Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

Isn't that a beauty? Tastes good too.There is a lot that goes into creating this cupcake.

1. Bake up some delicious chocolate cupcakes of choice.

2. Whip up some chocolate buttercream frosting. (Recipe below). Place it in fridge.

3. Wash, and dry your strawberries.

4. Time to melt some chocolate chips. I have no measurements, since it's fairly dependent on how many strawberries you plan on using. Bring about a cup of water to a small boil on the stove. I place a glass pyrex bowl on top of the pot (make sure the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water. You just need to steam to heat up the glass). Pour some chocolate chips into the bowl and stir. The chocolate will melt rather quickly. DO NOT ADD WATER OR MILK! You may think that will make the chocolate runnier, but it will NOT. In fact, it will harden up your chocolate.

5. Dip the strawberries in the chocolate then place on wax paper to cool. I suggest putting them in the fridge too.

6. Get a small cookie sheet with edges, or baking pan and spray with Pam. Pour the remaining chocolate on there, and spread rather thin. Place in freezer. This will be your chocolate shavings.

7. Now melt the white chocolate the same way (you need significantly less white chocolate).

8. Now you can frost your cupcakes in anyway you desire. I tried a variety of ways, but eventually settled on frosting the edges with some white chocolate, with the chocolate buttercream in the center. I then shaved up some of that hard chocolate and sprinkled it on. Then topped it with the strawberry. Store it in the fridge, if it won't be eaten soon.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM

Wilton Recipes

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

3/4 cup cocoa or three 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups sifted confectioners sugar (apx 1 lb.)

3-4 tablespoons milk

Cream butter and shortening. Add cocoa and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well. Add milk according to the stiffness you desire.

About 3 cups frosting. Can be stored, air tight in fridge for up to three weeks. Rewhip before using.

Credit to Modern Cake for the decorating idea.

Spaghetti with roasted zucchini

This recipe is pretty straight-forward and very basic. I particularly liked it because of the fresh twist it put on spaghetti. My son was quite disappointed though, when I told him we were having spaghetti but there were no meatballs in sight. I, however, felt like this was a fresh take on a traditional dish and felt like I was eating just a little healthier tonight.
Spaghetti with Roasted Zucchini
From Woman's Day Magazine

12 oz whole-wheat spaghetti
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 1/2-in.-thick slices fresh bread, torn into 1-in. pieces
2 cloves garlic, smashed
4 small zucchini (about 1 lb total), sliced 1/4 in. thick
1/4-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
Kosher Salt
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (1 oz)
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest

1) Heat oven to 425 degrees. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Toss the pasta with 1 Tbsp of the oil.

2) Meanwhile, in a food processor, pulse the bread and garlic until the bread forms coarse crumbs and the garlic is chopped.

3) In a large bowl, toss the zucchini, red pepper, remaining 2 Tbsp oil and 1/2 tsp salt. Add the Parmesan and bread crumb mixture and toss to combine. Spread the zucchini mixture on 2 rimmed baking sheets and roast until the squash is tender and golden brown, 10-12 minutes.

4) Toss the pasta with the zucchini mixture, parsley, and lemon zest.

Diana's Notes:

•I halved the recipe & we still have leftovers.

•I used a mixture of zucchini and yellow squash.

•I prepped my vegetables before hand. They roasted at the same time the spaghetti was cooking finishing at the same time, making my life a little bit easier.

•This would be a fantastic dish to add mushrooms or diced tomatoes.

•Unless you really like lemony pasta, don't go overboard on the zesting of the lemon.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I have never considered myself a lemon fan. Typically when there are other options available, (like chocolate), I always go with the 'other option'. However, Layla blogged about Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes a while back, I showed them to Richard, and he requested them.

I finally got around to making granting his wish, on Mother's Day no less and let me tell you-the buttercream frosting on these babies are delicious! The basic buttercream recipe will be one I use over and over in my future baking.

And the lemon cupcakes? I actually really liked them. But next time I will be sure to zest even more lemon into it. I craved more lemon!

Below is the recipe as I made it.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes or 30 mini-cups

Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup oil
1 cup full fat coconut milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Frosting:

2-4 fresh strawberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg whites
4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons lemon juice (approximately 1 large lemon)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 350 F.

*In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add sugar and brown sugar and mix. Whisk together oil, coconut milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. Fill cupcake liners (should be just under 2/3 of the way full). Bake for 20-25 minutes (15 minutes for mini-cups) or until golden, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely

*To make frosting, first wash and hull strawberries and toss them into a food processor. Puree strawberries and set aside.

*Add sugar and egg whites into a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.

*Using the whisk attachment on a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.

*Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.

*Once the buttercream is thick and smooth, gradually beat in the lemon juice on medium speed, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. By this point you should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. You can stop at this point if you want to stick with lemon buttercream. For strawberry buttercream, gradually add in strawberry puree, beating on medium speed until well incorporated.

Let me know what you think!

Coconut Cupcakes

I have been craving Coconut Cake for months! I mean, MONTHS! But, ironically, I don't know if I've ever tasted a coconut cake in my life. However, the words coconut & cake together left me salivating.

I finally gave up on the idea of going to a restaurant that I heard serves the best coconut cake, and decided I would whip something up myself. After much research, I decided to settle with some coconut cupcakes (because cupcakes are much easier to share, and who doesn't like a reason to go visit with friends)!

I settled on a recipe from Tender Crumb and was utterly impressed with these! Like, super in LOVE with them. I followed the directions explicitly, and they are just so delicious.

Oh, and I can't forget to mention that I used my dry milk to create the buttermilk. In case you have dry milk food storage you want to start digging into, here are the measurements for buttermilk: 1/3 cup dry milk mixed with 1 cup water. Then add a tablespoon of either lemon juice or vinegar and let it set for a few minutes.

Here is the recipe copied straight from Tender Crumb blog. However, these photos are from my very own kitchen! Salivating yet?

Coconut Cupcakes
adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
makes 12-15 cupcakes

Cupcakes

6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 oz shredded sweetened coconut
toasted shredded coconut to top the cupcakes

Frosting

8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
6 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 lb powdered sugar, sifted


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In 3 parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in coconut.

Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Fill each liner to the top with batter. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a baking rack and cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla and almond extracts. Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth.

Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with the toasted coconut.

Southwest Roll-ups

This took me less than 15 minutes to prepare! And I made a lot at once for future dinners.

I took this recipe from Money Saving Mom. I halfed her recipe, it made 7 large tortilla wraps, and one small one. Another adaptable recipe to toss in whatever vegetables you have, and I would suggest doing so to create a healthier adaptation.

Ingredients:

1/2 can corn

1 can refried beans

1/4 cup salsa

About 7 tortillas, depending on size.

Shredded cheddar cheese

1-2 cups Cooked chicken, shredded or diced.
Mix chicken, salsa, corn, refried beans together. I tossed in the rest of my spinach for good measure. Mix well.
Put on tortillas. Top with cheese, and wrap to your heart's content.
To bake, just put them in the oven at 350 degrees. Top with more cheese on top, to melt over if desired, and bake for 30 minutes. I am freezing mine, and will pull them out to cook at a later date.

Stuffed Peppers

I don't know why stuffed peppers intimidated me so much. They were so EASY to make and very versatile to accommodate what I already had in my fridge. I used chicken sausage, because there were leftovers after making this super simple meal. But, any meat will do, just make sure you cook it first. & I meant to add mushrooms, but totally forgot!

Ingredients I used:

2-3 Bell Peppers

1/2 of an onion finely diced

2-3 links chicken sausage

1 cup brown rice, cooked

Spinach

Drizzle of spaghetti sauce that I had in my fridge. Original recipes call for tomato sauce. But, I was out, so I compromised.

First, cut off the top of your peppers and clean out the insides. Stick your peppers into boiling water for no more than three minutes.

Fry up your onions and sausage together

Mix in cooked rice, and spinach, (And mushrooms, and any other vegetable you want). Then drizzle some of your tomato sauce onto mixture, and stir in.

Scoop your mixture into peppers, until heaping full. Then cook in oven at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes. Your peppers are good when tender and growing some wrinkly skin. You don't want to burn them though, so check on them until they look to your satisfaction. I topped with some parmesan cheese, since I did use spaghetti sauce after all.

Super tasty, and super fun!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I just made these today and they are super tasty!!

WARNING: This is not your grandmother's oatmeal cookie.

Mix together:
1.5 cup white sugar
1.5 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening

Once mixed, add in:
2 eggs
1 tsp

Mix separately then add into sugar mixture:
3/4 cup white flour
3/4 cup wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Then add in 3 cups of oats and 1.5 c chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.

Vegetable Lasagna

Coming soon to a blog near you

Jumbo 3-Chip Cookies

This recipe is taken from"100 Best Chocolate Recipes" -a cookbook gift given to me when I was married. The gift giver, my cousin, knows me well, don't you think? To give you an idea of how jumbo these are, I let Michael eat one. It's still hard to tell, but jumbo is the truth!Jumbo 3-Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

2 Large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips - - Any variety of chips will do the trick, this is just what I used.

1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda in medium bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop dough by level 1/4-cup measure 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen.

Now for the second half. I could already tell by the amount of dough that I would have too many cookies on hand, so I decided to measure out the dough into cupcake tins to freeze them. Just below the fill line is about 1/4 cup. I put a knife around the edges to make for easier removal from pan once frozen. Freeze for a couple of hours. I had to turn the pan upside down and rinse the bottom of it with warm water for a second and then tap the pan on the counter and the dough just fell right out. I placed the dough into plastic bags and back into the freezer, so they are ready to pop into the oven for future use!

Easy Wraps

Wraps are a fantastic way to switch up eating a traditional deli sandwich, and it's a little more versatile too. Just take a glance in your fridge and discover what leftover veggies and meat you can use.

The spread consists of: cream cheese, sour cream, seasoning salt, and a dry ranch packet all spread on a Mission brand Garden Herb tortilla. Regular flour tortillas are delicious too.

Today my wraps included: Diced red pepper, diced tomato, packaged deli meat, spinach, and green onion.

Measurements can definitely be adapted according to the amount of people you are trying to feed. To make about 4-5 large wraps, place 1/2 block of cream cheese in a bowl. Put a few spoonfuls of sour cream into the bowl. You want it to be a creamy, spreadable texture which the sour cream helps fulfill, but you don't want to overpower the sour cream taste. Sprinkle generously with seasoning salt and a quarter of a dry ranch packet. Beat until mixed together and spread across tortilla.

Load the veggies on, leaving at least a 1/2 inch at one end so the tortilla will stick together when you roll it up.

These can also be cut up into little pinwheels if you are looking for a good, easy appetizer.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

2-3 Boneless Chicken Breasts

1 Quart Organic Chicken Broth

1-1.5 Cups Water

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 Stalks Celery, medium diced

3 Carrots, peeled and medium diced

1 Leek, diced

Dried Thyme

About 2 cups uncooked whole-wheat egg noodles

Salt and Pepper, to taste

1. Turn oven to 400 degrees, and roast chicken sprinkled with salt and pepper (or any desired seasoning) until fully cooked (abt 30-40 minutes for 2 breasts). When done, shred and cut up chicken to bite size pieces.

2. Put oil in pan, and saute celery, leeks, and carrots for about 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, pour chicken broth and water into pot, and bring to a soft boil. Pour in egg noodles and let them start cooking. As noodles cook, add more water if necessary.

4. After sautéed vegetables are tender, put them into broth mixture. Also add the chicken to the broth.

5. Add a couple teaspoons of thyme and some salt and pepper.

Ready to eat once the egg noodles are cooked!

Leek Potato Soup

This recipe is very simple, and pretty tasty. If I had bacon bits, I would've topped the soup off with them (for extra color, and a different flavor). I made my soup by combining two different recipes and creating my own. Some soups call for more spices, but I kept it simple with just salt and pepper and just a little bit of basil.

Potato Leek Soup
1 Tbsp Butter
2 large leeks (for tips on how to properly cut leeks click here. BTW, my leeks were much larger than the one pictured here, so if you use small leeks like this, then I suggest using 3 for the soup.)
1 lb potatoes (abt 3-4) peeled and cut into quarters. (We used red)
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 -2 cups water
salt & pepper to taste

1 Cook leeks in butter with salt and pepper in a medium sized sauce pan. Cover pan, cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Check often. Do not brown leeks! Browning will give leeks a burnt taste.
2 Add water, broth, and potatoes. Bring to a low simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes are pretty soft. Scoop about half of the soup mixture into a blender, puree and return to pan, or do the entire soup for less chunks.

That's it! Serves 4-6 I served ours with crusty garlic bread. Croutons would work well too!
Bon appetit!

Cabbage Potato Gratin

My gratin^

I'm pulling this recipe straight from blog "Small Potatoes". With St. Patrick's Day and all, cabbage is really inexpensive at most stores, so I wanted to try something new with it. Actually, I don't think I've ever bought a cabbage since being married so it was fun to cook with.

Potato Cabbage Gratin

1 pound yellow potatoes (about 3-4) I used Red Potatoes
about 1 pound green cabbage
4 tbls. butter, plus more for dish
1 garlic clove
1 1/3 cups milk
3 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheese (Parmesan or other hard, white cheese)
1/3 cup AP flour
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 2 quart baking dish. Put a large pot of water on to boil.
2. Peel and slice potatoes to 1/4 inch thick.
3. Slice the cabbage roughly into ribbons.
4. Add potatoes and 1 tbls. salt to water. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove potatoes to a bowl.
5. Drop cabbage into water and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cabbage from water and place on an old dish cloth. Squeeze out as much excess water as you can.
6. Melt butter in small skillet and toss garlic in for one minute.
7. Gently toss cabbage, potatoes, butter and garlic, and salt and pepper (to taste) together. (Your potatoes may break up a little, but no worries, it will all bake up nicely.) Pour into baking dish.
8. Whisk milk, eggs, cheese, and flour together. Pour over potato mixture. (Reserve a little cheese to sprinkle on top.)
9. Bake for 50 minutes and cool slightly before serving.

4 to 6 servings
We served it with crusty bread and sausage, but this could easily be a vegetarian main.

We served it with crusty bread as well as lots of fruits. Richard didn't hate the dish, but considering it was mostly veggies, he didn't love it either. He thought it was a little bland, but I found it to be plenty flavorful since I like the taste of cabbage and potatoes. But, just adding more pepper helped dramatically. If I make it again, it will probably include some ham chunks in it (because men don't think a meal is a meal without meat). Lol. I would love to hear your feedback if you make it! Also, if anyone has any other cabbage recipes, please share them! I'd love to give them a try.

Truffles

This year for Christmas I made truffles to give away to all my neighbors.

Thankfully they're easy to make and oh so delicious.

First thing you need is about a lb. of chocolate. Dark, milk, mint, doesn't matter. Make sure it's something you like to eat on it's own. In this photo I'm using a cadbury milk chocolate bar. What you need to do is chop the entire lb of chocolate into small pieces (for me it ended up more like shavings which worked out better).


Put the chocolate in a bowl.

I forgot to take pictures of this step but you need to heat up 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream on the stove. Heat it until just before boiling when bubbles appear around the side of the pan. Remove the cream from the heat and pour directly into your bowl of chocolate shavings. It should combine into a smooth creamy mixture (for me I still had a few lumps so I placed the bowl over a pan of boiling water and made it a little hotter to melt the rest). Cover the bowl with ceran wrap by pushing it down into the bowl directly onto the smooth chocolate mixture. Refrigerate at least 2 hours but until the mixture is solid.


At this point remove the bowl from the fridge and remove the ceran wrap. Next to it place a small bowl with cocoa powder. Take a spoon, remove a spoonful of chocolate from the bowl and drop it into the powder. Now it's time to get your hands dirty. Grab that spoonful and roll it into a ball. Place it onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. If the chocolate mixture gets too soft place it back into the refrigerator to harden again.



Once you get the balls all formed it's time to double boil (melt) more chocolate. The best I've found is actually a dipping chocolate in the form of large chips. The best locally here in Provo is from Funfetti by the distribution center on University Parkway. Their milk chocolate chips. Generally another lb. will do.


Melt down the chocolate until it's smooth, being careful not to overhead. Generally once it starts melting down it's hot enough to remove from the heat and with continued mixing the melt all the chocolate. Once it's melted drop a ball of chocolate into the bowl make sure it's covered and then place on another cookie sheet covered in Parchment Paper.

Very important note on the dipping chocolate, don't get any water in it whatsoever. If you do it will seize (thicken and get lumpy) and make dipping impossible.

Once all the balls are covered place it in the refrigerator to harden again. If you want you can drizzle more chocolate on top of the hardened truffles. I did green drizzles on my mint truffles so you could tell them apart.

Hopefully all that made sense, I'm sad I forgot to take a picture of the final product but it was oh so yummy!

Have fun making your own truffles!

Kneaders Key Lime Tarts

Let me start out by explaining the difference between Key limes and your everyday supermarket variety, the Persian lime. Key limes come from the Florida Keys, thus their name, and are smaller, more yellow and contain more seeds than the green skinned Persian limes. The bad news is they’re almost impossible to find fresh at your local market, but the good news is Persian limes work just as well in this particular recipe.

Ingredients

• ½ cup fresh lime juice (3 to 4 limes)
• 4 teaspoons grated lime zest
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 – 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 8 3” tart shells

Preparation

1. It’s easiest to remove the lime zest from whole limes so start with that.

2. Cut the limes in half and squeeze out the juice being careful to not include any seeds.

3. Whisk the egg yolks and lime zest together in a bowl until tinted light green. This takes about 2 minutes.

4. Beat in the milk, then juice and set aside at room temp till it thickens.

5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

6. Pour mixture into tart crusts, bake for 5 minutes until the center is set, but still wiggles when shaken.

7. Remove from the oven and cool to room temp.

8. Refrigerate for at least three hours until well chilled.

9. Serve with whipped cream topping and decorate with a lime wedge.

Makes 8 Tarts

EASY Home Made Chicken Pot Pie

This is one of my favorites. Super easy. We eat this a lot.

Chicken Pot Pie

~One double pie crust- (you can buy this ready made next to the refrigerated biscuits if you're in a pinch and don't have time to make your own. I always have one ready made crust on had so I can pop this dinner in the oven when I'm in a hurry.)
~One can of chicken, (we buy ours at Costco)
~ one can cream of mushroom soup
~ one bag mixed frozen veggies
~a hand full grated cheese
~ sprinkle as much garlic salt as you think you would like

Line pie plate with one crust. Mix chicken, soup, veggies, cheese, and garlic salt. Fill pie crust. Cover with top crust. Cover edges of pie with foil so they don't over brown in the baking process.
Bake for 40-45 min at 425 degrees (or according to pie crust instructions) uncovering edges for the last 10 min of baking.

Hope you make it and enjoy it!

Lasagna

I know you want it.

But you can't have it.

It's just so good. 

Turkey Meatloaf

I saw Tara on this season's The Biggest Loser, making Turkey Meatloaf and it looked so simple and delicious. I am pulling this recipe from Slim Shoppin's blog, which she pulled from Jennie-O's website, but I like her blog, so I'm doing some free advertising. 

Anyway, I'll be adding my own input in BLUE and illustrating with my very own pictures. :) I know you're excited.

First, I need to point out my new appliance! It did a FANTASTIC job on it's first use. I love, love, love it. And it was nice not having to spend time chopping all the veggies myself.

INGREDIENTS: 1 small yellow onion, coarsely chopped 

1 medium carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped 

1 stalk of celery, coarsely chopped 

2 chipotle peppers (canned in adobo sauce) 

1 (20-ounce) package JENNIE-O TURKEY STORE® extra lean ground turkey breast 

1/2 cup quick cooking oats 

2 egg whites 

FOR TOPPING: 1/4 cup fat free and sugar free ketchup 

1 tablespoon chipotle pepper adobo sauce (from canned peppers used in meatloaf)

 1 tablespoon brown sugar 

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350°F. In the work bowl of a food processor, combine onion, carrots and celery. Pulse until finely chopped. Add chipotle peppers and pulse until just combined. I found this in the Mexican food section of my grocery store.

In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey with the pepper and vegetable mixture. 

Add egg whites and oats; gently mix until combined. 

Place about 1/3 cup of the prepared meat loaf mixture into 9 wells of a standard size muffin pan that has been lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Mine actually filled the entire muffin pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine all of the topping ingredients in a small bowl; set aside. Remove meat loaves from oven and spoon the topping over each meat loaf. Return meat loaf to the oven and continue to bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until meat loaf is firm and the internal temperature registers 170°F. Let meat loaf stand for 5 minutes before serving. Makes 9 (or 12) mini loaves. This Recipe is Biggest Loser approved

My sauce only made enough to cover 9 meatloafs, but I didn't mind because I wanted to try one without the sauce. 

The sauce was SUPER spicy-because of that chipotle pepper. The salad was the perfect side, because after each bite of meatloaf I could cool my mouth down with the ranch dressing. I would suggest using less of the abodo sauce, and subbing more ketchup if you want less spicy. HOWEVER, I do not suggest omitting the sauce all together. It really brought the whole meal together. The plain turkey meatloaf was lacking without that sauce. Overall, I give this meal a high rating. It was SIMPLE and DELICIOUS, and provided for easy clean up.

Try it out, and tell me what you think!

Nutritional Information for 1 mini loaf:

Calories: 110 Fat: 1 g Saturated Fat: 0 Sodium: 180 mg Protein: 16 g Cholesterol: 25 mg Carbohydrates: 6 g

Watch out for the baby though. He'll find the cookies while you're busy occupying yourself in the kitchen.

From Scratch!

I got a wonderful wheat grinder for Christmas. So after I went out and bought some wheat to grind I made bread. This was my first try! Pretty good huh?
I'm not going to post the recipe, so if you want it let me know. I'm not posting it cause I haven't found the bread recipe that I love, this was ok, but I didn't love it.
But we can enjoy the picture right!

Blueberry Crumble Top Muffins

I was inspired by Trent's blog to bake some Blueberry Muffins! And blueberries were on sale, so where could I go wrong? 

I'm not the greatest photographer, but these looks pretty scrumptious, huh?

Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 C Flour

3/4 C Sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/3 C Vegetable Oil

1 egg

1/3 cup Milk

1 C Berries

CRUMBLE TOP:

1/2 C Sugar

1/3 C Flour

1/4 C Butter, cubed

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Combine first 4 ingredients. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup. Add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups and sprinkle with crumb topping.

For the crumb topping, simply mix those 4 ingredients in a bowl with a fork. 

Bake at 400 degrees, 20-25 minutes.