jessica's orange julius

the summer after my freshman year of college i went to phoenix to visit my roommate jessica. (here's a picture of us goofballs from that trip at the mesa arizona temple). while i was there she made me an orange julius--better than the real thing, and cheaper to boot. i looove this drink and had sort of forgotten about it until thursday night. we record about 12 shows that night and i always want something yummy to have while watching shows--and this was exactly right. the sweetness of the sugar, tanginess or the orange juice, and crunch of the ice chips was perfect. go make your own tonight--it's soo delish.

all you need is a can of frozen concentrate orange juice, sugar, water, milk, vanilla, and ice cubes. most orange juice cans are 12 oz. but you only need six (ounces). so grab a spoon and scoop half the can into your blender--and use the blender your ex-boyfriend gave you for your wedding. it makes it taste better.


next add a cup of milk,


then a cup of water (i reused my milk measuring cup, hence the cloudy water. i swear our water is clean),


and 2/3 cup of sugar.


pour in a teaspoon of vanilla and then blend for 15 or 20 seconds.


once it's well blended, add 2 cups of ice


and blend again until the ice is chopped up and mixed well with the rest of it.


pour into a fancy glass and serve. you can get about 6 small-ish servings (or 4 generous servings)...or in my case, 1 very very big orange julius. okay, so i shared with my husband. a little bit. now picture this with an orange-slice garnish and a dollop of whipped cream and it would be the perfect party drink.


jess's orange julius

6 oz. frozen concentrate orange juice
1 cup milk
1 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups of ice

combine orange juice, milk, water, sugar, and vanilla in a blender. blend well for 15-20 seconds, then add your ice and blend until ice is all chopped up. serve immediately.

p.s. if you don't like orange, you can use any frozen concentrate juice with this. in fact, the time jess made this for me it wasn't orange. it was some sort of strawberry-banana juice blend, and she cut up a real banana and added it to the mix to make it even healthier/thicker like a smoothie. the possibilities with this are endless.

my version of applebee's clubhouse grill

i was a hostess at applebee's my junior year of high school. one of my favorite things to eat there was the clubhouse grill...basically just a glorified grilled cheese sandwich. here's my version. it's one of the only things i willingly eat at home for lunch. i would rather skip lunch most days if i can't go out. for some reason i don't really like lunch foods (unless it's a burger and fries).

basically, just butter your bread. on the non-buttered side, pour your favorite bbq sauce. put the pieces of bread together to spread the sauce and get some on both sides. then open and put your favorite cheese in (i used colby jack) followed by deli ham. applebees puts mayo and tomato on, but i leave those off. cook in a pan on the buttered side over medium heat until the cheese melts and the bread browns. enjoy!


so really, this is just a ham and cheese sandwich with bbq sauce. and it's SO good. make one today!