Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Once again, I know March isn't exactly pumpkin season.  I should be making something Springy or Easter-ish.   But I have the upcoming joy of moving soon, so I am in pantry cleaning mode.  I had a can of pumpkin that survived Fall, but needed to go.  So I flipped through some cookbooks and found this recipe for pumpkin snickerdoodles that I hadn't tried yet.  I was preparing desserts for a party I was going to (the same one I made Twix caramel popcorn for) so I thought these would be perfect.  This way I could use up my pumpkin, but my husband couldn't complain about having to eat a bunch of pumpkin stuff.  He's not pumpkin's biggest fan.

So I whipped up a batch and took them to our party hot out of the oven.  When we got there, the main course was still cooking.  I set my tray of cookies out where some people were sitting.  I kid you not, half of them were gone before we even starting eating supper.  So I guess you could say they were a hit!

Cheesy Guacamole Panini

I saw a pin on Pinterest a while back ago for a grilled cheese guacamole sandwich that looked fantastic.  I loved the idea, but never bothered pinning it, or checking it out.  Fast forward a bit.  I then found myself with no lunch plan and an avocado I needed to eat.  That post came back to my mind and I knew I now had lunch plans!

So I whipped up a batch of fresh guacamole.  You can check out my favorite guacamole recipe (heaven in a bowl!) or make your own.  I used Mexican blend cheese because I thought it would go well with the guacamole.  And it did!  But feel free to use whatever you have on hand.  I'm not the boss of you!  I was afraid if I made a regular grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with guacamole I would dump out all the good stuff while flipping.  So I made a "panini."  I use quotations because I don't actually have a panini press.  If you also don't have a panini press, no worries.  An indoor grill like a George Foreman works.  No Lean Mean Fat Grilling Machine?  Put the sandwich on a skillet like you would for a grilled cheese sandwich and then top it with a heavy pot like a Dutch oven.  Problem solved!

Twix Caramel Popcorn

Believe it or not, I used to think I didn't like caramel popcorn.  As a kid, when my family got one of those bins of popcorn for Christmas, I stuck with plain stuff, and maybe took a handful of white cheddar.  But no caramel for me.  I also thought I didn't like chocolate.  I was a very stupid child.  Now I know that I love both.  Unfortunately, maybe I love both a little too much!

I saw this recipe for Twix caramel popcorn on Two Peas and Their Pod's website and knew I had to try it.  Caramel corn drizzled with melted chocolate and garnished with Twix bars sounds pretty darn good to me!  I bought a big bag of Twix Fun Size candy bars and have been playing around with adding them to some goodies while trying to keep my husband out of them.  Some of my experiments have been more successful than others.  Some days I have been more successful at keeping my husband out of the Twix than others.  This recipe came from a tested source so it wasn't much of an experiment.  But it was totally successful!

Whole Wheat Maple Pecan Scones with Maple Icing

This post is dedicated to my mother-in-law.  Last year for my birthday she got me The Pioneer Woman Cooks, which is a fantastic cookbook and the original source of this recipe (I health-ed it up a little bit!).  My birthday is approaching again, and yesterday I got a package from her with several more cookbooks, including The Pioneer Woman's new cookbook.  Score!  Not only did she provide me with this recipe, she made The Pioneer Woman's maple pecan scones for us while we were visiting last year.  I kid you not, these were my first scones EVER!  And I was instantly in love.  It doesn't hurt that they were maple pecan, which is one of my favorite flavor combinations.  But since that time I have made myself several other scones (a few of which I have already shared) and have loved them all. 

I have been wanting to make these scones myself since the moment I took my first bite of the batch my mother-in-law made.  They are so delectable!  We're talking about flaky, buttery, scones with crunchy bits of pecans covered with a sugary, maple-y icing, topped with more crushed pecans.  Add a cup of hot coffee and you have pure breakfast nirvana.

Makeover Monday: Secret Ingredient Tuna Salad

Today's makeover recipe is going to be short and sweet.  Why?  Because after 5 straight days of rain and clouds last week, it is 80 degrees and beautiful today, and I want to be outside!  Also, I am writing about tuna salad which is simple to make!  Now, you might be wondering why I am making over tuna salad.  It's tuna.  It's salad.  Must be healthy already, right?  Wrong.  There is one particular ingredient in standard tuna salad that sullies the good name of tuna. 

Yes, I'm talking about mayonnaise.  Even the measly amount of mayonnaise in the traditional tuna salad I made over, just 1/4 cup, packs in 19 grams of fat and 230 calories!  That's more than twice the calories you get from the can of tuna in this salad.  So what you end up with is your lean, healthy, tuna swimming around in a sea of fatty mayonnaise, and after a few innocent seeming sandwiches, you find yourself with a sea of fat around your midsection.  Fortunately, I have a life raft to take you out of your sea of fat and onto skinny island!