Superbowl Snacks
Clean-up for the Super Bowl
Pre- (and Post-) Game Activities – When the Super Bowl is a Blow-Out and Your Party is a Bomber… Add some fun!
For the MONSTER Headache
COUPONS ENDING SOONMore Super Bowl Snacks
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Then, there’s this…
Our family loves popcorn. It’s a fun, easy and, can be, relatively healthy snack for almost any time of the day. Well, because of the holidays, one of the books I’ve been reading with my children is called Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia. We love it. What I did not expect is how much my daughter would talk about making popcorn balls, just like Amelia Bedelia! So after dinner last night, I thought I’d attempt a surprise pre-Christmas trial run of popcorn balls.
A Healthy Treat
I didn’t like the recipes I found online because they all included refined sugar. I did not want to add any refined sugar to the popcorn. So, I threw a couple of ingredients I feel fine about giving my children after dinner and, ta-da, we had popcorn balls.
Here’s what I did:
1. Pop your corn. Since this was a trial run, I only used a little bit. I probably popped about 1/4 cup of kernels and gave some of that popped corn to the children to eat so that I could work on the rest.
2. Set the popped corn aside in a bowl.
3. Then, I melted about one tablespoon of butter, a couple of tablespoons of honey and the equivalent of about 3 tablespoons of water in a saucepan over low heat.
4. I had it simmer for a few minutes (but, I’m not sure how necessary that is. I may just have everything melt next time.) It worked fine. I’m just thinking about keeping that honey as close to a raw state as possible (for health benefits).
5. Pour the honey mixture over the popcorn and mix. A few minutes later, once it has cooled off, rub a little bit of butter on your hands and form the popcorn into balls.
There you have it! Easy, quick, healthy and even Christmas-y treats for the whole family! Who knows, we may make some to hang on our tree next week, just like Amelia Bedelia! 
What’s your favorite holiday treat?
I remember when I was younger, probably around 10, I drank chunky milk. I probably didn’t even know about expiration dates, but that changed that day. However, in my attempt to avoid all chunky milk, I went a little overboard and now I throw away more food than I should. Expiration dates aren’t the be all, end all. Some food lasts way longer than the dates that are stamped on them. Here are just a few commonly used foods and when they really shouldn’t be eaten.
1. Fresh eggs-You can eat these jewels 3-4 weeks after their stamped expiration date.
2. Milk-all opened milk last 5-7 days past the printed date.
3. Bread-the kind you buy pre-packaged in the store lasts 5-7 days past it’s expiration. In the freezer though, it lasts up to 6 months.
4. White rice-uncooked white rice lasts 4-5 years in your pantry. If it’s cooked though, it’s best you eat within 5-7 days.
5. White potatoes-These last longer in the fridge than the pantry. In the fridge they are good for 4-5 months and in pantry only 3-5 weeks. Sweet potatoes have a slightly shorter shelf life.
For an exhausted list of foods and when you should eat them by, go HERE. Remember waste not, want not!
One of my all time favorite things about Fall is pumpkin sausage soup. It’s my favorite Fall recipe. It’s the only recipe that I’ll only make during a specific season. It screams Fall and it’s perfect and hearty for the changing temperatures and just happens to color coordinate with Fall colors. I am sure the color of the soup interests you 
Not only is this an amazing recipe, it’s very inexpensive to make and is spectacular left over! I know what we are having for dinner!
What You Need
1 (12 ounce) package breakfast sausage
1/2 cup onion, minced or chopped depending on how you like your onions
1-2 garlic clove minced depending on your preference for garlic
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1 cup fresh mushrooms cut up if you’d like
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup water
What To Do
1. Brown the breakfast sausage, drain, then add the onion, garlic, Italian seasoning and mushrooms and sauté until done. I like pretty well done, but don’t let it burn.
2. Add pumpkin to this mixture and mix well.
3. Stir in the broth and mix well.
4. Simmer 20-30 minutes.
5. Add heavy cream and water and simmer on low another 10-15 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to your taste.
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Our family loves Mexican food. And, I already told you how we liven up some of our leftovers last week. This week, I referred to a big name chef’s recipe for enchilada sauce for an enchilada casserole I made. Big name chef makes his enchilada sauce differently from the way I have made mine in the past. But, I went with big-name-recipe. “It HAS to be good!” I thought to myself as I looked at the ingredients that seemed less than flavorful.
I should have gone with my gut. I didn’t like it! I ended up “fixing” it by adding the spices I would have put in there to begin with! The experience served to remind me to pull up a recipe that I’ve loved before. This is based on a recipe I found at www.allrecipes.com but with a few of my own adjustments. It’s great…and better than Mr. Big Name Chef’s recipe
10 Minute Enchilada Sauce
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons unbleached flour
- 1/4 cup chili powder
- 1 cup (8 ounce) tomato sauce or tomato puree
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion salt
- salt to taste
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Whisk in flour and chili powder, reduce heat to medium, and cook until lightly brown, for about one minute.
- Gradually stir in tomato sauce, water, cumin, garlic powder, and onion salt into the flour and chili powder until smooth, and continue cooking over medium heat approximately 10 minutes, or until thickened slightly. Season to taste with salt
It’s great to have yummy enchilada sauce without any of those unnecessary (and sometimes dangerous) preservatives and additives. Quick, easy and so inexpensive to make!
Who doesn’t have 10 minutes to make a yummy sauce for yummy Mexican food?
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