Heath Apple Dip

This dip recipe was passed on to me from Katie - delicious and easy!  Serve with sliced apples.

 Ingredients
1 block cream cheese, softened
1/2c. sugar
3/4c. brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 bag toffee bits


Instructions
Mix all of the above ingredients together, easiest to do using a hand mixer.  Store in the refrigerator.

Sunny morning muffins

This is the recipe for the muffins I made on fourth of July.  I thought they were delicious and easy to make.  What's better than a great, made from scratch sunny morning muffin?  One of the best things about this recipe is that it leaves a lot of room to add fruits/grains of your choice.  Here goes..


Ingredients:

• 1 cup strawberries, chopped
• 1 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Pinch ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1/2 pint blueberries
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

• In a small bowl, mix together strawberries and 2 tablespoons sugar. Let sit 15 minutes until strawberries give off juices.
• In a small bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the mashed banana, eggs, oil, 1 cup sugar, strawberries, and lemon zest.
• Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined. Do not over mix. Fold in blueberries and walnuts.
• Scoop batter evenly into muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out with a few crumbs but not wet, about 30 minutes. Cool on a rack to room temperature. 

When I made these, I left the blueberries out of one batch and added oats instead.  Delicious!

before baking

finished product - strawberry banana oat

finished product - strawberry banana blueberry

fruit smoothies

The cold weather this year delayed the Florida strawberry harvest and resulted in an abundance of better quality fruit than is typical for Florida in late April. As a result our markets in Texas have been stocked with strawberry sales. What to do with a fridge full of berries? Make a smoothie!

We are still in the experimentation phase of smoothie making. Our early attempts involved crushed ice which we advise against - it made for a gritty and well, downright un-smooth, smoothie. Other trials involved ice cream, (which, while delectable, isn't ideal for breakfast and the fruit alone is sweet enough without adding additional sugars). Milk was the frontrunner until today, when it was surpassed by vanilla yogurt of the Dannon variety.

The recipe here featured is our current best recommendation:

Berry Banana Smoothie
prepared by: Andrea

1 banana
5-7 strawberries
6 blackberries
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

Put all ingredients in a blender and mix on puree setting about 20 seconds. We used fresh fruit today but recommend freezing fruit ahead of time to make the smoothie colder. David added 1/2 large naval orange to his smoothie (photo 3) and put the whole blender in the freezer to achieve desired temperature. I added ice cubes to mine and enjoyed immediately.

Puppy Chow Recipe

It seems appropriate that the first recipe on the blog is that of Puppy Chow. An immediate family favorite years ago and a hit at all social gatherings, puppy chow has imprinted itself in Gorney family history.

Ingredients:

~1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

~1 cup peanut butter (creamy)

1 box Crispix or Chex cereal

2 cups powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate chips and peanut butter in a large bowl and stir together.

Mix in the cereal until evenly coated.

Pour in the powdered sugar, cover with a lid, and shake until evenly distributed.

Enjoy!