Frozen Strawberry Cheesecake Bars

Talk about the perfect summer dessert, these Frozen Cheesecake Bars are super simple to make and a great cool treat for warm summer days!

Fresh strawberries are combined with a no-bake cheesecake recipe and placed on top of a Nutella Graham Cracker Crust… oh no I didn’t… yup, I did!!!

Toss this recipe together for a delicious treat that’s way better than anything the ice cream man has on his truck

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 5 tbsp butter (melted)
• 1/4 cup nutella
• 16 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup strawberries (chopped)

Prepare the crust by adding the graham crackers and sugar to a food processor and blending until a fine crumb forms.

Next, add the nutella and butter and blend into a coarse crumble.

Place the crust in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Place in the freezer for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the cheesecake filling by using an electric hand mixer to combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk.

Blend until creamy, then hand mix in the strawberries.

Remove the crust from the freezer then add the cheesecake on top.

Place back into the freezer for at least 4 hours.  Remove 20 minutes before serving to thaw enough to slice through.  Cut into bars and serve.

So cool, refreshing and easy to make!

Grab a fork and dig in!

♣ Vegetarian Option: This recipe is vegetarian.

♦ Gluten Free Option: Substitute gluten-free graham cracker crumbs for the crust.

Watermelon Tomato Salad

What says summer more than fresh watermelon?  We’ve hit the peak of summer and this little salad is the perfect side for a BBQ or a fresh and healthy lunch!

Ingredients

• 3 cups cubed (or balled) watermelon
• 2 cups grape tomatoes (sliced in half)
• 5 oz feta cheese
• 1/4 cup fresh mint (chopped)
• 1/2 red onion (chopped)
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Start by slicing open a watermelon and cutting out cubes or use a watermelon baller (if you ball like that, haha) as my Dad so perfectly displays! He’s such a baller

Place into a large bowl, then begin slicing the grape tomatoes in half and add to the watermelon.

Next, add the feta cheese, mint and onion.  Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Before serving drizzle with the olive oil and vinegar and toss well.

This dish was a huge hit at my family BBQ last month, along with its friends the pulled pork, skillet potatoes, jicama slaw and smoked brisket!

… yeah, that’s a lot of food!  I ♥ BBQ’s!

♣ Vegetarian Option: This recipe is vegetarian.

♦ Gluten Free Option: This recipe is gluten-free.

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

#44 Eat a Hot Dog at the Original Nathan’s on Coney Island

Although I do realize that you can get Nathan’s Hot Dogs virtually anywhere these days, it was important to me, as a hot dog connoisseur, to eat an original as part of my bucket list!

After two fabulous nights in NYC, it was time to get a little gritty and head out to Coney Island for this bucket list experience.

Upon arrival, I knew I was not on the Upper East Side anymore!

The first stop was obviously Nathan’s.

And of course I knew my order from the minute I stepped on to the Island.  One original hot dog, plain.

I felt that to get the true Nathan’s original experience, I had to enjoy the delicacy in its purest form, meat on a bun!

Just a couple of cuties ready to take down Nathan’s original!

The time had come to take my first bite and savour the dog in all its glory!

Juicy and delicious it was!

After chowing down on my original, we decided to take advantage of being away from the city and at the beach!

A little feet-in-the-water stroll was in order!

We then met up with my girl Katie from high school on the boardwalk for a couple New York brews at this cool little spot, Paul’s Daughter.

So fun to experience a different part of New York that most New Yorker’s themselves never even experience, and of course any day involving an original hot dog eating experience is a good day in my book!

White Peach Sangria

After taking just one sip of the most perfect “tastes-like-you-stuck-a-straw-in-a-peach” Sangria at Hugo’s Mexican Restaurant in Houston, I knew I had to attempt a recreation of my own!

I found the perfect opportunity when I hosted a BBQ this Saturday. Nothing beats 101° temperatures better than a light, refreshing glass of Peach Sangria!

Ingredients (makes 2 liters)

• 1 lime (sliced thin)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1.5 liter bottle chenin blanc
• 1/2 cup apricot brandy
• 1/4 cup triple sec
• 1 cup peach nectar*
• 3 nectarines (peeled, cored and pureed)
• 2-3 peaches (peeled and cubed)

Next, add the wine, brandy, triple sec and peach nectar.

Then peel, core and puree the nectarines in a food processor.

Add the puree to the sangria and mix well.

Finally, chop the peaches, add to the sangria and the perfect summer cocktail is complete!

I also chose to freeze watermelon balls to serve with the Sangria instead of using ice cubes

Melon Ballers are sold at Target, Walmart or specialty store such as Williams Sonoma or Sur La Table for around $10.

I ended up making 3 batches for my BBQ, I’d say it was a hit!

♣ Vegetarian Option: This Recipe is Vegetarian.

♦ Gluten Free Option: This Recipe is Gluten-Free.

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

5 Ways to Summer Travel on a Budget

When I got the crazy idea to move everything I own into storage and take off on a “summer blogging tour”, I never realized the #1 question I would be asked is “How can you afford to do this?”

While at first I was a little caught off guard by the nosiness of people, I then realized that people were just curious how I was able to visit 3 countries and multiple states on a very limited budget.  And when I say limited, I mean less than most people make in a month!

My theory has always been experiences and relationships over money and possessions. For me, traveling on a budget and making sacrifices along the way is well worth the experiences I encounter and the relationships I make.

I will warn you that this is not super plush traveling on a budget.  This is like sleeping on couches, cooking for friends, spending days volunteering instead of trips to amusement parks and giving up things like shopping, kind of budget.

These are my 5 Ways to Summer Travel on a Budget:

1. Cash in those Frequent Flier Miles.  Try to fly the same airline for work or vacation throughout the year, that way you will start accumulating enough points to earn free flights.

No, this is not a road trip, I’m flying, train riding, subway taking or bussing it everywhere I go.  I do not own a car that would make it from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, so I can most definitely tell you it wouldn’t make it from Los Angeles to Canada!

I also love that mass transportation allows you to meet new and interesting people.  It would be a little difficult to strike up a conversation with someone new when sitting in a car by yourself!

2. Trade in your Debit Card for an American Express. An American Express is not a credit card, but rather a bank card in which you must pay off the balance each month. By using this instead of my debit card each month I’ve been able to earn hundreds of dollars in gift cards to restaurants, airlines, hotels and more in the past year!

I recommend this to all my friends because it will give you the points that lead to free stuff for your travels without getting you into debt!

 3. Call in your couch crashing favors for the year. This summer there’s no hotel, motel or Holiday Inn for the LLB, rather couches, air mattresses and twin beds at the parents house.

Hotels are an extremely expensive part of travel.  At over $100 a night (and well over that in some places) my entire summer travel budget would be used up in about 2 weeks if I were staying in hotels!

I am very fortunate to meet people who live all over the country and are willing to let me “crash their house” for a couple of days. But, the great thing with social media is that almost anyone can do the same! By putting out a simple status update, “does someone have a place I can crash in Boston for a couple of days?” may get a response from a second cousin or an old friend that you could stay with and take the opportunity to catch up with while you’re in town! That’s what I like to call a “Budget Travel BONUS!”

 4. Trade in a day at a theme park for a day of volunteering. It may not seem like the “fun” option, but in the end I promise you will remember that day you volunteered to help build a home in New Orleans or helped serve food to the homeless in NYC, over the memory of riding a couple of roller coasters and eating some funnel cakes and corn dogs.

 5. Cook dinner for the friends you are staying with instead of eating out.  This is a great way to save money and say “thank you” to your gracious hosts!

Some of my favorite budget friendly meals that can easily serve 4-6 and take less than an hour to make are:

• Buffalo Chicken Cheesy Penne
• Thai Peanut Vegetable Pasta
• Chicken Parmesan
• Mexican Meatloaf
• Spicy Chicken and Chorizo Paella
• Sweet and Sour Chicken Lettuce Wraps
• Taco Ring with a Twist

Happy Travels Y’all!!!