One of the best things about quiche is its versatility. Not only with the endless varieties that can be created, but it is perfect for brunch, lunch, or dinner. I decided to use broccoli, spinach, and tomatoes in this quiche, but you can use just about anything you want. While the egg mixture remains the same, the vegetables or meat can vary.
The other great thing about this recipe is that it doesn’t have to be crustless. You can add any pie crust to this recipe if you would like, or bake without the crust for a lower calorie healthier alternative as I did with this recipe.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup brocolli florets
1 -2 cups fresh spinach
1/3 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1-2 tsp. of minced garlic
6 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup half and half
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup feta cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a pie plate with cooking spray.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the broccoli and saute for a minute or two before adding the spinach, tomatoes, and garlic. Saute until the spinach is cooked.
Spread the vegetables evenly in the prepared pie plate. Top with cheeses. You can use whatever kind of cheese you prefer. I was hoping for cheddar and feta, but only had a shredded Mexican blend and feta in the house so I used those.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, half and half, salt, and pepper. Ladle evenly over the vegetable and cheese.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until set. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
A Hummingbird Cake isn’t one that many people have heard of, myself included until a few years ago. While I knew that a friend of mine always requests this on her birthday, I had never tried it and wasn’t even really sure what type of cake it was. I was thinking about baking something new and decided to give this cake a try, and I’m so glad I did!
After looking on-line at different recipes I realized the base of the cake seemed very similar to the base of my favorite carrot cake recipe, so I decided to work off of that. The other main ingredients of a Hummingbird Cake are bananas, pineapple, and walnuts. My family has nut allergies so the walnuts were instantly eliminated from the ingredients. However, if you are not allergic I would imagine some chopped walnuts would make a delicious addition to the cake.
Cake Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
3 extra large eggs (room temperature)
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour (plus 1 tbsp)
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained
2 ripe bananas, mashed
Grease and flour two round cake pans. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl beat the sugar, eggs, and oil on medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine well with an electric mixer on low speed. The batter will be thick.
In a third bowl mash together the bananas and pineapple. Stir in to the batter.
Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 20-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool on wire racks before removing from pans.
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
8 oz. block cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
With an electric mixer on low speed cream the butter and cream cheese together.
Add vanilla and combine.
Add confectioners sugar and beat on medium speed until smooth.
Start frosting!
Once the cake is frosted keep refrigerated. Enjoy!
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease and flour two round cake pans.
In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and oil and beat on medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Stir in the vanilla.
In a separate bowl sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture while beating on low speed with the electric mixer. The batter will be thick.
In a third bowl mash together the bananas and pineapple. Stir in to the batter.
Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees and reduce heat to 350 degrees. Continue baking for 20 – 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool in pans on wire racks before frosting.
For frosting, using an electric mixer on medium speed beat the butter and cream cheese until well mixed and smooth. Add the vanilla and beat just until combined. Beat in the powdered sugar until smooth.
There are so many flavors that go hand in hand with chocolate, mint being one of them. My family loves that flavor combination and my son especially loves Andes Mints so of course I needed to make him an Andes Mint inspired cupcake. You could also make this into a sheet or layer cake if you so choose.
As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, this is the only chocolate cake recipe I ever use and it is the only one you will ever need. Trust me. Super easy to make and it comes out moist every time.
Cake Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup boiling water
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. You could just grease the pan but liners are so much easier.
Sift all of the dry ingredients together. As I always say, it is really important to sift the ingredients and not just mix, especially when using cocoa.
Add the eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for two minutes while scraping the sides constantly.
Add the water into the batter and mix well with a spoon or spatula, the batter will be very loose. The water must actually be boiling or the cake will not turn out properly. Fill each cupcake about 3/4 full and bake for approximately 18 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool cupcakes on a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.
Now for the Mint Buttercream Frosting!
Ingredients:
1 cup of butter, softened
4 cups confectioners sugar
2 tsp. mint extract
3-4 tbsp. milk
In a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
Gradually add the confectioners sugar until well combined. It most likely won’t be smooth at this point.
Add the mint extract and beat until combined.
Add the milk and beat for 3-4 minutes. It is better to start with less milk and judge the consistency before adding more.
I added some green food coloring as well and continued beating until well combined.
You can spread or pipe your frosting on to the cupcakes. I added a sprinkle of Jimmies and an Andes Mint as well.
Who doesn’t love sitting by a fire and toasting marshmallows until they are just right to make the perfect s’more. Chocolate, marshmallow, and graham crackers are such a perfect combination. Well, if you don’t have the fire or you just feel like having that amazing flavor combination how about a s’mores cupcake? I’ve also made a S’mores Pie and you can find that recipe in my Blog as well.
I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe, as I always do, and added a marshmallow buttercream frosting. I used Fluff because that’s what we use in my house to make Fluffernutters. Fun fact, Fluff was actually created in Somerville, Ma.
Anyway, let’s make some S’mores cupcakes!
Cake Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup boiling water
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. You could just grease the pan but liners are so much easier.
Sift all of the dry ingredients together. As I always say, it is really important to sift the ingredients and not just mix, especially when using cocoa.
Add the eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for two minutes while scraping the sides constantly.
Add the water into the batter and mix well with a spoon or spatula, the batter will be very loose. The water must actually be boiling or the cake will not turn out properly. Fill each cupcake about 3/4 full and bake for approximately 18 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.
This frosting is very sweet so if you aren’t a huge fan of really sweet things, you may want to play around with using less confectioner’s sugar.
Marshmallow Frosting Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
7 oz. marshmallow fluff
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
With an electric mixer beat the butter and vanilla until fluffy. Beat in the confectioners sugar on high until well combined.
Add the fluff and mix on high speed until it is completely incorporated with the buttercream frosting.
I used a piping bag to frost the cupcakes and the recipe only frosts 9-10 cupcakes. It will frost more if you are spreading the frosting. This recipe can also be doubled.
Once the cupcakes were frosted I crushed some graham crackers and sprinkled them on top. The final touch was a small Hershey bar.
I was trying to think of a nice summery dessert to serve to friends coming over and remembered I still had some of the beautiful strawberries left from when I went strawberry picking. While strawberry shortcake would have been delicious, I wanted a little bar type of dessert. Fruit bars with an oat streusel topping sounded perfect, and they were!
The strawberries I was using were very juicy and I was concerned the bars wouldn’t set properly, and when I first cut into them they were quite mushy. I ran out and bought a back up dessert just in case, but I put them in the refrigerator for an hour or so before serving and it did the trick. They were a huge hit! So good!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup flour
3/4 cup oats
1/2 cup, plus 1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups strawberries, chopped
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. cornstarch
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8″ baking pan with aluminum foil and coat with cooking spray. I only had a glass dish with me in Maine so I reduced the heat to 325 degrees.
For the bottom layer combine the melted butter, flour, oats, 1/2 cup sugar, and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. It will be crumbly.
Set 1 cup of the mixture aside. With your hands or a spatula firmly press the remaining crumble in the bottom of the baking dish.
In a mixing bowl, I used the same one, combine the strawberries, lemon juice, 1/3 cup sugar, and cornstarch.
Spread the strawberry mixture evenly over the layer of crust.
Using your hands, crumble the remaining cup of streusel evenly over the strawberry layer.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until the bars are set and the juices are bubblying on the edges.
Let cool for a few hours before trying to cut. As I mentioned previously, they are quite messy when first cut so you may want to put them in the refrigerator before serving so they set fully.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8" square pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
Combine the melted butter, flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Set aside 1 cup of mixture. Mixture will be crumbly.
Press firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan.
Combine strawberries, 1/3 cup sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch in a mixing bowl.
Spread strawberry mixture over crust. Top with remaining cup of crumble.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until bars seem set and juices on the sides are bubbling. Let cool for at least an hour before cutting. Best refrigerated for a few hours to fully set before serving.
I am pretty much always a “from scratch” person when it comes to baking, but every now and then I make an exception. Shortcake is one of them. While I have made shortcake biscuits from scratch, I really love the taste of making them from Bisquick. If it’s easier and tastes great, why not?
My daughter and I took a trip to a strawberry farm in Maine and picked these beauties. They made an absolutely delicious strawberry shortcake, that my daughter made for me this time!
Ingredients for the shortcake:
2 1/3 cups original Bisquick mix
1/2 cup milk
3 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. butter, melted
Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl until it becomes dough.
Spoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet. This recipe makes six biscuits.
Bake at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes until brown.
To macerate the strawberries, combine 4 cups of sliced strawberries with 1/4 cup sugar and set aside. This will allow the juices of the strawberries to make a delicious syrup.
Top your shortcake with the strawberries and a little (or a lot) of whipped cream and that’s it!
I used canned whipped cream for these, but if you would like to make your own here is the recipe I use.
Whip 1 cup of heavy cream with an electric mixer until it is just about stiff. Add 1 tsp. of vanilla and 2 tbsp. of confectioners sugar and continue beating until peaks form. Don’t over-beat or it will start to get lumpy.
I have been meaning to make a lemon cake for quite some time. Instead of trying to find a new recipe, I decided to take the yellow cake recipe I always use and tweak it a little. It came out moist and has a very subtle lemon flavor. Yum! I also love the combination of lemon and raspberry so I decided to add some raspberry preserves to the center.
What I love most about this recipe is that it is a one bowl recipe. You just can’t beat delicious and one bowl!
Cake Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 – 2 tbsp. lemon rind
3 large eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round cake pans. After greasing and flouring the pans I also put parchment paper on the bottoms of the pans, and greased and floured a second time.
Squeeze and grate the lemons for the juice and rind. One tablespoon of rind give it a subtle lemon taste, if you prefer very lemony you may want to use 2 tablespoons.
Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Using an electric mixer or stand mixer, beat on low speed for 30 seconds scraping the bowl constantly. Increase the speed to high and continue mixing for 3 minutes while scraping the bowl occasionally.
Pour into prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The pans I used took longer than regular 9″ round pans.
Cool in pans, then transfer to a wire rack.
Lemon Buttercream Frosting:
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
2 tbsp. lemon juice
3 tbsp. milk
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
Beat butter with an electric mixer until smooth.
Beat in lemon juice. Add confectioner’s sugar.
When adding the milk I started by beating in 2 tbsp. to see the consistency. I added 1 more tbsp. and it was perfect.
Continue beating on high for 2-3 minutes
Now it’s time to frost the cake!
As I mentioned previously, I put a layer of raspberry preserves between the two layers but you can also just put frosting.
Of course if I was going to make scones while I am in Maine they were going to be blueberry scones. And what better flavor to combine with blueberry than lemon. Yum. You may have already tried using my scones recipe, and this recipe is the same except for the addition of blueberries and the icing. Easy and delicious!
As I mentioned in my other scone Blog, this is a great base recipe to add other ingredients to. In the past I have added chocolate chips, yesterday I added blueberries and who knows what I might add next!
** Please note some of the photos are from my original scone Blog.
Scone Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
5 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup cold butter
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk or half and half
1 cup blueberries
Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Using a cheese grater, grate the butter and cut it into the dry mixture with a pasty cutter or a fork and knife. Make sure the butter is cold.
Put the beaten egg in a measuring cup and then fill to the 1 cup mark with the milk or half and half. I used a combination of half and half and milk. Mix the two together and add a little at a time to the dry mixture. You shouldn’t have to use all of it.
The dough shouldn’t be too moist, just add enough so that the dough will stick together once kneaded. It won’t look like it will in the bowl, but you can tell by using your hands and squeezing some together.
Now add the blueberries.
When I got to this step I thought, how the heck do I get the blueberries in the dough without making an absolute mess? I went and changed my shirt, make sure you either do that or are wearing an apron, and carefully started to stir them in as best I could.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until it comes together. It is not easy to do without the blueberries exploding, but just take your time and it will work.
Roll the dough into a circle about a 1/2″ thick.
Use a pizza cutter or a knife to cut the dough into 8 pieces, this will make very large scones. If you would like them smaller divide the dough in half, then roll it out and cut into 8 pieces which is what I did.
Place the scones on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until brown. The smaller scones only took about 13 minutes.
Let the scones cool completely and then drizzle the lemon icing on them. For the icing, I used the icing I use on my Italian Lemon Cookies except I cut the recipe in half.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/8 cup water
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
Combine all of the ingredients until smooth. If the icing is too thin you can add more sugar until you get it to the right consistency.
I may be dating myself by saying this, but when I was young we just had a bowl of oatmeal. Now the new trend is oatmeal bowls. So what is the difference between a bowl of oatmeal and an oatmeal bowl? Oatmeal bowls are focused more on packing lots of healthy ingredients and protein in with the oatmeal, it takes the bowl of yesteryear and makes it a superfood. It’s kind of funny actually, but I have to admit I am in on the trend and love the creativity with flavors and they just look pretty. I was unaware of this new trend until my daughter’s friend started an oatmeal Tiktok and I saw how delicious all of these combinations looked. If you are on Tiktok you should take a peak at case1y, I think I am going to try one of her mocha bowls soon.
My mother would make oatmeal with a little milk, a pat of butter, and maybe some raisins. Or she would make Maypo, does anyone remember that and does it still exist? I’ll have to check that out after I’m done with this. While I do still make those comforting bowls of oatmeal, minus the butter, I have been having a little fun creating some healthy bowls packed with protein as well.
So how do you make an oatmeal bowl? First you make oatmeal just as you normally would, the steel cut version of oats is the best as far as healthy goes. You combine 1/2 cup of oats with 1 cup of water and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat and cook for about 5 minutes and it is done. Then just add whatever fruits you like. You can add granola, chia, honey, nuts, there are so many different options.
One of my favorite bowls is this one. I added hemp, flax, unsweetened coconut, strawberries, blueberries, and these delicious dark chocolate covered pumpkin seeds.
Personally if I am going to have oatmeal for breakfast I would rather a plain old bowl of oatmeal. These bowls can be a little much for breakfast in my opinion, but perfect for lunch or dinner.
One night I had one for dinner and amped it up a little bit with apple, peanut butter, flax, hemp, cinnamon, and pumpkin seeds. It was actually very filling and satisfying for dinner.
I made this one for my son recently and he asked if he was allowed to stir it together or had to eat it as it was lol. His had almond butter, sweetened coconut, blueberries, flax, and cinnamon. I think he prefers a regular old bowl of oatmeal, however.
You can even use oatmeal bowls to let your inner child come out 😛
I love oatmeal, and as my mother used to say it “sticks to your ribs”. Enjoy!
I had seen a picture of this cute cake and decided to give it my own spin. I used my favorite white cake recipe from my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook and added some coconut. You don’t have to add the coconut, but it is so good in this cake! The cake is moist and has a nice thick dense consistency with the coconut.
For the frosting I am more of a fan of cream cheese frosting, but you could use a buttercream frosting if you prefer. I have a wonderful vanilla buttercream recipe in another blog.
As you can see I am not a professional cake decorator, but my cakes are delicious and to me that is the most important part. This cake is really not hard to make and whoever you serve it to will be very impressed.
Cake Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups milk
3 1/2 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
5 large egg whites
1 cup sweetened coconut
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 oz. block cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Blue food coloring
Additional Ingredients:
1/2 cup sweetened coconut
Melting chocolate
Egg candies
Grease and flour three 6″ cake pans. I greased the pans, then added a layer of parchment paper on the bottoms, then greased again and floured. The pans I used are stainless and not non-stick so I wanted to be sure they came out perfectly.
Combine all ingredients except egg whites in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer.
Beat on low speed for 30 seconds scraping the bowl constantly. Continue mixing on high speed for 2 minutes scraping occassionally. With the stand mixture I let it go about a minute, turned it off and scraped, then continued for another minute.
Add the egg whites and continue beating on high for two more minutes. Fold in 1 cup of coconut.
Divide evenly between the three pans and bake at 350 degrees until toothpick inserted comes out clean. My pans took about 30 minutes.
While the cakes were baking I toasted the coconut for the nest.
In a small frying pan add the coconut and cook over low/medium heat stirring frequently until toasted. Set aside.
When the cakes are done allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pans before transferring to wire racks. Cool completely.
Once cakes are cool you can make the cream cheese frosting.
Beat the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in confectioners sugar until smooth. Give the frosting a taste and see if you think it should be sweeter and if so, add a little more sugar to taste.
Add a few drops of blue food coloring and combine well.
On a cake stand start building the cake and adding frosting in between the layers.
I normally have the rounded side of the cake be the top layer, but for this cake I had the flat side on the top. It was easier to make the nest this way.
Once the cake is completely frosted it is time to splatter the chocolate!
I used a few melting wafers for my splatter, but you can use whatever you normally use. Once the chocolate was melted I used a pastry brush and flicked the chocolate onto the cake. I also managed to flick the chocolate all over my walls so you may want to be a little more careful than I was.
Now just build the nest!
For the eggs I used Robin’s Egg candies and I used a toothpick and put a few dots on the eggs.
Make sure to keep the cake refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting. If you use buttercream you don’t need to.
