Sharing the best mocktails to enjoy this spring!

Hi friends! How’s the week going so far? I hope you’re having a lovely morning. I have a couple of Zoom calls today and am working on our May Fit Team programing. Join us here!

Since the weather is warming up and spring/summer BBQs and pool parties are on the horizon, I wanted to share some mockatil recipes with ya today. Whether you’re expecting, or just cutting back like yours truly, these are a fun way to switch up the rotation. While I don’t completely abstain from alcohol, I’ve noticed a huge difference in my energy levels, productivity, mood, and skin since I cut back to 1-2 max drinks per week. You can read more about my journey here!

A mockail is a flavorful and enjoyable drink, minus the alcohol. I love that mocktails often come in beautiful colors, with fresh ingredients, and you can easily switch up the flavor profiles, depending on what you have on hand. You can use seasonal fruits to flavor your mocktails, and I’m sharing a roundup of some of my faves! These are all super easy to put together and so delicious.

10 Best Spring Mocktails

A roundup of my fave fun, easy, and healthy mocktails for spring

Mojito mocktail

This is a delicious spring cocktail with fresh flavors of lime and mint. You’d never know the alcohol was missing, and it’s way less sugar than a traditional mojito.

Ingredients

1 lime, sliced

2 tablespoons fresh mint

Club soda

Liquid monk fruit, to taste (my fave is NOW Foods)

Instructions

Add the lime and mint to a glass and muddle. Top with club soda and stir in the monk fruit to taste. Boom! So fresh and easy.

Lavender lemonade

I LOVE anything lavender and can’t wait to try this. It would be perfect to serve with any spring dinner parties. Get the full recipe here. 

Pineapple Coconut Mockarita 

This tropical drink would be excellent poolside. We’ll definitely be enjoying this over the summer. The recipe is here.

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Have you tasted a Flourless Chocolate Cake? If so, you’ll likely never forget that first bite. Unassuming in appearance and almost ridiculously easy to make, this cake is a fantastic decadent treat.

Several years ago, a sweet friend of mine requested a Flourless Chocolate Cake for her birthday. I’d never heard of it before, but she told me that she had fallen in love with it at a restaurant once and wondered if I could make her one.

I found a number of different recipes and I tried a couple of them. Then I made this one and it took my breath away. This cake delivers the most intense chocolate flavor you can possibly imagine.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

I’ve made this cake many times over the past 10+ years and every time this is served, the room goes silent. There isn’t a better compliment than knowing that your guests are reveling so happily in what you’ve served them that no one is talking while they eat it.

And when the plates are empty? Oh my, the raves over this cake are always over the top. It’s a timeless recipe for a good reason.

This flourless cake is creamy and smooth, not at all dry. The serving size truly is the tiniest sliver. The slice pictured here served two people.

This recipe for flourless chocolate cake uses dark bittersweet chocolate instead of the traditional combination of chocolate and cocoa powder. The dark chocolate here intensifies the chocolate flavor in the cake and the result is a creamy, almost truffle-like cake with a creamy velvet smooth interior.

If you’re already a fan of this easy flourless chocolate cake and want to try something a little different, this version is sweet, cold, creamy, chocolate cake combined with a hint of unexpected heat as you finish each bite; it is unforge

Hi friends! Happy Monday and I hope that my friends who were celebrating yesterday enjoyed a blessed Easter. We had a great day with our fam.

The fun started off with an Easter basket scavenger hunt. It prolonged the Easter basket fun and P loved following all of the clues. Their baskets were waiting for them in the garage:

(They always get new swimsuits in their basket; this year it was these. Liv also got a new slime, lululemon bag, and sports bra, and P got an otter puppet, action figures, and a little sloth. They both got some peeps and chocolate eggs, too.)

Next, we did the egg hunt outside – the Easter bunny was tricky with the hiding spots this year – and got ready for brunch at my aunt’s with my dad’s side of the family. Nana’s famous egg dish and French toast were there, along with fruit, salad, cinnamon rolls, ham, potatoes, bellinis, mimosas, coffee, and endless desserts. It was everything.

My contribution to the feast was Ina Garten smoked salmon tartines on homemade sourdough. SO easy and so so good.Read more

Strawberry Fluff Fruit Dip [+ Video]

This strawberry fluff fruit dip is one of the first recipes I fell in love with as a kid and I still can’t get enough of it. All you need is two simple ingredients!

When I was a teenager, I had this marshmallow fluff dip for the first time and while I think it’s from Shannon Mattson —one of the sweetest, spunkiest and most tender hearted people I know — I could also be totally wrong. Either way, this easy fruit dip is pure heaven and I’ve got three kiddos over here licking their bowls clean in order to not miss out on a single bit.

And the very best part? It uses just two ingredients. Boo-yah. There’s literally nothing easier than buying two things at the store, whipping them together and serving with a platter of fruit. 

I’ve actually mentioned this a few times, but in case you are new on this blog, fruit and I are the best of friends. I’d actually take it over chocolate most of the time. Most of the time. (I mean, who could ever turn down a hot, homemade chocolate chip cookie?).

Strawberry Fluff Fruit Dip Ingredients

Like I said already, this is such an easy fruity dip recipe! To make this strawberry dip, you’ll need: 

• Marshmallow Fluff – the jarred stuff you can buy at the store, Jet Puffed makes one called marshmallow creme. I’ve also heard you can buy strawberry flavored marshmallow cream, so if you can find that, go for it!!
• Strawberry Cream Cheese – Philadelphia is my preferred brand, it’s a 7.5oz container

Seriously, that’s all it takes to make this incredible cream cheese dip! The exact measurements for each ingredient and instructions for the making the dip can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.

How to Make Fruit Dip 

This strawberry marshmallow dip is so simple to make I think it takes less than 5 minutes to prepare! Here’s how to make fruit dip: 

1. Beat the marshmallow fluff and cream cheese together until smooth. 
2. Spoon into a serving dish and serve alongside your choice of fruit. 

Couldn’t be easier, right?! My kind of appetizer! It would be so cute at a baby shower for a little baby girl! Or a bridal shower! It is always a hit!

What to Serve with Fruit Dip

This is one of those fruity dip recipes that works best with strawberries and bananas, but really any fruit will work. Think: apples, pineapple, or even peaches and pears.Read more

When you know how to make homemade vanilla whipped cream, everything from fresh fruit to pancakes becomes a delightfully decadent treat.

If there is one thing you need to know how to make from scratch, I vote that you know how to make whipped cream. Consider it a life skill.

Did you grow up scooping cool whip onto pie? or squirting it from those handy cans – sometimes straight into your mouth? My mom was team cool whip for every holiday and I never gave it a second thought.

My sister first introduced me to freshly whipped cream on Thanksgiving day many years ago. Watching her pour cream into the bowl and then beat it into fluffy peaks was a game-changer for me.

This vanilla whipped cream draws a “WOW” from guests every time. It’s as if no one knows how easy it is to make. I can speak to that from experience.

Once you taste homemade whipped cream, you will never go back. Your tastebuds and your family won’t let you.

Vanilla Whipped Cream

My family will happily put whipped cream on just about everything. When I finally triumphed over Gluten Free Pancakes years ago, I wanted to make them extra special. I had fresh raspberries in the refrigerator and decided to whip some cream for a special treat.

My youngest son called it “ice cream” and we all thought the flavor was a perfect match for our favorite vanilla ice cream.

Subtly sweet, richly vanilla flavored, and slightly melted into the fluffy pancakes: that became an immediate favorite pancake topping for the whole family. I’ve been whipping cream to top pancakes almost every weekend since then.

I’m trying to talk myself out of baking something now for dessert tonight, if only so I can make another bowl of whipped cream to top it. Writing about fluffy bowls of vanilla whipped cream makes me crave it all over again!

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