Let's Eat: Sweet Ideas for Celebrating Parents All Year Round

Regardless of the occasion, any excuse to celebrate moms and dads is a worthy one. From birthdays and holidays to regular weekends at home, one of the best gifts you can give them is time spent together. Celebrate your parents with these sweet ideas for tasty treats!

The entire family - including little ones - can get involved when the celebration calls for easy yet delicious recipes.

Start a day of celebrating on a high note with these Apple Cinnamon Waffles for a sweet breakfast in bed. As the day goes on, keep everyone energized with Apple, Peanut Butter, and Honey Sandwiches or Apple Berry Salsa served with chips, apples, or graham crackers.

Finally, as the day winds to a close, finish off the festivities with Apple Blondie Cupcakes for one last reminder of how much Mom and Dad mean to you.

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Apple Berry Salsa

Prep time: 15 minutes

Servings: 4-6

• 2 Apples, cored and chopped

• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and chopped

• 1-pint blueberries

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 2 tablespoons honey

• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

• tortilla chips, pita chips, apple chips, or graham crackers, for serving

In a medium bowl, combine apples, strawberries, blueberries, and salt.

In a small bowl, whisk honey and lime juice. Pour honey and lime juice over the fruit mixture. Stir together to combine.

Serve immediately with tortilla chips, pita chips, apple chips, or graham crackers, or refrigerate until ready to serve.

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Apple Blondie Cupcakes

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Servings: 12

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), melted and cooled

• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 large egg, at room temperature

• 2 Apples, peeled, cored and 1/4-inch diced

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 12-count muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk butter and brown sugar for 2 minutes, or until well combined. Add vanilla and egg; whisk until incorporated.

Add flour mixture to a large bowl of wet ingredients. Stir until just combined; be careful to not overmix.

Fold in diced apples. Spoon batter evenly into cupcake liners. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool and serve.

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Apple, Peanut Butter, and Honey Sandwiches

Prep time: 5 minutes

Servings: 2 (1 sandwich per serving)

• 1 Apple

• 6 tablespoons peanut butter

• 4 slices of bread

• 2 tablespoons honey

Core apple and thinly slice. Spread 3 tablespoons of peanut butter on two slices of bread, reserving two slices of bread for sandwich tops.

Layer apple slices on top of peanut butter. Drizzle 1 tablespoon honey over apple slices on each sandwich half. Top each sandwich half with a reserved slice of bread.

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Apple Cinnamon Waffles

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Servings: 4

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 cup milk

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), melted

• 1 Apple, peeled and cored

• nonstick cooking spray

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), at room temperature

• maple syrup, to taste

In a large bowl, whisk flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, and brown sugar. In a smaller bowl, whisk eggs, milk, and melted butter.

Make well in dry ingredients then mix in wet ingredient mixture until just combined.

Using a cheese grater, grate the apple. Fold the grated apple into the batter.

Prepare the waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray. Ladle 1/4 of the batter mixture into waffle iron and cook according to the manufacturer's instructions. Repeat with the remaining batter.

Top each waffle with 1 tablespoon of room-temperature butter and maple syrup, to taste.

These recipes and more family-friendly breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and snack ideas are enhanced by the satisfying texture and taste Apples for a consistently balanced, refreshing sweetness coupled with crisp, elegant crunch. Easy to spot by their large, sharable size and crimson red skin that sometimes features a golden blush, they offer a fresh flavor perfect for snacking!

Try serving them as a tasty snack next time your loved ones gather for time together to watch an exciting family-friendly show like "Strawberry Shortcake." Enjoy seasonal stories about her and her pals discovering hidden treasures while on vacation, encountering mysterious monsters, and tangling with out-of-control spring flowers as she's ready to "bake the world to a better place" all year round.