Thanksgiving Appetizer Ideas

My family loves appetizers, and me personally I am a huge fan of dip :), so in an effort to change things up, I am putting some "different" recipes below, they stray from the traditional sausage and cheese platter, and cheeseball family. These are recipes that I have found online in the past but have added things to to change them some, and try to add a different flavor.

For this recipe, I took typical blue cheese bites and added a taste of fall with some apples, and rosemary goes well with turkey so it seemed like a natural progression.

1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup chopped pecans

1 ounce cream cheese, softened

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed

2 Apples peeled, we use honeycrisp, because they are a little sweet.

1 (8 ounce) can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

Mix blue cheese, pecans, cream cheese and rosemary. Cut each apple into 16 wedges; set aside.

Separate dough into 8 triangles. Cut each triangle in half lengthwise, forming 2 triangles. Spread 1 tablespoon cheese mixture over each triangle; place 2 apple wedges along wide end of each triangle. Roll up each triangle from wide end and place point side down 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Makes 16

I have an abnormal love of Fondue, maybe it's the Cheese :), My Hubby and I like to make fondue for date nights at home, because it is so much less expensive than going out for it. However, it also makes a GREAT appetizer. For this one, we add in Apple Cider instead of wine and it makes a sweet and savory dish.

2 cups apple cider

2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 1/2 cups provolone cheese, shredded

1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

Bring the apple cider to a boil on the stove or in fondue pot, until the cider is reduced by half.

Add the remaining ingredients to the boiling cider whisking constantly

Continue to heat until the mixture is smooth and bubbling hot.
Turn down the heat and either serve it in the fondue pot, or in a warm dish and reheat as necessary to keep the cheese from getting too thick. Serve with French and Pumpernickle bread, apple slices, and veggies (carrots go very well).

Makes enough for 3 Cups.

Till next time,

My First Thanksgiving post...some side dishes

Hey everyone! With Thanksgiving shortly upon us I have decided to dedicate this weeks posts to sides and desserts,  another reason for this is because next week, I will not be posting much if at all, my family is moving, and we will be in the thick of packing and getting things ready to go :)

So here are 2 of our favorites to make, my Husband and I usually do our own Thanksgiving, since we are usually at family members houses for the holiday, and since we love Turkey sandwiches, we just go all out and make our own dinner too!

The first is for Maple Syrup Sweet potatoes, I am not a huge fan of sweet potatoes but the Hubbs is, and these I have found I can eat and actually enjoy!

2 1/2 large sweet potatoes

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons flaked coconut (optional)

1/3 cup chopped pecans

Place sweet potatoes in a large saucepan with water to cover them. Bring the water to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let simmer 25 to 30 minutes until tender.             

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use non stick spray to grease an 8 inch baking pan.  When the sweet potatoes are cool, peel and cut them into large chunks. Arrange them in the baking dish. In a small saucepan, melt butter, syrup, sugar and coconut together over a low heat. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Sprinkle mixture over sweet potatoes. Top mixture with pecans. Bake 5 to 7 minutes, until top is lightly browned.

This recipe Makes enough for 6 but we usually double it so we have left overs.

The next is Green Bean casserole, This is a tradition on many families tables, but in the words of Emeril I always kick my dishes up a notch and I have added a few suprises to mine and taken the flavor to a different place.

1 Bag (20 ounces) of frozen french cut green beans

1 Can of Cream of mushroom and roasted garlic soup

1/4 of a white onion diced fine

1 Jar of Pimento

1 Can of Water Chestnuts Diced

1 Can of french fried onions

a small bag of slivered almonds

2 teaspoons worstechire sauce

Pepper to taste

Coat an 8 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray, and preheat oven to 350 degrees, in a large bowl combine soup, onion, pimentos, water chesnuts, slivered almonds, worstechire sauce, black pepper and half of the French fried onions, add in green beans and mix till green beans are coated well with the mixture.  Put into prepared baking dish and bake for 25 minutes, stir and sprinkle with remaining onions, bake for an additional 5 minutes or until onions are golden brown.

We have also added some bacon into this recipe, if you do that, omit the worstechire sauce to avoid it being too salty. This recipe also makes enough for 6.

Enjoy!

Till next time,

Steel Cut Oats

Happy Friday everyone!

When I was nusrsing Abby, or pumping for her rather, I discovered these little nuggets of greatness, I was having a lot of problems with supply due to the fact that I was solely pumping, and a breast pump has far less suction than a baby does, so my supply would rise and fall all the time and it was frustrating to say the least.  Then I discoverd a tip to try eating steel cut oats for breakfast, and I wish I could explain to you the pure joy I felt when I began over producing milk the third day I was eating them.  They are fantastically healthy, and pretty yummy as well.

Steel Cut oats, often called Irish or scottish oats, are the raw oat that is used to make rolled oats or old fashioned oats, they are in the purest form and therefore have many more benefits than regular oatmeal.  They have much more fiber and protein, as well as a good dose of Iron.  On the flipside they are a huge pain in the butt to make on the stove.  However, with more research, I found tips to try making them in the crockpot overnight and the job of having these 6 days a week for breakfast when I was nursing was made so much easier.  We still eat them pretty regularly around here, and the kids LOVE them.  Plus a bonus is not having to "make" breakfast in the early am.  For the kids I usually serve them with fresh fruit on top and whole milk mixed in, with a bit of brown sugar.  For my Husband and I, I add in brown sugar or Honey and a tablespoon  of butter.  I have also found that greek yogurt mixed in makes them super creamy.

So here is the most simple recipe you will probably find on my blog (we double it so we can just heat and eat throughout the week).

1 Cups of Steel Cut oats
4 cups of water
2 tablespoons of butter

Mix together, set crockpot on low, and leave overnight.  I usually get up to give my son a bottle around 5am so I turn it down to keep warm at that time, and when we all get up for the day, it is the perfect temperature for the kids.  These usually cook up in about 8 hours on the low setting so if you are a night owl Like us I put them in around midnight.  But if you go to bed earlier, put them on anyway and they still cook up pretty well.

It makes for a perfect weekend breakfast as well, especially after a long week :)

Enjoy!
Till next time,

Baked Potato and Corn Chowder

Hi everyone!
I was inspired to make this recipe from the lovely ladies at Crockpot Girls, I have been working on a potato soup recipe for awhile, but never had the chance or the forethought to make it, and seeing the recipe gave me just the inspiration I needed :).

It was pretty simple to make and did not cost very much per serving at all it made most of a 4 quart Slow Cooker full of soup and broke down to about $3.00 a quart, I would say in our a house a quart is about 2.5 servings or so, if the kiddos are eating it, a quart makes about 4 to 5 servings, so it breaks down to a $1.50 or less per serving, add bread and it comes to about $2.00 a serving.

My Husband said it was better than Paneras, and obviously far less expensive, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did :)

5 pounds russet potatoes
1 quart Chicken Stock
1 stick of butter
1 whole onion Diced
5 to 6 cloves of Crushed garlic
1 Pint Heavy whipping Cream or 2 half pints if they are less expensive, which was the case when I bought them
1 Package of Bacon Bits (I used Oscar Mayer)
1 2 cup Package of Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 Can of Corn (drained)
Dill, Parsley, Salt, and Pepper to taste

Dice Potatoes after washing them, leaving the skins on, Layer these with the onions so they are evenly distributed.  Sprinkle Dill, Parsley, salt and pepper over the top, and pour in the Chicken broth, Stir to make sure the spices are distributed, cover and let cook on Low for 3 to 4 hours or until Potatoes are tender, I kicked it up to high for about 2 hours to speed up the process a little, and then turned it back down.  Once potatoes are tender, Use a potato masher and break them down to your desired thickness, we always leave chunks in our mashed potatoes so I did the same for these.  Pour in cream, cut butter into chunks and add in, stir until butter is melted, Add in Bacon bits, Cheese and Corn and stir until evenly distributed and let cook.  Once all the ingredients are added you can serve it about 10 to 15 minutes later, but I covered it and let it cook on low for another 2 hours to let the flavors develop.  So I would recommend doing this if you can.

Serve with bacon, chives, sour cream and a sprinkle of cheddar on top, and a good crusty bread for dipping.

Till Next Time,

A Halloweenie post...Literally

Happy Halloween everyone!
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and growing up we would do a theme dinner, turning normal everyday food into more fun scary dishes.  Thankfully, I married a man who also loves Halloween, so we are carrying on the theme dinner tradition with our kiddos!

So this is more of an idea post, as opposed to a recipe one.  Since our kids are 1 and almost 3 we kept it pretty tame and made Hotdog monsters and brains and eye balls.  I Will put pictures below to show how the Hotdog Monsters are made, they are pretty easy and our kids gobbled them up since they were a novelty, and the Brains were Mac and Cheese with ketchup mixed in, Just enough to make it pink looking, we used black olives for the eyeballs.  So there you have it a HALLOWEENIE dinner :)!

Daddy's Hotdog Monsters (Before they are cooked)

And After (The "hair" curls when it is cooked and the face becomes more prominent)

We cooked them for about 3 to 4 minutes

The whole meal, and yes you should cut up the hot dogs before giving them to little ones, and we did once the picture was taken and they got to see the "Monsters"

Enjoy!

Till Next time,



Angel Chicken

Happy Friday everyone!
I found this recipe from a post on a fellow bloggers Facebook page.  There was no link so I went hunting for the recipe and found several versions, so of course I added my own things to make this my own and let me tell you this was delicious, and very simple to make.  We doubled the recipe to have left overs but I will put the regular size recipe that I created and based it on below

4 Chicken Breasts, dalved
Half of a large white onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, crushed with your knife, no need to mince it
Half Stick of Butter
1 packet of dry italian dressing mix
1/2 Cup White Cooking wine
1 Tub (8 oz.) of Onion and Chive cream cheese
1 can of Cream of mushroom and roasted garlic soup
Splash of sherry cooking wine (if you choose, we like its flavor so we use it in a lot of dishes)
Black Pepper to taste.

Coat bottom of crock pot with olive oil just enough to make sure the Chicken doesn't stick.
Put soup, cream cheese, butter, white cooking wine, italian dressing packet and sherry into a sauce pan.  Heat till all ingredients are combined and the sauce is smooth.  While this is cooking ( about 5-8 minutes total) place chicken breast halves in bottom of crock pot, put diced onions and garlic on top of that, pour in sauce mixture, cover and cook.  this can be cooked on High for 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 to 7. 

serve over angel hair pasta with a healthy portion of sauce.  For the kids I put it over a slice of crusty bread, french or other is fine, since angel hair is difficult for them to eat.  I also served it with steamed broccoli on the side, the kids ate every speck on their plate (including the broccoli), and My son was sucking sauce off of his fingers :)

Enjoy! and if you like these recipes, grab my button and send people over to me, or become a follower, and of course always let me know what you think!

Till next time,

Fajita Quesadillas

We are big fans of Mexican food in our house and finding a way to make it inexpensively as opposed to eating out is always a goal of mine.  This recipe is pretty simple, although does require some chopping but for the most part took me all of about 35 minutes to prep and cook.

2 green peppers, cleaned and sliced into strips
1 yellow pepper, cleaned and sliced into strips
1 red pepper, cleaned and sliced into strips
1 large white onion sliced.
2 tablespoons of crushed garlic
1 package of flour tortillas
2 packages of quesadilla cheese (any brand is fine, whatever your preference)
2 packages of tyson grilled chicken strips, they are by the other shortcut chicken in the grocery store, we used the tysons because it was significantly less expensive than the others and you got more. (or the steak, we did both and bought 2 packages of each)
2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil
dash of fajita seasoning (if you have it) I have used it or just salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a large skillet and saute peppers, onion, garlic, and seasoning.  Saute till onions are translucent and peppers are soft, Add in Chicken strips, since the chicken is already cooked you just need to heat till warm.  Once done, heat a grill pan if you have one, or just a saute pan will work as well.
Put one tortilla on bottom of pan, sprinkle in cheese, we like alot of cheese so we use a pretty healthy amount, spoon in chicken mixture, sprinkle in a little more cheese on top of that and put another tortilla on top.  Heat till cheese is melted flipping carefully so that the sides dont burn and the filling doesn't fall out.  I like to press down on top with a spatula to ensure that it sticks together, continue this process until all the filling is used, we used enchilada size tortillas and we got about 3 good size quesadillas, which gave us about 6 to 7 wedges per quesadilla, so you will have plenty left over, depending on family size of course. I serve this with Guacamole, Sour Cream and Salsa for dipping.

If you choose to do both steak and chicken, you can either double the onions and peppers, or use the same amount and split the onions and peppers between 2 pans when you heat the meat, or you can keep it all in the same pan and have chicken and steak together :).  The recipe is pretty fexible.

Please comment if you try these recipes out and let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

Till next time,