Fourth of July Recipes! Horray!

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Happy Almost 4th of July! My fiance and I are heading up North today to see my family. We're hoping for some good weather, beach time, and good food. I am postponing spilling about my bridal shower just a bit longer so that you can enjoy these wonderful red, white, and blue recipes!

Here are a few tasty and healthy recipes for you to whip up for friends and family this year!

Blueberry and Chambord Patriotic Cocktails

Strong and Skinny Strawberry Daiquiris

Skinny Summertime White Wine Sangria - with Piuneapple Stars!

Strawberry Shortcake Cocktail

Skinny Strawberry Ginger Margarita

White Chocolate Filled Raspberries

Jolly Rancher Suckers

Red, White, and Blue-berry Overnight French Toast

Chocolate Banana Protein Pancakes with Fruit

Easy Strawberry Shortcake

Blueberry Cheesecake In A Jar

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Sparkling Water Cupcakes with White Chocolate Mousse Frosting

I hope you enjoy your holiday and have a wonderful time with friends or family!

10 Delicious and Healthy Fall Recipes

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Happy Fall! How many times have I said that already? You'd think I was an easily excitable person or something...

For those of you who followed me a year ago, I did a series of posts called The 12 Days of Pumpkin (you know, "On the first day of Pumpkin, my true love gave to me... 12 pumpkin fries, 11 pumpkin truffles, 10 cups of oatmeal, 9 golllldennnn cupppcakesssss!"). Anyway, while I work on some fall recipes for you, I decided to compile the best of fall...

Apples and Pumpkins, mostly. Because who doesn't love that?

Recipes are below, listed in order of the images here. Go buy a can of Pumpkin and a crate of apples. Go crazy. Go hog wild. Whatever they're saying these days.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes

Spicy Pumpkin Fries

Healthy Apple Pie in a Cup

Pumpkin and Walnut Oatmeal

Wasabi and BBQ Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin Cheesecake Truffles

Whiskey Apple Cider

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Healthy Upside Down Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pancakes

Chocolate Chip Blueberry Almond Fiber Muffins

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Is it light and fruity? Is it rich and chocolatey? These delicious muffins are having an identity crisis! Time for you to make them and help them decide...

Nom nom nom. That's the sound of me eating these muffins for breakfast.

And lunch.

And a snack after dinner.

It's really not my fault, though. Sometimes you just need a bit of muffin in your life. And sometimes you're faced with a horrible muffin dilemma: Do I eat the blueberry muffin or the chocolate chip muffin? See, I understand you, people. I know your inner woes.

And now I've solved them! Because you'll never have to make that perilous decision again! Instead, you can have your muffin and eat it too... or... whatever.

What I'm trying to say is... make this, eat this, love this. Yum.

Ingredients:

• Fiber One Blueberry Muffins Mix
• 3/4 Cup Water
• 4 oz Applesauce
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons Shaved Chocolate (or chocolate chips)
• 2 tablespoons Sliced Almonds (or walnuts)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400.
2. Combine muffin mix, water, applesauce, and egg in a medium bowl and mix well until the batter is fairly smooth.
3. Add chocolate and almonds.
4. Place in muffin papers and bake for 14-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Notes:

• If you'd like to end up with a bit of chocolate shaving on top for a garnish, add half way through baking.

Guinness Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

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St. Patty's Day is upon us (well.... almost!). If you've been observing Lent, your time is almost up. Were you giving up sweets? Alcohol? Guinness? Let's just say, hypothetically, that you were giving up all three things. What would you do on the day those treats were suddenly back on menu?

You'd make these cupcakes. Obviously.

I've been making cupcakes with sparkling water or diet soda for a while now... and have dabbled in the liquor infused cupcakes (like Frangelico and Kahlua)... but hadn't yet tried beer.

I have to say, the Guinness is amazing. Seriously. Even though the recipe for the cupcake batter omits eggs, oil, and butter, the cupcakes are still extremely moist. Perhaps we have the heavy, rich consistency of Guinness to thank for that, eh?

My sincere advice: Make these. Then eat them. Eat them with a pint of Guinness in front of you to wash it down. Glorious!

(From CalorieCount)

Recipe | Nutella Cookie Dough Cupcakes

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Hmm. A couple things.

Thing number one... it's hard to ignore the Nutella trend going on. I'm seeing it on Pinterest almost daily. So, finally, I tried it. My reaction? Picture a 3 year old shoving food in their mouth. Yeah, that was me. I know, lovely visual, right? ;)

Thing number two.. cookie dough is delicious but I'm not a huge cookie dough person. After making Cookie Dough Dip using Chickpeas, I was determined to continue making this delicious treat... but I can't bring myself to make the exact same recipe over and over and over. Gotta reinvent. It's an addiction of some sort.

So... how do I combine Cookie Dough Dip with Nutella?  Put it in a cupcake? 

Hmmm... it does sound like a great idea...  and, as it turns out, 'twas. Don't you love when that happens?

Ingredients…

for the cake:

• 1 package Yellow Cake Mix
• 1 can La Croix (or Sparkling Water)

for the Homemade Cookie Dough:

• 1 can Chick Peas, drained
• 3 tablespoons Cashew butter (or Almond butter. Peanut butter also works but definitely adds a peanut-ey taste).
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup Chocolate Chips

for the icing:

• 1 tub Cool Whip
• 3 tablespoons Nutella

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine cake ingredients until well mixed. Pour 2/3 into paper-lined cupcake tin and bake for 18-22 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine all cookie dough ingredients -- EXCEPT for chocolate chips -- in a bowl and mix well. I used a magic bullet but wouldn’t be surprised if a high powered blender is also effective. I’ve also tried using a hand-held blender and have to say that’s probably my favorite method.
4. Once there are no longer any visible whole chick peas, add chocolate chips and stir.
5. Remove cupcakes from the oven and let cool. Then, using the back-end of a frosting tip (a knife or spoon will also work), remove a hole in the center that is less than an inch deep.
   
6. Fill hole with cookie dough. I used two spoons to do this but am thinking that it would also work in a ziplock bag with an end corner cut off. Leave a bit of cookie dough poking out the top as an obvious sign of what’s inside.
   
7. To prepare frosting, combine cool whip and nutella and mix on medium for 1 minute. Scrape unmixed parts down into the bowl and then mix on high for 2 minutes or until all frosting has become a consistent color.
   
8. Pipe frosting around the cupcake. I chose not to cover the cookie dough, because I was making a few different types of cupcakes this day and wanted it to be easy to keep track of which was which.
   

**For best results, refrigerate cupcakes when they’re not being consumed!**

And The Oscar Goes To...

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2011 was the birth of my blog. It screamed. It kicked. It barfed glitter all over the walls... 

We look ahead in eager anticipation to a fantastic 2012 (blah blah blah) but, hey, before we speed off into the future, let's take a moment to say goodbye to what we're leaving behind.

Do your darndest to choke back the tears.  I believe in you! :)

Oreo Truffles

Reese's Cupcakes

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Pumpkin & Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Scrabble Coasters

Wicker Park Apartment Re-Vamp

Rustic Hardware & Faucet Coat Hanger

Let me know which ones you think are best! :)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

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[Click here for more Healthy Holiday recipes for a guilt-free holiday season!]

Here comes Santa, here comes Santa! I'm convinced that Santa's favorite cake is Red Velvet... Is it just me or do these remind you a bit of Santa?

Gah, how I love Red Velvet Cake. True love. Yes, I would marry it if I could. But why is it always so bad for you?! Ah, the pain. The agony. The... oh, wait. That's right. There's a healthy way to make everything! Well, except for fudge...

So alas, without further digressions, here's your healthy yet extremely tasty Christmas treat...

Ingredients:

• 1 box Red Velvet Cake Mix
• 10 oz Sparkling Water (This is a substitution for the egg, butter, and oil typically used in Red Velvet Cake. If you're making the healthy version, use sparkling water in place of those ingredients, omitting them entirely. If, however, you'd prefer to make them the traditional way, omit the sparkling water and use the amount of egg/butter/oil that is specified on the box)
• 8 ounces Cream Cheese
• 2 tbsp Butter, softened
• 2 cups Powdered sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Cooking Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine cake mix and sparkling water and combine until well mixed. Transfer to paper-lined cupcake tins. I made mini cupcakes, but this can be amended for regular cupcakes (add 5 minutes to baking time) or a full cake (add 10 minutes to baking time and check with a toothpick).
3. Bake for 16-18 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
5. As they cool, combine butter and cream cheese in a clean bowl and mix well. Slowly add sifted powdered sugar and vanilla.
6. Once well mixed, use a piping bag to pipe dollops of icing right onto the center of each cupcake (or do whatever the heck you want with it).
7. Serve!

[Click here for more Healthy Holiday recipes for a guilt-free holiday season!]

 [Click here for more Healthy Holiday recipes for a guilt-free holiday season!]

 [Click here for more Healthy Holiday recipes for a guilt-free holiday season!]

 [Click here for more Healthy Holiday recipes for a guilt-free holiday season!]

[Click here for more Healthy Holiday recipes for a guilt-free holiday season!]

Easy, Clean Frosting Tutorial

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OMG. <--Yes, that "OMG" is warranted.

I'm a huge mess maker when it comes to frosting cupcakes. I always rip the parchment bag or go into a frenzy trying to get the icing tip out of the bag and make a huge mess. To put a messy story short: I hate cleaning up.

...that is, until I stumbled onto an amazing tutorial video for how to get th frosting into and out of the bag without making a mess.

Thank you to Karen from Karen's Cookies.
Dear Karen,
1. You are a genius.
2. You have made my life so much easier.
3. My manfriend can ease up on doing the dishes. Thus, you have made his life easier too.

Wanna know what's got me so in luv' with Karen? Check it out...

Blue Devil Meringue Cupcakes

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Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there were beautiful blue cupcakes sprinkled with sunshine and love.

And then everyone I work with gobbled them all up in 45 seconds. Don't tell the boys they're only 100 calories...

Cook time: 20
Total time: 40
Yield: 12-18 cupcakes

Calories per serving: 100

Ingredients:

• 1 box Devil's Foodcake Mix
• 1 can Sparkling water, diet tonic water, or diet coke
• 1 packet Meringue powder mix
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 4 drops Almond Extract
• Food coloring (blue)
• Decor sugar pearls

Cooking Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Combine cake mix and can of La Croix/Sparkling Water/Diet Coke in a large bowl and mix well.
   **Do not add butter, oil, or eggs if using this method. The carbonation in the water/soda will substitute for those ingredients and cause the batter to rise. If you would prefer the traditional route, feel free to bake as directed on the back of the box, and ignore the carbonated beverage addition**
3. Use an ice cream scooper (great size!) to spoon into paper-lined muffin tin and bake as directed. Remove from oven and let cool.
4. In a clean bowl, combine meringue powder and 1/4 cup of warm water. Beat on medium for 1 minute, then high for 4 minutes.
5. Add food coloring, beginning with a few drops (if liquid) or 2 covered toothpicks (if gel). Mix until the color is evenly distributed.
6. Add vanilla and almond extracts. Continue to mix.
7. Use a knife to spread meringue frosting onto cooled cupcakes.
8. Decorate with sugar pearls or sprinkles.