Super Easy Fruit Salad

One time my friend Cami invited my family over for dinner and made us this yummy fruit salad. I have made this salad many of times since that dinner. The recipe calls for just a few simple ingredients and it has a really good flavor that we all like to gobble down with dinner. Maybe we like it so much because it kind of tastes more like dessert than a side dish.

Raspberry Fruit Salad
Printable Recipe

1 (8oz) container of Cool Whip
2 (6 oz) containers of Raspberry Yoplait yogurt
1 package of frozen Raspberries
1/2 package of mini marshmallows

Let Cool Whip and raspberries get to room temperature. Mix all ingredients together and serve. Simple as that!

Orange Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar Butter Crunch

This delicious dish is a tradition for our family at both Thanksgiving and Christmas! I actually remember the first year I spent Christmas at my in-laws home and I asked if I could make these---they make it every year now too!! This recipe comes from my grandmother from Alabama, she is such a great cook, LOVE the food down there! My dad and I added the orange to it many years ago and we love it! The yummy sweet potatoes and buttery, crunchy topping taste like a dessert. In fact my husband is crazy about this dish and calls it "sweet potato pie."

Orange Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar Butter Crunch Topping:
3 cups Sweet Potatoes, cooked and mashed (I cook with skins on and let them cool so the peels just fall off easily)
3 Eggs
1/4 cup Butter, melted
1/4 cup Milk
1 tablespoon Vanilla
1/2 cup Sugar
1/8 teaspoon Salt
1/2 of a Fresh Orange

Topping:
1/4 cup Butter
1/4 cup Flour
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Pecans

Preheat oven to 350.
Cook and mash sweet potatoes. Place in greased 2 quart glass baking dish, an 8x8 square or round. You will mix all ingredients in there. Add eggs and "beat" in with a fork or whire whisk. Stir in melted butter, milk, vanilla, sugar and salt. Mix well. Then take your orange that has been cut in half and squeeze all the juice from the half into your sweet potatoes. Then grate the orange zest from the half of orange right into your sweet potatoes, try to use as much of the peel as you can! Mix it all together well.

Next you will mix the topping ingredients together with your fingers til crumbly, then just crumble over your sweet potatoes. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, until topping is browned, YUM!



NOTE: This will feed about 6 people, if you are serving a crowd, then double the recipe and bake in a 9x13 pan. I often double this recipe at Thanksgiving and bake in 2 dishes, then I wrap and freeze one to serve at Christmas!! It freezes and reheats perfectly and saves precious time!

Perfect, No-Fail Brown Rice

Several years ago my brother in law and his family were visiting and I was complaining to him that I loved brown rice, but could never ever get it to turn out. That's when he told me he had seen on Food Network....yes my husband's brother watches Food Network...cool, huh? (My husband doesn't know anything beyond Sports Center exists)...Anyway, he said he saw Alton Brown BAKE it. I was like "Really? In the oven? How weird!" But I looked it up and sure enough, all my brown rice problems were solved! Love love love this recipe! So awesome, always turns out perfect. Below is the recipe from Alton Brown, and following it I've included my recipe that I 1 and 1/2 (1 and 1 halved) to feed my family of 8.

Baked Brown Rice, Alton Brown
serves 4
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1 1/2 cups brown rice, medium or short grain
2 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or I sometimes use chicken bouillon powder)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375.

Place the rice into an 8-inch square glass baking dish.

Bring the water, butter, and salt just to a boil in a saucepan. Once the water boils, pour it over the rice, stir to combine, and cover the dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, remove cover and fluff the rice with a fork. Serve immediately.

I kind of 1 and a halved the recipe to feed my family of 8. Directions are the same, except I bake it in an 8x11 glass dish.
2 cups Brown Rice
3 1/2 cups Water
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
1 1//2 Tablespoons Butter

Easy Spanish Rice

This rice is really simple and delicious! I make it two ways, sometimes with salsa and sometimes without. Recipes follow!

Spanish Rice:
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2 cups Long Grain Rice
1 cup mild Salsa
3 cups Water
3 Chicken Boullion Cubes
1 Tablespoon cumin
2 Garlic Cloves, chopped
6 sprigs of Cilantro, chopped
1 Tablespoon Butter

Place all ingredients in a pot, boil, then cover and reduce heat to low-medium (as you would for long grain rice.) Cook for 20 minutes, remove from heat and stir.

Here is the recipe without salsa, this one calls for onion. Honestly, sometimes the only reason I make the salsa one above is because I either don't want to chop onions or am super short on time!

Spanish Rice
2 cups Long Grain Rice
4 cups Water
4 Chicken Boullion Cubes
1 Tablespoon Cumin
2 Garlic Cloves, chopped
6 Green Onions, chopped or 1/2 cup chopped yellow or white onion
6 sprigs Cilantro, chopped
1 Tablespoon Butter

Follow the same cooking directions as above

Coleslaw

Until about 2 years ago I would not TOUCH coleslaw, gag!! But one time at a BBQ joint I tried some coleslaw on top of my pulled pork sandwich, and loved what it did to my sandwich! The crunch and extra taste it gave to it was a fantastic addition, but I still would not eat the stuff plain. Well, my husband loves to use our smoker, and so lately he has been making some amazing pulled pork, so last night I made this Coleslaw and it is amazing!! I have even been eating it by the spoonfuls, by itself, it is that good!! Give it a try, hope you like it as much as we do!!

The measurement below makes for a pretty runny coleslaw, so if you like it a little more dry add more cabbage and carrots.

Coleslaw

Ingredients:
1/2 head of green cabbage, finely chopped
1/2 head of red cabbage, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely julieanned or peeled
1 Tbls grated onion
2/3 cup Mayonnaise
3 Tbls vegetable oil
1/4 cup white sugar
1 Tbls white vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp poppy seeds

1. Combine cabbages, carrot, and onion in a large bowl.
2. Whisk together the mayo, vegetable oil, sugar, vinegar, salt, and poppy seeds in a medium bowl; blend thoroughly. Pour dressing mixture over coleslaw mix and toss to coat. Chill at least 2 hours before serving.

***Here is a tip for getting your carrots nice and thin for this recipe, after you peel the carrot, cut the carrot into about 3 inch sections and your your peeler and peel the carrot into strip, it make it the  perfect consistency for this recipe!***

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Adapted from: Sandi Johnson via All Recipes.com