The Frugal Foodie: Mother's Day Brunch

I wanted to share my Frugal Mother's Day Brunch spread with you. These recipes are frugal and delicious! I love to do a variety of dishes when I entertain because you know, when one person likes something that doesn't mean everyone will like it. Obviously I did this at night so my lighting is not so bright but I wanted to share these recipes before Mother's Day! I also wanted to try them out before Mother's Day to make sure they were as delicious as I had hoped they would be.



Turkey Bacon Wrapped Apples Appetizer

This is more of an experimental recipe that had mixed reviews. I liked it, especially with the melted sharp cheddar cheese on it, yum! It was simple to do and if you don't like baked apples, unwrap it after cooking and just eat the bacon as it gives it a wonderful flavor!

Ingredients:
Turkey Bacon
Apple Slices
Spice, I did a Cayanne/Paprika blend

Take apple slices, wrap them in bacon and them add your favorite spice on the top. Cook for about 10 minutes on 450 and done! Easy peasy and cheesey if you top with cheese after they are done cooking.



Cool Cucumber Sandwiches

Ingredients:
Sliced cucumber (1-2)
1 package of cream cheese
3 Tablespoons of Dill Weed
1/2 Tablespoon of Basil

Blend the cream cheese with the dill and the basil, the amount you add is really up to you. I love a sharper taste. Spread on bread of your choice, I like a Rye or Sourdough and then top with cucumbers. Here is a frugal hint for the bread, check your super market's area for "day old bread" and use that with these sandwiches to save a dollar or two!


Honey Yogurt Fruit Parfait

I'm pretty sure I tricked my kids into thinking this was Ice Cream because these were gone in 60 seconds! It's really simple just vanilla yogurt with honey along with some fruit in a faux champagne glass!



I never made Rosettes in my life, in fact Brian actually helped me with this one. I found a brand new in package Rosette Kit at Goodwill for less than a buck and I am glad I found it. These taste like mini funnel cakes! It's like bringing a carnival into your house! I used a basic recipe I found at http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Rosettes





Doughnuts, can you really go wrong with serving these? Well these are homemade baked doughnuts made with my new Wilton Nonstick 6-Cavity Donut Pan

I followed the recipe on the pan, I then melted Dark Chocolate Chips from Hershey and then dipped the doughnuts in there! Half with sprinkles, half without! This was my first batch of doughnuts, I am determined to figure out how to do a healthy baked doughnut.



Have you seen those fancy beverage holders? It's like they replaced the good ole tea jars. I've been eyeballing a few but didn't want to pay a hefty price. I saw this one at Walmart for only $6.88!! I have no complains about it thus far!
This drink recipe is just Strawberry Kiwi V8 Splash Juice with 4 cups of Sprite and some kiwi and strawberry fruit sliced and added in. You can add "adult" beverage of your choice to your glass if you would like!

This spread seemed to have a lot of sweets so I tried to balance it with the bacon, hard boiled eggs, cheese and single fruits.

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes for Mother's Day

I'm linked up at Cupcake Tuesday on Hoosier Homemade!
http://hoosierhomemade.com/neapolitan-cupcakes-cupcake-tuesday/

It took me a few days to come up with a recipe I wanted to use to make Key Lime Pie Cupcakes for Mother's Day. I wanted to make sure they tasted like Pie so the lime juice and vanilla were key players in this cupcake recipe. The Graham Cracker crust and toppings were definitely bonus items. These cupcakes taste just like pie, they are so good. I'm taking them to my mom's event tomorrow because I can not have these in the house!

Here is my recipe, I started out with a basic Vanilla Cupcake:

1/2 C unsalted butter at room temperature (1 stick)

1 large egg

2/3 C granulated white sugar

1 package of individual serve Applesauce

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1.5 Cups of All Purpose Flour

1/4 tsp salt

1.5 Tsps baking powder

1/3 cup freshly squeezed Key Limes, approx 10 -12 Key Limes

Heat oven at 375 degrees

I followed the basic rule of cake making:

Cream together butter, eggs and applesauce, then gradually add sugar.

Take the flour, baking powder, salt and place it in a food processor, turn on for about 10 seconds. This sifts and mixes so quickly! Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Slowly add the key lime juice after that.

An easy way to squeeze the Key Limes if you don't have a lime squeezer, use a garlic press.

Once the batter is done, you can do the crust (or do the crust first)

The best way I can describe this is it's like playing with wet sand.

8 Graham Cracker "sheets" (ground up by a food processor)
3 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
3 Tablespoons of granulated sugar

Mix this all together, then separate into baking cups. Press the "sand" down until firmly packed.
Then pour the batter into the sandy cupcake liners.
Cook for about 30 minutes.

Key Lime Buttercream Frosting:
1 Cup Unsalted Butter (room temp, 2 sticks)
8 Cups of Powdered Sugar
1/4 tsp of Vanilla
1/4 Cup of fresh squeezed Key Limes

Cream the butter and sugar first, then add vanilla and last add the juice. I say add the juice last because it depends on how you like your frosting.

Once frosted, top with crumbled Graham Crackers, yum!

DIY: Mother's Day Treat Jar with Cocoa Meringue Cookies

I love Mason Jars, I did a treat jar for my mother for Mother's Day. I tied some ribbon around the jar, I then used my Cricut Machine to do some diecuts for the pennant tie around and the flowers on top. I really love just taking a Mason Jar and jazzing it up with diecuts and ribbon, it's really easy DIY gift that only takes a few minutes!

I almost did a print out of the Mother's Day saying but I figured my mom would want something personal. I filled the jar with Cocoa Meringue Cookies! These are delicious and easy to make if you know how to do a Meringue. If not, it's okay I didn't either but I have some tips to share that I found helped make this batch.

I overexposed the pic just a little bit, the reason being is that Meringue cookies that are tinted brown just don't look right in a picture, lol.

There is a right way and a very wrong way to do Meringue cookies.

Here is the right way:


and here is the very very wrong way:

Bad Batch, Bad!

I am no Meringue expert, in fact the "wrong" picture was my second attempt and finally I mastered it with that last attempt. Here is what I have learned about doing Meringue:

Sort the egg whites from the yolks when the eggs are cold. BE careful, do not let any of the yolk drip or the fat saturates the yolks and it will not work.

Let the egg whites sit in a glass bowl for about 30 minutes so they obtain room temperature. It is important to use a non-reactive bowl and utensil when doing a Meringue. This is a non-porus items such as stainless steel and glass.

Do not add anything to those egg whites until they peak. I mixed my yolks with a hand mixer (use a mixer, your arm will fall off if you try to mix a Meringue without a mixer) for about 5 minutes. It won't look like much is happening until about minute number 4, continue until they make those soft "peaks". Which means you can take the mixer in and out and it forms mountain peaks basically.

Heat oven to 300 Degrees

Here is my recipe:
3 Egg Whites
1/2 tsp of Vanilla
1/8 tsp of Cream of Tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa
Chocolate chips if you so desire

Beat the egg whites according to the directions above. Once you have your peaks, slowly add your Vanilla and Tartar while continuing to use the hand mixer. Then, gradually and I mean sloooowwwlly add your sugar while still using the hand mixer. Once your soft peaks are back and the sugar is dissolved, take a spoon and stir in the cocoa.

I decided to do half the batch with and half the batch without dark chocolate chips. I would say they were both fabulous, I dusted the chocolate chip portioned cookies with additional unsweetened cocoa.

Cook in the oven at 300 degrees for about 9-10 minutes.

Let harden then serve!