Shrimp Wonton Cups & Coconut Pineapple Bars

Wow! This is my first cooking/baking post in, like, over a year. I can't believe it. It's just that I've been so busy since I moved to El Paso a year ago, that I kinda just stopped cooking/baking. This weekend, I was invited to a friend's house for dinner and I decided to get off my butt and make something. And I thought that I'd start of nice and simple just to ease back into everything. And I hope it doesn't stop here. With the baby coming in two months, I'll have to start cooking more!

First off, I wanted to make an appetizer. So I made these Shrimp Wonton Cups. They're so easy to make and delicious. Now, I'd rather deep fry wontons any day, but I suppose baking it, like this recipe calls for, makes it just tad bit healthier. Only, I found that the shells soften up a little to quickly for my taste. And, these cups taste best when served immediately out of the oven. By the time I got to my friend's house on the other side of town, not only had the wonton cups softened, but the cheese was no longer hot and stringy. Apparently, no one else noticed. They were practically all gone. I'd consider this a hit!

Shrimp Wonton Cups
(taken from the Pampered Chef Celebrate! Cookbook)


24 square wonton wrappers
1 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
10 oz. shelled, deveined, cooked, medium shrimp, chopped
2 green onions with tops, finely chopped
1/3 cup grated carrot
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/2 Tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded mozarella


1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray a mini-muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Using a pastry brush, brush one side of each wonton square with melted butter. Press each wonton, butter side up into muffin cup. Bake 8 minutes or until edges turn golden brown. Remove pan from oven to cooling rack.

2. Finely chop green onions and grate the carrots. Combine cream cheese, pressed garlic, and worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Blend well. Stir in chopped shrimp, green onions, carrots and mozarella cheese.

3. Using a small scoop, fill each wonton with a rounded scoop of the cream cheese mixture. Bake 5 minutes or until wontons are golden brown and filling in bubbly around the edges.

Enjoy! See how easy that was? Now for dessert...you guys know that being from the islands and all, I love anything with pineapple and/or coconut. So I made these yummy Coconut-Pineapple Bars that were to die for! Now the bars have a cake-like consistency. I think I'm going to have to come up with a good frosting for this. Anyone have ideas?

Coconut-Pineapple Bars
(from Simply Better, Easy Potlucks, May 2006)

1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 20-oz. can drained crushed pineapple
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 c chopped nuts toasted (if desired)
1/2 c shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 325. Grease 3-quart rectangular, baking dish. Set aside

2. In large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and baking soda. Add eggs, pineapple, and butter. Stir until combined. Fold in nuts and coconut. Spread mixture in prepared baking dish.

3. Bake about 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in dish on wire rack. Cut into bars.

And there you have it! Again, I'm going to try to post more recipes here in the future. Hope you guys stop by again!