30-Second Smoothie

The 30-Second Smoothie! Toss the ingredients for this smoothie into a blender, and 30 seconds later you have a refreshing and nourishing treat. 

This 30-Second Smoothie is for those days when you and your kids are too hot to eat anything and just want to cool off. 

Yogurt and Wheat Germ Bread

This yogurt and wheat germ bread is wonderful for sandwiches and morning toast. It's super easy to make, and the final bread is light and airy, which is pretty amazing for a loaf with a large percentage of whole wheat and wheat germ. It's also really flavorful.

I made this bread mostly to use some of the yogurt I bought when I made this naan. For some reason, at least in my neighborhood, you can't just buy an eight ounce container of plain container of yogurt anymore. Instead, my only option was a 32 ounce container. There are now so many iterations of yogurt that there is little room for the plain Jane version on the supermarket shelves I suppose.

Afghan Style Pumpkin with Yogurt Sauce

This Afghan Style Pumpkin with Yogurt Sauce is rich and earthy. It features sautéed pumpkin and onions flavored with turmeric, ginger, and chiles, which is topped with a ground beef and tomato sauce, and then a garlic and mint yogurt sauce.

While we tend to think of desserts when we imagine cooking with pumpkin (usually from a can), pumpkin is served in sweet and savory dishes throughout the world.

Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes

These Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes are so light, tender, and not overly sweet. They would even be appropriate for breakfast topped with whipped cream and fresh raspberries.

They are excellent with coffee or a cold glass of milk.

I topped these chocolate yogurt snack cakes with some sifted powdered sugar, which I think made them really pretty.

Salmon Burgers with Greek Yogurt Dill Sauce and Homemade Hamburger Buns

This salmon burger is so easy to make, and is pretty darned tasty. Amazingly, it is made from canned salmon. Naturally, I made homemade hamburger buns to go with these burgers. 

As I reported in this post about salmon noodle casserole, I easily succumbed to the lure of a large sleeve of canned salmon on a trip to Costco. I had a couple more cans left, so when my friend Heather of All Roads Lead to the Kitchen suggested the Fish Friday Foodies make burgers this month...

And because I'm a bread nutcase, I definitely had to make ridiculously soft and tasty homemade hamburger buns to go with these salmon burgers.

Make-Ahead Cold Oatmeal with Honey and Raspberries

This Make-Ahead Cold Oatmeal with Honey and Raspberries is just about the easiest way to grab a nutritious breakfast that, in my opinion, is way more satisfying than a breakfast bar or a bowl of cereal.

The oatmeal is mixed with yogurt, milk, and honey, and layered with raspberries (other berries would work nicely too), and then allowed to chill overnight in the refrigerator to soften and thicken. Best part? No cooking involved. The oatmeal is eaten cold.

Apricot Braided Loaf

This month the #twelveloaves group is baking bread using stone fruit.

You should know, this is the second loaf of bread I made for this post. You don't want to know about the first one. Let's just say, the dough is the blob taking over my trash can. I wish "someone" would take the trash out so I would quit being reminded of the legendary fruit filled loaf debacle. Something about the recipe being for two loaves but not mentioning it.... something about the apricot filling being super runny and flowing all over the dough... something about... well... never mind. I was distracted.

So where did I turn in a pinch? Why King Arthur Flour, of course.

I was a little concerned about this bread for awhile too. It's unusually humid here right now, and the dough was super sticky.. but as you can see, the dough behaved and produced an amazingly delicious loaf. The one thing I might do differently next time? I'd probably add more apricots. I was pretty conservative after my fruit filled loaf debacle (which, mind you, I'm not talking about) but I'm pretty sure more apricot slices would work well here.

Enriched dough.... cream cheese... apricot jam... fresh apricots... breakfast deliciousness.