Valentine's Day food pictures/recipes

These stuffed mushrooms were SO GOOD! I'm so going to make them again! They were really easy to make. I got the basic recipe from Allrecipes and changed it (as I usually do).

Stuffed Mushrooms

Yield: 8 mushrooms

3 T. "real" crumbled bacon bits

8 crimini/baby bella mushrooms

1 T. margarine

1 green onion, finely chopped

3/4 c. cheddar cheese, shredded (I used lowfat)

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Remove mushroom stems and finely chop.
In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Slowly cook and stir the chopped stems and onion until the onion is soft. Remove from heat.

Stir together the mushroom stem mixture, bacon and Cheddar. Mix well and scoop the mixture into the mushroom caps.

Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese has melted.

The chicken cigars are a Rachael Ray recipe. I think she has good ideas, but sometimes she uses ingredients that are difficult to find. I completely rewrote that recipe. I'm not a big fan of ground chicken you buy in the store, so I sauted chicken breasts in the seasonings and shredded it in the food processor. I also added 2 oz of cream cheese because I was worried that they wouldn't stick together right. They were DELICIOUS!

The shrimp cocktail was also Rachael Ray's recipe. I followed it exactly. I couldn't find the jumbo shrimp but the ones marked "large" worked just as well, although they didn't turn out as pretty as hers did. The cocktail sauce had a good flavor and a better texture than what you usually buy from a bottle.