Avocado Chicken Salad

I love chicken salad.  All kinds of chicken salad.  I found this different twist on chicken salad on pinterest the other day and decided to give it a try.  We really enjoyed it.  Well, my husband and I enjoyed it, the kids kind of picked at it.  It's green, so it's a bit suspicious to them.  The blog http://becomingbetty.blogspot.com/2011/09/avocado-chicken-salad.html doesn't give exact measurements so I have attempted to make it a bit more exact.  Although you'll want to keep taste testing it to make sure you like it.  You can serve it on a crossiant, a tortilla, in pita bread, or just with tortilla chips.  It would also be good as an appetizer.  Enjoy!

Avocado Chicken Salad

Prep Time: 10 minutes (if your chicken is already cooked)

Yield: About 4 servings

Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked, shredded and chilled
2 avocados, or more (I think I ended up using 2 & 1/2)
4-5 green onions, chopped fine
Cilantro, chopped, to taste (I used a lot, about 3/4 c.)
1 T. of lime juice, add a little at a time until you like the flavor
2 pinches of salt
Pepper to taste
If you would like it a little creamier you can add a couple of scoops of mayonnaise. 
Directions: Add it all together and keep tweaking it until you love it.

Cream Cheese Dip for Fresh Fruit

Christmas breakfast at my house growing up consisted of warm cinnamon rolls, orange juice, and fresh fruit served with a whipped dip.  This is a tradition that we continue in my house now, although we've added a breakfast casserole of some kind to help tame the sugar rush and to keep my husband full until the late afternoon meal.  This dip makes every fruit taste better and to top it off it's super easy.  Two ingredients and a hand mixer are all you need.  I've included another recipe that I found last year when to my dismay on Christmas morning I realized that I had forgotten to buy Marshmallow Cream.  It's a good substitute for when you're in a pinch.   I hope you love them as much as I do.

Cream Cheese Dip

Ingredients:
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
About ½ a small jar of marshmallow cream, or to taste
Directions: Whip together and serve with fresh fruit.

Cream Cheese Dip Backup

Ingredients:
8 oz. Cream cheese, softened
¼ c. pineapple juice
¼ c. light corn syrup
¼ c. honey
4-5 t. sugar
Directions: Blend all ingredients thoroughly.
 (This recipe was originally found on cooks.com

Festive Appetizer Spread

This is one of my favorite things to bring to a party.  It's a little unexpected, full of flavor and is always gone by the end.  Plus the batch makes a lot so I have enough to take to several parties with very little notice.  I love spontaneous parties.  Fresh cranberries are top on my list of things to have around from Thanksgiving to New Year's.  Throw them in your freezer and they'll last forever, okay not forever, but a very long time.  You can find fresh cranberries in the produce section of your grocery store in bags.  I also don't add the almonds into the mixture, but sprinkle them on top when I serve it.  Otherwise they get mushy in the leftovers.  I hope you love this! (And Kelsi, I hope this is the cranberry recipe you were asking for.)

Festive Appetizer Spread

Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Yield: 3 cups

Ingredients:

1 c. water
1 c. sugar
1 package (12 oz.) fresh or frozen cranberries
½ c. apricot preserves
2 T. lemon juice
1/3 c. slivered almonds, toasted
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese (for each cup of spread)
Assorted Crackers (I recommend Wheatables, Ritz, or Wheat Thins)
Directions: In a saucepan over medium heat, bring water and sugar to a boil without stirring; boil for 5 minutes.  Add cranberries; cook until berries pop and sauce is thickened, about 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat.  Cut apricots in the preserves into small pieces; add to the cranberry mixture.  Stir in lemon juice.  Cool.  Add almonds.  Spoon over cream cheese; serve with crackers.  Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

(This photo came from tasteofhome.com.  This looks much better when I make it so when I make this next I'll replace the photo. It doesn't happen very often that my food looks prettier than the magazines.)

Roasted Garlic and Tomato Spread

The holidays are coming.  I am sorry to have to say it, but it's true.  I love the holidays, I really do, but they sneak up on me so quickly and then before I know it they're gone again and I am left with a sad empty feeling.  Of course that empty feeling is not hunger pain.  No indeed.  We are well fed through the holidays.  I do look forward to the parties and goodies.  My favorite of all – a cheeseball and crackers.  Such simple bliss.  But we can't eat cheeseballs all season long, so I found this recipe earlier this year.  I love appetizers of all kinds and this one is no exception.  I love the smell of roasting garlic.    This is so easy to make, although it takes time to roast the tomatoes and garlic.  It went over really well to the gathering I took it to.  I kept seeing people go back for more.  I barely got a taste of it but what I tasted, I liked.  If you want to cut down on the cost you could make your own chive and onion cream cheese by simply whipping a 8 oz. Package of cream cheese with some dried chives and minced onion.  You'll have to figure out the proportions that are good for you.  I hope you all like it!

Roasted Garlic and Tomato Spread

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Roasting Time: 30-35 minutes
Family Friendliness: I am not sure if any of my kids ate this, there were a lot of other things to eat.  But I can't imagine they would turn their noses up at it.  Let me know if your kids like it.

Ingredients:

2 whole garlic bulbs (not cloves, bulbs)
3 t. olive oil, divided
3 plum tomatoes, quartered
1 carton (8 oz.) spreadable chive and onion cream cheese
¼ t. Italian seasoning
¼ t. salt
Directions:Remove papery outer skin from garlic (do not peel or separate cloves).  Cut tops off of garlic bulbs; brush each with ½ t. oil.  Wrap each bulb in heavy-duty foil.  Place garlic and tomatoes in a foil-lined 9-inch square baking pan.  Brush tomatoes with remaining oil.  Bake at 425° for 30-35 minutes or until garlic is softened.  Cool, for 10-15 minutes; squeeze garlic into a small bowl.  Drain any liquid from tomatoes; chop and add to garlic.  Stir in the cream cheese, Italian seasoning and salt.  Serve with your favorite crackers and/or snack breads. 

 (This recipe is originally from a Taste of Home magazine, photo from www.tasteofhome.com)

Savory Parmesan Bites

You might want to make a double batch of these tasty morsels.  I made them for some friends on New Year's Eve and we gobbled them up.  They are crispy and creamy and like the name says, savory.  I hope you like them.
 

Savory Parmesan Bites

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 13-15 minutes or until golden brown
Yield: 32 bites
Ingredients:
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 c. Parmesan cheese, divided
2 cans (8 oz.) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 red pepper, chopped
¼ c. chopped fresh parsley (or about 2 T. dried)
Directions: Heat oven to 350°.  Beat cream cheese and ¾ c. Parmesan with mixer until well-blended.  Separate dough into 8 rectangles; seal seams.  Spread with cream cheese mixture; top with peppers and parsley.  Fold each rectangle lengthwise into thirds to enclose filling; cut into 4 squares.  Place, seam-sides down, on baking sheet; top with remaining Parmesan.  Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown. 

(This recipe originally came from kraftfoods.com)

Tomato and Cheese Focaccia

I made this a couple of weeks ago for a grown-up only dinner.  It was delicious.  The recipe calls for brie, but I didn’t want to spend a small fortune on brie, so I broke one of my own rules.  I used Monterey jack cheese because that’s what I had on hand, but mozzarella would be great too.  I also used fresh tomatoes instead of canned because well I am usually drowning in tomatoes this time of year.  The dough was so much fun to knead, it was smooth and very soft, but not sticky, a lot like play dough.  Greg and I ate almost the whole pan in one sitting.  I served it as a main dish instead of an appetizer with a Caesar salad, oh and peach crème brulee for dessert (a recipe for next year when peaches are on again).  I might have to make this again real soon because I still have a lot of tomatoes coming on.

Tomato and Cheese Focaccia

Prep Time: 20 min + rising
Bake: 25 min.
Yield: 12 servings if being served as an appetizer, 4 servings if eaten as a main dish

Family Friendliness: This is basically pizza with chunks of tomatoes, instead of sauce and the cheese isn’t shredded but cubed, so I think most kids would like it if they could get pass the chunkiness.  Honestly, we didn’t share this with the kids. J

Ingredients                                                                                (Photo from tasteofhome.com)

2½ to 3 cups all-purpose flour                                        
2 pkg. (1/4 oz. each) quick-rise yeast
1 t. sugar
1 t. salt
1 c. water
¼ c. plus 1 T. olive oil, divided
1 can (14½ oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 t. Italian seasoning
6 oz. Brie cheese, cut into ½ in. cubes (or whatever cheese you want)

Directions: In a large bowl, combine 2 c. flour, yeast, sugar and salt.  In a small saucepan, heat the water and ¼ c. oil to 120˚ to 130˚.  (The water will make the dough pretty warm.)  Add to dry ingredients; beat just until moistened.  Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.  Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.  Place a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.  Punch dough down.  Press into a greased 9 x13 baking pan.  Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.  In a small bowl, combine the tomatoes, garlic, Italian seasoning and remaining oil.  Spread over dough; top with cheese.  Bake at 375˚ for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and cheese is melted.  Place pan on a wire rack to cool.     

(This recipe came from Taste of Home magazine)