Week 25: Appetizers

Recipes to Go: 507 259

Weeks to Go: 52 27

Recipes Made This Week

Pizza Fondue

Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

Greek Pasta Salad

Colorful Turkey Salad Cups

Double Chocolate Fondue

Roasted Vegetable Turkey Pinwheels

Fancy Phillo Cups

Texas Snack Mix

Crisp 'n' Tender Corn Waffles

I could not eat any more food. I think if I looked at stuffing any more I would hurl. The idea of all that dessert, not to mention the reality of it on my counters was clogging my arteries. I think I may have overdone it a teeny, tiny bit for Christmas. It was too much. We needed to eat something that wouldn't have ridiculous amounts of leftovers. Something that wouldn't sit on my stomach like gravel. So I decided to make appetizers the whole week.

It was Wednesday when I made this decision. I went to the store on Tuesday. I felt like I was shopping blind. I haven't gone to the store without a list since July. I wasn't sure what to do with myself. How did I do this all those years before I started this project? I remembered a few of the things we'd run out of during the holidays, and a few of the recipes that I had glanced at, but I didn't get much other than that. Once I got some idea of what the week would be like, I hit up Walmart. We started with the Pizza Fondue.

It sounded perfect to me, warm for a cold winter night, but only eat what you want, or you can fit. Plus, while I dearly love chocolate, there's something about pizza/spaghetti sauce as a fondue that makes it uber yummy. It really hit the spot. The Captain liked it too.

I had purchased portabello mushrooms on Tuesday, during the blind shopping, knowing about this recipe and figuring now was as good a time as any. They were pretty good, but the mushrooms were so big and I had to eat two because they certainly weren't going to keep. They would not have been good at all as leftovers. Add to that the Greek Salad we had--which was excellent, I made it vegetarian to make it not as filling--and my stomach was starting to protest again.

Friday was New Year's Eve. I wasn't originally planning on doing anything. I assumed most of our friends would have plans, so Game Night was cancelled as far as I was concerned, but when our friends wanted to get together at their house, I said it was far easier for us to host, so Game Night was back on. And still wanting to get a decent amount of recipes made this week, I tried to take advantage and put together some food for the New Year.

We still needed dinner first, so I made the Colorful Turkey Salad Cups, only instead of turkey, I used the leftover ham from Christmas. It went really well with the recipe since it was a good blend of sweet and savory, just like the fruit/veggie combo in the rest of the salad.

The recipe had all my favorites in it, but I just could eat more than two servings. And though The Husband took leftovers to work, I had to throw some out in the end because it didn't look very appetizing just sitting in a bowl. Much better wrapped in a lettuce leaf.

Now for the New Year food. I got started earlier in the day with the roasted vegetable part of the turkey pinwheels. I think these won the most awards of the night because of the spread, which if you overlook the oil (minimal) used to roast them and the cream cheese, which would be in any wrap spread, then it was extremely healthy. Surprisingly so, because healthy things aren't supposed to be addictively good.

But these were. And though they took some time, they weren't time intensive, just a lot of baking and chilling mostly, which left time to work on the other foods.

The phyllo cups were really hard to get out of the muffin tins. And I sprayed them before I put the phyllo in. I guess this was a time that it would have been better to grease with shortening. The cups definitely needed to set up in the fridge before eating, but they also got rave reviews.

Luckily, when they were set up, you could eat them in two bites without making a mess because they are just barely too big to eat in one. Maybe next time I'll make them in a mini muffin tin since as an appetizer, I think one bite should be sufficient.

I bought quite a few boxes of Chex cereal when it was on sale because I knew there'd be recipes like this. And since I couldn't just use part of the cereal, I made Muddy Buddies, too. Can you believe The Husband hadn't heard or tasted Muddy Buddies until 2 years after we'd been married? Don't worry, he knows he missed out, and tries to make up for it by eating them multiple times a year now. Anyway, the Texas Snack Mix was way more addictive than I anticipated.

The sauce seemed so small in comparison to the snack mix I wasn't sure it would have an affect on all of it, but it did. And I think next time I'll add the sauce in two batches with a stirring partner to avoid those few pieces that were just too intense.

The fondue never set up. It stayed pretty thin and goopy, but that didn't stop us from eat a lot of it anyway.

I forgot to put out apples, but everything else made a pretty good showing. The Husband has some mad stabbing talents. He can spear a Vanilla wafer every time without cracking or breaking it. We were all very impressed.

New Year's Day, when we finally rolled out of bed (thank you, The Captain, for sleeping in til 8) I made the corn waffles. I haven't always been a fan of waffles in the past. As a kid, I thought they were thick and heavy and choked me. But now I think the waffle iron The Husband got for our anniversary this year will end up being a good investment and will get used beyond the scope of this goal.

The waffles were yummy, and The Captain is unsurprisingly addicted to syrup.

So for a week were no one felt like eating and I didn't get started until Wednesday, I don't think I faired too badly.