It’s Friday and around our house that means it is Family Fun Night! Typically on Family Fun Night my family eats pizza and watches movies. For food i’m left to fend for myself. Sometimes though I skip the pizza and make other snack foods instead. With Allrecipes this month we worked with Hormel Chili and I discovered their Chili Nachos.
game day snacks
Nascar Race Day Snacks
Today I am taking it back to one of my oldest son’s favorite things, Nascar. Shorty has been a Nascar fan for pretty much his entire life. We don’t really know how or when it started but his favorite drive has been Dale Earnhardt Jr since before he was 5 and well, he is 16 now! Over the years we have even been able to go to a few races which all 4 of my kids love but races aren’t cheap especially when you are a family of 6. So we spend Sunday’s watching races. The Nascar season begins in February with the Daytona 500 and this year I created a race day menu on Allrecipes of some of our favorite Nascar Race Day Snacks. They are all perfect small bites that are perfect for race day!
Easy Chorizo and Cheese Taquitos with Cilantro Lime Sour Cream
A couple weeks ago I woke up way too early in the morning to set off on an adventure to New York City for some Allrecipes and foodie fun. I met up with my friend Stella from Stella Reynoso in Charlotte and we flew to Newark and took the train into the city. We navigated the Subway system and found our way to our hotel. From there we went to lunch at Butter, Alex Guarnaschelli’s restaurant and I ate the best Cesar salad I have ever had. It was beautiful! I think I must have looked like Emma Stone in in Easy A biting into the steak.
It was seriously that good. I haven’t had steak that good since we left Texas. After our late lunch we hung out at our hotel room until it was time to go to our first Allrecipes event. We were headed to Salvation Taco for an Allrecipes Allstars cocktail party. Chips and guacamole were set out around the room and we were offered drinks almost as soon as we walked into the room. Let me tell you, those margaritas were good and strong and the chili lime salt rim was a great extra touch! I would have loved to have a second glass but as soon as I would get one I would set it down and someone would snatch it. We had fun in the photo booth and chit chatting getting to know each other outside of the computer.
During the party appetizers were offered and they were great. The servers were awesome and made sure I didn’t touch anything with gluten. One of my favorite things were the chorizo taquitos. After eating my first one I pulled out my phone and opened up the notes…I needed to recreate those taquitos and here a few weeks later I finally have.
The key to this recipe is the chorizo. You want good chorizo. I’ve told people a million times over quality will always win. This rule goes for so many things in life too, not just food. Yes you can buy cheaper ingredients when it comes to cooking but the quality of your food will be affected! Just buy the good stuff! Then make these chorizo and cheese taquitos. If your family is anything like mine they will devour them.
Want to see more from my adventures in New York City? Check out my Instagram for my pics from the trip!
Easy Chorizo and Cheese Taquitos with Cilantro Lime Sour Cream
Author:
Country Girl Gourmet
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chorizo, casing removed
- 1 cup shredded Chihuahua or Monterey Jack Cheese
- 12-15 corn tortillas
- ½ cup sour cream
- juice of ½ of a lime
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- sea salt
Instructions
- Taquitos-
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Spray frying pan with cooking spray and cook chorizo until done. Be sure to crumble into small pieces. When done drain grease well (I used a colander)
- In a bowl mix together 1 cup of Chihuahua Cheese (or Monterey Jack) and cooked chorizo. Combine well breaking up any large chunks of chorizo.
- Place corn tortillas on a plate with the tortillas covered with a damp paper towel.Warm corn tortillas in a microwave for 30 seconds to one minute.
- Spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons filling on the side of each tortilla. Lightly dampen other side of tortilla with water with your fingers. Roll tortilla tightly around the filling and place, seam-side down, on a baking sheet. You can hold in place with a tooth pick if needed.
- Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned and crispy, about 15-20 minutes.
- Cilantro Lime Sour Cream
- In a small bowl combine sour cream, chopped cilantro,the juice of half a lime and a dash of sea salt. Stir well and serve..
Gluten Free Johnsonville Sausage Balls with Spinach
If you have read my blog for any amount of time you will discover one of my favorite brands to work with as an Allrecipes Allstar Ambassador is Johnsonville Sausage. Johnsonville is AWESOME and i’m not just saying that because they have given me some lovely swag over the last few years or how awesome they are on social media. It is because they have a great product. I am complete sausage buying snob and only buy Johnsonville so I have to say I was excited to work with them again!
I decided to make one of our favorite things with Johnsonville, sausage balls! Yes, I have my own recipe for sausage balls but since becoming gluten free I haven’t made them. Sausage balls typically have some sort of flour or biscuit mix in them and I just hadn’t experimented with making them gluten free yet. There is no better time than the present especially with the holiday’s coming up. After all sausage balls are a perfect appetizer for the holidays.
Some notes about the recipe-
I typically do not buy Bisquick, in fact I have never had a box of regular bisquick in my house so I bought my first box to make this recipe. I wasn’t sure how the gluten free baking mix would work in this recipe but to my delight you could not even tell the difference. While i’m not a Bisquick convert I will say their gluten free version worked very well in this recipe.
The original recipe calls for onions and mushrooms. While i’m not a huge fan of mushrooms, I will eat them. My kids on the other hand will not. Then my oldest has onion radar. I swapped these ingredients out for spinach. I used between 1/2 to 1 cup. Yes, my kids have no issues with spinach they actually love spinach.
A big question when it came to preparing these were to cook or not to cook the sausage beforehand. The recipe calls for cooking the sausage, allowing it to cool and then mixing in the other ingredients and baking again. If you are lazy like me you can just mix the uncooked sausage with the other ingredients and bake. The recipe turns out perfectly.
Lastly, the type of sausage you use does not matter. The mild sausage works just as well as the hot. It is a preference of taste and in my case laziness won again. I could not find ground hot italian sausage so I used mild. I just didn’t feel like uncasing the sausage.
Now try these pop-able bites of yumminess for yourself and let me know how you like them!
Gluten Free Johnsonville Sausage Balls with Spinach
Author:
Country Girl Gourmet adapted from all recipes.com
Recipe type: Appetizer
Serves: 12 servings
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Adapted from a recipe by The Kitchen at Johnsonville Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 (16 ounce) package Johnsonville® All Natural Hot Ground Italian Sausage
- 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
- 1¼ cups gluten free baking mix
- ½-1 cup chiffonade, fresh baby spinach
- ¼ cup milk
Instructions
- In a skillet, cook and crumble sausage over medium heat until no longer pink and lightly browned; drain. In a large bowl, combine sausage, cheese, gluten free baking mix, spinach and milk; mix well. 2. Shape mixture into approximately 36 walnut-size balls and place on a lightly greased, shallow baking dish.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
- Serve with barbeque or chutney sauce.
- Alternative cooking method-
- Sausage can be combined uncooked with other ingredients, formed into balls and baked for 20 minutes if desired.
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Years ago I was introduced to Buffalo Chicken Dip and I fell in love. It has to be probably my favorite dip. Whenever I bring it to get togethers those who have never tasted it’s deliciousness before fall in love. Buffalo Chicken Dip is very addictive. It is the perfect snack for most any get together from Super bowl weekend to anytime you are hanging out with friends.
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Ingredients
2lbs boneless skinless chicken breast (3 chicken breast) cooked and shredded
2 8oz packages cream cheese
3/4 cup hot sauce (such as Franks Red Hot or Texas Pete)
1 cup Ranch Dressing
2 cups colby-jack cheese, shredded and divided
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Combine shredded chicken, cream cheese, hot pepper sauce, 1 cup colby-jack cheese and ranch dressing in a large bowl. Mix until well combined.
- Transfer chicken mixture into a 9×13 baking dish and sprinkle with 1 cup colby-jack cheese.
- Bake 20 minutes until golden and bubbly.
- Serve with tortilla chips and/or vegetables.
Time for the Big Game with RITZ
Are you still trying to figure out what to make for the Big Game this weekend? Look no further! I have a bunch of great recipes right here for you that are awesome! How do I know that they are awesome? Easy! Myself and 7 other Allrecipes brand ambassadors teamed up with Allrecipes.com and RITZ to create the recipes. In addition to the 8 recipes the Allstar’s came up with 4 iconic New York restaurants came up with recipes also.
Check them all out for yourself!
RITZ Steakhouse Bites by Doug Mathews
RITZ “Everything” Bites with Lox and Schmear by Country Girl Gourmet
RITZ Spicy Asian Chicken Wings by Life Taste Good
RITZ Cuban Minis by Renee’s Kitchen Adventures
RITZ Fried Ravioli by Flavor Mosaic
RITZ Hazelnut Gelato Sandwich by The 7up Experience
RITZ New York Style Mini Crumb Cheesecake by The Lives & Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch
RITZ Country Fried Ribs with Zesty Buttermilk Ranch Dressing , created by Dinosaur Bar-B-Que
RITZ Humble Pie with Peanut Butter Mouse created by Serendipity 3
RITZ White Pizza Meatball Dip Created by Lomardi’s Pizza
RITZ Pastrami and Corned Beef Mini Sandwich, created by Carnegie Deli
So, What do you think? What will you be making for the Big Game this weekend?
Check out Allrecipes.com’s collection HERE or check out RITZ Crackers:
I participated in a campaign on behalf of RITZ Crackers. I received a sample to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.
Easy Peasy Bisquick Free Sausage Balls
From the time I heard of Sausage Balls I knew I wanted to make them. I had one problem though, I never had Bisquick in my house. I just never buy it or think to buy it. I do keep self rising flour in the house though and I wondered if I could somehow use that. After a bit of trial and error I created some Easy Peasy Bisquick Free Sausage Balls and my family was in love. These little balls of cheese and sausage heaven are the perfect addition to your brunch and make awesome appetizers for game day parties. Try them out for yourself! One bite and you will fall in love with them yourself.
Easy Peasy Bisquick Free Sausage Balls
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork sausage (regular or hot)
- 8oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 1/4 cup self rising flour
- 2 cups Cheddar-Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2.In a large bowl mix sausage, cream cheese, flour and shredded cheese.
3.Once well combined form into walnut size balls.
4.Place sausage balls on a parchment lined baking sheet.
5.Bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the sausage balls are browned and no longer pink inside.
Country Girl Jalapeño Poppers
Jalapeno Poppers are one of my husband’s favorite snacks that he requests all year long. The spicy jalapeno, the cheese to help mellow the heat of the jalapeno, and then bacon, because everything is better with bacon. Jalapeno Poppers are little bites of addictive yumminess! Once you eat one you just want more.
