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