Posts

For more easy snacking recipes made with fresh apples, try my Easy Apple Oatmeal Muffins, Apple Hand Pies, Apple Cider Donuts, and these Gourmet Caramel Apples! These crispy Apple Chips are the perfect alternative to mindless unhealthy snacking—they’re super delicious AND healthy! They’re a great way to use up excess apples after apple picking in apple season, and they’re versatile too. Enjoy them on their own for a bit of an energy boost or kid-friendly snack, or make them for a sweet snack with a fruit salsa....

My family goes through phases where I can’t keep enough bananas on hand or they go ripe on the counter. When they do, I like to make Banana Bars, my Best Easy Banana Bread (a reader favorite!), or Coconut Lime Glazed Banana Bread (also delicious but with a fun flavor twist!). Here’s a truth: I don’t really like bananas. Unless they are in a creamy, dreamy dessert like this Southern banana pudding....

If you love making homemade caramels and candy at Christmas, be sure not to miss any of my candy recipes! Other popular choices this time of year are Grandma Nash’s Best Butter Almond English Toffee, Easy Homemade Peppermint Bark, and my personal favorite, Old-Fashioned Divinity Candy. These Homemade Caramels are the perfect gift! If you have ever wondered how to make caramel, wonder no more! I think it’s one of the easiest homemade candy recipes to make and the results are pretty much out of this world delicious....

Never skip breakfast! Some of our other favorite breakfasts are German Pancakes, Easy Belgian Waffles, and Fluffy Toasted Coconut Pancakes! Perfect Simple Cinnamon Toast Sticks The best French toast I ever had was in Cappadocia, Turkey at the Kelebek Hotel at their rooftop-terrace organic breakfast. I still dream about those slices of thick, egg-custard soaked bread that were fried to perfection and served buffet style with a giant bowl of honey for drizzling over the French toast rather than maple syrup....

If you love oats in treats like we do, you should also be sure not to miss my Oatmeal Rolled Sugar Cookies, Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies, and possibly my favorite cookie of all time, Toffee Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies! With a tasty and easy to make recipe like these iced oatmeal cookies, you’ll wonder why you bothered buying them from a store in the first place. These cookies taste so great when they’re fresh and warm, but they also go great cold with a glass of milk!...

Make magic happen for your kids by showing them how you take real actual pumpkins, and turn them into delicious baked goods using this easy pumpkin puree recipe! A couple of years ago, my oldest daughter started begging me to turn a pumpkin into something edible and when I pulled out a can of Libby’s to make chocolate chip pumpkin bread, she was not impressed. So I decided I would figure out how to make a little magic happen for her by figuring out what goes into our own homemade pumpkin puree recipe and making it with her, and we’ve done it every year since!...

Looking for more homemade frosting ideas? Be sure to try our Best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, Fresh Strawberry Frosting, and many other frosting recipes! Homemade Rainbow Chip Frosting No need to fret over those marvelous tubs of rainbow chip deliciousness being pulled from store shelves ever again. With this easy recipe, you can make your own homemade rainbow chip frosting at home. And honestly, doesn’t homemade always taste better anyway? Happy Birthday to me!...

Over the years, I have learned that there are times in the summer when we have way too many tomatoes. I also used to live next door to a farmer, so we were sometimes double loaded up. This method for freezing tomatoes is SO helpful for those times. It’s also amazing at cutting down the time it takes to cook fresh tomatoes into tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes , salsa, or vegan tomato soup because you get to drain off a lot of the liquid when you thaw them out....

Everywhere you go, everywhere you look, they are “in”… sweet potato fries… sweet potato chips… sweet potato balls… and yes, sweet potato mash. Why not? It’s super yum, it’s healthy and nutritious… result? Your good old potatoes are taking a back seat to this new age healthy option. — Authors note: This post is a little late. We were prepared to post it over a week ago, but had to evacuate from Hurricane Dorian!...

I’m obsessed with citrus desserts (hello Key Lime Pie!). If you are too, you might also want to try my Double Lemon Glazed Cookies (they get overlooked but they are one of my favorite cookies of all time!), Key Lime Cupcakes or Coconut Lime Glazed Banana Bread next! Baking Christmas cookies is one of my favorite traditions! I love this trying a few new cookie varieties every holiday season. This year I thought I would try something different and fun by participating in a virtual holiday cookie exchange with some of my blogging friends....

With just a handful of basic ingredients, you can have this meatless dinner on the table in under half an hour. Great dinner idea for tonight? You bet! It has a creamy, yet light, sauce that tastes absolutely delicious. All sound good? Read on… Sometimes it can feel challenging to find new meatless dinner ideas. Lately, we’ve made Mediterranean Pasta and Sicilian Pasta. There’s always our popular Greek Bean Soup, which we can’t seem to get enough of....

Along with Lamb Ragu and Sunday Sauce, this is a dish for those occasions when you want something truly special. Why You’ll Love It Delicious Flavors: The combination of pancetta, ground beef, and pork makes a deeply savory and meaty sauce. It’s the Ultimate Comfort Food: There’s something incredibly comforting about a big bowl of pasta with homemade Bolognese sauce. Easy: Although the sauce takes a long time to cook, it doesn’t require much hands on time....

This has been the summer of peach desserts for me and I’m not done yet! Along with my Fresh Peach Galette, Peach Cobbler Pound Cake, Peach Crumb Bars, and creamy Fresh Peach Dessert, I decided I had to add just one more peach cobbler-inspired treat. We are not just topping a plain cheesecake with peach topping. Instead, we are layering peaches and cobbler crumble topping throughout the cheesecake so there are bits of peach cobbler in every bite!...

I’m always looking for easy smoothie recipes for kids to make to share with my kids for snacks or to serve with meals. This combination is one of our new favorites—and I love how much fresh fruit is packed inside! There’s nothing fancy in this smoothie, and it’s incredibly straightforward to make. I use cottage cheese in this smoothie to add creaminess and protein—without the need for protein powder. It’s also a great way to add a calcium-rich food if the kids need more calcium in their regular meals and snacks....

I love Latin food and are always experimenting with recipes, from Bistec Encebollado to Pernil, Barbacoa to Ropa Vieja and so many more. This picadillo is so versatile, great in tacos, burritos, empanadas or alongside rice and plantains. Today I’m using the basic stovetop method, but read on for crock pot and instant pot methods… What is Picadillo? Picadillo is a very traditional home-style dish cooked in Spain and many Latin American countries, as well as the Philippines....

I always make pumpkin bread studded with chocolate chips each October, but it doesn’t have the same “wow” factor of this babka. The dough is moist and subtly spiced from the pumpkin and the addition of pumpkin pie spices. And the chocolate filling is plentiful, dark, and perfect with the pumpkin flavor. My husband, Paul, is a big Seinfeld fan, so when I was brainstorming a pumpkin-themed yeast bread, Elaine’s voice popped into my head from Seinfeld Episode 77 (“The Dinner Party) – “You can’t beat a babka!...

Lemon Broccoli Pasta I’ve been on a mission to create a stable of recipes that are seriously fast, so that I have easy homemade options for my own family and to share with yours for those days when cooking is the last thing we want to do. I started with my Rice Noodle Soup, did Chicken and Stars Soup, then Cauliflower Mac and Cheese, and now this lemony pasta as a go-to fast weeknight meal....

Trust me, this easy mushroom wine sauce will take your steak night to the next level! A perfectly cooked good steak is tough to beat. When I am planning a special meal, a nice ribeye, New York strip or porterhouse is often one of the top choices. As great as steaks are on their own, I love them even more with a nice sauce. Peruvian Aji Verde and Moroccan Chermoula are great choices, but this simple yet elegant mushroom sauce is #1....

Ready in about 30 minutes, it’s fit for a regular everyday dinner, yet it turns up fancy and gorgeous enough to be fit for a date night meal. You will find chunky, flaky perfectly seasoned and cooked salmon pieces generously scattered over ziti, with cherry tomatoes and asparagus in a delicious creamy garlicky sauce. Pasta is your answer if you are looking for quick meals that satisfy the whole family....

And don’t worry, it’s super easy to make! You’ve got the holy trinity of veggies, Creole and Cajun spices along with plump shrimp all smothering in one pot. And when you serve it over rice, it’s like you’re getting a little taste of New Orleans right at home. Time to learn how I make Shrimp Etouffee, a true Louisiana classic, straight from the heart of the Big Easy. I honestly still dream about all the amazing food from our trip to New Orleans a few years ago....