California

My family loves to take weekend trips, and lucky for us the California beaches are only about six hours away.  This weekend we were able to travel to Los Angeles, Hollywood, and Laguna and Newport beach   We are always researching the area for good restaurants and cute cafes before we go.  It is also important for us to search for dog friendly restaurants that Izzy can eat at too!  bringfido.com will give you dog friendly restaurants, hotels, campgrounds, etc.  urbanspoon.com is another great website if you want to see reviews and suggestions on good restaurants in the area.  When we arrived in Laguna we were ready for lunch so we got a table at the Cliff restaurant.  It has great views of the ocean.  One thing we like to do is get a bunch of appetizers and mix and match.  For example they had excellent crab cakes and buffalo chicken bites.  Avocado is big in California and available on most menus in the local restaurants.  Of course my mother had to have a sandwich with avocado on it.

 

 

We also went to Newport Beach which is right next to Balboa Island.  We had heard about the famous frozen bananas there on the island, so we had to check them out.  There is a story behind two of the shops that carry the bananas.  They were invented somewhere between 1945 and 1960 on the island, no one is quite sure.  There are many places you can get bananas but Dads Donuts and Sugar and Spice are two of the most notable.  They are right next door to each other and both claim they invented the Frozen Banana.  We chose to have ours from sugar and spice because the line was longer and we thought that was a good sign. They also both carry an ice cream bar called the "Balboa Bar" which is and ice cream bar dipped in chocolate just like the banana.  They can than be sprinkled with an assortment of toppings.  They were delicious!

 

 

They were so good we decided to try making our own.  We found a picture of these penguins on Pinterest and kind of made it up as we went along!

 While at Newport we stopped at a restaurant called Charlie's Chili on the pier.  They are famous for their chili cheese fries.  Me, my dad, my sister, an my brother all had the chili cheese fries.  Their servings were huge so we probably could have shared our chili cheese fries, but they were SO good!!  However they also serve breakfast all day, so my mom decided to have an omelet with avocado of course!

 

 

 

Our last stop was Hollywood Boulevard where we ate at The French Crepe.  Since I am learning French as a second hand language it was fun to eat some authentic French food.  I can't wait to experiment with some of my crepe recipes very soon!

 

 

Now that I am back home I am picking up new ingredients for next weeks recipes, but that is it for this week!  I hope you have a great week and I will see you again soon!

 

 

 

School is out for the summer and it is the perfect time to create, make, and bake!  In order to stay organized this summer I have created a meal plan including some of my family's favorite recipes from crockpot chili to grilled pizza.  The meal plan includes recipes to fill several weeks of dinner meals, saving one night for pizza night and an empty night for leftovers.  I will be talking more about the meal plan later on, in case your family would like to give it a shot as well! 

 

I am always looking for good recipes on my favorite blogs and Pinterest.  I will highlight some of my favorites, plus share family recipes as well as my own personal recipes along the way.  Besides everyday meal planning my family loves to celebrate national food days, such as national fudge day and vanilla milkshake day, which we celebrated recently.  It is fun to do and easy to find out about.  If you want to know more about national food days, you can register at http://nationaldaycalendar.com/ and receive emails to alert you when they are occurring during the year.

 

Keep in mind that we spread out splurge foods and keep a close eye on healthy eating.  We are big supporters of our local farmers markets to find the freshest ingredients when we can, to use when cooking.  This week I am sharing some of our favorite meals from my meal plan, a couple of national food days and one of our family favorites.  Enjoy!!

 

 

 

One of my family's favorite recipe from this week was Debbie's crockpot chili. We have tried many chili recipes in the past and this was by far the best. Here is the link to Debbie's chili: http://www.food.com/recipe/debbies-crock-pot-chili-45069.

 

 June 16th was National Fudge Day so we celebrated with a peanut butter fudge from Sally's Baking Addiction.  We added Reese's Peanut butter cups to ours but that is only one option; feel free to add whatever you desire to your fudge.  We noticed living in very dry conditions in the desert southwest, that we probably could have cut back on the amount of powdered sugar. You will want to make that judgment call based on where you live.  Here is the link to the peanut butter fudge recipe: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/10/29/peanut-butter-fudge/.

 

 

 This is Izzabele, my dog and inspiration.  She is the happiest dog I know and she is also the biggest peanut butter lover too.  If we don't keep an eye on her things like this happen when peanut butter is around.  Oh and by the way she is NOT allowed on the kitchen table!

 

June 20th was National Vanilla Milkshake Day.  After searching for the best milkshake place in our area, we found Udder Delights, which is an ice cream shop run by our local dairy farm.  They had multiple ice cream flavors to choose from and adorable chalkboard painted tables.

 

I love how the local businesses are so puppy friendly.  Izzy was able to get puppy ice cream.  I even got a kiss.

 

 

Since my brother was not able to go to the milkshake shop we decided to try making one on our own.  We chose Paula Deen's vanilla milkshake recipe.  Here is the link to Paula's vanilla milkshake: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/vanilla-milkshake-recipe.html.

 

 

My family loves whipped cream so we added LOTS and LOTS of whipped cream to our shakes!!

 

 

My brother and sister were my taste testers and they thought they were d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!  Of course all that sugar made them a little crazy!

 

After drinking the milkshakes, I attempted to shoot whipped cream in my brother and sister's mouths but I don't have very good aim...

 

 

My family and I have experimented with foods we can freeze and reheat.  This week I chose to make waffles because my family loves them.  My favorite recipe is from allrecipes.com. They are crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.  All you need to make them is a waffle maker.  I used white flour for my waffle but I am sure you can use whole wheat flour if you would like.  Here is the recipe for the waffles: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/waffles-i/.

 

Izzy recently discovered she also has a love for waffles and did everything she could do steal a bite.

 

Food Trucks are huge were we live and they will often park at the local farmer's markets on the weekend.  One of my favorites is Waffle Crush and this strawberries and cream waffle was inspired by one of the waffles I had off their truck.  I found this recipe on myrecipes.com.  Here is the link to the strawberries and cream cheese waffle recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/cream-cheese-waffle-sandwiches-50400000130022/.

The sky is the limit on the toppings you can use for waffles.  This waffle is called smore's.  All you do is put four large marshmallows on top and broil until golden brown and top with chocolate and another waffle.  Get creative and you will be surprised what you can come up with!

One of the places we found after we moved here is Shnepf Farms.  They are local growers of fruits and vegetables.  Depending on the time of year you can find all sorts of good stuff there picked fresh.  In the spring is the peach festival. On mother's day we went out for the peach festival and picked some of the most amazing peaches I have ever had!  We even picked up a peach topping that was delicious on waffles.  More peach picking pictures below.

Well that is all for now!  I m going to try and post once a week, so I hope you will come back and visit soon for more ideas and recipes! You can join my instagram @izzabeleandcompany for more fun pictures and updates!