Sweet Potatoes

I got this recipe from an email list I belong to called "Daily Recipe". I get a recipe in my inbox daily. A lot of times I just delete them, but this one I made tonight and it was yummy. It isn't as sweet as your traditional sweet potato casserole that is made on Thanksgiving. They are twice baked, but instead of putting them back in their skins, I just mixed it all up in a casserole dish because who needs that kind of trouble and no one eats the skin anyway!

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RECIPE: DOUBLE BAKED SWEET POTATOES

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INGREDIENTS:
6 sweet potatoes (medium sized)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1/3 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rub skins with oil
wrap each in aluminum foil. Bake in preheated oven
for 1 hour, or until soft when poked in the center.
In a large bowl combine cream cheese, brown sugar,
butter, vanilla, salt and pepper. Slice each baked
potato in half lengthwise and scoop flesh into the
creamy mixture. Caution they will be very hot so this
works best using a clean towel to hold the potato.
Mix well and fold in walnuts. Spoon mixture evenly
back into each potato skin and bake for about 10-15
minutes more at 350 degrees just to heat through.

Yield: 12 Servings

I also only put walnuts on half the casserole sprinkled on top, because their are a lot of haters. I ate the side with walnuts and it was yummy. :o)

Snickers Salad

Yes, you read that right! SNICKERS SALAD! Fabulous stuff. I bought a book on how to make some freezer meals to stock my newly acquired deep freeze (I have wanted one for years for this purpose!) Here is the recipe:

Snickers Salad
Yield: 8 to 10 servings

4 Snickers candy bars (2.07 ounces each), cut into 1/2-inch chunks (I cut them up into small pieces so more Snickers in each bite)
5 medium tart apples, peeled and chopped
1 small container (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed
3 drops foold coloring, your choice (I skipped this step as it seemed unnecessary)

Unwrap and slice Snickers candy bars into 1/2-inch chunks. Peel and chop the apples. Mix together candy bars and apple chunks in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix together food coloring and whipped topping. Add to apples and candy bar chunks and stir until all pieces are completely covered with whipped topping. Pour into a large zip-top bag, label, and freeze until ready to serve.

To Serve
Remove the salad from the freezer 1 to 2 hours before you are ready to serve it. Set it in a large bowl and let it defrost on the counter. Serve the salad cold as a side dish.

That is the recipe straight from the book, but here is what I did differently. I didn't follow the measurements exactly, mainly because I wanted it to make more. I bought a six-pack of Snickers bars and chopped them all up into small pieces and then chopped and peeled 4 green apples. I had 5 apples, but it seemed to be a lot of apples so I am guessing mine were large apples and not the medium sized the recipe calls for. Then I added the whip cream and it didn't seem enough so I ended up using an entire 16 ounce carton of whipped cream instead of the 8 ounces. I didn't use the food coloring at all. Then I got two quart-sized freezer bags and filled them to what I thought would be enough for my small family for one meal each and then served what was left-over for dinner tonight. Before eating it, I added a sliced banana, I didn't put bananas in the freezer bags. So there you have it, dessert and fruit salad in one scrumptious side dish! I googled the recipe and found several variations and one calls for marshmallow cream! I might try that next time.

**Update** While this salad is delicious, it wasn't any good after thawing it as a freezer meal. The whip cream got all weird and only Stephen would eat it.

Yummiest Carrots Ever!

These carrots are so yummy and so easy. I dump a bag of baby carrots in a cake pan or casserole dish. Sprinkle one packet of onion soup mix over the top and a few big handfulls of brown sugar (I never measure, just use what looks right) and then cut up a stick of butter over the top.

Cover with tinfoil and put in the oven for about an hour. I usually put it at 350 degrees or if I am cooking something else at the same time, just put it at whatever the other recipe calls for. Cook until tender and serve hot!