Fruit Salad. Yummy Yummy!

Okay if you have children then more than likely you know all about the title right? You know, the Wiggles!!! They have a song about fruit salad. I made an amazing fruit salad last weekend for the book club. I love making fresh fruit salads. Although, my Aunt Teresa makes an amazing fruit salad from fruit cocktail, bananas and orange juice. Seriously, so good!

But for this fruit salad I made, it was so simple. I used small red seedless grapes, blueberries, strawberries, fresh pineapple and clementines. It's so pretty and colorful right?

I love fresh pineapple. Boy, it's not exactly the easiest to cut up but man, is it ever good. It is so sweet and the texture is a little hard but then soft and it is so juicy. Mmmmm, there is only good things to say. I also love clementines. They are small oranges and juicy. but, the thing I like best about them is that they are easy as heck to peel. Right? Peeling oranges kept my friend Larry in grad school from eating oranges. Ha! Okay, that may be bad and extreme, but true. With clementines there is no excuse because they are so simple!

This fruit salad was amazing. OMG!! So incredibly good. how do you make/like your fruit salad??

Do You Love Meringues??? Or Should I Say Cloud Fluff??

I just recently started loving Meringues. Mmmmm...sooooo yummy! I have some vanilla ones from Trader Joe's right now (don't worry my friends in Texas without Trader Joe's, you can get Meringues almost anywhere!). I had them sitting out for the book club last weekend and they were such a hit. My mom has always liked Meringues but me notsomuch, until recently. I'm so glad I started liking them though because OMG!!! they are fab-u-lous!!! And they are fat free. What's not to love about that right??? I've seen them in a variety of different flavors and am excited to try all of them.

They are so pretty too right? I love the shape of them. It is fun and whimsical and they are light and fluffy. Maybe they should be called Cloud Fluff instead of Meringues. Ha! :)

Do you like Meringues and what flavor is your favorite???

Crock Pot Bread Pudding

So, continuing on with the Chick Lit Book Club menu, we come to another dish I made. I made this amazing Apple Bread Pudding and it is made in the crock pot. Yep, that's right, in the crock pot!!! What's easier than that right? (I wish the above picture did more justice, you'll just have to trust me on how incredible it is.)

You mix together 3 eggs and 2 cups of milk (or Half & Half or Cream) and 1/2 cup of sugar. You then add in 1 can (21 ounces) of Apple Pie Filling (yep canned pie filling). Next cut 1 loaf of Cinnamon Raisin Bread into cubes and add into the egg and apple mixture. Pour this then into a greased crock pot and cook on low for 3 hours. Let set uncovered for 45 minutes. I then dobbed some whipped topping on top.

Mmmmmm, OMG!! Yummy!! Everyone will think it is fab-u-lous and they will think you are fab-u-lous for making it!!!! It is so easy. It is perfect for a dinner dessert or for card club or Bunco get togethers or brunch.

Nutella & Nanners

I started a Chick Lit Book Club and we met for the first time yesterday. I hosted the first meeting at my place. I made so many yummy foods and so keep checking back this week to see what all we had.

I was at a conference a couple of weeks ago and had something like chocolate and banana won-tons. And so I got to thinking that since this was going to be a brunch type of food affair it would be great to mix Nutella and bananas and fill won-tons and then fry them. OMG!!! So incredibly yummy!!! They were super fab-u-lous!!! The ultimate, uber, dessert!! Seriously, I cannot say enough about them.

They were really easy to make. I just took a little bit (you really need to keep it to a little bit or it will be too full (yes there is such a thing) and seep out the sides), probably like a tsp. and place in the center of a won-ton wrapper (these can be found in the grocery store where the tofu is) and then place a little bit of banana on top of that. Fold it up and seal it with some water on your fingertip and then drop into a pot of hot oil. It doesn't take long at all to cook so definitely keep an eye them.

They are so crunchy and then gooey and warm and chocolately. OMG!! Sooooo good. They were a big hit and everyone seemed to like them. I can't say if they were really healthy, but Nutella is somewhat good for you considering it tastes like chocolate and then you have the bananas, which are a fruit. If it weren't for the frying part they would be perfect. Well, perfect for the health conscious people. Who are they again????

Down on the Farm Pizza

I really really love pizza. I swear my sister, Missy, and I could eat it every night and never get sick of it. I'm not a pizza snob either, I like it anyway and anywhere. I can Dominoe's, Pizza Hut, fancier restaurant pizza and even some frozen pizzas. However, every now and then I like making my own pizza. It's really easy and I can include all of the favorite toppings and it doesn't cost me $1.75 extra per topping! (Seriously, that's what it cost at the cheaper pizza places in Connecticut. It's insane!)

When I'm at my mom's place I will even make my own crust using her bread machine. Sometimes I make it ahead of time and freeze them so I have them when I need them, but that hasn't happened for awhile. And so, I bought some pizza dough at Trader Joe's and you know how healthy Trader Joe's is and so it is was whole wheat pizza dough. I was hesitant, but decided to get it anyway. It ended up being really moist and not too sticky or doughy (is doughy a word?). As you notice in the picture above I am using a pizza stone. I got mine through Pampered Chef and I LOVE my pizza stone. It is incredible and cooks everything so evenly. It is definitely worth every penny because they can be a little pricey, but again so worth it!

I made a veggie pizza this time (hence the farm reference in the title) and used a lot of my favorite veggies, such as mushrooms and black olives (are black olives a veggie???). I used the canned ones. Oh hush up. Who cares if they were canned versus fresh. Get over it. :) I also shredded my own mozzarella. Actually that wasn't my intention, I thought I was buying fresh mozzarella and was going to slice it and just put that on the pizza with some fresh basil, but then opened it and realized it wasn't fresh and so my plans changed. Thank goodness for some well-stocked canned goods. Phleh. :) I also really like the Pepino Pizza Sauce that you can get in the Pizza sauce aisle at the grocery store. However, I realized that I didn't have any and so this time I used Trader Joe's Marinara Sauce. It was more watery than I like on a pizza, but I didn't put a lot on and so it was okay.

I then put it in a 425 degree oven for about 8 minutes and walluh, perfecto! Okay, maybe not perfecto, but it was really good. It was so cheesy, which is how I like it. Sure, it makes it more difficult to eat because it is flimsy, but it was cheesy and that's all that really matters right?

Do you make your own pizza and what are your favorite toppings?

No Pudge Brownies

These are brownies are fab-u-lous!!! Seriously, you cannot even tell they are fat free. They are moist and gooey and yummy! I've seen them in a lot of different grocery stores and so I am guessing they are in yours too. Check the healthy or organic section or the brownie section. They come in a variety of flavors, but I just got the regular ones. You only have to add plain or vanilla-flavored yogurt and that's it! OMG!!! So, so good!

They are so gooey and cake-like. 100% serious that you cannot tell they are fat free. You know when you buy something low fat or fat free and you can tell when you are eating it that it is fat free? Well, not with these. They are so chocolately. It is amazing. Once you eat these, you will never buy regular brownies again!!

No Silence with these Lambs

I bought some lamb chops at Trader Joe's the other day. I have never made lamb chops and I'm not even sure if I've ever eaten lamb chops, but they looked good. I've seen people on Food Network make lamb chops and they are always talking about how easy their recipes are right?

I found a recipe from Giada DeLaurentiis on foodnetwork.com and it looked easy, said it was easy and sounded yummy. For the cooking of the lamb chops you simply salt and pepper the lamb chops and then chop up 2 tbsp. of rosemary and sprinkle over the lamb chops. Cook over the grill for about 5 minutes per side.

In the meantime you make the sauce, which consists of 1/3 basalmic vinegar, 2 tbsp. honey and 1 chopped clove of garlic.

When the lamb chops are finished you drizzle (mine was more like a pour because I like it saucy) the sauce over them.

OMG!!! So so good. I mean really, really good. They are really easy to make too. So, go ahead and try them. You'll like them!!