The end of May: a time of celebration, parties, and catching up with your friends and loved ones. Whether you’re hosting a weekend barbecue or you’re the proud relative of a recent graduate, there are sure to be plenty of bottles of wine going around.

While it may be tempting to turn a dull Sunday night into a night curled up with your favorite bottle of Pinot Grigio and the latest Oprah-endorsed cable TV movie, our friends at AllFreeChickenCasseroles.com think that wine tastes just as good baked into a chicken casserole as poured into a glass.

White wine cooking is the hallmark of high dining, and our recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore is sure to keep your kitchen smelling unbearably delicious all day long.

If you’re looking for something a little healthier, you can’t go wrong with our delectable Chicken, Spinach, and Almond Pasta Bake. Using whole wheat pasta, a touch of lemon, and a sprinkling of almonds, cooking with wine has never looked so appealing!

Perhaps you’re not a fan of white wine or maybe you have a bottle of red wine that’s been sitting around for goodness knows how long. We’ve got just the ticket for you. Our Chicken, Mushroom, and Red Wine Casserole is a sinfully light recipe, filled with the elegance of fine restaurant dining.

When you’ve finished cooking, our friends at FaveCrafts.com have some great ways to recycle the empty bottle. It’s a win-win!

So pull out a bottle of cooking wine, and get in the kitchen! (Don’t forget to pour yourself a glass, of course!) What’s your favorite recipe to cook with wine?

Now you have a chance to win a free peanut butter from Planters!

Three winners will receive a container of Planters creamy peanut butter and a container of Planters crunchy peanut butter.

Click here to enter this giveaway!

Peanut butter had some growing up to do. And as the reigning peanut experts, who better to make it happen than Planters? After all, isn’t it about time for a more sophisticated peanut butter? Made of 90 percent peanuts, Planters Peanut Butter is a nutrient-dense energy source and provides 10 percent or more of the daily value for seven essential nutrients, including magnesium and antioxidant Vitamin E.

To find out a little more about these products, be sure to check out the FaveHealthyRecipes product review of Planters peanut butter.

The Planters Peanut Butter Giveaway Summary

• Prize: One container of Planters creamy peanut butter and one container of Planters crunchy peanut butter to three people.
• Timeline: Begins on May 16, 2012 at 12:00:01 a.m. Eastern Time, and ends on May 27, 2012 at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time
• Contest open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only. Winners must claim prize within 14 days of being announced.

Good luck!

This post comes to us courtesy of Marisa Santillo from BnBFinder.com

If you’re looking for the ideal recipe to bring to any Memorial Day celebration this year, think something refreshing and sweet! A tart is the perfect compliment after a day of grilling, and topped with your favorite fruits it’s bound to be a tasty kick-off to summer.

The White Cedar Inn located in Freeport, ME, has a scrumptious recipe for a Kiwi Tart that’s a one-of-a-kind Memorial Day treat. Add some flair by topping it off with some strawberries and blueberries!

Do you have a graduate in your family and you’re looking for graduation party recipes? Don’t fret! Our friends at AllFreeSlowCookerRecipes.com have some easy and tasty graduation recipe ideas that you can make in your slow cooker.

If you’re making graduation recipes for a crowd, slow cooker appetizer recipes and slow cooker dessert recipes are your best bet. It makes the most sense to make graduation party foods in your slow cooker, because your slow cooker can sit on your buffet line and keep the food warm.

Some tasty slow cooker appetizer recipes you might try include Slow Cooker Party Meatballs (photographed above), Chicken Nachos, Hot Dog and Bacon Roll-Ups and other tasty appetizer recipes.

For some creative slow cooker recipes that are sure to be kid-pleasers, you might also try AllFreeSlowCookerRecipes’ Easy Slow Cooker Party Mix or Slow Cooker Pizza Fondue.

AllFreeSlowCookerRecipes has many dessert options if you’re in search of a graduation cake recipe. You might not have thought of your slow cooker when it comes to making a graduation cake recipe, but the site has many! For light, fruity options, you might try their recipe for Limealicious Key Lime Cake.

This creative recipe for Limealicious Key Lime Cake is made with lemon cake mix, lime Jello, lime juice and more. It’s topped with soft and creamy cream cheese frosting.

Instead of a graduation cake recipe, you might try offering an ice cream sundae bar. This would go over especially well with the younger graduates and their friends!

You can try making some delicious ice cream toppings in your slow cooker, including the Easiest Hot Fudge Sauce Ever, Slow Cooker Caramel Sauce Cooked in a Can and Slow Cooker Raspberry Sauce. Add some sprinkles and nuts to your favorite ice cream flavors and you’re all set. Your guests will love this innovative entertaining idea.

So, try some of these graduation recipe ideas in your slow cooker. Graduation recipes for a crowd aren’t easy, but they can be your handy slow cooker! Plan your graduation recipes and menus with help from our friends at AllFreeSlowCookerRecipes.com.

May 15th is National Chocolate Chip Day and we couldn’t be more excited.  Chocolate chip cookies,  chocolate chip pancakes, chocolate chip bread pudding – the possibilities are endless for whatever creative endeavors you want to do with your chocolate chips.

At  RecipeLion headquarters we have our kitchen cabinets loaded with bags of chocolate chips and have pictures of Ruth Graves, the inventor of Chocolate chips, as far as the eyes can see.  Can you believe that before 1930 chocolate chip cookies were unheard of?  Well, thanks to Ruth Graves, all of that changed, and the world was introduced to one of America’s favorite desserts – chocolate chip cookies.

We’ve collected some great recipes to help you celebrate.  We’ve got our interns baking their hearts out and testing each one out!

So, to celebrate this momentous event, go to your local grocery store, pick up some chocolate chips, an intern or two, and start baking.  If the store doesn’t have interns or you if just don’t feel like baking, pick up some chocolate chip cookies and milk.  No matter how you want to enjoy the ooey-gooey chocolaty goodness of the holiday is up to you.

Enjoy this collection of Recipes with Chocolate Chips.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

Chocolate Chip Cookie Delight

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Chocolate Butterscotch Chip Cookie

We hope that you have a fantastic National Chocolate Chip Day and eat as much as your heart and stomach desire.  Happy eating!

For more dessert recipes check out our 13 No-Bake & Easy Pie Recipes.

In the middle of a hot and humid summer’s day who wants to turn on the oven to enjoy a gratifying cake?  Tuning on the oven doesn’t sound too appealing to us, but dessert sure does!   Just in time for summer, check out these two Icebox dessert cookbooks in our weekly giveaway and keep cool this summer.

Enter here for your chance to win both Icebox Cakes and Icebox Desserts by Laura Chattman.

Make a show-stopping, crowd-pleasing dessert without turning on your oven!  With Icebox Cakes and Icebox Desserts, by Lauren Chattman, you’ll get over 100 cool recipes for the summer.  With our latest giveaway, THREE winners will get both Icebox Desserts and Icebox Cakes cookbooks.

There’s not a reason why you can’t indulge yourself in a sweet treat in the middle of the summer.   So, if your sweet-tooth has a hankering for an ice cold heavenly delight, take a chance and enter to win.

For more irresistible no-bake desert recipes check out our collection of 15 Lazy No Bake Cookie Recipes & Bars.

Good luck to all participating and don’t forget to enter.

It’s Friday, it’s sunny (at least where we are) and we can feel summer right around the corner. There’s grilling recipes to look forward to, picnic recipes to share with your friends and family, and, of course, the Fourth of July.

Most importantly it’s the season of berries. You have strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, barberries, blueberries, crowberries. You can make blueberry pie, raspberry pie, strawberry pie, strawberry…I apologize, I started to channel Bubba there.

To get back on topic. This weeks food trend features one of our favorite types of breakfast foods and one of our favorite ways to use fresh berries, in Muffins! There’s something irresistible about a berry being baked in a miniature cake-like breakfast food. So, gather up all of your berries in your garden, eat a couple as you pick them, and make something special for the family. Bring in the season with some fresh fruit recipes and don’t let your berries go to waste.

We searched the internet for some of our favorite fruity muffin recipes. We found some excellent recipes that are perfect for the summer.  Enjoy and happy Eating!

Muffin Recipes

**Berry Buttermilk Muffins**
from Ezra Pound Cake

**Mixed Berry & Lemon Muffins**
from A Splash of Vanilla

**Dark Chocolate & Raspberry Muffins**
from Marte Tatin

**San Diego Strawberry Muffins **
from Liv Life

**Lemon Glazed Berry Muffins**
from Manifest Vegan

**Simple Berry Muffins**
from Inspired Taste

We hope that you enjoyed all of these delicious muffin recipes.  We also hope that you have a berry good summer and listen to a lot of Berry Manilow.  We just had to get the puns off our chests.  Happy eating and have a great week!

If you are looking for more breakfast recipes check out our 16 Heavenly Cinnamon Roll & Coffee Cake Recipes.

As any proper TV junkie knows, mid-May means season finale time! The anticipation is palpable, waiting to see who’s going to live or die, who gets married, who gets crowned the winner of your favorite reality show, and what other surprises are waiting around the corner. You’ve been waiting with bated breath all season, and you need that night to be perfect: comfy outfit, cozy blanket, and of course, tasty food.

Whether you’re cooking for your friends or you’ve created your own isolation room for finale time, a chicken casserole recipe is just what you need to get your through the emotional roller-coaster of May sweeps. Nothing says “TV time” like junk food, which is why this Cheesy Chicken Dorito Casserole is such a fitting addition to your finale night.

You can even transform your typical “cheese and crackers” spread into a hearty meal. This tasty chicken casserole recipe includes one of my favorite crackers: Ritz! Who knew that you could put them into a casserole dish!

If you’re a die-hard fan of salty snacks, like me, then you’re going to absolutely love this Potato Chip Casserole. Yes, it does sound strange, but that’s what makes it so great! It’s got this unbelievable texture that you’re going to really enjoy.

We have tons of other junk food casseroles that you’re really going to enjoy! You can find them all here.

Are you looking forward to any TV season finales? What do you have planned for the big night?

Now you have a chance to win free food from Jovial Foods in conjunction with their Einkorn Wellness Challenge!

Five winners will receive a gift basket containing one of each of the einkorn pastas (5 boxes total), and a box of the crispy cocoa einkorn cookies (included as a snack in the Einkorn Wellness Challenge Guide).

Click here to enter this giveaway!

Jovial is a family-owned company making gluten free foods everyone will enjoy & the first company to offer pasta from the ancient grain einkorn, nature’s original wheat. Additionally, the company is partnering with top celebrity dietitian, Ashley Koff, R.D., to launch its 2012 Einkorn Wellness Challenge (http://www.jovialfoods.com/einkornwellnesschallenge), a healthy eating action plan centered on einkorn (nature’s original species of whole wheat) that will help you feel your best and drop a few pounds along the way.

To sign up for this wellness challenge, go here: http://www.jovialfoods.com/einkornwellnesschallenge

To find out a little more about these products, be sure to check out the FaveHealthyRecipes product review of Jovial Foods.

As a bonus, here are three recipes from Jovial on FaveHealthyRecipes.com:

• Gluten Dairy Free Mushroom Casserole
• Tuscan Meat Sauce
• Einkorn Mac and Cheese

The Jovial Giveaway Summary:

• Prize: A Jovial gift basket containing one of each of the einkorn pastas (5 boxes total), and a box of the crispy cocoa einkorn cookies (included as a snack in the Einkorn Wellness Challenge Guide) to five people.
• Timeline: Begins on May 9, 2012 at 12:00:01 a.m. Eastern Time, and ends on May 20, 2012 at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time
• Contest open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only. Winners must claim prize within 14 days of being announced.

Good luck!

Note from FaveHealthyRecipes.com Editor Matthew Kaplan: This is an article I wrote about 2 years. The topic of food waste remains just as important now as it was then, so here I am sharing this article with you all here on the RecipeLion blog.

I know this topic brings up a lot of varied reactions, so please comment below to weigh in on this topic.

Did you know that about 25% of all food in the U.S. gets thrown out in a given day, according to the USDA. That’s quite the statistic, especially considering that a University of Arizona study suggested that convenience stores, supermarkets and restaurants throw out more than 25 million tons of food every year. That’s a lot of good food gone bad. But all that food that gets thrown away must be tossed for a reason, right?

Well, not everyone agrees with this assessment. A growing number of people don’t think all that food being thrown away is bad. Now there is a growing movement of people who dumpster dive food.

“Wait, what?” you ask yourself, “People actually go into dumpsters and take food from them? And they actually eat that food?” Well, yes. The idea of eating food from the trash goes against all the hygiene rules many of us were taught, but consider these facts and dumpster diving stories first.

1. The USDA admits that 25% of all food gets thrown out, and some studies put that figure even higher. Within those millions of tons of food, not all of it is truly bad. After all, which one of us hasn’t ever thrown out perfectly good food?
2. One night, 2 friends of mine found 9 unopened soy milk boxes in a dumpster behind a bookstore. The boxes were full, still sealed and had not reached their expiration or sell by dates. Yet there they were, discarded in a dumpster.
3. Another time, yet another friend of mine (what can I say, I hang out with some interesting folks) was at one of the Boston area’s top dumpster diving spots and pulled out a bag of seven Granny Smith apples. 6 were in great shape, but the last one was rotten to the core. My friend simply tossed out the rotten one and had the remaining tasty apples for the week.

The last of the dumpster diving stories best illustrates why freegans, the name used for people who reclaim edible items, dumpster dive food. For better or for worse, supermarkets, restaurants or other places that sell food are a business. The purpose of any business is to make a profit. If the business doesn’t think they can make any money on it, they throw it away. Granted, many places are very generous about donating what food they can, but many states and localities have strict rules dictating the quality of food that can be given away. With the apple story, a store can’t hope to sell or give away a pre-packaged bag of apples where one is rotten, so the whole thing gets thrown out.

“OK, fine,” you’re saying to yourself, “I can understand why so much food gets thrown away, but it cannot be safe or healthy to dumpster dive food.” Truthfully, this aspect of dumpster diving analysis gets tricky and completely rests on a person’s comfort level. Dumpsters are not the most hygienic places, but as anyone who has ever worked around food can tell you, restaurants and supermarkets aren’t always the cleanest places either. Sure, only hearty souls dumpster dive food that has been sitting exposed at the bottom of a dumpster on a warm night. However, some places will take all their leftover bread, put it in one clean trash bag and leave that bag at the top of the dumpster. It just all comes down to your comfort level with particular dumpster diving spots.

Here are some tips and tricks if you do decide to dumpster dive food:

• Research dumpster diving spots in your area. Some places will have more food than others. Scout out a targeted area first to see if it is safe. Look for places that pride themselves on having only fresh, high quality goods. The more fresh items in the store, the more food most likely is thrown out. Consider the type of food a particular dumpster will have. Do you want to be eating donuts from the bakery or green vegetables from the health food mart?
• Be safe and be health conscious. Go with a friend just in case anything bad happens. Come equipped with gloves, a light source and hand sanitizer, as you should be prepared to get your hands dirty. Make sure that you will not be hurting yourself, others or property when you dumpster dive food. Be a critical “shopper” when you dumpster dive food. When in doubt, throw it (back) out. Also, make sure you are not breaking any local laws by dumpster diving.
• Be considerate of others. Usually, people dumpster dive food at night after a particular store has closed. If a dumpster is in a residential area, be considerate of the people that are sleeping. Also, try not to make a huge mess. Employees do not want to clean up after you, and you may be accidentally putting a business in legal trouble by leaving trash on the ground.

“All right,” you say, “I suppose I can see where you’re coming from with this dumpster diving analysis, but this just doesn’t seem right to me.” Depending where you are, attempting to dumpster dive food is illegal for a variety of reasons. We do not endorse and/or support anything illegal. Please make sure to look into area laws before attempting to engage in any activity. For example, make sure you are not trespassing when you dumpster dive food. Also, in many places the items in a dumpster are considered the property of the dumpster’s owner, meaning that taking anything from that dumpster is technically considered theft.

Dumpster diving may not be for everyone, but you will be surprised at the quality and quantity of food that gets thrown away every day.

What do you think? Would you ever consider dumpster diving for food?