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    Do you enjoy making a special little treat to mark Valentine's Day?  You know, just show a little love by sharing something sweet with everyone.  If you've outgrown candy hearts and want something a little more grown up and tasty, flash forward to the other day when I was shopping at Costco and I found a snack that I had to try.  They are called Coconut Rolls by Sun Tropics.  The things that drew me to them are that they are very coconut tasting (made with coconut cream), organic, gmo free, gluten free, sweet, and vegetarian.  (Sorry Maddy, they contain eggs!)  

Then, I noticed the fact that each end has a hole, because the Coconut Rolls are hollow in the middle.  They reminded me of little cannoli shells. And since they are so sweet, I thought a cream cheese fruit filling with very little sugar would be amazing! 

    The first thing I did was take a 6 oz. container of blackberries and smash them into a sauce pan, add a splash of lemon juice and 2 Tablespoons of sugar to get the juices flowing.  Simmer them for about 5 minutes until the juices start to thicken and then strain out the seeds through a fine mesh sieve.  Let that cool while you use about 6 oz. of cream cheese and some powdered sugar to make a filling.  I just eyeballed it.  I didn't want it to be too sweet, but when you add the blackberry juice a Tablespoon at a time, you may need a little more sugar to get it to piping consistency.  
    I used a Wilton 18 tip to pipe in the filling from each end of the Coconut Rolls, et voila!  Little mini cannolis!  Store them in the fridge until serving.  

    These will be so cute for Valentine's Day.  But, can't you picture doing them for a baby shower or bridal shower?  You could fill then with a lemon filling or blueberry to achieve different colors.  They are adorable and delicious little things! 

     I used the original, organic flavor, but Sun Tropics also makes Coco Rolls in Espresso and Salted Caramel!  I think a caramel filling and dipped in chocolate would be amazing!  

     If coconut isn't your thing, Sun Tropics has many other products.  Their Banana Chips and Mochi Bites come in many flavors. 
     Of course, these are already gone.  So excuse me as I dash off to Costco for another bag full of them!  I will have to hide them until I am ready to fill them for Valentine's Day.  I can hardly wait! 

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     Happy Great American Solar Eclipse Day! 

     We hope you have an awesome experience on this exciting day! Remember to be safe!  Don't even take selfies with the eclipse behind you, because the reflection can still hurt your eyes.  If you didn't get the solar eclipse glasses, Alicia showed another safe way to view the eclipse here.

     Last week on Renny’s Recipes, Lindsey shared her favorite camping treat, Peach Cobbler.  She and I were on the same wave length!  I had also promised on Friday Faves to share some of my peach cobbler recipes.  This one, Essie’s Cobbler, is an old fashioned one that I remember my mother making when I was small.  It not only has peaches, but delicious berries.  Her recipe calls for canned peaches and either raspberries or blueberries.  

     ​If you remember, I showed you how I canned peaches on this post, and blackberries in this post.  I decided to use both of those in this recipe, and the result was delicious! 

     The recipe calls for making this cobbler in a loaf pan.  I needed to make two of these.  One for home and one to give away.  So, I had purchased an aluminium cake pan for the one to give away so the family wouldn’t have to worry about returning it to me.  (I like to keep these on hand for when I take food to people or functions.  They really come in handy! This link is to a really good price on a dozen of them!)  I will show you pictures of both of the ways of cooking these different sizes.  For the cake pan, I merely doubled the recipe.  That meant, I 1 ½ timed it over all! The recipe I am giving you is just for one recipe.  You can do the math yourself if you want to make a bigger batch! Click on the pictures below for tips.

     We may also need to start a cobbler category over on our sidebar because this is the 3rd recipe for cobbler that we have given you.  I just remembered this one!  We called it a Blueberry Dump Cake, but it is pretty much a cobbler.
     So, go ahead! Celebrate Solar Eclipse Day with a delicious cobbler! You don't really need an excuse anyway!  Click the button for the printable recipe! Be sure to pin and share. Thanks.

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      Here in Phoenix, Summer is arriving!  You know what that means.  I am close to not turning on my oven for a number of months and to finding the coolest ways to feed my family.  Not only do we not want to heat up the house, we also don't want to heat up ourselves! 

     A couple of months ago, I purchased this new blender.

     One of the main reasons I purchased this Oster Pro 1200 blender was to make smoothies that wouldn't have little chunks of ice left in them.  This blender has lived up to my standards!  I have been making smoothies quite a bit!  I am really going to click into high gear and go crazy with the smoothie making now that the weather is getting hot.

     Up in the collage, I included this picture of my son-in-laws cheese bread with the delicious yogurt drink he makes.   

     I love the tangy, creamy, deliciousness of the yogurt in the smoothie, so now I try to add it all of the time. (Unless I have to do a dairy free smoothie, but that will be another post.)

     My first test smoothie in my  Oster Pro 1200 was the classic strawberry smoothie.  

    I used:  8 cubes of ice, 1 c. vanilla yogurt, 10 strawberries, 1 T. sugar, 1/2 c. milk
Then, I just blended it on the smoothie setting and it was delicious without a bit of ice chips or chunks in it.
     I was out of bananas that day or I would have made it strawberry-banana by adding 1 banana.

     I hardly ever make a smoothie without a banana.  They add such a creamy richness to the texture of the smoothie that they seem like a must.  
     One of my favorite smoothie combos is 1/2 a can of mango chunks with banana.  I went to make myself one this morning and found that I was all out of mangoes!  So, I gave a can of peaches a try and it was really good, too.

     Ingredients:  6 ice cubes, 1-15 oz. can peaches (packed in juice), 1 banana, 1 c. vanilla yogurt, 1/2 c. milk, 1 T. sugar.
     Blend it all together on the smoothie setting.
     You can leave out the sugar, of course, it just cuts back on a bit of the tartness of some fruit.
     Of course, a little whipped topping on the top is fun, but I mostly did it for the photos!

      If you feel like you need to add some veggies, like kale or something to your smoothie, but you are like me and the idea of a green smoothie isn't appetizing to you, here is something I have done with great success! Yellow squash is very mildly flavored and adds that veggie element to your banana-mango smoothie without changing the flavor at all.  You won't even know it is there!  I have also added a few beets to a red smoothie.  They are a little more noticeable than the squash, but not bad!  This would be an especially good way to add some veggies to your kids diets this summer! 

     Finally, you know if there are blackberries in the house, I am going to use them in whatever recipes I can.  I don't like the seeds in my smoothie though, so I pushed them through a wire sieve to strain out the seeds.

    Ingredients:  1/2 pint blackberries pushed through a sieve, 1 banana, 6 ice cubes, 1 c. vanilla yogurt, 1/2 c. milk, 2 T. sugar.
     Blend all together on smoothie setting! 
     The banana is the more dominant flavor in this recipe with the blackberries coming through subtly.  You can add more blackberries if you want a stronger blackberry flavor.

     All of these recipes will serve 2-3 people, depending on your glass size or if you like seconds!
    I have more ideas for different flavors, including dairy free that I will try out and share with you later.  In the meantime, give these a try! 
     Look, there is a great price on the Oster Pro 1200 going on right now! 

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                Blackberries and strawberries have been alternately on sale the past few weeks, so of course I have been canning them because I love to can and I love blackberries and strawberries!  I usually just eat the blackberries, or make them into Blackberry-Lemon Marmalade, or turn them into cake, or Blackberry Lemon Bars.  This time I decided to can some to keep on hand.  

          Canning Blackberries is super easy because there is no peeling or coring. Here is how you do it in a nutshell.

• You just fill your jars with berries.(I used wide mouthed pints.) Fill gently, without squishing. Blackberries are a tender fruit! 
•  With the fruit in each jar, add 2 T. of lemon juice.
•  Cover fruit the rest of the way with simple syrup. (2 c. water with 1 c. sugar is the ratio.  Cook and stir until the sugar dissolves.)
•  Wipe the rims and add the lids.  
• Put into a water bath canner. When the water starts to boil, set the timer for 10 min. Then turn off the heat and lift the jars from the canner.
• Listen for the lids to pop! That means they are sealed!   Now you will have blackberries for pies, cobblers, ice cream or whatever your  heart desires, even when they aren't on sale.

             With the strawberries, I made a ton of Strawberry Jam.  I gave you jam making tips on this post. 

             One of the things that I have mentioned before is that instead of putting labels on the jars themselves, I like to put them on the lids that will be discarded anyway.  That way you don't have to spend time peeling them off of the jars when the jam is all eaten and you want to use the jar again.  I found some printable labels at Dollar Tree! They have round ones in the store, as well as square shipping labels.  You can't beat the price on these, for just a dollar!  I designed some simple labels to put on my jars and I decided to share them with you!  This is a small way for me to say "Thank You!" for all of your support on our blog!  This week we achieved over 31,000 views per month and it makes us so happy to think that the things we talk about have value to you.   
               To print the labels, click on the button to get the pdf file.  Then click print. Make sure you click the "fit to page" option.  There are some blackberry and many Strawberry Jam labels on one page.  You may only need one or the other, but you can always cut them off and save the ones you don't use.  These are designed to print on the Polaroid Round Adhesive Labels.  You can also find them on Amazon here.
​jam labels  jam labels

                      We have many more fun ideas to write about. I am having so much fun working on this blog with my girls. Thanks for your support. Keep coming back to see what else is in store! 

               If my labels are too simple, here is a link to some really sweet choices on Etsy! They aren't free, but if you want something a little fancier, there are some really cute things there.