November 24, 2020

Tater Tots, Truffles, and Turkeys

Pausing from Thanksgiving Day preparations with a hot cup of soothing tea.

I take a moment out from my Thanksgiving Day preparations to give a big shout out to you, my readers.  I am thankful, during this Thanksgiving week, for your readership, kind comments, and support!   Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving!

Tater Tots

Tater Tots (…or as Sue Heck calls them on one of my favorite sitcoms, The Middle,
Potato Rounds :o)) are the star of this dish that I share with you today.  
Loaded Buffalo Chicken Tots hail from a brand new cookbook by Ashley Craft, called 
The Unofficial Disney Parks Cookbook. This copycat recipe was inspired by a popular menu item from The Friar’s Nook at the Walt Disney World‘s, Magic Kingdom.

The Unofficial Disney Parks Cookbook, by Ashley Craft.
Available from Amazon, Target, and other retailers.

This fun cookbook is overflowing with 100 Disneyesque recipes, including how to
whip (pun alert, as in Dole Whip. hee hee) up everything from Disney’s Beignets to Butterfinger Cupcakes to Dole Whip. This is sure to be one cookbook that will be pulled from my bookshelf often and used frequently!  I may have to try out all of the recipes!  :o)

This cookbook’s recipe for Loaded Buffalo Chicken Tots jumped out at me while I perused its contents, begging to be attempted first. This recipe was a yummy success, and it is a keeper!  The trick to this creation is to make sure that the tots are done to a wonderful crispiness.  I used Ore-Ida Golden Crispy Crowns rather than tater tots, as the crowns have a bit more crispness to them, and besides, I rarely follow any recipe “to a T”.  :o).

I used Golden Crispy Rounds in place of Tater Tots in this recipe.

Other changes that I made
I did not have blue cheese crumbles, so I did not use them this time, 
and I subbed green onions for the celery, which gave this dish an added kick of flavor. 

Items needed for Loaded Buffalo Chicken Tots

The Recipe

Loaded Buffalo Chicken Tots

Ingredients

1 (32 ounce) package frozen Tater Tots
(I used a 30 ounce package of  Ore-Ida Golden Crispy Crowns)

2 cup shredded cooked Chicken breast

2 or more Tablespoons Frank’s Red Hot (buffalo)sauce

3-6 Tablespoons Blue Cheese Dressing
(I like Ken’s Steakhouse Lite, but
Bolthouse Farms Yogurt works well, too, when cutting calories.)

3-6 Tablespoons Blue Cheese crumbles

2-4 small-medium stalks Celery, trimmed and diced
(I skipped these.)

1-3 Green onions, sliced
(My addition to this Disney treat.)

Directions

Bake Tater Tots (or Crispy Crowns) according to package instructions. 
While baking, stir 2-3 throughout cooking tots, for even browning and crispiness,
making sure that the tots are cooked totally and to desired crispiness.
(This may take a bit longer than package instructions suggest.)

When tots are done, place on serving plate, or divide among three medium (serving) bowls.
Set aside.

In large bowl, toss shredded chicken with Frank’s Red Hot.
Top baked Tots with 1/3 buffalo chicken mix.
Drizzle blue cheese dressing over the top.
Garnish each bowl with a sprinkle of blue cheese crumbles and celery/green onions.

Enjoy!

Annette’s Note-This could easily be made with shredded rotisserie chicken in place of the shredded chicken breast.

Truffles

Martese’s (Date) Truffles

My daughter, Martese, recently shared this recipe with me.  It makes a yummy “not too sweet” chocolate truffle using natural sugar/dates.  I now share this recipe with you.  :o)

I enjoy a these delicious “Not too sweet!” truffles.

 Below, are photos of Martese creating these sweet treats.  I did some calculations, and for those of you WW (Weight Watchers) people out there, I figure two of these truffles are 7 points, with just one truffle equalling 4 points.

What you’ll need 
Note my daughter’s adorable dog Pongo in the background.  :o)

Medium cookie scoop

The finishing touch, a roll in coconut, for these Date Truffles. 

The Recipe

Martese’s Date Truffles

INGREDIENTS:

20-22 Dates, pitted

6 Tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut, plus additional
shredded coconut for rolling

2 Tablespoon coconut oil

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Dash of salt

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl filled with warm water, adding pitted dates to soak for 30-40 minutes.

Add 6 Tablespoons shredded coconut and coconut oil to food processor.
Process for about 1 minute to combine together.

Drain dates and add dates to the coconut mix in the food processor.
Process another minute, or till thick paste begins to form.

Add cocoa powder and salt to food processor mixture.
Process again till thoroughly combined.

Using medium cookie scoop, scoop out mixture and roll out with greased hand (baking spray works), into 1/2 inch truffles.

Roll in shredded coconut.

Store in covered container in the refrigerator.
(I like eating these chilled.)

Makes approximately one dozen truffles.

Enjoy!

Turkeys

Cooking with Gammy

Sprinkle Apple Graham

A fun “grand” (grandchild) snack enjoyed a couple of years ago, was this Sprinkle Apple Graham.  This was an easy no-cook creation.

Ingredients

Graham crackers

Apple

Smooth peanut butter

Sprinkles

 

Directions

Slice apples horizontally.

Using a small cookie cutter, cut out the center of the apples slice.

Spread peanut butter over a square section of graham cracker.

Place apple slice on top of graham cracker.

Carefully place sprinkles in the cut-out center.

Enjoy!

Annette’s Note-I am guessing that the peanut butter in this snack could easily be replaced with frosting, cream cheese, a thick caramel sauce, or marshmallow fluff.

Nutter Butter Turkeys

Another no-bake snack from 2018, and enjoyed by the grands, were these cute Nutter Butter Turkeys.  The original idea came from here.

 

Nutter Butter cookies

 

 Golden Oreos, or another vanilla sandwich cookie

 

White frosting

 

m & m’s

 

Candy corn

 

Directions

Open up a sandwich cookie.  
Use the half of cookie that has the filling on it to place 4 candy corn on for feathers.
 Use extra white frosting, if necessary, to hold together.

Using frosting as “glue”, place m&m’s for eyes and a candy corn for a beak, using photo above as a guide.
Use frosting to attach feather portion to back of Nutter Butter.

Enjoy!

Made Me Smile :o)
Sharing things that put a smile on my face, recently. 

The bicycle stand at the public library. :o)

Deer sighting on a foggy morning.

My daughter’s cute kitty relaxes. :o)

A “blast from the past” photo that I recently unearthed of my eldest (son) and me.  :o)
1986?

Check out My earlier Tater Tot Related Posts 

Minnesota nice=A Very Nice Family Reunion, July 2018, here.

Happily Eating My Way Through the Minnesota State Fair, September 2017, here.

Hot, Hot, Hot! (Minnesota Hot Dish that is!), September 2019, here

May your days be blessed, and your taste buds happy!

Thank you for reading,  and 
Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I’m Annette Stuff

Next Blog Posting

Look for my next post on, January 14, 2020, if not before. :o)

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Tater Tots done right in Minnesota!  :o)
Read this July 2018 post on my family’s reunion, here.