Welcome to the weekend, my friends! Summer is in full swing over here and I’m super excited about all the ice cream recipes that I’ve been working on this past month.

I’m kicking off Ice Cream Season on the blog this week with three delicious weeks of ice cream recipes. I can hardly wait. Can you ever have enough ice cream??

You won’t want to miss any of the emails, because there will be a few very cool giveaways just for email subscribers.

ON THE BLOG this week: Sweet blueberries and bananas combine with tart grapes in this Blueberry Grape Banana Smoothie without any added sugar. It is one of my favorite smoothie combinations.

Spicy sausage and tender shrimp make this Jambalaya Pasta a dinner that’ll leave everyone asking for seconds. This saucy one-pot pasta is a weeknight dinner you are going to love.

This Southwest Ranch fills my family’s need for a little bit of heat. This quick dipping sauce is fantastic with chicken or fresh vegetables.

Chocolate and peanut butter are mixed with crunchy cereal to make these super easy No Bake Chocolate Crunch Bars.

Crunchy pretzels and a creamy filling are topped with piles of strawberries and blueberries making this red, white, and blue Strawberry and Blueberry Pretzel Salad our favorite dessert for summer!

What I’m CRAVING: Fried Chicken! Oh my goodness, Sean mentioned fried chicken the other night and I’ve been craving it ever since. This recipe from Bake it with Love looks fantastic.

My FAVORITE THING this week is this ice cream scoop. You may remember that I tested a whole lot of ice cream scoops two years ago and go figure that this scoop (at just $13) wound up being my favorite.

This scoop has been getting a whole lot of use lately and I love it more than ever. This is a terrific scoop that keeps working smoothly even after the scoop is ice cold.

What I’m WATCHING: Lost Season 3. The kids and I just started Season 3 and they’re more hooked than ever. It’s been so much fun watching them experience the show for the first time.

What I’m READING: He Who Fights with Monsters 2 by Shirtaloon and Travis Deverell

Crunchy pretzels and a creamy filling are topped with piles of strawberries and blueberries making this Strawberry and Blueberry Pretzel Salad our favorite dessert for summer!

Several years ago, my aunt introduced me to the ever-popular Strawberry Pretzel Salad. I’d never even heard of it before and I fell in love with it from the very first bite.

I think I may have eaten 3 servings that day, including choosing it over pie for dessert!

Strawberry Pretzel “Salad” isn’t a salad at all. It’s a layered dessert that starts with a pretzel crust, then a sweet cream cheese and cool whip layer, and it’s topped with a strawberry jello layer.

Strawberry and Blueberry Pretzel Salad

Aunt Judy’s Strawberry Pretzel Salad is absolutely delicious and no one can ever resist a slice of it. This Berry Pretzel Dessert is my twist on that recipe.

Made without cool whip or jello, this dessert is a much less sweet, but still completely irresistible cousin to the original.

It starts with a pretzel crust that is layered with a lightly sweetened creamy filling. Topped with an abundance of fresh berries, I found myself going back for sliver after sliver all night long.

No Bake Strawberry Pretzel Dessert

Kitchen Tip: I use this spatula and this dish to make this recipe.

1. Finely crush the pretzels in a food processor, blender, or with a rolling pin in a heavy zip-close bag. Place the crumbs in a medium-size mixing bowl.
2. Add the melted butter and brown sugar and stir to combine. Press the crust mixture into the bottom of an 8×8 pan.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and sugar. Beat until combined, about 2 minutes. Add the heavy cream, vanilla extract, and salt.
4. Beat until smooth and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Pour over the crust and smooth with a spatula.
5. Top generously with berries. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving. 

I loved the crumbling crust with bits of crunchy pretzels throughout, but if you prefer a more traditional crumb crust (that will also be more easily sliced) be sure to grind every bit of the pretzels into fine crumbs.

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Spicy sausage and tender shrimp make this Jambalaya Pasta a dinner that’ll leave everyone asking for seconds. This saucy one-pot pasta is a weeknight dinner you are going to love.

This dish is loaded with fantastic flavor from Cajun spices. Both the kids and the adults in this house agree it’s a hit!

Jambalaya Pasta

The components of jambalaya are so well suited to serving with pasta. We love all kinds of noodle-based dishes, from simple Italian-inspired classics like Spaghetti and Marinara to Mongolian Beef with Noodles, and our beloved Stir-Fry Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables.

I’m always looking for interesting takes on pasta, since I know everyone in my family likes it. Recently, I posted this Cheesy Pizza Pasta Bake and Mexican Baked Pasta.

When I saw this recipe for Jambalaya Pasta in my friend Valerie’s new cookbook, The Foolproof Family Slow Cooker, I marked it to try first. This cookbook is full of both slow-cooker and one-pot recipes that are sure to make your meal planning easier.

And I’m happy to report that this first recipe I tried did not disappoint. I’ve already made it again, just to have more leftovers for my lunches!

What is Jambalaya?

Jambalaya is a classic Cajun dish that consists of chicken, shrimp, and sausage all cooked together in one pot, usually with rice. It’s a little like a stew, thick and completely satisfying with every bite.

Instead of rice, this Jambalaya recipe uses pasta. The version I’m sharing today has been a hit with everyone who’s tried it.

I’ve made it a couple of times now and I’m super happy to tell you it actually tastes even better the next day. I made it the second time, just to have it in the fridge for a few easy reheatable lunches.

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This Southwest Ranch fills my family’s need for a little bit of heat. This quick dipping sauce is fantastic with chicken or fresh vegetables.

Southwest Ranch

Homemade Ranch Dressing is a weekly meal prep staple at my house. Followed very closely by this Southwest Ranch. It’s a fun variation on classic ranch dressing.

Having fresh dressings and sauces on hand makes dinner planning easy. It makes healthy snacking easier too. Check out these tips for keeping your refrigerator stocked with fresh produce boxes for your family.

If you’ve been reading this blog for very long at all, you know that I have a thing for homemade condiments. With a stocked pantry, you can make homemade versions of your favorite salad dressings, dips, and marinades.

Even better than them being a fraction of the cost is how much better they taste. I have yet to find a store-bought salad dressing or dip that can compare with what can be made at home in just minutes.

Southwest Ranch Dipping Sauce

I made this sauce to serve with our Southwest Chicken Bites and it was a huge hit. My family liked it so much that they also dipped their vegetables in it and requested more of it the next day. This dip is going to be a regular condiment in our refrigerator for a while.

While the dipping sauce is so good you could put it on anything. It works nicely as a salad dressing too.

To thin the dressing, add a tablespoon of milk or cream at a time until the mixture reaches the consistency you want.

You can also use an oil to thin the dressing (such as vegetable, avocado, or canola) an oil that is neutral in flavor works best. Just remember a little bit of oil will go a long way.

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Chocolate and peanut butter are mixed with crunchy cereal to make these super easy No Bake Chocolate Crunch Bars. 

When I was very young, I went camping with the Girl Scouts and our counselor taught us to make what she called “Babe Ruth Bars.” (More on that name in a minute.)

These are so easy to make. Our counselor helped me make these bars by stirring the ingredients together over the campfire, rolling them into a log, chilling and slicing them.

I wasn’t a girl scout for very long so I couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old. We ate these gathered around the fire and I absolutely loved them.

My counselor wrote out the recipe for me and I took it home.

Chocolate Cereal Bars

My grandmother was sweet enough to save that recipe for me and over the following years, we would make those bars on special occasions. I remembered the recipe a while back and I dug it out of my old cookbook.

I read it several times and then made a trip to the store, just to look at the ingredients in an actual Babe Ruth bar. Uhm, there is no similarity at all.

I have no idea why these were called Babe Ruth Bars and the name now makes me laugh.

I’ve since swapped out half the ingredients, so they are likely to be even farther from the original. Corn flakes, chocolate chips, honey, and peanut butter get melted together and then chilled to create a perfect no-bake dessert bar.

Whatever you decide to call them–I typically go with Chocolate Cereal Bars or Chocolate Crunch Bars–these treats are sure to be loved!

Chocolate Crunch Bars

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