Happy 4th! - Berry Shortcake Tower of Deliciousness

It's as easy as 1, 2, 3 and you can't go wrong with the red, white, and blue!

Berry Shortcake Tower

Ingredients

• 1 store-bought angel food cake (in bundt form if possible)
• 2 Cups blueberry jam
• 2 Cups (or desired amount) whipped cream

Cooking Directions

1. 1st layer - cake
2. 2nd layer- blueberry jam
3. 3rd layer - whipped cream
4. Repeat and tada!

 If you enjoyed this (easy-peasy) recipe, also check out,

4th of July Inspired Marbled Sugar Cookies!

Hope all you Americans have a happy, fun, and SAFE, 4th of July!!!

 Get Your Feast On!

Avocado 2-Ways: Sweet & Savory

Savory.

Zingy Guacamole

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 medium sized avocados (the more the merrier!)
• 1 or 2 medium sized tomatoes diced
• 1 small small onion diced & caramalized (or cooked through)
• 2 teaspoons - 1 tablespoon Siracha (or to taste
• pinch of salt (or to taste)
• pinch of ground black pepper (or taste)
• optional: pinch of ginger

Cooking Directions

1. Simple gather ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. Smash together until desired consistency.
3. Season and serve!

 Sweet. 

Chilled Avocado Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 or 2 medium sized avocado
• 1 banana
• 2 heaping teaspoons coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• optional: milk (as much needed to reach desired consistency)

Cooking Directions

1. Gather ingredients in a blender and pulse until smooth like pudding.
2. If it becomes too thick add a little milk to reach desired consistency.
3. Refrigerate until chilled and serve!

 Hope you enjoy!

Get Your Feast On!

Some Treats for Valentine

One can argue that it's cliche and even cheesy to give a loved one a box of chocolates for Valentine's Day and to some degree, I'll agree, HOMEMADE.....anything really...let alone, assorted chocolates is a game changer. Unless they're not into chocol...........let's be serious lol. All I know is if I got some of this any day of the week, I'd be one happy gal.

In this assortment of goodies, I've included MY version of the Hershey's White Chocolate Symphony Bar, but instead of using toffee, I made caramel brittle instead. And you can't go wrong with chocolate covered nuts & dried fruit. It all really is kinda simple to make, but the final result is  fabulous.

Assorted Chocolate Treats

Ingredients

• 1 bark semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 bark almond bark or white chocolate
• 1 cup peanut brittle
• 1 cup peanuts
• 1 cup dried cranberries

Cooking Directions

1. Melt the chocolate (white or semi-sweet).
2. Coat nuts, brittle, and dried fruit.
3. Place on a sheet tray lined with wax or parchment paper.
4. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes or until chocolate coating has set properly. 

And here's a little something I created in the spirit of love. I drew the tree, sunset, and shadows with markers. For overall color as well as the title text, I used photoshop :)

Hope you have a lovely Valentine's Day! To me it's not only a day for lovers alone, but for love in general. So may you enjoy this day with the people or person you love the most whether it's your husband, wife, family, best friends, pets, etc! 

Get Your Feast On!

Apple Crisp & "La Fway" :D

 Apple Crisp Moments

a haiku by Andrea V

Crunchy, sweet topping...

Autumn's cure for Winter blues

I'll save you a piece.

Let's be honest, any type of dessert/snack right out of the oven is muy perfecto during these cold winter months. Apple crisp, just happens to be a personal favorite. Speaking of cold months, it seems the snow has been actively trying to avoid the Chicago area, but like a lost puppy or kitten, eventually finds its way back home at least for little bits at a time. I'm not complaining. As much as I LOVE the snow, I have to say, it's quite a nice change of pace actually being able to enjoy it instead of trying to survive it :)


The Apple Crisp (or any crisp) really is the ultimate idealist's dessert, in that it tastes like a sinful act of gluttony, but feels like a light sweet harmless snack and with more or less only about 200 calories per serving, I'd say the latter rings most true :)

I make my apple crisp with a thicker oat topping. If you want this even more healthy, then just lessen the topping.

Apple Crisp

Ingredients

• 2 or 3 medium sized Granny Smith apples sliced
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/2 stick butter or margarine chilled and cubed
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• juice of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon corn starch

Cooking Directions

1. In a sauce pan over medium-high heat, start to cook apples, 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, lemon juice, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and corn starch. Stir until sauce starts to thicken. Pour into baking dish. Set aside.
2. For topping: Whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, rest of brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and add a pinch of salt. Cut in cubed butter (using fork or fingers). Make sure butter is well incorporated in the dry mixture.
3. Using a tablespoon at a time, add hot water while mixing until doughy paste is formed.
4. Place dollops of the dough over the apples. Make sure apples are evenly topped.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes or until apples are bubbly and topping is a nice golden brown.

^_^

For the sake of being random, I present to you, "La Fway"

hahahahahahaha, thank you inter-webs for this majestic piece of art.

Get Your Feast On!

Bark! It's beginning to look a lot like.....

So  much Christmas spirit this year....well, every year but this year in particular. We rummaged every inch of our storage unit aka the basement and managed to put out 99% of our Christmas/Holiday decorations. So far, it's looking good :)

The first time I ever tried Peppermint Bark was at a holiday party at work several years ago. I'm not a huge fan of mint-chocolate anything, so naturally this didn't sound appetizing at all. Surprisingly, I enjoyed every bite. I'm so happy I tried it. It's decadent, but refreshing at the same time and has become my favorite holiday nosh. I'm pretty sure this is a popular treat in general, but in case you're  not sure how to make it yourself, I included a quick and straight-forward recipe.


White Chocolate VS Almond Bark?

Now this is something I've always wondered. Does anyone else out there prefer to use almond bark over white chocolate or vice versa? I've always used almond bark in place of white chocolate and I don't really taste the difference, but I'm sure I'm wrong. I know that white chocolate dries a little bit more yellow whereas almond bark dries completely white, which I usually prefer because it's aesthetically more appealing to me and for this time of year it's just wintery and gorgeous. Oh and white chocolate tends to be a little bit more expensive, but I've always wondered, other than the color, what the difference is between the two.

If anyone knows, please let me know in the comments!

Candy Cane Bark

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup almond bark melted
• 1 (about 1/4 Cup) crushed candy cane

Cooking Directions

1. In 10 second intervals, microwave almond bark until it's melted (be careful not to burn it!)
2. Crush candy cane and sprinkle into white chocolate. Mix thoroughly until candy cane is well incorporated.
3. On a cookie-sheet lined with wax/parchment paper, spread mixture evenly and thinly OR create cookie sized dollops.
4. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes or until completely solidified.
5. Break off into pieces and serve!

What is your ultimate favorite holiday snack?

Get Your Feast On!

Pumpkin Fever!: Bread Pudding

Yay! More pumpkin!  This time I incorporated it into some yummy bread pudding. I made sure to put A LOT of pumpkin because I really love the taste of it. Instead of the traditional caramel or maple syrup that I usually enjoy with this dessert/snack, I topped it off with some Pumpkin Butter that my sister got for the family. Although it's more of a jam, then butter--so good!

Related Posts!
Homemade Pumpkin Puree Straight Up Bread Pudding w/ Caramel Sauce

More Pumpkin Fever!
Pumpkin Spice Latte

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Ingredients

• Huge bowl-ful (8-10 Cups) stale bread torn to medium/large pieces
• 1 1/4 Cups pumpkin puree
• 3 Cups milk
• 1/4 C melted butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 can condensed milk (sweetness to taste)
• 1/4 Cup brown sugar (sweetness to taste)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

 Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Tear apart stale bread into medium-large pieces. Combine with baking powder in large bowl. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, combine milk (2% & condensed), butter, eggs, brown sugar, spices, and puree. Whisk until smooth.
4. Poor into bowl of bread. Make sure each bread is coated. Let sit for at least 15 minutes.
5. Bake in greased casserole dish for 45-60 minutes or until top is golden and crispy.

that's a lot of stale bread! :p

Get Your Feast On!

"Blood-Shot" Velvet Cake Eyeballs

the "blood" got a bit runny near the end lol

With Halloween quickly approaching, here's a fun and easy last minute treat you can prepare for any Halloween festivity. I used already made muffins, but you can certainly make your own cake if you prefer.

Thank you to Food Network for the inspiration!

Halloween Cake Eyeballs

Ingredients

• 3 cups red velvet muffin or cake crumbles
• 1/2 container cream cheese frosting
• 1/2 cup white chocolate
• several chocolate chips
• a few marshmallows
• red and blue food coloring

Cooking Directions

1. In a large bowl or food processor, combine cake crumbs and frosting until can easily be formed into balls.
2. Form balls delicately into desired size.
3. In a separate bowl, melt white chocolate and let cool slightly (be careful not to burn yourself!).
4. Roll/dip balls into white chocolate until fully coated.
5. Let sit on parchment paper or greased surface in the refrigerator until coating has solidified.
6. Using a bit of blue food coloring, mold into the marshmallow chunks until pale blue & sticky. Form small circular shape for the iris, should be bigger than chocolate chip. Place chocolate chip in center as pupil to complete eyes.
7. Using a toothpick and red food coloring, draw on red zig-zags for "blood-shot" look.
8. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

A Halloween DIY post coming up next! :)

Get Your Feast On!

Filipino Dessert: Cassava Cake

This is by far my favorite Filipino dessert EVER. Even though it's called a "cake", texturally it's nothing like a cakel. It's more starchy and comparable to eating sticky rice type dessert. Cassava or Yuca (different from Yucca) is a root crop native to South America, but very widely used in the Philippines and other tropical regions. This dessert is very popular in my culture and for good reason! It's so delicious and quite easy to make.

As exotic as this dessert is, all the ingredients I used can be found at the grocery store. The grated cassava and young coconut are probably the 2 that will be harder to find. An Asian Supermarket or Filipino Store are your best bets, BUT they also sell them at Garden Fresh here in Illinois, if you have one nearby.

Cassava Cake

Cake

• 2 packages grated cassava
• 1 package shredded coconut drained
• 3 eggs
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 stick butter melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping

• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons sugar

Cooking Directions

1. Thaw grated cassava and young shredded coconut.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
3. In a large bowl, whisk in eggs and condensed milk with the cassava.
4. Add coconut milk,sugar, and shredded coconut. Whisk.
5. Add butter and vanilla extract. Mix well. Final batter will be thin and liquidy.
6. Line baking dish with parchment paper or grease with butter.
7. Whisk together topping ingredients until smooth and light in color. Set aside.
8. Bake for 40 minutes or until top has just start to set. Cake will still be pale. Brush thick layer of topping mixture, then continue to bake for another 10 minutes or until top is golden or until toothpick inserted comes out clean

batter will be liqidy with some lumps

Get Your Feast On!

7-Day Green Smoothie Challenge - Day 3

This is probably my favorite green smoothie so far! One of my favorite snacks of all time is a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich. I decided to turn it into a smoothie haha. Why not! After using the spinach for  Day 1 I realized that you don't really taste it all, so I wasn't worried about using it here. I used fresh peanut butter, but if you want to make this for after your workouts you can totally use peanut butter flavored protein powder.

This definitely has eliminated my dessert cravings for today. Best part? It's pretty much guilt free.

PB & Banana Greenshake

Ingredients

• 2 heaping handfuls fresh baby spinach
• 1 2 bananas frozen & chopped
• 2 teaspoons peanut butter
• 1 teaspoons honey
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup milk

Cooking Directions

1. Blend it all together!

Get Your Feast On!

Easy/Last Minute Happy 4th Idea

These cookies are SO easy and simple to make. You can find my original eggless cookie recipe HERE. I omitted the orange zest, so they're more like traditional vanilla wafer/shortbread cookies--perfect to dip in milk or coffee. This is a great last minute idea to bring to any 4th of July festivity or to make for the kids! :)

 Red, White, & Blue Marble Cookies

- 1 stick butter softened
- 1/2 C powdered sugar
- 1 C flour
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- red & blue food coloring

In medium sized mixing bowl whisk the butter and powdered sugar until light and creamy. Add vanilla extract. Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt.

Keep stiring until dough forms. Knead until flour is no longer visible. Separate into 2 discs. Add 5 drops each of blue and red food coloring. Using a fork, stir it into the batter creating marble effect.

Wrap each disc with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F, then bake for 30 minutes.

Cookies will be pale. When outer edges start to to turn golden, you'll know they're done.

It's sooooo hot today and I've already begun to feel nauseous from the heat....I know I know. I'm a vampire lol. BUT, that's alright.


To those celebrating the holiday, have lots of fun, stay safe, and most importantly STAY HYDRATED and COOL!

Feast On!

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

 

So sinful.

The cake definitely lives up to its name :) I tried to get as clear of a picture as my little point-and-shoot camera will allow me of the actual recipe on the Hershey's Cocoa Powder container.

If you'd like a bigger more legible version, go ahead and

Coconutty Cupcakes

A quick, delectable fix for those coconut cravings.

You won't miss the frosting. I promise! :)

yields 2 dozen cupcakes 

Cupcake
- 2  C all-purpose flour
- 3/4 C sugar 
- 1/2 C butter melted and cooled
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2  tsp baking powder
- 1 C coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp (small pinch) of salt

Coconut Topping
- 3 C dessicated coconut
- 2 C powdered sugar
- 2-3 tbsp coconut milk
- 1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (you can also sift if you like)

In another bowl, beat or whisk together butter and sugar until fluffy and light, combine eggs one at a time.

Add dry ingredients in 3 batches mixing in between. After adding first batch, mix, then add milk. Add next 2 batches, mixing in between. DO NOT OVER MIX or else cupcakes won't be as fluffy!

Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full, then bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Topping: Set aside dessicated coconut into a medium sized bowl.

Combine powdered sugar, coconut milk, and vanilla extract to form glaze. Using pastry brush, glaze tops of cupcakes.

Dip tops of cupcake into bowl of dessicated coconut

Feast On!

Petite Portable Pies

My family wanted pie, so I gave it to them.......in cute little pastry packages. I've always thought of an empanada or turnover as being the petite portable version of a pie. These little bundles of joy are perfect for those like myself who favor a great crust to filling ratio in a pie hehe.

The following recipe asks for mostly store-bought items. You can certainly make the crust and/or filling from scratch if you've got an hour or more of your time to spare. This version, however, only took me no longer than 20 minutes. So if time isn't on your side, then give this a try!

It's as easy as 1 2 3!! And....... less dishes to wash! :p

yields 2 dozen

- 1 package of 2 pie-dough crusts
- 1 can cherry filling
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 egg beaten

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Gently unroll pie crust dough. 

Using a circular cookie cutter or small bowl, cut out circles from the dough. You can also cut out squares using a knife. Fill each circle or square with a tbsp of filling.

Fold over creating a crescent shape or triangle if using square pieces and crease the edges with water or egg wash. Brush empanadas with egg wash and sprinkle sugar on top.  

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Serve alone or a la mode with a dollop of whipped cream on top.

FEAST ON!!

You have reached your final destination.......

Peanut Butter & Banana Cream Pie
Follow up to Failed Succes

 

- 1 1/2 C worth of ginger snap & oreo cookies
- 1/4 C melted butter or margarine
- 1 tsp sugar

- 1 package banana pudding (follow instructions)

- 1/4 C peanut butter slightly melted
- 2 bananas sliced
- 1 C heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Combine crust ingredients until well coated w/ margarine or butter. Press onto bottom and up the sides of pie baking dish.

Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool.

After the crust is cool, Iayer sliced bananas.

Follow pudding instructions, then combine peanut butter. Layer mixture on top of sliced bananas.

Beat heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form or desired consistency is reached. Final layer on top.

Refrigerate for a few hours (overnight is best). Then serve! 

FEAST ON!