Apple Pecan Cake

  I wasn't sure if I wanted to post this recipe today or one of the other dozen recipes that I have saved as drafts including one for delicious raw brownies, but I picked this recipe since it would be a simple breakfast cake for the holidays. Last week my mom reminded me that it was once again time for me to find a recipe to bake for the church breakfast for Sunday. So far when I have made something it has been these pumpkin muffins which were a hit so I've brought them many times, this zesty lemon blueberry bread, a buttermilk blueberry cake,a cream cheese coffee cake, and a few other treats that I never took pictures of which meant no blog post.

  I wanted to make something with apples since they are in season and one of my favorite snacks. The orange zest and fresh juice gives this cake a slight tang while helping cut through the richness of the cake. I cut a small corner slice from the cake when it was still warm, tasted it, went off to give my mom a small piece and we both felt the same way about this cake..we loved it! I was tempted to keep the cake for us at home and pick up something from the store before church for everyone else, but I didn't.

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

These last few days have been busy.

 I visited the dentist, taught myself to knit, my mom and I took my car in to get checked, we tried a bowl of Mexican gumbo at Qdoba Mexican Grill which was delicious (It's like a burrito bowl + tortilla soup), I bought Oddball a cute lion costume which he thinks is a new chew toy, took Oddball, Marley, & Dusty to get some shots, did a little shopping, had some extended family come over who were visiting from out of town, went out to dinner with the whole family, and then I had another physical therapy session which has been helping my lupus.

  I had a few golden, spotted bananas left on the counter and I was wondering what to make with them. I found a lot of new recipes like banana oat cookies that are dairy, gluten, and oil free, but the recipe only said 2 bananas, but didn't tell the measurements. Normally that would be okay since the bananas we usually get are average size, but the leftover bananas we had  were really big so I didn't want to mess up a recipe by adding too little or too much banana and having a ruined creation. So I went with a newer banana bread recipe that I found on foodgawker that measured the mashed bananas.

Avocado Yogurt Dip

  I wanted to share this recipe since I'll be working at my mom's job for the summer starting tomorrow. This means that I may not post recipes as much as I use to depending on how many days that they want me to work. I have a good collection of recipes that I want to try out this summer including this brownie recipe, a cheesy veggie rice, and I might try tweaking this recipe. 

Now back to this dip. 
This dip is delicious!

 I halved the recipe and adapted it a little to what we had on hand and my taste preference. This dip is rich and creamy while having a slight tang from the lime juice and cilantro. I had it on some tortilla chips that had lime seasoning sprinkled on them when I had a good idea. Why not have some of this dip on my turkey burger. And that is what I did. The turkey burger had some spice which was off set by the creamy dip and I will definitely have this dip on burgers again. 

Mango frozen yogurt (without an ice cream machine)

The other day, I noticed that we had about 8 mangos in our fridge and I wasn't sure how they got there. Well, it was over 100 degrees outside and I wanted something cold to eat. So I decided to make mango frozen yogurt. I have never made one before, but its could not have been difficult. Then I realized that we didn't have an ice cream maker.

This is what you'll need. If you have full fat yogurt, it will be richer.

Cut the ends off of the mango so it can sit up so it looks like this

Carefully hold the mango and cut the skin off.

Its like a melon; you want to yellow, but not the green.

Mangos have weird shaped pits.