Monster Cupcakes and Memories

Do these cupcakes remind you of something??......

Does this video totally date me? If you are over 30 and watched Sesame Street as a kid, you know you found yourself singing along!!! These cupcakes I made for Luke's birthday last week took me on a trip down memory lane. They so reminded me of the Yip Yip family martians!

These cupcakes were soooo easy. My boys helped make the eyes. And the rest was easy peasy lemon squeezy as they say. I am not saying these cupcakes didn't take some time...but they were so worth it and the boys are still talking about them!

Monster Cupcakes

Source: What's New Cupcake?

12-24 cupcakes baked in orange, green, purple paper liners

12-24 mini cupcakes without liners-just spray your muffin tins

frosting - I used 2 batches of my favorite cream cheese

orange, green, or purple dye/food coloring

dum dum suckers

apple and peach rings

mini M&Ms

1. Spoon 2 Tab. vanilla frosting into a small bowl and set aside. Divide the remaining frosting into 3 bowls and tint each a different color to match your baking liners.

2. Make the eyes. Insert a lollipop stick through the gummy ring, pushing it through the candy from the center to outer edge. Bring the gummy ring up around the lollipop. Make sure you have got pairs.

3. Place a dot of tinted frosting on top of the standard cupcakes and place a mini cupcake on top, flat side down. Starting at the edge of the standard size cupcake, using orange to go with the orange cupcake liner, and purple to go with the purple cupcake liner, etc. pipe fur using your leaf tip...Wilton #352. Go around cupcake and work your way up. Refer to the below picture for samples. Make sure cupcakes are completely covered...leave nothing exposed. (I love the word exposed :)

4. Insert two matching eyes into the top of the monster. Add brown mini M&M eyes with white frosting you set aside. You can add a colored M&M nose if you would like.

String Monster variation...

These were my favorite and so easy!

Follow steps 1 & 2 above. Instead of making leaves for fur, Use a #3 Wilton tip and just start squeezing. Pipe the string overlapping so that no cupcake is showing. Kids could even help with this step. Then follow step 4 above.

Yip Yip Yah! Make these for your next kid's day...or Snow Day!

Family Night Treats - January 31st- Dark Chocolate Cookies

I made these for my friend Julie a few weeks ago. She has been begging for more. Soft and chewy Dark Chocolate cookies with white and semi-sweet chips. Julie...you better order before they are all gone!

Like always...click the weekly menu tab for details.
I will share the recipe later this week.

Place your Valentine's Orders!!!

Strawberry flavored Rice Krispy Treats with Heart Marshmallows and White Chocolate Drizzling

Fancy Traditional Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Sugar Cookie Heart Sandwiches

Do these make you want to host a Valentine's Day party!!?? I have some orders for the sugar cookies already for school valentines. Won't that be cute? A sugar cookie in a bag tied with a ribbon and a Sponge Bob/Star Wars/ Princess valentine attached??!! The talk of the classroom!! I think for Ben's class I will do the rice krispies or the sandwich cookies. Later this week I will be posting some cake pops that would be awesome for your little ones/boss/ secret admirer?!

Oh My Gosh! Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes!!!

My little guy Ben loves cookie dough. When I ask him what his favorite food is he says, "cookie dough, ice cream, and pork chops! " I always let him eat the dough. I know, gasp...raw egg...I am a bad mom. Don't tell on me! He was obsessed with these cupcakes and... no raw egg! Seriously, you guys! I have been making cupcakes a few times a week and begging people to take them from me. All my taste-testers swore these were the BEST yet! The frosting on these bad boys tastes just like chocolate chip cookie dough. The cake is a moist chocolate chip cake/muffin. AND... the recipe calls for a cookie dough filling. After giving my husband a quick sample without the filling...he swore the filling would be too much and too sweet. We made ours without the filling. With, or without, this is one cupcake everyone will love!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Source: Annie's Eats
Yield:24 cupcakes

Put the following ingredients in your cart...
For the cupcakes:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet...I used half and half)

For the filling:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
cup light brown sugar, packed
3½ cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2½ tsp. vanilla extract

For decoration:
Tiny chocolate chip cookies
Mini chocolate chips

Put your apron on and...
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24 total). In your mixing bowl combine the butter and brown sugar. Beat together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir together to blend. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated. Blend in the vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the cookie dough filling, combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, about an hour.To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake. Fill each hole with a chunk of the chilled cookie dough mixture.

To make the frosting, beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy. Mix in the confectioners' sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended. Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips and topping with mini chocolate chip cookies for decoration.

Clean Eating Thursday #4 - Veggie Packed Sloppy Joes

(Picture by Wylie Tidwell Photography)

My baby's first birthday was Tuesday. He was sick with an earache and couldn't have cared less. However, I figured I better make a big deal out of it for the big brothers and so that in the future Luke doesn't complain. I have a little sister (child #5 for my parents) who sometimes is bitter about the lack of pictures documenting her childhood in general. This little party had him in tears most of the meal. But he did enjoy his cake, or shall I say monster cupcakes. I will share them with you soon. I loved how simple they were. Anyways, I made this meal that night. Super good. I simplified the recipe like I often do with Clean Eating. But, we loved the results. I varied so much from the original recipe, I am calling this one an original! For instance, the original recipe called for bison, I used ground turkey. The original recipe had you making their marinara sauce, I used canned tomatoes, tomato paste, and some spices. I will never make Manwich again...this seemed so much healthier and guilt-free...and NATURAL.

Veggie-Packed Sloppy Joes

Loosely adapted from Clean Eating Magazine

Put in your shopping cart the following ingredients...

1 tsp. olive oil

1 1b. ground turkey breast (recipe called for ground bison, really you could use ground beef also)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium onion, diced

2 tsp. chile powder

3/4 tsp. mustard powder

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 sweet red bell pepper

1 medium zucchini, diced

1 small eggplant (about 3/4 lb.) diced

2 carrots shredded

1 can diced tomatoes with juice (I used organic)

1/2 small can tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

1 tab. honey or agave nectar

whole grain buns...I used the new thin, low calorie kind

Put your apron on and ...

Brown meat in skillet with olive oil. Add onion and garlic when meat is about half done. Add chile, mustard, and cayenne. (Mine was a little spicier than my boys like...next time I will be dialing down these spices...how do your kids like it? If they are bland eaters, try 1 tsp. chile powder, the mustard and called for, and leave out the cayenne.) Set meat mixture aside.

Saute bell pepper, eggplant, zucchini, and carrots about 5 minutes. Add meat mixture, tomatoes, and paste, and heat thoroughly. Test to make sure veggies are nice and soft. Add salt and pepper and honey to taste. Serve on toasted buns with forks. These put the sloppy in sloppy joes!

Cheese Muffins

Paul is a bread man. If there is fresh bread, rolls, etc. with dinner, he is already a happy man despite what is really placed in front of him. My boys have inherited this gene. Enter the cheese muffin...savory, not sweet. Thrown together in the mixer in 5 minutes, bake for 20...no yeast, no rising. No preplanning, rolling, no sweat. I hope they change your life like they have changed ours. Thank you pioneer woman!

Cheese Muffins

Source: Ree Drumond... The Pioneer Woman

Put in your shopping cart the following ingredients...

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 Tab. sugar

1 Tab. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3 cups shredded Colby-jack cheese (I use whatever I have...Cheddar, Swiss slices, whatever...)

1 cup milk

1 egg

1/4 cup melted butter

Put your apron on and get baking...

I mix together my dry ingredients first. Then I add the wet ingredients into the mixer. Mix well. I add my cheese last. Pour into greased muffin tin. Makes 12 muffins. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in 375 degree oven. Test one to make sure they are not doughy inside.

Family Night Treats- January 24th- And Owl Cookies

This week I am going to offer my chocolate chip cookies that I love for family night treats. I will also share the recipe with you! Check out the pricing under the weekly menu tab.

Also this week I am sharing some great Valentine's Day options, Clean Eating sloppy joes packed with veggies, cheese muffins, and chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes! Check back in!

I won't leave you without a picture of some SUPER cute owl cookies I did back in December for party favors at a little girl's birthday party. I started watching this special little gal when she was two. She is in kindergarten now! Where did the time go? It makes me really sad. Her mom did a whole owl themed birthday party for her. I love how these turned out and they were so fun!