1/29/12

Hi everyone!
Hope you had a great weekend! We had a busy and fun weekend! So, Friday my son and I had a play date with Sara and her son! We had a great time and enjoyed the Chicken Salad with Avocado Dressing for lunch! My review is on the original post... don't miss this one!!! Yummy!!!!

Friday night, our son stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while my husband and I had a few friends over. We served pretzel bites, crescent pepperoni roll-ups, cucumber boats, summer guacamole with chili garlic sauce, and homemade salsa. I posted all of the recipes with our reviews. These are some great treats for upcoming Superbowl parties! Oh, I also made my well known turkey meatballs... I'll post that recipe tomorrow. To drink, the boys enjoyed beer while Thai and I tried a new yummy drink! We had chardonnay, ginger ale, sliced strawberries, and sliced peaches mixed together. It was refreshing and great! I'll post that recipe tomorrow, too. Running out of steam for the night!

Last night we got together with our good friends Greg and Mar and their kids. Mar served slow cooker lasagna and garlic cheese bread. If you haven't tried this, you should. We love it! Again, I can post this recipe tomorrow... there are a few variations. I'll try to post a couple so you have a choice. They're all good and easy, really.

Tonight we just threw together some turkey burgers. Nothing too special, but I can give you our recipe tomorrow with the others. I put leftover provolone cheese, lettuce, and avocado dressing on my and our son's burgers! YUM!!!! My husband put lettuce and leftover Hoisin Dressing on his. He said it was really great, too!

I'll be making this week's menu tomorrow. I didn't get a chance this weekend. I posted quite a few recipes today, but looks like I owe you a few more tomorrow.

Thanks for joining us for dinner. See you tomorrow.
~ Jen

Pretzel Bites

Credit: Get Off Your Butt & Bake

Recipe: http://www.justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com/?p=932

Cochran Review: We made the Garlic Parmesan Pretzel Bites for a party recently. They were a big hit! We enjoyed them without the cheddar dip, but I'm sure that would be delightful, too. These were pretty easy to make. They seemed to take 30 mins to bake in our oven rather than the 15 mins the recipe references. Also, I didn't melt butter for the bites. I just rubbed a little stick butter over the top as they were fresh out of the oven, sprinkled garlic powder, cracked sea salt, sprinkled fresh grated Parmesan over the top, tossed, and served. One guest referred to them as being "legit". :) Enjoy!

2/6/12 Update: We tried the cinnamon sugar w/ icing dipping sauce on Super Bowl Sunday. Oh. My. Goodness. So, so , so good!!!! The garlic Parmesan were a hit once again, but the cinnamon sugar bites were the shinning star! Also, garlic Parmesan bites were very tasty dipped in the queso dip! Yum! Enjoy!

Crescent Pepperoni Roll-ups

Credit: Plain Chicken
Recipe: http://www.plainchicken.com/2011/12/crescent-pepperoni-roll-ups.html

Cochran Review: These were very easy to make and very tasty! The recipe calls for warm pizza sauce to dip them in, but we ended up not dipping them. We didn't feel like it needed the sauce. Our party guests enjoyed these quite a bit! Enjoy!

Summer Guacamole with Lee Kum Kee Chili Garlic Sauce

Credit: Lee Kum Kee
Recipe: http://us.lkk.com/en/Kitchen/Recipe/Weekly%20Recipe%20Archive/summer-guacamole-lee-kum-kee-chili-garlic-sauce-3174

Cochran Review: This was OK. I think I personally prefer just guacamole without the chili garlic sauce, though. The recipe calls for 4 Tbsps of the chili garlic sauce, and the picture shows the dip still being green. However, after only adding 3 Tbsps, our dip was already red. The flavor was more chili garlic than guacamole. So, if I were to try this again, I think I'd add 1 Tbsp and taste it.

Cucumber Boats

Credit: Susie Freaking Homemaker
Recipe: http://www.susiefreakinghomemaker.com/2012/01/cucumber-boats.html

Cochran Review: These are very refreshing and tasty! I cut the cucumbers and put the cheese mixture in a bowl as a dip. Our party guests enjoyed them and it mixed together very quickly and easily. Enjoy!

Quick & Easy Salsa

Credit: Mountain Mamma Cooks
Recipe: http://www.mountainmamacooks.com/2012/01/quick-and-easy-salsa/

Cochran Review: Deee-lish!!! Just as it states, quick and easy! It was a party favorite tonight! Enjoy!

Low-Fat Potato Soup

No picture, sorry. I'll take one next time I make it.

Credit: +50 Friends Group
Recipe: http://www.sangotn.com/cookbook/crockpot/loftpotsp.html

Cochran Review: This recipe is so easy and so flavorful! It makes a lot, but freezes easy. I thought we would be freezing some, but we gobbled it all up! Enjoy!