Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Almonds

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Dollar General. All opinions are 100% mine.

Entertaining is one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. I love bringing people together around a table of delicious food and of course, good drinks! The holidays are such a busy time and I’m always running around like a crazy person shopping for gifts and parties. If I can find everything I need to entertain in just one stop, I’m all about it.

I never knew that you can buy wine at Dollar General! They offer a great selection of wine and beers and at a great price! And I was really happy to see that they carry one of my favorite affordable wines – Barefoot!

It was so easy for me to grab everything I needed including the wine and other snacks for my party spread for a holiday gathering I recently hosted. You can also pick up serving dishes and other party supplies at Dollar General without blowing your budget!

I was also asked by my friends at Dollar General to create a holiday wine pairing recipe for you guys!

 

Nuts are always a great choice for pairing with wines. And for the holidays, you can serve these dark chocolate cinnamon almonds on a cheese board, a dessert tray with strawberries or cookies. You can also package them up in a cute jar with some ribbon in a lovely gift basket with a couple of bottles of Barefoot wine and you’ve got the perfect gift!

Almonds generally pair well with Chardonnay so I went with that as my white wine and Pinot Noir as the red as it is perfect with the dark chocolate and cinnamon flavors. You can’t go wrong here!

The best part of these almonds is that they are so simple to make! You just need 4 ingredients: almonds, good quality dark chocolate, ground cinnamon, and some sea salt.

Vegetarian Chorizo Breakfast Strata

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #VeryVeggieHoliday #MorningStarFarms #CollectiveBias

One of my most favorite things about the holidays is having house guests or visiting with family. Nothing makes my heart feel more full than having a home filled with loved ones and of course, feeding them delicious food!

I like to make a big breakfast on Christmas morning. It’s such a busy day and I’m usually more focused on prepping the big fancy dinner and skip lunch so having a good filling breakfast is the perfect way to kick off the day! But, of course, the morning is all about opening gifts, going to church, etc. so who has the time to make a big fancy breakfast?

I am ALL about prepping whatever I possibly can the night before so all I have to do in the morning is stick it in the oven! And a strata totally fits the bill here.

Thanks to my friends at Morning Star Farms and their Chorizo Crumbles, this breakfast strata is seriously my new favorite breakfast dish for some delicious veggie cuisine! The Chorizo Crumbles add a flavorful and a little spicy kick to the strata and lots of flavor (and they give you 9 grams of plant-based protein!).

Holiday Sangria

It’s almost the weekend and what better way to end the week than with a good cocktail recipe?! I love sangria. I mean, if you guys know me but at all, you probably already know this.

I can’t believe I haven’t made a holiday/Christmas sangria yet! I’ve made caramel apple sangria and cranberry sangria, but this sangria is more holiday-ish. I know, I’m so eloquent.

You just need three ingredients for the sangria: wine (duh), sparkling apple cider, and some brandy. You can use regular apple cider, but I personally prefer the fizz that the sparkling cider adds.

For the fruit, I like to add diced apples, pomegranate seeds, and thinly sliced oranges. A cinnamon stick for the final garnish just adds that last touch of warm coziness! To kick it up a notch, you can also do a cinnamon sugar rim on your glasses. If you want to add a touch of green, you can use some green apples along with the red (leave the skin on), or a sprig of rosemary. Cranberries would also work well.

This is the perfect party punch that you can easily double or triple in a big punch bowl or pitcher for your upcoming holiday parties!

French Onion Chicken Skillet

It’s been a minute since I’ve posted a good dinner recipe. The last few weeks have been all about holiday side dishes and treats, but I am interrupting the holiday recipe fun to bring you guys a seriously delicious and easy weeknight meal!

French Onion Soup is most definitely one of my most favorite soups of all time. That flavorful and silky broth with tender onions! And of course, the best part – that cheesy topping! What’s not to love?!

I was going to make some french onion soup, but then thought about transforming it into a chicken dish instead and voila! This is one of those recipes that is not very pretty or easy to photograph, but I can promise you it is absolutely delicious.

The other thing I love about this recipe is that it’s all made in one pan which means less clean up! To make the recipe, you will saute some thin chicken breasts until browned.

Then comes the caramelizing! Truth be told, caramelizing onions is actually a process that should take hours. But, who has that kind of time? Not me! I give these about 15 minutes in the pan and find that they are perfectly tender and golden. After you mix up a quick sauce, the chicken is topped with cheese and put under the broiler to get all perfectly melted!

I like to mix up extra sauce for this recipe. I like having extra because it’s great for pouring over side dishes. This chicken would be great with mashed potatoes or roasted veggies!

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate

Is posting a pumpkin recipe after Thanksgiving some sort of faux pas? Kind of like wearing white after Labor Day?

I’m not really sure, but I personally like to continue my pumpkin obsession through the holiday season. After posting these polar bear marshmallows earlier this week, a hot chocolate recipe to follow seems only natural! Plus, I figure maybe you guys have some extra pumpkin puree leftover and this Pumpkin Hot Chocolate is the perfect way to use up that last bit of it! I think I always have extra puree in the fridge during this season every year and I love using it for recipes like this hot cocoa or pancakes!

This hot chocolate is a mug of comfort. And unlike a lot of pumpkin spice drinks, this hot cocoa does actually contain pumpkin! Instead of having a bunch of cinnamon that often gets clumpy and stuck in your teeth, I toss in cinnamon sticks to infuse that flavor into the hot cocoa.

You can use regular cocoa powder in this recipe OR dark cocoa powder (as pictured). I always prefer dark chocolate, but either one works here. I don’t like my hot cocoa to be overly sweet, so I recommend starting off with the amount in the recipe and you can always stir in more if you want it sweeter.

Polar Bear Marshmallows

The holiday season is now here and it’s finally starting to get chilly here in the OC! The hot cocoa cravings have definitely hit me and today I have what is quite possibly the most adorable way to dress up your hot cocoa – with a Polar Bear Marshmallow!

I can’t take credit for this idea as I’ve seen it on the interwebs quite a few times, but I had to give them a try myself! These are pretty simple to make and just require a bit of time depending on how many you want to make.