Lemon Berry Pie

I saw this dessert made on "Good Things Utah", but to be honest they made a complete mess of the pie. The flavors sounded so good, I decided to just try it (modified a little), and it turned out so YUMMY!

I am not a big pie maker, and I only own a small 8 inch pie plate, which is completely worthless (never buy one). So, since I was making this for a big group, I decided to just make it in a 9x13 pan. I think that it would fit well into 2 small pre-packaged pie crusts, or you could just half it and make it in an 8x8 square pan. Either way, this was super easy and great for summer!

Lemon Berry Pie

6 ounces cream cheese, softened (lite worked great)
1 Tablespoon milk
2 Tablespoon sugar
2 ½ teaspoons grated lemon zest (about the peel of one lemon)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 tub (8 ounces) whipped topping (or more for serving)
1 pound (16 oz) strawberries, hulled and halved or sliced (I like things less chunky, so I sliced them)
2 cups cold milk (I used 1%)
2 packages (4-serving size) lemon flavor instant pudding and pie filling
2 (6 oz) prepared graham cracker crusts

OR make your own:

1 pkg graham crackers, crushed (crush them in a food processor...really easy!)
4 Tbs. Butter, melted
2 Tbs. Brown Sugar
Mix all crust ingredients together, and press mixture (Hint: use the bottom of a flat cup or measuring cup to press a crust into a pan, it makes it nice and compact!) into a 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Cool completely before adding other layers.

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, 1 tablespoon milk and sugar in medium bowl for 1-2 minutes until smooth and fluffy. Stir in lemon peel and juice, then gently stir in half of the whipped topping. Spread evenly over the crust. Layer half of the sliced strawberry on top of the cream cheese layer.

Pour 2 cups milk into large bowl, and add pudding mixes. Beat mixture with a wire whisk about 1 minute, or until the pudding is completely dissolved. The pudding will thicken quickly. Once the pudding is thick, gently stir in the remainder of the whipped topping. At this point, you can add another layer of strawberries, or reserve the strawberries to spoon over the pie as you serve it.

Refrigerate 4 hours or until set. Serve with additional whipped topping or whipped cream if desired. Makes 12-15 servings.

Pudding Pops

I receive the Kraft "Food and Family" magazine in the mail every so often. It has a lot of easy family friendly recipes. Well, this time we decided to try the recipe for pudding pops, and it turned out to be lots of fun, and quite yummy! The possibilities are endless!

This is the recipe as written in the magazine:

Cookies and Creme Pudding Pops

1 pkg (3.9 oz) Jell-O Chocolate Instant Pudding
2 C Cold Milk (I used 1%)
6 Oreo Cookies (I used 8...love the Oreo's!)
1/2 C Thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping (used more, like about 1 cup)

Beat pudding mix and milk in a large bowl with whisk for 2 minutes. Place cookies in a resealable bag and seal. Crush cookies using a rolling pin. Add cookies and cool whip to pudding; stir just until blended. Spoon into 9 (I got 12) small paper or plastic cups. Insert wooden pop stick or plastic spoon into each for handle. Freeze 5 hours or until firm.

As most of you know, I have two 3-year-olds, and we had a blast making these together! So, it was fun AND we had a tasty treat to eat during this hot weather. Yesterday we finished off the last of the chocolate pops, and I opened the pantry to see what else we could make. I found banana pudding, and some leftover Nutter Butters....hmmmmmm...

So, we ended up throwing together an other batch with these ingredients:

And again, the kids had so much fun helping! Really...get out the play hammers, it's so much more fun!

And today, we ate another yummy treat!

Banana Nutter Butter Pudding Pops

1 pkg (3.9 oz) Jell-O Banana Cream Instant Pudding
2 C Cold Milk (I used 2% this time, and it was SO creamy!)
7 Nutter Butter Cookies
1 C Whipped Topping, thawed

Beat pudding mix and milk in a large bowl with whisk for 2 minutes. Place cookies in a resealable bag and seal. Crush cookies using play HAMMERS!! Add cookies and whipped topping to pudding; stir just until blended. Spoon into 15 small paper or plastic cups. Insert wooden pop stick or plastic spoon into each for handle. Freeze 5 hours or until firm. Enjoy!

Banana Nutter Butter Trifle

I am a huge fan of peanut butter, and I love almost anything to do with bananas. So, I was pretty excited (to say the least) to see this recipe on a food blog. (I can't remember which one...sorry!)

I decided to make this with banana bread instead of cake, which made it rich and heavenly. I doubled this recipe for classic banana bread that I found on Our Best Bites. Those gals never let you down! The bread was so yummy! I made this to take to a get-together at a friend's house, so I wasn't able to get many pictures. But, it looked great in my crystal bowl, and it made TONS. I would dare say that this will serve 12 people pretty generous servings. It looks best right after you put it together, before the bananas start to turn brown...but, let me just tell you that it tasted pretty fabulous the next day even after the bananas were a tiny bit brown. If you have a small trifle dish, you might want to half this recipe! What's your favorite kind of trifle?

Nutter Butter Trifle

1 1/2 loaves of banana bread cut into cubes or crumbled
1 package peanut butter chips (1 1/2 cups of chips)
2 (3.4 oz each) packages instant banana cream pudding mix
1 8 oz carton of whipped topping (like cool whip)
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup whipping cream
4 1/4 cup milk (I used 1 percent)
4 large ripe bananas
12-14 nutter butter cookies, plus more for garnish

Bake (or purchase) your favorite banana bread recipe, and let it cool completely. Mix together both packages of banana pudding mix with 4 cups of the milk and chill until the pudding is well set. In a small sauce pan, combine on low heat the extra 1/4 cup milk, cream, and peanut butter chips. Stir until the chips are melted and smooth. Remove pan from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool to room temperature. Crush nutter butter cookies.

For assembly: Place half of the cubed or crumbled bread into a trifle bowl, then top with half of the peanut butter sauce. Next, layer half of the banana pudding, followed by 2 sliced bananas, half of the whipped topping, and then half of the nutter butter cookies. Then, repeat! Garnish with additional whole nutter butters, if desired. Serve immediately. Makes 12 servings.

Banana Filled Graham Cracker Pancakes (revisited)

Oh boy, I should have eaten breakfast before starting this post because just looking at these pictures is making me drool. I made these again a few weeks ago, and couldn't help but take some pictures and re-post this because they were SO good. It really would be worth purchasing the special pan so that you can enjoy these. This time I served them with buttermilk syrup, and it put them on a whole new level!

Banana Filled Graham Cracker Pancakes

4 oz graham crackers, broken into pieces (this is 7 whole graham crackers, or enough crumbs to fill a 1 cup measuring cup)
3/4 C all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
5 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs, separated
1 3/4 C buttermilk
6 Tbs. (3/4 of a stick) of butter, melted
2 bananas, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 cup heavy cream
maple or buttermilk syrup syrup for serving

Put graham crackers in blender or food processor and blend on high until powdery. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, 3 Tbs. sugar, and salt; pulse to combine. In large bowl, whisk egg yolks and buttermilk. Whisk in flour mixture; batter will be lumpy.



Using electric mixer, beat egg whites on high speed until stiff (but not dry) peaks form, 1-2 min. Gently stir whites into batter in 2 additions.






Put 1/2 tsp. butter into each well of filled-pancake pan. Heat over medium heat (I kept it on medium-low to avoid burning them, and my pan is cast-iron). Pour 2 tsp. batter into each well. Place 3 banana pieces in center of each pancake; top with 1 tsp. batter. Cook 3-5 minutes.



Using 2 skewers or forks, gently flip pancakes over and cook 2- 3 minutes more. (You know that they are ready to flip when you move it around with the skewer, and the whole pancake moves...if part of it sticks, they're not ready to turn yet.) Transfer pancakes to plates. Repeat with remaining batter.

Whip cream until firm and sweeten with the other 2 Tbs. of sugar if desired. (Once I just served them with spray whip cream from a can because it was easier, but the whipped cream is best, of course!) Serve pancakes warm with whipped cream and maple syrup or buttermilk syrup. (oh, really, click on this link and try the buttermilk syrup...it's SO worth it!!) Makes about 35 pancakes.

Peanut Butter Crunch Snack Balls

I've had this recipe in my "to try" file for a while,
and finally got around to trying them. I follow a few food blogs, including mykitchencafe.blogspot.com, and that is where I found this recipe. The recipe on her blog is huge, and makes over a hundred of these little goodies. I didn't want to waste a ton of peanut butter just in case we didn't love them, so I ended up doing 1/3rd of the huge recipe. If you want the larger measurements, click here.

Anyway, we ended up loving these...even my two 3-year-olds! Yeah! Also, they are pretty healthy, and I liked how they stayed crunchy even after a couple of days of being in the fridge. I rolled them in crushed mini-wheats, which are kind-of pokey. So, next time I think that I'll roll them in something else, like graham cracker crumbs or nilla wafer crumbs. These are great for a summer time treat since they don't have to be baked. Try them!

2/3 Cup Honey
2 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Cup Rice Krispies (I used generic...cheaper)
1/2 Cup Grape Nuts (Do NOT use generic grape nuts, they're really gross for some reason)
1/4 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
2/3 Cup Shredded Coconut
1 Cup Crushed Cereal (I used Honey Nut Cheerios, it's just what I had)
1/2 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips or Butterscotch Chips (I used both, but I would stick with the mini chips in the future because the other chips were too big and you didn't get one in every ball. You could also use raisins or something a little more healthy...but why? :) )
1 1/2-2 C crushed mini-wheat cereal (plain or frosted shredded wheat) or other crumbs of your choice (maybe graham crackers)
3-4 Tablespoons Dry Powdered Milk

Combine all ingredients except for the powdered milk and the crushed mini-wheat cereal. Stir well until all ingredients are combined. Add powdered milk a tablespoon at a time until you get a soft dough-like consistency. I ended up using 3 1/2 Tablespoons. At this point, chill the dough, covered, in the refrigerator for about a half hour. This is not necessary, but it makes them less sticky and easier to roll. (My small Pampered Chef cookie scoop worked perfectly for these, but if you don't have one, just use a spoon.) Scoop out small pieces of dough and roll into a ball. Then, roll the balls into the crushed shredded wheat or other crumbs of your choice. Refrigerate and enjoy!

Baked Beef Taquitos

This is a recipe that I got from my good friend Amy, and we love it. I made these the other night, and I think that my husband ate like 7 in a row. They are easy, and good, and not fried like other taquitos! I don't know about your kids, but my kids like to dip whatever they can, so these go over pretty well at our house!

1 tsp oil, plus a little more for brushing (optional)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb lean ground beef
½ c salsa, plus more for dipping
2 tsp chili powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
10-12 flour tortillas
shredded cheddar or Monterey jack cheese
Sour cream

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Put onion in skillet and cook for about 3 minutes or until onion is transparent, stirring often. Add garlic and cook for about another minute. Be careful not to let the garlic burn. Add beef and cook until done. Stir in salsa, chili powder, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes.

If your tortillas need a little softening up, place tortillas on a plate and cover with a damp paper towel. Microwave for about 45 seconds. If they're already soft, just use tortillas as they are. Spread about ¼ c beef mixture down the middle of the tortilla, until it is about an inch from the edges. Sprinkle cheese over beef. Roll up tortillas and place them on a foil-lined baking sheet, seam side down. Brush taquitos lightly with oil, (or if you're lazy like me, spray them with some cooking spray) then bake them until filling is heated and they are lightly browned, 8-12 minutes. (I measured out the beef mixture with a 1/4 C measuring cup, and I ended up with about 12 taquitos.) Serve with salsa and sour cream.

Broccoli

One of my favorite shows to watch is a local show called "Good Things Utah". They always have a cooking segment, which is my favorite part. A few weeks ago, one of the hosts talked about how she fixes broccoli, and how her kids gobble it up. Well, my kids have never touched broccoli, so I decided to try it. It was so easy, and my little girl begs for more every time I make this. Try it! It's different and so good, and I can't explain why, but we're addicted!

1-2 heads of Broccoli (depending on how many you're serving, I do one large head for 2 adults, 2 kids)
Olive Oil
Kosher Salt

Preheat the broiler on your oven. Chop broccoli into small, bite-sized pieces. Place them on a cookie sheet and drizzle with oil. You don't need a lot of oil, just enough to make sure that each piece of broccoli has a little on it. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Start with less. This is to taste, but YOU really have to figure out how much you like! Mix it all up, right there on the cookie sheet. I just use my hands. Place under the broiler, but make sure that your top rack is pretty close to the broiler. Broil for 2-3 minutes and then get it out and stir it well. Place the broccoli back under the broiler for another 2-3 minutes. You want there to be little pieces of brown on the broccoli, not lots, just barely starting to brown. That is what gives it the yummy flavor. Serve hot, right out of the oven!