Welcome to the weekend, my friends! I came home to a glorious sunset the other day and couldn’t resist pausing in the driveway to take a photo. What an amazing world we live in, friends. Even when life throws us curveballs, the sun still rises and sets in moments of beauty.

As I write this, the birds are singing at full volume outside my window and the sun hasn’t even risen. I love it. We’ve had a fun week over here. My mom is visiting and my youngest son is in his first school play. Who knew high school theater could be this much fun??

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: Filled with creamy oats, sweet bananas, berries, a hint of brown sugar, and spices, this Crockpot Oatmeal is a breakfast that my whole family enjoys. Best of all, this crave-worthy oatmeal can be made in just one hour without any stirring at all!

Spicy, sweet, and slightly tangy Glazed Salmon with Broccoli is one of my favorite ways to cook and serve fish. One delightfully simple sauce does double duty as marinade for the fish and flavor booster for the fresh broccoli.

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms filled with soft cream cheese, fresh green onions, and sweet crab meat keep you coming back for more. These two-bite appetizers are hard to stop eating.

If you’re lucky enough to have some extra mushrooms left in the fridge, garlicky Marinated Mushrooms are great to have on hand to add some pizzazz to salads, sandwiches, pizzas, snacks, and more! This simple recipe makes it easy to keep a jar of them in the refrigerator at all times.

Slightly sweet and tangy, Apple Grape Salad is a fast and fresh-as-can-be fruit salad with a creamy dressing that you’ll want all summer long. You can’t go wrong pairing this with any and all grilled and roasted meats or with a sandwich for a quick meal that satisfies.

Italian Chocolate Salami is made of crumbled cookies, chopped, and toasted nuts, suspended in creamy chocolate that resembles salami. This delightfully different dessert is served in many parts of the world.

Creamy, real banana ice cream studded with pieces of vanilla cookie and pockets of sweet whipped cream combine to make Banana Pudding Ice Cream. If you like banana pudding, you’ll go wild for this!

What I’m CRAVING: All the salads! From the Italian grinder salad to cheeseburger salad, California spaghetti salad to Read more

Cream of Wheat Raspberry Muffins [+Video]

These Cream of Wheat Raspberry Muffins are soft, fluffy, and bursting with juicy raspberries. With the hearty texture of Cream of Wheat blended into the batter, each bite offers a perfect balance of warmth and sweetness.

The texture of a cream of wheat muffin is so satisfying. They are still so soft and delicious, but that little touch of texture will create the most wonderful crumb in a muffin that you’ve ever had.

Perfect for breakfast or a snack, these muffins are light yet satisfying, and the fresh raspberry touch adds a burst of flavor in every bite. They’re easy to make, irresistibly delicious, and a must-try for any muffin lover!

Ingredients for Cream of Wheat Raspberry Muffins

I’m going to let you know right up front what you will need to make this muffins recipe! For all the details and measurements needed, keep scrolling down to the recipe card at the end of the post.

• Dry Ingredients: All-Purpose Flour, Cream of Wheat Cereal, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt
• Wet Ingredients: Sugar, Milk, Eggs, Vegetable Oil, Vanilla and Almond Extract
• Fresh Raspberries
• Turbinado Sugar

Besides the Cream of Wheat and possibly the almond extract, you likely have everything on hand already! Let’s make some muffins!

How to Make Cream of Wheat Muffins with Raspberries

Sometimes I like to slip into the kitchen a little early and make this easy raspberry muffin recipe for my family for breakfast. Is there anything better than waking up to the smell of something baking for breakfast?! I think not! The good news is, you don’t have to wake up too early! They are ready in under 30 minutes!

1. Prep: Grease two standard sized muffin pans (or use paper liners) and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Dry Ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
3. Wet Ingredients: In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients.
4. Combine: Carefully stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.
5. Fold: Add the fresh raspberries and gently fold them into the batter.
6. Sprinkle: Spoon the muffin batter into the prepared muffin tin filling the muffin cups about 2/3 full. Sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar.
7. Bake: Bake for 18-20 minutes or until they are golden brown and the tops spring back when you gently press them.

For the full recipe, head down to the recipe card below where you can also save or print the recipe.

Video on How to Make Raspberry Cream of Wheat M

Creamy, real banana ice cream studded with pieces of vanilla cookie and pockets of sweet whipped cream combine to make Banana Pudding Ice Cream. If you like banana pudding, you’ll go wild for this!

Banana Pudding Ice Cream

Banana pudding is one of those desserts that has legions of devoted fans across generations for very good reason. Everyone who taste tested today’s ice cream agrees that it tastes exactly like a frozen banana pudding!

The combination of white and brown sugar with very ripe bananas gives the finished ice cream a mildly butterscotch like flavor that is hard to stop eating. There’s no fake banana in it either.

It’s pure, real banana goodness through and through. The key to success is to choose very ripe bananas (think banana bread level ripeness) for your ice cream base. They have the most pronounced banana flavor!

The most popular question I get is whether it’s possible to make ice cream without a machine. The answer is YES. You can make ice cream without a machine. Find the full directions here!

And if banana ice cream dings your chimes, you’ll want to try making banana split ice cream; Creamy, freshly churned banana ice cream is swirled with crushed pineapple, maraschino cherries, peanuts, and chocolate chips to create this ice cream.

Bright, citrus ice cream with just a hint of banana makes my childhood favorite six-threes ice cream. Rich banana ice cream, decadent chocolate chunks, and crunchy walnuts create a tantalizing dessert you won’t soon forget. This delightful recipe for Chunky Monkey Ice Cr

Stabilized whipped cream is ideal for decorating cakes, pies, and adding into ice cream because it stays fluffy and stable for hours! No worries about it melting into a puddle of sweet cream.

Stabilized Whipped Cream

“Why bother stabilizing whipped cream?”, you may ask. Have you ever decorated a cake or pie with mounds of luscious whipped cream only to have it deflate or melt into a puddle overnight? Stabilized cream to the rescue!

One little addition to your cream while whipping it can save you from this nightmare scenario. Stabilized whipped cream is really just slightly thickened whipped cream with an ingredient to help it hold onto the loft and air you whip into it.

Stabilized Whipped Cream with Pudding

To make this handy-dandy stable whipped cream, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• heavy cream
• powdered sugar
• instant vanilla pudding mix*
• vanilla extract

*Do not attempt to make this using the cook and serve variety of pudding mix. It won’t work the same way!

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Spicy, sweet, and slightly tangy glazed salmon with broccoli is one of my favorite ways to cook and serve fish. One delightfully simple sauce does double duty as marinade for the fish and flavor booster for the fresh broccoli.

Glazed Salmon

This keeper of a recipe makes adults and kids alike happy, even if some of the kids turn their noses up at the broccoli. They just don’t know what they’re missing!

This fuss free broiler method is ideal for busy weeknights when I don’t have a ton of time to get dinner on the table. And the glaze on the salmon helps balance the “fishy” taste that lots of folks find less than desirable.

I like that I can use the same sauce for both the fish and the vegetables here, keeping prep time and dishes minimal! Feel free to adjust the amount of red pepper flakes in the recipe based on your preferred level of spiciness.

This recipe is a hit with salmon lovers and skeptics alike!

Salmon Glaze

Baking salmon in the oven results in a deliciously tender filet packed with flavor. It truly doesn’t need to be more complicated than that for a great result!

This baked salmon recipe is as easy as mixing together a simple sauce, spooning it over a fresh filet and letting the whole thing cook in the broiler. In my sauce, I used olive oil, soy sauce, red pepper flakes and peach jam for a glaze that is equal parts sweet, savory and tangy with just the right amount of heat.

(You can use store bought peach jam in this recipe but if you happen to have Homemade Peach Jam on hand, it’ll work wonders in this recipe too!)