Mango Guacamole

Need a last minute Super Bowl snack? Let me suggest this recipe. Guacamole was already pretty much my favorite dip ever, but then I tried a version with mango added in, and it took guacamole to the next level. The sweet, tangy mango is the perfect accompaniment to the creamy avocados. Thanks to Aaron and Liz for sharing this recipe with me!

Ingredients (Super Bowl sized)
-4 ripe avocados
-2 ripe mangoes, diced into small pieces
-1 lime, juiced
~1/2 bunch fresh cilantro
-3 jalapenos, de-seeded and finely diced
-1 white onion, finely diced
-salt, pepper, garlic powder (all to taste)
-chips for dipping

Steps
1. Mash your avocados in a large bowl.
2. Stir in diced onion, mango, cilantro, and jalapeno.
3. Add juice of one lime.
4. Season with salt (I used about 1 tsp), pepper (I used about 1/2 tsp), and garlic powder (I used about 1 tsp)

Tip: Save the guacamole seeds and keep them in the dip until your ready to serve; the seeds help stop the dip from browning.

Zucchini Boats

I have to thank a friend from work, Pam, for this quick, easy, and delicious recipe. It works great as a side dish; we've served it with pasta or burgers, or even just a salad if you wanted a light meal.

Ingredients
-4 zucchini
-4 cloves of garlic, minced
-1/2 C mozzarella (any kind of cheese that melts will work)
~1/3 C bread crumbs
~20 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
~2 T EVOO
-salt and pepper to taste

(Preheat oven to 350)
Steps
1. Cut your zucchinis in half, lengthwise; scoop out seeds with a spoon.
2. Lightly grease a large pan. Lay out your zucchinis and lightly baste them with EVOO and the minced garlic.
3. Add the tomatoes, then sprinkle with bread crumbs. Salt and pepper everything.

4. Cook for about 25-30 minutes, then remove and top everything with cheese and cook for broil until cheesy is browned and bubbly.

Pico de Gallo

This is such a great summertime snack. We eat it with chips, but also just pour it over Romaine lettuce instead of using salad dressing. I use cherry tomatoes for this because I think they are a bit firmer, but I'm sure you could use larger tomatoes if your prefer. I actually used heirloom cherry tomatoes in this picture, which added some really nice color.

Ingredients
-1 plastic container of cherry tomatoes, cut into fourths or sixths depending on size
-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
-1 fresh jalapeno, seeds removed, finely diced
-juice of 2 limes
~1/4 - 1/3 C cilantro
-either 1/2 diced white onion or 1/4 diced red onion
-salt and pepper to taste

Steps
1. Combine all of the above in a bowl and stir well.

Sausage, potato, and red pepper turnovers

I got the original recipe from Cooking Light, but I modified it a bit. Well, in all honesty I actually forgot to put in one of the key ingredients (spinach), but these still tasted awesome, and I ended up just making a little side salad with the spinach I forgot to add :). This recipe looks a little complicated (at least to me), but it was really pretty easy.

I'm sure you could easily make these vegetarian by using the fake meat crumbles instead of sausage, if you prefer.

Note: This recipe makes 8 turnovers..and you'll probably end up with a little extra stuffing--we plan to serve it over noodles with some marinara or add it to some beans and broth and make a soup.
Ingredients
-4 red potatoes, diced into smaller than bite size pieces
-1 red bell pepper, diced into smaller than bite size pieces
-1 yellow onion, diced into smaller than bite size pieces
-5 links hot Italian chicken sausage, casings removed
-3 T fresh basil or oregano, chopped
-1 package refrigerated pie dough (such as Pillsbury)
-1 egg, lightly beaten
-3 T Parm or Asiago
-salt, pepper, crushed red pepper

Preheat oven to 400.
Steps
1. Heat a large skillet to medium-hot. Add sausages (with casings removed) and brown on both sides. Then, using a spatula, break the sausages up into small pieces.
2. Once you've broken up the sausage, add in the diced onion, potato, and red pepper. Saute for 3 minutes, then cover for about 3 minutes. Stir and cover everything again for about 3 minutes or until potato is soft.
3. Stir in basil/oregano, salt/pepper/crushed red pepper to taste, remove from heat. (This is where you were supposed to add the spinach, if you were so inclined.)

4. Flour a large working surface and a rolling pin (or if you're like me and don't own a rolling pin, flour a cylindrical object like a coffee thermos).
5. Cut your two rolls of pie dough into four equal pieces each. Ball each up and then press them out into a circle with your hands. Then roll them out into large circles, about 6 inches wide.

6. Spoon about 1/2 C sausage mixture on half of each circle, leaving a 1/2-inch border.

7. Fold dough over potato mixture and then bring bottom edge of dough over top edge; press with your fingers or crimp with a fork.  
Tip 1: the warm sausage mixture is going to make your dough gooey and start to tear easily, so don't overfill your turnovers. Also, try to work quickly. I ended up just pressing the edges together with my fingers because crimping with a fork was making the dough tear. If your dough does tear, don't worry unless it's a big tear, as a small tear will allow ventilation. If it's a big tear, borrow some dough from another turnover to patch with.
Tip 2: make your turnovers on the greased baking pan. I made the first one on my work surface and then it started to fall apart when I transferred it to the baking pan. So, I recommend making all your turnovers on the baking pan you're going to cook them on.
8. Brush your whisked egg over the top of each turnover.
9. Bake for about 15-18 minutes (on the TOP rack) or until turnovers are golden brown.
Tip 3: All ovens vary, but my turnovers started to burn on the bottom rack, so I transferred them to the top two racks. Then, I rotated the turnovers (switch the top and second to the top) half-way through so they got equally browned.
10. Grate some cheese on top of each turnover once you pull them out of the oven.

11. Enjoy, but be careful because they'll be very hot inside!

Super Easy Homemade Pickles

I always thought to pickle something you had to let it sit for days, if not weeks; however, these pickles are ready to eat in a few hours. They do pick up more flavor after several days, but they really are good to go after only a short time. These make for an awesome snack or appetizer.

Note: It's going to seem like you don't have enough liquid for your pickles; however, if you just shake them and rotate the jar every now and again all the cucumbers should soak up enough liquid. Plus, more liquid will be made during the fermentation process.

I made them "Japanese" style by cutting them into thin rounds instead of spears. However, if you prefer spears you can cut them any way you want.

Ingredients
-4 small cucumbers (I recommend getting the pickling kind of cucumbers, sometimes called "hot house")
-1/2 C cider vinegar or distilled vinegar
-1/4 C water
-3 T sugar (I used light brown, but that's the only kind I ever use...)
-several sprigs of dill
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 red onion, cut into thin slices
-2 cloves of garlic, sliced

Steps
1. Cut cucumbers into thin, round slices.  Put cucumber and onion slices in a large mason jar or some other kind of air tight container.
2. In a small saucepan, combing vinegar, water, sugar, dill, garlic. Bring to a boil.
3. Pour vinegar mixture over pickles and seal container.
4. Shake/agitate the container very well.
5. Chill for at least two hours (might be good to give the pickles a shake every 30 minutes - 1 hour for first two hours, and then once a day after that).

Melon, Mozzarella, and Prosciutto Appetizer

This is really easy and very tasty! And I think it looks really pretty.

Ingredients
-1/2 cantaloupe
-1/2 honey dew
-1/4 lb. thinly sliced prosciutto
~8 oz. fresh mozzarella
~3 TBSP rosemary
-2 TBSP EVOO
-fresh ground pepper
-skewers, preferably about 4 inches long

Steps
1. Use a melon baller to make fruit balls out of your cantaloupe and honey dew.
2. Use the melon baller to make balls out of your fresh mozzarella (this is a bit harder...ours were definitely not perfect circles.
3. Tear off pieces of prosciutto and wrap them around the melon balls, spearing them with the skewer as you go. Alternate a honey dew ball, mozzarella piece, and cantaloupe ball.
4. After you've made all your skewers, drizzle EVOO on top of them and then sprinkle the rosemary and top with ground pepper.

Bacon Pierogi Bake

I got this recipe from Cooking Light and it was awesome. Comfort food at its best. Also, super easy.

Ingredients (I doubled the original recipe)
-2 (16oz) packages frozen potato and onion peirogies, such as Mrs. T's
-4 slices of turkey bacon
-4 garlic cloves, chopped
-2/3 C (6oz) reduced fat cream cheese
-1 C chicken broth
-1 C shredded cheddar cheese
-one bunch of green onions, sliced diagonally
-1 C cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
-pepper to taste

Steps
(Preheat oven to 400)
1. Arrange frozen pierogies in two casserole dishes coated in cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Cook bacon until crispy. Remove from pan, crumble into pieces, and set aside.
3. Add garlic to bacon drippings and cook for about 30 seconds on medium heat.
4. Add cream cheese to pan and cook for a couple of minutes or until cream cheese begins to melt. Stir frequently.

5. Gradually add chicken broth to pan, stirring with a whisk until smooth.

6. Pour the cream cheese sauce evenly over pierogies and top with shredded cheese.
7. Bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes dump the cherry tomoatoes on top of the pierogies. Cook for another 10 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and top with bacon and green onion.

Note: These were great leftovers the next day.

Pizza Pockets a la Noemi

I got this recipe from my friend, Noemi's, super awesome blog. You can find the link to the original recipe here: Cooking Through Life: Pizza Pockets.

These were so fast and easy to make, and they satisfied the pizza craving I pretty much always have without being as bad for me as real pizza.

Ingredients (makes 8 pizza pockets)
-1 package reduced fat turkey pepperoni
-2 packages reduced fat Pillsbury crescent rolls
-1 green onion
-1/2 red onion
-small jar of pizza sauce
~8 oz fresh mozzarella

Steps.
(preheat oven to 375)
1. Roll out one can of crescent rolls. Place two triangles together and pinch perforated edges together with your fingers. Repeat with second can.

2. Put about a tablespoon of pizza sauce in the middle of your dough.

3. Add about 6-7 pepperoni slices in the middle and green pepper, red onion, and mozzarella on the sides.

4. Next, fold the sides of the dough in toward the center until they almost meet (you'll probably need to stretch and work the dough a little bit to do this). Seal all edges except for the center seam.
5. Shove a couple more pieces of pepperoni in the center seam.
6. Bake until golden brown (only took about 10 minutes in my oven).

Apple, Brie, & Arugula Quesadillas

My good friend, Lauren, made these for me. This was my first time cooking with arugula. It wilted a lot like spinach, and I really liked the sort of peppery taste it added. Very simple and fast recipe.

Ingredients
~6 oz Brie
-2 handfuls of arugula
-1 Granny Smith apple, sliced thinly
-4 large tortillas
-1 T honey mustard
-1 tsp apple cider (or apple cider vinegar)

Steps.
1. Remove rind from Brie (I found using a vegetable peeler worked really well for this). Cut Brie into bite size pieces. (Tip: stick your Brie in the freezer for a few minutes; this will make it easier to cut before it gets too soft.)
3. Mix mustard and apple cider together, and baste one side of a tortilla.
4. In a nonstick pan, place tortilla mustard side up. Layer cheese, apples, and arugula; top with another tortilla. Let cook for about 3 minutes, or until bottom is brown.

5. Flip tortilla and cook another 3 minutes or until other side is browned.

6. Repeat in order to make another quesadilla.

Upside-Down Mushroom Tartlets

First, thanks to my good friend, Julia, for passing this recipe along, and thanks to another good friend, Lauren, for helping me make and eat these guys. This recipe was actually very easy and the finished product was delicious. These would be great as appetizers or served over a bed of greens.

Ingredients (makes 12 tartlets)
-1.5-2 lbs (24-32 oz) white mushrooms (I used a mixture of baby bellas and white...since baby bellas don't shrink as much when you cook them, you'll only need 24 oz if you use the mixture)
-5 oz Gruyere, shredded
-2 shallots, finely diced
-2 sheets puff pastry, thawed
-3 T thyme
-salt, pepper
-2 T EVOO
-1 egg, butter, or milk (optional)

Steps
(Preheat oven to 375)
1. After thawing your puff pastry, lightly flour it, and cut six rounds (the size of the opening of a large muffin tin) per sheet. We found the easiest way to do this was to push a muffin tin into the dough so that it left the outlines of the circles we needed to cut out. Then we used a pizza cutter to cut out the circles. Place the cut circles on a baking sheet and place back in the refrigerator.

2. Saute scallions with 2 T EVOO for about 3 mins.
3. Add mushrooms and saute for about 12 minutes, or until mushrooms are soft and have reduced a bit.

4. Lightly grease two large muffin tins.
5. Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full with mushrooms, top with about 1 T of shredded cheese, and then top with the puff pastry circle.

6. Brush egg, butter, or milk on top of pastry.
7. Cook for about 25 mins or until pastry is golden brown.

8. Once tartlets are done, use a knife to lightly trace around the edges of each muffin hole. Then place a large plate over muffin tin, and turn muffin tin upside down to release tartlets onto place.
9. Tada!

Mini Polenta Pizzas

I came up with idea for these guys when we had some friends over for a movie and I needed to come up with a quick, easy appetizer. These were both quick and easy, and they were also very yummy.

Ingredients
-1 tube of polenta
~5 oz fresh mozzarella
~7 oz of pizza sauce
-chiffonade a handful of fresh basil
-2 T EVOO

Steps:
(Turn your broiler on)
1. Cut the polenta into 1/4 inch thick rounds, and place on a baking sheet covered with tin foil. Lightly baste the slices with EVOO and broil for about 4 minutes. (Basically, the point of this step is just to heat your polenta slices through, so the EVOO is probably not necessary.

2. Top each slice with a small spoonful of pizza sauce and a slice of mozzarella. Broil until cheese is brown and melty.

 3. Top with basil.

Jalapeño Poppers

This is just one of the many tasty recipes made by a member of my family while I was traveling in Austin and Nebraska City (my mom gets credit for this one). These were incredibly flavorful and delicious, and even though we made a ton of them they all got eaten. They were a little spicy, but the cream cheese really helped mellow them out...and if you don't like spice you can soak the peppers in water to reduce their spiciness. I plan to post even more recipes from my amazing, beautiful shower that my wonderful aunts threw for me, so stay tuned.

Ingredients
~20 medium sized jalapeño peppers
-1 package of cream cheese (get the full fat kind and allow to sit at room temp to soften)
-1 package good quality bacon
-toothpicks (soak these guys in water for about 30 minutes so they don't fry in the oven)

Steps
(Preheat oven to 350)
1. Cut peppers in half and scoop out the seeds. Toss peppers in a bowl of water for about 30 minutes (more if you don't want them to be very spicy).

 Note: You might want to wear gloves while doing this so you don't accidentally rub your eyes later and find that your fingers still have jalapeño juice on them.

2. Dry peppers off and scoop about a tablespoon of cream cheese into each pepper half.

 3. Cut bacon slices in half with a sharp knife or scissors.

4. Wrap a half slice of bacon around pepper and secure with a toothpick.

5. Cook for about 45 minutes or until bacon is crispy.

Spring Rolls

First, I have to thank my friend, David, for help with this recipe. His spring rolls are much better, but for my first attempt I thought these were pretty good. You can put pretty much whatever you want in them, but I'll list what I used below.

Ingredients
-Rice papers
-Rice sticks/noodles
-Avacado
-1 orange pepper
-3 carrots, grated
-1 bunch green onions, diced
-1 cup cilantro
-1 cup Thai basil (may need to buy this at an Asian grocery store/market)
-2 T lime juice
-2 T soy sauce
-dipping sauce (I bought premade kinds)

Steps.
1. Chop all your veggies into thin slices (i.e., julienne or grate). 

2. Cook your rice noodles as directed and drain. Cut rice noodles into smaller lengths with a scissors. Toss rice noodles with about 2 T each of lime juice and soy sauce.
3. Put a kettle on to boil. Once it's boiling, fill a frying pan about half way with hot water. Add one rice paper to hot water, let soak for about 15 seconds. Pull rice paper out once it's pliable (add a new one to frying pan so it can soften while you're assembling the roll).

4. Assemble roll by doing the best you can. My spring rolls turned out to be more like burritos due to my lack of rolling technique, but they still tasted good.

5. Repeat until out of ingredients.
6. Serve with whatever tasty sauce you like. I suggest peanut and sweet and sour sauces.

Note: You can keep rolls fresh for a day or two by placing a wet paper towel on top of them in a closed container.