Our Holly Days

By Holly Sosa

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

During the holiday season, I practically live in the kitchen. I love entertaining family and friends, feeding them my best and most festive concoctions, listening to jazzy Christmas music, and enjoying a strong cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee before they drive off into the wintry night. One of my favorite treats to feed my guests are these decadent Chocolate Coffee Truffles, which are filled with creamy chocolate and bold Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. They’re a perfect one bite dessert that melt in your mouth.

I start by melting down some chocolate chips in a glass bowl over a pot filled with water. Melting the chocolate gently like this helps to keep it from drying with white bubbles.

In a separate saucepan, I add some heavy cream, brewed (extra strong) Dunkin’ Donuts Original Blend Ground Coffee, some instant coffee granules and melt it all together. Dunkin’ Donuts is the brand that keeps this baking babe going strong. As a mom, coffee is practically my life force and Dunkin’ Donuts delivers my morning (who am I kidding, all day) beverage faithfully to keep me going all day long, ensuring I make the most of my day. The flavor is so smooth, delicious, and high quality that it translates into my holiday baking effortlessly.

Once the chocolate chips have melted completely, I add the coffee mixture and stir it all together until well combined.

The mixture then gets transferred to a loaf pan that I prepared with some parchment paper and nonstick spray. I pop it into the fridge to set for about two to three hours.

Once the chocolate has set, I remove the loaf pan from the fridge and start forming the doughy chocolate into one inch balls with my hands.

Once the dough is all formed into balls, I pop them back into the fridge while I melt some more chocolate using the glass bowl over boiling water method.

Using a fork, I dunk the balls into the melted chocolate to coat them and then transfer them to a plate lined with parchment paper.

I garnish them with some coffee beans and then they go back into the fridge to set completely for about an hour.

These Chocolate Coffee Truffles are filled with sweet chocolate and the smooth flavor from Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, marrying to two into a perfect morsel of holiday love. Anytime I make these tasty treats, they’re devoured by my guests in minutes. They’re always the first dessert to disappear.

Find Dunkin’ Donuts coffee varieties at your local Dollar General using their handy store finder to ensure your holiday guests leave your home with warm bellies and hearts.

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By Holly Sosa

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Two things in life I deeply admire: buttah and garlic. I mean, they’re practically guaranteed to make any meal delicious. These Brown Butter Garlic Carrots embrace both of the ingredients for a flavor filled side dish that’s perfect for any table during any season, but they’re a favorite Thanksgiving side dish of mine and I love serving them among the turkey, stuffing, and other classics.

I start by melting a generous amount of butter over a skillet (here’s the one I use) until it’s nice and brown.

I add in plenty, oh and I do mean plenty, of garlic and sauté it in the butter for about a minute (garlic cooks quickly in a skillet and I don’t want it to burn) before adding carrots.

I give it all a good stir and add in some honey and a bit of thyme.

I transfer the skillet right into my oven, which I preheated to 425F, and cook the carrots for about 15-20 minutes until my carrots are tender.

When the carrots come out, they’re drenched in buttery garlic flavor and positively drool worthy. My veggie hating kiddos even enjoy these carrots. They’ve become a holiday favorite in my home, but they’re a great side dish for any meal.

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By Holly Sosa

This post contains affiliate links.

Making Candied Cinnamon Pecans should be on everyone’s holiday bucket list. Not only do they offer the classic cinnamon sugar flavor everyone loves, but they’re also so simple to make that even the busiest of us can find a few minutes to spare to toss the ingredients into a slow cooker.

To make these Slow Cooker Candied Cinnamon Pecans, start by beating together egg whites and vanilla in a medium sized bowl until frothy.

Add in your pecans, some sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon and mix it all together.

Transfer pecans to a slow cooker that has been prepared with some nonstick cooking spray and cook on low for about three hours, stirring the pecans about every hour.

About half an hour before they’re finished, add in some water and stir.

Once the pecans are done, transfer them to a baking mat to cool. This will ensure crispy exteriors, which we all know if the very best part about Candied Cinamon Pecans, right?

These perfectly candied pecans not only taste like the holidays, but look gorgeous in a glass candy dish (here’s my clear glass pumpkin candy dish). They make great gifts when wrapped up in cellophane bags or holiday food containers, but I prefer to gift them in clear containers with a chalkboard sticker or in a brown paper bag with ribbon tied around it. Of course, filling a mason jar with them is also a lovely option.

Never miss out on a recipe and sign up for monthly newsletters where I’ll send my best recipes from the month straight to your inbox. You can also stay up to date by following the Our Holly Days page on Facebook.

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By Holly Sosa

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and Conagra Brands. All opinions are mine alone. P.F. Chang‘s and P.F. Chang‘s Home Menu® are registered trademarks owned by P.F. Chang‘s China Bistro, Inc. and are used with permission. #AuthenticMadeEasy #CollectiveBias

Busy weeknights are a regular occurrence in my home. Between weekly community group meetings and school events, cooking for my family has become a competitive sport, ha! I’ve learned that having some quick and easy recipes on hand helps to keep me a little less frazzled about dinnertime and my family’s bellies full. I’m not one to sacrifice flavor, so I’m known for being picky about which recipes make the cut. Fast and easy doesn’t always mean delicious, but I know when I use the new P.F. Chang’s® Home Menu sauces, I’m practically guaranteed a mouthwateringly tasty meal. My recipe for these Quick Mongolian Beef Lettuce Wraps delivers all the bold Asian flavor I love in an easy recipe.

In a skillet, I add some ground beef and finely diced onion along with some salt and pepper and cook it all together until the beef is no longer pink and the onions are translucent.

Then I add in some garlic and ginger.

And here’s where the flavor makes it’s appearance with a hefty drizzling of P.F. Chang’s Home Menu Mongolian sauce. They make a variety of sauces in flavors like the newest addition, Soy, along with Sesame, Kung Pao, and Teriyaki, any of which would work beautifully in this recipe.

Next I add in some green onion and water chestnuts and let everything come to a simmer, allowing that delicious sauce to penetrate the meat and veggies.

Once it’s done, I serve the beef inside a fresh piece of romaine lettuce for a fresh crunch.

These versatile Quick Mongolian Beef Lettuce Wraps are a delicious weeknight meal solution for moms like me who refuse to sacrifice flavor when pulling together a last minute meal. The new P.F. Chang’s Home Menu sauces, available at Walmart, are going to be a regular flavor saver in these parts and will be readily available in my pantry for when I want to add easy Asian flavor to not just my quick weeknight meals, but any of our dinners.

For more P.F. Chang’s Home Menu sauce inspired recipes from bloggers like me, be sure to visit the social hub where we’ve gathered our favorites.

P.F. Chang’s and P.F. Chang’s Home Menu® are registered trademarks owned by P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc. and are used with permission.

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By Holly Sosa

This post contains affiliate links.

Holiday entertaining season is here and as someone who is happiest with a home filled with people to feed, I’m rolling out all of my best recipes. While I love being in the kitchen, I know that the upcoming holiday season won’t alway allow me the extra time in my favorite place to cook, so I keep a few super simple recipes on hand that save me time, but still offer a delicious morsel for my family and friends. These Bacon Brown Sugar Smokies are a simple throw together recipe that offer huge savory sweet flavor. No one dislikes bacon, so it’s a recipe that’s sure to be s hit with any visitors or holiday potluck.

I start by slicing a package of bacon into thirds.

I wrap one piece of bacon around a smokie and secure it using a toothpick.

I place the smokie onto a plate and repeat the process until I’ve wrapped all my smokies. If I’m really pressed for time, I can wrap the smokies and pop them into the freezer until I’m ready to bake them. I just add some additional time to the oven and keep an eye on the bacon until it gets to the crispy texture I prefer.

Once my smokies are all rolled in bacon, I combine some brown sugar and cayenne pepper in a bowl and gently roll each smokie in the mixture before transferring it to a prepared baking dish (lightly sprayed with nonstick oil). My favorite baking sheets can be found here.

I bake the Bacon Brown Sugar Smokies in a 425F oven for ten minutes before flipping and popping them back in for an additional ten minutes (add additional time for crispier bacon).

These Bacon Brown Sugar Smokies come out of the oven perfectly browned and covered in caramelized brown sugar. The cayenne adds a gentle kick and spice for the perfect balance of savory sweet flavors. These are always the first thing to disappear when I serve them at our family gatherings or potlucks. I just don’t know if anyone has any self control when it comes to bacon!

Never miss out on a recipe and sign up for monthly newsletters where I’ll send my best recipes from the month straight to your inbox. You can also stay up to date by following the Our Holly Days page on Facebook.

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By Holly Sosa

As a busy work from home mom of a blended family, my schedule gets pretty crazy. While I love being in my kitchen and cooking for my family, there are evenings when I need a quick and simple solution to feed my hungry family. This Sausage and Veggies Sheet Pan Dinner is a cinch to throw together and leaves me with next to no dishes, which is always a fun bonus for a sheet pan dinner.

I start by chopping up some cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow bell pepper.

And I slice up a precooked sausage.

I line my baking sheet with tinfoil and spread the veggies and the sausage over it.

I add some oregano, dried minced onion, salt, pepper, and olive oil over the top.

I give it all a gentle toss and place it in a 400F degree oven for about 45 minutes.

Once it’s done, I pull it out and immediately sprinkle it with some shredded parmesan cheese.

I like to serve this Sausage and Veggies Sheet Pan Dinner over brown rice, but it’s also great all on it’s own. The veggies can easily be swapped to whatever is in season like broccoli, squash, green beans, corn, or brussels sprouts. This versatile recipe can be customized to fit whatever your family’s preferences are; it’s a simple dish that it impossible to mess up.

For additional recipes like this one, be sure to follow @ourhollydays on Instagram where I update daily and often share what we’re having for dinner on my Instastories.

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By Holly Sosa

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

This August marked a new season of life for me. My sidekick, my youngest, started preschool which has left me with some free time during the day. As a work from home mom, I was excitedly anticipating the day she’d be off to school, leaving me with a few blissful hours to work quietly, listen to some music instead of the same princess show for the eleventeenth time, and increase my productivity. What I wasn’t prepared for was the emptiness I felt coming home to a totally silent house. Her older brothers have been in school for several years now, so I thought this would be an easy transition, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

My little girl needed me, after all. She’s my spirited one. The one who needs her lunch arranged just so. The one who prefers the pink princess water bottle over the green fairy one. The one who relies on me to help her process through those little girl emotions. Would the teacher know that she sometimes needs help with her juice straw or that when she’s nervous she needs to hold a hand? Mom emotions are real, my friends. Sometimes we just can’t get a grip, am I right?

Inspired by Well Yes!® Soups, I realized that sometimes yes can be reassuring. My yes moments in life are often of me tackling my goals and chasing my dreams, but in this season of life, my yes moment needed to be different. I reassure myself that yes, this is okay and yes, this is life. Yes, you’re in a new chapter and yes, it’s all going to be okay. My moment of yes is one of comfort, much like a warm mug full of my favorite Well Yes! Soups which inspired my mom moment of yes.

Well Yes! helps women and moms like me say yes to deliciously crafted food, with real ingredients, so that I have what I need to say yes in the other areas of my life, like reassuring myself that preschool doesn’t equal college, ha! Well Yes! soups are crafted with care and feature real and nutritious ingredients to create incredibly flavored soups, without compromise.

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My daughter still needs me and it’s clear that I need her, but part of being a mom is letting go to allow room for independence and growth. Preschool is a small step, but for her it feels big and she is proud to be gaining some independence. But I’m fairly confident I’m going to need to remind myself in these moments of her life to relax, enjoy, and say yes.

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What is your yes moment as a mom? When did you have to reassure yourself with a calming yes, this is okay? Let’s chat mom emotions in the comments below. Read more yes moments from Well Yes! Soups by visiting the social hub where you’ll find inspiring stories from bloggers like me.

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By Holly Sosa

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and the Coca-Cola Company. All opinions are mine alone. #FrightAndDelight #CollectiveBias

When Halloween comes around, I can’t help but dream up spooky and festive ideas in the kitchen. As a mother, it’s practically my sworn duty to bring some Halloween magic into my home. I’ve created everything from Zombie Eyeball Pretzel Snacks to Bloody Shirley Temples and every year, I feel the need to create something totally new and outside of the box. Inspired by the spooky Halloween packaging on the Fanta mini cans, I created these Halloween Eyeball Cupcakes which aren’t only a perfectly decorated Halloween treat, but also offer a creepy eyeball surprise garnishing each cupcake.

I start by adding a box of white cake mix to a large bowl.

And I add in two mini cans of Fanta Orange.

I mix everything together gently and then transfer the batter to a cupcake pan I lined with fun metallic cupcake liners.

I bake the cupcakes according to the instructions on the back of the cake mix box.

Once they’re done, I pull them out of the oven and let them cool for a couple of hours.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, I get to the fun part: decorating! I pipe frosting over the top of each cupcake and add a candy eyeball.

Using some red food coloring, I drip blood all over the cupcakes. The messier the better.

These creepy cupcakes add an extra special element to our Halloween movie nights while Fanta’s irresistibly fruity flavor and bold colors bring our movie night to life. These Halloween Eyeball Cupcakes may look disgusting, but they taste amazing and are so easy to make!

Learn more about Fanta and all of their irresistible flavors to create your own spooky recipes, be sure to visit the Fanta website.

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By Holly Sosa

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

Warm, gooey, full of cheesy goodness, and loaded with infused Latin flavor, my One Pan Salsa Verde Pasta recipe is what dreams are made of. Working with Barilla pasta is like having a blank canvas; adding flavor to create a totally reinvented meal is easier than it seems, which is what I did with this simple one pan recipe.

I started by adding some chicken I’d already diced into bite size chunks into a large skillet with some olive oil. I seasoned them with a little salt and pepper while they cooked for several minutes until they completely cooked through and I removed them from the pan and set them aside on a plate.

In the same skillet I added some chicken broth, salsa verde, heavy cream, and some uncooked Barilla Penne pasta. I gave everything a few good stirs and let it come to a boil. Once it was at a boil, I turned the heat down to low, covered the skillet with a lid, and let it simmer for several minutes until the pasta was tender – al dente is always perfect.

I added the chicken back into the skillet along with some pepper jack cheese and combined everything together.

I added plenty of freshly chopped cilantro once the pasta was slightly cooled down and ready to serve.

This zesty One Pan Salsa Verde Pasta has quickly become one of my family’s weeknight favorites. It’s simple to throw together, packed with bold flavor, and only leaves me with one pan to clean up after cooking.

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For additional recipes featuring Barilla pasta from bloggers like me, be sure to visit the Barilla social hub where you can also spin to win one of thousands of prizes, but you’re guaranteed to win at least a coupon to use towards your next Barilla purchase.

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By Holly Sosa

For me, fall months are when I dig out my favorite soup recipes. I’m happiest when I’m in the kitchen with the windows open while the cool air breezes through. I throw on Pandora’s Autumn Jazz station, pull out my best knives, and start prepping all of the veggies for whatever soup or stew I’ve dreamed up in my head that day. I’m a firm believer that when it comes to soup or stew, cooking low and slow all day long makes the best kind. This Simple Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup cooks all day, allowing the flavor to develop and the vegetables to soften while they cook in warm broth all afternoon.

I start by preparing all my veggies. I chop up several stalks of celery, carrots, and a couple of small onions. I throw them into my slow cooker with three large cartons of chicken broth, some dill, a bit of bullion, and three chicken breasts.

If I’m using fresh chicken, everything cooks together in about four hours, but if I’m using frozen it takes almost six. Once the chicken is cooked, I remove it and shred it up using my stand mixer. This is my favorite trick to shredding chicken quickly. A hand mixer will work too.

I gently drop the shredded chicken back into the slow cooker and add two to three cups of noodles and crank it up to the high setting for about fifteen minutes until the noodles are tender.

This Simple Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup is easy to make, but tastes like you’ve been at it all day (all hail the slow cooker!). It’s warm, comforting, and is best enjoyed in my coziest fall sweater with that Pandora Autumn Jazz station playing softly in the background. Trust me friends, you need the station in your life.

Fore additional recipes like this one and my favorites from fellow bloggers, be sure to follow the Our Holly Days page on Facebook where I update frequently throughout the week.

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