Banana Oatmeal Applesauce Muffins


When you have a one year old, mealtime is an adventure, and it definitely takes a little planning, if you want to give your toddler the most nutritious meals as possible. Breakfast has become fairly easy for me. I generally make everything ahead of time.  In the morning  I just have to throw things on a plate and heat as needed. Thaxton really likes muffins, so we have those quite often. I’ve been making them from scratch in order to pack them full of nutritious ingredients. After baking a batch I then put what we will need for the week in a container in the fridge and I freeze the rest for later. (Currently I have 4 types of muffins in the freezer.)

My favorite muffin is banana, so I just had to make it the first muffin Thaxton would try.  As I searched for a healthy recipe, I wanted something with oatmeal and applesauce. Oatmeal has so many great health benefits, and applesauce definitely helps make a moist muffin; plus you have health benefits there too!  I also added spinach to the recipe; this is an ingredient you can leave out if it is a turn-off for you, but I assure you that it doesn’t take away from the taste, and it definitely adds more nutrients to your muffins!  Hope you’ll try and enjoy these Banana Oatmeal Applesauce Muffins! [Read more…]

Tres Leches Pumpkin Cupcakes

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BakeHolidayGoodness #CollectiveBias

tres-leches-pumpkin-cupcakes

The holiday season is almost here! (Or is it here already?)  And with that, comes holiday baking and snacking!  When you’re an on-the-go mom, you don’t always have time to spend a whole day in the kitchen baking up something for the family Thanksgiving or the church potluck.  Luckily NESTLÉ® is here to save a day with whole host of baking staples and creative products that make holiday baking easy and fun!  Today’s featured recipe is actually two recipes in one.  I’ll be sharing a recipe for Pumpkin Muffins, and then I’ll show you how can transform those muffins in to Tres Leches Cupcakes. [Read more…]

Friday Favorites – Week 313 – With Easter Sweets

Hello all! And welcome to another fun linky party!  It was go great to go over this week’s links and see some new faces and blogs.  Welcome to everyone who’s new!  And as always, thanks to all of our veteran party-goers for stopping by for this week’s link up!

This week I’m celebrating with an Easter edition, featuring some adorable and yummy sweets & treats! Hope you enjoy them!

Also, this week I’ve got a fantastic Easter giveaway for a box of Peeps and other Easter candies! After you link up, I’d love for you to go over and enter this great Easter giveaway! [Read more…]

25 Delicious Must-Make Recipes from 2014

25 Delicious Must-Make Recipes

 

Happy New Year! (Again!)  As a blogger, it seems to have become quite customary to take the interim period between Christmas and New Year’s Day to look back over the year’s work and then re-share some of the highlights.  So I’ve been looking back at everything over the last few days, and today I have a fun round-up of posts for you: my 25 Delicious Must-Make Recipes from 2014!

I can honestly say that I enjoyed making and EATING all of these, so I hope you will check them out and decide to make few of these for yourself (especially the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes….just saying!)

And as always, I welcome your comments on this and any of the recipe posts featured here, especially on my photos.  In 2014, I worked on improving my photo staging and editing, but I was still limited by not having a DSLR camera (not to mention, the lighting was not always ideal!).  However, I’m really proud of the improvements I was able to make throughout the year, and I am super excited because I….I mean, Santa, just got me a DSLR camera for Christmas, so I cannot wait to make things look even better here in 2015!  [Read more…]

Texas Pete® Red Velvet Cones and Helping Feeding America with a Tweet or Share

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Texas Pete for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

We use hot sauce almost daily at our house.  The guys love eating a little Texas Pete Hot Sauce with sandwich meat, cheese, and crackers, and I love using it to add a little spice to my cooking.

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Ordinarily I use it to add flavor to chicken and other meats we’re baking or grilling, and I also enjoy using it for dips, appetizers, and casseroles.  Since my boys love hot sauce so much, I’ve been looking for new Texas Pete Hot Sauce recipes, and I’ve been most intrigued by a certain dessert recipe that I found.

“Dessert?” you ask.  Yes, you read it right.  Dessert!

In particular, I am referring to this recipe.  Take a look.

 


Texas Pete® Red Velvet Cones

 

YIELD: 48 cake cones

PORTION: 1 cake cone

INGREDIENTS:

Cake Batter

5 cups All purpose flour

3 cups Granulated sugar

1 Tbsp Baking soda

2 tsp Salt, fine

2 tsp Cocoa powder

3 cups Vegetable oil

2 cups Buttermilk, room temperature

4 Large eggs, room temperature

3 Tbsp Red food coloring

2 Tbsp Texas Pete® Original Hot Sauce

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

48 Ice cream cones, small, flat bottomed

Cream cheese Icing

36 oz. Cream cheese, softened, whipped

1 stick Unsalted butter, softened, whipped

2 cups Powdered sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

2 tsp Texas Pete® Hotter Hot Sauce

Piping bag with small decorative tip

Shaker, Powdered sugar, for garnish

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, Texas Pete® Hot Sauce and vanilla.

3. Using a standing mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

4. Carefully spoon the batter into the ice cream cones filling them 2/3 of the way up to give them room for rising in the oven. Arrange the cones on a parchment-lined sheet tray standing up and place them into the oven to bake at 350 degrees for approximately 15-20 minutes or until they have fully risen and a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

5. Remove the cakes from the oven and let cool completely.

6. While the cakes are in the oven, prepare the spicy cream cheese frosting.

7. Place the softened cream cheese and the softened butter into a medium size mixing bowl and whisk together until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and continue to whisk until the mixture is smooth. Add the vanilla extract and the Texas Pete® Hotter Hot Sauce and whisk one more minute. You may add more powdered sugar or Texas Pete® Hotter Hot Sauce so that the icing is to your liking.

8. Place the spicy cream cheese frosting into a piping bag with a small decorative tip.

9. Using the tip of the piping bag, carefully puncture a small hole into the center of the top of the red velvet cake and pipe approximately 2-3 tablespoons of the spice cream cheese into the center of the cake allowing some of the cream cheese to come out of the top for decoration. Continue until all the red velvet cake cones are filled. Use any extra cream cheese icing to frost the tops of the cones.

10. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Doesn’t that sound great?  As someone who likes a little spice and also loves dessert, I am very intrigued by this combination!

If you want to try this recipe to, you can find Texas Pete Hot Sauce in your local grocery store.  Look for it with the condiments and sauces.

Tweet & Share to Help Feeding America:

Right now Texas Pete is doing their part to help Feeding America.  If you share my post on your social media using the hashtag #TexasPete, they will donate $1 to Feeding America. (And if you do tweet or share, please leave a comment here letting us know you did, for tracking purposes.)

And you can also share your own blog posts, featuring Texas Pete Hot Sauce.  Just share them on your social media using the hashtag #TexasPete, and you’ll help donate $1 to Feeding America.

What do you like to make with Texas Pete® hot sauce?

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Guest Post: Five-grain Pumpkin Spice Muffins from Christine at If I Had Anything to Say

Today we have another holiday guest post. This one is from I’m Christine.  She blogs over at If I Had Anything to Say.  Today she is sharing her Five-grain Pumpkin Spice Muffins. They sound delicious!  Check it out!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Hi! I’m Christine, and I blog over at If I Had Anything to Say . I’m a mom of six who enjoys cooking, reading, writing, shopping, home improvement projects and chocolate—not necessarily in that order. I like to say that I blog my life, so over in my little corner of the web you’ll find recipes, great reads, family topics and other fun. One of my kids has been living with Type 1 Diabetes for almost 13 years, so sometimes I blog about real life with diabetes too.

Today I’m sharing with you a recipe of my own. The holidays are great for sweets and treats, so sometimes it’s great to enjoy something a little healthier that doesn’t skimp on holiday appeal or taste. We enjoy these muffins for breakfast, and they’d be a great breakfast for your Thanksgiving morning!

5-grain Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Five-grain Pumpkin Spice Muffins

(Makes 12 muffins)

1 cup Bob’s Red Mill 5 Grain Cereal Mix

1 cup flour

3 T. brown sugar

½ t. Baking powder

1 t. baking soda

¼ t. salt

1 ½ t. cinnamon

½ t. nutmeg

½ t. ginger

¼ t. cloves

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 large egg

½ c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a regular muffin tin with paper liners, or spray with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk to combine; set aside. In a

small bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, egg and buttermilk. Pour pumpkin mixture all at once into dry ingredients; stir until flour is completely incorporated, but do not over-mix.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin, filling cups ¾ full. Bake muffins 18-20 minutes or until the tops spring back when touched lightly with a finger. Cool muffins on a rack for 5 minutes; remove from tin and cool completely.

Five-grain Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Friday Favorites – Week 236 – with Muffin Recipes

friday favorites

Hello all!  Thanks for stopping by for this week’s party!  This week we have some yummy muffins from our friends.  I love muffins any time of year, but when fall rolls around I’m especially in the mood to bake, and I love a good muffin for breakfast, snack, dessert, and basically any time of day!  Hope you enjoy these!

Muffin Recipes
[Read more…]

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I am so excited to share today’s recipe!  I originally saw these on Tidy Mom, and I’ve wanted to make them ever since!  Noah celebrated his birthday last month, and it seemed like the perfect excuse I needed to finally make them!  And I was VERY pleased with how they turned out.

I haven’t made a lot of homemade frostings, only a dozen or so, but I have to say this is my favorite homemade frosting I’ve tried, hands down!  It’s so rich and creamy….and yes! It does taste JUST like cookie dough! [Read more…]

5 Cinco De Mayo Recipes and a Free Printable

5 Cinco de Mayo Recipes

 

Since the “Month of Maying” is almost upon us, I thought it would be fun to celebrate with a little fiesta!  Today I’ve got 5 mouthwatering recipes for Cinco de Mayo!  We’ve got entrees and of course, dessert!  I also found a super cute Cinco de Mayo party pack that is printable and free!  So pour yourself a margarita and feast your eyes upon these fiesta worthy selections! [Read more…]

Friday Favorites – Week 212 – with 5 Easter Treats

friday favorites
Welcome to another fun edition of Friday Favorites.  This week we have a group of really cute Easter treats.  Any of these would be perfect for parties or just simple Easter snack. Hope you enjoy! [Read more…]