Won-Ton Salad

A friend shared this recipe with me and I couldn't stop eating this salad. The dressing with the crunch from the friend won-tons is a perfect pair.

Ingredients:
1 package won-ton wrappers, deep fried *see note
2 heads of lettuce, chopped
2-3 bunches green onions, chopped

Dressing:
6 TBSP rice vinegar
4 TBSP sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
2 TBSP Sesame Seeds

Directions:
Mix the lettuce and green onions in a large bowl. Right before serving, crumble the fried won-tons into the salad, they get soggy fast. Serve immediately.

*How to deep fry won-tons. In a wok heat up 4 cups of vegetable or canola oil to 400 degrees. Make sure the oil is nice and hot before starting.  Fry each won-ton until golden brown and let dry on a plate lined with paper towels.

Crunchy Taco Cups

I had this as an appetizer at a get-together and decided to make it into a main dish. I really don't like pre-packaged taco seasoning, but if you want to speed things up go ahead and use it. But, you'll be missing out on the delicious fresh flavor of mixing in your own taco seasoning. Plus, it only takes about 1-2 extra minutes to make your own and it's so much tastier and healthier. We've had these divine little taco cups several times. I love the double layered wonton with the meat and cheese all nicely squished inside together. It's so much easier to eat than the classic taco too, way less mess! We also really enjoy how quick this is to make and how tasty it is to eat! This recipe makes 12 taco cups, but when we make this for our family of 8 we double the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
1 10 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained
1/4 tsp chili powder (add 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp for a hotter flavor)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

1 TBSP flour
24 Wonton wrappers
1 1/2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheddar cheese
optional: sour cream, avocado, and chopped green onion

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Generously coat a standard size muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

2. Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat and add the ground turkey, breaking it up as you brown it. Drain off any extra liquid and then add the drained tomatoes, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, ground cumin, salt, and black pepper. Heat and stir until all heated through, add the 1 TBSP flour and stir until no more liquid remains and it thickens up. Remove from the heat.

3. Line each prepared muffin tin with a wonton wrapper and press down into each muffin cup. Add 1 TBSP taco mixture to each wonton filled muffin cup, then add 1 TBSP cheese. Fill each 12 muffin cups this way. Then to make a second layer, place another wonton wrapper on top of the cheese and press down into the sides of each cup. Top with another 1 TBSP taco mixture and 1 TBSP cheese for the final layer.

4. Bake for 11-13 minutes until the cups are heated through and the edges are golden.

5. Remove each baked wonton taco cup from the muffin tin and set on a cooling rack so the bottoms can air a bit before being placed on a plate.

6. Top each taco cup with a dollop of sour cream, an avocado slice, and a few chopped green onions.

Orange Julius Copy Cat

I have a couple of picky eating kids and I wanted to soup up our usual breakfast juice with something that had a bit more to it. We have some dairy milk sensitive bodies in our family so I tried a few variations with almond milk rather than dairy milk. I'm a die-hard dairy milk favored gal and actually don't enjoy the almond milk that most of my family drinks. I can't stand it on cereal. But, this Orange Julius with the almond milk is so much better than with dairy milk, trust me. Plus, it's naturally sweeter than dairy milk so you don't need to add vanilla or sugar to the recipe like most of the ones floating around the web. We love the delicious flavor and frothy goodness!

Ingredients:

1 12 ounce can orange juice concentrate
2 cups Almond Breeze reduced sugar vanilla almond milk
2 cups water
2 cups ice cubes

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend to your hearts desire! Serve immediately.

Breakfast Casserole

A few months ago we decided to jump onto the breakfast casserole bandwagon. We found a nice recipe online and made two pans, freezing one and baking the other. It tasted awful and we sadly tossed the leftovers and the uncooked frozen casserole in the trash. We found this recipe through a friend and our kids (even the pickiest ones) rave about it. We like turkey so much better so we subbed the ground sausage for turkey sausage. This one is a winner and now our regular Saturday morning family breakfast!

Ingredients

1 24 ounce bag of frozen hash browns
1 cup butter
1 lb. uncooked turkey sausage
9 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper
3 cups grated cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Warm oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray, set aside.

2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt the 1 cup butter and then add the hash browns. Cook for about 15 minutes, browning and stirring at regular intervals.

3. While the hash browns are cooking, warm another skillet to medium-high heat and brown the turkey sausage, breaking up the sausage as it cooks so that it's a crumbly texture.

4. Once the hash browns are nicely golden brown, put them in the bottom of the prepared 9x13 pan. Top them with the browned crumbled turkey sausage.

5. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, sour cream, salt, garlic powder, and pepper until smooth. Then, stir in the grated cheddar cheese. Pour the wet ingredients over the hash browns and sausage. Stir all the ingredients together in the 9x13 pan.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve warm.