Baked Southwest Dip

Baked Southwest Dip Christie Sims

1-16oz loaf cannon ball bread, unsliced
1-8oz pkg. cream cheese, softened
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup hot salsa
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

Cup top off of bread and hollow out the inside of the bowl leaving 1/2 inch thick sides. Cube up the insides and toast under the broiler. Beat cream cheese, sour cream and salsa until smooth. Stir in grated cheese. Spoon the mixture into the bread bowl. Replace the top. Cover the entire bowl in foil and bake in a 400 degree oven for 1.5 hours. Serve with chips, veggies or just tear pieces off of the bowl.

Rocky Road Bars

Rocky Road Bars Christie Sims
Cake
½ cup butter 1 square unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar 1 cup flour
1 tsp. vanilla 1 tsp baking powder.
Filling
½ cup sugar 6oz. cream cheese
2 Tbsp flour ½ cup butter, softened
1 egg ½ tsp. vanilla
Frosting
¼ cup butter 2 cups mini marshmallows
¼ cup milk 1 square unsweetened chocolate
1 tsp. vanilla 2oz. cream cheese
3 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Cake- In a large saucepan melt butter & chocolate over low. Remove from heat and add sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla & eggs. Mix well. Spread in a greased and floured 9x13 pan. Set aside. Filling- in a bowl softened cream cheese and butter and mix in remaining ingredients until smooth. Spread over bottom mixture. Bake 25-35 min or until toothpick comes out clean. Sprinkle with marshmallows and bake 2 more minutes. Frosting- In a small saucepan combine butter, chocolate, cream cheese & milk over low heat until melted. Remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar and vanilla. Pour over marshmallows & swirl.

Chicken Noodle Soup

4 qts. water (20 cups)
1/2 cup chicken bouillon powder or to taste
1 bunch sliced green onions (1 1/2 cups)
1 carrot, thinly sliced in rounds
1 roasted chicken, coarsely chopped
3-6 cups homemade noodles (I got mine from Costco)

Bring water to a boil and add bouillon. Add noodles and carrots and continue to boil until noodles are soft. Reduce heat. Add green onions and chicken. Continue cooking until heated through. Serves 8-10

Broccoli Mandarin Salad

Here is the recipe for the Broccoli Mandarin Salad. I am including the recipe for the homemade honey-mustard (ish) recipe, which is really good but a little heavy on the calories. I skipped that and used a low-cal honey mustard from the store.

1 egg & 1 yolk, slightly beaten 4 cups fresh broccoli cut into small pieces
1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup golden raisins
1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch 6 strips cooked and crumbled bacon
1 tsp. dry mustard 1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds
1/4 cup vinegar 1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1/4 cup water 1/2 sliced red onion
3 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Prepare salad by mixing broccoli, raisins, bacon, almonds, mandarin oranges and red onion. Set aside. Combine eggs, cornstarch, sugar and mustard. Add vinegar and water to mixture. Cook over double boiler until thickened. Remove from double boiler and stir in butter and mayonnaise. Chill, then mix over salad just before serving

Christmas Mouse Cookies.

Christmas Mice Cookies - Heather Scukanec

Ingredients:

1 jar Maraschino Cherries with stems on

1 package chocolate bark

20 hershey kisses

almond slices

gel tubes of black and red

20 oreo cookies (white chocolate covered, or an opened cookie)

Instructions:

Melt chocolate bark until creamy

Dip cherry in chocolate while holding stem

(completely cover cherry, but not stem)

Place cherry on its side on top of the cookie

(the stem of the cherry is the mice tail)

Press a hershey kiss to the opposite side of the cherry (mice head)

Place two almond slices in between the cherry and the kiss (ears)

Use gel tubes or decorating frosting to make a nose (black) and two eyes (red)

thai lettuce wraps.

Thai Lettuce Wraps

1/2 c. coconut

1 T. oil

1/2 c. shallots chopped

1/8 to 1/4 c. fresh ginger

2 T. chopped garlic

1 lb. ground pork (I use 1/2 ground turkey and 1/2 ground sausage)

juice of one lime (I used about 1/2 of the lime for juice)

3 to 4 T. diced green chiles

2 to 3 T. soy sauce

peanuts

Stir coconut over medium heat until golden and crisp. Remove and set aside. Add oil to pan and place over medium heat. Add shallots, ginger, garlic and meat. Stir until no longer pink. Add lime juice, peanuts, coconut, chiles and soy sauce to taste. Can also add fresh mint.

+image from perdue.com

lemon sour cream cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
grated zest of 1 large lemon
1 cup sour cream

LEMON GLAZE
1/4 cup melted butter
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 325. Generously butter and flour a 10 inch bundt pan.

Into a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl with hand-held electric mixer, cream 1 cup butter and granulated sugar; beat at high speed until mixture is very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down side of bowl frequently. Blend in lemon zest. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, adding each in 3 additions. Scrape sides of bowl frequently. Pour batter into prepared cake pan; bake in the preheated oven for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden pick inserted near the center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine lemon glaze ingredients in a bowl, blending until smooth. Carefully turn cake out onto a platter; drizzle evenly with glaze.

Serves 12 or more, depending on size of servings.

*image via flickr

*recipe found here

yummy easy "healthyish" muffins

Yummy Easy "healthyish" muffins
1 box cake mix
1 cup water
1 cup pumpkin (from can)
Mix all ingredients

bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Makes approx. 16 muffins.

*Tonight I used a chocolate cake mix w/chocolate chips and a carrot cake mix with chocolate chips, but the possibilities are endless.

Welcome!!!

I hope most of you are familiar with blogging, if not, it is pretty self-explanatory, you can ask questions or just email your recipes to me and I can post them for you. PLEASE LABEL your recipe at the bottom right side of the "POSTING"- i.e. healthy or dessert or chocolate

It would be great if everyone could post their OLD recipes as well. We can have a sidebar with the categories/labels and bam, one click all of the desserts will come up, or appetizers etc.

Let's get posting ladies!!! Pictures are definitely welcome. Here is a photo via flickr of my healthy dish tonight!