Nicole's Famous CRACKers

A co-worker brought these lil'devils in to work a while back and I (our whole office) LOVED them!!! It is a super easy, super budget-friendly, great-take-to-a-party treat, so (with Nicole's permission) I had to share~

We re-named them CRACKers because, as you will find, these are completely addictive and I DARE you to only eat one!

THANK YOU NICOLE for letting me post this for everyone to enjoy!

What you'll need~
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
a package of saltine crackers
chocolate chips
any nuts chopped or crushed (pictured with almonds, MY FAVORITE!)

Preheat the oven to 400. Get a cookie sheet out, cover with foil and lay crackers out all over the cookie sheet. Take the stick of butter and brown sugar and melt together in a small pot over medium heat don't stir until it is all melted!!, now wait for the sugar/butter to caramelize (you will notice big bubbles)- once that happens, remove the pan from the heat and use a spoon to drizzle the caramelly goodness all over the crackers. Then sprinkle the crushed nuts on top.
Bake for 5-7 minutes. Take the crackers out and IMMEDIATELY sprinkle the chocolate chips over them, then transfer off the cookie sheet to cool before the chocolate chips re-harden.

Ally's Awesome Fried Cheese

In case you don't know, there is an AWESOME BLOG called Culinary Infatuation, where Ally makes some pretty delicious recipes that are always drool-tastic! Recently she made "A Different Fried Cheese" and my jaw dropped.

As I've mentioned a zillion times (and will mention a zillion more) I ADORE CHEEEEESE! It's awesome, and I love it. I also love recipes that are super simple, super satisfying and oohhhhsoooodelicious.

This is as pure & simple as it gets.



Wrap a string cheese in an egg roll wrapper (we used Precious Mozzarella, our favorite, and also a jalapeno jack string cheese I grabbed for kicks.)
Lay one string cheese on one egg roll wrapper diagonally so the cheese starts at one corner and ends at the opposite. Roll up like a burrito and seal with water or egg.
Fry in a frying pan using oil (vegetable or olive oil heated to about 350) until golden.

Buffalo Chicken Strips

I've been looking forward to making these for a loooooong time! I first saw this brilliant twist on boneless buffalo goodness on Mary Ellen's Cooking Creations last year. I am still dying to try the blue cheese orzo she made as a side dish, because it sounds INCREDIBLE!!! As mentioned in previous posts and in everyday conversation when ever I get a chance to work it in there, I LOVE BUFFALO WINGS!!!! Seriously. I think I could be in a wing-eating contest and seriously put some LARGE MEN to shame. Nate and I have been working on keeping our weeknight eating on the healthy tip as much as possible, and I was thrilled when I got home from the gym last week and realized I had all the ingredients to make this SUPER EASY, and mucho delicious dinner, full of buffalo-y-goodness!!!

Baked Buffalo Chicken Strips
Adapted from Mary Ellen's Cooking Creations (see link above)
Measurements are approximate

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into strips
1 c bread crumbs
2-3 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
pinch of Kosher Salt
Black pepper to taste
1 bottle FRANK'S RED HOT Hot sauce

Place the chicken strips in a large freezer bag and cover liberally with hot sauce.
Marinate in the refrigerator 1-4 hours. In a medium bowl mix the bread crumbs, cayenne, garlic powder, salt & pepper. Pre-heat oven to 425.
Cover a cookie sheet with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Using a fork, remove the strips from the hot sauce one at a time and coat with the bread crumb and spice mix. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes flipping half way through. I didn't have enough hot sauce left to coat the strips after baking, but I drizzled a bit over them. I love dunking my wings in blue cheese or ranch dressing, but that kind of kills the purpose of making a healthier version of these buffalo goodies. So, I like to use 1/2-3/4 c. of either non-fat plain yogurt or non-fat sour cream (which ever is on hand) and mix in 1-2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese, a pinch of salt, a little black pepper, and a dash of the Franks red-hot sauce This makes a slightly "lighter" dipping sauce :)

Happy Halloween!

We pretty much, with very little exception, carve pumpkins every year. I like to recruit as many willing participants as possible to join in on the mess making, and this year some friends were kind enough to let us carve pumpkins at their place!
Mine (sunglasses & mustache pumpkin) is on the far left, next is Nate's scary face pumpkin, then Adam's vampire pumpkin & Erin's super happy pumpkin!

We don't live in a "neighborhood" environment and don't think we've had a trick or treater in the past 5 years, so this evening of carving pumpkins and watching Bravo's Top 100 Scary Movie Moments special on Saturday turned out to be our big Halloween happenings this year.

Here's my "seeds" recipe- although we ate them too fast for me to get a pic!
De-gut seeds as well as possible, then place in a large bowl and wash remaining guts off by swishing around and "kneading" seeds in the water, drain & repeat until seeds are all clean.
Then I pour them out onto a paper towel covered platter to dry a bit, pat dry on top with another paper towel.
Let sit for about an hour, then spread evenly over a wax covered cookie sheet and let dry overnight. Separate any that stick together and spread foil over a cookie sheet, grease lightly w/ non-stick spray & spread seeds over in an even layer.
Spray with Misto olive oil sprayer, sprinkle with kosher salt, cayenne pepper and a little chili powder.
Bake at 300 for 10-15 minutes, then turn- spray other side and bake an additional 10 minutes. My oven is insane so I really had to keep an eye on these because it changes temp at it's own will and these do go from perfectly roasted to burn-city quick in that situation :)

Wishing everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

Zucchini Snack

I saw these recently on Janet is Hungry one of my favorite blogs. She makes so many yummy things that I want to try! I had pretty much all the ingredients for these BAKED ZUCCHINI COINS and thought it would make a perfect football watching snack!



These were so easy and delicious I'll definitely make them again!!

Crab Wontons

This was so much fun!We'd never made won tons at home before but we were so excited to try it! After much deliberation we decided to go with a Crab & cream cheese won ton for our football game get together yesterday. It was surprisingly easy and totally delicious!




1 pkg Wonton Wrappers (we didn't use them all) This made about 25-30 won tons
1 large King Crab Leg (meat removed from shell and shredded)
1 8oz package of cream cheese softened
4-5 chopped up green onion
1 tsp garlic chili paste (Nate saw this in the fridge and couldn't resist)
1 egg white (for sealing wontons)

Mix Crab, cream cheese, green onion and chili paste until well combined. Cover your work area with wax paper to reduce stickiness. Lay several wonton wrappers out on the wax paper. Spoon about 1 tsp of filling onto each wrapper.




Dip your fingers in the egg and run it around the edges of the won ton wrapper.




Seal by folding in half diagonally (bring opposite corners together, so it looks like a triangle standing on it's side.You can seal it in this shape (just make sure you get as much air out as you can) or you can then bring the other two corners into meet the middle corner. It will look like a newspaper hat. Again try to get the air out as much as possible and make sure they are sealed well. We made them in the late morning and refrigerated them for the evening game. About an hour before our guests arrived, we got out one of our fondue pots and filled it with oil, and dropped them slowly into the oil using a slotted metal spoon.




Using the slotted spoon, transfer the golden fried wontons onto a plate covered with paper towel to cool for about 3 minutes before transferring to serving dish.

Serve with sweet & sour sauce and hot mustard. We can't wait to make wontons again & stuff them with something new!

Football Nuts

We had a few friends over to watch the USC game tonight & made all kinds of goodies! This was the first time I've ever made homemade wings AND won tons...I also made these super easy spiced peanuts, perfect with wings & beer!

1 tin salted roasted shelled peanuts
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 tsp garlic chili paste

Prepare a cookie sheet by covering in foil and spraying with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium bowl mix all ingredients. Spread in a single layer over the prepared cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for about 10 minutes. Cool on sheet- serve in a bowl with some cold beer to drink.

Super Easy Super Nachos

These are so quick and easy and when we are watching football on Sundays they are the perfect thing to whip up. I can't remember which restaurant I was at but I got nachos and each chip was individually topped with beans, cheese, salsa, etc. and I thought that was pretty cool. So to make these super easy super nachos this is what you'll need:

1 bag of tortilla chips
1 can re fried beans
2-3 hand fulls shredded cheese
1 jar of salsa (you won't need the whole thing)
Sour Cream

Any other toppings you'd like;
Jalapenos
Chopped onion
Sliced Olives
Grilled Chicken
Taco Seasoned ground beef
Hot sauce

Using a butter knife, spread beans on each chip and arrange in a layer (about the size and shape of the plate you will be serving them on) on a foil covered cookie sheet. Cover the layer of bean'd chips with shredded cheese. Then add a second layer of chips spread with beans on top of that and cover that layer with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for 5-7 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Transfer to a plate and top with salsa, sour cream and anything else you'd like.