Baked Stuffed Avocados

I've seen a few variations of these avocados floating around, but when I set out to make them yesterday afternoon, I totally winged it.  I thought they turned out really well and were a perfect compliment to Taco Soup (recipe coming soon!).  There was little to no measuring as I tossed this together, but I'll give some ballpark measurements below.

First, I sliced two avocados and removed the pits.  I made little boats out of a large muffin tin and aluminum foil for the avocados to sit in.  I was afraid of the avocados tipping/rollling over as they were coming in and out of the oven -- it worked pretty well.  I chopped up a couple handfuls of grape tomatoes and tossed them in a bowl with a few drizzles of olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, and dried basil.  Once those were nicely coated, I dropped in a couple handfuls of Panko bread crumbs, as well as about a handful and half of Parmesan cheese.  I mixed these well, to be sure the bread crumbs and cheese were coated also.  I baked these for 5 minutes at 450 degrees and then turned the broiler on for about 2 more minutes.  Watch these closely, as I'm pretty sure they could go from golden to toasted in seconds.

Sunday Supper -- Mini Monte Cristos and Farmhouse Salad

This past Christmas, I tried a new recipe for Mini Monte Cristos and well... they were a hit.  I adapted my recipe from the PET Evaporated Milk website, so I'll detail my adaption below.  Traditionally, Monte Cristos are made with Swiss cheese, but I substitute with Provolone.  They are also commonly sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with raspberry jam.  While they are insanely good this way, my family would prefer them with a Honey Mustard Dip (I've given this recipe before with my Pretzel Bites, but I'll reprint it below).  Tonight, I made up a batch of these little guys and paired them with what I have named a Farmhouse Salad with homemade Ranch Dressing.  Sit tight.  This is going to be a long post with a lot of goodness.  :)


Mini Monte Cristos

Ingredients:
8 slices soft white bread
8 very thin slices, fully cooked ham
8 very thin slices, fully cooked turkey
8 very thin slices, Provolone cheese
2 large eggs
1 (12 ounce) can PET Evaporated Milk
1 cup Hungry Jack Complete Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix (Just Add Water)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
oil for deep frying

Directions:
Trim the crusts off each slice of bread (this is totally optional -- I've done it both with and without crust and either way works just as well) and then flatten the slices with a rolling pin.  Layer each slice of bread with one slice of ham, one slice of turkey, and one slice of cheese.  Roll each "half sandwich" into a tight log and wrap tightly with plastic wrap.  Chill the sandwich logs for at least 30 minutes to an hour.

Heat 1.5 inches oil in a deep skillet.  Whisk egg, evaporated milk, Hungry Jack mix, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl until smooth.  Unwrap each sandwich log and insert 4 toothpicks in even increments.  Slice the logs into 4 equal pieces with a sharp knife.

Working with a few pieces at a time, soak each piece in the batter for about 15 seconds.  Fry in hot oil for 1 to 1.5 minutes or until golden brown; turn frequently.  Drain on papertowls.

Serve immediately or keep warm in a 200 degree oven.  Suggestions:  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with Raspberry Jam.  Or serve with Honey Mustard (recipe below).

Honey Mustard

Ingredients:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:
Whisk together ingredients until smooth.  Store covered in the refrigerator.


Farmhouse Salad

I call this a Farmhouse Salad because it's a bit of everything fresh that you have laying around, plus some other goodness added in for good measure.  Tonight's addition of Farmhouse Salad included:

Romaine lettuce
spinach
kale
avocado
hard bolied eggs
red bell peppers
red onion
grape tomatoes
cucumber
chick peas
sunflower seeds
croutons
topped with homemade Ranch Dressing (recipe below)


Ranch Dressing
yields one quart

Ingredients:
1 cup buttermilk
1 ounce ranch seasoning mix
2 cups mayonaisse
8 ounces sour cream

Directions:
Whisk together until smooth.  Store covered in refrigerator.

M&M Granola Trail Mix

Around this time of year, several Fall and Holiday type of recipes emerge from our recipe boxes.  They hang around for the rest of the year, and on into January of the new year.  Often, the two recipes I'm highlighting today, end up in small portions for gift baskets or in a Christmas tin for small gifts for friends.  They are perfect for fending off the vultures hovering in the kitchen disturbing the work snacking on while Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner is being prepared.  ;)  They are also great Super Bowl snacks to have out during the big game!

A couple years ago, about this time, I introduced to you my family's twist on Chex Mix (photo on right).  Today we are going to look at an M&M Granola Trail Mix (photo on the left).  A sweet friend gave me a tin of this trail mix a couple years ago at Christmas and it quickly became a favorite.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons honey

3 cups granola*

2 cups M&Ms*

1 cup nuts (of your choice; mixed or peanuts or almonds, etc)

1 cup pretzel twists

Directions:

Melt honey and butter over low heat, gently stirring, until blended.  Remove from heat, and add granola, nuts, and pretzels.  Stir until coated with honey and butter mixture.  Spread on cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes.  Spread on wax paper and allow to cool.  Mix in M&Ms.  

*Notes:

The original mix I received as a gift is exactly as the above recipe.  However, when I make it, in place of traditional granola, I often use Kashi Honey Almond Flax Cereal.  Also, I find that 2 cups of M&Ms are just a little too much; I often cut back to only 1 cup.  Lastly, I increase the butter/honey mixture by a little bit -- it coats the dry ingredients much better, and I don't feel so badly about it as long as I'm using raw local honey and real butter.  I could definitely see adding sesame seeds as well as dried cranberries.  I personally do not care for raisins  though I know many would prefer them over the cranberries.  Any of these additions should be added with the granola, nuts, and pretzels.  

Homemade Salsa

I love this salsa recipe.  It's so simple to throw together and the flavor is very full and... well, you can't stop eating this salsa!  It makes up quite a bit, which is a very good thing.  I've recently started using Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes, but I've also used just regular Diced Tomatoes.  I've considered using some of the tomatoes that have other flavors already thrown in, but since I use fresh green onions, cilantro, lime, and garlic, I usually end up getting plain tomatoes.  I'd love to try fresh tomatoes, but just haven't yet.  The bonus to that is it's usually easy to have the ingredients on hand.  Which is nice when you live 20 minutes from town!

Ingredients:
2 cans Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
1 can Rotel
1 small can tomato paste
1/2 to 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
2-3 green onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Serrano pepper, seeded and diced
sea salt, to taste
juice of one lime


Directions:
In a blender, blend tomatoes, Rotel, tomato paste, garlic cloves, Serrano pepper, sea salt, and lime juice.

Transfer to a large bowl and mix in (by hand) cilantro and green onions.

Store in clean mason jars or a glass refrigerator dish.

Pretzel Bites with Honey Mustard Sauce

Why, yes, this is another Pinterest find.  I can't help it.  But this doesn't even begin to cover the multitude of recipes and ideas I've been pinning.  It's a sickness, I tell you.

Anyway, these pretzel bites are just as good as they are in the mall stores!  They don't keep well, though, so you may as well eat them all at once.  Just throwing that out there.  You're welcome.

As for the Honey Mustard Sauce -- It's incredibly simple to throw together and is (rather surprisingly) really good!  Much better than the jarred stuff on the market, I think.

The pretzel bites come from the blog Two Peas and Their Pod.  They share an amazing sounding/looking and easy cheese dip here as well.  I'll definitely be trying that some day, but on this particular day I used a Honey Mustard recipe I found online somewhere.  This would also be great with chicken strips or as a dressing on a salad.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoon prepared mustard
2 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice


Directions:
In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, honey, and lemon juice.  Store covered in the refrigerator.

Avocado Chicken Salad

Another Pinterest find of mine was this Avocado Chicken Salad.  Tonight, inspired by that recipe, I made up a slightly different version for my lunch tomorrow at work.  Apparently, and very unfortunately for me, small town, Midwest IGAs do not have cilantro.  I was not about to go to a second grocery store after work the other night, so that was my first variation away from the original.  Secondly, I added a hard boiled egg.  It turned out really well and I'm looking forward to my lunch tomorrow.  I'm also looking forward to adding cilantro next time!  I love that only a tiny bit of mayo is needed.  Before adding the mayo, the chicken salad was a bit dry; but because the avocado is so creamy, it really only needs a bit of mayo.  I actually used a smidge too much tonight and will cut back a bit next time.  The original recipe calls for about 2 cups of chicken for 1 avocado, but I only had about 1/2 to 3/4 cup chicken and I still used 1 whole avocado.  But I love avocado.

Ingredients:
1 avocado
1 green onion, finely sliced
(cilantro, chopped)
1/2 cup shredded chicken
1 hard boiled egg
1/2 tablespoon to 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
juice of 1/2 of 1 lime
salt to taste


Directions:
Slice and peel the avocado; coarsely mash.  Mix in chopped egg and salt to taste.  Add shredded chicken and green onion (this would be the point I'd add my cilantro); mix well.  Add mayonnaise until you reach a desirable consistency.  Squeeze lime juice over salad and mix.  Serve with crackers or on a bed of lettuce.

Hot Cocoa Bar

This was another fun Pinterest find, this year.  I love the idea of a Hot Cocoa Bar!  So fun and of course really yummy, too.  Of course, you can customize this any way you want as far as ingredients are concerned.  I've also seen some really cute printables to label all of your ingredients for your guests and create a fun and interesting table, as well as invitations to invite friends if you're doing this as a theme for an entire party.  Check out Etsy for these full sets and search the internet for some of the free versions that are a little more limited in what printables are included.

My cocoa recipe was simply the cocoa found on the side of the Hershey's Baking Cocoa can.  Trust me, you'll never go back to powdered mix from a box again after you use this recipe.  It's really easy to make just one cup or an entire batch.  I used a Crock Pot to keep my cocoa warm throughout the afternoon, which worked really, really well.

To compliment my cocoa, I set out large marshmallows, Pepperidge Farms Piroutte cookies, butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, Heath Bar bits, and semi-sweet chocolate chips.