Recipes

Tropical Shrimp Bites

19 · Apr 4, 2014 ·

This post brought to you by the folks at Hidden Valley® // With the weather slowly starting to warm up, I’m starting to get the itch to entertain a bit more. One of my favorite things to do when planning for a party or get together is coming up with unique menu items. Tasty dishes that are simple to make, but have a big WOW factor for my guests. Recently, the folks at Hidden Valley challenged me to come up with a new recipe for a appetizer using one of their fabulous Hidden Valley® products. I was super excited when I discovered their new Hidden Valley® Farmhouse Originals Mango Chipotle Vinaigrette and instantly I thought it would pair nicely with some type of shrimp dish. After some playing around, I came up with these super tasty Tropical Shrimp Bites…

The Mango Chipotle Vinaigrette is amazing with the shrimp! I added a little coconut cream and shredded coconut to the shrimp and then quickly baked them in the oven. I topped off the little bites with some grilled mango and pineapple and together the pairing was amazing.

Unfortunately my market didn’t have any fresh mango at the time so I had to used bottled mango, but it worked just fine. Here is how I made my Tropical Shrimp Bites…

Tropical Shrimp Bites Recipe

1 lb raw shrimp

1 bottle Hidden Valley® Farmhouse Originals Mango Chipotle Vinaigrette

1 cup coconut cream

6 oz. sweetened shredded coconut

1 fresh pineapple

1 mango

cooking spray

Directions

Prepare your shrimp by rinsing thoroughly and peeling off the shell if necessary. In a large bowl, whisk together the coconut cream and Hidden Valley® Farmhouse Originals Mango Chipotle Vinaigrette. Add shrimp to the coconut and vinaigrette mixture. Let marinade for no more than 15 minutes. Any longer in the marinade and the acid in the dressing will start to cook the shrimp and you don’t want that.

Preheat your oven to 425˚. Remove your shrimp from the marinade and place in batches into a bowl of the shredded coconut. Coat the shrimp and then place on top of a wire rack that has been coated with cooking spray and placed on top of a baking sheet.

Lightly spray the shrimp with cooking spray and place in the preheated oven for five minutes. After five minutes, remove from oven and carefully turn the shrimp, lightly spray the other side with cooking spray and place back into the oven for an additional four to five minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

In the mean time cut your pineapple and mango into bite sized pieces and grill either using a grill pan or directly on a grill. Grill for 1-2 minutes on one side, turn and grill for an additional 1-2 minutes on the other side. Remove from grill and set aside until the shrimp are ready.

Now all you need to do is assemble your tropical shrimp bites… I used a bamboo skewer and added one piece of grilled pineapple, a shrimp and finally a bite of mango. Your perfect tropical bite!

It’s amazing how much flavor the shrimp takes on from the vinaigrette in such a short time. You can really taste the mango with a little hint of the chipotle, it’s tasty!! Your guest are going to love this little bite from the tropics! This recipe will make roughly 40 tropical shrimp bites, perfect for a medium sized gathering. You can adjust accordingly to the size of your gathering. I served my shrimp bites on top of some sugar pea greens that had been lightly dressed with the Hidden Valley@ Farmhouse Originals Mango Chipotle Vinaigrette as well. That made for some added flavor along with a very pretty presentation.

From dressings and dips to sandwich spreads and side dish solutions, the special blend of herbs and spices makes Hidden Valley the perfect addition to any recipe. For more delectable ranch recipes, visit www.hiddenvalley.com.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Hidden Valley Ranch. The opinions and text are all mine.

Easy Eggplant Parmesan Stacks

1 · Apr 1, 2014 ·

The post brought to you by Ragú® // I LOVE eggplant. One of my favorite meal memories was when my dad went out of town (he’s not a huge fan of eggplant) and my Mom took the opportunity to make Eggplant Parmesan for the first time. I was in my early teens and boy, oh boy… My mind was blown. I had grown up eating pasta, namely spaghetti like most kiddos, but when my mom paired our favorite Ragú® sauce with the lovely breaded eggplant I thought I had gone to heaven. Recently, the folks at Ragú® came to me and asked if I could jazz up the classic eggplant parmesan recipe, I was thrilled! I was for sure up for this challenge.

I decided to make a healthier version of this tasty meat free dinner. I oven “fried” my eggplant and then stack it with layers of Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional Sauce and fresh mozzarella Cheese. With 11 tomatoes in every jar, Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional Sauce is Ragú® richest, thickest recipe* ever and it’s PERFECT with this recipe!

Easy Eggplant Parmesan Stacks

2 large eggplants

salt & pepper

4 eggs

4 cups unseasoned Panko bread crumbs

cooking spray

24 oz jar of Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional Sauce

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1 cup parmesan cheese

Wash and cut eggplant into 1/2 inch slices.

Place on a baking sheet and generously salt both sides. Let sit for 15 minutes.

This will draw out some excess moisture. After 15 minutes wipe the water and salt off the eggplant slices with a paper towel and set aside.

Meanwhile, set-up a dredging station to prepare the eggplant to oven “fry.” In one bowl crack 4 eggs and whisk. The 2nd bowl will be for the Panko bread crumbs.

Take each eggplant slice and lightly cover with salt and pepper, then cover both sides with the egg wash and then place in the Panko bread crumb bowl, generously covering both sides. Place on a cooling rack on a baking sheet.

Spray the eggplant generously with cooking spray and place in a 425˚ oven for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and turn over each eggplant slice. Spray the eggplant one more time with cooking spray and return to oven for an additional 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes.

Here’s the fun part. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Now you are going to create towers of eggplant. Lay down a large slice of eggplant. Add a spoonful of Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional Sauce and a slice of mozzarella.

Top that with another slice of eggplant and repeat the process until you have about 5 or 6 layers.

Top with a generous layer of parmesan cheese. Place in a 350˚ oven for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Serve warm.

Yields 9 servings

For more easy and delicious Authentic Italian recipe ideas visit Ragú® Facebook page. It’s full of all kinds of tasty weeknight meals that your family and budget will love.

For even more fun you can visit Ragú® Better & Better Sweepstakes. It has a ton of fun prizes that you can enter to win. You could even win a trip to Italy!!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Legal residents of the 50 United States (D.C.) 18 years and older. Ends 5/6/14. To enter and for Official Rules, including odds, alternate method of entry, and prize descriptions, visit www.RaguSweeps.com. Void where prohibited.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Ragú®. The opinions and text are all mine.

Mini-Egg Dessert Bars

5 · Mar 21, 2014 · 4 Comments

Hey guys! Jenn here again from Clean and Scentsible. Like many of you, I have been counting down the last days of winter and am so excited that today I finally get to say Happy Spring! I am SO ready for some warmer weather, longer days, and pretty spring blooms. Now that spring is here, Easter will soon be around the corner and I have a yummy treat to share with you today with my all-time favorite chocolate – mini-eggs!

These mini-egg dessert bars are super easy to make – the trick is to not eat all of the mini-eggs before you get around to actually making them!

Mini-Egg Dessert Bars

Save Print

Usher in the Easter season with these yummy mini chocolate egg dessert bars.

Author: Jenn // Clean and Scentsible

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Serves: 12-14

Ingredients

1 cup flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup mini eggs
¾ cup chopped nuts {I used walnuts}
⅓ cup chocolate chips
½ cup butter, softened
2 eggs, lightly beaten
½ tsp vanilla

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together. Mix in the butter, beaten eggs, and vanilla and stir until well blended.
Add the mini-eggs, chocolate chips, and nuts.
Prepare a 9x9-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Allow to cool and cut into squares.

If you are looking for a fun Easter gift idea, the dry ingredients for these bars can be packaged up in a mason jar and would make a nice little hostess gift or treat for your favorite teacher or neighbor.

Just layer the ingredients in a 1 quart mason jar as follows:

flour, baking powder, salt
sugar
mini-eggs
chocolate chips and nuts

I have also created some printables to help you dress up your jars – there is a Bunny Bars label for the front and baking instructions for the back.

Just head over to Clean and Scentsible to download them!

If you are looking for more Easter ideas, you might also want to check out these posts….

Easter Bunny Sundaes
Easter Bunny Canvas
Easter Bunny Treats

Have a wonderful spring and thanks so much to Heather for having me!

Greek Baked Eggs and Potatoes

0 · Mar 20, 2014 ·

I said it before and I’ll say it again… I LOVE eggs! I especially love the combination of eggs & potatoes. There is just something lovely about the rustic pairing. Both ingredients are wonderful on their own and yet they can both be blank canvases as well. They are just waiting to be dressed up with simple, yet fancy new flavors. Together they make the perfect pair and you can dress them up however you like. As a matter of fact, you can create a recipe of your very own out of your black slate, head over to Food.com and enter to win $3000 from Simply Potatoes®. All you need to do is come up with a 5 ingredient fix and submit it to the contest and you could have and extra $3000 to play around with this summer!

The folks at Simply Potatoes® challenged me to come up with a 5 ingredient fix and this is what I came up with…

Greek Baked Eggs & Potatoes! I am always looking for a quick weeknight meal for the family and this one couldn’t be easier. Now technically, this recipe does have 5 ingredients but that only if you count the salt & pepper as separate ingredients. But don’t be fooled… This recipe is packed full with flavor and some hidden ingredients as well.

I started with Simply Potatoes® O’Brien Hash Browns’ as my base for my baked eggs. Here’s where the magic happens… First of all, these potatoes are fresh potatoes that you will find in your refrigerated section, generally by the eggs at your market. You won’t find them in the freezer section or dehydrated because Simply Potatoes are always fresh with simple ingredients.

Next, these O’Brien Hash Browns also have onions and peppers in the mix. Two hidden ingredients that I didn’t have to purchase or prepare. They are already in the hash browns. SCORE!

I used a jumbo muffin tin, sprayed it with cooking spray and then placed two heaping tablespoons of the hash brown mixture in the muffin tins and then created a hash brown nest…

I topped the potatoes off with some salt & pepper and some more cooking spray. I placed it into a 400˚ oven for 18-20 minutes to cook the potato mixture. After the potatoes are baked and slightly brown, I remove the pan from the oven and add the…

You guessed it… My eggs. All you need to do is crack them right into the hash brown nests and top with a little more salt & pepper.

Return them to the oven for an additional 15 minutes to bake the eggs. Keep a close eye on them and remove them from the oven as soon as the eggs have set. You don’t want to over cook your eggs. You still want that yolky gold running through your egg & potato nest.

Let your eggs cool for a few minutes and then top with one of my favorite new ingredients, a prepared olive tempenade. It’s basically Greek olives that are chopped up fine with a little bit of olive oil to tie the olive caviar together. It’s tasty on bread or with veggies and hummus. It tastes GREAT on top of these baked eggs. Just top the eggs & potatoes with a small teaspoon of tempenade and then serve immediately.

Serve with a lovely Greek salad and you have the perfect SIMPLE week night meal.

What’s your favorite way to cook with potatoes? Remember, you can enter to win the Simply Potato 5 Ingredient Fix Contest and win $3000 with your simple, but inventive recipe!

For rules on how to enter the Sweepstakes click here.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Simply Potatoes. The opinions and text are all mine.

Recipes

Tropical Shrimp Bites Recipe

Directions

Easy Eggplant Parmesan Stacks

Footer