Cinnamon Bun Smoothie

This recipe is super easy for a busy work morning! The first time I made it, my boyfriend asked why I didn't make him a double, that's how good it was!

Ingredients:

3 ice cubes
1 packet of Quaker weight control maple & brown sugar instant oats
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
A dash of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups of milk (I used silk vanilla milk for extra flavor!)

Directions:

Place all of the ingredients in the blender. Place the blender on "smoothie" option for about 1 minute or until it is well blended. Pour into a cup or mason jar and garnish with another dash of cinnamon! Yummy!

Pumpkin Mini Bunt Cakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

I made these for my boyfriend's mothers birthday and they were delicious! If fall had a taste, these would be it!

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

1 package of super moist carrot cake
3/4 cup of water
1 can of pumpkin (15oz)
Mini bunt cake pan
Non-stick spray

For the Frosting:

2 cups of confectioners sugar
4oz of cream cheese (don't use fat free)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons of cold cubed butter

Directions: 

For the cake:

Preheat your oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the carrot cake mix, water and can of pumpkin. Mix well until it is well blended. Spray your bunt cake pan with non-stick spray. Fill them half way with the mixture. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until it passes the toothpick trick.

Allow them to cool for about 5 minutes before placing them on a cooling rack. I used a butter knife to gently remove my cakes from the pan. Allow to fully cool before frosting them. This recipe should make about 9 mini bunt cakes.

For the Frosting:

Add all of your frosting ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl. Blend with a hand mixer. Start at a slow speed and slowly increase the speed until it is a frosting like consistency.

Once the frosting is well mixed, place in a large ziplock bag.Cut a small edge off the tip of the bag and gently squeeze the frosting out on to the cakes with your desired design. Be sure to keep the frosting refrigerated because it has cream cheese in it! Serve and dig in!

Blueberry Pie Bars

 

I made these last night and they were finger licking good! You can cut them up as bars, slices of pie orrrr just dig in with a spoon like I did!

Ingredients:

For the crumb part:

1 cup of sugar

3 cups of flour

1 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of salt

1 egg

1 cup of cold cubed butter

For the filling part:

4 cups of fresh blueberries

 tsp of vanilla extract

 tsp of corn starch 

1/2 cup of sugar

Directions:

Preheat your oven to  375. In a mixing bowl, add the 1 cup of sugar, 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt. Mix well. Cut in the cold butter and egg. The dough will be crumbly.

Next, make your filling. Add the blueberries, corn starch, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Gently mash and stir the ingredients until they are well mixed.

Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray. Take 1/2 of the dough mixture and layer it flat in the pan. Next, layer your filling mix on top. Top off with the remaining dough mixture. Cook in the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes or until it is golden brown and bubbly. If you are serving this warm, vanilla bean ice cream is the perfect topper! If you are cutting them into bars, let them cool completely before cutting them.

Snow Flake Pie

Who doesn't love pie? It's one of the easiest things to make and it sure is a crowd-pleaser! I thought up this recipe in the grocery store when I was desperate to invent a dessert recipe and surprisingly it came out good!


Ingredients:

2 pre-made graham cracker pie crusts - if you want to make it homemade - go for it. I'm too lazy! (This recipe makes enough for 2 pies.)
1 box of jello instant pudding white chocolate mix
1 box of jello instant pudding cheesecake mix
4 cups of skim milk
1/2 cup of white chocolate chips
1 container of fat free cool whip
12 golden oreos
1/2 cup of shredded coconut
1 can of whipped cream for garnish.

Directions:

Make the jello in 1 big mixing bowl according to the directions on the box and let it sit as directed. Once the pudding is ready, mix in the white chocolate chips. Once they are well incorporated, evenly fill the pie crusts with the mixture (1/2 in each crust.) Next, top each pie with half of a container of the cool whip and smooth at the top. Make a design with the whipped cream around the edges for garnish. Next, sprinkle half of the shredded coconut on each of the pies. Lastly, crush up the oreos and sprinkle on top equally dividing the oreos in 2 for each pie. Serve! Now how easy was that?

Chewy French Toast Cookies

I can't believe I am giving away my secret recipe for the world to see! These are my boyfriend's FAVORITE cookies... "in the world", or so he says! So I guess they are too good not to share with the world! These cookies are perfect for parties, holidays or just because! I usually end up making them as "just because" cookies! They are the perfect mix of soft and chewy cookies which is my favorite! I have considered adding chocolate chips or white chocolate chips to this recipe!

Ingredients:

1 cup butter  softened
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

½  tsp of almond extract

2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 packets of maple brown sugar instant oatmeal
1 1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
Ground cinnamon for a sprinkle garnish

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350. Mix together the butter, brown sugar and cane sugar in a mixing bowl. Once this is well mixed, add 1 egg and mix. Once the first egg is mixed in, add the second egg, the vanilla and almond extract and mix until everything is incorporated. Next, add the baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix well. Now add ½ of your flour until it is incorporated. Do not over mix. Add the rest of your flour until it is just incorporated.  Next add the oatmeal packets and shredded coconut and do not over mix. Mix until it is just evenly incorporated. Roll the dough into about 1 inch by 1 inch balls. Place on an un-sprayed cookie sheet in a 3x4 rows. Place the cookie sheet in the oven and allow them to cook for 8-10 minutes. These cookies are supposed to be chewy so you don’t want to overcook them. Once the cookies are to your desired chewiness, take them out of the oven and allow them to sit for five minutes. Once they have cooled, allow them to cool for another 5-10 minutes on a cookie cooling rack. Garnish with the ground cinnamon sprinkle and serve warm with a big glass of milk!

Grandma's Apple Crisp Recipe

Just in time for Thanksgiving! I am thankful for family recipes being passed down! My mother makes this recipe that was passed down from my Grandmother Boudreau and it is delicious! I like it served warm with vanilla ice cream of course!

Ingredients:

1 cup of bisquick
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 t of cinamon
1/4 cup of butter softened
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
5 medium apples

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350. Peel and slice the apples. Place in a medium sized coated casserole dish. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and pour over the apples. Bake for 30 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes. Serve! How easy is that?!

Funfetti Cake Batter Dip

The pictures honestly say it all...yum! I spent the weekend in Maine at the beach house with my boyfriends family and my family. We all made appetizers and ate them on the front porch overlooking the ocean with a few glasses of sangria in hand ;) . I wanted to be able to make a somewhat healthy dessert to compensate for all of the alcohol calories consumed so I did some research. I found a similar recipe on Stuck on Sweet's blog but wanted to add my own stamp on it so I modified the recipe a little bit. This recipe was honestly finger licking good! It didn't even make it to the table without a few "samples" taken. 

Ingredients:

- 1/2 box of pillsbury funfetti cake mix

- 1.5 cups of fat free vanilla yogurt

- 1 cup of fat free cool whip

- 1 package of Jello cheesecake sugar free mix

- 2 tablespoons of rainbow sprinkles for garnish

Directions:

Combine the cake mix, yogurt, cool whip and Jello mix in a mixing bowl. Mix well until all ingredients are well mixed and the dip becomes thick. Garnish with sprinkles. If you are making this ahead of time, be sure to wait to add the sprinkles until the very end as they may melt and dye the dip. Serve with your favorite fruit or cookie. I served with fresh strawberries and mini Nilla wafers. Yumm! This dip was so good and sweet that it could also be used as frosting :)

Nutritional Information - (For 1 serving = 1/20 of recipe - about 2-3 tablespoons)

Calories - 98

Carbs - 19

Fat - 2

Protien - 1

Sodium - 163

Fiber - 0

Easy Pumpkin Muffins - 74 Calories Each!

This recipe is a great treat for a snack, dessert, or even breakfast! They come out really moist and stay fresh for at least 5 days. I made a huge batch, so i froze some (I wasn't able to eat 24 muffins in 5 days!) They taste just as good reheated from the freezer.

Ingredients

1 can of canned pumpkin (15 oz)
3/4 cup of water
1 box of moist carrot cake mix
24 cupcake tins
PAM spray

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350. In a mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Mix well for about 2 minutes. Place the cupcake tins into a muffin baking dish. Spray the insides of them lightly with PAM or any other baking spray. Once they are all sprayed, fill each cupcake liner about half way with the mix. Once the oven is preheated, place inside. Cook for about 20-25 minutes. Serve! :)

Nutrition Facts - (For 1 muffin - this recipe makes 24 servings)

Calories - 74
Carbs - 16
Fat - 1
Protein - 1
Sodium - 131
Fiber - 1

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cream Pie

Here comes another dessert! Chocolate Peanut Butter Cream Pie...yum! I found this recipe on the calorie logging website I belong to (myfitnesspal) from the user polar5554. The picture is what sold it for me. Feel free to mix up the ingredients to create new flavors!

Ingredients:

- 2 tbsp of light butter (I used Smart Balance Light)
- Dry envelope of Jell-o Chocolate pudding mix
- 2 cups of fat free cool whip
- 7 tbsp of natural reduced fat peanut butter (I used smuckers)
- 7 reduced fat graham crackers
- 1 cup of skim or fat free milk (I used silk soy low fat vanilla milk)
- 12 cupcake liners

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Crush up the graham crackers. Melt the butter. Mix the butter and graham crackers. Line a muffin tray with cupcake liners. Fill the bottoms of the cupcake liners with the filling. Place in the oven for about 5 minutes. In a mixing bowl, combine peanut butter and milk. Beat on low for about a minute. Once it has a smooth consistency, add the pudding mix. Beat on low again for another minute. Fold in the fat free cool whip. Spoon in the mixture to the cupcake liners.

Once all of the cupcake liners are filled with the mixture, place in the freezer for about 3 hours and serve! Be sure to top with fat free cool whip as an icing.

Nutrition facts for one pie:

Calories - 152
Carbs - 22
Fat - 5
Protein - 3
Sodium - 212
Fiber - 1

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

I found a similar recipe to this one on a website called spark recipes and was curious and had to try it. The best part about it is that there are endless combinations, and to be honest, I want to try all of them! I was originally going to make Strawberry Banana Cupcakes with a slice of banana and strawberry on top, but since I live in a household with chocolate lovers, the Chocolate Covered Strawberry ones won. One thing that I did read is if you are going to use a darker cake mix such as chocolate, to use diet cola instead of the diet sierra mist. Since we are using a cool whip mixture for the frosting, you need to keep the cupcakes in the refrigerator at all times, unless you will be icing the cupcakes as you eat them. In that case, just keep the frosting in the refrigerator. These things are so darn cute, that I had to put up 2 pictures! Stay tuned, tomorrow I will be posting a poppyseed chicken casserole family recipe!

Ingredients:

- 1 box of Pilsbury Moist Supreme cake mix (as I said, you can use any flavor topped with any flavor icing.)
- 1 12oz can of diet sierra mist soda
- 1 8 oz tub of fat free cool whip
- 1 box of Jell-o fat free/sugar free pudding mix powder (I used the chocolate kind.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the diet soda and cake mix. Mix for about 2 minutes, or until it is smooth. This will be your cupcake mix. Once it is well blended, spoon the mix into cupcake liners and only fill about 2/3. Place in the oven for about 18-22 minutes. It only took 18 minutes in my oven, since my oven heats quickly. For the icing, take the tub of cool whip and place into a mixing bowl. Add the powdered Jello-o mix into the cool whip. Mix for about 3 minutes until the frosting is smooth (make sure that it is not clumpy). Place the frosting in the refrigerator for about an hour. Once the cupcakes are done, let them cool for about an hour. Like I said before, since we are using a cool whip mixture for the frosting, you need to keep the cupcakes in the refrigerator at all times, unless you will be icing the cupcakes as you eat them. In that case, just keep the frosting in the refrigerator. I topped mine with halved strawberries. I also suggest that if you are going to top with any sort of fruit, to wait until the last possible minute to put the fruit on, since the enzymes in the fruit may break down the frosting. Enjoy, and be creative!

Nutrition Facts for 1 cupcake (The recipe makes about 24 cupcakes, so be sure to share!)

Calories- 138
Carbs- 21
Fat- 2
Protein- 1
Sodium- 165
Fiber - 1

Frozen Peanut Butter Cups

Are you getting sick off all of these meals with no dessert to top them off with? Well I've got one that's around 100 calories and tastes delicious! The best part is that depending on how long you freeze them for, depends on which kind of dessert you are in the mood for. If you put them in the freezer for an hour and a half, it comes out as a peanut butter mousse that you can eat with a spoon. If you freeze it for 3 hours, it comes out as a frozen peanut butter cup ice cream. Either way, it will be sure to please your sweet tooth! The best part is that it only takes about 1 minute to make!

Ingredients:

- 1 8oz tub of fat free cool whip
- 2-3 table spoons of reduced fat natural peanut butter
- Light chocolate syrup
- 6 cupcake foil wrappers

Directions:

- Spoon in 2-3 tbsp of peanut butter into the tub of cool whip. Microwave the whole thing for about 30 seconds. Stir well until it is all the same consistency. Once it is consistent, spoon into the 6 cupcake foils until they all have the same amount. Top them off with a drizzle of chocolate syrup. You can cover the whole thing if you want.  If you put them in the freezer for an hour and a half, it comes out as a peanut butter mousse that you can eat with a spoon. If you freeze it for 3 hours, it comes out as a frozen peanut butter cup ice cream. Easy huh?

Nutrition Fact for 1 Frozen PB cup:

Calories- 114
Carbs- 18
Fat-3
Protein- 2
Sodium-44
Fiber - 1