Cheese Stuffed Dates wrapped in Bacon

Since friends and family have been asking for this recipe for Thanksgiving, here it is!  Gee, wish that I was going to their homes for the holiday!  I am a bit partial to this recipe.  I was first inspired by a stuffed-date recipe that I had at a tapas style restaurant here in Denver.  It's incredibly easy, only four ingredients, yet highly impressive.

The finished product.   Oh, if only smells could be had here!

Cheese Stuffed Dates wrapped in Bacon

Yields: 36 wrapped dates

36 medjool dates

8oz blue cheese (or other cheese depending on taste.  Goat cheese also works well)

1 package maple bacon* (will need 12 strips, save leftovers for other use)

Honey, for drizzling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray.  Pit the dates by slicing lengthwise just enough to remove the pit.  Discard pits.

Gently squeeze date to open where sliced and stuff with about a teaspoon of cheese.  Press gently with fingers to close. 

Cut each uncooked bacon strip into three sections. Wrap, slightly stretching and overlapping the ends, each bacon strip around each date.  Place in glass baking dish seam side down.

Drizzle with desired amount of honey (a single drizzled line is my preference). Place in oven and bake for 35- 40 minutes or until bacon is cooked.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving as they are uncomfortably hot to eat immediately, but they will smell oh-so-temptingly good.  Enjoy!

*Maple flavored bacon is key for bringing a sweet flavor to this dish.  The texture also works very well for wrapping and cooking in this wrapped shape  

Stuffing the slightly sliced and pitted dates with blue cheese

Dates are wrapped in bacon and ready for the oven

These hot little numbers are ready to come out of the oven

The finished product.  Mmm, savory and sweet at the same time.

Gorgonzola stuffed dates wrapped in bacon and drizzled with honey

Here's one of my 'go-to' recipes when I know that I need a sure hit!  These 'Gorgonzola stuffed dates wrapped in bacon and drizzled with honey' may have quite a long name, but that pretty much sums up the ingredients and the steps.  I made these yesterday for a glorified cookout and ended up winning a prize for them!

24 fresh medjool dates (pitted and slit open)
Gorgonzola cheese, 2 ounces is more than enough for a batch this size
maple flavored bacon, cut each strip into thirds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray baking sheet with Pam olive oil.

Slice open each date just enough to remove the pit.  With a knife, stuff each date with just enough cheese to fill it and then gently press to close using your fingers.  Wrap each stuffed date in a piece of cut bacon, with the seam side of the bacon on the bottom and the sliced opening of the date facing up.  Place onto baking sheet.  Once all are prepped and on baking sheet, drizzle honey over each one.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until bacon is crisp.  Let cool 10 - 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Healthy Onion Rings

Here's a favorite recipe of mine that will satisfy any onion lover, yes, onion lover.  This is a healthy version of onion rings.  There's NO oil and NO frying.  NO kidding.

One large yellow onion, cut into wide rounds
1/2 cup egg beaters
2 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Slice the onion into think rounds and separate into circles.  Spray large glass baking dish with Pam spray.  

Pour egg beaters into wide dish.  Pour breadcrumbs into a separate wide dish.  Set up an 'assembly line' in following order: separated onion rings, next is egg beaters, next is breadcrumbs, and finally, is the glass baking dish.  Dip each onion ring into the egg beaters first and then into the breadcrumbs; make sure that each is fully coated.  Place in glass baking dish.

When all have been dipped and coated and are placed in baking dish in even layer, place in oven and bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and serve warm.  Ketchup makes a nice compliment!  Enjoy with no guilt!

Homemade Donut-muffins

It's been entirely too long since my last blog (and a lot of chicken breast and cucumbers while training for a fitness competition), but I'm back.  And, I've been asked to bake for a bake sale at work tomorrow.  Since coworkers are bringing donuts in, I thought that I'd stay 'in theme' and created these Donut-muffins.  Pretty simple.  I hope that you like them and that they sell like 'hot-cakes' tomorrow.  Have fun making your own favorite flavors for the icing!

From top, clockwise: Cherry glazed, maple glazed, white chocolate and milk chocolate glazed.

Donut-muffins

Muffins:
3 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups milk
1 egg
1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix cracker crumbs, sugar and baking powder in large bowl. With electric mixer, blend in milk, egg and honey until well combined.

Spoon batter into mini muffin cups, filling almost completely (this will yield tall and rounded tops).

Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Let stand five minutes, remove from pan and allow to cool completely before icing.

Makes 5 and a half dozen mini muffins

Icing:
1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 of cherry liquid (or other desired flavor.  For maple, I used 1/4 cup sugar free maple syrup.  For milk chocolate, I melted 1 cup Hershey's milk chocolate chips.  For the vanilla, I melted 4 ounces vanilla almond bark.  You may need to add more/less for desired consistency).

Blend powdered sugar and desired flavoring until desired consistency is attained.  For easy icing, dip and twirl each mini donut-muffin into icing and then set upright on wax paper until dry.  Serve when completely dried.

Here I've sampled the maple glazed....mmm!

Easy No-bake Puffed Wheat Bars

Want a healthy snack that isn't going to ruin your hard workout efforts?  Me too, so I came up with this semi-healthy puffed wheat bar recipe.  The flax seed adds a slightly nutty flavor, 4g of dietary fiber and essential fatty acids.

4 cups puffed wheat (or puffed rice or combo) cereal

2 tablespoons flaxseed

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup sugar-free maple syrup and honey (any combination to total the ½ cup, I do about half and half)

½ cup honey-peanut butter (or nut butter of choice)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 squares almond bark, melted

Lightly grease 9x9 inch pan. 

In large bowl, stir together the cereal and flax seed. 

In medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, syrup, and honey.  Bring to just a boil over medium heat.  Turn off the heat and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla extract until mixture is smooth.  Quickly pour over the cereal mixture and stir until completely combined.

Pour into the prepared pan and press down with wax paper to evenly distribute and even out top. Allow to cool, then drizzle melted almond bark over bars in diagonal pattern for presentation.  The 'white' almond bark creates eye-popping appeal!  Once drizzle has dried, cut into bars.  Enjoy!

Field Green Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes

This is one of the prettiest salads that I've ever 'tossed' together.  A store bought mix of field greens becomes much more sophisticated once deep plum colored heirloom tomato wedges are added.  This field green salad mix included herbs like mint, which really added a freshness to the overall salad and an unexpected ingredient too.Not to mention, the colors compliment each other.

One package mixed field greens (or mixed herbs)
1 deep plum colored heirloom tomato (the color is important for presentation), wedged
1/2 half red onion, sliced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
light creamy Caesar dressing on the side

Place field greens in a bowl and sprinkle chopped green bell pepper over on top.  Arrange tomato wedges and onion slices on top.  Sprinkle with shaved mozzarella.  Only dress on individual plates, not the entire bowl.  This will preserve presentation and allow guests to use an amount to their choosing.

Shaved Asparagus Salad

I admit that I 'stole' this recipe just recently at an Easter brunch.  I learned the three basic ingredients and then made it my own.  So go ahead and do the same with my version to make it your own!  This is great as a side salad or as a 'happy hour' style food.  Take note, it's definitely to be eaten with a fork and not the fingers (you'll soon also figure out that I'm a lover of etiquette).  My guests loved the freshness of the lemon and how chilled it was (I didn't expect that) so be sure to take it out of the fridge just before serving.

Asparagus stalks (one bunch, about 1 pound)
juice from one lemon
one tablespoon olive oil
freshly shaved Parmesan

Blanch the asparagus.  Then, with a vegetable peeler, 'shave' the asparagus into ribbons cutting any that are long in half.  Pile onto plate attractively.  Roll one lemon on counter (this gets the juices flowing) before halving it and then squeezing out all of the juice onto the asparagus.  Then, drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil over asparagus.  Finally, with a hand held grater, shave (or shred, your preference) fresh block Parmesan onto the asparagus.  Cover and chill until ready to serve. Enjoy!