Meghan's Strawberry, Nanna, Peaches, Blueberry Smooovie

Long-time readers, family, and most friends know that about 3 years ago I had gastric banding surgery. This and a heavily scarred esophagus makes eating very hard sometimes. Therefore, we have a lot of smoothies in the mornings around here. This morning Meghan dictated what would go into our smoothies, and I must say they are FABULOUS!

Ingredients:

• 2 TBSp flaxseed meal, you could use whole flaxseeds, but I bought the meal so I could use it in my baking. I use the flaxseed for fiber not to mention the other health benefits.
• Two scoops of our favorite vanilla soy protein powder.
• 1 cup Almond milk, we use the plain flavored variety.
• 1 frozen banana, I take our bananas that get riper than we prefer peel them, cut them into thirds and keep them in a zip-loc bag in the freezer.
• Hand full of frozen strawberries, blueberries, and sliced peaches. I use frozen fruit in our smoothies instead of ice so we get our fruit and our smoothies do not become watered down as they melt.

1. Combine all ingredients in blender, with liquid on bottom.
2. Blend until all fruit has been blitzed and it looks like a milkshake.
3. *Meghan's direction: serve with cream (whipped cream)

Enjoy!

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

We love desserts in the Wheeler home. Especially desserts that we can grab and run; cookies, muffins, cupcakes, etc....

This was super easy.

You will need:

• Chocolate cake mix of your choice and the ingredients listed on the box to make. I chose German Chocolate.
• Tub of your favorite frosting, or your favorite frosting recipe. This day I used cream cheese frosting.
• Tub of that microwavable dipping chocolate. I would have preferred to use dark chocolate, but Hero is not a fan of the dark stuff, so I used milk chocolate.
• Can of cherry pie filling.

Directions:

1. Mix the cake as directed on the box.
2. Line your muffin tin with paper liners. My cake box said it would make 24 cupcakes, so I lined two of my muffin tins with the liners.
3. Fill paper liners with cake mix about 2/3 full. I have the large pampered chef scoop and I use one scoop per cupcake.
4. Spoon 2 to 3 cherries into the middle of each cupcake batter. There is no need to push it into the batter because the batter will rise above the cherries.
5. Bake as directed on your cake mix directions.
6. Cool completely before frosting. I love to pipe my frosting onto my cupcakes using the largest star tip I have.
7. Melt the dipping chocolate according to the package directions, drizzle on cupcakes.

Because I used cream cheese frosting I kept my cupcakes in the refrigerator. It might be a good idea to do that any way if it will take your family more than two days to eat the cupcakes due to the cherries being in the middle, the cupcakes will probably mold quicker because of the cherries.

Enjoy....I know we did.

Ricketts Fruit Salad

I am sure this recipe has a real name, but I only know it as the family fruit salad. I have been told numerous times who this recipe comes from, and how they are related to me....but sadly I am not good at retaining this information. This brings to mind an idea...wouldn't it be fun to do a genealogy book with recipes? Every family has their family recipes. A couple of years ago, Phillip's Aunt Debbie made a recipe book of their favorite family recipes for her kids as a Christmas gift. Maybe one day I should just have this blog turned into a book for Meghan.

My parents divorced when I was young, and due to some unfortunate issues I didn't spend any holidays with my dad (that I can recall) until I was an adult. My mother got this recipe from my dad's side of the family and made it every Thanksgiving and Christmas for many years. I am thankful for that, it made me feel like I had a small link to my dad all these years as I imagined him eating this very salad at family gatherings as a small boy.

Ingredients;

• 2 cans of pineapple chunks
• mini marshmallows
  
• 1 large bunch of bananas
• 1 jar of maraschino cherries
• tub of cool whip
• 2 eggs
• 2 TBsp sugar
• 2 TBsp flour

Directions;

1. The base for the pudding is a pudding. I like to make my pudding the night before so it can cool down and set up nicely before I mix it with my fruit. It is VITAL that the pudding is cool before you mix it with your fruit. To make the pudding; drain the pineapple, saving the juice into a small saucepan. Put your pineapple chunks into a container with a lid into the fridge.
2. In a small bowl mix the eggs, sugar, and flour until well combined and smooth. I usually laddle in a bit of the pineapple juice into the egg mixture and mix well. Then add the egg mixture to the still cool pineapple juice. Wisk together until they are well combined. Turn on the burner to medium heat. Stirring frequently, slowly bring pineapple pudding to a boil. Once boiling, turn off the burner and remove from the heat. Let the pudding sit out until cool enough to put in the fridge. Letting it set up over night in the fridge.
3. The next day, put your pineapple chunks, sliced bananas, maraschino cherries (sliced in half) in a large mixing bowl.
4. In another bowl combine your pineapple pudding and coolwhip. Once the cool whip is completely incorporated into the pudding, add this mixture to the fruit. Then add about 1/2 bag of mini marshmellows. Fold all the ingredients together until well mixed.

This fruit salad is very rich and this recipe makes a lot. If you want to make a smaller batch, you can cut the pineapple to one can. Conversely if you wanted to make more it is just as easy. The ratio for the pudding is 1 egg, 1 TBsp flour, 1 TBsp sugar per can of pineapple chunks.

I hope you enjoy...this has to be my ultimate feel good recipe. I know all is well in the world when I am enjoying a big bowl of this the morning after Thanksgiving or Christmas.