Spring Carrot Soup

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.

 

 

Spring is finally here and I am loving the longer, brighter days that have been presenting themselves to us. I've also noticed that my tulips and hyacinths are just starting to peek through the ground and that makes me excited that the world will be in colorful bloom in just a few short weeks. But even with the sunny days, there is still a nip in the air, so it's not time to shelve all of the soup recipes yet. There are so many great soup options that are perfect for spring days that still have a bit of a bite in them, like this Spring Carrot Soup. This is a Golden Blossom Honey recipe that you'll be glad to have on hand throughout the season.  

This is a light soup that won't weigh you down, but you'll still feel full and satisfied after a bowl. For there being minimal ingredients, it's packed full not only in flavor, but in nutrients also. Like with most Golden Blossom Honey recipes, this is another that doesn't take a lot of prep or cook time. I actually made the first half the night before, then added the milk and reheated the following day for lunch. So this is a great make-ahead meal if you know you're going to be short on time the following day. While this recipe is written to eat the soup warm, I ate a bowl cold, fresh out of the fridge and found that I enjoyed it equally, so it will transition perfectly into the summer months for those who love a cold soup as well. 

Ingredients

1 bunch of carrots, about 1 pound

1 baking potato

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup chopped shallots

4 cups vegetable or chicken broth

2 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

black pepper to taste

Garnish

plain yogurt or sour cream

chopped scallions or chives

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

 

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

   

What's your favorite springtime soup? 

Whipped Lemon Nutmeg Sweet Potatoes

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.

 

 

If you know me, you know that I love simple recipes. I also love sweet potatoes, but I find that most recipes that include them aren't very quick or simple. I think my main problem with them is they are much harder for me to peel than a russet or a yukon, and they take longer to dice as well. So, I usually only bake them whole, then scoop out the pulp, mix with butter and cheese and call that good as far as my culinary skills with sweet potatoes go. But I saw this Whipped Lemon Nutmeg Sweet Potatoes recipe on Golden Blossom Honey not too long ago and thought it sounded interesting. I don't think I've ever thought to pair lemon and sweet potatoes, so that was a bit unique in my mind. Plus, it was labeled as a microwave recipe, so I figured that alone meant that it wasn't going to be too hard to toss together. 

My mom likes to bake canned sweet potatoes with marshmallows and I think I've mentioned it here before before that combo never sat well with me. I know it's a popular pairing, but I just can't get behind it. The addition of lemon did cause me to raise my eyebrows a bit, but the nutmeg I knew that I was going to love sprinkled in. In the end, the grated lemon zest was a fantastic contrast to the warm, earthy flavors that make up most of this recipe. It wasn't overpowering in the least, but gave it just the right amount of oomph to jazz up the sweet potatoes. Let's talk about ease of getting this dish to completion. If you have 10 minutes, that's all the time you need to have this prepped, zapped, and on the table ready to go. It's a great side dish for weeknight meals or swap out your regular mashed potatoes and gravy at Easter dinner this year for a delicious upgrade on a holiday favorite. 

Ingredients

2 (23 oz) cans sweet potatoes

1/4 cup butter or margarine, room temperature

3 Tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

  

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

   

What potatoes do you like best served mashed? 

Italian Cheese Fruit Trifle

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.

 

 

I've been on this planet long enough to know that we're in fool's spring right now, but with the warm spring-like temperatures and bright sunny days, it sure is tempting to think that we've left winter in the dust already. I had to force myself to leave the garden untouched this week because I don't want to disturb any slumbering pollinators that will be beneficial to my garden this summer, so I directed my energy into the kitchen instead. I wanted to do a trial run of this Italian Cheese Fruit Trifle, a Golden Blossom Honey recipe, that I thought would be amazing to share with our loved ones this Easter. I don't use mascarpone cheese often, other than for my tiramisu, and I wanted to make sure to note any adjustments before presenting it to others for the holiday dinner.  

I want to point out that while I always try to bring you budget-conscious recipes each week, this one does not fall into that category. I've been saving it for probably a year or two because it was hard for me to justify sharing a splurge recipe in these uncertain economic times that many of us are struggling through, and I calculated that ingredients ran a little over $50 for this dessert. While I appreciate that you can get a bakery made dessert for less than that, there's also something to be said for presenting a truly remarkable trifle that you prepared at home with the freshest ingredients possible. Thankfully you don't need to do a trial run though since I did that for you. And better yet, I can say that other than doubling the raspberry juice to dip your margherites, nothing needed adjusted or tweaked. This was a sweet, creamy, sinful dessert that I probably shouldn't push for Easter with that description, but it's a dessert I'm willing to sin for, so there's that. The only issue I did run into is margherites were hard to find locally, and the only place I could find them online was Amazon, which only offered the chocolate and vanilla combo variety.  But I personally like both flavors, so that was just a bonus for me. You could probably substitute madelines and still have a very similar turnout. If you don't celebrate Easter, no worries. With the red, white, and blue coloring, this would work for Independence and Labor Day, or really any time during the summer months, but I'd recommend taking advantage as soon as the berries are in season since it will really add maximum flavor and sweetness to the trifle, giving more bang for the buck that way.

Ingredients

6 Tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

1 (10 oz) package frozen raspberries in lite syrup, thawed

1/4 cup Chambord Raspberry Liqueur

2 (14 oz) packages Stella D’Oro Margherites

24 ounces mascarpone cheese (available at gourmet food stores or cheese shops)

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

1 pint strawberries

1 pint raspberries

1 pint blueberries

1 (10 oz) package frozen strawberries in lite syrup

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

 

 

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

   

What's your splurge recipe? 

Napa Cabbage with Vidalia Onions

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.

 

 

Normally I wouldn't share recipes that have the same main ingredient back to back, but I did end up with an abundance of cabbage last week and since I'm the only one in the house that likes it, I needed to find another recipe to use it in before it went to waste. With St. Patrick's Day right around the corner, I did think about posting a corned beef and cabbage recipe, but it's just my daughter and I at home again this week and since neither of us eat corned beef, that option was out. So, I scoured Golden Blossom Honey again for another idea and came across this Napa Cabbage with Vidalia Onions dish and thought it would be worth giving a shot. 

 

There's a little Polish restaurant down the road from my house that serves the best sweet cabbage I've ever tasted, so when I find a recipe that sounds similar to what they offer, I like to take a crack at it in hopes of digging up their secret. This is a simple recipe that you can have complete in under 20 minutes from start to finish. It indeed cooks up sweet with a bit of tang, just the way I love my cabbage served. I usually don't add tomatoes, but think they made a great touch to the overall dish. While it didn't have me breaking any secret codes of the Polish and how they get their cabbage so sweet (I suspect they use a lot of refined sugar, which is something that I try not to cook with often), it was still quite enjoyable. This would be great as a side to corned beef for your St. Patrick's Day menu, or it would also pair well with any pork or sausage dish you may be serving this Easter. Or, who needs a holiday? It makes a great side dish any day of the year! 

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 large Vidalia onion, thinly sliced

4 cups Napa cabbage, thinly sliced

3 large plum tomatoes, diced

1/8 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

 

 

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

   

Do you prefer cabbage sweet or savory? 

Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage Leaves with Tomato Sauce

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.

 

 

Normally I like to share quick and easy recipes with you each week since we all seem to be busier than ever these days. But this week I decided to take a step back from the rat race of life and actually spend some quality time in the kitchen. Cooking and baking have kind of taken a back seat in my life the last few years, but I've been trying to get back to my roots, doing more of the things that I used to love in a quest to get my life balanced back out. I've had this Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage Leaves with Tomato Sauce recipe saved from Golden Blossom Honey for ages now and kept pushing it back because the lengthy ingredient list just made me feel like it was one that was going to require more effort on my part than I've been willing to give. But my local grocers had a veggie sale of buy 2 get 3 free and with the abundance of cheap produce on hand, it was finally time to put this recipe to the test. 

As suspected, this is a meal that is going to take some time to pull together. There's a lot of chopping, grating, sauteing and baking time to consider, so this is a recipe best saved for those days that you can set aside a little extra time for meal prep. But the payoff if so worth it in the end. There are so many tasty and nutritious elements to this this dish, I was a bit disappointed in my self for not taking a crack at it much sooner. I was able to get 8 good sized cabbage leaves stuffed before my cabbage head got too small to pluck from, and I still had a good amount of filling leftover once those leaves were stuffed. I could have used another head of cabbage, but since I am the only one in the house who really eats it, 8 stuffed leaves was more than enough for me. Don't let the time commitment of this recipe put you off. You can easily prep the filling and sauce a day ahead of time, stuff the leaves, then bake the next day. This would be a good recipe to save for St. Patrick's Day or Easter this year, especially for those who don't eat corned beef but still want to keep the cabbage part of the traditional Irish holiday dinner on hand for the celebrations. 

Ingredients

Tomato Sauce:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

1/2 cup red wine

1/2 tablespoon GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

4 tablespoons red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Stuffed Cabbage:</b

1 large cabbage

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 carrots, grated

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 zucchini, grated

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons raisins

4 mushrooms, shopped

1/4 cup pecans, finely chopped

1 cup cooked rice

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

salt and pepper to taste

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

 

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

   

What recipe do you love that takes longer than most to prepare? 

Grilled Shrimp on Wilted Greens

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.

 

 

I never realized how difficult it could be cooking for two until this past year. I can usually make my normal recipes when my husband isn't traveling because he usually goes back for seconds or will save leftovers for lunch the following day so there isn't much food waste. But my daughter and I aren't as good about eating up the leftovers, even when we have the best intentions to do so. So I've been on the hunt for recipes that will easily feed 2 without a lot of, or any, leftovers. I always think that what comes in a bag of shrimp is never enough for more than 2 people, so I save those recipes for when there are only going to be 2 people eating at home on any given day. Before Jason gets back home from his travels this week, I thought we should try this Grilled Shrimp on Wilted Greens recipe that I grabbed from Golden Blossom Honey this month. It seemed like just the right amount of food for 2, whether we were wanting it for lunch or even dinner.

This is a light meal option that works for both lunch and dinner. It's fairly quick to prepare, short of the marinade time. While this recipe does have a serving size of 4, I found that since greens wilt down really small as they cook, it was actually more suited for 2 when served as a whole meal, with just a few shrimp leftover. As a side dish, 4 is quite accurate there. This recipe offers a bit of spice mixed with a little bit of sweet. A unique and flavorful combination that I quite enjoyed. While I realize we're still in the throws of winter and I'm sharing a grilling recipe, I admit that I didn't clear the snow off of my grill. Instead, I skewered up the shrimp and broiled them in the oven for several minutes on each side until they started to show a little char. The shrimp still came out as delicious as if they were pulled from a summertime barbecue setup, so it's safe to say that no matter the season, this salad can be served year round.

Ingredients

3/4 cup oriental sesame oil

1/4 cup GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

Juice of one lime

1/4 teaspoon dried ginger

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 small jalapeno pepper, minced

16 uncooked large shrimp, peeled and de-veined

1 head radicchio, leaves separated

1 pound baby spinach leaves, washed and stemmed

 CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

 

 

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest! 

   

What's your go-to meal when cooking for 2?