CopyCat Recipe: McDonald’s Big Mac

I love searching copycat recipes on Pinterest. The challenge to see if they can taste like the “real” thing is such a thrill to me. Plus I hate spending money to go out to eat ( my niece and my nephew ) love McDonald’s but are hungry an hour later as if I didn’t just bring them out to lunch and spend well over $30.00 or so.So Pinterest is great to find so many copy cat recipes to make at home and save a lot of money trying to make the real thing.

This BIG MAC does come pretty close as well. Angel at LittleThings.com did a great JOB on this one.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 lb ground beef
• 6 sesame seed burger buns
• Mayonnaise
• French dressing
• White vinegar
• Sweet pickle relish
• A few dill pickle slices
• Finely diced white onion
• Chopped lettuce
• American cheese slices
• Sugar, salt, and pepper for seasoning

Directions: 

• Start with 1/2 cup of mayonnaise.
• Next, add in 2 tablespoons of French dressing.
• Add in 4 teaspoons of sweet pickle relish, and one tablespoon of the finely minced onion.
• Pour in one teaspoon of white vinegar. We went with a white balsamic vinegar, because that’s what we had on hand. Feel free to use whatever kind of white vinegar you have!
• Add in one teaspoon of sugar and 1/8 teaspoon of salt, then stir the ingredients together. Leave the sauce in the refrigerator overnight to let all the flavors blend.
• Now it’s time to form the burger patties. We used 3/4lb ground beef to make six patties for three burgers. Remember, each Big Mac burger has two patties. Try to make them as thin as possible, and shape them a little bigger than the size of your hamburger bun.
• Chill the patties in the fridge for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, toast your burger buns on a grill, griddle, or hot pan. You’ll need three buns for each burger: a top bun and two bottom buns.
• Here’s what you need to build the Big Mac: the patties, Special Sauce, minced onion, chopped lettuce, American cheese, and dill pickle slices.
• Over medium heat, cook the patties for one to two minutes on each side. You can season them with salt and pepper.
• Now, the assembly begins. For each burger, start by spreading 1/2 tablespoon of Special Sauce over the bottom bun.
• Add 1/2 teaspoon of diced onion, and 1/4 cup lettuce.
• Layer on a slice of American cheese.
• Next comes the first beef patty.
• Layer on the second bottom bun for your “middle” bun.
• Now, the process will repeat: again, start with 1/2 tablespoon of Special Sauce.
• Add on another 1/2 teaspoon onion, 1/4 cup of lettuce, and put in two dill pickle slices.
• Finish with the second burger patty. Careful — there is only one slice of cheese in each burger.
  Last top with burger top bun.

STRING CHEESE MANICOTTI

Ok so seriously THANK God for Christy over at The Girl Who Ate Everything for sharing this one on Pinterest. I love making Italian food.. Lasagna, Baked Ziti, Fettuccine Alfredo, you name it I love it, especially with some GOOD garlic bread or cheesy garlic bread with a nice salad. YUMMY good stuff here folks :). Thing is I have stuffing Manicotti noodles so this is a BLESSING in disguise. She has taught me a trick that makes this SO easy to do.

Ingredients

• 1 package (8 ounces) manicotti shells
• 1 pound ground beef
• ½ cup finely chopped onion
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 jar (24 ounces) spaghetti sauce
• 12 pieces string cheese
• 1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• grated Parmesan cheese
• (optional) basil, chopped

Instructions

1. Cook manicotti according to package directions in salted water.
2. While pasta is cooking, cook beef and onion over medium heat in a large skillet until meat is no longer pink; add garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Drain meat. Stir in spaghetti sauce. Spread half of the meat sauce into a greased 9×13 inch baking dish.
3. Drain manicotti. An 8 ounce package has 14 shells but I could only fit 12 in my baking dish and 2 of the shells ripped. Stuff each shell with a piece of string cheese. You could even use 2 pieces of string cheese but we thought one was plenty once it melted. Arrange manicotti over meat sauce. Place over meat sauce; top with remaining sauce. Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until heated through.
4. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and bake for 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and garnish with basil if desired.

CANNOLI PANCAKES

One thing I love is a GOOD Good Cannoli. I love that Gina from Kleinworth & Co shared this great cannoli pancake recipe. I swear these taste just like a cannoli with a lot less work.. Which is a great thing. Try these for your next brunch, trust me you won’t regret it.

Ingredients

Pancakes

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 6 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cups 2% milk
• 4 tbsp cooking oil
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Cannoli Filling

• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 3 tbsp whipped topping
• ½ cup confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
• *additional confectioners sugar for dusting
• *chocolate syrup for garnish

Instructions

Pancakes

1. Combine all ingredients in large bowl
2. Whisk until combined
3. Heat your griddle to approx 350 degrees
4. Ladle batter into rounds & cook until bubbles start to form on the surface – flip
5. Cook second side until golden brown
6. Remove & create filling

Filling

1. Whisk ricotta in large bowl until smooth
2. Add in confectioners sugar & vanilla & whisk until combined
3. Fold in whipped topping & chocolate chips

Assemble

1. layer cannoli filling between pancakes & top with a large scoop of filling on top
2. Dust with confectioners sugar & drizzle with chocolate syrup
3. Enjoy

Fudgy brownies with chocolate cream cheese frosting

OMG I remember the first time that dear crissy shared these AWESOME brownies. My jaw literally hit the FLOOR with this one, I swear it did. In our house we are kind of brownie snobs. Our brownies have to be soft, fudgy, never ever dry, with a slight crunch to the edges 🙂 yes , yes , I know I know. What can I say we are very picky brownie eaters over here. This chocolate cream cheese frosting really puts these brownies over the edge. PLEASE make sure that you try these… (NOW)

INGREDIENTS:

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces
6 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar

 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Using a medium sauce pan, heat butter and unsweetened chocolate while stirring until smooth; set aside to cool. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees; grease an 8x8x2-inch baking pan, or, line with foil and grease. I usually skip the foil step, but, it will make the release easier!

2. Stir sugar into cooled chocolate mixture. Add your eggs one at a time, beating with a wooden spoon just until combined. Stir in vanilla. In a small bowl stir together flour and baking soda. Add four mixture to chocolate mixture; stir just until combined. Spread batter evenly into the pan.

3. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack.

 

Frosting
1. Using a small saucepan heat and stir 1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces over low heat until nice and smooth. Remove from heat and let chocolate cool.

2. In a medium bowl stir together 6 ounces of softened cream cheese and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. I used a fork to combine the cream cheese and sugar. With a wooden spoon stir in melted chocolate until smooth then frost your cooled brownies.

Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip

Back on my pumpkin kick this evening. I can not wait to try this Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip with these awesome apples that we picked the other day. We had gone apple picking on Sunday and we have ALOT of apples that SEEM to have needed this dip :). Trish over at Mom On Timeout shared this great dip recently and it just looks fantastic.

Ingredients

• 1 11 oz bag of caramels
• ⅓ cup Pumpkin Spice creamer
• 1 8 oz packages of cream cheese (I used light)
• ¾ cups pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 8 oz container Cool Whip (I used lite)

Instructions

1. Combine the caramels and creamer in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the caramels have full melted and the creamer is completely mixed in. Let cool for about 15 minutes.
2. Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Mix in the pumpkin, brown sugar, vanilla extract and pumpkin pie spice and continue beating until thoroughly combined.
3. Fold in one the Cool Whip.
4. Pour enough caramel sauce into the bottom of your serving bowl to cover the bottom. Spoon half of the pumpkin cheesecake mixture on top and smooth the surface. Drizzle on some more caramel sauce leaving just enough for the top of the dip.
5. Spoon on the remaining half of the pumpkin cheesecake mixture and top with remaining caramel.
6. Serve immediately.