Sausage + Stuffing Balls with Cranberries and White Cheddar

Gobble Gobble, y'all,

It's almost the yummiest holiday of all and I have the perfect appetizer to *WOW* all your people. I made these for a baby shower last weekend and then for my husband's potluck at work last week and they were all snatched up so fast they didn't even have time to get cold. So easy and so. good. Let me know what you think!!

Yields about 20 sausage balls

Ingredients:

1 box turkey flavored stovetop stuffing
1 lb sausage (pork, chicken, follow your heart)
1 stalk celery, diced small
1/2 medium onion, diced small
1/4 C dried cranberries, chopped
1/2 C white cheddar cheese, shredded
1 C chicken broth
2 eggs

Directions:

- preheat oven to 375
- brown sausage in a skillet over medium heat
- add celery and onion and continue cooking until veggies are soft-ish (5 minutes)
- in a separate bowl, mix all other ingredients
- let sausage mixture cool for a few minutes and then combine with stuffing mixture (best mixed with your hands so the stuffing gets nice and moist in the broth and eggs)
- form into balls about a tbsp size and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper
- bake for 15-20 minutes until brown on top
- watch all your people quite literally gobble them up


**recipe courtesy of http://joandsue.blogspot.com/

Chicken Spanakopita Bake

It's been awhile since I've had an experiment worthy of posting, but this Chicken Spanakopita Bake was definitely good enough to end the streak. It's so flaky and feta-y and it's even better leftover so you can eat it ALL WEEK. Opa!!

I've made spanakopita before as individual little pastries and as a 13x9 pie. I like the 13x9 version because I think the phyllo dough is way easier to work with this way. This filling recipe could also be used for individual pastries... or inside crescent rolls?!? Follow your heart, friends, but the filling needs to be wrapped in some kind of buttery bread for sure. My preference this time is to make a whole 13x9 because you. will. want. leftovers. I didn't think I wanted leftovers at first because I didn't think the phyllo dough would be good leftover. I was so wrong. The filling melds like magic and the phyllo crisps back up like a dream after it's been in the fridge for a few days. My leftovers kept for about 4 days and heated best covered in a 350 degree oven for about 15-20 min depending on how many pieces you're heating up. 

Cook time: 40-45 minutes

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

Filling:

- 1 tsp olive oil

- two 10oz boxes of frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeeze out all liquid possible

- 1lb chicken, shredded *see note

- 8oz feta cheese, crumbled

- 1/2 C grated parmesan cheese

- 2 eggs

- 1 onion, diced

- 1 tbsp minced garlic

- 1 tsp oregano

- 1 tsp black pepper

- 1 tsp dried dill weed 

- lemon juice (1/2 lemon)

Assembly:

- 18 sheets phyllo dough (in your freezer section)

- olive oil cooking spray or 1/2 C melted butter

Directions:

- ***thaw your phyllo dough in the fridge 12-24 hours prior to working with it, 24 is best***

- preheat oven to 350 and spray a 13x9 pan with nonstick spray

- saute onion and garlic in your tsp of olive oil over medium heat until onions are translucent and garlic is fragrant

- mix cooked onions and garlic and all other filling ingredients in a large bowl until well combined *let it cool for a few minutes so the eggs don't scramble*

- carefully unroll your phyllo dough and cover with a moist paper towel to keep from drying out in between placements

- layer 6 sheets of phyllo dough on the bottom of your pan, spraying each completely with olive oil or brushing with melted butter in between layers

- pour filling on top and spread evenly 

- layer 12 sheets of phyllo dough on the top, spraying each completely with olive oil or brushing with melted butter in between layers

- spray your top layer and gently score the top few layers with a knife in the outline of your 8 equal pieces of pie

- bake for 40-45 minutes until the top is flaky and golden

I like to serve mine with a side greek salad and red wine, of course :)

*note about chicken: When I'm short on prep time I like to throw my chicken in the crock pot with a half cup of water and some salt, pepper and garlic so it's easily shreddable when I get home.

You could also leave out the chicken to make this vegetarian!

Barbacoa in the Crockpot (meal prep)

Hi guys!

I chose this next recipe carefully because I got some feedback that meal prep recipes are highly coveted. The problem is that you have to want to eat something that you use for meal prep like every single day. There are not many things that I want to eat every single day in various forms without getting bored BUT this barbacoa is definitely one of them. It is smokey and juicy and perfect and super easy to prep. I'll admit that Chipotle first introduced me to barbacoa and I don't know how I spent 20+ years without it. If you're not familiar, it's a shredded Mexican-spiced beef. It's delicious in tacos, taco salad, burrito bowls, nachos, quesadillas, burritos, and anything other variation of Mexican food your little heart can dream up.  I've tried a couple of different recipes but this one from Gimme Some Oven is my fave. Enjoy!!

Prep time: 10min
Cook time: 4-8 hours in crockpot
Serves: about 8 - recipe can easily be halved!

Ingredients:

3 lb chuck, bottom or top round roast
4 tsp minced garlic
2 chipotles in adobo sauce (canned in the international section of the grocery store)*
4 oz can chopped green chilis (same as above)
1 small white onion, finely diced
1 lime worth of lime juice, about 1/4 cup
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp oregano
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup beef stock or water (I use unsalted beef stock)

Directions:

- Cut your roast into large-ish chunks (about 2 inches) and place in crockpot
- *Because I like my chipotle peppers to be fully incorporated into the broth - I like to add my broth, chipotle peppers, and all other ingredients except for the bay leaves, onion and green chilis to a food processor and give it a spin until it's nice and smooth. If you like your chipotle peppers in larger chunks, you can dice them up and add all of these things to the crockpot separately.
-If you use my method, pour the contents of your food processor on top of the beef and then toss in your onion, bay leaves and green chilis.
- Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours until it shreds easily with a fork.
- Shred with 2 forks and let it soak up some of that sauce for a few minutes before adding to any Mexican food you like! I chose tacos for this one. Picture below!

For these tacos I topped with tomato, onion and a drizzle of cheese dip because who can resist beef and cheese??? Usually I prefer corn tortillas but recently I have also gotten into using Flat Out sandwich folds as little taco shells. That's what's pictured here. I usually find them in the bakery section of my grocery store.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Hey y'all,

So my friend, Becky, gave me Chrissy Teigen's cookbook "Cravings" last year for my birthday and it is filled with all things good in the world, including these bomb lettuce wraps. As much as I like to add a twist to recipes that I find, I didn't even make any changes to this one because Chrissy is a goddess and I think you should have access to it in it's purest form. I also don't consider this a recipe where lettuce is substituted for carbs (so don't roll your eyes at it) because I can't think of anything I'd prefer to wrap this goodness in. It's crunchy and fresh and it belongs here. If you don't eat meat, I would recommend extra mushrooms and maybe adding some diced up zucchini and/or carrots? Whatever you do, don't leave out the water chestnuts because they are very necessary. Also you should probably buy this cookbook because it's informative and hilarious.

Serves: 4-6

Total time: 30 minutes

For the sauce (most ingredients can be found in the Asian food section of your grocery store):

3 tbsp Thai sweet chili sauce

3 tbsp hoisin sauce

3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

2 tbsp sriracha (unless you would prefer it without a kick, in which case, use less or none)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp sesame oil 

1.5 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger (or minced really tiny)

For the filling:

1 lb ground chicken (or turkey)

3 tbsp vegetable oil

8 scallions, thinly sliced, whites and greens kept separate

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger (or minced really tiny)

8oz mushrooms, finely chopped

1/2 finely chopped canned water chestnuts (I found these in the Asian food section of my regular grocery store)

1 small red bell pepper, finely diced

2 heads butter lettuce leaves (I used romaine, Chrissy uses butter)

Directions:

1) In a bowl, combine all sauce ingredients and stir or whisk well

2) Mix 2 tbsp of sauce into the ground chicken 

3) In a large skillet, heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil over med-high heat

4) Add chicken and cook until until browned, breaking it up while it cooks, transfer meat to a bowl

5) Add remaining 1 tbsp oil to the hot skillet, then add scallion whites, garlic and ginger, cook for 1 minute

6) Add mushrooms and cook 3-4 minutes

7) Return chicken to pan, then add water chestnuts, bell pepper and the rest of the sauce, cook 3-4 more minutes until bell peppers are tender and liquid has reduced and thickened slightly

8) Stir in scallion greens

Serve warm with lettuce leaves for wrapping.

** If you're using only veggies, obv skip the meat steps and cook the zucchini/carrots with the mushrooms before adding the sauce, water chestnuts and bell pepper

Here's how mine turned out!

(Lightened Up) Baked Ziti

Hey friends!

Anybody else craving comfort food in this winter weather??? By winter weather in ATL of course I mean the random days (in between the days where the high is in the 60s) that it drops to below freezing and snows 3 inches. Here is a lightened up baked ziti recipe for those days when you just need a big pile of pasta in your life.

Servings: 4
Prep time: 30 min (or more if you want your sauce to simmer for awhile)
Cook time: 40 min

Ingredients:
28oz can crushed tomatoes
15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1 lb lean ground beef (I used 96% lean)
6 oz Barilla protein plus penne noodles (or a heaping 1.5C dry pasta)
5oz part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp parsley
2 tsp basil
2 tsp oregano
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
pinch of red pepper flakes (if you want it to have a little kick!)

** 3/4 C part skim ricotta, 1/2 C extra mozzarella, and 1 egg for a little more decadent version!

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350
- Set a pot of water to boil, cook pasta according to package directions
- Heat a large skillet over medium high, add your minced garlic
- When skillet is hot, brown your ground beef until it's no longer pink
- Add tomatoes and ingredients parsley - red pepper flakes
- Let your sauce simmer for at least 20 min or up to an hour, stirring occasionally
- In a greased pan (I used 9x7), add a few spoonfuls of meat sauce (enough to cover the bottom of the pan)
- layer half your cooked noodles, half remaining sauce and half shredded cheese, repeat these layers
- Sprinkle with parsley on top to make it extra pretty and bake for 30 minutes, broil 5-10 more so your cheese can get nice and brown

**If you want your ziti a little more cheesy and decadent, mix up your noodles with the 3/4C ricotta, 1/2C mozzarella, 1 egg, and some salt and pepper before layering with sauce and cheese!



**1/4 recipe is 9 ww freestyle points for original recipe and 13 with the additions

Greek Chicken (meal prep!)

Happy New Year, y'all!

Today I'm sharing what's probably my favorite recipe for meal prepping (and also makes for an awesome dinner!). I've been baking up a batch of this chicken for the past several months almost every week to use for greek chicken wraps at lunch. I basically live in my car during the work week afternoons and this is a great way for me to be prepared for a healthy lunch on the go that I will actually look forward to. It's super easy and it keeps in my fridge all week so I don't have to have to worry about cooking or prepping anything when I'm really busy at work. For lunch I like to wrap this up with lettuce, tomato, red onion and some tzatziki sauce in a whole wheat tortilla. For dinner you can throw on a greek salad, use for kabobs or pair with my greek spinach rice (see previous post for "Greek Everything").

Servings: 4 (can easily be doubled or tripled!)

Ingredients:

- 1 lb chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 2 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp parsley
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Throw all ingredients in a gallon-size ziploc or tupperware container to marinate. Shake to coat all the chicken pieces and put in the fridge for however long you have to marinate (1-24 hours, the longer the better!). When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 350. Coat a baking sheet (covered in foil) with some cooking spray and arrange chicken pieces so they aren't touching each other on the pan. Bake for about 12 minutes until chicken is cooked through and no longer pink in the middle. It will smell delicious!!

Either use immediately or store in an air-tight container for easy wraps during the week!

**If using for greek chicken wraps, I love the OPA brand yogurt-based feta dill dressing or cucumber dill dip. This can be found near the produce section of your grocery store with the refrigerated salad dressings.

Enjoy!!

Creamy Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup

It's officially chilly in GA, y'all! The good news is that this savory, spicy masterpiece is sure to warm us up. It's full of fresh veggies, spicy sausage, cheesy pasta and juuust enough cream to make it feel decadent. We loved it and hope you do too!

Total prep and cook time: 1 hr
Serves: 6, each serving about 2 cups

Ingredients: 

- 1 lb hot italian sausage (I used my favorite hot italian chicken sausage from Sprouts)
- 1 9oz bag tortellini (fresh or frozen, I used Buitoni found in the refrigerated pasta section)
- 9 C low sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 small-medium white onion, diced
- 2 C fresh spinach, stems removed and chopped into strips
- 2 C carrots, chopped
- 1/4 C heavy cream (or more, if you're feeling dangerous)
- 1 tsp oregano, dried
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp thyme, dried ground
- 1 tsp basil, dried
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, for a medium-hot flavor (decrease for mild flavor)
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp olive oil

Directions:

- Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pot with a lid, add garlic when the pot gets hot
- Add onion, bell pepper and carrot, cook for about 5 minutes
- Add sausage to the pot with the veggies, cook and stir until brown and ground up into small pieces
- Add all spices listed oregano - red pepper flakes and stir well
- Pour in your chicken broth and turn heat to high until soup begins to boil
- Lower heat to simmer, cover pot and let simmer for at least 30 minutes so flavors can meld
- When you are about ready to serve, add tortellini to simmering soup and cook according to package directions (usually about 4 minutes for fresh, 10-12 for frozen), stirring so they don't stick together
- When tortellini is done, remove soup from heat and stir in heavy cream and spinach

*** 10/10 would recommend serving with garlic bread and eating whilst (prematurely) watching Christmas movies ***