Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Dip

What you will need:

1lb chicken (tenders or breasts or even canned chunk chicken)

1 block low fat cream cheese

2/3 cup fat free ranch dressing

3/4 to 1 cup buffalo wing sauce

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese and a little more to top it off

What you will need to do:

1) Boil chicken until just done

2) Shred chicken, cut off any fat or skin

3) Heat cream cheese, cheddar cheese, ranch, and buffalo sauce until heated through.  Then add chicken until all is coated

4) Transfer to a small crock pot (top with shredded cheddar, if you want) and keep on warm or low.  It is ready immediately, since everything is cooked, but it's great take to bible study or a get together in the crock pot!  Serve with tortilla chips or pita chips.

Crock Pot Pulled Pork BBQ

Hey y'all, sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I have a couple of recipes to share now!  I don't have the best pictures for this one, but it is really easy!

What you will need:

A shoulder butt roast (or rump roast)  This 7+ pounder fed 10 with some left over, so just get the size you need.  It freezes well, so you could do that if it makes a lot.

Some spices (Italian seasoning, light season salt, pepper, cumin, etc...)

A few shakes of Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce, if you have it

1/4 cup water

3/4 bottle of BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Rays - Hickory) But you don't need this until after the meat is cooked.

What you will need to do:

1) Take the meat out of the plastic (gag!  I hate messing with raw meat lol!)

2) Place in large crock pot.  I ended up having to cut off a chunk and squish it in a small opening to get it all to fit.  The lid needs to close completely.  Add your seasonings, Worcestershire sauce/soy sauce, and water here.

3) Cook on high with lid on for 6 hours or on low for 8 hours.  I cooked mine on high for 3 hours and had to leave, so I turned it on low for the next 5 hours and it came out fine.

4) It will cook down A LOT.  When it's completely cooked (6-8 hours), remove from the pot into a large baking dish.  It's best if this can sit in a dish (not crock pot) to cool for about an hour.  The bone should be really easy to pull out with tongs.  This is the nasty part, but fork around and pick out as much fat as you can.  It will probably come off in big chunks.  Keep the meat in pretty big pieces, so that when you mix in the BBQ sauce, it doesn't get too mushy.  Sorry I don't' have a picture of this.

5) Once the fat is removed and you have several large chunks of meat, pour on BBQ sauce and fork around to mix it in.  The meat should be so tender that it kind of just shreds itself as you mix in the sauce.  I used 3/4 small bottle of Sweet Baby Rays and left the remainder out for people to add extra if they wanted.  You can fix this the night before and heat it in the microwave or in the oven (with foil-so it doesn't dry out).

I don't have a great photo of the finished meat, but you can see it in this photo, in the white dish.  Serve with buns and some southern sides!  We made this for our Derby party in Phoenix and it was a hit! :)

Strawberry Orange Trifle

I don't have a picture because I don't have one of those fancy trifle dishes (yet).  But it was very easy and yummy!

Ingredients:
4 (heaping) cups of sliced strawberries (I used sugar free frozen, pre-sliced)
1-2 cans (15 oz.) of mandarin oranges, drained
2 Tablespoons orange juice (or juice from the can of the oranges)
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 package of shortbread cookies, crushed (I used Keebler "Sandies")

1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 (11 oz) jar lemon curd
OR
1 package cool whip
1 package lemon pudding prepared using package directions


1. Mix strawberries, oranges, OJ and sugar.  Let stand at room temp for 10 minutes.

2. If you use the cream and lemon curd, beat together at low speed with an electric mixer until blended. Gradually increase mixer speed, beating until medium peaks form.  If you use cool whip and pudding, prepare the pudding before you do anything else.  Then mix in mixer with cool whip til blended.

3.  Start layering ingredients.  Put 1/3 of fruit  on the bottom.  1/3 of creamy mixture next, and 1/2 of the crushed cookies.  Repeat.  Top layer will be creamy mixture.  If you want, garnish with strawberries on top. 

Notes: The amount of oranges depends on how many you want.  One can would be good, but use two if you want in orange in about every other bite.  You can also use fresh oranges, but canned mandarin are easier. 

Ok, let me tell you about this lemon curd.  It is so hard to find!!  And it was $3 for a small jar.  So if you are adventurous I would try the second option I listed and mix a container of cool whip with some milk and lemon pudding.  I think it would be the same consistency and taste, and cheaper.  I will try that next time. 

And I do plan on making this again, it was a light and delicious!  It does better for larger crowds (6-10+ people) where it is all eaten because the cookies get mushy if it is kept overnight.

Apple Berry Salsa and Cinnamon Chips (Pampered Chef)

Apple Berry Salsa

2 medium Granny Smith Apples

1 pint strawberries, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)

2 kiwi peeled and diced

1 small orange

2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons apple jelly or apricot jam

Peel, core, slice and chop apples. Dice strawberries and kiwi and place in small mixing bowl. Zest orange to measure 1 teaspoon. Juice orange to measure 2 tablespoons. Add orange zest, juice, brown sugar and jelly to fruit mixture, mix gently. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cinnamon Chips- *Or just buy the Stacey's brand cinnamon pita chips from Wal-Mart/Sam's

8 (7 in) flour tortillas

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

*I use more cinnamon and sugar!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray tortillas with water. Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle onto tortillas. Cut each tortilla into 8 wedges. Arrange half of the tortilla wedges in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and crisp. Remove from the baking sheet to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining tortilla wedges.

Pan-Seared Greek Chicken

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

6 Chicken Tenderloins (or 2 chicken breasts)

1 Bell Pepper

1/4 Cup Pitted Kalamata Olives

1/4 Cup Diced Tomatoes

1 Cup Crumbled Feta Cheese

Directions:

In large skillet, saute chicken tenderloins in 2 tbs olive oil until juices run clear. Remove from pan. In remaining olive oil saute bell pepper, olives, and diced tomato until they are softened and warm. Place chicken back in the pan for a few minutes, then remove from heat, top with feta cheese, and cover with lid for 5 minutes to let cheese melt. Serve with bread and olive oil, or over a bed of orzo pasta. Serves 2.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Confused by your sweet tooth? Why settle for either cookie or cake when you can have both? Yes, I mean it... the Cookie Dough Cupcake. These are insanely easy, ladies, and insanely good.

Ingredients*:
1 Devil's Food cake mix (and all necessary accompanying ingredients)
1 package of break-and-bake chocolate chip cookie dough
*I am sure this would be really tasty with homemade cake and cookies, but this is the quick and easy way.


Directions:
1. Prepare cake mix and put in muffin cups. Bake for about nine minutes.
2. Remove cupcakes from oven. Break up cookie dough and roll each cookie into a ball. Drop one ball in each cupcake, pressing it down if it doesn't naturally sink.
3. Return cupcakes to oven and bake for the duration of the time required for the cupcakes.
4. Remove from heat, cool.
Icing is optional. Sometimes the cupcakes are pretty enough not to need it.

Enjoy!

Derby Hat Cupcakes!

More cupcakes, ladies. This one can be done with any cupcake variation. I chose strawberry cupcakes and butter cream icing. This "recipe" is really more craft instructional.

1. Make cupcakes. (I used a strawberry boxed cake mix.)
2. Put butter cream icing in an icing bag with cap. I mixed butter cream and cream cheese after softening them each in the microwave for 15 seconds.
3. Swirl icing on cupcakes. Make two layers of icing swirl.
4. Top with edible pearls.
**Stop here for simple, classy cupcakes. Keep going for fun Derby ones.
5. Buy small doll hats and ribbon from Hobby Lobby and make little hat toppers. (I used no glue on these. The hats are sold individually or in a package of six. I bought 2 packages of six for the price of 2 individual, so go bulk!)
6. Top hats onto the iced cupcakes, and voila!

Enjoy!