everyday food made simple

I am no longer allowed to go shopping at Target by myself. This latest time when I shopped there myself, these came out of my kitchen:

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I have proven that I have no self control when it comes to that store. It also doesn’t help that there’s a Super Target literally right across the street from our house, which also happens to be on the way home from school.

When Brian and I go, he’s always my voice of reason. “You don’t need that”, “don’t you already have something like that?”, “when would you ever use that?”. He probably saves us a good chunk of money every month by going to Target with me.

When I go by myself, it’s a totally different story. Yes, I make a list of things I need.. and I do try my hardest to stick to only things on that list. But somehow 30 minutes later, I always come out of there spending at least $30 more than what I would’ve spent if I stuck to my list. It’s just so easy to grab a basket, stroll through the aisles, look through the clearance racks, and find things that you absolutely “need” or are too good of a deal to pass up.

Please tell me I’m not the only one that has this problem. Next time I really shouldn’t even grab a basket. Once my hands are full, it’s time to head to the checkout lanes… oh but that’s easier said than done.

Anyway… the other day when I went to Target, I saw these out of the corner of my eye and just had to get them.

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Dang you Target, for putting Fall/Halloween candy in the 50% off clearance aisle!

I had the perfect idea – pumpkin spice puppy chow. I know what you’re thinking – it’s already November and pumpkin spice needs to make way for peppermint desserts. It’s true, but I can’t let these Kisses sit on the shelves all by themselves, can I? Someone needs to rescue them…….

I still had some leftover pumpkin pie spice from last month, so it just sounded like a no-brainer. Cinnamon Chex cereal coated with white chocolate pumpkin Hershey Kisses, dusted with powdered sugar with hints of pumpkin spice. Mmm mmm mmm.

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Initially I dreaded unwrapping two bags of Hershey Kisses by hand. I thought I would find it tedious and time-consuming. Once I got a system down though, the process went by faster than I imagined. And somehow the melting process also seemed to go a lot smoother than my other puppy chow recipes..

pumpkin spice puppy chow
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Ingredients
  1. 9 cups Cinnamon Chex cereal
  2. 1.5 10oz bags of Hershey's pumpkin spice Kissees, unwrapped
  3. 2 cups powdered sugar
  4. 2 heaping teaspoons pumpkin spice
Instructions
  1. Place Chex cereal in a large bowl, set aside. Then in a medium bowl, add the powdered sugar and pumpkin spice. Stir to combine and set aside.
  2. Using a double boiler, melt the pumpkin Kisses. Pour the melted chocolate over the Chex mix, stir until all the Chex is covered with chocolate. Then gradually sprinkle the powdered sugar mixture onto the cereal. Stir until everything is covered evenly with powdered sugar.
  3. Makes ~9 cups
Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/
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Although the pumpkin spice Kisses taste a little artificial if you eat them by themselves, these puppy chow don’t taste artificial at all! This is probably because most of my puppy chow recipes already utilize vanilla almond bark or white chocolate, so the white chocolate center of these Kisses were a perfect fit for this recipe! The cinnamon-y, pumpkin-spiced powdered sugar coating is the perfect combination with the subtle hints of pumpkin spice flavoring in these chocolates… It was a hit with all my pumpkin-loving friends!

Now that pumpkin season is unofficially over, it’s now time to move on to one of my top favorite flavor combos – chocolate + mint.

Here are a few more recipes came out of my kitchen this pumpkin season:

Pumpkin n’ spice cream cheese truffles

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Ooey gooey pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

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Glazed pumpkin coffee cake

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Pumpkin peanut butter dog biscuits

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© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.

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Ooooh man. Life has been so busy lately. I need more hours in my day. Along with my new internship, classes, blogging, making food so I can blog about it, and trying to spend time with my family as much as I can, I don’t seem to have a life outside of all that anymore (not saying that I did have a life before anyway…). The Amazing Race and Survivor just started a few weeks ago, and I’m already behind on all my TV shows. I have about 30 episodes of Chopped, 13 episodes of The Incredible Dr. Pol, about 20+ episodes of Criminal Minds (that dates way back to last December), 15 some episodes of Cupcake Wars, along with a bunch of miscellaneous shows that are taking up space on our DVR…. good thing we’ve got two DVRs that can be used at the same time, otherwise we’ll for sure run out of space quickly!

…talk about First World Problems.

On a positive note – I’m truly enjoying this quarter. It’s exhausting and busy, but I feel like I’m learning a ton during my internship, and I absolutely love that everyday is different. Everyday is a surprise and I’m constantly challenging myself to do better.

Okay. Back to food. When I first set out to make this appetizer, I had every intention to bake it in the oven so it’s healthier than the deep-fried mozzarella sticks we usually get at restaurants. Well, that plan failed miserably… somehow the wonton wrappers didn’t brown nor did it crisp up in the oven, and cheese oozed out from all kinds of directions from the holes I managed to create during the wrapping process.

[sigh] It was a sad, sad sight. And needless to say, I was quite disappointed. I would’ve taken a picture of the horrible sad mess that laid there on my baking sheet, but it was just so bad that taking pictures of it seemed like a waste of energy..

Good thing I had a Plan B in mind. If baking didn’t work out, I could at least quickly fry it in a pan. That can’t be as bad as deep frying it, right?

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This appetizer can be made within 15-20 minutes, so it’s perfect if you’re craving a quick little snack in the afternoon, or if you need something to munch on during a football game! You can make as many or as little as you need, and they turn out to be cute mini-sized mozzarella sticks, which makes them that much more fun to eat!

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You know, just a mozzarella stick chillin’ in the marinara hot tub… no big deal.

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Wait, you know what’s even better? Nowadays they make string cheese in different flavors, so you can customize your mozzarella sticks based on what kind of string cheese you buy! No more boring plain ol’ string cheese! In our house, we’re a big fan of anything that has a hint of jalapeno or black pepper, so we used string cheese with cracked black pepper to give it a subtle kick of flavor. They turned out to be amazing!

wonton wrapper wrapped mozzarella sticks
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Ingredients
  1. 3 sticks of string cheese of your flavor, cut in half
  2. 6 wonton wrappers
  3. 1 large egg, beaten
  4. 1/2 teaspoon water
  5. 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  6. Marinara sauce for dipping, if desired
Instructions
  1. In a small bowl, combine the egg and the water. Brush a wonton wrapper with the egg wash, then wrap the string cheese with the wrapper, making sure the the wrapper covers the string cheese entirely and there are no holes for the cheese to leak out of during the cooking process. Also make sure the edges of the wrapper are sealed nice and tight with the egg wash. Repeat process for all the string cheese sticks.
  2. In a medium pan, heat the oil over medium high heat. Place your uncooked mozzarella sticks in the pan, making sure they're not crowded. Using a pair of tongs, cook cheese sticks on each side for about a minute, or until the wrapper has turned golden brown and crispy.
  3. Transfer mozzarella sticks on a paper-towel lined plate to soak up all the excess oil. Serve immediately with marinara sauce while hot.
  4. Makes 6 mini mozzarella sticks.
Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/
Creamy, cheesy mozzarella cheese wrapped in a light, crispy wonton wrapper… who knew a healthier version of mozzarella sticks can be so delicious (and addicting)?!

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Here’s a couple things to keep in mind while you make these golden crispy appetizers:

  • The egg wash serves as a glue to hold your wonton wrapper together. Don’t be shy when brushing it onto the wrappers – if you don’t put enough on, nothing’s going to stick and your mozzarella stick is going to fall apart.
  • Try to make sure that your cheese stick is wrapped nice and tight with the wrapper with no gaping holes. Gaping holes is how the cheese can leak out of the wrapper during the cooking process, leaving you with just an empty wonton wrapper shell…. not good.
  • These babies cook fast when you have a nice hot pan. I think mine took about 45-60 seconds for the first side to brown up. I then turned them three other times to make sure all four “sides” are nice and crispy. The whole cooking process took maybe less than 3 minutes.

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.

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I’ve been a little obsessed with puppy chow lately. I just made these, and I already have about a dozen different other variety of flavor combinations I want to make already!

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Brian really isn’t a big fan of puppy chow, so every time I make these, my friends and coworkers are in luck – as much as I’d love to eat 8 cups worth of Chex cereal covered in sugary goodness, I find myself packing them into little snack bags to bring to work and school to share (sharing is caring, right?). My friends really aren’t as lucky when I make cookies or cupcakes, as those tend to slowly mysteriously disappear when I’m out of the house [ahem] :)

Although I’m not ready to let summer go and am in some sort of a denial state of mind that autumn is upon us, I can’t help but be excited about the different fall recipes I have planned for the next few months – apple pie spice puppy chow sounded like the perfect way to welcome the arrival of fall.

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apple pie spice puppy chow
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Ingredients
  1. 8 cups apple & cinnamon Chex cereal
  2. 16 oz vanilla coating/almond bark
  3. 2 teaspoons apple pie spice mix (see below)
  4. 2 cups powdered sugar
For the apple pie spice mix
  1. 4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  2. 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
  3. 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
  4. 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
  5. A pinch of ground ginger
Instructions
  1. Pour cereal into a large bowl.
  2. Using a double boiler, melt the vanilla coating/almond bark.
  3. Pour the melted vanilla coating onto the cereal, stir. Add in the apple pie spice mixture, stir until thoroughly combined.
  4. Add the powdered sugar into the cereal mixture, about 1 cup at a time, until the cereal is evenly coated with powdered sugar.
  5. Spread onto waxed baking sheets for coating to set. Store in airtight container for 1 week.
  6. Makes about 8 cups.
Notes
  1. Measurements for the ingredients for the apple pie spice does not have to be exact. Amount can be varied if you prefer a little bit more (or less) of one particular spice.
  2. Spice mixture recipe adapted from My Baking Addiction.
Adapted from A Pumpkin & A Princess
Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/
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As if the apple pie spice mixture wasn’t delicious enough, the apple and cinnamon Chex cereal really kicks the flavor up a notch. If regular Chex cereal is all you have on hand, I’m sure it’ll taste just fine, too. Like I mentioned in the recipe card, the measurements of the spice mixture doesn’t have to be exact – everything can be made “according to taste” when it comes to these babies! I personally love cinnamon and nutmeg, so I added a bit more in mine. I wasn’t sure quite sure about the ginger flavor, so a dash of ground ginger was all I put in it. So feel free to play around with the spices – this is one of those recipes that doesn’t require exact measurements!

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I brought a few little baggies of these to school to share, and they sure got rave reviews from everyone! I think the smell of apple pie brings back warm happy memories for everyone – family gatherings, warm cozy blankets, falling leaves…

I would be one happy camper only if there could be two seasons in a year: summer and fall.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from A Pumpkin & A Princess

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.

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Today I’ve got another football game-day-friendly appetizer for you guys (because who likes to eat the same game day foods week after week?!).

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One of Brian’s favorite game day foods is nachos with cheese. Whether he’s at the game or watching the game at home, he always has to have tortilla chips with some sort of artifically-flavored-factory-processed liquid cheese to go with it. I, on the other hand, am not a big fan of this liquid cheese thing. There’s just something wrong about eating cheese that can sit in a glass jar for years and still remain liquid-y.

Ugh. Yuck.

So this week, we’ve gone fancy in the dip department. Rather than cheap, processed liquid cheese, I made a hot chipotle corn dip. It’s got corn, green chiles, two kinds of cheeses, mayo, garlic powder, and chipotle peppers for a kick. It’s creamy and spicy, and because it’s homemade and served fresh out of the oven, it elevates the traditional game day nachos up a notch. If you’re big on spicy foods, you can add a bit more of the chipotle peppers. This recipe can also easily be turned into a kid-friendly appetizer by eliminating the hot peppers altogether.

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chipotle hot corn chip
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Ingredients
  1. 2 cups shredded chedder cheese
  2. 1 cup shredded Montery Jack cheese
  3. 2 tablespoons chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, diced (or to desired spiciness)
  4. One 4 oz can diced green chiles, undrained
  5. 1/2 cup light mayonnaise
  6. 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  7. One 15 oz can of corn, drained
  8. Additional toppings as desired (diced tomatoes, diced onions, cilantro, green onions...)
  9. Tortilla chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the two cheeses, chipotle peppers, green chiles, mayonnaise, garlic powder, and corn. Stir until combined. Pour into two 18-oz oven safe baking dishes or one big dish.
  3. Bake for 20 minutes or until brown and bubbly.
  4. Top with additional toppings, if desired. Serve hot with tortilla chips.
Adapted from Gina Marie's Kitchen
Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/
After it gets brown and bubbly from the oven, you can top it with all sorts of toppings. I chose to keep it simple and only added diced tomatoes and green onions to mine. I’m sure some diced onions, cilantro, and more cheese would be pretty dang good, too.

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It’s perfect for when you have a crowd over for game day – I divided ours up into two-18oz portions, one for me and one for Brian. If you have a couple friends over, you can even divide the recipe up into several ramekins or mini serving dishes so each guest can have their own!

Enjoy!

Recipe from Gina Marie’s Kitchen

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.

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Well, fall is just around the corner… and you know what fall means?

No, not apples and cinnamon. Not pumpkin pie. Not hot apple cider, Halloween, or falling leaves.

In our household, fall = football. And football = Minnesota Vikings. Brian is a die-hard Vikings fan (Skol Vikings!), so during football season, weekend plans around our house usually revolves around when the Vikings play.

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And we all know the best part of watching football is the game food that goes with it. Half the time when I’m watching the game, I’m more interested in what I’m eating or what I’m eating next. That’s why this football season, I’m going to try to make an effort to make some simple finger foods/game day foods on Sundays, so be sure to check back every so often this football season! That way you’ll have ideas on what to make next time when it’s your turn to host football Sunday – I’m sure your guests will be impressed!

Even though it’s only preseason doesn’t mean you can’t have yummy game day foods! Let’s start the season out right with some super easy mini taco cups – they’re small, bite-sized, transportable, delicious, and toppings are optional (but highly recommended).

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And who doesn’t like tacos anyway? These are your everyday tacos shrunk into a small miniature size. They might be tiny, but they sure don’t lack in flavor!

You use wonton wrappers, place them into mini muffin tin wells and shape them into a cup. Spoon taco meat mixture into cup and top with shredded cheese.

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Bake for 8 minutes, and wa-la! Happiness in a bite.

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If you want, you can even have a variety of topping choices on the sides for people to dress up their taco cups – tomatoes, green onions, diced onions, sour cream….

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mini taco cups
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Ingredients
  1. One 12-oz package of wonton wrappers
  2. 1 pound ground turkey
  3. 1 package 40% less sodium taco seasoning
  4. 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese (you probably won't use all of it)
  5. A variety of toppings (tomatoes, onions, green onions, sour cream, etc), if desired
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Brown the ground turkey in a large skillet. Drain the fat, and then season the meat with the taco seasoning according to package directions.
  3. Using a mini muffin tin, line the wells with wonton wrappers, so the wrappers are shaped into little cups inside the wells. Spoon the taco meat into each cup, about 1/2-2/3 full. Sprinkle the tops with cheese.
  4. Bake for 8 minutes, or until wrappers are slightly turning brown.
  5. Serve with additional toppings, if desired.
  6. Makes about 30 cups
Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/
Because these are so tiny, you really don’t realize how many you’ve had until you go back to the pan and realize that there’s only 4 mini cups left (this is totally from personal experience!). But hey, it’s made with ground turkey and reduced-sodium taco seasoning, so that totally cancels out eating more of it, right?

Enjoy!

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.

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