Top Five Kitchen Appliances You Need To Check Out!

We're always trying to find ways to make cooking easier, so I've decided to give you all an inside look into what you can do to improve your cooking time. I've complied this list of five great items you should check out and pick up for your own kitchen! Even better, you can find each of these small appliances for less than $100 at your local department store.

Toaster Oven: Toaster ovens seem to be overlooked often in the kitchen, but I use mine every single day.  If you purchase a 6-slice high quality oven, you’ll probably find yourself using yours quite a bit too. For small meals, the conventional oven option is awesome. Many of us heat up our homes using the traditional oven when it’s not necessary! I find my toaster oven bakes meats, breads, and even frozen foods, just as well as a traditional oven if not better. Plus, it’s a lot smaller and easier to maintain.  I have had the most satisfaction with Oster brand ovens.

CrockPot: A slow cooker is a must have if you’re always on the go. You simply place the ingredients in the CrockPot, plug it in, and turn it on. You are free to spend the entire day doing whatever you please and you can come back to a great home-cooked meal. I especially love my CrockPot for preparing soups. It’s so simple and can be so delicious! (http://www.crock-pot.com)

Magic Bullet: The Magic Bullet is a great addition to any kitchen. It’s small and fits easily on your countertop.  It’s also super simple to use.  You put all your ingredients in a cup, then the cup is capped off with the blender blades.  The whole thing is put on the base, you twist it to turn it on, let it run a minute or so, then twist it off. Your drink is already in its own cup!  It’s a great product for making smoothies, sauces, and salsas! (http://www.buythebullet.com)

Slap Chop: We’ve all seen the silly commercials for this product, but it really works! It’s a quick and easy way to chop up veggies. I often use it to chop up nuts for baking. It’s also fairly simple to clean and doesn’t take up a lot of space. (https://www.slapchop.com)

George Foreman Grill: George Foreman indoor grills come in all shapes and sizes and are simple to use. I recently got one and was surprised at how quickly I was able to cook meats. Although I wouldn’t suggest it for every meal, it’s great for most!  (http://www.georgeforemancooking.com)

How To Make a Quick Delicious Healthy Smoothie

Smoothies are delicious, healthy, and easy to make. Save money by making it at home instead of your local smoothie shop. The video above is a great first step to making your own...you can even add more fruits to your smoothie for added flavor and volume.

Apple and Goat Cheese Salad

So my friend Valerie brought this salad to one of our group BBQ's I went to last week. And it knocked my socks off. I just had to share it. Argo:

 Valerie's Apple and Goat Cheese Salad:

SALAD FIXIN'S

spinach leaves

romaine lettuce

1/2 red onion - sliced into rings

1 red bell pepper - sliced into rings

1 fuji apple - thinly sliced (please becareful)

5 oz goat cheese - crumbled over other salad fixin's

THE DELICIOUS DRESSING

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp lemon juice

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tbsp honey

2 tsp sugar

salt to taste

pepper to taste

Halloween Favorites

In the spirit of the upcoming holiday, we've decided to include some great ideas for your Halloween parties this year.

Cupcakes are a party classic, and these are simple decorations that will bring your cakes from spectacular to SPOOKtacular!

Simply adding sprinkles and candy to your cupcakes can give them that spooky feel! Just be creative and you can turn your cupcakes into spiders or an entire cupcake graveyard.

You can turn simple deviled eggs into scary eyeballs with the use of a little green food coloring, as seen below.

To top off our Halloween treat ideas, we've included a free recipe for Witch Finger Cookies. This simple recipe will be the talk of the party.

Quick Tip:

To make your cookies more horrifying, try adding green food coloring to your dough!

Witch Finger Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup whole almonds
• 1 (.75 ounce) tube red decorating gel

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Combine the butter, sugar, egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer; gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt mixture, continually beating; until a dough forms. refrigerate 20 to 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets with butter or cooking spray.
3. Remove dough from refrigerator in small amounts. Scoop 1 heaping teaspoon at a time onto a piece of waxed paper. Use the waxed paper to roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie. Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail. Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance. Arrange the shaped cookies on the baking sheets.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the cookies are slightly golden in color, 20 to 25 minutes.
5. Remove the almond from the end of each cookie; squeeze a small amount of red decorating gel into the cavity; replace the almond to cause the gel to ooze out around the tip of the cookie for a bloody effect.

Have a great Halloween!!!

Dessert!!

This delicious and very elegant dessert is easy to make, plus you can impress your family and friends! You can own this recipe for a one time price of $1.00.  Please click the link below and follow instructions.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280756455441

Simple 30 Minute Dinner

 

This week we want to share an easy recipe that can be done in less than 30 minutes. Many of us don't have a lot of time in our hands with work, kids, and sometimes school, so we are very limited on how much time with can spend preparing a healthy and tasty meal. This is a great recipe for a quick and easy dinner.

Everyone loves goat cheese!

Whenever I have a BBQ, a girl's night in, or a dinner party there is an unspoken duty to bring some sort of a side or an appetizer. There is always a salad, and a dip (with a bottle of wine matched up). The funny thing is, is that on several occasions more than one or more of my friends would show up with a goat cheese and "something-or-other" treat, and they always explain that they just looovvve goat cheese! Here's a dish that never fails and if very easy to make for any sort of occasion.

 Goat Cheese Stuffed Sweet Peppers:

Ingredients

30 mini sweet peppers

18 ounces of goat cheese or herbed goat cheese (if you want more seasoning)

15-30 green cocktail olives

Directions

You can either cut the stem end of the pepper off and stuff the pepper like a pocket, or you can cut it again the long way into a boat. Stuff the pepper with the goat cheese. Cut a cocktail olive in half, and press it into the goat cheese. Leave some peppers with out the olives - some people may not fancy the olive. Place the stuffed peppers on a cooking sheet about a 1/2 inch apart.

Once the oven has been preheated to 350* place the cooking sheet onto the middle rack and cook for 20-25mins.

Picture take from http://cucina.grandinetti.org/

Give this recipe a try and see how you like it! Would love to hear how it turned out for you. For additional goat cheese and "something-or-other" and more healthy treats stay tuned.