Spinach And Artichoke Dip

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

8 oz cream cheese- softened

2 Tablespoons Mayo

3 Tablespoons Sour Cream

1/2 cup of Italian Cheese

1/3 Cup Shredded Mozzarella cheese

1 Can Artichoke Hearts- chopped

3/4 Cup frozen spinach (defrosted and drained) 

* I used the entire bag of spinach, feel free to do the same, I think it taste better

 a little garlic powder, salt and basil to your own liking 

Preheat the oven to 350- 

In an oven safe baking dish (or a mixing bowl, and then move it into the baking dish) mix all ingredients. 

then bake for 25-30 minutes.  Serve over baguettes, or chips, or crackers. 

I served it over a loaf of garlic roasted bread, and just lightly toasted it, before serving.

Toss all the ingredients together! How easy is that?!

Skinny Pizza Poppers

     I'm not exactly sure why I think these are "skinny" maybe because I kept mine vegetarian, and You can feel free to add bacon or pepperoni or what ever else maybe people put into pizza.  But I stuck to spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and mozzarella.  Again you put in your own toppings of choice!

P.s These are super easy (and if you had like spray butter, it would be TOO easy) and they are so so so so so so sooooo good!

Pizza Poppers

1 can of Pizza Crust (I used Pillsbury Classic Crust)

Toppings of your choice

about 1-2 cups of cheese

pizza sauce *for dipping)

1 Tbls butter

Garlic salt *to your own liking*

Italian Seasoning *to your own liking* 

Preheat your oven to 350.
On a lightly flowered surface, unroll your crust into about an 8X12 size.
  cut into fourths the long way, and then thirds the short way.
Place a small pile of your favorite ingredients in the center of each square.
Fold up the corners and then place the dough in your hand and roll like a ball.
place them seem side down in a lightly greased baking dish.

In a small container melt the butter, garlic, and Italian seasoning.  cover the tops of the dough with butter mixture.
Place baking dish in oven for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown (p.s they go from almost finished, to over finished, very quickly, so keep an eye on them towards the end)

Serve with Pizza sauce! and ENJOY :)

Pile on all your favorite toppings! The dough stretches, so feel free to pile as high or as low as you would like!

Top with some butter and seasonings! (don't mind my chubby swollen pregnancy hands!) 

Ditch the can (and the sodium) Beans

Now that I so luckily have Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (what am I like a middle aged man?? who gets high blood pressure?!) I have been keeping an extra eye out on my salt in take.

 So imagine my surprise to see that my can of beans (which I put in just about everything) has over 400MG of sodium per serving!?

 imagine that! 

The American Heart Association only recommends 1500 mg of sodium in a day! 

So if I ate a can of beans (which is not THAT hard to do) I have almost maxed out my day!! that's ridiculous, especially if you are going to add some seasoning to it, like taco seasoning!! IMAGINE! yikes! so that got me thinking, why don't I just make dried beans?? they have TWO mg of salt, TWO that's it!!!

but here's the truth, there ain't nothing easy, or convenient about dried beans, you gotta take them out and soak them the night before (like I have a clue what I'm going to eat TOMORROW) and then cook them for like a gatrillion hours, and then, if you still want what ever you needed the beans for, you cook them into the meal! 

that's too much work for me!

so instead, lets make it in a batch, put it into servings, and freeze it, then how easy is it to take it out, defrost it, and bam! beans beans the magical fruit!!!

I am not even going to make a "ingredients list" because, well you need beans, and water. that's it.

So take your bag of beans (this is according to a 1 lbs bag of beans) and soak them in water over night (yeah, stupid, I know, but it will be worth it! I promise!) 

Then when you wake up in the morning, drain those beans out! put them in your crock pot with 6 cups of water (feel free to add things, like onions? maybe trade out water for broth? you pick they are your beans) and cook on high for about 4-6 hours.  once tender, turn off and let cool down a bit.

Separate them into bags or Tupperware (I did bags because that's easier to stick in warm water to defrost) and toss in the freezer!! 

Skinny Oven Baked French Fries

Eric and I are starting to try a more "clean eating" diet (don't worry we will probably still have our Sunday snacks!) so just nothing that doesn't come from nature (plus extra virgin olive oil and seasonings, and since I'm preggo we added whole wheat bread to that mixture) we will see how it goes, but I'm also still me, and I wanted a treat.  SO oven baked french fries it is! (would be good with sweet potatoes as well, but YUCK, I hate sweet potatoes)

Oven Baked French Fries

1-2 large potatoes

1 Tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

all you do is preheat the oven to about 400.  slice your potatoes into french fry shaped.  toss them in cold water for about an hour (I only did it for about 20 minutes, because I was out of time, but they get better if they stay in longer) in a large bowl, toss the potatoes olive oil and salt.  place the potatoes on a baking sheet (use tin foil for super easy clean up) and bake for about 20 minutes, then flip, season and cook again for another 20 minutes.  AND ENJOY :)

let the potatoes soak- about an hour

toss with olive oil and place on a baking sheet! 

Buffalo Chicken Crescent Roll

This is perhaps one of the best recipes I have ever made.  Eric and I both were in HEAVEN, and it makes sitting around watching football ALL DAY Sunday a little more bearable! 

Buffalo Chicken Crescent Roll

2 tubes of crescent rolls

1 packet of Ranch seasoning

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 Buffalo sauce

1/2 cup of finely chopped celery

1/2 cup finely chopped onions

two chicken breasts- finely chopped or shredded

preheat the oven to 350.  on a non stick baking sheet arrange your crescent rolls (I totally wish I had taken a picture of this step, but I did one crescent roll at 12 o clock, the next one at 3, the next and 6, the next at 9, and then put one in between each of those- and left about half a can to "fill in" missing areas at the end) in a large bowl combine all the other ingredients and scoop them into the center of the ring.  fold over the tops of the crescent rolls and fill in any empty spaces with the left overs.  top with a little garlic salt. 

cook for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. and serve with ranch to dip!

1 Pan Chicken Tacos

SURPRISE I'M BACK!!!! I quit doing this when that terrible first trimester exhaustion hit, and I could hardly stay awake long enough to go to work, (and I was scared I would spill the beans about being pregnant!! lol) anyways, I'm back at it!

I was suppose to copy another recipe when I made this, but then I misplaced the recipe, and just had a list of ingredients, so I thought "hey ill just toss them all together!" and look what I came up with!!!

Tacos With a Twist

2 chicken breasts- cut up into bite sizes, or shredded

1/2 onion- chopped

1/2 can of corn (i used a whole can, because that's wasteful)

1 can of Rotel

Microwavable Mexican rice (or precooked rice)

tortillas

toss chicken and onion into a pan and cook about half way through, add corn (drained), rotel, and rice. cook until chicken is done.  scoop onto tortillas, and top with what ever you like (I used a little shredded cheese, a dollop of sour cream and some cilantro) 

they are VERY yummy.  

and ENJOY!!

1 Pan Taco Pasta

Sorry I've been a bit MIA lately, but I seem to be far too exhausted these days to cook... but my doctor put me on "quarters" (seriously, I'm not in the army, doctor, you don't have to call it that) anyways, I can't go back to work until Monday, so cooking is whats been keeping me busy.

Now I must admit, I made this taco pasta yesterday, but I forgot to take pictures, and it was SO GOOD, I just had to share it! (it seems wrong to not share something super amazing) So I had to make it again!

Taco Pasta

1/2 box of spaghetti noodles

1 can of diced tomatoes (2 cans would be good too)

1 onion- chopped

1 spoonful of diced garlic

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil. 

1 package of Taco seasoning

3 oz cream cheese

3 cups chicken broth

in a pan over medium heat, add oil, onions, taco seasoning, and garlic- cook until translucent

add diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and noodles.  cook until noodles are soft

add cream cheese, and stir until well blended.

serve and enjoy :) 

onions, garlic, olive oil. 

add taco seasoning (i actually didn't have taco seasoning on hand so i used a mix of chili powder, Cheyenne pepper, and salt)

add noodles , chicken broth and tomatoes