Maintaining Lemon Water

If you've been reading about the health benefits of drinking warm lemon water each morning on an empty stomach but not exactly sure how to go about that, this might be a great idea for you!

I had been interested in giving it a try for months and months, but every time I went for it, I wasn't sure how to maintain the whole thing. I didn't love juicing a lemon every single morning when I could barely open my eyes, nor did I have the time while cooking breakfast for the kids, packing lunches and getting them off to school.

So here we have what just so happens to be a great solution and you only need what's lying around your kitchen (unless you don't have any kind of juicer. I just use a good old fashion kind which you can find for cheap!).

Once you've juiced your lemons you can put them in your ice cube tray. Just pop one out into your mug of warm water each morning and voila!

The nitty gritty: It still might sound like a lot of work. I juiced 10 lemons here and it filled 14 slots in my tray. It took me about 10 minutes. So the way I look at it is that I spent 10 minutes juicing and only have to do it every 2 weeks.

Now, as far as the water to lemon juice ratio, everyone has their different ideas. Typically, 1/2 C of warm water with enough juice from half a lemon is standard. I figure that 1 cube for that 1/2 C is pretty good!

About the taste. If you're a tea drinker, this will taste better than any tea I've ever tried ;) (I hate tea). It's not delicious, but it's not gross and it's not daunting to drink. So do with that info what you will!

Raspberry Sauce

Well, this stuff was a goldmine to find at The Gunny Sack! I made it a few months ago for my daughters birthday because she wanted cake waffles? So I had to think up a few toppings to use for those. This was one of them and everyone loved it.

Fast forward to this past weekend when I tried to make a layered cake for my sons birthday. I made this sauce to layer between the cakes. The cake fell apart and I was left to just go buy a little cake for my son instead. I picked up a cheesecake for everyone else and....tuh duh! Still had some raspberry sauce I could use with it.

So, this stuff is basically a staple. Use it on ice cream! Cake! Cheesecake. Waffles. Pancakes. Whatever you want! It's so incredibly easy and just so darn delicious. My husband goes nuts over it.

What you will need:

• 12 oz. raspberries
• 1/4 C water
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1 T fresh lemon juice
• 2 T cold water
• 2 T cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt

Directions:

• On medium heat, cook the raspberries, water, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan until the raspberries start to break down (about 5-7 minutes) 
• Combine the cold water and cornstarch in a small bowl and add to the raspberry sauce
• cook for about 30-60 seconds until the mixture is thickened
• Remove from heat and add vanilla and salt
• Let the sauce cool and then store in a container in the fridge

Peach Dumplings

My goodness. I've had a baby and he's now 4 months old since my last post! I guess that's how long it takes to me to fully get back into the swing of things ;). I've actually been trying a bajillion new recipes over the past couple of months and haven't shared any of them.

I feel bad about this, because good things ought to be shared.

I feel extra bad about this, because most of these good things include Pioneer Woman recipes. And you all deserve to know about them.

So although I love sharing these recipes on my own website, my main purpose for this has been to keep all my favorites in one place to pull up on the spot whenever I need (I recommend everyone doing this. Saves so much time and I can't count the number of times I've gone to remake a recipe and noticed one of my own notes on my post that I would have forgotten to do the second or third time around).

That being said, I'm sharing this recipe with you, but I highly recommend just going to her website because she has step by step pictures and is so witty and clear in her directions. (Watching her is even better. We record her episodes on Food Network and when my oldest child walks in the door from school at 3:05 she is expecting her 3:00 show to be on pause until she's ready)

Anyhow, my family doesn't love apple-ee dessert type things. But they do like peachy ones. So I just took her apple dumpling recipe and used peaches instead. I also halved this recipe and it made 8 dumplings but I'm sharing the recipe as if you'd want the full 16 :). Enjoy!

 

What you will need:

•  2 pkg's cresent rolls
• 1 can peaches
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 can Mountain Dew
• Cinnamon to taste (she uses plain cinnamon but I used my cinnamon sugar blend)

Directions:

•  Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Take each crescent dough triangle and roll a peach up
• Place each dumpling into a buttered 9x13 baking dish
• Melt butter 
• Add sugar and vanilla into the melted butter (it will be thick and sugary. This is good)
• Pour sugar mixture over all the dumplings
• Pour can of mountain dew around the edges of the baking dish (I didn't use a full can so I can't say the difference it makes!)
• Sprinkle dumplings with cinnamon or cinnamon sugar
• Bake for about 40 minutes (I let mine sit for a few minutes after I pulled them out)

Hot Dog on a Stick's Frozen Lemonade Copycat Recipe

Welcome back, summer! It was sooooooo warm yesterday, and it's expected to get up to the 80's today! It's about 9:30am and my daughter is already out on the porch doing "experiments" with lemons, jell-o and food coloring. I heard her say, "Oh my gosh! My hypothesis was right AGAIN!" so it sounds like she's having herself some fun in the sun. Later today I'm taking each of my girls on a one-on-one Mommy-daughter date to soak up the sun together.

With it being so warm yesterday, while we were out I got an intense craving for something fruity and refreshing. I finally figured out exactly what I wanted. A frozen lemonade from Hot Dog on a Stick. They are my FAVORITE. Unfortunately, the nearest one was about 15 miles away.

I decided I could just make my own. Like, how hard can it be? I'd made my own homemade lemonade recipe before and it turned out amazing, so this shouldn't be any different. Still, I was hoping to be able to find a copycat recipe on the net somewhere to double check any secret ingredients. I couldn't find a single thing!

What I came up with, I think, could be sold at Hot Dog on a Stick and no one would know the difference between theirs and mine. I was SOO happy! My girls went nuts over it, too. It had quenched my craving for a fruity and refreshing drink and I can't wait to have some more today.

I am sure there are plenty of different ways to make frozen lemonade, but I wanted a specific taste. It had to be like Hot Dog on a Stick's, and it is. Therefore, I give you, Hot Dog on a Stick's Frozen Lemonade copycat recipe-

What you will need:

• 1 C hot water
• 1 C + 1 T sugar
• 1 C fresh lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
• 7 C ice

Directions:

• Make a simple syrup by dissolving 1 C sugar into 1 C hot water
• Juice your lemons
• Add lemon juice and syrup to a blender
• Add 1 C of ice at a time and blend together
• After all your ice is blended, drop the last 1 T of sugar in and blend

Vanilla-Orange Cream Filled Cupcake & Fresh Orange Frosting

I really really wanted a fresh tasting orang-ee cake. I wanted each element to have fresh orange taste, but I didn't want the entire thing as a whole to be IN YOUR FACE Orange. I put these ideas and flavors together and created a well balanced orange cupcake! I haven't put my heart into a dessert in so long, it was time!

This is considered a "poke cake." The cake is drizzled with orange jello-o after it's baked, cooled and holes poked through it so the flavor settles into the cake.

The filling is a nice spin on the classic "creamsicle" taste with a mixture of vanilla and orange flavors, and the frosting is a homemade butter-cream frosting with fresh orange juice.

 I topped them with coconut and sprinkled with fresh orange zest. I personally don't care for toasted coconut, but I'm sure it would be great if you like that sort of thing!

What you will need:

THE CAKE

• One box vanilla cake mix (or your favorite vanilla cake recipe. I have yet to find one that I love so this has that typical "box cake" flavor. Booo)
• Ingredients the boxed vanilla cake mix calls for 
• 1 pkg orange jell-o, prepared
• Muffin tins

THE CREAMSICLE FILLING

• 1 pkg vanilla pudding, prepared with 1 C cold milk
• 1 pkg jell-o mix (not prepared)*
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 8 oz. carton cool whip

THE FROSTING

• 1/3 C butter, softened
• 2 1/2 C powdered sugar
• 5 T fresh orange juice
• 1 tsp. orange zest

Directions:

THE CAKE

• Bake cupcakes according to box directions
• Once the cupcakes are cooled completely, poke holes throughout the cake
• Pour a small spoonful of prepared jell-o over each cupcake (to be honest I used a medicine dropper)
• Refrigerate for 4 hours (or over night)

THE CREAMSICLE FILLING

• Prepare vanilla pudding and mix with the jell-o mix and vanilla
• Fold in the cool whip
• Fill the cupcakes with the filling

THE FROSTING

• Mix butter, powdered sugar, orange juice and zest until it reaches desired consistency. 
• Add more fresh orange juice if you want more flavor!

*I have this "thing" where I feel like fruity desserts taste like fluoride. So, I didn't use the entire package of jell-o mix in the filling.

Fresh Banana Cream Delight Cake

So what the heck? Men can be so weird, but who am I to deny my love the cake he requested for his birthday? Sooo...here you have the Banana Cream Delight Cake! I believe a woman in my ward is responsible for the recipe, but I don't remember who!

What you will need:

Cake

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 C mashed ripe bananas (2 bananas)
• 1 C water
• 1/3 C vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Filling

• 1 pkg (5.1 oz) instant banana cream pudding
• 1 3/4 C cold milk

Frosting

• 2 pints heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 C previously prepared filling
• 2 T powdered sugar
• 1 T flour

Garnish

• Caramel sauce (optional)
• fresh banana slices (optional)
• white chocolate shavings (optional)

Directions:

• Prepare filling first by beating the instant banana cream pudding and cold milk for two minutes in medium sized bowl
• Refrigerate filling for at least one hour
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Mix cake mix, mashed bananas, water, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla on low speed for 30 seconds, then medium speed for 2 minutes
• Grease the two 8" cake pans and pour an even amount of cake batter in each
• Bake 30-35 minutes 
• Remove from oven and run a knife around the edges
• Allow to completely cool before removing from the pans
• Prepare the frosting by whipping the 2 pints of heavy whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks
• Fold in 1/2 C of the previously prepared filling
• Add in the powdered sugar and flour
• Take 3/4 C of the filling and mix it with the rest of the filling
• Top first layer of cake with a layer of filling
• Place fresh banana slices over the layer of filling
• Add one more layer of filling on top of the banana slices
• Place the top layer of the cake on top of the bottom layer and filling
• Frost the entire cake and top with garnishes

Strawberry-Orange Sorbet

Mmmmmm. I am eating this right as I type out the recipe. I am so so...so so SO surprised at how amazing this turned out. It's a gem of a recipe if I ever saw one. The flavor is delicious, the creaminess is so right on and it's just so darn easy to make!

My one complaint is that this recipe did not make enough! I would say it makes about 1 Quart, so next time I plan on doubling, or even tripling the recipe.

You will need:

• 4 C strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 1 C water
• 1 C fresh orange juice + zest (for me this ended up being around 4 oranges)
• 1/2 C sugar

Directions:

• hull and slice strawberries and set aside
• Bring water, sugar and orange juice to a boil until the sugar has dissolved
• Add in the sliced strawberries and boil for about 8 minutes

• Using a blender, puree the mixture until smooth

• Strain the mixture using a fine mesh strainer  (I don't do anything with fruit enough to drop $30 for a fine mesh strainer. I used my splatter guard and it worked like a charm. Check out all those seeds!)

• Place in the refrigerator to chill (I chilled mine over night. See what I mean about the quantity?!)

• Use chilled mix in your ice cream maker and use like usual

Homemade Lemonade

I had "make homemade lemonade" on my bucket list for the summer. I've never made homemade lemonade before can you believe that?! I'll be honest, I did not follow a recipe to the slightest here. I had my lemons, I had my water and had my sugar and I winged it.

Turns out winging it can do amazing things. I loooooove this lemonade! It's so good. Ah. Try it out! You'll love me, specially because it is the easiest way I could have possibly made it.

What you will need:

• 1 C water
• 1 C sugar
• 1 C fresh lemon juice (I used 6 lemons)
• 5 C cold water

Directions:

• Heat 1 C of water on the stove and dissolve 1 C of sugar in it
• Pour water/sugar mixture into a pitcher
• Juice your lemons and pour juice into the pitcher
• Mix water/sugar mixture with the juice
• Add 5 C of cold water to the pitcher and mix together
• Serve with ice and lemon slice

Fruit Salsa & Cinnamon Chips

I've made this a few times now and love it more each time. This particular recipe is a larger quantity, so you could cut this in half and still have plenty. I also doubled the brown sugar (just personal preference). It's been fun to play with. One thing to note, is to keep an eye on your cinnamon chips in the oven! Although they still taste okay burned, I don't recommend it :).

What you will need:

•  6 kiwi's, peeled and diced
• 16 oz. strawberries, diced
• 8 oz. raspberries
• 3 apples, peeled and diced
• 5 tortillas
• cinnamon sugar
• 4 T melted butter
• 1 T. sugar
• 1 T. brown sugar
• 1 1/2 T. fruit preserves (I used my strawberry freezer jam)

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
• Spread a spoonful of melted butter around a tortilla
• Sprinkle with desired amount of cinnamon sugar
• Using a pizza cutter, slice the tortilla into wedges
• Repeat with all tortilla's and place them on a greased cookie sheet
• Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes
• While they are baking, dice up your fruit and combine into large bowl
• Mix together the sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves in small bowl
• Toss the mixture with the fruit