Incredible - Chicken, Guacamole & Bacon Dip Appetizer for Tortilla Chips

This recipe can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it.

Want the super-crazy-fast version? 
Use store bought guacamole, mix it with some diced pre-cooked or pre-grilled chicken from the frozen food department and add some store bought, packaged real bacon pieces!

A 'middle of the road' easy version?
Maybe use store bought chicken, whip up your own favorite guacamole, and use packaged bacon.

Or switch those around if you already have some leftover baked or grilled chicken from the night before, just buy a container of guacamole and cook some bacon - let it cool a bit and crumble it on top.

This 'dip' or appetizer is amazing.  The blend of chicken, guacamole and bacon is a favorite in our house and we have it in many different and various ways. This was actually my "dinner" the other night when no one else was home and I didn't have to cook for anyone but me! 

If you need a recipe for the guacamole, this is one I've posted before; My Homemade Guacamole

2-3 avocados (2 large, use 3 if they are on the smaller side)

1/2 onion, quartered

1/4 c diced chilies

1 heaping teaspoon minced jalapeno's

1 T cilantro or parsley (half that if you use dried)

1 T lime juice

1 large clove minced garlic (or use about 1  teaspoon pre-minced jarred style)

1/4 t salt

1 medium tomato, peeled, seeded and diced

Slice and remove the seed from the avocados.  Scoop the flesh into a food processor bowl.  Add the onion, chilies, jalapeno, cilantro, lime and garlic and salt.  While on pulse a few times, just a few seconds each time.  Don't over process, but be sure the onion is all incorporated.  Stir in half the tomatoes, put into a serving dish, top with the remaining diced tomatoes.  Serve with tortilla chips.

 

Sugar Free Rice Krispie Bars

For as amazingly good rice krispie treats are, you would think they would be harder to make, right?  There was even a commercial about that on television years ago - where the Mom pretends to slave over the treats in order to get a few minutes of quiet and time to sit and enjoy one herself. 

I've posted about rice krispie treats in the past - whether it was the original regular version, a sugar free and low carb version (yes!  LOW CARB), Peep-mallow Bar using leftover Easter candy and a few years ago you could find cinnamon marshmallows on the market so I made an incredible Cinnamon Bun version - which, they no longer make those, but you can still make the recipe by adding a half teaspoon of cinnamon to your marshmallow mixture.

I like to add a dash of vanilla to mine

Here is the butter, vanilla and marshmallows before microwaving

While in the microwave they will puff up above the bowl.

They will start to fall immediately upon removing them.

I tried to get a picture on my iphone before they fell - they are about 1/2 puffed here.

Press into a pan

Mmm. And sugar free.

Let's use up these Fall apples! Homemade applesauce and dehydrating apples to the rescue!

This is really more of a reminder post...  because it's Autumn and hello?  APPLES! 

I was at the store a couple days ago and needed to pick up more apples for my husband.  Our local store currently has small bags of apples going for $.97 a pound so I bought two bags.  A handful saved for my husband to grab on his way out the door to work, and the rest made into applesauce and dehydrated for breakfast oatmeals and snacking.

If you visit An American Housewife often, then you know I make a big batch of applesauce at least every two weeks.  It's my husbands 'late night snack' when he watches tv after I go to bed and every morning I find the empty jars in the sink.  I love it though because since it's homemade I control what goes into it - and believe me, there is ZERO ADDED SUGAR and absolutely, certainly NO CORN SYRUP.  None of the chemicals or additives in store bought applesauce obviously and why in the world they ADD SUGAR to an already sweet natural applesauce is beyond me.

My recipe for applesauce is so incredibly easy it's almost no work and involves apples... and nothing else unless you choose to add a bit of natural sweetener or cinnamon.  You can find that recipe here if you don't already have it. 

Apples ready for applesauce!

 

 Doing some dehydrating as well

Just a note about peeling the apples for dehydrating:  SAVE THEM and add them to your applesauce.  They have so many nutrients in them, and help the applesauce naturally thicken.  Just wash and peel your apples like usual, but while you throw away or compost the cores, add the peelings to your apples in the crockpot. 

Jalapeno and Cheddar Meatballs

A quick fly-by post of tonight's dinner... loosely based on my previous version here:  Jalapeno Popper Meatballs.  This one I just mixed everything together instead - including the bacon.  This made it a super duper quick dinner item.  I served with roasted broccoli and garlic but feel free to serve with mashed potatoes or even french fries if that is what your family loves.

Jalapeno & Cheddar Meatballs

1 lb. ground beef
1 t fresh minced garlic
1/4 c wheat germ (or any filler you like to help bind it - almond flour, oatmeal, eat)
1 egg
salt and pepper
jalapenos
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
bacon - cooked and crumbled

In a mixing bowl combine everything and mix well.  Form small balls.  Place in lightly greased or sprayed pan or foil lined pan.   Bake at 425 until browned, and done in the center.  Mine took about 25-30 minutes.

Low Carb, Sugar Free Pecan Cinnamon Rolls (from Dixie Carb Counters Pecan Sticky Buns Mix)

Over the years I've bought various products from Dixie Carb Counters and they've been hit or miss on whether or not we cared for them. 

After I had two "eh" results with their crumb topping and another crumb product, as well as a "um, no" result from the so-called sweetened condensed milk substitute, I was burnt out on their products and didn't want to try anymore for awhile so this package of Pecan Sticky Buns sat on the shelf, ignored, for months and months and months.  And then, out of the blue a few weeks ago, I decided to make these for my husband for breakfast one weekend.  And?  They were awesome!

You get 10 cinnamon rolls from each package and each roll is 2 net carbs - if you are counting.  The little cinnamon goodies are a bit more crumbly than traditional wheat flour based rolls of course, and don't brown up or get that crust a regular bread product gets when baked.  But one or two of these with a cup of coffee on a chilly morning was perfect and perfectly delicious!  We had them Saturday and Sunday mornings and my husband grabbed the last 3 rolls to take with him for 'breakfast in the car' on his way to work that Monday morning.

This product got a big thumbs up from both of us - for flavor of course, but also from me because it's an easy to throw together package mix I just need some cream, water, an egg and a little butter to make.  Quick and easy.

 Dough rolled out and the yummy cinnamon filling spread evenly

All rolled up and ready to slice

 Ready to bake

 I did indeed get 10 rolls - just like the package states

 

 Baked and ready to add the pecan topping

 Hot and fresh from the oven

 See the cinnamon swirl of yumminess inside the roll.  Texture is more crumbly than a wheat based - but who cares?  Not us.  So good with coffee.