Latest Happenings

It's been a while since my last post. Life has been BUSY. Here's a re-cap of the latest happenings via pictures and brief explanations.

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting & Filling

I did this cake for a choir fellowship dinner at church. They wanted two different flavors and needed enough cake to feed 75 so I did two sheet cakes. This one was DEVOURED. The cake itself was a moist devil's food flavor and I did a peanut butter-buttercream filling and frosting with cake crumb coating on the side.

Vanilla with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting and Filling

This was the other sheet cake I did. A good chunk was gone by the end of the night. I think it was in the shadows of the chocolate cake's spotlight. There's just something about chocolate and peanut butter that makes people's ears perk and their mouths water. The vanilla/strawberry combo was delicious nonetheless.

Hannah Montana Birthday Cake

I got an e-mail from one of my old co-workers and she wanted a Hannah Montana inspired cake for her daughter's birthday but nothing too fancy. So...I came up with this design. I thought it was cute and a pretty good price. The cake was vanilla funfetti with buttercream icing.

Lightning McQueen

This was a fun cake to do. One of our choir members at church ordered this for her grandson's birthday. He loves the movie "Cars" and so I thought this would be perfect. It showed my nephew a picture and he starting trying to grab it out of my digital camera speaking his gibberish so needless to say I'll be making one like this for his birthday in July.

Italian Inspired Meatballs and Rice

The other night I needed to make dinner for the hubby and myself but I was pretty tired and didn't feel like prepping, chopping, seasoning, sauteing, baking, etc. I think we've all had those days. You want to cook something nutritious and delicious but that frozen dinner seems so much easier and a lot less trouble.

Not wanting to give in to the pre-made, lack-luster,"healthy" TV dinners I looked in the pantry and through my fridge to see what I could come up with and here is the result:

There isn't an exact recipe for what I made...hence the phrase "inspired" in the blog title. So instead of formatting this into an ingredient list with accompanying instructions I'll just let you know what I used:
Frozen (fully cooked) Turkey Meatballs (about 15 all together)
1 pkg Uncle Ben's Wild Rice
1 onion, chopped
2 zucchini, chopped
1 cup marinara sauce
Oregano
Balsamic Vinegar

Basically I sauteed the onion and zucchini with oregano and balsamic vinegar until soft. Then the marinara sauce went into the pan with the turkey soldiers . . . I mean meatballs and they simmered while I heated up the rice via the directions on the package. After you hear the quick and pleasant "beep beep beep" of the microwave you add the rice to the marinara madness in the pan combine all those flavors together. The starch from the rice gives it this creamy-like texture and it's absolutely delicious AND nutritious!!

Seriously folks, this dinner was ridiculously easy to make and ssoooo tasty. I'm definitely gonna make this one again and you definitely should try it.

Raspberry Vinaigrette, Oh how I love thee

One of the good things that came out of this "mini-purification" is this really good raspberry vinaigrette. I had never made any type of salad dressing from scratch and I LOVE vinaigrettes and raspberries so I figured I'd try it.

It's really simple to make. Take 1 cup of raspberries, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard and puree in a blender. Blend in around 1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil or until it reaches desired consistency. (I don't like to use too much oil so whatever you like then go for it!)

I used that stuff on everything!!! The salad was just a combo of lettuce, green peppers, shredded carrots, grapes, and chopped zucchini.


That is what my lunch usually consisted of. I'd add some diced mangoes for an after-dinner snack salad and that was super delicious too!! The dressing is a little tangy and more on the vinegar-y side so if you aren't a fan of the tang factor then start with half the vinegar measurements and adjust it to your own taste.

Butternut Squash Muffins with a Hint of Maple

I bought some butternut squash the other day in the grocery store in an effort to expand my culinary taste buds. I've never cooked or tasted butternut squash so I was browsing several different recipes. There were a lot that sounded good but I'm a sucker for muffins. So I baked the squash in the oven to cook it and the aroma was to die for. I scooped out a spoonful before I put it in the food processor to puree it and it was DELICIOUS!! I could eat it just like that with nothing on it. Seriously people, if you haven't ever tried butternut squash you must make it a priority.

Back to the recipe...I found the one on allrecipes.com and adapted it a little to lower the calories. Here is the result

Ingredients
1 ½ cups pureed butternut squash
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup Splenda for Baking
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 cup skim milk
2 egg whites, beaten
1 tablespoon butter, melted
Sugar Free Maple Flavored Syrup

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2.In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, Splenda, salt and cinnamon.
3.In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, egg and butter. Whisk in squash until well blended. Fold the squash mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.
4.Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan, filling cups about 1/2 full. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from muffin pan and cool on a wire rack. Drizzle with sugar free maple flavored syrup.

If you'd like a glaze then add some powdered sugar to your sugar-free syrup...yummmm