Frugal In Florida

I'm a big fan of the warmed spinach and artichoke dip , but Hubby prefers the cold one and especially served in a bread bowl (!!) so of course, I do try and keep the man somewhat happy and occasionally cater to his wants ;-) Then I realized, that even though it's fairly common, some of you out there in blog land may not know about the simplicity OR at all! So, here you go ... THE ORIGINAL COLD SPINACH DIP and if you want updated pics, go check out this post instead   ... so easy to make! Because I only make this when we are entertaining and sometimes our parties are large, the last time I made this, I doubled the recipe and that's how it's shown: 2 boxes of frozen chopped spinach, thawed (Aldi - 99 cents this time around) 2 cans of water chestnuts, drained and chopped (I can never find the chopped ones in store) 2 cups of mayo (I do NOT use my  homemade stuff  here, Hellmans is the choice...at least it's gluten free?)    2 containers (16 ou...

The holidays are upon us and I don't know about you but it's also known as Appetizer Season in my house!  That's why you've been seeing quite a few reposts with appetizers (oh, yeah, and soup, because I'm still waiting for cooler weather here!) I made these the first time when I was having a girls night and freaked out when I realized thought that I wouldn't have enough food to go around ... how silly of ME ... So, of course, in my panic, I hopped over to  Pinterest  to see what I could find for some quick, simple appetizers, using what I already had on hand. Surprisingly enough, I was able to make  meatballs  AND wings! Woohoo! Totally blew off the chicken apple sausage I was going to make though when I realized just how much food I really did have! Go figure! The original recipe comes from  Hip 2 Save  and I really liked these! I made them pretty much according to the recipe, but next time, I think I will bypass the "sticky" addition and not...

A few years ago, I ran out of cocktail sauce on Christmas ... what horrible timing!! So a quick Google search gave me this recipe, and what do you know, I had everything, thankfully! 1 cup ketchup 1 tbs horseradish (more or less to your taste) 1 tbs lemon juice 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce 1/4 tsp salt dash pepper Put all in bowl and whisk. Cover and allow to chill before serving. I put some in a small martini glass to serve for the shrimp appetizers. I'm glad I made this on Christmas as I was planning on having a small shrimp platter on New Years Eve ... I feel way better now, knowing I can have this instead of a jar of the prepared stuff ... now I need to try the homemade ketchup again 😉 Enjoy! Looking forward to sharing with some of these  GREAT Parties  ... go check them out! *This post may contain affiliate links ...  click here to read my disclosure  :-)

It's that time of year where we open our doors to friends and family and celebrate the holidays! How exciting! BUT ... you have to be able to feed these people when they show up at your door. This is a pretty simple appetizer to make and it's a crowd pleaser so go ahead, make it for your next gathering! *And if you are doing Whole30, use a sugar free bacon (normally MOST low sodium bacon IS sugar free, but read your labels!) and you've got yourself a pretty nifty little appetizer to share ... Here you go: 2 cans of  WHOLE water chestnuts  (not the sliced ones!)  1 pkg of bacon - slices cut in two toothpicks Grab a large baking sheet and lay out a large piece of  parchment paper  over it. Turn oven on to 375 degrees. I think I may have fallen over that Amazon sells Kirkland's parchment paper (Costco)??!! Drain the water chestnuts and dump them out on the cutting board (or plate, whatever).  Open your bacon and cut it in half. Wrap each ...

These are the perfect bite size appetizers to have on your table during your next holiday gathering!   Hello little bites of yumminess!! This was really easy and I'm always lacking in the carb department when we have parties so this is going to be GREAT!! Here's how you do it! 3 to 4 russet potatoes, washed, dried and sliced in rounds about 1/4 inch thick or so melted butter shredded cheese bacon bits sour cream green onions, sliced Line a baking sheet with tin foil or parchment paper for easier cleanup. Turn on oven to 350. I just love this little freebie brush ... we had upwards of 10 at one time! Lay the potato rounds in a single layer on tray and brush with the melted butter, Flip them all over and brush this side too. If you can remember, go ahead and sprinkle with a little salt. I forgot, I was getting distracted. Place tray in the oven and let them bake for about 15 minutes or so, pull out and flip all rounds. Bak...

For years, Hubby would make this killer appetizer and I had NO idea it was actually called "CAPRESE SALAD" I've had friends request that I bring this for a gathering ... Doh. I've seen the NAME numerous times, just had no idea what it WAS! Yeah, coming from a self-proclaimed, self-taught foodie, that was slightly embarrassing. So of course, the next time we were out at a more upscale Italian restaurant, we ordered it for the appetizer. Bleh.  What a disappointment. Seriously. Do NOT spend the money for this in the restaurant when you can make a much larger, better tasting version in your own kitchen with little effort. Seriously...tomato season is fast approaching (whee!!!) and you can always pick up the Sorrento sliced "fresh" mozzarella at your local grocery store to create this ... Now remember, this is a Hubby recipe, so things are estimates, NEVER ever measured ;-) 3 nice size, ripe but firm tomatoes, sliced medium thickness.  If th...

It's time for the big start to summer for many this weekend and well, we are like, O M G it's summertime now AND Hurricane Season ! Eek! So, what do we do? We start evaluating the pantry and freezers to see what we have in there that might need to be moved in a hurry and used up in the event of a pending storm coming at us ...  And then, we see that can of water chestnuts sitting in the pantry and think "uhm, bacon wrapped water chestnuts sound really good right about now" ... and then you just pull the can off the shelf, grab some bacon out of the fridge and go to it ... it's that easy! *And if you are doing Whole30, use a sugar free bacon (normally MOST low sodium bacon IS sugar free, but read your labels!) and you've got yourself a pretty nifty little appetizer to share ... Here you go: 2 cans of WHOLE water chestnuts (not the sliced ones!)  1 pkg of bacon - slices cut in two toothpicks Grab a large baking sheet and lay out a large piece o...

*I plan to dip with my grain free biscuits in order to stay on track with my eating habits!) I try so very hard to stay away from grains and such, specifically, BREAD ... I love bread but it doesn't necessarily share the same affection for me ... But if I'm going to any Italian restaurant, you better believe I'm eating ALL the bread they bring to the table. Hubby knows that too ... so he grabs his single piece to set aside while I seriously stuff my face. How embarrassing it must be for my table mates ... Take me to Carrabbas and don't worry about feeding me anything BUT the bread and that dipping stuff ... OMG ... I've died and gone to heaven. I make a version of this for parties ... but it's not real heavy on stuff, just a lot of olive oil, a dash of red pepper flakes, a dash of garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. If I'm up to it and have it, I will also add a small amount of shredded Parmesan cheese, but most of the time, not. All in...

Princess dates a nice young man who has dairy allergies. No, I'm not talking about lactose intolerant. I'm talking about rashes. The more dairy he consumes, the more prominent the rash is. To make matters even worse, Matt loves cheese and even more, RANCH DRESSING. So when he comes to eat on the weekends, Hubby and I try to be considerate and limit the amount of dairy in the food we prepare for meals. Skip the pizza takeout. Don't serve up the   cheesy onion dip . But for some reason, I always put out the carrots and celery sticks with ranch dressing. Poor guy, he has NO willpower! So I told him that I would see what I could do about finding him a dairy free ranch dressing ... So I made it one day when we were having a pretty decent size bbq/pool party. I believe it's a keeper ... and it certainly made him feel a little more special ... except that EVERYONE was eating it :-) ... and once they heard it was dairy free, they were all over it (somehow, grain ...