Dessert Nachos? I think so.

Dessert Nachos? These fruity, not too sweet, just right snacks are the most delicious thing and everyone kept coming back for more! A great conversation piece, a fabulous food to bring to a friends house, and a fun project to make with kids! Thanks to my wonderful roomie Sarah for introducing me to these glorious delights! They look a little complicated, but I promise, easy as pie!  Enjoy!

Fruit Salsa:

2 cups strawberries, hulled and diced
2 large kiwi, peeled and diced
1 can mandarin orange slices, drained

Mix together in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

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Cheese Sauce:
1 8 ounce package of Neufchatel cream cheese
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
3 Tablespoons honey

In a 1 quart pan, combine Neufchatel cheese, orange juice and honey. Whisk (important to use a whisk because it will be lumpy if you don’t) over low heat until sauce is smooth (about 3 minutes)

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Nacho Chips:
You need about 8 6-inch tortillas and about 1/2 cup sugar and some cinnamon to taste.

In a shallow bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon. Working with one tortilla at a time, brush both sides lightly with water; Dip one side of each wedge in sugar mixture. Cut into about 6 wedges using a pizza cutter. Arrange wedges in a single layer, sugared sides up, on baking sheets. Bake, one sheet at a time, in a 500 degree oven until tortilla wedges are crisp and golden (watch closely but in my oven it takes about 4 minutes. It depends on the tortillas. Some burn quickly). Remove wedges from baking sheets and let cool slightly on racks.


And there you go! Viola! Delish! Combine! Gorge! Partake!
Let me know how it goes :)

Banana Pineapple Muffins

Yumo! Let me just say, these are delightful, and y'all should get on the ball to make them. So last night we had a smoothie night at our place and made probably 34234 different kids of smoothies. Well, we ended up with loads of extra fruit of all sorts, mainly pineapple and banana. I said to myself, Dang girl, what can you make that would be a crowd pleaser and pretty easy as well? So I googled banana pineapple and came up with this glorious recipe from Tammy's Recipes. I modified it a little bit to go from the original loaf idea into muffins. (And by modified, I mean asked my baking/pastry major roommates 26 questions about bread vs muffin, cut the time down half and hour, and plopped the batter in muffin tins.)

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups mashed bananas (I used 6 bananas)
1 cup crushed pineapple (include the juice)

1. In lage mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt.
2. In small mixing bowl, combine everything else. Bananas and pineapple last. Mix it up good, but not too much there buddy.
3. Then mix the wet and dry ingredients until everything is wet.
4. Pour into greased muffin tins.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-23 minutes or until done.

Makes approximately 45 muffins.

Enjoy!