So I saw this picture of a Peeps sunflower cake on another blog and wanted to make something like it for Easter this year. I wanted mine to have different colors though. I went to the store and got a cake mix, purple frosting (picked by my 3 year old), a box of Nerds, and yellow and pink Peeps.

Now why I would want to make such a cake is beyond me. Every cake I have ever frosted has turned into a disaster. The decorations would be easy though since it is just placing the candy on the cake.

So here is my masterpiece. I’m sure you can tell I had a little trouble with the frosting but I think it turned out pretty well. We will definitely enjoy it tomorrow on Easter.

Do you make fruit smoothies? I do! It’s a great way to get those fruit servings in your diet. They are really simple to make. You just need a blender, some fruit, juice and yogurt to make my smoothie recipe. I use mostly frozen fruit in my smoothie so I don’t have to use any ice but I do add some fresh fruit sometimes. You can buy fruit frozen or freeze your overripe fruit and save it for your next smoothie.

For a blender, I use this Ninja Kitchen System Pulse Blender. It works great.

I usually don’t measure my ingredients for smoothies but I will give you my best guess.

2 cups fruit (in this case strawberries and peaches)
about 1/2 cup yogurt
anout 8 oz 100% apple juice

Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. If you can’t pour it into a cup, add more juice.

You can use pretty much any kind of fruit you want in this fruit smoothie recipe. I have tried mangoes, peaches, strawberries, melons, and grapes. You may want to stay away from fruit with lots of seeds like raspberries and kiwis.

You can also use any kind of juice you want. I like to use 100% juice because it’s healthier than juices with added sugar.

What do you use in your fruit smoothies?

So I picked up some salmon filets at the store this week and was looking for a recipe for how to cook it. I have had some that was really good before, I just couldn’t remember what I did. Anyway, I came across this Food Network recipe for homemade fish sticks. I’ve never made homemade fish sticks before but this looked pretty easy and I just had to try it.

I learned how to cut salmon so it doesn’t fall apart tonight. When slicing small pieces, cut along the long side of the fish. Maybe you already know this but I didn’t. My husband said “duh” when I told him. I’m not sure why he didn’t tell me that when I was cutting.

Also, the original recipe had 1 cup of parmesan and 1 cup of bread crumbs. I only used about half of it. Luckily, I took out about half before I started dipping the fish in it. Once you start dipping raw meat or fish in something, you have to throw it out no matter how much is left.

I used small salmon filets for mine so my fish sticks were just over 2 inches long (well at least the ones that didn’t fall apart were).

Also, I only had plain bread crumbs so I added some Italian seasoning mix. I am not a big fan of pepper so I left that out

Here’s the recipe I used

1 lb of salmon or other fish
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 egg whites
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
Olive oil, for drizzling

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Slice your fish into equal size pieces. You will need 3 bowls for dipping. The first should have the flour and salt. The second has the egg whites, beaten until frothy (around 30 seconds). The third bowl should have the parmesan and bread crumbs. Just dip each piece into the bowls in order and make sure you don’t get too much flour.

Then place your fish sticks onto a well oiled pan and drizzle with olive oil. Since these homemade fish sticks have parmesan in the breading, they will stick if you are not careful.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. You will probably want to turn them over about halfway.

Have you ever tried making homemade fish sticks? They are much easier than I thought they would be.

Sloppy Joe Recipe

My mom always used this recipe for sloppy joes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else make it like this. I think it’s the best sloppy joe recipe ever and it’s pretty easy, too.

1 lb ground beef
dried onion soup mix – I use about a half a packet of Lipton Dry Onion Soup Mix
1 10 oz can of tomato soup
1 10 oz can of chicken gumbo soup
1 T vinegar
2 T brown sugar
2 T ketchup
2 T molasses
2 T mustard

Just brown the ground beef with the onion soup mix in a large pot. Then add all of the other ingredients and simmer for about 30 minutes. Make sure you stir it occasionally while simmering so it doesn’t burn to the pan.

I love to use this sloppy joe recipe for sandwiches and chip dip. It is really, really good with Ruffles chips. Well, at least I think so.

Topic: Sloppy Joe Recipe

Yummy Salmon Patties Recipe

Fish is expensive but healthy, right? Why not try using canned salmon? It’s so much cheaper than fresh. Fresh is better but sometimes the budget just doesn’t allow for it. My mother-in-law actually introduced me to this salmon patties recipe. I didn’t think it would taste good at first, but I really liked it. It’s really simple, too.

To tell you the truth, I don’t even measure my salmon patties recipe anymore. You can try other spices, too. We have used Italian bread crumbs before and that tastes really good, too.

You can really play around with this salmon patties recipe. Just make sure it is still wet enough to stick together while cooking.

This is how I have been making it. My whole family loves it. We usually serve it with garlic bread and a vegetable.

Directions

1 14.5 oz can salmon or 3-4 5 oz cans
1 egg
1-2 tsp lemon juice
1 cup bread crumbs or crackers
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp parsley

You could also use these Progresso Italian Style Bread Crumbs and leave out the onion powder, garlic powder, and parsley.

Mix together all ingredients. Cook in a frying pan with a little olive oil on medium or medium high heat until brown on both sides.

Have you ever tried a salmon patties recipe?

Bacon Mushroom Egg Bake Recipe

So I decided to try to try an egg bake recipe tonight. It’s been a long time since I had one and I had never made one before. We used to have these in Sunday School sometimes. We had a couple parents of high school students who would cook breakfast for the older students who came for Sunday School. They thought if they cooked breakfast, that more students would come. I guess they were right because we always had a pretty good crowd! I always enjoyed it.

I had eggs, bacon, zucchini, summer squash, mushroom, and onion on hand so I whipped something up. Yummy! It’s pretty easy to make, too.

You can substitute other vegetables and meat if you want in this egg bake recipe. You could also leave out the meat altogether if you want. I also saved a little bit of bacon and cheese to sprinkle on top.

Here’s the recipe!

Directions

8 eggs
1 3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
8 oz shredded cheese
1 T olive oil
1/2 cup mushroom
1/2 cup zucchini
1/2 cup summer squash
1/2 cup onion
7 slices of cooked, crumbled bacon
parsley
salt (optional)
pepper (optional)
basil (optional

Put a layer of cheese at the bottom of an ungreased 9 x 13 baking dish.
Add crumbled bacon to pan.
Cook vegetables in olive oil (starting with the onion).
Whisk together milk and flour.
Add eggs and spices.
Add vegetables on top of the bacon and add the rest of the cheese.
Add egg mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until you can insert a knife in the center and it comes out clean.

I also checked the nutrition facts for this recipe. I figured it has 8 big servings. Each serving has 252 calories, 16.8 g fat, 57.9 mg cholesterol, 419 mg sodium, 168 mg potassium, 10.8 g carbs, and 12.3 g protein.

Have you ever tried an egg bake recipe?

This microwave pineapple sauce recipe is something that my family always used on our cornish game hens.  It’s really yummy. It really adds some great flavor to the meat and rice that we serve with the cornish game hens. This has been a Christmas tradition for our family when it was just the 4 of us.

It also works great to add a little something that leftover turkey that you have. Many times leftover turkey get pretty dry and boring but this sauce makes it taste so much better!

It’s really easy to make, too. There are only 4 ingredients and it is made in the microwave.

You will need

1 6 oz can of pineapple juice
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Just mix the ingredients together in a microwave safe bowl and put in microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. You should stop and stir every 30 seconds. When it starts to boil and thickens, it is done. It tastes awesome with turkey and cornish game hen. I’m sure after you taste it, you will think of other things to put it on too.

Here’s what it looks like on my leftovers I had to lunch today.

Topic: Microwave Pineapple Sauce Recipe

When my sister and I were little, a lady from church starting giving my dad Chocolate Kahlua Cake for his birthday. My dad loves chocolate and coffee and loved this cake! So did the rest of the family, although the rest of us are not coffee lovers. We were able to get the recipe from her so I can make it myself now! This recipe is very easy as it is a cake recipe using cake mix and a few other ingredients. Yes, Kahlua is alcohol, but all the alcohol will bake out so this will be a non-alcoholic cake unless you add more Kahlua after the cake is baked.

Here are the directions to make this chocolate Kahlua cake recipe!

1 box chocolate cake mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 6 oz package of instant chocolate pudding mix
3/4 cup Kahlua liqueur
1/2 cup water

Just combine all the ingredients and blend well. You can do that either by hand or with a mixer. Pour into a greased and lightly floured bundt pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

The cake, like it is now, is non-alcoholic. Frost with a chocolate frosting and you have a great cake for everyone! This chocolate Kahlua cake is my favorite cake ever! Since it’s a cake recipe using cake mix, it is really simple to make.

For those of you who are over 21 and like Kahlua, you can make the cake a little more “fun”. One option is to mix 6 Tablespoons of Kahlua with a cup of powdered sugar. While the cake is still warm, poke holes in the cake and pour the Kahlua mixture in. Then drizzle the cake with the remaining frosting.

If you prefer a chocolate frosting, just mix a few tablespoons of Kahlua with your favorite chocolate frosting.  I used a can of chocolate frosting and only used about half a can.  I added enough Kahlua to be able to drizzle the frosting over the cake. I also mixed up a small amount of the Kahlua and powdered sugar to saturate the cake. Needless to say, it was a good cake! Plus it is very easy because it is a cake recipe using cake mix to cut down on the number of ingredients.

Here is my egg roll recipe! They are pretty easy to make, at least much easier than I thought they would be.

I actually couldn’t find the recipe that I used last time so I searched to see what I could find and all the recipes have tons of meat in them – like 1 lb of meat to 3 cups of cabbage and carrots. That seems like way too much meat to me and meat is expensive these days! I used 1/2 lb of meat and 1 bag of coleslaw mix which is about 7.5 cups of veggies in this egg roll recipe.

These took me about an hour and a half today.

You will need

1/2 lb of meat (I used beef, but you can also use chicken, pork, shrimp, etc)
1 bag of coleslaw mix (16 oz or 7.5 cups) – you could also use shredded cabbage and carrots
2 T soy sauce
1/2 t garlic powder
ginger
1 package of egg roll wrappers (20 count) – you can find them refrigerated section near the produce section. They are by the refrigerated salad dressings and salsas at my Walmart.

You can also add mushrooms or bean sprouts if you want
Vegetable oil

Cook the meat with the soy sauce and garlic powder. Drain and add coleslaw mix. Cook the coleslaw on low heat until it is wilted. Remove from heat and let cool at bit. You can also dry the mixture off with paper towels.

Now this is the most difficult part – the wrapping.

Take an egg roll wrap and put some of the coleslaw mix in the middle as shown in the picture.

Fold the bottom up

and the sides in.   Then roll them closed.

I still don’t really have this part down well so my egg rolls aren’t rolled very neatly. You want to get them as tight as possible though so you don’t get oil inside when you fry them. You will also want a bowl of water handy. You will need to dip your finger it in and wet the top flap so it stays closed.

Here are all my egg rolls ready to fry. I read that you’re supposed to have the oil at 350 degrees and fry on each side for 2-3 minutes. I have enough oil in the pan so the small egg rolls don’t touch the bottom of the pan and the burner is almost to medium. How long you actually cook them depends on the temperature of your oil. If they get brown right away, the oil is too hot. That happened with the first couple of mine.

I usually only fry a couple at a time.  That way, I can watch them better and they don’t get crowded.

Here are my finished egg rolls.  I will eat a couple and freeze the rest.  I put them in a gallon ziploc bag in one layer so they don’t stick together too bad.  Then I just wrap one in a paper towel and heat it in the microwave when I want one.  Quick and easy snack.

Do you make egg rolls at home?  Do you have any tips that make them turn out better or easier to make? Please share them in the comments. What do you have in your egg roll recipe?

I made peach crisp tonight. Peaches are in season and we got some really good ones. Here’s the recipe I used. It’s a little more healthy as most other fruit crisps and only has a few ingredients. There is no flour and not a lot of sugar. Of course, it is healthier the less topping you use.

For this peach crisp recipe, I cut up 3 peaches and put them in a 9″ round glass pan. Then I got a stick of butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1 1/2 – 2 cups of oats. I like to use more oats than most recipes say. The only other recipes I have found similar to this use 1 part butter, 1 part brown sugar, and 2 parts oats. You can make more or less of the topping to make it how you like it. I thought this made a lot of topping so maybe next time I would add another peach or two.

I also usually put a little honey on the fruit but I forgot this time. It didn’t need it, it was sweet enough.

Peach Crisp Recipe

3-4 peaches or other fruits (apples, cherries, etc)
honey (optional)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (not melted or softened)
1/2 cup brown sugar
at least 1 cup oats

Cut the fruit and put into a 9″ baking pan. Add a little honey, if desired. Mix butter, sugar, and oats. I use a pastry cutter. Sprinkle topping mix over the fruit. You may want to press it down a little so parts of the topping don’t burn. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

You could also do this as an individual snack if you want. Just use 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 tablespoon or brown sugar, and as many oats as you like. I only did this with apples and cooked the apples and topping separately in the microwave. I cooked the apples for 1-2 minutes and the topping for 30 seconds. Should be about the same with other fruits.

That’s my peach crisp recipe, what do you put in yours?