Spiced Pumpkin Smoothie

I just found this recipe on Real Simple's website while I was looking up lunch ideas for me and Natalie. If this tastes ANYTHING like Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Cream Frappucino, I'm ALL.OVER.IT!!!

Spiced Pumpkin Smoothie

1 cup ice

1/2 cup whole milk

1/3 cup pure pumpkin puree

1 tbsp honey

a pinch of ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend that bad boy til it's all frothy and full of goodness!!

PW's Sunrise Punch

I haven't made this yet. But you bet I'm gonna! Especially on days when I start school, and I've got to get me and the kids out the door. :)

Sunrise Punch recipe:
2 cups orange juice
2 cups pineapple juice
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons meringue powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
Fill rest of blender with ice and blend

Cream Cheese Pound Cake!

Oh yeah .... YUMMY. This pound cake is perfect. It's heavy like traditional pound cakes, but it's very moist. There are a couple tricks to this cake. There are no leavening ingredients, which means you've got to incorporate a lot of air into the batter. The butter, cream cheese and sugar need to be beaten for a while. Like, 5-7 minutes. (This is obviously easier with a stand mixer.) It's going to triple in size and it should be very smooth. When it's in the oven, do NOT open the door while it's baking. The cake will fall in the center. Let it bake the entire time. Now, if you're like me and have the misfortune of having an older oven or an oven that isn't calibrated quite right, you'll need a barrier to keep it from burning. I don't have a flat pizza stone anymore, so I actually use my 9x13 stone on the bottom rack. My bundt pan is not very big and the cake spilled over the sides while it was baking. Doesn't make for a very pretty cake when it comes out, but it tastes AWESOME regardless. :) I have seen that it can be baked in a 10 inch tube pan or two 9 inch loaf pans as well. I will be using the two 9 inch loaf pans today. If you don't have cake flour and don't feel like running to the store to get some cause you have everything else - sift 3 cups of all purpose flour and remove 6 TBSP.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, room temperature

1 block (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature

3 cups sugar

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 eggs

3 cups cake flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare your pan - spray/grease/butter (I used spray and flour, and I had problems with it sticking, so I'll be using the spray on it's own and see how it fares).

Cream together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until it's light. (This is where I was telling you it needs to go for 5-7 minutes.) Add the vanilla and almond extracts. Add flour and eggs alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Pour batter into the prepared pan(s).

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. (or until a toothpick comes out clean....)

Lettuce Wraps

My good friend Jaclyn introduced me to these. :) It's just the recipe she uses off the back of a pack of Romaine Lettuce hearts, but I can't get enough of these! From what I can tell, they're nothing like the PF Changs recipe, but I don't mind... If you can put aside any first though of what cilantro pesto may taste like, I promise you will be addicted JUST.LIKE.ME. lol

Lettuce Wraps

1 head romaine lettuce hearts

2-3 chicken breasts - cooked and sliced (Or use a shredded rotisserie chicken)

1 bunch cilantro (you can use 1/2-3/4 of a bunch)

1/3 cup pine nuts

3 cloves garlic (minced)

Shredded cheese (optional)

1/2 cup oil (olive oil or vegetable oil)

1 avocado

2 roma tomatoes

1 bunch green onions, diced

salt and pepper

Combine garlic, cilantro, pine nuts and 1 tsp salt in a food processor and pulse until pesto is a creamy texture. (you should know what pesto looks like lol) Transfer to a bowl and whisk while adding oil. Bring to desired texture and add 1/4 cup chicken broth to thin if needed. Set aside. Slice tomatoes (strips or rounds), dice green onions and slice avocado into strips. Clean the lettuce and separate the leaves. Mix the chicken with the pesto. Top lettuce leaves with the chicken and toppings and EAT IT! lol Seriously ... I love these things.

Mmmm.... Tzatziki sauce!

From OurBestBites.com

Tzatziki

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

1 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt (that's 2 6-oz. containers)

1 clove garlic, minced

1-2 tsp. lemon juice

3 green onions, firm ends finely chopped

1 tsp. dry dill weed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/2 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced

Combine ingredients in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. Store covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Lemon Pancakes (with blueberry syrup)

Now... before you balk... let me just say - the combination of lemon and blueberries is ABSOLUTELY divine!! When I worked at the spa last year, the fancy shmancy restaurant had a cheesecake one night that was a lemon and blueberry combination with sweetened ricotta cheese... I thought I had died and gone to heaven! These pancakes are a good substitute... and might I recommend, instead of butter, a smidge of sweetened ricotta cheese! :) (I didn't get to make the blueberry syrup when I made these... didn't have the ingredients on hand)

Lemon Pancakes with Blueberry Syrup

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 TBSP sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 TBSP butter, melted

2 TBSP lemon zest

2 TBSP fresh lemon juice (from the same lemon you zested)

4 TBSP butter, divided (you use this for frying the pancakes and I needed more)

Fresh blueberry syrup - recipe in a minute

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, lemon zest and lemon juice. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. (What this means for stand mixer users like me, use a glass measuring cup that holds 4 cups or more to mix the liquid part in, put the dry mixture into your stand mixer bowl.)

In a large nonstick skillet, melt 1 TBSP of butter over medium heat. Spoon 2 TBSP of batter for each pancake into skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes per side until lightly browned. Repeat with remaining butter and pancake batter.

Serve with warm Fresh Blueberry Syrup.... or if your kids don't want that.. regular syrup is just as yummy. :)

Fresh Blueberry Syrup

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 TBSP fresh lemon juice

2 cups fresh blueberries

In a medium sauce pan, combine water, sugar, corn syrup and lemon juice over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, until sugar is dissolved.

Add blueberries; cook for 15-20 minutes or until syrupy, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly before serving. Sweetened ricotta is as easy as mixing whole milk ricotta with some sugar and vanilla! :)

Sunrise Smoothie

This is from another of my magazines that I love - Simply Southern. I tend to pick up magazines that have recipes that I want to try and most of the time, they end up being some of my most favorite recipes. This one is for a smoothie that is used in a brunch sequence. Way good!

Sunrise Smoothie

2 1/4 cups orange juice (if you can find the Tropicana Valencia orange juice, I highly recommend it)

2 1/4 cups vanilla ice cream or frozen vanilla yogurt

1 1/2 cups frozen strawberry sorbet (if you can't find strawberry sorbet like me, I resorted to using strawberry sorbet fruit pops... enough to equal 1 1/2 cups. lol)

Garnish with fresh strawberries if you'd like

Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth... pour into glasses. It's not rocket science. lol