Kale Chips

I know, I know...this just looks like a bunch of leaves BUT, let me assure you that as the saying goes, you can't eat just one of these bad boys. They are pretty addicting. I 1ST heard of them from a couple of friends on FB who shared the recipe. We do love kale in our house, and we've had a lot of it in the fridge this week so I decided to make some use of it and try these chips once and for all. Glad I did! I have to admit, I didn't think the recipe called for enough salt for some reason so I did oversalt mine a little. Stick to the recipe and add more after you taste if necessary. This recipe is also on All Recipes and has many high reviews.

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon seasoned salt (I used Lawry's seasoned salt-I imagine sea salt would be good if you don't have seasoned salt)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.

With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner (I don't have a salad spinner so I just dried with paper towels).

Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.

Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10-15 minutes.

Pan Fried Onion Dip

Delicious delicious delicious! My brother's gf made this on Thanksgiving and I've made it 3 times since! We are hooked. The recipe came from Brown Eyed Baker who got it from The Barefoot Contessa. Tip: the longer you saute the onions and get them nice and caramelized and the juices flowing the better. Serve with carrots, pretzels, chips or crackers (I like it with salty Reduced Fat Ruffles but that's just me).

Ingredients:

2 Large Yellow Onions

4 Tblsp. Unsalted Butter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 tsp. ground cayenne pepper

1 tsp.kosher salt

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup mayonnaise

Directions:

-Cut the onions in half then into 1/8 inch-thick half rounds (will result in about 3 cups of onions).

-Heat the butter and oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.

-Add the onions, cayenne, salt and pepper and saute for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 20-30 more minutes or until the onions are brown and carmelized. Allow the onions to cool.

-Place the cream cheese, sour cream and mayo in a bowl and beat until smooth (with a hand held or electric mixer).

-Add the onions and mix well. Serve at room temperature. Refrigerate any left overs.

Easy Summer Appetizer

Ingredients:

toothpicks
small mozzarella balls
fresh basial leaves
cherry tomatoes
salami
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Directions:

Assemble one mozzarella ball, one piece of basil, one cherry tomato, and one slice of salami on a toothpick. Repeat until you have the number desired. Drizzle with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Buffalo Wing Dip

I got this idea from a friend this summer at a pool party/pot luck. It was sooo good so I decided to try and re-create it for an "appetizer contest" we had the following week. I won!!! This was probably the simplest thing in the contest but I won because people couldn't stop going back for more.

Ingredients:

1 bottle of Frank's Hot Wing Sauce

1 whole pre-cooked rotisserie chicken

1 bag of shredded cheddar cheese

1 big bottle of ranch dressing

2 packages of cream cheese

1container of crumbled blue cheese

Directions:

With your fingers, shred the chicken from the rotisserie chicken and put into mixing bowl, add the hot wing sauce, cheese, ranch dressing, shredded chicken and mix together. Pour into the baking dish (on top of cream cheese) then Sprinkle the crumbled blue cheese on top and put into the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

I like to serve with celery sticks and tortilla chips.

Crescent Pepperoni Rolls

This is the easiest appetizer/snack/finger food to make and is especially yummy for kids! I stole this recipe from Jordan's "Nana". There is is so much you can do with these crescent rolls but she gave me the idea to spread them with Mascarpone cheese, put Pepperoni on them and then roll them up and stick em' in the oven! They are not very low fat but I made them last weekend for the football game and they were D-lish!

Ingredients:
1 tub mascarpone cheese
1 bag of pepperoni
1 tube of Crescent dough

Directions:
Roll out the dough, tear along perforated edges to spread out each roll. Spread on the mascarpone cheese, add pepperoni and roll up into a crescent roll! Cook according to directions on the dough. Easy!

*You can always modify to make a slight difference with low-fat crescent dough and turkey pepperoni. *