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We've been doing a bit of baking at my house lately. It is an activity I really enjoy because of my little 6 and 4 year old helpers. My son especially loves to help when we bake. Afterwards the kids sit down at the table with a glass of milk and a cookie or two and enjoy what they helped make. I love this small bit of daily life.

The past few weeks I have made several recipes from the blog Cookies and Cups. The few I've tried are the Banana Blondies, Marshmallow Blondies, Chocolate Sheet Cake Cookies and (my post coming soon) Southern Tea Cakes. All have been delicious. Cookies and Cups is definitely my new favorite blog for baking. I hope you will stop by her blog and say hi to Shelly. Many thanks to her for all these delicious recipes!

Onto this Chocolate Sheet Cake Cookie. One of the best cookies I've ever made. The texture is just heavenly. Next time around I'd like to add a little orange zest to the cookie, or maybe even lemon zest. The glaze on top is also delicious. I realized after the fact that I should have glazed them entirely as I had quite a bit of glaze left over. Don't be afraid to coat them completely like I was.

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These sweet little gumdrops made with applesauce and Jello are a great project to do with children. The candy set up beautifully and the kids had a lot of fun picking which mini cookie cutters to use. You can use any flavor you'd like, as long as it is the correct type of Jello. Pay close attention to the ounces on the box. You want a 6oz. box, or two 3 oz. boxes.

We had a few random boxes in the pantry, so we used a combination of watermelon and pineapple. This makes a large amount of gumdrops. We kept ours stored in a tupperware on the counter. It kept well for about a week at room temperature in that tupperware. Don't throw out your scraps, simply cut those up too for some silly shapes.

I've been meaning to pick up tiny little cookie cutters for a while now, and big surprise, I still haven't gotten around to it. I had to use mini cookie cutters that were Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas themed, but the kids didn't mind at all.  After trying this recipe and seeing how easy it is to make gumdrops, I will be sure to invest in new mini cookie cutters to use. I'm hoping to find a way to make sour gummies, since those are our favorites.

Many thanks to Mom On Timeout for this recipe. Enjoy!

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These little bars are unbelievably good. I don't know about you folks but I often find myself with one lonely banana on the counter, getting more ripe by the day. Most banana bread recipes call for more than one banana so I'm never quite sure what to do with it. Now that I have made this recipe for Banana Blondies, I will never wonder again.

The texture and flavor of these blondies is wonderful. Many thanks to Cookies and Cups for this wonderful recipe. Enjoy!

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Today I have a not-quite recipe for you. This is the easiest way I can think of to make shredded beef enchiladas. For the beef, you only need two ingredients. Simple!

You can use corn or flour tortillas, whichever is your preference. These go great with the Spanish Rice and Salsa Refried Beans. If you still have leftover beef after the two pans of food, save it and freeze. I had a particularly large cut of beef so I had extra, but you may not if you have a smaller roast.


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Another addition to our Cinco de Mayo feast was this Sonic Grape Limeade. Not having been to a Sonic in years, I can't comment on how closely it is to the real thing, but it is very tasty. Many thanks to High Heels & Grills for this recipe.

This mixture is quite tart. I think you could get away with only using half a can of limeade. Adding ice does tone down the tartness as the ice melts. I would recommend using half of the limeade, preparing the punch, then tasting to see if you want to add the full amount of limeade.


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Happy Friday folks! Today I am sharing a recipe we made for Cinco de Mayo. Salsa Refried Beans from Plain Chicken. Steph has one of my all time favorite blogs. Really simple and delicious recipes that for the most part don't have super long ingredient lists.

I slightly almost doubled the amount of beans in my recipe. This was to suite my tastes. For what it's worth, my brother had the original recipe and he loved it just as it is. For the original recipe, please go visit Plain Chicken and be ready to bookmark a ton of recipes. Many thanks to Steph for another delicious recipe!

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I have big thanks to give Lil' Luna for posting her recipe for Spanish Rice. We have made it a few times in the past few weeks. It is easy and tastes great.

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Recently I posted a recipe for Shortcut Chicken and Green Chilies Empanadas. Head on over to check it out.

Recently I posted a recipe for a delicious Strawberry Tart over at Mom Spark. Head on over to check it out.

It may be a rainy month here up north, but I have grilling fever! One recipe I tried recently was for a Blueberry BBQ Sauce. It is a shortcut recipe, utilizing our favorite brand of BBQ sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's. I got this recipe from a great blog, Happier Than A Pig In Mud.

Notes: I felt that this sauce would be better if it was processed a bit to incorporate the blueberries and jalapenos more. I tried to burst as many blueberries as possible but it just wasn't as good as putting this in a food processor for a few pulses. Additionally, it was hard to detect any heat, so I would increase the amount of jalapeno next time around.

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I gathered up some of my favorite recipes to hopefully inspire you for a Cinco de Mayo feast. Some are more authentic than others, but they are all really tasty. Enjoy!

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