Superbowl

Oh Superbowl...

I'm not gonna lie...I ate horribly on Superbowl. But that's ok, it's only one day a year (along with all the other "one day a year" binges). I tried to pack in the salads and stray from the fried chicken, wings and potato salad. BUT-the dessert table didn't stand a chance. I can pass up food without any problem but when it comes to sweets---that many sweets---such a variety of delicious sweets... It was over before it even started. 

Anyways, I did try to contribute some healthy dishes to the celebration. Well, 2 healthy and 1 moderate and 1 bad, bad, very bad dessert. And it was so bad it was GOOD!

I made what I now call a Greek Garbanzo Bean and Quinoa Salad. I found this recipe on Pinterest and have made it quite a fews times. It's really easy, really delicious and pretty healthy. The last time I made this I doubled the dressing ingredients and added some quinoa. It came out really well so I made just that for Superbowl. Everyone seemed to like it! 

I also made what are called Pinecones at our house. See my previous post about these delicious No Bake Energy Bites! Easy, yummy and HEALTHY! These seemed to be a hit too!

Next I made Deluxe Chocolate Marshmallow Bars. I pulled this recipe out of a baking magazine when I was in high school and I've been making them ever since.  There is absolutely nothing healthy about these but they certainly are delicious! Big hit!

Lastly, I made what I will just call Southwestern Chicken Bites. The inspiration for these came from a   Pampered Chef party that an old neighbor of ours had when I was growing up. I never had the original recipe but I had a version of what the host thought it might be. Over the years, as I have made these a few times the "recipe" has evolved into...

• 2 chicken breasts, baked and chopped into small pieces
• One cup of cheddar cheese (give or take, I just eyeball this)
• Small can of diced green chiles
• Medium can (TJs size-they only sell one) of sliced black olives
• Juice of 2 limes
• 2 tablespoons (roughly) of Southwest seasoning. I used to have a jar of this years ago but when I made these on Sunday, I just googled a recipe to make my own Southwest seasoning. It called for about 10 or so spices, all of which I had on hand, so I just whipped up a quick batch. Simple!
• 2 roma tomatos-TJs didn't have any organic romas so I just used cherry tomatoes. Tomatoes are nearly all the same, right?!

Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl. You can use the mixture as is or take it one step further (like I do). I add it to my food processor and chop it all up slowly, pulsing it as I go. I don't want to puree the mix; I just want to meld it all together and make it a little more...mushy. From this point, there are two options...

1) Lay out some crescent rolls on a baking sheet. Using an ice cream scoop (or something equivalent in size) place a spoonful of the mixture in the center of the roll and then fold the edges up over the top. You'll end up with a filled crescent roll. Bake these at 350 until the rolls are golden, about 15/20 minutes or so. Watch them closely!

2) Line a mini muffin pan with puff pastry squares and put a spoonful of the mixture in the center. You'll end up with little tarts. Bake them at 350 until the puff pastry is golden, about 15 minutes.