Caprese Dip!

I'm a dip fiend! So I love coming up with new recipes for unique and delicious dips! Sometimes I like warm dips and sometimes I'm just in the mood for an easy, fresh, healthy, low fat, chilled dip! This one hits all the marks!

Creamy Cheesy Hot Corn Dip

I love to serve snacks to my guests that are  a little unique. Well, this corn dip is not only unique but also so delicious! It's warm, creamy, cheesy, corn goodness in every bite!  And it also has a slight amount of spiciness. My guests loved this one, so now I'm sharing it here!

Panzanella Salad

This is not your typical leafy lettuce kind of salad. This salad actually does not contain any lettuce at all.

Corn Fritters

This is one of my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes! I make it just about every year, but sometimes I use onions instead of corn. You can really substitute any kind of veggie for the corn!

Cabbage Casserole

This is an easy and delicious recipe that I found on one of my favorite recipe sites called 'All Free Casserole Recipes'. You can find just about any recipe you can think of on that food site.

Crispy Oven Roasted Parmesan Potatoes

The title of this recipe made me so hungry as soon as I read it! Then when I saw the description I knew I had to try it..."Crispy on the outside & soft inside." That's my kind of potato side dish! I found this recipe **here**

Grilled Potatoes

Potatoes on the grill are so easy and so very good! I love the smoky flavor and it's so much quicker than baking them in the oven! Plus, who wants to turn on the oven for an hour and heat up the kitchen on hot summer days!

Sweet and Spicy Green Bean Bundles!

I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting veggie side dishes! This one caught my eye because of the presentation! But the original recipe kind of scared me because it contained a pound of bacon and a cup of butter! There was no way I was making the recipe that way!

Scalloped Eggplant Casserole!

This is a recipe I had saved in a folder for about 3 years. I found the recipe on the GroupRecipes.com cooking site. It was posted by one of my favorite cooks from that site known as Dugger. I have tried a few of his recipes and was never disappointed!

Caramelized Cabbage!

I came across this recipe about 3 years ago on a cooking site called GroupRecipes. I tucked it away in a folder full of recipes that I wanted to try! Then the other day I found the folder and decided to finally try the recipe! I'm so glad I did because this was so very good!

Zucchini Souffle

I love to make vegetable recipes that my kids will actually eat! They don't like too many vegetables, but this one didn't seem to be a problem for them! So I was doing a happy dance after they ate this for dinner!

Cran-Broccoli Slaw

This is such a unique and refreshing salad! It's perfect when you want something out of the ordinary to tickle your taste buds!

Sauteed Radishes Taste Nothing Like Raw Radishes

I'm not a big fan of raw radishes because of their spiciness. Well, when I sliced them and sauteed them with butter and garlic, the radishes were transformed into these lovely mauve medallions of flavorful tenderness! It was like magic! They tasted nothing like raw radishes. The taste was very similar to sauteed cauliflower.

Baked Parmesan Truffle Fries

These fries are something I've been craving and researching for a very long time! I first had to find the perfect truffle oil. And that was no easy task! There are so many varieties. I didn't want a low quality truffle oil, but I also didn't want to remortgage my house to buy a high grade version. Then I had to decide if I wanted white or black truffle oil. I decided on the white because it's a milder taste. Sometimes black truffle oil can taste like what burnt rubber tires smell like. Well, that's if you could taste a smell. But I guess you can taste smells because one of the ingredients in this white truffle oil is 'truffle aroma'. I wonder how they captured the aroma and put in the bottle? This oil was pretty good for the price...only $10 for 3.38 fl.oz

My next step was to find a great recipe. Again, no easy task. There are a ton of truffle fries (or is it 'fry') recipes out there. I know I wanted baked fries with parmesan cheese on top, so that narrowed it down a bit. But I also wanted a very 'easy to make' recipe. You would be so surprised at how so many cooks make this so difficult. I found this recipe **Click Here** and it seemed to be the easiest. I tried it and loved it...then I tried it a second time, but I made it even easier because I didn't soak the potato slices in water for 30-60 minutes. And since I didn't soak them, there was no need to pat them dry. So I saved 2 big steps. The fries turned out exactly the same as when I did those extra 2 steps. I also saved a cooking step because I didn't turn the fries over during baking. What a pain that is, turning each individual fry...or is it 'fries'? 
These fries were perfectly browned and crispy, as you can see in my photo above.

 Maybe the key to my success was that I used this round, black, non stick, pizza pan. And I baked them in my convection toaster oven at 425 degrees for only 35 minutes. Not 50 minutes as stated in the above recipe! They would have been totally burnt if I baked them for 50 minutes!  All I had to do was give the pan a 1/4 turn every 10 minutes so they would brown evenly.

So now I can EASILY have baked truffle fries whenever I crave them!

Which is a good thing because there aren't any restaurants near me that serve these...what's up with that, Long Island?

Salad Wedges

When I saw this on Pinterest I thought it was a great idea! This is much easier than cutting the head of lettuce into lots of bite sized pieces!

Oven Roasted Salsa

Wow...what a difference a little roasting makes! I never thought to oven roast my salsa veggies, but it really works nicely! I loved the bold flavors the roasting brings out!

A Light and Flavorful Potato Side Dish!

Now that summer is right around the corner, I want to start eating lighter meals, as in lower in fat! This potato recipe tastes very rich, but it's very low fat! I serve this instead of mashed potatoes because it's much easier and tastier! Plus this can be put together a few hours ahead of time, then baked when needed!

These are paper thin sliced potatoes in a
 creamy green onion cheese sauce.
Baked until tender. Made with low fat ingredients. This is an easy potato side dish with lots of creamy, cheesy flavor! Perfect with any meat main dish...chicken, beef, pork and even fish! 

Skinny Potatoes

Cheesy Cauliflower Tater Tots!

Did you ever find a recipe that sounds really tasty but has an ingredient and recipe instructions that just doesn't appeal to you? That's what I saw with this recipe, but I didn't let it stop me because I just loved everything else about the recipe!

This recipe called for 4 egg whites...and the whipping of egg whites into stiff peaks! I do not like either of those things because I don't want to waste the egg yolks and I'm not that experienced at the stiff peaks egg white whipping thing! It also called for the use of a pasrty bag and star pastry bag tip...I don't own either of those! Plus that's just too much work for making tater tots!

So I used 1 large egg (including the yolk) and just beat it into the cauliflower mixture! Guess what? It worked perfectly! And I used a 10 oz. box of frozen cauliflower florets instead of fresh, to make it even easier! Just thaw and squeeze the heck out of the cauliflower to drain all the excess liquid!

Instead of the pastry bag I just plopped it onto a parchment lined cookie sheet using two spoons. Again, it worked perfectly!

These cauliflower tater tots were delicious! Especially if you're a fan of cauliflower like I am! They have a nice strong cauliflower flavor but are light,fluffy and cheesy! This is a low carb recipe!

Here is the link to the original recipe...'Cheesy Cauliflower Tater Tots'...and below is my photo of how mine turned out! And I included my easy version of this recipe!


Cheesy Cauliflower Tater Tots

INGREDIENTS;
1 Medium head of cauliflower - I used 10 oz. frozen thawed and squeezed dry
2 Tbls. heavy cream - I used light cream
2 Tbls. butter
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 egg whites - I used 1 large egg with yolk
salt and pepper to taste - I used 1/4 tsp. of each
garlic powder to sprinkle ontop after baked - my idea

 MY EASY DIRECTIONS;
In a microwave safe bowl add cauliflower, light cream and butter. Microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Transfer cauliflower mixture to a food processor with cheese and pulse slightly until it's the texture of oatmeal. Add salt and pepper. Place back into bowl. Then add in egg and beat until fully combined.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Drop cauliflower mixture by the spoonful onto parchment paper...you should get about 14 tater tots.
Bake on center rack, uncovered, for about 18 minutes or until nicely browned.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with garlic powder.
Serve warm or room temp.

                                                       

A Cool Way to Make Baked Potatoes!

The recipe caught my eye because of the photo! I love to find new ways to make potatoes and this definitely looked like something new! The recipe is called

Crab and Spinach Souffle's

I love to figure out ways to use up leftover stuff that I have in my freezer! I had some leftover imitation crab meat and some leftover frozen chopped spinach that was just sitting there begging to be used!