I love an easy recipe.  Being a busy mom, wife, and teacher can take its toll on dinner.  I love to cook, but sometimes after a long day at work I can use a little help.  Betty Crocker makes creating a delicious meal fast and easy.  With all the different options that Betty Crocker offers, there is a potato pouch perfect for most any meal.  This time I took a box of Potatoes Au Gratin and made a yummy ham and peas dish out of it.  I took a lot of help from the store and used frozen peas (that I thawed) and diced ham.  It turned out to be a very yummy dish.  This is perfect as a side or for a meal.

Ingredients

• 1 Box Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Cups Boiling Water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup diced ham
• 1/2 cup cooked peas

Directions

1. Prepare potatoes according to package directions.
2. Layer on Ham
3. Layer on Peas
4. Stir to incorporate
5. Bake at 450 degrees for 20-25 minutes

Be sure to check out more fast and delicious recipes at Spud Hub and enter to win one of  four $250 gift cards!

Win a $50 Visa Card from Betty Crocker to help create your dinner!

Want to win?

Leave a comment and tell me what your favorite potato recipe is!

(You must complete this entry before completing any of the bonus entries)

Bonus Entries:

• Follow me on Twitter and Tweet: Win a $50 Visa Card from Betty Crocker and A Mom’s Impression Enter here: http://wyn.cc/ftobt
  (You may enter daily, just leave a comment with each Tweet’s link)
• Like A Mom’s Impression on Facebook
• Blog about this giveaway (Please leave a link to your post)
• Grab my Button and post it on your blog.
• Subscribe to A Mom’s Impression by Email (2 Entries, please leave 2 comments: Please remember to confirm your subscription)
• Comment on any non-giveaway post on A Mom’s Impression. (just tell me what post you commented on)
• List this giveaway on any giveaway site, or share on Facebook.

Please leave a comment about each entry, include a valid email address or you may contact me directly with your contact information.
Open to continental US residents only. This giveaway will end at midnight on December 3. Winners will be picked from Random.org. 
Good Luck!

This giveaway was made possible by Betty Crocker .This has been a sponsored post written on the behalf of Betty Crocker. All opinions are 100% mine.

As the days are getting colder, my husband and I like to warm our weekends up with homemade soups.  Last weekend I decided to make a corn chowder.  It turned out wonderful and rich and my husband loved the bread bowl!

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 2 14 oz cans chicken broth
• 2 red or white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 3 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels
• 1 (4 ounces) can chopped mild green chiles
• 1 large raw chicken breast cut into 1-inch bites
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 2 cups shredded cheese (I used a cheddar/jack blend)
• 1 roasted red pepper, cut into 1-inch strips (jarred is fine)
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
• Hot sauce (I used a bit in the chowder and then served it on the side for those who wanted a bit more of a kick)
• Shredded cheese for garnish
• Bread bowls for serving

Directions

In a large Dutch oven, melt butter and add onions until translucent.  Add the chicken broth, potatoes, oregano, poultry seasoning, chili powder, salt, and freshly ground pepper to taste. Bring to a low boil and simmer about ten minutes, until potatoes are just barely tender. Add the corn and simmer until corn is heated through.

Remove about 1-1/2 cups of the chowder and puree in a blender or food processor. Return puree to the chowder and add green chiles and chicken. Simmer about 5 minutes to cook chicken. Add half and half and shredded cheese. Stir until incorporated and cheese has melted. Gently stir in red pepper, cilantro, and hot sauce.

Serve in bread bowls with additional shredded cheese and cilantro for garnish.

Based off a recipe I found on About.com

I love creating new recipes.  I often use store bought ingredients to help out as I am a busy mom and have a limited amount of time on my hands. I love the challenge of mixing fresh ingredients with ready made ingredients and the result is a yummy dish of food for my family.

I have always been fond of Betty Crocker products, but I hadn’t tried their mashed potatoes before.  Seeing as how I am from Idaho, we know how to make mashed potatoes from scratch, but it isn’t a quick process.  I love making potato croquettes from left over mashed potatoes, so I thought I would take Betty Crocker Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and make them into croquettes.  The result, an extremely yummy appetizer or lunch!

Ingredients

• 1 pouch Betty Crocker Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• 1 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 egg
• Bacon (optional, I used bacon bits)
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (or your families favorite kind of cheese)
• Bread crumbs
• Vegetable Oil for frying
• Sour Cream for dipping

Directions

• Prepare Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes according to package directions.  Let cool completely.
• In a large mixing bowl mix egg, bacon, cheese, flour and potatoes together.
• Will a small scoop, portion out potato mixture into small balls and place on parchment paper.  Put this into the freezer for about 5 minutes.

• Roll potato balls into bread crumbs pressing down to make flat cakes.  Make sure bread crumbs completely cover the potato mixture.
• In a deep skillet, heat about a 1/2 inch of vegetable oil.  Place croquettes into the oil and fry for about 3 minutes each side.
• Serve with a side of sour cream!

For more recipes and ideas using Betty Crocker Pouch Potatoes be sure to visit the Betty Crocker Spud Hub.

Win a $50 Visa Card from Betty Crocker to help create your dinner!

Want to win?

Leave a comment and tell me what your favorite potato recipe is!

(You must complete this entry before completing any of the bonus entries)

Bonus Entries:

• Follow me on Twitter and Tweet: Win a $50 Visa Card from Betty Crocker and A Mom’s Impression Enter here: http://wyn.cc/5ib6k
  (You may enter daily, just leave a comment with each Tweet’s link)
• Like A Mom’s Impression on Facebook
• Blog about this giveaway (Please leave a link to your post)
• Grab my Button and post it on your blog.
• Subscribe to A Mom’s Impression by Email (2 Entries, please leave 2 comments: Please remember to confirm your subscription)
• Comment on any non-giveaway post on A Mom’s Impression. (just tell me what post you commented on)
• List this giveaway on any giveaway site, or share on Facebook.

Please leave a comment about each entry, include a valid email address or you may contact me directly with your contact information.
Open to continental US residents only. This giveaway will end at midnight on November 30. Winners will be picked from Random.org. 
Good Luck!

This giveaway was made possible by Betty Crocker .This has been a sponsored post written on the behalf of Betty Crocker. All opinions are 100% mine.

Bacon… is there a more delicious food out there?  I don’t think so!  My brother-in-law loves bacon so much, that my sister bought him some chocolate covered bacon once.  I think he has had some bacon ice cream, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he has some bacon cologne!  This week is National Oscar Mayer Bacon Week and to celebrate I am sharing with you one of my mother in-laws specialties, Bacon Wrapped Scallops.  We love munching on these appetizers during special dinners.  They always go fast and it seems like I eat about a dozen every time!  Trust me, you will love them.

Photo Courtesy of JDFoods.net

Bacon Wrapped Scallops

24 lg. sea scallops (about 2 lbs.)

12 slices bacon

Seasoned pepper

Rinse scallops with running cold water, pat dry with paper towels. Cut each bacon slice crosswise in half; wrap each half around a scallop, securing with a toothpick. Sprinkle scallops lightly with seasoned pepper.

Preheat broiler. Place scallops on rack in broiling pan, with bacon facing the heating element. Broil 8 to 10 minutes until scallops turn opaque throughout, using tongs to turn scallops frequently so bacon will brown evenly on all sides.

Are you a bacon lover as well?  Oscar Mayer is giving away an amazing prize package to one of my readers!  You don’t want to miss out on this one!

Win It

One (1) lucky reader will win an Oscar Mayer Bacon Prize Package that includes:

• A YEAR SUPPLY of bacon (in the form of 52 free product coupons)
  
• $125 Amex gift card
• Limited-edition Oscar Mayer Bacon Week apron
• Bacon essentials kit

Want to win?

Giveaway has Ended!

This giveaway was made possible by Oscar Mayer. I was not compensated for this review other than the prize package shown. All opinions are 100% mine.

Halloween is just around the corner.  While we try to figure out a costume for TJ to wear (right now it is either Buzz, or a pirate) my mind always drifts off to what we are going to eat on the big day!  I love hosting parties and coming up with creative recipes so when I heard about the Spookamole contest from Avocados from Mexico, I knew I had to submit something.  Our family loves avocados.  My son loves it spread on his toast in the mornings.  My husband and I love making our own guacamole and adding chunks of avocados to our tacos.  I wanted to make something that was kid friendly, so of course I thought about making some cupcakes!

Avocado cupcakes?  Yes, I know it sounds weird, but they are delicious!  I used Haas Avocados from Mexico because they are available year round and are the best avocados that you can find at the grocery store.  So how did I do it?  Well I got to thinking that avocados can replace oils and butter in most recipes so that was my game plan for the cupcakes.  Instead of adding oil to my cake mix, I used avocado.  With my buttercream recipe, I omitted the Crisco and added 2 avocados instead.  It turned out a fun spooky green color and it tasted fantastic!

Avocado Cupcakes

Ingredients

• Package of Lemon Cake Mix
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup buttermilk (I used powdered,  you could also use a cup of water instead, but I always use buttermilk in my cake instead of water)
• 1 large avocado

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.  Mix until well combined. (if you don’t like bits of avocado in your cupcakes you will want to smash the avocados together before mixing them into the other ingredients.)

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full of cake batter.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until done.  Let cool.

Avocado Buttercream

• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (or lemon extract)
• 2 avocados

Mix avocados together until well smashed, add vanilla and a cup of powdered sugar.  Mix well for about 4 minutes.  Add additional powdered sugar until well combined.  If you want thicker frosting add more sugar. (Adapted from a recipe from Alton Brown)

I wanted to try out a couple of different options for decorating the cupcakes.  While they look just fine with the frosting, I also added some chocolate sprinkles to one, some autumn leaves to another, and some spooky eyeballs to a third one.  Be creative, you could even make them into witches!

While I created these for Halloween, these would be great for a St. Patrick’s day party, or a football party if your team wears green, or even a Christmas party.  Remember that Avocados from Mexico are available year round so you can make these delicious cupcakes whenever you feel the need for some green!

I wrote this review while participating in a Spookamole blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Avocados from Mexico and received avocado items to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

A few weeks ago my baby brother got married.  I still can’t believe that we are all grown up and married!  The wedding was a simple mountain wedding.  They got married up at our cabin, where we learned how to swim, golf, and relax.  You can check out some of my photos that I posted here.

I was honored when they asked me to decorate their cake for them.  My sister and I combined forces and brains to come up with a nice, sophisticated camping themed cake for them.

The cake itself was baked by my sister.  The top layer is a butter pound cake with cream cheese frosting between the layers.  The bottom layer is a double chocolate fudge cake also with cream cheese frosting.  The entire cake was covered with a dark chocolate ganache that my sister also made.

I knew how I wanted the cake to look, I just needed some candy inspiration.  My sister took me to this adorable little candy shop in Boise when I first arrived.  We looked high and low for all the supplies we would need to pull this off (we almost didn’t find anything for trees but then at the last moment we saw the sugar candy).    Here is a picture of all the lot of candy that we came back with:

We turned all of that candy into this:

The tent was made out of a graham cracker covered with taffy.  The trees were the rock candy that we sniped the ends off of and stuck into the cake all around.  We chose two different sizes and they were perfect for decorating the bottom as well as the top layers.  The fire is a thin piece of orange taffy that I folded and stuck into the cake.  The logs around the fire are tootsie rolls.  The lake is made out of a liquid sucker that was blue.  I had to mix a little powdered sugar with water to make a white lake, and then I poured the blue sucker on top of it.  I had it running down the side of the cake to symbolize a waterfall.  We added two little fishing rods that had little hooks on the ends to the lake (my sister found these at a scrap-booking store).  Lastly, we found the most amazing chocolate candy rocks that really made the cake look like an outdoor campsite.  These were delicious and they were perfect for decorating around the layers and hiding any imperfections of the frosting job!  

Overall, I thought it turned out great!  I know my brother and sister in-law loved it and I was happy that I could do something special for them on their special day!

Have you seen the commercials for Philadelphia’s Cooking Creme?  My husband was watching television a few months ago and saw one of these commercials and said that we should try it out, so we did.  Currently there are four different varieties of cooking creme; Italian Cheese & Herb, Savory Garlic, Santa Fe, and Original.  I adapted one of the recipes from cookphilly.com to make these delicious Hamburger and Sausage Calzones.  They are very moist and creamy and full of calories, but worth every one.

Hamburger ans Sausage Calzones

Ingredients:

• 1/3 pound hamburger (I used a hamburger and sausage mix that I had leftover from a previous recipe)
• 1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
• 1 large red pepper (optional)
• 1/2 tub Philadelphia Savory Garlic Cooking Creme (although I think the Italian Cheese and Herb would be great in the recipe as well)
• 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese
• 1 can refrigerated pizza crust

Directions

• Heat over to 400 degrees F.
• Brown the hamburger and sausage along with the mushrooms and peppers on medium high heat. Drain and return to skillet.
• Stir in a half tub of the cooking creme (you can add more if you think you need it). Remove from heat.
• Unroll the pizza dough and pat out into a rectangle.  Cut the dough into 6 slices by cutting dough in half lengthwise and then into thirds.
• Top dough rectangles with mixture and fold in half. Seal edges with a fork.
• Place on baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy.

Be sure to check out some more recipes using Philadelphia Cooking Cremes. Celebrity Chef Todd English has created some wonderful recipes for Kraft using the new Philadelphia Cooking Cremes along with his versatile GreenPan.  I was sent one of these pans to test out the Cooking Cremes and have fallen in love with it.  I am going to have to buy a whole set of this cookware, it is that good.

Kraft sent me supplies to create my own Philadelphia Cooking Creme party.  I created this recipe and also providied Philadelphia Creme Cooking coupons and goodies for my fellow teachers at work.  Thank you Kraft!

Disclosure:  As I just stated Kraft provided me with a GreenPan and supplies to create my own Philadelphia Cooking Creme party, I was not compensated otherwise.  All opinions are 100% mine.