Halloween Ideas

Happy Halloween everybody! Halloween is my favorite holiday next to Christmas of course. Growing up I loved loved loved dressing up and running around the neighborhood for hours trying to collect as much candy as possible in my big pillowcase. Even as a teenager I really enjoyed going to the haunted houses and watching scary movies and still of course dressing up. Well here I am in my late 20's and still thoroughly enjoy getting candy, dressing up, decorating, and eating fun food.
I thought today I would share with you some fun ideas to jazz up your Halloween, whether you are celebrating at home or with friends or going out!
Some of these ideas my sister and I came up with a few years ago at a really fun family get together and some I have seen online and thought looked so fun and cute for a day of spooky eating! Enjoy!!

Kofta Kebabs

I am about the happiest person on earth right now. Since moving to Arizona we vowed to try out different types of food to eat. We decided we wanted to stay really close to our house and found that there was a Greek/Mediterranean place called Good Fellas Grill a couple blocks down the road. I had never had Greek food so I was a little hesitant but I must say...Oh....my....goodness! Their food is amazing. Anyway, one of the things that I really like to get when we eat there (yes we have been back at least once a month since then) is the Kafta. I love it. Finally I decided to try my hand at it last night to see if I could get a recipe that was similar to theirs...well this one tastes pretty freaking fantastic. I whipped up a quick garlic dressing to go with it and bam...Good Fellas at home!
Here is the even better part....ITS DIET FRIENDLY!! Wahoo, a recipe that isn't chicken lol. Enjoy my friends!

Hard Boiled Eggs

You know, I've been asked many times in my years of being alive how do you boil the perfect hard boiled egg and my response was always, "You have to boil them?"
I grew up with an egg cooker where you just poke a little hole in the egg throw it in the cooker with some water turn it on and wait till the timer goes off. Then when I got married my mom gave me an egg cooker which was awesome. It came with this little measuring cup for the liquid to say how much liquid you needed for how you like your eggs. It was great, although I found myself never using it for some reason. Since I never used it I decided to just give it to old DI. Well long story short, after we moved here I found myself wanting to eat a lot of hard boiled eggs so I had to learn pretty fast how to make a good hard boiled egg the old fashioned way.
For those of you like me, or just don't usually do it, here is a great method on how to get a perfect hard boiled egg. I know there are about a billion methods out there...but here is the one we use in our household.

Chicken Fried Chicken

Who doesn't like crunchy coated chicken, fried in oil and smothered in ooey gooey creamy deliciousness?
I order chicken fried chicken just about every place we go that has it. There is just something about it that makes my belly happy :)
Making it at home can save you quite a bit of money, plus you can control just how greasy you have it!

Carmelitas

I woke up this morning craving something sweet and gooey and of course am not going to allow myself to make such a thing because I have two ginormous bags of Halloween candy sitting open in my closet. Im usually not a HUGE eater of sugar, I crave the savory over the sweet, but there is just something about this time of year that gets me into sugar mode.
So long story short...instead of coming downstairs and whipping up a pan of these amazing beauties I thought I would share them with you guys so that you can make them and tell me all about how fantastic they are :)
I love these things because they combine all the best things of a good dessert...chocolate...gooey caramel...oats so you think your eating healthier....

Hawaiian Haystacks

You know. I hadn't had these in forever! And you know what....I don't know why!!!
This is one of the easiest and fastest meals to throw together with a bunch of leftovers!
Something I love about these is that you combine everything on the fork to make one perfect bite! Plate licking is always acceptable with this type of meal. Enjoy!

French Bread Pizza

So your craving homemade pizza but don't have the time to make some dough or want to mess with any store bought dough....well here is your answer. French, Bread, Pizza. I love these things. Just go grab a loaf of french bread, it in half, and load it up with whatever toppings your little heart desires. Its crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, which to me makes the perfect bite.

Classic Tinfoil Dinner

You know, tinfoil dinners are one of my favorites. There are a few reasons why I absolutely love them
1- EASY
2- No dishes to clean up
3- scrumptious!
These are my favorite thing to make when we are camping but they are also one of my favorite things to just have at home. You don't have to have a big fire or a tent pitched to eat these babies. I love that these dinners are so versatile. Not only can you throw whatever sounds good in a packet and it will almost always come out amazing, but you can cook it so many different ways as well.
Here is how I did my basic basic classic tinfoil dinner last night!
(Oh and I apologize for the REALLY bad photo. I forgot to snap a couple pictures last night since I wasn't here to eat it when it came out of the oven so I took a photo of what the leftovers looked like lol...sorry!)

Broccoli Cheese and Potato Soup

Today I woke up with what seems to be the beginning of a wonderful cold. So I found it fitting to post about this wonderful creamy soup.
This soup comes together in under 30 minutes and is full of so much flavor you won't even miss the fact that there isn't any meat. This to me is pure comfort food.
Im usually not much of a soup maker, for some reason, but I have decided that this year I am going to branch out a little more and dive more into soups. Why? Because they don't create many dishes to clean up afterwards and they can usually come together pretty quick!
Later this week I was planning to make some baked potatoes with broccoli cheesy sauce so I saw it fitting to post this today, to show another way you could use the exact same ingredients!

Mashed Cauliflower

I have seen mashed cauliflower pop up all over pinterest lately and have been putting it off to try because it sounded a little bit to weird to me. How can cauliflower taste like a mashed potato....yep that is the question ladies and gents but I will tell you what...for some strange reason it really does taste extremely close! I was shocked at how much it really did taste like a heap of mashed potatoes. Mashing cauliflower is lower in carbs and makes for a great alternative if you struggle with potatoes. In fact I know some people will even mix half and half (potatoes and cauliflower) and then you really can't tell a difference at all!

Overnight Apple Pie Oatmeal

Growing up I used to eat a packet of oatmeal or cream of wheat almost every morning with my dad. In fact my breakfast consisted of a bowl of processed oatmeal, 2 pieces of white toast loaded with butter, and a nice tall glass of milk. Now, Im not saying that eating that way is bad but you do get a lot of processed sugar and miscellaneous ingredients thrown into the pack so I have opted to start making it from scratch.
Ive never really been a huge fan of homemade oatmeal. To me it just never had very good flavor compared to the premade ones. BUT this recipe is fantastic. It tastes like an apple pie in your bowl. The great thing about it is that you put it in your crockpot before you go to bed and its ready for you in the morning when you get up. Can't get much better then that. And since it cooks low and slow the flavors get into the oatmeal a little bit better! I like that you use steel cut oats in this recipe because for the most part you can find them to be gluten free! (although always make sure you double check)

Russian Tea

I used to drink this stuff all the time growing up. It is amazing on a cold winters day.  I have been enjoying the fact that it is cooling down a bit at night so when we go to open the windows in the morning it feels nice and cold. Its mornings like this that I wish I had some of this made already sitting in my pantry.
I like the fact that you can make a nice big batch of this and leave it sitting in your pantry all winter long and have it whenever you feel like.

Cranberry Almond Bread

For some reason I can't seem to get Christmas goodie cooking out of my head. Maybe it's because the weather is finally starting to cool down (90's).
I was putting up my Halloween decorations a couple days ago and the whole time I couldn't stop thinking about this bread. I make this bread every Christmas to pass out as neighbor gifts. I have been asked for this recipe quite a few times so here it is finally.
I originally had this bread at a Christmas get together with all my aunts and uncles on my dad's side of the family. I have this aunt who is the most creative and fantastic sweets maker ever. In fact most of my holiday sweets ideas have come from her. Anyway, its been a family tradition ever since to make this at Christmas time. And its a great way to use up those leftover bags of cranberries you bought to make cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving.
I think my favorite part about this bread is the icing that goes on top. The almond flavoring pairs so perfectly with the orange and cranberry flavors. MMM MMM MMM I can't wait till the Christmas season so I can make some!

Olive Garden Breadsticks

Anybody who knows me knows that I love bread. If there is any kind of bread being served as an appetizer at a restaurant then I will usually eat a couple of baskets by myself.
Olive Garden's breadsticks are so heavenly to me. So when I had my Olive Garden themed dinner a while ago I couldn't resist trying out a recipe that I have had sitting in my binder for years.
This recipe is great. Fairly simple to follow and the flavor really does taste a lot like the Olive Garden ones.