Craving a Mexican dinner

After my early morning workout, I am famished. As I’m drinking my post-workout protein shake and scanning Pinterest my craving for a delicious Mexican dinner is overwhelming.

Here are a few of the pins that I think would make an amazing & delicious Mexican dinner… cocktail included:

Clean Eating Cilantro Salsa  from The Gracious Pantry

 

Spicy Barbeque Pork Chop Tacos with Chunky Avocado Salsa from Rock Recipes

 

Lime Cilantro Rice from AllRecipes.com

 

Mango Jalapeno Margarita from How Sweet It Is

 

I think I’ll put this all together for our Cinco de Mayo dinner.

xo,

Nicole

{Scrumptious} Strawberry-Peach Sangria

I love living in our neighborhood. Most of our neighbors are also our friends and we get together often during the warm months. The perfect way to end a spring, summer, or fall day….neighbors, fire pit, and drinks. On Memorial Day weekend I made {Scrumptious} Strawberry – Peach Sangria to share around our fire. It was delicious. (however, fresh peaches would’ve been better)

Ingredients:

One bottle Riesling

1/2 pound strawberries

2 peaches (I used 1/2 a jar of sliced peaches in 100% juice because I already had them in the pantry)

1 kiwi fruit

3 cans of Sierra Mist

Preparation:

Slice the strawberries, peaches, and kiwi fruit. Pour bottle of wine into pitcher and add fruit. Chill in refrigerator for 4-6 hours. Add cans of Sierra Mist, gently stir, and serve.

ENJOY!

Virginia’s {Calico} Beans

My mom’s stepmother, Virgina, shared this recipe for Calico Beans with us many years ago. It’s the perfect side dish for neighborhood cookouts, picnics, family reunions, church potlucks, and more.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. bacon

1/2 lb. ground beef

1/2 cup chopped white onion

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup ketchup

1- 28oz can of Bush’s baked beans

1- 15oz can of butter beans

1- 15oz can of kidney beans

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet, brown the bacon, ground beef, and chopped onion. Drain. Pour into a 2 quart baking dish along with the sugar, ketchup, and 3 cans of beans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

This will be the dish that I take to any event this spring and summer that includes “bring a dish to share” on the invitation.

Raspberry {Lemonade} Bundt Cake

Dessert is probably my favorite part of Easter dinner at my Grandma’s house (with my cousin’s angel eggs coming in at a close 2nd). This year I am preparing a Raspberry Lemonade Bundt Cake as my contribution to dinner. (I usually take Party Potatoes) To me, the cake just sounded like Spring.  Plus, its pink.

Cake Ingredients:

1 box lemon cake mix

1 (3 oz) package instant lemon pudding

4 large eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup 2% milk

3/4 cup frozen raspberry lemonade concentrate (thawed)

6-8 drops red food coloring (optional)

Cake Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bundt pan. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, milk, lemonade concentrate, and food coloring. Mix until smooth. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 55 minutes.

Allow cake to cool in pan for 15 minutes. Then, invert cake onto plate. Drizzle the glaze over the top, allowing the glaze to run down the sides. Continue to cool until cake reaches room temperature.

Lemonade Glaze Ingredients & Prep:

1/4 cup rasp. lemonade concentrate

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Whisk together Raspberry Lemonade concentrate and powdered sugar until smooth. 

*For a variation: Use Pink Lemonade concentrate instead of Raspberry Lemonade concentrate.

Linked  to Too Cute Tuesday at Funky Polkadot Giraffe and Wednesday’s Wowsers at oopsey daisy.

Chicken & Salsa Rice Bake

It can be a struggle to find meals that all five of us like. It is also difficult to find simple recipes with minimal preparation time. Some evenings (ok…most evenings) I’m too busy to stop everything to chop, mix, whisk, saute, etc. So, I was happy when a friend shared this recipe for Chicken & Salsa Rice Bake. It was a hit! (well, I omit the cheese topping on half when my 14 yr old is eating with us. He does not eat cheese.) The prep time is about 10 minutes, if that. Then, I put it in the oven and go about my day… removing the 2 yr old from the kitchen counter, helping the 4 yr old put together a puzzle, letting out 2 barking dogs, and taking care of all of the other random craziness that goes on in our house.

Ingredients:

3-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups of instant white rice

1 1/2 cups of water

1 1/2 cups of your favorite chunky salsa

11 oz can of Mexicorn

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 tbsp. of your favorite taco seasoning

1/2 cup shredded cheese (I use cheddar or mexican blend)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine rice, water, salsa, mexicorn, soup and taco seasoning in a 9×13 glass baking dish. Stir. Place the chicken breasts on top of the rice mixture. Bake for 45 minutes. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Enjoy!

Please note: the photo does not do the meal justice. I am not a photographer.

{delicious} mail

Ever since I was a little girl, I loved getting mail. My grandma wrote me a letter about once a week.  I always looked forward to reading them. Not that she did anything particularly eventful or amazing, but it made me feel closer to her just knowing what little things she did in her daily life.  

To this day, I still run to the mailbox every day just to see what’s inside. Usually its just a stack of bills, junk mail, catalogs, and magazines with an occassional greeting card. But today was different. A small box was waiting for me.

Inside the box was my FREE 12-count box of Green Mountain Naturals Hot Apple Cider K-Cups and a $3 Off coupon for a future purchase. Woo Hoo!! Even though its approximately 80 degrees outside, I’m enjoying a delicious cup of hot apple cider. I love my Keurig single cup brewer. (but not nearly as much as I loved those letters from my grandma)

Thanksgiving {Desserts}

We travel just about an hour and a half to my grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving. Even in her 80s, she still makes the turkey, homemade noodles & chicken, rolls, mashed potatoes, a few other sides, and a pumpkin pie. Other family members bring side dishes and desserts as well. My aunt always brings her cheesy baked vegetables….every year…because everybody LOVES them. But I don’t have a “usual”. So, this year I have decided to try a new dessert that I found on My Blessed Life.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle 

The photo alone had my mouth watering. I just have to try it. I love pumpkin and gingerbread and whipped topping. So, its perfect 🙂 And the recipe is simple enough!

The other dessert recipe that I considered trying this Thanksgiving was one that I pinned on Pinterest a couple months ago and kept meaning to make, but never did…..

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars from The Girl Who Ate Everything

*  *  *  *  *

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dessert?? Are you a traditional pumpkin pie lover? sweet potato pie? Or do you look forward to something completely different?

At Home {Barista}

I love the Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa that Starbucks adds to their menu in the winter months! But what I don’t love is bundling up in my coat, hat & gloves, waiting for my minivan to warm up, and driving 15 minutes to get one. (especially when the roads are snowy and icy)

So, you can imagine my delight when I spotted a box on the shelf at Target…8 single serving packets of instant Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa for $5.99….right next to the box of Swiss Miss hot cocoa that I was going to purchase. I let out a happy little squeal and quite possibly clapped my hands like a small excited child. Luckily, nobody heard or saw me since it was 8am and I was one of 3 or 4 shoppers in the entire store. Of course, I headed right over to the dairy case for a can of Reddi Wip whipped topping. And then rushed home to try it.

 

Delicious. Yummy! Oh, what a treat! That’s all I can say after finishing my mug of chocolaty, caramel goodness.

Now, when I want to indulge in this delicious Starbucks treat on a cold Iowa morning (or evening), all I have to do is walk into my very own kitchen. And I’m the barista.

Beat the heat….

With the actual temperature reaching 100 degrees (and a heat index of 110-115), I decided that a glass of lemonade just wasn’t enough to beat the heat. So, I decided to try this lemonade pie recipe. It was cool, refreshing goodness… like “heaven on a plate”.

REFRESHING LEMONADE PIE

Ingredients:

 1-3/4 cup milk
2 boxes (4-serving size) vanilla instant pudding
6 oz frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
8 oz Cool Whip
1 (9 –inch) ready-made graham cracker piecrust

Preparation:

 Whisk together milk and pudding mix.  Add thawed lemonade concentrate.  Stir until smooth.  Fold in Cool Whip.  Pour into crust.  Cover and chill for 4 hours before serving.

Tried to get a photo of the entire pie, but my family cut into it as soon as I took it out of the refrigerator.