Taco Dip Dinner

Ingredients:
1 lbs ground beef, cooked and drained
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 small onion, diced
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
3 cups shredded lettuce
3 tomatoes, diced
tortilla chips

Directions:
In a large skillet, prepare the ground beef according to the directions on the taco seasoning package. Add the onion to the ground beef and cook it till tender. Place the ground beef in the middle of a large serving platter and cover it with the grated cheese. For the next ring, spread around the shredded lettuce. For the next ring, spread around the diced tomato. Serve with tortilla ships and salsa.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 15 minutes
Recipe Origin: Mom

Sassy Meatballs

Ingredients:
Meatballs:
2 eggs
1 envelope onion soup mix
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped craisins
2 Tbsp. minced parsley
1.5 lbs. ground beef

Sauce:
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup beef broth
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. chopped onions
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the meatballs and stir till well blended. Shape into balls and cook in a large skillet over med heat until they are done all the way through. In a medium pot, combine all the ingredients for the sauce and stir till well blended. Heat over med heat and stir until the sauce is smooth. Place the hot sauce and the cooked meatballs into a crock pot and cook on low for 4-5 hours. Serve hot.

Tip: You can also use frozen meatballs if you don't want to make your own, just brown them before adding them to the sauce.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 30 minutes prep plus 4 hours cooking
Recipe Origin: Devin Walker's Mom

Sherbet Punch

Ingredients:
2 liters lemon lime pop
Sherbet, any flavor

Directions:
Pour the lemon lime pop into a large punch bowl. Add scoops of sherbet to the pop. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Serve cold.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: 10 minutes
Recipe Origin: unknown

Pineapple Orange Slush

Ingredients:
4 cups sugar
6 cups HOT water
6 ounces frozen orange juice concentrate
6 ounces frozen lemonade concentrate
46 ounces pineapple juice
lemon lime pop

Directions:
In a 5 quart ice cream container, combine the hot water and sugar. Stir till sugar is dissolved. Add the orange juice concentrate, lemonade concentrate, and pineapple juice. Carefully stir till well mixed. Freeze mixture (stirring every 45 minutes so it freezes evenly). Serve over lemon lime pop. Store covered and frozen.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 20 minutes plus freezing time
Recipe Origin: Mormon Cookbook

Orange Ice

Ingredients:
1 cup water, boiling
1 cup cold water
2 cups sugar
3 cups orange juice
1/3 cup lemon juice
lemon-lime pop

Directions:
Boil the 1 cup of water and dissolve the sugar in the hot water. Add the remaining water, orange juice, and lemon juice. Stir till well blended. Pour mixture into a pan and freeze (stir mixture every so often while its freezing). Serve over lemon lime pop.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 20 minutes prep time plus a few hours freezing time
Recipe Origin: Mom

Spinach Dip

Ingredients:
8 ounces spinach, chopped
3 cups light mayonnaise
5 cups sour cream
10 ounces water chestnuts, drained and diced
2.5 ounces Knorr Dry Veggie Soup & Dip Mix
1/2 bunch green onions, finely chopped

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir till well blended. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour and then serve with potato chips.

Note: Using miracle whip in place of mayonnaise will dramatically change the flavor of the dip.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 20 minutes
Recipe Origin: Nancy Drury

Citrus Fruit Dip

Ingredients:
1 - 6 ounce carton plain low fat yogurt
1/3 cup light cool whip, thawed
2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
2 tsp. finely shredded lime, orange, and/or lemon zest
1 Tbsp. orange juice

Directions:
In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and stir till smooth. Serve with fruit. Serves about 8.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 10 minutes
Recipe Origin: Diabetic Living Cookbook

Dad's Calm Dip

Ingredients:
2 blocks Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
2 cans minced clams
Louisiana Hot Sauce, to taste

Directions:
Place your cream cheese in a medium bowl. Drain one of the cans of minced clams and add the clams to the cream cheese. Add the other can of clams to your cream cheese with the liquid. Stir with a fork till desired consistency. Add hot sauce (to taste) and stir. Serve with potato chips.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 10 minutes
Recipe Origin: Steven Manning (Dad)

Cowboy Salsa

Ingredients:
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans corn, drained
2-3 tomatoes, diced
2 avocados, diced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1 pkg italian dressing, prepared according to directions on the pkg

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the black beans, corn, tomatoes, avocados, cilantro, and red onion. Stir ingredients well. Pour the italian dressing over the ingredients and stir till everything is evenly coated. Chill in the refrigerator till serving. Eat with tortilla chips, or as a salad by itself.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 30 minutes
Recipe Origin: Tricia Richards

Cheddar Bacon Ranch Dip

Ingredients:
1/2 quart cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 quart sour cream
1/2 quart ranch dressing
1.5 ounces REAL bacon bits
1 - 1 ounce pkg hidden valley ranch dip mix
1/4 bunch of green onions, diced

Directions:
Blend all ingredients in a medium bowl and chill for 1 hour before serving with chips.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: 10 minutes
Recipe Origin: Nancy Drury

Miniature Cheesecakes

Ingredients:
18-24 vanilla wafers
2 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. lemon juice
cherry pie filling
whip cream (for topping)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. To prepare, place 18-24 muffin papers in a muffin tin and put 1 vanilla wafer in each paper. In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice with a mixer until ingredients are smooth. Spoon mixture over vanilla wafers and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool the cheesecakes completely and top them with a spoonful of cherry pie filling and whipped cream. Store in the refrigerator.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 30 minutes prep time plus 40 minutes cooling time.

Boston Cream Pie Minis

Ingredients:
24 chocolate or yellow cupcakes

Filling:
1 cup milk, cold
1 - 4 ounce instant vanilla pudding mix
1/2 cup cool whip

Icing:
1 cup cool whip
4 squares Baker's chocolate

Directions:
For the filling, beat together the milk and vanilla pudding mix. Let it stand 5 minutes and then fold in the cool whip. Fill each cupcake with about 1 Tbsp of the filling. For the icing, microwave together the cool whip and Baker's chocolate till the chocolate is almost melted. Stir till smooth. Frost each cupcake with the chocolate icing and refrigerate cupcakes for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 90 minutes (including cupcake prep time)
Recipe Origin: Tricia Richards

Chex Muddy Buddies

Ingredients:

9 cups Chex cereal

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 tsp. vanilla

1 + 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Measure the Chex cereal into a large bowl and set aside. In a separate, microwavable bowl measure the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and the butter (or margarine). Microwave ingredients until melted (stirring every 30 seconds). Stir ingredients until they are smooth then stir in vanilla.

Pour chocolate mixture over cereal and stir to evenly coat all the chex cereal. Then pour the coated cereal into a 2 gallon re-sealable ziploc bag. Add the powdered sugar to the bag. Seal the bag and shake the contents until all the cereal is well coated.

Spread the cereal on wax paper to cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Difficulty: Easy

Time to Make: 30 minutes

Recipe Origin: chex.com

Caramel Corn Puffs

Ingredients:

1 cup Karo syrup

1 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 - 16 ounce bag of Barrel o' Fun Corn Pops

Directions:

Combine Karo syrup, butter, brown sugar in a medium sauce pan. Bring mixture to a boil and boil for 4 minutes. Add sweetened condensed milk and continue boiling for 2 more minutes.

Pour caramel over the corn pops and stir until pops are evenly coated.

Difficulty: Easy

Time to Make: 30 minutes

Recipe Origin: Annette Gardner

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

Ingredients:

1 package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

In a medium bowl beat together cream cheese and butter. Mix in the powdered sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Once mixture is smooth, stir in chocolate chips. Cover the mix and chill in the fridge for 2 hours. After chilling, form the mix into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Chill again for 1 hour. After the hour is up, roll the ball in finely chopped pecans and serve with graham crackers or vanilla wafers.

*You can shape this into any shape you want, just do it quickly because it is harder to work with the longer you have it at room temp.

Difficulty: Easy

Time to make: 15 minutes for preparation, 3 hours for chilling.

Recipe Origin: online somewhere