Living the SWEET Life

If you know me at all, you know I don't have much of a sweet tooth. That's certainly not to say I don't eat sweets - because I certainly do - but given the option of a cupcake or a big pile of mashed potatoes & gravy, I'll choose the taters 97% of the time.

This month, however, some of the Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassadors were partnered with SPLENDA® for an Apple vs. Pumpkin cookoff. And I was ready & willing to take on the challenge!

Let me start by saying I am most definitely a SPLENDA® fan. I've been using it for years. I particularly love the SPLENDA® granulated product. It measures cup for cup the same as regular sugar & dissolves perfectly in a glass of iced tea. I bought Jim a sugar dispenser like they have at coffee shops which we fill with SPLENDA® Sweetener for his morning coffee (he makes much less of a mess now than he did wielding a spoon). Of course it's great for baking, and I've already mentioned the coffee & tea, but I also use it in vinaigrette dressings, in spaghetti sauce and I put just a touch in my baby lima beans (my Mamaw's secret was always just a touch of sugar). Of course, I keep sugar on hand just in case, but I really only rarely use it.

So - back to the challenge! My biggest issue going into this thing was the pumpkin. Not only had I never - not once in my life - ever cooked anything with pumpkin, but I'm fairly certain I'd never eaten anything pumpkin either. And to be totally honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. The results, however, were pleasantly surprising!

The first thing I did was select two recipes featuring SPLENDA® Sweetener from Allrecipes.com. There were four listed and I chose these two: Pumpkin Waffles and Baked Apple Turnovers.

Both recipes were Fantastic!!!! Like I said, neither Red, nor I, was excited about the prospect of Pumpkin Waffles - boy, were we wrong! We went crazy for them & both told everyone we saw for DAYS about them & how great they were! The Turnovers also turned out delicious. The recipe calls for packaged refrigerated pie crusts (uh, yes please!), so they're super easy to put together. I have to say, after cooking the apple mixture, I didn't think I would like the consistency of the filling - but the end product was Spot On! They totally reminded me of the Fried Apple Tarts my Nanny used to make (only a whole lot easier & NOT fried)!  Jim ate these with a scoop of ice cream every night after dinner until they were gone.

The verdict?

Apple vs. Pumpkin - Round 1 - A dead heat!

On to Round 2:

I chose two recipes from the SPLENDA® site:  Golden Pumpkin Loaf and Cinnamon Oatmeal Apple Crisp

First up - Golden Pumpkin Loaf:

Again, very tasty. My loaf fell as it was cooling - but in hindsight, I think that may have been me not really knowing how to work the convection setting on my oven & maybe I should have cooked it just a few minutes longer. The taste was quite nice though. I used Craisins® in place of the raisins and Vanilla fat free yogurt instead of plain, because it's what I had on hand. When I warmed a few slices for breakfast the next day, I paired it with a big glass of Sara's Iced Coffee (from Allrecipes.com) which I aslo made with SPLENDA® Sweetener. This was a great way to start my day!

Next up: Cinnamon Oatmeal Apple Crisp

Yummy! What was so great about this recipe is that it only makes 2 individual servings - SO easy to throw together! I found the crumb topping just a little dry, so next time I would probably add a tad bit more margarine, but otherwise it was de-lish! I'd like to tell you Red really enjoyed it too, but that's not the case. Unfortunately for him, he is out of town and I've already eaten all of it! And for a girl with not much of a sweet tooth, that's saying something!

Round 2:

Apple vs. Pumpkin - APPLE!

Share the LOVE of all things SWEET!

#Apple #Pumpkin #AllrecipesAllstars

I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador (a voluntary position) and I am not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. I participated in a campaign on behalf of Allrecipes.com and SPLENDA®. I received samples to facilitate my reviews and promotional items as a thank-you for participating. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of me, Mrs. Redeye.

Everything's gonna be alright-a!

I don't know about you, but Ore-Ida® frozen potatoes were a staple in our house when I was growing up - and they're a staple in our house now. My Mom always had a bag of Tater Tots® on hand for a quick snack or side and there was always a package of Diced (Southern Style) Hash Browns for our family's favorite potato casserole (every family has one). I'd put money on the fact that Mom has both of those in her freezer right now.

And I DO know, at least for us, that there are two specific reasons for that.

The first of those is convenience. Ore-Ida® offers so many options, each of which significantly cuts down on my time in the kitchen. It's really almost too easy to throw some Ore-Ida® fries or tots in the oven as a side for almost anything. Not to mention, in my many years of cooking, I've yet to make a batch of homemade french fries worth eating. I just haven't been able to get them crispy on the outside & fluffy on the inside - and believe me! I have tried! Also, once, when I was in college, I was going to make Mom's famous potato casserole for a group of us who were grilling out. I'd made it plenty of times, and knew exactly what I was doing. However..... the guy I was dating convinced me that making it with fresh, raw potatoes would be much better. He was wrong. We cooked that casserole for at least 2 hours - potatoes never did get done. [side notes: Didn't marry that guy. Redeye never questions the potato casserole.] That's a lesson you don't soon forget. Ore-Ida® potatoes are already clean, peeled, chopped or sliced and even partially cooked! They've totally done the hard part for you.

The second reason is quality. Over the years we've tried other brands of frozen fries and diced potatoes. There's a difference. I haven't been able to count on consistency with any other brand. When I buy an Ore-Ida® product, I know exactly what I'm getting, and I know it will cook perfectly and it will taste great.

It's really nice when you realize you can use Ore-Ida® potatoes as elements in so many other recipes too. You may not have made a Tater Tot Casserole - but chances are you've heard of it. I made a casserole recently with french fries, ham, broccoli & mushrooms. This would be a great idea for holiday leftovers.

Try something new with them that you haven't before. I know a lot of people who use the Shredded Hash Browns as the base of their breakfast casseroles. Diced Hash Browns are great to use in pot pies and potato soup. Top Ore-Ida® Fries or Tots with chili & cheese, or gravy, or bacon & ranch to satisfy a crew of hungry teens (ore one lady with a sudden craving...). Go ahead! You know you already have them in the freezer!

Click here Ore-Ida for new products and recipe ideas.

I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador (a voluntary position) and I am not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com.

Products received from Ore-Ida are only used for experienced-based reviews on Mississippi Madness with Mrs. Redeye. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of me, Staci Maddox.

 

Italian Sausage - one of my new favorite things!

I have a confession to make. Until just a few years ago, everything I knew about Italian sausage came from pizza. Like most people, I'd had it on pizza - along with lots of other things (Redeye will order a Meat Lover/Carnivore/Man's Man pizza every time if I let him) and I'd used it in one recipe - exactly one - ever. And do you wanna take a stab at what that was? Yep. Pizza. A stuffed pizza at that. It consisted of Italian sausage, peppers, onion, etc. sandwiched between (get this) two frozen pizzas and topped with cheese. Sounds very Julia Child, no? OK, so I haven't made that in a REALLY long time. Don't see it in my future either.

But several years ago, dear hubby showed up with probably 10lbs of Italian sausage from his new deer processor. Neither of us had any idea what to do with it. So I started digging around on Allrecipes for what I could make with it. We tried several Sausage, Onion, Pepper (and sometimes Potato) combinations - something you don't see much of here in Mississippi - and of course I used it in lasagna, baked ziti, things like that. I certainly wasn't being adventurous - just trying to use it up. We've since changed processors & haven't gotten any more (venison) Italian Sausage. But I knew I needed to try the real thing.

Since then, I've turned to Johnsonville® (my go-to brand for Brats - Yum!) for Italian Sausage. AND I've ventured out and found that I can incorporate Italian Sausage into so many other things - even Non-Italian things. I know this should have been obvious, but truly, it wasn't.

A while back I was making up a big batch of spaghetti sauce. As is often the case, it was a fridge & pantry cleaning-out project. Of course I didn't write anything down - just threw it all in. There was ground beef, Johnsonville® Italian Sausage (Hot, I think), zucchini, mushrooms, onion and obviously tomatoes & sauce and lots of seasoning. It was, hands down, THE best spaghetti sauce I've ever made. Hopefully I can recreate it.

Another thing I love is Italian Wedding soup. A friend turned me on to it about 15 years ago and I'll order it any time it's available. Sometimes (gasp!) I even eat the canned version. I cannot imagine why it took me so long to finally make it. I know I didn't think the Red man would eat it. It turned out great!!! And I was wrong - He Loved it! Wants me to make it again & again!

Italian Wedding Soup

I also tried the Italian Sausage Market Meatloaf. Besides being full of veggies, it has a layer of spinach & provolone in the middle too - hubby thought that was pretty awesome. It was jam-packed with flavor! Definitely not your momma's meatloaf! (I'm going to go ahead & apologize for the terrible photo - it tasted way better than I made it look).



Italian Sausage Market Meatloaf

This sausage is also delicious incorporated into South-of-the-border-type dishes. I've made the Chiliville Chili before. It has a bit of sweetness to it, not what I was used to, but great flavor. < I have a photo of it somewhere, I'll come back & post if I can find it. >

Sizzlin' Sante Fe Dip

This dip is super easy & very hearty (Red found it totally man-worthy). It looks like your typical Mexican dip, but the Johnsonville® Hot Italian Sausage really added something special to it. Now Johnsonville® All Natural Italian Sausage is available in 1lb. bulk packages - no casings to remove & the perfect size to easily replace it for another meat in some of your old favorites too! I'm really looking forward to finding more new ways to use it!

Now I certainly don't mean to imply that Italian Sausage is all Johnsonville does! For goodness sake, Don't forget the Brats! And you may not know that they also make smoked sausages, breakfast sausages, chicken sausages - they even have frozen products. Check out the Johnsonville® website for ideas, product availability, recipes & promotions. Oh! The possibilities!

#JvilleKitchens     #AllstarsJville

I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador (a voluntary position) and I’m not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com.

Products received from advertiser are only used for experienced-based reviews on Mississippi Madness with Mrs. Redeye. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of Staci Maddox .

http://allrecipes.com/howto/allrecipes-allstars/detail.aspx\

Dinner at My House? There WILL Be Meat!

Anyone who knows me well has probably heard me say, when referring to any meal, "If there's no meat, it's a salad."

Let me clarify that just a bit. First of all, I really only say that about Dinner... and probably Lunch. Breakfast doesn't count. Secondly, I actually LIKE a salad - on the side of my dinner - I personally don't want a salad AS a meal unless it has meat on it. And finally, I will even admit that I will, on occasion, have a dinner of spinach lasagna with a salad & crusty bread (no meat involved). So I know I'm contradicting myself there as well. But as a general rule - and again, only speaking for me, personally - I live by this equation:  No meat = Salad.

That being said, I'm sure you've gathered that Mr. Redeye, being the outdoorsman that he is, is quite the meat-eater as well. And he does love to fire up the grill with whatever he may have brought home from the hunt. This weekend he's headed to the Mississippi Delta for the big Labor Day Weekend Dove hunt - I'm looking forward to reaping the benefits of that in the next week or so.

My husband (aka Redeye, Red, Jim, etc.) travels a lot for work and of course, spends a lot of time at the hunting camp. So I'm usually home a good bit of the week by myself. When he IS home, chances are at least one night we're going to grill something. More often than not, that will be steak, and I certainly don't complain - he's mighty good at it. As a matter of fact, he's dubbed himself The Grillmaster, and well, I'll let him have that.

See where he burned his moniker into the grill table?

He does have a tendency to cook more than we will eat in that one sitting, but lucky for me, I've found plenty of things to do with the leftovers. I want to tell you about one I tried the other night.

Grilled Steak and Fresh Mozzarella Flatbread

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-steak-and-fresh-mozzarella-flatbread/detail.aspx

These open-faced sandwiches were really tasty! They did need a little salt & pepper, but other than that, I think the recipe is great as written. I bet a little fresh tomato would be great on them as well. I, of course, used leftover steak (part of a T-bone) that we had seasoned with our usual blend. This was a great use of the leftover steak & so simple to throw together - I'll be making them again often.

Like I said, Jim's gone a lot. So another thing I do to make dinner easy for myself when he's out - or when he needs something & I'm not home - is to freeze individual servings of various things that can easily make a meal. You can almost always find individual servings of spaghetti sauce, chili and taco meat in my freezer. Let's face it, ground beef is just so easy to work with and versatile. Did you know that a 3oz serving of lean (95%) Ground Beef only has 5.1g of total fat, 2.4g of saturated fat, and less than 95mg of cholesterol and only about 150 calories? That's better than the same size portion of a skinless chicken thigh! It's actually Good for you, folks! Even better than that, it's Tasty!

Last week I cooked a big batch of taco meat. We made Taco Salad using this recipe for dinner that night and I froze the rest of the meat for later.

Confetti Beef Taco Salad

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/confetti-beef-taco-salad/detail.aspx

Who would have ever thought that simply changing up the way you combine the same usual ingredients would make a taco salad SO much better?!?! I'm here to tell you - It was DEEE-Licious!!! I made a dressing by combining Ranch dressing & Taco Sauce. Yum!!!! I ate this three time that week! You simply have to try it.

So, as I said - If you're coming to dinner at my house, you can pretty much count on having meat - quite likely that meat will be Beef, because well, you know: Beef. It's What's For Dinner. And that's definitely OK with me.

To find lots of other helpful Beef recipes and tips, visit BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com  

#ItsWhatsForDinner

I am an AllrecipesAllstar Brand Ambassador (a voluntary position) and I’m not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. Products received from advertiser are only used for experienced-based reviews my personal blog.  The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are all my own. 

True Grits!

When the weather turns from cold, gloomy & wet, and the Sun finally decides to make an appearance... Here in Mississippi that means one thing:

It’s Patio-sittin’ Time, my friends!  Time to load up your rolling coolers & get on over to the Maddox household for an afternoon of food & fun with all of the regular crew. This year we called it Silly Spring Saturday. How, you may ask, is this different from Funny Fall Friday? Well, there are a few distinct differences:

1)    It’s Saturday, so nobody has to play hooky from work

2)    The men and kiddos are invited too (Funny Fall Friday is just the ladies)

3)    The women are encouraged to shower & get dressed (F.F.F. is strictly loungewear/hair clippies/no makeup)

So, you see, there are clear differences……..

As usual, Grill Master Maddox was doing his thing outside – Smoked venison sausage, deer poppers, chicken wings, grilled veggies… and I handled all the “indoor” food – the ever-popular Chili Cheese Grits, New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp, green bean bundles and of course, the Margaritas!

I’ve done some tweaking on my grits lately and the results were Fantastic!

Chili Cheese Grits Recipe

I used Sargento ® Chef Blends 4 State Cheddar™ and added more hot sauce.  Now, I can’t necessarily say they were the hands-down favorite (those deer poppers are pretty darn fab), but I doubled the recipe – which, believe me, is a LOT of grits – and they were completely gone!

Grits get a bad rap in general, if you ask me. First of all, they don’t have to be served plain with nothing but butter, salt & pepper – personally, I don’t really care for them like that either. And secondly, they’re most certainly not just for breakfast anymore! Trust me on this one! Jazz them up & try them with grilled meats or seafood. You won’t regret it. - Just a little sage advice from this True G.R.I.T. (girl raised in the South) to you.

You can find my Chili Cheese Grits recipe and lots of other cheesy, tasty treats in Sargento's® online cookbook too. Sargento Cookbook 

I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador (a voluntary position) and I'm not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. I received the products from Sargento Foods Inc. as part of my participation in this campaign. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own.