Greek Yogurt Ham Salad

Ham salad is a but of a underdog, it seems. Everyone makes tuna salad and chicken salad, but I rarely see recipes for ham salad!

I started eating it in collage, because, oddly enough, my dining hall made the best ham salad in the world.

But why isn’t everyone making it? It’s easier than chicken salad, because you don’t have to cook anything. It’s a bit more universally appealing than tuna salad- most kids will eat ham well before they have a taste for funky tuna.

I literally just buy the diced ham in the blister pack and make a big batch. Because it’s salt-ridden ham, it lasts longer than a lot of proteins. Because I use Greek yogurt, it lasts longer than mayonnaise salads. This is meal-prep 101.

Oh, and the yogurt has way less calories than mayo and way more protein.

Serve it on bread, in lettuce cups, in hollowed out pickles, or on a plate! I love it with pineapple, too.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups diced ham (cooked)
• 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 2-3 tablespoons sandwich spread, if desire
• 2 tablespoons mustard (honey mustard is great here)
• salt & pepper, to taste
• Also: how about crushed pineapple, diced celery, boiled eggs, chopped gherkins, marshmallows… kidding

To prepare, mix together all of the ingredients in a large bowl. If you’re doing the optional add-ins, stir those in last so they don’t break up.

That’s it!

Meat n’ Cheese Skewers

Well, the Superbowl came and went, as did about 6 cookies and 3 of these skewers. I am not a football person, so I really only watch for the food and the company. Though, granted, when everyone else is watching football, they’re not exactly great company.

I was going to a party as my boyfriend’s plus-one, and I knew the demographic that would be there. College-aged boys. Straight, white, football-loving, meat and potatoes and beer boys. Nothing wrong with that, however, it meant my options for food were somewhat limited.

I went ahead and assumed they would not want cucumber sandwiches, caprese bites, or tapenade, as my usual go-to recipes would be. I also did not attempt to make lemon tartlets or strawberry bars for dessert.

This situation called for chocolate and sausage. After whipping up 3 dozen double-chocolate cookies and giving my boyfriend my drink order (1 Yoohoo, 1 strawberry milk, and 1 rootbeer) I knew my diet was out the window for the day. However, that didn’t mean I had to make a some sort of cheesy dip with bread and red meat everywhere.

I made it a goal to come up with something that was a little bit lighter than the other snacks, so that I could at least fill up on something healthy before I hit the cookies.

Therefore, these skewers were born. No, they’re not exactly clean or veggie-laden, but they are lowcarb, high protein, and no-cook. I’ll take my successes where I can get them.

I won’t turn this one-step recipe into an actual recipe card. Here’s how you make them the easy way:

MEAT N CHEESE SKEWERS:

Slice up some smoked turkey sausage (fully cooked) and your fav cheese into 2 inch chunks. Skewer onto wooden sticks with deli ham, gerkins pickles, mixed olives, and serve with mustard.

Feel free to mix this up with different meats, cherry tomatoes, cooked tortellini, roasted red peppers, etc.

BBQ Roast Beef and Bacon Sliders

We had a Friendsgiving in the department last night, and I just had to share my contribution!

Now, I know what you’re thinking: BBQ for Thanksgiving? Let me explain!

We had made a sign up sheet for what to bring. When I looked at the list, I saw some delicious words coming from my friends: sweet potatoe, pie, jello salad. However, I saw nothing that felt like an entree. Surprise, nobody wanted to bring a turkey. As if that were ever an option for a bunch of collage sophomores.

So, I knew it was my god-given responsibility to bring something substantial. However, I was driving in from Arkansas that day, and I knew I’d only have like 30 minutes to cook!

Naturally, these came to mind. I make baked sliders for almost every party I throw. They’re cheap, versatile, fast, and there’s never any leftovers. And imagine the combinations! Chicken and marinara and mozzarella. Pepperoni and olives and pizza sauce and cheese. Turkey, Swiss, and cranberry sauce. Ham, Swiss, honey mustard. I could go on.

I went these ingredients because I knew everyone would like them, and literally because roast beef was on sale. Easy as that!

Thess are great for all of your holiday parties, or a fast dinner with a soup or salad. Get ready!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 package Hawaiian style buns
• 1/2 cup BBQ saucr
• 8 slices precooked bacon, sliced to fit buns
• 16 slices provolone
• 16 slices Deli thin roast beef

TO PREPARE:

Preheat the oven to 350

Grease a 9×13 pan and place bottom buns along pan

Lay one slice of cheese, a spoon of sauce, a slice of bacon, two slices roast beef, another spoon of sauce, another slice of cheese, and top bun.

Cover in foil and bake 10 minutes, then remove foil and bake an additional 5. Dig in!

Haunted Trail Mix

Nothing is better on Halloween then curling up and watching a good, scary movie. Which, for my wimpy self, means Hocus Pocus or The Haunted Mansion.

When hosting a movie night, I love to have something that people can snack on during the movie. Something that doesn’t involve utensils, and is familiar, like popcorn. Well, tonight I am invited to a Halloween Potluck Movie night, so I knew I needed to make a movie munchie! I evaluated my pantry, and soon realized that I have quite a few ingredients to use up! I have a large box of Count Chocula, a bag of candy pumpkins, some dried cranberries… it’s a start!

I also had a lot of Halloween sprinkles on hand, so I knew I needed something sticky to make them attach to the snack mix! Melted chocolate chips was my initial instinct, but when I was shopping, I found caramel candy melts. What’s more Halloween than caramel? Throw in some salted nuts and pretzels to counter the sweetness, and it’s a perfect trick or treat!

This stuff is totally addictive! It’s sweet, salty, and you don’t have to take your eyes off the movie! I packaged it in cute little Halloween treat bags and passed them out when we got there! These are also a perfect homemade treat to give to trick or treaters or take to a kid’s party. It’s all kid-friendly snacks!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups Cracker Jacks (or caramel corn)
• 1 bag Chex Mix sweet and salty mix (it has pretzels, M&Ms, and all the Chex cereal stuff)
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup candy pumpkin mallows or candy corn
• 1/4 cup salted peanuts
• 2 cups Count Chocula cereal
• Caramel Candy Melts
• Halloween sprinkles

To Prepare:
Simply mix together the first 6 ingredients. Melt the candy melts in the microwave, and pour them on top! Dump on plenty of sprinkles, and stir it all together until evenly coated.

Store in fridge until the melts are set, then package into treat bags!

Trick or treat!

 

Shortcut Sugar-Free Pumpkin Muffins

Ah, fall is upon us! I am so 100% ready for leaves, scarves, light sweaters, Halloween decorations… And THE FOOD! Fall ushers us into the sweet realm of caramel apple, s’more (because summer is way too hot for a campfire) and pumpkin!

Here’s the deal though: fall is the beginning of the holidays, and we have to pace ourselves! Halloween? Load me up on junk food! Why? Because I haven’t been junking since September! That’s why I made this recipe: fall flavors that can be a slow warmup for the holiday sweets.

It’s also perfect for my apartment, because it’s only three main ingredients and it uses the entire containers of each thing, so I’m not left with a half empty jar of pumpkin and half a container of apple sauce spoiling in my fridge while I’m filling up on muffins!

These are sugar-free, vegan, and only about 90 calories each! However, if you want to ruin that, add some white chocolate chips, shredded coconut, or dried cranberries! They’re a very moist muffin, with just the right amount of sweetness you want from a breakfast muffin (they’re not quite in the super sweet cupcake realm).

Happy fall y’all!

Ingredients:

1 sugar free vanilla cake mix
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 4oz container unsweetened applesauce
3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (so you don’t use this whole container, but c’mon, you’ll use this stuff! Add it to smoothies or just plain milk, oatmeal, or peanut butter!)

To prepare: Preheat the oven to 350

Whisk together the applesauce and pumpkin, then stir in the cake mix and spice!

Bake in 24 muffin cups with paper liners for 18 minutes.

Eat all you want!