Quesadilla Cups with Nectarine Salsa

It tastes really good when you substitute in mangos and cucumbers, but both are great! I got this at a pampered chef party and love love love it! I bought a mini muffin pan just to make these but I bet you could make them flat on a cookie sheet.

Ingredients

4 oz chihuahua or Monterey Jack cheese

3 6 in flour tortillas

2 tsp vegetable oil

1 medium firm, ripe nectarine (or mango)

1/4 cup roasted red peppers (or cucumbers), drained and patted dry

1 serrano pepper (seeded for hot, take out seeds for mild)

2 TBS finely hopped red onion

2 TBS finely chopped fresh cilantro

1 lime

1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut cheese into twenty four 1/2 in cubes. Brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Stack tortillas and cut into eight wedges for a total of 24 wedges. Press tortillas into cups of min muffin pan. Place one cheese cube into each cup. Bake 5-7 min or until edges of tortillas begin to brown and cheese is melted.

Meanwhile, for salsa, dice nectarine (or mango) and roasted pepper (or cucumber). Finely chop serrano pepper, onion, and cilantro. Juice line to measure 1 TBS. Combine nectarine, peppers, onion, cilantro, juice and salt in a bowl and mix well.

Remove pan from oven. Cool cups in pan 2-3 min. Carefully remove cups from pan to serving platter. Divide salsa evenly among cups. Sprinkle with addition finely chopped cilantro if desired. Serve immediately.

Image from Pampered Chef Website

Frozen Fruit Pops

Abigail is trying to finish up her 4-H Quick Meals project and the recipe for these fruit pops is part of the project. They are so easy and they tasted sooooo good yesterday when we were canning all day. Here is the recipe.

2 to 3 cups sliced or diced fresh, frozen or canned fruit
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar

Puree the fruit in a blender until smooth or mash fruit in a bowl. (Good fruit choices include strawberries, peaches, applesauce, watermelon and others.) Add the sugar. The amount of sugar you add will depend on the sweetness of the fruit. Pour the sweetened fruit into 4 to 5 small paper cups. Add a popsicle stick and freeze until solid.

Chili Chip Casserole

What you need:
1lb ground beef (When it's just Ethan and I, I go cheap and just use 1/2 a pound)
diced onion
1 can ranch beans
1 can diced tomatoes (drained)
Taco Seasoning
Tortilla chips (if I've got any crumbs from the bottom of a bag, or a bag that's been left open and gone stale, I use those for this)
Grated Cheese
Toppings:
Salsa, sour cream, hot sauce, ranch dressing, whatever else sounds good to you...

What you do:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Brown your hamburger in a large skillet with the diced onion. Drain the grease. Stir in the cans of beans and tomatoes. Add taco seasoning until it tastes yummy.
Grease a 9x13 pan and spread a layer of slightly crushed tortilla chips on the bottom. On top of the chips, spread a layer of the meat mixture. Add a layer of grated cheese. Repeat each of the layers one more time, then finish with a layer of crushed chips and grated cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melty and everything is warm all the way through.
Serve with whatever toppings you like (I know the ranch dressing sounds weird, but it's Ethan's favorite, he also puts on some salsa and hot sauce at the same time as the ranch).

No-Bake Cookies

This is the only picture I got of the no-bake cookies that we made/served at Carolyn's Baby Shower, so it'll have to work. 

I used to make these quite a bit, and they always set up. Right after marrying Cameron, he told me that his family is cursed and that their no-bake cookies never set up right. Since then, every time I make these cookies they don't set up! I was telling that to Em and Chip as I was making these, and Chip walked over, bonked me on the forehead and said "You are healed". Guess what...the cookies set up! The cookie demon who keeps cookies from turning out right left me. ;) They were yummy!

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa. Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened.

Dirt Cake

I know...I already posted this, so I'm not going to do the recipe again...but I wanted to post another photo of a recent dirt cake we did for Carolyn's Surprise Baby Shower. It was great fun! For the recipe, go here.

Summer Solstice Dinner: Creamy Chicken (like Alfredo)

I found this recipe in a forum for 17 Day Diet recipes. It was amazing. I loved it. Cameron loved it. We're going to have this more often (on and off the diet). 

3-4 boneless chicken breasts-cut up into bite sized pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
3 cups broccoli florets (fresh or frozen)
1 can low sodium chicken broth
1 8oz. bar of fat free cream cheese
1 packet hidden valley ranch powder dip mix

In a skillet:
Saute the chicken in olive oil until almost cooked through
Add all veggies to chicken and saute until nearly all cooked. 
Add 1/2 the can of chicken broth and allow veggies to finish cooking. 

Meanwhile, in a seperate sauce pot add:
Last 1/2 of chicken broth
8oz fat free cream cheese
1 packet hidden valley ranch dip mixCook until mixture is smooth.

Add sauce to saute mixture and serve!

This mixture can be served on top of a pasta of choice, but it is really great just plain too. 

Doughnut Drops

Also known as Sufganiyot, these are a traditional Hunukkah treat. I found the recipe in a book I got for a wedding present and fell in love with these little guys. They taste just like a home made doughnut, but are about as complicated to make as pancakes.

What you need:
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 TBS melted butter
1 1/2 cups flour
4 tsps baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1 (6 oz) pkg chocolate chips, optional (We've tried it both ways and loved both. The chocolate does make a mess of your frying oil though, so if you're the kind of person who likes to reuse your frying oil that's something to think about.)
vegetable oil for frying

What to do:
1. Place eggs in a large bowl and beat until light yellow and slightly thinkened. Add sugar, salt, and butter. Combine flour and baking powder in a separate container.
2. Add flour mixture and milk, alternately, to eggs, mixing well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips, if desired.
3. Heat 2-3 inches of oil in a deep-sided pan over medium-high heat. Oil should be hot, 390 degrees on a candy or deep fry thermometer.
4. Drop batter by tsps into hot oil and fry until golden, turning as needed to even the color. Remove with slotted spoon and drain on absorbent paper towels. Allow to cool. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.
(We've also sprinkled with cinnamon sugar or dunked them in glaze made with powdered sugar, vanilla, a little butter, and some milk. All three methods are shown in the picture at the top. If you glaze them make sure you drain the excess glaze off so they don't get soggy. I did this by placing them on a wire cooling rack inside a cookie sheet to catch all the drips, as shown in the picture below.)
Makes about 2 dozen.