The Best Fruit Salad in the World

Have you seen that show The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Network??

If you haven't, the title pretty much sums it up.

Tonight I am going to share with you {ONE} of the best things I ever ate. 

Let me set the scene... 

I came home from the hospital with my very first baby. Got to the house, and 10 minutes later my sweet visiting teacher showed up with dinner. Little did I know that it would change my life.

Ok... Ok... I am being dramatic here! But seriously. She showed up with dinner plus this fruit salad. I think I pretty much ate the whole bowl by myself. It was THE BEST thing I had ever eaten! It tasted like heaven on a spoon. It might have had something to do with the fact that I had just given birth 2 days previous, but I still consider it one of the best things I have ever eaten

After I recovered and took her dishes back to her, I begged for the recipe... So now almost 3 years later, I am going to share it with ya'll! 

I feel bad that I can't give credit to whoever came up with this recipe... But if anyone knows- let me know so I can send them a million thank yous! This is my go-to fruit salad for any event and everyone LOVES it!

To make this salad you will need:

1 12 oz bag of frozen raspberries (keep frozen- don't thaw)

2 15 oz cans of mandarin oranges (drained)

1 large lime

1 small container of cool whip

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Mix the cool whip, condensed milk, and juice of the lime in a large mixing bowl. Then mix in the raspberries and mandarin oranges. 

Easy right??

I think it is best served ULTRA cold! Like keep it in the freezer until you serve it cold. 

I have also made this salad with other fruit added as well and it is so yummy too! I have tried raspberries, oranges, strawberries, grapes, and kiwis all together and it was delicious! I am sure you could make it with any fruit and it would be so yummy! The sauce makes it taste almost like a dessert. 

Try it... You will love it!

Cowboy Salsa Remix

My favorite snacks in the world are chips. The only thing better than a chip- is something to dip a chip in. 

So I am sharing my favorite recipe for a chip dip with you... It's more of a chunky salsa than a dip though...

It is what I called my Cowboy Salsa Remix.

It's basically my own take on cowboy salsa- minus the oil and vingear. I just wanted to come up with something that tasted fresher and not oily at all. So this is what I came up with.

What you need to make it is:

-2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

-1 can whole corn kernels, drained

-1 small bunch of cilantro

- 4 to 5 green onions chopped finely

-2 large limes

-3 to 4 roma tomatos

- 4 avocados

- 1 cup of your favorite salsa

- salt

This will make a large bowl full, big enough to take to a party to share with lots of salsa loving people! :)

To start, rinse and drain both cans of black beans and put in a bowl. Drain the corn and put in the bowl. Chop tomatoes, green onions, and avocado into bite sized pieces and add to bowl. Remove all the cilantro leaves, chop into small pieces and add to bowl. Juice the limes into the bowl. And add 1 cup of your favorite salsa to the bowl. (I always use leftovers from Chilis or my favorite mexican restaurant, but any salsa will do... The salsa just coats everything and ties it all together:)

Once you have everything in the bowl, add salt to taste and mix just enough to coat all the ingredients with salsa. (Be sure not to over mix of the avocado will turn to mush.)

Serve with chips and enjoy!! :)

Linked here.

Year One Cake

Although I have many hobbies- baking and cake decorating are not among them. 

But when duty calls as a mom, I try my best to live up to the challenge. 

Today that meant making my daughter's first birthday cake. 

These days with all the blogs, Pintrest, and social networking- I see a lot of really cute cakes, parties, and all the trimmings that go along with birthdays, but sometimes even when I see cute ideas it doesn't necessarily mean I can recreate them or even afford them for that matter. 

So for my daughter's birthday we just kept things simple. It was her first birthday so she definitely had no expectations! ;)

I wanted to keep with the Red, Yellow, and Blue color theme to match her birthday shirt. Pretty much the only decorations were the cake and some balloons. That meant that the birthday girl was the star attraction- which is how it should be. Right? :)

For her cake I used the Wilton Big Cupcake Pan which made the job a lot easier.

 Cake mix from a box.

Some store bought frosting.

Yellow food coloring.

Yellow sugar sprinkles.

Candy pearl sprinkles.

Leftover fabric for the bunting banner.

And skewer sticks to hold the banner up.

And then topped it off with a candle to finish it.

As for the cake stand, I tipped a baking dish upside down and used that to display the cake. Sometimes you just gotta work with what you have when you are on budget. :)

That's it! Pretty much the simplest cake you can make in my judgement.

Linked here.