Recipe: Mexican Pizza

Found this recipe on Pinterest, duh, courtesy of All Recipes, which is one of my favorite iPhone apps. It's free, download it now. Their dinner spinner is really fun! Anyway, fell in love, because I have a weakness for Taco Bell (I know it's gross, you don't have to tell me) and immediately made it for dinner. Good grief. It's GOOD y'all.

Ingredients

• 1/3 pound ground turkey
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 can (16 ounce) fat-free refried beans
• 4 (10 inch) flour tortillas
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 2 cups Mexican-blend shredded cheese
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
• 1/4 cup finely chopped jalapeno peppers
• 1/4 cup fat free sour cream (optional) ... yeah right.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Coat 2 pie plates with non-stick cooking spray - round cake pans will work if you only have one pie pan!
2, Place ground turkey, onion and garlic in a skillet over medium heat. Cook until beef is evenly browned. Season the meat with chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper.
3. Lay one tortilla in each pie plate, and cover with a layer of refried beans. Spread half of the seasoned ground beef over each one, and then cover with a second tortilla. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. 

4. Remove the plates from the oven, and let cool slightly. Spread half of the salsa over each top tortilla. Cover each pizza with half of the Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses. Place half of the tomatoes, half of the green onions, and half of the jalapeno slices onto each one.

5. Return the pizzas to the oven, and bake for 10 more minutes, until the cheese is melted. Remove from the oven, and let cool slightly.

6. Slice each one into 4 pieces with a pizza cutter. Top with dollop of sour cream.

Recipe: Jalapeno Poppers

Y'all? I have been so. freakin. lazy in November. It's pathetic. Easy dinners, no crafting, no weddings so no gifts to make ... I mean, man oh man. I wouldn't be surprised if you all stopped following me by now.

What's that? There's still a few of you out there? Oh thank gooooooodnesssssssss!

Well, as a gift for your patience, here is a fun new happy-tizer recipe: jalapeno poppers. Yes, from scratch (well, scratch-ish. They're not frozen at least!). Yes, another pinterest find, from a blog called "From the Aisle to Aloha" (an east coast girl transplanted to Hawaii because of her husband's job ... sounds like a rough life, right?). I made them for our McKinney potluck today and, since they were long gone by the time I got through the line, I'd say they were a hit!

Ingredients

• (2) cans crescent rolls
• (1) 8 oz package neufchatel cheese
• (4) fresh jalapenos
• (1) package bacon*

*bacon is optional. but who doesn't love bacon?


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Lay out the crescent rolls  and cut each one in half (should have 32 16 pieces once they're cut)
3. Slice in half, then de-seed the jalapenos. Then cut them into bite size pieces (should be about 5 slices in a half of a pepper, so 40 slices total)
4. Cut bacon into bite size pieces and fry (cut slightly larger than you think you might need, because the bacon will shrink up a lot)
5. Place dollop of cream cheese (neufchatel cheese), jalapeno slice and bacon piece on the larger end of a crescent half (see photo)
6. Roll the rest of the crescent together, gathering the sides to prevent anything from seeping out while cooking
7. Repeat with all 31 of the remaining crescent halves
8. Place the rolled up crescent pockets on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes

Step 5

Hooray! Healthy alternative to a bar-food favorite. And "not too spicy" according to the hus.

Haven't Posted in Awhile

We've had stuff going on every night this week (at least it feels that way) so I have no updates for recipes or crafts for y'all. Sad, I know. However, I plan to remedy that this weekend.

Ben's headed to the NC State / Carolina game tomorrow and the Steelers / Ravens game on Sunday (yes, that's in Pittsburgh) so MY weekend will be filled with cleaning, laundry, shopping, cooking and crafting. Here's hoping, anyway.

I'm really trying to motivate myself to get a few pins done that have been hanging out on my boards for too long. Here are a few of my favorites that are on the to-do list:

What are your weekend plans, bloggies? Any fun craft or recipe suggestions for me?

My first blog award

I check my blog roll religiously a few times throughout the day, and I was thrilled / honored to have been selected as one of Fran's Liebster Blogs.

The Liebster Blog Award is given to an up and coming blogger who has less than 200 followers. 


Liebster is a German word meaning dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.To keep this award going, pass the award along to 5 other new deserving bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

The rules for the Liebster Blog Award are:
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love, too!


So I'll start with a huge THANKS to Fran over at The Jenkins Family. Fran was a friend of mine in college whom I very much looked up to, and really still do - I mean, look at her beautiful family!

And now, without further ado, my top five picks (in no particular order):

Leslie at Diary of a Southern Drama Queen 

While we've never actually met, Leslie is my kindred spirit. She's the friend of a friend, and we tweet, facebook & blog with each other. Such a sweet, southern beauty! Her blog lets her relationship with Christ shine through without being preachy, which I just love. 


Page at It's Marvelous

She & her husband Andrew just welcomed their first born, an adorable baby boy named Jack, so she doesn't really look like that anymore, but you get the drift. Page is inspiring and real. She has a lot of grace in her writing and it reminds me to pray, read scripture, and breathe.

Brett at The Bakery

Another writer I've never actually met, Brett is married to an old childhood friend, Nathaniel. She's a beautiful girl, so smart, and her writing is vulnerable and beautiful. Few blogs move me to comment like her's does. 


Rebekah at There Goes the Neighborhood

Becky & I went to church together growing up and I recently started following her blog. I have to say she may be my favorite writer ever. She's snarky without being cynical, wise without being judgmental, and has a beautiful outlook on the world. I can't get enough.


Caroline at Clumsy Crafty Happy

Sweet little Caroline used to work with us at McKinney (briefly) but moved back to FL to be with her love. She is, in a word, hilarious. But you should follow her - if nothing else - for her amazing crafts. Oh, and pin her boards on pinterest. She has amazing taste.

So there you have it! If you were one of my "lucky" top five ... CONGRATS! Just kidding ... kind-of. And please pass the love along - who doesn't like to be loved on a little bit?


PS - I will try to add the award to my blog, but ... as you may have noticed ... I'm not so good with the HTML / formatting / design stuff. I leave that to my oh-so-talented hus!

Recipe: Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

Each year we have this great potluck at McKinney (the advertising agency where Ben & I work) to support one of our co-workers. His daughter has a prosthetic leg, and is very active with the Challenged Athletes Foundation, an awesome organization that helps people with disabilities participate in athletic events. Coincidentally, Ben's cousin Alex also has a prosthetic leg and is very active with CAF - Alex, "Papa Bud" (Ben's grandfather) and Brenna (Ben's sister) competed a triathlon last year in San Diego before Papa passed away.

ANYWAY, Megan Wade made these amazing peanut butter chocolate bars for said potluck, and I begged her for the recipe but never got around to making them. Until, of course, I saw them on Pinterest. So thanks Glen & Elena, the reason behind the potluck, and thanks Megan, for bringing them to the potluck, and thanks The Girl Who Ate Everything for Megan's inspiration.

Ingredients

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter (do NOT use store brand, trust me on this one)
• 2 eggs
• 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. Combine cake mix, melted butter, peanut butter and eggs in a large bowl with a hand mixer
3. Press the mixture into a 9x13 pan, reserving 1.5 cups to crumble on top later (ATTENTION: that says 1 and 1/2 cup. Not 1/2 cup. Don't make that mistake)
4. In a small pot, melt chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and butter (don't stop stirring until it's totally melted)
5. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in vanilla
6. Spread chocolate mixture over peanut butter mixture in pan
7. Crumble the 1.5 cups of reserve peanut butter mixture on top, evenly
8. Bake for 20 minutes
9. Cool COMPLETELY before cutting into bars
10. Put on a pair of stretchy pants and call it a day

Craft Corner: Aubrey's Wedding Gift

I started to post this last week, then remembered that Other Aubrey follows me and I didn't want to ruin the surprise! I made this invitation ornament based on an idea from - you guessed it - pinterest.

The photo was originally pinned by ...from glitter to gumdrops and there's a lot of sweet ideas on there. And they're simple. Y'all know how I need love simple.

So here you have it:

What You'll Need

• Round, Glass Ornaments that have a removable top (available at Michael's in a 4-pack)
• The Invitation in question (could be wedding, baby shower, anything!)
• Scissors
• Coordinating Ribbon
• Round Straight Pen

What You'll Do

1. Remove the top of the Ornament
2. Cut the invitation into strips; I used each line of the invite as a strip
3. Curl each strip around the pen
4. Gently "shove" them into the small hole in the ornament, taking care for special words (their names, the date, etc) to show on the outside glass; you can use the pen to move them around if necessary
5. Replace the top
6. Tie a coordinating ribbon through the top of the ornament to hang it and include coordinating charms on ribbon (optional)

Ta Da!

Recipe: Skinny Taco Dip

Yup - Another Pinterest find. After YET ANOTHER weekend of traveling, I was needing some fresh veggies. This dip is a delicious combination of yummy, colorful, healthy vegetables and quasi comfort food. And it's not TOO bad for you ... unless, of course, you eat half the dish like I did. Thanks to SkinnyTaste.com for the inspiration on this one!

Also, I halved the recipe, but if you're serving more than 5-6 people, don't!

Ingredients

• 8 oz fat free sour cream
• 8 oz 1/3 fat cream cheese (Neufchatel cheese)
• 16 oz mild salsa
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 2 cups iceberg lettuce, shredded
• 2 large tomatoes, diced
• 2 avocados, peeled & diced
• 1 cup skim cheddar cheese
• 2.5 oz sliced black olives

Directions

1. Mix sour cream, cream cheese, salsa & seasoning in a medium bowl with hand mixer
2. Spread on the bottom of a large glass dish - 8x12 or 9x13 should do the trick
3. Layer lettuce, then tomatoes, then avocados, then cheese, then olives
4. Serve with baked tortilla chips

Step 3

Step 1 - 2