This is such a great salad because it is sweet and different from your every day plain green salad. It is my favorite to take to get togethers and always goes so quickly!

Poppyseed Dressing
In blender, mix all on high:

1/2 c. white vinegar
2 tsp poppyseeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. sugar (this makes it pretty sweet; I actually do a little less than this)
1 Tbs. yellow mustard

After mixing all of the above, add 1 c. canola oil. Then you are done!

Salad:
(I put everything in separate bowls just in case people don't like all of the ingredients. Then it is kind of a buffet style salad.)
Romaine lettuce
Spinach
Shredded mozzarella cheese
1 14 oz. can mandarin oranges
Craisins
Crumbled bacon (or bacon bits if you don't have fresh bacon)
red onion (chopped finely)
fresh sliced mushrooms
Toasted almonds (Melt 1 tbs butter on low in a pan, add 1 1/2 Tbs sugar and 1/4 c. sliced almonds. Stir continuously until sugar is dissolved and almonds are well coated. Place and separate on foil or a plate to cool. If you don't separate them, they will dry and clump together.)

This is a variation of a recipe my Mom used to do when I was growing up. It was usually a Sunday specialty.

-Take the skin off of 1 whole chicken and remove the insides of the chicken (who would eat them anyway?!)

-In the bottom of your crock pot, place slices of white or sweet onion, and sliced carrots. Place your skinned chicken on top of the onions and carrots.

-Inside of your chicken, place more onions, carrots and season with salt, pepper, garlic and Thyme.

-Sprinkle more salt, pepper, garlic, and Thyme on the outside of the chicken and place more sliced carrots and a few more onion slices around and on top of the chicken. You can also chop up some potatoes (red or brown) and throw those in there too. ( I personally don't like my potatoes in the crock pot. I think they get too mushy. I know, I am weird!) Cook for a few hours or until chicken is falling off the bones!

-If you put potatoes and carrots in your crock pot, you have a whole meal ready to eat. If not, serve chicken with a green salad and mashed sweet potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, diced and seasoned red potatoes, you get the picture. Chicken, potatoes, and vegetables. Enjoy!

Please excuse my lack of food pictures lately. I have been in one of those stages of waiting until the last minute to decide what on my list of things to eat for the week sounds good for the night, thus creating 4 hungry people when the food is ready. That means no time for pictures, just time to eat. Note to self: Be better at planning and sticking with my menu and taking pictures!

Once again, this is not a healthy pasta, but how many alfredo recipes are? If you have one less fattening than this, let me know! But really, this is a good recipe.

-Grill, cook in the oven, or in a pan on the stove 1 1/2 chicken breasts (seasoned to your liking) and chop in small chunks.

-Cook up some (if using a box of noodles, I use about 1/2 of a box) wheat noodles (I use the spiral noodles or farfalle, or anything I have in the pantry).

-While noodles are cooking, (if you want some vegetable added to your alfredo) add some frozen peas into the noodle water to cook.

-Also while noodles are cooking, on low, melt:
-1/4 c. butter
-3/4 c. GRATED parmesean cheese (grated is SOOO much better than the bottled stuff)
-1/2 c. whipping cream
-1 Tbs. parsley
-1/8 tsp. garlic powder/salt
-dash of salt and pepper to taste

When noodles and peas are done cooking, drain and add the chicken and sauce and stir to combine. Serve with a fresh green salad and some biscuits!

Variations:
-Add chunks of bacon to the sauce while cooking to give it a smoky flavor.
- Saute slices of mushrooms in a pan with a little butter or olive oil and add to final mixture.

This is a recipe that a family friend where I grew up would not give out. Then our family moved and we have been passing it around since! It is delicious, easy, filling, and great in the crock pot for a cold day. But note, it is NOT a healthy soup. I am still looking for some really great, healthy, and delicious soups, so if you have some, PLEASE let me know!

Boil and cut into chunks 2 chicken breasts.
Put in crock pot (or if in a pinch, you can cook this on the stove for about 30 min) with:
-enough corn to fill the bottom of the pot (or more if you like a lot of corn)
-1 small can of green chilis
-1 pkg. taco seasoning
-1 can cream of potato soup
-2 -3 cups chicken broth (If you like yours more like soup, add 3 cups; if you want it thicker, add more like 1 1/2-2 cups. If you are using the broth from your chicken you just boiled, add a crushed chicken bullion cube for more flavoring.)

-About 20 min. before ready to eat, add 1 c. sour cream and a 1/2 of a small block of velveeta cheese diced (You can omit the sour cream if you don't like it, or even reduce the amount to make it less creamy. We like ours really cheesy so we end up doing about 3/4 of the bar of cheese.)

-A great finishing touch and something to add more flavor to this is adding chopped bits of cilantro on top when you are ready to eat.

-To make this go farther and feed more, cook up some brown rice and put some in the bottom of the bowls with the soup on top. It is a lot more filling.

-Can be served with tortilla chips and chunks of avocado on the side as well. ENJOY!

This is my go-to for any party or get together. It is easy and everyone loves it. What could be better?

From spinachrecipes.org

Ingredients:

14 oz of artichoke heart (I chop mine up really fine)
1 clove of garlic (fresh or minced in a jar)
2 cups of freshly chopped spinach (I have heard this is what makes the dip special. It is FRESH spinach, NOT FROZEN.) * I end up doing about 2 1/2 cups finely chopped spinach.
½ cup of parmesan cheese
½ cup of mayonnaise (I always do 1/4 c. mayo, 1/4 c. sour cream. This is what some of the reviews on the website said to do and it does turn out better than straight mayo.)
Grated white cheese (I omit this step. I figure there is already parmesean cheese, why fatten this up anymore?)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation Instructions:

Mix everything except the grated cheese together. (Once again, I omit the grated white cheese, and mix in the parmesean and sprinkle a little on top to give it a brown cooked look.)

Place the mixture in an oven-proof dish; then top with the cheese.

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 10 minutes ( I find it is more like 15 min.) or until spinach is tender and the cheese nicely melted.

Serve with tortilla chips. (Or, a really great and better idea, hollow out a big bread bowl or one of those thick square loaves of specialty bread, such as sourdough, from the store and put your dip in this. Then wrap the whole thing in foil and cook for about 30 min in the oven. Then break chunks of the bread off with the dip and ohhhh! YUM!

This recipe is really dangerous to have in my house. I WILL EAT THEM ALL! Their name fits them well.

Mix together:
1 c. flour
1 c. quick oats (I have old fashioned oats and chopped them for a minute in the food processor)
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c. melted butter ( I used a little less than this)

Blend and divide in half. Press half in pan and bake at 350 for 10 min.

While that is cooking, mix:
1 c. chocolate chips ( I used half milk chocolate, half semi sweet. Or I have even used half chocolate chips and half white chocolate chips. That combo was REALLY RICH!)
1/2 c. nuts (optional)
3/4 c. caramel ice cream topping ( I used a mild butterscotch topping instead last night and it turned out great)
3 Tbs. flour

Spread over bottom oat mixture. Crumble remaining oat mixture on top. Cook another 15 min.
Cool before serving. If you aren't patient enough (like me!), you can eat them warm. But, they are REALLY gooey and VERY rich and sweet. They don't seem quite as sweet when they have cooled. I keep them in the fridge.

I think I have found THE sweet potato fry recipe. We have tried a few others and were never pleased with the results. But after I made these last night, my husband is asking to have them again!

From Our Best Bites

2 medium-sized sweet potatoes ( I used 1 large) (technically, I think what I use are yams)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t coriander (didn't have any ground coriander so I omitted this)
1 t kosher salt
1 t parsley
fresh ground pepper (completely forgot this!)

Preheat oven to 425 and spray a cookie sheet. (DO NOT LINE YOUR COOKIE SHEET WITH FOIL OR ANYTHING ELSE!) Put your oil and seasonings in a bowl and toss/stir to coat your fries. Place fries on your cookie sheet in rows and with a little space between each fry. Cook for 15 minutes and then flip. Cook another 15-20 minutes and eat! YUM!!! We dipped ours in ketchup but really didn't need to. They have plenty of flavor. Or, the site I found this on makes their own sauce. My kids ate these up! Hope yours do too!

This is a delicious chocolate cake that is pretty much the same thing as Texas Sheet Cake. And if you are trying to count calories, this IS NOT the cake for you to make. But it is VERY GOOD!

Mix together in a medium bowl:
2 c. flour
2 c. sugar

Bring to boil and let cool:
2 sticks butter
1 c. water
4 Tbs. coco
Add this to the mixture above.

Then add:
2 eggs
1/2 c. sour milk (Regular milk and 1 tsp vinegar)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Spray cake pan and pour in mixture. Bake at 350 for about 30 min.

Frosting:
Mix together:
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Boil and add to mixture above:
1/2 stick butter
5 Tbs milk
4 Tbs coco

Mix together and you may need to add some water or more milk to thin it out a little. Put frosting on cake while frosting is still warm.