Candy Apple Grapes

These grapes are easy and delicious and would be perfect for a hot weekend treat (supposed to be a hot one here in Chicago) or for a Labor day BBQ.  I got this recipe from Sandi a friend and fellow youth leader.  They kind of taste like candy apples with the chocolate, nut, and sour combo, but are a lot easier to eat and make!

Candy Apple Grapes
From: Sandi Fischer
Prep time: 10 min
Chill time: 30 min

Ingredients:
Green Grapes
White Melting Chocolate
Roasted Peanuts, crushed (I used chopped nuts to make it easier)

Directions:
1. Wash and thoroughly dry grapes. Prepare a cookie sheet with wax paper or parchment. Place crushed nuts in a small bowl.

2. Melt chocolate heating in 30 second intervals (stirring each time) on medium heat in the microwave.

3. Take a grape and dip into the chocolate, then dip into the nuts and place on cookie sheet.  Repeat with as many grapes as you would like.

4. Chill in refrigerator for 1/2 hour.  Place in an airtight container and store in the fridge.

Raspberry and Chocolate Layer Parfait Dessert in Jars

This is a really easy summer dessert.  It is light and cool, and making them in individual jars makes them perfect for bringing to someone's house. It is very similar to the Trifle I make, but who doesn't love to serve dessert in jars! I also love that there are so many variations you can make of this.  I made mine with Raspberries and blueberries (red, white and blue for Memorial day - or 4th of July), but you can use any fruit you want.  I also did half of the jars with chocolate pudding and 1/2 with vanilla, bother were delicious!

Raspberry and Chocolate Layer Parfait Dessert in Jars
From: My Mom
Prep time: 20 min
Chill time: 2-3 hours up to overnight


Ingredients:
1 jello pudding instant mix (I used chocolate for one, vanilla for the other)
Angel food cake
Milk (2 cups cold milk to make pudding)
Fruit (I used raspberries and blueberries for red white and blue but you could use anything)
8oz Whipped topping (thawed)

Directions:
1. Make pudding according to package.  Cut angel food cake into 1 - 1 1/2 inch pieces.

2. In Jars (or other cups) layer pudding, top with angel food cake, then whipped cream, followed by fruit.  Repeat once.

3. Chill for a couple hours up to overnight. Serve.

Baked Apple Ring Chips

In an effort to eat a little healthier, especially when snacking, I tried making some Apple Ring Chips from a pinterest recipe.  It was pretty easy to do and I actually didn't remove the cores, I just thinly sliced them on my mandolin and then popped out the seeds.  I think these turned out ok, but I probably should have taken them out about 5-10 min earlier as some were a little to crispy for me. 

Baked Apple Ring Chips
From: Delighted Momma
Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:
2 apples
Cinnamon

Directions:
1. Remove apple cores.

2. Thinly slice the entire apple.

3. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place apple slices on it.  Sprinkle with cinnamon

4.  Bake at 275 degrees for 2 hours.  Flipping after 1 hour. (Check at 1 1/2 hours, may be done early.)

What's for Lunch Wednesday: Greek Yogurt with Strawberries, Raw Honey, and Almonds

I've been trying to cut out sugar except for natural sugars like fruit and raw honey.  So when someone in my beachbody challenge group suggested the combo of greek yogurt, strawberries, almonds, and honey, I was all over it.  It is really tasty and sweet, plus it is really filling.  You can eat this with your lunch or as a snack in the morning or afternoon.  It keeps the craving for candy in the afternoon at bay!


What's for Lunch Wednesday: Greek Yogurt with Strawberries, Raw Honey, and Almonds
From: Elizabeth's Dutch Oven
Prep time: 5 min

Ingredients:
1 cup (or one small container) plain greek yogurt
5-7 large strawberries, sliced
handful of almonds
1-2 Tbsp Raw Honey

Directions:
1. Clean and slice strawberries

2. Place greek yogurt in a bowl and top with strawberries, almonds, and drizzle with honey.  Enjoy!

Strawberry, Angel Food Cake, and Chocolate Skewers

I saw this pinned on Pinterest without really a recipe, but figured I could figure it out myself.  They looked so cute and easy to make.  They were a great light dessert and were perfect for Valentines (yes, I know that was months ago, I'm back logged on my recipes), but I think they would be an even better summer dessert.

Strawberry, Angel Food Cake, and Chocolate Skewers
From: Pinterest
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: none

Ingredients:
Strawberries
Angel Food Cake
Chocolate Chips (or melting bark/wafers)
bamboo skewers

Directions:
1. Cut green tops off of strawberries and cut angel food into small squares.

2. Slide skewers through Angel food cake and strawberries alternately.

3.  Melt chocolate in microwave and drizzle over skewers.  Let cool and serve.

Lemon Meringue Cake

I wanted to make a spring dessert for Easter and came across this Lemon Meringue Cake.  I love lemon and prefer cakes to pie, so I decided to give it a try.  I haven't ever made anything with meringue or the custard inside, so this was an adventure. Luckily I had some time on my hands to tackle this recipe. I didn't do everything exactly right and had to google a couple of things during it, but everything turned out great! It was really light, sweet, and lemony.  Perfect spring/easter dessert.

A couple of things I learned that weren't included in the original directions:
- The cake and filling can be made the day before, but the meringue should be made the same day so it doesn't sweat/droop.
- Meringue should be made in a stainless steal or glass bowl that is clean and completely dry
- Meringue took a lot longer to beat than I thought it would - I didn't time it but it was probably around 5-7 minutes or maybe more
- Use eggs that are at least a couple days old because the whites whip better with older eggs

Lemon Meringue Cake
From: Heat Oven to 360
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 35 min

Ingredients:
For the cake:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 whole egg, plus 2 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)
1 cup plain white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

For the filling:
2 egg yoks (save whites for meringue)
1 cup water
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 Tbsp butter

For the Meringue:
4 egg whites at room temperature
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350.  Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat int he egg and egg yolks.  Mix together the flour and baking powder and then beat into the creamed mixture alternating the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.  Stir in vanilla and lemon extracts, mixing well.

2. Butter and flour an eight inch round cake tin.  Pour in the batter, level off and bake at 350 for 20-25 min, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove froom oven.  Let sit in pan for 5 minutes then turn out onto rack to cool.

3.  For the filling, combine the flour, sugar, and salt on the top of a double boiler.  Mix together the lemon juice, water and egg yolks and then stir into the four/sugar mixture along with the lemon zest.  Place over simmering water and cook, stirring until thickened.  Remove from heat and let cool5 minutes, then stir in the butter until melted.  Set aside until cool.  NOTE: This can be done in the microwave as I did - stir every minute until the curd is cooked.  There is a greater chance the curd may be a little grainy, but I didn't have this problem and it is much faster.

4. Place the cake layer on a plate (one that can handle some heat) and spread the lemon filling over.  Beat together the room temperature egg whites and cream of tartar in a stainless steel or glass mixing bowl that is clean and dry at a low/medium speed until the mixture begins to turn foamy.  Then continue to beat slowly adding the sugar and beat on medium/high speed until mixture is stiff (soft peaks), but not dry.  This takes several minutes, do not stop halfway through to take a break.  Meringue is done when it is not runny and when you can hold a spoonful of it upside down and none drops off (or when you swirl a spoon through it and the swirls hold their shape indefinitely).  Also, this should be done the day of, not the day before if it can be avoided.

5.  Spread meringue over top and sides of cake.  Place in 350 degree oven and bake until the meringue browns, about 10-15 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool.  serve at room temperature, cutting slices with a wet knife - this helps prevent the meringue from tearing as you cut it. 

Raspberry Vanilla Refrigerator Oatmeal - Pinterest Fail Revisited

Right after I posted my Pinterest Fail with refrigerator Oatmeal, my sister-in-law Jackie told me she had made a really good version of of it that I had to try.  Of course I was skeptical because of my last attempt, plus, this required me to use fresh raspberries.  Raspberries are a precious commodity to me especially this time of year, so putting so many of them in a recipe I was afraid might fail worried me.  So it took me several months before I was able to get my courage up (and to convince Bill who greatly disliked the last version).

Turns out they were WAY better than the first one.  We both ate the entire serving and Bill even wondered the next morning if I had made more.  So if you are going to try refrigerator oatmeal I strongly suggest this one over all the others!

Raspberry Vanilla Refrigerator Oatmeal
From: Jackie
Prep time: 10 min
Chill time: overnight

Ingredients:
1/4 cup uncooked old fashioned oats
1/3 cup skim milk
1/4 cup low-fat greek yogurt
1 1/2 tsp dried chia seeds
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp Raspberry jam, preserves, or spread
1/4 - 1/3 cup raspberries (cut each berry in half)

Directions:

1. In a mason jar, add oats, milk, yogurt, chia seeds, vanilla, and raspberry jam.  Put lid on the jar and shake until well combined (make sure the raspberry jam gets mixed in).

2. Remove lid, add raspberries and stir until mixed throughout.  Return lid to jar and refrigerate overnight or as long as 2-3 days.  Eat chilled

Homemade Fruit Roll Ups/Fruit Leather

I loved fruit roll ups as a kid, and still love fruit leather.  These are about halfway between a roll up and a fruit leather.  They turned out absolutely delicious and surprisingly stayed soft throughout the week. 

This recipe does require a bit of planning since it requires a long cook time (4-8 hrs) on a low heat in the oven.  My oven didn't get low enough (plus I'm convinced it runs 25 degrees hotter), so I left the door opened while it cooked.  I did run into a bit of a problem though when after about an hour in, I had to leave the house.  Not wanting to leave the oven while I wasn't home, I turned it off and shut the door.  Apparently even that was too hot because when I got home 3 hours later, it was done and the edges were burnt (see below).  While the burnt part did not taste good, once I cut it off, the rest of it was perfection.  So I guess, I just want to warn you to really watch it since every oven is a little different.

Notes: This made about one cookie sheet worth of fruit roll ups.  I did add a little sugar, probably 1/8 of a cup, but looking back, it might not have even needed it.  The original recipe said to strain it to get the seeds out, I left them in because i'm lazy and didn't mind having them in.   I also think this would be great with some other fruits... maybe mango, or raspberry.  I'm thinking you could probably use frozen berries if preferred.

Homemade Fruit Roll Ups/Fruit Leather
From: Georgia Pellegrini
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 5-8 hours

Ingredients:
Strawberries
Lemon
Sugar - up to 1/4 cup(optional)

Directions:
1. Cut up strawberries into small pieces and place in pot.

2. Add a squirt of lemon juice.  Then stew them mostly covered until they are soft and mushy.

3. Place plastic or parchment paper over a cookie sheet and spray with cooking spray or brush with olive oil.

4. Place in a blender or food process and puree.  Add sugar if desired (but not too much - it will sweeten up as it dries).

5. Pour mixture onto the covered tray and spread evenly to the edges.

6. Place in the oven on the at 140 degrees, or the lowest setting you have and leave door of the oven open for 5-8 hours.  It is done when it isn't sticky any longer.

7. Place on a cutting board and cut into strips with pizza cutter. Roll up in parchment paper (I tied them with some twine because they kept unrolling). Store in airtight container.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

My mom makes the best strawberry jam.  Bill as also raves about it - so this year I finally decided I would try to make it myself.  I asked my mom for the recipe and she told me it is just the one on the Sure Jell box.  Well that sounded easy enough.  And turns out it was.  Only 3 ingredients and now I have a bunch of delicious jam in the freezer!

Strawberry Freezer Jam
From: Mom and Sure Jell
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min

Ingredients:
4 pints Strawberries
3 cups Sugar
1 pkg Sure Jell
1 cup water

Directions:
1.  Discard stems and crush strawberries with a potato masher.  Measure 4 cups of crushed strawberries.

2. In a large pot add sugar and Sure Jell package and mix thoroughly.  Stir in 1 cup water.  Bring mixture to a boil on medium-high heat, stirring constantly.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Remove from heat.

3. Stir fruit mixture quickly into hot pectin-sugar mixture.  Sir 1 minute or until thoroughly mixed.

4.  Pour into washed and rinsed containers leaving 1/2 inch space at top for expansion during freezing.  Cover.

5.  Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours until set.  Refrigerate up to 3 weeks, otherwise, store in freezer for up to 1 year.  

Gin & Rhubarb Delight

This is my new favorite cocktail.  It was inspired by a drink we had at DMK Burger bar, and Bill concocted a similar drink after I made Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.  I don't love gin, but in this cocktail, I could drink Gin all day (although I shouldn't).  Everyone we have made these for has loved it!

Gin and Rhubarb Delight
From: DMK and Bill
Prep Time: 5 min

Ingredients:
1 shot of Gin
Tonic (or soda if you prefer)
juice of 1/2 a Lime
2 spoonfuls of Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam

Directions:

1.  Fill a glass (or mason jar) with ice, add gin, lime, tonic, and Jam.  Stir until jam is mixed in.  Enjoy!

Baked Chocolate Pecan Raspberry Banana Oatmeal

I saw this and thought, Oatmeal... Good, Raspberries... Good, Chocolate... GOOD.  So I gave it a shot.  It was delicious and especially liked the crunch the pecans added, however might be a little too much chocolate for me in the morning (says the girl who has been known to eat dessert for breakfast). But I did eat the leftovers later that day as a snack.    I'm not sure if I liked this better or the Fruity Baked Oatmeal, but I think next time I might cut down on the amount of chocolate chips, or maybe use mini chips instead.

Baked Chocolate Pecan Raspberry Banana Oatmeal
From: Urban Nester
Prep Time:
Cook Time: 35-40 minutes

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pecan or walnut pieces
1 cup raspberries (or strawberries)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 cups milk
1 large egg
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 ripe banana, peeled, 1/2-inch slices

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and generously spray the inside of a 10 1/2 by 7 inch baking dish with cooking spray and place on a baking sheet. (I didn't have a 10 1/2 by 7 inch, so I just used my...

2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, half the nuts, half the raspberries, and half the chocolate.

3. In another large bowl whisk together the milk, butter, egg, and vanilla extract.

4.  Add the oat mixture to prepared baking dish.  Arrange remaining berries, nuts, and chocolate on the top.  Add the banana slices to the top, then pour the milk mixture over everything.  Gently shake the baking dish to help the milk mixture go throughout the oats.

4. Bake 35-40 minutes or until the top is nicely golden brown and the milk mixture has set. Serve with milk and extra brown sugar if desired.

Sunrise Green Smoothie

 

We've been having lots of smoothies lately for breakfast with the warm weather.  I saw this recipe and thought, I wonder what a smoothie with spinach is like.  There seemed to be enough fruit in it to mask the vegetable taste so I thought I would give it a try. Plus I can always use more fruit and veggies in my diet.  In the recipe they use a fancy juicer/smoothie maker, but since I just have a regular blender, I ended up needing a little more milk, and a little less frozen stuff for my blender to be able to do the work.  So below is the amounts I used of everything which I suggest for a regular blender!

Sunrise Green Smoothie
From: Hell if I Gnaw
Prep time: 5 min

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (probably could use regular milk, but the vanilla almond adds a nice sweetness)
1 1/2 - 2 cups spinach
1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 banana
2 Tbsp ground flax seed

Directions:
1. Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth.  (if too stiff add more almond milk) Serve!

Strawberry Jello Pretzel Salad

My mom makes this great Strawberry Jello Pretzel Salad/Dessert - I have tried other people's variations of this, but I still like my mom's the best.  It is creamy and cool and the pretzel crust pushes it over the top.  It is perfect for a 4th of July BBQ.

Every time my mom makes it, my brother-in-law Joe and I get in to a mini debate about if it is a salad or dessert.  He likes to call it dessert, and I like to call it a salad.  I like to call it a salad because that means I can have it with my main meal and still have dessert. Or I can have it the next day for lunch and call it healthy since it is a salad.  But lets call a spade a spade... this is totally a dessert (although it is trying to disguise itself as a salad).  Just don't tell Joe I said so.

Strawberry Jello Pretzel Salad
From: My Mom
Prep time 20 min
Cook & Cool time: 5 hrs


Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 cup pretzels, crushed
4 Tbsp sugar
12 oz (1 1/2 8oz containers) cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup cool whip
1 1/2 cup cold water
2 cup boiling water
1 qt (4 cups) sliced strawberries
1 large strawberry jello (cook and serve)

Directions:
1. Mix melted butter, crushed pretzels and 4 Tbsp sugar together and press firmly into 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 for 6-10 minutes.  Let Cool

2. Beat cream cheese, milk, and 1/4 cup sugar.  Stir in cool whip and spread over cooled crust.  Refrigerate.

3. Stir boiling water into gelatin at least 2 minutes until completely dissolved.  Refrigerate 1 12/ hours o until a spoon drawn through leaves an impression.

4.  Stir strawberries into jello and spread over cream cheese layer.  Refrigerate at least 3 hours.

Easy Rhubarb Strawberry Jam

 

A few weeks ago I had a drink at DMK Burger Bar called Madame Geneva's Rhubarb Delight, which is Gin, lime soda, and gingered rhubarb jam.  And man was it tasty!  I've never had rhubarb before and decided when I went to the farmer's market that I needed to try and make some jam.  I found a couple easy recipes for Strawberry Rhubarb Jam that looked to easy to pass up.  It turned out great, although I might try a little less sugar next time and/or sugar free Jello-O because it is very sweet (but still tasty).  Bill made me his own version of the drink I had with the rhubarb jam and it was fantastic.  Although we mainly have been putting in on bread!

Easy Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
From: Frugal Upstate & All Recipes
Prep: 1-2 hours
Cook:  15 min

Ingredients:
6-8 cups rhubarb cut into 1 inch chunks (2 lbs rhubarb = about 5-6 cups)
3 cups of sugar to taste
1 pkg (3oz) strawberry Jell-O

Directions:
1. Wash and cut rhubarb stalks into half inch pieces and place in a large pan.  Mix in sugar with Rhubarb chunks.

2. Cover and let sit for at least an hour (up to overnight) until the juices come out of the rhubarb

3. Cook rhubarb mixture over medium heat stirring and mashing until it is soft and pieces of rhubarb have mostly disintegrated (about 10-12 min).

4.  Turn off heat and stir in dry gelatin mix.  Transfer to jars, or tupperware and refrigerate or freeze.  (I put one in the refrigerator and one in the freezer).

Breakfast To Go

I usually just bring a hard boiled egg to work for breakfast (yes as my friends pointed out, I'm 'that girl' that brings and egg and stinks up the office), but occasionally I mix it up and make smoothies before work.  Until I get sick of the mess I have to clean up with the smoothies.  And every once in a while I want to branch out from my 2 old standby weekday breakfasts. This one caught my eye a while back on Tasty Kitchen.  I really enjoy the heartiness of these and the mixture of a bunch of different items.  These are a great fall back when I'm in a rut for breakfast ideas!

Breakfast To Go
From: matthewsfam via Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 cup Fat Free Milk
1 Pinch salt
1/2 cup dry Whole-wheat Couscous
Frozen Mixed Berries
12 oz, weigh vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup granola

Directions:
1. In a small saucepan, bring milk and salt just to boiling  stir in couscous.  Reduce heat and let stand, covered, or 5 minutes.

2. Divide couscous among six plastic cups or to-go containers with lids.  Top each with frozen berries and yogurt.

3. Cover and chill overnight. Top with granola before serving.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

This is a smoothie that Bill and I will make for breakfast sometimes.  We do different variations of this, but this is the base of both of them.
 

Strawberry Banana Smoothie
From: Elizabeth

Ingredients:
Orange juice
Vanilla Yogurt
Frozen (or fresh) strawberries
1 banana
ground flax seed
3-4 ice cubes

Directions:

1. Add 3 large spoonfuls of vanilla yogurt and 1-2 cups of orange juice to the blender.  Add 1 banana, 1/2 cup of frozen strawberries (or fresh if you have them), 1 Tbsp ground flax seed, and 3-4 ice cubes to blender and blend all together until smooth.