook elbow macaroni according to package directions. I snuck in about half a cup extra of the pasta because it just didn’t look like enough. Once my meat was finished cooking, I added the rest of the ingredients.

Stir them all together.

Add in the cooked macaroni and transfer to a 13×9 baking dish. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Don’t be like me. Cover it the first time, don’t put it in the oven, take it back out, cover it, and return it to the oven.

Remove from the oven, carefully uncover, and sprinkle on two cups of reduced-fat Mexican blend cheese. Bake for an additional 5 minutes or so until the cheese melts. Eat, and enjoy!!

I wasn’t too sure how this was going to turn out, and Sarah who was the guinea pig for this particular meal, and I were both kind of nervous. In fact, we had back up plans to head to Taco Bell for dinner if it wasn’t too good. But I dished it up with some corn on the side, and it was delicious! We were both pleasantly surprised by how much flavor it had!

The Recipe
Chili Mac Casserole

1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend

DIRECTIONS

Cook macaroni according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, cook the beef, onion and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the tomatoes, beans, tomato paste, chilies and seasonings. Drain macaroni; add to beef mixture.
Transfer to a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cover and bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 5-8 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Yield: 10 servings