Low Fat Crab Dip

I know this isn't the prettiest picture, but hey, it's life! Back in May we did a special Mother's Day Cooking Club event. We invited all our moms and did a "Year In Review" where we made a bunch of recipes that we had made throughout the year. It was awesome! I wanted to do my crab dip from our Costume Party but I decided to try to do a lower fat version. 

Ingredients:

8 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

16 oz of fat free (or reduced fat) cream cheese, softened

8 oz fat free sour cream

4 tbsp lite mayo

4 tbsp horseradish
2 tbsp garlic powder

2 tsp salt

2 tsp white pepper

1 onion, diced

1/4 cup worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp old bay seasoning

1 pound crab meat

Directions:

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Heat frozen spinach in microwave safe dish for 5 minutes.

Drain liquid. 

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, horseradish, and mayo in a large bowl.

Stir in seasonings.

Mix in the crab & spinach.

Spoon into casserole dish.

Back in oven for 30 minutes.

I like to serve this dish with bread, crackers, cucumbers, & pretzel crisps. 

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Thai Peanut Sauce

I made Vietnamese spring rolls and here are some of the dipping sauces that I served with them. Below are the three sauces: Chunky Peanut Sauce, Thai Peanut Sauce, & Fish Sauce blend. Lots of unusual ingredients were used. It was fun experimenting with all the different flavors. 

For Chunky Peanut Sauce:
3 oz. salted peanuts< 2 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp sesame oil

3 tbsp garlic chili sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce

4 tsp fresh lime juice

1 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degres.

Pour the peanuts onto a dry baking sheet in a single layer.

Bake for 7 to 10 minutes but make sure they don't burn or blacken too much.

Remove peanuts from the oven and let cool.

Place in food processor and pulse a few times so that they finely chop. 

Add the rest of the ingredients and process until it's smoother.

The sauce won't be smooth, it should have some texture of the chopped peanuts. 

For Thai Peanut Sauce:
2 cups creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup coconut milk
3 tbsp water
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp hot sauce
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

Teriyaki Sauce:

2/3 cup mirin 

1 cup soy sauce

4.5 tsp rice vinegar

1 tsp sesame oil

1/3 cup sugar

7 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp fresh grated ginger

1 dash red pepper flakes

Bring mirin to a boil in a saucepan over high heat.

Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pour in soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar.

Season with garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes.

Simmer an additional 5 minutes. 

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Spinach Dip

It's official. I actually know how to cook. This point was confirmed for me last month when I started perfecting the art of going "off road" with my recipes. I used to be the type that stuck exactly to the recipe because I was scared of messing it up. Now I just throw in random ingredients that I think will work and I've been impressed with the results.


I made spinach dip for the super bowl party (to compliment the burrito bar) and I got a lot of compliments on it, so it must have been good. I started by finding hot spinach dip recipes online then I started throwing in things I had in my fridge that would go well with it. 



Ingredients:
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and dried out
1/2 cup light sour cream
1/4 cup light mayo
1/3 cup pecorino romano
2 laughing cow swiss cheese wedges, chopped & melted
1 can of cream of broccoli condensed soup
8 green onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
pepper to taste


Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl.
Place in an oven safe dish and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
Make sure cheese is melted and serve with pretzel things. 


What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Italian Hoagie Dip

OH MY GOSH THIS IS SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!

Special thanks to my friends Jess & Drew for introducing this to me, I think it might have changed my life. Amazing Amazing.


Our friend Mike turned 30 this weekend and I decided to bring this to his birthday party.


I'll warn you, this dip is addicting. It tastes JUST like your are eating an Italian Sub, it's kind of cool.



Ingredients:
1/2 lb hot ham capicola, thinly sliced
1/2 lb genoa salami, thinly sliced
1/3 lb pepperoni slices
1/2 lb white american cheese, thinly sliced
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbsp italian seasoning
1 cup reduced fat mayo
1 tomato, diced
1/4 cup diced celery (optional, I had some already chopped in my fridge)
1/2 head iceberg lettuce, finely shredded
salt & pepper to taste


Directions:
Lay out meats & cheese on a large cutting board.
Cut up all the meat and cheese in one direction, then do it again in the opposite direction (see pictures)
Place in large bowl and mix in onion, italian seasoning, mayo, and salt & pepper.
Put in fridge to keep cool.
Cut up lettuce & tomato and add to bowl right before serving.
Serve with slices of french baquete, crusty bread, or flip side pretzel crackers (see pictures)
Add additional italian seasoning or salt & pepper, if desired.


What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Poker Night Cheesy Taco Dip

Now that I'm in good standings with the library again (long story) I've been checking out cookbooks. One of them that I borrowed was Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes - Family Favorites. This recipe was inspired by one of the recipes I found in the dip section. Gerald had the guys over to cook meat in the smoker all day (who says guys can't cook!?!?) and watch football. I decided to hide in the kitchen all evening to avoid all the testosterone. They had ribs and chicken cordon bleu wrapped in bacon. They were showing off all their creations to me and when it was ready to eat they just went to town and devoured it all. It was comical it reminded me a little bit of the epic meat videos I had seen on youtube. The chicken cordon bleu is below, isn't it a beauty? I can't take credit for it, it was all my husband and his friends. 



I wanted to cook something that complimented the meat. Literally, that's all they had...meat. No side dishes, no salad, no starch, no veggies. Just meat. So I attempted to make salad & cornbread, but got distracted. I just made this dip instead to make sure they had all 4 food groups covered. I modified it based on what I had in the kitchen and it turned out to be a delicious, creamy, cheesy, tasty, masterpiece. Oh and despite the name, we did not play any poker that night. 


Ingredients:
1/2 pound of extra lean ground beef
1/2 cup fat free sour cream
1/2 cup shredded mexican cheese (Sargento was buy one, get one free this week)
1 can of fat free refried beans
1 package of taco seasoning (or maybe just 3/4 of the package)
4 oz of reduced fat cream cheese
1 triangle slice of laughing cow light cheese (i used this instead of cream cheese, you can just use additional ounces of cream cheese)
1/2 cup of onions
green chilies, diced
1 or 2 bag of Fritos Scoops



Directions:
Turn slow cooker on low.
Cook the ground beef and brown. Mash up the ground beef into really small pieces (see picture)
Mix sour cream, taco seasoning, cheese, & beans in a medium sized small cooker and stir together.
Stir in beef, onions &, chilies.
Then add cream cheese & laughing cow cheese, cut them into chunks first. They won't be mixed in right away, wait until they melt a little bit.
Cook on low for 2 to 3 hours. The cheeses will start to melt and you can stir and mix everything together 2 or 3 times while cooking.
Serve warm when everything is melted with fritos. 


I didn't get any good pictures, here is the dip after we started eating it. As you can see we ran out of fritos, so we switched over to doritos. The dip was a hit!

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Fiesta Bean Dip

I wanted to contribute some sort of treat or snack at our family's extended Christmas gathering. So I was planning on making my usual taco dip. But then when I went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients I changed my mind at the last second. I bought some random ingredients and made this dip up on the spot. It turned out great.


Ingredients:
1 container of low fat sour cream
1 can of black beans, rinsed & drained
1/2 cup of diced onions

1 can of diced tomatoes w/ chilies

1 tsp of red pepper flakes

1/4 cup of taco seasoning or 1 package

2 cups of cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix sour cream & taco seasoning in a medium sized bowl.

Spread in the bottom of an 8 x 8 square casserole dish.

Top with a layer of the black beans.

Sprinkle with red pepper & top with onions.

Top with layer of cheese.

Cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

Top with tomatoes after you remove the dish from the oven.

Serve with tortilla chips.

I would love to know that you visited my blog or tried out a recipe. Leave me some love & encouragement!

Another post about Guacamole

As some of you know I'm on a quest to make the perfect guacamole. I got lots of great feedback from my friends & family and have continued to grow in my knowledge of avocados and guacamole-making. 


My mom has helped me further on this quest by presenting me with her own guacamole mix. It was just one of my many awesome cooking-theme Christmas presents.


I got to test it out a couple times over my Christmas break. First, i made it at our extended Fisher Family Christmas get together. 


I paired it with these awesome new Tostitos that I found. They are roasted garlic and black bean flavored. They also go very nicely with my Fiesta Bean Dip. These Artisan Recipe Tostitos also come in Chipotle Flavor which is also pretty awesome. I highly recommend them.





My mom's mix comes with instructions. For every mashed avocado that you use you should add 2 tsp of the guacamole mix and 1/2 tsp of fresh lime juice. I also threw in some onions and just a touch of red pepper flakes to give it a kick. Once again, it came out amazing.

So I decided to try my luck down in Myrtle Beach. My husband & I got away after all the Christmas parties and spent a few days down south. I stumbled across the large green avocados which i had never used before. They don't sell those kind at Darrenkamp's so it peaked my curiosity. I wanted to try both kind of avocados and compare the difference. But I couldn't tell if one kind was better than the other. Once again, it came out delicious. I just love love love guacamole. Here are some pictures of my masterpiece. Enjoy!

I would love to know that you visited my blog or tried out a recipe. Leave me some love & encouragement!

Hot Crab Dip in a Bread Bowl

So my amazingly awesome cooking club had a Costume Party at my house this past weekend (I know, I know who has costume parties in November??? But seriously it was awesome -- it might even be better because it's in November.) The plan was to dress in costume, bring a beverage and bring an appetizer and we awarded prizes for best costume, best drink, & best appetizer. Those who truly know me, know how competitive I am. I was determined to win something. For the life of me I couldn't come up with a good costume. I was the Spartan Cheerleader, Ariana, from SNL. It suited me well, but was not a prize-worthy costume. I tried to find a bottle of Arabella wine, because that stuff is great, but apparently they don't sell it in Lancaster County. So I knew I had to compensate by making a delicious appetizer. I settled on crab dip because everyone loves crab dip and I literally googled "best crap dip" to ensure that my crab dip was the best. I found a nice recipe on AllRecipes.com (of course) and made some changes. In the end the crab dip did win first place! Hurray! (But it was a tight race between the hot spinach artichoke dip, the cold spinach dip served in a purple cabbage bowl (scroll to bottom of page, and the addicting onion pretzels) 

Shout out to my friend Jessie who made the 2nd half of the recipe for me. I was getting ready for the party while she carved out the bread bowl. So all credit for the presentation goes to her. THANKS! 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups crabmeat
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 cup white Cheddar cheese
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup of pecorino romano cheese
• 1 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning
• 1 (8 ounce) round loaf of bread
• box of crackers
• 1-2 cucumbers, sliced

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Grease a 9 x 13 casserole dish
3. In a large bowl, combine crabmeat, sour cream, cream cheese, buttermilk, mayonnaise, Monterey Jack cheese, Cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, old bay seasoning, pecorino romano cheese, garlic, & black pepper.
4. Stir until well mixed. Spoon dip into prepared baking pan. 
5. Bake in preheated oven until top is crusty, about 25 to 30 minutes.
6. Cut the top off the loaf of bread. Hollow out the loaf and cube the top and the removed pieces so that they may be used for dipping. Spoon hot dip into hollow bread loaf. Serve immediately with bread pieces, cucumbers, or crackers for dipping.

Here is the Spinach Dip in a Cabbage Head that my friend Jessie made for her appetizer.

Isn't it beautiful!?!?!? I'll have to ask her for the recipe.

Note the mini-pitas in the back. They were so cute!

I would love to know that you visited my blog or tried out a recipe. Leave me some love & encouragement!

Taco Dip

My friend Katie taught me this easy & delicious taco dip recipe in college. I use it ALL the time for parties and such. We were having game night at a friend's house this past weekend so I threw this together and heated it up in her oven. I then used the leftovers the next day for small group and paired it with the Taco Ring. I enjoy making it with a little kick to it. Bust out those Tostitos, it's addicting!

Sorry, this pic is after we devoured it at game night. Trust me, it's appetizing.

Ingredients:

• 2 packs of light cream cheese
• 1 packet of taco seasoning (i used a spicy one)
• 1 can of fat free refried beans
• 1 - 2 cups of shredded cheese (mexican flavor)
• 1 small can of olive slices.
• Chopped onions or tomatoes (optional)

Directions:

1. If needed, soften cream cheese in microwave safe bowl and stir in taco seasoning packet.
2. Layer square or circle pan (baking dish) with the baked beans.
3. Put cream cheese layer on top.
4. Cover with shredded cheese & top with olives, onions, & tomatoes.
5. Bake in pre-heated oven @ 300 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.
6. Serve with chips.