Smoothie Popsicles

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Ruby has been my smoothie buddy since she was around two. We don’t make them as often now that she’s in school, but these smoothie popsicles are even more fun for the kids. This is a really basic recipe using what I had on hand today, but you could make these a million different ways by switching up the fruits and juice that you use.

Whenever bananas start looking too ripe I peel them, break ’em in half, and then add them to my frozen banana collection so I always have them on hand for smoothies. We also have the best popsicle molds ever. I’m not getting paid to promote them or anything, I just love how easily they unmold and the zombies are the cutest. I will say that the swords are a tad on the phallic side (especially if you’re super immature like me) so in hindsight, we should have gone with the monster or tiki molds for our second set.

No matter what kind of mold you use I can promise that these smoothie pops will be an easy and healthy-ish treat for the whole family.

Smoothie Popsicles

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Serves 4 to 6
Prep time 10 minutes
Cook time 2 hours
Total time 2 hours, 10 minutes
Meal type Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Misc Child Friendly, Freezable, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold

Ingredients

  • 1/2 frozen banana
  • 1 cup frozen fruit chunks
  • 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
  • 3/4 cups fruit juice
  • 1 handful fresh spinach (optional)

Directions

Step 1
Add all of the ingredients into your blender, and pulse until everybody's incorporated.
Step 2
Puree the hell out of it until it's completely smooth. Pour into your favorite popsicle molds and freeze for a couple hours.
Step 3
Gently remove from the molds once they're set and enjoy!
Step 4
For the sword pops I used frozen mango and pineapple chunks with orange juice.
Step 5
And for these cute little zombies I swapped out apple juice for the OJ and added a handful of fresh spinach which made them the perfect zombie color.
Step 6
And for these cute little zombies I swapped out apple juice for the OJ and added a handful of fresh spinach which made them the perfect zombie color.

Everything Bagel Pastry Braid

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I did not grow up in a bagel-friendly household. In fact, my dad has stated on several occasions that bagels are his least favorite bread product. Brian is the one who formally introduced me to good bagels. Up until then, I’d only ever tried the shitty ones you can buy at the grocery store. Once I tried a soft and chewy bagel for the first time I was totally hooked. We would gladly eat them every day at multiple meals if they didn’t make us fatter, and (more importantly) if there was a decent place to buy bagels in our small town.

Anyway, Brian’s all time favorite is hands down a toasted everything bagel with cream cheese. It’s simple, but it’s a classic for a reason. This pastry braid is my easy-to-make play on those flavors.

Frozen puff pastry is a lot easier to find around us than an acceptable bagel shop. Plus I always have a jar of my homemade everything bagel spice blend on hand for us to sprinkle on pretty much everything (pun intended). You can always overpay for a bottle of premixed everything bagel spice… but why would you? These can be filled with any number of sweet or savory fillings once you get the hang of braiding. It’s a pretty straightforward process: roll, cut, fill, fold.

Everything Bagel Pastry Braid

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Everything Bagel Pastry Braid

Ingredients

  • 2 puff pastry sheets
  • 8oz whipped cream cheese
  • 1/3 cup sliced green onion
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon granulated onion powder
  • 1 egg
  • everything bagel spice

Directions

Step 1
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and roll out one sheet of thawed puff pastry dough on a floured surface to make it a slightly larger rectangle.

Use a sharp knife to cut two end flaps on both of the rectangle's shorter sides and one-inch slanted lines along the longer sides.

Make sure to leave a rectangle in the center of the pastry for your filling.
Step 2
Whip the salt, onion powder, and green onions into your softened cream cheese. In a small bowl beat the egg with a couple tablespoons of water to make an egg wash.

Spread half of the cream cheese mixture into the center of the rectangle.

Brush the end flaps and angled strips with your egg wash. Fold everything in, starting with the end flaps and then crossing over the strips. Check out the gif above to get the idea.
Step 3
Repeat with the other sheet of puff pastry, and then put both braids into the fridge to rechill before going into the hot oven.

After about 10 minutes move both braids to a parchment lined baking sheet.

Liberally brush with more of the egg wash and then sprinkle with as much or little of the everything bagel spice over the tops as you like.
Step 4
Here's one from the side so you can see how much it puffs up.
Step 5
Bake at 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes, or until it's puffed up, golden brown, and cooked through.
Step 6
This version is the simple classic, focusing on the classic combination of everything bagel flavor with cream cheese.

Step 7
But feel free to fill these any way you can think of. Adding scrambled eggs, breakfast meats, smoked salmon, or extra veggies would make this fantastic breakfast even heartier.

Any which way you fill it you can't lose.

Sriracha Bacon

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Sriracha Bacon is the way of the future.

I realize that it’s not exactly front page news that Sriracha is the best hot sauce in the universe. The whole world knows that at this point. But what you might not realize is that Sriracha Bacon is the best bacon in the universe. Okay, so maybe I’m being a little dramatic, but this truly is genius!

The idea for Sriracha Bacon occurred to me a couple weeks ago when Brian and I were having yet another conversation about how awesome Sriracha is, and trying to think of what to put it on next. It hit us at almost exactly the same time that it’s nuts, with as much as we use it, that I hadn’t added any Sriracha recipes to Craving Cobbler yet. This, of course, kicked off a whole new conversation. Well shouting match would probably be a more accurate description. Not the angry kind, just us shouting out recipe ideas at each other as fast and loud as our little Sriracha loving brains would allow.

Sriracha Bacon from cravingcobbler.com

The bacon idea was one that I shouted out I think, and it just seemed so simple. We both stopped shouting. Could something that seemed so simple and obvious once said out loud be as good as it sounds like it would be? It couldn’t. It’s just to easy.

Well I’m here to spread the word dear friends. It IS that easy! The only problem with this recipe is the fact that I haven’t already been making it for years.

Make this now or regret it later.

Sriracha Bacon Recipe

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Sriracha Bacon Recipe

Ingredients

  • 10oz thick sliced bacon (about 8 slices)
  • 1/3 cup Sriracha
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar

Directions

Step 1
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Add the sriracha, honey, and sugar to a bowl.
Step 2
Give it a good whisking, and then set up your bacon assembly line. This should include: your sweetened sriracha sauce, your bacon, and an aluminum foil lined rimmed baking pan topped with an oven-safe cooling rack.
Step 3
Give each slice of bacon a thorough dipping/coating of the spicy sauce only on one side. Lay the strips sauce side up on the cooling rack, being mindful not to overlap the slices.
Step 4
Pop them in the oven for around 40 minutes. I know it seems like a long time, but because of the Sriracha and sugars we have the oven at a lower temperature. Plus you really need to use some thick ass bacon here... Save the thin stuff for wrapping around tater tots or something. To keep your sweet and spicy strips of awesome from scorching in areas, you really want to roast these babies lower and slower.
Step 5
There's really nothing left to say except, "Pass the bacon!"

Sriracha Bacon

Strawberry Pancakes

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I’ll just say it… we’re one pancake eatin’ family! 

We all love them (especially Wyatt), and used to buy the dry premixed stuff. Mixes are super easy, and tasty enough to make a four year old happy. Up until a month or so ago, that was fine by us. Boy we had no idea what we were missing!

Lucky for us Georgia actually got some snow. It was enough to shut down Atlanta and our suburb of Peachtree City for a few days, and it was great! We never lost power; Wyatt got to use his new sled from Santa Claus; I got to hide away inside with my new baby Ruby; and we found the ultimate pancake recipe!!

We were out of our baking mix, but trying to explain that to a four year old and sell him on toast is like trying to tell a Hell’s Angel that Vespas are cool. He ain’t hearing it. So I went where I always go when I need to find anything and everything… Pinterest. I found this recipe for perfect pancakes , and they really are just that.

Brian has made these at least five times in the past month, and they are consistently AWESOME! These are fluffy, have great flavor, and it’s about as fast to measure out as the packaged stuff. These are wonderful plain or with blueberries dropped in at the last minute (Wyatt’s personal favorite), but we discovered that by mixing chopped fresh strawberries into the batter it turns these into an absolutely wonderful sweet treat!

These strawberry pancakes are the perfect Valentine breakfast for your sweetheart!

Strawberry Pancakes Recipe

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Strawberry Pancakes Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 1 cup milk
  • 5 or 6 plump strawberries
  • 1 1/8 cup flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter

Directions

Step 1
Start off by adding the vinegar into your milk.
Step 2
After a few minutes, this will do a bang up job of pretending to be buttermilk.

Of course you could substitute 1c. of buttermilk, but we never seem to have buttermilk in the fridge. And then of course when we do find some in there it immediately scares us, because it begs the question "How long has this been here, and do I really want to open it up to see what's inside?"
Step 3
Next dump the dry ingredients into a fine sieve or sifter, and sift into a medium bowl.
Step 4
Pour in the melted butter,
Step 5
your "mock buttermilk",
Step 6
and the egg.
Step 7
Give it a good mix, but don't worry too much about a few lumps.
Step 8
Wash, hull and pat dry your strawberries.
Step 9
Give them a fine to medium sized chop.
Step 10
Gently mix the berries into the pancake batter.
Step 11
Brian is really the pancake master in our house, but I'll try and explain what he does.

A nonstick skillet gets one initial spray with PAM (or any nonstick cooking spray), and then it gets warmed up over medium heat.

Drop piles of batter into the skillet to make whatever size pancakes you're into. We lean more toward the silver dollar side of things.
Step 12
After a couple of minutes you'll begin to see some bubbles forming, and you'll know it's time to flip.
Step 13
There's no need for any additional sprays of PAM after the first round, especially if you're using a nonstick skillet.

Keep pouring, bubbling, and flipping until you're out of batter!

Serve warm with anything from maple syrup to whipped cream and more strawberries!
Step 14
Brian actually loves them without anything added... they're that delicious!

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

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This is a super easy way to dress up store bought muffin mix into crumbly topped treats!

My son Wyatt loves to help me make these muffin mixes that usually only cost about a dollar. It’s just a matter of mixing the dry mix with milk and baking. As tasty as these blueberry cheesecake muffins are on their own, I’ve found a super quick way to make them taste even better. I replace the milk with half and half (or cream if you find it in your fridge, which I never do), and add in some fresh berries. But what really puts these breakfast sweets over the top is the addition of a homemade streusel topping!

If you have a few staple ingredients and about half an hour, then you’ve got the makings for delicious morning muffins!

Blueberry Streusel Muffins Recipe

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Blueberry Streusel Muffins Recipe

Ingredients

Muffins

  • 2 packages muffin mix
  • 1 cup half and half
  • 1/3 heaping cup fresh blueberries

Topping

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup chilled unsalted butter

Directions

Step 1
Preheat your oven according to your mix's package directions.

These blueberry cheesecake muffins happen to be my favorite. They just taste creamier and a little more homemade than the regular blueberry ones. But let's try to make them taste even more homemade. Shall we?
Step 2
The fist thing we do to pretend these guys are homemade is to add a few fresh blueberries into the mix.
Step 3
A heaping 1/3 cup ought to do it.
Step 4
Toss the berries around in the dry mix.
Step 5
Now pour in the half and half.
Step 6
Replacing the milk with half and half will add another homemade feel to the muffins.
Step 7
MIx everything together until you have a creamy batter.
Step 8
Now on to the muffin pan. I've had bad luck in the past using paper liners. Half of the muffin sticks to the liner when you unwrap them.

To safeguard against this, I spray all the cups with Baker's Joy.
Step 9
If I ever meet the muffin that can still stick after this, I'm running the other way.
Step 10
Now it's just a matter of scooping up heaps of batter,
Step 11
and trying not to drip all over the pan.
Step 12
Not bad if I do say so myself.
Step 13
Now for the streusel topping!

This is super complicated by the way.
Step 14
Dump everything into a bowl.
Step 15
And cut the butter in with a fork or pastry cutter until...
Step 16
you have pretty little yellow crumbs that look like this.
Step 17
Each muffin gets a generous sprinkling of the buttery crumble.
Step 18
Bake according to your package's instructions.

Here are mine pre-oven.
Step 19
And here they are 17 minutes later.
Step 20
Voila! Delicious streusel topped muffins that are as easy to make...
Step 21
as they are to eat!
Step 22
Enjoy!

Quick & Easy Asparagus Frittata Recipe

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The thing I love most about frittatas is that you can pretty much add anything you want to them. We tend to use a veggie and a fresh herb. Every now and then we’ll add in bacon or another savory meat. You can also mix up the cheese with whatever you have in the fridge.

The day before I cooked this we didn’t get much green with our dinner, so I decided to go heavy on the asparagus. If you don’t just love asparagus, an entire bunch might be a bit too much, you may want to cut it in half.

One last option, you don’t have to use egg beaters in the dish. You can easily do three more eggs instead. I’d love to do it that way, but we’re trying to watch my cholesterol.

Easy Asparagus Frittata Recipe

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Easy Asparagus Frittata Recipe

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Prep time 15 minutes
Cook time 10 minutes
Total time 25 minutes
Meal type Breakfast

Ingredients

  • 3 Eggs
  • 3 Egg Beaters (Use package to measure 3 eggs worth)
  • 1 tablespoon Butter
  • 1 bunch Asparagus (Chopped into 1 inch pieces)
  • 1 teaspoon Rosemary (Finely Chopped)
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
  • 1/2 cup Swiss Cheese (Grated)

Directions

Step 1
Preheat oven to Broil
Step 2
Heat the butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat
Step 3
Snap the ends off of a few pieces of asparagus to feel where the bottoms should be cut off.
Snapping asparagus
Step 4
Chop the asparagus into 1 inch pieces.
Asparagus
Step 5
Cook the asparagus in the skillet for 3 minutes, tossing occasionally.
Cooking asparagus
Step 6
Combine eggs, egg beaters, salt, and pepper. Whisk it all together.
eggs
Step 7
Pour over the cooked asparagus.
Step 8
Cook for about four minutes. The bottom should completely set up and the middle should start to cook through as well.
Step 9
Sprinkle the rosemary and cheese evenly over the top. Instead of shredded swiss we only had slices, so I chopped it up into small pieces and measured out the same amount.
All Ingredients
Step 10
Place it in the oven and cook until the top is nice and golden. Make sure the center isn't giggly at all. About 6 minutes.
Cooked Frittata
Step 11
Once it's out of the oven be sure to put an oven mitt on the handle to make sure you don't accidentally burn yourself. I usually cut a slice out right away and chop it up into pieces for Wyatt. It seems like frittatas retain their heat for an eternity.