Pumpkin Spice Cake

This cake was an unexpected delight! I made it from a couple of things I had in my cupboards, hoping that it would turn out well. It was better than expected! I adapted this recipe from this Skip to my Lou recipe.  This can be made as cupcakes, or as cake. Choose your preference.

Cake Ingredients

• spice cake mix
• 1 can pumpkin
• 3 eggs

Topping Ingredients

• 1/2 c flour
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1/4 c butter (I used a little more, since it was a little dry)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 360 degrees.
2. Mix cake ingredients (I used a hand mixer). 
3. Prep your cake batter (in pan or cupcake tins).
4. If you're adding streusel topping, do so before putting it in the oven.
5. Cook until you get a clean knife or toothpick from the center.
• Cupcakes: approx. 15-18 min
• 8x8 Cake: approx. 45-60 min (mine took 60)
• 9x13 Cake: approx 25-30 min

Notes

If you prefer cream cheese frosting, you can add that after baking.

**Could be made gluten free with gluten free cake mix.

Chocolate "Cheese Cake"

This recipe was my aunt Betty Motley's recipe. I totally forgot to take pictures of what it turned out like, but it was beautiful and delicious! I do have a couple that my mom sent me (this was her Mother's Day request), because they loved it so much! So, you get to see this lovely dessert with my even lovelier grandma!

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 stick butter (melt)
• 1 1/4 c. flour
• 1 1/4 c. pecans

Filling:

• 1 - 8oz pkg cream cheese
• 1 c. powdered sugar
• 1 large carton Cool Whip
• 2 small pkg Instant Chocolate Pudding

Instructions

To make the crust:

1. Mix ingredients.
2. Press into 9x13" pan.
3. Bake 15 min. at 350 degrees.

To make the filling:

1. Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar together.
2. Add 1/2 large carton of Cool Whip.
3. Spread on crust.
4. Mix pudding according to pkg instructions.
5. Pour over cream cheese mixture.
6. Top with remaining whipped cream.

Accompanying this final photo was a "What are you bringing next weekend?" message. 

Turtle Cheesecake

This cheesecake was a major hit at Thanksgiving this year! I adapted this recipe from the Barefeet in the Kitchen blog. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 24 chocolate sandwich cookies (about 1 cup finely crushed, gluten free cookies work fine)
• 5 tablespoons butter melted
• 3/4 cup caramel sauce (I did not measure this, and just used a drizzle-y caramel sauce from the store)
• 3 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips melted
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans toasted if desired

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees (this can wait until you put the crust in the refrigerator, unless your oven needs more than 15 minutes to pre-heat). 
• Crush the oreo cookies - I love using a food processor to do this! You can also put it in a large freezer-weight ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin or something else hard enough). 
• Combine the crumbs with the melted butter and press the mixture into the bottom of an 8-10" springform pan. Pour 1/2 cup of the caramel sauce over this crust and spread it out lightly with a spatula. Refrigerate the caramel coated crust for 10 minutes.
• Beat the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed just until each one is blended. 
• Pour this mixture over the refrigerated crust. Place the spring-form pan on a large baking sheet prior to placing it in the oven. (If you line the baking sheet with foil first, clean up will be a breeze.) Some of the caramel in the crust will drip through the pan onto your oven if you forget the baking sheet - this is very important.
• Bake 65 - 70 minutes, until the center is almost set. Run a knife around the edges of the pan while it is still warm. Let cool at room temperature and then refrigerate 4 hours or overnight before removing the sides of the pan.
• Once the sides of the pan have been removed, sprinkle the pecans across the top of the cheesecake and then drizzle with the remaining caramel and the melted chocolate. Store remaining cheesecake in the refrigerator. 

Oven Baked S'mores

These tasty treats are favorites of my best friend. And they're very simple and easy to make!

Ingredients:
*crescent rolls
*mini marshmallows
*chocolate chips

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
 
Open the crescents and stuff with marshmallows and chocolate chips.

Pinch the crescent closed.

Place in cupcake tins and bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Let them cool just a little bit before you devour them... it would be a shame to burn your tongue on this YUM!

 

Fruit Loop Crack

This is one of the tastiest, simplest treats I've come across in a while. It has two ingredients and takes about 5 minutes to make... I discovered this about 6 years ago (I can't believe it's been that long!) when I was working my first job and got this treat for Christmas from one of our amazing teacher-moms. From first taste, I couldn't stop myself. It is incredibly addicting. Here's the simple, yet WONDERFUL fruit loop CRACK.

Ingredients:
fruit loops
almond bark

Instructions:
Melt the almond bark. Mix it in with as many fruit loops as it will cover (probably not quite the whole box). Lay it out on wax paper to cool, then break it up when it's hardened.

That's it!

Mini Turtle Cheesecakes

This was a fan favorite at one of the Christmas celebrations. It came from the fakeginger blog. They are tasty, and they don't feel as "bad for you" because they're so tiny!

Ingredients

For the crust:

• ¾ cup ground chocolate cookie crumbs
• ⅓ cup pecan meal
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

• 1½ packages (12 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup plain yogurt

For the caramel drizzle:

• ¼ cup butter
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

For the chocolate drizzle:

• ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons butter
• pecans, for topping

 
Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line a 12-muffin pan with aluminum liners and spray lightly with oil.
2. To make crust: Combine chocolate cookie crumbs, pecan meal, brown sugar, and melted butter. Spoon a tablespoon into bottom of each muffin liner and press lightly with your fingers. Bake for 5 minutes; remove from oven.
3. To make filling: Beat cream cheese in a large mixing bowl until creamy. With mixer running, gradually add sugar, salt, and vanilla; beat well. Add eggs one at a time, mixing just until blended. Stir in yogurt.
4. Spoon about ¼ cup of filling into each muffin liner. It should come almost to the top of the liner. Bake for 15 minutes or until tops of cheesecakes are puffed and only slightly jiggly in the very center. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least a couple hours, preferably overnight.
5. To make caramel drizzle, combine ¼ cup of butter, brown sugar, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Stir in cream. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool.
6. To make chocolate drizzle, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in saucepan over low heat. Add chocolate chips, remove from heat and stir until melted.
7. To assemble, carefully remove liners from cooled cheesecakes and put cheesecakes on wax paper. Place a pecan in the center of each cheesecake. Drizzle chocolate and caramel over tops. Keep refrigerated until serving.

I made them in mini muffin pans, so they're smaller than what I'm assuming this was calling for... I also didn't make the caramel and chocolate sauces - I just bought jars... for simplicity. Still yummy. :) and pretty. Next time I make them, I'll take a picture to show you! 

Chocolate Christmas Poke Cake

This recipe has been staring at me from Pinterest for months... and I was so excited to try it out on my family for Christmas. It comes from the Something Swanky blog. Her pictures are gorgeous and festive, and much better than mine... (I only got one phone picture of this beaut. -- just found the one other picture I took.. still not impressive, but maybe a little better) My family loved it, but it was very rich so it didn't go very quickly... and it didn't look so good as the days progressed. This would be a great to take to a holiday party when you're one of the only people bringing a dessert. There were too many things to choose from at the family holidays... so it just didn't end up being eaten up like it could have. So, without further ado, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 chocolate cake mix, prepared and baked according to the directions on the box.
1 cup peppermint dairy creamer
14.5 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 jar Smuckers hot fudge sundae sauce
1/4 cup peppermint dairy creamer
1 cup crushed Oreos
8 oz Cool Whip
Andes Peppermint Chips for topping (approximately 1 1/2 cups)
Crushed Oreos for topping (approximately 1 cup)


Instructions:

1. Once the cake has cool, use the bottom of a wooden spoon to poke 20+ holes in the cake.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk and 1 cup of the peppermint dairy creamer. Pour over the cake, trying to fill in the holes.
3. In the same bowl, whisk together the hot fudge sundae sauce and 1/4 cup peppermint dairy creamer. Mix in 1 cup crushed Oreos.
4. Pour and spread the fudge mixture over the cake as evenly as possible.
5. Spread the cool whip over the fudge. Sprinkle on the Andes candy bits and crushed Oreos (as much or as little as you want).
6. Refrigerate for 4-6 hours, until the sweetened condensed mixture has soaked into the cake and it's thoroughly chilled. Cut and serve.

Kitty Chow

{picture here}

I found this website and recipe through Pinterest (Have I mentioned that I have more than 350 food & drink pins?? This could go on for a very long time!). I wanted to try it out because it claims to be a "skinny" version of puppy chow.

The first issue was that I was unable to find the reduced fat version of the chocolate almond bark... I'm thinking that probably causes a bit of a problem in the "skinny" part of the recipe.

The second issue was that I loved the cereal so much that I almost ate all of it before trying the recipe!

The third issue (personal issue,  but probably wouldn't be a problem for most people) is that it was a little bit too sweet for me. And I left out the Truvia (which was an accident, but that stuff is SUPER sweet!). I think the sweet cereal with all that chocolate and the vanilla pudding mix (I'm wondering if that added to the sweet effect).

I would like to try it with chex to see how that works.

I LOVED that it made a small portion - comparatively with a traditional puppy chow. This in itself will save me... a lot of puppy chow eating. You can't eat it if it's not there! Smaller portions are helpful for those of use with a huge lack of self-control... {who, me?}

And now, on to the recipe...

Ingredients:
2 Cups Fiber one Honey Squares
4 Tablespoons “I can’t believe it’s not butter”
2 Tablespoons Creamy All Natural Peanut Butter
2 Servings Truvia all Natural Sweetener.
1 Package of Fat Free Sugar Free Vanilla Pudding Mix
2 Squares of Reduced Fat Chocolate Almond Bark

Instructions:
In a large mixing bowl melt butter, chocolate almond bark and  peanut butter. (I used the microwave)
After melted pour cereal into mixture. Stir gently.

Let the mixture cool for a good 20 minutes.

After mixture has hardened pour the mix into a large zip lock bag, add the box of pudding mix and shake gently until coated.

My Suggestions:
*I don't see the need for the Truvia. You can try it, but I seriously can't understand why you'd want it to be sweeter...
*I'm going to try with chex to see if it works. I'll report back (hoping this will cut down a bit on the sweet)
*I did not use the "I can't believe..." ... because I can believe it's not butter. I don't like it. At all. So I use an olive oil spread - which is what I used instead.

Frozen Peanut Butter Banana Treats

Can I just say - YUM!!! This was a bit of an impromptu... semi-healthy dessert with a friend. AND. it. is. fabulous. and simple.

Found on this website through pinterest (I'm really getting good use of that lovely website lately!)... Here it is!

Ingredients:
2 bananas
peanut butter
1 c chocolate chips

Instructions:
Melt the chocolate chips (in the microwave or on the stove, or whatever works best for you).

Cut the bananas into round slices (mine were about 1/2 an inch thick) and top with peanut butter.

Put a banana on top of a fork, and then use a spoon to drizzle or pour chocolate over. (repeat for all bananas - or as many as possible. I ran out of chocolate, so I just drizzled it over the remaining ones). --there is a picture showing how to do this on the blog linked above.

Place the covered bananas on a wax paper-covered cookie sheet and freeze. They last over night in the freezer, but they become very frozen that way... They were fantastic after frozen about an hour or an hour and a half.

**If I was making this just for me, I would only make one banana. Two bananas was more than enough for two of us.

Baked Cinnamon Tortilla

I should start by saying that you probably already know about this. My mom has been making this for us for years, either with left over dough (she makes the best bread/roll/pizza/any-kind-of dough) or with a tortilla.

You will need:
*tortillas (as many as you want to make)
*butter/margarine
*cinnamon & sugar

You will:
*Preheat the oven or turn on the broiler (either would work).
*Butter and cinnamon&sugar the tortilla

*Put in the oven (on a pan) for 5 or so minutes (depending on how you cook it, it may take longer or a little shorter - keep an eye on it and wait for the butter to melt and for some browning around the edges)

*Take it out, let it cool just a bit, and enjoy!

Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

I found these on Pinterest (of course) and decided that I'd like to try them... because, let's be honest, I sort of hoard out-of-season... fall and winter flavors make me happy.

It was originally from this website. The recipe is very simple... and DELICIOUS! I wasn't sure that it would be, but dear sweet goodness! I may have to hoard more pumpkin this year!

Ingredients:

1 boxed chocolate cake mix

1 small can of pumpkin puree

6 ounces chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Mix together the cake mix and canned pumpkin with a fork or a mixer.

looks gross... but just wait!

Add chocolate chips and load up your muffin tins! Batter is dense and does not rise much so these can be filled all the way to the top. Bake for 22-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out  clean. (I had to bake them a little bit longer... probably my oven, it tends to needs a few extra minutes)

The best part is that they're only 1 weight watchers point! I don't do WW anymore, but I know that that is a fantastic deal for something this chocolaty and yummy! :)

p.s. it was suggested that you not store them in an airtight container until after they've set out for a night at least... the original poster had trouble with some mold a few days later due to the incredibly delicious amount of moisture.

Per Serving:

188cal,

37carbs,

4g fat,

3g protein

Gooey Chocolate Mug Cake

I found this website with mug cakes on Pinterest (shocker, right??). So, I tried it tonight... pretty yummy and super quick and easy. It is definitely a great way to get a little chocolate cake, without baking the WHOLE cake... and eating the WHOLE cake... yeah.

Here goes! Try it out!

Ingredients:
1 egg
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1-2 Tbsp. cocoa powder (depending on how chocolatey you want your cake)
1 standard-sized mug

 
Instructions:
In mug, crack egg, add powdered sugar and cocoa powder. 

 
Whisk together with a small whisk until well mixed. 

Microwave for 50-60 seconds, until the cake is cooked through (but not overcooked!) 

Top immediately with a handful of milk chocolate chips, hot fudge, whipped cream, ice cream, or pour several tablespoons of heavy whipping cream over the cake,

then eat it with a spoon... or fork.

***
200 calories * 33 carbs * 5g fat * 6g protein
{nutrition info does not cover extra toppings... so sorry!}
***

Vegan No Bake Cookies

I have officially attempted a vegan recipe (one of my new co-workers is vegan and I was taking treats for a birthday... I wanted to see if I could do it!). We'll have to see what they think about them tomorrow... Introducing no bake cookies to the summer series because... you don't have to turn on the oven to make them.

Anyway! I went searching and found this blog and recipe.

Frosty No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (80 cals each)
by Angela Liddon (from Oh She Glows)
Makes about 7 cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup non-dairy chocolate chips
1 large banana
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp buckwheat groats (optional)
1 tsp cocoa powder
Sweetener, if preferred

Instructions:
In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips for about 60 seconds being careful not to burn. Remove from microwave and stir so the rest of the chips melt.

Roughly chop the banana and mash it into the melted chips with a fork.

Stir in the rest of the ingredients into the chocolate & banana and stir very well until all oats are coated with chocolate.

Line a plate with parchment and drop about 7 cookies onto it. Alternatively, you can use muffin liners. Freeze for about 1 hour or until firm. Cookies will firm up, but they won’t become solid and will remain chewy. Leave in the freezer for a quick chocolate fix any time of the day! Makes 7 small cookies.

 
***

I did not add buckwheat oats or sweetener. I saw later that it only made 7 small cookies, and had bought enough rolled oats to double the recipe, so I did... When I dropped the cookies, I ended up with 12 cookies... so I didn't do it quite right, but it's close enough. Below is the nutritional information provided on the blog.

Update: These are tasty cookies. However, if you do not like banana, you will most likely not like them. I could definitely taste the banana, but I think banana and chocolate are fabulous together! I kept them in the freezer at first, and then in the refrigerator. In my opinion, they're better out of the freezer as they are very soft and messy out of the refrigerator. Here's a picture I took of the cookies after they were hardened... the little bits of white you see are frost - they reacted like that when I took them outside (into the heat) to get some good light. Oh well!

***

Per Cookie (makes 7) 80 kcals 3 grams fat (1 gram sat) 10 grams carbs 2 grams fibre 5 grams sugar 2 grams protein

***

A note about Chia Seeds...

First of all, they are somewhat difficult to find... and then once I found them, I couldn't find a small container of them. There's 16oz (45 Tablespoons) in this container. Ugh. All I needed was a Tablespoon! Now I have a pound of these seeds... The good thing is that when I looked them up (before I went to buy them), I learned that they're great for your nutrition - great source of fiber, calcium, omega-3... And you can add them to pretty much anything. The funny part about it is that this container says that you can eat them right out of the container... When I read that to the man from the store who was trying to help me find a smaller container, he looked at me and said yeah... I don't think you'd want to do that... with a grossed out look on his face. I agreed.

Anyway, you should look up the nutritional information on these things, and be ready to spend $10-20 on a canister of the seeds if you want to buy them. I think they'll last a while, so it's probably not a ridiculous amount, I just didn't expect to spend that much when I went in. This canister was $5 less than the other same-sized canister of a different brand.

Broiled Grapefruit

This morning, I made the mistake of going on a walk and getting coffee with a friend... (that's not the part that was the mistake) ... and when I drink coffee I feel full ... so I forgot to eat breakfast (the mistake). Around 9:00, I started deciding what I was going to make for lunch... at 9:00. As I go through Pinterest, trying to find the perfect easy recipe to try... for lunch. Then I looked at the clock and realized - THIS IS MADNESS! I realized that I forgot to eat and that I should probably take care of that before I started eating everything in sight.

Then, I remembered this idea I pinned a while ago on Pinterest (yes, I actually do try the things I pin!) and decided to try it. The recipe comes from this blog. I followed the recipe as is, but I'll make a  {few notes} as we go.

Ingredients
1 grapefruit, cut in half and segmented with a serrated knife
1T butter, melted
2T brown sugar
cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc {I only used cinnamon... because I'm in love with cinnamon}

Instructions
Turn on your broiler and position the rack in the top shelf, as close to the broiler as you can get it

Halve and segment your grapefruit. You might need to take a little slice off the bottoms so that they don’t roll around. {since it's just me, I saved half for later - and, as you can see, I sliced a bit off the bottom as recommended}

Mix butter, brown sugar, and desired spices until they form a thick paste. {I kept half of it off to the side to use on the other half later}

Place grapefruit halves in a broiler-safe pan and smear the butter/sugar paste on top. {I tried to make an easy cleanup by putting down some foil... it didn't work. There was some juice... it moved around a bit and did not follow my directions to stay on the foil}

Broil grapefruit halves for 4-6 minutes, keeping an eye on them and rotating if necessary. {I did 5 min}

see that run-off over there...

Remove from oven and serve warm. Yum! {It is yummy! Still just a tiny bit tart, but with that sweet goodness... it's tender and oh so tasty! Did someone say dessert for breakfast?}

2-Ingredient, 2 pt Cake

 Ok, so I forgot to take pictures when I was cooking this (I had a friend over, and I always get to talking and forget to take pictures). But the after-version of what I baked didn't look so hot, so you're in luck - you don't have to look at it!

This is a cake that I was told about first by a friend who is a dedicated Weight Watchers friend. She loves finding healthy recipes - especially those that don't taste so healthy (don't we all!). Then recently, on Pinterest, I found the same recipe and decided to finally try it. All you need is one box of Angel Food Cake and one 20-22oz can of fruit pie filling. Mix the cake mix (dry) with the pie filling then bake in an ungreased 9x13 pan  at 350 degrees for 28-30 minutes.

Now here's the sad part... I baked mine for somewhere between 30 and 35 minutes because it just wouldn't pass the poke test (my knife wouldn't come out clean). But I didn't want to over-bake it and since I've never made it before, I thought, "maybe the other people know what they're talking about, and this just comes out a little less dry that some other cakes... it will probably be fine..." It came out very puffed up and a little browned on top (I also didn't want it to burn), but within minutes, it started to sink... and it seriously sunk. Within 30 minutes of taking it out, my friend and I decided to try it... it was pretty good (and it still tastes wonderful), and the outsides are baked pretty well, but the inner part of the cake is pretty heavy and moist.

Next time, I'll let it bake a little longer and wait for the cake to separate a bit from the pan (or something... I'm not sure). I will try it again. It is tasty and only 2 WW points per serving!  Good luck!

edit -- {24 servings = 2pts // 12 servings = 5pts} --

Source: thefrugalgirls.com via Emily on Pinterest

Cake Mix Cookies

Last night, I decided to try out something new... found on Pinterest and from this blog. It is very simple, so the question now is - are they any good? I think they're pretty good, but I'll be serving them to my co-workers for a birthday celebration on Tuesday, so we'll see what happens there... I would also like to try the chocolate version (recipe on the blog linked above). Let me know what you think!

Ingredients
1 strawberry cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup coconut

Instructions
*Mix eggs and vegetable oil until well combined.
*Stir in cake mix and coconut
*Drop by teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet.
*Cook for 8-10 minutes at 350 F.