1. Slow Cooker Cheesy Potato Casserole

Casseroles are great around the holidays. They are easy to throw together and they feed a lot of people. This wonderful recipe from The Diary of Real Housewife is a perfect quick dish to prepare and let sit in the crockpot all day while you visit with your guests or prepare the rest of your meal.

2. Sweet Potato Casserole Bites

Do you love finger food around the holidays? Or maybe you need some quick appetizers that are sure to please? Then look no further than these delightful sweet potato casserole bites from Shaken Together Life. They’ve turned a classic holiday dish into a convenient and delicious appetizer.

3. Loaded Leftover Mashed Potato Balls

You can make this dish for an appetizer or with the leftovers from your Thanksgiving mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes have never been so delicious! You can find the full recipe at Handle the Heat.

4. Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Take a classic and make it better. Everyone loves mashed potatoes, and these roasted garlic mashed potatoes will have your guests back for seconds and thirds, so make sure you make plenty! Go to Cooking Classy to find the recipe.

5. Scalloped Potatoes

Don’t underestimate the power of a delicious classic potato dish. You don’t have to do something totally unique or super fancy to please your guests. Try this scalloped potato recipe from Gimme Some Oven and see how happy your guests will be.

6. Duchess Potatoes

Take your mashed potatoes to the next level with this fancy look. Bake fluffy, perfect individual servings of mashed potatoes with this treat. Find the recipe at Home Made Interest.

7. Roasted Maple Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes

Because sweet potatoes are a staple of holiday gatherings, we had to throw another recipe in here. These roasted maple cinnamon sweet potatoes are sure to have your yam-loving guests coming back for more. Find the full recipe at Together as a Family.

8. Three Ingredient Roasted Potatoes

You can never go wrong with roasted potatoes. This 3-ingredient dish is so simple to prepare that you’ll want to make it with every meal. All you need is baby red potatoes, olive oil, and dry onion soup mix. You can thank The Food Charlatan for the recipe.

The post 8 Awesome Potato Dishes for the Holidays appeared first on InstantELLA.

Mini Pizza Pumpkins

Make personal pizzas with your kids. Let them decorate their own pizza like a jack-o-lantern with the toppings. The cheese makes for the perfect pumpkin color. Olives are the perfect topping for the eyes, nose, and mouth. But if your child doesn’t like olives, you can always use another topping.

Find the recipe at Play Party Plan.

Pretzel and Cheese Broomsticks

If your kids like string cheese, these are the perfect after school snack for any October day. And they are so simple and quick to put together. If you want to keep the kids busy, have them make the broomsticks themselves. They’re that easy!

Find the recipe at One Little Project.

“Boo”-Nana Pops

Make some frozen “Boo”-nana pops to get excited for Halloween. These spooky treats just take a banana, white chocolate (or vanilla yogurt for a healthier option), chocolate chips and popsicle sticks.

Find the full recipe at Skinny Taste.

Silly Apple Bites

These fun apple bites look like little green monsters. And they make such a great healthy treat! Putting these treats together would be a fantastic activity for a kids’ Halloween party. Just give each kid a plate and their ingredients and let them go to town. They’ll have so much fun and enjoy a healthy snack in the process.

Find the recipe at Fork and Beans.

Grapefruit Jack-o-Lanterns

Carving pumpkins is fun, but can you eat them? Help your kids carve a face into a grapefruit and fill it up with their favorite fruit salad. Snacks are always more fun with faces.

Find the recipe at Say Yes.

Spider Sandwiches

Whether it’s for an afterschool snack, lunch, or a party treat, these spooky spider sandwiches are just the fun healthy treat your kids need to get them in the spirit of Halloween. Make their favorite sandwich, cut it out in a circle, and use pretzels or carrot sticks for the legs.

Find the recipe at Autism Learning Felt.

Healthy “Candy Corn”

Mock up everyone’s favorite Halloween candy with similarly colored fruit with some whipped cream or yogurt on top. One piece of candy on top won’t hurt either. Use fun colors and similarities like this to encourage healthy eating.

Find the recipe at Family Fresh Meals.

The post 7 Healthy Halloween Treats Your Kids Will Love appeared first on InstantELLA.

They say a recipe has no soul. It’s the cook that infuses soul into the recipe and here’s my take on where the cook finds inspiration.

Hunger is a good cook

We’ve all been there and in fact, early humans cooked up their first hot meals more than 1.9m years ago! But it’s how you react when faced with this situation that can predict if you’ll make the cut as a good cook. See, cooking is all about perseverance and discipline. Are you going to be the type to go out and buy your meal? No doubt, it’s easier and quicker. It’s also probably more expensive and not that healthy. Or are you going to be the type to look at the raw material and supplies in your kitchen, take a stab at creating something out of nothing and putting up with the momentary inconvenience because you know it’s a small price to pay for the long-term benefits. I took the second option and I can’t remember a day after that that I ever went hungry. An important tip: build the discipline of stocking up your kitchen responsibly and by that, I mean, as if tomorrow was the apocalypse! If you get that right, you’ll go far kid!

You are what you eat

What Americans can learn from other food cultures

I come from a mixed culture and that means the food was all over the place. Flavors and cooking methods were not distinct but diverse in my home. A typical Indian curry could mimic Continental stew and ‘chutney’ could very quickly transform into jam or jelly. A dish cooked with meat was simply called meat curry – it could be spicy one day and bland the next. The protein could be substituted in the same cooking sauce/ gravy and fried onions and potatoes were the rescue to all dishes on the verge of failure. I took my mum’s cooking for granted then but I miss those distinct flavors now. I had no frame of reference when I started cooking and so I am not stubborn about food.  For me, it’s all about fusion, experiments and adapting, which mirrors my personality. I am what I eat. Be open to different type of cuisines, food, flavors and ways of eating.  The faster you adapt to foods, the quicker you assimilate into new cultures and societies.

Eating is a necessity. Cooking is an art

Looks as good as it tastes? Why an attractive plate makes for a tastier dinner

It’s all in the presentation. You heard this from MasterChef. You saw it in the contestants and felt it from the judges. Human beings eat with their eyes first and palate second which is why parents have such a tough time introducing their toddlers to new foods, the same toddlers who are ever ready to put any and everything in their mouth. The truth is some of the healthiest food is not always the prettiest. Think Kiwi, Oats, Chia seeds, clams or lentils. The trick is in the presentation. Use a burst of color, your best cookware, practice those plating up skills and come up with fancy names for your dishes. Once the food gets past the mouth, the palate will do the rest.

Don’t be afraid to take Whisks!

Global Cuisine Starts with Spice Blends

My mum didn’t have specific methods of cooking. I had no frame of reference because she didn’t teach me ‘how-to-cook’.  She only told me it would come ‘naturally’ to me when it was time. She was right. Not only did it come naturally, but I saw a certain freedom and opportunity in not having any frame of reference. This ignorance enabled me to discover my own brand of cooking. I had no expectations and was therefore ready to take risks. I did not care about judgement because I always knew I had a very rare palate. My love of intense spice, sweet and sour at the same time resulted in me damaging my taste buds when I was barely 10 years old. Those taste buds healed with anti-biotics but if that isn’t an example of taking risks, I’m not sure what is.

Don’t be afraid of combining seemingly opposing flavors. I hosted a game night for my husband’s guy friends recently. They loved the ground beef lasagna and said it had the perfect flavor. The secret was in the sacrilegious blend of Marinara (Italian), Barbeque (American) and Sriracha (Thai) Sauces!

Use substitutes. If you like Mexican food but can’t make a tortilla, make an Indian ‘Roti’ instead. Go a step further and dare to serve Eastern savory with Western dessert. The key is to take risks, experiment with styles, flavor and presentation and you’ll be whipping up a storm in no time. You can find a variety of different recipes to help get you started by checking out food backwards. It will be fun and challenging to experiment with a bunch of different foods and recipes. All you need to get started is some ideas for what to cook.

Take the heat out of the kitchen

5 Reasons Eating Will Always Be the Best Part About Traveling

Travel and coffee is the cure to almost everything. There hasn’t been a successful chef on the planet who didn’t want to travel or explore new cultures and places. There’s only so much chicken and seasoning can teach you. But a conversation & coffee with old friends or new acquaintances widens your vision and gives your perspective outside the kitchen. Cooking is a means to an end, a social tool constructed to bring people together, foster ideas, discover opportunities and be inspired. So, go out there, explore every café and restaurant in town, take a trip to some extravagant island, lose yourself trekking up a mountain or on a hike. I can guarantee you, you’ll always learn something new you can use when it comes to cooking and your kitchen!

Give Me Inspiration & I’ll Give You a Reason to Cook

HOW THE WORLD’S BEST CHEFS FIND INSPIRATION

Long before Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson or Jamie Oliver became famous, they had family and friends. These were their first fans. And like them, I was blessed with having people around me that were supportive of my food, at home, at the workplace and even on social networks. They have and always be an inspiration who have played a big part in helping me recognizing my potential. Every ‘like’ on a Facebook or Instagram upload of my food, every encouraging comment, every inquiry about a recipe, every exchange of cooking tips has gone a long way and deserves mention.

Hashtag Foodie: Young adults and the evolution of modern food culture

Food is just another commodity and like all products, if there is inspiration and demand, there will always be a steady supply.

The post Chef: A Person Who Isn’t Afraid To Take Whisks! appeared first on InstantELLA.