Pigs in a Blanket

Pigs in a Blanket

These are so simple to make, and yet everyone asks me to make them for every occasion (and then asks for the recipe).  So here you go!

Ingredients:
2 packages of Hillshire Farms Beef Lil Smokies
1 can 8 count Pillsbury Big and Flaky Croissant Rolls dough

Preheat oven to 350*
Using a pizza cutter, slice the pointed end of each croissant triangle off at about the 1/3 mark. 
Then slice the top into 3-4 thin strips and the bottom 2/3 rectangle like portion into multiple thin strips.
Roll each thin strip around each lil smokie (it may look like very little dough, but it puffs up so much that any more would be too much).
Place each one onto an ungreased cookie sheet (I find the dark metal ones to be the best as the lighter silver ones don't reflect as well therefore don't allow the grease to burn off enough and the bottoms end up a bit soggy).
Do this until all your smokies are wrapped up in croissant strips.
Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until the croissants are nicely browned.
Let cool a couple minutes, then serve.

*Major note...if you are having more than just a couple people over, make tons of these because they are always the first thing to disappear at my parties!

Chicken Pot Pie Pockets

                              Chicken Pot Pie Pockets

Ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts
Diced carrots (about 10 baby carrots sliced)
Diced celery (3 small stalks or 2 medium)
Diced medium potato
Minced onion (about 1tbl)
1can healthy request cream chicken soup
1 cup shredded cheddar mix
2 tsp Thyme 
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 tsp Paprika
3 cans 8 count croissants (or if you can find the croissant rolls that are uncut, then cut each large square into 4 squares)
2 tbl Butter

Sprinkle salt, pepper and paprika on chicken.
Melt butter in pan on medium high.
Sear chicken on both sides.
Lower heat to medium.
Slice chicken into strips and sear each side.
Dice chicken and mix with remaining ingredients.



Place back into pan and simmer for 10 minutes (or if you are in a rush, you can put in a microwave safe bowl and cook on high 5 minutes).





Take 2 croissant triangles together in squares and pinch seam together.
Place heaping spoonful into center and fold corners to center.







Pinch side shut and place on greased cookie sheet.
Repeat with remaining croissants.
Bake at 350* for 20 minutes.

Ham and Swiss Mac n Cheese

                          Ham and Swiss Mac n Cheese

 Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups milk
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled to room temp to prevent curdling
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 pound elbow macaroni or mini penne tubes, par cooked and drained (this means cook them for about five minutes until tender but not completely cooked), cooled to room temp to prevent curdling
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup diced ham
1 Tbl Paprika
8 oz shredded Swiss cheese
8 oz shredded fontina cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs toasted in pan with olive oil
 

 Whisk together milks, cooled butter, eggs and seasonings until combined and smooth.

Add Swiss, fontina, ham and cooled macaroni.
Stir together to coat the pasta.


 Sprinkle the parm on top and cover
Cook on LOW 2 1/2 hours (ok to keep on warm an addtl 1/2 hr but no more or it may curdle).





 Sprinkle toasted bread crumbs on top and serve.

Chicken Primavera Alfredo Lasagna

                       Chicken Primavera Alfredo Lasagna

Ingredients:
12 cooked lasagna noodles
2 jars Alfredo sauce
1/2 head finely chopped broccoli (about 2large stalks)
1/2 head finely chopped cauliflower
3 carrots shredded
2 boneless chicken breasts cut into 1" cubes
1 8 oz container ricotta cheese
2 bags shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2tbl Italian seasoning
Salt 
Pepper
Olive oil

Heat 2 Tbl olive oil over medium high heat in a large pan
Season chicken cubes with salt and pepper
Cook chicken cubes in pan (about 5 minutes each side) until golden brown on the outside and thoroughly cooked inside.
While chicken is cooking, steam cauliflower until very tender.

Put cooked cauliflower in a medium bowl and mash until very fine.
Add ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese and italian seasoning to cauliflower and mix well.




 
Take cooked chicken and dice into small pieces.
Place chicken into a medium bowl and add broccoli, carrots, and 1 jar of Alfredo sauce, mixing well.





Preheat oven to 350*
In a 13x9 baking pan, pour half of the second jar of Alfredo sauce at the bottom, spreading it around to throughly cover the bottom of the pan. Place 3 lasagna noodles along the bottom.





Spoon 1/3 of the ricotta mixture on top of the noodles, spreading it out to cover noodles
Spoon 1/3 of the chicken mixture on top of the ricotta mixture, spreading it out to cover the noodles.
Sprinkle 1/3 of one of the bags of mozzarella on top of the chicken. Place 3 more lasagna noodles on top and repeat the layers of ricotta, chicken and mozzarella. Repeat above step.

Place last 3 noodles on top, then pour remaining Alfredo sauce on top.  Sprinkle entire second bag of mozzarella cheese on top.  





 

Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes.
Remove from oven, remove foil and then bake an additional 10 minutes until cheese is bubbly and sides are golden brown.
Let cool 5 minutes then serve.

Spider Lollipop Treats

With my favorite holiday right around the corner, I just had to make one of the crafts I recently found on my Disney Family Fun craft app for my IPad. I tweaked it just a little bit, but my son just had a blast making it, and has actually for once not fought me to eat a lollipop. This is a great craft to do at a kids Halloween party, for your kid's class, or to do with your kids and pass out on Halloween night to all the trick or treaters. So get your bag of dum dums or tootsie pops ready and get to crafting! Materials: 1 round lollipop black tempera paint (non toxic) 4 black pipe cleaners 2 googly eyes glue Take your 4 pipe cleaners and lay them side by side. Place the lollipop in the center of the pipe cleaners, with the first one flush against the lollipop. Wrap the pipe cleaners around the lollipop stick two times, ending with four "legs" sticking out of each side. Bend the pipe cleaners so that they resemble spider legs. Paint the lollipop wrapper and exposed stick with the black paint. Let dry Once dry, glue the googly eyes onto the lollipop wrapper, and you now have an adorable spider that even my kid won't eat.

Earth Day Chia Pet

This one is in honor of Earth Day, and is a homemade chia pet (or as my son lovingly named his, "Robot Cup").

What you need:
Plastic cup (hopefully recycled)
Cupful of dirt (go dig up some from the yard)
2 googly eyes
pom poms
pipe cleaner
feather, sequins, whatever you would like/have lying around to embellish)
grass seeds (or if you have a cat and REALLY want to make it happy, get catnip seeds)



What to do:
1) Glue on googly eyes, a pom pom for a nose, and the pipe cleaner for the mouth.
2) Decorate and embellish to you hearts content until your cup looks just like the Chia Pet you child always wanted.  :)
3) Fill cup with dirt to almost 3/4 of the way.
4) Pour in a generous amount of grass seeds
5) Pat seeds down gently and then top off cup to almost full with remaining dirt
6) Water your Chia Pet cup, place in window and watch it grow!

*My son Connor loves going out to visit "Robot Cup" every morning to water him and talk to him, and give him haircuts.  Just make sure if you go out of town for a bit, have someone water your cup, otherwise you'll get home and he'll look like he used a bottle of conditioner on his hair!

Sock Bunny

Well, everyone I know loves sock monkeys (how can you not?), so we decided to post a really cute Easter version of a sock monkey...a sock bunny!  It's an easy and fun no sewing involved craft you can do with your kids, and you can alter and make this your own however you want.

So here's what you'll need:
-1 knee high kids sock (pink, white, blue, or whatever color you want your bunny to be)
-2 googly eyes
-2 rubber bands
-stuffing (polyfill, beans, cotton balls, whatever you'd like)
-white pom pom
-1 ft ribbon
-red and black marker
-glue
-scissors

And here's what you do:
1) Stuff sock with filling enough to create a body (about 3" tall) and then wrap 1 rubber band around until it is tied off.
2) Continue stuffing sock with filling to create a head (about 1 1/2" tall) and then wrap the other rubber band around until it is tied off as well.
3) Take the ribbon and tie it around the neck of the bunny into a bow. 
4) Glue the white pom pom onto the back of the bunny's body for a tail
5) Glue the googly eyes onto the bunny's head.
6) Draw a mouth, nose and whiskers for the bunny's face
7) Take the remaining part of the sock and cut it in half until you are almost to the top rubber band to make the ears.
8) Add any other embellishments you'd like to make the bunny your own
9) Commence cuddling!

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