Tropical Fruit Coconut Pizza Recipe with Dole and Safeway

Getting my son to consistently eat anything is a challenge. He will love something all week then tell me "yucky" the next week when I give him the same thing. I have found I need to be creative in serving him the same items in a different way. Fruit is one of my favorite things, even my mom knows green grapes will cheer me up any day! My son is a bit more picky about the fruit he eats. He seems to like berries, pineapples and bananas. Thankfully they are all healthy for him. I have been finding new recipes online looking for ways to give my son the fruit servings he needs but in new fun ways.

We get the Sunday paper every week for the coupons, being a frugal mom I love to save money. I think even if I won the lotto I would still use coupons! Who does not like to save money right?!? lol

I found a great coupon for Dole Tropical Canned Fruit that had a recipe on the coupon insert. I often make meals or desserts from recipes I find in coupon inserts. Its easy to have the ingredients list and coupon all on one paper. The Dole coupon had a recipe for Tropical Coconut Pizza. I was intrigued by the pizza part, my first thought was classic pizza, but then I read the recipe to realize it would be a creamy fluffy dessert pizza.

We went shopping at Safeway for the ingredients for our dessert for later in the week. We made plans for a few friends to come over and play video games and I thought it would be the perfect time to share my Tropical Coconut Pizza. I like shopping at Safeway for the Just for U savings that I can combined with my paper coupons. I save a lot of money shopping at Safeway and they always have friendly checkers.

We needed a few other items at the store along with the ingredients. I even grabbed a product new to me, Dole Aguas Frescas Watermelon. There was a $1 off coupon and on sale for $2. Awesome to get a juice with no HFCS in it for just a dollar!

A few days later I made the Dole Tropical Pizza for my family and friends. I started the Pizza Crust part of the recipe in the morning so it could freeze for a few hours. 

Tropical Coconut Pizza

Freeze: 4 hr.

Prep: 20 min.

1 container (8 oz.) cream cheese with pineapple, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup thawed whipped topping
1/2 cup flaked coconut, toasted
1 can (15.25 oz.) DOLE® Tropical Fruit, drained
1 cup sliced DOLE Strawberries
1 kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced

Makes: 8 servings

Beat cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Fold in whipped topping and coconut.

Line baking sheet with waxed paper. Spread cream cheese mixture into 8-inch circle, on
baking sheet, building up sides slightly with back of spoon. Freeze 4 hours or until firm.

Place cream cheese crust on serving plate. Garnish crust with additional toasted coconut, if
desired. Arrange tropical fruit, strawberries and kiwi on crust. Serve immediately.

Set out the Cream Cheese for about 30 minutes before you plan to make this recipe to make it easier to mix with the pineapple. The recipe from Dole calls for Cream Cheese with Pineapple. I could not find any in my local store so I purchased plain cream cheese and added 3/4 cup drained Dole crushed pineapple. I toasted my coconut in the oven on 250 degrees on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes. (make sure to check it often to not burn it.) I also set out the whipped topping from the freezer on the counter for the 15 minutes while I was toasting the coconut.

 After mixing the pineapple, cream cheese and sugar I folded in the whipped topping with the toasted coconut. I love coconut and pineapple together. SO good! (just this mix alone with the Dole pineapple would be delicious for putting between some cookies and freezing them.YUM!)

 The recipe says to put the mix out on a cookie sheet to place in the freezer. For my recipe I used two pie tins. To be able to create a nice tall crust for my pizza and my cookie sheet was too big for the space I had in my freezer.

This little guy was keeping me busy while I waited for the tropical pizza crust to be ready. He makes a soft pile with pillows, blankets and stuffed animals everyday. Hes like a little animal!

I placed them into the freezer to wait the 4 hours. While I was waiting I cleaned the house in preparation for a few friends coming over to play some video games with my husband and son. I loaded the dishwasher and washing machine, vacuumed the house, fed my son his favorite Tyson Dino chicken nuggets and veggie tots for lunch, checked emails then watched a Cat in the Hat cartoon with my son before we picked up all his toys in the living room. When the 4 hours had gone by I was so ready to try the Dole Tropical Fruit Coconut Pizza!

After the tropical pizza crusts were ready I opened the can of Dole Tropical Fruit, Dole Strawberry cups, sliced the kiwi and toasted more coconut for the top of the crust (I love a lot of coconut). I used a butter knife around the edge of my pie tins to get the crust out, I turned it onto a plate tapped the bottom and it fell onto the plate, using another plate I turned the crust right side up to be able to use. This was easy and made it so I did not break the crust while getting it out of the tin. (The same as getting a cake out of a pan.)

I added extra coconut to the top of my crust. You can add it on top of your fruit as well. I wanted to have a bit of a crunch under the soft fruit.

My finished Dole Tropical Coconut Pizza #tropicalfruit

Thankfully I made two Dole Tropical Coconut Pizzas. I knew my son would grab the fruit as soon as I put it on the table. He loves strawberries! He even put his face into it so he could lick the sweet crust. There was a few oh wow and yummy comments from him. Just like any pizza he has, he picked off toppings before he took a bite of the whole thing. #tropicalfruit

 Just as he climbed onto the table to get me to continue letting him lick the pizza our friends arrived for dessert and video games. My son and I shared the one he licked lol and I sliced up and served the other one for everyone else.

 I love how this Dole Tropical Coconut Pizza turned out. Its sweet to eat and beautiful to look at. I can see us making this again using other fruit toppings too. Using the pie tin gave the pizza a nice tall crust.

You can find more Recipes from Dole on their website. They have all sorts of recipes that I want to make. I have seen a few other bloggers make a turkey burger with Dole Pineapple rings that look delicious! You can read my Google+ story about my shopping trip to Safeway and see how silly my kid gets when we go shopping.

*I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Dole #CBias #SocialFabric #tropicalfruit All opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own.

Another Fun State Fair Trip

Our friends invited us to go to the State Fair one more time before it ended. We could not resists an opportunity to see the animals, the gardens, the food, the smells of it all. There is something wonderful about the CA state fair that makes me love it. Sharing it with my son is priceless! He talks up a storm when we go, Naming all the animals and telling me what they say. Pointing out the babies, mommies and daddies he sees. Laughing at things I am not sure why he thinks are funny. And running around like he is a track star. I am still exhausted a few days later! I had to share some of his cute pictures with everyone. My boy is a wild child but so darn cute!!

LEGO® Brickation at Lake Tahoe CA Heavenly Village Event and Prize Pack Giveaway #LegoBrickation

LEGO is such a well known name. What kid has not played with a set, what Mom has not stepped on one while cleaning or accidentally sucked one up in a vacuum, or was that just me! :) We go in the LEGO store when we visit the mall just to see all the neat creations that are made.

If you are planning to visit or a local to Lake Tahoe you can visit the FREE  LEGO® Brickation event. Lake Tahoe Brickcation LEGO Experience is a fun, free event for the entire family.

LEGO® Brickation is a fun, hands-on experience of building and playing with LEGO bricks.  Help create a custom LEGO Lake Tahoe Mosaic, challenge a family member on the LEGO Race Ramp or capture a photo with life-size LEGO models.

Hands-on DUPLO play zones engage even the youngest members of the family. July 25, 2012 – September 4, 2012. Sunday -Thursday: 10:00 am to 7:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday: 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.   At the Heavenly Village, 1001 Heavenly Village Way.  Cost:  Free!

July 25^th – September 4^th 

1001 Heavenly Village Way

South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

We are hoping to make it up to Tahoe to visit the Brickation event if we go up there to celebrate our wedding anniversary. My son would have a blast I am sure. At the CA state fair he spent a ton of time at the LEGO creation table and wall. I had to convince him to go get cotton candy to get him to leave!

Even if you are not a local and plan to visit the Lake Tahoe CA Brickation Event you can still win a LEGO Prize pack containing a mini LEGO set, LEGO magazine, LEGO pirate hat and more.

 GIVEAWAY

Win a Lego Prize Pack

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway









* I received one or more of the products or Services mentioned above for free to review on my blog. This is a  paid sponsored post and all opinions / stories shared are my own.. I am disclosing this in accordance With the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Oh My Squash!

This is the first year we have grown crook neck squash and zucchini squash. It has been so much fun going outside each morning with my son to check on the plants. We have grown huge zucchini and bright yellow crook neck squash. On my birthday we picked a few to have for dinner later in the week. I find growing plants to be so rewarding. I want to plant all sorts of things! Our watermelons are getting big, pumpkins coming in and cantaloupe beginning to grow too.

My son was saying wow cool when I handed him the first zucchini we have grown for him to take inside to show his Dad. My first thought was oh my I need to make fried zucchini rings with that! :)

Now I just need some great recipes for all the squash we will have in a few weeks. 

Do you have any recipes to share?

Makeover Your Man with MaLo Underwear

Who says Men's Underwear has to be boring??!! My husband is a man of comfort. If it has worked for the last 10 years why change it seems to be his attitude about underwear. I am so tired of seeing plain and starting to fade in color undies when I do laundry. The same bland colors over and over. His clothing is up to date, his shoes too so I convinced him he should try updating his undies as well.

We went shopping at Target to buy some of the new MaLo Mario Lopez Underwear and Undershirts. I read online about a few of the designs they had for the MaLo brand. I showed a few to my husband that I knew he would try. My husband can be picky about things I buy for him, he and I have opposite ends of what we think is stylish.

My first thought when we arrived at Target and saw many of the items were not in stock was oh no! I knew my husband likes the plain one color type of things but I remained hopeful he would be willing to try something new. I told him how it was Mario "Slater" Lopez designs so it must be cool! :)

 

Target was out of stock on the MaLo Purple or Black undies that had the MaLo logo in the corner, the ones I showed a picture to my husband to convince him to try them. They did have these ones that I think are cute, but my husband thought they were a bit kid like. I mentioned how they will make him feel younger and more cool. He just smiled and said he will try them to see how comfortable they are. (note to self dont tell your husband ANYTHING will make him feel younger its an implication he is old lol) 

 
We wandered around Target for a while looking at toys, movies, sports, electronics, typical guy stuff since my husband and son were with me. We had fun looking around getting ideas for gifts and decor. My son just had his last two balls popped by the dog so we decided to get him a new one. These ones were huge and on sale!

Love the SF Giants!

Purchasing our #MaLoUnderwear

 We ended up buying one pack of MaLo Trunk Undies, MaLo Tank Tops and a big yellow ball. My son carried more items all around the store but we made him pick just one. You can read more about our shopping trip and the silly things my son does while we shop in my Google+ Story.

Here is the boring faded before items I am  trying to get my husband to replace with MaLo items.

Old Underwear we are replacing with MaLo

At home with the new MaLo items. I was excited to hear what my husband thought of them.

 I ask my husband for his honest opinion of the MaLo Underwear and Tanks. He said the undies fit a little big for the size on the legs and the band was a bit big but the tanks were comfy. He also added they are good summer undies since the material is thin. He wants to keep an eye out for the plain ones like the tanks with the MaLo design to have the underwear that matches. He did suggest underwear designs that reflect the design on the front of the Roman / Greek statue theme. I thought that would be a fun idea too. Although I did tell Mario Lopez at a twitter party I thought Glow in the Dark Super Heroes would be cool, see how opposite ends of style my husband and I are lol. 

We did have the chance to go through his closet and bag up items to donate, others to sew into a winter blanket for the dog (yes I am a thrifty upcycler when I can be) Some of the items were tshirts, sweatshirts and some socks. I could not get him to part with his old comfy stuff but he is wanting to add to his wardrobe more of the MaLo items so its a start!!

*I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and MaLo #CBias #SocialFabric