Melting Pot Green Goddess Dip with Vegetable Stir-fry

J. and I really enjoy going to the Melting Pot a fondue restaurant which is near us. All of the courses are served fondue style. There is a cheese appetizer, a hot oil dinner course where you cook your vegetables and meats in a flavorful hot oil and then a chocolate fondue dessert course. The dinner course is served with several dipping sauces and J's favorite is the Green Goddess, he asked me to try to recreate it at home. I think it's best served with mushroom caps so we served it with a vegetable stir-fry.

From Food.com


Ingredients:Green Goddess 
-8 ounces cream cheese, cut into slices
-1/4 cup milk
-1/4 cup sour cream
-2 tablespoons finely chopped onions
-2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
-2 tablespoons finely sliced chives

Stir-fry
-1 red bell pepper
-1 orange bell pepper
-Half a head of broccoli
-8 ox of button mushrooms
-Small can of water chestnuts

To make the Green Goddess, heat up the cream cheese and milk in a microwave safe bowl.
Whisk together.
Add all other ingredients and whisk until smooth and the herbs are incorporated. 

To make the stir-fry heat oil in a large skillet.
Add the broccoli, cook for three minutes.
Add the peppers, cook for three minutes.
Add the mushrooms and water chestnuts and cook until the mushrooms are browned. 

Serve with rice and the Green Goddess.

J. said that he wasn't sure if this was 100% what the Melting Pot recipe tastes like, but he said that it was really good and that if it wasn't spot on, then it was close. The only issue with the Green Goddess was how much it made, when I make this again I will cut the recipe in half. This was good with all of the vegetables, but it was best with stir-fry mushroom caps.

Carrot Salad

Chick-fil-a used to make this carrot salad, but it wasn't at our store anymore when I went a few weeks ago. It was one of my mom's favorite thing from a fast food restaurant. I like to make copycat recipes, so I said I would try to duplicate it.

I saw this recipe on Just a Pinch.

Ingredients:
-1 cup carrots, shredded (I used about 8 baby carrots because it was what I had)
-1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, with juice
-1/2 cup raisins
-1/4 cup mayonnaise
-1/2 Tbsp sugar

Mix it all together.

Enjoy

My mom really liked this, it tasted similar to the fast food version. She told me I would have to make it again, but the only suggestion was to use a little less pineapple juice, I didn't drain any of it, so there was a lot of liquid in it. It was really simple to make this since there wasn't any actual cooking, just mixing the ingredients together.

Applebee’s Maple Butter Blondie

I always like restaurant copycat recipes, it is fun to have a recipe that people know they like from a restaurant and be able to have it at home. We've made this one before, and it turned out really well. I eat at Applebee's a lot, and I have my favorite things on the menu, and this is one of the best desserts. It worth the time to make it at home, and it was even good to eat the next day.

This came from Todd Wilbur's book Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2.

This recipe is cut in half from what the book said, it made enough enough for about 6 servings.

Ingredients:

Blondie

-2 egg whites

-1/4 cup butter

-1/4 cup brown sugar

-2 Tbsp. sugar

-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

-1 cup + 2 Tbsp. flour

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/4 tsp. baking powder

-1/4 cup milk

-4 oz. white chocolate

-1/4 cup chopped walnuts

-pinch of salt

Sauce

-1/4 cup softened butter

-1/4 cup powdered sugar

-1/8 cup softened cream cheese

-1 Tbsp. maple syrup

-pinch salt

-ice cream

-extra walnuts for topping

Preheat the oven to 325.

Beat the egg whites until they form peaks. Add the butter and
brown sugar and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients and mix. Then stir in the milk, chocolate chips, and  walnuts.

Since I cut the original in half, and it was supposed to go
in a 9x13 pan, I used an 8x8, the batter was spread pretty
thin, but they turned out to be a good thickness.
I baked mine for about 32 minutes.

While the blondie is in the oven, mix all the ingredients for the sauce in the blender.

Wait about 15 minutes for the blondie to cool, then cut
it an serve on a plate with ice cream.

The sauce looked pretty thin when I made it, but
you should heat it in the microwave for about 30 seconds,
and it turned to the perfect consistency. Top with walnuts.

There kind of looks like a lot of ingredients in this recipe, but the only one I didn't have when I decided to make this was the vanilla ice cream, so you likely have most of these ingredients in your kitchen already.

Panera Apple Fuji Salad

For this Salad Wednesday, I decided to do a copycat recipe from Panera. Salads there are always really good, and this one had a lot of good ingredients. I got the recipe from this copycat website. This salad was really easy, the hardest part was just gathering up all the ingredients. The original Panera salad has chicken or turkey on it as well, but I just left it out. It would be easy to add to the top though if you were making this for a non-vegetarian too.

Other Salad Wednesday recipes so far: Cucumber Salad, Deconstructed Wedge Salad, Edible Flower Salad and Buffalo Cauliflower Salad.

The ingredient list is kind of a guide from the original website, and makes 6 servings. I adjusted a bit based on what and how much of each thing I like on my salad.

Ingredients:

-8 oz. spring greens
-2 tomatoes, chopped (vine ripe is best)
-1 cup toasted pecan halves
-1 (2 1/2 oz.) bag apple chips (I couldn't find these, so I just cut slices of an apple)
-6 ounces feta cheese
-1/2 red onion, sliced into rings

Dressing
-1/2 cup dried cranberries
-2/3 cup olive oil
-2 tablespoons golden balsamic vinegar
-2 garlic cloves, finely diced
-2 small shallots, finely chopped
-3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
-3 tablespoons honey

Put all the ingredients for the dressing together in a bowl.

Mix.

Cut up the apples, onion and tomato.

Add the feta and pecans on top of the lettuce.

Put the rest of the ingredients on.

Top with dressing.

This recipe was good because it had enough in it to make a whole meal on its own. The balsamic vinegar had a bit of a strong flavor, so I would use a little less if you aren't a huge fan of the taste. I also don't think I've really had dried cranberries before, they were really good, really sweet, much more than raisins, which is what I would think they would be like. But the sweetness went really well in the salad.

Bang Bang Cauliflower

So if you have ever had or heard of Bang Bang Shrimp, (or something else similar, I've seen it with a few names), you know how good it is or have heard other people talk about how good it is. It is one of my family's favorite foods. They really liked this recipe as well. I haven't had a lot of cauliflower before this, but it is really good fried, and definitely worth a try. This recipe wasn't really too difficult to make as long as you have a deep fryer. It would also be a good experiment to try in the future baking the cauliflower in the oven. The seasoning and sauce in this recipe are really good, and really close to the original flavor we were going for. This recipe is adapted from Thrifty Veggie Mama.

Ingredients:

-1 head cauliflower

-2 egg whites

-3 Tbsp cornstarch

-1/2 cup bread crumbs

-1 tsp garlic powder

-salt and pepper

Sauce

-1/4 cup mayo
-1/4 cup Franks Red Hot
-1 Tbs rice vinegar
-1 Tbs sugar

Cut the cauliflower. In one bowl, but the cornstarch, in another,
the egg whites, and in a third, the breadcrumbs, garlic powder,
salt and pepper.

Roll each piece of cauliflower in the cornstarch.

Then the egg.

Then the breadcrumb mixture.

Add to the deep fryer until they look browned.
It probably took us 3-4 minutes, so experiment with the first few of yours.

Set them on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.
In the meantime, mix together all the sauce ingredients.

Pour some sauce on top.

This was really good, my dad is not much of a cauliflower eater, but even he liked this. This could be a meal on its own, or would be a good appetizer. They were a little spicy, but the flavors are not anything too crazy, so it would be good to feed to a lot of people.

Olive Garden Five Cheese Ziti Copy Recipe

I love Olive Garden and the five cheese ziti is the meal that I always order when I go. Sometimes copy-cat recipes are just okay, but I thought that this recipe was spot on. Here is where you can find the original.

If you enjoyed this blog you can find a copy-recipe for Olive Garden's Lasagna Rollata Al Forno here from my September 2012 blog.

Ingredients:
Ziti Sauce
4 cups tomato sauce
2 cups alfredo sauce
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
3 tablespoons Fontina cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon garlic pepper seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Ziti Topping
3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons romano cheese, grated
3 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped

Other Ingredients
1 lb dry ziti pasta
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded


You know me, I didn't actually buy all of the required cheeses, I just used a shredded Italian cheese blend from the store to replace the Fontina and Romano.

Mix together sauce ingredients.

Mix together topping ingredients.

Spread some sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 pan, I lined mine with foil just to save myself some clean up.

Add pasta.

Add remaining sauce and gently mix until pasta is coated.

Top with 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.

Add topping mixture.

Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes.

Serve.

Mmmm, cheesy goodness.

Ignore any thoughts about how bad this recipe is for you... it's okay to indulge every once in a while. This recipe was fantastic, it tasted just like my Olive Garden favorite and it was much cheaper to make in bulk than it was to buy in the restaurant. Have you ever found that some foods taste better as leftovers? Even though this was great fresh out of the oven, I think it was even better for lunch the next day.

A Hamless Holiday -- Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue

Happy Christmas Week!

Starting today and going through Tuesday the daily blog post will be "A Hamless Holiday" post. Those five blogs all together will form a holiday meal. Keep checking back daily to find out another course of the meal. The theme for the Christmas meal is red, green and white and these dishes all go fantastic together making a feast for your eyes and taste buds.

I did a similar blog series called "A Turkeyless Thanksgiving" during the five days leading up to Thanksgiving and it was a hit. Hopefully this series will be as well. You can find the Thanksgiving posts here: appetizer, main dish, drink, side dish, dessert.

Today's post is the appetizer and is a recipe from the blog Favorite Family Recipes and is a copy-cat recipe for the Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue. If you have never been to the Melting Pot before find your nearest restaurant and go celebrate something! I will warn you it is a little pricey, but it is great for birthday's or anniversaries -- J and I celebrated our two year anniversary there this past September and we had such a great time.

A Hamless Holiday:
Appetizer: The Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue

Ingredients:
-3 oz. vegetable broth
-1-2 oz. fresh spinach, chopped
-1-2 oz. artichoke hearts, chopped
-1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
-2 1/2 oz. Butterkäse cheese
-2 1/2 oz. Fontina cheese
-1 tsp. grated Parmesan cheese
-a small amount of flour
-dash Tabasco sauce

All of the fondue appetizers from the Melting Pot call for Butterkäse cheese which Becky had no problem finding at the grocery store....if you can't find it check out the original post for alternatives.

Heat the vegetable broth (ideally you do this in a fondue pot, I don't own one, I just did it on the stove top).

You want the broth to be hot, NOT BOILING!

Add the spinach, artichoke and garlic.

Combine both cheeses and lightly flour them.
I used a few tablespoons of flour for this. 

Slowly incorporate the cheese stirring in a figure-eight motion.
Once melted stir in the parmesean and hot sauce.

Then you'll have fondue!

We enjoyed the fondue with bread and apples.

Fondue time is always a great time.

This is a great appetizer for any party and is best served in a fondue pot, however, I'm sure that you could also keep it warm in a crockpot in order to make it more accessible than my pot which was heated by the stove. This tasted exactly like the fondue which is served at the Melting Pot. The green from the spinach is sure to tie in nicely with the other blogs this week.

Check back tomorrow!