Welcome to the weekend, my friends! We’ve had a great week with family visiting, driving out to watch the eclipse in totality (so many thoughts here, but WOW sums it up), celebrating my niece’s birthday, playing games, and cooking so much food. You know it’s been a relaxing time when I’m now happily looking forward to several straight days of work. (But first, we’ll enjoy the rest of the weekend!)

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: Loaded with our favorite Mexican flavors; this southwest chicken soup is slightly spicy with chunks of tomatoes, corn, black beans, and tender chicken. I like to top the steaming bowls of soup with a handful of shredded cheese and the entire family gives this dinner two thumbs up. The best part? You can make this soup in just TEN minutes!

Mango corn salsa is a sweet and spicy treat boasting a satisfying crunch of fresh corn and mild jalapeno heat. Whether it’s scooped over grilled chicken or served on its own with chips for dipping, it disappears fast.

Creamy, sweet, and tangy poppy seed dressing lightly coats each bite of this broccoli slaw salad. With crisp fresh broccoli and carrots, the bite of red onion, the crunch of pecans, and the sweet chewy fun of dried cranberries, this broccoli salad is a terrific side dish for almost any meal.

Bursting with sweet and slightly tart blueberries, this blueberry simple syrup will elevate your lemonades, pancakes, and cocktails with the essence of pure summer goodness.

Oh, my friends, these blueberry lemon bars turned out even more amazing than I hoped! With sweet bursting blueberries in every bite of the tangy lemon bars, they proved irresistible for me.

These buttery, not-too-sweet glazed lemon cookies have a mild lemon flavor and a sweetly tart lemon glaze. They have been a hit with everyone who tries one.

As much as we all love a good old-fashioned banana split ice cream sundae, I’m here to tell you that banana split ice cream is a whole new world of homemade ice cream.

What I’m CRAVING: Hot pretzels! I have a somewhat ridiculous weakness for fresh pretzels. There’s a pretzel shop in our village and I rarely resist stopping in when their light is on. (Thankfully, the shop is only open two days a week!) In the meantime, when the local pretzels aren’t available, we can make our own using

As much as we all love a good old-fashioned banana split ice cream sundae, I’m here to tell you that banana split ice cream – it’s a whole new world of homemade ice cream.

Creamy, freshly churned banana ice cream is swirled with crushed pineapple, maraschino cherries, peanuts, and chocolate chips to create this ice cream.

Banana Split Ice Cream Sundae

Each scoop of banana split ice cream is a whole explosion of flavor and when you take scoops of this ice cream and top them with whipped cream, it’s an ice cream sundae everyone wants to dive into.

There’s just something fun and nostalgic about the flavors of a classic banana split. That’s probably why we enjoy these Banana Split Brownie Trifles so much. Well, that and the fact they’re pretty awesome too, with layers of vanilla pudding, fudge brownies, fresh berries, and sliced bananas.

And for the next weekend morning when you want a special treat? Happy memories of childhood banana splits meet the morning comfort of pancakes in these Banana Split Pancakes.

Banana Split Ice Cream

You’ll need the following ingredients to make this recipe:

• bananas
• sugar
• heavy cream
• milk
• vanilla extract
• crushed pineapple
• maraschino cherries
• chopped peanuts
• mini chocolate chips

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Weekly Menu Plan – Apr. 15 to Apr. 21

As usual, we try to keep the recipe easy and family friendly! Here is your weekly menu plan for next week…

Monday – Pineapple Mexican Shredded Chicken (in the Instant Pot or Slow Cooker)

Tuesday – One Skillet Cheddar Broccoli Rice with Kielbasa

Wednesday – Hawaiian Haystacks

Thursday – Easy Philly Cheesesteak Bread

Friday – Date Night

Saturday – Teriyaki Chicken Quesadillas

Sunday – Rosemary Orange Glazed Roasted Pork Tenderloin

READ: Weekly Menu Plan – Apr. 15 to Apr. 21

Loaded with our favorite Mexican flavors; this Southwest Chicken Soup is slightly spicy with chunks of tomatoes, corn, black beans, and tender chicken.

I topped our steaming bowls of soup with a handful of shredded cheese and the entire family gave this meal two thumbs up.

Southwest Chicken Soup

Dinner in just TEN minutes. Seriously. I even timed myself making this soup the second time because it came together so fast. And it was good!

Like everyone else I know, I love having a go-to list of meals that require little to no effort to get on the table. This Southwest Chicken Soup is a winner of a quick and easy dinner!

Within just a few minutes, this soup will be hot and ready to eat! Loaded with all of our favorite Mexican ingredients and flavors, we make versions of this soup at least once a month throughout the cooler months of the year.

10 Minute Chicken Soup

About all that you will need to make this soup is a handful of pantry ingredients and some leftover chicken. This is the ultimate last-minute dinner and it’s a popular one here.

You can use a grocery store rotisserie chicken, a roasted chicken, shredded chicken, or a couple of leftover grilled or baked chicken thighs.

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These buttery, not-too-sweet cookies with a mild lemon flavor and a sweetly tart lemon glaze have been a hit with everyone who tries one.

Glazed Lemon Cookies

In my family, we’re all big fans of lemon desserts. From the best lemon bars you’ll ever taste to the lemon angel pie we make every year, lemon ice cream to lemon sorbet, lemon cheesecake to glazed lemon pound cake, there aren’t many lemon desserts that won’t make me smile.

Sometimes I like that pop of tangy citrus flavor to pretty much hit me in the face. Other times the lemon flavor sneaks in quietly and works its magic that way. These lemon cookies are a quiet kind of magical treat.

This is a mild lemon cookie, perfect for pairing with a cup of tea in the afternoon. If you want to kick up that lemon flavor, a bit more lemon zest will do the trick and a bit of lemon extract will boost it even more. Feel free to adjust the amount of lemon to deliver the lemon cookie you will like best.

Lemon Cookie Recipe

You’ll need the following ingredients to make these cookies:

• sugar
• lemon zest
• butter
• egg
• vanilla extract
• all-purpose flour
• baking powder
• salt

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