It’s been a bit of a crazy week around here. It’s like it appointment season or something. We’ve had all kinds of appointments lately. And that means driving around a lot of leaving the house a complete mess between events and plans. That ended today. I was determined to get this place in order. When it gets warmer outside I always get a bit crazy on the house. There’s something in the air that compels me to do this.

Do you do a big spring clean?

You know it’s spring when strawberries start getting cheaper. Aldi had them priced at $.49 the other day when I was in there. I about fell out on the floor when I saw that price. So of course, I did my little happy dance walking out with a few pounds of fresh strawberries. I knew I had to make something incredible. I came across this amazing looking No-Bake Strawberry Icebox Cake at The Kitchn and I immediately knew this was what I was going to whip up. It just does not get better than a cool, refreshing cake with strawberries, whipped cream, graham crackers all drizzled with chocolate. I made a few changes to that recipe to make it a little easier.

Strawberries are such a beautiful site aren’t they? I was cutting their stems off and just had to snap this picture. Can’t you almost taste them? Reminds me of summer.

This cake is SO incredibly easy to make. I think it’s kinda funny that it’s called a cake. It doesn’t need any eggs, sugar, or even flour. It’s a simple process of layering a yummy combination of pudding and whipped cream with slices of fresh strawberries and graham crackers. That’s pretty much it! The idea is that as this sits in the refrigerator (“icebox”) that the graham crackers will soften up and become like cake. And they do!

Here’s a picture to give you an idea. This cake just simply doesn’t last at my house. It makes a HUGE 9×13 pan of yumminess, but we always go through it within a couple days. I don’t feel bad though, I always use reduced fat graham crackers, sugar free whipped cream, and sugar free pudding mix. So you could call this healthy too!

This cake makes a really great dessert to serve when you have company. It looks fancy, tastes amazing, won’t bust your diet, and best of all you won’t break a sweat making it! I highly encourage you to try this one. You won’t regret it, I promise!

Adapted from The Kitchn’s recipe.

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So I got a sweet tooth the other day. Actually, I get sweet teeth everyday. But by now, I’m sure you’ve figured that one out.

My latest sweet tooth led me to recreate homemade moon pies. You know, those graham cracker-y, marshmallow-y, chocolate-y cookie cake thingys that are incredibly yummy. They go really well with RC Colas too. They have a festival not too far from me called The RC and Moon Pie Festival. No joke. Each year, they create the world’s largest moon pie and it’s huge! There are sack races, hula hoop contests, and even live blue grass music. Everything that you’d expect from a quaint little festival. It’s really a lot of fun. If you’re in the Nashville area, it’s June 16th this year if you’d like to check it out.

The funny thing about this moon pie recipe adventure is that I didn’t end up making moon pie cookies. I was fully expecting the cookies to soften a little, but alas they did not. They tasted much more like S’mores instead. And I’m not going to lie, this accidental recipe was fantastic!

I think that my favorite part was that it didn’t cost a bundle to make these. The ingredient that cost the most was the Dolci Frutta Hard Shell Chocolate at $2.98. I found the round cookies at Dollar Tree. I believe they are called “Maria” cookies. I also got my marshmallow cream there. So all in all these cost about $5 to make. These cookies would make an awesome sleep over snack! And no need for a camp fire. Those can be dangerous anyways. 😉

These are incredibly easy, but most likely won’t last long if you leave them around.

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We had a very good day today. Britton, my 9 month old, was in a very pleasant mood the entire day. And you know that always keeps momma in a good mood too. It was goregeous outside today so Addie got to play outside for quite  long time. And this was probably the first time that Britton ever got to go outside for a length of time. She absolutely loved it! Minus actually having to touch the grass (we kept her on a blanket), she was all about the outdoors. Her favorite part was the wind.

It was such a nice reminder of how we should take a minute every now and then to enjoy the small things in life. Like wind on our face and the sound of birds chirping. I know I sound a little silly, but I’m totally serious. With spring time around us, it’s such a beautiful time to really enjoy nature and the simpler things.

You know what else that I love anytime of year? FUDGE! I’m pretty sure that fudge is the cure-all for just about anything. It’s like an instant pick-me-up. There’s just something about that creamy and smooth texture that makes it enjoyable. I made a recipe for Two-Ingredient Peanut Butter Fudge over on Saving with Amy a while back. It only calls for two ingredients which makes it not only easy, but also extremely affordable as well. I decided to make up my own little recipe with this one as a base to kinda spice it up and make it a little fancier.

Mini muffin liners make the best fudge wrappers! They make them like little Reeses cups which is also really easy for serving. No sticky fingers and they look pretty too.

The two ingredient method works well, but it doesn’t stay firm for long periods of time. In putting together this Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge, I wanted to add something to make it thicker and also keep it firmer. So I ended up adding some chocolate chips and cornstarch to the equation. I think it did a world of good for this fudge. And as you see, I fancied it up a bit with chopped cashews on top. This was the best fudge I’ve made! You might just like it too.

One of favorite things about this recipe is that you can actually make it healthy by using reduced fat peanut butter and use sugar free frosting! I haven’t tried this recipe with natural peanut butter before so I’m not sure that it will have the same consistency.

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I know that the title of this post is a little cheesy. Lookie there I did it again. I crack myself up! I hope that your weekend was nice! I always love lazy Saturdays. After about 10 of them in row where we had something that we wanted to organize, clean, etc. it’s nice to have one that is spent just doing whatever. Like painting toenails or taking a walk. Or doing the laundry which is technically still cleaning, but instead of actually taking them out the dryer you leave them so you don’t have to fold them.

My latest laundry epiphany is that we actually have a laundry basket! Came across it in the closet the other day. Those are quite handy when transporting clothes from one room to another you know. Don’t you just hate when you go to pick up a pile of clothes from the bed or floor that one sock that likes to jump ship? Then you lean down (with your hands full of clothes) to pick up that one sock and then more things fall from the pile?

I sometimes feel like that about things in life. It’s like you work so hard to organize your house, plans, relationships (etc), only to have pieces of it fall apart. But you know what? If you put it off, you’re just stuck with stinky laundry so you have to deal with it some time! Wow, leave it to this mom to compare life to a pile of dirty laundry.

Ok on to the cheesecake! Oh yeah, creamy and light cheeeesecake…with blueberries on top!

I have to admit, I’ve never made a cheesecake that goes in the oven before this. Most of them are made of puddings and cream cheese and are just refrigerated. Don’t get me wrong, those are yummy. But I just kinda wanted to make one completely from scratch and feel that sense of accomplishment.

To the drawing board (aka Pinterest and Google) I went! I searched for a recipe that didn’t seem to difficult, but presented a fair challenge. And as always, I wanted something that was lower in calories and healthier than most. I ended up finding this recipe over at Hungry Girl and boy am I glad that I found it! This recipe was not only easy, but it also tasted like a million bucks.

We had my mom and stepdad over for dinner one night and I served this for dessert. They never figured out that it was a healthy version of an otherwise unhealthy cheesecake. I love recipes like that.

Recipe courtesy of Hungry Girl.

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I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I really do. I love to experiment and create and when something turns out right, I feel a bit of accomplishment. Don’t you? I also have times when I follow a recipe to the letter and it comes out completely inedible. When this happens, I like to think that my kitchen might just be part of some freak gravitational or atmospheric region that causes my recipes to flop. But when it comes down to it, sometimes recipes just don’t work out. Of course it’s usually something small like a little too much of something or a little too little. I consider this to be learning and it often times gives me ideas.

The cookies that I am sharing (found over at The Family Kitchen but originally from 101 Cookbooks) with you today are not flops, but they remind me of flops because they are basically a bunch of yummy ingredients that just so happen to be put together to create a really yummy cookie. Everything you want in a cookie and more.

Just look at that bowl’s contents. Couldn’t you just dive right in?. Are you a peanut butter and banana fan? Oh you know I am! I’m starting to think about those Whole Wheat Peanut Butter & Banana Pancakes that I made. These cookies bring in a new ingredient that can only make those two even better- chocolate chips. There’s even a little coconut hidden in there. But shhhh don’t tell anyone. My husband still doesn’t know that these have coconut in them. It’s such a small amount and completely optional, but I think it adds a little something.

I was really impressed with these. They’ll make regular appearances around here.

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I hope you enjoyed your weekend. We had a BLAST on our anniversary trip to Memphis. We got a massage and got to eat at two of our favorite places in the world- Bahama Breeze and Benihana. We don’t have either of those around here so it’s rare that we get to go. They did not disappoint! I only strive to have my chicken fried rice come out even halfway close to Benihana’s. It’s fabulous.

I’m not scared of heights (I think), but our hotel room was on the 22nd floor. I had a little trouble going close to the window though because it was straight down it seemed. If you’re ever in the Memphis area, I do recommend the Hilton. The service was incredible and everything was perfect.

You know something else that’s perfect? Brownies! Not just any brownies either, Salted Caramel Brownies. I made these last week and I’m sitting here wishing there were some left. I can’t tell you that these are low calorie because that would just be telling a fib. But I can tell you that they are low-ER calorie. How’s that for satisfaction? One of these babies only has 180 calories. And believe me, one is plenty. (Yeah right)

I found these brownies over on Pinterest. If you’re not following me yet, you really should. I want to follow you back too! It only took one glance at them to know that I had to make them. As I clicked the picture and prepared myself to view a recipe that was loaded with calories, I was really surprised to see that this is a Cooking Light recipe. I was more than excited when I realized that there weren’t 500 calories per brownie.

My brownies didn’t end up looking exactly like the picture in the recipe and from the reviews it seems that no one has gotten them to look as pretty as the picture. However, who cares? They are so tasty and that’s all that matters. Salted caramel on top of a delicious chocolate brownie? I’m not sure that it gets any better than that.

Recipe courtesy of MyRecipes.

There are the perfect thing to bring along to a cookout or gathering. They will most definitely be a hit!

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My husband and I went to England a little over a year ago on the most amazing trip. It was for his work, but I got to gallivant around and it was pretty incredible. I really enjoyed taking in their culture and how similar, yet so different that country is. One thing that I really loved about the UK is that they are really big on Indian food there. I’m a big fan of Indian food. Kinda ironic considering that I really don’t like spicy food. I always order everything mild.

You’re probably wondering what this gorgeous pie has to do with England. This is a pie that originated in England known as a “Bonafee” pie. It comes from the words banana and toffee put together. For years, I’ve been making caramel pies very similar to this and never once thought of putting bananas with it. But boy is it yummy!

This pie is incredibly easy. Like, you wouldn’t believe how easy. You simply need a can of Sweetened Condensed Milk to boil. In about 2 hours, it turns to caramel! Yeah, it’s really that simple. You can even use fat free sweetened condensed milk. This part of the pie is the most time consuming and takes a little babysitting. You’ll want to make sure that the cans stay completely submerged the entire time. You have to add hot water just about every 30 minutes during the 2- 2.5 hours.

Making your own crust is super simple too. I bought some shortbread cookies at Dollar Tree and popped them into the food processor. I ground them up until they were crumbs and then added in some melted butter and pressed that mixture into a pie pan. Bake that for about 10 minutes and you have a 2-ingredient homemade pie crust! Just about any cookies will work for this crust- shortbread cookies, vanilla wafers, even biscotti!

Once your sweetened condensed milk is done boiling it will look like this. Place a few sliced bananas into your pie crust. Then…

..Spread the caramel over the bananas. It’s difficult not to dive into this pie already!

Top it with some whipped cream (or homemade if you’re adventurous) and shave a little chocolate over the top. It’s best to let it chill for about an hour in the refrigerator for it to set. This pie is extremely easy to make and tastes like you put lots of work into it!

Adapted from Brooklyn Limestone’s Recipe

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