These simple Halloween Sugar Wafers are a quick and easy treat to share at your next Halloween shindig! 
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Desserts
Mini Key Lime Pie Bites
We’re in our first week back to school here in my neck of the woods. For some reason, I’ve always felt like the return to school means the end of summer, which really isn’t true at all. I mean, it’s HOT outside until October here, so it certainly feels like summer for the majority of the year! But to help me fight that “summer’s over” feeling, I try to cling to my favorite summer time treats for as long as I can.
Without question, my favorite thing about summer is heading down to the gulf and and breathing in that sweet salty air. I live close enough to the beach that it’s totally feasible to take a day trip down, so getting to do that every now and then really puts a pep in my step. Sure I enjoy the ocean, the fishing and the scenery, but what I REALLY love is the cuisine.
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Mocha Fudge Brownies with Creamy Coffee Glaze
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FoundMyDelight #CollectiveBias
My house has exploded. The living room is a disaster area, there’s laundry strewn over all of the sitting areas and my kitchen is a complete danger zone. It’s a hot mess, y’all. It’s a total circus with one little toddler monkey who is the ring leader of the show, and I am certain she won’t be helping in the clean up efforts!
Perhaps you’re laughing at my situation because you’ve totally been there. Or maybe you’re even there right now! I’m currently curled up in a little clean spot on my couch that I miraculously found, staring at all of the work that is piled up before me. Most days I wake up well before the sun to try to get things done and tend to the chores that I was too tired to take care of the day before.
Sometimes in this tired stupor I catch myself daydreaming of “me” time. If only I could take a 10 minute vacation away from this explosion site and just breathe. If only I could get a little pep back into my step. If only I could just have a moment to myself to savor. A moment where I can forget about my stresses and just indulge a little.
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Easy Peasy Peach Compote
One of my favorite things to do on the weekend is fix a hearty breakfast for my family. During the work week, my husband usually grabs something quick and easy (aka Little Debbie Oatmeal Pies), and I almost always eat a bowl of cereal. I have zero complaints about eating my cereal (it’s basically my favorite food group), but it doesn’t satisfy my craving to actually cook something.
Cooking is one of my favorite ways to provide for my family, so this past weekend when my husband woke up early to cut the grass and my daughter was still snoozing, I jumped at the opportunity to cook my heart out! I had 3 plump and juicy peaches sitting on my counter, so I started trying to think of a way to incorporate them into our breakfast.
I broke out my favorite skillet and whipped up some pancake batter. I had a hankering for fluffy brown pancakes, but this time I thought that I’d ditch the syrup and go for something even sweeter using the peaches. This Easy Peasy Peach Compote takes less than 15 minutes to make, so while I was flipping flapjacks I had my peach sauce simmering away in a small sauce pan. In my opinion, I could always ditch the syrup in exchange for the golden sweetness of this succulent peach compote. It’s absolutely delicious!
I took 3 peaches and peeled, pitted and diced them. I put them in a small pot on the stove and added in some brown sugar, water, vanilla and cinnamon. I brought them to a boil and allowed them to simmer for about 12 minutes. The brown sugar blending with the sweet peach juice forms a thicker syrup-like sauce – making it PERFECT for pouring over a tall stack of pancakes!
Making a fruit compote is super easy, and this recipe can be made with nearly any fruit. It’s a great addition to top your muffins, cakes, or yogurt with!
Here’s a free printable version of my recipe. Enjoy!
Easy Peasy Peach Compote
Ingredients
- 3 fresh peaches- skinned pitted and diced
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 12-14 minutes, being sure to stir occasionally.
- Sauce will gradually thicken and become syrup-like.
- Remove from heat and allow to briefly cool.
- Serve over fresh pancakes, muffins, slices of pound cake or shortbread, or however you'd like!
- Enjoy!
Notes
I chose to sprinkle a tiny bit of powdered sugar on top of my compote and pancakes. That's completely optional - but it's delicious!
Tried this recipe?
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What do you love to put fruit compote on? Have you ever tried it on top of your pancakes? Do you have another recipe you’d love to share? Leave a comment below and let’s chat!
If you like this recipe, you’ll definitely want to check out these: Blackberry Cream Cheese French Toast Casserole, Homemade Blackberry Lemonade, Bomb-tastic Blackberry Brownies, Peach Jalapeno Pepper Jelly
Bomb-tastic Blackberry Brownies with a Sweet Berry Glaze
Happy 4th of July weekend to all! I absolutely love this time of year. Everyone is cooking out on the grill, enjoying the outdoors, sippin’ on sweet lemonade and devouring the delicious fruits and veggies that grow in our summer gardens.
Mmmm. I can smell the hamburgers and apple pie cooking right now! Ok, maybe I’m just daydreaming over here, but it won’t be long before I get to enjoy those sweet summertime smells!
I DO smell something amazing filling the air of my home as I type this, though. I just took this beautiful batch of Bomb-tastic Blackberry Brownies out of the oven! Boy, aren’t they just heavenly? I’ve heard of people incorporating different things into their brownies to make them “healthier”. This recipe certainly isn’t healthy, but I figured if other people could put black beans and avocados in their brownies, then by golly I could put blackberries in mine!
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Lemon Poppy Seed Summer Squash Bread
This recipe for Lemon Poppy Seed Summer Squash Bread is a wonderful way to use up fresh summer squash straight from the garden! Shred it, bake it, slice is up and serve with a pad of butter on a hot summer day for a refreshing treat!
During the summer time, there is always an abundance of fresh produce filling people’s gardens and the shelves of local farmer’s markets. It’s one of my very favorite things about summer! My husband and I have a very small garden growing in our back yard. This year we planted yellow squash, zucchini, egg plant, tomatoes, an array of peppers and fresh basil. I enjoy incorporating those fresh elements into my cooking, but by mid-summer I’m always looking for something a tad bit different to do with them.
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Protein Packed Monkey Muffins – A Nutritional Toddler Snack!
This shop has been compensated by CollectiveBias, Inc. on behalf of its advertiser, Similac. #NutritionintheMix #Collectivebias #Walmart
In a perfect world, there would be a handbook (with pictures) issued to every parent who is raising a toddler. It would be filled with explanations as to why your child is throwing a tantrum, how they were able to reach the rice from the top shelf and spill it everywhere, and why in the world they LOVE a food one day and hate it the next.
Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world where such a handbook exists. Hey, a mom can dream, right? 😉 I sure wish I had one right about now, though! I’m already having a hard enough time coming to terms with the fact that I no longer have a little baby to hold in my arms. She grew in the blink of an eye and is now a squirmy little toddler who is too busy to be held and wants to get into everything! I really wish time could slow down just a bit!
She has entered a phase where it seems like she changes daily. One day she likes yogurt, the next she doesn’t. She wants to feed herself, but she’s only interested in the food that’s on your plate and not her own. She’ll take a bottle one day, and be totally uninterested in it the next. Sometimes it’s really hard to keep up with what’s going on! While her little body is growing and going through lots of new changes, I don’t want to fall behind in making sure she’s getting all of the nutrients she needs.
And that, my friends, is where Go & Grow by Similac® Food Mix-Ins™ steps in to save the day!
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Mandarin Orange Upside Down Cake
I love a good upside down cake. I’m pretty certain that for the past 5 or 6 years I have requested a pineapple upside down cake for my birthday. Any time you can combine real fruit with the sweetness of a cake, you know you’ve got a winning recipe. Plus, with fruit being a key ingredient, it’s basically like you’re eating something healthy! Am I right?! (I kid, of course.)
I had never really thought about adding other types of fruit to an upside down cake. I mean, pineapple upside down cake is already so perfect in my eyes, why mess with it? It wasn’t until I was thumbing through my great grandmother’s recipe book that I realized you totally could use other fruits in this type of recipe! (I know it seems like a no-brainer that you could substitute the pineapple, but I seriously had never thought to do that!)
I’ve shared one of my favorite recipes from my Grandmama with you before. Remember these incredible lemon cakes? If you haven’t made those yet, then bless your heart because you’re sure missing out! I already knew that anything that came out of her cookbook would be delicious, so when I saw her recipe for a Mandarin Orange Upside Down Cake, I knew I had to get to work so my taste buds wouldn’t be deprived any longer.
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Palm “Sundae” Dessert
Sunday is, without question, my favorite day of the week. I spend a large portion of the day with my church family, and in the morning I have the privilege of teaching a handful of 10-12 year old kids during Sunday School. After learning that using Elmer’s school glue without getting it all over the place is a gift not everyone has, I cut back the amount of craft projects we do together. And by cut back, I mean that we just do not do them, period.
But with Easter quickly approaching, I decided to make an exception. And besides, this isn’t exactly a “craft” as much as it is just an opportunity to put together a fun little ice cream treat while sharing about Jesus! (I don’t expect it to be any less messy than them using glue, though!) 😉
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Grandmama’s Glazed Lemon Cakes – Recipe
My husband’s great grandmother was truly a wonderful lady. I was fortunate enough to get to know her for 4 years before she passed away. I never got to know her as well as I would have liked, but I knew two things about her for certain: She loved her great grandson, and she could sho’ nuff make some delicious desserts.
She had some cookbooks made for friends and family several years before her passing that had lots of her yummy recipes in them. I haven’t tried all of them yet, but I’m working on it! When my husband and I were dating, I remember her making a batch of these special little lemon cakes. My husband LOVED them so much, and once I tried them for myself, I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. I understood why my husband loved them so much!
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