Dreamsicle Cake

Cake:
1 orange cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cup water
1 small box orange gelatin

Mix all together and pour into a 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until done.

Topping:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 large box vanilla instant pudding
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 11oz can mandarin oranges, thoroughly drained
8 oz cool whip or whipped cream

Blend together cream cheese, pudding, and sugar. Add orange juice. When blended, fold in whipped topping and mandarin oranges. Spread on top of thoroughly cooled cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Personal note: The next time I try this, I'm going to change the topping by eliminating the pudding, using real whipped cream instead of cool whip, and add a tsp. of vanilla flavoring to the cream cheese.

April Fool Jell-O Salad

This isn’t hard to make, you just need to be home for an afternoon to be able to make it…

You need 6 small boxes of jello. (You want a nice variety of colors. You can use any flavors, but here are the suggested ones:)

1. Lime
2. Lemon
3. Orange
4. Strawberry
5. Raspberry
6. Black Cherry

Dissolve the lime jello in 1 cup boiling water.

Remove 1/2 cup of jello and to that 1/2 cup, mix in 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt or sour cream (I like the yogurt best). Skim off the bubbles and pour into a lightly greased glass 9x13 pan or tall bowl. Refrigerate for 1/2 hour (or the layers won’t stick together.) **When I did this one in the 9 x 13 pan, it was ready after 15 minutes in the fridge, so I did the rotations every 15 minutes.

To the remaining 1/2 cup jello still in your sauce pan, add 3 Tblspns ice water and leave on the counter. At the end of the 1/2 hour, pour this over the 1st layer. (Just leave the pan or bowl that you’re pouring into right in the fridge so you don’t make it wiggle up the sides. It’s easiest that way.)

Wait another 1/2 hour *I only had to wait 15 minutes with the 9 x 13*.

Repeat with all flavors in the order shown, putting in the half with the yogurt first. Top it all off with Cool Whip, serve, and enjoy!

Guacamole

4 large ripe avocados
1 6 oz container plain greek yogurt
1/2 tsp mined garlic
1-2 Tbsp minced jalepeno pepper
salt and pepper to taste
a little lime juice to taste

Put all ingredients in a food processor, blender, magic bullet... whatever you got. Mix until desired consistancy. serve with tortilla chips.

Onion Dip

1 package cream cheese
1 8-12 oz container sour cream
1 lipton onion soup mix packet

Mix all ingredients with a hand mixer until smooth. Serve with potato chips

Cucumber salad

2 large cucumbers, peeled and diced
2 cups cherry tomatoes cut in half
1 cup crumbled goat cheese

Mix ingredients in a bowl. Yummy!

Grilled Bread Salad

3 medium tomatoes, cut into chunks
1/2 small red onion, chopped
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 4oz ciabatta loaf, sliced in half horizontal
1 large garlic clove
3 oz crumbled goat cheese
1/2 cup fresh basil, roughly torn

Grill your bread on a panini grill or a bbq grill. Chopped into cubes. Put red onion, tomato and bread into a medium bowl. In a small bowl mix the extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and chopped garlic. Whisk together. Pour over the salad and toss. Sprinkle on the goat cheese and basil.