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#HolidayAdvantEdge $1000 Sweepstakes

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, Price Chopper.

 

#HolidayAdvantEdge-$1000-Sweepstakes

 

Whether you are looking for easy, new holiday recipes, time or money savings tips, you’ll find a ready resource for all your seasonal plans at your local Price Chopper Solution Center. Before you make your next shopping list, you’ll also want to explore the  #HolidayAdvantEdge Recipe Board on Pinterest where you’ll discover a wealth of holiday solutions that are the perfect fit for your busy schedule and your budget.

Speaking of the perfect fit, how would a $1000 Price Chopper Shopping Spree fit into your holiday plans? Enter the #HolidayAdvantEdge Sweepstakes for your chance to win a $1000 Price Chopper gift card!

 

Price Chopper stores are located in New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire.  Find the nearest store to you with the store locator.

HOW TO ENTER

  1. Visit #HolidayAdvantEdge $1000 Sweepstakes Entry Form below.
  2. Provide name and email address so we can contact you if you win!
  3. Find inspirational Pins from our #HolidayAdvantEdge Board on the entry form.
  4. Create a single Pin.  You may select one of the Inspiration Pins provided.
  5. See complete Official Rules below.

 

Hurry - your chance to enter to win

ends on December 17 at 11:59pm EST!

 

Pan Seared Ahi Tuna with Maple Sriracha Soy Sauce

Flavorful Ahi Tuna Steaks with a sweet, spicy, and salty sauce you can serve over the tuna or on the side as a dipping sauce. Quick and easy to make, you will have a fancy restaurant-style dish ready in less than thirty minutes!

Pan Seared Ahi Tuna with Maple Sriracha Soy Dipping Sauce

 

I had two ahi tuna steaks and wanted to find a way to make them that both my husband and myself would enjoy. I knew he wouldn't want it rare, the way ahi tuna is normally served. He eats sushi with raw tuna, so I guess it's a "if it's cooked, I want it cooked" kind of thing. So, I started looking up recipes for blackened or pan seared tuna, and they were all pretty much the same, with a soy-mustard sauce. I didn't have the right kind of mustard on hand, and wanted something different anyway, so I came up with this recipe with what I had on hand.

I liked the tuna, of course, enough to share it with you today, but I LOVED the sauce! My husband put it over his tuna steak and I used it as a dipping sauce. I can't really say one way is better than the other, but if you want to put it over the tuna I suggest starting with just a little bit. The sauce is spicy! If you would like it a little less spicy reduce the sriracha sauce to ⅛ cup. The recipe for the sauce makes more than you will need for the tuna, but it can be frozen, or I'm sure it would be great with steak or chicken another day. Oh, I just realized! It would make a great sauce for chicken wings!

Pan Seared Ahi Tuna Dipping Sauce

 

The ahi tuna steaks are simply seasoned with a rub of wasabi paste ( found in the Oriental section of your grocery store, by the soy sauce), salt, and ground ginger, then pan seared for two minutes on each side for medium-well (it will still be pink in the middle). Go with a minute less per side for medium-rare, or 30 seconds per side for rare.

Plated Pan Seared Ahi Tuna
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Pan Seared Ahi Tuna with Maple Sriracha Soy Sauce

Flavorful Ahi Tuna Steaks with a sweet, spicy, and salty sauce you can serve over the tuna or on the side as a dipping sauce. Quick and easy to make, you will have a fancy restaurant-style dish ready in less than thirty minutes!
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time4 minutes
Total Time9 minutes
Course: Entree
Servings: 2
Calories: 907kcal
Author: Bernadette

Ingredients

  • 1 pound Ahi tuna steaks ,about 1 inch thick
  • 2 tablespoons sesame oil
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon wasabi powder
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 cup real maple syrup
  • ¼ cup sriracha sauce
  • ¼ cup soy sauce

Instructions

  • In a medium bowl, stir together the maple syrup, sriracha sauce, and soy sauce. Set aside. Stir again right before serving
  • In a small bowl, combine salt, wasabi powder, and ground ginger. Rub the tuna steaks on both sides with the mixture. Heat the oil in a cast iron pan (or other heavy bottomed pan) over high heat. Sear the tuna for two minutes on each side, for medium-well. Serve hot with some of the sauce. Save the remaining sauce for another time.

Nutrition

Calories: 907kcal | Carbohydrates: 111g | Protein: 56g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 86mg | Sodium: 3388mg | Potassium: 1038mg | Sugar: 97g | Vitamin A: 5000IU | Vitamin C: 22.4mg | Calcium: 199mg | Iron: 3.4mg

 

Quick Chicken Francese #WeekdaySupper

I received PERDUE® Signature Chicken Stock from Perdue in conjunction with a sponsored social media campaign through Sunday Supper LLC. All opinions are my own. This Chicken Francese is quick and easy to make, with a wonderful sauce made with a rich chicken stock, white wine, and lemon slices. Thin chicken cutlets speed up cooking time, making dinner ready in less than 30 minutes.

 Sunday Supper Movement

 

 

Quick Chicken Francese

 

I joined this months #WeekdaySupper because it was about two things I love, quick and easy recipes, and chicken stock. I make my own chicken stock a few times a year and freeze it, but it's not really convenient when I need to use it right then. Perdue® Signature Chicken Stock is delicious, convenient to use, with a side window so you can see exactly how much you have left, and found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, right next to Perdue® Chicken. Since it's refrigerated it doesn't need to contain preservatives, which is great! It's made with antibiotic free chicken and no artifical flavors, another plus in my book!

In my constant struggle to get dinner made when I'm busy, I decided to make Chicken Francese. Chicken Francese is easy to make, and using thin sliced chicken cutlets speeds up the cooking time significantly. The sauce is simple, with only Perdue® Signature Chicken Stock, white wine, and lemon slices.

First, I dredge the chicken in flour seasoned with salt and pepper,

 

Dreadging-Chicken-in-Flour

 

then a quick dip in an egg wash,

 

Dipping Chicken in Egg

 

and right into the frying pan with some melted butter to brown lightly.

 

Browning Chicken

 

Then I whisked up the chicken stock with the flour that remained after dredging, and added it to the pan along with a half cup of white wine and thinly sliced lemon.

Simmering Chicken Francese

 

Let it simmer until the sauce was thickened and the chicken was cooked through (5-10 minutes), and served over wild rice, with some of the sauce spooned over the top of the chicken.

Chicken Francese

 

Quick, easy, and delicious, with perfectly tender, not dried-out, chicken, and the sauce is amazing! The printable recipe is available below, along with links to all the other great recipes made for #WeekdaySupper.

Perdue Logo

 

Learn more about PERDUE® Signature Chicken Stock here: http://www.perduechickenstock.com/.  Join the Perdue Crew to get some pretty sweet rewards here:  http://www.perduecrew.com/

You can also find Perdue® on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, including a special Pinterest board filled with all the delicious #WeekdaySupper recipes made with Perdue® Signature Chicken Stock. You can also learn more about Perdue, including The Perdue Way, Where to Buy, Recipes and Tips From the Kitchen, at http://www.perdue.com/

Check out all the other #WeekdaySupper recipes for this week, all great, quick, and easy!

Tuesday - Dijon Chicken by The Messy Baker
Wednesday - Chicken, Squash and Spinach Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette by The Redhead Baker
Thursday - Quick & Creamy Risotto by Eat Picks
Friday - Orzo with Chicken and Spinach by Cooking Chat

 

Chicken Francese Collage

 

Printable recipe:

This Chicken Francese is quick and easy to make, with a wonderful sauce made with a rich chicken stock, white wine, and lemon slices. Thin chicken cutlets speed up cooking time, making dinner ready in less than 30 minutes.
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5 from 3 votes

Quick Chicken Francese

This Chicken Francese is quick and easy to make, with a wonderful sauce made with a rich chicken stock, white wine, and lemon slices. Thin chicken cutlets speed up cooking time, making dinner ready in less than 30 minutes!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Course: Entree
Servings: 4
Calories: 363kcal
Author: Bernadette

Ingredients

  • 1.5 pounds thin sliced chicken breast cutlets
  • 1 cup Perdue Signature Chicken Stock
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup Pinot Grigio
  • ½ cup flour
  • ½ of a lemon ,thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

  • Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl. In another shallow bowl whisk together the eggs and water. Dredge chicken pieces, working one piece at a time, in the flour, shake off excess, then dip in the egg mixture.
  • Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Working in batches if necessary, fry the chicken for two minutes on each side, or until lightly browned. Remove the chicken from the pan, set aside. Whisk together the chicken stock and remaining flour from dredging until well combined. Add the chicken stock, white wine, and sliced lemons to the pan. Return the chicken to the pan, spoon the sauce over the chicken, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thickened, about 5 minutes. Serve over rice with some sauce and lemon slices.

Nutrition

Calories: 363kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 41g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 205mg | Sodium: 570mg | Potassium: 695mg | Vitamin A: 970IU | Vitamin C: 9.2mg | Calcium: 24mg | Iron: 1.8mg

#HolidayAdvantEdge Recipe Party on Pinterest

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, Price Chopper.

 

#HolidayAdvantEdge Recipe Party

 

Putting together your holiday plans? Whether you’re looking forward to holiday baking, entertaining or both, you’ll want to take advantage of the time and money savings available at your local Price Chopper Solution Center. This week, I have the pleasure of co-hosting a Pinterest party where we will be pinning lots of great ideas!  Join us for the #HolidayAdvantEdge Recipe Party on Pinterest to learn all the advantages, delicious holiday recipes, tips and more!

To add a fun twist to our festivities, when you join the party and chat with us on Thursday, December 04th at 7pm ET, we’ll let you in on a not so little secret, a $1000 secret, in fact!  We’ll be announcing the #HolidayAdvantEdge Sweepstakes that you won’t want to miss because the grand prize is a $1000 Price Chopper! gift card  Shhhh, we’ll be unveiling a secret code during the chat for you to use for a second chance to win big!

Price Chopper stores are located in New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire.  Find the nearest store to you with the store locator.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

  1. Meet hosts Judy, Kelly, Bernadette, and Katie
  2. Hosts will add Pins with questions to the #HolidayAdvantEdge Recipe Board
  3. Chat with us by commenting on the Pins.
  4. Find new Pins and conversations throughout Party by refreshing the Board.
  5. Find something you’d love to try – save it by Re-Pinning to your Boards!
  6. Watch for the Secret Code which will only be available during the party!

 

Can’t wait to join in the fun?

 

#HolidayAdvantEdge-Sneak-Peak-Button-B

 

Sage Turkey Salad

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Modern Mom Insider for Hellmann’s. All opinions expressed are 100% mine. 

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! We did our usual, I cooked, and my mother, mother-in-law, uncle-in-law, and sister came for dinner. My husbands Uncle John gets us our turkey every year, and gets a huge one. Like 22 pounds huge! It works out fine, because then we pack up leftovers for everyone, and still have a decent amount left for ourselves. The last thing I want to do the day after Thanksgiving is cook, or, to be more exact, the last thing I want to do is create more dishes to wash. Sage Turkey Salad seemed like the perfect solution last night, all I needed was a cutting board, a knife. a bowl, and a mixing spoon. Then I made pita sandwiches, and yes, that is a paper plate. No extra dishes!

Sage-Turkey-Salad

 

I do like turkey, but often when it comes to leftovers, I prefer dark meat over white. It seems to me that the white meat gets dry to easily. I used Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise in this turkey salad to make the turkey moist and flavorful. Hellmann's Mayonnaise is made with real, quality ingredients like eggs, oil, and vinegar, making it a great choice for leftovers.

 

Hellmann's Mayonnaise and Sage

First I mixed up Hellmann's Mayonnaise, finely chopped sage, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and set it in the fridge to let the flavors come together while I chopped up my turkey, celery, and green onion. I put them in a large bowl, then poured the Hellmann's Mayonnaise mixture in and stirred it up.

Mixing Turkey Salad

 

Then I used a butter knife to spread the salad into pita bread, along with a few spinach leaves that were leftover from the spinach mushroom salad I made for Thanksgiving.

 

Completed Sage Turkey Salad

It took about twenty minutes to put the turkey salad together, including all the chopping, and dinner was served!

For more information on Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise, including recipes to help use up those leftovers, visit www.hellmanns.com.

 

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Sage Turkey Salad

Leftover Thanksgiving turkey transformed into a moist, flavorful turkey salad for a quick dinner with minimal dishes to wash
Prep Time20 minutes
Total Time20 minutes
Course: Sandwich/Salad
Cuisine: American
Servings: 3
Calories: 655kcal
Author: Bernadette

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups chopped white meat turkey
  • 1 stalk celery ,chopped
  • ½ cup Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise
  • about ¼ cup chopped green onion (green part only)
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped sage
  • pinch each salt and pepper

Instructions

  • In a small bowl, mix together Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise, sage, salt and pepper. Place in the refrigerator to let the flavors come together while you chop the turkey, celery, and green onion.
  • Chop turkey, celery, and onion into small pieces, about ½ inch. Place into a large bowl. Pour the Hellmann's Mayonnaise mixture over the top of the turkey mixture and stir well. Serve cold on your favorite bread, with spinach leaves, lettuce, or tomato slices.

Nutrition

Calories: 655kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 84g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 226mg | Sodium: 1052mg | Potassium: 1005mg | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 300IU | Vitamin C: 2.6mg | Calcium: 78mg | Iron: 2.5mg

 

Mini Turkey Meatloaves and We Heart Cooking! Review

I received a free copy of We Heart Cooking to review and write about if I chose to, all opinions are my own.

These Mini Turkey Meatloaves are kid-friendly, made in cupcake pans, topped with bacon, and delicious!

Mini-Turkey-Meat-Loaves

 

I've been thinking a lot about my 5 year old daughter and her position on pretty much anything food recently. This post and the next one coming really reflect that. Just a few weeks ago, she started taking an interest in helping me cook. She became interested all on her own, I hadn't been asking her just yet. So, I've let her do a few things, like help me mix a salad or stir something, but the one thing I can't get her to do is eat! Even if she helps make it! Well, not my kid, but there are some kids who like to cook and eat.

Lily and Audrey Andrews are identical twin sisters, age 12, who love to cook! They started at age 3, helping out in the kitchen, and have since gone on to write We Heart Cooking! via Cooking Light. The book includes cooking tips that budding chefs should know, like how to measure ingredients, and how to cut vegetables ( with a grown-ups help). The last recipe section of the book is a section on party planning and themed recipes. Nutrition information is included for all the recipes in the cookbook, which is great!  There are recipes from appetizers to desserts, some of which are very kids friendly, while others are a bit more adventurous,  with everything in-between, and that 's where I got the recipe for these Mini Turkey Meat Loaves. Younger kids can help mix the ketchup and barbecue sauce, or add the milk and eggs, and older kids could help mix up the meat.

Mini Turkey Meatloaves

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Mini Turkey Meatloaves and We Heart Cooking! Review

Mini Turkey Meatloves topped with bacon, barbecue sauce, and ketchup. Both kids and adults alike will enjoy these!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time58 minutes
Total Time1 hour 8 minutes
Course: Entree
Cuisine: American
Servings: 6
Calories: 403kcal
Author: Bernadette

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds ground turkey
  • ½ small onion
  • ½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
  • ½ cup Parmesan cheese
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tablespoons 1% low-fat milk (I used whole milk)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (I used 2 teaspoons dried parsley)
  • 2 garlic cloves ,minced
  • ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • Cooking spray
  • ¾ cup ketchup
  • ¼ cup barbecue sauce
  • 6 slices center-cut bacon

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350. Finely chop onion to equal about ½ cup. Combine onion with ground turkey, oats, and Parmesan cheese in a large bowl. Mix well with your hands. In a small bowl, combine eggs, milk, parsley, garlic, red pepper flakes, pepper, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Pour egg mixture over turkey mixture and mix with your hands until combined.
  • To bake in muffin cups lightly coat each cup of a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray. Place an equal amount of turkey mixture into each cup. To bake in a loaf pan, lightly coat a 4 x 8-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Place turkey mixture in pan and smooth top.
  • Mix ketchup and barbecue sauce in a small bowl. Spoon evenly over turkey mixture, dividing it equally if using muffin cups. Top with bacon, cutting each strip in half crosswise or layering strips in a lengthwise layer over a large loaf or to distribute equally over muffin cups.
  • Bake until a meat thermometer inserted into center(s) reaches 165 degrees, about 35 minutes for muffin-sized loaves and 55 minutes for a large loaf. Turn oven to broil. Broil 6 inches from heat for 3-5 minutes or until bacon is crispy and browned. Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

Recipe from We Heart Cooking by Lily and Audrey Andrews for Cooking Light

Nutrition

Calories: 403kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 45g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 158mg | Sodium: 972mg | Potassium: 691mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 525IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 135mg | Iron: 2.1mg

 

 

 

Apple Cinnamon French Toast - Kickers Powdered Fruit Blend Review and Giveaway

I was provided with samples of Kickers Powdered Fruit Blend to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.

Kickers-Powdered-Fruit-Blend-Logo

Kickers Powdered Fruit Blend is designed to enhance foods by sprinkling on a little extra flavor, but you can also add it into your recipes to give them flavor. It comes in four flavors, all of which are "kid-friendly", Maple Banana Cream, Apple Cinnamon, Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana, and Strawberry Banana. They are an all-natural blend of fruit, spices, and sweeteners, containing no artificial ingredients. They are also gluten-free. They retail for $9.99 for a 25 serving pouch (1 teaspoon serving) or $1.39 for a double serving stick pack. The blends are great for sprinkling on toast, cottage cheese, yogurt, anything you can think of.

 

Kickers-Powdered-Fruit-Blends

I really didn't want to bake anything, and besides plain toast I didn't have anything on hand to sprinkle the powdered fruit blends on to try out, and it was lunch time, so I decided to make French toast. I thought that the Apple Cinnamon flavor would work perfectly, but admit to considering Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana French Toast. Would that be weird? Hmm...Anyway, I was happy with my Apple Cinnamon decision! The French toast tasted like sweet apples and cinnamon, without the work of dicing apples and making stuffed French toast.

Apple Cinnamon French Toast

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Apple Cinnamon French Toast - Kickers Powdered Fruit Blend Review and Giveaway

Apple Cinnamon French Toast made with Kickers Powdered Fruit Blends. All the flavor of fresh apples without the chopping!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time4 minutes
Total Time14 minutes
Course: Breakfast
Servings: 2
Calories: 237kcal
Author: Bernadette

Ingredients

  • 2 slices of your favorite bread
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup Apple Cinnamon Kickers Powdered Fruit Blend
  • 2 tablespoons milk

Instructions

  • In a shallow bowl, whisk together eggs, powdered fruit blend, and milk until large lumps disappear and it resembles pancake batter in consistency.
  • Working one slice at a time, dip the bread into the egg mixture, leave it sit for a minute or so, turn and leave sit again. Remove from mixture onto a plate for a few minutes.
  • Melt two tablespoons butter in a griddle pan over medium heat. Place the bread on the griddle, cook for about two minutes, then carefully turn and cook for two minutes more.
  • Serve hot.

Nutrition

Calories: 237kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 165mg | Sodium: 214mg | Potassium: 131mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 240IU | Vitamin C: 99mg | Calcium: 80mg | Iron: 1.8mg

 

 

Ultimate Nachos with Easy Guacamole

A few years ago, shorty after I started this blog, I posted a recipe I called Fabulous Nachos. They are fabulous, but the photos were horrible, and I missed a few important steps in the recipe. Yep, basically I was a newbie! This is basically the same recipe, but improved! These Ultimate Nachos are easy to make, and you can add your own favorite toppings when assembling your plate.

Ultimate Nachos with Easy Guacamole

 

A little story, not that nachos need a story: My daughter LOVES tacos, but in reality she really likes the taco shell. My daughter's grandmother (her dad's mother) started calling tortilla chips tacos when she was a baby, and so it stuck. She's five now, and can't hold a full taco yet, so I break two shells up into "chips" and put the filling on top. So, tacos are nachos to her, and she loves these!

I often make Homemade Taco Seasoning, but for ease and speed I chose to use store-bought with these nachos. What I really should do is make a big batch of the homemade taco seasoning so I have it on hand all the time. However, my homemade taco seasoning recipe is a bit spicier than store-bought, so the store-bought is probably more kid friendly.

Start by browning the ground beef, then adding the taco seasoning and water, just like for tacos. Then layer black beans, the seasoning ground beef, salsa, and cheese in a baking dish greased with butter and bake in a 350 degree oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Yes, butter and cooked salsa, just trust me! I promise you won't be sorry!

 

Baked Ultimate Nacho Topping

 

Place your favorite brand of tortilla chips on a plate, and top with a large scoop of the meat mixture, then your favorite nacho toppings such as shredded lettuce, additional shredded cheddar cheese, sliced black olives, and pickled jalapenos. And of course, Easy Guacamole! To make things simple, I replace finely diced tomatoes and onions in the guacamole with a tablespoon or so of salsa, then just add a splash of lemon juice and lime juice, and a little salt and pepper. Can't get simpler than that without using store bought guacamole loaded with preservatives, right?

Ultimate Nachos with Easy Guacamole Close Up

 

These nachos are perfect for snacking on while watching the game, kids will love them and adding their own toppings, and they are filling enough to keep you satisfied!

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Ultimate Nachos with Easy Guacamole

Nachos loaded with ground beef, salsa, cheese, and your favorite toppings with a fabulously easy guacamole!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time35 minutes
Course: Snack/ Game Day Entree
Cuisine: Mexican American
Servings: 6
Calories: 643kcal
Author: Bernadette

Ingredients

  • For the nacho topping:
  • 1 ⅓ pound 80% lean ground beef
  • 1 16 ounce jar salsa (any brand and heat you desire)
  • 1 15.5 ounce can black beans ,drained and rinsed
  • 8 ounces Mexican cheese blend
  • 1.25 ounce packet or homemade taco seasoning
  • ¾ cup water
  • Favorite brand tortilla chips
  • Additional topping suggestions: shredded lettuce ,shredded cheddar or Mexican cheese, sour cream, sliced black olives, pickled jalapenos
  • For the guacamole:
  • 1 avocado ,peeled and seeded
  • ¼ of a small yellow onion ,finely diced
  • 1-2 tablespoons salsa
  • splash each lemon and lime juice
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cook the ground beef over medium-high heat, drain, stir in water and taco seasoning.
  • Grease a baking dish with butter. Layer black beans, seasoned ground beef, salsa, and cheese in the pan. Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
  • Meanwhile, prepare the guacamole and additional toppings.
  • In a medium bowl combine peeled and seeded avocado, finely diced onion, salsa, lemon juice, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Mash with a fork or potato masher until well combined.
  • Prepare the nachos by putting tortilla chips on a plate, topping with hot ground beef mixture, additional desired toppings, and guacamole.

Notes

Nutritional information does not include optional toppings.  

Nutrition

Calories: 643kcal | Carbohydrates: 44g | Protein: 36g | Fat: 37g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 104mg | Sodium: 1804mg | Potassium: 975mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 1250IU | Vitamin C: 10mg | Calcium: 320mg | Iron: 4.7mg

Sweet and Sour Pepper and Olive Dip

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, Price Chopper. All opinions are mine alone.

Creamy, sweet and sour pepper and olive dip with festive roasted red peppers, green peppers, and black olives.

Sweet and Sour Pepper and Olive Dip 

Sweet and Sour Pepper and Olive Dip

 

Am I really going to talk about Christmas already? I guess it's good to plan ahead, it's just never been something I'm good at. If you've seen my last two posts, you know I don't do a lot of baking. Sometimes at Christmas I do some baking, but more likely, if I'm having a Christmas party I'm making finger foods and dips. This Sweet and Sour Pepper and Olive dip will be a hit with kids that like sour candies, and my husband discovered it makes a great spread when cold that the grown-ups would enjoy! I can't really decide whether I prefer it hot or cold, so I would just eat both.

Price Chopper gives me a  #HolidayAdvantEdge when shopping for my Christmas groceries, and I want to thank #CollectiveBias for giving me the opportunity to share this recipe today.

First, I went to Price Chopper for my ingredients:

PC-Crisco-Isle

 

Crisco ® Oil Products and Lindsay brand Roasted Red Peppers and Sliced Black Olives.

 

PC-Lindsay-Isle

Got home and gathered my ingredients (and forgot to put the olives in the photo),

Crisco-and-Red-Peppers

put them in my slow cooker, and set it on high for about 45 minutes.

Pepper-and-Olive-Dip-in-Slow-Cooker

I only had to stir in once in a while, it didn't take long before it was nice and creamy.

Sweet and Sour Pepper and Olive Dip

 

With a bit of a sour taste from the pickled roasted red peppers (rinse them before chopping!), a sweet addition of a little sugar, and the creaminess of the melted cream cheese, this dip is perfect for tortilla chips or crackers, or you can let it cool once the cream cheese has melted, refrigerate it and use it as a spread with toasted baguettes. I didn't get a chance to try it reheated the next day, but I bet it would be wonderful after the flavors have time to meld.

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Sweet and Sour Pepper and Olive Dip

Creamy, sweet and sour dip with festive roasted red peppers, green peppers, and black olives.
Prep Time4 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Total Time50 minutes
Course: Dip
Servings: 4
Calories: 571kcal
Author: Bernadette

Ingredients

  • 16 ounces cream cheese
  • 1 cup chopped green peppers
  • 12 ounces Lindsay Roasted Red Peppers ,drained, rinsed and chopped
  • ¾ cup Lindsay sliced black olives ,drained and rinsed
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon or less black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon Crisco ® vegetable oil

Instructions

  • Heat the oil in a medium pan, add the chopped green peppers and saute until just softened, about 5 minutes.
  • Put the cream cheese, sauteed peppers, red peppers, olives, sugar, salt, and pepper in a slow cooker, set on high and cover. Stir occasionally, every 10 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is completely melted and the dip is hot. Serve hot. Alternately, allow to cool and refrigerate, covered, overnight and serve as a spread.

Nutrition

Calories: 571kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 53g | Saturated Fat: 22g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 124mg | Sodium: 1599mg | Potassium: 221mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 2170IU | Vitamin C: 100.1mg | Calcium: 149mg | Iron: 1.2mg

 

Baking Experiences: White Christmas Peppermint Cake

Yesterday I posted a review of Rose Levy Beranbaum's new book, The Baking Bible along with a giveaway of the book and Rose's Heavenly Cake Strips. In the post I mentioned for the millionth time that I'm not a baker, and so I thought I would share the experience with you here today. Let's call this "what happens when a non-baker bakes", or "The Three Day Cake", or "how I can single-handedly turn my life into a disaster" along with a few moments of considering quitting blogging altogether.

If you read the review, you know I was asked to make the White Christmas Peppermint Cake. Please keep in mind that I am NOT blaming the recipe for the disaster this turned into, I am blaming myself! Let's start at the beginning, it was Wednesday:

The cake strips. I, who last made a cake maybe ten years ago, had never heard of cake strips. I tried and tried fitting them around my 9-inch cake pans and couldn't get it to work, so as a last resort I decided to go onto Amazon and read the reviews to figure out what I was doing wrong. As soon as I saw the picture I knew. The cake strips are supposed to go on the OUTSIDE of the pans, not the INSIDE!! I don't know why I thought they went on the inside, but I did. Yeah.

Rose's Heavenly Cake Strips

 

So, that wasted 20-30 minutes. Next:

The list of "special equipment" in the recipe calls for parchment rounds and baking spray with flour. My regular grocery store carries neither, so I decided to make my own by cutting parchment paper into "rounds" as good as I could and then spraying with regular cooking spray, sprinkling with just a little flour ( I used cake flour, not regular flour), and rubbing it together with my finger to blend. Um, okay, I can't cut straight.

making-parchment-rounds

Somewhere during all this I realized there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to finish the cake, white chocolate custard base, and complete the white chocolate buttercream before I had to get my daughter off the bus, do dishes, and make dinner, followed by the rest of our night. I decided to go ahead with cake anyway and cover it until the next day.

Making the cake itself was okay, I weighed EVERYTHING,  which is highly suggested in The Baking Bible. Of course, this is a huge part of why I don't bake, I prefer cooking because I can add and subtract ingredients as I feel like, and even change my own recipes the next time I make them. You can't do that so easily with baking. Like my friend Becca told me, you have to love formulas and math in order to love baking, and well, I hate both and pretty much failed them in school.

The cakes were made, wrapped, and refrigerated for the next day. Great, until the next day when I had already brought out my eggs and butter to come to room temperature, and they had already been out for over an hour, when I made the horrible discovery that I didn't buy enough white chocolate for the buttercream! Are you kidding me??!! I had 8 ounces, and needed 13.2 ounces. There was nothing I could do about it right at that moment, and had to wait until that night to go to the grocery store.

Friday was Halloween. In the morning, I went to my daughters school parade with my sister and mother, then she had a half day so my sister stuck around to play with her while I made the icing. Well, I got it made, but realized I wasn't going to have enough time to cut the cakes into layers, ice the cake, and take photos before trick-or-treating with friends. So I had no choice but to refrigerate the icing until the next day. This changed the texture of the icing, but it was still usable.

So Saturday came and by then it was either finish the cake or forget it, it wasn't getting done. That's when I made my next error. I knew I was going to have a problem cutting the cake into layers, but I thought I had the knife right in the middle. What I didn't realize what that the tip of the knife bent up...and sliced right through the top of the cake. That layer fell completely apart when I tried to lift it, turning the cake into a 3-layer cake instead of 4. Good news, that meant the cake had extra frosting and peppermint pieces!

White Christmas Peppermint Cake

 

So there you have it, the true story of how making the cake turned out for me. I suppose it could have been much worse, I could have dropped the cake bringing it out to photograph it. Although, looking at these pictures, that might have been a good idea.   Please don't let my experience deter you from trying the recipe yourself, I just wanted to be honest about what happened. I might even make this a semi-regular thing, I try a difficult (for me, not you, I know your laughing at me), likely baking, recipe and post about the experience. What do you think?