It’s Monday, and guess what that means? Another awesome installment of This Week’s Cravings.

Our theme this week is Christmas Appetizers & Party Platters.

I’m proud to be co-hosting This Week’s Cravings along with Tina over at MOMS CRAZY COOKING, Kristen from From My Tiny Kitchen, Angie from Big Bear’s Wife  & Kristi from Veggie Converter.

So have you made any Christmas Appetizers or Party Platters? Want to link up? Yes, you – if you have a recipe that follows our theme, link up down there at the bottom in the linky. It will be awesome. (make sure you read the simple rules first). And make sure it’s for only Christmas Appetizers & Party Platters.

Now, onto my yummy recipe.

I love Asparagus in ways that people love bacon. I know, it’s weird. Btw: I love bacon too. But Asparagus is just so healthy and wonderful and I love it in all sorts of things – my Rigatoni with Bacon & Asparagus is a pretty popular recipe on The Daily Dish and it’s one of my favorite dinners. I also realized I don’t have a lot of Asparagus recipes on my blog and that’s messed up because we make it all the time, so I’m going to start changing that and its all beginning with this little blast from the archive files. I’ve seen a lot of versions of this particular recipe and by far this is still the best one I’ve found.

Ham Asparagus Roll-ups

• 16 fresh asparagus spears, trimmed
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tube of crescent rolls, 8 ct.
• 16 thin slices fully cooked ham
• Olive Oil
• Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a large skillet, cook asparagus in a small amount of water until crisp-tender, about 6-8 minutes; drain well.

While those are cooking, open the tube of crescent rolls and unroll them into triangles and lay them on a baking sheet. Spread a thin layer of Dijon mustard on each crescent triangle.

Cut the asparagus into 3-4″ pieces starting from the asparagus head. Take two thin slices of ham and wrap them around 2 asparagus spears. Place the ham and aspargus roll at the larger end of the crescent roll triangle and roll into shape.

Return the entire crescent roll up to the baking sheets. Now, what we do, is to coat the ends that are sticking out with a little bit of Extra Virgin Olive oil and a shake of sea salt. You can do this or skip this step and then bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

These are SOOOO good! They taste like they have cheese in them and are incredibly addicting but if you want to add swiss cheese, go for it. I got my son who is not an asparagus fan to eat these and he loved them. haha They are just that good.

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Participate in upcoming linky parties: 

• 12/19/2011 Week # 60 Christmas Dinners & Holiday Food Traditions
• 12/26/2011 Week # 61  Macaroni & Cheese  
• 1/2/2012  Week # 62    Let’s Get Healthy… Healthy Meals & Snacks
• 1/9/2012  Week # 63    COMFORT FOOD: Soups & Casseroles
• 1/16/2012  Week # 64    CHEESE LOVER DAY… YUMMY Cheese recipes

This is a BLOG Party hosted by MOMS CRAZY COOKING and co-hosted by the blogs listed in the top paragraph.  

If you are a regular link-up we’re excited to see what you made this week. If you are new please read and follow the simple rules, so that everyone can enjoy the linky party!

If you forget to follow the theme, your post will be deleted. Please don’t feel hurt, just come back and link up a recipe that follows the theme. Thanks a million, we look forward to blogging with you!  The LINKY PARTY is opened ALL Week!

PLEASE do not link more then 3 recipes per week.  This week’s theme is: Christmas Appetizers & Party Platters.
Please only link recipes with our theme!  

This post is linked to: Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Made By You Monday, Makin’ You Crave Mondays, Mouthwatering Mondays

Ham and Asparagus Roll-Ups Recipe originally appeared on The Daily Dish Recipes on December 12, 2011.

I have a secret, well – not so much a secret, but a lifestyle I love and adore that my blog doesn’t always follow. I love clean eating. I worry a lot about snacks and calories and preservatives when it comes time for parties and such. I found this awesome dip early in the year and we made it several times – Super Bowl Sunday, 4th of July, Labor Day and now for New Years. Also, in case you were wondering – I don’t live a 100% Clean Eating lifestyle by any stretch of the imagination, BUT I do try very hard to make everything from scratch so as to avoid most preservatives, etc.

Anyway, about that yummy dip.

You can find this dip here. (one of my favorite mag and website!)

Okay, so I prepared my pinto beans a couple of days in advance. According to the original recipe, you can get away with doing it up to 4 days in advance. You should consider this, because it makes the process so much faster when you’re ready to do the dip.

Mexican Five Layer Dip

• 1 cup dried pinto beans
• 3 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)
• 1 small white onion, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
• 2 to 3 jalapeño peppers, seeded and chopped (about 1/3 cup)
• 3/4 packed cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped, divided
• Juice of 2 limes, divided
• 1/2 tsp sea salt, plus additional to taste, divided
• Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 ripe avocados, pitted and peeled
• 6 oz reduced-fat cheddar cheese, grated (about 1½ cups)
• 1 1/2 cups reduced-fat sour cream

Rinse beans in a colander and pick through, discarding any debris or small stones. Place in a medium saucepan and add enough water to cover beans. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook for 2 minutes. Turn off heat and let beans rest for 1 hour. Drain beans in a colander and rinse. Wash saucepan, return beans to saucepan and add enough water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low to maintain a steady simmer. Cover and cook for 1½ to 2 hours or until beans are very tender. Reserve about 2/3 cup cooking liquid, drain beans and set aside to cool. (Or, cover and refrigerate beans in their cooking liquid for up to 4 days. Reserve 2/3 cup liquid and drain before proceeding with recipe.)

In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, onion, jalapeños and about two-thirds of cilantro. Squeeze juice of 1 lime over tomato mixture and season, to taste, with salt and black pepper. Set aside.

In a food processor or blender, combine avocados, remaining cilantro and remaining juice of 1 lime. Purée until slightly chunky. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste. Set aside.

Place beans and 1/3 cup reserved cooking liquid in a food processor (or use a powerful blender or mash by hand with a potato masher). Process until you have a slightly chunky purée, adding additional cooking liquid, 1 tbsp at a time, as needed to reach desired consistency. Add 1/2 tsp salt and black pepper. Pulse several times to combine.

Putting it all together:

Transfer beans to a 9 x 13-inch casserole dish or large glass bowl and spread into an even layer.

Sprinkle cheese evenly over beans. Dollop scoops of avocado mixture over cheese and use a spatula to spread into a thin layer. Dollop scoops of sour cream over avocado and spread into a thin layer. With a slotted spoon (to drain any liquid), spread tomato mixture evenly over sour cream. Serve immediately or cover and chill for up to 4 hours.

Nutrients Per 1/4-Cup Serving: Calories 86, Total Fat 4.5 g, Sat. Fat 1.5 g, Carbs 8 g, Fiber 2 g, Sugars 1.5 g, Protein 4 g, Sodium 87 mg, Cholesterol 8 mg

For the record, this is so yummy. I did use some garlic to flavor the beans and the avocado mixture though. I felt like it needed a little something and garlic is my favorite spice.

Clean Eating: Mexican Five Layer Dip originally appeared on The Daily Dish Recipes on December 1, 2011.

Today is the day that Group C is supposed to post their recipes in the Secret Recipe Club. I’m usually in Group B. Every once in awhile there is a blogger that has to back out at the last minute and today was apparently that day. Angie who hosts Group C contacted me, and asked me if I wouldn’t mind filling in, I checked out the blog – found something pretty quickly and I was out the door.

I seriously am really lucky, because I literally live in a neighborhood that is right behind a huge grocery store. So any ingredients I need to make something, are less than a 10 minute round trip away. I headed out the door before waiting to see if Angie was going to tell me that someone else was going to do it. Mostly because I knew if I waited, it would be a longer wait. I walked through the store collecting ingredients and silently praying she hadn’t asked someone else to do it. I was relieved when I got back home and found that she hadn’t, and that I was the one.

Here is the awesome recipe – and side note, when you’re in a time crunch – don’t choose something that requires all this prep. LOL

Chocolate Banana Brownies
original recipe from The Mommy Bowl

2/3 cup (78 g) raw sunflower seeds
1/3 cup (50 g) raw pumpkin seeds
2/3 cup (102 g) seedless dates
1/3 cup (30 g) cocoa powder
1 small, very ripe banana (about 88 g)
1 T. flax seed
3 T. hot water
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
I added 1/2 c. mini chocolate chips also

I’d like to take a moment, before I post the instructions to apologize that I didn’t take photos of all the steps. It was a time issue, more than anything. You all know I love posting photos with my recipes, so forgive me this time.

Onto the directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°. Spray oil an 8″ square pan and set aside. I cheated here a little, as I like using shortening to coat the edges of the pan, so that’s what I used.

In the bowl of a food processor, grind the sunflower and pumpkin seeds until you have a fairly fine powder. (This would probably work in a high speed blender, too. I don’t have one, though, so I can’t say for sure.) It did, I tried it.I did however have better luck with my mini grinder, it just took a little longer.

Add the dates and process until the dates are finely ground. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until you have a thick and sticky batter. It’s super sticky, so prepare yourself, it sticks to everything. LOL

Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top as much as you can. (It will be sticky.) Yes, yes it was, but I got it in there.

Bake for 18-24 minutes, until top is firm to the touch and edges are pulling away from pan slightly. (You won’t really see browning, unless you have a really good eye and look closely at the edges.) This is true, I just pulled it out at 18 minutes and checked it, stuck a knife in it, it still seemed a little sticky, so I stuck it back in for 3 more minutes. And it was done then.

Cool completely. Cut and serve. Makes about 9 brownies.

I couldn’t eat a whole one before I posted because they were still extremely hot, but I did taste a bite and it was actually super good. The consistency is different than that of a regular brownie, so that was different, but it was good. I’ll try and update this later this afternoon when the kids arrive home and tell ya what they think. She does mention smearing peanut butter on top, and I have to tell you, that is exactly what I am going to do – since we don’t have nut allergies here and since there isn’t any sugar in there.

Update: Kids were a mixed party on this one. Only one of the five said it was good. Another one liked it with peanut butter, but the other three (the picky three, as I refer to them) did not care for these. So mixed reviews. The hubs wouldn’t try them once he heard they were healthy – is that funny? He didn’t believe me that I didn’t put something “gross in them”.

Check out more of Group C’s Awesome Recipes!

{SRC}: Chocolate Banana Brownies (Nut-Free, Grain-free, Vegan, Sugar-Free) originally appeared on The Daily Dish Recipes on October 24, 2011.

We had a very special potluck we were invited to go to today, in honor of the 4th of July (Happy 4th my friends!) AND in honor of a special relationship being formulated between my children’s fife and drum corps. and an adult fife and drum corps.

For a week, my daughter and I have been wracking our brain’s trying to come up with something other than brownies to take. (oh yes, we’re making those also – brownies are always a huge hit.)

Then I remembered these awesome treats I had a few years ago. I had asked for the recipe after I fell in love with them from first bite, and I have never made them before.

I remember words of advice from my mother, never make anything for a special occasion you have not made before. Well, guess what? I didn’t listen and I’m glad I didn’t. They turned out amazing and were a huge hit!

Not to mention, that can you get any cuter? I mean really – firecrackers for the fourth of July? Yeah okay, so I realize only I think that’s cute… moving on.

Alabama Firecracker Recipe (renamed Missouri Firecracker Recipe)

Ingredients:

1 2/3 c. olive oil (you can use other oils, we just prefer EVOO)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 (1 ounce) envelopes ranch dressing mix
3 Tbs. crushed red pepper flakes (we used a little more, for a little more spice!)
1 (16 oz.) pkg. saltine crackers (we used multigrain but you can use any… also, yes you need all 4 sleeves of crackers)

Grab a huge ziplock bag. at least a gallon or more. We used a 2 gallon bag for our doubled recipe and it was still more than enough. Open the bag and pour in the olive oil, the garlic and onion powder, the black pepper, ranch dressing mix and crushed red pepper flakes. Close the bag and using your hands, knead the ingredients together combining the oil and spices. (this can also be done in a bowl and stirred, however you will have a lot of it stick to the sides when pouring it into the bag).

Now, place the crackers inside the bag. Yes, all of them. Re-seal the bag and turn the bag over and over again coating the crackers with the spice mixture. The more you do this, the better coverage there is. Then, let the bag sit for about an hour and turn it again a few more times. Allow the bag to sit for at least 12 hours, if not more. (overnight is good)

Remove the crackers and serve.

(side note: When we got up this morning, I felt like the crackers were still a bit more oily to the touch than I would prefer, so I spread them out on a pan touching lightly and put them in the oven on the lowest setting (200 degrees) for about 20 minutes to get the oil to absorb a little more. They were fantastic, right Jon?)

Missouri Firecracker Recipe aka. Alabama Firecracker Recipe originally appeared on The Daily Dish Recipes on July 4, 2011.

All of these recipes have been tried by my family and are deemed edible and tastey. Just so there is no mistake, alongside the recipes for deviled eggs will be the normal Daily Recipe which usually goes up at 6am and the normal daily article which usually shows up around noon. These are CST.

Deviled Egg Recipe #4
These are like a Lemon Pepper Deviled Egg. VERY delicious!

6 hard-boiled eggs
2 1/2 Tbs. prepared mayonnaise
juice of a half a lemon
1/8 tsp. lemon zest, minced
1/2 tsp. lemon pepper
lemon pepper for garnish

Slice eggs in half lengthwise. Remove yolks into small bowl. Mash yolks with fork until crumbly. Add mayo, lemon juice, lemon zest and 1/2 tsp. lemon pepper, combine well. Spoon filling into egg halves. Chill and Serve.

Deviled Eggs Recipe #4 originally appeared on The Daily Dish Recipes on September 22, 2010.

Now for something a little different. In English, it means Grilled Shrimp and Bacon Kebabs. But no matter what you call them, they are awesome!! I make them a lot and most of my kids actually eat them!

Brochettes de Crevettes

24 extra large shrimp (follow instructions below)
12 slices of bacon
juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon of honey
4 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or if you are a Rachel Ray fan – EVOO)
4 tablespoons of chopped cilantro, to taste
sea salt, to taste
ground pepper, to taste

Peel and devein shrimp. Leave tails on. Mix the lemon juice, honey, extra virgin olive oil (evoo), cilantro and salt and pepper together in a bowl. Add the shrimp and coat with mixture. Cut the bacon in half crosswise and wrap a piece of bacon around each shrimp and thread on metal skewers. Using either a gas or charcoal barbecue grill, grill the skewers for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Serve immediately.

Brochettes de Crevettes Recipe originally appeared on The Daily Dish Recipes on August 29, 2010.

My children actually eat salad. I know. I was amazed too. But they seem to enjoy it. So based on that, I like to play around with ingredients and try different kinds of salads and ingredients to see what they will eat. This one was a big hit, and we’ve made a few modifications to it over the years which I will share in different recipes over the next couple of weeks. Enjoy – and be prepared for some good eating!

Delicious Cobb Salad Recipe

a few heads of Lettuce (we like to combine different types (watercress, romaine and spinach are our favorites but you can use any type)
2-4 sliced tomatoes
1 lb. crisp, cooked bacon
1 lb. chicken, cooked and cubed
6-12 Hard-boiled eggs
2 Avocado’s, sliced into small pieces
16 oz. Roquefort cheese
3/4 c. chives
Salad dressing – see recipe below

Wash lettuce. Tear into pieces and allow to dry on a towel. Add to large salad bowl. Add all ingredients. You can add more or less of what is called for depending on the size of the salad you make, your taste for the ingredients. Pour the salad dressing over everything.

Here is the recipe for the salad dressing:

1/4 c. water
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. black pepper
3/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
2 Tbs. minced garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup salad oil

In a bowl, combine the water, red wine vinegar, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Next add the sugar, salt, black pepper, dry mustard and garlic. Stir well until sugar has dissolved. Add the olive oil and salad oil and stir well. Pour over salad or put in a bottle to be added during a meal. Shake before using.

This salad is amazing!

Cobb Salad Recipe originally appeared on The Daily Dish Recipes on August 15, 2010.

7 Layer Salad Recipe

1 head Lettuce, torn into smaller pieces
1 c. onion, sliced
1 pkg. peas
6 hard-boiled eggs, diced
2 c. miracle whip (some substitute mayo)
2 tbs. sugar
8 slices crisp bacon
8 oz. pgk of shredded cheddar cheese

Using a trifle bowl or something similar, layer the ingredients as follows: lettuce, onion, peas, and eggs. In a bowl, mix together miracle whip (or mayo) and sugar. Spread the dressing over the salad. Add a layer of bacon (we usually crumble it into smaller pieces, but strips will work). Cover the entire thing with the package of cheese. Use tinfoil to cover the dish. Chill overnight. It’s perfect for bring your own dish, (BYO), potlucks and other group get-togethers.

7 Layer Salad Recipe originally appeared on The Daily Dish Recipes on August 6, 2010.

All of these recipes have been tried by my family and are deemed edible and tastey. Just so there is no mistake, alongside the recipes for deviled eggs will be the normal Daily Recipe which usually goes up at 6am and the normal daily article which usually shows up around noon. These are CST.

Deviled Egg Recipe #3

6 hard-boiled eggs
2 Tbs. vinegar
2 Tbs. prepared mustard
1 Tbs. black or green olives, chopped
2 Tbs. black or green olives, sliced
2 Tbs. of mayo
Salt and pepper, to taste

Slice the eggs into half lengthwise. Remove the yolks into a small bowl and mash them until crumbly. Mix in the vinegar, mustard, mayo, 1 Tbs. chopped olives, salt and pepper. Spoon into egg whites. Put remaining 2 Tbs. of sliced olives on top of eggs. Chill and Serve.

Deviled Eggs Recipe #3 originally appeared on The Daily Dish Recipes on August 2, 2010.

This recipe couldn’t be any easier, and it tastes great with chopped veggies, breads, crackers and chips!

Easy Dill Dip

2 cups of mayonnaise
2 cups sour cream
1 tablespoon of dill weed
salt, to taste
garlic powder, to taste

In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise and sour cream together, until well blended. Add the dill, salt and garlic powder to taste. Blend well. Tastes great chilled.

Easy Dill Dip Recipe originally appeared on The Daily Dish Recipes on July 26, 2010.