It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Yeeeeeear!

Has anyone else noticed that Christmas has started REALLY EARLY this year? The Christmas decorations were up in mid-October, all of the stores have already started "Black Friday" sales (both online and in-store), and there is a continuous onslaught of Christmas commercials and catalogs. It's not even Thanksgiving yet!

In preparation for the holiday season, which I am sure will be filled with many parties and events, I wanted to draw attention to a few recipes I've posted in the past couple of years that are GREAT housewarming gifts or culinary contributions to a family get-together. To me, several of these just scream either THANKSGIVING or CHRISTMAS!

• Spiced Pecans


• Roasted Eggplant Spread


• Easy Cranberry Sauce


• Gran's Gingerbread


• Christmas Sugars


• Creme de Menthe Brownies


• Triple Chocolate Pound Cake

From my house to yours....enjoy!

Ham & Cheese Turnovers

Thank you, Real Simple, for this super-simple weeknight meal!

HAM & CHEESE TURNOVERS

Recipe Notes

Corey is not super-jazzed about this salad dressing....you can really make any type of salad that you want. This is good with Kettle chips or something else crunchy.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. refrigerated pizza dough


• 8 oz. deli ham, thinly sliced


• 4 oz. Swiss cheese, thinly sliced


• 1/2 yellow onion, cut into thin rings


• 2 tsp. whole grain mustard


• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil


• 1 sm. head romaine, torn into small pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Roll the pizza dough into a 14-inch circle and cut into 8 triangles.

3. Stack a slice of ham, a slice of cheese, and some onions in the bottom of each triangle. Roll the dough up around the filling.

4. Bake the rolls on a parchment-lined baking sheet for approx. 20 minutes or until browned.

5. Combine the mustard and oil in a small bowl with a whisk. Add romaine lettuce, toss to coat.

6. Serve turnovers with salad. Serving size is 2 turnovers.

Shrimp & Grits Casserole

It's finally getting a bit cooler outside, so bring on the casseroles! This is a great Cooking Light easy recipe that I assembled before we put our babies to bed and baked while they had bathtime. Dinner was ready by the time we got back down stairs!

SHRIMP & GRITS CASSEROLE

Recipe Notes

I used about 3/4 lb. shrimp (instead of a full pound) and fat free milk (instead of 2%) and this turned out great. Calorie count for my version is probably slightly less than noted below for this reason.

Nutritional Information (per serving - serves 6)

341 calories - 13 g. fat - 27 g. carbs - 1 g. fiber - 28 g. protein

Ingredients

• 2 c. 2% reduced-fat milk


• 3/4 c. fat free chicken broth


• 1 c. uncooked quick-cooking grits (such as Quaker)


• 1/4 tsp. salt


• 1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese


• 2 tbsp. butter


• 3 oz. reduced-fat cream cheese


• 3 tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley


• 1 tbsp. chopped fresh chives


• 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice


• 2 egg whites


• 1 lb. peeled and deveined shrimp, coarsely chopped


• Hot pepper sauce for serving (such as Cholula) if desired

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Combine milk and broth in a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat.

3. Gradually add grits and salt to the pan, stirring constantly with a whisk. Cook 5 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

4. Stir in parmesan, butter, and cream cheese until well-combined, followed by parsley, chives, lemon juice, egg whites, and shrimp.

5. Turn grits mixture into an 11x7 glass baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cook for 25 minutes or until set.

6. Serve hot with hot pepper sauce.