15 Easy Frozen Treats to Try This Summer

Chocolate Frozen Yogurt by Chelsea’s Messy Apron

For breakfast for a snack, stay cool with this homemade chocolate froyo!

Easy Frozen Lemonade Drink – Tastes of Lizzy T

Cool down with this frozen lemonade drink!

2o Minute Strawberry Banana Ice Cream by Fit Foodie Finds

This homemade ice cream is simple to make, and has protein powder for an extra boost of nutrition. You’ll need a food processor for this one.

Frozen Oreo Pudding Cake by Lil Luna

Oreos are one of my weak spot! This pudding cake has a variety of delicious textures, perfect for summer evenings.

Blackberry Sorbet by Happiness is Homemade

This sorbet is simple to make, and the recipe can be mixed or exchanged with other different types of berries.

Frozen Yogurt Granola Berry Bites by iHeart Naptime

These froyo bites are a healthy treat to pop in your mouth on a warm day!

Strawberry Pineapple Popsicles by The Little Epicurean

These light popsicles are kid-approved and are super easy for the kids to help make. They’re also made with all-natural ingredients.

Toasted Marshmallow Coconut Milk Ice Cream by How Sweet Eats

On a summer evening, roast marshmallows for this ice cream! Since it uses coconut milk, it also happens to be dairy-free.

Delicious Peach Lemonade Slush by Mom Endeavors

Frozen lemonade is always a great option on humid days!

Easy Three Ingredient Pineapple Sorbet by Fearless Dining

This sorbet is healthy and simple, with only three ingredients!

Skinny Frozen Peanut Butter Pie by Sally’s Baking Addiction

No oven is needed for this delicious frozen pie! It has a variety of chocolate-y flavors and textures great for the whole family.

Watermelon Ice Pops by Eat Yourself Skinny

These watermelon pops are so refreshing! Watermelon is a great fruit for a non-overwhelming flavor, making this a great summer treat.

Cookie Dough Ice Cream by Julie’s Eats and Treats

Cookie dough is my favorite type of ice cream! With homemade bits of chocolate chip cookie, this ice cream is irresistible!

Strawberry Vanilla Yogurt Popsicles by Yellow Bliss Road

Grab some vanilla yogurt for these healthy popsicles.

The post 15 Easy Frozen Treats to Try This Summer first appeared on True Aim.

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Ever since we moved to the mountains, I have struggled with meal time. You see, we have a very small grocery store. It’s a gas station store with very high prices and a limited selection. The nearest decent store is 40 minutes away and when it snows the road closes to that store so I have to drive even further to shop!

I had an appointment in the next town in a couple days so I was trying to make do with what I had in the kitchen until then. You know how it is though; frozen burgers, no buns; rice, no chicken; canned tomatoes, no pasta; you are left with nothing that really goes together! lol!

Easy Cheesy Mexican Rice Skillet Meal

So I combined everything I had, added some spices, and VOILA, Cheesy Mexican Rice was born! It’s so yummy and versatile that I make it all the time now. It’s easy enough that my daughters can practically make it on their own.

Just cook your ground meet (I only had a couple frozen burgers, but that worked!), add canned tomatoes (my kids like the tomatoes with bell peppers and onions), rice, broth and cook until the rice is done (about 15 minutes)! Then add your cheese and you have a full meal in just 20 minutes!

Now, when I actually plan to make it, I like to add some Mexican seasonings and serve it with beans and tortillas! This Mexican rice great in quesadillas too!

I’m not always lucky enough to come up with a great recipe on the fly so I knew I really needed to get my stuff together and start planning my meals. Luckily, I found Plan to Eat, a drag and drop meal planner that builds my grocery list at the same time!

5 Ingredient Cheesy Mexican Rice Skillet Meal

 

Print

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

5 Ingredients, one skillet, a full meal in just 15-20 minutes! It's like homemade hamburger helper!

Author: True Aim

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Mexican

Serves: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

• ½ lb ground meat (beef or turkey)
• 1 can tomatoes with green chilies (or with bell peppers and onions for less spice)
• 2 cups rice
• 3½ cups chicken broth
• 1 cup grated cheese

Instructions

1. Brown your meat in a large skillet on medium heat. Drain fat if you want to. I don't usually.
2. Add canned tomatoes, stir and cook for 1 minute.
3. Add rice and broth and heat to a boil.
4. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until rice is tender. You may need to add more broth depending on what kind of rice you use.
5. Add cheese and stir until well combined.
6. Season with salt, pepper, and any Mexican spices you like. I put cumin, chili powder, garlic, cayenne pepper in mine, but it tastes good without it too.
7. Garnish with cilantro and serve with beans and tortillas (optional)

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If you’d like to start eating healthier and getting organized in the New Year, join Plan to Eat’s Easy Meal Challenge and get 30 Easy Meal recipes to put on your calendar! Don’t forget to add this Mexican rice too!

You might also like this recipe for Easy Stuffed Pasta Shells!

The post 5 Ingredient Cheesy Mexican Rice Skillet Meal first appeared on True Aim.

Easy Thanksgiving Food Ideas for Kids

Turkey Chocolate Caramel Pretzels – Chelsea’s Messy Apron

Chocolate and caramel dipped pretzels are delicious. When you can make them into a turkey with candy corn, it is even more fun! Create and make as a snack for school or a gift for the teacher. Add some candy corn for feathers and edible googly eyes.

Fall Ice Cream Cone Teepees – Frugal Coupon Living

Utilizing a sugar cone upside down as a teepee is adorable. You can either use them as a great table centerpiece or fill them with ice cream as a special treat.

A Waffle Turkey – Kitchen Fun With My Three Sons

Try these waffle turkeys on Saturday morning! Each child can create their own fruit and waffle turkey to eat for breakfast. We don’t even use syrup because the fruit is sweet enough. We used strawberries, cantaloupe and pineapple as the feathers. Make it festive and fun!

Turkey Fruit Snacks – Mom Endeavors

Not all Thanksgiving foods have to be full of sugar! Try this turkey fruit snack, made from an apple.

Thanksgiving Cornucopia Snack – B-Inspired Mama

Cornucopias are a classic symbol of Thanksgiving and represent the pilgrims and thankfulness. This one is made from a variety of ingredients, some healthy and some sweet. Get creative as you create your own mix!

Chocolate Pilgrim Hats – Southern Living

An easy but fun project! A fudge striped cookie, a rolo candy and a little icing makes a pilgrim hat. Serve this at Thanksgiving at the children’s table or keep them in the refrigerator for your family. These are fun to make and eat.

Turkey Rice Krispie Treats – Ciao Newport Beach

We think rice krispie treats are always fun to make. So a rice krispie shaped ball for a body with candy corns as feathers and a candy bird beak makes for Thanksgiving fun. These are great to use for place settings too on the big turkey meal day.

Mini Pumpkin Pie Cookies – Sweet Sugar Belle

Who doesn’t like pumpkin pie even when it is not really pumpkin! These cute sugar cookies that use colored icing to look like little slices of pumpkin pie are great. The even have a dollop of whip cream. They are so festive to make and little hands will like decorating them.

Chocolate Candy Corn Pretzel Bites – The Jenny Evolution

These bite-sized treats are great for satisfying a sweet and salty tooth. This treat is easy to make and easy to munch on, for the whole family.

Indian Corn Thanksgiving Favors – Shaken Together Life

Stuff cellophane pretzel bags with these fall colored candies and tie with twine at the top. Make the top of the husk with brown craft  paper and when all put together, it looks like Indian Corn!

Crescent Roll Cornucopia – Kid Friendly Things To Do

This cornucopia is cute and can be filled with dip and veggies as a snack. We keep them on hand as a great snack container for 1-2 days after initially making them. It is easy to roll and mold the crescent roll into a cornucopia and bake. My little ones can not wait for them to come out of the oven for them to fill with the favorite veggie dip.

Edible Oreo Acorns – Frugal Coupon Living

The acorn is a great, creamy blend of cream cheese and peanut butter Oreos processed together in a blender. Then that mixture gets shaped into the acorn. Gather acorns before making these so you can have a model to look at for the right shape!

Pumpkin Rice Krispies Treats – Sugar Spice and Glitter

Enjoy these Rice Krispies shaped into pumpkins. They’re great for their groups, in case anyone has any peanut allergies.

Acorn Brownie Pops – Pint Sized Baker

Brownies are my favorite dessert. Make these acorn-shaped brownie pops, simple enough for the kids to help out with.

Fruity Feather Turkey – Betty Crocker

My children were sold on this food craft when they heard nutter butter cookies and fruit roll ups. They feel the need to eat both sometimes so this food creation makes them happy. It is a nutter butter cookie with the fruit roll up utilized as the feathers. These were fun to make and did not last long in our kitchen.

Corn Husk Cookies – Amy Atlas

These are a basic sugar cookie on a stick with icing and then colorful skittles to make the corn kernels. The hardest part is shaping the dough into a corn husk. The rest is simple icing and placing the colors of each kernel. This is like making a mosaic picture but using skittles. My children were very intense on making each cookie just right.

Turkey Marshmallow Pops – Midget Momma

Enjoy these easy to make marshmallow pops that are designed like turkeys! Their cute and simple design is a favorite among kids.

Chocolate Chip Turkeys – Very Best Baking

Everyone loves homemade chocolate chip cookies. Why not make them into turkeys? Use chocolate to make the feathers in different colors. You may have to work on developing our feathers, but the cookies are great tasting and fun to make.

Chocolate Turtle Apple Slices – Mom Loves Baking

Create this twist on a caramel apple. It is covered in chocolate with a caramel drizzle and a sprinkle of nuts if desired. It is a festive autumn treat perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday. It is even fun to set up for guests to make as an appetizer or dessert. 

Apple Nachos with Peanut Butter Chocolate – Trial and Eater

I always include Apple Nachos because it is one of our favorites. They are thin sliced peeled apples with melted peanut butter drizzled on top and mini chocolate chips. For this finger food, add what every topping you like on the apples.

Caramel Apple Turkey – Shower of Roses

Use an apple wedger to make these caramel apple turkeys to look like turkeys feathers. Then, add a small bowl of caramel dip with a candy corn and edible eyes.

Fall Acorn Pudding – Spaceships and Laser Beams

Create this homemade pudding, with (chocolate) acorns! It’s also easy to make in bulk, so it works well for a potluck.

What are your favorite kid-friendly Thanksgiving options?

The post Easy Thanksgiving Food Ideas for Kids first appeared on True Aim.

I am a huge fan of making things from scratch when you can, but I’m not a very good cook! After a failed attempt at an applesauce smoothie, I decided to give this applesauce a try over the weekend and loved the results! It is also easy enough that kids can help with the process.

This applesauce is great for a fresh appetizer, and takes only minutes to make. It is virtually fail-proof, which is great for people like me who can’t cook to save their life.

I put the ingredients in our Ninja blender, so they blend nicely, and leave a few chunks here and there. (A Ninja is completely worth the investment.)

Easy Homemade Applesauce

Serves: 3 (Recipe can be made in bulk as needed.)

Ingredients:

• 3 apples (peeled if desired)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/3 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• Optional: nutmeg

Directions:

1. Chop apples and place them in a blender. Add water, cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg. Peel apples if desired – I liked the outer skin in mind! The water helps the taste not be so strong, and helps it all blend together in the blender.

2. Serve cold if you’re in a hurry, OR warm up in a saucepan on low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring in a bit of extra sugar and cinnamon for flavors. (I’ve also seen this made in a crockpot, but have not tried it before.)

3. Serve fresh, and the applesauce lasts in a sealed container for up to 3 days.

You can also make bread, muffins, latkes, or donuts with applesauce. For an extra healthy twist, you can substitute applesauce for oil in a lot of different baked goods, making them more healthy and natural, with less added sugar.

The post Easy Autumn Applesauce: Easy DIY Recipe for Fall first appeared on True Aim.

My oven broke! First, everything was out the stove and oven. I went a day without it and had to get really creative with what I cooked. Good thing we have a microwave!

The first thing that came to my mind when thinking about things to cook without an oven was the New Pace® and Prego® Ready Meals I had on hand. These were so easy to prepare and ready in just one minute. 

My husband tried the Marinara & Italian Sausage and I had the Cheesy Chicken Quesadilla. Both were delicious and very satisfying, especially after delaying dinner when trying to get the oven to work. Just to have something quick, I’ll definitely get more of these convenient food pouches. Click here to find all the different flavors and more of Campbell’s new products.

After going without my oven and stove for a little while, here are some more creative meals I came up with to cook in the microwave: 

• Microwave Baked Potatoes (prick with fork and cook 4-5 minutes on each side)
• Salmon (Top with butter and herbs, cover, cook for 3-4 minutes or until flaky)
• Scrambled Eggs (cook in 30 second intervals, stirring between each)
• Lasagna (Make sure you use no-cook noodles! Cover with double thick plastic wrap and cook for 30-35 minutes at 50% power, venting one corner after 20 minutes. Let it sit in the microwave for 5 min. before serving)
• Meatloaf (Use your regular meatloaf recipe, cook on high for 10-15 minutes and then drain any grease. Let sit uncovered for 10 min. before serving)
• No Bake Cookies

After having a bite to eat and trying several things on our oven’s control panel, we switched the breaker off for 10 minutes and then back on. Luckily the stove started working again, but still no oven. What a relief! I could survive with at least a stove until we got a new one. 

For more easy meal ideas for your family check out these delicious Campbell’s recipes! 

What kind of creative meals do you make without your oven?

The post What to Cook When Your Oven Breaks first appeared on True Aim.

I like to call these better-for-you because you can use healthier ingredients to make them more like breakfast, and less like dessert. It’s just like eating a muffin, but better!

Pumpkin Donut Recipe

To make these pumpkin donuts, instead of buttermilk I use Yoplait Greek 100 Yogurt that I got at Walmart. It makes them puff up nicely.

To mix up the batter, I enlisted my little donut Emma to help Actually she asked to help and how could I say know to such a sweet face!

To make them healthier, in place of refined or brown sugar, I like to use honey or another natural sweetener. Instead of butter, you can substitute apple sauce or apple butter for a more intense flavor. In place of regular flour, try whole wheat pastry flour.

After you make your pumpkin donut batter, you can put it in a gallon ziplock bag and cut the tip off of one end to make it easy to put in the donut tin if you have one. I don’t have one, so I use a mini muffin tin and put about a tablespoon in each mini muffin cup. You can also double the recipe and freeze half of it for later. Just defrost it in the fridge before baking.

You can also try cooking them in a cake ball maker. I’ve tried that too and it works great. Just cook them for 10-12 minutes.

These little babies are versatile! You can also freeze them after they are cooked. To reheat, just warm them from freezing in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

Healthier Pumpkin Donut Recipe with Greek Yogurt

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

This pumpkin donut recipe uses greek yogurt to make them light and fluffy, plus reduced sugar and natural ingredients make them more of a breakfast food and less like a dessert.

Author: True Aim

Recipe type: Dessert, breakfast

Cuisine: American

Serves: 2 dozen mini donuts

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp butter, apple sauce, or apple butter
• ½ cup honey or brown sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 container Yoplait Greek 100 Yogurt (about ½ cup)
• 1 cup All purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare your donut pan or muffin tin with cooking spray.
2. Beat together butter, sugar, pumpkin, egg, vanilla and yogurt until smooth.
3. Add in dry ingredients and mix until incorporated.
4. Put batter in a gallon ziplock bag and cut the tip off to help you fill your donut pan or scoop 1 tbsp of the batter into your mini muffin cups.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

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My kids prefer the powdered sugar though! Besides, just a little bit of it goes a long way.

Have you tried to make donuts at home? Share your experience below!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of General Mills. The opinions and text are all mine.

The post Healthier Pumpkin Donut Recipe with Greek Yogurt first appeared on True Aim.

My family loves pot pie, but it can be a lot of work to make. Chopping all those potatoes and cooking them, plus adding the correct amount of spices and seasonings takes a lot of time. That’s why I love this inexpensive and easy take on the traditional recipe.

Mini Chicken Bacon Pot Pie.

Making these pies is easy with Campbell’s® new Homestyle light soup.

It has no preservatives so it tastes like homemade! I used Potato Bacon soup and the flavor was outstanding! You could try more of Campbell’s new products in this recipe too!

I added a 1/2 cup of leftover cooked chicken and a 1/2 cup of frozen peas to give it a little more substance and fill all 12 of my mini pies. This way, I can feed my whole family of 6 with just 1 can of soup!

The first step is to make the shells of the pies with store bought pie dough. You can use homemade if you want, but that just takes longer. I roll the dough out a little more so there will be enough to fill a 12 cup muffin tin with mini pie shells.

Next I sprayed the cups with cooking spray. Then I cut circles a little wider than the opening of a muffin tin cup and pressed the dough on the bottom of each cup.

My daughter helped me fill the mini pies with the @Campbells soup filling, topping them with some green onion to bring out the bacon flavor. We used the rest of the pie dough to cut flowers out and cover the top of the filling. 

I baked them at 350 degrees and checked them at 20 minutes. They needed 5 more minutes to get a little more golden on top.

The result was flakey little pies bursting with bacon flavor! SO yummy. My children gobbled them up and the only thing I didn’t like was that there wasn’t any left overs. For just $5 it was an awesome meal that I will definitely make again.

How about you? What delicious Campbell’s recipes have you tried with a can of soup?

The post $5 Dinner: Mini Chicken Bacon Pot Pies first appeared on True Aim.

If you want a hearty meal that costs just $5, you HAVE to try BBQ Pork Smothered Mashed Potatoes. It’s like a loaded baked potato that’s easy to eat so it’s perfect for the kids.

It is getting harder to cook for my family of 6 without breaking the bank. Their appetites are growing and so I’ve been getting creative with potatoes which are very inexpensive. Just by adding a can of @CampbellsChunky soup I can make potatoes really stretch at dinner time.

$5 BBQ Pork Smothered Mashed Potatoes

The first step in making these is to make the perfect creamy mashed potatoes. My recipe is SO good and easy, you’ll never do it another way.

Of course I always enlist my little chefs to help. They love beating the potatoes until they’re light and fluffy.

I used a can of Campbells Seasoned BBQ Pork Soup and warmed it on the stove before topping the potatoes with it. The kiddos love stirring the soup while it heats up. Makes them feel all grown up I guess

Once my potatoes are ready to go, I scooped them into our bowls with an ice cream scooper for easy serving, making a well in the middle of them for the soup. Then I topped the potatoes with lots of goodies like cheese, chives and sour cream.

It was a hit especially with dad! Being it just costs $5 for the whole family to be satisfied, we’ll definitely be having this again. It would also be great served with some green beans or other warm vegetable.

With the new Campbell’s ChunkyTM soups exciting new flavors, there are so many different combinations you could try! Plus lots of other delicious Campbell’s recipes you can make on the cheap.

What kind of soup would you try on top of your Mashed Potatoes?

The post $5 Dinner: BBQ Pork Smothered Mashed Potatoes first appeared on True Aim.

So break out the summer food and activities while you still can! Make some watermelon lemonade slushies and head outside to enjoy the beautiful weather while the kids burn off energy chasing each other in a last season game of tag.

Watermelon Lemonade Slushies

These are SO addicting. They taste like sweet and sour candy, but are probably a lot better for you. Well, maybe.

First things first, freeze your watermelon by taking a melon baller and scooping out the balls onto a pan lined with a non-stick sheet or wax paper. My kids LOVE using the melon baller for some reason, so they helped me out with this part. Then, freeze overnight or for at least 3 hrs.

If you are making the lemonade, you’ll want to do that ahead of time too so it can chill in the refrigerator before you add it to the frozen watermelon balls.

I just used some Simply Lemonade to make it fast and easy. Besides, I’m pretending the laziness of summer is still here.

Fill up your blender to the brim with the frozen watermelon balls. If you don’t like your slushies so sweet, then use some crushed ice with the watermelon. Cover the watermelon ice balls with the chilled lemonade and blend until smooth.

What you get is the best slushie flavor and texture. I was temped to just drink them all myself. I served mine in mason jars with straws for the kids and it made 4 jars full.

If you have an overripe watermelon, this would be a great way to use it. I can’t stand eating mushy watermelon, but if you put it in this slushie it will give it a strong watermelon flavor.

So I sipped the last of my summer goodbye. Until next time, I’ll miss you!

The post Goodbye to Summer: Watermelon Lemonade Slushies Recipe first appeared on True Aim.

Sometimes we have to motivate our children to eat their salads. They’re not big fans. But serving it this way made it really fun and they ate it up even without any dressing! So my kids ate tons of extra veggies and I didn’t have to cook!

Salad Buffet Dinner

It’s all about presentation. Really! My kids thought this looked so cool, they didn’t even fret about eating a bunch of salad. You could use a bunch of separate bowls, but I used a platter that hid the lettuce (not my kids favorite) underneath all the yummy toppings. The base I used was romaine lettuce and baby spinach.

My daughter Audrey prepared all the toppings, so I didn’t really have to do anything. Just washed and dried the veggies and gave them to her to chop. Her favorite thing to use is the peeler.

When my kids help in the kitchen, they are a lot more likely to eat what they make than what I put in front of them, especially if they get to choose what goes into their food.

I asked Audrey what veggies she would like and then put a few more in there. She was really excited about this dinner!

Funny what a little fancy platter and a variety of toppings will do to make kids eat their salad. What do you cook when you don’t feel like cooking?

The post Cooking with Kids When you Don’t want to Cook: Salad Buffet Dinner first appeared on True Aim.