Mini Lemon Blackberry Cheesecakes

With the remaining lemons I had from my grandpa's trees (see post below), I decided to make this recipe from SkinnyTaste.  It turned out delicious!  These are definitely something I'll be making often.

24 Reduced-fat vanilla wafers
8 oz. light cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
6 oz. fat-free vanilla Greek yogurt
2 large egg whites
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. lemon zest
1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
24 blackberries

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line mini-muffin tin with mini-muffin liners and put one vanilla wafer in the bottom of each (randomly enough, some vanilla wafers in the box were too big to fit in the bottom, so I had to pick through to find the ones that would).  In a bowl, gently beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla until smooth.  Add in yogurt, egg whites, lemon juice, lemon zest, and flour and beat until smooth.  Pour into cupcake liners.

Bake 20-22 minutes or until centers are almost set.  Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until chilled (a few hours).  Top each with a blackberry and serve.

Taco Dip

Oh man, is this recipe amazing!  I threw this together the night of the National Championship because some of my classmates were coming over to watch the game.   It was so easy to assemble, and the flavors were dynamite together.  Make this soon!  It would be great for a Super Bowl party.

1/2 lb. extra-lean ground beef
1 can fat-free refried beans
1 packet taco seasoning
8 oz. light sour cream
1.5-2 cups sharp cheddar
Fritos, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Brown ground beef in a skillet and drain.  Mix in beans and taco seasoning.  Spread into the bottom of a pie plate or appropriately-sized dish, and top with sour cream.  Then top with cheddar.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.  Serve immediately with Fritos.

Slightly modified from:  Plain Chicken

Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade

Leave it to me to make lemonade in the middle of winter.  I had some lemons my grandpa grew, and I needed to use them up before they went bad.  So I found this recipe online for homemade lemonade, and I gave it a try.  It was great!  

1 1/2 cups lemon juice (for me, this was about 5 lemons)
8 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar (plus more to taste)

My tips for juicing a lemon:  Roll lemon firmly between your palm and countertop before slicing.  Use a citrus reamer to squeeze out all juice and pulp from the lemon.  Then use a fine-mesh strainer to strain the lemon juice, catching the seeds and pulp in the strainer.

In a small saucepan, make a simple syrup by combining sugar and 1 cup water.  Bring to a boil to melt sugar.  Allow to cool to room temperature, then cool in refrigerator until chilled.  In the pitcher, stir together the simple syrup, and 7 other cups of water.  Adjust water/sugar to taste.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip Cups

Happy New Year!  Our small group had a New Years' Eve party, and I was asked to bring an appetizer.  I always use parties as excuses to try new recipes, so I made these little beauties.  Everyone loved them, and they were pretty easy to make.

24 wonton wrappers
10 oz. box frozen chopped spinach (thawed and all excess moisture squeezed out)
1 (14 oz.) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/2 cup sour cream
4 oz. light cream cheese
3 Tbsp. light mayo
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup parmesan, grated
1/2 cup Italian blend cheese
1/2 tsp. black pepper
A couple dashes salt

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray mini-muffin pan with Pam and then place 1 wonton in each muffin cup, pressing the wonton firmly against the sides to prevent it collapsing into the middle.  Bake for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine spinach, artichoke hearts, sour cream, cream cheese, light mayo, garlic, parmesan,  cheese, pepper, and salt in a bowl.  Distribute mixture into wontons, pressing firmly down into the wonton.  Bake an additional 10 minutes or until wontons are nicely browned and crisp.  Remove from muffin tin and serve immediately.

Adapted from:  Gimme Some Oven

Oreo Truffles

Merry Christmas!  I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  If you're going to a New Year's Party, think about making these treats.  One of my dental school friends made these delicious for a wedding shower once, and I knew I had to have the recipe.  It is so amazingly simple yet amazingly tasty...no one will ever know it only took you a few minutes to make!

1 package Oreo cookies
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened (I used light)
Milk or white chocolate bark

Put 6 Oreos in a food processor and crush until fine (if you don't have a food processor, you can crush them by hand in a bag).  Reserve for later.

Put the remaining Oreos in the food processor and crush until fine.  Stir in softened cream cheese; mix well.  Roll into 1" balls and place on a wax paper-covered cookie sheet.  Put the freezer for 15 minutes or so to firm up.

Melt chocolate according to package and covered balls with chocolate.  Set on wax paper to dry.  Sprinkle the tops with the 6 crushed oreos before chocolate sets.

Christmas Party

Jonathan and I had some friends over to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (our Christmas movie tradition), and I served up some easy snacks.  Since it was on a Friday night, I only had an hour or so to get things ready after school, so I chose easy things to throw together.  Here's two of the items, followed by their recipes.  They were both a big hit!

Rolo Turtle Pretzels

Rolo Turtle Pretzels

32 waffle pretzels

4 packages Rolos

Pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place pretzels on a cookie sheet.  Place one Rolo on top of each pretzels.  Stick in oven for 4 minutes, then press one pecan onto each Rolo.  Cool and enjoy!'

Adapted from:  The Hungry Housewife

Goat Cheese with Fresh Dill and Paprika

Goat Cheese with Fresh Dill and Paprika

2 packages (11 oz.) goat cheese

6 Tbsp. fresh dill, finely chopped

6 Tbsp. paprika

Crackers, for serving

Place the goat cheese in the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up.  Meanwhile, put your dill and paprika on two separate paper plate.  Remove goat cheese from package and roll one in the paprika and one into the dill, coating well.

Carefully roll each into plastic wrap if you're not serving right away.  Try not to prepare too far in advance of the one with paprika will get clumpy.  Serve with sturdy crackers or crostini.

Note:  I cut the recipe in half and only used one package goat cheese, cut in half, since we had a smaller crowd.

Source:  The Pioneer Woman

Kansas City Trip

This post is a couple weeks overdue, but better late than never!  Over Thanksgiving, we took a road trip to Kansas City.  It was a lovely place to visit.  The area where we stayed was an upscale shopping district that decorates the plaza with thousands of strings of Christmas lights every year...it was beautiful!  We also visited the World War I Museum (I highly recommend), went to a local farmer's market, and then went to a NFL game!  Jonathan has always wanted to see Peyton Manning in person, and Kansas City was playing the Broncos that weekend, so it worked out perfectly!  Here's a couple of pictures I have from the game:

Welcome to Arrowhead Stadium

If you look closely, the guy in the #18 jersey is Peyton Manning!  He was warming up right in front of us.

I forgot to get a picture of the stadium once it filled up (oh well).  But the Broncos won so we were happy!

God gave us a beautiful sunset to be in awe of him on the drive home