Peach Crisp

This easy and delicious dessert is bursting with flavors of fresh peaches, topped with a sweet and crunchy crumb topping.  It's sure to please!

One of my favorite things about late summer and early fall is the variety of fruits available.  Two weeks ago, Mike, Summer, and I went to a farm market and petting zoo.  We spent the morning petting and feeding all kinds of animals, watching Summer jump in the bounce house, going on a wagon ride, and enjoying each other's company.  We left with a peck of fresh peaches, and a dozen apple cinnamon donuts ;) Then yesterday, we headed to a local apple orchard to continue our fall tradition with friends and pick apples.  We left with 42 pounds of apples and a half dozen apple cider donuts ;)  (Notice a trend?)  And yes, those 42 pounds of apples will go to good use since I eat at least one a day!

As I looked through my assigned blog for this month's Secret Recipe Club, I kept in mind my abundance of peaches, as well as a few zucchinis I still had hanging around.  Thankfully, Kristen who blogs at Troyer's Loving Life, made it easy for me to find a great recipe.  Kristen is a busy wife and mom to 2 teenage girls.  Her family is busy working on their house, but she still finds time to cook and fill her blog with delicious recipes!

Ultimately, I chose to make Kristen's recipe for Peach Crisp (which she got from the Pioneer Woman's cookbook).  It sounded delicious, and with my abundance of peaches, and peach crisp being my favorite dessert, I knew I'd found a winner.  This recipe certainly didn't disappoint!  The thinner layer of crisp topping really allowed the natural flavors of the peaches to shine though.  I didn't have maple syrup, so I opted to sprinkle my peaches with a little bit of sugar instead, and I skipped the sauce.  Mike thought this dessert would be delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!

Peach Crisp

Makes 1 9x9" pan, about 9 servings

Ingredients:
5 ripe peaches
1 Tablespoon sugar, optional
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces (1 stick) butter, cold

1.  Peel and slice peaches and place them in the bottom of an 9x9" pan. Sprinkle with sugar, if desired.

2.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

3.  Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the dry ingredients.  Use a pastry blender or knife to cut the butter into the flour.  Continue until the mixture resembles moist coarse meal.

4.  Sprinkle the flour mixture over the peaches.

5.  Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes, until the topping is crisp and done.

Serve warm, with ice cream or whipped cream if desired.

Source: Troyer's Loving Life

This will be my last month participating in the Secret Recipe Club.  I've been a member since 2011, however with all our life changes I don't feel like I have the necessary time to spend on my blog.  Instead, I'm focusing on raising a toddler, growing a baby, and expanding my personal training and coaching business.  I've really enjoyed participating over the past few years and meeting new friends.  I hope you'll continue to stop by and see what we're up to!

An InLinkz Link-up

Biscoff Baklava

Creamy Biscoff spread and crumbled Biscoff cookies between flaky layers of pastry make this Biscoff Baklava one dessert everyone will love!

Apple Cream Cheese Danish

Breakfast or dessert? I'll let you decide!  Fresh and delicious apples shine in these Apple Cream Cheese Danishes.

Pumpkin Cake

This Pumpkin Cake is filled with pumpkin, cinnamon, and cloves.  It's the perfect dessert for fall!

Slow Cooker Apple Cobbler {and Slow Cooker Giveaway}

Cool fall days call for warm dessert.  This simple apple cobbler fits the bill and it's made in your slow cooker!

Single Serving Clean Eating Peach Crisp

This single serving dessert is the perfect size, plus with clean ingredients and fresh peaches, you can feel good about what you're eating!

Peach Cobbler {Flashback Friday}

This Peach Cobbler is a delicious way to enjoy fresh peaches.

Campfire Eclairs

These easy campfire treats are fun to make and eat!  Fire cooked dough, stuffed with pudding and topped with frosting just can't be beat!

White Chocolate Strawberry Pound Cake Skewers

Strawberries and pound cake. They're made for each other! Drizzled with white chocolate, these Strawberry Pound Cake Skewers make a beautiful dessert!

It's my favorite time of the year!  The weather is starting to get warmer, the days are longer, and the gardens are growing!  Our local farmer's market opened up a couple weeks ago and Summer and I went down to get some fresh vegetables.  There aren't too many fruits in season yet, but that time will be here soon.

My strawberry plants have flowers, and I'm hoping it won't be long before the fruit starts to grow.  In the meantime, I'll keep enjoying strawberries from the grocery store or the farmer's market.  The past few times I've purchased strawberries I've been impressed with how red and flavorful they are.  I love to have a big bowl of strawberries for snack.

I also enjoy strawberries as a part of a delicious dessert like the topping of a pound cake or center stage in these delicious White Chocolate Strawberry Pound Cake Skewers.  I made my favorite Almond Pound Cake with fresh strawberry sauce for Mother's Day dessert a couple weeks ago.  I had about half a cake left over, and while the cake alone was delicious, I wanted to come up with a fun way to enjoy the rest.

These skewers were a fun way to enjoy both the pound cake and the abundance of strawberries I had!  They're super easy to make and make an impressive impression when served!  I first made these on small skewers, but then decided they looked a little boring.  I decided to use longer skewers and drizzle white chocolate on top of the strawberries and pound cake.  I'm glad I did--the chocolate drizzle was just what this dessert needed to liven it up and make it special.

The directions on this cake are pretty basic. You can make as many or as few skewers as you'd like.  If you want to use an entire pound cake, go for it.  If you have half a cake leftover like I did, then use that!  In fact, you could even use an angel food cake if you wanted to!  Chocolate chips would be a delicious topping if you didn't want to use white chocolate.  Make mini skewers or make longer ones.  You can come up with any pattern you'd like too--so have fun with these!

White Chocolate Strawberry Pound Cake Skewers

Ingredients:
Pound cake
Strawberries
1 cup white chocolate chips

1.  Cut the pound cake into thick slices and then cube each slice.

2.  Wash and hull strawberries. Cut in half, if desired.

3.  Assemble the skewers in any pattern that you desire.  I did pound cake-strawberry-pound cake etc.

4.  Put the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and then microwave in 15 second increments, stirring after each time, until chocolate can be stirred smooth.

5.  Scoop the chocolate chips into a pastry bag or a ziploc bag with the end snipped off and drizzle over the skewers.  Allow the chocolate to harden before serving.

Cover any leftovers and refrigerate.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie Bars

Never decide between chocolate chip cookies and brownies again!  A delicious gooey brownie is sandwiched between layers of chocolate chip cookies, leaving you with an irresistible dessert!

Church potlucks are the bomb dot com!  Did I just say that? ...

Anyway, has anyone ever gone hungry at a church potluck?  I haven't!  A couple weeks ago we had lunch after our church service.  There was a ridiculous amount of desserts on the dessert table.  Have you ever noticed that when there are a lot of dessert options, people tend to take about 5 desserts?  At home I only get 1 dessert choice so that's all I take, but when I have a million choices, I'm going to load up!

One of our youth group kids stopped by our table to show off his creation:  a cookie, topped with a brownie, and topped with another cookie.  It was a cookie brownie sandwich! And it looked amazing!  I thought to myself, I could make that...

So I did!  It was my turn to bring dessert for our small group and since this dessert idea was fresh in my mind, I decided this was the perfect time to give it a try.

I spent a good amount of time researching the idea and trying to figure out the best way to make these bars and get the brownie to cook all the way through without burning the bottom layer.  Turns out, this concept hasn't really been done before, so I was on my own.  I thought about it for a while before deciding that it would be best to bake the bars in steps.  I baked the bottom cookie dough layer and brownie layer for about 20 minutes before adding on the top cookie layer.  The brownie layer turned out perfectly gooey, but not under-baked, and the cookie dough layer wasn't over-baked.  Win!

So next time you have a craving for chocolate chip cookies and brownies, whip up a batch of these bars, then you won't have to choose between the two!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie Bars

Makes one 9x13" pan, about 24 servings

Ingredients:
1 boxed brownie mix, plus ingredients to prepare it
1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips


1.  Prepare brownie mix as directed on the box.  Set aside.

2.  Cream together the shortening, butter, and sugars.

3.  Add in the egg and vanilla and mix well.

4.  Stir in the flour and baking soda until completely incorporated.

5.  Add in the chocolate chips and stir to combine.

6.  Divide the cookie dough in half.  Place half in the fridge to chill.  Press the other half into a greased 9x13" pan.

7.  Pour the brownie batter over the cookie dough.

8.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  The edges of the brownie should be baked.

9.  When there's about 3 minutes of baking time left, take the other half of the cookie dough out of the fridge.  Place between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and use your hands (or a rolling pin) to press the dough into a rectangle approximately 9x13".

10.  Remove the pan from the oven and place the flattened cookie dough on top of the brownie.  If it breaks a little or doesn't fit perfectly, that's okay!

11.  Return to oven and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes, until the brownie is baked all the way through and the cookie layer is brown.

Cool completely before cutting into squares.  Cover with plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Rainbow Cupcakes

These fun and easy to make Rainbow Cupcakes bring a hint of spring into your home...and your tummy!

Does anyone else have Spring Fever?  We've had a few days of really beautiful warm weather, and now it's back to cold and rainy.  I feel like I should be in Washington for as cloudy as it is, but this is Michigan.  In fact, yesterday there was a nearly 20 degree temperature difference from the morning to the evening, and the temperature went the wrong way...down.

Anyway, they say that April showers bring May flowers and that is true!  We just finished celebrating Tulip Time where I live and though the week started out with just a bunch of flower buds, it ended up with a lot of gorgeous blooms.  All the rain had something to do with that of course, so I can't be too disappointed with the rain.

And with rain comes rainbows!  I love rainbows.  They're so beautiful and a wonderful reminder of God's promise to us.

These rainbow cupcakes are so fun and easy to make!  I created them for my work's intern celebration last month. They're so happy looking and great for a celebration.  My co-workers loved how they looked and raved about the taste too.

As you can see in the picture, I also created a few cupcakes with eggs.  Bird's eggs are another wonderful reminder of Spring!

I used my favorite boxed cake mix--funfetti for the cupcakes, but you could use any recipe you want.  For the frosting, I again went simple and used an can of frosting along with a package of Duncan Hine's frosting creations in cotton candy flavor to get the blue color for the sky.  I added in a couple drops of yellow food coloring for the green grass.  Then I cut a few Airheads Xtreme Sour Belts Candy in half and curved them to form the rainbows.  Marshmallows made the perfect clouds.  The bird's eggs are simply Cadbury Candy Coated Mini Eggs (yes, I do buy the big bag!)

These cupcakes are sure to be a show stopping dessert on your table too!

Rainbow Cupcakes

Makes 24

Ingredients:
24 cupcakes, baked and cooled
1 can vanilla frosting
1 packet Duncan Hine's Frosting Creations Cotton Candy flavor
12 Airheads Xtreme Sour Belts Candy
1 bag mini marshmallows

1.  Mix together the frosting and the Frosting Creations packet until the color is evenly distributed.

2.  Spread the frosting onto the cupcakes.

3.  Cut Airhead candies in half.  Fold into an arc and place each end into the cupcake.

4.  Place 3 mini marshmallows at the base of each candy.  This forms clouds but also provides support to keep the rainbow in place.

If you want to make the bird's eggs cupcakes:

Ingredients:
24 cupcakes, baked and cooled
1 can vanilla frosting
1 packet  Duncan Hine's Frosting Creations Cotton Candy flavor
3 drops yellow food coloring
96 Cadbury Candy Coated Mini Eggs

1.  Mix together the frosting, Frosting Creations packet, and food coloring until the color is evenly distributed.

2.  Spread the frosting onto the cupcakes.

3.  Place 3 candy eggs in the center of each cupcake.

You can also make any combination of rainbow and bird's eggs cupcakes.  Just make the amount of rainbow cupcakes you want before adding in some yellow food coloring to the frosting and making the rest bird's eggs!

Inspired by: All You

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Bite-sized Cheesecake Brownies

The perfect sized two-bite brownie...and cheesecake! No more deciding between your two favorite desserts with this decadent combination!

I love baking for other people.  One reason is that I like to try new things, and I love to see other people's reactions when they eat them.  You could say food is my love language.  Another reason is because baking for others gives me the chance to bake, but not to have to eat everything I make.  I'm trying to lose weight, not gain it!

Every couple weeks, Mike and I get together with some of our friends from church for our life group.  We rotate who hosts the gathering and take turns providing the main meal, salad, and dessert.  I often volunteer to bring dessert because it's my favorite thing to make!

Recently it was my turn to bring dessert and I was craving brownies.  I'd brought Cookie Dough Brownies before and while those sounded good, I wanted to make something different.  I came across a recipe for Cheesecake Brownies and I knew that was the perfect dessert!  It's always nice to have something that isn't messy to eat since we are usually eating on the couch or floor.

These Bite-sized Cheesecake Brownies are incredibly easy to make!  I "cheated" and used a boxed brownie mix because I didn't have a lot of time, and let's face it, they're pretty delicious.  The cheesecake mixture came together quickly and within minutes, my brownies were in the oven.  I was able to mix, bake, cool, and photograph these brownies all while Summer was napping.  That's a win in my book!

I had to sample a few brownies of course while I was photographing them.  I won't tell you how many I tried...  I came home with an empty tray that night--a sure sign of a delicious dessert!

Bite-sized Cheesecake Brownies

Makes 24-30 brownie bites

Ingredients:
1 boxed brownie mix, plus ingredients to make it
8 ounces cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg yolks

1.  Mix brownie mix according to the box's directions.

2.  Beat the cream cheese, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg yolks until fluffy.

3.  Scoop 1 Tablespoon of brownie batter into greased mini muffin tins.

4.  Top brownie batter with 1 teaspoon of cheesecake mixture.

5.  Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a brownie comes out clean.

Allow brownies to cool at least 10 minutes before removing from the tin.  Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge.

Adapted from: Annie's Noms

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

This decadent chocolate mousse has a surprising list of ingredients! It's rich and chocolately and you'd never guess how healthy it is!

One of my favorite things about the Secret Recipe Club is that I get a chance to step out of my comfort zone.  This month I was assigned to a vegan blog, We Heart Vegan.  At first I was a little nervous as a lot of the recipes were way out of my comfort zone.  

However, last week, I took part in a clean eating challenge.  It was an eye-opener for me about how much junk I eat and how easy it is to eat real food.  I thought my diet was fairly healthy, but last week made me realize I have plenty of room for improvement.  Plus, I lost 5 pounds!  Maybe going vegan wouldn't be so bad after all...

I love desserts, especially chocolate, so that was one of the hardest parts about my clean eating challenge.  I continued to search Brittany's blog for the perfect recipe and when I came across her recipe for Vegan Chocolate Mousse, I knew I'd found it.  I am using more and more avocados and this was a fun way to incorporate them into my diet again.  I did find some other delicious recipes on We Heart Vegan, and I'm sure I'll be trying a lot of them!

This mousse is smooth and creamy.  It's extremely chocolately, and you'd never know it's made with avocado.  I made mine in my food processor, so I was able to blend the avocado until it was completely smooth.  Brittany gives directions in her original recipe if you don't have a food processor.  I did find the mousse to be quite sweet, so I would recommend cutting the amount of sweetener down.  I used agave nectar instead of coconut nectar because that's what I have in the house.  If you think the mousse may be too sweet, start with a lesser amount and add more if necessary.  Enjoy!

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

3 large avocados
1/2 cup agave nectar
5 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

1.  Remove the flesh from the avocados and cut into cubes.

2.  Place all ingredients in your food processor and puree until smooth.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Source:  We Heart Vegan

An InLinkz Link-up

Oatmeal Raisin Whoopie Pies

I took my Healthier Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and sandwiched some sweet buttercream frosting between them.  The result?  A thick, sweet, and delicious whoopie pie!

Let's take something fairly healthy and turn it into something not-so healthy, shall we?

I loved these Healthier Oatmeal Raisin Cookies that I made a couple weeks ago.  I enjoyed them for snacks and even breakfast a few times.  Then one day I decided they needed to be sweetened up a bit.  I had some leftover frosting, so I decided to put together a few whoopie pies.

These cookies are a little thicker than your typical oatmeal creme pie cookie, so you end up with quite a massive whoopie pie.  No judgment here if you pull out a fork to eat these with...I did!

Oatmeal Raisin Whoopie Pies

Makes 10 pies

Ingredients:
20 Healthier Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
3 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla until smooth.

2.  Spread a heaping Tablespoon of frosting on the flat side of one cookie.  Top with another cookie.

3.  Continue frosting and assembling pies until all the cookies are used.  You may have some leftover frosting.

Store pies in the fridge so the frosting doesn't melt.  Bring to room temperature before serving.

Game Day Recipes

One of my favorite eating days of the year is less than one week away!  I'll admit, I don't really care about the football game.  In fact, I couldn't even tell you who is play in this years' Superbowl.  But, what I do know is that I love preparing the appetizers to eat during the game!  The first year we were married, Mike and I hosted a Superbowl Party; since then we have kept it more low key and enjoyed the game with just the two of us!  Mike looks forward to watching the game, and I look forward to the commercials and the food.

Today I've rounded up a list of my favorite appetizers, snacks, and desserts from what I posted in the past year.  I can tell you one thing for sure, you'll be eating good this Superbowl Sunday!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles

Pepperoni Pretzels

Bacon Appetizers

Cosmic Brownies

Layered Finger Jello (Team colors, anyone?!)

Pepper Jelly Appetizer

Pizza Sliders

Speedy Little Devils

Chili Dogs

Meatball Stuffed Rolls

Gingerbread Spread

Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes

Peanut Butter Oreo Popcorn

Spicy Cheese Dip

BBQ Chicken Nachos

2013 Superbowl Foods Roundup

Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes

Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes are a fun and delicious individual dessert; they are perfect for all your holiday parties!

I love individual foods!  There's something special about having a cute little dish of food all to myself!

I think individual desserts are perfect for this time of the year. They come together quickly and easily; they travel well; they taste delicious!  And perhaps best of all, these cheesecakes can be prepared ahead of time, so when it's time for dessert, there is very little fuss.  Just pull the cheesecakes from the fridge, add a spoon and dessert is served!

I used plastic wine glasses for these desserts, which made clean up even easier.  You can use small glass wine glasses, or any other small serving dishes you might have.  I just recommend using clear glass dishes to show off the beauty of this simple dessert.

You can use any flavor of pie filling to top the cheesecakes.  I made these for our Thanksgiving dinner and opted for strawberry pie filling because I knew everyone at our dinner likes it.  I've also been experimenting with adding flavors into the cheesecake part, so stay tuned for some more fun flavors in the coming months!

Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes

Serves 12

Ingredients:
12 graham cracker sheets
1/4 cup sugar
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 can strawberry pie filling

1.  Crush graham crackers in your food processor until they are fine crumbs.  If you don't have a food processor, you can put the crackers in a ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin.

2.  Add the sugar and melted butter and pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand.

3.  Divide the graham cracker crust between your serving dishes.

4.  In the bowl of your mixer, combine the sweetened condensed milk and the cream cheese until smooth.

5.  Divide the cheesecake filling over the crust in the serving dishes.  I found it was easiest to scoop the filling into a pastry bag and pipe it into the glasses.

6.  Scoop the pie filling on top of the cheesecake filling.

7.  Chill the cheesecakes until you're ready to serve.

Source: The Pioneer Woman

Chocolate Filled Crescent Rolls {Flashback Friday}

These flaky crescent rolls stuffed with chocolate taste like something from a fancy pastry shop!

When I was in Romania, we visited a little pastry shop in Sighisoara.  I ordered a chocolate filled pastry and it was one of the best pastries I have ever had!  The next year, we went back to Sighisoara but I couldn't remember where the pastry shop was.  I was disappointed as I really wanted another of those delicious pastries!

I made these Chocolate Filled Crescent Rolls in an attempt to recreate the chocolate pastry from Romania.  The taste was a little different because our chocolate is a lot sweeter than what they used in Romania.  However, I loved how these pastries turned out.  They are incredibly easy to make; they can be put together and out of the oven in less than 20 minutes!  And, they taste like something you could order at a pastry shop! 

Get the recipe: Chocolate Filled Crescent Rolls