Nutty Apple Dip

If you need a fabulous, easy, delicious snack to take somewhere, then you need this dip! I could seriously eat it with a spoon, go into a diabetic coma, wake up ... and eat some more. It's that good.

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces cream cheese (I always use reduced-fat)

Cream all ingredients together. Then stir in:

1 cup finely chopped pecans

Serve this with sliced apples - I prefer tart Granny Smiths, to balance out the sweet, but Handsome always prefers a sweet apple like Gala or Red Delicious.

Bonus Tip:
When slicing apples to serve with a dip, have a bowl of cold water mixed with a couple of splashes of lemon juice standing by. Soak the apples in the bowl before placing them on a platter for serving.

April Fool!

**** UPDATE ****
For the last couple of years on April 1, I've planned a special "backwards dinner" for the kids. I make dessert look like dinner and serve it first, then have dinner that looks like dessert! Each year has to be more creative and sneaky than the last because my kids catch on FAST. This year we're having Faux Chicken Nuggets for "dinner" and for "dessert" I'm making mini calzones to look like cupcakes. Last year's dinner had a very funny twist!

Dinner was a success! The kids were completely surprised, and really enjoyed the meal.

Here are the "cupcakes": 

Fruit, Bread, and Cheese Plate

While exploring the internet one day last week, I found a blog post about serving a cheese plate before dinner, or as a light meal. Honestly, the whole post, especially the comment section at the end, was pretty pretentious, but the idea stuck with me. I often lament that my kids don't eat well enough and in pondering this cheese plate idea I decided to try it. If nothing else it will help fill them up when they don't like dinner.

Well, it turns out that our family was afflicted with the dread stomach bug this week, and a light supper of bread, fruit and cheese was just what we needed.

Clockwise: grapes, Gala apples, pecans, Honeycrisp apples, strawberries, Red Delicious apples. Middle: honey

Clockwise from bowl: olive oil w/ cracked pepper, toasted bread, plain bread, cinnamon-cranberry goat cheese, brie, and cheddar.

One of my favorite treats of this dinner was bread topped with the goat cheese and pecans, drizzled with honey. I also liked the brie with apples.

This would be a nice treat for a light supper, like we did, or to complement a soup. Add in a bowl of chicken salad and you have a light summer lunch without heating up the kitchen. 

Fruit Smoothies

One treat my kids always look forward to is fruit smoothies. The variations are endless, and it's pure nutrition they're getting! I usually make a batch in my blender, serve them their drinks, and use the rest to fill up popsicle molds. Later, they have delicious frozen treats with very few empty calories. Here's a basic recipe:

1 banana
½ cup frozen berries
1 cup (8 ounces) yogurt, your favorite flavor
¼ - ½ cup milk

View full recipePlace all ingredients in blender; process until smooth!

Variations:
* Use strawberries and banana, adding a spoonful of chocolate drink mix/syrup
* Use peaches in place of the berries, with peach yogurt
* Use orange juice instead of milk

Basically, you can combine any of your favorite fruits to make these. My kids' favorites are Banana-Berry and Orange-Peach. Even The Boy, who will pretty much eat only apples, bananas and pineapples is very adventurous in the smoothie department. Just the other day he begged me to buy the special ingredient we needed to make Mold Shakes.

Cheese Quiche

Every once in a while I'll make a quiche and eat it for breakfast or lunch all week. Mainly because (you guessed it!) no one else in the family likes it. But that just means more for me!

Cheese Quiche

2 cups (16 cups) 4% cottage cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese or mozzarella
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Pepper-Jack cheese
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Combine flour, baking powder, pepper and salt; add to the cheese mixture and mix well. Transfer to a greased 9-in. pie plate. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and bake 30 minutes longer or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Of course, you can use any combination of cheeses you like. I prefer the bite that the pepper-jack gives, but you can mix and match your favorites easily. Another version of this that I like is to use Swiss in place of the jack cheeses, adding in chopped green onion. 

Joe's Sloppy Joes

Whenever I ask The Boy if he has any requests for dinner over the following week, he invariably replies with "Sloppy joes."  This recipe is just for him.

Joe's Sloppy Joes

1 pound lean ground beef (or turkey or venison)
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
dash of nutmeg
salt and pepper to your taste (you may not have to add any)
1 bottle chili sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup beef broth (optional)

In a large skillet, saute meat, onion and garlic over medium heat until the meat is browned. If you use very lean turkey or venison, you may need to add in a tablespoon or so of oil. Stir in seasonings and saute for a couple more minutes; then add in chili sauce, ketchup and salsa. At this point you really just have to heat the mixture through for 5-10 minutes and it's ready to eat. I prefer to add in some beef broth in order for it to all simmer together a while longer. This makes enough for about 8-10 sandwiches.

*This freezes really well!
* An option we all like just as much is to use barbecue sauce in the place of the salsa. They still taste like sloppy joes, but with a smoky flavor.

Planning a Party

*** Update: I added the link for the spinach dip! My only change was using reduced-fat mayo and cream cheese instead of the full-fat. ***

I love having an excuse to cook for people, probably because (though they have many good qualities) the people in my house do not get excited about food. Most of the time. There is an unwritten rule in my house apparently, which states that at any given meal at least one person may not like what is served. I think they decide ahead of time who that will be. But I digress ... Party food! That's what we're talking about today, really.

When I know people are coming over, my first thought is what to feed them. My first step from there is to pull out my "handy-dandy ... notebook!" (sorry, three kids and all ...) I've mentioned it before, but it's basically a listing of every magazine and cookbook in my house along with which recipes I want to try.

Armed with a pen and an index card, I flip through and write down the recipes I think I'll use. Tonight I have a jewelry party planned so I just need snack foods. Since it's St. Patrick's Day I kind of had green in mind and ended up settling on Lemon Burst Tartlets (which I changed to lime), a hot spinach dip, and my potato-leek pizza. I also chose Chocolate Nutella Cookies because I've been dying to make them! I'll serve baby carrots and good crackers with the spinach dip. My basic outline for party food is to make sure the foods will complement each other, and to provide a mix of what I think of as "salty and sweet". This time I'm a bit apprehensive about serving a spinach dish and a dish with leeks since I usually try to make sure I have at least one thing that's neutral that almost everyone likes. We'll see how it goes tonight!