When the question involves cupcakes, the answer is always YES.

I’ve been awake since 4:30am. Yes, you read that right. I’m not sure whether it’s because I took my Ambien too early (I didn’t think so, it was 10:30pm or so), or I took the Phentermine too late (I took it at 2pm, which is before my normal time), or some kind of weird new illness that I’ve decided to pick up along the way, but I was up way before I intended to be. I was going to work on a pair of yoga socks until I had to get ready to work, but I’ve been hurting a lot lately so that wouldn’t work. Then I started thinking about what today’s blog topic was going to be…

As usual, I had no idea. None. In general, I usually don’t have a clue what I’m going to write about until I actually sit down to write. But once I started thinking about it this morning, it actually came to me pretty easily.

I found a recipe on Facebook last night for muffins that taste like donuts. Wait a tick… Muffins, that taste like donuts????? How much better could it possibly get?? NONE, that’s the answer. And in looking at it a second time this morning, I realized that I actually had all the ingredients I needed. So there you have it; I’m going to bake some freaking muffins that taste like donuts, take pictures of them, and write a freaking blog about it! Genius! I am making one alteration though (more than one, but this is the most important) and calling them cupcakes, because I like cupcakes more than I like muffins. They’re cute. So here we go!

Donut Cupcakes

**First of all, this isn’t my recipe. You can find the picture of the recipe I used at the bottom of this post. I will write it all out for you up here though. And, pictures!!**

I used powdered milk because we don’t keep regular milk in the house. It works just as well.

You will need….

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/3 c vegetable or canola oil
3/4 c white granulated sugar
1 egg
3/4 c milk

The first thing you are going to do is preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then mix all the dry ingredients together, with the exception of the powdered milk if you’re using it because that will end up being a liquid. It looks like this:

Not really much to look at yet.

Turns into a cup of liquid milk

1/3 c powdered milk

Mix the liquids together in a separate bowl. If you are using powdered milk, follow the instructions on the box to make it into liquid milk. Mine gave directions for a cup of milk, so I used what I needed and drank the rest. Because milk is good for you.

Mix the liquids into the dry ingredients, making sure that you don’t over mix. They should be somewhere between smooth and lumpy, but if you’re hand-mixing them like I did you shouldn’t worry much about over mixing. It ends up looking like this:

Prepare your muffin tin with liners, and spoon the mixture into the tin. You want each liner to be about half to three quarters full of batter.

The mixture was just the right amount for 12 cupcakes. My liners were a bit big, so you can see that they folded up a bit, but I’m not concerned about that. You can, of course, make these in mini muffin tins and you’ll end up with more. Plus, that would be super cute!!

Put your muffin tin in the oven and set your timer for 20 minutes. The recipe says to bake for 20-25 minutes, but for mine 20 minutes was perfect. While they are baking, mix up the topping. For that you will need:

1/2 c butter
1/4 c white granulated sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

I put the mixture on top of my stove so it wouldn’t harden, and I let the cupcakes bake for the rest of the 20 minutes. Once the timer went off, I stuck a toothpick in the middle of a couple of the cupcakes to make sure they were fully baked (they were!), and then I flipped them out onto a paper towel. Dip each cupcake into your butter/sugar/cinnamon topping, and voila!! You’re all done!

I’ve eaten one of these, and they are SUPER delicious! And did you know that Monday is National Cupcake Day? I didn’t either, but I’m celebrating it a bit early anyway because I’ll be packing for Dallas all day Monday.

Anyway, here’s the recipe (from a post by Louise’s Country Closet):

If you make these let me know, I’d love to see how yours turn out! Happy Thursday all!

I’m so hungry

Ok, so I was searching for something new and interesting to make for dinner, and here are a few things I’ve come across while looking around.

Breakfast Tater Tot Casserole

Ingredients
-16 ounces frozen tater tots
-5 slices crumbled cooked bacon or 6 ounces cooked turkey sausage
-5 large eggs
-1/4 cup half-and-half cream
-1/4-1/2 teaspoon paprika
-1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon black pepper
-1 cup grated colby-monterey jack cheese

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 375F then spray a 9×9 glass baking dish with cooking spray.
2) Place the tater tots in the bottom of the pan. Next sprinkle the crumbled bacon or turkey over the tater tots.
3) Note: If you want to add vegetables, such as mushrooms or green peppers, you could add them along with the meat.
4) Whisk the eggs, half & half, & spices together in a bowl then stir in the cheese. Pour over the tater tots then bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.

This one amuses me. The person who posted this recipe included very “noisy” warnings in his/her directions, and for some reason I find humor in that. Plus it’s for ramen. I heart me some ramen.

Ranch Style Ramen

Ingredients
-1 (3 ounce) package ramen noodles (Throw away the ‘flavor pack’,92-97% Sodium, you have enough SODIUM in your life without adding this!)
-1/2 cup ranch dressing (Try Mirj’s Homemade Ranch Dressing it’s great)
-1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated (Jalapeno Jack works well too)

Directions
1) Put a large sauce pan, half full of water on to boil.
2) Set a medium sized stainless mixing bowl on the sauce pan (double boiler).
3) In a small pan cook the Ramen, Drain.
4) Place the noodles in the s/s bowl.
5) mix in the Dressing and Cheese.
6) Stir continuously.
7) ***WARNING*** BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL REGARDING THE STEAM!
8 ) WEAR A COOKING MITT TO HOLD THE MIXING BOWL!
9) When the cheese is throughly melted, serve immediately.
10) Goes well with a garden salad or coleslaw, fresh bread sticks, and a nice Chianti.

And this one just sounds wicked yummy. In fact, I think I will make this tonight.

Zesty Mac and Cheese

Ingredients
-1 pkg (16 oz each) dry elbow macaroni, uncooked
-1 can (10 oz each) Ro*Tel® Original Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies, undrained
-1 pkg (16 oz each) Velveeta® Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into cubes
-1/2 cup reduced fat (2%) milk

Directions
1) Prepare macaroni according to package directions.
2) Meanwhile, combine undrained tomatoes and cheese in 1-1/2-quart microwavable dish; cover. Microwave on MEDIUM (50%) 10 to 12 minutes or until cheese melts, stirring after 6 minutes. Add milk; stir mixture until well blended.
3) Drain macaroni; place in large bowl. Add cheese mixture; toss to coat.

Sweet Potato Fries

These sound AMAZING!!

Roasted Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients
-1 sweet potato, cut into thin fries
-oil
-sea salt
-fresh rosemary, minced
-freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Oil cookie sheet. Toss fries on cookie sheet until they are coated with oil, then arrange them into a single layer. Sprinkle salt, rosemary, and pepper over the fries. Roast about 15 minutes. Flip fries and roast another 10 minutes or so. Adjust seasoning if need. Serve right away.

Variations:
Use thyme instead of rosemary or use a combination of the two. You can also replace the pepper and rosemary with cumin and cayenne.

Pumpkin Spice Bars

Going to try this for the Halloween party I’m going to next week, I think.  The recipe can be found here.

 Pumpkin Spice Bars

Ingredients
-1/2 cup I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-12 teaspoons Splenda granular
-3/4 cup canned pumpkin
-1/2 teaspoon imitation maple flavor
-1 tablespoon vanilla extract
-9 teaspoons cinnamon
-2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
-6 1/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
-9 teaspoons ground allspice
-1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
-1/2 cup whole wheat flour
-1/2 cup almond meal
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2) Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
3) Cream together butter, brown sugar and Splenda.
4) Beat in pumpkin, maple flavor, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, allspice, and clove.
5) Stir in remaining ingredients and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
6) Cool completely. Cut into twelve bars. Enjoy!

Crockpot Apple Butter

Going to post some of my favorite recipes here.  For one, I can’t print recipes out on the company printer without my boss finding out, and two, if I wait until I get home I’ll forget.  And most importantly, I can’t stand my handwriting, and it hurts my hand to do it.  So there you have it, folks.

Crockpot Apple Butter (found at http://www.divinecaroline.com/33615/85483-crockpot-apple-butter)

Ingredients
-8 sweet apples, of any variety, peeled, cored, and chopped or sliced
-2 cups apple cider, or apple juice
-1 cup packed brown sugar
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
-1/4 teaspoon allspice
-1/4 teaspoon cloves
-1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
1) Peel and core apples. Add to crock pot. Add cider, sugar and spices. Turn crock pot to high and bring to a bubble. Turn on low and cook for 6 to 8 hours. Stir the apples about every hour or two. Apple butter is done when it has a deep color, apples are cooked to pieces, and it has thickened.
2) You can jar the apple butter by purchasing canning jars, sterilizing them, and running them in a water bath.
3) To sterilize, place a dish towel in a sauce pot, and fill halfway with water. Turn the jars upside down in the pot in the cold water, and bring to a boil. Boil over medium heat for 15 minutes. At the same time, boil the lids, rings and the ends of your kitchen tongs in another pot for 15 minutes.
4) Never ever touch the inside or top of the jar or lid with your bare hands. Use the tongs for the lids, and kitchen towels for the jars.
5) Fill the jars. Take another kitchen towel and dip an end in the boiling water and wipe the top of the jar very clean. Place the lid on with the tongs, being careful not to touch it. Then take the tongs and get a ring, you can place the ring with your hands.
6) When all jars are filled, place the filled jars in the saucepan with the kitchen towel and boil over medium heat for 15 minutes.
7) Remove and let cool on the counters overnight.