Fruit Pizza

I wanted to try something new for this Memorial Day weekend.  I decided to try making a fruit pizza.  It came out great and the family really liked it. It was such a hit!!

Ingredients:
1 sugar cookie tube
1/2 cup of confectioners sugar
1 brick of cream cheese
1 container of plain Greek yogurt (I used this instead of sour cream)
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla
Fruit of choice - I used strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and kiwi

Directions:
Using a pizza sheet or cookie tray, spread the cookie dough evenly on tray.  Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Mix cream cheese, yogurt, sugar and vanilla together until well blended. Spread evenly on cooled cookie.

Place cut fruit on top of cheese topping.

 

Cut cookie and serve.  I cut into pizza/pie slices

Key Lime Croissant French Toast

This is a recipe that's a great way to spice up your traditional French Toast!

Ingredients for Croissant Mixture:

5 Eggs
1/8 Cup of Key Lime Juice ( I use the Nellie & Joes Key West Lime Juice)
2 Teaspoons of Nutmeg (I substitute vanilla sometimes)
1/4 Cup of Milk
3/4 Cup of Orange Juice
Large Croissants (Sliced)

*This mixture is enough for about 4 large whole croissants. If you like lime, you can add more than 1/8 of a cup. The first time I made this I used 1/4 of lime juice and it was pretty strong.

Ingredients for Key Lime Butter:
1/2 cup of Spreadable Butter or Margarine
4 Tablespoons of Powdered Sugar
1/8 Teaspoon of Key Lime Juice








Directions:
1: Mix Eggs with key lime juice, nutmeg, milk and orange juice with a whisk until bell blended.

2. Dip sliced croissant until fully coated with mixture
3. Cook on griddle or stove stop until golden brown/egg mixture is fully cooked (like you would when cooking regular French toast).

Directions to make Key Lime Butter:
1. Mix together butter, key lime juice and powdered sugar together to use as a spread on top of French toast.  It should look like a whipped butter.

Serve! The butter is sweet so you may not even need to use syrup!

 

Aunties Mac & Cheese

I love this baked mac & cheese recipe. My aunt always makes for a larger crowd and it's always goes well!

Ingredients

• One box of cooked pasta noodles - You can use traditional macaroni noodles but I like to use cavatappi noodles.
• Velveeta Cheese (2 cups cubed)
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese (2 cups)
• One egg
• Milk (2 1/2 cups)
• Butter or margarine (1/4 cup)

 

Directions:

 

1.  Place small pieces of butter/margarine (1/4 cup) on bottom of glass baking dish.
2.  Place half of cooked pasta on top of butter in dish.

3.  Sprinkle 1 cup of cubed Velveeta & 1 cup of shredded cheese on top of noodles.
4.  Mix one egg and 2 1/2 cups of milk together.  Drizzle half of the egg mixture over noodles & cheese.

5.  Repeat steps again with layering noodles, cheese and egg mixture
6.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.  Stir noodles so everything is well mixed and bake for another 15 minutes.
7.  Let cool before serving.

 

Mango Salsa & Black Bean Layered Dip

I tend to make this dip more often in the summer months and it usually goes over well.  Using the sweet mango salsa makes it!  Enjoy! :)

You will need:

• Whipped Cream Cheese (16 oz.)
• Black Beans (Rinsed)
• Mango Salsa
• Shredded Cheese (Mexican or Colby)
• Serving Dish

 Directions:

1. Spread whipped cream cheese on serving dish.

2. Sprinkle rinsed black beans on top of cream cheese.

3. Layer mango salsa over black beans.

4. Top with shredded cheese.

5. Serve with tortilla chips.

Ravioli Lasagna

This recipe is my quick, easy way of making a lasagna-like-dish.  Instead of using lasagna noodles, I use cheese ravioli.  It saves time and only uses three ingredients.

You will need:

• Pasta Sauce - I use meat sauce but you could use marinara to keep this recipe meatless.
• Mozzarella Cheese (shredded) - 1 bag (2cups) or equivalent should be good.
• Cheese Ravioli (Frozen) - I use the medium size Pierino brand. 
• Glass baking dish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In glass baking dish, spread some sauce to lightly cover bottom of dish.
3. Place a layer of frozen ravioli to cover sauce.  Add some more sauce over ravioli and then sprinkle layer of mozzarella cheese of cover. 

    4. Continue this layering process, until dish is filled or you've used all your ingredients.

    5. Place in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes or until cheese is melted & golden brown.
    6. Enjoy! :)

 

 

 

 



Sausage Roll

A favorite recipe of mine is the famous sausage roll.  My family has been making this for years!  It's easy and always receives many compliments.  We usually make this around holidays, especially when we are up north over fourth of July weekend.  I have friends at my cottage and so many of them love this sausage roll, we have to make three of them!  Once this comes out of the oven, people run to the kitchen because they have learned the hard way...you snooze, you lose!

The recipe only requires three ingredients:

• Ground Sausage - I always use Bob Evans (16oz.)
• Brick of cream cheese (8oz.) - I wouldn't use the reduce fat, it changes the taste a little.
• Crescent Roll tube - I use the Pillsbury Seamless Dough Sheets.

Cooking Steps:

1. To start, cook and brown the sausage in skillet on stove top.
2. After sausage is cooked, add in cream cheese into skillet. Mix cream cheese and sausage together.
3. Roll out crescent dough sheet on greased cookie sheet or baking dish.  Placed cooked sausage/cream cheese in middle of rolled out dough sheet.  I place it in the middle in a line.
4. Wrap sides and ends of dough up and around sausage mixture.  It should cover all of sausage mixture and look like a log/roll.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place sausage roll in oven for about 15 minutes, or until crescent is golden brown

Let cool for about five minutes, slice and serve.  I usually slice 1.5 inches apart. 

Tip: You can always make the sausage/cream cheese mixture ahead of time and keep in refrigerator.  This makes the prep/cooking even faster in the morning.

 

Sunday Dinner - All in one dish!

Usually Sundays are the days I will have family over for dinner, and sometimes they are my guinea pigs on trying a new recipe. A Facebook friend always talks about how she makes an easy dinner, all in one dish. She has made this a few times and said it always come out great, so I figured I might as well try it out! The recipe allows you to combine a meat of your choice (chicken or fish) with veggies. So here it is:

Lemon Garlic Herb Chicken
I went with Chicken the first time making this but I hear it's good with fish (salmon) too! I used some of my favorite veggies - wax beans, carrots and broccoli. Some people use cherry tomatoes but since I'm not a fan of tomatoes, I swapped it with my favorites.

Ingredients you need:
Chicken Breasts - I used 6 breasts and cut them in half.
Veggies - Your choice!  I used 1 head of fresh broccoli, 3 handfuls of wax beans & 1/2 bag of baby carrots.
Lemon - I used one fresh lemon
Garlic Herb Butter - I used one stick, wish I would have bought more.
Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper

In a baking dish, place chicken in the middle and veggies on the side.  Since I was making a larger amount, I used two baking dishes.

Drizzle veggies with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze out lemon juice and drizzle of chicken.  Place garlic herb butter on chicken. Don't use sparingly - larger amount will add more taste..  Wish I would have had a little more.

 

Preheat oven to 400 and pop in over for 25-30 minutes!

Easy as that and it's healthy too!  Another plus - easy cleanup!