Every once in a while I pause and make these quesadillas as a snack, side dish, or for lunch.  Each time I do, I wonder why I don’t think to make them more often. 

Ingredients:
1 tsp. olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced red pepper
1 cup thinly sliced onion
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
4 flour tortillas, 8 or 10 inches in diameter
1 cup monterey jack cheese

Instructions:
Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat.  Add pepper, onion and garlic.  Cook, stirring constantly until onions begin to brown and veggies are crisp-tender.  (You can also add fresh mushrooms to the pan if you like them.)  Add spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes or until spinach is just beginning to wilt.

Spray a frying pan with non-stick spray.  Place one tortilla in pan.  Spread half of the veggie mixture onto the tortilla, then sprinkle with half of the cheese.  Place a second tortilla on top.  Cook on each side until tortilla is golden brown.  Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Cut into wedges, and serve with salsa.  Makes 4 appetizer servings.

I should note that these are thick, filling quesadillas.  They’re also very tasty!  Enjoy.

Hopeful Homemaker

I like to serve these biscuits as appetizers, after school snacks or as a side for soup.   If you want to, you can make homemade biscuits for use in this recipe, but it’s nice to be able to put them together in just a few minutes.  When I use refrigerated biscuits it’s also easy to involve my children in preparing this dish.

Ham & Cheese Biscuit Bites

2 tubes refrigerated biscuits (20 total)
8 oz softened cream cheese (I prefer neufchatel)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup diced fully cooked ham
1 small can diced green chiles OR 1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers

In a bowl, mix cream cheese.  Add cheese, ham and chiles or peppers.  Stir to combine.  Spray 2 muffin pans with non stick spray.  Open biscuits and flatten each biscuit.  Place in muffin pans and press to make sure each biscuit covers the bottom and at least 1/3 inch up the sides of each mold.  Scoop a spoonful of cream cheese mixture into the center of each biscuit, distributing mixture evenly between all 20 biscuits.

Bake at 350 until biscuits are cooked and mixture is bubbly, approx. 12 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool 2-3 minutes.  Remove from pan and serve warm.

Yum!

Hope you like them!

Jennifer

I found this recipe on Heather’s blog, and had to make it.  In fact, it looked so good that I tried it out on guests without having made it before.  The verdict:  it’s fabulous!

Here is the recipe for how I made it:

Heather Bullard’s Casino Butter

1 pound butter, softened
2 Tb. fresh lemon juice
1-2 tsp. hot sauce (I used Frank’s hot sauce)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 green onions, finely chopped
1/3 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/3 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Heather chops everything finely, then puts it in a food processor.  I have only a tiny food processor and so I would have had to do 4 or 5 batches.   I put the butter in a mixing bowl and used my hand mixer to whip it a little bit.  Then I chopped the garlic, onions, pepper and parsley and pulsed them in my processor.  I then added everything to the mixing bowl and again used my hand mixer to combine it all really well.  I think it worked.

Heather takes half the butter, rolls it in wax paper and freezes it.  Then she uses the other half on a loaf of french bread.  It was the french bread I wanted to try.  I spread butter over both halves, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, and broiled it.  I think I only used 1/4 of the casino butter, though, instead of half.  I rolled up the rest in wax paper to freeze for another use.

Here is the link to Heather’s recipe, explanations and directions.  (She also puts wine in hers, which I omitted.)  And her pictures are far lovelier than mine.

Can I say that this became an instant family favorite?!  It was the YUMMIEST garlic style bread I’ve ever eaten.

Please, do yourself a favor and treat yourself!  It’s delicious!  Thanks for sharing, Heather!

Dehydrated apples.  So good!
Yesterday my seven year old daughter took charge of the apple peeler/corer/slicer and filled my dehydrator with apple slices.  She sliced a large bag of apples that were a little past the crisp, crunchy stage.  If you have a dehydrator, don’t forget to use it to preserve fruits that are just past the point of eating fresh.  When it’s a little on the ripe side, the natural sweetness of the fruit will be even better.

I love to dehydrate fruit.  I don’t put anything on it.  We’ve never had a problem with the fruit browning too much.  Just peel, slice and turn it on.  Sometimes I don’t even peel the fruit.  I always get wonderful results.  When I dehydrate fruit, I slice it up before we go to bed and it’s ready when we wake up in the morning.

It’s such a tasty, natural snack.  And today, it was a great snack to nibble on while we watched the first snowfall of the year.

Apples, anyone?

Start by placing round won ton wrappers in two 24 miniature muffin pans (48 total)

Bake in an oven preheated to 350 for 5 minutes.  Remove and cool.

In a skillet, brown 1 pound ground sausage with 1 pound ground beef.

When meat is cooked, rinse fat off, if desired, and place in bowl.
Add 2 cups shredded cheese.

Mix together.

Add 1 cup ranch dip (or 1 cup sour cream and 1/2 packet dry ranch dressing mix)

Mix together and carefully spoon into won tons.

Sprinkle with cheese, if you wish.  Return to oven and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and using a fork, lift sausage cups out of baking pans.

And there you have it!  Perfect little bites of sausage and cheese, with a hint of seasoning and the crunch of the baked won ton.  These will go fast at your next party!

For a breakfast twist, try scrambling 8-10 eggs in a separate pan and mixing them in with the meat before filling the cups.  It’s really yummy, and will yield a lot more cups.

Sausage Cups

48 round won ton wraps
1 lb. ground sausage
1 lb. ground beef
2 cups grated cheese
1 cup ranch dip (or 1 cup sour cream and 1/2 packet dry Ranch dip mix)
cheese for sprinkling over tops
8-10 eggs (optional, for scrambling and making sausage and egg cups)

Put won ton wraps in mini muffin pans and bake at 350 for 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  In frying pan, cook sausage and hamburger together.  Drain fat and place cooked meat in mixing bowl.  Add cheese and ranch dip.  Add eggs if desired.  Gently fill each muffin cup with mixture.  Sprinkle a little cheese over the tops and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.   Delicious!

I could eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  I love this salsa.
It’s delicious, and a  great way to enjoy seasonal fruit.

Start with 1 cup diced strawberries.

Peel and chop 1 kiwi

Then peel 2 apples.   Granny Smith is best, but I had gala on hand

Core and chop the apples

Zest one orange

Add to the fruit mixture.

Squeeze the juice of the orange into a small bowl.

Add 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar.

Add 2 Tablespoons apple jelly and mix.

Pour over fruit mixture.

Mix gently.

Spoon into small bowls or dessert cups and serve with cinnamon chips.
Usually I make my own cinnamon chips by baking flour tortillas, but this time I decided to try it with Stacy’s Cinnamon pita chips.

The pita chips were a little too thick for my personal tastes, but the salsa still tasted wonderful.  This is such a delicious dish!  Later we used it as a topping for our homemade raspberry frozen yogurt, and it was heavenly.

In fact, this is so good you might want to skip the chips and frozen yogurt and just dig in with a spoon!

Apple Berry Salsa

1 cup diced strawberries
1 kiwi, peeled and chopped
2 medium granny smith apples, peeled and chopped
zest of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
2 Tb. packed brown sugar
2 Tb. apple jelly

cinnamon chips

They are a simple thing to make, and what I love about them is that they’re so versatile; I can use what I have on hand and they always taste great.  They start with a few basic ingredients, and you can be creative from there.

Begin with 1 cup of margarine or butter

Melt the butter and add 2 cups brown sugar.

Pour in 1 cup light corn syrup

and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.

Next, add 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter.

Stir the ingredients together until it forms a sort of smooth paste.

Add 1 cup shredded coconut

and 5 cups oatmeal.  (You can also do half oatmeal and half rice krispies for variety.)

Stir together, and then start adding whatever your family will like.
In this batch, I added some chopped smoked almonds (about 1/2 cup)

I also added 1/2 cup flax seeds

and 2/3 cup sunflower seeds.

Finally,  I added about 1/3 cup miniature chocolate chips.

Stir well.  The key is to have the mixture sticking together in large clumps.
As long as you do that, you can add whatever you’d like.
I like to add wheat germ, but I’m out of that today.  My family likes nuts, so I always add some.
You can also add raisins or other dried fruit, or any other flavor that you love in granola bars.

Next I dump the mixture onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.

I usually save the wrappers from the butter and I use them to help spread and pack down the mixture a little before I bake it.

Spread the mixture to the edges of the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the edges are bubbly and the granola bars are just beginning to brown a little bit.

Remove them from the oven and let them cool.

Now, my family always manages to get permission to cut them while they’re still a little bit warm.
They’re yummy warm, but I must warn you that they fall apart more.
If you let them cool for several hours or even overnight, then they will cut well and hold their shape without crumbling.

These granola bars are really yummy and they’re also filling.
Granted, they have brown sugar, butter and corn syrup in them.
But I also tend to pack them with other healthy nuts so my kids are eating something with a lot more substance then most store-bought granola bars.  Furthermore, the children love them because they’re delicious!

These store well.  When school is in, I usually make a bunch and wrap them individually for quick and easy lunch assembly in the mornings.  If I don’t cut them up and store some quickly, the whole pan disappears before I know it!

Hopeful Homemaker’s Granola Bars

1 cup melted butter or margarine
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
5 cups oatmeal (or a combination of oatmeal and rice krispy cereal)
sunflower seeds
wheat germ
nuts of any kind
raisins
chocolate chips
any other flavor you’d like to supplement!

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease cookie sheet.  In large bowl, melt butter and combine butter, sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and peanut butter.  Stir well until mixture forms a good paste.  Add coconut and oatmeal and stir well.  Start adding in whatever ingredients you want, as long as the mixture sticks together in large clumps.  Press onto cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until edges are bubbly and it is beginning to turn golden brown.  Cool completely and cut into bars.
For a 9×13 pan, cut this recipe in half.