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The Best Way to Cook Zucchini and Carrots

The Best Way to Cook Zucchini and Carrots
One of my greatest joys in life is making vegetables taste good to other people. When someone is especially excited about a tasty piece of zucchini I made, I am a happy girl. You’re already rolling your eyes I know, but stay with me. Zucchini and carrot “fries” are my quiet specialty. They make a great snack or side to burgers and sandwiches. Where you would normally throw a side of fries/chips or a side salad, why not throw the best vegetables you’ve ever tasted instead? The trick here is roasting. Follow these simple steps and you’ll be on your way to making some shockingly delightful savory treats that you can feel awesome about. 1. 2. 3. 4. (Today I used salt&pepper + smokey paprika and crushed red peppers.) Lightly toss your vegetable batons with a tablespoon or so of olive oil (not too much) and the herbs and spices. 5. Like this: Like Loading...

Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Crescent Braid Recipe Far too often we have week nights when my husband comes home late from work and we’re left scrambling to come up with dinner at the last minute. The end result of that scramble means fast food more often than I’d like to admit. It doesn’t help that I’m not much of a planner when it comes to meals because I never know what flavors I’ll be in the mood for. To help avoid our fast food splurges, I’ve been working on a few recipes we can use when time is lacking. This Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Braid is one of those that can be made in less than an hour, doesn’t cost very much to prepare and packs a lot of flavor into one dish (and fits quite nicely on my favorite jelly roll pan). Recipe: Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Braid Type: Main Dish Serves: 5 Ingredients 2 cans Pillsbury Original Crescent Rolls2 cups chicken chunks, cooked2 cups cheddar cheese2 cups broccoli, frozen, steamed and chopped½ cup light mayonnaise1 egg yolkfresh rosemary Instructions

Fripe Peppermint Patties Cookies, do we have a treat for you. Er well, yes, we do always have treats for you, (this being a baking blog and all) but today’s treat is an extra special treat. Yup, we made you candy. Homemade candy! You know, boiling sugar, tempering chocolate, hours and hours of back breaking labor. Ok fine. And the chocolate tempering was more like placing the chocolate in a glass bowl and then microwaving. And yes, ok, fine, the hours and hours of back breaking labor was more like minutes and minutes of labor. Thank goodness for the all important candy quality control which required taste tests at the beginning, middle and end of the candy making process. Actually, it was easier than a walk in the park. Just a quick mix, roll, slice and dunk. And since nothing is more holiday-ish-y than chocolate and mint, wrap a few up and give them away so everyone knows about your candy making prowess. Peppermint PattiesMakes 16 patties Print Recipe Remove dough and slice into rounds using a sharp knife.

Grocery item goes gourmet (part 2) After making the Oreo Truffles last week, I thought I would try the recipe with Nutter Butters. I don’t have a classic Peanut Butter Ball Recipe, so I thought, what the heck. They came out pretty good. Start by finely chopping the cookies… Combine with cream cheese and roll into balls… And dip in chocolate… easy! Nutter Butter Balls 1 pkg. 1. Makes about 30 balls. Ramen Noodle Salad (Coleslaw) I would love to share one of my favorite "water" holiday recipes. I consider water holidays Memorial, 4th of July, and Labor Day. Our family always finds a lake or a pool to celebrate by, enjoy, and eat tons of food! The only trick to this easy meal is it needs to be made several hours or the night before your event (best) to taste perfect. Ingredients: 1 pack slaw green onions finely chopped (approx 1/4 cup or less) 1/2 cup toasted seeds (sunflower or almonds) 2 packs ramen noodles (chicken flavor) broken into small pieces 3/4 cup oil 1 tbsp pepper (scant) 4 tbsp vinegar 4 tbsp sugar 1 of the chicken pack flavorings in ramen noodle package Now for the difficult instructions... Pour, Toss, and Chill! Additional tips: I like to go in and use a fork or my fingers after several hours and break up the ramen noodles even more. Parties I linked to:

Homemade Butterfingers I don't eat a lot of candy, but I l♥ve Butterfingers. When I saw this recipe on the Taste of Home forums, I knew I had to give it a try. Everyone on the board said it tasted just like a real Butterfinger. The best part - this recipe only has three ingredients! How can you make a Butterfinger with only three ingredients?? This is one of the best homemade candies that I have ever made. This is a great way to use up any candy corn you have leftover from Halloween. Candy Corn ButterfingersTaste of Home forums(Printable Recipe) 1 lb. candy corn 16oz jar peanut butter (I used Peter Pan Honey Roasted peanut butter) 16oz pkg. chocolate candy coating Melt candy corn in microwave on high 1 minute.

Braided Spaghetti Bread » The official blog of America's favorite frozen dough We are carb lovers at our house, so when I saw the Braided Spaghetti Bread recipe in the Rhodes Home Baked Family Favorites with frozen dough cookbook I knew we would love it. This is a really simple recipe; it just takes a little planning for thawing the dough. It will take 2-3 hours for the bread loaf to thaw to room temperature or 1-2 hours for the rolls to thaw to room temperature. You will need: 1 Loaf Rhodes Bread Dough or 12 Rhodes Dinner Rolls, thawed to room temperature6 oz spaghetti, cooked 1 cup thick spaghetti sauce 8 oz mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2 –inch cubes 1 egg white Parmesan cheese Parsley flakes Spray counter lightly with non-stick cooking spray (or use parchment paper). Roll loaf or combined dinner rolls into a 12x16-inch rectangle. Cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Remove wrap from dough. Make cuts 1 ½-inches apart on long sides of dough to within ½-inch of filling. Begin braid by folding top and bottom strips toward filling. This was fantastic!

Holiday Cookie Round-up Alright holiday lovers and fall time nesters, since high baking season is in full swing I thought I would take the time before we launch into 2012 holiday cookies to do a round up of some of my favorite cookies from last year. I know many of you were not here last year, so I’m sharing what you missed and hopefully a few of these will make it into your holiday cookie rotation. Along with sharing cookies, we need to address something here. Some of you know what I’m talking about, for those that don’t let me quickly synopsize it by sharing what someone asked me other day, “Are you texting with your toes?” While a portion of it is my sucky iPhone keyboarding skills (described by someone as monkey pawing), I want to say in my defense, I’m certain the other portion is my jerk-off phone as evident by the fact it still can’t seem to spell my son’s name right. “Remove from human and dust with powder sugar.” What the, WHAT, is right. Recipe links:

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