What to do with that leftover turkey??

You have so many leftovers from Thanksgiving, and you have no idea what to do with them!

Here are a few *simple* ideas.

I made a turkey salad with our leftovers.  I cut up the turkey, added a little mayo, some chopped walnuts, and some craisins, threw it on some bread, and lunch is served!  You do so many variations to this, so get creative.

Another alternative for this sandwich is to use leftover turkey with your leftover cranberry sauce and stuffing.  If you are really trying to finish off the gravy, use that for dipping, but make sure you hit the gym after!

Looking for something to keep you warm?  Chop your leftover veggies and turkey, throw into a pot of simmering broth with some rice and pepper and make a tasty soup.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Celebrate with these pumpkin spice cupcakes!

Hopefully, you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with you and yours.  I know I did.  Kicked off the day running a 5K with my hubby and his siblings!  A fun-filled family event, which made me feel less guilty come dessert time!

 To make these delicious pumpkin spice cupcakes, you will need the following ingredients (most of which were at the front of the grocery store leading up to Turkey day!):

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 2 sticks and 6 Tbsp of softened unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 15 oz can of pure pumpkin
• 1/2 cup of molasses
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup of sour cream at room temperature
• 1 tsp grated orange zest - finally got to use my zester!!

I'm definitely not ready to be on Cupcake Wars or any of those shows, but these came out pretty good!

Preheat the oven to 350.  Line muffin tins with liners.  I used a mini-muffin pan....whole cupcakes can be intimidating at Thanksgiving when there are 20 other desserts on the table!

In a bowl, mix together the flour, ginger, cloves, baking power, baking soda, and salt.  In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer and mix the 2 sticks of butter and granulated sugar.  The mixture will become fluffy.  Then, beat the eggs in, one at a time.  Add the pure pumpkin, and molasses, and then slowly mix in the flour mixture.  Your batter is complete!

Place a generous amount of batter into each muffin liner, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes if you are making little guys, and about 20-25 minutes if you were brave enough to make full size cupcakes.  If you aren't sure if they are ready, use the old wooden toothpick trick.  Stick in the middle and if it comes out clean, they are ready to rock!

While the "muffins" are cooking, you can prep the frosting.  Grab that electric mixer again, and yes, clean off the pumpkin batter!  Mix the confectioners' sugar, sour cream and remaining butter until its creamy.  Stir in the orange zest and let it sit in the fridge for an hour before frosting!  You can always hold off on frosting until right before serving!

If your family is anything like mine, you had WAY TOO much food at Thanksgiving, and took home lots of leftovers.  These cupcakes make for a great dessert....but they are also good with your morning coffee :-)

I am thankful for my husband, my families, and my amazing friends.  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

Oh yes, another slow cooker recipe...stuffed peppers!

Yes, that's right.  Pull the slow cooker back out. Do not stuff it into the back of the cabinet.  The slow cooker has to be one of the best inventions.  Why?  Because you throw a bunch of stuff into it, and a delicious meal comes out of it hours later.  Nothing like coming home from work and having dinner ready to go.

I actually just prepped this dish for dinner tomorrow, so I'm hoping it's good since I'm about brag about it to you.  Put a can of crushed tomatoes into the slow cooker (14.5 oz), 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, salt and pepper.  Then in a mixing bowl add one small chopped onion, one small diced potato, 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, and 1 cup fresh chopped parsley.  Mix well.  Then, add in 1lb of Italian sausage.  Take the casings off, and mix in with the other ingredients.  Your stuffing is complete.

Then take 4 red peppers.  Make sure they are able to stand up.  If not, then slice the bottoms to make them flat so they can stand.  Cut the tops of the peppers off but keep them handy, and remove the seeds.  Stuff the peppers with the mixture (about 1 cup of stuffing in each pepper), and place in the slow cooker on top of the sauce you already have in there.  Cover each pepper with its respective top and cook on low 5 to 6 hours, or on high 3 to 4 hours.

Make sure to serve your peppers with some of the delicious sauce at the bottom of the crock pot!  Hope you enjoy it! 

Andddd, I'm back....with some slow cooker recipes!

I know, it's been a while.  Quite a while...but what can I say? Summer came.  Which means nice weather, lots of being outside - at the beach - eating and drinking, but no time to sit inside and blog.  Maybe I will get around to posting some of the dishes I made over the summer, but for now Fall is here, which means football, friends, family, FOOD.  Very alliterative of me.

So it's a cool Fall day out there, and maybe you're inside watching the game.  Maybe you have some friends coming over, and maybe you want to make a new recipe without having to fuss when your company arrives.  Well, here I am, your little slow cooker angel!

A couple of weeks ago, we had our newly married friends - Mr. and Mrs. Callahan - over for a dreadful Pats game. Dreadful because they lost, but at least we had good company and good food.  That morning I placed a 1 1/2lb flank steak cut into 4 pieces in the slow cooker, covered it with 3/4 of a diced red onion, and one heaping tablespoon of chili powder.  Add about half a pineapple, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (save the other half for later).  If you have that pineapple corer I've raved about in the past, this is a quick process.  Add some salt, add some pepper, and let that baby sit in the slow cooker for about 7 to 8 hours on low.  Or, if you slept in, and you don't feel like waiting 8 hours til dinner, cook it on high for 4-5 hours....but I mean it's called slow cooking for a reason, so try to aim for the 7 to 8 hours on low.

When you have about a half hour left on the meat, grab a mixing bowl, and add the rest of the pineapple, thinly slice the 1/4 of red onion you have left, add a sliced jalapenos (leave the seeds in for some heat!), 2 tablespoons of lime juice and a little bit of salt and pepper.  Gently toss that together.  Then, add in 1/4 -1/2 cup of cilantro.  I recommend the 1/4 cup unless you love cilantro.  Otherwise, it's really overpowering.  And last but not least, add a diced avocado.

Warm up some soft tortillas....and beep, beep, beep....I think your beef is done.  Add some to your tortilla, top with some pineapple salsa, grab a cold beer from the fridge, and go watch the rest of the game!  Half time is over!!

I'm sorry to say with all the commotion, I did forget to take pictures for your enjoyment.  The good news is, we enjoyed this dish so much, I will be making it again for another football Sunday.  So stayed tuned.  I'll update with pics the next time!