Our decorations are up, I have my Christmas cards ready to address and send out, and I have cookie dough ready in the freezer. We are ready to start having some Christmas guests. Are you?

Tonight I am going to share with you some of my favorite appetizer recipes out of my all time favorite cookbook. To give you an idea how much I love this book I have a funny story for you.

I was planning a party coming up soon so as I was going to work I scooped up my cookbook. But when I arrived at work I couldn’t find it. That’s when I realized I must have left it on the roof of the car. I loved that book I was so upset.

I decided to do the unthinkable. I was the only one working that day and it was a Sunday and we rarely had anyone come into the shop on Sundays. So I through up a sign saying I would be back in 45 min and left. I drove home searching along the road all the way looking for my book. I had no luck. I got back to work late, but no one even noticed I was missing.

I called my husband crying because I was so distraught over loosing the cookbook. He promised to take me out to Powell’s Books and buy me a used copy that night and we did. I was so happy to have a new copy of my book.

The name of the book is Favorite Brand Name 4 Ingredient Cookbook. So on to some of my favorite recipes from the book.

Hot Artichoke Dip

• 1 cup Miracle Whip Salad Dressing or Kraft Real Mayonnaise
• 1 cup (4 oz) Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 (14-oz) can artichoke hearts, drained, chopped

1. Heat Oven to 350F
2. Mix all ingredients: spoon into 9in pie plate or 2 cup casserole
3. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Garnish as desired. Serve with tortilla chips, crackers or party rye bread slices

Philadelphia Cranberry Orange Spread

• 1 package (8oz) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup cranberry orange sauce
• 3 tablespoons chopped pecans, toasted

1. Spread cream cheese on serving plate
2. Top with sauce, sprinkle with pecans. Serve with crackers.

Tortellini Kabobs with Pesto Ranch Dip

• 1/2 bag (16oz) frozen tortellini
• 1 1/4 cups ranch salad dressing
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons dried basil leaves

1. Cook tortellini according to package directions. Rinse and drain under cold water. Thread tortellini onto bamboo skewers. 2 tortellini per skewer. (Or if you do not want to deal with skewers everywhere just use toothpicks)

Combine salad dressing, cheese, garlic and basil in small bowl. Serve tortellini kabobs with dip.

Chunky Hawaiian Spread

• 1 package (3oz) light cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup fat free or light sour cream
• 1 can (8oz) Dole Crushed Pineapple, well-drained
• 1/4 cup mango chutney* (which I have never used in this recipe)
• Low Fat Crackers

*If there are large pieces of fruit in the chutney, cut into small pieces

Beat cream cheese, sour cream, pineapple and chutney in bowl until blended. Cover and chill 1 hour or overnight. Serve with crackers. Refrigerate any leftover spread in airtight container for up to one week.

Cheese Creme Dip

• 1 package (8oz) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 jar (7oz) marshmallow creme

1. Mix cream cheese and marshmallow creme with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Refrigerate.
2. Serve with assorted cut-up fresh fruit or pound cake cubes. Garnish as desired.

Now I am hungry. I have made all of these for multiple parties I have had and have had rave reviews (especially the Hawaiian Spread).

Tomorrow I will be doing my December meme about family traditions. So if you want to share your family traditions, come on over tomorrow and link up!

If you would like some more yummy recipes please visit Balancing Beauty and Bedlam. Or you can go to Simply Sugar and Gluten Free to find more appetizer, mocktail, and cocktail recipes.

I was really productive today even though all day long I kept grumbling to myself I wasn’t doing anything. Maybe it’s because I have too much on my to do list right now.

I was able to bake over three dozen muffins. Banana and Sweet Potato Muffins that I made from some produce I got at the discount grocery store for $1.50. I am freezing most of them and now I won’t have to make muffins for probably a month. Which is good because I need to start working on my holiday crafting and such.

I made dinner for Zane and I, took me an hour to cook my dinner and keep the boys entertained. Zarek even got fresh mashed sweet potato for his dinner. I tried getting Zane to feed Zarek a little bit so I could try and work on my dinner. He did pretty good until he got bored with doing it. But it gave me a few minutes. This was also my first time cooking tofu. I actually really liked it fresh.

I put together my breakfast, lunch, and snack for tomorrow. I also cooked the chicken for my dinner. I made Zane a bento for lunch and one for snack. I’m hoping he will eat them they are filled with fruits and veggies and a pb&j sandwich cut into a pumpkin. I wish I had a turkey cookie cutter.

I also cleaned out my email box today. Got through over 300 emails. I need to try and keep on top of this. I added some more labels so that should help.

On top of that I also got my workout in and got my devotional time in. So I feel pretty good about the day. How was your day?

I haven’t decided if I am going to reveal the brand of diet I am on. I guess you will have to stay tuned to find out if you are curious.

I have fought with my weight pretty much all my life. I have lived with it, I have fought it, and I have won in the past. Hopefully this will be the time of conquering. We will see.

This is what I ate today:

Breakfast:

Half a Blueberry Bagel with Non-Fat Cream Cheese and Walnuts

Lunch:

Crispy Turkey and Veggie Stacks – Rye Crisp Crackers layered with Tomato, Cucumber, Avacado, and Turkey
Grapes
Yogurt with Toasted Wheat Germ

Snack #1:

Cheerios and Raisins

Dinner:

Pasta with Peanut Sauce
Banana and Non-Fat Milk for desert

Snack #2:

Whole Wheat Crackers with Cream Cheese and Dill

Everything was very yummy! Lunch was huge though, I almost wasn’t sure if I was going to make it through the whole thing. Dinner seemed small at the time but then I was pretty satisfied after I let it sit for a little bit.

I’m actually pretty excited about the food I get to try on this diet so that is encouraging. I went out grocery shopping yesterday, it took me a while to get everything, but it was actually pretty nice having a menu plan and grocery list all made up for you.

I will have to keep you up to date on my success and my weight loss as I go.

If you have a favorite diet snack or dinner please share the recipe with me. Have you had very much success with a diet? How have you stuck to your diet?

Here is my little picky eater and my first attempt at a bento. It’s not perfect and not beautiful but he ate the whole thing. Which for Zane is amazing! And he got some good nutrition.

I made him a peanut butter and banana sandwich cut it into triangles and placed some cheese stars on top. I added some Pirate’s Booty and almonds in little muffin papers. And in the side compartment I added carrot sticks and the rest of the banana.

I have been seeing a few different moms making these little “boxed meals” of cuteness and nutrition. It’s fun to see how creative these women are with food. (It’s also nice to see sometimes they don’t worry about it being perfect that their lives are busy too.)

Why I’m doing this? There are a few reasons I am doing this.

Visual Meal Planning – I’m a visual person, looking at my son’s food in a logical way always seemed overwhelming. I would stare at his plate and say how do I get him to eat these veggies. Now I’m looking  his plate and saying how can I make this more colorful, how can I add a different texture, how can I make this look cute. And I get excited about making his meals.

Balanced Diet – I’m able to look at his plate and say we need more color and I add more veggies or fruits. He is getting more variety in his food. I was starting to get a rut. All he was eating was PB&J and Mac N Cheese. Now I put his sandwich or pasta on the plate and surround it with colorful, nutritious food.

At the moment I am just using some of my regular everyday Tupperware to do Zane’s bentos. I’m also just making up some of his meals in the bento style but putting them on his sectioned plates. I’m hoping to slowly be able to buy some of the fun and cute boxes, but money is tight right now so we will make due with what we have. I also have tons of cookie cutter to cut things into fun shapes.

What about all the Asian food? I’m just going to start out simple and easy. I may sometime try some of the Asian food I have been seeing on these blogs. At this time I want to get used to filling Zane’s boxes with our everyday food and things I am used to having in my pantry before I start trying to experiment with a new kind of food.

I’m not doing it everyday. It takes me a few extra minutes to get everything put together, so I don’t want to try and burn myself out by making a goal of doing it every day. But I am hoping that by the time Zane starts preschool I will be pretty used to it and be able to make his lunch for him each day.

Here are some of my favorite bento mommy sites so far:

Wendolonia – The first site I found posting her lovely creations for her son. And she has a great Bento FAQ on her site.

The Sublurbs – She is making bentos to help with her son with eating gluten free.

Adventures in Bento Making – I just found this site and I think her bentos are lovely! She puts a lot of work into her bentos.

So, who else wants to bento? How do you make your childrens’ meals nutritious? Do you have any Bento sites that you like?