Back in business

Have you noticed my absence? I hope so.

I have 29 "known" followers but I know there are a lot more of you who read my blog. I think you're just shy. If you ever want to join my followers, please feel free. I love all my followers!

Well since my last blog a lot has changed in my life. Zeke turned 2, we moved to Montana, I had another baby and we've just moved into our new home. All good changes.

Before moving into our home, we were living in a hotel. Yes, with a newborn and a toddler AND we survived! I was most disappointed with hotel living for 1 reason: there was no oven. That made my heart sad. Now, we are in our home and most of our things have been unpacked so I'm back at it folks. Although I haven't made any cupcakes yet, I have been baking. Here's a few of the yums I've made.

Zucchini Brownies (from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients


1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups shredded zucchini

1/2 cup chopped walnuts


Frosting:
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup margarine

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan.

2.In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini and walnuts. Spread evenly into the prepared pan. (It will look really dry, do not add anything! The zucchini will release its natural water and make the brownies moist.)

3.Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies spring back when gently touched. To make the frosting, melt together the 6 tablespoons of cocoa and margarine; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, blend together the confectioners' sugar, milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Spread over cooled brownies before cutting into squares.


Pioneer Womans Red Velvet Cake

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/red-velvet-cake-to-remember/

Kris Kringle Cookie Mix

I made the jarred mixes for my neighbors for Christmas. Trying to be friendly and meet the people on my block.

The cookies baked are pretty tasty. Cranberries, pecans, oatmeal and white chocolate chips!

And for my newest love...

Peanut Butter Cupcakes...part 2

Since my last post I haven't made any cupcakes but I should've taken pictures of all the other delicious stuff I've baked. Cinnamon bread, biscoff cheesecake bites, pecan bars, banana banana bread and more. Sorry.

Moving on...yesterday was my oldest sisters birthday and she loves two things 1) lemon and 2) peanut butter. I had promised her lemon cupcakes but changed my mind at the last minute. I decided to make her a peanut butter cupcake with chocolate frosting and it turned out, well, not peanut buttery enough. Everything went well together but if I make these again I will def inject the cakes with creamy peanut butter and that will make it perfect.

The batter looks just like creamy peanut butter. Yes, I tasted it and yes it was effing delicious!

Final picture! Sorry I didn't take very many pics, was kind of out of it. Of course the cupcake wouldn't be complete without chopped up Reese's on top ;)

Sister and her birthday cupcake.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcake!

I've been on a stuffed cupcake trip lately, don't know why really. I guess I just figure if you can put something extra delicious inside an already delicious cupcake, life couldn't get better.
I knew my sister, CJ, had a birthday coming up and I wanted to put something really good inside her cupcake. Now, she is a very odd person and does not like caramel or fruit fillings or anything like that so, I had to go waaay out there. Then it hit me, she loves chocolate chip cookies.

How could I possibly put a cookie together with a cupcake?

Yes, my friends. I have accomplished this feat. Meet the...

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcake

First you have to make chocolate chip cookie dough. Do me a favor and use mini-chocolate chips, they will make your cookie look more like a cookie. If you want my recipe, I'll share it. I really think any recipe could work, though. Roll the cookie dough into tablespoon size balls and freeze overnight.
DON'T skip this step.

Now, make yellow cupcake batter. If you don't have a favorite use mine from a previous post. Fill the liners about 2/3 way up then drop a frozen cookie ball in the middle. Push it all the way down. They should look like the picture above.

Now, bake them at 350 for 16-20 minutes.
Do not overbake these, it will make your cookie super crumbly and gross. Test the outside edge of the cupake to check for doneness, do not stick your toothpick in the middle.
The cookie continues to bake after removing from the oven, keep them in the pan for 10 minutes.

Let them cool completely on a rack and put a little dollop of chocolate frosting on top and watch people inhale this delicious treat!

Really, how could you resist these?

Sister and Z singing happy birthday.

She inhaled her cupcake and was really sad when she realized it was gone.

Try these cupcakes, soon. You will not be disappointed!
Yums to you all.

Frosted Brownies!

Okay so, a brownie is not a cupcake...but I LOVE BROWNIES! Plain brownies are fine the way they are but, frosted brownies with walnuts are delicious x1000. Brownies without frosting are like cupcakes with no topping, just not good enough.

My favorite brownie recipe is packed up with the rest of my recipes (what a dummy) and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to recreate the one I love but...I did :) I mean look at all that moist deliciousness!

Frosting on top is a thin layer of sweet but not too sweet. Also, if you ::gasp:: don't like nuts you can always substitute chocolate chips, peanut butter chips or toffee chips which would be great as well.

Frosted Brownies
1c butter
3/4c cocoa powder
2 1/4c sugar
1/2t salt
3 large eggs
1 1/4t vanilla
1 1/4c flour
1/2t baking powder
1c walnuts (or chocolate chips or m&m's or toffee pieces or whatever)

Melt butter then add cocoa and whisk until smooth. Let the mix come to room temperature. Add sugar, salt, eggs and vanilla and beat, add the eggs one at a time so they don't scramble. Add the flour and baking powder and mix just until incorporated (DO NOT OVERMIX). Stir in walnuts. Grease (with butter or cooking spray) a glass pan (13x9 is ideal but I used a 9X9 to make a thick brownie). Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes (depending on size of pan) or until a toothpick comes out just barely clean. Cool completely then frost.

Frosting:
1/4c butter, soft
1 1/2c powdered sugar
1/4c cocoa powder
2-3T milk
1/2t vanilla

Sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder in seperate bowl. Beat butter and add powdered sugar and milk alternately. Mix it all together until you get the consistency you desire, I like it more creamy than stiff so it's easy to spread.

Tell me if you like the recipe!

This is somebody's happy face :)

Do you like Twix...?

I was laying in bed thinking of cupcakes and I was trying to come up with a good idea, something different. I then started thinking of my next favorite food, candy. Then I put the two together...candy+cupcake= genius! Of course I went directly for a delicious Snickers idea but the nougat kind of threw me off, still thinking about how to recreate that. Anyway, I ended up with Twix stuck on my brain. Here's my take on a Twix cupcake...

I had to approach this cupcake several different ways to work out the best cookie/caramel/chocolate combination.

Caramel, yuuuuummm!

Again, I had to bake these inserting the caramels at different times to get maximum molten caramel. My (not so) scientific results were the caramel needs to be inserted in the cupcake about 5 minutes before they are done baking, any sooner and they sink to the bottom.

Hey, I'm pregnant.

So, here's the two best options. Crunchy cookie bottom, chocolate cake, caramel center and milk chocolate frosting OR chocolate cake, caramel center, milk chocolate frosting dipped in cookie crumbs.

Yeah, the crunchy cookie crumb bottom is the BEST.

(::Warning:: This is NOT a chocolate overload cake, this is very light.)
3 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups sour cream
1 1/3 cups boiling water
In a mixing bowl, cream brown sugar and butter. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Blend in vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add alternately with sour cream to creamed mixture. Mix on low just until combined. Stir in water until blended. Pour into three greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Or just make cupcakes ;)

Sandy's Milk Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons whipping cream (more if needed...I ended up around 5T).

Place 1/2 cup softened butter in a mixing bowl. Add in the cocoa powder, 2 cups icing sugar and 3 tablespoons whipped cream; start beating with an electric mixer add in more whipped cream as needed to create desired texture. Beat until mixture is smooth and creamy.


Love of a lifetime.

Where's my camera?!

Remember how I said I wouldn't promise to update my blog, yeah that was for a good reason. We have been at my moms for a few months now and life has been hectic...to say the least. Anyway, on to the cupcake. Saul's favorite cake of all time is yellow, I know I've made yellow cake before but it was soooo dry! Nothing worse then your cupcake crumbling as you're trying to eat it.
I've been searching and searching for tips and tricks for a moist yellow cake until I found a great recipe on allrecipes.com What I usually do is find a recipe that looks good and tweak it until I love it. This recipe was so good that it surprisingly didn't need any adjustments. So here we go...

Here's the batter before baking.

All baked up and yummy. I love that it came out the same great yellow color as the box mixes.

I forgot to mention that I made flour fudge frosting, yum!

This was a perfect combo to satiate me :) I can't forget that I need to apologize for the crappy pictures. I had to use my moms brand new camera and I had no idea what I was doing with it. Not to fret, I've found it since then.

Here is the recipe for those who are interested in this yum yellow creation

David's Yellow Cake

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
8 egg yolks
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 - 8 inch round pans or put liners in 24 cupcake tins. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2.In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3.Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly tapped. Cool 15 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks.

Can't forget about my big ol' baby ;)

Quick post for easy chili!

Okay so, I made this chili last night and it is seriously one of the better chili's I have ever made! I do enjoy my yummmo white turkey chili (will post later) but nothing beats a cup of red chili on top of 1/2 baked potato with 1 tablespoon yogurt cheese.

20oz (1.3lbs) ground turkey breast
1 small onion, chopped
1 (28oz) can diced tomatoes or whole tomates chopped
2 (8oz) cans tomato sauce
1 (4.5oz) can chopped green chilis, drained
1 (15oz) can black beans, drained
1 (15oz) can garbanzo beans, drained
1 (15oz) can red kidney beans, drained
1 (15oz) can white or great northern beans, drained
1 (15oz) can whole kernal corn
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
2 1/2 Tablespoons chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Brown ground turkey and onion in a pan sprayed with cooking spray. Drain any fat from the turkey and put everything in a crock pot. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or low for 6-8 hours.

Super easy and delicious!

Over Oats!

Last week was an extremely blah week for me, even though I exercised I felt like crap. I don't know what it was but thank goodness that feeling has gone and I am feelin' good...okay kind of tired since my love bug is popping another tooth. That's okay though, I drink my water and take my vitamins and I feel a-okay!

I keep hearing (and reading) that eating oatmeal for breakfast is the best way to go, it keeps you fuller, longer and is relatively low in calories. I don't know about the rest of you but most mornings I am not in the mood to cook oats for 20 minutes! Add on to that that I refuse to eat oats cooked in water, I don't know what it is but the thought makes me wanna hurl.
So, I read somewhere about soaking oats overnight then draining the water and microwaving them....minus the water and you've got an idea I can get on board with.

So before I go to bed I put 1/2 cup of rolled oats (not a fan of steel cut, yeck) in a container with 3/4 cup of fat free milk and 1 teaspoon of honey or 1/2 packet of stevia. Cover and let it meld and soak overnight. In the morning take the lid off and microwave for 2-3 minutes. Add some berries (or grated apple), some kind of chopped nuts (in this pic I have red walnuts), and whatever seasoning you desire (nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice) and you've got breakfast!

I go to sleep happy as a clam knowing that I'm waking up to this deliciousness!
If you're an egg eater make sure you eat a few egg whites with this or if you despise all thing eggs (like me) eat 2 slices of low-sodium turkey bacon or drink a quick protein shake.

That's it for tonight...

::Cupcake Hiatus::

I will never be done with cupcakes, ever. I love love love them...and that's part of my problem.
I'm not talking about anyone else here (ahem, husband) but after I lost ALL the baby weight from Zeke I completely lost my motivation. I started eating whatever and not working out and ended up gaining back a few more pounds then I'd care to admit (currently). I told myself I was going to lose weight during the holidays and HAHAHHAHA that didn't happen!

Here's how I found my motivation. I was feeling fat and blah (what's new) and started thinking of the women I know who are fit. Read: NOT skinny but fit, in shape. I know plenty of unhealthy skinny people and that's not what I want. I do not want to be a skinnier version of fat me, I want to be a fit new person. So, I thought about all the women I know who are in shape and what's the common denominator? Eating clean. I decided to pick up a copy of Tosca Reno's book "The Eat Clean Diet" and by the time I was done reading it, I understood. Everything I eat has to do something for my body and if it doesn't, it doesn't belong in my mouth.

What you look like on the outside is 80% due to what you eat, 10% is exercise and 10% is genes. I got that from her book and it has stuck like glue! I am not saying we are doing this full throttle for the  rest of our lives, committing to that is too overwhelming. We are taking this one day at a time. I mean, we already feed Zeke 98% clean so why not just push the good eating to mom and dad. Youu'd think we would have done it already, right?!

Since this is not a diet or a resolution for the new year we began our journey on December 30th. It has been 3 weeks of reading, learning and cooking! We eat so much food it's ridiculous, except now it's not so much eating as fueling our bodies. Please remember we are still fat but, we're working on it!

Today I decided to make our own protein bars! I love Clif builder bars but, they are about $2 each and I am entirely too cheap to pay for them very often. So here I went...


Does this look like a lot of ingredients...? Okay, it kind of is but I had all of it in my house. The only thing I didn't picture is yogurt cheese (see next).

To make yogurt cheese, you take a big container of lowfat plain yogurt and line a fine mesh sieve with 4-5 layers of cheesecloth. Dump the yogurt in the sieve and put it over a bowl, then let it drain overnight.

This is what it should look like.

Tastes just like cream cheese =)


Mix all the dry ingredients together...

Then all the wet ingredients. Mix the wet into the dry with oiled hands and load it into a big pan.

Bake 15 minutes then cool and cut into bars or squares ;)

Yes, that is chocolate! To me this is more like a protein cookie and I plan on eating one everyday.

Adapted from Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Diet Cookbook...
Ingredients
1 cup vanilla whey protein powder
1/2 cup quinoa flour
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup oat bran
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup Sucanat
1 cup dark chocolate chunks
1 1/2 cups yogurt cheese
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla



Directions
Combine protein powder, flour, oats, oat bran, flax seed, wheat germ, sea salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and agave nectar in large mixing bowl. Stir in dark chocolate chunks. In another bowl combine yogurt, oils, and vanilla. Mix well and add to dry ingredients. Combine well - best to use clean dry hands.

Place mixture in 9 X 13 pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 15 minutes at 375. Allow to cool and cut into bars. Place on cookie sheet and bake for another 15 minutes.


Here's my sweetheart sharing baby carrots with me.
Join us on our journey...won't you?