recipe

Easy Mint Strawberry Jello Pie

November 22, 2016 By Sarah Roe Leave a Comment

Perfect for Thanksgiving and even better for Christmas, do not do dessert without this Mint Strawberry Jello Pie. I have made a thousand variations of this dessert which means more posts to come. You can change out the Jello for different flavors, or garnish with different candies from M&M’s to peppermints.

Ingredients:

1 prepared graham cracker crust

1/3 cup water

1 large box sugar free strawberry Jello

2 tubs Cool Whip Extra Creamy

Andes mints and whip cream for garnish

Directions:

Prepare the crust. I use a gluten free crust which consists of gluten free graham crackers, sugar and butter. If you are not gluten free, feel free to use a ready made crust just to keep it easy.

Microwave 1/3 cup water for 2 1/2 minutes. Remove from microwave and add to Jello, whisk until Jello is dissolved. Let cool about 2 minutes. In a separate bowl, fold together both tubs of Cool Whip. You can use extra creamy, lite, sugar free or original. I typically do a combination of one tub creamy and one tub sugar free just to keep the sugar as low as I can but still get the right consistency.

Fold in the Jello mixture, use a spatula to mix Jello and Cool Whip. Pour into prepared graham cracker crust.

Garnish with whip cream and crushed Andes mints.

Adults and kids will love this jello pie. Change it up using orange and it will taste just like a creamsicle! AMAZING! Once you make this easy pie, you’ll find yourself stocking up on Jello. Happy holidays!

One of a Kind Sweet Potato Casserole

November 18, 2016 By Sarah Roe 1 Comment

Let’s just be clear, this ain’t yo mama’s casserole. Several years ago (before I became much healthier), I went to a friends house for Thanksgiving. She proceeded to tell me all about her Sweet Potato Casserole. I had never had a sweet potatoes and I had no intention of having one that day either. It sounded too healthy to me of course, it’s not but it sounded that way.

Needless to say, I finally did take a bite. It was unreal. Hands down the best thing I have ever had at any Thanksgiving dinner. I got the recipe and I have been making it every single year ever since. It’s a huge hit, it’s my requested dish.

I’m telling you, this is flipping amazing. It’s not that healthy, let’s not kid ourselves but it’s flipping amazing and that has to count for something.

INGREDIENTS:

Filling:

3 cups cooked & mashed sweet potatoes (about 3 large potatoes)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

2 eggs (beaten)

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup milk

Topping:

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

5 Tbs melted butter

1 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

First, cut your sweet potatoes into chunks and place in boiling water to soften. While they are cooking, in a stand mixer, mix together the sugar, melted butter, beaten eggs, vanilla and milk.

Once the potatoes are softened, drain and add to the stand mixer and mix well until combined. Add mixture to an oven safe dish.

In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, melted butter and pecans.

Once well combined, add to the top of the sweet potato mixture and bake about 35 minutes.

I am going to apologize now and tell you I had to take all of these pictures with my iPhone. I won’t be making this again until after Thanksgiving and I wanted to get this published before Thanksgiving so, I had to downgrade a bit with the photography. But, this dish tastes amazing and will be a real crowd pleaser.

Enjoy!

Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows

November 10, 2016 By Sarah Roe 3 Comments

Hot chocolate is one of my favorite things. Favorite. Things. The second the temperature hits around 65 degrees, that’s cold enough for me to grab the hot chocolate in the mornings. Maybe it’s because I’m not a coffee person? Maybe it’s because I am just that much in love with chocolate? Who knows?

Either way, I’m all in when it comes to hot chocolate. The thing is, I don’t stop there, I always, ALWAYS add marshmallows. That’s where homemade marshmallows come in, they are easy to make believe it or not and insanely good especially when added to hot chocolate.

Ingredients:

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 cup cold water

2 cups white granulated sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

2 teaspoons pure peppermint extract

red food coloring

Directions:

Coat a 9″ square baking pan with cooking spray and a small amount of confectioners sugar. Microwave 1/2 cup cold water, granulated sugar and light corn syrup for 8 minutes. Stir making sure sugar is fully dissolved. Microwave 2-3 minutes longer if necessary to dissolve sugar.

Lightly mix 1/2 cup water and 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin in a stand mixer. Let sit about 5 minutes. Slowly add sugar mixture to the gelatin beating (beginning on low and increasing to high) until mixture turns white and begins to peak (about 15 minutes), add in peppermint extract.

Then, add mixture to the pan. Add food color to the top of the marshmallow mixture, swirl with a toothpick. Cover with 1/3 cup confectioners sugar and refrigerate overnight.

Add remaining confectioners sugar to a bowl, cut and remove marshmallows from backing dish and coat all sides with confectioners sugar. Shake off the excess and serve in hot chocolate!