Thanksgiving Pins Roundup

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving for us here in the US.  Are you guys ready for some serious grubbing??  I'll be at work but that doesn't break my festive spirit!  I didn't have time to do any Thanksgiving dedicated post this time around but thought I could do a round up for those looking for some easy last minute dinner and decoration ideas for the weekend.  I haven't tried these recipes/projects yet myself but here are a few of my favorite floating around on Pintrest.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to try them soon.  If you guys try them out let me know what you think of them!

Autumn Holiday Wreath by SimplyPinspirational 

Do you remember this from last year? ;)

Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes

Pin Rating: 4.5

Duration: 15-20 minute prep, 30 min bake

When asked to bring a side dish to a friend's house for a weeknight dinner I of course turned to Pintrest.  I was looking for some sort of potato side (something starchy) to go with the protein and I came across some Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes by The Farm Girl and they were delicious and easy to make. 

For this reciepe I only wanted to make a 8 x 8 dish versus the 9 x 13 that they made on the original blog, so I modified it a bit.  I also didn't have corn flakes on hand so I used chex mix.  :)

Potatoes

• 1 1/2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 small yellow onion chopped
• 1/8 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 pepper
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 14-16 oz bag of frozen shredded hash brown (I got it on sale for $1 at Safeway!)
• 1/4 cup safeway

Topping

• 1 1/2 cup chex mix
• 1 Tbsp butter melted

 Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Lasagna Bites

Pin Rating: 4

I've seen a lot of different bites recipes on Pintrest and have pinned a couple of them.  I've finally had a chance to make the lasagna bites so I was very excited for this one.  I actually read up on a few different lasagna bites recipes and in the end got pinspiration from 2 of them (Here and here).  One thing you have to know about me is that I am a huge lover of lasagna.  Every italian restaurant I dine at I must try their lasagna.  (So far I think the lasagna at Macaroni Grill is the best because they use a thin pasta for the lasagna noodles.  If you guys know somewhere even better I must know!)  But because I'm such a huge lasagna fan, when I actually bit into the bites I was disappointed.  The extra crispiness from the wonton wrapper was nice, but I felt like it lost it's lasagna identity.  I debated between a 3.5 or 4 but in the end gave it a 4 because it did taste good, it just didn't live up to my high lasagna expectations.   

Ingredients:

• Mini muffin tins (silicone ones work best)
• Wonton Wrapper Sheets  (I was lucky enough to live close to an asian supermarket, but in case you don't, you can find them on Amazon.)
• 1 1/2 cup Ricota cheese
• Cooking spray (optional)
• Meat sauce
• I used 1 lb of ground turkey
• 1 24oz jar of sauce
• 1/2 small onion chopped
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 2 cups of Mozzerella (I was generous with the cheese :))

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Regular sized muffins: 18-20 minutes

Mini muffins: 10-12 minutes

I made my own adjustments to the recipe in terms of the size I used for the bites but other than that I followed the recicpe and layering instructions.  I also tested out the original size in the full muffin tin as well as made the mini muffin sized lasagna bites.  I ended up liking the smaller bites better.  

Oven Cooked Bacon & Bacon Jalapeno Poppers

Original Pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/231724343298689221/

Original Blog Post: http://www.hellohue.com/2011/01/pop-em-like-theyre-hot.html

Pin Rating: 4.5

Duration:
Prep time: 20-30 minutes
Bacon Bake time: 17-20 minutes @ 400˚ F
Popper Bake time 15-20 minutes @ 375˚ F

One thing that I liked about making the Honey sauced chicken in the crock pot was that I can just prep it and then have time to make a second dish.  Also, if you haven't tried oven baked bacon you're in for  treat!  These poppers weren't as delicious as the chicken but they're still a quick, easy and delicious appetizer to bring to a party.

Yields 16 pieces

• 2 jalapeño
• 1 can of crescent roll
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 5-8 slices of bacon (the more the merrier!)  
• Baking sheet
• Foil

Crock Pot Honey Sauced Chicken

Original Pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/231724343298477947/

Original Blog Post: http://mmmcafe.blogspot.com/2010/01/honey-sauced-chicken.html

Pin Rating: 5

Duration: 20 minute prep & 3 hour slow cook in crock pot

I brought this chicken over to a Friendsgiving Dinner party and they were a hit!  This recipe took such little efforts and was so delicious! I doubled the original recipe to bring to the party and used wings since they were easy to grab and eat and I went home with pretty much an empty tupperware.  The beauty of this recipe was that it allowed for me to prep a second dish to bring over to the party as well.  Will definitely be making this recipe again.

• 2 lbs Chicken Party wings (Can use chicken of your liking)
•  1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 cup of honey
• 1/2 cup light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped onions
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 Tbs vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
• 1 clove garlic minced
• Dash of red pepper flakes

Garlicy Baked Shrimp

Pin Rating: 4.5

Duration: 5 min for prep & 25 minutes for the shrimp dish to bake(~ 20 minutes for the spaghetti - water takes forever to boil!)

My sister has been trying to clean out the freezer for a couple of weeks now since we've seemed to have stock piled the freezer full of food and haven't touched any of it yet.  We just happened to have 1 pound of shrimp and we weren't sure what to make for dinner until my sister reminded me I have a yummy looking shrimp dish pinned on one of my Pintrest boards (http://pinterest.com/pin/231724343298452022/).  The dish came out pretty good, but lacked a little flavor and it was probably due to me not adding white wine since there wasn't already a bottle at home. But other than that, delicious!

• 1 lb. of Medium or Large Shrimp (pre-peeled and deveined will save you a lot of time!)
• 1/4 cup softened butter (I let mine sit out to room temperature)
• 4 cloves of garlic (It calls for sliced but I had some minced - not pictured)
• 2 tbps white wine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp parsley
• Olive oil

Homemade Taco Shells & Bowls

Pin Rating: 5

Duration: 20-30 minutes (7-10 minute cook time per batch)

Mini Rant about the pin: The taco bowl pin drove me a little nuts because when I went to go look at the original instructions there were none!  This was an actual upload by a user so it didn't link up to a website and the pin itself didn't have any instructions.  I'll repin my own picture in a bit with instructions so that there's a good copy out there on Pintrest for everyone to repin.   End of rant. :)

Last month my boyfriend decided he wants to start budgeting a little better so we went grocery shopping.  Some Guerrero corn tortillas were on sale so we grabbed a pack.  Once we got home he decided to have a snack and took one bite of it and almost immediately had a frown on his face.  Apparently these are not the tortillas that he likes.  So since we bought them and we have them I turned to Pintrest for some ways to spice them up a bit so that they're more to his liking.  This quick and simple recipe did the trick!  He loved them and said they were way better this time.  (I made this over at my boyfriend's house and only had my phone so pictures aren't that great but hopefully you can get a good idea of what is going on)

Here's the original pin for the taco shells: http://pinterest.com/pin/231724343298465668/  I used the instructions from this pin to make both shapes of tortilla.

What you'll need:

• Cooking oil (spray or have a brush handy is recommended)
• Tortillas
• Oven rack
• Muffin tin
• Oven @ 375°F

First microwave your tortillas wrapped in paper towel for at least 30 seconds.  This gets them soft and flexible so that they won't break as easily when you're handling them.  I didn't have a brush handy or a spray so I poured some olive oil onto a plate and then dipped the tortilla evenly on both sides.

Tater Tot Casserole

http://pinterest.com/pin/165296248794584047/

Pin Rating: 3.5

Prep Time: 30-45 min

Cook Time: 45 min

Helped my sister out with dinner on Friday night and changed the original recipe for this breakfast casserole with healthier ingredients and items we had in the fridge. The results of the casserole was tasty but by following the assembly instructions from the website I feel like it could have been assembled better.  I'll put in the instructions I used below and my suggestions for changes if you're planning to attempt this yourself.  I also added in chopped onions and bellpepers per my sister's request.  If you're not great with a knife in the kitchen you can forego this section and it'll cut the prep time in half.

• Ground pork, breakfast sausage, ham or bacon  (I used ground breakfast sausage)
• 2-4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 cups milk
• 4 eggs ( I used 3 eggs and 3 egg yolks since my sister had egg yolks left over from her most recent cake bake)
• 2 lbs of frozen tater tots ( Used 1 bag of sweet potato tots)
• 1/2 bell peper
• 1/2 onion
• Casserole dish

Washed the bell pepper and chop off the top.  Next you want to take out the "pit" of the bell pepper and toss that out.  Helps if you just slice off the pieces connecting the center (shown in picture above).

Cut the bell pepper in half.  As tempting as it may be to lay the bell pepper skin up, it's actually easier to cut it with the skin (outside) facing the cutting board.  Then cut the bell pepper into tiny slivers.  Once you cut them into slivers, continue to cut/chop them into squares.