Last week, Kayla and I had a great day shopping at the mall and having lunch afterwards. She is one of my favorite people to shop with, and we always make sure to visit the local Starbucks so she can grab her new favorite drink, the Caramel Frappucino and I can get my Peppermint Mocha coffee. Because we live 20 minutes away from the nearest Starbucks, she decided that she would try to recreate this drink so that she can have it at anytime instead of having to wait until we go shopping.
I have to say that she definitely did a fantastic job recreating the Starbucks Caramel Frappucino. It turned out to be a great Copycat Recipe!
- 1¾ cups crushed iced
- ¾ cup of really strong coffee mixed with ½ cup of milk
- ¾ cup your choice of milk
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons of caramel syrup (like what is used for ice cream)
- whipped cream
- Caramel syrup for drizzling
- Blend all the ingredients except the whipped cream and the caramel syrup for drizzling in a blender for 30-45 seconds.
- Pour into a tall glass and top off with whipped cream and garnish with Caramel Syrup. Best served with a straw. Enjoy!
If you prefer Chocolate syrup, the just sub that out where the caramel is mentioned.
**Disclaimer: This is not Starbuck’s actual recipe. I truly wish I had it, but I don’t 
This is my daughter’s own version copycat clone frappuccino recipe. It tastes just as good if not better than the actual recipe!
What is your favorite Coffee beverage?
Thanks to Bertolli for sending me a sample bottle of Bertolli Lighter Tasting Olive Oil in exchange for writing my review. All opinions listed are my own.
While I was in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago, we got to eat dinner at a 5 star restaurant complete with a delicious 5 course menu. It was heaven on earth I tell you!
My favorite dish of the night was not anything on the menu (although that duck and brie roll came really close), but it was the delicious olive oil dipping sauce at the table served with bread that was my favorite of the night.
There is just something about a really good pressed olive oil mixed with herbs that bring together a great piece of bread. We sprinkled salt flakes into ours and dipped all night. My taste buds were in pure heaven.
I decided that when I got home after that trip, that I was going to work myself to the bone to recreate that same olive oil dipping sauce for my own bread.
- ¼ cup Bertolli® Extra Light™ Tasting Olive Oil
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- fresh ground black pepper, to taste
- Pour olive oil onto plate that has a rim or a very shallow bowl.
- Use a garlic press to press the garlic cloves into the oil.
- Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the oil and garlic. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and oregano. Season with black pepper.
- Mix with a fork to combine all flavors together.
- Leave out at room temperature and serve with all kinds of artisan breads.
About Bertolli Extra Light Tasting Olive Oil
Bertolli® Extra Light Tasting Olive Oil is ideal for searing, baking, sautéing and frying. The clear color and hint-of-olive taste make their’s the lightest olive oil and a most suitable substitute for butter, canola oil, shortening and other vegetable oils. Plus, the high smoke point means it’s great for all types of high-heat cooking.
Right now, you can get a $1.00 coupon to use at BJ’s Wholesale on the purchase of Bertolli® Extra Light Tasting Olive Oil. BJ’s Wholesale is a great place to shop for any of the Bertolli® olive oil line.
Check out Chef Fabio!
Chef Fabio Viviani, Top Chef fan favorite and author of Fabio’s Italian Kitchen is a huge fan of Bertolli® Extra Light Tasting Olive Oil and has created a lot of videos and yummy recipes for the Spring and Summer months that highlights this lighter tasting olive oil. In this video, he shares how to put together a delicious and yummy meat and cheese platter.
Be sure to visit this page here for more recipes and videos from Chef Fabio.
What kind of recipe would you create using the lighter tasting Bertolli olive oil?
This month for the Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge, we were given coconut and lime to work with. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I hear those two words together, my first thought is a smoothie of some kind, so that is exactly what I decided to make. Coconut and lime are tropical, so I added some pineapple into mine to really give it that delicious flavor. Here is my recipe for Pineapple Coconut Lime Smoothie.
This smoothie was super delicious and really hit the spot. In mine, I used coconut milk, but I am sure that you can purchase a coconut and add fresh to it — you just have to play around with it to get it to the consistency you are wanting.
- 1 whole pineapple (peeled cored and roughly chopped)
- 2 limes (peeled and roughly chopped)
- ½ cup coconut milk
- ½ apple (peeled cored and roughly chopped)
- Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
- If you don’t want the pulp, press through a sieve. Your smoothie will still be thick.
- Serve over ice with a slice of lemon and a wedge of pineapple and enjoy!
One of the benefits of pineapple is that it contains a huge amount of Vitamin C. Two slices can have 100% of the daily recommended value. In addition to helping keep the immune system stable, Vitamin C promotes healthy gums, helps heal cuts, strengthens blood vessels, and aids in the creation of collagen, which is the connecting tissue that holds muscles, bones, and other tissues together. Pineapple also contains a high amount of manganese, a mineral which is also important in helping form bone and connective tissue
The best part about pineapple is that it is a natural energy booster — so this smoothie would make a great morning breakfast for you!!
What delicious beverages have you been preparing lately?
Check out all the other foodies and their coconut and lime recipes.
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I love finding new wesbsites that share food that I can eat that is not only good for me, but also very delicious. That is what I found this month when I was given the blog written by the beautiful Corey — Learning Patience. Corey’s blog is so full of life and she is an amazing cook. She has tons of adventure posts on her site and the food she posts makes me hungry. Since I am trying really hard to lose weight (which I am doing great at by the way) , I wanted to find a recipe that would fit into my new eating plan. When I stumbled upon her Lemon Hummus recipe, I knew that would be the one I make.
- 1 15-oz can chickpeas
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp tahini
- 2 Tbsp good olive oil
- 2 Tbsp water
- ¼ tsp salt
- Paprika (for garnish)
- salt and pepper to taste
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Place in a bowl and sprinkle with paprika, salt, and pepper.
- Serve immediately or place in the fridge. Serve with crackers, tortilla chips, veggies, or whole wheat pita chips.
What kind of hummus do you like?
I have just recently started liking hummus. Kayla and I made a delicious Cilantro Jalapeno hummus that is our go-to recipe, but now that I have this lemon one, I love it just as much.
To see other great recipes from Secret Recipe Club members, visit the links below!
Today is reveal day for the Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge. We were given the ingredients this month of caramel and pretzels. I have TONS of recipes on my site for caramel and pretzels, but they were in cookie form. I decided to spend some time looking around and I found a yummy recipe from Martha Stewart for Caramel Popcorn and Pretzel Bars — the perfect recipe for this challenge.
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 12 cups plain popped popcorn (from ½ cup kernels or 2 microwave packages)
- 4 cups coarsely chopped small salted pretzels (7.5 ounces)
- 2 cups sugar
- Coarse salt
- ⅔ cup heavy cream
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows
- ½ cup of peanuts
- Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. In a large bowl, toss together popcorn, peanuts, and pretzels. In a medium saucepan, bring sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ cup water to a boil over medium-high. Boil, undisturbed, until mixture is amber in color, 8 to 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and slowly pour in cream (mixture will sputter). Immediately add marshmallows; stir until melted.
- Pour caramel mixture over popcorn and pretzels and quickly stir with a rubber spatula to coat. Transfer mixture to dish and use a piece of wax paper coated with cooking spray to press evenly into dish. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Let cool completely before cutting into 12 bars.
NOTE! Be sure to cook your caramel mixture UNDISTURBED! The first time I made this it was an epic fail because I missed that little word and stirred my sugar mixture constantly. Needless to say I had a HOT mess on my hands.
See what others are making on this challenge by checking out the links below!
What yummy caramel and pretzel recipes have you made recently?
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When Stephen took me out on our date to see Third Day in concert, we decided to stop in at Tumbleweed and eat dinner. I opted for a salad since I had eaten Mexican earlier that day. Since it was a Tex Mex salad, I chose their Cilantro Lime Dressing. First bite of that salad with THAT dressing on it was phenomenal. I knew right then and there I was going to have to recreate that dressing.
This dressing tastes great on salad, on grilled chicken, beef, and even goes great as a dip for pitas or tortilla chips.
- ¼ cup cilantro
- 1 clove garlic
- ¼ cup lime juice (about 3 limes)
- 1 Tbsp. honey
- ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ tsp. sea salt
- ¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- Puree all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Chill until ready to serve.
What is your favorite homemade dressing for salads?
A couple of weeks ago, we had a bake sale at church. My daughter found a recipe in one of my cookbooks called Desserts in Jars. It basically was a cookie mix with all of the dry ingredients added. A note was attached to the side with the list of wet ingredients and how to bake them. This really makes for an adorable gift to give someone.
She made up a couple for our bake sale. My pastor’s wife bought one set and made them that afternoon and talked about how delicious they were, so I bought the other box to make for us at home. They turned out DELICIOUS!
Here is the recipe in it’s entirety for you to make at home. You will definitely want more of these cookies.
- 2 sticks of Butter (salted) Softened
- ½ cup White Sugar
- 1-1/2 cup Brown Sugar, Packed
- 2 whole Large Eggs
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 1-1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
- 1-1/2 cup QUICK Oats
- ½ cup M & M’S
- ½ cup Pecans, Chopped
- ¾ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2-1/4 cups Rice Krispies
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Cream butter with sugars until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat.
- Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and kosher salt. Add to mixing bowl and mix till combined. After that, add in remaining ingredients in whatever quantity you prefer.
- Add Rice Crispies at the very end, mixing until just combined. Be careful not overmix!
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop balls of dough onto a cookie sheet. Bake until golden brown, then allow to cool on a rack.
What is the best cookie you have ever made?
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Well — as you can imagine, all of my cookware is packed in boxes. Tomorrow is moving day, so until we get settled, there will be NO new recipes. Hopefully next week, I can get back to sharing some yummy treats with you.
Here are some new things that are in the works for the site when it comes to cooking.
~Kayla and I are working on taking cake decorating classes. We plan on trying to sell our cakes and pies and baked goods to bring in some extra income for her and me.
~I think I am going to start trying to VLOG once a week on cooking from the kitchen just to see if I can do a cooking video from my new cute retro kitchen.
~I am going to start a “Cook the Book” weekly meme where I share a recipe from one of my millions of cookbooks that I own.
More fun and yummy food is on the way, so if you love my recipes, just hang in there — they will be starting up again soon
Our church has decided that on Sunday evenings we are going to try and do a potluck meal at least once a month to help offset the cost of going out to eat. We like to get together and fellowship after church at the local Cracker Barrel, but it can get expensive — especially for a family of 4. This past Sunday night we had one of those potluck meals, and we deemed it with an Italian theme. Now — I have to tell you how wonderful my hubby is, because while I was taking a much needed afternoon nap, he got online and found a great recipe on the Betty Crocker website. We, of course, changed it up a bit and made it our own, but it still ROCKED!
- 2 cups Original Bisquick® mix
- ⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese (plus ⅓ cup for sprinkling on them at the end)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 3 dashes of hot sauce
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- ⅓ cup of ranch dressing
- ¼ cup milk
- 4 large plum (Roma) tomatoes, each cut into 8 slices
- 10 slices bacon, crisply cooked, crumbled
- Thinly sliced green onions, if desired
- Heat oven to 425°F. Lightly spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.
- In medium bowl, stir together Bisquick mix, cheese, sugar, Italian seasoning and hot sauce. Add ⅓ cup of the mayonnaise and the milk, stirring with fork until moistened. On lightly floured surface, knead dough 5 or 6 times. Pat or roll dough to ¼-inch thickness. Cut with 1¾-inch round cutter; place rounds on cookie sheet.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly.
- Spread biscuits with ranch dressing; top each biscuit with tomato slice. Spread tomato slices with remaining parmesean cheese; sprinkle evenly with bacon and onions.
- Place back in the oven to melt cheese and heat tomatoes. Serve immediately or at room temperature.
These were the perfect little appetizer to take with us to an Italian themed feast. Thanks sweetie for finding the recipe and helping me knock these out that night! You’re the best
What have you made recently?
The other day I was browsing my cookbooks and came across a new recipe for a soup that tastes like a Chicken Taco and a Fajita — but in soup form. It was SO good. I mean, I have had Chicken Tortilla Soup before at a restaurant, but now that I have made it homemade — I will always choose this first.
The thing that I love about this soup, is that it is chocked full of veggies! Normally I tend to leave those out, but since I am trying to eat more healthier, I decided to give it a try. The. best. soup. I. have. ever. eaten.
Here is the recipe. Hope you enjoy it!
- 2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1-1/2 teaspoon Cumin
- 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
- ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 cup Diced Onion
- 1 cup Red Bell Pepper, diced
- 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
- 1 can (10 Oz. Can) Rotel Tomatoes And Green Chilies
- 32 ounces, fluid Low Sodium Chicken Stock
- 3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
- 4 cups Hot Water
- shredded pepper jack cheese
- 5 whole Corn Tortillas, Cut Into Uniform Strips Around 2 To 3 Inches
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix cumin, chili pepper, garlic powder, and salt. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil on chicken breasts, then sprinkle a small amount of spice mix on both sides. Set aside the rest of the spice mix.
- Place chicken breasts on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until chicken is done. Use two forks to shred chicken. Set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a pot over medium high heat. Add onions, red pepper, and minced garlic. Stir and begin cooking, then add the rest of the spice mix. Stir to combine, then add shredded chicken and stir.
- Pour in Rotel, chicken stock, tomato paste, tortilla strips, and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes, uncovered.
- Turn off heat and allow to sit for 15 to 20 minutes before serving.
- Serve garnished with pepper jack cheese, cilantro, homemade crispy tortilla strips, sour cream, or avocado.
What is your favorite “go-to” soup?
I love making things homemade. I have found recipes for homemade condensed milk, homemade boxed cake mixes, and more. I recently discovered that I can also make homemade brown sugar at home. I don’t know about you, but I am always running out of brown sugar. Now I don’t have to worry about it anymore.
The flavor of fresh, homemade brown sugar doesn’t even compare to store-bought brown sugar, especially in cookies or on top of fresh fruit, or delicious coffeecakes. The flavor is more intense and more — richer.
Here is how you can make your very own homemade brown sugar as well.
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons molasses (depending on how dark you want it)
- In a medium bowl, add molasses to sugar and mix with a fork or using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, working up to high speed, until no big clumps of molasses remain.
- It may take several minutes, but it will work out the clumps. Just be patient.
- Store in an airtight container and use when you need brown sugar for a recipe!
Like I said, it is super simple, delicious, and so amazingly richer than that stuff in the bag!
What is your favorite homemade kitchen staple?
Today is BEHIND THE CURTAIN DESSERT CHALLENGE REVEAL DAY! For this month’s reveal, our challenge was to make a dessert using almond paste and pastry of some sort. I chose to make Lemon and Almond Cupcakes.
What is the Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge?
Every month we are assigned two ingredients (this month it was Almond Paste and Pastry) we are to take those two ingredients and create or find a recipe using the chosen ingredients.
Does this sound like fun to you? Need more traffic to your website or want to meet new friends? Then this is the party for you! THIS IS A BLOG HOP so EVERYONE gets to be the host. HERE is more information on how it works.
Back to my yummy recipe
These cupcakes turned out SO good. I had never baked with almond paste before, but I now know, I will be baking with this substance a lot more in the coming months.
- 1-7 oz box Almond Paste, grated
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- ¼ cup canola oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (2-3 large lemons)
- 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind (only yellow part)
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 cups of powdered sugar
- 1 stick of butter, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons of milk
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Place cupcake liners in muffins tins.
- In mixing bowl, mix Almond Paste and sugar until the texture of small crumbs. Add eggs one at a time beating well between each. Add yogurt, oil, lemon juice and rind. Beat until well combined.
- Sift flour and baking powder into almond mixture. Beat until mixed, scraping the bottom and sides of bowl. Spoon batter into liners, a bit more than ½ full.
- Bake cupcakes in center of oven, 20-25 minutes or until tops are nicely rounded and toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Start testing at 20 minutes. Cool tins on wire racks for 5 minutes.
- Then, transfer cupcakes to wire rack and cool completely.
- To make icing, mix together powdered sugar, butter, and milk. If you want a thicker icing, add more powdered sugar. For a thinner icing, add more milk.
See what other bloggers are making
Here are the other bloggers in the challenge. Check out their almond paste and pastry desserts
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In just 4 days, the old Irish holiday will be here. What foods will you be making? I have never had much of anything Irish, so I am thinking of trying my hand at a corned beef recipe or even attempting to create a delicious Irish pub recipe. In any circumstance, I will definitely be serving this Irish Soda Bread alongside whatever I decide to fix.
This bread is so unbelievably moist and sweet, and oh-so delicious!
- 4 to 4½ cups flour
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 Tbsp butter, cubed
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1¾ cups buttermilk
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Whisk together the 4 cups of flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
- Using a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour, mixing until it resembles a coarse meal
- Gently stir in the raisins.
- Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour the beaten egg and buttermilk into the well, and combine with a wooden spoon until the dough is too stiff to stir.
- Dust your hands with flour, then gently knead the dough- just enough to form a rough ball.
- If the dough is too sticky to work with, add in a little more flour.
- NOTE: Do not over-knead! Your bread could become tough if you over-work it.
- The dough will be a little sticky, like biscuit dough.
- Transfer the dough to a floured baking sheet or a baking stone (unfloured) and shape into a round loaf. Using a serrated knife, score top of dough about an inch and a half deep in an “X” shape.
- Bake until the bread is golden and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped, about 35-45 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a long, wooden skewer into the center of the loaf. If it comes out clean, it’s done.
- To keep your bread from getting too dark, be sure and tent it during the last 10 minutes of cooking.
- Serve your bread warm with a healthy size portion of corn beef and roasted veggies.
What will you be fixing for St. Patrick’s Day this year?
Last week, I was bombarded with Girl Scout Cookies. We have several little girls in our church and I had told each of them that I would buy cookies from them. I purchased Tagalongs (my favorite), Trefoils (another favorite), and Thin Mints (Stephen and Kayla’s favorites). Because the two of them love that cookie so much, I wound up with 6 boxes of Thin Mints. So what’s a girl to do with that many cookies? How about creating a Thin Mints Milkshake!
Creating this milkshake was really simple and easy and only uses 3 ingredients. And the taste? Unbelievable! The mint from the cookies really spices up this shake.
We put them in cute little sundae cups and topped them with crushed cookies and added a colored straw to decorate it.
- 2 cups of vanilla ice cream
- 1 cup of milk
- 5 Thin Mint cookies (plus 2 more to crumble on top)
- three drops of food coloring
- In a blender, combine the ice cream, milk, and cookies. Mix until you reach the consistency you are looking for.
- For a thinner shake, add more milk. If you want a thicker shake, add less milk.
- Top the shake with 1 or 2 crumbled cookies.
Do you buy girl scout cookies each year? If so, which ones are your favorites? I found out this year that there were two new flavors that I have never tried before. I didn’t buy any though because I have my favorites and I stick with those
Which girl scout cookie is your favorite? Have you ever made any recipes with them?
When a huge box of Avocados arrived from Paradise Grove, I started looking back through the recipes I had shared on the blog to see what in the world I could make again. The only one in my family that would even consider eating avocados is me, so I had to find ways to hide them in the food or just plain decide I was going to chomp down on those delicious foods!
Avocados are great to use for any gathering because they pair wonderfully as appetizer, dip, or toppings for favorite sports foods. In fact, with March Madness right around the corner, I am going to be sure to have some recipes ready for the big game time!
- Avocado Creamy Dressing: This is a delicious twist to regular dressing and goes great on a salad, or you can use it to top your favorite Mexican Dish.
- Chewy Fudge Avocado Brownies: If you have picky eaters who say they hate avocados? Yeah– this recipe will fool them for sure. The avocados add a creaminess to the brownies and no one will never know that they are in there.
- Tomato and Avocado Salad: If you are on a health kick, this salad has a wonderful taste and goes great with a piece of grilled chicken or fish.
- Homemade Guacamole: At your next sports party, bust out the chips and dip and serve this tasty avocado dish. Authentic flavors and totally easy to prepare.
- Avocado Fries: If you seriously want something delicious — you have to try this recipe for Avocado fries. They are unbelievable!
I used my Paradise Grove Avocados to make a new dish that I found on my friend Lolli’s website. Her Bacon Avocado recipe was one that I had been drooling over since the day she posted it. Since I had so many avocados, I decided to give it a try.
Using the Paradise Grove Avocados, the taste was so creamy and scrumptious. They actually just melt in your mouth when you bite into them. At their ripest state, you can just smell the deliciousness.
I also had another recipe that I am going to be attempting soon and I will share it with you once I have had a chance to make it. It is an Avocado Chicken Salad that I had at Tumbleweed’s with a Cilantro Lime Dressing. OH MY WORD. This salad was so good and definitely needs a copycat recipe to go with it — so be looking for that recipe in the next coming weeks.
Now that you have some delicious new recipes to try, break out the avocados and start experimenting with your own!
About Paradise Grove Avocados:
Unlike Chilean and Mexican groves where the fruit is harvested when immature and therefore watery, at Paradise Grove, our farmers cultivate our Avocados until they reach optimal quality and size, at a maximum weight of 8 ounces. At that size, the fruit is about three times larger than those found in grocery stores.
They hand clip them from the trees when mature but still with green skin. This method leaves a stem nub on the fruit. Ones missing this likely weren’t hand-picked and, instead, fell to the ground.
With care, Paradise Grove can harvest the fruit nearly 10 months out of every year, from December to October.
Enter to win
One lucky winner is going to get a huge 6lb box of Paradise Grove avocados to use for themselves. To enter this giveaway, leave a comment below sharing a recipe you want to try that uses Avocado as the ingredient.
To gain an extra entry, sign up to have Jen’s Journey delivered to your email daily (in the right hand sidebar).
Other ways you can enter:
- Sign up for the Paradise Grove Newsletter
- Submit a recipe to Paradise Grove that uses Avocados
- Follow Paradise Grove on Facebook
- Follow Paradise Grove on Twitter
- Follow Paradise Grove on Pinterest
Comment below. Giveaway will end on March 20th.
I was sent a box of Avocados from Paradise Grove in order to write this review. All opinions listed are my own.
Anytime I am at the grocery store and I can find a pork tenderloin on sale, I snatch it up. It is a pretty expensive cut of meat, but it tastes SO wonderful when paired with things like apricot or orange marmalade. The truth is –I love pork tenderloin. You can cook it so many different ways and this one below for Apricot Flavored Pork Loin Roast has become my favorite way.
- 1 3 pound pork loin
- 1 jar of apricot perserves
- ½ cup of apple juice
- lemon and pepper seasoning
- Place the pork loin in a casserole style baking dish.
- Top with the apricot preserves.
- Pour the apple juice over the loin.
- Sprinkle with lemon and pepper seasoning.
- Bake at 350 degrees until roast is tender and cooked through.
I like to serve this meal with fingerling potatoes, a side of my homemade focciacia, and a hearty spinach and strawberry salad.
So — which preserve or marmalade would you use to make this delicious meal?
This month for the Improv Cooking Challenge, we were given the challenge of creating a dish that deals with hearts and flours. Well, I knew exactly what I was going to fix and deliver to our wonderful homeschool Valentine party earlier this month — cute little heart shaped pizzas!
It became a really fun activity for the kids because we let them make their own pizzas — with the exception of the dough. I had to make it ahead of time so I could cut them out into heart shapes.
Here is how you can make your own heart shaped pizzas.
First you will need your own homemade pizza dough recipe. Mine is very simple and easy to use. Once you roll it out, then use about a 3 or 4 inch heart cookie cutter and cut out your heart shaped pizza doughs. Bake them for just about 5 minutes on 400 degrees.
Once you do that, pull them out and let them rest and cool and then you can transport them to anywhere!
Top them with your favorite pizza toppings such as homemade pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and all your favorite veggies. It will definitely turn out to be a favorite and fun meal to remember!
- Heart shaped pizza dough
- homemade pizza sauce
- pizza toppings of your choice
- First you will need your own homemade pizza dough recipe. Mine is very simple and easy to use. Once you roll it out, then use about a 3 or 4 inch heart cookie cutter and cut out your heart shaped pizza doughs. Bake them for just about 5 minutes on 400 degrees.
- Once you do that, pull them out and let them rest and cool and then you can transport them to anywhere!
- Top them with your favorite pizza toppings such as homemade pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and all your favorite veggies.
- It will definitely turn out to be a favorite and fun meal to remember!
You can also use this recipe to make shamrocks for Saint Patrick’s Day, bunnies for Easter, and more! The possibilities are endless.
Check out what the other bloggers are making
If you look on my blog anytime soon in the potato sides, you will see that I am a potato girl through and through. I love me some potatoes! One of my favorite dishes of all times has always been wedges. I can’t tell you why, but they have just been a favorite of mine since I was a little girl. I always told myself that when I got older and learned how to cook, that Batter Dipped Potato Wedges would definitely be one of the first side dishes I learned to cook.
As you can see, I have definitely learned how to make them! They are really easy and go great with just about any meal you are fixing. I serve mine with sandwiches sometimes, and then other times, my daughter and I will fix some just for a snack.
- 2 pounds of potatoes sliced into wedges
- oil for frying
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 can evaporated milk
- 2 tablespoons of seasoned salt
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- Take the cut potatoes and fry them for 2 minutes
- Remove from the oil and let them cool.
- Soak the potatoes in the milk.
- While the potatoes are soaking, mix together your flour, salt, pepper, and seasoned salt.
- Shake milk off of potato and then roll them in flour.
- Fry them until brown and crusty.
Speaking of my daughter, she is now the honorary wedge fixer in our home. She has learned how to make them from beginning to end and does a super job at it! I am so proud of her cooking skills.
What is your favorite potato side dish?
I am not a lover of broccoli at all. I can’t eat it raw or in big chunks, but you dice it up super fine and I will get my fill of this wonderful green veggie. I found a yummy Broccoli and Cheese Soup recipe this month for our Secret Recipe Club Reveal. I had the wonderful blog of Smells Like Brownies and it was SO hard to choose just one recipe. There were so many to choose from, but because it is still really cold here in Kentucky, I knew this would be the recipe I wanted to try.
The thing I love about broccoli and cheese soup is that you can do the broccoli any way you like. If you don’t like great, big, huge chunks like me, you can simply puree your soup in a blender to give it a more smoother texture. If you like it chunkier, just chop your broccoli in a rough chop and add it to your soup.
Here is the recipe. I omitted the carrots and just made it a regular broccoli and cheese soup, but you can always add them back in. I have crossed out what I did not use.
- Ingredients:
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 cups 2% milk
- 3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth, plus extra as needed
- pinch of nutmeg
- 2 bay leaves
- salt and black pepper
- 4 cups finely chopped broccoli florets
- 2 large carrots, grated (DID NOT USE)
- 8 oz. sharp cheddar, cubed
- In a sauté pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent, about 4–5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a large Dutch oven or sauce pot over medium heat, whisk together the flour and milk. The mixture will be lumpy at first, but it will smooth out eventually with the heat.
- Once the mixture is smooth, add the vegetable broth, whisking continuously until it becomes smooth again. Add the nutmeg, bay leaves, and seasonings. Let the mixture simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. Whisk occasionally to prevent the bottom from burning.
- Add the cooked onions, broccoli, and carrots, mixing well. Simmer for another 20 minutes, whisking occasionally.
- Add the cheese and stir until completely melted, adding more broth if necessary.
Check out what the other bloggers are making!
If you are a Southern girl, then I am sure you have had these delicious fried apples at one point or another. As a little girl, I remember my momma always fixing these apples to go with our meal. Whether we were having fried chicken, porkchops, steak, or whatever kind of meat, fried apples usually was a side dish.
- 8 apples, peeled and sliced
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon of nutmeg
- Melt butter in a heavy skilled over medium to low heat.
- Add the apples, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Saute 15-20 minutes or until apples are tender.
There is just something about recreating a recipe you grew up on. It’s like going back to your roots and rediscovering childhood. When I think about fried apples, I think of all the times we sat together at the dinner table talking (or in my dad’s case watching the news), and laughing together.
These fried apples remind me of the happy times in my family. I guess that is why I love them so, plus they taste really good
Recipes are meant to be like that — passed down from generation to generation and enjoyed for years to come.
So what is a recipe that was passed down in your family that you love and can’t live without?
Hi! I am Jen--a wife to the most amazing man ever and a homeschool mom to one teenager. I just graduated my oldest.
I have been blogging since 2007. I love to watch movies, spend time in the kitchen, crochet, dance, drink coffee, and lay on the beach. Between recipes, reviews, and hilarious life story moments you'll find many helpful posts on this blog. Welcome, pull up a chair and stay for a while!
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