Tailgate Graze Board

It is one of the most wonderful times of the year, football time! I recently combined two of my favorite things, graze boards and football.

This particular one is loaded up with all things Tigers. Ugh, I can not believe I said or did that but for the love of these two Clemson loving cuties. That being said easily adaptable for any team but in particular Auburn/Clemson/LSU and any other Tigers out there.

I ordered this football platter online. It was the perfect size for the three of us but for a large party you would need more space. For really large parties a few complete but smaller graze boards to spread throughout the party is a great option. This one looks cute too.

Now this board was made for me, a 7 year old and 12 year old, so you definitely can customize to your taste but this is a run down of what we used. Pizza, Harvarti cubes, Ritz, Cheeto Paws (a Tiger gameday essential), Nacho Doritos, Team Spirit Cookie Dough Bites (with orange and purple sprinkles), and Tiger Paw cheddar.

For the Tiger Paw cheddar I used this cute cookie cutter to cut the cheddar pre sliced cheddar squares. They turned out so cute. For non tigers you could grab a football cutter or animal of your choice, maybe use white cheddar instead of yellow/orange.

I ordered the cute green and white stripped cups online and added the football stickers. You could also write or add number stickers like a yard line. These are great for holding items. They wont hold liquid but cookie bites, nuts, olives or the sort.

Happy Tailgating!

Go Teams!

Team Spirit Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

Football season is here! I have been dreaming of my favorite snacks to celebrate football Saturdays. I will be sharing a few of my tried and true favorites soon. For now I dreamed up these edible cookie dough bites. 

You can customize these in so many ways. Different color sprinkles, differnt types of sprinkles, change your flavor of edible dough. 

My favorite edible dough is chocolate chip. I chopped some milk chocolate waffers I had from the Chocolate Tree. I used my Pampered Chef chopper to chop the chocolate waffers. I prefer to do some rough chops and then turn some of it to chocolate dust. You can use mini chips or regular sized, dark, white or milk. The sky is the limit. 

I originally thought one bite cookie dough bites for some pop in your mouth goodness but then I decided a two bite ball would give the best sprinkles to cookie dough ratio. 

Recipe:

• 2 sticks if butter slightly melted
• 1 TBSP vanilla extract
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 1/4 cups of plain flour
• 3 TBSP milk or water
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Melt butter in microwave to about 50% melted. If you melt it all the way just let it cool a bit before you add to recipe. Add vanilla to melted butter. Pro tip add your flavoring or vanilla extract (this one linked is my favorite) to your butter/fat before the flour, it is what carries your flavor throughout thr dough. Add brown and white sugar. Mix with hand mixer or stand mixer. Add flour, mix well.  Mix in milk or water. Fold chocolate chips. 

Roll into bite sized balls. Here is where the team spirit  in, cover in sprinkles of your choice. I feel like jimmies are the perfect not to hard option and they come in a variety of team colors.

PS: To truly make edible cookie dough safe you are supposed to bake the flour for 5-7 minutes at 350 degrees to kill off any bacteria. But I didn’t I like to live life on the wild side.

Wilton has some great variety packs on Amazon. Sweetapolia is my favorite sprinkle shop.

Place on plate or in storage container single layer. Refrigerate for two hours. If you get really impatient you can pop in the freezer for a while. 

You can double the batch, place cookie dough in freezer for up to a few months. You can freeze the cookie dough before rolling into balls and coating with sprinkles or the completed Team Spirit Balls also freeze well. Just make sure to freeze the balls in a single layer before tossing into a larger container together, less stick together that way.

I hope these help you celebrate football season! I will be adding them to our rotation and graze boards. 

Go Teams! 

Whole 30 Compliant Pepper Place Haul

I am getting back on the clean eating train soon. So here is a little inspiration. Finding compliant foods at a Farmer’s Market is not hard. You know the staples meat, eggs, fruits, veggies. It is hard for me to resist all the extra goodies!

This past summer I picked up some eggs, peaches, chemical free strawberries, chemical free blueberries, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, pineapple salsa, and kombucha. Check with your farmers and vendors to check ingredients of products. If you are in the Birmingham area, After Midnight Salsa has some Whole30 compliant salsa options. Better Kombucha is also Whole 30 compliant.

Here is what I made with some of the things. I made using tasty farm fresh ingredients.

Fruit Salad

Grilled Squash

Egg Bake

Loaded Buffalo “Fries”

What are your favorite local Farmer’s Market finds? What are your favorite recipes to make?

Roasted Sausage and Veggies Sheet Pan Meal

There is nothing revolutionary about this recipe. In fact you can find tons of variations on the internet. But if you are like me and get stuck in a dinner rut and need some inspiration I hope this inspires you! The possibilities are endless and I LOVE the one pan thing. You definitely can make this recipe Whole30 approved. Just check your ingredients in your sausage, spices and oil!

The Barefoot Mermaid’s Christmas Morning Breakfast Casserole

As we gear up for Christmas I can not help but reflect on Christmas memories. One of my most frequent and prominent memories is Christmas Morning Breakfast Casserole. I have vivid memories of helping Papa make this casserole. It is a staple on our Christmas mornings. Now that I have to work some Christmas Days now I make it for work. There is not anything revolutionary or different from other breakfast casserole recipes other than the memories and love scrambled with it.  

Whole30 Mexican Breakfast Hash

I’m on a breakfast hash kick. The possibilities are endless. I’m already dreaming up an Italian version. I make a big batch of these and eat on them all week. Basically you need some potatoes, meat, veggies and spices.

Shauna Niequist’s Breakfast Cookies

 

Breakfast cookies or lazy Saturday afternoon cookies. Either way they are delicious. Buy her book, Bread and Wine, here. While you are there go ahead and preorder her book, Savor.

Chuy’s Elvis Chicken Recipe

Teddy requested I attempt to make Chuy’s Elvis Chicken for dinner. It was a hit. We spent the evening around the table catching up on life, talking football and listening to the storm roll in.

Elvis Chicken
4 chicken breast (I cut mine in half for smaller portion sizes) thin cut or butterflied
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
2 cups finely crushed potato chips (I used Lay’s)
Creamy Jalepeno Sauce
Shredded cheese

Lightly coat chicken with flour. Dip chicken in egg covering all sides. Next dip chicken into crushed chips being sure to cover all of the chicken. I pan fried the chicken on medium high heat for a few minutes per side. Then transferred to a baking sheet. Bake chicken at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until cooked through the middle. Remove from oven. Cover chicken with creamy jalapeño sauce and top with cheese. Place back in over for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. We enjoyed this meal with refuted beans and Mexican rice. It’s a new favorite of Teddy’s.

Surprise Inside Brownies

So I have been trying to lose weight for our cruise but also been wanting to bake some yummy treats….

…Hello, brownie!!!
I used the ultimate fudge brownie mix. Mix according to directions on box. Place one tablespoon of batter in cupcake pan. I suppose you could use a regular pan but who doesn’t love cupcakes! Next place a regular size Reese’s cup in each cupcake liner. Then place two tablespoons of batter mix on top. Bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes depending on your oven. I placed two mini Reese’s on top of each cupcake.

Luckily, the mini candies were on sale at target and the inspiration for this yummy brownie. Now you could use any candy you would like inside. Reese’s are just my favorite and a nice fit inside the cupcake. Baking them also brings out the salty peanut butter which makes a lovely salty sweet combo. I entered my ingredients into myfitnesspal….316 calories. But I’m not one for you can’t eat that or this I’m more of a eat what you want but stay within your calorie limit kinda girl. So I will be going for a walk to burn off a brownie tonight! I hope you enjoy this sweet treat!