Pinwheel Pizzas

An easy party food to make in advance! Keep your party day prep to a minimum and still wow 'em! (this is double the original recipe as these are so good you'll want plenty!)

Ingredients

• 2 cans crescent roll dough

All other ingredients are not exact, you can eye ball the amounts and easily trade things out to make your own original combinations!

• 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 48 slices pepperoni, cut into quarters
• 2 cans pizza sauce (28 oz)
• 2 teaspoon italian seasoning

Directions

1. On a large baking sheet pinch together 8 crescent roll triangles into 4 separate rectangles. Gently stretch out the dough a little bit
2. Spread desired amount of pizza sauce over the dough followed by mozzarella and pepperonis
3. DO NOT overload it! I made the mistake of putting too many toppings on and then not being able to roll it ;) 
4. Once each rectangle has the toppings, start at the long end of each dough and roll tightly in a log. Repeat with each rectangle.
5. Place in freezer until firm, about 15 min. 
6. Remove from freezer and cut each log into 6-8 pieces. Sprinkle with italian seasoning.
7. At this point if you are making them in advance you can freeze them! I made mine a few days prior to my party and froze them and they were fabulous :)
8. When ready to cook preheat oven to 375
9. Bake until golden brown (roughly 12 min, maybe longer if straight from freezer). Serve with remaining pizza sauce for dipping! 

Tasty Baked Potatoes

My husband is a typical "meat and potatoes" type guy so I like to find a variety of ways to serve up one of his favorite side dishes! This is a SIMPLE twist on the typical baked potato and he's in LOVE with it!

Ingredients

• Baking potatoes
• olive oil
• sea salt (or regular table salt is fine too)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Wash potatoes and prick lightly with a fork 2-3 times
3. Cook in microwave for 8 minutes, turning after 4.
4. You want to be able to feel a little give in the skin but not so much that it breaks
5. Remove them from microwave and brush with olive oil and salt
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes

This recipe makes the skin SUPER yummy! I cook four potatoes...one for myself, one for the kids to split and two for Zach ;)

Broiler Corn

One of my personal favorite side dishes, and super quick and easy to whip up for the whole family!

Ingredients:

• frozen bag of corn kernels
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Put oven on High Broil
2. Lay corn (still frozen) out on baking sheet. I have a family of four and typically only use 1/2 a bag at each meal as this isn't very good left over!
3. Drizzle olive oil over corn
4. Season with salt and pepper
5. Heat for 5 minutes in oven

YES! It really is THAT SIMPLE!!! And it's delicious! 

Garlic Green Beans

I don't like to use canned goods often but this is a quick way to eat some green vegetables when in a rush to get dinner on the table!

Ingredients

• Canned green beans (any type)
• Garlic (I buy the big container of it and keep it in the fridge to have on hand)

Directions

1. Pour green beans (including juice from can) in pot on stove
2. Add 1 tsp of minced garlic
3. Let cook on a low setting for 20 min or so (I just let it cook the entire time I'm making the rest of our dinner!)

Honey Carrots

None of my family really enjoys eating carrots...yet we ALL love this recipe!!! 

Ingredients

• Whole carrots (as many as you'd like...I usually do 4 or 5 carrots for our family)
• 3 Tbl olive oil
• 3 Tbl honey
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Clean and peel carrots then cut into sticks
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
3. Place on baking sheet and toss in 1 Tbl olive oil along with salt and pepper
4. Roast in oven for 20 minutes
5. Drizzle with 2 Tbl olive oil, 3 Tbl honey and 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
6. Put back in oven for 5 minutes

This is a wonderful side dish however I'm always mindful to only make enough for us to eat immediately as they aren't very good left over!

Butter Beans

I had NEVER heard of "butter beans" until I moved down to South Ga but now they are a staple in our home!

Ingredients

• Pressure cooker
• 1 bag of frozen baby lima beans
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 packet of Goya Ham Flavored Concentrate (found in the "ethnic food section" at the grocery store)

Directions

1. Put frozen limas in bottom of pressure cooker
2. Put water in pressure cooker and fill to just barely above the peas but so they are covered
3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
4. Add packet of seasoning
5. Lock pressure cooker lid and put on stove top on medium-high heat until whistles
6. Once it whistles turn heat down to one setting below medium and let cook for 9 minutes
7. Remove from heat and wait for lid to unlock to serve

They are great re-heated too! We eat them for dinner one night then have them as left overs another night later in the week!

This same recipe also works great for ford-hooks and queen zipper peas as well!

Lemon Butter Potatoes

I first had this recipe at my son's thanksgiving celebration at school. It was so good I went back for seconds and asked for the recipe! I now make this as a side dish for our family at least a couple times a month, it's one of my personal favorites for sure. 

Ingredients

• 1 bag dutch baby potatoes or honey gold potatoes (I use the honey gold)
• 2 Tbl water
• 4 Tbs butter
• Juice of 1 lemon (I used the lemon juice concentrate and 3 Tbl of that equals one lemon)
• 1 tsp Everglades Seasoning

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray
3. Clean potatoes and cut in half 
4. Place in a bowl with the water. Cover and microwave for 7-8 Minutes
5. Cut butter into small pieces over the bowl then add lemon juice and seasoning and stir until well mixed with potatoes
6. Spread in single layer on baking dish and bake for 10-12 minutes

I usually will go ahead and clean potatoes and put them in the bowl earlier in the day so they are ready to cook in microwave when I'm ready to prepare dinner!