Lemon Souffle Pancakes with Berries

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

 

 

Is it too early to start thinking about Valentine's Day? I picked up some fresh berries at the supermarket last week on a whim without having anything special in mind to use them for. But, I've been on a hot breakfast kick on the weekends lately and thought I'd try using a few of my berries in this Lemon Souffle Pancakes with Berries, a Golden Blossom Honey recipe. I've never made homemade pancakes that called for cottage cheese in the batter, but thought it would be fun to do a trial last weekend before making them for the whole family on Valentine's Day.

This recipe does seem more suited to share with you in the spring or summer, but I figure with the day of love quickly approaching, why not whip up a batch for your special someone? I can't think of a more special way to say I love you than with a huge stack of berry topped pancakes served for breakfast in bed. If you don't have a tried and true recipe, many times homemade pancake batter can cook up too dry and flaky. But, I was pleasantly surprised with how light and fluffy these turned out, with just a kiss of lemony flavor complimenting the strawberries and blackberries perfectly. Add in a side of honey whipped cream and you've got one heck of a Valentine's Day breakfast on your plate.

Ingredients

Berries:
1/2 pint blackberries
1 pint strawberries, sliced
3 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM RAW HONEY, warmed
Gently toss berries with honey. Set aside.
Pancakes:
1 cup low fat cottage cheese
1 tablespoon GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 eggs, separated
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

 

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, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest!  

 

 

Do you have a special breakfast planned for Valentine's Day this year?

 

 

Old-Fashion Meatloaf

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the 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 think a lot of us turn to comfort foods more often in the winter. I know I do. And one comfort food recipe that's been a staple in my family for as long as I can remember is meatloaf. I've made it many different ways throughout the years, my favorite involving a lot of brown sugar mixed in for a sweeter version, but there's something to be said for going back to your roots and making a scaled down, old-fashion recipe. Jason and I aren't on the same eating schedule lately, so when I found this Old-Fashion Meatloaf recipe on Golden Blossom Honey, I knew it was going to be a great one for me to keep on hand since it freezes well. I can make this on the weekend, portion out individual serving sizes, and freeze them so he has dinner already made up when we can't eat together, or he can grab what he needs for a quick and easy workday lunch. 

All recipes have a basic version, and you can stick with this one as written and it will turn out great. But it's also a really good recipe to build upon with your own touches. Add in sauteed veggies, mix in a little ketchup, or be like me and dump in an obscene amount of brown sugar LOL. Basic or beefed up (get what I did there?), this recipe needs to be a staple in your recipe index. Also, I would suggest investing in a meatloaf pan that has grease drainage holes in it if this is something you'll be making frequently. I think any meatloaf bakes up much better/more firm if it's not bathing in its own grease in the oven. You can find good ones on Amazon for around $13. 

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce, divided in half
2 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
1 tablespoon lemon juice

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

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

 

What are some of your favorite freezer recipes?

 

 

 

Why Michigan Shines In Autumn

"You ever see how long it takes mom to post things up on her blog? Like, years and years!" Yeah, I'm guilty of what the girls accuse me of. I've been almost absent here the past few months with starting my business, dealing with the holidays, and the sore subject of working on this house still. But, I'm ready to come back to our regularly scheduled posts and try not to be a disappointment to my family about documenting our travels here. 

I was pretty lucky to do a west coast road trip last January. There were only whispers of the Coronavirus circulating at that time, so nothing was shut down yet. But, by the end of August I was going stir crazy and starting to feel a sense of ‘Fernweh’. We've always done one big family trip every July/August, so when the virus put all travel plans to a halt, I was pretty disappointed knowing there would be no new adventures for the rest of the year. At the end of September, when it's still quite warm out but you can sense the changing seasons in the air, I was sitting on my deck thinking about how we've lived right on the Michigan/Indiana line for years, but we have never done the Michigan fall tour. So, I did a little research and found that the best time to take a scenic tour through upper Michigan is at the end of the first week in October. That's when the leaves are at their color changing peak before they start to die off. So, we made some spur of the moment plans for a little weekend road trip through Northern Michigan.

Of course, the pandemic was (is) still in full swing, but we figured since we were going to be in the car for most of the time (other than to sleep in the hotel for a night), it was going to be a fairly safe trip. We decided to drive up the Lake Michigan coast for a 6 hour car trip that landed us in Petoskey. Now, I think Michigan is a truly beautiful state year round, but having finally seen it in all of it's autumn splendor, I'd say Michigan truly shines in the fall. 

 

We woke up before the sun rose so we could be on the road as the morning light was just peaking on the horizon. The early morning sunshine lent such a beautiful glow to the crisp oranges, yellows and reds throughout the landscape. 

 

While we set off on our little journey without any specific destinations planned, I did know that I wanted to make it through the Tunnel of Trees if we could. Some of the  pictures I came across on Pinterest of the area made it look super magical, so that was the only stop we plugged into our navigation.

 

I wish I had some cool shots to share with you from our drive through the Tunnel of Trees, but sadly it wasn't all that spectacular for us. The leaves had just barely started to shift in color and most of them were still quite green. Not that it was a bad drive through the area, it just didn't hold the wow factor I thought it would have. Had we arrived a week later, I am sure it would have been way cooler. But, I will tell you, some of our best views came from driving down service roads. 

 

These unpaved dirt roads are not maintained by the city, but there's something to be said for the road less traveled. If you want a real tunnel of trees experience, take a trip down the service roads of Michigan. We didn't run into any other cars on these roads, but did pass a few 4 wheelers out enjoying the unpopulated areas.

We did stop by the water to stretch our legs, and Jason thought it was mighty handy that he always keeps a lounging chair in his trunk. He found himself a nice little unoccupied area of the beach to sit and relax for a bit.

 I couldn't resist backtracking when we passed by the World's Largest Cherry Pie! The crust was 14 feet across and 2 feet deep, weighing 7 tons, and the filling weighed 1,730 pounds! Talk about a huge pie!

While it didn't require a passport or lots of planning, I'm glad we were able to steal a little time away from the pandemic to take a short trip through Michigan in the fall. Again, if you're planning on an autumn visit, the best time to see the colors of the season are at the end of the first week through the end of the second week in October. 

 

Have you made any (safe) road trips this year?

Pineapple Breakfast Tarts

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

Ice storms knocked our power out last weekend, this week we've got chaos at the Capitol, and at this point I don't even want to think about what trouble next week is going to bring. 2021, you're off to a real bang! Right now I'd much rather be on a tropical island surrounded by palm trees and a sea breeze. But thanks to Covid, I'm stuck in good old, cold Indiana. Yay. Alas, we will make the best of a bad situation and try to turn lemons into lemonade. Or, pineapple into a tropical breakfast treat so we can at least pretend to be basking on our own island retreat. I found this Pineapple Breakfast Tarts recipe on Golden Blossom Honey and thought that it would be a nice distraction from all of the craziness surrounding us right now. 

 

 

You'll never see me turning down any dessert wrapped in puffed pastry, and when you add in the pineapple and cream cheese? This has my name written all over it! The directions are written as making two long tarts, but I think if you have a mini pie press, like this one HERE, you can make these into little individual toaster pastry-like breakfast tarts. Would be a little more work, but you'd have a nice seal all the way around each serving that way. Don't like pineapple? I think any drained canned fruit or pie filling would work quite nicely in this recipe. Go wild and try a few different varieties to see what you like best!

Ingredients

1 (17 1/4 ounce) package of 2, frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed according to package directions (about 40 minutes)
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon sugar, divided, for top
Filling:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
1 (16 ounce) can crushed pineapple drained, or 2 apples or pears, thinly sliced

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, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest!  

 

Would you stick with pineapple in this recipe or try a different fruit instead?

Comforting Sweet Potato Soup

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the 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 New Year! I'm not going to start this post off with all of that new year, new me BS that likes to float around every January. 2020 was hard. Like, really hard. So, I think we all deserve to give ourselves a break. I won't be setting any weight loss goals, won't be assigning myself a word of the year to live by, and I won't be giving myself impossible resolutions that I'm bound to fail by February anyway. 2020 challenged me like no other year that I can remember. If last year taught me anything, it's we need to be kinder to ourselves. I'm usually a rush around and get things done kind of gal, but I learned how beautiful it could be just to stay in doing nothing once quarantine hit. Now that the snow is starting to fall here in the Midwest, I crave doing absolutely nothing while wrapped in a cozy blanket and eating a steaming bowl of soup. For me, soup is the ultimate comfort food. Good for the body and good for the soul. I usually like to have different textures in my soup (cubed veggies, noodles, rices, etc) but I opted for this pureed Sweet Potato Soup, a Golden Blossom Honey recipe, this week.  

 

I'll be honest here and admit that I swapped out the half & half and used heavy whipping cream because I'm not counting calories, remember? LOL. But if you put on a little quarantine weight and want to keep this recipe on the healthy side, stick with the half & half. As much as I love chunkier soups, I think this recipe might actually be my new favorite. It was smooth and delicious, and for being a pureed soup, was actually quite filling. You can make this recipe ahead of time, storing in the fridge and reheating at a later time, so it would be great to make on a weekend for work lunches during the week. 

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
3 (14.5 ounce) cans low salt chicken both
2 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY MUSTARD
1 cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste

Garnish:
finely chopped scallions or chives

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!

If you liked this recipe, be sure to Pin It on Pinterest!  

 

What soups are on your menu this winter?

 

 

 

Merry Christmas! Enjoy These Honey Fig Bars!

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

 

 

Merry Christmas to you all! Since most of you are probably spending the day with your family celebrating the holiday, I'm keeping this short and sweet today with these Honey Fig Bars, a Golden Blossom Honey recipe. And just because the holiday is about over with, it doesn't mean that you still can't make and enjoy these little treats this season. If you have any figs left over, this is a great way to use them up. They'll even be great for your New Year's Eve dessert!

I want to note that I did double the crust recipe. When smoothing the first half of the dough over the bottom of my pan, I had a few issues getting it to fully cover the pan, so I ended up using the full first batch of dough, then went on to make another batch to cover the top. The crust does puff up quite a bit while baking, so if you aren't into a lot of crust, this recipe is good as is. I am sure any holes left on the bottom of the pan will fill as the dough rises in the oven. I personally love crust, so doubling the recipe worked in my favor. I did use Silver Blossom Honey in this recipe because the orange notes compliment the sweetness of the figs deliciously. Regular Golden Blossom would be scrumptious too, just use what you have on hand and it will be yum either way!

 

Ingredients

Dough:
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/3 cup GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Filling:
2 cups dried figs
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/4 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 egg yolk, beaten

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!  

 

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas!