I used frozen blueberries, thawed them and rinsed them before I used them. This does not need a glaze it is DELICIOUS without but you could add one if you like.

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 teaspoon for blueberries and zest
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups blueberries
• 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
• Nonstick cooking spray, for pan
• Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)

For best results, coat the inside of the Bundt pan with cooking spray just before filling it with the batter to prevent it from pooling in the bottom.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, whisk 2 1/2 cups flour with baking powder and salt; set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of sour cream.
3. In a bowl, toss blueberries and zest with remaining teaspoon flour; gently fold into batter. Coat a 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan with cooking spray. Spread batter in prepared pan.
4. Bake cake on bottom rack of oven until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Cool in pan 20 minutes. Invert onto a rack; cool completely, top side up. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving, if desired.

What is worse than the dreaded question, “What’s for dinner mom”? In the summer, it’s the thought of turning on the stove or oven to make dinner. I thought it would be good to share some great summertime dinners, everyone in your family will love. Not only do they not require any cooking, but they are healthy and delicious as well.

In the summer many families enjoy some wonderful salads. Here are a few of favorites. Of course you can incorporate whatever ingredients your family prefers.

Not your traditional tossed salad: A traditional tossed salad is awesome and easy to make, but sometimes as a standalone meal, it may not fully satisfy those hungry appetites at dinner. To enhance a traditional tossed salad try adding some of the following ingredients for extra flavor and protein:

· Chunks of cubed cheddar cheese

· Slices of lunchmeat, like turkey, chicken breast or ham

· Leftover chicken breast

· Zucchini squash slices

· Yellow squash slices

· Crumble some leftover taco meat, tortilla chips and Catalina dressing for a taco salad

Chef’s salad: Basically a chef’s salad is an upgraded tossed salad. Just add hardboiled eggs, chunks of cheese and sliced ham, turkey, chicken breast and roast beef and voila, you have a chef’s salad. Hearty and yummy!

Spinach salad: Made with yummy spinach leaves or baby spinach leaves, a spinach salad is cool, refreshing and yummy! I like to add shredded cheese, slices of ham, turkey and roast beef, cucumbers, pickles, black olives and for added zest some jalapenos! I top mine with an Italian dressing or balsamic vinaigrette.

Sandwiches: Another great meal idea you can create without cooking is sandwiches. Yes, sandwiches for dinner. When it’s too hot to cook, some cool sandwiches are the ticket. Not only are they easy and heat free, but they are also less filling than a big huge dinner! Some great summer sandwiches are:

Chicken salad: I love chicken salad and love to have a batch made up for last minute, easy on the go meals. Serve some on a pita or flat bread, in a tortilla or in a croissant to change things up a bit.

Deli style sandwiches: I love to sink my teeth into a yummy, thick sandwich filled with all of the fixings of a deli. Pile on the meats, cheeses, and veggies! Some of my favorites are:

· Ham

· Turkey

· Roast Beef

· Chicken Breast

· Corned Beef

· Salami

· Pepperoni

· Bacon

· Alfalfa or Bean Sprouts

· Cucumbers

· Pickles

· Tomatoes

· Romaine or leaf lettuce

· Green Peppers

Serve on thick bread with brown mustard, if you like, and mayonnaise.

Dinner doesn’t always have to be a huge 3 or 4 course cooked or baked meal. A hearty salad or sandwich will satisfy your kids, hubby and guests, while keeping you cool at the same time.

Got kids? Got kids that get bored, hungry and hot in the summertime? If you do have kids you know all of those things go together whether we want them to or not, right? Do you get tired of hearing, “but I don’t like THAT mom” or other complaints when you offer them a quick snack? Are you looking for some healthy, delicious, “cool” (as in refreshing AND neat) treats to satisfy kids of all ages? Then look no further! Here are five treats your kids will love and ask for over and over. Not only will your kids love them but so will you because they are easy to make, delicious and healthy. Who could ask for anything more?

Fruit Pizza:

Delicious and oh so easy to make; fruit pizza will please every person in your household and it will help get your kids (and hubby) to eat more fruit.

The ingredients:

· 1 pkg. refrigerated sugar cookie dough mix

· 1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

· 1/3 cup granulated sugar

· 4 cups assorted fruits, sliced (strawberries, bananas, oranges, blueberries, etc.), you can throw these together in a bowl if you wish.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees Celsius). Roll cookie dough into a ball and place in the center of a pizza pan and spread evenly over pizza pan, into a 12 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Mix the sugar and cream cheese together and spread over the cookie crust. Top with the fruit and then sprinkle the lemon juice over the fruit (this helps to keep it from turning brown). Refrigerate. Slice into 12 pizza wedges and serve. Refrigerate any leftovers. This is also a great treat to serve at a birthday party. Kids and adults love it!

Fruit Juice Spritzer

Do your kids like soda, but you hate for them to have it all the time? One of my favorite beverages any time of the year is a fruit juice spritzer. It’s refreshing, cool and tasty. Plus it has the added benefit of fruit juice so you can count is as a fruit serving for the day! I prefer using 100% Juicy Juice, being that it’s, well, 100% all natural juice. But you can use any juice you prefer. You’re kids will love it and it’s a cool, easy to serve beverage made of ingredients you probably already have. It’s also healthier than letting them have a full glass of soda.

It’s so easy. All you do is pour about 1/2 a glass of juice in a cup over ice and fill the rest of the glass with 7UP or Sprite. Voila! You have a Fruit Juice Spritzer. It’s better than a full glass of soda and your kids get the fruit serving they need. You can vary the amounts of course; a little more juice or a little less, depending on your taste, but don’t defeat the purpose of cutting down on the soda.

For an added treat you could blend the juice with some ice in the blender and make “slushies.” Just fill the glass with the slushie mix and pour the soda over the icy juice.

Homemade Juice or Kool-Aid popsicles

One of my kid’s favorite treats growing up was homemade popsicles. They loved helping make them and of course eating them. Plus they are super easy to make and oh so handy when your kids need a quick snack to tide them over until dinner.

Ingredients:

· Pitcher of Kool-Aid or other drink mix, prepared. You can also make juicy pops using your favorite fruit juice, but mix with water first, 5 parts water to 1 part juice.

· Freezer pop molds. If you don’t have them, just use ice cube trays.

Pour the prepared drink mix or Kool-Aid into freezer molds or ice cube trays and freeze. If you want to put a popsicle stick into the ice cubed pops, freeze slightly first, and then insert in the middle of the ice cube pop so it will stand up.

Voila! Easy, handy, yummy and cool! You’re kids will think you’re the best mom ever.

Ice Cream Float

Who doesn’t love ice cream? What better summertime treats than a delicious ice cream float? It’s so quick, easy and refreshing. Here’s a neat twist on the traditional float:

Using your choice of ice cream put two scoops in a dessert or tall glass. Break up your favorite candy bar into pieces and place in glass. Fill with your favorite soda, like root beer or cola.

Yogurt and Fruit Lollies

When I was a kid I loved having something I could grab and go outside with my friends. (Where have those days gone?) Better yet, I loved having a treat I could share with my friends. These yummy yogurt and fruit lollies are the perfect summertime treat. They are cool, refreshing, healthy and easy to take on the go.

What you need:

· Popsicle molds with sticks, preferably the flat molds

· A container of flavored yogurt, preferably a fruit flavor

· Sliced fruit

How you make it:

Fill the molds with the yogurt, insert stick and place fruit on the top. Freeze. Place mold in warm water to remove the lolly when ready to eat.

Healthy, delicious, and handy all wrapped up into one! Every mother’s dream and every kid’s treat. Making kids happy and keeping them healthy doesn’t have to be a huge chore, nor does it have to taste bad. Using these simple ideas will serve both purposes, quick, easily and efficiently. Your kids will thank you for it.

Available in packs of 3 at Amazon.com for $22.46 –>

Also available at most Target locations

Our Rating: 5 out of 5

Three types of Dropps are available, Free & Clear Unscented, Fresh Scent, and Dropps for Baby Laundry

Whether you do your laundry at home or at the local laundromat , you’re going to need detergent. The sudsy good smelling stuff that gets our clothes, blankets, and socks fresh and clean.

Dropps makes sure that you don’t waste a single drop of detergent. They earn bonus points for making laundry washing simple and easy. You just add a premeasured drop to your loaded washing machine and start the load as usual.

The best part is they work with all types of washing machines, from the typical top loading washer to the new top of the line High Efficiency (HE) machines, your laundry will come out perfectly washed and rinsed free of soap every time. Not only do they work in any machine, they work great with the cold wash cold rinse cycle, so you can save energy as well by not using the warm or hot settings.

Price wise you’re going to spend a bit more on Dropps than your average laundry detergent. However, the average detergent bottle says it washes 32-36 loads. But, with all the mis-measuring that occurs, not many people actually get that many loads from the bottle. Using Dropps eliminates that problem.

Now, you’ve saved energy and made washing the laundry so easy that even the younger kids can do it without the worry of making a mess or using too much soap. That perk alone is enough to make Dropps my detergent of choice!

TACO JOES
1 pound ground beef
1 can (16 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp sugar
6 hamburger buns, split and toasted
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups shredded lettuce

(we used tomato on top too also sour cream YUMMY)

Cook beef in a skillet over medium heat until no longer pink; drain fat. Add tomatoes, Worcestershire and seasonings. Stir well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes or until thickened. Spoon onto buns and top with cheese and lettuce. Serve immediately.

Jenna is always one of our favorite guests with her funny wit and her tendacy to leave us speechless and laughing at the same time, and she didn’t disappoint us this time either. Jenna explanied that they wanted a fun and easy to read book that shares all those tips and tricks that maybe people don’t want to tell you when you are becoming a first time parent. Everything from how to keep your new baby happy and healthy, how to deal with well intentioned inlawas, how to keep the Father involved in caring for the new baby, how parents can still have time for themselves and their marriage. Of course this is written with Jenna’s brutal and funny way that not only helps to provide you with great information, but also leaves you with a aching stomach from laughing. We encourage you to sit back and enjoy this great interview! Also if you did not get a chance to listen to our interview with Jenna in February talking about her other book Parent Trip just do a search on our site to find the old interview. Also find below links to both of her books that you can purchase easily by just clicking on the Amazon links below.

On today’s show we had the pleasure of interviewing Josh from Momfaves.com.  First off let me state that it is so refreshing to meet a man who truly truly understands all the struggles Moms go through in our daily lives. Thank goodness Josh is married to his beautiful wife Rebecca, because I was afraid out chatroom members would try to run way with him lol. Ok seriously, Josh started this site with his wife Rebecca to honor his Mother’s memory who sadly passed away from Cancer four years ago. Having techincal background, he wanted to offer a place that allowed Mom’s to have a voice to share their favorite sites, recipes and so much more.

MomFaves is a Social Networking site that was built just for us Moms! The wonderful thing about this site first off is the ease of use, you can navigate around the site very easily and find everything you are looking for. Whether it be  a great shopping deal, a great recipe, news stories, remedies, causes, Mom’s favorite websites and so much more. Also when you come across a great article or deal or article you can vote on this with the Fave It button which will allow Josh and his wife Rebecca to know which stories or deals or articles really interest other Moms. Along with the great content you can also meet other great Moms online which is where your networking comes in. From finding your favorite friends or Moms and adding them to your Girlfriends Lists or by meeting new Moms in the groups there is simply an endless amount of things you can do on MomFaves.

Josh also talked about his Blog Why Moms Matter Project this is a wonderful blog! On this Blog they have people nominate a Mom that Matters! This is very simple to do on the top of the blog in the cream section simply click on Nominate a Mom and simply fill out the form to tell them why your Mom should be showcased.  Some of the latests nominees on there now is the Famous Kathy Ireland, and then a special article on “Remebering Maddie” which is a touchng story! This is a touching blog posting on little Maddie who lost her life and their special show at Why Moms Matter Radio Show.

Josh also informed us that right before Mothers Day they will be offering a FREE Mother’s Day E-book featuring some of the touching and heartwarming stories that were featured on their Why Moms Matter Blog and Talk Radio Show. So be sure to check back often to see when that will be realeased and we will be sure to list that here on our site as well.  We wanted to remind that you also that MomFaves also has their own podcast that we briefly touched on above but is on Fridays on our Blog Talk Radio Network on this show they also feature their Why Moms Matter Project winners so be sure to tune in and listen. Click our media player below to listen to our latests show and please stop by visit all of Josh’s sites and don’t forget to listen to his Radio Show!

Karen also mentioned they even have the recipes broken down into catagories as well like Kid Friendly , Vegetarian or Crock Pot Recipe and Dinner and a Movie which really sparked my interest. She mentioned for example the movie Ice Age and how the entire movie is based around the movie Ice Age. Which would be so fun to pop in your DVD and watch the movie with fun recipes to correspond with that movie.  One of the great things she mentions during our interview is that all the recipes are kitchen tested where they work with several chefs, meaning test for being fast to prepare, easy to make, and tasty as well.  Another great feature is for only $7 a month you can get access to all of these great recipes and the recipes will come in at under $95 which is wonderful for all those that are on a tight budget.

Some of the future plans for the site is that they hope to incorporate a search feature so you can search for recipes you have used or tried before, also a application to download on your Iphone so that you can take your grocery lists with you on your Iphone to the grocery store.  All the meals are budget friendly and kid friendly. Another new site is where they are now offering Gluten-free recipes from their new site called G-Free which you can find at http://www.gfreecuisine.com/ At G-free they offer simple and delicious meals that are all gluten-free. This is great if you maybe have Celiac or maybe have a child with autism, this could be a wonderful alternative for your family and your way of life.  G-free is a litte bit more a month but still a huge deal at only $10 a month please be sure to listen to our interview and also be sure to check out their site for more information.

Be sure to click below to listen to our interview  with Karen it is right after our interview with Carol McManus two great interviews both having to do with getting back to the basics of cooking for your family!

Carol shared with us that the premise of her book was to get people to sit back down for dinner and to get to know each other. Her recipes do not require alot of ingredients but just fresh and tasty food that will make a big impact on your family. Carol started cooking at an early age and eventually opened up her own restraunt called Expresso Love and soon decided it was time for a cookbook that really showcased the importance of sitting down as a family and start cooking and eating together. We also touched on the subject that in today’s society there is a large number of children with weight problems because we are too reliant on fast foods to feed our kids, instead of getting down to the basics as our parents did and start serving healthy and tasty home cooked meals.

One of the things that Carol finds  so sad in today’s society is how dependant we have become on processed foods and fast food and sadly our families are suffering because of it. Carol also shared how a friend of hers said people should only shop on the outer aisles of your local shopping center because then you are purchasing only fresh foods which is so much better for your bodies and your children. While talking with Cathy we started to talk about how when our parents and grandparents cooked for us they saved all their left overs to use in diffrent meals, and each night we had home cooked meals so that we could take time to sit down and reconnect with each other and get to talk to one another.

We also discussed how alot of us are so busy taking our kids to school functions and sports events that we tend to just grab and go at fast food places to pick up fast food instead of preparing your food ahead of time so that you can enjoy a healthier and home cooked meal.  When Carol’s kids were growing they too were so busy with sporting and school events but she still found the time to make sure her kids had a healthy home cooked meal to enjoy together as a family. And that is not to say that you cannot go out to eat Fast food occasionally but it is nice to make sure you set aside a couple meals a week that are solely time to spend with your family.

Carol’s book is amazing I have already created my grocery lists for next week with recipes from the book so I am so excited to start making and enjoying more of this yummy recipes! Here is just a small sampling of some of the recipes in the book:

• Baked Italian Chicken
• Honey Mustard Beef Stir Fry
• Love’s Fritta
• Walnut Oil Vinaigrette
• California Pizza
• Amish Cocoa Square (Yummy tried this one)
• Raspberry Turnovers

To purchase your own copy of Carol’s book “Table Talk, Food, Family and Love” please click on our link below and Click below to listen to our show!

Fresh Strawberry Pie

* 1 C sugar
* 1 C Water
* 3 T strawberry gelatin mix
* 1 Pint Fresh Strawberries
* 3 Heaping Tablespoons Cornstarch
* 1 pie crust, cooked and cooled (The recipe for my crust may be found here I made a recipe and a half for a bit thicker crust)

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and dry gelatin mix by stirring well. Add water and cook until thick and clear over medium high heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Set aside and let cool. Wash and hull strawberries, cut in half and arrange over pie crust. When filling is cool, pour over strawberries and chill pie until ready to serve. Serve with whipped cream.