dessert

May is National Salad Month!

Abby H.

May is National Salad Month and we are 100% here to celebrate.

Here are some of my family’s favorite salad recipes:

And if you are looking for an awesome salad bowl to take your creation to a potluck, this is my favorite bowl with a lid!

A few of my other salad must-haves are this lettuce knife, these salad tongs, and of course, this salad dressing bottle with recipes on the outside to help you stretch your creativity.

Family Recipe: $100 Brownies

Abby H.

This is an easy, decadent recipe that impresses guests.

Inspired by a friend’s brownie recipe that once fetched $100 at an auction, this dessert will disappear before your eyes. These brownies are so rich, so don’t forget the milk or cuppa Joe.

 

$100 Brownies

Ingredients 

  • 1 brownie mix 
  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Melted butter
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter (your favorite variety)
  • 1/2 bag (about 6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Directions:

  1. Mix up the brownie recipe per directions in the box. Substitute milk for water, and melted butter for oil in the directions. Use eggs as directed on the box.
  2. Bake brownies as directed.
  3. As soon as they are down, remove them from the oven and immediately top with peanut butter and chocolate chips.
  4. Allow PB and chips to melt atop the hot brownies, about 5-10 minutes.
  5. Using a silicone spatula, carefully mix and spread PB and melted chips to form and even layer a top the brownies.
  6. Once brownies have cooled to room temp, store them in the fridge for at least 1 hour prior to serving.

Makes 18 small brownies- these are very rich, and a little goes a long way.

Substitutions:

  • If you are Gluten Free, substitute your favorite GF brownie mix.

Review: Decadent, Creamy Desserts from Bon Devil!

Abby H.

Recently, Bon Devil send us a set of all of their 4 packs of their rich, creamy vegan dessert ganache.

The big kid is vegetarian, and we frequently purchase vegan foods because they are easy to find and I want to support his desire to be vegetarian.

These little cups of ganache are rich, creamy, and smooth. They have a slight coconut aftertaste (they are made with coconut milk), which is delicious by the way. I’ve been using it on fruit, but I can imagine that it would be really good on pound cake, or with cookies/shortbread. That’s how the kids have been eating them, as dip for their cookies.

I know you can eat it by itself, but it’s so rich you really need something a little lighter to pair with it.

They come in four flavors: chocolate, vanilla, salted caramel chocolate, and caramelized banana. In our house, the chocolate and vanilla were the first to get consumed.

If you have tried them, leave a comment and let me know which flavor was your favorite, and how you eat it?

If you haven’t tried Bon Devil desserts yet, you can find them on Amazon and other Mass Merchandisers and Grocery stores.

Thanks to Bon Devil for sending us these tasty desserts to review. I received no financial compensation to facilitate this review, and all opinions are mine. This page may contain affiliate links. For more information about the use of affiliate links and partnerships, visit my disclosure page. 

Vegetarian Recipe Round Up

Abby H.

It’s time for some yummy veggie meals!

Most of these are vegetarian, not vegan. These are recipes that I feed my family, so they are kid-approved and don’t require any weird, expensive ingredients.

And as a bonus, many of the ingredients for these ingredients are frequently given out in Neighborhood Distributions.

Trying to Add Veggies to Your Meals?

Abby H.

Is one of your New Years Resolutions to eat better or increase your intake of fruits and veggies?

Since we have been getting CSA boxes from Yasukochi Family Farms we’ve been adding tons of fresh fruit and veg to our diet. It’s fun to get the kids involved in preparing and tasting new and different fruits and veggies.

I’ve made a round-up with some of my favorite fruit and veggie recipes to inspire you to add a little more “green” to your family’s meals!

Recipe Round-up: Fruit and Veggie Extravaganza!

Abby H.

Spring is upon us, and that means that there will be all sorts of fruits and veggies coming into season.

Here are some of our family’s favorite recipes featuring fruits and veggies! These are all easy to make and will satisfy everyone in the family- even the pickiest eaters.

Fruit:

 

Veggies:

Today is National Dessert Day!

Abby H.

My kids are ready to celebrate! I’ve found some freebies and low-cost deals for those of you looking for some sweet deals (see what I did there??) and some of our family recipes if you are in the mood to cook.

 

If you are trying to stay on budget, here are a few of our family favorite dessert recipes:

 

If you’ve discovered any other awesome deals or freebies for this National Dessert day, please leave it in the comments below!

Quick, Tasty Recipe: Berries Romanoff

Abby H.

Berries 2.jpgI was thinking of a way to use the berries we have on hand, and this recipe came to mind!

My friend Ana brought Berries Romanoff over for dessert the last time we had a potluck, and it’s now become a staple in our house. This is a variation on the original recipe, which calls for orange zest and Grand Marnier liqueur. This version is much more kid-friendly.

This is a quick, easy dessert that even kids love.

Ingredients:

  • 6 Cups berries- Raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, boysenberries, mulberries, and pitted halved cherries are all good choices.
  • 1 cup  thawed Cool Whip (or make whipped cream from scratch if you feel motivated)
  • 1/2 cup  Sour Cream
  • 1 T. orange juice
  • 1 tsp. brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 2 tsp. orange zest

Directions:

  1. Divide the berries into 6 dessert bowls, set aside.
  2. In a mixing bowl, combine the remaining ingredients.
  3. Spoon mixture over the top of the berries and serve.

The mixture keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days, but once you taste it, you won’t be able to stop eating it.  It’s really good.

 

Tomorrow is National Cheesecake Day!

Abby H.

01407.jpgI just told the Boy Child and he was so excited about this “holiday”, he almost burst.

July 30th is National Cheesecake day and there are all kinds of awesome deals to help you enjoy:

Cheesecake Factory is celebrating by offering dine-in guests any slice of its more than 30 legendary flavors of cheesecake for half price at all of its restaurants nationwide.
unnamed.jpgIf you are in San Diego, stop by DZ Akin’s for $5.00 Cheesecake slices (and their slices are HUGE).

I personally am most excited about this deal. Their cheesecake is so good, and I will also grab some Matzo Ball Soup to go as well!

If you want to make your own at home but it’s too hot to turn on the oven, I love this Philadephia cheesecake filling in a graham cracker crust. You can top with your favorite fruits, or sprinkle chocolate shavings on top.

It also comes in Chocolate or Key Lime. Check your local grocery store.

If you are watching what you eat and still want to celebrate, I love the Cheesecake Jello Pudding mix. Make it as the directions indicate, or add 1-2 tablespoons of the powder to your favorite protein shake powder and blend with water, ice cubes, and fruit.

And I saw this while browsing Amazon, but I’ve never tried it. It’s Sans Sucre Cheesecake Mousse Mix. It looks interesting.

Talk Back: Are you planning on celebrating with a slice of cheesecake tomorrow?

 

Weekly Meal Plan

Abby H.

stemarie_1650skitchen

AHHHHH!!! The last day of school is Wednesday.  Summer school doesn’t start for the big kid for 2 weeks. I’m going to have to ramp up my frugality to 11! Here is my article about keeping kids fed over the summer, and my article on free lunches this summer for kiddos. 

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done, so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste. If you are looking for kitchen inventory printable, I like the kitchen inventories here. They are great printables.

You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids (they love the Kodiak Cakes Mix).  I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and the Little Bit, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently).

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.

  • Monday: Chicken meatballs & Cheesy cauli-rice.
  • Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner (Waffles, bacon, and melon)
  • Wednesday: Frittata and fruit salad
  • Thursday: Nugget Night! This was such a hit last week, we’re doing it again! The big kid is a vegetarian, so I make him Chick’n nuggets, and the rest of us have chicken nuggets or another variety of meatless nuggets. The Buffalo Chick’n nuggets are popular among the grown-ups. I serve carrot sticks, and apple slices on the side.
  • Friday: Date Night (dinner out)
  • Saturday: Birthday party leftovers! Bitty’s 4th birthday party is Saturday and we’ll have pizza, cake, and fruit leftover.
  • Sunday: Leftover Night