fruit salsa

Ingredients:

Fruit salsa

- 16 oz frozen strawberries
- 8 oz frozen raspberries
- 2 golden delicious apples, diced
- 2 kiwis, peeled and diced
- any other fruit you want to put in
- 2 Tbsp sugar or to taste

Cinnamon chips

- 15 fajita size tortilla
- butter flavored cooking spray
- cinnamon and sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 415 degrees.
2. Defrost frozen strawberries and raspberries and puree them in a food processor or blender. Put pureed strawberries and raspberries in a bowl; mix in apples, kiwis and 2 Tbsp sugar or sugar to taste.
3. Cut tortillas into wedges. Coat cookie sheet with cooking spray. Lay tortillas on cookie sheet, coat tortillas with cooking spray. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over tortillas and spray one more time with cooking spray (yes, 3 spraying of the cooking spray).
4. Bake 6 ½ minutes. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Cool and serve.

Grilled Chicken with Poblano Cream Sauce

YUM.  Adapted from Mexico The Beautiful Cookbook.

Ingredients:

3 whole chicken breasts, cut in half

1 large chile poblano

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions: 

- Remove the stem, seeds, and membranes from the chile, then puree in a blender with 1/4 cup milk.

- In a separate bowl, mix the sour cream, yogurt, and 1/4 cup milk together.  

- Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a small saucepan.  

- Add the flour and stir until smooth.

- Add the chile puree and stir.

- Add the sour cream mixture and stir constantly over low heat until the mixture boils and thickens.

- Remove from heat and salt to taste.

** This sauce can be made up to 6 hours in advance and reheated over low heat before using. **

- Preheat the oven to 350F.

- Melt the remaining two tablespoons butter in a skillet, add the chicken breasts, and saute for 2-4 minutes on each side until cooked through.

- Transfer to a lightly greased 13x9 dish, cover with the poblano sauce, and sprinkle with cheese.

- Bake for 15 minutes.

Serves 4-6.

Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Cookies

1 c. butter or margarine, softened
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. granulated sugar
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
grated peel from one orange
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 1/3 + 1/2 c. flour
3 c. uncooked oats
1 1/2 c. dried cranberries

Cream together butter and sugars. Stir in vanilla, eggs, orange peel, baking soda, and salt. Add flour and oats; stir in cranberries. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes, until slightly brown. Remove to cooling racks.

Super Easy Alfredo Sauce

This stuff is super easy and WAY better than the stuff in the jar, in my opinion.  Adapted from allrecipes.com.  

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese

1 teaspoons garlic powder

1 cups milk

3 ounces grated Parmesan cheese

dash ground black pepper

dash nutmeg (optional)

3 T chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Directions:

- Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. 

- Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth. 

- Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. 

- Stir in Parmesan, pepper, and nutmeg. 

- Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long. 

- Top with parsley and serve over hot pasta. 

Modifications that I made:

- I didn't have parmesan, so I used shredded mozzarella.  The flavor was definitely milder, but it was still really good.  I also added 1/2 tsp. of salt to pick up the flavor a little bit (which I probably would not do with the parmesan).  

- The original recipe serves 8 at LEAST.  The amounts above are cutting the recipe in half.

- I used low-fat cream cheese and 1% milk, and it was creamy as EVER.  Still probably not healthy, but way better than the original.  I bet you could use no-fat cream cheese and skim milk, and still get a super creamy and delicious sauce.

- I threw in some steamed broccoli at the end when I tossed it with the pasta (yum).  I bet it would be good with chicken and/or mushrooms, too.

Deceptively Delicious

I know some of you have this cookbook, and I got it for Christmas. Do any of you have favorite recipes? Tips? What vegetables are easiest and most convenient to puree? Is there a good place to start? Am I correct in thinking that I can use pureed vegetables both in the recipes and as baby food?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Review: Great Harvest Breakfast Casserole

Described tonight as "candy for dinner," my family LOVED this, Liz. Thanks for sharing! I didn't have time to let the bread soak for 8 hours (that was me not planning ahead), but it still turned out really well. MMMMM.

As a side-benefit, I took the leftover sauce and cooked it further to make caramels. Also MMM.

Yummy soup!

Mmmmm, just thinking of it makes my mouth water. Do any of you like the Zuppa Toscana soup at Olive Garden? It is one of my favorite soups. Well, I found the recipe online and tired it out and it was amazing! I got it off of allrecipes and you can print it here.

Here is the recipe:

Zuppa Toscana

1 (16 ounce) package smoked sausage (I used turkey sausage)

2 potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices

3/4 cup chopped onion

6 slices bacon

1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 cups kale - washed, dried, and shredded

2 tablespoons chicken soup base (I just used a quart of chicken broth)

1 quart water

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2.	Place sausage links onto a sheet pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until done. Cut links in half lengthwise, then cut at an angle into 1/2-inch slices.
3.	Place onions and bacon slices in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat until onions are almost clear. Remove bacon and crumble. Set aside.
4.	Add garlic to the onions and cook an additional 1 minute. Add chicken soup base, water, and potatoes, simmer 15 minutes.
5.	Add crumbled bacon, sausage, kale, and cream. Simmer 4 minutes and serve.

Request: Sloppy Joe's

Does anyone have any great sloppy joe recipe? Every time I make them, I use a different recipe from the internet, and I keep getting underwhelmed. Does anyone have one they swear by?

Thanksgiving snack

I have made this little Thanksgiving handout in the past years. Ibf you want a cute idea, this one is fun! Put the snack in cute little bags with a bow and this attached.

BLESSING MIX

Each ingredient in this snack mix symbolizes something associated with Thanksgiving.

Bugles: shaped as a cornucopia, a horn of plenty.

Pretzels: represent arms folded in thanks & prayer.

Candy Corn: during the first winter, the pilgrims were each allotted only five kernels of corn per day because food was so scarce.

Dried Fruit: Thanksgiving is the celebration of the harvest.

Nuts: seeds represent the potential of a bounteous harvest for the next season if they are planted and well tended.

Have a Happy Harvest Holiday!

REQUEST: Lentil Dip

Hey Katie,

I saw that you mentioned a killer dip recipe... is that recipe available for sharing?  I'd love to try it if possible.

Thanks!