Pick up the Pace!

We have a winner!

dddiva who said...
"My newest fave Tex Mex casserole that came about because I was out of cheese that would work on my original recipe so I used a jar of queso instead.
Browned ground turkey or beef, 2 lbs drained
Pace Salsa 1 jar
Can tomato sauce
Can corn, drained
Mix all together then put in a greased casserole.
Top with 1 jar Pace queso
Mix 2 boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix according to directions adding 1 jar drained diced green chilis and 1 can creamed corn
Let corn stuff sit 5 minutes (do this part while you are browning the meat)
Pour evenly over the top."

Thanks for all the great ideas!

We're having fun out West! I love the great Mexican food you can get here!
Speaking of yummy Mexican food, I recently found out about some great new salsa flavors from Pace and they are delish! Why hadn't I heard about these before??! The specialty salsa line includes Pineapple Mango Chipotle, Black Bean & Roasted Corn, Triple Pepper Salsa, Tequila Lime Salsa, Salsa Verde, Pico De Gallo, and Mexican Four Cheese Salsa Con Queso.
I tried making my stuffed pork loin with the Pineapple Mango Chipotle flavor and it's better than my original recipe! (see recipe below) Try it out for an easy and impressive summer grillin' dish.
I want to hear how YOU use salsa when you cook. Leave a comment with a recipe or idea using ANY flavor of Pace Salsa. I'd love to hear how you came up with the idea (was it your grandmas? Were you just cleaning out the pantry?). Feel free to email me photos, too, if you like. I'm in Salsa Mode and would love some ideas!!:)

My Favorite Recipe entry will receive:
--3 Flavors of Salsa (2 specialty flavors and regular picante sauce)

--2 Coupons for free 16oz Pace salsa purchases

--Recipe guide

Contest ends June 29th. Open to US Residents. You can enter as many seperate entries as you want.

I PROMISE we'll have some fun-for-kids recipes up soon, I'm busy keeping my family sane in this crosss-country move.:)

Pineapple Mango Crab Stuffed Pork Loin
Ingredients:
Large Pork Loin (around 8 lbs., about $1.58 per lb. at Sams), cut into just under 1" slices--the butcher at Sams Club can do this for you. You'll get about 18 slices.
1 lb. lump imitation crab meat
1 1/2 c. plain bread crumbs
1 jar Pace Pineapple Mango Chipotle Salsa

Marinade Ingredients:
6 Tbsp. soy sauce
3 Tbsp. Brown sugar
1/4 tsp. powdered ginger
1 tsp. garlic
dash red pepper flakes
dash black pepper
3 Tbsp. tomato sauce (or ketchup if you're in a pinch)

Directions:
Place all marinade ingredients in a gallon Ziploc Freezer bag and mix well. Cut through side of pork loin to make a pocket (or you can just pound the pork loin flat, stuff it, and roll it up). Mix crab meat, bread crumbs and salsa in a medium bowl. Stuff about 2-3 heaping tablespoons crab mixture into pork loin pocket and place in marinade bag. Repeat with all pork loin pieces (you can fit about 6 in a bag). Marinade in refrigerator at least 30 minutes. Grill 7-10 minutes on each side. You can also freeze them and defrost when ready to grill.

Beary Much in Love with Hershey!

We are "Beary Sad" to leave Hershey, PA! As my kitchen is getting packed up, we had to have some Hershey Bears cookies with our heart in them since there will be a piece of it ALWAYS right here in Chocolatetown, USA. By the way, we just got home from the Hershey Bears hockey game where they beat Manitoba in Game 3 of the Calder Cup Finals. GO BEARS!! We will miss you, Hershey!

These would also be a great Valentine cookie with a card saying, "I love you Beary Much!" or even a "Thank You Beary Much" gift to someone. The possibilities are endless.:)

I won't have a kitchen for at least a week, ACK! Don't worry, I'll be busy thinking of fun things to make. In the meantime, we have a few fun giveaways and other exciting things to do! See you soon!

To make these "heartfelt" bears:

--Use your favorite gingerbread or sugar cookie dough, cut into bear shapes, and place on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil and sprayed with cooking spray. (Don't forget the foil or your bears won't come off the pan!)

--Using a sharp knife or small cookie cutter, cut out a heart shape on each bear.

--Crush red Life Saver or Jolly Rancher candies in a ziploc freezer bag until they are ground into fine pieces. Sprinkle a small amount of crushed candies in each heart.
--Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes, until edges are barely brown and candy is melted. Cool completely and peel cookies off foil.

--If desired, dip legs in melted chocolate and set on wax paper to dry.

Loaded Picnic Basket Giveaway & Dip

Wow, so many great recipes! Thank you for all your submissions, I can't wait to try some of them!

We have a randomly-picked Winner!
janetfaye who said...
"I found this online:
Chicken Casserole:
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
* 2 (5 ounce) cans Swanson Canned Chicken
* 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
* 2 cups milk
* 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
* 1 (4 ounce) can sliced mushrooms
* 1/4 cup chopped onion

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl combine the macaroni, Swanson Canned Chicken, cheese, milk, soup, mushrooms and onion. Mix together and transfer mixture to a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 45 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown. "

Memorial Day kicked off Picnic Season--hooray! One of our favorites is Buffalo Chicken Dip (recipe below). Speaking of chicken, the lovely people at the Campbell Soup Company, makers of Swanson Chicken offered to sponsor a fun giveaway for Gourmet-Mom-on-the-Go readers. Let's party!
Anyone interested in this super-cute loaded picnic basket?
I'm drooling!...

Here's what you get:
* Picnic basket for two with reusable plastic plates, cups, and utensils
* Recipes
* Swanson Chicken
* VIP Coupons for additional cans of Swanson Chicken
* Mix-Ins for chicken salad like curry powder, dill, raisins, mayonnaise,
and dijon mustard

This giveaway is now closed.

Buffalo Chicken Dip from Swanson
Ingredients:
1 pkg. (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese or shredded mozzarella cheese (about 2 ounces)
1/2 cup blue cheese salad dressing or ranch salad dressing
2 cans (9.75 ounces each) Swanson® Premium Chunk Chicken Breast in Water, drained
1/2 cup any flavor FRANK'S® RedHot® sauce
Assorted fresh vegetables or crackers

Directions:
Heat the oven to 350° F. Stir the cream cheese in a 9-inch deep dish pie plate with a fork or whisk until it's smooth. Stir in the dressing, pepper sauce and blue cheese. Stir in the chicken.
Bake for 20 minutes or until the chicken mixture is hot and bubbling. Stir before serving. Serve with the vegetables and crackers for dipping.

Dinosaur Claws

Yowza, have we been busy! I have lots of things to post, I'll try to put them up in-between packing. We'll be at Grandma's house for a couple weeks and oh, boy will we have some fun things to post from there!!
Big C is having a birthday and is all about Dinosaurs right now! So, I made up these easy treats for her party. They'd be a great "D" snack, too!

I love how the pattern on the Nutter Butter cookies kind of looks like scales. ROAR!

Dinosaur (or Dragon) Claws
Ingredients:

Nutter Butter Cookies
Green Candy Melts (get them at Wal-Mart in the craft section or here)
Cashew halves
Wax Paper

Directions:
Put candy melts in a glass bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring after every 30 seconds until melted.

Dip Nutter Butter cookies in candy melts and place on wax paper. (I held onto the sides where the cookie gets narrow, dipped it, shook off the excess, wiped the bottom of the cookie on the side of the bowl, set it on the wax paper, then gently smoothed over where my fingers were holding the cookie). Take three cashew halves (or 3 small cashews) and place on dipped cookie for "claws". Let set completely and serve! You can store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks

"W" is for Wiggly Watermelon

Does this look like real watermelon to you? My kids were fooled at a distance and upon investigation were delighted to munch on this fun treat!

The weather is getting warmer and gorgeous watermelons were on sale last week! So, I decided to do double duty--cut out and eat the melon then use the rind for this fun and refreshing treat! You can use sugar-free jello to make it healthier. I'm planning on taking this to summer parties so I can enjoy a fun dessert without the guilt.:)

Wiggly Watermelon
Ingredients:
Watermelon rind

4 large boxes red jell-o (6 oz., we used cherry)

5 cups water (DO NOT follow the water instructions on the jell-o box, your "watermelon" will not hold its shape)
1/4 c. mini chocolate chips

note: this recipe is for ONE half of a large watermelon. If you want to use both halves, double the jell-o and water.

Directions:
Cut melon in half and scoop out fruit with a melon baller or spoon. Make sure to get all the way down to the green rind. Stand the melon on its end. You may have to shave a little bit off the bottom to get it to stand upright, just don't cut all the way through and make a hole in the rind.:)

Boil water, add jello, and mix well. Pour into prepared melon rind.

Place in the refrigerator. When mixture is firm but not completely set, push mini-chocolate chips into the jell-o with a chopstick. Let set completely in the fridge.

When ready to serve, slice with a sharp knife and enjoy!

Gourmet Doggie Treats & Singing Chef

It's the singing chef!:) Gourmet Dad's favorite broadway song is "I Dreamed a Dream", so I did a quick recording of it as a surprise for him so he can hear me sing it whenever he wants. You can go here to hear it yourself--I didn't record it in the kitchen, but we sing in there all the time, it has great acoustics!

We've never featured canine food before, but Baby H has serious issues with one of our best friends' dog and we're working on making friends. Here's a super easy and yummy dog treat recipe the kids can all help with, we had a great time!

Gourmet Doggie Treats
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 c. ground flax seed (if you don't have it, just do and extra 1/4 c. whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup cornmeal
2/3 cup flavored liquid (broth, bouillon, etc)
6 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together. Add more broth or oil 1 T. at a time if dough is too dry. Roll out to about 1/4" thick and cut into shapes.
Place on greased cookie sheet and Bake at 350 F for 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely before serving to your favorite doggie!

"J" is for Jiggly Jellyfish

Whew! What a crazy couple weeks! We're in the middle of getting ready to move across the country and we also just sold our house. Hooray!

We decided to learn about Jellyfish today...we watched YouTube videos, played with umbrellas (pretending we were jellyfish), did letter J practice pages, and learned about their life-cycle. They are extremely strange and cool animals. Here was our snack! Jiggly Jellyfish
Ingredients:
2 large boxes Jell-o (any kind)
2 1/2 c. boiling water

Carrots (long ones!)
Icing Eyes

Cupake Pan
Cooking Spray

Directions:
Spray a cupcake or muffin tin with cooking spray. Mix boiling water and jell-o until dissolved. Pour into muffin tin and put into refrigerator until firm (about 3 hours).

With a potato peeler, cut long strips of carrot. These are your tentacles!

Gently slide your finger around the edges of the cupcake tins and pop the jello out. Put on a plate and let the kids add tentacles, a carrot piece smile, and icing eyes. Enjoy!

Notes:
Jennifer shared this super cute idea for hot dog jellyfish that she found here. I love it! Simply poke dried spaghetti noodles into hot dog pieces and boil until pasta is tender. You could make a whole jellyfish lunch! I love it!