Cinnamon Brownie Pie

[This is Part 2 in our Catering series. To view previous posts, click here.]

Even though dessert was the last course we served for the night, we wanted it to be the first recipe that we shared with you. It was a definite crowd pleaser at the party! We had so many people asking us for the recipe! At first we were a little embarrassed to admit that we used a box mix for the brownies. But the more we thought about it, the more comfortable we became with it. The reason we picked a Ghirardelli mix was because we checked the ingredient list and it was everything we would use if we made brownies from scratch. And when we knew were making 18 pies, we figured we’d take all the help we could get!

Obviously, no one could tell they were from a box! They were super rich and decadent with a little warmth from the cinnamon. The real whipped cream took it over the top! We heard that at one table each person took their first bite as they got to the table and exclaimed to themselves, “Whoa!..” We’ll take that as a complement! ;)

It was hard to break this recipe down much more than this. Sorry that it still makes 3 pies, serving 18 people. The good thing about these pies is that they are frozen so you can just keep a couple on hand to pull out later for a last minute dessert.

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No Bake Lemon Cheesecake

When I (Sarah) was growing up, Jello No Bake Cheesecake was a popular dessert at our house. In 4th grade we had to write a list of our favorite things. Lets just say cheesecake appeared on there about …oh four times. Shame!

The thing is, I don’t think I had real cheesecake until I was in high school. This means I was listing Jello No Bake Cheesecake 4 times with various toppings! I loved the stuff! I remember one time in particular that we are camping and my cousin brought a no bake cheesecake in a 9 x 13 topped with blueberry pie filling. It obviously left an impression on me, since I remember that to this day! Let’s bring this back around to last week when I was on Pinterest and was completely delighted by a stunning picture of a square piece of cheesecake topped with fresh blueberries!! I was reminded of my childhood love and knew I needed to recreate this beloved dessert of mine ASAP!

I love this dessert because you don’t have to bake the filling. I admit that I am no good at making traditional cheesecake. It never turns out the way I see it in my dreams. It’s usually cracked and dry and disappointing. But, I have no shame in saying that I could knock your socks off with this cheesecake! The filling is fluffy and tangy with the perfect amount of lemon to brighten it up. I love the blackberries on top for a change. (Especially since blueberries cost twice as much. Yikes!) Give it a try soon. It’s the perfect spring dessert!

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1 Cup Awesome Weekend

Happy Monday!

We hope everyone had great weekend! This weekend we made lunch for Dave’s family to celebrate Mother’s Day, watched Marley in her final dance performance of the season, and went to a graduation party for Sarah’s cousin in Southern Iowa. And that was just on Saturday! On Sunday we went to church, helped make dinner for Sarah’s family for Mother’s Day. and watched our favorite shows on AMC (The Killing and Mad Men. Here is a run down of what we ate this weekend:

Saturday

Breakfast:
Cranberry Orange Scones, Chobani Champion, Iced Coffee

Sarah found these scones at Target the other day. We were really excited because we love scones, but hate to make them. But We were kind of disappointed by these. We like our scones dry and crumbly. These were more like a soft, flaky biscuit. The flavor was good, but the texture wasn’t right.

Lunch:
Grilled Chicken Breast, Iowa Girl Eats Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce, Pasta Salad with Tomatoes and Corn, Berries with Homemade Whipped Cream and Chocolate Wafers

We invited Dave’s family over for lunch so that we could celebrate Mother’s Day with them. We wanted to keep things light and simple. We decided to grill chicken breast and serve it with a honey mustard dipping sauce. After looking through some recipes online, we decided the one that looked the best was from our fellow Iowa Blogger, Iowa Girl Eats. It was ADDICTING. We also threw together a really simple and delicious pasta salad.

For dessert we served fresh berries (strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries) with homemade whipped cream and chocolate wafers.

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Pasta Salad with Tomatoes and Corn

We needed a light and healthy side to go with our grilled chicken breast and honey mustard sauce for our Mother’s Day lunch. After scouring the pantry and freezer for some staples, this pasta salad came together in a snap. The combo of corn and tomatoes screams summer, which we are definitely ready for! We are all for making our own salad dressings, but sometimes it’s so nice to just open and pour! Brianna’s French Vinaigrette was perfect on this salad. It was bold enough to hold up the to flavor of the whole wheat pasta but not over power the other ingredients.

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How To Cook Food For 100 People

[This is Part 1 in our Catering Series. Check out all the recipes from the event by clicking the links below!]
Part 2: Cinnamon Brownie Pie

As we shared yesterday, our friend Josh asked us to cater his 10-year anniversary vow renewal ceremony. Before this weekend, we had never cooked for more than 20 people. Knowing that 100 people would be eating the food we were making was pretty scary. It took us months to even decide on a menu for the evening.

After that, we had to make decisions about drinks, dinnerware, and figure out exactly how we were going to prepare every single item. Today, we wanted to share some of those smaller details of the dinner with you all.

We wanted to have the best possible dinner for our friends while keeping budget in mind. It had to be fancy, but casual…if that makes sense. We made lots of trips to various stores around Des Moines to find the best prices on the exact items we wanted. We got a few items from Target and a local Mexican grocery store, La Tapitia. But for the most part, we ended up shopping at Costco for food and Amazon for dinnerware.

For an appetizer, we decided to set out some chips and salsa. This was a great option because it was cheap, easy, and filled people up a little bit before the meal. We used Costco brand tortilla chips and Jack’s salsa, also from Costco. Jack’s is great because it has that fresh salsa taste, even though it is pre-made. While we could have made our own salsa, we just didn’t think it was worth the time or money when Jack’s tastes so good to begin with.

For drinks, we decided to keep it simple. Instead of providing multiple options for people, we just went with bottled water and cans of San Pellegrino. We even found these sweet straws on Amazon to use for the San Pellegrino.

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1 Cup Awesome Weekend

Happy Monday!

We hope you all had a great Cinco de Mayo and a great weekend. Our weekend (specifically Friday night) was pretty amazing. Our good friend, Josh, asked us to cater for his 10-year anniversary vow renewal. The catch was that his wife, Carrie, had no idea! So a small group of us had been secretly planning out the details for months. Sarah and I have never really catered before, so cooking for roughly 100 people was slightly intimidating. But after months of planning and preparing, every thing turned out perfectly. It was one of the most memorable nights of our lives and we were so honored that Josh would even ask us to make the food. We will share all of our recipes with you over the next couple weeks, but here is a preview of what you can expect:

Due to the fact that we were literally in the kitchen all day on Friday, we took it pretty easy with the food we made on Saturday and Sunday. We even went out to eat twice during the weekend (that never happens). Here is everything we had to eat.

Saturday

Breakfast:
Hers – Vanilla Bean Greek Yogurt with Fresh Berries, Peanut Butter Toast, Iced Coffee
His – Mango Greek Yogurt, Peanut Butter Toast with Bananas, Iced Coffee

Lunch:
Jimmy John’s Club Lulu and Chips

Can. Not. Resist. Jimmy. John’s. EVER.

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1 Cup Awesome Weekend

Sorry this is a bit late this week. Last night was really busy and tonight we to took the kids to go see Chimpanzee. We all loved it!

Sarah was out of town this weekend, so I was in survival mode with the kids. I don’t want to brag here, but…I FREAKING OWNED THE WEEKEND. The credit really goes to the kids since they were so well behaved. Here is a rundown of all the food we ate this weekend.

Saturday

Breakfast: Multigrain Cheerios with Granola and Strawberries, Toast with Blackberry Jam

A couple weeks ago, we discovered the awesome combination of Multigrain Cheerios with our Homemade Granola. We have been making this granola recipe for a couple of years, but had never added it to cereal before (crazy, I know). It is amazingly good.

Lunch: Chicken Sandwich, Roasted Asparagus

Sarah picked up a rotisserie chicken for dinner on Friday night (that’s where the leftover asparagus came from too). I cannot tell you enough how GREAT it is to have a rotisserie chicken on hand for the weekend. It provided three meals for us and was a huge time saver.

Dinner: Super Nachos (recipe coming soon)

When I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner, they did not hesitate at all in asking for Nachos. We ran to the store to get some key ingredients and then came home to make a huge platter on Nachos. I thought there was no way we would eat it all, but we had no problem polishing it off!

Sunday

Breakfast: Kashi Banana Chocolate Chip Bar, Banana

Too much banana for breakfast? Heck no!

Lunch: Chicken Tacos, Fruit

Rotisserie Chicken to the rescue again. Sarah was back by this point, so she got to enjoy this meal with us. We just added some spices to the chicken and then threw it on a tortilla with some cheese sauce (leftover from the nachos), guacamole, and cilantro. It was the perfect lunch for the day.

Dinner: Zuppa Tuscana, Breadsticks

Does this meal look familiar? It may if you have been to Olive Garden. We came up with a knock-off recipe that is a little healthier. We will share the recipe soon.

Hope your week is off to a great start!

 

Fruit Pizza

Last weekend, we were getting together with our friends and we were in charge of dessert. We wanted something with fresh fruit that would be quick and easy to make. That’s when we remembered an old favorite of ours, Fruit Pizza.

We used to make this all the time during a first few years of marriage, but we had kind of forgotten about it. That won’t happen again! We remembered how much we love it and our kids love it too, especially Marley. Seriously, who could resist all this?!

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1 Cup Awesome Weekend

Happy Monday!

Well, this weekend was pretty stinking awesome! After another super busy week, we were able to do a whole lot of relaxing. On Friday night, our friends, Adam and Bri, came over to our house to watch our kids so we could go out on a much needed date. We went across the street from our house to eat dinner at The Radish and then went to see Blue Like Jazz. Both the dinner and movie were great.

Saturday

Brunch: Ham and Cheese Brunch Squares, Fruit, Toast

The Ham and Cheese Squares are a Pampered Chef recipe that we haven’t made for a couple of years. They are super simple to make and so good!

Dinner: Ravioli, Caesar Salad, Ciabatta, Fruit Pizza for Dessert

Due to the fact that our best friends, the Randazzos, are Italian, we can always trust that the Italian food they make will be incredible. Could not stop eating this ravioli.

We will have this fruit pizza recipe posted shortly, and trust us…you will want to make it ASAP.

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1 Cup Awesome Weekend

Aaaaand we’re back!

The last few weeks were super busy with home, church and work stuff. Because of that, we took a few weeks away from 1 Cup Awesome. It’s good to be back and we are excited for the things we have to share with you all over the next couple of months. Most notably, we have a trip planned to San Francisco in the beginning of June. If you have been there before, we need to know of some great places to see and things to eat!

So, the food we ate this weekend was great. However, our Sunday morning was kind of sucky. We had some serious storms in the midwest and woke up on Sunday morning to a flooded basement. Ugh. We are still drying out, but we are getting there. While we weren’t cleaning up our soggy basement, here what we had to eat this weekend:

Saturday

Breakfast: Berry Smoothie, Peach Muffin

We made these Peach Muffins for our church for Easter last weekend and had some leftover in the freezer. Paired with a triple berry smoothie, it was a great breakfast.

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