Cherry Cha-Cha

We have a deep chest freezer and it seems everything slowly shifts to the bottom so that when you are looking for something in particular, it is buried under all the other frozen items. Because of this, we tend to buy more of that item thinking we're out. Meanwhile, some of the older items tend to become a bit freezer burnt or freeze dried. Unfortunate, for sure. My husband and I decided we needed to start using up what we have before buying any more.

Moving items around again, I found a 16-oz. tub of frozen whipped topping. Not sure how old it was but it was time to use it up since I don't even remember the last time I purchased frozen whipped topping.

My husband was after me to make some sort of dessert. I had just purchased a couple cans of cherry pie filling with a buy one, get one offer. Hadn't made Cherry Cha-Cha for years so that is what I decided to make. I rounded up the few ingredients I needed ~ half a stick of butter, half a package of graham crackers, the 16-oz. tub of frozen whipped topping, and the can of cherry pie filling. As I was rummaging in the freezer for a box of graham crackers, I actually found a half package in a plastic container! What are the odds?

I put the butter into a microwaveable bowl and placed it in the microwave to melt. Then I put the crackers in my Ninja food processor and ground them up within a few seconds. Man! I absolutely love this piece of equipment! I poured the crackers into the bowl to mix with the melted butter.

Next I poured most of the crumbs into a glass pan for the crust.

I put half the thawed whipped topping over the crust, spreading it evenly.

The cherry pie filling was next. My husband always wonders where all the cherries are in the can, since there are very few. It's mostly sauce.

I spread the remaining whipped topping on the top of the cherry layer and sprinkled it with the remaining graham cracker crumbs.

Oh yeah! A quick and easy dessert.

Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

Easy Guacamole

Because I'm working at eating healthier, and because I've read so many articles on how healthy avacados are for you, I decided to purchase several when they were on sale. I've never bought avacados before this and found myself not knowing how to use them. Where to go for recipes and ideas? Why, Pinterest, of course!

I was inspired by The Endless Meal to make some guacamole. According to her blog, you only need avacados, limes, garlic and salt to make guacamole. All other ingredients are optional.

I've had guacamole in the past and wondered if you don't have to acquire a taste for it since I'm not that huge a fan. But, I already purchased the avacados and only ate one so needed to use four more up. I started by skinning and halving three avacados.

I happened to have half a leftover lime in my refrigerator, but because I needed juice from a whole lime, rather than squeeze out the juice, I decided to use the entire half lime.

I removed the seeds from the avacados and placed them along with the lime into my food processor. I then added 3/4 teaspoon of minced garlic and 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke. The ends of a tomato were left from dinner so I threw them into the mix, as well. And processed.

I scraped the contents into a covered container and I'm already done. Easy!

How did I like it? Hmmm ... not crazy about it. Maybe I added too much liquid smoke or maybe it was just missing an ingredient, like sugar. LOL. Or maybe, I just don't have that acquired taste for avacado after all. I may have to keep working on that and update you all. Now, I just have to figure out a way to use it up. Any ideas?

Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

Gluten Free Cinnamon Toast Crunch Wannabes

I've been wanting to try this recipe for some time and finally got around to it this past weekend. The recipe originated from this website blog: I Breathe I'm Hungry. I gathered the necessary ingredients. Milled flax seed, coconut oil, hemp seed, ground cinnamon, and apple juice.

Uh oh, I did not have any apple juice on hand. What to do?

Well, I had a bunch of apples from our apple tree that were bruised and going soft. Here they are. Rather nasty looking, huh? I wondered, would it be possible to squeeze my own apple juice? All I needed was a half a cup.

I really didn't have anything to lose as we had so many apples that these were going bad. So I cut them all up and threw the in my Ninja food processor to juice them up.

Well that didn't work like I had hoped. I was hoping they would be all juicy like the tomatoes, onions and peppers for my fresh salsa. See Easy Fresh Salsa. I decided to try and squeeze the juice out. Since the food processor didn't work, the next thing I thought of trying was the garlic press.

Oh my. It's gonna take a lot more than that to reach a half a cup. Let's try heating the apples in a saucepan. Add about a half cup water and turn on the heat.

Now that's much better. Next I used the spoon to remove the juice for that half a cup I needed.

I suppose I could have used a strainer, but a little apple didn't hurt anything. With a little cinnamon and sugar I used the remaining apples for applesauce.

I filled my measuring cup halfway with apple juice and added a tablespoon of coconut oil to the hot juice to melt for easy mixing.

I measured out the remaining ingredients and mixed them up.

Then I added the juice to the dry ingredients.

And thoroughly mixed all the ingredients together.

I placed a piece of freezer paper on top of a cookie sheet and scaped the dough onto the freezer paper.

Then I rolled the dough out as thin as I could, which was about 1/8" thick rather than the required 1/16" thick. I found that it started to fall apart if I went any thinner. Maybe my dough was a bit too wet because it seemed to stick to the rolling pin.

Once I rolled as thin as I possibly could I placed it in my preheated oven to bake at 300 degrees for the required 15 minutes.

When the 15 minutes were up, I removed the pan to slice the dough into small squares and returned it to the oven. I shut the oven off and left it continue to bake for an additional 60 minutes. When I pulled it out, it was still a bit moist so I turned it over and placed it back in the oven. I heated the oven to 200 degrees and then turned it off and left it in for 15 more minutes. Then I removed the pan and broke them along the cut lines into these cute little squared cereal wannabes.

How did they taste? I thought they were delicious! But then, I am used to eating a lot of flax seed and hemp seed. And I absolutely love hemp seed! My son and daughter-in-law happened to be here and I had them taste it. They said it tasted too healthy! Haha! Now that's a given!

Gluten Free Cinnamon Toast Crunch Wannabes

1/2 c. milled flax seed

1/2 c. hulled hemp seed

2 T. ground cinnamon

1/2 c. apple juice

1 T. coconut oil

Measure out and combine dry ingredients together in a bowl. Measure out apple juice and coconut oil and add to dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Line a cookie sheet with freezer paper and place dough onto paper. Roll dough out to 1/8" thick. Place in preheated 300 degree oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove pan and score dough into small, bite-sized squares. Turn off oven and return pan to oven for an additional 60 minutes. Remove pan, flip dough over and again return to oven. Heat oven to 200 degrees and then shut oven off. Leave in for 15 minutes or until dry. Remove and break into squares. Enjoy!


Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

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Update: Here's my check! $40.00!

Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

North Carolina Trip Photos

My trip to North Carolina was wonderful and I hope that I can return there soon to visit my son and his family. I haven't had a chance to go through all my photos yet, but here are a few of them. Hoping to add more later.

Around the Fort Bragg area, everywhere you went, there were trees.

Besides spending time with Jesse and his family, my favorite part of the trip was seeing the Atlantic Ocean.

The sandy beach went for miles.

The kids squealed with delight when the waves came into shore.

Jesse also drove me out to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where we found an upside down house.

And guess who we ran into at the Mellow Mushroom in Fayetteville? None other than, "The Terminator"! Now how cool is that?

If Jesse stands six foot three, how tall do you think the Terminator is?

Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 c. Jif creamy peanut butter
1-1/4 c. packed brown sugar
2-1/2 t. vanilla
4 eggs
1-1/2 c. gluten-free rolled oats, first measured, then ground in a food chopper
1-3/4 t. baking soda
1 c. miniature chocolate chips

Measure all the ingredients except the chocolate chips and put them into a mixing bowl. Thoroughly mix with electric mixer until the dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed with the wet ingredients. Add the chocolate chips and mix again just enough for chips to be evenly distributed with dough. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!