For some reason it seems as if all vegetarians are automatically required to like mushrooms because that is the considered "meat" for vegetarians. Unlike most vegetarians, hubby and I never liked mushrooms. The thought of them being fungi has turned us away from trying them. However, everything changed for me when we were invited to our friend, Priti's parents' house for dinner a few weeks ago. Priti's adorable mom made stuffed mushrooms that looked and smelled scrumptious so I decided to give it a try. They were FANTASTIC! They were cheesy with a hint of spice. I had to dive in for seconds! This was quite adventurous of me so I had to stop and pinch myself to make sure this wasn't a dream. :) And of course, I got her recipe and made it myself.

Ingredients

A dozen Crimini mushrooms - cleaned and stemmed
1 cup mexican blend cheese
1/2-1 tsp finely chopped green chillies (or crushed red pepper) - use more or less per your spice level preference
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp sea salt (optional)

Steps

Pre-heat the oven to 350º F.
n a mixing bowl, mix the cheese, chillies, cilantro, garlic and sea salt.
Fill the stemmed mushrooms with the cheese blend.
Grease a baking pan with cooking spray and place the mushrooms in the pan (stuffed side up).
Bake for ~20 minutes.

Serve as an appetizer at your next dinner party.

DIY Paper Flower

We brought a bottle of wine for Priti's family and rather than using a gift bag, I did some crafty DIY stuff to make it look more personable and cute. I found this great blog that had easy to follow directions for tissue paper flowers so I made one of those and fed a ribbon through the twist-tie and tied it to the bottle. Instead of using a full size tissue paper, I cut it in half so the flower didn't take over the entire bottle. Here's the link to the tissue paper flower: http://www.designeverydayblog.com/how-to-make-paper-flowers/