Rainbow Jello

Ingredients:
1 small box red jello
1 small box orange jello
1 small box yellow jello
1 small box green jello
1 small box blue jello
1 small box purple jello
1 tub cool whip (regular size)

Directions:
Mix the first layer of jello according to the speed set directions on the box. Pour 2/3 of the mixture into your pan or spoon into containers. Place the jello in the refrigerator until it is pretty set. This shouldn't take much longer than 20 minutes or so. Mix the remaining 1/3 of jello with 1 cup or so of cool whip. Pour this over your pan or into your containers. Put mixture back into the refrigerator until this layer sets. Repeat this with all the boxes of jello until you have all the layers dished out.  This should make a 9x13 pan although I haven't tried it like this.

Previously I used 1 large box of each color (plus 1 small box of the color and whip cream layer) and I made 40 individual servings plus a large 11x13 pan full.

Tip: If you are using a container and it is larger on the top than on the bottom, get 2 boxes of jello of the last 2 colors because you will need more of this flavor to get the same even layer.

Time to Make: a little bit of mixing time, a lot of waiting time for the layers to set up. If you have a day to wait around at home and do this that would be great.
Difficulty: Easy
Recipe Origin: internet somewhere

Layered Jello

Ingredients:

For Red, White, and Blue Jello (in above picture):
2 large boxes blue jello - 6 ounce size
1 large box of lemon jello - 6 ounce size
1 large box of red jello - 6 ounce size
1 large tub of cool whip - 16 ounce size
20 clear plastic cups (smaller in size)
cookies for decoration (optional)

Directions:
First mix the red jello according to the directions on the box. Put 1/3 cup of jello in each cup. Refrigerate until set. Then mix up the lemon jello according to the directions on the box. Chill until the jello is cool and set slightly (about the consistency of egg whites). Add the cool whip to the cooled jello and stir till blended. Add 1/3 cup of the mixture on top of each red layer in the jello cups. Refrigerate until set. Mix up the 2 boxes of blue jello according to the directions. Add 1/2 cup of jello to each jello cup and refrigerate until set. Top with left over cool whip and a cookie or fruit.

*Tip: My measurements for adding jello to the cups may not be completely accurate for every cup. Just try to get the stripes even. If the cup is wider on the bottom than it is on the top, you'll need more red jello than this recipe calls for.

Difficulty: easy
Time to make: most of a day, but its all in the waiting for the jello to set
Recipe Origin: http://www.glorioustreats.com/2010/06/festive-4th-of-july-treats.html

Roasted Potato Wedges

Ingredients:
potatoes (number and variety of your choosing: Russets work well)
1/4 cup (approximately) olive oil
salt, to taste
fresh herbs, to taste


Optional Ingredients:
2 T. butter, melted
garlic, minced
2 - 3 T. balsamic vinegar
cayenne pepper
paprika


Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash potatoes.  Cut potatoes into wedges.  Toss with oil, butter, salt, pepper, and whatever else you’d like: garlic, balsamic, spices, etc.  Roast for 15 minutes.  Shake around. Stir.  Roast for another 20 minutes. Check them and if they aren't done keep them cooking till they are tender and soft. Add more seasoning if necessary.  Sprinkle with herbs.  Serve immediately.


Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 35 minutes
Recipe Origin: The Pioneer Woman
   found here at http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/roasted-potato-wedges/

Seven Layer Dip

Ingredients:
1 can refried beans
1 small tub sour cream
1 small tub guacamole
2-3 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1 medium tomato, diced
1 can olives, sliced
1 small bunch green onions, diced

Directions:
In an 8x8 pan spread the refried beans in an even layer. Spread the guacamole on top of the refried beans. Spread the sour cream on top of the guacamole. Top the sour cream with half the cheese, the tomatoes, the olives, and the green onions. Then top with the remaining cheese. Serve with tortilla chips.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 15 minutes
Recipe Origin: unknown

Taco Dip Dinner

Ingredients:
1 lbs ground beef, cooked and drained
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 small onion, diced
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
3 cups shredded lettuce
3 tomatoes, diced
tortilla chips

Directions:
In a large skillet, prepare the ground beef according to the directions on the taco seasoning package. Add the onion to the ground beef and cook it till tender. Place the ground beef in the middle of a large serving platter and cover it with the grated cheese. For the next ring, spread around the shredded lettuce. For the next ring, spread around the diced tomato. Serve with tortilla ships and salsa.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 15 minutes
Recipe Origin: Mom

Sassy Meatballs

Ingredients:
Meatballs:
2 eggs
1 envelope onion soup mix
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped craisins
2 Tbsp. minced parsley
1.5 lbs. ground beef

Sauce:
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup beef broth
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. chopped onions
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the meatballs and stir till well blended. Shape into balls and cook in a large skillet over med heat until they are done all the way through. In a medium pot, combine all the ingredients for the sauce and stir till well blended. Heat over med heat and stir until the sauce is smooth. Place the hot sauce and the cooked meatballs into a crock pot and cook on low for 4-5 hours. Serve hot.

Tip: You can also use frozen meatballs if you don't want to make your own, just brown them before adding them to the sauce.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 30 minutes prep plus 4 hours cooking
Recipe Origin: Devin Walker's Mom

Sherbet Punch

Ingredients:
2 liters lemon lime pop
Sherbet, any flavor

Directions:
Pour the lemon lime pop into a large punch bowl. Add scoops of sherbet to the pop. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Serve cold.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: 10 minutes
Recipe Origin: unknown

Pineapple Orange Slush

Ingredients:
4 cups sugar
6 cups HOT water
6 ounces frozen orange juice concentrate
6 ounces frozen lemonade concentrate
46 ounces pineapple juice
lemon lime pop

Directions:
In a 5 quart ice cream container, combine the hot water and sugar. Stir till sugar is dissolved. Add the orange juice concentrate, lemonade concentrate, and pineapple juice. Carefully stir till well mixed. Freeze mixture (stirring every 45 minutes so it freezes evenly). Serve over lemon lime pop. Store covered and frozen.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 20 minutes plus freezing time
Recipe Origin: Mormon Cookbook

Orange Ice

Ingredients:
1 cup water, boiling
1 cup cold water
2 cups sugar
3 cups orange juice
1/3 cup lemon juice
lemon-lime pop

Directions:
Boil the 1 cup of water and dissolve the sugar in the hot water. Add the remaining water, orange juice, and lemon juice. Stir till well blended. Pour mixture into a pan and freeze (stir mixture every so often while its freezing). Serve over lemon lime pop.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 20 minutes prep time plus a few hours freezing time
Recipe Origin: Mom

Spinach Dip

Ingredients:
8 ounces spinach, chopped
3 cups light mayonnaise
5 cups sour cream
10 ounces water chestnuts, drained and diced
2.5 ounces Knorr Dry Veggie Soup & Dip Mix
1/2 bunch green onions, finely chopped

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir till well blended. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour and then serve with potato chips.

Note: Using miracle whip in place of mayonnaise will dramatically change the flavor of the dip.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 20 minutes
Recipe Origin: Nancy Drury

Citrus Fruit Dip

Ingredients:
1 - 6 ounce carton plain low fat yogurt
1/3 cup light cool whip, thawed
2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
2 tsp. finely shredded lime, orange, and/or lemon zest
1 Tbsp. orange juice

Directions:
In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and stir till smooth. Serve with fruit. Serves about 8.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 10 minutes
Recipe Origin: Diabetic Living Cookbook

Dad's Clam Dip

Ingredients:
2 blocks Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
2 cans minced clams
Louisiana Hot Sauce, to taste

Directions:
Place your cream cheese in a medium bowl. Drain one of the cans of minced clams and add the clams to the cream cheese. Add the other can of clams to your cream cheese with the liquid. Stir with a fork till desired consistency. Add hot sauce (to taste) and stir. Serve with potato chips.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 10 minutes
Recipe Origin: Steven Manning (Dad)

Cowboy Salsa

Ingredients:
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans corn, drained
2-3 tomatoes, diced
2 avocados, diced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1 pkg italian dressing, prepared according to directions on the pkg

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the black beans, corn, tomatoes, avocados, cilantro, and red onion. Stir ingredients well. Pour the italian dressing over the ingredients and stir till everything is evenly coated. Chill in the refrigerator till serving. Eat with tortilla chips, or as a salad by itself.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 30 minutes
Recipe Origin: Tricia Richards

Cheddar Bacon Ranch Dip

Ingredients:
1/2 quart cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 quart sour cream
1/2 quart ranch dressing
1.5 ounces REAL bacon bits
1 - 1 ounce pkg hidden valley ranch dip mix
1/4 bunch of green onions, diced

Directions:
Blend all ingredients in a medium bowl and chill for 1 hour before serving with chips.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: 10 minutes
Recipe Origin: Nancy Drury

Miniature Cheesecakes

Ingredients:
18-24 vanilla wafers
2 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. lemon juice
blackberry pie filling (or any kind of pie filling you want to try)
whip cream (for topping)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. To prepare, place 18-24 muffin papers in a muffin tin and put 1 vanilla wafer in each paper. In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice with a mixer until ingredients are smooth. Spoon mixture over vanilla wafers and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool the cheesecakes completely and top them with a spoonful of pie filling and whipped cream. Store in the refrigerator.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 30 minutes prep time plus 40 minutes cooling time.

Boston Cream Pie Minis

Ingredients:
24 chocolate or yellow cupcakes

Filling:
1 cup milk, cold
1 - 4 ounce instant vanilla pudding mix
1/2 cup cool whip

Icing:
1 cup cool whip
4 squares Baker's chocolate

Directions:
For the filling, beat together the milk and vanilla pudding mix. Let it stand 5 minutes and then fold in the cool whip. Fill each cupcake with about 1 Tbsp of the filling. For the icing, microwave together the cool whip and Baker's chocolate till the chocolate is almost melted. Stir till smooth. Frost each cupcake with the chocolate icing and refrigerate cupcakes for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Difficulty: Easy
Time to Make: about 90 minutes (including cupcake prep time)
Recipe Origin: Tricia Richards

Chex Muddy Buddies

Ingredients:

9 cups Chex cereal

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 tsp. vanilla

1 + 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Measure the Chex cereal into a large bowl and set aside. In a separate, microwavable bowl measure the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and the butter (or margarine). Microwave ingredients until melted (stirring every 30 seconds). Stir ingredients until they are smooth then stir in vanilla.

Pour chocolate mixture over cereal and stir to evenly coat all the chex cereal. Then pour the coated cereal into a 2 gallon re-sealable ziploc bag. Add the powdered sugar to the bag. Seal the bag and shake the contents until all the cereal is well coated.

Spread the cereal on wax paper to cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Difficulty: Easy

Time to Make: 30 minutes

Recipe Origin: chex.com

Caramel Corn Puffs

Ingredients:

1 cup Karo syrup

1 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 - 16 ounce bag of Barrel o' Fun Corn Pops

Directions:

Combine Karo syrup, butter, brown sugar in a medium sauce pan. Bring mixture to a boil and boil for 4 minutes. Add sweetened condensed milk and continue boiling for 2 more minutes.

Pour caramel over the corn pops and stir until pops are evenly coated.

Difficulty: Easy

Time to Make: 30 minutes

Recipe Origin: Annette Gardner

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

Ingredients:

1 package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

In a medium bowl beat together cream cheese and butter. Mix in the powdered sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Once mixture is smooth, stir in chocolate chips. Cover the mix and chill in the fridge for 2 hours. After chilling, form the mix into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Chill again for 1 hour. After the hour is up, roll the ball in finely chopped pecans and serve with graham crackers or vanilla wafers.

*You can shape this into any shape you want, just do it quickly because it is harder to work with the longer you have it at room temp.

Difficulty: Easy

Time to make: 15 minutes for preparation, 3 hours for chilling.

Recipe Origin: online somewhere