Normally, regular mac and cheese takes like 30-45 minutes to bake in the oven once you’ve combined everything together in the casserole dish.  Since, I cooked these in a muffin tin, they only took 12 minutes to bake. I think that’s my most favorite part about this recipe. You can take the leftovers once they’ve cooled and freeze them to use later. I just halved my favorite recipe for mac and cheese, which happens to be one of Ina Garten’s recipes. Instead of putting the mac and cheese in a regular casserole dish, use a muffin tin instead.

These really didn’t take they’re cupcake form until after the mac and cheese cupcakes cooled off a bit. I was excited to eat them and took them out of the pan right away, so that’s why they look like little blobs of noodles and cheese.

Last night I canned 6 more jars of tomatoes and updated my post on canning tomatoes a couple of posts down. We now have 8 freezer bags of marinara sauce, 4 very large jars of salsa, and 6 jaars of whole tomatoes. There’s more coming but on Wednesday night it’s supposed to get down to 30 degrees and I’ll have to cover to them. We have a ton of apples growing on our tree and I plan on canning apple sauce and apple pie filling with the apples.

Ingredients from Ina Garten

Kosher salt
Vegetable oil
1 pound elbow macaroni or cavatappi
1 quart milk
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
12 ounces Gruyere, grated (4 cups)
8 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (2 cups)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 pound fresh tomatoes (4 small)
1 1/2 cups fresh white bread crumbs (5 slices, crusts removed)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the macaroni and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don’t boil it. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a large (4-quart) pot and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the Gruyere, Cheddar, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the cooked macaroni and stir well. Pour into a 3-quart baking dish.

Slice the tomatoes and arrange on top. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, combine them with the fresh bread crumbs, and sprinkle on the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

Have you noticed the cupcake craze lately? I’ve seen lasagna cupcakes, taco cupcakes, mac and cheese cupcakes, etc…. I like the idea of that, actually. It’s a nice serving size for someone like me, who always takes way too much food. Yep, I’m one of those people.

You basically can take your favorite meat loaf recipe and mashed potato recipe and combine them to make a mini meatloaf cupcake. I used the recipe from Skinny Taste for the meatloaf part and thought it was very clever adding a zucchini in there for some more veggies. The lady at the grocery store charged me for a cucumber, instead of a zucchini so I lucked out on that one. You’d think if you worked at a grocery store you should be able to tell the difference between a zucchini and a cucumber??? The meatloaf was delicious and I just kind of tossed together all my favorite things in mashed potatoes like sour cream, parmesan cheese, and butter. Try these, you’ll really like them and they’re so cute!

Ingredients adapated from Skinny Taste

1.3 lb 93% lean ground turkey
1 cup grated zucchini, all moisture squeezed dry with paper towel
2 tbsp onion, minced
1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 cup ketchup
1 egg
1 tsp kosher salt

mashed potatoes

10 medium baby red potatoes
2 tablespoons of sour cream
3 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
3 teaspoons of garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
1 teaspoon of chopped chives

Directions

preheat the oven to 350°. Line a muffin tin with foil liners.

Bring potatoes a boil. Use a fork and prick them to see if they’re fork tender. If they are then they’re done. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher and mix the next 6 ingredients with the potatoes. Fill a piping bag with the potatoes.

In a large bowl, mix the turkey, zucchini, onion, breadcrumbs, ketchup, egg, and salt. Place meatloaf mixture into muffin tins filling them to the top, making sure they are flat at the top. Bake uncovered for 18-20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from tins and place onto a baking dish. Use a piping bag to frost the “cupcakes.”

Oreos are America’s favorite cookie. Cupcakes are America’s favorite way to eat cake. Combine the two, and you’ve got one really good cupcake. I love dunking Oreos in a glass a milk until they’re really soggy and fall apart before the cookie gets into your mouth. I always get the double stuffed oreos too. It was pretty hard not eating all these cookies, before making these cupcakes. They go fast in our house. My only concern about these cupcakes is, that I couldn’t even taste the cream in the middle of the cookies. All I got were the chocolate wafers, and the cream is the best part of the cookie to me.

Look for another cupcake recipe coming later on this week. Pink Lemonade Cupcakes!

Note: This is a really good cupcake recipe. Not too much butter. I also halved the recipe.

Ingredients from Annie’s Eats

Yield: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk
20 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped (I quarter them)

For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. heavy cream

For garnish:
Oreo cookie crumbs
24 Oreo cookie halves

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 paper liners.  Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.  Gently fold in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes.  Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Holy crap, is it ever humid out today. We are in a tornado watch until 11 pm tonight. Have you ever tried to take a picture when it’s really humid outside? I was  excited to take a picture of these cute little lasagnas but when I walked outside my camera lens got all fogged up. If you even try to take a picture when you’re camera lens is fogged up, you’re picture will be fogged up too. I had to brush off my lens with my cotton shirt a couple of times in order to take a pretty decent picture of these.

I like the idea of using wonton wrappers as the noodles and I also liked how the wrappers got a little bit crispy in the oven. The crunch from the wonton wrapper was almost the best part. These little lasagna cupcakes would be a great appetizer at a party. If you’re grocery store is out of wonton wrappers look for egg roll wrappers. They’re the same thing, and you have to do is cut them in half and then into quarters. I substituted lean turkey sausage instead of ground turkey and left out the mushrooms. Not really a big fan.

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Nutrition Info: Calories: 181.2, Total Fat: 7.9g,  Total Carb: 13.6g, Fiber: 1 g, Protein 14.1g

Ingredients from Can you Stay for Dinner

(makes 12)

12 oz raw ground turkey
¼ tsp salt, divided
¼ tsp pepper
1 cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped mushrooms
14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes, or tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tsp dried oregano, divided
½ tsp dried basil
1 ½ cups part skim ricotta cheese
24 small square wonton wrappers (the kind near the tofu in the refrigerated section of the produce dept)
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the turkey, onions, mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Crumble the meat and saute the mixture for about 10 minutes, or until the turkey is cooked through. Add the garlic and stir constantly for 30 seconds.

Add the crushed tomatoes and 2 tsp of oregano. Bring the pan to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, a pinch of salt and pepper, the remaining teaspoon of oregano, and the basil. Stir to mix well. Set aside.

Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Place 1 wonton wrapper into each of the 12 cups, pressing firmly in the bottom of the cup and up the sides.

Using half of the ricotta mixture, divide it among the 12 muffin cups. Next, using half of the turkey tomato sauce, spoon it evenly over each of the ricotta filled cups. Sprinkle with 2 tsp of mozzarella.

Gently press another wonton wrapper on top of the mozzarella layer.

Repeat the process by distributing the remaining ricotta, then the remaining tomato sauce, and finally the rest of the shredded mozzarella.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.

Let the cups cool, remove them from the pan, and serve!

If you aren’t sure what to make for dinner, just have a cupcake.  Make sure there’s some kind of nutritional value in them. Like for instance, cupcakes have eggs so you get your protein. For fiber, try adding some fruit or veggies in them like raspberries, strawberries, carrot, or broccoli. I’ve seen a corn muffin stuffed with broccoli before.

Look at me telling you to eat a cupcake for dinner.  I do like having nutrition info in all my posts and points plus values for those of you following weight watchers, but I believe if I’m dieting, every now and then I just have to have something like a cupcake to satisfy my sweet tooth. Don’t you agree?

I love lemon, and lemon curd. Trader Joe’s has their own imported lemon curd that’s really tasty, and I could eat it by the spoonful.

At our wedding the top tier of our cake is going to have lemon curd filling with vanilla frosting. The bottom tiers are going to be zebra striped with a chocolate ganache and vanilla frosting. I wish I could skip all the wedding hoopla and just go straight for the cake and honeymoon. Screw the ceremony, because the cake is the best part!

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Calories 222 | Fat 4.25g | Carbohydrate 31.83g | Fiber: 0 | Protein 2.83g

Serves: 18

Points Plus: 5 (without frosting)

Cake

1 box of lemon cake mix
1 cup of water
3 eggs
1 jar of lemoon curd (I used trader Joe’s)

Frosting

1 cup of Crisco
3 cups of powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of milk
1 dab of yellow food coloring
lemon zest

1. Mix cake mix with one cup of water and eggs. I omit the oil because the batter is pretty good without it. Fill muffin tins with cupcake liners. Use an ice cream scoop to help measure how much filling goes into each cupcake. Makes about 18 cupcakes. Bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean.

2. For the frosting. Use a hand held blender and mix together crisco, powder sugar, milk, and food color. Depending on how thick or sweet you like your frosting add more powdered sugar if you wish or lemon zest for more lemon flavor.

Margarita Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride

Cupcakes:
1 box white cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
7 1/2 ounces margarita mix
2 ounces tequila
1/2 ounce orange juice
3 large egg whites
2 T vegetable oil
Zest of 1 lime

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 24 muffin tins with paper liners or spray with baking spray. Mix together margarita mix, tequila and orange juice in a large measuring cup. Add cake mix to mixing bowl and add egge whites, oil, lime zest and tequila mix. Beat on low speed for about 30 seconds until dry ingredients are incorporated and then beat on medium high speed for 2 minutes. Spoon batter evenly into muffin cups, filling about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center cupcake comes out clean. Cool about 5 minutes in the pan and then cool completely on wire racks.

Icing:
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2-3 T lime juice
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp lime zest
3-4 drops green food coloring

Beat cream cheese and butter on medium high speed until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add 2 T lime juice and lime zest and beat until combined. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating on low speed until incorporated. Add more lime juice if necessary. Add food coloring a couple drops at a time and beat on medium high speed until desired color is reached and icing is smooth. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes as desired.

Lime wedges, straws, and sprinkles all make festive garnishes. Refrigerate cupcakes in an airtight container if not serving immediately and bring to room temperature a couple hours prior to serving.

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It is my treat day at work this week and I thought it would have been really fun to bring in margarita cupackes.  I made them last night and taste tested one cupcake.  You couldn’t taste the the tequilla in these at all, just the lime mixture from the margarita mix. We didn’t care for them much. I’m glad I taste tested them before letting everybody else try them at work. After work today, I’m going to the store and getting some donuts.

I’m beginning to think that drink flavors don’t go well with cupcakes. At least not margarita anyway….. I’m going to stop on my cupcake quest for awhile now, unless I come across another flavor that I think would be interesting in a cupcake.

Next Friday, we are going to Nicole’s Fine Pastry for a cake sampling and to meet up with the people who are designing our wedding invitations. We picked the flavors:  zebra striped (I’m guessing this is chocolate and vanilla) , Neapolitan, chocolate, vanilla with a lemon curd filling, and carrot cake. I’m so excited for this. I think cake is the best part about wedding!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 c. sifted cake flour
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 2/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. oil
2 large eggs
1/2 c. canned pineapple, diced and patted dry
1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk (I used Pina Colada Mix)
Splash of dark rum (optional)
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Whipped vanilla frosting
1/2 bag of shredded coconut
Maraschino cherries, drained and dried

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with baking cups.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

3. Combine rum and coconut milk in small bowl, mix to combine and set aside.

4. Place sugar and oil in mixer and mix until well blended.

5. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

6. Add flour mixture and coconut milk mixture alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

7. Stir in vanilla and fold in pineapple.

8. Spoon batter into prepared pans. Tap the pans once on counter top to remove air bubbles.

9. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

10. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire racks, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.

11. When cupcakes are completely cool, frost with whipped vanilla frosting and roll tops in shredded coconut. Top each with a cherry and serve with cut straws for a fun presentation

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When I opened my can of coconut milk to make these cupcakes it looked WEIRD. I’ve never used coconut milk to make anything before so I didn’t know what it was supposed to look like. It was almost like a frosting consistency. Is it supposed to look like that or is it supposed to look like milk? I wasn’t sure, so I didn’t use it to make these cupcakes. Instead, we have had a pina colada mix in our fridge just sitting there for longest time, used that instead.

These cupcakes took about 25 minutes to cook instead of what the recipe called for which was 18-20. They turned out to be very moist. Almost too moist. I used the same amount of pina colada mix that the can of coconut milk was and only used half the can of pineapple. I think maybe next time I’ll use half of can of coconut milk and half the can of pineapple.

To pipe these cupcakes I used an 1M tip that I got at Michael’s to make the larger swirls. I learned that trick on another blog that I had read previously, so I just had to go out and buy that piping tip. I was surprised that I didn’t have it after buying all those cake decorating supplies for a cake decorating class that I took almost two years ago.

Nutrition Info:  (without frosting) Calories: 196, Total Fat: 8.59g, Total Carbohydrate: 28g, Dietary Fiber: 1.1g, Protein 2.88g, Points + = 5

Hint: To make these cupcakes lighter you could use 1/4 cup of butter and  1/4 cup of applesauce. Use egg whites instead of whole eggs and reduced fat whipped cream for frosting.

Makes 24 cupcakes from Homemade by Holman

Cake:
3 cups all purpose flour
6 T cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups Coke (don’t use diet)
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 can cherry pie filling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with liners or spray with baking spray. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa in a bowl and set aside.

In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, combine sugar and butter and beat on medium-high until light and creamy. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating about 1 minute after each. In a large mixing cup or small bowl, combine buttermilk, Coke and vanilla extract. (Make sure you wait for the foam to go down when measuring the Coke and don’t worry if your mixture looks curdled when you add the buttermilk.)

Beginning with the dry ingredient mix, add in 4 parts to the butter mixture, alternating with the Coke mixture. Beat each addition just until incorporated.

Use a cookie scoop or piping bag to transfer the batter to the muffin tins, filling each tin about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 18-20 minutes until the tops spring back when touched lightly and a toothpick inserted in the center cupcake comes out clean. Cool about 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cooled, use a paring knife to cut out a cone shape in the middle of each cupcake. Add a spoonful of cherry mixture (2-3 cherries) to the well.

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Coke is my drink of choice, and when I saw these cupcakes I had to make them. I have to have a can of coke in the morning for breakfast, it’s my morning coffee. I’ve tried quitting the stuff before but I just can’t break the habit. If I don’t have a coke, I’ll get a headache and Ben will call me an addict.

These cupcakes are very moist and cute looking. I tried making the top of the cupcake look like the whipped cream on top of a float, but didn’t really know what size tip to use when piping the frosting. It tastes more like a chocolate cake rather than a Coke flavored cupcake. I don’t think there is a way to make it taste more like coke?  I left the cherries out of these since Ben isn’t a cherry pie filling fan at all, but that would make these even better.

I want to make a pina colada cupake and margarita cupcake. A mojito cupcake would be really good too. I like the idea of making a cupcake taste like your favorite alcoholic beverage. One drink I haven’t tried yet is a Bloody Mary. Now that would be one interesting cupcake.

1 box of Yellow Cake Mix
1 box of vanilla instant pudding
7 oz of chocolate chips
1/2 cup of heavy cream

1. Bake cupcakes according to box.

2. Once cupcakes have cooled, cut a whole in the top of the cupcake and add about 1 tablespoon of vanilla pudding.
Put the top of the cupcakes back on.

3. Melt chocolate and cream in microwave until melted.

4. Dip cupcakes in chocolate mixture.

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Ever have problems getting enough filling into your cupcakes? I’ve tried piping bags and hardly got any filling in the middle before. I saw on Paula’s Best Dishes some guy who made cupcakes and cut a little hole in the middle of the cupcake off. Then filled it with some cream mixture. What a great idea! I used that method to fill these.

Then this morning, I was watching Food Network as usually on Saturday mornings, and saw Paula Dean make these Coffee Chocolate cupcakes. Blah! I hate anything with coffee in it. She used this really tiny tip about the size of a needle to fill the cupcakes. They cut into one and I couldn’t believe how much filling was in it. I might just have to go out to Michael’s and look for that tiny tip.

Boston cream pie is filled with vanilla pudding and has a chocolate frosting. I like things easy. Like taking a box of cake mix, baking it off, and using instant pudding to fill the cupcakes. The chocolate was melted in a microwave with the cream. It was so simple to make these cupcakes. They are best served cold, because of the instant pudding in the middle.