Mommy Popsicles

Remember that thing I had mentioned a little while back about the easier the recipe the better?

This simple refreshing cocktail popsicle is the epitome of easy.

To be honest I bought the popsicle mold with the utmost intention of making these bad boys:

Strawberry Cheesecake Popsicles

orrrrr maybe these:

Nutella Coolwhip Popsicles

But lets be real here for a second....nutella and cheesecake are great and all....but wine...wine is my kryptonite.

So that's when I decided to make these instead...

These would be EXTRA delicious with pieces of fruit added in....buuuut our fridge happens to be lacking in the fruit department right now so these simple ingredients sufficed.

The amount of the ingredients really depends on your taste...I did 2/3 OJ to about 1/3 of wine. But any number of juices and wines would work nicely together. Experiment a bit and get creative.

They're the perfect summer outdoor mommy treat.

Refreshing, delicious, and... wine...did I mention there was wine? :)

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Crispy And Buttery Golden Potatoes

I like to think that I'm a lady of many trades....

I LIKE to think that...it does not in fact mean it's true.

But when I find something I love...no matter what it is...usually I dive into it prettttty whole heartedly.

Well the same goes for recipes I love. When I find something I really like that's easy to make, well lets just say that makes me one happy mama.

This recipe is almost too easy. There are almost no ingredients and most of those ingredients many households have on hand at all times. WONDERFUL.

Count my ass in.

So here it is:

Ingredients:

1 Bag of Golden Potatoes
3 Tablespoons of Butter
1 Can of Chicken Broth
Garlic Salt, Salt, & Pepper to Taste

This Recipe is so easy you can't really mess it up to be honest.

So first you need to wash the potatoes and cut them into good sized chunks, I cut mine into about 6 pieces.

Place them along with the butter into a deep pan (preferably cast iron as I'm sure they would cook and crisp much better but a standard nonstick pan worked equally as well for me). Now each potato should touch the pan on at least one side, that will work best for when were in the browning state, this is why the amount of potatoes to use can vary slightly. I used less than 1 bag for this recipe.

Add chicken broth or stock half way up the pan, which was about half a can for me, salt (easy on the salt because its a fairly salty dish) ,pepper, and garlic salt, place a cover on the pan at medium to high heat and let cook for about 15 minutes or until tender.

Remove the cover and allow the remainder of the broth to evaporate for 15-20 minutes.

Once all the liquid had been cooked out allow the potatoes to brown on each side.

Voila!

Delicious, super flavorful, crispy, buttery, savory, easy-peasy potatoes. A PERFECT side for any chicken dish and makes about 4 servings.

Try it and let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

Lindsay's Bruschetta Pasta Salad

The following recipe comes per my friend Lindsay and for the record it IS as delicious as it sounds.

I think the best part about this recipe is that it's simple. And not just simple in that it's easy to make but simple also due to the lack of ingredients. Color me crazy but recipes that I tend to lean toward generally have fewer ingredients.

And if you're wondering...yes I AM one of those nit-picky people. There are a lot of things I do not like for example: onions, olives, mushrooms, ANY seafood, MOST cooked veggies. If that makes me picky...then fine so be it. However, I've lived my whole life eating plenty of really delicious food that does not include any of the aforementioned foods. So recipes that have simple ingredients are what attract me most and THIS is one of them. Five ingredients, people...five.

Ingredients:

1 Box/lb of tri color rotini
1 1/4 cup of diced tomatoes
3/4 cup of shredded fat free mozzarella
2-4 finely chopped fresh basil leaves
Roughly 7oz of Balsamic Vinaigrette (to taste)

And that is IT. I'd like to make two notes.

1. You CAN used diced fresh mozzarella as well however Lindsay likes the continuity of the shredded. Plus lezbehonest it makes for a much easier and faster prep.
2. When Lindsay was texting me the recipe her phone autocorrected "tomatoes" to "panties". And for me that too is worth noting.


Prep:

Cook the rotini until tender (or al dente as I prefer it), throw in a bowl and mix with remaining ingredients.

It's THAT easy. And for the record, pretty damn healthy too.

If you try it, maybe for your fourth of July parties (hint, hint) be sure to let us know what you think!

Summer Sangria

Now...let me preface this recipe by saying that the dessert I made yesterday I did WRONG. It was tasty...but wrong nonetheless and I will be waiting to post it until my mommy mush brain can READ THE DIRECTIONS CORRECTLY.

But I will not be leaving you reicpe-less because that would be cruel. So instead I will leave you with a kickass sangria recipe that I threw together yesterday with a couple of the girls.

Sangria is SO easy to make...and you can play with it a lot which is what I truly enjoy about making them. You can come across some really great ones just by putting things together that you like.

THIS sangria was easily one of my better ones.



So for this recipe you will need:

Bubbly Peach Wine (or any peach wine...we just happened to use a carbonated wine because that was what was on hand)
Malibu Sunshine (which is DELICIOUS...it's citrus infused malibu)
Orange Juice
Sprite
Strawberries

Now here's where I probably differ from most.

Generally speaking with a sangria I like to make them by the cup instead of a giant batch. Primarily because everyone is different and may like more of one thing over another, so I made these individually.

I first cut up one GIANT ASS strawberry in quarters and put 2 pieces in each glass.

I then filled my wine glass about 1/3 of the way full with the peach wine.

I added about 2 oz of OJ, a splash of sprite, and about 2 oz of the Malibu.

It was PHENOMENAL.

Super easy to make, not many ingredients, and very very summery. And summery is always good in my book.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Garlic Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

Aren't you glad you waited for this? Trust me...you are. These little pieces of heaven are worth a try. And SO simple. If I can do it...ANYBODY can. De-freaking-licious. So what you will need:

3-4 medium red potatoes, cut into small wedges
3 TBS olive oil
1/3 C parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp paprika
sea salt to taste



Now this is the recipe as listed at http://imperrfections.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/parmesan-roasted-potatoes/
It may be my taste but I do NOT need to add salt...between the garlic salt and how salty parmesan is, it was totally unnecessary for me. Also, it says that this serves 2-3...not true. These are way too delicious to only serve 2-3 people meaning I always make more than the recommended serving. SO here's how we make these life-altering, mind numbing, yummy pieces of awesome.

Wash those bad boys up. They grew in the ground...and never got washed. So unless you like dirt on your potatoes, give those babies a bath.

And Here are your ingredients.

Cut your potatoes like so

They'll look like this once chopped. Then put your chopped potatoes in a bowl with the olive oil and mix.

Mix together your dry ingredients and dump that shit on the potatoes and toss and mix it all together. This is when the magic starts to happen. These ingredients smell like heaven on freakin earth.

Throw them on a baking sheet and in the oven at 425. Make sure they are in a single layer. Put them in for 25 mins then turn them over (which I am still working on exactly how to make them not stick) for another 10 and then prepare your tastebuds for THIS awesomeness:

Once I can figure out how the hell to make them not stick it'll be perfect. But these pictures do ZERO justice to how they taste. OH MY LANTA. They are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside and the flavor is just out of this world. If you do not try them...I PROMISE you will regret it and it will haunt you for all of eternity. Go ahead, you know you wanna try em ;) And when you do let me know what you think!