Summer fruit salad with dressing!

I love fresh fruit in the summer. I go to our local farmers market and buy fresh produce. But I found a way to make it even more delicious!

Add whatever kind of fruit you prefer to a bowl mix together. In a separate bowl add one can of orange juice concentrate and mix with 1 1/2 cups of fat free plain yogurt and a pinch of sugar (to taste). Mix until smooth. Pour over fruit mixture and enjoy! I put this in the fridge and add more fruit until it is all gone.

My kids LOVE this. I serve it as a side dish with dinners. Its a great way to add a fruit dish to your meal.

I use apples, peaches, pears, pineapple, strawberries, grapes, etc.. You can add whatever fruit you want really and the acid from the orange juice keeps it from turning brown.

You can also use orange pineapple apple juice concentrate or whatever orange juice mixture you prefer but it must have real orange juice in it or your fruit will turn brown. Enjoy!

Sweet potato chips with sweet dip....

Ingredients
Sweet potatoes
Cooking Oil
Cinamon & Sugar

Dip Ingredients
1 tsp vanilla
1 8oz pkg cream cheese (I use the low fat)
1 8 oz jar of marshmallow creme

Preparation
Slice sweet potatoes very thin... Cook them by frying them in the oil until they are golden brown.. Lay out in a pan with paper towels in the bottom to absorb the extra oil. Mix sugar & cinamon together and sprinkle over the cooked chips..

Dip preparation
Mix together with an electric mixer the cream cheese, marshmallow creme and vanilla. Mix until creamy and smooth. Serve with the prepared chips. YUM! A delicious sweet treat!

I served this at my bible study last night and people couldnt get enough of it. :)

Great potato side dish...

I made these with dinner tonight. They go well as a side dish with just about anything...

Ingredients
Potatoes
Garlic (to taste - I prefer real garlic not powder)
Salt
Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Shredded Cheese
Parsley flakes

Cut up the potatoes into small cubes. Put them in an appropriate baking pan. (I use a glass dish.) Cover the bottom of the pan with potatoes. Pour some Olive Oil over the top of potatoes, not too much or you will make them greasy. Add salt & pepper and some parsley flakes. Mix together well.. Top with some more parsley flakes and put into the oven at 375 degrees. Bake until the potatoes are turning golden brown and top with shredded cheese. Then bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly..

YUM!

My vanilla cake mix...

Here is my own recipe that I came up with. This works perfectly with my "jello" cake recipe below.. Its a very heavy cake that works best covered with jello or strawberries in their own strawberry juice.. Its similar to a pound cake..

Ingredients
1 1/2 c. flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks real butter
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs (room temperature)
4 tbsp milk


Preparation
Sift flour salt, and baking powder into a separate bowl. With an electric mixer cream the butter until soft, Add the sugar and vanilla and continue mixing until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add in the flour in three batches and then add in milk. Pour cake into a pan and bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Varaiation
You can add almond flavoring, lemon flavoring whatever flavor you want instead of the vanilla I just prefer vanilla almost any flavoring would work with this cake..
Like I said this cake works best when topped with fruit, etc.. It doesnt work well with frosting..

Heavenly Pineapple Gooey Butter Cake...

Ingredients
Cake
18.25 oz box yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/2 c. butter melted

Filling
8 oz cream cheese (softened)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
16 oz powdered sugar
1/2 c. melted butter
20 oz can of drained crushed pineapple

Preparation

Preaheat oven to 350 deghrees, lightly grease a 13x9x2 pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well. Pat into bottom of prepared pan and set aside. Still using electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth, add eggs and vanilla, Dump in powdered sugar and pineapple, and beat well. REduce speed on mixer and slowly pour in butter. Mix well. Pour onto cake mixture and spread evenly. Bake 40-50 minutes. Dont be afraid to make a judgement call on the cooking time, because oven temps may vary. You want the center to be a little gooey, so dont bake it past that point. Remove from the oven and allow it too cool completely.

Top with a little bit of sprinkled powdered sugar. :) This is an awesome gooey butter cake. Warning it can be addicting..

"Jello cake"

Ingredients
Vanilla Cake mix (or you can make one from scratch like I do)
1 tub Whip cream (I use homemade from heavy whipping cream)
2 pkgs of jello (you choose the flavor)
Fruit (I use the same fruit as the jello flavor I choose)
2 c. hot water

Preparation
Make your cake like you normally would. After you pull it out of the oven use a fork to poke "small holes" all over the top of the cake. Mix the two pkgs of jello with 2 c. very hot water. Poor the jello over the top of the cake and let it set.

You can either top the cake with fruit then put whipped cream over the top or put the whipped cream then fruit on top of that..

My favorite versions of this cake
I like strawberry jello with strawberries on top...
It also works well with orange jello and mandarin oranges..
I would be interested to see if you guys try other versions of this and they work well.

Yummy crab dip for entertaining

Ingredients
2 small tubs of whipped cream cheese
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp worshestershire sauce
2 small bottles of cocktail sauce
2 cans crap dip
parsley flakes

Preparation
Mix lemon juice and worshestershire sauce with whipped cream cheese. Layer the bottom of a 9x13 with the cream cheese mixture. Top with the cocktail sauce. Layer the crab meat over the top and sprinkle parsley flakes over the top. Serve with crackers. A great "party" dip..