Grilled Flank Steak- My Favorite Balsamic Marinade

There’s nothing quite like a perfect grilled steak and so I’m sharing my secrets on Grilled Flank Steak and my favorite balsamic marinade. 

We went over to one of our friends’ home the other night for dinner. We brought the meat and salad and they supplied side and dessert (oh my gosh it was the most delicious strawberry shortcake. A true favorite of mine!)

I got this recipe from a girl I went to Elementary and Junior High School with. Fast forward 5,000 years, we became friends on facebook and the rest is history! 

Anyway, this is hands down our new favorite way to cook flank steak. If there is one meat recipe you try from me this weekend, make it this one. You will love it forever.

What is Flank Steak?

Flank steak is a somewhat tough but lean cut of beef that is long and flat. It is still quite flavorful but it mostly benefits from a marinade that tenderizes the meat.

Prepared this way, marinated, cooked quickly at high heat, and thinly sliced, flank steak practically melts in your mouth.

What’s in the Marinade?

At first glance, this flank steak recipe might look like a lot of ingredients, but you’ll likely have most of them in your pantry or fridge already. Here is everything you will need…

• Soy Sauce– This adds a lot of flavor and a touch of salt to balance out the sweetness in the marinade.
• Oil– Vegetable is what we use, but you could use olive oil.
• Dark Brown Sugar– Dark brown sugar gives a touch of sweet and balances the salty of the soy sauce, but we prefer dark brown sugar to add a little more depth of flavor.
• Worcestershire Sauce– Umami is the flavor you forget about. Yes, there’s sweet, salty, bitter, sour but did you know umami is that earthy goodness? Worcestershire enhances that in a beef marinade.
• Dijon Mustard–

S’mores Sliders [+Video]

Looking for a fun twist on the classic s’mores? Try making s’mores sliders! These bite-sized treats offer a unique and delicious way to enjoy the classic campfire dessert.

All the classic s’more flavors, gooey marshmallows, melty chocolate and crunchy graham cracker, all loaded up between two sweet buttery Hawaiian rolls. And the best news…you can enjoy it any time of year because they bake right in the oven. No campfire needed!

I had a bag of Hawaiian rolls in the freezer that I needed to use. I wanted to try something new and not your typical savory slider. The idea for a s’mores version just popped into my head one day, and oh my gosh, I kid you not, the family went nuts over them!!!!! Way better than a regular smores imho! Dessert sliders are totally my thing now!

Ingredients Needed to Make S’mores Sliders

You only need 5 ingredients to make this totally irresistible easy s’mores dessert! You’ll need the usual trio…grahams, chocolate and mallows, then just two more items and you’re set. Here are the details:

• Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
• Hershey Bars
• Large Marshmallows
• Butter
• Graham Cracker Crumbs

The measurement for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.

How to Make S’mores Sliders

This might be the most quick and easy smores dessert you’ll ever make. It’s just a few simple steps and some time baking in the oven, and then you can dig in! An irresistible dessert for a crowd in under a half hour! Here are the basic steps:

• Prep: Preheat the oven 350° F, brush the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish with melted butter, and sprinkle graham crackers all over it.
• Cut: Using a sharp bread knife, cut the full sheet of rolls in half and then place the bottom half in the baking sheet.
• Layer: Cover the bottom rolls with a later of chocolate bars followed by a layer of marshmallows.
• Top: Place the lid of the rolls on top and pour the rest of the butter over the top of the rolls, using a pastry brush to spread the butter all over the rolls.
• Sprinkle: Using the remaining graham cracker crumbs, sprinkle them all over the top of the buttery rolls.
• Bake: Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 10 minutes. Then

With an abundance of sweet ripe berries, fresh green spinach, chewy pasta, and a bright and flavorful light balsamic dressing, this strawberry spinach salad is an unexpected and delicious pasta salad that is certain to become one of your family’s new favorites.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

This is not your average spinach pasta salad. With strawberry season on its way (and blueberry season not far behind), this strawberry and spinach salad should be on your radar as you plan your summer meals. It is the perfect light lunch or side dish for a summertime dinner.

In the abundance of pasta salad recipes, there’s something especially irresistible about the sweet bite of berries in this particular dish. I often use a combination of strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries for a uniquely delicious combination of flavors and textures.

A sprinkle of goat cheese adds a salty, savory tang that ties all the flavors in this salad together. I’ve used both honey goat cheese and regular goat cheese in this recipe and they were both delicious.

Strawberries are the ultimate sweet bite in many of our favorite recipes. I’m always amazed by how much flavor strawberries add to a simple salad. As it turns out, pasta salad is no exception!

While I often use a combination of blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries in this particular strawberry spinach pasta salad, if you don’t have all those types of berries you can easily substitute with all of one kind of berry.

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5 Minute Avocado Salad

This avocado salad is bright and fresh and only takes 5 short minutes to make! Creamy avocados topped with a simple tangy dressing, toasted pine nuts and chunks of manchego cheese. It’s just a lovely salad!

Avocado is one of my love languages. They are pretty much the best little fruit ever. I mean, how many foods out there can you eat for any and every meal? They are healthy and satisfying. They are beautiful and so creamy. Throw them on some toast, mash them into guacamole, add them to a taco, wrap them with bacon, blend them into a dressing, or in this case, make them the base of a salad. Winning, winning, winning!

Ingredients for Avocado Salad

I love coming up with new salad recipes and this one is a little out of the box (i.e. I didn’t find another salad quite like it out there on the interwebs) but it seriously just works! All you need is a few avocados, a couple of simple ingredients for a zesty dressing and a few fun add-ins that just make dish come alive! Here is what you will need:

• Avocados: you’ll want ripe hass avocados, see my section below on how to pick ripe avocados
• Lime Juice: fresh is best, like by far the best
• White Wine Vinegar: combined with the lime juice, this is just the acid you want to balance out of the creamy richness of the avos
• Manchego Cheese: a semi-hard Spanish cheese made from sheep’s milk that is buttery in texture and similar in flavor to pecorino romano
• Pine Nuts: toasting the pine nuts gives them a little crunch and enhances their flavor
• Salt: adds and enhances flavors
• Cilantro: adds a fresh herby pop of flavor and is my favorite herb to pair with avocados

The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Possible Substitutions:

Ok, I realize that some of these might not be common ingredients to have on hand, so here are some possible substitutes, but I highly recommend hitting the grocery store and trying the original recipe.

Avocados – no substitutes here because nothing can replace the heaven of an avocado

Lime Juice – you could try lemon juice, but lime and avocado just belong together

White Wine Vinegar – try red wine vinegar or rice vinegar (not seasoned)

Manchego – pecorino romano, asiago or monterey jack are ok substitutes

Pine Nuts – pistachios, toasted almonds or chopped cashews

How to Pick a Ripe Avocado

There are few things better than a perfectly ripe avocado and there are few things worse than an over- or underripe avocado! To pick a r

Our Favorite Campfire Dessert – Banana Boats

Banana boats are a campfire recipe from my childhood! Warm fire-roasted bananas topped with marshmallows and chocolate chips with the whole family sitting around the campfire laughing and making memories. It just doesn’t get much better than that!

Discover the simple steps to creating delicious and decadent campfire banana boats, filled with your choice of toppings. We are sharing photos of all our favorite creations to inspire your minds and tastebuds. We can’t wait for you to enjoy this tasty summer dessert!

Saved By Banana Boats

Childhood is really hard.

It’s wonderful for sure and if you’re like me you have a little inner ache to climb your way back to it. But there’s a lot of growing pains, literally and figuratively to endure. Thankfully we had our camping trips and lake visits that smoothed out any roughness of life.

And banana boats.

We had many banana boats.

Who thought up such a magical creation and let children’s hearts fly free with the unwrapping of a simple piece of aluminum foil and charred banana?

Growing up we only did chocolate chips and marshmallows, but all these years later we’ve got a plethora of talented kids to lead us to new adventures, even with this classic camping dessert.

What is a Banana Boat?

A banana boat is like a s’more and a banana split fell in love and had a baby. It takes a few things from each parent and is perfect! Banana boats consist of bananas sliced down the middle, stuffed with yummy toppings like marshmallows, chocolate chips, nuts, m&m’s, caramel, etc. and then wrapped in foil and cooked over the campfire. It is a favorite campfire recipe of ours!

What is the Difference Between Banana Boat and a Banana Split?

A banana boat does not have any ice cream in it and is cooked over campfire or on a grill. It does have many of the same flavors and joy that a banana split brings though! In fact, we even made a banana split inspired banana boat for this photo shoot which can be seen below. Banana boats are a fun alternative for a campfire dessert rather than s’mores.

Ingredients for Banana Boats

The ingredients list for banana boats are simple…bananas and whatever toppings you want to put on them. I will share a section below for all the toppings we’ve tried. You can really let your imagination and taste buds run wild on this one!

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