Thursday, July 5, 2012

4th of July Trifle

Being in the holiday spirit and my never-ending desire to try new things I saw a Food Network Facebook post on a Red White and Blue Trifle. I didn't exactly love their recipe so I searched on cooks.com to see what I could find and then looked to Pinterest to see what other ideas were out there. I came across this one on Pinterest and thought it would be good with a few modifications. Here is the recipe I based my recipe around: http://heylittlemother.com/2012/05/24/perfect-patriotic-dessert-red-white-and-blue-trifle/

The trifle was a HUGE hit and I will definitely make it again in the future!

What you'll need:
  • 1 large tub Cool Whip (refrigerated not frozen)
  • 1 8 oz container sour cream
  • 1 small package instant cheesecake pudding mix
  • 1 small package instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 can pineapple chunks (that's what I had on hand)
  • 1 round angel food cake (I found a round angel food cake near strawberries in HEB but you could improvise and use a loaf cake and make it work the same)
  • 1 large container strawberries
  • 1 large container blueberries
What you'll do:
  • Clean, hull, and slice strawberries (lengthwise to make them pretty like in the photos below)
  • Clean blueberries and sift through them to make sure the stems are removed and any yucky ones are taken out.
  • In a large bowl whisk together Cool Whip, sour cream, and both pudding mixes. Mixture will be thick.
  • Whisk in milk until mixture is smooth.
  • Whisk in 1/2 cup pineapple juice from can then strain pineapples of any excess juice and stir into mixture. (If I had a can of diced pineapples I would have used that instead but I only had the big chunks on hand.)
  • Take round angel food cake and cut horizontally into 3 rings.
  • Line the bottom of the trifle dish with sliced strawberries and then place slices around the bottom sides of the bowl.
  • Place top ring of angel food cake in dish. I broke the ring kind of overlapped it a bit to get it to fit without messing up the strawberries around the dish.
  • Pour some of the pudding mixture over the cake and around the sides of the dish so you have about 1/2-1 inch of white showing.
  • Top the pudding with blueberries. Sprinkle around and then be sure to place all around edge of bowl so you can see them on the outside.
  • Now you repeat the layers a second time (strawberries, angel food cake, pudding mixture, blueberries)
  • Depending on how deep your dish is you can add more strawberries/blueberries/pudding until you get to the top and the top should be the pudding mixture so you can decorate on top of it as you choose. See pictures below for how I finished it off.
  • Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or more until served.



Jello Shots

I had never made Jello Shots before but they sounded like a good adult addition to the 4th of July party our neighbors were having. So I looked up a recipe on cooks.com and essentially the consensus was 1 package of jello with 1 cup of hot water and 1 cup of alcohol. So then I got to thinking what combination I wanted to make. Pina Colada sounded good and the grocery store had pineapple jello. I had coconut rum at home so I got that one. I had tried chocolate vodka for the first time over the weekend and it was so good I was planning on picking some up at the liquor store so I thought about what might be good with it and so I got black cherry jello. So I picked up the chocolate vodka and got to work. I made the pineapple jello/coconut rum combination first. After making it and pouring into the cups I realized this particular brand of jello (Royal I believe) calls for 4 cups of water (2 cups hot/2 cups cold) and is supposed to make twice the amount of jello. Oops! The black cherry jello/chocolate vodka combination was next and I read the package and it called for 2 cups of water so I went ahead and prepared it the same way I did the pineapple batch. Well, after sampling both the consensus was the pineapple ones were delicious and the black cherry ones were merely okay and will not be made again. But they were ALL gone in the end!

What you will need:
  • 1 package Royal Pineapple Jello (2.8 oz)
  • 1 cup Coconut Rum (I used Bacardi)
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • Jello Shot Cups (I ordered on amazon.com)
What you will do:
  • Place plastic shot cups in sheet pan
  • Add jello mix to boiling water in bowl and whisk until dissolved.
  • Wait 3 minutes or so for it to cool down a bit then add coconut rum and whisk together to combine.
  • Pour mixture into a large glass measuring cup with pouring edge on it. Fill cups half way with mixture. It makes about 15-20 shots.
  • Refrigerate for 1 hour until firm. (good with whipped cream on top as well)

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

A staple in our house since I started The Belly Fat Cure (BFC) diet has been anything with meat and veggies. Something I had never made before until exploring my options was Bacon Wrapped Asparagus. To be honest I'm not sure I had ever made asparagus before starting this "diet"...I like to call it my way of eating now. So this is super easy and you should give it a try!

Here's what you'll need:
  • 1 package center cut bacon
  • 1 bunch asparagus (I try to get small-medium sized stalks)

Here's what you'll do:
  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a large baking sheet with nonstick aluminum foil.
  • Remove rubber bands from bunch of asparagus. Rinse asparagus in colander. Grab a single stalk and take both ends and bend it slightly until it snaps. You throw out the end (the side with the flat edge) and keep the flowery end (that's the good part). Once you learn how to do this process you can grab 3-5 stalks and bend them together and speed up the process.
  • Open the bacon and grab a slice. Take 3-4 stalks of asparagus (depends on the size of the stalks) and start at one end with bacon and wrap up the stalks together. Lay on prepared sheet pan. Repeat the process with remaining bacon and asparagus. For me typically one package of bacon rolls one bunch of asparagus.
  • Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. After baking (if not browned enough and you like crispy bacon) put oven on broil and cook another 3-5 minutes. Yum!!

Returning to the blogging world...

So I've been out of the blogging world for sometime now but decided I'd start posting again since so many people have been requesting recipes. To update everyone following (all 3 of you lol) on what's been going on in my life I'll start my first post. I got pregnant near the time of my last post and that's what ended IWAD. There was no wine to be involved anymore and so it kind of defeated the purpose. It's not as much fun cooking without it! I had my little guy in April 2011 and have been busy with my now 4 yr old daughter and 1 yr old son. In September I decided it was time to lose the remaining 20 lbs of baby weight I was still holding onto. I started my last pregnancy 10 lbs over where I started my pregnancy with my daughter and then I was 10 lbs over that and had had enough! I wound up reading a book (that I had purchased for 99 cents through Amazon on my Kindle) called The Belly Fat Cure by Jorge Cruise. After reading that I decided why not I'll give it a try. Well, after losing 3 lbs that first week I was sold. Then it kept coming off 1-3 lbs every week...no joke. Now I must say that I was nursing my little boy at the same time but had stopped losing the weight. My goal was to lose 20 lbs by Christmas since we go on a caribbean vacation every year at that time. I lost more than 20 lbs in that time period. NO WORKING OUT (other than running after 2 kiddos all day). I'm currently at a comfortable weight and have been working out to tone up and "firm up the flab" as I like to call it. I've been doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD. This is a 25 minute workout that is pretty hard core. It definitely works. My goal is 3 days a week. I definitely notice results and can't wait to get this body back to pre-baby shape (aside from the stretch marks and saggy you know what's). I have also been entertaining the idea of getting a Gold's Gym membership again. Well there you have it...my last year in a nutshell.