Homemade Caramel Ice Cream Topping With Honeycomb Candy Crumbles

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #VIVACleansLikeCloth #CollectiveBias

Summertime means lots of things in our household. It means warmer weather, longer days and lots of time with family relaxing outside. As a teacher, summer also means I finally have the time to try all those recipes I keep telling myself I'll get around to.

My brother is in town from Chicago this week and since we were having family over for dinner and dessert I decided to try my hand at two things I have wanted to make for months- homemade caramel sauce and honey comb candy. I know those two things don't go together at first glance but the combo comes from a Food Network show I saw about an ice cream shop in Brooklyn who makes ice cream with both mixed in.

Now I may have more time to experiment in kitchen now that school is out but I also have a seven month old so I decided to keep my expectations reasonable and skip making homemade ice cream for now. I picked out some delicious looking store bought ice cream at Publix while shopping for my recipe ingredients and I grabbed a few rolls of Viva paper towels too because caramel is the type of recipe you can guarantee will be messy.

The caramel sauce and honeycomb candy turned out better than I hoped and I loved that they were both easy to make earlier in the day. The honeycomb candy gave the sweet ice cream and caramel a molasses crunch. I have a slight fear of candy thermometers after one exploded in my favorite sauce pot so I am happy to report that neither of these recipes calls for one.

The paper towels were quite handy for cleaning up the kitchen too and everyone loved how soft the regular Viva Towels were for cleaning up hands and faces as well. It was nice to just bring the rolls outside and not have to keep going back inside for napkins constantly.

Turns out sticky hands and table tops weren't the only thing I needed paper towels for. We've been experiencing a ridiculous amount of rain this week thanks to Tropical Storm Colin and Viva Vantage Towels were perfect for wiping down and scrubbing our patio tables after the storm. We were able to enjoy a few hours of sunshine after dinner which was the perfect time to sit out back and make our own ice cream sundaes.

I can tell that this caramel sauce is something I will be making quite a few times this summer for backyard ice cream nights so I better stock up on Viva paper towels now because I'm sure we're going to need them.

Homemade Caramel Sauce adapted from the Pioneer Woman

• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 4 tablespoons butter
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1.) Combine the brown sugar, heavy cream, butter and salt in a sauce pan.

2.) Whisk on medium low heat for 5-7 minutes. Mixture will thicken up a little but will still be relatively watery. 

3.) Add vanilla and whisk for one more minute. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Pour in a jar and let cool in the refrigerator. Store in the refrigerator until use. 

Honeycomb Candy

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 4 teaspoons baking soda

1.) In a large saucepan combine sugar, water, honey and corn syrup. 

2.) Boil until mixture turns an amber color and starts to resemble caramel. 

3.) Add the baking soda and stir with a wooden spoon. Mixture will foam up significantly. Take off the heat immediately and pour onto a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or parchment paper. 

4.) Let cool and break into pieces. I used the smaller pieces as topping for my ice cream and caramel sauce. Store the candy in an air tight container to keep it fresh. 

Want more ideas on how Viva Towels can help you enjoy summer time fun? Check out them out here! 

Light & Easy Feta Dip

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SamsClubMag #CollectiveBias

Would you believe me if I told you we made this dip three times in four days over Memorial Day weekend? Because we did. And the dish was scraped clean at every party we brought it too. I'm a huge fan of cheese dips for parties but once temperatures start rising here in Florida, I start looking for something a little lighter to bring to holiday gatherings.

This light and easy feta dip is the perfect appetizer. Olive oil, fresh diced tomatoes, green onions, feta cheese and Greek seasoning combine to make something that feels savory and rich but is actually a lot better for you than many typical party foods. It takes minutes to put together and can be served with anything from sliced bread, pita chips, tortilla chips or even veggies.

Since I knew we had a bunch of events planned over Memorial Day weekend, I went to Sam's Club and bought my ingredients in bulk. The fresh produce section in my store has an amazing selection of fresh tomatoes and buying them and the feta in bulk allowed me to save money over buying them in the grocery store. My store also has a great bakery where we were able to get the baguettes too.

I brought this dip as pictured to a poolside BBQ on a Saturday night. Made it again with pita chips for a family beach day with friends on Sunday and then brought it to a work potluck party on Tuesday. By prepping the tomatoes and green onions ahead of time, I was able to throw the dip together in minutes before each event.

A lot of people think of fresh tomatoes as something that belongs in pasta dishes and salads but they are exactly what this dip needs to bring it to another level. Sam's Club digital magazine, Healthy Living Made Simple, is currently highlighting tomatoes as the super food of the month and you can check out the current issue for nutritional highlights and lots of great recipe ideas using them.

This recipe is very flexible when it comes to quantities. The recipe below has general guidelines for measuring out each ingredient but you can feel free to add more or less of something as you prefer.


Light & Easy Feta Dip

• 1 cup of feta 
• 2 fresh tomatoes diced
• 3 tablespoons green diced green onions
• 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (more or less to preference)
• 2 teaspoons of Greek Seasoning
• Thinly sliced fresh baguette or pita chips for dipping

1.) Spread out feta cheese in a shallow dish and drizzle with olive oil to completely coat the cheese. 

2.) Add in diced tomatoes and green onions. Use a fork to gently mix everything together and incorporate the olive oil. Sprinkle seasoning on top of mixture and mix to combine.

3.) You may want to add more seasoning deepening on your tastes. Top with a few extra green onions for garnish. Serve with a thinly sliced baguette or pita chips for dipping.

Tips: This dip can be stored in the refrigerator but it looks prettiest when made right before serving. Olive oil can get a little thick when stored in the refrigerator so it may look a little different but it still tastes great!

While shopping at Sam's Club, I noticed that they are having a free hearing health screening coming up soon as well as hosting in store hearing screenings that day too. Turns out they host them every second Saturday of the month with the next one coming up on Saturday June 11th. I love that Sam's Club has everything you need to help keep your family healthy summer- a great selection of food and drinks, free health screenings, an optical department and more.

What is your favorite summer dish made with tomatoes?

Tobins' Tapas: Easy Summer Veggie Tray With Chobani Mezé™ Dips

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #DipintoMeze #CollectiveBias

When it comes to entertaining, I am all about the appetizers. In fact, Justin and I love appetizers and tapas style food so much that we often have our own at home tapas nights instead of making dinner.

Traditionally we throw a huge summer party around Memorial Day but this year with Easton, we really haven't planned anything. I'm am thinking we may play it by ear and have a few people over last minute if we are up for it which means I'll be looking for easy, day of recipes that I can throw together without a lot of prep or stress. And this veggie tray with Chobani Mezé™ Dips is exactly what I'm thinking.

As much as I love making cheese and meat spreads for our guests, summer time temperatures in Florida don't really lend themselves to heavy party dishes. I love serving veggies with lighter dips but hate having to mix up the ingredients myself. We already love Chobani's regular Greek yogurts so when I saw these new Meze dips at my local Walmart I had to try them.

My Walmart has a great selection of organic and traditional pre-chopped veggies which made making this tray even easier. I literally grabbed bags of veggies, some breadsticks, pretzels and pita and a few dips and was done. The best part about all of these things is that even if you don't end up having people over they are all things you can eat throughout the week so nothing goes to waste. 

I keep a couple of large trays on hand at home to use for things like appetizer and dessert trays so I just grabbed my summeriest looking one and put a bright colored placemat on it. I then used an assortment of glass dishes for the veggies and kept the dips in their trays- no extra dishes to wash and they come with handy plastic lids that you can save to store the leftovers back in the fridge with.

For this veggie tray we served:

• Chobani Mezé™ Dips- comes in four flavors: Roasted Red Pepper, Three Pepper Salsa, Smoked Onion Parmesan and Chili Lime 
• Prechopped broccoli
• Carrot chips
• Mini sweet peppers
• Baby tomatoes 
• Sliced cucumbers
• Pita chips
• Crackers
• Pretzel rods
• Breadsticks
• Flatbreads

This tray is so easy to customize based on your preferences or what you have on hand in the fridge/pantry. The Meze Dips are great for warmer weather because they are so cool and refreshing and I love that are made with only natural, non-GMO ingredients. We brought this tray to my cousin's graduation party and people couldn't get over how good the dips were. With all the delicious but not always so great for you party food being served this time of year, I think people loved having a better-for-you option.

Just a heads up, these dips are found in the deli department so don't be discouraged if you can't find them with the rest of the yogurts. Right now you can print out a $1 off coupon so be sure to take advantage of it and stock up!

What are your favorite easy party foods? Any big plans for Memorial Day Weekend?

Cran-Apple Salad With A Homemade Apple Cider Vinaigrette

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FreschEats #CollectiveBias

Justin and I both consider ourselves people who love to spend time in the kitchen cooking and baking form scratch. In a perfect world, we would both get off work with plenty of time to grocery shop and then Easton would take a fortuitously timed nap or quietly play by himself for 30-40 minutes so that we could make a homemade dinner every night. In reality, Easton usually decides around 5pm that he hates napping and playing and wants to be held or entertained leaving us about 5 minutes to get dinner ready. 

In the first few months of Easton's life frozen pizza was a lifesaver. I would stock up when they went on sale at Publix and when Easton would finally fall asleep Justin and I would rush to put one in the oven and say a prayer that he would stay sleeping long enough for us to enjoy it. Our recent favorite has been Freschetta's Brick Oven Pizzas because we love how they use quality ingredients and taste like they were made fresh. Now that Eason is a little older (and we are a little more adept at this parenting thing), I try to make some thing homemade to pair with our pizza on busy nights.

This Cran-Apple Salad with homemade Apple Cider Vinaigrette is an easy salad to throw together and it goes perfectly with pizza. Most of the salad ingredients are things I things I usually keep on hand- bag of salad mix, feta cheese, apples and dried cranberries. When I have them in the pantry, I add some pecans. If you want to make life even easier you can buy a bag of salad toppers with the dried cranberries and pecans already mixed together. 

I have vivid childhood memories of my mom making a fancy homemade vinaigrette for dinner parties. She use to store it in the fridge in this crystal dressing bottle with a little stopper. Every time I make homemade dressing, I wish I had something like this to store it in but since I have yet to purchase one I usually use a mason jar. The vinaigrette can be made ahead of time (hello naptime!) and refrigerated for when you are ready to eat. I made it and stored it in the mason jar to cut down on dishes. 

Cran-Apple Salad

• One bag spring salad mix
• 1 apple, sliced thin
• Feta cheese
• dried cranberries
• pecans 
• Homemade Apple Cider Vinaigrette (see recipe below)

Mix together all the ingredients and drizzle with the vinaigrette. Serve immediately. 

Homemade Apple Cider Vinaigrette 

• 1 cup apple juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 
• 2 tablespoons honey
• salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a large mason jar. Shake to combine. Can be stored in the fridge until needed with lid tightly on. Just reshake to combine if it sits for awhile. 

Right now is the perfect time to stock up on Freschetta Frozen Pizzas because they are on sale 2/$10 at Publix. I was hoping to try out the new Artisan Crust varieties as they have 3 whole grains baked into the crust but none of my local stores are carrying them yet so I grabbed a few of our favorite Brick Oven ones. What do you like to make on pizza night?

Double Chocolate Chip Brownie Cookies

 

Have you ever been in a dessert dilemma? In our house I would say we face one at least twice a week. What to make? What should we have as our treat this week? One of the biggest dessert debates Justin and I have is the brownie versus cookie question. 

A brownie means fudgey, chocolatey, gooey goodness but would they be too much? Too rich? A cookie on the other hand can be crispy, crunch, dunkable and easy to grab on the go which when the majority of your treats end up at a fire station is a very important quality. And so this week when I asked Justin want he wanted me to bake for his crew, he responded, "Can you make a brownie cookie? You know, a cookie that tastes like a brownie?" Done and done.

I was thinking that I wouldn't like these. I thought that they would be too dry or too crunchy. They were none of the above. It was like biting into the best part of a pan of brownies every time. Tons of that flaky crust that in my opinion are one of brownies best qualities. So chocolatey, so moist yet easy to eat, easy to grab and as Justin pointed out, you can dunk them in milk which is less acceptable to do with a huge chocolate brownie. 

Luckily most of these treats made their way to the fire station but we did keep a few at the house and after a great deal on strawberries at Target we decided to take them a step further. Stuffed with a layer of Lite Cool Whip and dotted with pieces of fresh strawberries these Brownie Cookies became the ultimate summer night treat. Rich, chewy cookies filled with cool filling and just a taste of fruit. Which in my opinion is all your chocolate should ever have. But that is an argument for another day : ) 

 

Double Chocolate Chip Brownie Mix Cookies

• 1 box of chocolate chip brownie mix (I used Ghirardelli's Double Chocolate Brownie Mix)
• 1/3 cup of vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 3 teaspoons of all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips for sprinkling on top (optional)

1.) Mix together brownie mix, oil, eggs and flour. Consistency of batter will be in between that of regular brownie batter and cookie dough.

2.) On a lined or greased baking sheet, place rounded, tablespoon sized balls of dough. I used a oxo cookie scoop. 

3.) You can sprinkle the top of the dough with mini chocolate chips for even more chocolate goodness. 

4.) Bake at 350 degrees for ten minutes. Make sure to let cool before removing from the baking sheet. Store in an airtight container. 

Recipe adapted from I Take Joy

Welcome To Tobins' Tastes!

Hi and welcome to Tobins' Tastes! In 2011 I started Couponing & Cooking as a way to share my growing recipe collection and tips on saving money on groceries with family and friends. It began as something fun and random but eventually turned into a pretty lucrative source of second income for our family.

While I loved blogging, somewhere along the way I got a little too into doing sponsored posts and took on a little more than I could enjoy. The site moved away from who Justin and I were at heart become more business than fun. Over the last five years we've realized that we love blogging but we wanted something that was a more authentic version of us- our recipes, our travel, our lives and some sponsored content thrown in as well. 

In early 2015, I attended Food Blog Forum in Orlando and felt completely re-energized to find our blogging voice and move in a different direction then we had been. I had grand plans of a site redesign, new name and new post ideas- by the way I was three months pregnant at the time and had no idea that I would soon loose all motivation to do anything but watch Netflix and pin nursery ideas. So I took a little blogging break.

Due to end of the school year craziness (I'm a full time teacher), summer travel, some minor pregnancy complications, the start of the school year, the birth of our son, Easton, in October, life with a newborn and returning to work full time last month that little break became a year. I am starting to feel like I am ready blog again and so Tobins' Tastes has been born. 

I'm hoping this can evolve into a place where Justin and I share our love of food, travel, photography, Disney, Easton and life in general. Couponing & Cooking still exists and the posts will be there for the foreseeable future for you to revisit when needed but I'm looking forward to a new start! 

Diaper Changing Station Must Haves

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #NurseryMusts #CollectiveBias

When I found I was pregnant last year, I could not wait to start my baby registry. As someone who had not so secretly been stalking the baby section at Target for years, I knew that I would be registering there. Not only do they have all the essentials but they also have some of the cutest bedding, clothes and accessories around. The registry and our unbelievably thoughtful family and friends helped us get exactly what we needed to set up Easton's nursery.

Setting up the nursery can be one of the most exciting and simultaneously overwhelming parts of getting ready for a baby. If you are anything like me you probably did a lot of googling and pinteresting in planning your baby's new room. I had so many grand ideas that I wanted to use but given our space and budget restraints I ended up adapting my visions to fit our home. 

We converted our old office into Easton's nursery and while its many windows allow for tons of light they also mean that we are short on wall space. This meant that we had to get creative to make space for our changing table area. By taking the doors off of one side of the nursery closet we were able to do just that.

Alongside our changing table, I wanted an area where I could keep all of baby's diapering must haves in arm's reach as well as to provide for some storage. We used a five cube storage shelf next to the table and I added some baskets for storage. I had visions of my tiny baby laying peacefully while I changed his diaper in a perfectly organized changing station. And for the first few months of his life, that dream actually came true.

The second Easton turned three months old he suddenly figured out that he had the ability to move around on his changing table. It started with sumo stopping his feet every time we tried to change his diaper and has now progressed to reaching behind his head and pulling wipes out of the container and putting them in his mouth. While I have never and would never leave him unattended on the changing table, his new found mobility means I have to be more vigilant than ever and that has lead to some reorganizing of our changing area.

Our current diaper changing station must haves are:

• Diapers and wipes- lots of them. Originally I stored all of Easton's extra diapers and wipes in his bathroom closet. A few poorly timed blow outs with low supplies means I now keep everything within arms reach of his changing tables. Both my diapers and wipes are stored in baskets that I can access with one hand so I can keep the other on Easton.
• A Diaper Genie Complete- I originally registered for and got the Diaper Genie Essentials which was great at first. However, I fell in love with the Complete version at a friends house a few weeks ago and I am loving the bigger size, the foot pedal open and the fact that it holds up to 270 diapers before needed to be emptied. 
• Baby personal care items- I use a clear plastic tray to organize all of Easton's personal items. We try to keep his lotions, diaper creams, hair brush, thermometer, nose bulbs, and other items all in one places so that we aren't scrambling looking for them. Having all of it right next to me when I change him makes it much easier. 
• Touch Light- We bought this at Target right after Easton was born and it is perfect for adding a little light in the middle of the night without turning on the bright overhead light. It was so easy to stick right on the shelf too.
• A strategically placed laundry hamper- I love having the hamper right next to the changing table so I can just drop his dirty outfits right in without having to take a step.
• Easy access to baby's clothes- Along with keeping all his onesies, sleepers and socks in the changing table drawers, our closet set up allows me to hang his outfit for the day right within arms reach so I can just grab it off the hanger while standing in front of the changing table. 

While most of these things have been set up since before Easton was born upgrading to the Diaper Genie complete has been a small change that has made a huge difference especially for me as a fire fighter's wife who often is on her own. Seriously, that foot pedal must have been invented by someone who changes a lot of diaper blow outs without any help ; )

While I was shopping in Target for the new Diaper Genie I also picked up a Playtex VentAire bottle to try too. Now that I am back to work full time we are starting to supplement with formula and I am looking to find the right bottle for Easton. I am excited to see how he likes the angled design and anti-colic vent. He had colic and gas issues as a newborn so hopefully these features will help his tummy. 

Moms, what are your nursery must haves?