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28 Lemon Desserts Your Family Will Love

Lemon dessert recipes are perfect for year-round gatherings and conversations among family and friends!

Want to inspire your sweet tooth?

Lemon Dessert Recipes

1. This No Fail Lemon Blueberry Poke Cake uses homemade blueberry jam and lemon Jello Instant Pudding to make this incredible dessert! Crystal & Co.

2. These Lemon Meringue Cupcakes from my sweet friend Patty are a must try!! The PKP Way

3. Make these Lemon Brownies with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest for a beautiful treat. The Taylor House

4. This Italian Lemon Pound Cake is the perfect combination of sweet and soft. My Recipe Confessions

5. You won’t be able to have just one of these amazing Lemon Curd Cookies! Mad About Kitchen

6. Check out this Lemon 7Up Cake made totally from scratch. So good! My Incredible Recipes

7. This Lemon Cheesecake Mousse is so light and fluffy for an any time summer dessert. Cooking Classy

8. This recipe for Lemon Blossoms is divine and they have glazed topping. Lil’ Luna

9. Want pie in a bar? These Blueberry Lemon Pie Bars are perfect! Fresh April Flours

10. This recipe for Lemon Bars is super easy and the lemon flavor is so good too. Oh My Sprinkles!

11. These Lemon Gooey Butter Cookies are incredible and literally melt in your mouth. Small Town Woman

12. Try these Lemon Crinkle Cookies made with fresh lemon juice for your next cookie party! LDS Living

13. If you are crunched on calories then try out these Greek Yogurt Lemon Bars that are lower in calories. Sally’s Baking Addiction

14. If you love lava cake this Lemon Lava Cake is you soon to be new favorite! Dixie Crystals

15. Making magic in a dessert is done with a Lemon Magic Cake that is absolutely refreshing. Jo Cooks

16. Fluffy layers and crumb topping make up this Lemon Cheesecake Crumb Cake. Crunchy Creamy Sweet

17. I so remember these Lemon Cooler Cookies from childhood with a powdery outside. Uncommon Designs

18. This Lemon Cake Roll is cake perfectly wrapped in a roll. Yummy! Crazy For Crust

19. These bright and sunny Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins are the best for breakfast or a light snack. OMG Chocolate Desserts

20. If you love lemonade you will adore this Lemonade Cake with a delicious cream frosting. Cookies and Cups

lemon dessert recipes

21. A wonderful citrus lemon flavor makes up this Lemon Fudge perfect for summer. Through Clouded Glass

22. This Lemon Meringue Pie is such a classic dessert that is both rich and lush. Spend With Pennies

23. Check out this Lemon Loaf that is tangy and drenched in wonderful lemon flavor. Willow Bird Baking

24. Your kiddos will love this take on Lemon Supreme Rice Krispie Treats. Sweet As A Cookie

25. Make these Lemon Cheesecake Cupcakes that work perfectly as small individual treats. The Flying Couponer

26. These Lemon Cream Scones are a delightfully light, bright, and sweet. Food Fanatic

27. These Lemon Oreo Truffles are bound to be a new found obsession. Simply Kierste

28. This Lemon Lush Dessert is light and creamy with pudding. Yum! Cupcake Diaries

29. With layers of cookie crust and lemon cheesecake you will be in heaven with these Lemon Cheesecake Bars. Shugary Sweets

What lemon dessert scream summer for you? Share your ideas!

Going Camping Soon?

Check out our 30 camping recipes!

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24 Meal Prep Must Haves

By Crystal VanTassel-Lopez Leave a Comment

Have you thought of meal planning? It is seriously the secret to kitchen success! No matter the size of your family you can accomplish feeding your family with little prep. After all families just want dinner around the table. These meal planning must haves are what we like to keep on hand when assembling freezer meals.

Meal Planning Must Haves

1. A Sharpie is a necessity for labeling the meals you prep so you know what is in the freezer.

2. Make sure you have gallon size freezer bags on hand for storing your meals.

3. A roll of foil is great for covering throw away casserole dishes tightly.

4. Some recipes may need parchment paper to prevent sticking when cooking.

5. Freezer bag holders work for assembly but also soups, sauces, and other chopped favorites.

6. We love this collapsible colander that works wonders for rinsing veggies and fruits prior to assembly.

7. If you run short on time you can defrost just about anything in a jiffy with a thaw board.

8. These freezer casserole dishes are just right for casseroles and such and they work well in the freezer with no worry for shattering.

9. Meal Prep Containers are great if you assembling smaller portions for smaller families or just a quick easy meal.

10. Glad Ovenware is a disposable option for freezer meal assembly.

11. When prepping you have to have measuring cups and measuring spoons help for adding all the right ingredients.

12. A slow cooker is a saving grace for whipping up those meals you have assembled.

13. My instant pot is the quickest and easiest way to cook in no time.

14. Having a good sized stock pot on hand makes for boiling things up pretty easy.

15. We love these baking sheets for those delicious sheet pan dinners!

16. Keep mixing bowls counter top for mixing marinades and veggies.

17. We love these cutting boards for assembling because they have handy labels for what they are used for.

18. A set of sharp knives makes for chopping super simple!

19. If you are storing away seasoned meat or other items use a Foodsaver to make things freezer friendly.

20. Having a kitchen timer on hand is wonderful for keeping track of multiple tasks while you are prepping.

21. We like to precook ground beef and other things in a saute pan prior to assembly.

22. You can shred, chop, and puree just about anything when using a food processor like this one.

23. If you are measuring out foods for healthy reasons or precision a kitchen scale is perfect!

24. Slow cooker liners are easy to use for cooking and keep your crockpot clean.

We have been working hard every month to create a monthly meal plan that stock piles the freezer with easy meals families love. Each month brings something new and exciting. Join us over in our Get Dinner On The Table group on Facebook for lots of other meal ideas, tips, and humor!

You can see all of the make ahead freezer meal plans, It is definitely something you aren’t going to want to miss!

More Meal Planning Ideas:

The 6 Week Freezer Meal Plan

30 Recipes To Make When You Go Camping

Homemade Peach Cobbler

By Crystal VanTassel-Lopez Leave a Comment

If you’re on the hunt for peach recipes, I have the perfect one for you!

We love a good cobbler recipe. To me, peach cobbler is a classic dessert the screams SUMMER!

I love a good homemade peach cobbler, just like this one. Let me show you just how easy it is to make.

First, gather up your ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 (28-ounce) can peach pie filling
12cup fresh peaches sliced
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 cups self-rising flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Next, melt 1/2 stick of butter and use it to grease the bottom and sides of a 13×9 baking dish.

Melt 1/2 stick butter and grease 13×9 inch baking dish.

Pour the canned peaches into the greased pan.

Next, slice and pit your fresh peaches.

Once sliced, dice up the peach slices.

Place the fresh peaches over the pie filling in the 13×9 inch baking dish.

Sprinkle the brown sugar over the peach mixtures.

Then, in a large mixing bowl, combine the granulated sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, flour, vanilla and milk.

Combine well and then distribute it evenly over the peaches in the dish.

Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden.

We love to serve peach cobbler warm with cold vanilla bean ice cream. The cold ice cream and the warm cobbler are the perfect combination!

Just thinking about it makes my mouth water!

Crockpot Cobbler

Did you know you can also make cobbler in the slow cooker? Here is our Crockpot Blueberry Cobbler which is a great alternative when you don’t want to heat up the kitchen!

Peach Recipes

Looking for more peach recipes? Use up those ripe peaches and make some peach jam!

What is your favorite summertime dessert? I would love to know!

Large Family Meal Planning Week 247

By Crystal VanTassel-Lopez Leave a Comment

Let me just say…. I cannot fire the grill up enough this time of year.

It is hot, hot, hot here in Texas. Cooking in the kitchen, especially using the oven, can be felt pretty much instantly this time of year.

You know how I make sure I get dinner on the table each night for my family? It’s all about being prepared. I spend thirty minutes to an hour mapping everything out for the week, then I place my grocery order online, then it is just a matter of defrosting and I am steps ahead for dinner!

This is what large family meal planning looks like at my house. We are using the grill and the slow cooker this week.

Large Family Meal Planning

Cheesy Stuffed Hamburger Patties– these are going to be amazing. Tossing them on the grill and serving with chips and fresh fruit. The patties are already assembled in the freezer- they are from our June freezer meal menu. I just have to defrost and grill.

Turkey Swiss Sliders– I am going to do these on the grill. I will either cook them in foil packs of 2-4 sliders each OR put them in a baking dish and cover in foil and toss the while pan on the grill. Served with chips and fruit.

BBQ Chicken and Pineapple Kabobs– these are also in the freezer and ready to go- skewers assembled and all. These are also from our June freezer meal plan. Serve with Instant Pot brown rice and a side salad.

Grilled Catalina Chicken Breasts– I still have some Zaycon chicken breasts in the freezer and I have a decent side container of Catalina dressing left in the fridge. I am going to serve this with mac and cheese and a side salad for the kids. For my husband and I we will serve this over a large salad. Love doing this with grilled chicken!

Grilled Salsa Chicken– This is super easy! I am going to marinate chicken breasts in my favorite salsa. I will grill these and then the last few minutes of grilling I will add cheese slices to the breasts, which will melt. SUPER YUMMY! (This can easily be done in the oven if you prefer.) I will serve this with tortillas and black beans.

Seven GRILLING Freezer Meal Plan

It is not too late to get our June freezer meal plan. This meal plan include seven freezer meal recipes, assembly instructions and a shopping list, which makes it perfect for July as well! To make grocery shopping easy, I purchase all of my groceries online at Walmart. If you use my link, you get $10 off your first order of $30 or more!!

Online Meal Planning Class

Have you done your meal planning for the week? Spend thirty minutes to an hour planning your week out and I promise you dinner time will be so much easier! Let me know if you would be interested in a one hour online class that teaches you how to meal plan. The class would cost $5.00 and you would get a video of me teaching you my five step process as well as printables that will walk you through the process. Click here if you would be interested and it will add you to our waitlist.

Instant Pot Beef Rotel Dip

By Crystal VanTassel-Lopez Leave a Comment

One thing we love to make for a family movie night, to go with taco night or bring to a holiday gathering is Rotel Dip with Ground Beef.

There are so many ways to make this, but have you ever tried using your Instant Pot? Sometimes you have every burner occupied on the stove, the slow cooker is full as well and you just need an alternative. Instant Pot Beef Rotel Dip is super easy and can all be done in one pot. I think you will love it!

First gather up all of your ingredients. You’re going to love that you can brown your ground beef right inside your Instant Pot using the saute feature!

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef
1 T olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 tbsp. taco seasoning
10 oz can Rotel with green chilis
32 oz bar of Velveeta Cheese

Directions:

Turn Instant Pot on saute and wait until it gets hot.

Add the olive oil to the bottom of your cooker insert.

Add the ground beef, your taco seasoning, Rotel, and onions and cook together until no longer pink.

What I love about Rotel is that it comes in different variations of heat. You can get mild, regular or hot.

Cut the Velveeta into cubes and add it to the insert evenly.

No need to stir.

Put the lid on your pressure cooker and ensure the vent is on sealed.

Cook on manual high pressure for 4 minutes.

When the timer goes off, move the vent to quick release.

Open the pot once the release is over and stir the cheese to combine well.

It will be smooth and creamy.

Look at how delicious this is!

We like to serve it with tortilla chips. We dip.

You can cover your chips and use it as nacho cheese.

You can serve this inside burritos or smother over tour cooked chicken breasts.

So many uses and just delicious!

Enjoy!

More Beef Recipes:

Here is how you can make Rotel with ground beef in the microwave:

Have you ever made Picadillo in the Instant Pot?

10 Lemonade Stand Ideas Your Kids Will Love

By Crystal VanTassel-Lopez 14 Comments

I know what your kids want to do this weekend. They want to make a lemonade stand!

The weekend is the perfect time to get the entire family involved to build an awesome lemonade stand.

Summer activities for kids like this are great for teaching life skills as well as DIY skills.

Here is a list of 10 lemonade stand ideas kids can make and create.

10 Lemonade Stand Ideas You Can Make With Your Kids

Lolly Jane took a lemonade stand she found at a garage sale and spruced it up with fabric for a homemade sewn awning, added some paint and even added a chalkboard area for writing the price. Great idea for a lemonade stand on a budget.
Apartment Therapy shared a deluxe version of a lemonade stand. Super cool and reminds of a barn. The skill level is intermediate and you can make it in a weekend. Once you get to her site you can click-through and view the step by step tutorial over on Lowes website where they featured it.
Build a Dream has a lemonade stand for those who are on a budget and not DIY handy. This cardboard stand is adorable!
Easy Homemade Lemonade from Happy Hooligans is what you should serve!
Hostess with the Mostess has a fancy lemonade stand that is perfect for indoors, a bit fancy and also doubles as a dessert table.
Love this canopy table top lemonade stand from an awesome DIY blogger.
Accessorize and Organize shares how to make a lemonade stand from pallets. Lots of step by step pics!
I Know the Plans I have For You shares a natural wood lemonade stand and printables and easy decoration ideas for the stand. (Love the coffee filter flowers for decorating it up!)
Restless Risa shares the cutest lemonade stand made from a thrifted table and spray paint. I LOVE this one!
Simply Inspired shares a cute wooden DIY lemonade stand. I love the wooden awning that she made and how she used a large chalkboard as part of the main attraction for the stand.

Do you have plans to make a lemonade stand this summer? Which one is your favorite?

More Activities for Kid:

Over 80 Summer Activities for Kids

25 Road Trip Activities for Kids of all Ages

Large Family Meal Planning Week 246

By Crystal VanTassel-Lopez Leave a Comment

The Texas heat is catching up with us and I refuse to heat up my kitchen! This is the time of year I cook in the slow cooker, Instant Pot and out on the grill as much as possible.

If you’re looking for large family meal planning recipes, you’ve come to the right place.

Here is what I am feeding my family of eight this week.

Large Family Meal Planning

Cilantro Lime Chicken– served this over salad. The teen sliced his and made a sandwich with it. Grilled chicken is super versatile.

Hasselback Fajita Chicken– served this in tortillas. So good!!! Instead of making beans as a side, I did 2 cups of water (you could use broth) to 1 c of quinoa. Tossed in half a packet of taco seasoning and a can of rinsed and drained black beans. It was awesome and filling!

Grilled BBQ Chicken– I have a huge jar of Stubbs BBQ sauce I need to use up. I used about 1/3 of it when we did our freezer meal assembly at the end of June. BBQ chicken is so flexible and easy to manipulate. For the grown ups (and anyone else who wants to) we will slice it up and put it over a salad. The kids will eat it with mac and cheese and fresh fruit. I will cook legs and breasts.

Chicken Nachos– using up leftover chicken from the week. These are always a hit at our house.

Grilled Cheese and Chips– one of my 12 year old twins loves to cook these. This will be his night to cook!

Plan Ahead Freezer Meals

I just can’t say it enough, freezer meal planning pay off!

Many of the recipes from this week’s meal plan are from our June freezer meal assembly. We assembled seven meals in less than an hour and stuck them in the freezer.

Then, all I have to do is thaw and cook. All the hard work is already done.

Check out our latest freezer meal assembly to see just how easy it was.

Here are the seven simple recipes we made and this meal plan is all grill friendly recipes.

Amazing Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

By Crystal VanTassel-Lopez 19 Comments

I am an ice cream kind of gal, but this time of year it melts so fast.

I am so excited to share this delicious treat with you. Let me introduce to you ice cream cone cupcakes! These sweet treats just scream CELEBRATE! And no worrying about the “ice cream” melting!

They are the perfect personal size dessert and are easy to make for gatherings, parties, or just because.

Let me show you how simple these are to make.

One batch of the best cupcake recipe ever. You can create chocolate or vanilla cupcakes with this recipe. I have literally used this cupcake recipe for years.

It’s worth it! Trust me.

We used these gold cupcake liners.

When you make these, ensure you only fill your cupcake liners no more than 3/4 of the way with batter. We need room once they rise to add our ice cream and cone later!

Once the cupcakes are done cool them 100% and then it’s time to make the ice cream-ish frosting! It’s amazing!

Confetti Ice Cream-ish Frosting Ingredients:

1 C unsalted sweet cream butter, softened
4-5 C powdered sugar
1/4 C heavy whipping cream
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 C rainbow confetti sprinkles (choose sprinkles that match your party theme)
Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers
1 squeeze bottle
sugar ice cream cone
Maraschino cherries

Using a standing mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until it is creamy.

Mix in the powdered sugar, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla extract until it is combined well and smooth.

If the frosting is to thin, mix in 1/4 C more of powdered sugar. If it’s too thick you can add in 1 tablespoon of heavy whipping cream at a time.

Now you’re going to fold in the sprinkles.

Once everything is combined and mixed well, you can use an ice cream scooper to scoop a round heaping of the funfetti ice cream-ish frosting on top of the cupcake.

Using a microwave safe bowl, melt the Ghirardelli chocolate in the microwave, one minute at a time. Stir and add back to the microwave until it is nice and smooth.

Put the melted chocolate into a squeeze bottle.

Pipe the chocolate onto the frosting to look like fudge using the squeeze bottle. Super easy!

Sprinkle some confetti sprinkles onto the chocolate and top with a ice cream cone.

Add a cherry, too!

Enjoy!

More Cupcake Recipes We Love:

These Oreo Cookie Cupcakes are amazing!

Homemade Carpet Freshener That Kills Fleas

By Crystal VanTassel-Lopez 45 Comments

I can’t possibly be the only person on the planet with some carpet areas in their house. Am I?

You have no idea how badly I want to get rid of the carpet. I would love to have hardwood floors throughout our house. Right now we have “fake” hardwood in the kitchen and dining area.

One of the reasons I want to get rid of the carpet is because I think it is gross and it holds nasty smells, in my opinion.

I am going to show you an easy (and safe way) to freshen any room and your carpet.

A cool bonus- this will kill fleas! We don’t have fleas (that I am aware of) but we do have a dog so this is a great precaution.

You Will Need:

Mason jar and lid
nail or screw
hammer
1/2 c baking soda
1/2 c food grade diatomaceous earth (or you can use Borax, but it is not as safe)
10 drops Purification essential oil

Assemble the jar with the lid on it.

Use the hammer and screw to tap a circle of holes into the lid as illustrated below.

Add the food grade diatomaceous earth and the baking soda to the jar.

all natural carpet freshner that kills fleas

Grab your essential oil. You could use peppermint, lavender or any scent you want. I chose Purification because of it’s purifying properties.

I buy essential oil online. I only use therapeutic grade because there are no synthetics or perfumes added.

Add 10 drops of the oil and use a spoon to stir it up.

And there you have it.

Pop the lid back on the jar and shake the freshener onto your carpet.

It all vacuums right up. And, that diatomaceous earth (or borax) will kill any fleas in your carpet!

homemade carpet freshner using essential oils

Going Camping Soon?

Make meal time easy while you’re on your camping trip. Check out our instant download with 30 camping recipes that are perfect for your trip. These include breakfast, main meals (dinner/lunch) and desserts!