You'll Find Paradise In A Tropical Banana Bread Loaf

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.


I don't do a lot of baking during the summer months because I hate how hot the house gets when the oven has been on for more than a few minutes. But, sometimes I get a hankering for something sweet and break my no-oven rule. Some of my favorite sweets to make are fruity tasting muffins and bread, and since I was craving some last week, I whipped out my apron, mixer and bread loaf pan and got to work making this Tropical Banana Bread recipe from Golden Blossom Honey. 

I was trying to use up a lot of the food from my kitchen that was going to spoil while we were on vacation, so this recipe was a perfect way to use my extra bananas and lemon. This recipe combines a medley of tropical flavors, I felt like I was on an oasis of bliss while snacking on a slice. I usually like to put some kind of spread on my homemade breads, but there is so much flavor in this recipe, I'd highly suggest eating as is and skip the butters and spreads. 

If you aren't in the mood for making a bread loaf, you could easily pour the batter into a muffin tin for smaller portion sizes, just make sure to reduce cooking time so they don't burn. Either way, the bread or muffins would be a great morning breakfast treat, or an afternoon pick-me-up served with a cup of tea. 

Ingredients

1/3 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup coconut, toasted*
2 ripe bananas, mashed, about 1 cup
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey!

What are your most favorite tropical flavors?

 
  

Meatless Meal: Spaghetti Marinara with Eggplant

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.


It's been one year since I've started my journey as a vegetarian. Due to health issues, I was kind of forced into the decision, so the adjustment took some getting used to. Looking back, I think about how I struggled with the diet change, but fast forward a year later, in all honesty, I don't miss my old eating ways. I used to cook the same dishes over and over, just making a few slight changes here and there to make things feel fresh, but once I had to give it all up, I realized how boring our meals used to be. My world was opened up to many new and exciting foods that I never would have tried before like lentils, chickpeas, and using cauliflower for hot wings (so good!) Now, what was once an afterthought in the supermarket is now a dinnertime staple. One thing I never tried before this year was eggplant. The name alone is a turn off for me, but after reading a lot of vegetarian and vegan websites, I learned that eggplant is an awesome meat substitute in some dishes. So, when I saw this Spaghetti Marinara with Eggplant recipe on Golden Blossom Honey, I knew it was a must try dish. 

Roasting the eggplant gave it a meaty texture that blended well with the pasta and sauce. I usually make a small helping of ground beef for the family to add to their spaghetti, but opted to skip it this time and served everyone the eggplant substitute and nobody complained. 

 I am sure the sauce can also be made with your home grown tomatoes, but sadly, my garden sucks this year and I only see about a quarter of the tomatoes that I usually have by now. So much rain early on has really done a number on my veggies :( Fingers crossed I'll at least be able to recoup the cost of the plants in produce by the end of the season!

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
8 Tablespoons olive oil
2 (28 ounce) cans plum tomatoes with their juice
2 Tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons capers
2 medium eggplants, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
1 pound spaghetti

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey!

*A reminder that I will be vacationing with my family for the next 10 days and won't be online much, if at all, until we return. Be sure to follow our adventures on Instagram and Insta Stories if you want a sneak peek of everything we'll be up to! 

What are some of your favorite meat-free dishes?

 

Inexpensive Graduation Party Ideas

We finally got around to hosting a graduation party for Mariah over the weekend. After already hosting one big party this summer, I was a little worried about finding the desire to pull off another. But, since you only graduate high school once, I put on my superhero mom cape and got it together. To save on time, I decided to skip baking my own food, especially since I ordered a huge cake, and stuck with making a few crafts and party props that would help the guests have a more memorable time.

I did buy a bunch of decor from the $1 store to perk up the house, but I also quickly whipped up this ribbon wrapped wreath to add a more personal touch to the decorations. If you are planning on dollar store decorations, buy them as soon as they hit the shelves. Most of the items were gone withing weeks of my store putting them out on the sales floor.

Using cheap graduation streamers from Walmart (97¢ each), I hung them on the wall to create a small photo booth area. Top with balloons and inexpensive photo booth props from Amazon, guests had fun posing for silly snapshots.

We also made a frame with a piece of foam board from the $1 store for more photo opportunities. Dress it up with a little ribbon and graduation year numbers cut from decorative paper.

I found this decorative box for $7 at Michael's Craft Store and dressed it up with some heat transfer vinyl for a keepsake that Mariah could take to college. I printed out some index size cards that I had the guests write out advice and well wishes to the graduate so she could have a little love from home with her while she's so far away this fall.

I knew there were going to be a lot of kids at the party, so with inspiration from Pinterest, I set up a candy station that I knew they would love. I found the tins for $2 each at Michael's, but I'm sure you could get them for $1 at the $1 store as well. I created some labels with cute school phrases I found on Pinterest to accompany each candy flavor.

Having the party in July helped keep costs down. I was able to find a lot of decorations for 1/2 off since most grads already had their parties earlier in the season. I found 12 packs of graduation bubbles for $1.25 each that the small kids really enjoyed playing with.

I did splurge and bought the largest photo cake at the bakery. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't fill up the bottom portion of the cake with more flowers or use bigger lettering to fill in the extra white spaces, but as quickly as it was gobbled down, it really didn't matter in the overall scheme of things. Instead of writing the standard congratulations greetings, I had them put a quote on the cake from Mariah's favorite film, Peter Pan.

Including the cake and cookout food, we were able to stay under our $250 party budget. I'd call that a success!

What are some of your favorite party activities?

Celebrate National Ice Cream Month With Strawberry Ice Cream Cake!

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.


Happy National Ice Cream Month! I can't think of a better month than one that promotes the indulging of ice cream for an entire 31 days. If every day started with ice cream, I'm sure the world would be a much happier place, wouldn't you agree? I've been on a roll trying my hand at homemade ice cream recipes here and there and have come across some really tasty favorites this month (if you haven't tried the Moon Pie Ice Cream yet, you're really missing out!) As I was flipping through my ice cream recipe stash, I came across this Strawberry Ice Cream Cake recipe from Golden Blossom Honey that I had saved to make for Easter, but never got around to doing. Now that we are in the middle of National Ice Cream Month, there was no better time to give it a go. 

Made with layers of pound cake, a sweet strawberry sauce, and creamy strawberry ice cream, this is the most perfect summertime ice cream treat. Even though I've been trying to maintain my beach body for our upcoming Cali trip, I simply can't resist sneaking a slice of this heavenly treat every day. It's soooo good!

Ingredients

1 (10 3/4 ounce) package frozen pound cake, thawed according to package directions
1/2 cup strawberry preserves
1/2 cup GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 gallon strawberry ice cream, softened or 2 pints strawberry ice cream and 2 pints vanilla ice cream
Sauce:
1 (16 ounce) package fresh strawberries
4 tablespoons RAW GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey!

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

 

Moon Pie Ice Cream & Utter Nonsense

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.


I just heard they are getting ready to close down the duck pond at one of our parks since the upkeep is starting to get out of control. I can understand why they want to close it, but I admit that I feel a little sad to hear it will no longer be a part of our community. I remember when I was little, grandma drove the special needs bus that would pick the kids up from the school that is located directly across the street from the pond. On days she would let me ride with her, we'd get there a little early to feed the ducks and eat our own snacks while waiting for the kids to come out. One of my favorite summertime snacks were Moon Pies and grandma was awesome about buying me some here and there. After hearing about the closing of duck pond and reminiscing about the good old days with grandma, I remembered that I had a recipe for Moon Pie Ice Cream that I have been wanting to try. I mean, what says summer like ice cream and Moon Pies? Combining the two creates one heck of a good summertime treat.

A chocolatey ice cream layer, followed by a marshmallow layer, then sprinkled with a crushed graham cracker layer gives this no-churn ice cream a flavor reminiscent of Moon Pies. Or, if you are a fan of S'mores, calling it S'mores ice cream works too.

print recipe

Moon Pie Ice Cream (No Churn)

by Theresa M July-11-2017

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 13oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• pinch salt
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup marshmallow fluff
• 1 cup graham crackers, coarsely crushed

Instructions

Melt the chocolate chips in a double broiler over low heat, stirring constantly, until you reach a smooth consistency. In a large bowl, combine the chocolate, milk, vanilla, sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, unsweetened cocoa powder, and pinch of salt. Set aside.In a separate bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold the cream into the chocolate mixture. Transfer 1/3 of the mixture to a freezable container. Spread 1/2 of the marshmallow fluff over chocolate mixture, then top with 1/2 of the crushed grahams. Repeat layers one more time to fill the container, ending with a final chocolate layer on top. Gently cover the container with plastic wrap, making sure to press the wrap on top of the chocolate ice cream. Freeze for 6 hours. Serve. 

Original Recipe adapted from No-Bake Treats by Julianne Bayer

Another thing I loved doing on summer nights with grandma is play board and card games. Now, I'm long past the days of Hi Ho Cherry O and Old Maid, but I still love family game night that runs into the late hours. Nothing beats chowing down on sweet treats, kicking butt at games, and laughing until your tummy hurts. Even though our game stash is pretty huge, one game that we've been using a lot lately is the hilarious accent game called Utter Nonsense: Family Edition.

Utter Nonsense originally funded on Kickstarter with an adult version, has now gone PG. In this family-friendly card game, players combine silly voices with even sillier phrases to create sayings that are just plain ridiculous. The game contains 50 Accent Cards and 450 Phrase cards which players combine and act out. Don't worry about being good at accents. Make each one your own because the best performance wins.

Pictured below are a few examples of the cards. The green card is the accent card which is drawn by the judge. Once everyone knows what accent they should be trying to imitate, they then draw a phrase from their deck of cards that they think would be the funniest pairing with the accent. Each player acts out their phrase in said accent. The judge then makes the final decision on which phrase acted out was the most hilarious. The person to win 5 rounds is the overall winner.

 

The game is suggested for ages 8 and up so kids can read the cards, but the humor is appropriate for all ages. This is the most perfect game for family game night, back yard BBQ's, sleepovers, campfires, or anytime you just want to have a good time with lots of belly laughs.

Utter Nonsense: Family Edition is exclusively available at Target stores and online, with a retail of $24.99. If you would like to learn more, visit Utter Nonsense online.

What's your favorite snack to eat on family game night?

Summer Calls for Fresh Green Bean & Potato Salad

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.


Who's still recovering from the 4th of July holiday? This girl, right here. From Friday through Tuesday, we were booked to the max with social gatherings. Thankfully, I didn't have to host anything myself (especially since I just hosted a huge 50th wedding anniversary party and am putting the final touches on Mariah's grad party that's coming up), but that didn't mean I could be a crummy guest and show up to the other parties empty handed. I did a quick search on Golden Blossom Honey to see if I could find something simple, but delicious, that I could double or triple without a problem so I didn't have to spend all day in the kitchen cooking up dishes to take to multiple events. I came across this Fresh Green Bean & Potato Salad recipe that was exactly what I needed. Since we were traveling out of the city for a few gatherings, I didn't have to worry about keeping the dish warm. Just pop it into a cooler and away we went. And, since this dish isn't made with the traditional mayo base that standard potato salads are made with, it made for a light, summery dish that didn't weigh the tummy down so everyone could eat, then enjoy the outdoor games. 

Fresh green bean potato salad is a great potluck offering, or BBQ side dish. There's a beautiful blend of flavors in this dish, you'll want to make it all summer long.

Ingredients

Dressing:
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 shallot, chopped
2 tablespoons Golden Blossom Honey Mustard
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/4 cup olive oil
Whisk together all dressing ingredients. Set aside.


Salad:
1/2 pound green beans, ends trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 pounds small red-skinned potatoes, unpeeled and cut in half (if potatoes are large cut into quarters)
2 tablespoons white wine


CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

 
You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey!

What's your favorite summertime side dish?