Raspberry Spinach Salad

This was an experimental salad that turned out fantastic. It's one of those meals where you can mix and match ingredients depending on what you have. Here is the basic recipe:

4 cups fresh spinach, washed and dried

1 can mandarin oranges, drained

3 scallions (green onions), thinly sliced

1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced

1 cup fresh raspberries, sliced

1/2 cup sugar snap peas, sliced in half diagonally

1-2 cups grilled chicken breast, sliced or cubed (optional)

dressing of your choice to taste (raspberry vinagerette, poppy seed, or citrus vinagerettes are good)

Toss all ingredients together and serve. You can also substitute fresh oranges for the mandarin oranges, thinly sliced red onions (soaked in cold water to lessen the strong taste) for the scallions, add a handful of toasted nuts (walnuts, pecans, or almonds are good), or omit the peas if desired. It makes a great main dish or omit the chicken for a side dish. Enjoy!

Crock Pot Roast Beef

This is Corey's all time favorite food. It's super easy, even for those of us *cough*me*cough* who don't know how to make mom's tasty gravy.

3 lbs. roast (more or less depending on what you want, just make sure that there is at least 2 lbs. so the gravy will turn out right)
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 envelope lipton dry onion soup mix

1. Brown the roast in a pan, just to seal the juices inside. (If you are Corey, you would first need to cut off every tiny little bit of fat on the roast, but then it would make lousy gravy, so don't be like Corey!)
2. Mix the cream of mushroom soup (straight out of the can, don't add milk or water) and the dry onion soup mix in a medium crockpot.
3. Add the roast to the crockpot and cover with the soup mixture. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. The soup mixes with the juices from the roast while it cooks and it turns into a wonderful, flavorful roast. Serve with mashed potatoes and veggies, and yorkies if you're really feeling adventurous!

Strawberry Castle

Braeden wanted to submit his recipe to the family blog for his special Rice Krispy Yogurt Parfait.

Hi,

My name is Braeden. You should try this recipe out because it's really good. Really you should try it.

This is how you make it.

Put Rice Krispy's in a bowl, "oh, actually mom it's not rice krispy's it's krispy rice" (yeah, I'm too cheap to buy the name brand, thanks for that Braeden). "and actually it's with a 'C mom." "C-r-i-s-p-y".

and then you put some "I need to think" "Heyyyy *giggles*" as he reads what I am typing. Ok, you put Sunrise Strawberry Yogurt "what is it called mom? I told you not to write that". "Did you spell write wrong? *giggles*"

Then you put MORE Rice Crispy's "I don't care if it's Rice Crispy's or Crispy Rice." "Y
ou're making this funny....I want you to write what I just said."

You put yogurt again and more yogurt. Make sure it's a swirl please. Then top it off with a Strawberry.

From Braeden