When I first embarked on my homemade yogurt adventure, I knew that the only way for this to become a feasible and sustainable routine would be if I could also create some homemade versions of the various fruit mix-ins I love so much.  I’m just not one of those people who enjoys plain yogurt, straight up.  I need more sweetness.  Many people are perfectly content with just stirring in a bit of jam and calling it a day, but not I.  I do like jam, but on toast or a scone.  With yogurt I want something more fresh tasting, not quite as cooked down as preserves and definitely chunkier.  I set out to create a variety of flavors and was met with mostly success.  (There was supposed to be a fourth flavor here but after three attempts, it either needs a lot more tweaking or simply to be trashed.)

Thankfully these three flavors are more than enough to keep me content for now, and they are all variations on the same recipe.  You can use fresh or frozen fruit depending on what is available to you.  I used frozen since none of these are quite in season yet but I’m looking forward to making fresh versions this summer.  And don’t worry, I have plenty more ideas for mix-ins in progress so if you don’t see your favorite listed here, it’s probably on the way.  Feel free to suggest others as well.  As a small side note, the combination of yogurt with the raspberry mix-in and this granola - to die for.

Sometimes I think my black bean addiction is getting a bit out of hand.  In any given week, a typical menu involves at least two and often three main dishes that center around black beans.  Burritos, patties, burgers, pizza, soup.  The list goes on and now the list grows one longer with this totally awesome Mexican lasagna.  Even more awesome than the lasagna itself is where the recipe comes from.  My friends Sonja and Alex are fellow Indy residents and co-author one of my favorite blogs, A Couple Cooks.  Their commitment to eating locally, seasonally, and as sustainably as possible is admirable and inspiring.  (Also, they just returned from traveling in Cambodia to help raise awareness in the fight against human trafficking.  Seriously, they are amazing people.)  I’ve enjoyed every single one of the recipes I have prepared from their blog, but recently our family enjoyed the distinct pleasure of having dinner with Alex and Sonja in person and getting to try their cooking first-hand.  They brought over this lasagna one evening and we had an absolutely wonderful meal, thanks to their fabulous food and excellent company.   Ever since, I’ve been craving this meal, so onto our menu it went and now here you have it.

As lasagnas go, this one is very low-maintenance.  There is no real cooking of the ingredients required beforehand, just a bit of chopping and assembly.  This actually reminds me a lot of the black bean tortilla pie that I make frequently, but with lasagna noodles instead of tortillas, and with tomatoes (always a good thing in my book).  It makes great leftovers as well.  Our whole family absolutely loves this dinner and I can tell it will be going into heavy rotation at our house.

Believe it or not, I am just now coming to realize just how great guacamole is.  My prior hatred toward it, and avocados in general, arose one fateful day in my childhood.  My family was eating dinner in a restaurant (any Bloomington townies remember Mustard’s?!) and as a picky kid might do, I ordered nachos as my entree.  When they arrived, I was disgusted and a bit terrified to see something on the edge of my plate which I mistook for a booger.  Dad explained that it was just guacamole but I didn’t believe him for a second, and mainly just wondered why anyone would ever eat something that looked so incredibly gross.  That was pretty much it for me and guacamole.

About four or five years ago I made it for Ben because he adores it (ahh, the things we do for love).  I convinced myself for about five minutes that maybe it wasn’t really so bad, but then I felt a little bit sick just thinking about it and I was back where I started.  Then, last year, I made these fabulous wraps which include guacamole.  Not only did I enjoy eating it in the wrap, I enjoyed snacking on the leftovers.  It was strangely addictive.  And now here we are, with me officially converted.  For me, this particular combination and proportion of ingredients makes guac not only tolerable, but totally addictive.  I know everyone probably has their own particular version that they enjoy, and this is mine.  The lime juice and the salt totally make it for me.  We’ve been making it weekly for a while now and it’s the first thing we whip up when a snack attack hits.  What can I say?  I’m making up for lost time.

It’s spring break time for lots of people around the country, and for many, that means vacation time.  Yes, lots of people will enjoy cool beverages, possibly with a wedge of lime stuck into them or as a garnish on something frozen and fabulous.  Color me extremely jealous.  But, I’d prefer to make the best of the (bad?) situation and look on the bright side.  The weather, at least in our area, has been positively gorgeous.  We’ve been able to spend lots of time outside every single evening.  And, we can always ease the pain a little by making some bright and springy key lime pie cupcakes.  They have a graham cracker crust, fluffy vanilla cake with a touch of lime, lime curd filling, and rim of freshly whipped cream.  See?  I feel better already.

Now, before I had tasted the lime curd, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like these cupcakes due to my (apparently unfounded) bias against citrus curds.  However, after tasting the delicious key lime curd, I was intrigued.  Finally, the following day I was able to taste one of these cupcakes and I was very impressed.  They received great reviews from the coworkers as well, so I’d call them a hit for sure.  The curd is not as thick as most cupcake fillings so this is almost a plate-and-fork kind of cupcake…or you could just use my preferred method, and shove it in your mouth before you make a mess.  Whatever works.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may know that citrus items haven’t always been high up on the list of foods I enjoy, and citrus curds are darn near the bottom.  However, this key lime curd may have just converted me.  I originally made it for use in a cupcake (more about that tomorrow).  I ended up making far more than I actually needed for the cupcakes and was completely surprised when I found myself returning to the bowl to take just one more little taste…well, a lot of times.

If you already knew you liked citrus curds, then it’s not news to you that you can do so much with them – fill tartlets, top scones or muffins, stir into yogurt, fill layer cakes, or layer into trifles.  I’m sure there are plenty more uses that I haven’t even thought of.  I’ve made citrus curds quite a few times before and this is the best recipe I’ve tried, both in flavor and in ease of preparation.  So, whip up a batch today and tomorrow I’ll share a wonderful cupcake recipe to help use it up!