Stuffed Bubble Pizza

This bubble pizza is stuffed with pepperoni and mozzarella and baked in a cast iron skillet for a fun pull-apart dinner.  It's a kid and adult pleaser and the perfect Superbowl snack!

Sweet Potato Tots

Two simple ingredients, sweet potatoes and Parmesan cheese, make up these delicious and healthy Sweet Potato Tots.

Celebrate the 4th of July with CK Mondavi!

It's officially Summer!  Time to sit back and relax, right?

For many people, an ideal way to relax is with a glass of delicious wine.  Mike and I love to indulge in what he calls a "sampler platter".  Basically, I slice up a variety of cheese, add some crackers, and some grapes if we have them, and we enjoy a delicious dinner or evening snack.  CK Mondavi wines are the perfect addition to our sampler platter nights!

I recently had the opportunity to sample a variety of CK Mondavi wines though a Clever Girls Collective campaign.  I received 4 wines to try: Chardonnay, Scarlet Five, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Blond Five.  The  Blond Five paired perfectly with our cheese and crackers.  We also enjoyed the Chardonnay with our Smoked Mozzarella Chicken Pasta.  These wines were a fantastic way to sit back, relax, and enjoy a warm Summer evening on the back deck.

Let me tell you a little bit about CK Mondavi.  Though it was my first experience with this wine, it is available in every US state, so be sure to look for it next time you get groceries!  Plus, it is extremely reasonably priced, under $10 a bottle!  CK Mondavi is the perfect wine for your 4th of July or other Summer celebrations.  The owner of CK Mondavi, Marc Mondavi, was born on July 4th and turns 60 this year; I'm sure he'll be celebrating with a glass of wine on July 4th!  CK Mondavi was established in the 1940's and remains a family-owned business that has thrived for four generations to produce fine wines.

Not only is it the only wine in this price point to be 100% American made and grown, but a percentage of sales goes to supporting veterans.  That's right, a percentage of each bottle sold between May and August this year will be donated to Intrepid Fallen Heros Fund (up to $50,000)!  The IFHF is an organization that is funded entirely by public donations and supports the men and women of the Armed Forces and their families.  You can learn more about them at www.fallenheroesfund.org.

You can make your own sampler platter, it's easy!

Sampler Platter

Serves 2

Ingredients:
8-10 slices Colby Jack cheese
8-10 slices Pepperoni Wrapped Mozzarella Cheese (or your favorite cheese)
16-20 crackers
8-10 slices pepperoni or summer sausage
1 bunch of grapes

Arrange cheese, meat, crackers and grapes on a plate.  Serve with wine.  Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Zesty Guacamole

This Zesty Guacamole is more than just mashed avocados; the tomatoes and garlic give it a burst of flavor.  You won't be able to stop eating it!

If you had asked me a couple months ago if I liked avocado, I would have adamantly responded no.  So it's a given that I also would have said I didn't like guacamole.  In my quest to become healthier and incorporate more whole foods into my diet, I have been trying to eat more avocados.  I've discovered that I really don't mind them, but you won't catch me eating avocado slices on top of my salad any time soon.  I prefer when they're diced into a fruit salsa, or mashed into brownies.  And surprise!  I've even discovered that I like guacamole (when prepared a certain way).

In the past I'd only had guacamole made with avocados, lime juice, and salt.  I found it much to bland for my tastes and couldn't understand why people enjoyed it.  No offense if you do!  Then a while back I went to my friend's Tupperware party.  The demonstrator showed us how to make guacamole using avocados, tomatoes, garlic, salt, and lime juice.  I hesitantly tried a scoop and found that it was bursting with flavor and delicious!

I'm currently on day 3 of the 21 Day Fix and loving it!  I can eat a huge variety of foods and I really haven't been hungry.  This guacamole is 21 Day Fix compliant, and feels like something I'm indulging in!  Just make sure that you measure the guacamole correctly if you're doing the fix.

Zesty Guacamole

Ingredients:
2 avocados
2 roma tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
juice of one lime

1.  Cut avocado into chunks.  Check out this post for instructions, if needed.

2.  Dice roma tomatoes and cut garlic cloves in half.

3.  Put the avocado, tomatoes, garlic, salt, and lime juice in your food processor and blend until smooth.

4.  Scoop into a bowl and serve with tortilla chips, on tacos, or on top of burgers.  The guacamole will turn brown after sitting out, or if you refrigerate it.  The taste isn't affected but if the appearance bothers you, scrape off the top layer.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Bacon Parmesan Chickpeas

Crisp and salty Bacon Parmesan Chickpeas are a unique and delicious snack. You won't be able to eat just one!

How was your Holiday weekend?  Were you lucky enough to get a 3 day weekend?  Did you spend lots of time with family and friends?  I had a busy, but fun, weekend.  On Saturday, we took a day trip to Shipshewana.  It's a little under a 2 hour drive from our house, so the perfect distance for a day away.  We did a lot of shopping and scored a lot of deals.  Oh the deals!  And the food...the food was amazing!  Sunday was our typical Sunday: church and then lunch with my parents.  We also got together with our small group, so that was a fun ending to our day.  Then Monday was a family/do stuff around the house day.  I did a bit of shopping, planted my garden, and did some random projects around the house.

Yes, a busy, but fun weekend indeed!

When it's so busy, I love to have quick snacks to grab on the go.  These Bacon Parmesan Chickpeas are the perfect snack.  You can grab a handful on the fly, or put a few in a bowl to enjoy while relaxing.  They're fun enough that you could serve them at a party too!

I tried baked chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) a while back when some friends were raving about them.  To be honest, I wasn't impressed.  My chickpeas didn't get crispy, so it was like eating warm chickpeas.  Pretty boring if you ask me.  I wasn't really interested in trying them again until I saw a recipe on Authentic Suburban Gourmet, my assigned blog for last week's Secret Recipe Club reveal.  Since the Bacon Wrapped Pineapple Bites turned out so delicious, I thought I'd give these chickpeas a try.

I'm glad I did!  I don't know if it was the bacon, or the Parmesan, or the crisp chickpeas which did it for me, but whatever it was, I've been won over!  These chickpeas needed to bake for a long time to get crispy (where I failed last time I made them).  A few weren't so crisp, but most of them were and that made all the difference in this snack!

Besides, it has bacon in it.  How can you go wrong?!

Bacon Parmesan Chickpeas

Ingredients:
1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas
2 slices of bacon
salt
Parmesan cheese

1.  Drain and rinse chickpeas.  Remove any outer skins and discard.

2.  Cook bacon until crisp (don't drain the grease!).  Remove from pan and crumble.

3.  Add the chickpeas to the pan that you cooked the bacon in stir to coat the chickpeas in the bacon drippings.

4.  Spread chickpeas onto a cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, or until chickpeas are crisp.

5.  Remove chickpeas from the oven and top with crumbled bacon, salt, and Parmesan cheese.

Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

If you have leftovers, store them in a covered container in the fridge.  I did find that these are best eaten the day they are made.

Source: Authentic Suburban Gourmet

Pizza Sticks

It's pizza, but in a stick! All the pizza flavor you love, without the mess!

I always look forward to finding out my monthly assignment for the Secret Recipe Club.  Some months I am assigned to a blog I am already familiar with, but other times I get the chance to discover a new blog.  This month, I was assigned to Manuela's blog, Manu's Menu.  I've heard of her blog before, but after browsing it to find recipes, I will now be a regular reader!

Manuela is an Italian, whose husband is of Indian descent, living in Australia.  As you can imagine, she features a wide variety of cuisines on her blog.  She specializes in Italian foods though, and I came across many intriguing recipes that I'd never heard of before like Cabbuci and Arancine.  While her Italian cuisine interested me, the recipe that really caught my eye was one for Pizza Sticks.  (Don't worry, I'll be trying plenty of other recipes too!)

I was looking for an easy recipe to make while Summer was napping, but I also wanted something fun that both Mike and I would enjoy.  These Pizza Sticks were perfect!  They have all the delicious flavors of pizza, but in a mess free and portable snack.

Manuela's original recipe gave the ingredient measurements by weight, but since that's not how I typically bake, I weighed my ingredients and then took the cup measurements.  I've written my measurements in the recipe below, but you can visit her recipe for the weights.  The dough was easy to work with and came together quickly.  I cut my dough into sticks, but I think these would also be fun cut into squares, like Cheez-its.  These sticks are best enjoyed fresh from the oven, or at least the same day they are baked.  If you eat them the next day, you may want to crisp them in the oven for a few minutes firs.

Mike and I both enjoyed these sticks and Mike has already requested that I make them again!

Pizza Sticks 

Makes 16-18 sticks

Ingredients:
1-1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
5 Tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon oregano

1.  In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the ingredients using the dough hook.  Add additional ketchup if necessary to form a ball of dough.

2.  Refrigerate dough for at least 20 minutes.

3.  Place dough on a floured surface and roll into a rectangle about 10x16", dough should be about 1/4" thick.

4.  Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 1" sticks.

4.  Place sticks on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for 17-20 minutes, until lightly golden brown around the edges.

These are best eaten the day they are baked, but can be stored overnight in an airtight container.

Source:  Manu's Menu

An InLinkz Link-up

Game Day Recipes

One of my favorite eating days of the year is less than one week away!  I'll admit, I don't really care about the football game.  In fact, I couldn't even tell you who is play in this years' Superbowl.  But, what I do know is that I love preparing the appetizers to eat during the game!  The first year we were married, Mike and I hosted a Superbowl Party; since then we have kept it more low key and enjoyed the game with just the two of us!  Mike looks forward to watching the game, and I look forward to the commercials and the food.

Today I've rounded up a list of my favorite appetizers, snacks, and desserts from what I posted in the past year.  I can tell you one thing for sure, you'll be eating good this Superbowl Sunday!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles

Pepperoni Pretzels

Bacon Appetizers

Cosmic Brownies

Layered Finger Jello (Team colors, anyone?!)

Pepper Jelly Appetizer

Pizza Sliders

Speedy Little Devils

Chili Dogs

Meatball Stuffed Rolls

Gingerbread Spread

Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes

Peanut Butter Oreo Popcorn

Spicy Cheese Dip

BBQ Chicken Nachos

2013 Superbowl Foods Roundup

Spicy Cheese Dip

A creamy dip with chunks of cheese and burst of flavor from hot sauce.  Serve it with veggies or crackers for a delicious appetizer!

Mike and I bought a Groupon deal to Sam's Club last year; we'd been talking about purchasing a membership for a while and the deal was too good to pass up!  Can we just talk for a minute about how much I love saving money?  There are so many awesome deal sites out there like Groupon and Eversave, as well as rebate apps like Ibotta that give you money back on groceries.  (Check out my Facebook page this week as I will be sharing some of my favorite deal sites!)  It's the Dutch in me, but I love saving money however I can!  Now that I am only working part-time, the more ways we can save money the better!

Of course a membership to a bulk store like Sam's can be both a blessing and a curse.  Yes, we get things cheaper that in other stores, but I also end up purchasing more than I intend to!  Oh well, it all balances out.  I think....

Anyway, we like going to the club on Saturdays because they often do food samples.  Who can say no to that?! One of the last times we were there, we sampled a dip that we both loved.  Mike asked what was in it and we were told milk, mayo, cheese, and hot sauce.  4 ingredients, how could you go wrong?  Mike decided that he liked it enough we had to buy an enormous jar of mayonnaise, and that we would make this for our Christmas Eve celebration.

The dip can be adjusted to meet your preferences.  Since we didn't have measurements, just ingredients, I kind of winged it when making the dip.  We like smaller pieces of cheese, and a good amount of spice in our dip.  But feel free to make it how you want to!

Spicy Cheese Dip

Makes approximately 1 cup

Ingredients:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon milk
4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese
1 teaspoon hot sauce

1.  Mix the mayonnaise and milk in a small bowl.

2.  Crumble the Gorgonzola cheese and add it to the mayonnaise.

3.  Stir in the hot sauce (add more if desired).

Serve cold with vegetables or crackers.

Pepper Jelly Appetizer

Have you ever had the opportunity to visit Amish country?  We live about 2 hours away from Shipshewana, Indiana where much of the community is Amish.  They are well known for their delicious foods, especially at the Rise and Roll Bakery.  I've been there a few times now, and each time, the store is packed with people.  Samples of their baked goods and canned goods are available to try and there is always a long line to purchase fresh baked donuts and breakfast foods.

The last time I was there was with Mike and his parents.  It was Mike's first time and he was impressed with all the food he could sample.  One of the things he tried was Peach Jalapeno Jelly.  It's similar to red pepper jelly, but much sweeter and with a bold aftertaste.  We ended up purchasing a jar to take home with us.

Superbowl Sunday night was spent on the couch, with a table full of food in front of us.  We had cheese quesadillas, chips and pickle dip, cheese and summer sausage, and this Peach Jalapeno Jelly Appetizer.  It's the most simple thing you can make and it tastes like you've been slaving for hours in the kitchen.  It's just a softened block of cream cheese topped with the pepper jelly and served on crackers.  So simple, and so delicious!

Pepper Jelly Appetizer

Serves at least 10

Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) block of cream cheese
1 cup pepper jelly of your choice (red pepper jelly, peach jalapeno, etc)
crackers

1.  Place the block of cream cheese in the center of a serving dish.  Let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes until softened.

2.  Using the back of a spoon, gently spread out the cream cheese so it's about 1/2" thick.

3.  Pour the pepper jelly on top of the cream cheese.

Serve with crackers. 

Store any leftovers in the fridge.

Superbowl Foods Round-up

If you are anything like me, when you think of the Superbowl, you think of food.  Lots and lots of food.  And commercials.  I mean really, isn't that what the Superbowl is all about, food and commercials?  Oh, and maybe some football, if you're really into that sort of thing :) 

In the past, Mike and I have hosted a Superbowl party at our house.  It's filled with food, friends, and laughter.  This year, we're not having a party, but you better believe we'll still be enjoying delicious food.  Here is a round-up of my favorites:

 Superbowl Cookies with Marshmallow Fondant:

 Mini Pizzas:

 Pizza Bites:

Pizza Rolls:

Pepperoni Pizza Bites:

Pepperoni Pretzels:

Fried Dill Pickles:

Pickle Dip:

Baked "Fried" Pickles:

Loaded Potato Skins:

 Pinwheels:

 Bacon Appetizers:

Baked Spinach Cups:

 Jalapeno Poppers:

 Meat Stuffed Jalapenos:

Cheesy Pigs in a Blanket:

 Cheese Twists:

Homemade Cheez-it Crackers:

 Strawberry Mango Salsa with Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips:

 Tomato, Corn, and Black Brean Salsa:

  Fiesta Dip:

 Texas Caviar:

S'mores Popcorn:

Peanut Butter Fluff:

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bugles:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dippers:

 

What are your must-have foods for Superbowl?