Spinach Artichoke Dip

I have seen a lot of spinach artichoke dip recipes passing around on the internet and honestly, some of them are too complicated for what it's worth. In fact, the recipe I am about to pass to you is more complicated than it needs to be. First I'll give you the run down of the recipe I am using now, but after I'll tell you how much easier it could be.

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First, lets gather all the ingredients.
8 oz. cream cheese
1 (14 oz.) can of artichokes (drained)
6 oz. frozen spinach (thawed)
sour cream, mayo, garlic, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses




Put a medium saucepan on the stove top set to low.

 Now this is the easy part, go ahead and add each ingredient one at a time to the sauce pan. First add your spinach, then your artichokes, then the cream cheese, then a dollop of sour cream and a dollop of mayo, then grate some mozzarella cheese and add about a teaspoon of garlic. Make sure you are stirring this the whole time and soon you will have creamy deliciousness. Also note, I give you no real measurements because really, you can't mess it up. If you have more sour cream and mayo, it with just be more smooth, if you add more cheese it with just be more cheesy, it really is all on you and what you like.

Transfer it into a serving bowl and serve warm. I topped mine with a little Parmesan cheese ( I can never have enough cheese) and ate it with some tortilla chips (you can use bread too!)







Now you might be asking, but how can it get any more simple than this recipe? Well it can. The first time I made this I used one can artichokes, once bag frozen spinach, one container cream cheese and what ever mozzarella I had left. I simply put it all in the saucepan and stirred it over low heat till it was warm and creamy. No fuss. And really, I add some more to it this time after seeing a lot of different recipes, but it was practically the same. Add m ore stuff to it if you want to, but it is just as yummy with four ingredients.

MMMmmmm Good

We're getting over colds in our household so that means soup. Something we like to do (any maybe you will too) is to use orange juice instead of water or milk in out tomato soup. The soup is a bit more tangy and less creamy than if you usually use milk but it's the perfect way to add some extra vitamin C to the mix. So next time you're sick, give it a try (even try it when you're not sick so you can appreciate it's awesome deliciousness all the more). Simply substitute the one can of water or milk you would normally use with one can of orange juice.

Kitchen Creations: Skillet fun

We cooked up some sweet potato hash for dinner tonight but we took it to the max. We really pimped it out so it was a meal by itself.

Ingredients:
1/2 a container of mushrooms (it could use more)
1 apple (I used granny smith)
1 can garbanzo beans
1 small onion           1 sweet potato
2 tbs brown sugar  1 tsp paprika
2 tbs curry               1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon       1/2 cup chopped nuts
salt & pepper to taste


The Process:
1. Slice and dice the onions and apples and use a cheese shredder to shred the (peeled) potato. Start cooking the onions as soon as they're chopped up on medium/low heat- be sure to oil the skillet with some olive oil. Go ahead and preheat the oven to 400 as well.
2. Mix in the spices (sans the brown sugar) with the onions once they have been cooking for a couple minutes (we are really exact here...)
3. Throw in the diced apples, mushrooms and garbanzo beans (rinse them first) and cook for three or four minutes, stirring them occasionally.
4. Once everything is getting nice and hot, transfer it all into a large heat proof bowl and mix in the sweet potatoes and nuts. Stir it up till the sweet potatoes are evenly mixed and throw it all back on the skillet (if you can do this is the skillet go ahead, but I didn't have any room to stir it like it needed).
5. Keep cooking it on the stove for four minutes and flip every two minutes. Transfer it into the stove and let cook for 10-15 more minutes (or until it looks tasty and you are too hungry to wait any longer).
6. Sprinkle with brown sugar and serve it up. I ate it over a bed of greens that was sprinkled with red wine vinegar and my boyfriend ate it with salad on the side, either way it was delicious.

Enjoy : )

Avocado time!

Now, I am no vegan, nor do I necessarily endorse giving up cheese in any way, but The Vegan Stoner is a great web-site for vegan recipes that are tasty for vegans and non vegans alike. I found a recipe for avocado pudding which looked amazing (about half way down the page). I decided to make it myself in the form of a smoothie by adding an extra half cup of soy milk and using vanilla soy milk instead of plain.

Ingredients (altered from the original recipe to make my smoothie):
1 Banana
1 Avocado
1 cup vanilla soy milk
3/4 cup ice
spoon full of agave
squirt of lemon (the original called for lime but I did not have any)
Enough granola to sprinkle on top (I used chocolate flavored)

Mix it all together (leave out the granola) in the blender till smooth and creamy.

It will be really thick (even though the soy milk has been doubled from the original recipe) so you will need to spoon it into the glasses. Top it off with a little granola and your smoothie is ready!

If you feel really ambitious and you want to stray from the vegan side of life, this would taste really good with bacon. Chocolate goes well with it too. I have also made this smoothie by using frozen bananas instead of ice if you want a creamier taste.

Whatever you decide to do, you wont need to do much. This smoothie is filling. I had one of these in place of lunch and felt full for hours.

Peppermint Fudge

So, this is a little late.... I did this about two weeks ago, almost three and I am posting it now. Better late than never though!

For my coworkers this holiday season, I decided to make some peppermint fudge. I have made fudge before and I swear by fudge recipes that use marshmallow creme. I used Aunt Teen's Creamy Chocolate Fudge recipe from allrecipes.com as my base and then experimented a little bit to make it peppermint using some white chocolate chips and crushed candy cane (note that the recipe I used as my base includes nuts but I did not, I'm just not a fan of nuts in my fudge). I had found these great little ceramic dishes in the dollar bins at Michaels that I used so not only did they get fudge, they could reuse the package, win.

Step One: Gather the ingredients!

• 1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow creme
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional!)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pretty ceramic miniature bread pans

Peppermint part (what I used at least)

• 1 1/2  cup white chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1/8 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup crushed candy canes or other peppermint candies (the more finely crushed the better)

Step Two: Mix up the ingredients!

In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine marshmallow cream, sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt. Bring to a full boil, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. 

Step Three: Pull it off the heat and mix in the chocolate. Stir until well blended then add the vanilla.

Step Four: Pretty much do the same steps for the peppermint part. Mix together and melt all the ingredients except for the crushed peppermint. When it's completely mixed add the peppermint.

 Step Five: Pour the chocolate fudge into greased pans. Pour the peppermint mixture on top of the chocolate in a thin layer (or thick layer if you really like peppermint!) and use a toothpick to swirl the peppermint into the chocolate; this helps to blend the two together and looks kind of nice as well : )

And that my friends, is how I made my coworkers Christmas gifts. Enjoy!