You all made this SO hard for Carrie & I!  Again.  We REALLY had to do some serious consideration and debate to pick this challenge’s winner.  They were all so delicious and creative!

Bananas Foster-rita Macarons from A Kitchen Hoor

Mango Shortcakes with Coconut Tequila Whipped Cream from Shake Bake and Party

Tequila Lime Bars with Chocolate Ganache from Your Girl For All Seasonings

And the winner of the Spiked! Tequila Recipe Challenge is… 

Deb from Cooking on the Front Burner with her Strawberry Margarita Shortcakes!

Congratulations Deb !!  What beautiful and tasty use of tequila!  Carrie and I will be in touch with you shortly to get you hooked up with your June featured ad spot with Carrie and your Starbucks gift card from me.

Carrie and I would love to thank each and every one of you who entered this month’s Spiked! Recipe Challenge.  We had 16 total Tequila laced entries for our third ever challenge.  I created a special Pinterest board for all of the Spiked! recipes, so please feel free to CLICK ON OVER and check them all out (and pin away while you are at it ).

Carrie and I will be back again in July with an all new Spiked! Recipe Challenge!  We will announce that month’s libation of choice on the first of the month.  (Psssttt… we may be feeling just a tad patriotic in July. )

If you would like to see more information on the Spiked! Recipe Challenge, please click HERE to view the Spiked! page on my blog.

If you missed the recipe that I made for this month’s Spiked! Challenge, here it is!

Tequila Lime Shrimp Tacos

I needed to make a filling for the bars and the sweet rolls. So I made a super simple batch of blueberry preserves. I skipped the canning process since I made a small batch (filled 2 pint jars) of preserves that will be used up within two weeks. Plus, I am not a fan of canning. Great concept, too much hassle for me. It’s funny, I will spend the time making an elaborate recipe but when it comes to canning, you can count me out.

Four ingredients are all you will need for this recipe. And about 15 minutes of time. It’s really that simple. Use the preserves for sandwiches, bars, muffins or sweet rolls. You could also top some vanilla ice cream with them. Mmmm. I hope you enjoy this recipe!

A few more recipes you may enjoy:

Strawberry Champagne Jam

Raspberry Lemon Muffins

Good morning and Happy Tuesday! The day has finally come…it’s my SITS Day! For those of you who aren’t familiar with SITS, SITS is a networking website for women bloggers.  It’s a great way to meet new bloggers and get fantastic blogging tips and information. Interested in checking it out? Head on over to SITS here! You can see my feature here.

Some of my favorite SITS posts:

• Sponsored Posts: 8 Reasons Why You’re NOT Getting Paid Opportunities
• FTC Guidelines: Keep Calm and Understand the New FTC Guidelines
• 24 Reasons Why You Do NOT Have Comments on Your Blog

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Here’s a sneak peek at the recipe I will be sharing later today!

Thank you to everyone who participated! Be sure to continue to follow these lovely ladies along on their blogs and social media. We may be bringing another fantastic giveaway to you in a couple of months! The fabulous ladies who bring you the blogs listed below and I came together to bring you the chance to win four fantastic gift cards (that’s right, winner takes all!) Thank these wonderful ladies for helping make this giveaway possible!

This giveaway runs from 8am est, Monday, May 6th and ends on Sunday, May 19th at 11:59pm est. A winner will be announced on Monday, May 20th. Good luck!
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Have you entered the Gift Cards Galore Pre-Summer Gift Card Extravaganza? Up for grabs: a $400 gift card prize back! You can enter via the rafflecopter below! As of the start of tonight’s party, there are only 6 hours left to enter!

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About breakfast. I love breakfast. I can eat anything for breakfast. Today I ate leftover pizza. I also love recipes that could be considered breakfast, lunch and dinner cuisine. Quiche is one of those recipes that could be considered  breakfast, lunch or dinner cuisine. Recently I made a Sausage & Veggie Crustless Quiche to enjoy any time of the day.  I had it for breakfast for a few days and for dinner a couple of times.

Doesn’t it look fantastic? No need to fret if you don’t have all of the ingredients that I used. You can easily substitute ingredients. Are you out of red pepper but loaded with spinach? Use spinach instead! Is your fridge missing the sausage but has a package of bacon sitting on its shelf? Use that bacon! Bacon tastes great in Quiche. I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Crustless Sausage & Veggie Quiche

A couple more recipes that you may enjoy:

Tomato Bacon & Spinach Quiche

Breakfast Egg Bake Casserole

I must say, the small amount of photos that I shot don’t do justice for this lovely church. I was experimenting with manual mode and since I’m a beginner (and when I say beginner, I mean super beginner) of shooting in manual mode, I was rather slow on getting the settings programmed to options that wouldn’t cause my photos to look washed out. I’ll head back to this church once I improve my photography skills. I plan to take a photography course one day but that won’t happen until after I graduate with my Bachelors degree in May of 2014. It’s so close to the end!

So let’s begin the day. My mom was visiting with us so we took her to a fantastic little restaurant called Cucina Dell Arte for breakfast. It’s located on Palm Beach. If you’re ever in the area, you HAVE to try it out!

Breakfast started with an awesome cappuccino. Check out that milk froth! And that little stick, well that has sugar crystals on it. You stir it in the cappuccino to sweeten it. Breakfast ended with barely anything left of a plate of Huevos Rancheros. This dish is so good that I actually have craved it since the last time I ate it in December.

After breakfast we stopped at the church so I could snap some photos.  I’ve included the aperature, shutter speed, and ISO settings that I used.

Aperature f/4, Shutter 1/80, ISO 100

Aperature f/6.3, Shutter 1/80, ISO 100

Aperature f/4.5, Shutter 1/80, ISO 100

Aperature f/6.3, Shutter 1/80, ISO 100

Aperature f/4, Shutter 1/80, ISO 200

I really like the design of the church and I’d love to visit it again after I improve my photography skills so I can shoot some more photos. What do you think of the photos? If you are well versed in photography, what suggestions tips might you have for me? I am open for feedback however, please do not criticize my photos by telling me that they are horrible or that I don’t know what I am doing. I am not claiming to be an expert. I am quite the beginner.

Hungry? Why wait? Here are a couple of fantastic recipes for you to enjoy. Have a wonderful weekend!  PS, if you haven’t entered the Gift Cards Galore giveaway, go enter now! You only have two more days to enter!

Baileys Brown Butter Pecan Blondies

Oh So Lemon Bars

Now, on to my recipe (and then, of course, YOUR recipes!)

I decided to make a tequila lime marinade. I was going to marinate chicken but being the seafood lover that I am, I ended up using shrimp instead. Shrimp was a fantastic choice. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a seafood lover. The shrimp soaked up the marinade much better than chicken would have. And it came out so tender and perfect.

We grilled the shrimp (I say we but Ken actually did the grilling) and then tucked them in soft taco shells with shredded cheese and topped them with Sweet & Spicy Pineapple Slaw. We served these delicious tacos with tortilla chips, salsa and guacamole.

So I guess you want to see the recipe, right? Ok, ok, but first, let me tell you another little story. I’ll keep it short and sweet.

I started shooting in manual mode. Shooting with my DSLR camera, that is. I actually shot these photos in manual mode. But I did a shoot in creative auto as well. I have a comparison to show you. 

The image on the left was shot with creative auto with a 50mm lens. The image on the right was shot in manual mode (f/2.5, shutter speed 1/50, ISO 100, 50mm lens.) What do you think? Can you tell a difference? I sure can. Manual mode is much crisper, brighter and cleaner!

Ok, now here’s the recipe.

Tequila Lime Shrimp Tacos

Now it’s time to share your recipes! Again, Carrie and I cannot wait to see what you made! Be sure to review all of the rules on Carrie’s Spiked! Recipe Challenge Page and make sure you have included the Spiked! button entry in your post. You can pick up the button over on my side bar.

The linky is only open for 2 days! Once the linky closes, no more recipe submissions will  be accepted.  Please check back on May 22nd here and at Frugal Foodie Mama for the announcement of the Spiked! Tequila Recipe Challenge winner.

Be sure to hop around and check out everyone else’s Tequile Spiked! recipes. I mean, you have to take a peek at the competition, right?!

• You must have a Paypal account.  It is super easy to set up and secure for all involved.  If you do not already have a Paypal account set up and you wish you participate in the bake sale, please set one up asap.  It takes a few business days for Paypal to confirm and verify the checking account you will be attaching to it.
• Bidding on items will not start until 12am EST on Saturday, May 18th.  Bidding will commence at 11:59pm EST Sunday, May 19th.  Any bids placed before 12am EST on May 18th and any bids placed after 11:59pm EST May 19th will not be accepted.
• A few hours before the bake sale bidding starts, I will post all photos & descriptions of the bake sale items to the Baking for Kate Facebook page.  You can browse a bit before the bake sale & decide on which items you would most like to bid on.  Please make sure you go and Like the Facebook page so you can stay updated on all the bake sale news!
• Most bids for items will start at $5 or $10.  You may bid on items in $5 increments only.  (For instance, if an item has been bid to $20, you must bid $25 to outbid the highest bid.)  Bids in increments other than $5 will not be accepted. 
• You will bid by commenting on the photos.  In your comment, please include your bid amount and your email address. (Be sure to spell out the @ and dot to throw off spambots.)  
• On May 20th, the highest bidder will be contacted via the email address they provided in the comments.   They will have 24 hours to send the money to me via Paypal.  If they do not reply and send the bid amount within that time, the next highest bidder will be contacted.
• If you bid on and win a baked or homemade item, please allow a few extra days for the shipping of that item.  Most of the food bloggers participating will be making/baking their goodies after the highest bidder has been confirmed and will want to be sure that what they are sending you is fresh and yummy.
• 100% of the proceeds will go directly to Kate and her family to help cross off items on her Mommy Bucket List and to help cover the expenses of her medical treatment.
• This covers most of the guidelines for the moment.  But if you have any further questions, concerns, or comments, please do not hesitate to email me at thefrugalfoodiemama (at) yahoo {dot} com.  

A copy of the new Six Sisters’ Stuff cookbook… signed by all six sisters!!

Candied Bacon Brownies With (or Without) Walnuts from {I Love} My Disorganized Life

A big thanks for stopping by and a big Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mom’s out there! Thanks for stopping by to link up to Marvelous Mondays! 

Have you entered the Gift Cards Galore Pre-Summer Gift Card Extravaganza? Up for grabs: a $400 gift card prize back! You can enter via the rafflecopter below!

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