Chocolate Quinoa Cake

I had recently made a batch of quinoa for another recipe and had a lot of left over. I didn’t want to throw it away, so I went on a search for recipes that use leftover cooked quinoa and came across a recipe for a chocolate cake. Hmm…that might be interesting!

I’ve used cooked quinoa in muffins and cookies before, so I thought it would be something to try. Boy am I glad I gave it a chance. This cake was delicious! Super moist, full of chocolate flavor and easy to make. I topped my cake with a peanut butter frosting…which made it very rich. You could swap out the frosting for a dusting of powdered sugar and it would be just as delicious.

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Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Stuffed Peppers

Green peppers were on sale the other week and I pick up a pack. Stuffed peppers are one of my go-to meals – you know those meals that everyone enjoys and there’s no complaints.  We all loved this recipe. The filling was creamy and delicious and packed full of mushroom flavor.

Even better, it made enough for leftovers which is always a bonus!

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Minestrone Verde

My son loves soup and has been asking me to make it for him. Most of the soups I make are in the fall and winter, and wouldn’t work for a hot summer night. I found this recipe for a light and brothy soup – perfect for summer! It’s a full of delicious fresh veggies and homemade pesto.

It was delicious and we all loved it! You can easily swap out some of the veggies for what you have on hand or prefer, but we loved it packed full of green vegetables.

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Chocolate Almond Flour Waffles

I was looking for an alternate to traditional waffles and came across this recipe for chocolate waffles using almond flour. I was really intrigued by them and like that they are high in protein and healthy fat…plus dairy free! I made a batch for my kids to sample and they both loved them. I was surprised since they have been quite picky lately, but they’re a delicious treat.

I’m planning to experiment more with almond flour as I’m looking at ways to reduce using traditional all-purpose flour in my recipes. Almond flour is blanched (skins removed) or unblanched almonds that are ground into a fine flour-like product. When using it in baked goods, it’s a 1-to-1 replacement for regular flour. Since it’s higher in fat, you won’t need as much butter or shortening that you would use in a traditional recipe. The one thing that is needs is a binder, like eggs, because it lacks the binding property of gluten.


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Tandy Cakes

Growing up in the Philadelphia area, I’ve always enjoyed the deliciousness of snack cakes from TastyKake. One of my favorites was the peanut butter tandy cakes and I’m excited to share this little taste of childhood with all of you. It’s three layers – a chocolate layer, creamy peanut butter and a light and fluffy cake. It’s soooo good!

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Peach Blueberry Basil Sangria

Since joining a wine club, I’ve grown my stockpile of wine and have been experimenting with making different varieties of sangria. This combination was delicious, refreshing and takes advantages of the fruit that’s available right now. My mom who is not a big drinker sampled it and said it was really good – it wasn’t too sweet and the little hint of basil was unexpected.

Do you prefer red or white sangria? I’m looking to experiment more and would love to make varieties of sangria my readers would like to try!

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Cinnamon Sugar Knots

I’m wrapping up #CookoutWeek 2018 with a delicious treat. If you love cinnamon rolls, these 30 minute cinnamon sugar knots will not disappoint! They’re perfect for breakfast, dessert or a mid-afternoon snack. I was in the mood to do some baking and after sampling my fair share of Honey Butter from Chef Shamy, I know it would perfect to use in these knots. It really pumped up the honey and cinnamon sugar.

If you have never experimented with yeast before, this is great recipe to start with. You’ll use instant yeast and the time for rising is only 10 minutes. You’ll get a little messy with rolling the dough in the butter and cinnamon sugar, but it’s not fun baking unless you’re making a bit of a mess! 🙂

As a special thank you, Chef Shamy has provided me with a discount code, so you get to try these delicious butters too! Visit Amazon and use the code 10BUTTER10 for 10% off your order. Hurry – the code is only valid until July 4th!

Cinnamon Sugar Knots | Join Us, Pull up a Chair #CookoutWeek

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Garlic Butter Grilled Lobster

Yum! That’s all I really need to say. If you take anything away from #CookoutWeek, you need to grill lobster tails! I surprised my husband with these for Father’s Day and he definitely enjoyed them!

Now onto what makes them really delicious – garlic butter with Parmesan cheese and basil from Chef Shamy. I was excited to receive two different butters from Chef Shamy as I had never heard of them before. Well….I’m kicking myself  for just learning and enjoying them! Chef Shamy has a variety of butters – from savory to sweet – and they’re perfect for just about anything. I’m excited to share my next recipe which features the honey butter.

Their slogan is “Making the World a Butter Place®” with their butters that contain no oils and are labeled as clean. The shelf life is really long, it has a 1 year shelf life (unopened), 2 years frozen, 1 year in the fridge unopened, 6 months opened in the fridge, and several weeks on the counter.

As a special thank you, Chef Shamy has provided me with a discount code so you get to try these delicious butters too! Visit Amazon and use the code 10BUTTER10 for 10% off your order. Hurry – the code is only valid until July 4th!

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Cauliflower “Potato” Salad

Now it’s time to check out my side dish for #cookoutweek208 – low-carb cauliflower potato salad. I’m not a huge fan of potato salad, but my husband prefers it over macaroni salad (which I love!) I decided to swap out the potatoes for cauliflower and it was a great switch! It had the creaminess of potato salad and the dressing tied it all together. While I couldn’t fool my kids, the adults enjoyed it. I’ll definitely make it again!

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Basil and Sun-dried Tomato Pinwheels

I’m excited to kick off #CookoutWeek 2018 with an appetizer recipe. As I was planning my recipes, I thought it would be fun to reveal them as courses! We’ll start with an appetizer and end with dessert later this week. It was the perfect recipe too because my basil is OUT.OF.CONTROL!!! I’ve made 2 big batches of pesto and this recipe….and I have more to go. If you have any recipes using basil, please share them! 🙂

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