Chocolate-New Year Chocolate Popcorn

By Allen Wheeler

Peanut butter and jelly. Currier and Ives. Lennon and McCartney. Bill and Hillary. Some things just seem to go together. This chocolate recipe combines two of my favorites: popcorn and chocolate.

As we enter 2009, the parties and festivities will be in full swing. As you may know, Chocolate is a well known stimulant. Chocolate contains small amounts of caffeine and theobromine. In small doses, caffeine has positive benefits. It increases vigilance, and stalls the symptoms of tiredness. This chocolate popcorn recipe will be a hit with your numerous family and friends, but it also will help you to stay awake while you endlessly entertain. I have found this wonderful chocolate popcorn recipe in a book published in 2007. The book is authored by Camilla V. Saulsbury and is titled, "Enlightened Chocolate". It has great information and wonderful recipes. I hope you enjoy this chocolate popcorn recipe.

New Year Chocolate Popcorn

Makes 16 Servings

8 cups air-popped popcorn (popped without salt or fat)
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (not dutch process)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 300*F. Spray a 15 X 10-inch jelly roll or other large rimmed baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place popcorn in a large metal or glass bowl lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Combine the honey, cocoa powder, salt, and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat. bring to a boil, stirring just until combined.

3. Cook, without stirring, for 2 minutes. Pour honey mixture over popcorn in a steady stream, stirring to coat.

4. Spread popcorn mixture in an even layer into prepared pan. Bake 15 minutes. remove from oven, and cool completely in pan. Store in an airtight container.

Nutrition Per Serving (1/2 cup):
Calories: 55;
Fat: 1g;
Protein: .6g;
Cholesterol: 2mg;
Carbohydrate: 12g;

Be sure to visit our web site for more chocolate popcorn recipes and other wonderful food creation ideas and practical cooking tips.

For more chocolate popcorn recipes, register your email and receive weekly FREE recipes and other food creation information by directing yourself to my website, http://www.foodcreate.com. If you have recipes to share, comments, or questions, email me at info@foodcreate.com.

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New Years Eve Party Menu Ideas For A Fantastic New Years Eve Party

By Gail Leino

Hosting a New Year's Eve Party can be great fun. It's a way to reminisce with friends, and to look forward to what the new year will bring. Here are some ideas for food and drinks to start you off:

New Year’s Eve offers plenty of parties with friends and family to celebrate another year. You will find there are many menu options for New Year’s Eve. Most of these options include a lot of champagne, wine or beer depending on your preferences. You will also want to include plenty of items to eat. If you are having an informal party you may just get cold cut platters, cheese platters, vegetable platters, and many chips and dips to share. Or you could have a full scale meal with a potluck dinner for you and your friends. Here are a few other ideas:

A typical dip you may find at a New Year’s Eve party will be ranch. You can make the ranch from scratch or you may just buy a jar of pre-made ranch dip. My favorite ranch dip is created with sour cream. You can find the powered ingredient you need for ranch at any store. I prefer Hidden Valley combined with a little sour cream to make a sturdy yet tasty dip.

A great recipe for hors d’oeuvres includes Little Smokies in a beer sauce with a cheese dip. First you need a package of Little Smokies and a bottle of beer. Any beer will do. You heat the sausages in the beer while you create a cheese sauce. Typically a cheese sauce will include a little milk, flour, and your favorite cheese. It can be cheddar, Monterey jack, or even Colby. The idea is to have something that works well with the beer flavor, but also not over power the beer flavor.

Catering for your New Year’s Eve party need not be difficult. Try to prepare as much of the food ahead of time as you can; microwave-friendly food will make your party MUCH easier. Above all, however, enjoy spending time with your guests and ushering in the New Year in style.

Mrs. Party... Gail Leino takes a common sense approach to planning and organizing events, celebrations and holiday parties with unique ideas for New Years party supplies and fun party games. She explains proper etiquette and living a healthy life while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. The Party Supplies Hut has lots of party ideas with hundreds of free holiday printable games and free birthday party activities. Over 100 adorable Themes including Party Supplies to fit your birthday celebration, holiday event, or "just because" parties. Party themes include cartoon characters, sports, movie, TV shows, luau, western, holidays, and unique crazy fun theme ideas.

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A Weave Bacon Recipe! LOL!

Okay, If you have never seen a Weave Bacon Recipe, now you can.

I was on twitter.com today and one of my new friends I am following added the link below. You have to check it out!

You will never look at bacon the same again!LOL!

If I Die A Bacon-Related Death, I'd Like It To Be Because Of This

A Sample Detox Diet Recipe

By Abraham Foster

A detox diet, and any detox diet recipe, is formulated to cleanse your body of the free radical molecules and chemicals which are harmful to it. Your detox diet recipes will be made from delicious and nutritious foods which will restore your health instead of harming it, and with a commitment from you, will get your future food choices turned in the right direction.

One Detox Diet Recipe

Here's a sample diet detox recipe, which makes either a great meal or a snack, to give you an idea of how delicious most detox diet recipes really are:

Creamless Spinach Soup

Ingredients:

Two pounds chopped organic spinach
One teaspoon chopped organic garlic
One cup organic diced onion
One cup organic diced carrots
One cup organic diced celery
One cup organic diced leek
Two organic bay leaves
On sprig organic thyme
Two tablespoons cold-pressed organic olive oil
Six cups purified water

(You should use organic ingredients in any detox diet recipe, because they are grown without any of the toxic herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers which you are trying to flush from your system.)

In a large pot, sauté the garlic in the olive oil over medium heat for two minute, while slowly adding the celery, leek, carrots, and onion. The onions will become translucent when they are cooked, and then you can add the water, thyme, and bay leaves. Bring the mix to a boil, turn down the heat, and let it simmer, covered for sixty minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for an hour before straining out the thyme and bay leaves.

When the mixture is cooled, puree it in a blender and return it to the pot, adding the chopped spinach. Cook the mix over medium heat until the spinach has wilted, and remove it from the heat immediately. You want to avid over cooking the spinach or you will destroy its nutritional content. All foods, but especially fruits and vegetables, will lose some of their nutrients when they are cooked, so it's a good idea to eat your fruits and veggies raw when you can.

Detox Diet Recipe Basics

While you're enjoying your Creamless Spinach Soup, you can learn more about the basics of detox diet recipe A detoxification program will have you choosing from a large selection of fruits and vegetables, because you want as broad a spectrum of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients as possible. You won't be eating any junk or fast foods, or using wheat, dairy products, eggs, or refined sugars and flours in any diet detox recipe, so you'll have to learn the magic of flavoring your foods with herbs and spices, and cooking them with healthy and flavorful oils.

You can also find more info on detox center Detoxbliss.com is a comprehensive resource which provide information about Diet.

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Culinary Family Traditions - Christmas Recipes

By Tammy Embrich

The holidays bring about numerous opportunities to gather with family to celebrate the season of sharing and giving. Throughout the years my family has collected quite a list of some favorite Christmas recipes.

These favorites have been enjoyed over and over again, and we have yet to grow tired of them.
We've shared some precious memories in pitching in and preparing the holiday meals.

Here are just a few of our family favorites:

Christmas Punch (One of Tammy's recipes)

Ingredients

1 1/2 liter of chilled 7-Up
About 20 scoops of green lime sorbet
2 Tbsp of lemon juice

Directions

Gather up your favorite punch bowl set. Make sure it is washed and cleaned for use. Pour the chilled 7-Up in the punch bowl. Scoop up 20 scoops of sorbet into the 7-Up. Add the lemon juice and then give the punch mixture a quick stir. Serve immediately.

Cheesy Potato Casserole (My Sister's Recipe)

Ingredients

32 oz frozen hash browns
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup melted butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 8 oz tub of sour cream
1 bag shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: 1 cup crushed corn flakes or potato chips

Directions

Mix onion, soup, sour cream, and cheese in bowl.

Place potatoes in 9 x 13 baking dish. Pour melted button on top. Then stir in mixture of remaining items.

Sprinkle corn flakes or potato chips on top. Bake uncovered @ 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

Ambrosia Salad (My Sister-In-Law's Recipe)

Ingredients

2 cups shredded coconut
1 8oz container whipped cream, thawed
1 11oz can madarin oranges, drained
3 apples, peeled and chopped
3 bananas, sliced
1 8oz can pineapple chunks, drained
1 10oz jar maraschino cherries, drained
3 cups miniature marshmallows
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the whipped cream, coconut, chopped nuts (if desired), apples, pineapple, mandarin oranges, marshmallows, and cherries. Mix together well and refrigerate for 30 to 45 minutes.

Important Tip: Wait until right before serving to peel and add the bananas to help preserve them from turning brown.

There was a time when we did a recipe exchange. This was a lot of fun...plus it was a perfect way to get lots of great recipes to be enjoyed by the whole family.

Here's a neat holiday gift idea for your family members

Make a scrapbook up of memories including family favorite recipes, events, pictures, and even special memories shared by the family. Get creative with this and include lots of illustrations. This will be a gift that will be special to your family and will last for a lifetime.

It's important to keep your family traditions going...and keep sharing them even when the Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren come along.

There's nothing more important than gathering with your family and just being together and sharing old memories, laughing, and loving one another.

Written By Tammy Embrich

Tammy owns and operates two work at home websites, a work at home forum, a recipe site and three blogs.

She offers free parenting articles, free recipes, cooking tips, and more. You can visit Tammy at Cookin At Home and Parent Zone.

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Recipe Stuffing Ingredients - Facts and Benefits

By Roy Primm

Recipe stuffing ingredients like cornbread, holiday sausage, cranberries and other traditional seasonings can go great with poultry. For example, roast turkey, chicken and duck. Now that more people are slowly getting back to traditional cooking because of the tight economic climate, more holiday cooks will be looking for holiday recipes.

Today we'll cover the many benefits and other tips to making one of the biggest holiday favorites. What's that? Cornbread stuffing, chicken stuffing and other stuffing favorites. With so many new cooks predicted to hit the kitchens, stoves and ovens this holiday season, its' important to know the basics of making a good stuffing. Because if you can pull it off, you'll be the envy of your family and friends.

Cornbread Stuffing and Chicken Stuffing Benefits

A good cornbread stuffing or chicken stuffing is not only tasty, but they're one of the warmest comfort foods you can make. Stuffing is a taste treat for the holidays or during any cold weather climate.

Contrary to popular belief, these two popular stuffing's is easy to make and very economical. Besides being easy to make and containing low cost ingredients, stuffing recipes stays with you a long time and can be nutritious.

Cornbread stuffing and chicken stuffing, often classified as a working mans food. Why? Because of its ability to fill you up and stay with you hours after you eat it, much like beans, or macaroni. That's why it's such a favorite side dish in northern and southeast climates during the chilly fall and winter months.

Stuffing Recipes Versatility

A stuffing recipe is also versatile, meaning you can add almost anything to it, much like a casserole. You can add fruit such as apples or cranberries, vegetables such as onion. Vegetables like celery, peas, parley, spinach, carrots. You can even make it a main dish by adding any chopped, sliced or diced meat of your choosing.

A recipe for stuffing is ideal for any left-overs you may want to get rid of in your refrigerator. Another reason stuffing recipe is so versatile? Because you can make it as heavy or light as you want to make it.

If you want to make it heavy add more butter, eggs or cream. If you want to make it lighter with less calories, because you're watching your weight, replace the butter, eggs or cream with water, chicken or turkey broth.

Yes, recipe stuffing ingredients continues to expand. In fact, the only limit to the scope of ingredients, seasonings and flavors is your imagination. You can experiment with seafood such as shrimp, lobster or even claims.

Bread Stuffing In The Bird vs. Bread Stuffing In A Baking Dish

More people choose to place the stuffing inside a turkey or chicken the traditional way. But with more calorie conscious and health conscious cooks emerging, the choice of cooking it in a separate baking dish continues to grow. By cooking bread stuffing in a baking dish and not inside poultry, you'll avoid the grease runoff associated with the traditional cooking method.

Stuffing Recipe Cardinal Rule

Whatever method you choose to cook your next stuffing recipe. Whatever recipe stuffing ingredients you choose to use, the cardinal rule for any stuffing recipe? Make sure it's moist and not dry - and everything else will fall into place.

Now that you have the basics, try one of the many good stuffing recipes available online

Roy Primm has written hundreds of food and recipe articles that help others appreciate fine food. To get the latest soul food recipes including his delicious southern cornbread stuffing recipe and more go to ... Recipe Stuffingl

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