Fruit Salad-yummy yummy

29 oz can peach slices-do not drain
20 oz can pineapple chunks-do not drain
1 small box vanilla instant pudding mix
1 lb strawberries, quartered
1-2 bananas sliced
1/2 pint blueberries
1 bunch red grapes

In a large bowl combine peaches, pineapple and pudding mix. Mix until the pudding is dissolved in the peach and pineapple juices. Stir in the rest of the fruit. Chill. (The pineapple juice keeps the bananas from turning brown)

Strawberries and Cream Pudding Pops

I've been looking for a treat to have that is not 98% sugar or high fructose corn syrup to have with this pregnancy (because I seem to be craving desserts all of the time!). I found this little gem in one of my favorite cookbooks, Our Best Bites.12 medium strawberries (about 1-3/4 to 2 cups of roughly chopped berries)

2-3 tablespoons of sugar

1 (1-ounce) box sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix

6 ounces vanilla yogurt (I used strawberry yogurt because that is what I had in the fridge & it worked great)

1 cup milk

-Remove stems from berries and pulse with 2 tablespoons sugar in a food processor until completely smooth. Taste and add more sugar if needed. You should have just over a cup of puree. Set aside.

-In a blender combine pudding mix, yogurt, and milk and blend until combined. Layer or swirl the pudding mixture with the strawberry mixture in popsicle molds anf freeze until solid.

They were delicious and my kids absolutely loved them! Another thing that is great about them is that they don't melt as fast as ice cream or popsicles so they aren't as messy!

Apricot Glazed Pork Chops

I love food!
I especially love good food.
This one hit the spot with it's sweet sauce.

Here's what you'll need:
4 7-ounce boneless pork chops (I cut three of Costco's chops in half lengthwise and had plenty for our family)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used olive)
1/2 cup apricot nectar (I didn't have any so I put my jarred apricots (drained well) in a blender - I know, it's not the same thing, but it was perfect)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced (I used two)
1/3 cup apricot preserves

Sprinkle both sides of pork with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Add pork to skillet. Cook until browned, about 4-5 minutes per side. Combine nectar, soy sauce, garlic and preserves in a small bowl; mix well. Pour over pork, reduce heat and simmer, covered, until pork is cooked, about 15-20 minutes. Serve hot over mashed potatoes or rice.

Note: There was so much yummy sauce left over, so I reduced it over high heat for 5-10 minutes to thicken it up a bit. It was delicious poured over our potatoes.

Cranberry Salsa

1 bag fresh cranberries

1/2 medium red bell pepper

1/2 medium red onion

3 tablespoons jarred jalapenos

1 medium granny smith apple, cored
3 tablespoons cilantro

Place above ingredients in a food processor, blend until finely chopped. (I don't own a food processor, so I just used my chopper.) Place in a bowl and add the following:

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons lime juice

1/3 cup apple juice

Stir it all up, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

Once you try this it'll become a Christmas tradition.

It's even great on turkey enchiladas.

Royal Raspberry Cake

Thanks to eat8020.com I came across this DELICIOUS Raspberry Cake recipe! 

It's easy to make and SO YUMMY!!!

Serves 8-10

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup milk
3 cups fresh raspberries

GLAZE
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer to cream together butter, egg, sugar, vanilla and milk. In a separate bowl add flour, salt, and baking powder. Spoon dry ingredients into wet and mix until dry ingredients are moistened.

Spray a cheesecake pan (a round pan with removable sides- a 13x9" cake pan will work as well) lightly with baking spray. Spoon batter into pan and cover the top of the cake evenly with raspberries.

Bake for 35-45 minutes (somewhat dependent on pan), or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

While cake is baking, whisk together GLAZE ingredients. When cake is removed from oven, gently brush the warm cake with glaze (I removed the sides of my cheesecake pan to brush the sides of the cake as well). Allow to set for 10 minutes and serve!

cherry brown butter bars

It's cherry season!

We went to my Mom's house and picked baskets of cherries. When I came home I immediately hopped online to see what I could make with these delicious fellas. I found this recipe on SmittenKitchen and loved it so much that I made it twice. The second time I changed it up a bit. You see, I love cherries and almonds together. So I substituted half of the vanilla extract with almond extract and ground up some almonds to use in place of half the flour. So so so amazing! One more thing I changed the second time around, I thought it needed more cherries, so I covered the crust with them. It really just depends on you.

Here's what you'll need for the crust:

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/8 vanilla and 1/8 almond)

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour (or 1/2 cup finely ground almonds and 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour)

pinch of salt

And for the filling you will need:

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

pinch of salt

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla (or 1/2 vanilla and 1/2 almond)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced

2-3 cups of sliced, pitted cherries

First you need to make the crust. Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 8x8 pan with foil, set aside. In a medium bowl mix together your melted butter, sugar and vanilla. Add the flour and salt and stir well. Press mixture into the bottom of your prepared pan. Bake for 17 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool a bit on a wire rack.

While your crust is baking you need to brown your butter. By the way, brown butter is sooooo good! It tastes a little nutty. I love it! So, to brown it you'll need to cook your butter in a small saucepan. A lighter colored one is best so you can see the color of the butter change. Cook it over medium heat stirring often and watching it closely. It'll take about 6 minutes to brown. Once brown, immediately pour it into a glass measuring cup to cool slightly.

Now you need to whisk your eggs, sugar and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Add flour and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Slowly whisk in your browned butter into your egg mixture. Whisk until smooth. It should look something like this....

Did you notice the cherries in the photo above? Not enough for me, I added another cup to that. Arrange your cherries on your slightly cooled crust. Carefully pour on your browned butter mixture over your cherries. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool your bars before removing from pan and cutting into squares. They should look something like this (but with more cherries)....
Check out that shortbread crust and speckles of browned butter. Heaven.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

Breakfast, it's the best!

And it's even better with these....

They are so full of apples and cinnamon-y goodness.
recipe from smittenkitchen.com

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp.
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar, divided
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
3 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped small

Preheat oven to 450. Grease 18 muffin cups and set aside. Mix together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter. Add sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the egg and mix well. Mix in the buttermilk gently so it doesn't start to curdle. Stir in your dry ingredients and fold in your apples.
Pour it all into your muffin cups. Sprinkle on the remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, turn down the heat to 400 and bake for another 5-8 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool them a little before serving, those apples get super hot!

Mango Strawberry Crush

Totally Kid Friendly! And the best part? They think it's dessert! You'll be the coolest mom on the block when you let them eat it for breakfast!

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2 large, ripe mangoes, peeled, seeded and chunked

10 strawberries, hauled

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons sugar

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Put all your ingredients in a blender and blend it up until think and smooth. Pour into 2 ice cube trays. Freeze until hard. Place fruit back into the blender. Blend, stopping to scrape down the sides of the blender, until crushed. Spoon into bowls and serve. 4 servings

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You can pretty much do this with 4 cups of any juicy fruit.

Peach Butter

I saw this recipe on Zupas.com and figured I should be able to substitute peaches for the apricots. I did and it turned out perfectly.

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This makes 3 pints or 6 8-ounce jars
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10-14 peaches - peeled, halved, and pitted
1/2 cup water
3 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
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Put the peaches and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, until peaches are soft, about 20 minutes.

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Pour peaches and juice into a blender and puree it using the pulse button....do not liquefy it. Measure out 6 cups of puree and pour it into a clean pot. Add sugar and lemon juice. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens. This could take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. You can test it by placing a glass plate in the freezer for a few minutes then drop some peach butter on the plate. If it spreads then it's not quite done. You want it to hold it's shape.

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Prepare your canner, jars and lids. Ladle hot butter into jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Wipe rim and place on lids. Place jars in canner. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove jars, let cool and store.

Banana Peanut Butter Chip Bread

So last week Larry had me buy him some bananas for his lunches, so I bought a bunch of six. This week guess how many brown bananas were on my counter? Four! Good thing it was cooler today since I had to turn on my oven. Here is the recipe I used (I had an idea to add the peanut butter chips because I love peanut butter and banana sandwiches even if I can't eat them right now).


Ingredients:



1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened**
2 eggs, room temperature
4 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
12 ounces peanut butter chips, divided


Directions:


Preheat oven to 350 degrees placing rack on the next to the lowest position. Grease and flour the bottoms only of one 9-inch loaf pan or 2 8-inch loaf pans or 4 mini loaf pans; set aside.


In a large bowl cream together the sugar and butter. Add one egg at a time until well incorporated. Add the milk, vanilla and bananas and beat well.


In a smaller bowl sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add in small increments to the banana mixture. Make sure you do not over mix as the dough will become chewy. Once well incorporated hand fold 8 ounces of the peanut butter chips into the batter.


Divide dough depending on the pans you are using. Sprinkle the top of the pan(s) of dough with the remaining chips. Bake 9-inch loaf for approximately 1-1/4 hours, 8-inch loaves for about 1 hour and the 4 mini loaves for around 45 minutes. Cool 5 minutes then loosen the sides and remove from pan(s). Cool completely before slicing or storing.

Chocolate Cups

I can't believe I have never posted this on here.

It's like my signature treat!

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ingredients:
1 bag of Wilton's candy melts
You could use almond bark, but then you have to chop it up so that it melts evenly. It's more work, but it's less expensive. You choose.
8 oz package of full fat cream cheese, softened
7 oz container of marshmallow cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla
strawberries or raspberries or blueberries or a little of each
about 36 mini cupcake wrappers
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Melt your chocolate in the microwave according to package directions. Take the mini cupcake wrappers and pour in a small amount of the melted chocolate. Use the back of the spoon to spread the chocolate evenly. Make sure you coat it well. Place them on a tray and set in the freezer while you make the cream filling.
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In a mixing bowl, blend the cream cheese, marshmallow cream and vanilla until light and fluffy. Put it into a frosting bag or a Ziploc bag with the tip cut off.
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Remove chocolate cups from the freezer and gently tear off the paper wrappers. You may crack a few until you get the hang of it. Then pipe in the cream and top with your berries. In a small baggie, melt a little more chocolate and snip off the tip. Drizzle a little chocolate on top of the berries. And there you have it....a fancy treat that's really not that fancy.

Tropical Fruit Salad

This is the sauce that I used on the fruit at bunco. However, I didn't follow the recipe when it came to the amount of fruit or which fruit to use.

2 bananas, sliced
2 cups fresh pineapple chunks
2 oranges, peeled and chunked
2 medium apples, chopped
1 cup sliced strawberries

½ cup thawed frozen limeade concentrate
½ cup honey
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon poppy seeds or papaya seeds

Combine all fruit in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together limeade, honey and oil until well blended. Stir in seeds. Pour over fruit salad and gently mix together. Serve immediately. You can also add ½ cup slivered almonds for an added crunch just before serving.