Ham and Cheese Biscuits

These biscuits were quick and easy to make but also really good!  I got the idea from Shay at Mix & Match Mama.

What you need:

1 can biscuits

3/4 lb ham

8 slices cheddar 

Honey

Cook biscuits according to package instructions.  Best to cook to the lesser side of the time as they will go back in.

While biscuits are hot, slice and layer with 2-3 slices of ham and a piece of cheese.  

Place top of biscuit back on and drizzle the top with a little bit of honey.  

Place back in oven for 5 minutes, until heated through and melty.

These can also be wrapped up individually for breakfast or lunch next day and are good reheated, or even cold!

Oven Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I have been on a mission for a while to prove to Eric that he likes brussel sprouts.  He has always said he didn't like them.   But we went out to dinner a couple weeks ago and they came with our meal and he liked them so I figured I might as well make them now.  Well he said these ones could be served in a restaurant so I say my mission was successful.

Ingredients

 Brussel sprouts

4 pieces of cooked bacon, crumbled

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Balsamic Vinegar

Honey

Half brussel sprouts and place in a bowl.

Drizzle with olive oil.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast in oven at 425 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.

 Remove from oven when slightly browned.

Place back in bowl.

Add crumbled bacon.

Drizzle with balsamic and honey.

Serve immediately.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

A month or so ago we had some people over at the last minute to watch a basketball game.  I needed to throw together some quick snacks and I decided to make this buffalo chicken dip.  It's super simple and always well received.  Sorry for the blurry picture.  I snapped one at the last second as people were ready to dig in.

Ingredients

1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese

1/2 C Frank's Original Sauce

1/2 C ranch dressing

2 C chicken, cooked and shredded

1 C cheddar cheese

Mix all ingredients together in bowl.

Spread into a casserole dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until heated through.

Serve with crackers or celery.

Peanut Butter Pie

This is a few week's late but we celebrated Thanksgiving in Richmond at our friends Austen & Carrie's house.  My contributions to the meal were sweet potato casserole, pecan pie and this peanut butter pie.  I apologize for the horrible, blurry cell phone, paper plate picture BUT I forgot to take a picture of the whole pie and I last second thought to snap this before I ate it.  I originally found this recipe on Mix & Match Mama and only made one major change which was the crust.

 

Ingredients

1 prepared oreo pie crust

1 C peanut butter

1 C powdered sugar

12 oz Cool Whip

Cream peanut butter, powdered sugar, and cool whip together in mixer.

Spread peanut butter mixture into prepared pie crust.

Refrigerate until serving.

This pie was so easy and everyone really liked it.  It is super rich though so a small sliver is about all you can eat at once.  I think the only thing I would do differently next time is shave some chocolate pieces on top to make it even prettier.

 

Deconstructed Cabbage Rolls

We had a head of cabbage leftover from our last CSA portion last week and the original plan was to make cabbage rolls.  But when push came to shove, I just didn't feel like taking the time to make the actual rolls so we just mixed it all up and baked it together just the same.  I made my own tomato sauce from diced tomatoes, fresh herbs, garlic, peppers, etc but that isn't necessary.

Ingredients

1/2 head of cabbage

1 1b ground beef or venison

2 C wild rice, cooked

Tomato sauce

Cook rice according to package instructions.

Brown meat.

Chop cabbage.

Mix rice, meat, cabbage and sauce in a dutch oven.

Cook, covered, for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Dutch Oven Cherry Cobbler

We celebrated Father's Day last night and I made cherry cobbler for dessert. This recipe is so very easy and good!

Ingredients

4 cans cherry pie filling

1 box white or yellow cake mix

1/2 C brown sugar

Cinnamon 

1 stick butter

Dump cherry pie filling into a Dutch oven 

Top with dry cake mix.

Sprinkle brown sugar over cake mix.

Sprinkle cinnamon over top.

Cut stick of butter into 1 T slices and lay over the top.

Cook covered at 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes.  It is finished when the cake mix is a nice golden brown color.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

This can also be cooked over a camp fire.

Fire Crackers

This is a quick and easy snack that my friend Tarah taught me how to make.  

Ingredients 1 box low sodium saltines 1 C canola oil 1 packet ranch dressing mix 2 T crushed red pepper flakes 1 tsp garlic powder   Lay crackers out in some type of air tight container. Mix oil, ranch dressing, red pepper flakes and garlic powder together.   Pour oil mixture over crackers. Turn cracker container over every 5 minutes for 20 minutes.

Meatballs

We had a baby shower at work on Monday for my sweet coworker Lexa and her baby boy due in a few weeks.  I made meatballs by my trusty recipe.  They are always a hit and I've seen lots of variations of it.  It's sooo easy!  I, of course, forgot to take a pic of the meatballs so I stole these pics of the shower from Lexa instead.

Ingredients

1-2 bags frozen meatballs

32 oz grape jelly 

2 12 oz. jars of chili sauce 

Spread meatballs in crockpot.  Dump grape jelly and chili sauce on top.  Stir together.  Cook until heated through. I cooked on high for 4 hours.  

Red Velvet M & M Brownies

Earlier this we made Mix & Match Mama's Red Velvet M&M Brownies.  These were really quick to make and only require 4 ingredients, 3 of which we had on hand!

Ingredients

1 box red velvet cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 C vegetable oil

1 C M&Ms

Mix all ingredients together. This will make a thick batter. Spread in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 14-15 minutes at 350 degrees.  After baking you may want to press some extra M&Ms into the brownies for decoration. A quick & simple Valentines Day treat!

Caprese bites

I have to say I myself am not big on this concept but other people love them so I have made them a few times recently for our party and for HGs birthday party.

Ingredients

Cherry or grape tomatoes

Fresh mozzarella balls

Fresh basil

Balsamic vinegar

Toothpicks

Simple...

Place a tomato, 1/4-1/2 a basil leaf and  mozzarella ball on a toothpick.  If tomatoes are larger you may want to half them.  Repeat until you run out of an ingredient.

Make a balsamic reduction by bringing 2/3 C balsamic to a boil then reducing to a simmer for 10 minutes until thickened.

Drizzle this mix over your caprese bites!

Bacon Wrapped Smokies

Bacon wrapped smokies are a simple and well loved appetizer because who doesn't love bacon?  Of course I forgot to take a picture but take my word for it, these are delicious!
I did find this one picture that they happened to be in...

 
Ingredients (makes approximately 40 pieces) 1 pkg little smokies 1 lb bacon 1 C brown sugar toothpicks Lay bacon flat and cut into thirds. Wrap each smoky with 1/3rd a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Place bacon wrapped smokies in a casserole dish. When all smokies are wrapped, top with 1 C brown sugar. Bake on 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes until bacon is cooked and brown sugar has reduced into a delicious sauce.  

Corn Dip

Life as a hospital RN means working nights/weekends/holidays and spending them away from family and friends. I am fortunate that my job has a 3 year rotation to keep the split of holidays fair and allow us to plan the year in advance. This year my holidays were Thanksgiving and NYE.  So those of us who were working NYE decided to make the best of it. We busted out tons of snacks & sparkling grape juice. I decided to try and make this corn dip recipe I found on the Here Comes the Sun blog. It was really easy and my coworkers really liked it.  I wanted to serve it with fritos scoops but they were sold out so I did regular fritos and corn chips.

Ingredients

3 cans mexicorn, drained 

3 C sharp cheddar

16 oz. sour cream

1/2 C mayo

5 green onions, chopped

S&P

Mix cheese, sour cream, mayo and onion together.  Add in mexicorn and stir together well.  Add S&P to taste.  Refrigerate for several hours before serving.

Here's my friend Tarah & I toasting to a new year. Of course it was a little late because midnight was the exact second that a patient decided to jump out of bed and another decided they absolutely must be discharged at that time but we made the most of it.

And here's the sparkling grape juice toast I had with the fiancé before I left for work...

Most Popular Recipes of 2013

I thought I would recap some of the most popular recipes on the blog for 2013.   These are the top recipes by page views and pins on pinterest.   Far & away this was the most popular post...   Beef & Broccoli  

  Followed by my Crockpot Buffalo Chicken  

  Pesto  

  Pizza Rolls  

  Pumpkin Dip  

  Baked Ziti  

Pasta Primavera   

      NOW FOR SOME OF OUR FAVORITE DISCOVERIES OF THE YEAR... Strawberry Rhubarb Pie  

   Grilled Pizzas  

Shrimp & Grits

 Oven Roasted Butternut Squash  

Christmas brunch

We hosted brunch at our house Christmas morning for both our families and a few friends. We had 9 people to serve. I wish I could show you pretty table pictures but I can't. We don't even have matching plates or silverware enough for 9.  These items will definitely be finding their way onto our wedding registry. Ha! We used this floral arrangement that some friends sent us as a centerpiece though.

The menu was simple.  I made shrimp & grits and sausage balls. Eric's mom made French toast casserole and fruit salad and my parents brought stuff for mimosas.  We also had 3 kinds of cheesecake! 

You can find the recipes here:

Sausage balls

Shrimp and Grits

Everything was really good and it was so nice to all get together and not have to rush around to several places.  Maybe we will have to make this a tradition. 

Sausage balls

Sausage balls are so easy to make and my family loves them. I made these twice over the holidays - once for Christmas Eve at my aunt and uncle's per his request and once for Christmas brunch at my house.

Ingredients

1 lb hot pork sausage

3 C bisquick

4 C cheddar, shredded

Simply mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Roll into 1.5 inch balls. Bake at 375 18-22 minutes until they start to turn golden on the top and are cooked through. Careful not to over cook! 

Fudge!

This is the simplest recipe in the world for fudge...2 or 3 ingredients.  I forgot to take a picture but I promise it's good.   Ingredients 18 oz chocolate chips (can also use peanut butter, butterscotch or a combo) 1 can sweetened condensed milk Optional: 1 C pecan or walnut pieces   Place chocolate chips and condensed milk in glass bowl. Microwave 5 minutes or so and stir together til well mixed. If using nuts, add now. Pour into a sprayed pan. Cool in fridge, cut into pieces and serve!   I made this twice this week. I did a milk chocolate and pecan variety and a chocolate peanut butter type.  I love the chocolate peanut butter variety.  

Pretzel Candies

Y'all these are so good and really simple! It only takes 3 ingredients & about 10 minutes to make.

Ingredients
Mini pretzels
Hershey kisses - any type (these are candy cane)
M&Ms

Heat oven to 175 degrees.
Place a hershey kiss on top of each pretzel.
Cook for 3 minutes or so.
Press M&M into top of each kiss.
Cool in refrigerator.

Heath Bars

My friends Megan & Ryanne posted this recipe on their blog Home Grown Hand-Me-Down last year. It's a simple holiday cookie/candy idea and it is really good...just don't think about all the butter!

Ingredients

Saltine crackers

2 sticks butter

1 C sugar

1 large bag chocolate chips 

Line baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Line with saltine crackers.

In small pot melt butter.

Add sugar and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Cook a few minutes until it starts to turn white & frothy.

Pour mixture over crackers and spread evenly.

Bake on 350 for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and spread chocolate chips over top. Continue smearing around until totally melted.

Refrigerate until solid (or place in freezer) then cut to pieces and serve.

Oven Roasted Butternut Squash - A Simple Seasonal Side!

We have had a butternut squash sitting on our counter for quite some time.  It was from our CSA at least a month ago.  In efforts to use the groceries we have at home I decided to make it today as a side for the pork tenderloin that was in the freezer too.  This is a very, very easy recipe with only 5 ingredients and would be an easy addition to any meal.  This could also easily make an appearance at your Thanksgiving dinner.   Ingredients: butternut squash 1/2 stick butter Salt  Pepper Chili Powder   Cut butternut squash into a small dice and place in a glass bowl.  If you have never cut a butternut squash, cut off the top, the bottom and then all the outside then slice in half.  Scoop out all the seeds, cut into long sticks and then into a smaller dice.  

    Melt butter and pour over squash.  Mix together to be sure butter is evenly coating all squash.

Add fresh ground salt, pepper & several shakes of chili powder.  Stir and re-season.  Make sure all ingredients are evenly mixed.  

Spread on baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees.

One squash is soft, increase oven temperature to 425 and cook another 5-7 minutes to crisp/brown it up a little.  

 

The Dip

This dip recipe probably dates back to 1995 or so and anyone who went to St. Luke's with me or was in any of our high school Spanish classes probably knows what I'm talking about. It is a simple recipe for a Mexican style dip but we always referred to it as "the dip".  I would say that 90% of the people in our small class knew how to make the dip and everytime there was a class party or event someone volunteered to bring the dip.  It is really easy & quick to make but it tastes really good.    

 

Ingredients:

(Makes 1 8x8 pan, to make a 9x11 pan triple ingredients)
1 block cream cheese
1 can chili with no beans
1-1.5 C shredded Mexican blend cheese

I like to make this in a disposable pan just because it's easy to take places and then just trash when it's done.  When the cheese hardens up it can be a pain to clean the pan.  But I will use a glass dish if baking to keep at home.

Spread bottom of pan with block of cream cheese (or 3 if using a large rectangle pan)

Cover with canned chili.  (This may be the only time I ever tell you to use canned chili)

Sprinkle top with generous amount of shredded cheese.

 Bake on 350 degrees until shredded cheese is cooked and bubbly and dip is heated through...approximately 30 minutes.

If the cheese starts to harden up on top you can always plop the whole thing back in the oven and reheat it.