Fresh blueberry crisp

Okay, this recipe is ridiculously easy! It takes 10 minutes to prep, 25 minutes to bake, 3 minutes to devour! This is now going to be one of my favorite desserts to take to parties and make for holidays! You know it was good when I am using exclamation points at the end of each sentence!!!!!!!

Pre-Heat oven @ 375 degrees

Ingredients: 

2.5 cups fresh blueberries (blackberries & raspberries would be delicious as well)
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp butter
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1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Directions: 

1. Grease deep 9 inch pie pan.
2. Place blueberries in the bottom of the greased pie pan. Dot with butter and sprinkle lemon juice on top.

3. Pour flour into a food processor container. cut butter into 8 slices and add to blender. Pulse until mixture is a coarse texture. Add sugar and cinnamon, pulse just until they are both incorporated. Mixture should be mealy (see pic below).  {If preparing by hand, cut butter into flour with fingertips, then work in sugar and cinnamon.}

4. Sprinkle the prepared mixture over blueberries (pic below) evenly (leave clumpy). Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot or cold. Serve with ice cream, if desired.

Smothered Chicken

Tonight we have a special guest staying over, our friend Marvin. He has been traveling out West the past three weeks (lucky) enjoying time with friends, and visiting some super awesome places like: the original Starbucks in Washington State! 

I wanted to welcome Marvin back with a delicious home cooked meal! This 30 minute meal is healthy, savory and a new favorite in this house!

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh spinach

1 carton sliced mushrooms

4 tbsp chopped pecans

1-1/2 teaspoons olive oil

4 boneless chicken breast

1 tbsp oregano

salt & pepper to taste

provolone cheese slices

1 onion diced

2 pinches parsley

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, saute the spinach, mushrooms, onions and pecans in oil until mushrooms are tender. Set aside and keep warm.

2.  Marinate chicken with oregano, salt & pepper.

3. In a separate pan: Heat up pan and olive oil,  Place chicken in pan, cook two minutes on each side, then place cover on top. Check chicken every 4 minutes till cooked all the way. Place provolone slices on top, sprinkle a pinch of parsley over the top of each kitchen, place cover back on pan to cheese is fully melted. After cheese is fully melted then place your spinach and mushroom mixture on top and dig in! 

Beef Pitas

This week we are making simple & savory 30 minute meals. Like many of you, last thing you want to do is come home to making a complicated meal after a long day at work. I hope these meals make your life a little less stressful, and you are able to sit down and enjoy a little extra time around the dinner table with your lovely family!

Tonight's dinner: Beef pitas with yogurt sauce. I know that yogurt sauce might sound absolutely gross to you, but plain Greek yogurt has 2/3 less fat than sour cream and taste almost the same.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

Sauce:
1 (8 ounce) plain Greek yogurt
2tsp dried parsley
1/2tsp minced garlic
1/8tsp salt
1/4 cup diced cucumber

Pitas:
1tsp dried oregano
1tsp minced rosemary
1/2tsp salt
1/4tsp pepper
1 pound top sirloin thin sliced steak, cut into thin strips
1 large onion
4tsp olive oil, divided
4 whole gyro-style pitas

Directions:

Sauce-  In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, parsley, garlic, cucumber & salt. Cover and refrigerate until serving.

Pitas-
1. Cut beef in thin slices. Mix rosemary, oregano, salt & pepper in a bowl.
2. In a large nonstick skillet, saute onion in tsp of olive oil until golden brown. Remove and keep warm. Saute beef in remaining oil until no longer pink. Mix onions in with beef, serve on pitas, then top with yogurt sauce!

Ground turkey sloppy joes

Life has been a complete whirlwind lately. I finally had time last week to sit down and make this weeks menu. I Decided that it was time to come up with some quick, easy and yummy meals that my husband and I can both make on the days we got off late.

Tonights dinner: Ground turkey sloppy joes w/ sweet potato fries.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound Jennie O ground turkey
1/4 cup chopped green peppers
1 large onion, chopped
1 can (8 ounce) tomato sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2tbsp brown sugar
4tbsp bbq sauce
1tbsp Worcestershire sauce
6 hamburger buns, split

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, cook the beef, green peppers, onions over medium heat until meat is no longer pink.

2. Stir in all other ingredients, bring to boil, then reduce to low heat, simmer uncovered for 10-15 minutes to allow the flavors to blend. Add a pinch of salt & pepper then spoon 3/4 onto each bun.

Sides:

Frozen sweet potato fries: Follow directions on bag. (Place in oven the same time you start cooking the meat, so they are both done around the same time.)

strawberry whole wheat banana bread

Okay, so I am totally excited about sharing is recipe with everyone. Tom & I really enjoy banana bread, A LOT! Every couple of months after we have collected 4 or more banana's in the freezer we make banana bread, it's a special treat for us!

Last year while making banana bread I looked in the fridge and realized that we had some strawberries that were going to go bad soon. I decided to cut them up and toss them into the bread batter. After a hour of cooking, it was finally time to taste this mysterious bread. We were skeptical, thinking it would come out soggy. Well, we both were wrong, it was AMAZING, and now it's our absolute favorite bread to make! I have even thrown in a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips, ahhhh it's ridiculously good!

 
Pre-Heat oven @ 350 degrees
Prep time 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1hr 40min

Ingredients: 

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
4 banana's

2 cups whole wheat flour (I'm sure reg flour taste good as well)
1/2tsp baking soda
1/3 cup milk
1/4tsp salt
1tsp vanilla
*3/4 cup strawberries*

Directions:
Combine all ingredients to the vanilla, beat till smooth. Add strawberries, mix for 1 minute. Pour into greased bread pan, place into oven for 1 hour, check with bread knife in the center to see progress. If still gooey continue to bake for another 30-40 minutes.

Fresh bruschetta

My husband, he's pretty much the best cook! Last night I walked in the door after a long day at work and he had prepared fresh bruschetta with whole wheat alfredo pasta, so-so good! I asked him if he was cool with me posting his delicious dish, he said yes, only if I talk about how super cool he is, haha!

Our friends neighbor gave them a bag of fresh veggies from their garden, but unfortunately the neighbors had no idea they were leaving for vacation that same day. So we ended up with the bag of fresh veggies, it's been a special treat! It's really hard to come across good produce around these parts of OK. It's sad after a day of having veggies (or bread) in your house they are already going bad, or molding.

This is one of our absolute favorite appetizers to make during the Summer. The key to making bruschetta is: FRESH ingredients. Normally we would head to our local farmers market to pick up these ingredients.

Ingredients:

{proportions will vary based on how tomatoes you use}

Italian  bread - cut on a bias (toast either on a panini, in oven, or toaster)
Fresh yellow & red tomatoes
Fresh Basil - (you can never over do basil)
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil (light drizzle)

Fresh Garlic - minced (minimal amount)

Fresh Onion - minced (minimal amount)
Mozzarella pearls (optional)
Balsamic - lightly drizzle over the top of your bruschetta

Chai tea ice cubes

Every morning before I go to work I always make iced chai tea. It's definitely my staple item that I always have in my shopping cart. Actually, now that I work for Starbucks I can mark it out as my free item of the week, oh yeah!

A few months ago I was browsing good ole' Pinterest and stumbled across coffee ice cubes. It was definitely one of those ''why didn't I think of that'' moments?!? So I decided that I would try the same idea but with Chai tea, it works, it's awesome, and you should try it out too!

4 ice cubes per 1 cup of milk :) 

Grandma's Banana Pudding

Anytime our family has a get together at my grandmas house, the one recipe that is always requested is: ''Grandma's banana pudding''. Actually, my grandma got this recipe off of Paula Deens show a few years ago, but we like to consider it her recipe! This sweet treat is perfect anytime of the year! Try it out at your next family gathering, you won't be disappointed! 

Ingredients

1   12-ounce container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whip
1   14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1   8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 cup milk
1   5-ounce box instant French vanilla pudding
6-8   bananas, sliced
2   bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies

Directions

Line the bottom of a 13x9x2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.
In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using an electric mixer. In different bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together, mix until smooth.  Fold the whip cream into the cream cheese mixture.  Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and mix until well blended.  Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas, cover the remaining cookies.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.
{Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen}

Mud Pie

Last weekend our church had a huge event celebrating the 4th of July. Our friends had asked us to come over for a little cook out before all the festivities began. I decided that I wanted to make a sweet treat for the kiddo's! After contemplating for a couple of days about what I wanted to make, I remembered one of my favorite childhood treats, MUD PIE! I looked up the recipe and was in total disbelief when I saw the ingredients (cream cheese, powdered sugar, whipped cream, yuck!) and decided that I would come up with my own simple & ''healthier'' recipe. Also, I got a little creative and served in inside of a beach pail, and the serving spoon was the beach shovel, so fun!

(4) boxes of instant chocolate pudding
(1) bag of regular worms & (1) bag of sour worms
(1) box of oreos
(1) 12oz whipped cream (frozen food aisle)

Follow instructions on the instant pudding boxes
Fold in whipped cream
Finely crush oreos & set aside (If you have a food processor, use it!)

In your pail layer pudding, crushed oreos, worms, and repeat till your pail is filled to the top!

Patriotic Fruit Platter

My 2nd favorite holiday is July 4th! This year I really wanted to do something special, so I made a very vibrant, patriotic fruit platter. My idea came off of Pinterest, where a lady had made a similar fruit platter, but it looked like a flag. Honestly, I was running out of time to try to stand there and make it look like a flag so I just put 6 blueberries on a kabob stick, along with 4 banana & strawberry slices.

Not even 10 minutes after getting to our friends house 1/2 of them were gone! This is such a simple, healthy & fun way to serve fruit! Also this delicious fruit dip would be a great side to add: Fruit Dip Recipe