Caramel Apple Cupcakes - AMAZING!

I made these amazing Caramel Apple Mini Cupcakes last week for a small dinner party we threw.  They turned out wonderful!  This is the perfect Fall cupcake!

Cake Ingredients:

1 box French vanilla cake mix

1 can apple pie filling

1 - 2 teaspoons apple pie spice

3 eggs

Directions:

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.   Open the can of pie filling.  Using a knife, slice the large pieces of apple into smaller, bite-sized pieces.  I did this with the filling still in the can by inserting the knife into the center and letting it hit the bottom and then cutting against the wall of the can all the way around. 

3.   In a bowl, mix together the cake mix, eggs, pie filling and apple pie spice.  If you don’t have apple pie spice you can use cinnamon and nutmeg.

Spoon batter into cupcake liners and bake for 14-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool completely.  


Cream Cheese Buttercream Ingredients:

½ cup butter

8 oz cream cheese

1 - 2 lb box powdered sugar. 

1 t. apple pie spice

¼ cup caramel sauce (store bought)

Directions:

1.  Let butter and cream cheese soften at room tempature.

2.  Mix butter and cream cheese with mixer until well combined and then gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency.  Mix in apple pie spice.  Put icing in piping bag or ziplock bag and then pipe onto cupcakes.  Gently drizzle caramel sauce on top then refrigerate.  

I halved this recipe and it made 24 mini cupcakes.  If you half the cake, half the icing too.  ENJOY!

Chocolate Chip Streusel Pumpkin Bread

My family LOVES the flavor of pumpkin!  Yesterday I baked this delicious bread - everyone loved it! 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 15 oz. can of canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup applesauce 
• 1/2 cup fat-free vanilla pudding (I used one single serving container)
• 2 large eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 stick butter cut into small pieces
•  Cooking spray  

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in chocolate chips.
• Spoon batter into 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Make streusel topping by combining small chucks of the butter with brown sugar and oats (I do this with my hands) and then sprinkle evenly on top of each loaf.  Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Enjoy for a light dessert or maybe even for a breakfast treat! 

                                                                                                                                                  

Happy Fall

I hope all of you are enjoying this Fall season - this is one of my favorite times of the year!  Not only are the trees starting to turn but here in Kentucky there is that little, wonderful nip in the air.  I wanted to share some little things I have done to decorate around the house to celebrate Fall.

 

I just love the white pumpkin! 

And here is what the Fall Coasters look like that I recently did, encase you missed my blog post on how to do this click here:  Tile Coasters

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Tonight I decided to make some BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS - I had some overly ripe bananas laying on the counter and of course my family loves muffins so I whipped them up after my little man went to bed.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients: 

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Whisk together your dry ingredients.
2. Mix the egg,vanilla, oil, sour cream and bananas together.
3. Combine the wet and dry until they are almost mixed thoroughly, then add in the chocolate chips. Don’t over mix the batter.
4. Place into your lined or greased unlined muffin tins and bake at 375 until beautifully browned, about 10 minutes for mini’s and 20 for large.

For me this made 24 mini muffins, along with 6 regular muffins...a perfect and yummy addition to breakfast or for dessert.  YUMMY!

Cute Gift Wrap idea for Baby Gift

I recently went to a baby shower for a good friend of mine who's having a precious little boy named Grayson.  We purchased baby Grayson a cute little outfit and got the parents a gift card to buy him some books from Barnes and Noble - now I wanted to make it a cute gift.  Gift bags are fine but have you ever noticed that almost all you every see anymore are gift bags at a party?  I will admit I have done that too and will continue to probably use gift bags on occasion.  But, when you really want to make a cute package you do it the old fashion way - you gift wrap!

I particularly love wrapping baby gifts because I think a cute little stuffed animal attached to the package really makes it ADORABLE!  For this gift I decided to get a plain white gift wrap and make that as the first layer.  The second layer is a cute gift wrap I found by Hallmark.  I cut it so it was a bit shorter than the package and then securely taped it around the gift.  Next I tied a bow on using satin ribbon I purchased at Walmart.  Lastly I used clear packing tape to attach the little blue giraffe.   

 

Lastly instead of a store bought card I made this really simple gift card holder that I learned how to make from the following tutorial at:  Kerry's Craft Blog  I had never done one of these before and it took me a few tries to get it right - I ran it through my printer to get Grayson's name on the front.  (I am look forward to making more of these cute gift card holders in the future.)  Then I slipped the card in and wrote a little message.  

I LOVE the way the package turned out.  Next time you have a baby shower to go to take a little extra time to make the wrapping CUTE too...I guarantee it will get noticed! 

Chicken Pot Pie - A Family Favorite (and great comfort food)

Today I would like to share my recipe for Chicken Pot Pie with you, it is absolutely delicious and my family loves this dish.

Ingredients:  

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast cooked and cubed.
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup half and half
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts (store brand is fine)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cook chicken breasts and cut into cubes, set aside.   Combine carrots and celery in saucepan and cover with water; bring to a boil.  Boil for 10 minutes then add the frozen peas and cook for 5 more minutes then drain.  Meanwhile melt butter in another saucepan and saute onion until soft and translucent; about 5-6 minutes.  Add 1/3 c flour and stir and cook for about 30 seconds.  Add chicken broth and half and half; stirring well and continue to stir until thickened and hot.  Remove from heat and add salt and pepper;  Now add vegetable mixture and cooked chicken to cream sauce and stir well - set aside to slightly cool.  Now prepare your pie shell - place one pie shell pastry in baking dish, making sure to press pastry up sides of your dish.

Now pour the warm chicken mixture into the pie shell and spread evenly.  Now lay your other pie shell pastry on top of the mixture.  Tuck extra dough under and crimp edges to seal.  Now cut a few slits in the top pastry dough so steam can escape. 

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.  Remove from oven and let sit for about 10 minutes before serving.  Absolutely delicious...and a great way to get your kids to eat vegetables!

Tile Coasters - An Easy Craft (and cheap too)

Today I am going to show you a craft I did this week and I LOVE the way they turned out.  Thanks to Pinterest I saw these and immediately knew I HAD to give it a try, now I 'm glad I did.  This is a short explanation of how to make your own tile coasters - they are cute to have for yourself or great to give as a small gift (especially hostess gifts.)  Here are the items you will need:

Plain tiles of your choice (I got these 4x4 tiles at Lowes for .16 cents each)

1 piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper 

Mod Podge

Clear Coat Spray Sealer

Paint brush or foam brush

Felt pads for bottoms of the coasters

Step 1:  Cut the scrapbook paper to the dimension you desire, since the tiles are 4x4 I cut mine a little less than that so you would see a border around the tile. It really helps if you have a decent paper cutter for this part.  1 piece of scrapbook paper easily makes 6 coasters.

Step 2:  Adhere scrapbook paper to the tile with Mod Podge - I painted a thin coat on the coaster first then laid my scrapbook paper on top.  Then lightly brush on a layer of Mod Podge on top - make sure you go around the edges of the paper well.  Let this dry then apply at least one more coat (you can do 3 coats of you think it's necessary.)  Don't worry the Mod Podge will dry clear!

  

Step 3:  Make sure the Mod Podge has completely dried and that the scrapbook paper is well adhered.  Now place the coasters on newspaper or a large box and spray with one or two coats clear coat spray to seal.  I used a satin finish.  Let the coasters completely dry.

Step 4:  Once the coasters are dry simply add felt pads to the bottom; you don't want to scratch up your pretty furniture with your new coasters. 

That's it!  See how easy, easy, easy this is!  Wow - it's super inexpensive too.  To purchase all the items necessary it will likely cost less than $10.  Once you have the Mod Podge you can use it for other crafts and there is enough clear coat spray for endless sets of coasters.  I plan on doing coasters for Fall and for Christmas using themed scrapbook paper.  I think these would make a nice gift too with the coasters stacked up and a pretty ribbon to tie them together.

Here's my finished product! 

Skinny Pizza Rolls - Delish!

I found this recipe on one of my favorite food blogs - The Dashing Dish.  When I saw them I knew I had to try them soon - a great finger food that I paired with a Caesar Salad for a delicious and relatively healthy meal.  My 12 year old daughter loved helping prepare these and was very proud when they turned out so good! 

Ingredients:

One package of turkey mini pepperoni (I used Hormel)

1 jar pizza sauce

1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 1/2 t. Italian Seasoning

1 t. garlic powder

Cooking Spray

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1- 12 oz package won ton wrappers 

These are what the won ton wrappers looked like that my grocery had:

Directions:
Chop the pepperonis into fourths.  Mix pepperoni with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, Italian seasoning and garlic powder until it looks like this:

Place a small amount of filling (approximately a tablespoon) in the middle of each wonton wrapper like this:

 

Next you wet your finger with some water (I recommend sitting a small bowl of water by your workspace) and wet two sides (this acts like glue when you fold the wrapper in half) - fold diagonally and seal edges shut by gently pressing together like this:

When you have all the pizza rolls assembled, place them on a baking sheet and spray lightly with cooking spray and then sprinkle the tops with the grated Parmesan.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.  The pizza rolls turn out crispy and light brown.  Best of all they are ONLY 30 CALORIES each!  This is a meal or a snack you  don't feel guilty about eating or feeding to your family.  Here is what the finished product looked like:

Chocolate Pudding Cupcake Cups

With inspiration from a blog post I had seen for little chocolate bowls I decided to give it a try.  Originally the directions were to blow up a balloon and dip the bottom part in chocolate in order to make a bowl of sorts.  We gave this a try but it didn't go so well - three balloons popped after the chocolate was on them and we had melted chocolate flying everywhere!!  What a mess!

In an effort to salvage the chocolate bowls I decided to try something else - so after I melted my chocolate we poured them into cupcake liners, making sure to get the sides really good.  You have to pour the extra chocolate back into your bowl.  They look something like this:

Place the chocolate covered cupcake liners in the refrigerator until set.  Once they are set the liner just pulls away from the chocolate shell...leaving a cute little, edible chocolate liner!  Kids think this is just too cool.  You can then use these cups for ice cream or fruit - but we used them for some homemade (from scratch) chocolate pudding.  You can find the recipe I used for that here: homemade chocolate pudding - I left out the peanut butter since my little one is allergic and it was great as just chocolate.  We finished the creation with whipped cream....they actually turned out looking like a cupcake!  ENJOY!

Hashbrown Nests

This morning I made these yummy, little creations for breakfast - they were amazing and pretty easy to prepare and low fat too!

Ingredients:

Approximately half a package of frozen country style hashbrowns

Cooking Spray

1/2 - 3/4 cup cheddar cheese

1 container Egg Beaters - Southwestern Style

Directions:

Thaw hash browns first - you can defrost them in the microwave a bit first if you don't have time to let them thaw.  Spray your muffin tin with cooking spray.  Salt and pepper the potatoes then divide mixture up equally among all 12 muffin tins. Firmly push potatoes into the bottom and up the sides of each muffin cup; leaving a well to put your egg mixture in later. Then spray potatoes again with cooking spray.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes or until edges are fairly brown and potatoes look set.  Remove muffin tin from oven then sprinkle the cheddar cheese equally on top of each cup and then add egg mixture equally to each cup.  (I might add here you could make your own egg mixture instead of using egg beaters - I just really like the flavor and zing of the Southwestern style egg beaters.  If I was using my own mixture I would finely dice onions and peppers then add eggs and beat well.)  Turn the oven down to 375 degrees and bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until the eggs are set!

These little puppies were AMAZING - I thought the Mr. was going to do a back flip after eating them!  This was a must do again recipe.  ENJOY!