Recipe: Peanut Butter 'n' Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

It's that time of year again, and with all the parties we will be attending this week, I wanted to share a recipe that you can easily make. I also wanted to discuss Friendsgiving. This is a relatively new tradition that many people are taking too.

Being thankful for kids, aunts, uncles, and cousins is a given around the holidays, but don't forget to appreciate the family you adopted along the way! Take a few minutes before the holiday craziness begins to celebrate Friendsgiving. All it takes is a hug and a homemade treat to make the occasion a success!
Hormel has tons of recipe ideas and so does Skippy.  As soon as I saw this Skippy recipe, I knew I needed to try it asap!
My daughter was having a Friendsgiving of sort at her school so we prepared these for her class to enjoy. 

Here is what you'll need:

-1/2 cup SKIPPY^® Natural Peanut Butter Spread

-3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (you can also use the Enjoy Life brand for dairy free)

-Strawberries, fruit of your choice or salty snacks (we went with organic strawberries)

Directions: 

1. In microwave-safe bowl, microwave peanut butter spread and chocolate chips on HIGH (100%) 40 seconds or until almost melted. Stir until smooth.
2. Use dip for strawberries, multi-grain pretzels, graham cracker sticks and bananas; arrange on wax-paper-lined jelly-roll pan. Refrigerate until firm.

Since we do not use a microwave in our home, I used a pan and warmed the chocolate and peanut butter that way. Make it whatever way works best for you! 


The finished product was AMAZING! My daughter's friends were so excited to all share the food they brought in and they had a wonderful time. Do you celebrate Friendsgiving? Is this a recipe you would try?

*You can check out my previous Hormel posts and recipes here, here, here,  here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, & here. 

*I am currently a member of the Hormel Foods Extended Blogger Program and this post is part of my involvement in the Group. While Hormel Foods provides me material and necessary resources to complete various activities, all statements and sentiment in Stilettos and Diaper Bags are my own.

Time to Get Holiday Ready!

I was among seven Chicago bloggers who got together to showcase some of our favorite looks for this holiday season. We teamed up with Shop Lately and the outcome was seven different styles, all great for any of the upcoming parties we will all be attending. 

Shop Lately is a marketplace, giving designers and brands the opportunities to showcase their products.  
 It was so fun to snoop around and see all of the beautiful products we could choose from. You can find clothing, accessories, shoes, and even beauty products, which made picking what I wanted to wear in a holiday themed photos shoot so hard. Good problem to have, right? 

Here are the seven of us in our holiday wear. The items I ended up getting to style with my look were jewelry and an amazing sequin bag. You can click through to the other girl's blogs today and see what they found and how they chose to style their items! (links to their blogs are below)  


Back Row: Love Zahra, Sisters Marie, Myself

Front Row: Defining Tabitha, Hallways are my Runways, The Naked Canvas, 101 Things I Love

Recipe: Mini Meatball Subs

My family is forever on the hunt for yummy meals we can alter to fit our diet and mix it up a bit over at the Fergus household. My husband came across this recipe for mini meatball subs over on Allrecipes so we decided to swap a few ingredients and make it gluten free so our son could enjoy it too! Here are the ingredients as listed on Allrecipes. 

Ingredients:

Original recipe makes 8 mini subs

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
• 1/2 cup crushed butter-flavored crackers
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic

• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (26.5 ounce) can spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 8 dinner rolls, split

We mixed it up by subbing for grass fed beef, organic cheese and eggs, gluten free crackers, organic veggies, and gluten free bread too.

Directions: 

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Combine ground beef, onion, green pepper, crackers, and egg in a large bowl. Season with Worcestershire sauce, garlic, seasoned salt, and pepper; mix well. Form mixture into 8 meatballs. Place meatballs in a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. Bake meatballs in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Pour the spaghetti sauce into a large saucepan; bring to a simmer over low heat. Stir baked meatballs into the simmering sauce. Do not turn oven off. Simmer sauce until meatballs are fully cooked, about 20 minutes.
4. Place one meatball, a sprinkle of mozzarella, a sprinkle of Parmesan, and a bit of sauce between each roll. Place sandwiches in hot oven; bake until cheeses melt, about 7 minutes.

 

Here is the finished product: 

I would HIGHLY recommend this recipe to anyone. It was plate licking good! 

Are you a meatball sub fan? Would you try this recipe for your family?