Recipe – Page 26

When I was a child we would have a side salad with every dinner at home. The only way we didn’t have a side salad if we were having burger out for dinner. Even if we were having pizza out. We always had salad with it.

Today fast food seems to be a staple food for people, but when I was a child we never had fast food. I didn’t have McDonalds until I was probably in my early teens. My friends would eat there all the time, but not me. I didn’t resent it or even think twice about it because it was normal to me. Occasionally we would have burgers or pizza out and it was a really big deal if my mom would agree to Taco bell.

My parents believed that if you were going to go out to eat that it needed to be something nice, and a better quality meal. If we went out it was for steak, seafood, or Mexican food, not crap food as my Dad would call it.

Out of the blue it hit me the other day that for whatever reason I didn’t carry on the side salad with dinner tradition that had been instilled in me. When I was having a side salad with dinner growing up I ate less and I was a lot healthier. I was certainly a lot thinner. So I decided to change that and start having that side salad again.

Sometimes bringing back those old traditions can be just what you need to start yourself back on a good eating regiment. It can be as simple as lettuce and tomato, or something with everything you can put in a bowl. The great part is there are so many ways to serve a salad I don’t think you could ever get bored!

Recipes

Fast and Furious Cream Cheese Rolls

July 20, 2013 Nicole

So why do I call these fast and furious? For a few reason. If you forget to make them they can be done fast, if you need something to take to someone’s house in a hurry, they are fast, and because that’s how fast they leave the table.

My mom would make these all the time when I was a kid as appetizers when she would need to bring something to a party or even as sometime extra for a pot luck or a side with dinner.

These little bits of heaven are so delicious, rich, creamy, ridiculously simple and dirt cheap! Yes so many words to describe something so simple!

Three ingredients and it makes a ton of appetizers. At first I am not sure if people know what to expect when they see them, but after a bite they keep coming back for more. Cream cheese, picante sauce, and tortillas. What more can you ask for? By the way these are super cute at a baby girl baby shower because the filling is nice and pink.

Ingredients:

12 pack of flour tortillas
1 small jar of picante sauce (I use Pace Mild)
1 package of cream cheese (room temperature)

Directions:

Take cream cheese out and let it come to room temperature. This is important or your cheese will be lumpy.
To your room temperature cream cheese add picante sauce. A little bit at a time until you have a nice cream cheese picante sauce ration. You don’t want too much picante sauce or it will be soupy, but you don’t want your cream cheese to be white either.
Keep adding until it’s just perfect. Your cream cheese will be nice and spreadable, but not too thin. I caution you to add the picante slowly because you can’t take it out once you have gone too far, and if you go too far it will be too messy to use with the tortillas.
Next add a few tablespoons to a tortillas them roll, but not too tightly. You don’t want all of your mixture to come back out so don’t over fill either. Once you have a nice rolled tortilla cut it into about one inch rounds and lay then on the cut side down.
Keep repeating until you are out of your filling.
Served chilled.

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Recipes

Berry Whip Parfaits

July 18, 2013 Nicole

For Independence Day I decided to make this wonderful parfaits. Oh boy did they turn out delicious! The only problem was the red, white, and blue theme I was going for… didn’t exactly turn out so red white and blue.

Although they didn’t give you the Americana feel I was going for they turned out delicious seriously delicious!! I used broken butter cookies in between each layer of delight and let me tell you the crowd went wild.

Although I would have loved to have a nice bright red and blue color for each of these layers I wasn’t going to add food color to pull of the affect.

So simple and so delicious!

Ingredients:

Red Layer:

Puréed Fresh Strawberries
8 ounces of whip topping

White layer:

Sweetened coconut flakes
Coconut extract
8 ounces of whip topping

Blue layer:

1 can of black berry pie filling
8 ounces of whip topping
Butter Cookies (or Biscotti, Nilla Wafers, or ANY plain cookie)
Stevia as needed

Directions:

Pretty basic directions here. For each container of whipped topping combine enough fruit to make sure that the whipped topping has a generous amount of fruit. Test to make sure the whipped topping is sweet enough. If not add some stevia.
With the white coconut layer add a few tablespoons of coconut flakes, then start adding the coconut extra slowly. I would suggest about ¼ of a teaspoon at a time. Keep in mind you can always add more you can never take it away.
Crumble butter cookies still leaving them a bit chunky so that they will not get too soggy.
Start off by layering from the bottom blackberry, cookies, coconut, cookies, strawberry, cookies, or the other way around. It doesn’t matter what you do to it… its delicious!
I topped mine off with a cute pretzel butter cookie.

Recipes

Triple Cheese Macaroni and Cheese

July 16, 2013 Nicole

This mac-n-cheese is delicious. It’s a pain to make if you are thinking of boxed mac-n-cheese, but let me tell you its well worth all the work. It’s so creamy and delicious.

This recipe is very decadent and rich. If you are wanting something plain and simple this recipe is not for you. The only I could suggest is leaving out the Gouda cheese, but I wouldn’t!

If you want to serve it right away leave the bread crumbs off and sever right from the stove top. You can’t beat this mac-n-cheese.

Ingredients:

4 cups Dried Pasta
1/4 cup unsalted Butter
1/4 cup All-purpose Flour
2-1/2 cups heavy cream
3 teaspoons Dry Mustard
2 ounces Smoked Gouda grated
8 ounces Cheddar Cheese grated
6 ounces Mozzarella Cheese grated
1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
Plain Bread Crumbs

Directions:

Cook pasta about 4 minutes shy of package directions then drain and set aside.
In a large pot, melt butter and sprinkle in flour. Whisk together over medium-heat. Cook mixture for five minutes, whisking constantly.
Pour in milk, and mustard, then whisk until smooth. Cook until very thick. Reduce heat to low.
Add in cheese and stir to melt.
Add seasoned salt and pepper.
Pour in cooked pasta and stir to combine.
Pour into a buttered baking dish, top with plain bread crumbs, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly and golden on top.

Original Recipe Source

Recipes

Waffle Iron Hash Browns (and Grilled Cheese)

July 14, 2013 Nicole

I was reading a post by One Good thing by Jillee when I came across one of her normal wonderful ideas that was a “must try” for me. I never would have come up with this idea, but leave it to Jill… Hash browns using a waffle iron. Brilliant!

Not only are your hash browns done in under five minutes but they are perfectly golden brown and extra crispy just the way I like them. I will tell you that my waffle iron will alert you when your “waffles” are ready which helps when you are ~~patiently~~ impatiently waiting for your hash browns to be done. If you don’t have any alert or light indicator on your iron no worries just keep checking them. You don’t want your potato goodness to burn or be under cooked.

You can use either frozen hash browns or tatar tots. I used the tatar tot rounds (they are thinner than your regular tatar tots) and to me they came out perfect. I have a nonstick waffle iron, but I still sprayed it down with some cooking spray, then added a little seasoning just for extra flavor. As the hash browns are cooking you will need to keep squeezing the top and the bottom of the waffle iron together. As they defrost you will want them smashed as tight as possible for the crispiness.

In under five minutes I had the perfect crispy hash browns. This is a wonderful time saver, and it’s a great way to keep the house cooler during the summer too! Great idea! Thanks Jill