Mother's Day Slaw and Sandwich

This weekend is Mother’s Day and we are sticking with the things to do for mom this week on the blog. We’re gonna go down the food road today and share with you some recipes for a healthy fresh Spring lunch for mom (these would be good picnic recipes too).

I’m a big fan of fresh coleslaw. I like the simple deli style with the mayonnaise sauce, cabbage, onions, and carrots. I first tried it in England and was hooked; it was so delicious. However, some people like a different and more exciting take on coleslaw so that’s why we are sharing Nicole’s broccoli slaw recipe today with you.

For the Broccoli Slaw you will need the following...

Broccoli, chopped in bite sized pieces

Red grapes, cut in half

Sunflower seeds

Red onion, sliced thin

Slivered Almonds

Raisins

Chopped Bacon

Cheddar cheese, cut into small chunks

1 cup of Mayonnaise, 2 tbsp. vinegar, ¼ cup of sugar (cane or raw)

Whisk together the sauce (Mayonnaise, sugar, and vinegar) and then pour over the other cut ingredients in a large bowl and toss. It’s that easy. Most of the work, like with many slaws, comes in the form of chopping and slicing. Chill and then serve.

Something refreshing and delicious and very healthy to make alongside a slaw, is a sandwich. I came up with a form of a Clubhouse sandwich one morning when I was looking through the fridge at the leftovers.

You will need a ripe avocado, brown bread (your choice and it doesn’t have to be brown), Roma tomatoes, lettuce, bacon, turkey breast or chicken breast (I used leftover turkey the first time I made this but when we just made this, we used deli roasted chicken breast), and then some condiments (we just used Mayonnaise but an aioli would be yummy too).

First things first, cook the bacon and then let it cool slightly.

While the bacon is cooling, slice the avocados, tomatoes, and then wash and dry the lettuce.

Now to assemble the sandwich...toast the bread and then spread on the Mayonnaise.

Then place on the chicken or turkey.

On top of that put on the tomatoes, bacon, avocados, and lettuce.

 Put the other slice of bread on top and then slice in half diagonally. 

Serve with the cold slaw and there you have a yummy healthy Mother’s Day lunch for mom.

Mother's Day 3D Heart Flower Card

It’s the countdown to Mother’s Day this week and it’s a busy busy week for us. We thought the best thing to start off with is a card because that’s what we are pros at. ;)

Nicole came across a cool idea for a framed picture of  3D heart flowers. Take a look at the link here http://wonderfuldiy.com/wonderful-diy-paper-flower-heart-wall-art/3d-paper-flower-heart-wonderfuldiy2/. She thought that this would look good as a card for Mother’s Day and I agreed. Instead of making these 3D heart flowers into the shape of a heart, Nicole is making a flowery design because a big heart on a card is a bit tricky to do.

It does take some time and prep and to make because you need to punch out a bunch of hearts, but it’s not too difficult of a design.

We’re doing a bright and cheerful yellow and white card with a splash of light green. Perfect for Spring and perfect for Mother’s Day.

All you really need to do for this card is cut out a card and then punch a variety of mini to medium hearts and then fold them in half and arrange them in a circle with the points in the middle and all facing the same way. We’ve done our flowers all the same shade of yellow for each and then added the mini green hearts as vines/leaves.

Take a look at our creation.

Give one a go and personalize it for your mom or make her a framed big heart picture like the one we showed you earlier.

Lemon Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce

Nothing says Spring more than a bright and cheerful lemony cheesecake and that’s exactly what we made this week. Seriously, this cake is so yummy; I had a piece of the leftover for Saturday’s breakfast. It’s light and has just the right amount of lemon in it so that’s it’s not overpowering. Another great thing about this cake is that it has very few ingredients and it’s super easy to make.

So let’s hop to it...

First of all we are going to make the graham wafer crust so preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a tart pan or spring form pan. We lined the bottom of the spring form pan and then lightly buttered it.

In a food processor, make 1 ½ cups of graham wafer crumbs. Then in a bowl, mix the crumbs with ¼ cup of melted butter.

Press onto the bottom of the pan and bake for 5 minutes.

Once the crust is ready, let it cool off to the side.

Now for your filling you will first need to wash and zest two large lemons. Then after zesting, juice the lemons so that you have 1/3 cup of lemon juice. Set aside.

Beat one package/8 ounces of cream cheese. Then add in 1 ¾ cups of sweetened condensed milk. Mix well so that there aren’t any lumps. Our mixture was a bit lumpy because we didn’t beat the cream cheese before adding the milk.

Stir in the lemon zest and juice.

Pour over the crust and smooth the top. Bake for 28-30 minutes or until the filling is set.

Cool to room temperature and then put in the fridge for two or more hours.

Now you can just whip up some cream and wash up some fresh berries to top it or you can step it up and make a raspberry drizzle sauce to put on top.

We made raspberry sauce and then topped the cake with fresh raspberries to serve.

We cut down the recipe for the sauce because we didn’t want to be stuck with lots of leftovers, but to make a full serving, you will need three cups of raspberries add that to a pot with ¼ cup of sugar, one tbsp. of water, and two tsp. of lemon juice. Cook until the raspberries break down and the sugar dissolves, about seven minutes. Take off the heat and press through a strainer to remove all the seeds. Let cool to room temperature and chill.

Ok, so now back to the cake. Once sauce and cake have chilled, you can do one of two things. You can decorate the entire cake by drizzling the sauce and topping with whipped cream and berries or you can do what we did, slice then decorate. Whichever you choose, it’ll be delicious!