Saturday, December 22, 2012

Chicken Enchiladas

The holidays are a time to spend with family which is exactly what I am doing.  Like most families around the holidays, many things revolve around great food.  For my family, when you think of the usual Christmas cuisine, enchiladas are not the first food to come to mind.  However, since we have a few days until Christmas, I thought I would try a new recipe I stumbled on. I knew it was a hit when my brother said “this is great!” as he was shoveling another bite into his mouth and then again the next morning when the fam was warming them up to eat for breakfast.  Don’t be afraid of the onions and green chilies...the enchiladas still are pretty mild.  Enjoy!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Oreo Truffles

Two weekends ago I was combing through my favorite food magazines and websites trying to find something I could enter into the Quaker Holiday Bite-Sized Bake-Off and was coming up empty.  You have to strike a fine balance between something mainstream that everyone will like, but not too mainstream that it’s just blends in with the other entries.  I had a few options but not one that I thought could have a real chance at winning, when out of the blue my inbox pinged.  My best friend Tamara tried a fun treat a co-worker brought into work and thought it would be a great one to add to the blog.  Little did she know I was looking for a bite-sized holiday treat for the contest.  I saw it as a sign!!  I am proud to say that I won Best Overall in the contest…THANKS Tam…and thought I would share this awesome and easy recipe.  There is no baking involved, so if you are not a cook, this recipe is for you (fast direction: smash, mix, ball, freeze, dip, freeze).

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Mousse Pie

Tis the season of holiday gatherings filled with reminiscing of the past year, well wishing for the year to come, good food, and of course a little drinking.  Last night the city of Chicago was buzzing with holiday cheer which made navigating out of the city a little challenging as we made our way to Naperville to our previous fearless leader’s house for our holiday party “Quaker Shopper Team Style.”  We all brought some appetizers and desserts to share which turned into a little bit of a contest – each person slyly pushing there dish (my favorite one, outside of my own, were Mary’s pumpkin and cream cheese frosting whoopie pies).  I joined in the fun and decided to make this peanut butter & chocolate mousse pie.  It is a recipe I stumbled across a few years back when I lived in Cincinnati.  Nielsen was having a pie contest, so I searched through pie recipes looking for something that plays to the taste buds of the masses…who doesn’t love peanut butter and chocolate together?!?!  I ended up winning the Nielsen pie contest and have been making this recipe ever since.  I thought it would be a great recipe to share as it is a great option to make for a holiday party.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Slow-Cooker Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Potpie

This past weekend I headed to Knoxville, TN for research which turned out to be pretty cool despite the fact I was working over the weekend.  Since I work for a company that primarily targets and talks to Mom’s with Kids of certain ages, who are the primary grocery shopper of their family, usually qualitative research is talking with them.  However, this weekend was different!  We talked with blue collar men and truckers.  They were some of the most intriguing, funny, down to earth guys that had so much pride in what they did for a living.  Being a girl that grew up in Atlanta in a Country Club, went to a private Catholic High School, attended Miami University and now live in Chicago (man, I sound really spoiled) you would think that I would not be able to relate at all (and in some areas I couldn't), but at the end of the day, we are people that work hard to accomplish our goals.