Recipe: Cauliflower Buffalo Bites

By Jess on July 30th, 2014

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

Buffalo wings are super popular for parties, but they’re so greasy and high in calories. Here is another option for a gluten-free and low-calorie snack that is delicious! Thanks to Good Dinner Mom for the recipe!

Ingredients:

  • 1 large head cauliflower, cut into bite-size florets
  • Olive oil to drizzle
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ⅛ teaspoon pepper
  • 1 tablespoon melted butter (optional)
  • ½ to 3/4 cup Frank’s Buffalo Wing Style hot sauce or other hot wing sauce of choice
  • 1 gallon or larger size plastic bag

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 450F degrees
  2. Place cauliflower florets into plastic bag. Drizzle olive oil over florets to barely coat. Add garlic powder, salt and pepper. Close bag and toss ingredients around so all florets are coated.
  3. Place on ungreased cookie sheet or baking pan and bake on middle rack for 15 minutes, turning florets once during baking. Check them at the 10 minute mark for desired tenderness. You don’t want them to be soggy!
  4. Remove florets from oven. Melt butter in medium glass bowl. Add hot sauce to butter. Toss cauliflower and stir to cover all florets with hot sauce.
  5. Return to oven and cook for additional 5 minutes.
  6. Serve with any dip you like, ranch dressing or Blue Cheese dip. ENJOY!

Recipe: Easy Jello Rainbow Cookies

By Jess on July 25th, 2014

Jello Cookies Recipe

These Jell-O rainbow cookies are such a hit with kids!  The cookie will take and become the flavor and color of the Jell-O you choose. Fun as a party snack and would be great for a party favor, too! Here is the super simple recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 c butter
  • 1/2 c sugar
  • pack of any flavor Jell-o or store brand gelatin
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/2 c flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  2. Mix together the butter, sugar, gelatin powder and eggs until creamy.
  3. Mix in rest of ingredients until fully blended.
  4. Roll dough into balls, place on a greased cookie sheet, and flatten balls with a fork.
  5.  Bake for 6-8 min and enjoy!

Homemade Orange Cream Pops

By richel on July 23rd, 2014

orange pops

When I spied these yummy pops this morning on Pinterest, I almost fell over.  I had found this recipe last year, tried it, loved it and then lost the link to the site!  I was so excited to see it pop up today on one of the pages that I follow.

These are so good.  I mean, you will want to eat a couple of them good!  Make sure you let them freeze really well before you serve them!  Thanks to OvenLove for the great post…and to whom ever out there in the Pinterest landscape for pinning it for the world to see! I made a slight change to the recipe but it is good either way!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup orange juice (fresh or frozen. you could also use orange juice concentrate for a stronger orange flavor)
  • 1 cup heavy cream (you could also substitute melted/very soft vanilla ice cream, Dreyer’s Slow churn works really well)
  • 3 tablespoons honey, use a mild flavored honey sage or wild flower is best
  • ¼ teaspoon orange extract
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (you can also use vanilla bean paste…it’s amazing!)
  • 3/4 cup Mini Chocolate Chips (optional but amazing)

Instructions

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk all ingredients together. Then add the chips if you are using them.
  2. Pour mixture into popsicle molds. Let set for 30-60 minutes, then add popsicle sticks. Freeze for another 4-6 hours or until frozen.
  3. When you’re ready to serve, run some warm water along your popsicle mold to loosen the popsicles and serve immediately.

One of my friends melted the chocolate chips and then coated the insides of the popsicle molds with melted chocolate drizzles before pouring in the mixture.  This also worked well!

Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag Recipe

By Jess on July 21st, 2014

homemade-ice-cream-in-a-bag-recipe

Its finally warm outside and the kids can get all their energy out by playing outside. Use this to your advantage and your whole family can make ice cream in bags by running around! Note: This recipe is enough for ONE serving, so you’ll need all of the listed ingredients for each person.

Ingredients & Other Things You’ll Need:

  • Ice cubes (enough to fill each gallon-size bag about half full)
  • 1 cup half and half
  • 1/2 cup salt (The bigger the granules, the better. Kosher or rock salt works best, but table salt is fine.)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 pint-size ziplock bag (this can also be done in tupperware type containers)
  • 1 gallon-size ziplock bag
  • Your favorite ice cream toppings or ingredients, like chocolate chips, cereal, fruit, marshmallows, etc.

Directions:

  1. Combine the sugar, half and half, and vanilla extract in the pint-size bag and seal it tightly. Double check it’s sealed completely.
  2. Place the salt and ice in the gallon-size bag, then place the sealed smaller bag inside as well. Seal the larger bag. Now shake the bags and/or have the kids run around while shaking their bags until the mixture hardens which is about 5 minutes. Feel the small bag to check when it’s hardened enough.
  3. Take the smaller bag out of the larger one, add toppings, and eat the ice cream right out of the bag. Toss the bag when you’re done eating – super easy cleanup!

Recipe: Frozen 100% Fruit Pops

By Jess on July 13th, 2014

Recipe Fruit Pops

Kids love eat popsicles during these hot summer days. So many of the frozen treats are filled with sugar and have nothing healthy in them. This recipe for Fruit Pops from Doodlecraft uses 100% fruit – even down to pureeing fruit with a food processor, not using juice, so it’s even more healthy. The kids will think it’s a treat, but you’ll know it’s super healthy.

What You’ll Need:

  • Plastic popsicle molds
  • About 3 cups of sliced watermelon (be sure there are no seeds)
  • Sliced strawberries
  • Sliced kiwi
  • Large handful of blueberries

Note: Any kind of melon will work instead of watermelon, and juice will work if you want to make this process easier.

Directions:

  1. Puree the watermelon fully to make it as watery as possible.
  2. Put 2-4 blueberries at the bottom of the plastic mold, a slice or two of kiwi (so they show on the side of the mold), 2-4 slices of strawberry, then a couple more blueberries as the last of the fruit.
  3. Fill the molds to the edge with the watermelon juice.
  4. Press the popsicle mold lids on securely, then freeze overnight.
  5. When fully frozen, the popsicle should slide right out of the mold, but if it sticks, run the plastic under a little warm water.