Canteloupe Strawberry Blueberry Smoothie

I was visiting my parents for a few days (at sea level) and my mom made mention to my brother about that "crazy thing" he does. Turns out, that "crazy thing" is making smoothies. Apparently blending fruit together is pretty wild to my mom. My mom had stocked up on fruit (per my request) so I decided to whip up my own crazy thing. They didn't have any white grape juice, which has been my staple, and I won't use orange or apple juice so I was left with the cranberry pomegranate, which, much to my surprise, turned out awesome. I was afraid the cranberry would be overwhelming, but it blended quite nicely with the other fruit. This may be my favorite concoction to date.

I also made a poor joke when my mom mentioned cantaloupe by saying "I already did."

Cantaloupe Strawberry Blueberry Smoothie

1 cup cantaloupe, sliced, no rind
1 cup strawberries, quartered
1/2 cup blueberries
 1 1/4 cups cranberry pomegranate juice

Clean fruit. Cut cantaloupe and strawberries. Place into blender with juice. Blend until smooth.

Blueberry Watermelon Strawberry Smoothie

I learned this morning that it is National Blueberry Muffin Day. I actually don't have a blueberry muffin recipe nor do I have the time to make any today, so instead, I will give you this picture of a blueberry muffin

and then will proceed with posting another smoothie recipe (that contains blueberries!) even though I just posted one a few days ago.

I originally intended to make another Watermelon Strawberry Smoothie, but I didn't have much watermelon left. But I did have plenty of leftover strawberries and blueberries from the American Flag Cake from July 4th. I substituted blueberries to cover the amount of watermelon I was missing.

I really enjoyed the end result, especially with the addition of some leftover whipped topping, also because of the American Flag Cake.

This is what a "quartered" strawberry looks like.

Blueberry Watermelon Strawberry Smoothie

1/4 cup watermelon, sliced, no rind
1 1/2 cups blueberries
3/4 cup strawberries, quartered
1 1/4 cups white grape juice
whipped topping, if desired

Clean and cut watermelon and strawberries. Rinse blueberries. Place into blender with white grape juice. Blend until smooth. Pour into a glass and top with whipped topping and blueberries (but only if you want to - I don't want to seem bossy or anything).

American Flag Cake

Happy 4th of July everybody! I have many fond memories of Independence Days growing up. Every year my neighborhood (actually, to be fair, it was actually the neighborhood next to mine but we "crashed" it every year) would hold a parade. One of my neighbors had a flatbed trailer that we would decorate the night before. The day of the parade we would climb into the flatbed, decked out in as much red, white and blue as possible and throw candy and sing and shout to the parade watchers. After, we would gather at my godmother's house for a swim and a BBQ with all our neighbors. We'd then head home to change and regrouped to walk to the mall where would would set up our towels on a hill to watch the fireworks display. After the trek home we'd stop at my next door neighbors for ice cream sundaes. We'd top off the night with some night swimming with the pool lights on at my best friend's house. So yes, I totally love the 4th of July!

This flag cake became a yearly tradition for me. It is super easy and I admit I made it even easier by cheating and using a box cake mix (oh the horror!).

I decided this year I wouldn't cheat and I found a white cake recipe on this website. It wasn't complicated and was pretty simple to follow.



American Flag Cake

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon shortening (room temperature)
1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup + 3 tablespoons milk (refrigerator temperature)
5 egg whites (refrigerator temperature)
1 container of whipped topping
1 container blueberries
1 container strawberries

 Preheat oven to 375.

Mix and sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into mixer bowl. Add shortening, vanilla, milk and egg whites. Beat 30 seconds on low speed, scraping frequently. Beat 7 1/2 minutes on high speed. Scrape twice during this beating.

Bake for 30-35 minutes (until toothpick inserted comes out clean).

Once completely cooled completely, cover cake with whipped topping. Place blueberries in the top left corner to make the blue square of the American flag. Halve the strawberries and place end to end in rows. Leave an equal amount of space between the next row to make the stripes of the flag.