Cashew Rangoons

This was a good vegetarian substitute for crab rangoons, and I think they tasted much better. Sometimes I think using other ingredients to make vegetarian dishes of food that are traditionally filled with meat are really better, they are more creative and have a better flavor, most things I have made have been great.

This recipe is from Mary Makes Dinner.

Ingredients:
-15 wonton wrappers
-1/2 cup raw cashews
-1 tablespoon tahini
-1 Tbsp lime juice
-1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
-1 tablespoon hot sauce
-1/2 cup water
-3 scallions, thinly sliced
-1/2 red pepper
-salt and pepper

Mix the cashews, tahini, lime juice, soy sauce, hot sauce, salt and pepper in
a blender.Mix in a little bit of water at a time as needed.

Combine the cashew mixture with the red pepper and green onion.

Put a spoonful of the mixture in the middle of a wonton wrapper.
I had to cut my wonton wrappers into fourths so they weren't so big.
Get 2 sides of the wrapper wet, and fold the wrapper into a triangle.
Then pinch 2 of the corners together.

Heat oil for a few minutes.
Drop in the wontons, heat until golden brown, about 4
minutes per side for me.

I dipped these in soy sauce, which was really good. The shell was crispy and the inside was soft, it was a good combination. They were't too spicy, and didn't have any overwhelming flavor. It took me a little more time than I expected, there were a lot of ingredients to mix, but it still took less than 30 minutes, and I thought it was worth it.

Slow Cooker Spinach Artichoke Dip

J. is super picky, but spinach artichoke dip is something that he loves. This slow cooker recipe was made in a mini crock pot, mine was a 1.5 quart. This would be a good appetizer for a party, very easy to make because once everything is mixed together you can just let it sit!

From The Mom Maven.

Ingredients: 

-1 (9oz) box of spinach-thawed and squeezed to drain

-1 (14oz) can quartered artichoke hearts-drained and chopped

-1/2 cup refrigerated alfredo pasta sauce

-1/2 cup mayonnaise

-3/4 tsp garlic salt

-1/4 tsp pepper

-1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

-sliced bread or tortilla chips

Mix everything into a small crock pot, cook on low for 2-4 hours.

Enjoy!

I served this with sourdough bread, J. ate it with tortilla chips. This took only a few minutes to put together and it tasted good. This is something I would make again. If you're serving a large group doubling the recipe and cooking it in a larger crock pot wouldn't be a problem at all.

Cheddar and Chive Mashed Potato Waffles

I had been seeing this recipe all over Pinterest and I knew that it would be something that J. would really enjoy. We served this as a side dish to the Fried Green Tomato BLT that I'll be posting tomorrow. I really like that this recipe was a fun twist on two traditional dish -- and truthfully there are endless flavor possibilities. 

This recipe comes from Joy the Baker.

Ingredients:
-4 tablespoons unsalted butter

-1/4 cup buttermilk

-2 large eggs

-2 cups mashed potatoes

-3 tablespoons chopped chives

-1/2 cup all-purpose flour

-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

-1/4 teaspoon baking soda

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

-1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

-1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Stir the butter, buttermilk, chives and eggs into the mashed potatoes.
In a small bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and seasonings.
Mix into the mashed potatoes until just combined.

Pour 1/4 of a cup onto a greased waffle iron.

Cook until golden brown, cool on a wire rack until all of the waffles are finished.

Place the mashed potato waffles on a baking sheet and top with lots and lots of cheddar.

Broil for one to two minutes or until cheese is melted.
Top with more chives.

                                          

These were crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Cheddar and chive are always flavors which compliment each other nicely. We only had a few leftover and J. heated them up for dinner. They weren't as crisp once they were reheated, but J. still really enjoyed them. Check back for more variations on this recipe.

Potato Chip Combo

J. and I went to a great Italian restaurant for our anniversary at the end of September and had a dish very similar to this for our appetizer. I think the combination of all of these flavors compliment each other and the presentation is beautiful.

Inspired by 91.

Ingredients: 
-2 medium sized potatoes
-Oil for frying
-Cheddar Cheese
-Vegan bacon
-Chives
-Balsamic reduction
-Blue Cheese 

To make the potato chips, slice potatoes as thinly as possible into discs and soak in water. If you have a few that are thicker, that will be fine. Heat the oil to 375 degrees. Once the oil is heated, dry the potatoes on paper towels and lower into the oil using a metal slotted spoon. Cook until golden brown, remove and drain on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt, lots of salt.

While cooking the potatoes heat balsamic vinegar in small saucepan over medium heat until the vinegar reduces, this will be your balsamic reduction.

Layer the potato chips onto a plate.
Cover half with cheddar cheese and half with blue cheese, heat in the microwave (or broil) until the cheese melts.  

Top the cheddar cheese half with crumbled vegan bacon and chives.

Drizzle the blue cheese side with the balsamic glaze.

Enjoy.

The tangy blue cheese and balsamic vinegar compliment each other when mixed with the salt of the chips. Cheddar cheese, bacon and chives are always good when blended together. This makes for a beautiful appetizer presentation and is a good portion for date night. If you wanted to make this for a larger crowd, just use more potatoes and layer on the toppings as you see fit.

Apple Nachos

This is an easy to put together apple recipe that is best made with a mix. The original recipe calls for four apples, but I cut it in half. For mine I used one granny smith apple and one gala apple. I cut everything else in the recipe in half also.

Adapted from Shugary Sweets. 

Ingredients:

-4 large Granny Smith apples, sliced 

-35 large marshmallows 

-1/4 cup butter 

-Caramel sauce

-Chocolate syrup
-Peanut Butter chips

Slice apples and arrange on platter. In saucepan, melt marshmallows and butter until creamy. 

Pour marshmallow cream over apple slices, drizzle on the caramel sauce and chocolate syrup. Then sprinkle peanut butter chips. Serve immediately!

 I really enjoyed this recipe, the crispness of the apples was really good with the crunch of the peanut butter chips. The caramel, chocolate and marshmallow cream flavors went well together -- all were different depths of sweetness. This is a great way to jazz up apple slices.

Zucchini Avocado Sushi Rolls

I tried sushi just a few months ago, a bunch of my friends couldn't believe I hadn't had it. Even without raw meat, I was a little weirded out eating seaweed. But it is definitely growing on me, and I bought this sushi mat a few months ago, and I finally used it to make sushi. I tried to use the mat once to make a mango rice roll, but it didn't work.

I used these nori wraps to make this sandwich.

I kind of just made picked some ingredients that I had and liked to make this.

Ingredients:

-2 servings of rice (I just made mine on the stove according to package directions)

-2 nori wraps

-1/2 avocado

-1/2 zucchini 

Unroll the nori on the mat, and spread a layer of rice.

I just took out small scoops of avocado with a spoon.
I tried to get everything on one side so it would roll up in the middle.

Add small slices of zucchini.

Roll up the nori. I found that if I squeezed it together
after every roll to keep it together.

Cut it into a few slices.
I read a tip that said a wet knife helped to get a clean cut.

I dipped them in a small bowl of soy sauce.

I thought these were really good for my first time making sushi rolls. I think the zuchini was a little crunchy, I think I should have cooked it a bit before I added it, but it was good regardless.

Grilled Brie with Apricot Chutney

One of our favorite restaurants in Cleveland serves a similar dish so when we saw this recipe we wanted to try to make it. This was the perfect amount of sweetness to go with brie and bread. I would make this again for a cocktail party, it was good as a light dinner, but I think it would be good as an appetizer too.

This recipe is from Veg Inspirations.

Ingredients:

-1 apple peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
-1 heaped cup dried apricots cut into quarters
-1/2 cup dark raisins
-1/4 tsp ground ginger
-1/2 tsp salt
-4 tsp sugar
-1/2 tsp red chili powder
-2 tbsp lemon juice
-A splash of white wine, if desired

Add all the ingredients to a pan with a little bit of water.
Cook until it gets soft, it took probably 30-45 minutes.

Everything got soft, but the pieces were still
intact.

We served ours with brie and french bread, the combination was great. To get the brie warm, I sprayed the grill with cooking spray, then grilled on medium for about 5 minutes on each side (Grilled brie is also really good on it's own).

Buffalo Cauliflower Dip

Buffalo chicken dip is a really popular appetizer to serve at parties, but this vegetarian version is equally delicious. This recipe did not take long at all to make and it was a hit at the party I attended.

This recipe comes from Mother Thyme. 

Ingredients:

-1/2 head cauliflower

-3/4 cup cayenne pepper sauce (like Frank's Red Hot)

-2 (8 ounce each) low fat or fat free cream cheese, softened

-6 ounces plain Greek yogurt

-1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

-1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

-1/4 teaspoon dill weed

-1/8 teaspoon onion powder

-tortilla chips for serving

-celery sticks for serving

Coarsely grate the cauliflower, then add into a pan with the buffalo sauce and seasoning.
Stir in heat.
Add in the cream cheese and stir until melted.
Pour the mixture into a container and then mix in the Greek yogurt. 

One of Becky's friends called this one of the best recipes that we've made. This dip was a lot lighter than buffalo chicken dip, with the same great flavors. It was best served with the "scoop" style tortilla chips. I will be making this recipe for parties in the future.

Pepper Jelly Deviled Eggs

One of my dad's friends made these spicy deviled eggs with pepper jelly for a party a few weeks ago, and they were so good, so my mom and I wanted to recreate them. They were just as good, they were all gone at the party we took them to.

Ingredients:

-1 dozen hard boiled eggs

-2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

-1/2 cup mayonnaise

-1/2 teaspoon sugar

-2 tablespoons pepper jelly

-paprika

Cut the eggs, and mix the yolk with the other ingredients minus the paprika. Spoon them into the eggs and top with paprika.

These had just the right amount of extra flavor from the pepper jelly. You can experiment with what kinds or how much to put in, I think anything would be good, the flavor went really well with the egg.

Guacamole Deviled Eggs

This would be great for a football game because both guacamole and deviled eggs are both traditional game snack, but this has a twist. It is also easy to eat without any silverware, so it's easy.

When we made this, we made some guacamole first and ate it as a snack while we were cooking, then used it to mix in for the eggs, so you could easily make some guacamole and these eggs at the same time.

This recipe is from The Comfort of Cooking.

Ingredients:

-12 large eggs, hard boiled
-1 medium avocado
-Juice from 1/2 lime
-1 teaspoon minced red onion
-1 Tablespoon diced tomato
-salt and pepper

Cut the eggs in half, use 2 of the yolks, and mash in with the other ingredients. Scoop into the egg halves.

These were really easy, so they were good. They didn't really taste like deviled eggs, it tasted like guacamole with egg, but that was a good taste too.