Greek Honey Cake

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. 

 

 

My daughter and I love to watch baking challenges on television. We're especially into the cake competitions. Nailed It on Netflix is a favorite of ours because it makes us feel pretty good about our own baking shortcomings. But we also love the really creative ones. We're about to finish the second season of Wizards of Baking and boy do those contestants have talent! The bad thing about watching these sweets shows is that we always want cake about halfway through and there is never any in the house. My husband tries to curb our griping about not having cake during our viewing by bringing us an ice cream cone or something else sweet but not as satisfying. So, I decided I was going remedy our issue and make us one to enjoy tonight as we watch the last episode of season 2. I had this Greek Honey Cake from Golden Blossom Honey saved for the last year or two, waiting for a special occasion to try it out. For us, the season finale is special occasion enough, but seeing how it's Mother's Day weekend, it could work for those celebrations as well. 

 

Sticking with my goal of bringing you affordable recipes when I can, I chose to feature this cake this week because it is made entirely with pantry staples. There are no fancy ingredients or extra grocery runs to get it to come together so it's a perfect simple dessert idea. It's a tender, moist, and flavorful cake that's going to hit the spot when the cravings for sweets kick in. I paired it with an orange and cinnamon tea and the combination was divine! I would suggest lining your pan with parchment paper or investing in a silicone cake pan because the syrup is sticky and will make the cake stick to the pan even with the proper prepping ahead of time. I did make this a day ahead of time, then popped it into the refrigerator to let the syrup soak and set over night. Decorate with sliced oranges, whipped cream, or even edible flowers for a lovely finishing touch. While I'll never have the talent to compete on cake competition television, I was pretty impressed with how cute this cake turned out. If you make it for Mother's Day, I'm sure mom will be just as impressed, too! 

 

Ingredients

Syrup:

1 cup SOUTHERN BLOSSOM HONEY

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Cake:

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon orange zest

1/4 cup milk

1 cup chopped walnuts

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE 

  

 

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

Happy Mother's Day!   

Chicken and Potato Barbecue Bake

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. 

 

One-pan dinners are the greatest invention ever, don't you agree? While I used to have a passion for cooking, some days I feel like fixing dinner turns into an all day event with the prep, cooking, and cleanup. For one meal, I'm just kind of over it. These days I'm more about getting in and out of the kitchen as quickly as possible, so I've been relying on my slow cooker and recipes that only require one pan to get it to all come together without much work on my part. While we're still in the chilly bits of spring, I've been using my oven almost daily because I know once that summer heat hits, it will be put into hibernation mode. I found family packs of chicken and potatoes super cheap at the grocers this week and decided that since my husband finally has a full week off at home, it would be a great time to pop this Chicken and Potato Barbecue Bake (a Golden Blossom Honey recipe) into the oven.   

 

While this is technically a 2 pan meal since I needed to cook the sauce ingredients over the stove top, the return on my time investment made that extra pan to wash worth it. I filled up the roasting pan with extra chicken pieces and potatoes knowing that this recipe would be great for leftovers to help further save time and drive down costs. My house smelled amazing as it was baking and I know dinner is a good when my husband compliments it before I've had a chance to ask how he liked it.

 

I know many of us out there are worried with the astronomical rise in gas, groceries, and utilities that food insecurity is becoming a real issue these days. So when possible, I'm going to try to feature low-cost recipes to help stretch your food budget. If you have a Meijer close to you, the 5 pound bags of potatoes (as well as 5lb bags of oranges) are on sale for $1 each this week, so a perfect time to stock up. I also only bought dark meat for this recipe and ended up clocking everything right around $8 for the whole pan, so  $2 per serving. That made 4 chicken thighs, 4 chicken legs, and 4 potatoes with the vegetable sauce. Using white meat and vegetables not on sale will increase the total a little bit, but this still comes out to be a very inexpensive meal idea as well as a time saver in the kitchen. 

 

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup onion, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup green pepper, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup celery, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup catsup

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 pounds chicken pieces

4 medium baking potatoes

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE 

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

What's your favorite one-pan dinner?  

Warm Bananas with Citrus Salsa

 Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. 

 

 

 

Some health complications landed me a stay in the hospital earlier this week. Thankfully all is okay now, but while I'm recovering, I've been instructed to stick with a low-fat diet until further notice. That didn't sound unreasonable until my sweet tooth caught wind of the limitations and realized we were putting the brakes on our late night ice cream and chocolate snacking. So that left me wondering what exactly I could exchange those unhealthy options for but still satisfy those sweet cravings I usually get as the day wears on. So I started flipping through all of the desserts on Golden Blossom Honey to see if anything would fit the bill and actually ended up with a fantastic option: Warm Bananas with Citrus Salsa. 

 

This low-fat dessert is warm, inviting, and sweet enough to to curb the cravings on those desserts that are higher in fat. I do love a good caramelized dessert, and this one is definitely a keeper. Aside from peeling the fruit, there's hardly any prep time involved in getting the recipe together, which I really appreciate since I'd rather focus more on recovery these days than spending a lot of time in the kitchen. While we still have some chilly nights ahead of us this spring, this is the perfect cozy dessert to indulge in without guilt. Honestly, it's great for summer, fall, and winter too. Because we don't need the weather to dictate when we can enjoy a tasty treat like this, do we?

 

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons slivered almonds

3 tangerines

2 navel oranges

1 mango, peeled and cut into chunks

2 Tablespoons RAW GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

3 Tablespoons brewed tea

1 Tablespoon lime juice

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

6 bananas, peeled and halved lengthwise

3 Tablespoons light brown sugar

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE  

 

 

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

What's your favorite low-fat dessert?  

Arugula Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

 Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.

 

 

 

With the warm weather finally on our side, my daughter and I decided it's time to start plotting out the garden. We only planted a few things the past few years because our busy schedules demanded most of our time, but with the rising cost of groceries, we're going back to planting as much as we can to make the most of our yard space and relieve the strain on our wallets. We started our seeds a few weeks ago, and after this weekend's freeze passes, we'll be ready to get the starts into the ground. We eat a lot of salads year round, but more so in the summer months, so we're focusing on planting more salad types of veggies (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, etc) and greens over other produce to capitalize on what we eat the most during the growing season. Knowing that this will be a salad heavy summer for us, I started saving a lot of recipes to help keep things new and exciting for the next 6 months. One of the recipes that caught my eye was this Arugula Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette that I came across on Golden Blossom Honey.   

 

What drew me to this salad was its simplicity, yet the ingredients are strong enough that you don't need to add in anything extra for maximum flavor. I find arugula to be one of the stronger tasting leafy greens, and red onion is particularly powerful to me as well, but even by combining the two peppery and pungent ingredients, the sweetness of the lemon and honey levels everything out so no one flavor overpowers the other. This is one of those salads that you can toss together in 5 minutes, so it's perfect for lunch or as a side dish to a main course meal. If you aren't a fan of arugula (my daughter is not), that's ok. You can easily swap that out for any greens of your choice (spinach and kale are both excellent options, in my opinion). This salad is full of flavor, refreshing, and budget friendly, so it's going to be a staple for us throughout the upcoming warmer months. 

 

Ingredients

1 (5 ounce) package baby arugula leaves

1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced

16 long shavings of Parmesan cheese

Dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons RAW GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

salt and pepper, to taste

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE 

 

 

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

   

Will you be expanding your garden this year or keeping things the same?   

Fettuccine with Roasted Tomatoes, Asparagus and Fennel

 Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.

 

After living by myself for the last month, my husband is finally back home from his work obligations in the south, and that means I'm having to readjust my mindset on only having to worry about myself as far as dinner goes. I tend to stock up on pasta when it's just me at home, and last month my eyes must have been bigger than my belly because I ended up with way more pasta than I could eat alone. With summer nipping at our heels, I thought it would be a great time to use up some of my extra pasta noodles while testing out this new recipe that I found on Golden Blossom Honey for Fettuccine with Roasted Tomatoes, Asparagus and Fennel. 

 

Since we're not quite out of chilly weather, the roasted vegetables are a great way to add extra warmth to the pasta, but they also give the promise of the taste of fresh summer veggies soon to sprout in our gardens. It's quick work getting everything together, but paired with a loaf of Italian bread and a glass of wine, it can go from a quick weeknight dinner to something a little more upscale for date night at home. This pasta dish is also a great recipe for entertaining, especially on a budget. I know we're all trying to find ways to cut corners with rapidly rising costs of living, and I appreciate that I can still enjoy a filling and delicious meal with my husband without having to worry about adding expensive ingredients to my cart just to get dinner on the table. And I think that's something most of us can get behind these days! Whether you're going for simplicity or a touch of fancy, this recipe swings both ways. 

 

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil

5 large cloves garlic, chopped

1 pound asparagus, trimmed

1 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes

1 fennel bulb, ends trimmed and cut into 8 wedges

2 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

1 pound fettuccine

1/4 cup fresh chives, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE 

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

What's your favorite kind of pasta noodle?   

Marinated Shrimp Appetizer

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. 

 

 

 

Appetizers might be one of my favorite parts of a holiday meal. I like to fill a small plate with a sampling of finger foods to munch on while catching up with loved ones. I am prone to go for the cheeses, gherkin pickles, and veggies with dip, by my daughter and husband always insist on having a shrimp cocktail ring to snack on as well. While I do like shrimp, I have never been a fan of the little red cups of cocktail sauce that comes in the platter, so I usually skip it altogether. I'm probably not a fan because the sauce enhances the fishy flavor and I want to mask it. I prefer to drown my shrimp in butter and garlic or beer and coconut, but I recently found a new recipe on Golden Blossom Honey for Marinated Shrimp Appetizer that had herbs that would easily tone down the fish flavor and had to give it a try. 

 

 

There are several strong herbs as well as onion and vinegar that make up the marinade, and that really helps tone down the fishy flavor, so I was quite pleased to get to enjoy shrimp as an appetizer at our early holiday celebrations this year. This is a recipe that comes together quite quickly, but if you're looking to save time, it can be made the day before and you can let the shrimp marinate in the dressing over night. Then all you'll have to do is remove the shrimp, discard the marinade, and serve. You can just pop it in a bowl, or if you want to try to appear to be fancy, serve it over a bed of lettuce or kale leaves. It'll add a nice backdrop of color to the pink shrimp. If you'll be hosting Easter this year, this will make a great and crowd pleasing addition to your holiday menu. 

Ingredients

1 pound medium shrimp (30-40 count), peeled and deveined

3/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1/3 cup onion, coarsely chopped

Marinade:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried dill weed

2 teaspoons salt

pepper to taste

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

 

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

Happy Easter to those who will be celebrating this Sunday!