Erin Kennedy — Page 32

Cucumber Cream Cheese Ghosts

October 23, 2013 By Erin Kennedy 1 Comment

When it comes to Halloween-themed foods, I feel like all I ever see are sweet treats. There’s not enough savory recipes! As much as I like the sweet stuff, there is only so much sugar I can take!

How cute are these little ghosties?! They are basically little tea sandwiches, but in a much cooler shape. They are a lot of fun for all ages and you can use whatever flavors of cream cheese you like best! I served these at a party I had last weekend to break up all the sugary stuff.

I will tell you that it can be a little tricky to spread the cream cheese over the cucumber. Using thin slices of the cucumber and whipped cream cheese makes it easier, but if you are finding it too difficult, you could always just skip the cucumbers!

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Pumpkin Spice Syrup – A Healthy Alternative To This Fall Favorite

October 16, 2013 By Erin Kennedy Leave a Comment

Autumn is in full effect here. Though, Las Vegas isn’t gifted with changing trees or sidewalks blanketed in fallen leaves, we still can see the presence of fall. The morning air is cool and crisp and the moon is revealing herself a little earlier each passing night. Regardless of where you reside during this transition of the seasons, you undoubtedly feel the shift occur within your body and mind. The desire to turn inward, snuggle up and contemplate mother earth nestling down. This is a time for grounding and reflecting, and what better way than to warm up with a cup of coffee or tea. That steam meeting your lips while you inhale that all too familiar aroma of fall. Cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, mmmm. I bet you’re thinking of that famous Starbucks pumpkin spice latte.

Well, lemme tell you why we should stay away from this all too enticing beverage of choice. For starters, the syrup they use doesn’t even have pumpkin in it! Their syrup consists of condensed milk, high fructose corn syrup, artificial and natural flavors and annatto.

How about I save you from my lengthy speech about all these ingredients and just give you my very own healthy and delicious recipe alternative. This pumpkin spice syrup will change your holiday season, enjoy!

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Parmesan Sweet Potato Tots with Buttermilk Chive Dressing

October 14, 2013 By Erin Kennedy 1 Comment

So I can either sound very gullible or very enlightening, but I just learned that sweet potatoes and yams are the same thing! The U.S. government has perpetuated this error by mislabeling, and all this time we thought we were making a choice on two different vegetables. You can see how we’ve all been so confused! Or maybe I was just late to the party…

When most of us think of sweet potatoes, we reference the orange variety. However, the majority of sweet potatoes found in grocery stores are pale and almost yellow in color. Since we’ve been calling the orange type of sweet potatoes “yams” since colonial times, the name caught on to reference that specific variety. It’s like when your teacher misreads your name for attendance, and the whole class thinks you’re Sam Weiners instead of Sam Weyner for the end of time. Poor Sam Weiners.

Anyway, true yams are starchy tubers that have an almost black bark-like skin and white, purple or reddish flesh, found in Africa and Asia. That’s quite different from those canned yams you buy for Thanksgiving!

Did you know that there are 16 varieties of sweet potatoes? The pale type you see in most grocery stores are called Hannahs, and the orange type that we mistake for yams are actually Beauregard sweet potatoes. There’s also Garnets that have a pumpkin-like taste, and Covingtons that are more widely found in the South.

I tried Hannahs for these Parmesan Sweet Potato Tots, and they were delicious!

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Quick Zesty Italian Chicken

October 10, 2013 By Erin Kennedy Leave a Comment

This is one of those recipes that need to be in your back pocket for when you don’t know what to make for dinner or for those night that you are just exhausted, and want to make something quick and delicious. My husband is a super picky eater, and he loved this meal so much that he was all about the leftovers, and that doesn’t happen very often. He said that he actually liked it better the next day because the spices just marinated overnight and it was ta-tasty.

This is literally a five minute meal and just throw in the oven for an hour and done-zo.

These seasonings are the secret ingredient to this recipe. I love Good Seasons Zesty Italian. It is so good as a dressing and spices. I decided to use half of their Garlic & Herb and half Zesty Italian.

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