Veggies! LOTS of Veggies!

So this recipe was both a success and a fail in different ways. I know, great introduction, right? Haha

I made it last night with pretty high hopes. It looked delicious, and it tasted pretty good, but it wound up really watery and kind of mushy, and I’m a texture person…

HOWEVER, dumping out the extra liquid and frying the leftover up in a skillet with some salt and Mrs. Dash was pretty tasty.

You’ll Need:

foil
9×13 baking pan
1 large potato, or 3 small red potatoes
1 zucchini squash
1 yellow squash
1 sweet potato
1/4 c onion (sliced or diced up to you)
1/4 of a green bell pepper
1 clove garlic
Stick of butter (just enough to spread on the bottom of the foil-covered pan)
1/4 chopped green onion
salt
pepper
thyme
Mrs. Dash Garlic Herb
1 c Shredded cheese of your choosing

Slice all vegetables and set aside.

Line pan with foil (for easy clean up). Grease bottom of lined pan with butter. Mince one clove of garlic and spread on the bottom of the pan.

Alternating vegetables, pack the pan with all your sliced vegetables. I followed a pattern a first and eventually just wound up shoving stuff wherever it would fit. Sprinkle the chopped veggies (onions and chives) over the top.

Generously season your veggies and plop a couple small spoonfuls of butter on top.

Cover with foil and bake at 400 deg for about 45 min to an hour. Until potatoes are fork tender. During the last 10 minutes or so, sprinkle with shredded cheese!

Some folks might like this as is, again it wasn’t bad, just a little too watery for me. Squash has a lot of juices. But fry up the leftovers in a skillet the next day and it is quite yummy 🙂

Angel Food Slider (SUPER EASY PARTY FOOD 2)

So unfortunately I did not get a picture of these before they were eaten up 😦

But it doesn’t take too much imagination to picture what these will look like.

All you need:
Angel Food Cake – already made from Kroger or Walmart or wherever’s your fancy
1 reg sz bag Milk Chocolate Chocolate Chips
1 container fresh strawberries
Optional: 1/3 c peanut butter

I cut the cake in 1 inch slices. Sliced the strawberries in half (and removed stems) and laid 1-2 strawberry slices (depending on size) on each slice of cake. In a small bowl pour about a cup of chocolate chips and microwave for 20 sec at a time, stirring in between heating until melted. Spoon chocolate into a ziplock baggie and snip a corner (or just use a pastry bag if you have them). Gently squeeze out the chocolate so it drizzles over the strawberries and cake. Refrigerate for about 20 min or so before serving so the chocolate stiffens up.

Peanut Butter Ganache Option: Same as above but microwave 1/3 c peanut butter and 2/3 c chocolate chips together to drizzle over the top. The Ganache will be slightly softer than the chocolate alone, but it is oh so delish 🙂

See? Sooooo easy… and cheap… and tasty!

Here’s a similar picture. They essentially did the same thing, except decided to skewer them, which is also super cute!

Enjoy!

SUPER EASY PARTY FOOD! for the poor and busy :)

Hey Y’all,

So it turns out I’m not so great at this whole blogging thing… by that I mean I haven’t made an entry since like March… fail for me. So I’m going to try to get caught up tonight.

Some of you have seen my earlier post about the Origami Owl Jewelry that my sister is selling. Well she did a jewelry bar for me and I thought I’d share some of the recipes I used for the party food!

These are especially great for college kids like me because a) they don’t take much more than a couple ingredients so it’s cheap! and b) they come together super fast and easy.

First:

Lil Crockpot Smokies – Bourbon Style 🙂

So this one is awesome.

Ingredients:
1 16 oz package of cocktail weiners
1/2 c apricot preserves
1/4 c maple syrup
1/3 c bbq sauce (I like Sweet Baby Ray’s Hickory-Brown Sugar)

1 tbsp bourbon or orange juice (I used Jack Daniels)

I’m absolutely a sucker for Sweet Baby Rays, but this recipe still works wonderfully with cheap kroger brand stuff. It’s all delish. Though I wouldn’t dream of turning down Mr. Beam… 😉

In a bowl, mix the apricot preserves, maple syrup, bbq, and bourbon together until smooth. Pour over weiners in your crockpot. Turn the crockpot on low and let it warm and get all bourbony-yummy for about 4 hours. I actually doubled this recipe and it was perfect for a 10-12 person get-together.

Unfortunately I stupidly forgot to take a picture of the smokies with the sauce on it before it got eaten… but just imagine this a little darker and…. wet? haha

Enjoy!

Spaghetti Squash Shrimp Scampi

On my journey to eating better and exercising I have discovered spaghetti squash. Spaghetti Squash is awesome. I started with a recipe online, then decided I could make it better, and here we are!

You’ll need:

9×13 baking pan (I used glass, probably doesn’t make a difference)

1 spaghetti squash, cut in half

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I am in LOVE with EVOOs)

Various Seasonings (I used oregano, basil, garlic salt, and parsley)

salt and pepper

Shrimp (cooked, detailed, deveined)

red, green, and yellow bell peppers

onion

chicken sausage

Scoop the guts out of the squash. Season the two halves with salt and pepper. Place cut side down in 3/4 cup of water in the baking dish. Bake at 375 for 40-45 min.

While the squash is baking, finely dice about a 1/4 cup of each pepper, and little bit of onion. Slice up one chicken sausage. I usually use Aidells, but the Kroger brand is good too. Sorry my amounts aren’t exact… I just wung it.

When there’s about 10 minutes left on the squash, drizzle a little bit of EVOO in a medium sized skillet, add the peppers, onion, seasonings (to taste), sausage and shrimp and saute on medium-low heat.

Remove the squash from the oven. Hold one half in one hand with a hot pad and scrape the meat out of the squash with a fork into your skillet. You can scrape all the way down to the skin. One squash will yield quite a lot. It fed me for 4 meals.

Mix everything together in the skillet and viola!

PS: you don’t need to use anymore than 1-2 tbsp of EVOO, the squash has plenty of its own juices.

Enjoy!

General Tso’s!

Wow I’m bad at this, haven’t posted in weeks…. Sorry! This one will make up for it though. This is Awesome.

General Tso’s done LOW CAL! What?!?! That’s right you heard me. I’ve been on a healthy kick lately, trying to lose a few pounds and get in shape. I LOVE to cook but I don’t always eat the healthiest things. Since I basically live on pinterest these days, I get most of my recipes from there.

That’s how I stumbled across the Takeout Makeover. Yep, that’s right, all our favorite wonderful delicious food that sooooo bad for us, REDONE. This recipe for General Tso’s chicken is only 236 calories, has 7g of fat, and 28g protein. Boo yeah, win for me.

I made a few little adjustments and substitutions but it turned out great!

• 1lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1″ chunks
• 2 tbsp + 1 tsp cornstarch, divided
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
• ¼ cup low sodium chicken broth
• 1 tbsp plum sauce
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp honey
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• scallions, sliced
• 2 tbsp white sesame seeds
• optional: 1 tbsp dried thai chilies

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Toss chunks of chicken with 2 tbsp corn starch
3. On a cookie sheet, spread chicken chunks into a single layer
4. Bake chicken for 12-15 minutes, until cooked through
5. In a medium saucepan, combine garlic, ginger and chili oil, saute for 2 minutes. Add soy sauce, broth, vinegar, honey, tomato paste and hoisin sauce
6. Simmer mixture on medium heat for 4-5 minutes
7. Dissolve 1 tsp of cornstarch in ¼ cup of cold water
8. Add cornstarch to sauce mixture, stirring
9. Continue to simmer sauce for another 3-4 minutes, until it begins to thhicken. Toss cooked chicken with sauce, coating thoroughly
10. Serve chicken with 1 tbsp sesame seeds and scallions

I’m lazy and got some Uncle Bens 90 sec microwavable rice to serve it on. Turned out great! If the sauce gets a little too thick, add a little more chicken broth.

Enjoy!!!