It’s my first Secret Recipe Club post!!!  I had been wanting to join the SRC for a while, but wasn’t sure that I met the posting requirements, because I don’t always post every week.  I also didn’t have a recipe index for a long time, so that is something that I have been working on.  I finally felt like the time was right and asked to join, and here I am with my first post!  Yay!

My assigned blog was Renee’s Kitchen Adventures, and I had such a great time looking through it.  Renee is a stay-at-home mom and former nurse (labor and delivery – what a special unit!), and her story reminded me a lot of my mother.  She talks about trying to be healthy and lose weight, and posts healthy recipes based on Weight Watchers points.  I, too, am trying to be healthy and lose weight, so I loved that about this blog.  Even though our ideas of what constitute healthy food are a bit different (I think fat is healthy), I think this blog will be a great resource and inspiration for me.  I also love how accessible and family friendly Renee’s recipes are.  I think I tend to only post about the really complicated stuff, which maybe isn’t so great.

As I was reading through Renee’s most recent recipes, I saw a lot that I wanted to try.  I love that she has a lot of s’mores recipes, and especially that she made s’mores krispy treats – because I did the same thing! I also really liked the sound of this Almond Joy Poke Cake made with coconut oil, coconut oil is the best!  She writes that she isn’t ashamed to use boxed cake mix as a shortcut, and I feel the same way!  I don’t post about them much, but I love to make poke cakes or dress up cake mix in other ways (pro tip: use 1 extra egg, milk instead of water, melted butter instead of oil).

I’ve been baking way more than usual lately, though, and what jumped out at me the most was this Creamy Lemon and Fresh Basil Chicken Salad.  It has been super hot and humid lately, so this is exactly the kind of thing I want to be eating right now. (more…)