2012 Tastiest Top Three

It's time for the Top 3 posts of 2012 and fruit flavored overnight oats has won the #1 spot by a landslide!

I do admit this was one of my favorite recipes and I ate them for breakfast regularly. And putting food in jars was popular in 2012 for all kinds of recipes and even other household functions. Now that it's winter, I'm into the hot cereal for breakfast since I am a very seasonal eater but will start up my overnight oats again in the spring. This is such a good combination of starch (oatmeal) and fruit together with the creamy yogurt - just really hits the spot in the morning. Plus, they are so convenient since you can make them ahead of time, store in the refrigerator, grab and go. I even bought the nice screw top caps for the jars for added convenience and also use these caps after I open a jar of our apple butter, plum jam, or grape jelly.

The second most popular recipe was the chocolate stout cake with baileys Irish cream that I made for St. Patrick's Day last year. I made some delicious cakes in 2012 that I will definitely make again and this is one of them. There is nothing better than a delicious and beautiful cake to help you celebrate a special occasion. I think it must be my childhood memories of bringing out the cake at birthdays but a cake like this for dessert just seems to be the perfect highlight of a special evening. I will continue to post recipes for that next special occasion cake so stay tuned.

Third place is a very simple recipe of snappy Joe's which is a healthy version of sloppy Joe's that I fed my kids to get some added vegetables in them. This recipe has a secret ingredient of shredded cabbage and carrots or coleslaw mix. It's one of those recipes that you can whip up in the evening after a hectic day of running around with your kids. I hardly ever make this recipe anymore but I sure use to make it a lot. And Nick and Lauren loved it. There is something about sloppy Joe's and kids. It's a meal that gives them permission to be…well, sloppy!

If you haven't tried any of the top three for 2012, nows the time to give them a try and see if you agree.

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Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free. But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one. My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends. We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop. She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots. We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.) The views are always quite lovely, too. Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception. I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, t...

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Two-Bean Soup with Kale

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