Food

Whether you are hosting or attending a New Year’s Eve party this year or simply hanging out at home with close friends and family, ring in the new year with some delicious appetizers. When it comes to party appetizers, you want to make sure everything is tasty, but can also be small enough to grab and munch on while mingling and celebrating. Here are some appetizer ideas from Hormel if you still need some ideas.

We’ll start with one of my favorite appetizer items…Buffalo Chicken Dip!

 

Bacon-Wrapped Risotto Bites

 

Chili Cheese Dip

 

Potato Skins

 

Pepperoni Pizza Dip

 

Pepperoni Sizzle Sticks

 

This post was part of my involvement in the Hormel Extended Family Blogger Program. All opinions are my own and honest. Thanks for reading!

Seeing as Brett is such a picky eater, it’s no surprise that Trent is too…combine that with being a picky toddler and I often feel like Trent doesn’t eat as well as he should. He loves fruits, like peaches, strawberries and bananas, but we also try to sneak in ways to get him more nutrition. One of those ways, especially when we are traveling, in Disney or out and about in town, is to give him those little pouches of fruit from the grocery store. He really likes the applesauce in the pouches, but we also try to get some combo varieties to switch it up and see what he likes. And as he grows older, he eats them so fast and will sometimes eat two at a time!

To stop going through so many pouches that get thrown away, we love the idea of reusable pouches, especially because they hold more food and we can get creative with recipes for them. All in our quest to find more things for Trent to eat and enjoy.

We recently received a pack of Little Green Pouch reusable pouches and made a really yummy recipe for him to enjoy from the pouches…Peanut Butter & Jelly Smoothie!

Little Green Pouches are like those pouches of food you see in the store, but much better for the environment and easier on your wallet! They can hold up to 6 ounces of pureed food and are made of durable, BPA-free, PVC-free & phthalate-free plastic. They are reusable…they have a resealable top, are dishwasher and freezer safe, and are easy for kids to use. I like being able to fill the pouches with a treat, and have them in the refrigerator ready for snack time!

Here is what you’ll need for the recipe:

Peanut Butter & Jelly Smoothie (derived from this recipe)

Grapes

Banana

Milk

Peanut Butter (or almond butter)

This is really easy…just combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Open up the pouches and pour the smoothie in each one, then close them up.

You can put them in the fridge or in the freezer for later…but not before letting your little one enjoy some first!

I love how we can now give him these pouches without worrying he’ll squeeze the contents out everywhere. He can run around and still enjoy a delicious, nutritious snack.

And yes, after filling all the pouches, I enjoyed what was leftover. Not just for kids!

 

Buy:

LittleGreenPouch.com

Amazon.com

Connect with Little Green Pouch:

Facebook

For the most recent issue of WDW Magazine, which was an entire issue on Christmas at WDW, I contributed to the section “Bringing the Magic Home” with a recipe for chocolate-dipped Mickey head sugar cookies…with sprinkles, of course!

At first, we tried to take the easy way out and bought pre-made sugar cookie dough…the kind in a tube at the grocery store. Brett rolled it out flat, cut the Mickey heads and then put them in the oven…where they puffed out far beyond being recognizable as a Mickey head. Fail.

After those were consumed (we had to hide the evidence of mistakes, duh!), Brett found this recipe for rolled sugar cookie dough…which was a success! Apparently, the rolled recipe is what you need to make sure the cookies keep their shape. So here is what you’ll need:

Mickey Head cookie cutter

Mickey sprinkles (or any type of sprinkles)

Melting chocolates

and for the sugar cookies (insert the amount of servings on the linked recipe page to determine the amounts you’ll need of each ingredient):

Butter, softened

White sugar

Eggs

All-Purpose Flour

Baking Powder

Vanilla extract

Salt

Once the sugar cookie dough is made, roll it out flat and use a Mickey head cookie cutter to cut out each cookie.

Try to maximize the cuts to make as many cookies as possible!

Place them on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Cook according to the recipe. Once they’re done, place them on a rack to cool and sprinkle with extra sugar (optional).

Once the cookies have cooled, melt the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave. Make sure the bowl is deep enough so that the chocolate will cover the top of the Mickey head when dunked.

Dunk the top of the Mickey head cookies into the chocolate, then lay flat back on the cookie rack.

Sprinkle Mickey sprinkles on top of the chocolate. We got these sprinkles in WDW!

You can let the chocolate harden or eat them soon after the chocolate cools. I think Trent enjoyed them very much….

These are also perfect for our Disney Milk-and-Cookies for Santa platter (also from WDW!).

 

I’m also really excited about the article I contributed to the next issue of WDW Magazine, which is all about the best time to visit WDW. The magazine will be packed with all kinds of great advice and fantastic photos (including many from Brett). You can learn more about WDW Magazine here.

I must first start our little quick recap of Thanksgiving with a JibJab video Brett made of us (may take a few seconds to load).

We started the day with breakfast casserole and ended with a delicious meal with family. Trent was absolutely amazing…I am so proud of him…he sat in a booster seat, ate most of his plate of turkey, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and had fun playing with his cousins and the kitty of the house. It surely was a day to be thankful for and I hope your holiday was also spectacular.

Mmmm Brett’s sweet potatoes are always a hit. We had almost none leftover to bring home

My sweet little reluctant model.

The fried turkey was successfully cooked without burning down the house.

Kitties like turkey, too!

Time for dessert!

The rest of the weekend was spent putting up Christmas decorations - Brett did the entire outside of the house himself! It looks amazing and I will try to share some photos of everything next week or so. We’ll be in Walt Disney World this weekend, so we have some preparations to complete before then. It’s supposed to be in the 80′s there! Love it.

Psst…have you entered our current giveaway yet? Go here to enter now!

 

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of PAM Cooking Spray.

One year, I made the mistake of not eating at all on Thanksgiving morning, hoping to save the most room for the delicious feast later that day. It totally had the opposite effect…I definitely could not eat as much. So now, given that it’s a nice family day at home before gathering with everyone later, Brett makes a tasty breakfast for us to enjoy…nothing too heavy and nothing too tedious.

This year, he made a breakfast casserole and it was so delicious. Given our itty bitty family of 3, we had leftovers the next few days too…perfect for a long holiday weekend of decorating the house in all it’s Christmas merriment.

I received 2 cans on Pam Cooking Spray, Original formula and Baking formula. Both formulas (and the Butter formula) now leave up to 99 percent less residue buildup than margarine or bargain-brand cooking sprays, while still offering superior no-stick results. There’s also zero calories…not that I count those on Thanksgiving, but I’ll take the savings wherever I can get them.

It was important to use a non-stick spray like Pam since we were using the Le Creuset Pie Dish we also received and didn’t want any of the cheesy casserole to stick to the pan and/or get burnt. Burnt cheese = no bueno.

Cheesy Breakfast Casserole

6-8 eggs (depending on size of baking dish/pan)

Large bag of shredded hash browns

Turkey breakfast sausage (you can also use regular sausage)

Bacon (we opted for the pre-cooked variety to save time)

Cheddar cheese

1/4 cup milk (not shown)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Dice the bacon into little pieces.

2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the milk.

3. Spray the pie dish with Pam.

4. Brown the shredded hash browns according to the package.

5. Brown the ground sausage.

6. Add the bacon and hash browns to the sausage and mix together well.

7. Pour the mixture into the pie dish and cover with the eggs.

8. Bake for 30-40 minutes until eggs are firm.

9. Cover with cheddar cheese and melt in the oven.

10. Cut your piece and enjoy!

 

Each piece slid right out thanks to Pam. Clean-up was super easy, too. Often, the right preparations before a meal can make it much easier to clean up afterward and save more time for friends and family. Last Christmas, we tried making a red velvet cheese roll and that thing stuck to everything so much that we had to trash it and make another one. We don’t want to do that again, so we make sure we spray everything and follow any recipe advice that we find online…if you find a recipe online that has comments on it, make sure you scroll through them to see if anyone offers some words of wisdom. Brett has found some great modifications to recipes in the comments!

We also used this pie dish later on in the day for our sweet potato dish for Thanksgiving - yum!

How would you like to win your very own Pam Cooking Spray kit to help with your holiday cooking and baking? Check out the giveaway below!

 

***GIVEAWAY***

Up for grabs: A Pam Cooking Spray Kit valued at $50

• Full size sample of Pam
• Le Creuset Pie Dish

Eligibility: All entrants must be 18 years+ and reside in the continental US. (view the full terms & conditions here)

Contest Ends: Wednesday, December 11, 2025 at 11:59pm

How to enter: Simply leave a comment on this blog post with the answer to this question: “What is your favorite dish to make (or eat) during the holidays?”

One winner will be selected at random from the comments on this post and announced as an update to this post and on Facebook/Twitter. I will also contact the winner by email. See full giveaway terms & conditions here.

Good luck!!

 

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of PAM Cooking Spray.
For more information, visit http://www.pamcookingspray.com.