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Archive for the ‘Easy Recipes’ Category

Slushy Fruit Salad

Posted in Easy Recipes, Entertaining at Home, Fast Recipes, Recipes, Salads, Valentine's Day on February 8, 2011| 2 Comments »

Since Valentine’s Day is Monday and since I’m known to be a bit sappy, I just couldn’t help thinking of some fun Valentine recipes to share.

So if you check back every day this week and put all the recipes together, you’ll end up with a fantastic meal to serve your sweetie.

Today’s recipe is super easy, very refreshing and just doggone pretty!

Ingredients

Mix all ingredients together, cover and freeze for about 8 hours or until firmly set.

About 20 minutes before serving, remove from freezer. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop into individual dessert cups or pretty bowls.

Enjoy!

Fruit Slush

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
1/2 cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate
1 large banana, halved and sliced
1 small can pineapple chunks
1 can mandarin oranges
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup Maraschino cherries, stems removed
few additional Marachino cherries, for garnish
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, including juice from pineapple and mandarin oranges.  Cover and freeze for 8 hours or until firm.

Remove from freezer about 20 minutes before serving. Scoop into individual serving cups or bowls. Garnish with a Maraschino cherry.

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Hot Chocolate Station

Posted in Christmas, Easy Recipes, Entertaining at Home, Entertaining Ideas, Holidays, tagged , , on December 14, 2010| 5 Comments »

Baby, it’s cold outside… and one of the tastiest ways to warm up is with hot chocolate. If you are hosting a gathering, think about setting up a self-serve hot chocolate station. This allows your guests to get a cup of hot chocolate created the way they want it and adds a bit of fun to your party.

Start by setting up an area dedicated to your hot chocolate station. Make sure you have plenty of mugs available and within easy reach.

A beverage server like this one keeps drinks hot (and cold) for a good hour or two.

 

You can either mix up chocolate and put in carafes or beverage servers to keep warm or simply have hot water and let your guests mix their own chocolate.

If you are mixing the chocolate, it is easy to do with a can of chocolate mix. If you plan to let them make their own, hot chocolate packets keep things neat and simple.

Have a tray full of goodies they can add into their drinks like marshmallows, whipping cream, peppermint and cinnamon sticks, mini chocolate chips, and sprinkles.  You can also have flavorful extracts or liqueurs to add in. Let your imagination run wild!

Make sure you have plenty of spoons and napkins handy.

One really fun thing to do is to put marshmallows on peppermint sticks, dip in yummy chocolate and top with sprinkles to stir into warm mugs of liquid deliciousness.

Here's what you need to make Marshmallow Peppermint stirrers.

 

 

Mount the marshmallows on the peppermint sticks. I like the soft sticks rather than candy canes.

 

Dip Marshmallows into melted chocolate. Just follow directions on the dipping chocolate. So simple!

 

Put sprinkles into a shallow bowl.

Then dip away!

 

Ready for a cup of delicious hot chocolate!

Happy Holiday Entertaining!

She Who Loves Chocolate

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Egg Noodles

Posted in Easy Recipes, Quick and Easy, Recipes, Sides, tagged , , on December 5, 2010| 1 Comment »

Egg Noodles

 

 

The other day I needed some egg noodles to finish off dinner and found that I had run out of them. Someone who shall remain nameless and blameless evidently forget to pick them up the last time they went to the store.

Which means I had to resort to drastic measures and make my own egg noodles. I really don’t know why I don’t make them more often. They are simple and so, so good!

You can eat them with butter, drench in sauce, cover with stroganoff or mix with chicken.

 

The ingredients - less than five. Woohoo!

 

 

Mix ingredients, form into a doughy ball and then roll on a floured surface.

Make sure you roll your dough nice and thin.

 

 

Cut noodles into strips and let dry.

 

 

Drop noodles into a pot of boiling water and cook until tender.

 

 

Yum!

 

 

 

 

Egg Noodles

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 egg

1 eggshell of water

Crack egg into bowl with baking powder and  flour. Fill eggshell with water and dump into bowl. Stir until you have a ball of dough. Roll out on a floured surface until very thin. Cut into strips and let dry for 2 to 3 hours. I like to turn them about an hour and a half into the game so both sides get dry.

When you are ready to cook, place noodles into a medium-saucepan of boiling water (you can salt water if you like) and cook until tender, or about 12 minutes.

This recipe will make about the same amount of noodles in a standard package. Just make sure you roll these nice and thin.

Told you it was easy!

Enjoy!

 

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Easy Tater Tot Casserole

Posted in Comfort Food, Easy Recipes, Fast Recipes, Main Dish, Recipes, tagged , , on November 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

 

Easy Tater Tot Casserole

In the grand scheme of things, I realize on a scale of one to 10 the healthiness of this casserole is somewhere down in the single digits, but sometimes don’t you just crave some good ol’ delicious comfort food that you know is adding five pounds to your thighs while you eat it?

Well, the craving overtook my better sense the other day and I made Tater Tot Casserole. I think I pilfered this recipe from one of my aunts way back when Hubby and I were in newly wedded bliss, toned and fit. Goodness, but that was a long time ago.

Sorry, I digress.

Anyway, this casserole is super easy to make and so comforting on a cold, blustery day. Add a salad and you’ve got a nice, simple meal.

 

The ingredients - I think I managed to include them all in the photo this time!

 

Mix the seasoning, onion flakes, salt and pepper into your ground beef as you brown it.

 

 

While you brown the ground beef, put the tater tots in a casserole dish in the oven and start getting them warmed up.

 

 

Mix mushroom soup into ground beef. I'm lazy and mix mine right in the skillet.

 

 

Sprinkle cheese on top of meat mixture. I realize I did not measure out the cheese and am eyeballing it. It was just the way things were rolling that day.

Gooey cheese, all hot and ready to be devoured.

 

Ready to eat. Yum!

Tater Tot Casserole

2 pounds of ground beef

1 package of tater tots

1 cup shredded colby-jack cheese (or cheddar)

1/2 tsp onion flakes

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

all-purpose seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put tater tots into a 9 x 13 casserole pan (I lightly spray mine with PAM first) and place in the oven while you brown the ground beef. I add the onion flakes, seasoning and salt and pepper to the ground beef. When the hamburger is browned, mix it with the two cans of cream of mushroom soup and spoon over the top of the tater tots. Layer on cheese and cover with foil. Bake for about 20 minutes or until soup is hot and bubbly. Remove foil and bake for a few more minutes until cheese is a melted layer of luscious gooey-ness. Remove from oven and serve. I like to sprinkle the top of my casserole with a bit of chopped parsley. Hubby likes his straight up “without any of that weird green stuff on there.”

Happy Entertaining and Enjoy!

Shanna

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