The whole family will love breakfast or brunch with these delicious cornmeal pancakes filled with pineapple and a touch of coconut flavor! Pancakes are a breakfast favorite with kids, but these cornmeal pancakes give your family a new twist on a favorite by infusing the tropical flavors of pineapple and coconut. Check out this simple recipe for pineapple and coconut cornmeal pancakes for a wonderful weekend breakfast!

Pineapple Coconut Cornmeal Pancakes {Recipe}

Ingredients

• ¾ cup water
• ¼ cup cornmeal
• ½ cup cake flour
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup coconut cream
• ¼ cup crushed pineapple, fresh or canned & drained
• Butter or margarine
• Pancake syrup

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, bring water to boil and add the cornmeal, cooking 4-5 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add vanilla, eggs, and coconut cream. Mix well.
4. Add cooked cornmeal and pineapple.
5. Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Place a small amount of butter on the griddle and pour a spoonful of the pancake mixture onto the griddle (to desired size).
6. Cook pancake until the surface is full of bubbles, then flip it over until both sides are golden-brown.
7. Serve immediately with pancake syrup!

Jeannette Quiñones-Cantore is the CEO and founder of Sazón Boricua. She started her blog from Puerto Rico in 2008 to share recipes, advice and tips for the home. She collaborates with Qué Rica Vida, has been selected as a Top Bloguera by LATISM 2012, and is also the founder of Red Bloguera de Puerto Rico. You can follow Jeanette on Facebook, Twitter, or via her blog Sazón Boricua.

Photo © Jeannette Quiñones-Cantore

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Strawberries are in season for spring, so it’s a great time to buy them at lower prices than you might find the rest of the year. Strawberries are great for many recipes, like these strawberry and cream cheese pastelitos (a puff pastry dessert) you’re sure to love. We also love to make smoothies with strawberries – other than eating fresh strawberries, it’s probably one of our most preferred ways to eat strawberries. My girl absolutely loves smoothies – in fact, you can see our pineapple mango smoothie recipe I shared a while back!

One thing that does stop me from buying fresh strawberries more often is the fear of them spoiling before I can use them all; I just don’t like wasting fresh fruit. But, a little tip I learned is to freeze strawberries before they spoil and use them later, which is perfect for making smoothies! Since the strawberries are already cold, they really work well for mixing in smoothies. This helps so that I can take advantage of strawberry season and buy fresh strawberries from stores like Walmart.

Smoothies for an after-school snack or breakfast are perfect for kids. They’re easy to make, plus you can add a few fruits to get the most out of them and pack those vitamins in for the kids (or yourself). I love mixing strawberries with bananas for a strawberry banana smoothie, but recently I added mango in as well and we loved the flavor! Check out this simple, easy recipe for making your own strawberry, banana, and mango smoothie at home!

Tropical BananaBerry Smoothie Recipe: A Strawberry, Banana, Mango Fusion Kids Will Love!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups strawberries, sliced (fresh or previously frozen)
• 2 bananas, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup frozen mango chunks
• 1 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp honey

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend well until desired consistency is reached.
2. If you want smoothie to be less thick, simply add more milk and blend again.
3. Serve and enjoy!

I’d love to hear about your favorite smoothie flavor or if you have your own tip for fresh strawberries. Share in the comments below!

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

Cinco de Mayo is coming up and though this isn’t a holiday our family particularly celebrates, I know many of you may be looking for simple and easy recipes you can make to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with friends and family. A simple yet fun appetizer idea is to make empanadas! Empanadas are traditionally meat-filled patties you can eat as a snack or appetizer and are common to most Latin American and Caribbean cultures, though known by different names. In Puerto Rico, we typically call them pastelillos de carne, though parts of the island also call them empanadas.

Empanadas are most commonly filled with ground beef, though they can also be filled with chicken, crab meat, or cheese. Growing up in Puerto Rico, I also ate many pizza-filled pastelillos! For these Cinco de Mayo inspired empanadas, I decided to give my carne molida recipe a southwestern twist, making this the perfect appetizer for your Cindo de Mayo celebration! (Truly, these southwestern empanadas are a great appetizer idea for any occasion!) Check out the simple recipe below, with most ingredients easily found at Walmart!

Southwestern Empanadas Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 lbs ground beef
• 1 Tbsp adobo
• 3/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 Tbsp meat tenderizer
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Sazon, 1 packet
• 1 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 1/2 Tbsp tomato sauce
• 2 Tbsp sofrito (or recaito)
• 10-11 green olives (Spanish salad olives) + 1-2 tsp of olives’ liquid
• 2-3 small potatoes, peeled, rinsed, and cubed
• about 10 baby carrots, rinsed and chopped
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained
• Empanada discs, 1 package thawed per instructions

Note: To see pictures and links for some of the ingredients used, read 5 Must-Have Ingredients for Cooking Puerto Rican Food.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425° F.
2. Cook ground beef per this carne molida recipe (picadillo-style). You can leave the potatoes and carrots out, if you prefer.
3. Add black beans and corn.
4. Cover and continue cooking on low heat until black beans and corn are heated.
5. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and spray with cooking spray.
6. Line empanada discs on cookie sheet, leaving ample space between each one.
7. Fill each disc with ground beef mixture in the middle. It’s up to you how much filling you want to add – use your discretion so that it’s not over-filled, but so each empanada has enough filling when eating.
8. Fold each empanada disc half-way to make a half-moon shape and pinch closed with a fork around the edge.
9. Brush each empanada with olive oil and bake in preheated oven for about 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Serve with your favorite dip or sauce. I served these with this mango dipping sauce recipe I found.

What is your favorite appetizer recipe for special occasions?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

If you’re looking for simple recipes with ground beef, you may want to give this carne molida recipe a try. Carne molida is a Puerto Rican ground beef recipe that is similar to picadillo (a name that might be more familiar). However, Puerto Rican carne molida is slighty different than Cuban picadillo and is cooked with potatoes and carrots. They’re both delicious dishes, though!

I grew up eating carne molida and it’s still a regular part of my weekly menu plan. It’s such an easy ground beef recipe and it’s pretty versatile too, since you can use it as a filling for other foods. I love to eat it served over white rice as does my husband. Something I often do is substitute the ground beef with ground turkey to make my carne molida recipe a bit healthier. If you want to learn how to make the real deal, here’s my family’s recipe for carne molida!

Puerto Rican Carne Molida (Ground Beef) Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 lbs ground beef
• 1 Tbsp adobo
• 3/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 Tbsp meat tenderizer
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Sazón, 1 packet
• 1 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 1/2 Tbsp tomato sauce
• 2 Tbsp sofrito (or recaito)
• 10-11 green olives (Spanish salad olives) + 1-2 tsp of olive liquid
• 2-3 small potatoes, peeled, rinsed, and cubed
• about 10 baby carrots, rinsed and chopped

Note: To see pictures and links for some of the ingredients used, read 5 Must-Have Ingredients for Cooking Puerto Rican Food.

Directions

1. Season ground beef with adobo, black pepper, and meat tenderizer.
2. Heat a large pan to low-medium heat and add seasoned ground beef.
3. Add olive oil, sazón, tomato paste, tomato sauce, sofrito, green olives, cubed potatoes, and chopped carrots.
4. Cover pan and cook on low-medium heat until ground beef is browned, stirring occasionally.
5. Turn heat down to low and continue cooking until potatoes are tender and ground beef is well cooked. Stir occasionally.

Serve your carne molida with a side of white rice (or right on top of the rice as I prefer). Here’s an easy white rice recipe using a rice cooker!

What is your favorite recipe for ground beef? Have you ever tried carne molida or picadillo?

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

Rice is something I grew up eating nearly every night and it’s still a staple part of our nightly meals. Though we mix it up between white rice and yellow rice, white rice is super easy to make and requires little ingredients. My oldest daughter loves white rice, but hasn’t yet learned to love yellow rice, so I often make it for her. Though I know that white rice is easy to make, I also know that many people have a hard time cooking white rice. I often get asked, “How do you make rice?” and mostly get questions about how much water to add to the rice and how long to cook it. Even when using a rice cooker, it seems these questions remain for many.

My recipe for rice comes from my own mami, but I’ve adapted it for a rice cooker. I hope this white rice recipe helps many of you figure out how to cook white rice, plus trust me, it’s an easy and simple recipe. Here’s how you too can cook the perfect white rice in a rice cooker!

How to Cook the Perfect White Rice in a Rice Cooker

Ingredients

• 4 cups uncooked white rice
• 1 3/4 cups water
• 3 Tbsp vegetable cooking oil
• 1-2 Tbsp salt

Directions

1. Pour the uncooked white rice into the pot of your rice cooker and rinse the rice. (If you’re not familiar with how to rinse or clean your rice, it just means that you run it under water a couple of times and pick out the dark grains, pebbles, etc.)
2. Once you’re done rinsing the rice, be sure to drain out all the water used for rinsing.
3. Add 1 3/4 cups fresh water, the cooking oil, and salt.
4. Cover the pot and turn on your rice cooker.
5. You do not have to stir the rice when making rice cooker rice, but I find that if I stir it just once mid-way through, it helps the rice fluff up more.
6. Cook white rice for about 40 minutes total to be sure it’s not grainy or dry.

Do you often cook white rice?

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

Pastelitos have always been a favorite pastry dessert of mine, especially pastelitos de guayaba. We actually call them pastelillos in Puerto Rico, but they’re more commonly known as pastelitos in most Latin American countries. This delicious puff pastry dessert can come with a variety of fillings, but guayaba (guava) is one of the most common, as is guava combined with cream cheese. Now, I’ve never made them myself – we’ve always just bought them from a bakery – but, I’ve been wanting to try my friend Marta’s recipe for homemade pastelitos de guayaba for a while!

As Spring is in full effect, I wanted to take advantage of spring produce and seasonal fruits to recreate this pastry dessert. With local grocery stores, such as Walmart, known to carry lots of strawberries in spring, I knew it would be the perfect fruit to make pastelitos a favorite dessert for spring. Using Marta’s base recipe and method for homemade pastelitos, I modified it to create delicious strawberry and cream cheese pastelitos! Read on to see how easy it is to make this puff pastry yourself!

Strawberry and Cream Cheese Pastelitos (Pastries)

Ingredients

• Strawberries (about 15 medium)
• Puff Pastry Sheets (2), thawed according to package directions
• Cream Cheese, softened
• Sugar or Splenda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and spray with cooking spray.
3. Cut strawberries into quarters, removing the stems. The idea is to cut the strawberries into small enough pieces so they’ll be easy to mash.
4. In a small bowl, hand mash the strawberries using a potato masher or similar tool.
5. Add sugar (or Splenda) to taste and set aside.
6. Lay one puff pastry sheet on the cookie sheet.
7. Spread cream cheese evenly on puff pastry sheet.
8. Drain your strawberry mixture to reduce the amount of liquid and spread over cream cheese.
9. Place the remaining puff pastry sheet on top.
10. Cut into 9 squares, following the natural segments of the puff pastry sheets.
11. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
12. Remove from oven and let pastelitos cool down before enjoying!

What is one of your favorite spring recipes?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

This Italian-style roasted chicken recipe is one of the few recipes that can be prepared with a meal budget of $20 for a family of four. Including all the necessary ingredients you’ll need for this tasty chicken meal, you’ll still be able to meet your budget! I also took advantage of the heated oven and roasted some vegetables: carrots sliced wide (1/2 inch), an onion, fennel (bulb), and two medium potatoes, with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt.

Italian-Style Roasted Chicken {Recipe}

Serves 4
Cooking time: 1 hour & 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (about 3 1/2 lbs)
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 Tbsp oregano, crushed
• 1 Tbsp basil, crushed
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp thyme, crushed
• ½ tsp rosemary
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tsp butter

Note: You can substitute the oregano, basil, thyme, and rosemary with 2 tablespoons of Italian seasoning.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 ° F.
2. Combine the vinegar, oil, lemon juice, oregano, basil, garlic, salt, thyme, rosemary, and pepper in a small bowl. Divide the herb mixture in half.
3. Rinse the inside of your chicken and pat dry. Slip your fingers between the skin and the breast meat, adding half of the herb mixture with a spoon into the pocket that forms to separate the meat from the skin.
4. Add butter in between the skin and breast meat as well.
5. Season remainder of chicken (including over the skin), with the remaining half of the herb mixture.
6. If you want, you can tie the legs of the chicken with a cord. (optional)
7. Marinate in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
8. Place chicken, breast side up, on a rack or pan and roast for 1 hour and 30 minutes in your preheated oven.
9. Remove chicken from oven. Cover with foil and let stand 10 minutes before carving.

Jeannette Quiñones-Cantore is the CEO and founder of Sazón Boricua. She started her blog from Puerto Rico in 2008 to share recipes, advice and tips for the home. She collaborates with Qué Rica Vida, has been selected as a Top Bloguera by LATISM 2012, and is also the founder of Red Bloguera de Puerto Rico. You can follow Jeanette on Facebook, Twitter, or via her blog Sazón Boricua.

Photo © Jeannette Quiñones-Cantore

Cooking dinner sometimes means you have to be a little creative. Though I often cook much of the Puerto Rican food I grew up eating, it’s not all I cook! I love cooking (and eating) pasta, as well – in all forms. One dish my family has come to love is an Asian-inspired noodle recipe, which you can cook with beef (our favorite), chicken, or pork. You could also make this a vegetarian dish and leave out the meat altogether!

This teriyaki beef & vegetable noodle recipe is easy to make, uses little ingredients, and best of all, cooks rather fast. You can easily cook this when you get home from work (or after a long day with the kids), and if you have pre-cut vegetables, it’ll take even less time! I’m sure you’ll be adding teriyaki beef & vegetable noodles to your dinner menu plan from now on!

Teriyaki Beef & Vegetable Noodles {Recipe}

Ingredients

• Salt
• Olive oil
• Thin-cut steak, cut into strips and seasoned to your liking (you can substitute with chicken, pork, or leave meat out for a vegetarian version)
• Linguine noodles, 1 16 oz. package
• Teriyaki sauce
• Soy sauce
• Broccoli, washed and cut into florets
• Carrots, washed and cut into strips (I like to buy baby carrots that are already peeled and cut them in quarters length-wise.)

Directions

1. Add water to a large pot, salt to your liking and bring to a boil.
2. Heat a medium pan to medium heat. You can use a pan such as these non-stick Rachael Ray skillets I reviewed.
3. Add olive oil, and swirl pan to coat the bottom.
4. Add pre-seasoned steak and let it brown, stirring occasionally.
5. When water in pot comes to a boil, add package of linguine noodles and cook per package directions.
6. As steak browns and is nearly cooked all the way, lower heat to low-medium.
7. Add teriyaki sauce and soy sauce to steak. You want to add enough to create a sauce that will blend with the noodles.
8. When noodles have about 3 minutes of cooking time left, add broccoli and carrots to pot with noodles.
9. Let broccoli and carrots cook with noodles until noodles are ready to drain.
10. Drain noodles, broccoli, and carrots and return to pot.
11. Add steak and sauce mixture to pot with noodles and vegetables.
12. Mix well and serve.

Enjoy your teriyaki beef & vegetable noodles and have fun with the recipe! You can switch out the meats, as I mentioned, and also trade out the vegetables for your family’s favorites. Let me know what you think if you make it!

Every once in a while we like to have fun and make treats – for the kids and ourselves, because let’s face it, we like eating ice cream and cookies too! That’s why I’m loving these Pop-Tarts Cookies & Creme Ice Cream Sandwiches my husband came up with. They are super simple to make, delicious, and make for a fun treat to enjoy with the kids! The inspiration came about because Walmart asked us to come up with a fun recipe using Pop-Tarts, something I had never thought to do. I’m used to eating Pop-Tarts right out of the box, though it’s been a really long time since I had some.

You can serve these Pop-Tarts either chilled, warm, or room-temperature (straight from the packet). When combined with ice cream, it really makes for a scrumptious at-home ice cream night. Take a look and check out this easy recipe for Pop-Tarts Cookies & Creme Ice Cream Sandwiches, using only 3 ingredients!

Pop-Tarts Cookies & Creme Ice Cream Sandwiches

*Serves 2

Ingredients

• Pop-Tarts Cookies & Creme, 1 packet (2 Pop-Tarts)
• Cookies & Cream ice cream
• Hot fudge syrup (optional)

Directions

1. Cut each Pop-Tart in half and place one half on a plate.
2. Place one scoop of ice cream on top of the Pop-Tart.
3. Place the other half of the Pop-Tart on top.
4. Heat hot fudge per directions and using a spoon or fork, drizzle hot fudge over your Pop-Tarts ice cream sandwich. (Optional)

Isn’t that so easy? My girl loved helping me put her Pop-Tarts Cookies & Creme Ice Cream Sandwich together, and of course, she and her brother thought they were delicious! You can also use any combination of Pop-Tarts and ice cream flavor you like – there’s lots of Pop-Tarts flavors to choose from!

What is one of your family’s favorite treats to eat?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

I’ve always loved eating flan, but had never made flan myself. The process of making flan intimated me and I always thought it was super complicated. When REESE’S recently challenged us Walmart Moms to create a fun recipe for their Baking Bracket Challenge, I thought of making flan. I didn’t want to make cookies or cupcakes, since I knew there are already many variations that use REESE’S. So, I figured this would be a good chance to dive in and try something new – plus the idea of chocolate, peanut butter, and flan (all together) sounded spectacular!

I’m happy to report that my chocolate peanut butter flan came out just as delicious as I imagined. After a little mistake with the sugar on my first try, I got the hang of the flan process by the second time. I have to tell you, I was so happy with how my very first flan ever came out that I literally jumped up and down!

If you want to try your hand at making flan, here is the recipe I submitted to REESE’S Baking Bracket Challenge: Free Throw Flan, a REESE’S Chocolate Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Flan. Be sure to also check out the video below to learn more about REESE’S Baking Bracket Challenge and how you can vote for your favorite recipe and enter to win a daily prize of a $100 Walmart gift card!

REESE’S Chocolate Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Flan (Free Throw Flan) {Recipe}

Skill Level: Intermediate
Servings: 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
• 6 eggs
• 1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
• 1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 8 REESE’S Peanut Butter Cups (full size)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pour the sugar into a saucepan and caramelize it on low-medium heat until golden. You’ll want to watch this process carefully so the sugar won’t burn and become too brown. You can swirl the pan as it caramelizes, but do not stir or it will clump up.
3. Once the sugar is caramelized and golden-brown, pour the caramel into a 9 or 9 1/2 in. round baking pan with at least 2-inch sides. Swirl the caramel so it coats the bottom of the entire pan. (If it starts to harden before you are able to coat the entire bottom, don’t worry. It will redistribute later while baking.)
4. Mix the cream cheese in a large bowl with an electric mixer (on low-medium) until smooth.
5. Add the eggs and mix again until blended.
6. Add the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla. Mix again until blended and smooth.
7. Mash the REESE’S Peanut Butter Cups into small pieces with a fork to get them crumbly. Add to mixture and mix again until blended. You will see some chunks, but try your best to get the REESE’S Peanut Butter Cups blended as much as possible with the rest of mixture.
8. Pour mixture into caramelized pan, being careful not to overfill your pan. (Some mixture may be leftover.)
9. Cover pan with foil and place entire pan into a large roasting pan or deep baking pan.
10. Pour hot water into the outer baking pan, being careful not to get any water inside your flan. You’ll want to pour enough water so that it comes to about the middle point of the inner pan.
11. Place in the oven and bake for about 1 hour, until knife comes out clean.
12. Once done, carefully go around the edge of the pan and slightly under the flan with a knife to loosen. Invert flan onto a large plate.
13. Let flan refrigerate at least 1 hour so it can set and serve cold. It just tastes better that way!

What type of flan do you like the most?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™