Tasty Tuesday- Citrus Fruit Salad

Every Christmas Eve I can guarantee one thing- Pepe's AMAZING citrus fruit salad. 

You would think that my strong love for this fruit salad would mean that I would just make my own instead of waiting a whole year before savoring the delicious sweet and sour fruit in the crystal goblet. But no. I don't. Scratch that, I didn't. Until this year. Maybe its the crazy pregnant lady in me or maybe I just got my act together but really it doesn't matter because all that matters is the fruit salad.

 A little fair warning though, if you don't like citrus fruit you will not like this fruit salad. It's slightly sweet but a bit more on the tart side and it's delicious.

 There will be a mess so be prepared. I used a giant bathroom towel underneath my cutting board and my table still got a bit damp but I didn't have juice dripping on the floor so I consider that a win.

 I don't know if Pepe uses an actual recipe but I didn't. I loaded my grocery cart with piles of grapefruits and just about every orange my store had. Holy crow who knew there were so many different kinds of oranges?! If you know your citrus fruits better than me I suggest only using oranges without seeds but I just bought two of everything. I also found this lovely Pomelo- apparently it's a larger, slightly sweeter grapefruit. It's delicious, add it if you can find it.

 Time to peel and chop. I cut off the tops and tails of all the fruits and then slice down the sides getting off all the skin and pith and only leaving the juicy flesh.

 I didn't go to crazy this time, just a few of everything!

 Time to chunk up all the fruit. Use whatever method works best for you but be sure to toss any seeds you find and try not to get any pith in the salad.

 I tend to slice around the fruit leaving just the center portion that isn't particularly edible and then chop my slices into strips.

 Then my strips into chunks. This method works great of the grapefruits and some of the oranges but others you may want to cut along the segment lines and then chop up the segments.

 The last magical ingredient would be apples. I personally think Granny Smith apples stand up the best in this salad but I had a Honey Crisp on hand too that I tossed in. Still tasty.

 Peel and dice your apples to match your citrus chunks and then toss everything together. Of course the ridiculous amount of citrus will keep your apples from browning!

 Now you eat, and eat and eat. Lots of fiber for sure! This salad is by far my favorite fruit salad and in these cold winter months all the citrus fruit is generally on sale and looking great. Enjoy!

Salad for Breakfast?

Earlier this week Maddie came to me around 7:30am and asked if she could make a salad. Umm....I haven't even finished my coffee yet so no I am not emptying out the vegetable draw just yet.

Instead I grabbed the stack of colored foam laying in the craft cabinet and tossed a quick fake salad together. Maddie handed me foam and told me what we needed in the salad: lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and shredded carrots. Ahh how I love that my child LOVES her veggies!


I few hours later I also cut up some white and pink foam a la Allie's coffee to make 'Lola milk' or as the regular folks call it strawberry milk! Then we cut out some strawberries and blueberries with little bits of white for yogurt to make parfaits! Maddie spent the day cooking up a storm in her play kitchen and was thrilled with the new additions.

Dinner Time

I thought it would be nice to share some of my quick and easy dinners that are a big hit at my house. Tonight we went for Salad Bar Pizza. I have always made pizza at home but just recently came of with the bright idea of buying the toppings from the salad bar at the grocery store. I would say tonight's dinner totaled about $8 (but that includes fresh mozzarella cheese from the olive bar).




I get my already made pizza dough in a bag from the bakery section of our local grocery store. One bag of dough make 6 mini pizzas in my house.


Lately hubby has been into grilled pizza so I have put my indoor panini press to good use grilling pizza dough!


I usually take care of the grilling earlier in the day so once dinner time rolls around I just have to add the toppings and pop them in the oven.



Here is the tray of toppings from the salad bar which includes: grilled chicken, pepperoni, ham, bell peppers, red onions, olives, tomatoes, mushrooms and broccoli.

And the pizzas!

1: red onions, grilled chicken (with BBQ sauce) and cheddar cheese
2: pepperoni, black olives, red onion
3: plain ole pepperoni for Maddie

1: ham, broccoli, olives, red onions, cheddar cheese
2: tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, red onion, broccoli, bell peppers
3: pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, bell peppers, red onions

ENJOY!

Muffin Tin Monday

Recently I stumbled upon Her Cup Overfloweth by Michelle and absolutely loved her Muffin Tin Monday idea! This Monday was scheduled to be Yellow food day so Maddie and I stopped by the salad bar at Stop & Shop on Saturday. I asked her to find as many yellow foods as she could on the salad bar and we were able to get yellow peppers, pineapple and yellow squash (all for 45 cents!).



1st row: yellow bell peppers with dip, pineapple chunks, yellow squash with parm cheese
2nd row: half of a banana, macaroni and cheese, yellow M&Ms
We just so happened to have white grape juice in the fridge that is yellow too!


Maddie was so excited to see a whole tray full of yellow foods! She said her favorite was the macaroni and cheese!

Thanks Michelle! We can't wait for next Monday!

In My Kitchen Volume 1

Feeling inspired by Amy and encouraged by Michelle I thought since I am too lazy to do any real blogging I would just occasionally share what I have going on in the kitchen. New recipes- success and fails, our favorites, anything I stumble upon I guess! Enjoy!

 

Mexican food. It's what we do. A lot. One of our favorites are taco/burrito bar nights. I make a bunch of toppings, throw it on my giant wooden cutting board and call it good. Grilled chicken, guacamole (I buy TONS of Wholly Guacamole 100 calorie packs and keep it on my freezer), cilantro lime rice and beans of some sort always make an appearance. 

Lately our my greatest obsession is this Zest Black Bean and Corn Salad from Cooking Light. I am seriously obsessed. I could eat it (and do) every single day. Its healthy, its good. Just trust me. Make it. Now.

  

Hey look! More bean salad! With a side of baked Southwestern Egg Rolls. The recipe at Cake & Allie is the bomb. (Does anyone say that anymore?) I make tons of them, freeze them and store them. Baking straight from the freezer makes them super easy too. I haven't made the ranch recipe that goes along with them though. Instead I mix one 100 calorie pack of Wholly Guacamole with a big dollop of sour cream and some dry Ranch dressing mix. Boom. Delicious.

 Speaking of Ranch dip mix did you know you can buy a canister of it instead of the small packets? I love it! Now if only they sold the Italian mix the same way.

  

I made some crab Rangoon dip last week and had a bunch of leftover wonton wrappers. What to do, what to do? Well the over ripe banana on my counter, joined forces with the half empty container of Nutella and like that dessert was born.

 

I filled the wonton with small dollops of Nutella and slices of bananas. I baked them at 425F on a parchment lined cookie sheet until they were nice and crispy. I may have over did it on a few though since I had a bit of a Nutella flow going on but it was still tasty!

 My tip to you. Goat cheese + endive + honey = delicious. If you have candied walnuts they make a fantastic addition too.

 This was supposed to be Michael Symon's gnudi in brown butter sauce. Obviously it did not come out as I hoped. I will probably... maybe try it again.

S'mores sticks? I decided late at night- as I usually do- that it would be a great idea to make Maddie a special snack for her lunch box. I ended up dipping low fat cinnamon graham crackers in melted chocolate and then in Jet Puffed Mallow Bits. Maddie was thrilled and I totally snuck a few- tasty!

Now Pinterest. I LOVE Pinterest but my boards were getting cluttered... and still are but I needed a way to find the recipes I had tried and liked so I now have a Tried and True board. They are recipe I made. That were good. Its so much easier to find the good recipes now!

Muffin Tin Monday: Happy Birthday Edition!

My baby turns three today, technically not until 11:35pm but I couldn't let that but a damper on her special day! How fantastic is it that today is not only Muffin Tin Monday but Maddie's birthday too, that's like cake with ice cream!

Hubby and I brought Maddie to the grocery store salad bar this morning so she could pick out all of her favorites for today's tin.

Top: Cherry tomatoes, cantaloupe and honey dew melon, pepperoni and string cheese skewers
Bottom: Blueberries, 3 strawberries, 3 cucumber slices with ranch dip
Of course the festive party cookie was her favorite!

How cute is the pepperoni and cheese skewer!

Don't Forget: If you haven't already signed up there is still time to join in the Muffin Tin Swap being held over at Her Cup Overfloweth! Come join the fun!

Double The Party

Double the work, double the fun, double the cake!

Once I realized my husband would be joining us for our trip to Connecticut last month I decided last minute that I would throw a double birthday party for the girls while we were there. I may be slightly nuts though. I planned a double birthday party that would be held in Connecticut while I was in Virginia AND the party would be Sunday afternoon after driving all Friday night and not actually arriving to Connecticut until early Saturday morning. Nuts. Nuts, I tell you!

Thankfully my mother was a HUGE help and everything turned out wonderfully! I went a little crazy on Pinterest pinning a bazillion ideas and I think everything came together rather nicely.

Party hats were a demanded request by Madison so I spent nights watching Dexter and cutting out fish lips. 

Of course my brother was the only one that actually wore a party hat.

Dollar store stones filled my Mason jars along with Instagram prints of the girlies for centerpieces. The jars were great anchors for balloons and scattered with our seashell collection they set the theme nicely.

Ruffled streamers? Yay, I made a TON of them. Cardstock goldfish paid homage to Zoey's beloved snack.

Dollar store goggles made for a crazy cute drink dispenser! 

I used sandcastle molds and buckets to hold food and decorate. Now they are being used for sand. Duh.

I made paper chains with all of the leftover scrapbook paper that I used for the party. They made a cute little centerpiece on the food table.

Run children! Run! Play! Jump! Don't hang on mommy in the blazing heat!

Food time! We kept lunch simple, yummy and easy on me! Veggies and dip, fresh fruit, a seashell pasta salad and tortilla rolled sandwiches made for a nice light lunch. Of course no birthday is complete without a few sweets though. Maddie and I spent an afternoon dipping summer Oreos (blue filling!) in white chocolate and then topped them in color coordinating sprinkles. I also had mini shot glasses filled with blue Sixlets and Swedish Fish. 

One of the biggest hits though was a last minute thrown together treat of frozen watermelon slices on popsicle sticks. Seriously simple yet everyone raved about them! I will be keeping my freezer stocked in frozen watermelon this summer!

Thankfully my mom hired a local baker to take care of the cakes for me.

Not only were they gorgeous but delicious too!

Happy early birthday Madison!

So of course the cake was a hit. 

Post cake nudie pool party. And then she pooped. Pool time OVER.

The girls were blessed with some lovely gifts from the family and had a ball!

And then Zoey said the party was over.

A double birthday party was exhausting but with the girls celebrating their birthdays only a month a part I foresee many more in our future.