Snacks Part 2- The Sweet Variety

I have a very unnecessary love for cream cheese in recipes. In fact, I will try just about any recipe I find with cream cheese. So when I was looking for sweet dips I was ecstatic to find another blog via pinterest that had 3 simple cream-cheese based sweet dip recipes (http://www.theyummylife.com/blog/2010/10/68/3+Easy+Dip+Recipes--Pumpkin+Pie,+Caramel,+&+Peanut+Butter). I was also dying to make some apple butter. This was partly because I wanted left-overs for myself and to give away :) I think all 4 dips turned out great, but my favorites were definitely pumpkin cream cheese dip and apple butter! I've been using apple butter on bread, in my oatmeal, and sometimes by itself all week- it's been glorious. I really enjoyed making all the dips for the house-warming and I now have an entire arsenal of dips to create at a moments notice for other social gatherings. I used graham crackers and Fuji apples for dipping.

Caramel Cream Cheese Dip

Ingredients

· 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese (low fat works fine)

· 3/4 cup dark brown sugar

· 1 teaspoon vanilla

· toffee bits for garnish (optional)

Directions

Combine ingredients and mix in food processor or with electric mixer. Process/mix until well combined. Chill before serving, or eat it right away.

Pumpkin Pie Cream Cheese Dip

Ingredients

· 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened (light cream cheese works fine)

· 3/4 cup dark brown sugar

· 1/2 cup canned pumpkin (plain, not flavored)

· 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (View recipe for making your own pumpkin pie spice at: www.theyummylife.com/recipes/24)

· 1 teaspoon vanilla

· 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans for garnish (optional)

Directions

--With Food Processor: Add all ingredients (except nuts) to bowl of food processor. Process until well combined.
--With Electric Mixer: Combine cream cheese and brown sugar in a large bowl. Mix until well combined. Add pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
--Store in fridge until ready to serve. Garnish top with chopped pecans, if desired.

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Dip

Ingredients

· 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened (light cream cheese works fine)

· 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

· 1/2 cup peanut butter

· 1/4 cup honey

· 1 teaspoon vanilla

· chopped peanuts for garnish (optional)

Directions

--For Food Processor: Add all ingredients (except nuts) to bowl of food processor. Process until well combined.
--For Electric Mixer: Combine cream cheese and brown sugar in a large bowl. Mix until well combined. Add peanut butter, honey, and vanilla, mix well combined.
--Make it ahead and chill in fridge, or eat it right away. Garnish the top with chopped peanuts, if desired.

Apple Butter

Ingredients

· 3 pounds apples - peeled, cored and finely chopped [I used red delicious]

· 1 cup sugar [use 1.5-2 cups if you use a tarter apple]

· 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

· 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

· 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Place the apples in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Pour the mixture over the apples in the slow cooker and mix well.

2. Cover and cook on high 30 minutes.

3. Reduce heat to low and cook 5 hours [I cooked for 8 hours] , stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and dark brown.

4. Uncover and continue cooking on low 30 minutes. Stir with a whisk, if desired, to increase smoothness.

5. Spoon the mixture into sterile containers, cover and refrigerate or freeze.

Snacks!

Ok, so maybe its ironic but although I love to cook I am not a girl that likes to sit down and eat a meal. I am a snacker by nature and would rather snack my way through any meal than actually sit down to a multi-course meal. So when Rex and I were planning our house-warming party and knew we were going to have lots of people coming in and out of the house I planned on making multiple dips. A snackers dream! I was able to make all the dips the day before and in just about 1 hour. It took another 30-40 minutes the day of to plate, chop apples and slice bread to dip into the dips, but I was very pleased with the outcome. I decided to do sweet and savory dips.

I will be posting all the recipes I used, but today I am sticking to the savory dips. I made spinach dip and salsa. I wanted to make guacamole, but by the time I went to the market on Friday night, nothing was ripe enough! I would've just stuck it in a bag with a banana to ripen it quickly, however, that seemed like a lot of work for the day-of the party. Regardless, we still had 2 very yummy savory dips that were simple and delicious. I make salsa a lot (usually 1x/month), so I don't actually measure my ingredients anymore but I think the ones given are good approximations. Also, if you love salsa- buy your ingredients at a Mexican market. I think I spend about $4 for 2-3 cups of fresh salsa on a bad sale day :) So cheap! This particular day was a good sale day and I spent less than $2 on all the ingredients (the cilantro was $0.10).

Spinach Dip (served w/ tortilla chips, sourdough bread bites, and carrots)

1 c mayo [I use SmartBeat- it's 10 calories per tbsp and tastes the same as the normal 100 cal/tbsp mayo]
1 (16 oz) container sour cream [non-fat of course!]
1 pkg dry leek soup mix [found next to onion soup mix]
1 (4 oz) can of water chestnuts
1/2 (10 oz) pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

Mix everything together well and chill for 6 hours! Really that's it :)

Salsa (served w/ tortilla chips)

6-8 Roma tomatoes
1 white onion
2-3 jalapenos [greener and darker = spicier; I usually use 3 but I wanted it mild I used 2 & removed seeds]
2-3 cloves garlic
1/2-3/4 c cilantro [I bruise mine w/ my knife before chopping for more flavor]
2 limes, juiced

1. Cut Roma tomatoes length-wise and remove fleshy interior of the tomatoes (otherwise you will have a very watery salsa!). Dice Roma tomatoes or if you are lucky like me, you have a chop-chop which means it'll dice everything for you!
2. Dice white onion and add to diced tomatoes in mixing bowl.
3. Mince garlic, dice jalapenos, and add to the tomatoes and onion.
4. Bruise cilantro and finely dice. Add lime juice to the bowl and a dash of salt. Mix well and refridgerate to allow flavors to marinate together. Enjoy!

* Since Salsa is labor-some in the amount of chopping it needs to have done, I literally throw all the ingredients (usually 1-2 at a time) into my chop-chop aka "Black & Decker Ergo 3-Cup Chopper". It literally chops everything so when I'm lazy or have a lot of chopping/dicing to do, I just throw my ingredients into this bad boy and it does everything for me. No work :) It is probably one of the best $20 we've spent in the kitchen. I rarely dice an onion anymore and when I do it's usually because I miss doing it (I'm weird like that!).