This Berry Fruity Green Tea Smoothie is a combination I’m loving these days to refresh and rehydrate. This cup is full of good-for-you vitamins thanks to the fruit content and is a great low-calorie treat. This smoothie overflows with vitamin C and comes in at only 75 calories. Combine the following in a blender & your one power button away from your own cup of greatness.
12 ounces brewed green tea 1/4 cup frozen peaches 1/4 cup frozen blueberries 1/4 cup frozen pineapple 1/3 cup frozen strawberries
I have a feeling this mix is going to be in heavy rotation during the hot summer months just around the corner!
If you want to add pizazz to your homemade mac-n-cheese, this is what you do.
Buy GOOD cheese. Pick something local, cause it will be fresh. Pick something fancy – something full of flavor. Our friend Jason visited the Harpersfield Farmstead recently and brought back a block of Basil & Tomato with a THS Mac N Cheese creation in mind.
Buy blocked cheese, not pre-grated. The freshness factor of grating your own block of cheese versus buying prepackaged shredded cheese is no where near comparable. Take the extra time and make the extra effort. It’s worth it.
Use corkscrew shaped pasta. Corkscrew pasta holds cheese sauce the best. Speaking of pasta – don’t rinse it off after draining. The starchy layer on the pasta after cooking will help to thicken the cheese sauce. This is what makes the difference when wanting your cheese to really stick heartily to the pasta!
Allow the dish to cool for 10-15 minutes [or more!] before serving. This cooling time allows sauce to thicken to a great, creamy texture.
Eat it with people you love. It just tastes better this way.
One of the cake options on my list was from one of my favorite sweet treats blogs – Little Bitty Bakes. One of my favorite things about Liz’s blog is her ability to post super simple short cut recipes every now and again, for those of us who aren’t against the middle aisles and occasionally [or, often] rely on a box mix to get the job done. Her Pumpkin Cookies & Crème cookies are one of my favorite go-to, last-minute, baked treats.
I thought about how much better it would be to take something simple and make it extra special, rather than try something elaborate that I’m not familiar with, probably ruining it in the end, and resorting to a grocery store bakery cake coming to the last minute rescue.
So, I went in search for a recipe from a trusted blog for a simple cake made special. And I found this recipe from Eat, Live, Run. And then I got to work. And then I thought – ummm….no.
Proof? Oh, yeah. One and a half cups of chips?? No.
But did I trust myself and take some of those chips off the cake before baking. No, of course not. Instead I baked the cake for the recommended time. Then, because the cake wasn’t done, I baked it for an additional 15 minutes. And then another additional 15 minutes. And then another 15 minutes, until finally I realized I know better and should have just made necessary changes from the get go.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I found myself in the baking aisle of the local market, 15 minutes before closing, restocking my cake mix stash and coming up with my own damn recipe to make this amazing PB Bliss Cake.
PB Bliss Cake includes: two layers of moist peanut butter chocolate chip chocolate cake, with a peanut butter buttercream filling, smothered with a vanilla peanut butter frosting, and sprinkled with bits of crumbled Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
PB Bliss Cake for one double layer, 9-inch, round cake
Ingredients
1 box chocolate cake mix of choice
& ingredients needed per box instructions
1/3 cup peanut butter chips
1/3 cup chocolate chips
about 2 cups buttercream frosting of choice, [try this recipe]
Prepare cake batter as instructed on box. Pour batter into two prepared 9-inch round cake pans.
Sprinkle one half of the chocolate chips and peanut butter chips over the top of each cake.
Bake according to package directions. Allow to cool completely before assembling and frosting.
In a mixing bowl, whip together buttercream frosting and 1/2 cup of peanut butter. Use this peanut butter buttercream as the filler layer between the two 9-inch rounds as well as a base layer of frosting to cover the top layer of cake. Set cake aside for at least 30 minutes to allow buttercream to set.
In a mixing bowl, whip together 1/2 of one container vanilla frosting and the remaining 1/2 cup of peanut butter. Frost cake completely.
Crumble Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups to garnish top of cake. Do this immediately after your frost the cake, in order that the candy pieces adhere to the cake as the frosting sets.
