Strawberry Vanilla Smoothie

This Strawberry Vanilla Smoothie is a refreshing drink that gets kicked up a notch with the addition of Pure Tahitian Vanilla. The vanilla adds just the right touch and compliments the strawberries perfectly!

White Chocolate Dipped Snickerdoodles #VanillaWeek

What do you get when you combine a simple cinnamon sugar cookie with smooth, creamy white chocolate? White Chocolate Dipped Snickerdoodles of course!

Candied Cherry Cookies

Candied Cherry Cookies are a wonderful addition to your Christmas cookie tray. A delicate vanilla cookie studded with a sweet candied cherry is as delicious as it is beautiful. These festive cookies are easy to make too!

Vanilla Poached Pears with Apricot Sauce #CleverlyPoached

Vanilla Poached Pears with Apricot Sauce is an impressive dessert that will have everyone in awe of your culinary skills! We'll keep it just between us how easy these really are .

Kefir Pudding Parfait

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc and its advertiser. All opinions are mine from my experience with the product. #CollectiveBias

My Kefir Pudding Parfait is a healthy pudding you can feel good about eating and serving to your family.

Don and I LOVE creamilicious snacks, but we've been eating many that aren't so good for us. In an effort to incorporate healthier sweet treats that are creamy and delicious into our diet I turned to Kefir, a fermented milk product loaded with good-for-you stuff!

At Winn Dixie I found Lifeway Kefir cultured milk smooties in a variety of different flavors. I picked up the plain in hopes I could make some vanilla pudding for a fruit parfait. I wasn't sure if the Kefir would make a thick, rich, and creamy pudding, but I'm happy to report it did!! I am so excited about this!! Don and I can now enjoy healthier creamilicious sweet treats every day!

This parfait makes a great breakfast too! Kefir is loaded with 11 grams of protein in every cup! That is sure to keep you going!!

Independence Day Cupcakes

Red, White, and Blue and yummy too!

How perfect are these for your 4th of July Celebration?!!  

Don't think this is just a pretty face either - this cupcake is as delicious as it is pretty. It is filled with vanilla pudding and topped with a homemade whipped topping and fresh fruit  yum yum yum

Just a note about homemade whipped topping - it's awesome! Well worth the little bit of extra effort!

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3 egg whites
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
• 1 (3.4 oz) small package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 cups skim milk
• • Thinly sliced strawberries (smaller strawberries work better for this recipe)
  • Fresh blueberries
• 
  
• 
  Directions
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
• 
  
• With a pastry cutter, chop the shortening into the dry ingredients until the mixture becomes crumbly, then beat in the egg whites, vanilla extract, and 1 cup of milk to make a smooth batter. Spoon batter into the paper-lined cupcake cups, filling them about 2/3 full.
• 
  
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 22 to 26 minutes. Allow cupcakes to cool completely.
• 
  
• In a bowl, beat together the pudding mix and 2 cups of skim milk until the pudding is thickened, about 2 minutes. Allow to stand for 5 minutes to finish thickening. Spoon the pudding into a pastry bag with a medium tip.
• 
  
• To fill and decorate cupcakes, use a thin paring knife to cut a small hole, about 1/2 inch in diameter, into the top of a cupcake. Insert the knife about 3/4 of the way down into the cupcake, and remove the core. Use the pastry bag to fill the hole with pudding, piping in enough pudding to fill the hole flush with the top of the cupcake. Frost the tops of the filled cupcakes with whipped cream (see recipe below), spreading it into a smooth layer.
• 
  
• Place a blueberry in the center of each cupcake. Around the blueberry, arrange 5 slices of strawberry, pointed ends outward, to make a star shape. Store in refrigerator.

• 
  
• Whipped Topping

• Ingredients

  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • • 
      

  Directions

  In a chilled small mixing bowl and with chilled beaters, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beat until soft peaks form. 

• Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com Independence Day Cupcakes

Mini Coffee Cakes

Recipe inspired by: Allrecipes Mini Coffee Cakes

 I discovered this recipe last fall when I was searching for something to make for Madison's Equestrian Team. Don and I were traveling to GA to cheer them on, and I wanted to bring snacks for the team.  Because it was a new recipe, I made a test batch to see how they'd turn out.  Well, they ended up being the most wonderful little coffee cakes I have ever tasted! They are so light it is like eating air - only really yummy tasting air with cinnamon!  We gobbled the test batch up right away, so I made another test batch...just to be sure you know - don't want to feed the kids nasty muffins.  Again, we gobbled 'em up! I really should NEVER make these - they are too dangerous to have in the house, but I really wanted to share them here on the blog so I sacrificed just for you - I'm nice like that <<grin>>

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 
  
• TOPPING:
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. I like to do this for several minutes to make sure it is mixed well - about 3-5 minutes

Beat in the egg 

combine flour, pudding mix, baking powder and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with milk. Beat until blended. The batter will be thick - sorry I forgot to get a photo of it - I guess I was just so excited about the muffins!

 Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. 

Combine topping ingredients; 

sprinkle over batter. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until the tops bounce back when lightly pressed. Cool for 10 minutes; 

remove from pan to a wire rack and try not to eat them all at once!

By the way - the team LOVED them! They ate every last one!

French Toast with Honey Vanilla Bean Butter

Happy Easter!  We are so blessed Madison came home from school for the holiday weekend, and we celebrated a wonderful family dinner on Saturday. The pink tulips (my fave) I picked up at the grocery that morning made a simple, yet beautiful centerpiece!

Before our  holiday dinner, we had an eventful Saturday morning that involved unexpected new tires for the car AND unexpected contact lenses for the hubs.

All of that took place before noon! Whew, what a morning! When they got home from their adventures, I made them a wonderful brunch. It was a new recipe, and it was sooooo delish I wanted to share it.

I found this recipe as part of my participation with the Allrecipe's Allstar Ambassador program. I have been volunteering with this program for almost a year. This month, Allrecipes has partnered with the America's Dairy Farmers in support of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

As an Allrecipe Allstar I was given several different recipes to try. I have made 3 of the recipes so far and by far my favorite is the French Toast with Honey Vanilla Bean Butter.  This recipe was soooo good it didn't last long!  Try it you'll love it!

We really LOVE butter in this household! When Madison was around 5 or 6 years old she was already experimenting in the kitchen.  Once when I was sick she decided to whip something up on her own (she's always been independent like that).  Seeing as I was in bed deathly ill, Madison decided to ask her dad for help.  She needed to melt some butter for whatever she was creating, and asked her dad if butter can be melted in the microwave.  At the time she asked him, dad was watching TV...er I mean working on something very important and may not have been paying full attention to her question. He said "sure, the microwave will do a fine job melting butter".  What Don didn't realize is that Madison was putting the butter in the microwave with the foil wrapper on it!  Fortunately, the child has always been very smart, so she turned off the microwave immediately when she saw the lightning bolts!  Thankfully, no harm was done to child or oven. She learned a lesson that day, but still went on to have several microwave mishaps in the years to come...explosions, fires, etc... you know, the usual stuff. Naturally, when she was asked to make a TOY out of paper and glue for her 3D design class - she decided to make a life size version of our microwave! 

French Toast with Honey Vanilla Bean Butter

original recipe Go Bold with Butter

Honey Vanilla Bean Butter

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup honey (I used Sourwood honey from Savannah)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 vanilla bean, seeded (My bean was a little on the small side, so I used the seeds from the whole bean)

Directions:

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, honey, sugar, cinnamon, salt and vanilla together until smooth.

Dollop the mixture onto parchment paper in a log shape. Roll the paper tightly and twist the ends to seal. Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

French Toast

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1 cup whole milk

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch salt

1/2 cup brandy (I omitted the brandy as I didn't have any on hand)

zest of one orange (or lemon)

French bread, sliced into 1-inch slices 

2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Whisk together eggs, milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, brandy, and zest. Dip the bread slices into the egg mixture to coat.

Heat a large skillet to medium heat. Melt butter. Add bread and cook for about 2 minutes on each side. The french toast should be golden brown. Serve immediately with a generous slice of honey butter and pure maple syrup.

NOTE: I made the french bread the day before. It was worth the effort!