Waffles with Orange Mascarpone Cheese Sauce

shared by Dara P.
Ingredients for Orange Mascarpone Cheese Sauce:
8 oz mascarpone (can substitute room temperature cream cheese)
1/3 c orange marmalade
1/3 c orange juice
2 T powdered sugar
and I added just a bit of orange flavoring.

Just make waffles as usual and eat with cheese sauce instead of syrup: DELICIOUS!

Spinach Chicken Pasta Bake

shared by Patty H. (I found this in the Nevada paper. It has a wonderful flavor and is fairly easy to put together.)
Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
2/3 cup chopped onion
10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
8 ounces rigatoni, cooked according to package directions and drained (I used mini penne)
3 cups cubed cooked chicken
14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes (don't drain)
8-ounce package cream cheese softened
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Saute onions in olive oil until tender.
3. Drain spinach well.
4. Combine spinach, pasta, chicken, tomatoes, cream cheese, salt and pepper in skillet with onion. Mix well.
5. Transfer mixture to a baking dish (I sprayed it with non-stick spray.
6. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
7. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Cashew Chicken Dip

shared by Debi J. (whose friend Rhonda shared it with her)
Ingredients:
4 (8oz) pkgs cream cheese, softened
1 can cashews
1 bunch of green onions
1 large can chicken breast, drained
soy sauce - to taste (at least 4-5 Tbs or more)

Directions:
1. Grind up most of cashews and green onions (reserve a few of each for garnish) with chicken breast meat.
2. Mix in soy sauce and cream cheese and form into ball or pat down into bowl. Garnish with remaining cashews and chopped onion greens. Serve with crackers.

Note from Debi: This is wonderful! It makes a pretty large amount. If you use the "salted" cashews, I think I would back off on the soy sauce, but taste often to see. Rhonda said she has used the cans of chicken already ground (thinks its "chicken spread or something like that), but you'll have to use more than one to get the same amount of chicken. Enjoy!

Tomato and Garlic Bruschetta

shared by Dara P.
Ingredients:
1 loaf of ciabatta bread, baked (i use a frozen one our grocery store has)

Topping:
3 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 clove of fresh garlic, minced
1/4 c olive oil
1 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Mix topping ingredients and place covered in refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving.
2. Slice the bread (I do diagonally) and butter or brush olive oil on both sides and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Put in broiler until toasted, flip and repeat for second side.
4. Serve the tomato mixture on top of bread slices. We serve this with pasta.

Salsa Muffins

shared by Patty H.
(These are easy and the salsa gives them a great "tex-mex" flavor.)

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup chunky salsa
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease or paper-line 12 muffin cups.
2. Combine first four dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
4. Add salsa, milk and egg and stir into flour mixture just until moistened.
5. Spoon evenly into prepared muffin cups.
6. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Remove from pan. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Serve warm.