Jalapeno Cranberry Dip

INGREDIENTS:


12 ounces fresh cranberries

4-5 green onions, chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced

1 cup sugar (more or less to taste)

1/2 teaspoon cumin

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about 1 large lemon)

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 (8 ounces each) packages cream cheese, light or regular, softened

Crackers, for serving

DIRECTIONS:

Pulse the cranberries in a food processor or blender until coarsely chopped (alternately, you can do this task by hand). Add the green onions, cilantro, jalapeno, sugar, cumin, lemon juice and salt and pulse until the ingredients are well combined and finely chopped. Transfer the mixture to a covered bowl or tupperware and refrigerate for 4 hours (or up to overnight) so the flavors have time to develop and the cranberries lose a bit of their tartness. I do overnight the flavors get much better!



When ready to serve, spread the cream cheese in an even layer on a serving plate or 9-inch pie dish. Top with the cranberry-jalapeno mixture, spreading evenly over the top of the cream cheese.



Refrigerate for up to an hour before serving. Serve with crackers or tortilla chips.

Homemade Slurpees

 A few days ago was 7/11/12.  The average person probably thinks of it was the 11th of July, no biggie.  But to a person with a previous slurpee addiction it could have been the day I enjoyed wonderful summer treat for free.  However, there are NO 7-11 stores anywhere near where I live.  Oh the humanity.  So to console myself I found a recipe on pinterest for homemade slurpees and to my delight, they were pretty good.  I found the recipe here.  They weren't overly sweet so they were more refreshing than I had anticipated.  We made ours with Strawberry Lemonade Kool-aid and we can't wait to try other flavors.

Homemade Slurpees

Ingredients:

1 packet of Kool-aid

2 cups of club soda, divided

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups crushed ice

Blend together the contents of the Kool-aid packet, 1 cup of club soda, and 1/2 cup of sugar in the blender.  Blend it until all of the sugar is dissolved.  Next add in the ice and blend it until it's smooth.  Then add in the remaining 1 cup of club soda and blend until combined.  Pour the mixture into glasses and put them in the freezer for 30 minutes.  When they come out they are a great slurpable consistency. Frozen, yet drinkable.  This made three large slurpees for us.  The kids loved them!

Sweet Chex Mix

1 Box of Corn or Rice Chex
1 Box of Golden Grahams (or 1/2 of a bag)
4 C. Coconut
1 Bag of Sliced Almonds

2 C. Sugar
2 C. Karo
1 C. Butter
2 tsp. Vanilla

Boil sugar, karo and butter for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour over chex, grahams, coconut, and almonds. Mix well. Pour out on waxed paper and cool completely. Store in a loose fitting container. (an air tight lid will make it go soggy)

Monster Mouth Snack

Again, I'm loving pinterest. It's so fun and I love not having to email myself recipes or other things I find interesting on the Internet. Yesterday we made these cute little snacks. So easy, mostly healthy, and lots of fun.

1 Apple, quartered
Peanut butter
Mini marshmallows

Take each section of apple and cut out a mouth. Be careful not to cut too deep because you want the apple to hold it's shape. Then put a dab of peanut butter along the back of the mouth to hold in the teeth. I cut the mini marshmallows in half because I was using a small apple. After that, stick in the marshmallows and it's done! I've also seen this done with slivered almonds for teeth but my girls love marshmallows.