Mustard Bacon Roasted Brussels Sprouts

We have the same old vegetables at our house-- broccoli and green beans!   I wanted to mix up the repertoire and decided to buy some brussels sprouts-- after looking at a handful of different ways to prepare brussels, I came up with a concoction I thought sounded like it would turn out the best!  I LOVE the way these turned out- and they will be on the rotation quite frequently.  I will also mention my 15 month old LOVES them too-- toddler eating brussels sprouts, I think yes!

Mustard Bacon Roasted Brussels Sprouts

approx 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 16 oz bag of frozen brussels sprouts (you can use fresh also!)
• 5 pieces of precooked bacon, chopped
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 3 Tbs whole grain mustard
• 2 Tbs Honey
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp paprika

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. In a small/medium mixing bowl mix together the chopped bacon, olive oil, whole grain mustard, honey, black pepper, red pepper flakes and paprika.
3. Add frozen brussels sprouts to bowl and mix/coat well with bacon/mustard mixture.
4. Transfer brussels to foil lined baking sheet, scraping the bowl to get all the mustard/bacon mixture on the brussels.  Distribute in a single layer on the baking sheet.
5. Roast in preheated oven for 25 minutes.
6. Enjoy!!

Buffalo Chicken Dip (my way)

Buffalo Chicken Dip is a staple in the south for football parties I think!  Someone ALWAYS brings it!   The hubs says "I like the way you make it..." so he requested it not to long ago-- and I wrote down what I did so I wouldn't forget.

Buffalo Chicken Dip:

(makes approx 12 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• (2) 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup Ranch Dressing
• 1/2-3/4 bottle of Buffalo Wing Sauce (I usually use Texas Pete Brand) *hotness is your preference
• 1 1/2 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• Scoops (Tostitos)
• Celery (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat Oven to 400.   Wash & Trim Chicken Breasts.  Place chicken breasts in oven-safe dish with lid.   Cover chicken completely with water- cover and place in oven for 20-30 minutes or until chicken is done.
2. Shred chicken with two forks.  Place in crock pot.
3. Make sure cream cheese is soft (sometimes I will put in microwave (REMOVE FOIL WRAPPER) and get it really soft so it is easy to mix in).
4. Add cream cheese, ranch dressing, cheddar cheese and buffalo wing sauce to crock pot and mix well.  At this point I usually "taste' how the mixture is on a chip to see if I need to add more of anything (usually wing sauce).  Keep adding wing sauce until the "taste" meets your approval-- I like a lot of wing sauce!
5. Warm on high in slow cooker until hot & bubbly- stirring every so often. (approx 1.5-2 hours)

Enjoy!

Paleo-ISH Buffalo Chicken Pasta

A couple weeks ago I did a 7-day cleanse and lost 9 Ibs.  It was crazy to see how much you can lose by not filling yourself with processed food and dairy!  If you want to read more about that cleanse you can check it out here:  The GM Diet.  Anyways-- coming off that diet I researched the Paleo diet because it had some of the same characteristics--- I pinned some recipes on pinterest but haven't honestly gotten serious about it-- but a lot of the recipes looked YUMMY.

One of them I pinned was from PaleOMG.com for Buffalo Chicken Pasta because who doesn't love buffalo anything??   I used the "basis" of the recipe from the site but tweaked it a bit because quite honestly the Paleo mayo sorta freaks me out at this point and I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand!  So...in the end that is why I am calling my rendition Paleo-ISH because the basic concept is there but not all of the ingredients are strict Paleo (olive oil, mayo).

Here is what I did:

Paleo-ISH Buffalo Chicken Pasta
(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken Breasts, cubed
• 1 Carrot, finely diced
• 2 Celery Stalks, finely diced
• 1/2 Sweet Onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 1 large spaghetti squash
• 1/2-3/4 cup of buffalo wing sauce ( I bought Wing-Time Brand bc it had no dairy in it)
• 2 tbs mayonnaise (I used Earth's Balance Vegan Mayo)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.   Cut squash in half lengthwise.  Line a baking sheet (with sides) with foil and place squash open-side down on foil.  Roast 25 minutes (or until skin feels soft).  Let cool until easily handled.
2. While squash is cooking-- heat 1 tsp olive oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Add finely diced carrot, celery, sweet onion, garlic and cubed. (the more finely diced the veggies the better in my opinion for this recipe!  I used my Pampered Chef Manual Food Processor and it did the trick!)  Saute, stirring frequently until veggies are tender and chicken is cooked (approx 10-12 min).  (at this point I did add some salt & pepper to the chicken/veggies while cooking.)
3. By now your squash should be ready to handle- using a discard seeds.    Start using the fork to pull out the threads of squash making "spaghetti".
4. Transfer squash threads to skillet with veggies and chicken.  Add buffalo wing sauce and 2tbs mayo.  Mix well and heat through.
5. I sprinkled some parsley on there for some color -- If I would have had some diced green onions I would have used them as a garnish!

Enjoy!

~Melissa