Frozen Blueberry Popsicles, 3 ways

Popsicles?

Yes, you read that right. I'm posting popsicles today. In October. 

Summer may be long gone, but you know what? I don't care! I love popsicles. I really do. I eat them year round. Homemade popsicles are a great snack and one of my go-to's after dinner. Mine are mostly fruit, unlike those heavily preserved store bought ones that claim they are 0.000001% real fruit. These ones only require a few ingredients, and you can make them all year round by utilizing frozen fruit. Thank goodness for frozen fruit, I don't know how I'd survive all winter without it!

Pumpkin Spice Oreo Cookies

Please forgive me. I'm all about the cookie lately. There's something about fall that makes me want to break out the pumpkin, the cinnamon, the spicy spices that make Spice Cake magical... so when I saw Pumpkin Spice Oreo's at the grocery store, I jumped. I grabbed 2 packages to put in the cart as the hubby rolled his eyes.

"More truffles?" He said, eyeing the cream cheese that was also in the cart.

"No," I said, nose in air. "I'll make something else."

In my head, I racked my brain. I had been planning on truffles. Now what?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Oat Bars

Did you guys try my Carmelitas?

If you did, and you became *obsessed* with them like I did- you're in for a treat! These chocolate-peanut butter bites are basically a modification of their caramel counterparts. I feel like the Carmelita recipe is such a solid recipe that you can sub out the caramel and chocolate for other combinations, and win big.

Mini Blackberry Swirl Cheesecakes

I was looking through my picture portfolio the other day when I realized some peculiar...

There isn't a single blackberry recipe on my blog. Not. Even. One.

It's time to remedy that in the best possible way!

Fruit & Cream Pops

One more popsicle recipe before summer is over, mmmmk? 

Kentucky is in the middle of a heat wave, so even though it's September and I've already switched out all my summer decor for fall, I want to share one more summer recipe. I'm going to miss summer and my freezer full of ready-made popsicles. At one point this summer, I had Raspberry Kiwi, Strawberry Chocolate, Raspberry Jam Pops, and these Fruit and Cream Pops all in the freezer at the same time. Such variety! It was like going to an ice cream shop. Or a popsicle shop. Hey, why aren't there popsicle shops??

Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Some of you may be aware that I used to work at Baskin Robbins. Ice cream capitol of the world. Man, I loved that job. I remember, before I got hired, how excited I was that I might get to work there. A typical 20-year old to be excited about working at Baskin Robbins. What happened was that a lady who went to school with my mom (they were sorority sisters) was married to a Baskin Robbins franchisee. Somehow, there were a lot of Alpha Chi's that worked at that Baskin Robbins. I suspect we had an "in". At any rate, I worked there with 4 other girls from my sorority. We had a grand time. 

Raspberry Jam Pops

I'm running out of summer time to post my summer fruit recipes, so today (much like many, many days this summer, ahem) is about raspberries. Lemonades, truffles, jams, smoothies- I've featured them all in raspberry this summer. What can I say? This is my life. And my life includes truckloads of raspberries. Seriously, open my fridge during the summer and what do you think you will find? Cartons of raspberries. 

I'm an addict. I'm not happy until my fingers are stained red and I've got seeds stuck between my teeth.

Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Muffins

We've made it to another Friday! TGIF!

Politics are not the normal fodder here on the blog, but I'm guessing a lot of people watched the GOP debate last night. If only to see what Donald Trump would do. After his tasteless jab at Rosie O'Donnell (not a huge Rosie O'Donnell fan, I just don't like to see any man call any woman a fat pig), I pretty much could see how the night would go. In fact, the little bro and I came up with a GOP debate night drinking game while the hubby was at work yesterday. I won't regale you with all the rules, I'll just share a couple of my favorites:

Creamy Pepperoni Dip & Parmesan Dippers

Let's take a break from summer fruit in a big way. Because pepperoni is probably the farthest thing from fruit you can get. Put it in a creamy, cheesy dip to be liberated by crispy, salty pizza-crust dippers and you.will.die.

In the best possible way, of course :)

Raspberry Kiwi Popsicles

I'm on somewhat of a summer fruit bender, so by all means, let's just continue :)

Remember that Kiwi Lime Pie? Well, I bought that large box of kiwi's to use to make that pie but I certainly didn't use all the kiwis. What does this mean for you? It means you'll have to deal with a couple more kiwi recipes as I use up what's left in that box. That being said, what a wonderful purchase that box of kiwis was! They were 10-12 in the box, they were HUGE, and they were super-firm. That translates to none of the kiwis going bad, giving me time to use up ALL of them. How often can you say that about fruit you buy in bulk?

Copycat El Torito Salsa

For about 2 years now, the only salsa I've been eating is my Homemade Salsa, or whatever random salsa a Mexican restaurant happened to be serving. I completely stopped buying my usual salsa at Sam's, which was my go-to salsa for about 2 years. Then, randomly, I bought a jar while stocking up on my normal groceries. It was so delicious. It was then that I realized I was getting tired of my salsa. 

Strawberry Chocolate Popsicles

Ok, foodbloggers. Has this situation ever happened to anyone else?

You think of a quick little project that might make a good post. Say something simple, like popsicles. After you've dreamed up the concept, you then guesstimate that the project will take 10 minutes to complete. Then, smack in the middle of said "quick" project, everything goes south. Instead of taking 10 minutes, it's taking 40 minutes and you're late for another event because the darn project was not supposed to take that long?

Yeah. That was these popsicles. 

Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins

 

Guess what???

I saw my first hummingbird of the season last night! I was soooooooo excited. The hubby and I were watching "Mad Men" when I caught the first glimpse. Yes, the hubby and I are quite behind on "Mad Men". We actually hadn't watched a single episode since we left Portland. We estimated this left us at the Season 4 finale. However, we estimated this after we had re-watched all of Season 4 and before we subsequently realized we watched it in Portland. For the love. Here's the funny part- both the hubby and I remembered some moments from Season 4, but for the most part, it was all new. We cannot figure out, for the life of us, how we watched all of Season 4 in Oregon, and somehow don't remember most of it. Anyhoo, we've recovered from that faux pas and we've steamed ahead. We just started Season 6. Just as enthralled as ever. In fact, it's making me want to create cocktail recipes and Chicken Kiev for the blog... but back to that hummingbird-

Cinnamon Sugar & Caramel Snack Mix

Holy addictiveness Batman.

This snack mix is good. This snack mix is great. This snack mix will make you want to do the happy dance around your kitchen as soon as it hits your tastebuds. This snack mix will make you smack the hands of all who come near that wonderful, over-flowing bowl of caramel-y goodness.

And the best part? It's super-easy to make.