hot dog

Slow Cooker Little Smokies

This easy and addictive mini sausage appetizer is made even simpler thanks to the crock pot and is perfect for game days and parties.

Every year around this time, it’s the same thing.

The phone rings. Well, it used to ring. Now it just buzzes with texts.

And then I ~~hear~~ read, “Heidi, can you send me your Little Smokies recipe again?”

Yep, like clockwork.

As the big game day draws near I start hearing—make that seeing—the requests. And every year I send the same recipe out to friends who have had these sweet little barbecued sausages in the crock pot (or my new Instant Pot) on game days of years past.

They’re craving them again, but this time in the comfort of their own home where the game day bets are a little looser, and a whole lot more forgiving.

continue to the recipe… about Slow Cooker Little Smokies

Mini Hot Dog Rolls and My Academy Award Recipe Round-Up

Paparazzi-chased limousines and never-ending flash of camera flashes. Form-fitted, haute couture-dressed beauties dripping in diamonds floating down the cascading red carpet. Acceptance speeches that have been rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed because, “It’s just an honor to be nominated.” Uh-huh. We’ve heard that one before.

The Academy Awards telecast is one of my favorite TV nights of the year, when the pomp and circumstance of Oscar’s big night and the celebrity falderal come front and center and we cheer—and jeer—the winners and the losers of Hollywood’s biggest popularity contest.

Which makes it the perfect night for us to pop some champers ourselves, invite some friends over and party like the Hollywood royalty we aren’t.

Who will be the big winner? It’s anyone’s guess with Vegas bookies as nervously sweaty about the odds as the ravenous, 10-day cleanse-ed actresses starvingly awaiting Wolfgang’s braised short ribs to be served.

For me, I have my odds-on favorite to win and a recipe to honor it in all the glory it’s leading man and his abs deserves.

Ever since the 1996 Golden Globes, when Brad—yeah, we’re on a first name basis, just don’t tell my husband—won the award for Best Supporting Actor and thanked his “love o’ my life, the angel Gwyneth Paltrow”—oh, if only that had worked out—I have been rooting for the poor little guy who just can’t catch a break to win at The Big Show. Maybe this will be his coup de grace, the one thing that will put him on a cover of a magazine.

So what’s my tribute to the big night?continue to the recipe… about Mini Hot Dog Rolls and My Academy Award Recipe Round-Up

Nacho Taco Salad & Kid-Friendly Veggie Sneak Attack Recipes

I know I’m not alone. Kids can usually count their favorite dishes on fingers one, two, three, four and five (I know, five is a thumb, not technically a finger) with moms and dads coercing, conniving and conning their kids into eating a healthier version of their faves.

When Smudge was a toddler she looooved butternut squash, zucchini and even broccoli—or little trees as she called them. Cut to pre-school. Boom. It all went downhill. Any veggie put in front of her was taboo. Persona non grata. Hit the road jack and don’t come round here no more.

So when she came home from school and said she “just loves salads” I almost fell to the floor in shock. Who had stolen my child and how did this health cyborg take over her body?

The answer? Once again: school. Apparently, her 2nd grade friends have developed a far more sophisticated palette and the salad bar is a big hit with her tres-hip-gotta-be-like-them-friends. (I’m now packing salads IN HER LUNCH!)

So to satisfy her veggie craving for dinner, but not rocking the boat by proposing she dig into a big plate of brussels sprouts or spinach, we snuck in a layer of veggie goodness that even Magnum P.I. couldn’t sleuth out. We went straight to who knows best—my mother-in-law—and the secret ingredients in her taco meat recipe.

What’s her now-not-so-secret ingredients? V-8 juice and yellow corn meal. A serving of veggies in every glass—I hope there’s truth in advertising. But I do avoid V-8 Splash which is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.

Veggie adorned Nacho Taco Salads, a dish she loves assembling for herself, and being kids at heart, we love it too. Plus it is a DARN CLOSE facsimile of yo quiero Taco Bell.

What’s that Smudge? You want salsa with that too? He he he. Tthank you, we have crossed another food bridge.

If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.

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Nacho Taco Salad

Quick fix Taco night favorite with ground beef and a tasty lettuce salad.

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1/2 white onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 1/2 cup V-8 Original vegetable juice
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 garlic salt
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup yellow corn meal
1 can black or refried beans
16 oz. package of tortilla chips I prefer white corn chips
Condiments: shredded cheese sliced lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, jalepenos, peppers, avocado, onion, cilantro, Mexican crema, lime wedges

Instructions

In a fry pan over medium-high heat, brown ground beef and onion together until beef is browned and onion is translucent. Add spices and simmer together for another 10 minutes. Add vegetable juice and cornmeal to beef mixture and simmer for 15 minutes or until juice has cooked down and the mixture has thickened, stirring occasionally. While meat is simmering, heat beans on low in a small saucepan. To serve, layer beans, nacho meat, cheese, lettuce and other condiments over tortilla chips as desired.

And now, presenting…more ways to hoodwink your kids with a nudge to the healthier side of the table.

photo > Family Fresh Cooking

Hot dogs, skewers and corn chips? What kind of childhood dream is this? Marla has cooked up another kiddie goodie with Family Fresh Cooking‘s Grilled Hot Dog Skewers with Creamy Avocado Dip. Stick with turkey, kosher or organic beef varieties of hot dogs for the healthiest versions.

photo > One Dish Dinners

The kids are craving pizza and there’s no time to mix up a batch of dough or make a run for the store, so One Dish Dinners‘ Pizza Penne Bake keeps mom somewhat stable of mind thanks to less Erin’s one-pot-penne-and-pepperoni-pizza dish. Ahh mama mia!

photo > Un Déjeuner de Soleil

The chorus of “thank you’s” serenade Edda for a much more interesting take on the frozen-mass-produced-nuggets that kids love as mothers speculate what exactly is that mystery meat. Un Déjuner de Soleil‘s Chicken Nuggets with Tandori Mustard still has the crunch kids love (thank you corn flakes) with a sauce parents won’t mind giving a dip themselves.

photo > Eat Live Travel Write

Far from the boxed version of “yellow death”, Eat Live Travel’s Write‘s Macaroni and Cheese with Cauliflower sneaks in whole wheat pasta, low fat sour cream and a dose of veggies so sublimely and secretly added that they’ll never know what they aren’t missing.

The countdown is on! Maria is receiving some great holiday cookie submissions from our foodie blogger friends and can’t wait to showcase them in our upcoming Winter Issue, and we’d love to see yours. Submit your holiday cookie by September 1 and share your sweetness with the world.

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