Banana Cupcakes

So I was super bored the other night and found a box of Yellow Cake Mix, and I was in the mood for something with bananas. Which was convenient because I had a bunch of bananas in my kitchen. 

They are super moist, just the right amount of banana flavor, and hit my sweet craving!

 

Cupcakes

1	box (15 oz) Betty Crocker® yellow cake mix
1	cup mashed ripe bananas ( I used 2 large bananas)
1/3	cup butter, melted
1/3	cup water
3	eggs, beaten
2	teaspoons vanilla extract  ( I use a pure vanilla from mexico, so if you have pure real vanilla only use  1 teaspoon)

 

Frosting

1/3	cup butter*
3	cups powdered sugar
1	teaspoon vanilla
3	to 4 tablespoons milk

1. 1 Heat oven to 350°F. Place paper baking cups in each of 17 regular-size muffin cups. In large bowl, stir cupcake ingredients just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon batter evenly into muffin cups.
2. Bake 16 to 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
3. 3 In 1-quart saucepan, heat 1/3 cup butter over medium heat just until light brown, stirring occasionally. (Watch carefully because butter can burn quickly.) Remove from heat. Cool slightly, about 5 minutes.
4. 4 In medium bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and enough milk until smooth and spreadable. Spread frosting over cooled cupcakes.

Out Side The Box.... Blackberry Cupcakes

Everyone likes cupcakes, instead of doing chocolate or vanilla cupcakes.

Why not think out side of the box?


Here is a delicious Blackberry Cupcake.

This makes 24 amazing cupcakes.

18 oz blackberries - pureed and strained to remove seeds
1/3 cup milk
7 large egg whites
2 1/4 cup cake flour

1 3/4 cup sugar
1.5 sticks of butter, softened

Puree blackberries in a food processor or blender. Scrape into a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl. With a rubber spatula, work the blackberries through the sieve, leaving seeds behind. 

Beat the egg whites, lemon juice, and 3/4 cup sugar in a bowl until soft peaks. Then separately beat the butter with the 1 cup sugar, and add in the rest of the ingredients, beating well. Remove 1/4 cup of blackberry puree for the frosting and pour the rest into the bowl. At the end, fold in the egg whites mixture. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 18 minutes, or till a toothpick comesout with crumbs, not wet batter attached.  

Let cool completely then frost. 

Blackberry Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/4 of the Blackberry puree

3/4 of a package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (softened)

3 Tbsp of Sweet Butter (softened)
1/2 - 1 cup of Confectioner Sugar

Mix all the in a small bowl and mix until smooth. Start only with the 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar, taste then add more if you would like it sweeter.

I'm Out Of Salad Dressing!

I wanted a BLT sandwich yesterday. I get the bacon out, the lettuce, and the tomatoes out; and I realize I have no bread! So looking around my kitchen, I decided on having a BLT salad instead.

Then I realized I only had ranch dressing!!! (It wasn't my day.)

So I decided to make my on kind of salad dressing!


Honey Dijon Dressing

1/4 cup of Honey Dijon Mustard
1/3 cup of Olive Oil
1 tsp of sugar

Its super easy! Mix these all together untill it is smooth!

Pour on your favorite salad!

4 pieces of Cooked Bacon (Chopped up)
1/2 sliced Tomato
2 cups of Organic Green Salad
1/2 a cup of Cran-rasins
1/3 a cup of Honey Dijon Dressing!


Enjoy!

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed Bell Peppers

4 BellPeppers
1 pound of Ground Turkey
1.5 cups of Instant Brown Rice
2 large Tomatoes (Chopped)
1-1 1/2 cups of Chicken Broth (or turkey if you can find it)
1 bag of Kraft Mexican Cheese ( Solid White Cheese)
Onion Salt
Garlic Powder

Turn your oven on Broil.

Cut the tops of the peppers off  and place them cut down in a bowl of 1/2 inches of water and microwave on high for 8 1/2 mins.

While the peppers are heating, in a frying pan cook the Ground Turkey (takes about 5 mins). Then pour the Instant Brown Rice on top of the turkey, then the Chicken Broth, top with the chopped Tomatoes.

Bring the contents of the pan to a boil then cover with a lid and turn the heat down so it simmers for 5 mins.

Take the pan off with the lid still on and let the pan rest for 5 more mins so the rice can absorb the rest of the broth and puff up.

Pour out the excess broth out of the pan. Mix in 1-2 cups of Cheese into the meat and rice mixture, stir untill the cheese has melted.

Stuff the Peppers as well as you can to the top ( it is okay if you pile more on top), placing them in a cassarole dish (or a broilng pan). Cover in cheese. Place in the oven on the 3 to the top of the oven, so the cheese melts ( this takes 1-3 mins)

Take out and enjoy!!

Chicken Cordon Bleu

So I was out with a friend on Friday for lunch and had a delicious Chicken cordon Bleu sandwhich from Leatherby's. So last night I deciced to make Chicken Cordon Bleu my self. It was easy and quick.

This makes enough for 2 people.

4- Trimmed Chicken Breasts

4- slice of Swiss Cheese for each Chicken Breast

8- slices of Honey Smoked Ham

2- TBSP of Dijon Mustard

2- TBSP of Honey Mustard

1- TBSP of Garlic Powder

1- TBSP of Onion Powder
1- TBSP of Paprika
8- Toothpicks
4- peices of Tinfoil
Olive Oil

Oven on at 350*F.

If the Chicken Breasts are not about 1/4 of an inch thick you will need to butterfly cut the meat. After you cut the meat place it on a layer of wax paper, cover the top with wax paper aswell. Now I used a rolling pin to roll out the chicken so be become flat and thinner.

Mix the Garlic & Onion powders with the Paprika in a small dish, and the 2 types of Mustard in a separate dish. Sprinkel the chicken on the side you can see. This will give it a bit more flavor. After you season the chicken spoon on the Mustard in a light layer.  Fallowing the mustard the lay down 2 pieces of Honey Smoked Ham, then the Swiss Chesse.

Now here comes the tricky part. Rolling them up. I just started at the thinnest side and worked towards myself to the thickest. You have to use Toothpicks to keep them together, or if you are out of toothpicks clean non-nylon string will work aswell.

Pull out a cake pan and the tinfoil. Tear the Tinfoil in to equal sizes and make pour some olive oil on them so the chicken doesn't stick. Place the chicken on the tinfoil and fold up the sides, this makes is less messy and the cheese that will goo out will be with the chicken instead burned to the pan. After doing this will all the chickens place them in the pan.

Slightly rub more Olive Oil on the top of the chicken and sprinkle more of the seasoning on top. Pop into the oven that should be at 350*F and wait 35 mins.

Then Enjoy!

You can pair this with Angled Hair Pasta, Snow Peas, and Cresents.

What He Says and What She Hears

Everyone in the world hears and understands things differently. This hold extremely true to what men say to women, and what women say to men.

"I'll me home around __pm." Now, when a woman hears this, she is expecting you to me home around ?-?:30. Most woman are more punctual then men when it comes right down to it, when they say they will be at a curtain place at a curtain time. If he is really going to be home 2-3 hours later than what he says, he should have said "I'll be home late". This saves everyone a headache. As the guy you are not late, and us woman are not sitting around glaring at the clock at ?pm or later fuming because you said you would be home at a curtain time.

Women ask men " Do you like my new ______ ?" or "Did you like _____?" and of course we are fishing for a compliment.
     "It was okay/ It's okay" Normally this is not what a woman wants to hear. It is generic, not a compliment in anyway, and makes us feel that you really could care less. Keep in mind we are fishing for a compliment, just say " It was really good", " I like it", or being super crafty and be like " I really liked  the ______" and pick something out to comment on.

"I am just never in the mood" Now this is a tricky and sticky situation a lot of woman do fine them selfs in. When we hear this a few alarms start going off in our heads. He isn't attracted to me anymore, he is seeing someone else, and alot of other things but that are just a couple. But we do have to give the guy the benefit of the doubt that he is just never in the mood or that when you are he isn't or visaversa. Keep in mind we women can be some what fragile in this department.  All in all when we hear this 100 different things go threw our minds and it makes a crazy.

"I'm going to the store" Now woman normally ask what are you going for because we tend to say 'We need _____ if your going' but when nothing is really needed from the store, we tend to here "I need to get out of the house for a while', I don't want to be around you right now', or You are being annoying". If any of these are the case, do us a favor and just say "I'm going out for a bit". Saves another headache with all of the speculating.


Hope everyone one has a Happy Hoilday!

Holiday Treats!

I have lots of recipes I really need to post... But here are a few good Holiday Treats I just recently made on Monday.

Oreo Truffles:

• 1 bag of oreos
• Plan Cream Cheese, 8 oz.
• 1  lb.  white baking chocolate (I like the Ghirardelli White Chocolate)

Get the cream cheese out so it can soften. Crush the cookies in a large ziplock baggy. I used a rolling pin to get the cookies as finely crushed as I could. Then in a large bowl combine crushed cookies and cream cheese. With a hand mixer on low speed to mix the cookies and cream cheese. After mix I put the bowl in the frig for about 20 mins so it hardens up some. Then using a teaspoon 1-inch balls by hand. Place the Oreo balls on  wax paper covered cookie sheets and place in the freezer for about 20 mins so they harden. Dip balls in white chocolate; place back on  baking sheet covered with waxed paper. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. To store, cover and refrigerate.
This makes about 50 truffles. That is if you are not like me and eat the mix while you are waiting for the chocolate to melt.

Soft Ginger Cookies:

Okay so I 100% did not make these cookies from scratch... I used the box of  Betty Crocker Gingerbread mix and fallowed the directions.

But my only personal note to this directions on the box is only bake for 9 mins, not 8 or 10!!! 9 mins is perfect to reach a delicious soft ginger cookie!

Also mine do not have sugar on them... They are good with and with out!



Happy Holidays!