Green Olive Cheese Ball

Green Olive Cheese Ball

My son-in-law loves chopped green olives mixed with cream cheese and then spread on crackers. His grandmother used to make that when he was little so I think it conjures up many good memories for him. He wanted me to make Rotel dip for our tailgating venture in Ohio but we didn’t have an electrical outlet at the site so I made this cheese ball for him instead. It was a hit and very easy to make. It is adapted from a recipe I found at cooks.com and makes a BIG cheese ball so make sure you’ve got lots of friends and family around to help you eat it!!

Ingredients
2 – 8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese
4 C. (1 lb.) of shredded cheddar cheese
.6 oz. Italian salad dressing mix (I used Good Seasons)
1 – 5 oz. jar of pimento stuffed green olives, drained
1 C. chopped pecans

1. Place cheese in a large bowl and allow the cheeses to come to room temperature for easier mixing.
2. Chop the drained olives.

Chopped Green Olives

3. Add the chopped olives and salad dressing mix to the cheeses and mix well with a hand mixer.

Mixing up the cheese ball

4. Chop the pecans.
5. Spread the pecans on a piece of waxed paper and roll the cheese ball in them to evenly coat the outside.
6. Serve with an assortment of crackers.

Zesty Ranch Pretzels

Gift Bags of Zesty Ranch Pretzels

This is one of those snacks that is addicting. Once you eat one you have trouble stopping and they’re incredibly easy to make! I have my sister-in-law Meg to thank for this recipe. She brought these to one of our Thanksgiving or Christmas gatherings and everyone loved them. They are great for any kind of party and are a welcome little Christmas gift for co-workers when bagged up in those little cellophane Christmas bags. I made up six pounds of pretzels which yielded about 30 gift bags.

Ingredients
16 oz. bag of miniature pretzels
1 C. oil
1 pkg. of dry Ranch dressing mix
1 t. cayenne pepper
1 t. garlic powder

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Mix the seasonings with the oil. Pour the oil mixture over the pretzels that have been placed in a large bowl and mix well. Let sit for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so. Spread on a large cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes.

Zesty Ranch Pretzels

Easy Caramel Apple Dip

Caramel Apple Dip

Caramel and apples . . . the perfect combination! Add a layer of cream cheese and crushed Heath toffee bars and apple slices and ginger snaps for dipping and you have heaven!!! We have my sister-in-law, Connie, to thank for this fabulously easy recipe. I made this for the Ohio State – Iowa tailgate and it was a hit with the 50 or so people with whom we shared plenty of food and fun. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 carton pre-made caramel dip (found in the produce section)
1 – 8 oz. package of cream cheese
1 bag Heath Bar topping or crushed Heath Bars
sliced apples
ginger snaps

Spread the cream cheese on the bottom of a pie plate. Spread the caramel dip on top of the cream cheese and top with the Heath Bar topping. Serve with sliced apples and ginger snaps.

Grandma’s Snack Mix

Snack Mix

I got the idea for this snack mix from the Hungry Girl 200 for 200 Cookbook. We were going to Iowa to take care of our three grandsons while our daughter and her husband went out of town for the weekend so I thought I’d make a snack mix for the kids. My oldest grandson has all his teeth but his 16 month old twin brothers don’t so the snack mix couldn’t have things that are too hard in it. The Hungry Girl recipe calls for broken up peanut butter granola bars which the twins would choke on so that wouldn’t work. I came up with using Reese’s Puffs to get chocolate and peanut butter flavors along with freeze dried strawberry slices and banana puffs for this mix. It’s pretty tasty so if adults want to dig in it’s 102 calories per crunchy cup!

Ingredients
1 – 1.48 oz. cannister of Hy-Vee Banana Little Puffs or Gerber Finger Foods Banana Fruit Puffs
1 – 1 oz. pkg. of freeze-dried sliced strawberries, broken into small pieces
3 C. Reese’s Puffs cereal

Toss all ingredients together in a bowl. Makes 7 cups.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Roasted pumpkin seeds have been a tradition in our family for a long, long time. Even though my kids are grown and gone, I still buy a pumpkin a Halloween just so I can make these. It’s really simple.

Directions
Just scoop the seeds from the pumpkin and separate them from any bits of the flesh. Rinse the seeds and then boil them in water for 10 minutes. Drain well. For each cup of seeds, mix together 1 tablespoon of melted butter and 1 tablespoon of worcestershire sauce and pour over the seeds. Mix to coat the seeds. Spread in a large jelly roll pan and sprinkle generously with seasoning salt. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until dry. Stir them every 10 minutes during the bake time.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds & Appetizer Platter

Roasted Spicy Maple Herbed Nuts

Ready to eat!

My husband was given this recipe by a woman who owned a walnut farm when he was in California on business. I made these for a party we went to to watch the Ohio State-USC football game. Go Bucks! They have a sweet, savory, spicy flavor that is wonderful! I’ve made these with walnuts, pecans, and almonds and boxed them up for Christmas gifts for co-workers. They are always a big hit and really easy to make. DON’T use imitation maple syrup . . . it won’t work . . . I tried it once.

Ingredients
5 C. nuts
2 T. olive oil
1/3 C. real maple syrup
1/2 t. of each of the following dried herbs: rosemary, sage, marjoram,thyme, and oregano
1/2 t. cayenne pepper

Whisk the olive oil slowly into the maple syrup in a medium size bowl. Stir in the herbs and cayenne.

Spices & Maple Syrup

Mix in the nuts and stir to coat them well. Spread on a cookie sheet.

Everything mixed together before baking

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown and toasted. Cool. Sprinkle liberally with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Nuts after baking

Store in an airtight container. These will keep frozen for a month. Refresh in 350 degree oven for 5 mintues after thawing.

Best Baked Potato Chips

These potato chips are YUMMMMMY! Every year fitness magazine puts together various lists of “Bests.” This is from their “Best Grocery Store Snacks.” These are real slices of potato rather than dehydrated potatoes that have been formed into chips like Pringles or Baked Lays. I bought a bag of the lightly salted and another bag of the lightly salted with fresh black pepper variety to have as snacks for our Friday night movie night with friends. As usual, we are either trying to lose weight or maintain our current weight but you can’t have movie night with NO SNACKS!!! These looked worth a try and they did not disappoint! All of us loved them. Both varieties were only 120 calories per one ounce serving and the peppered version had just the right amount of fresh tasting pepper. And what kind are they, might you ask?

Best Baked Potato Chips

I’ve included pictures of both kinds so you can see what a one ounce serving looks like. BTW, regular potato chips are 150 calories and 10 grams of fat.

An ounce of lightly salted with fresh pepper chips.

One Ounce of Lightly Salted Chips

Roasted Sweet Pepper Hummus

I’m a practical cook since I work full-time outside the home and lead a very full life. If I made hummus starting with dried garbanzo beans and had to go through the process of cooking them before making it and in addition make the tahinni from scratch, I’d never make it. My practical solution is to use canned beans and already made tahini. I usually have peppers that I need to use up before they go bad so I don’t mind grilling them to make the roasted peppers.

One of the nice things about hummus is that it works for those who are vegetarians, vegans, and gluten intolerant (if served with rice chips or vegies). My thanks to my friend, Shannon, whose post on her Virtual Victuals blog served as a starting point for the development of this recipe!

Ingredients
3 cans of garbanzo beans, drained & liquid reserved
3/4 C. of the reserved bean liquid
3 T. lemon juice
6 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 t. salt
1/2 C. tahini
1 roasted red pepper, peeled and seeded
1 roasted yellow pepper, peeled and seeded
1/2 t. cayenne pepper

Directions
Process the garlic in a food processor until minced. Add the rest of ingredients, using only as much of the reserved bean liquid as you need to make the hummus the desired consistency.

Makes 5 cups