Giveaway!

Collectibles, many people collect a lot of different items.  Stamps, cars, old coins, toys, the list goes on! ShopRite has been creating collectible trucks and trains for years. This year’s ShopRite truck is the same truck you see on the roads today. The focus for this years truck was for the ShopRite Partners In Caring Program.  You can’t miss it, with its big yellow color and ShopRite label.

ShopRite has an amazing program called ShopRite’s Partners in Caring, which aids in hunger in our local communities. It works with more than 50 different food industry manufactures to provide more than $2 million annually. since it started in 1999, it has donated $7 million to more than 1,700 charities. It also supports emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, child care centers, battered women’s shelters, senior citizen programs, drug rehab centers, programs for the mentally and physically disables, after-school programs and other organization that might need aid.

So what’s the give away? As a member of the Potluck Blog Panel, ShopRite has graciously give me the chance to offer a Shop Rite truck as a  giveaway to a reader of my blog.  How do you enter? Simple, leave a comment telling me your favorite thing to collect as a child or even as an adult!

Giveaway will start Monday 12/19/11 at 9 am and will end Friday 12/22/11 at 9 am.

Good luck!

Foodbuzz Tastemakers:Marzetti Simply Dressed

Marzetti is known for their amazing products, from salad dressings, slaw dressings, dips, croutons,  and glazes. They have tons and tons of products. Their new line of products is called Marzetti Simply Dressed.  There are ten different flavors, strawberry poppy seed, ginger sesame, champagne salad dressing, greek feta, blue cheese, caesar, coleslaw, pomegranate, ranch and balsamic salad dressing.

The simply dressed line is made with a minimal number of all natural ingredients, such as extra virgin olive oil, canola oil, sea salt and doesn’t contain any preservatives, trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, MSG or artificial flavors or colors. Finding one that you like should be easy with its ten different flavors.

This post is part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Marzetti Simply Dressed.

I tried out the Champagne Salad Dressing. I decided to use it by marinating some chicken tenderloins in it for about for hours. The flavor was great! With the different spices it has in it, it’s full of flavor. I’m super excited to try it on a salad dressing!

Ingredients:

5 to 6 chicken tenderloins

1 bottle of Simply Dressed Champagne Salad Dressing

Directions:

1. Place chicken tenderloins in a gallon sized ziploc bag and pour as much as you want of the dressing over them and marinate for about 4 hours.
2. Heat up a grill pan and cook the tenderloins for about 10 minutes or till completely done.

Enjoy!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

We love to make our own pizza’ for football Sundays at our house! We usually do the typical pepperoni and cheese.  This time we were driving home from visiting my parents and Chris asked what we wanted to do for dinner.  He mentioned pizza. I said let’s do something different with the pizza, at first he was “like what” and I suggested a BBQ Chicken pizza at first I could tell he wasn’t a fan, but then he thought for a split second about and we ended up having a discussion over what BBQ sauce we would use.  See, my husband is super picky about his BBQ sauce, he will only use one Vidalia Onion that comes from this tiny little farm stand in South Jersey. Me, on the other hand, I don’t care for store brand,  I like speciality ones but am much more open to different types. So we decided to do half and half, half of his and half of mine.

To be completely honest with you, this was the best pizza we ever made. It wasn’t greasy at all, the crust was perfect! I would do this again and again and again! Speaking of the crust, you can use any pizza dough recipe that you may already like or buy a pre-made one. Personally we use Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix for our dough/crust. It’s super easy to make and takes about 5 minutes to rise.

Ingredients:

Pizza dough of your choice

4 to 5 chicken tenderloins cooked and BBQ’d, we used our grill pan to get some texture

BBQ sauce of your choice and the amount depends on flavor you are looking for

1 16 ounce block of mozzarella cheese, freshly shredded

Directions:

1. Prepare pizza dough according to directions. Sprinkle some olive oil over the dough. Paint some BBQ sauce over the edges of the dough which will be your crust.
2. Add cheese to dough and then top with BBQ chicken.  Squeeze extra BBQ sauce over top of the pizza, as much flavor as you would like it to have. We found a few swirls was enough.
3. Bake in the oven according to your pizza dough directions and the amount of time it also tells you do cook it for. Let it cool for about 5 minutes after removing from the oven. Slice!

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Thursday-Root Beer Pulled Pork

Sorry I slacked last week and there was no crock pot Thursday post, but sometimes Kiley and I get so busy playing we forget to post or even make a crock pot meal that week! Anyways, we are back into the swing of things and this week  it’s back!

Anyways, every Halloween Chris and I made it at tradition to have pulled pork for dinner. It’s just so easy because of the amount of trick or treaters we get. Especially now that we have our own and one of the way, this was SO easy to put together and eat quickly before it was time to get Kiley dressed and take her trick or treating. We actually didn’t plan on taking her anywhere but a few houses, but she loved it so much that we decided to take her around a bigger section of our neighborhood.

Every year I try to find different flavors to make for pulled pork, this year I decided to do a root beer pulled pork. It was delicious!

Ingredients:

1 5-6 pound pork butt or loin

1 package dry onion and mushroom soup

2 cups of water

1 can of root beer

BBQ sauce of your choice

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients, except BBQ sauce in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
2. After cooking is complete, shred meat in  separate bowl and add about 1 cup or so of BBQ sauce, more if you want more flavor. Serve on rolls!

Enjoy!

Foodbuzz TasteMaker: Simply Potatoes

A lot of people cringe when they hear the words “frozen or  prepared mashed potatoes.” But simply potatoes are fresh, never frozen. There are few different varieties, mashed, cut and side dishes, check out all the different kinds here.  As a member of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers program I was able to try out Simply Potatoes.  I tried the  Tradtional Mashed Potatoes.

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Since Halloween is approaching I decided to have a little fun with the mashed potatoes and make them into Ghostly Meatloaves!  I have a very picky 1-year-old eater, so I thought if I made these little meatloaves fun she might enjoy them and she did! My trick worked!

Ingredients:

1 package of Simply Mashed Potatoes

2 large eggs

1/2 cup of ketchup

2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

3/4 lb ground beef

1/2 lb ground pork

Salt and pepper to taste

1 bag of frozen corn kernels

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray. Combine the eggs, ketchup, Worcestershire, salt  and pepper to taste and stir in the breadcrumbs. Mix to combine. Add meats and mix together until well mixed. Divided the meat mixture among the 12 muffin cups. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or till the internal temperature is 160 degrees.
2. Add the same time follow the directions on the Simply Mashed potatoes, I decided to make mine in the oven, so you transfer them to a an oven safe bowl and bake for about 20 minutes.
3. Add some milk and butter to the potatoes once they are done cooking to make them a bit thinner, then place in a pastry bag. Place a individual meatloaf onto a plate and decorate with mashed potatoes, add 2 corn kernels for the eyes!

Enjoy!   Happy Halloween!

 

This post is part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program with Simply Potatoes.

Pumpkin Cookie Sandwiches

These cookies are yummy! Sugary, sweet and everything else! This reminds me of a cookie you can get at the mall, at the cookie stand.  I never really was into these cookies, until I saw my sister-in-law have one and then I tried one and fell in love. All that yummy icing in the middle, how can you not resist? I mean, they aren’t so hip friendly, but hey’s it’s a special treat! With Halloween approaching I wanted to make a fun Halloween cookie, so I decided to make these Pumpkin Cookie Sandwiches, Kiley loved them! Don’t mind the pumpkin not looking like a pumpkin, my one year old helped me make them!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tub(16 ounces) of refrigerated cookie dough

8 ounces of cream cheese, softened

1 jar(7 ounce) of marshmallow fluff

Orange Icing(very easy to make, orange food coloring and vanilla icing)

Green sprinkles

Directions:

1. Mix together cocoa powder and cookie dough . Mix till it’s well blended. Shape into an 8 inch log and wrap in saran wrap, refrigerate over night or for 4 hours.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut dough into /2 inch pieces, you should have 14 slices of cookie. Places 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet, bake for 8-0 minutes or until down. Remove to cool.
3. Beat cream cheese with electric mixer until smooth, add marshmallow fluff.  Using a tablespoon place icing onto cookie and make a sandwich.
4. Place vanilla icing and orange food color in  bag and mash together till it’s orange, cut a small corner of the bag and draw a pumpkin on the cookie! Sprinkle some green sprinkles on top of the orange to make the stem.  Keep refrigerated because of cream cheese.

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Thursday-Salsa Chicken Bowls

Yesterday was rainy, cold and just not a nice day, so spending extra time cuddling with Kiley on the couch, was nice as this meal was able to simmer all day in the crock pot. If you remember almost 2 years ago, I made this Salsa Chicken, you could easily follow this same recipe, or use the one I just made last night. Both are full of flavor and have just enough kick for me. Chris added some hot sauce we picked up in St. Lucia to his, but I really don’t think the dish needs any more flavor! I’ll apologize for the picture, I had to take with my I-phone because my SD card was missing, but now it’s found, I left in my computer! Duh, pregnancy brain =)

Ingredients:

4-5 Chicken Breast  Tenderloins

1 can of salsa verde

1 cup of salsa

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoons of garlic powder

1/2 cup of water

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 cup of  cooked brown rice

Shredded lettuce

Chopped tomatoes

Sour Cream

Mexican Shredded Cheese

Directions:

1. In a crock pot, add chicken, salsa verde, salsa, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, 1/2 cup of water and salt & pepper. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. After chicken is done cooking, use a fork to shred it, place back in crock pot and keep it on warm.
2. Before serving, chop lettuce and tomatoes.  Place rice on the bottom of the bowl, add chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and sour cream to bowls.

Enjoy!

Adapted from the wonderful Joelen at What’s Cooking Chicago 

Pumpkin Waffles

I told you to be prepared, pumpkin was going to take over this blog! Another great fall recipe. Even Kiley approved! This is the easiest recipe ever.

Ingredients:

Your favorite waffle mix, instead of adding milk to it, only add the pumpkin

1 can of pumpkin

Powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat your waffle maker. Prepare your favorite waffle recipe, minus the milk. Use the pumpkin as the milk. Otherwise the batter is too sloppy. Pour onto waffle maker and wait till it’s done, sprinkle with some powdered sugar!

Enjoy! 

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

Mmmm, pumpkin, one of the best things about fall. This is another great recipe, that’s pretty easy to make.  I threw it together right before starting dinner last night and it turned out awesome.  The husband must have approved because he had a piece last night and a piece for breakfast! It’s that good!

Ingredients:

1 cup of pumpkin

1 cup of sugar, plus 2 tablespoons of sugar, divided

1/2 cup of brown sugar packed firmly

1/4 cup of vegetable oil

4 egg whites

Splash of cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves and salt

1/2 cup of milk

2 cups of flour

2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1 8 ounces package of cream cheese, softened

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bread loaf pan. Combine pumpkin, 1 cup of sugar, brown sugar, 3 egg whites, milk and oil in a bowl till well combined. Then add flour, spices, salt, stir till combined.
2. In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese, remaining sugar and last egg white until combined.
3. Pour half of the pumpkin batter into the loaf pan, then top with cream cheese mixture, then top with remaining pumpkin mixture. Bake for one hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Let bread cool in loaf pan and then remove.
4. Store in the refrigerator because of the cream cheese.

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Thursday-Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Think about a baked potato, with cheddar cheese, and bacon all melted in together and scooping out a big bite of that potato.  Now think of ALL of that together in a soup on a rainy cold day. Amazing! This was a great recipe, I will be making it again.  This recipe was so easy to throw together before heading out for our class at The Little Gym, so it would be easy for anyone who is working or not even working. Not many ingredients either which makes it easier also.

Ingredients:

1 20 ounce bag of frozen, shredded hash browns

3 14.5 ounce cans of chicken broth

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1/2 onion, chopped

A few sprinkles around the crock pot of pepper

8 ounces of cream cheese

3 strips of bacon, cooked

Shredded cheddar cheese, for topping, so as much as you like

Directions:

1. Combine everything in crock pot, except for cream cheese. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
2. About an hour and a half before you are ready to serve, cut cream cheese into small blocks and place in crock pot and cook until melted. You will have to stir this quite often so it melts. I actually turned my crock pot up to high for this process.
3. Serve soup in bowls and garnish with bacon and cheddar cheese.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Erin’s Eats.