Spontaneous Moment #38: The Easiest Pumpkin Muffins You'll EVER Bake

I had guests coming over and absolutely no time to make the house smell great or bake anything... so why not kill two birds with one stone?

I'm telling you, these are by far the easiest and most delicious muffins you'll eat in awhile.

Simple Pumpkin Muffins

 

Ingredients:

Moist Yellow Cake Mix

Libby's Canned Pumpkin

Powdered Sugar

The two easiest ingredients you'll ever need.

 

Put both in a bowl and mix together.

 

Mix until there are no cake mix chunks.

 

Place in muffin tin and bake the same amount of time you would bake the cake (aka just follow the directions on the back of the cake box).

 

Once you take them out of the oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy! Your guests will love them, and the house will smell for hours, but warning: they won't last long (because they'll be in your belly sooner than you know it.)

 

 

 

Spontaneous Moment #37: A Very Southern Thanksgiving

I've grown up always having that delicious sweet potato casserole placed center stage next to the carved turkey on the Thanksgiving table. So, of course, it was a shock to me that people in the Northeast don't eat the same scrumptious dish during the holidays.

It was my chance to change their minds and rock their taste buds.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients:
5 sweet potatoes, peeled & sliced

1/4 cup reduced fat margarine

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons orange juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 package miniature marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place sliced sweet potatoes in a large pan and put water to cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook until tender (about 15 minutes).

Remove the sweet potato slices from heat, drain and mash.

Place mashed sweet potatoes in a large bowl, and blend with the margarine, salt, brown sugar, orange juice, and cinnamon. Spread evenly into a baking dish (I used a 9x13 dish).

 

 

Spread the miniature marshmallows on top to cover the mashed sweet potato mixture.

 

Bake for in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until heated through, and marshmallows are puffed and golden brown (as shown above).

 

The final product.

 

Our Thanksgiving spread.

 Crushed it!

Spontaneous Moment #36: Corn on the Cob Cupcakes

Keeping with the Thanksgiving theme this week, how about making some delicious cupcakes that go quickly at the dessert table.

This is an easy and fun dessert to make with your little ones too.

Corn on the Cob Cupcakes

Ingredients:
Boxed cupcakes OR your homemade recipe
Yellow cupcake liners
Can of Vanilla icing or Make your Own 
Yellow food coloring
Jelly Beans
Yellow Starburst
Corn holders


Bake your cupcakes. Add some food coloring to your icing so that it has that nice hint of yellow. Ice the cupcakes and then let the fun begin!

 

I spent all night separating the yellows and whites from the bag of jelly beans. Make sure to place your jelly beans all in the same row. DO NOT put them in a circle around the cupcake because it won't look like corn.

 

Place a few yellow together and then a random white or separate color every 3 jelly bean or so.

Put a little icing on the bottom of yellow Starburst and then place it at a slant.

I

 I had plenty of leftover cupcakes so I went ahead and made a red corn as well... and then I realized I didn't have enough for the third corn so I just made due with what I had left.

So easy! Will be a huge hit at the Thanksgiving table and the kids will love it.

Spontaneous Moment #35: Creative Cake

I saw a picture on Pinterest of a cake made with a pumpkin in the center, but couldn't find directions where to make it!

So I decided to attempt it myself. Now you can attempt it too! It was surprisingly easy to do. I feel ashamed to say that I took the easy way out with boxed mix, but I had to make a handful of other treats in between.

Shaping a Loaf Cake

Ingredients:

Cake
1 box of pumpkin bread mix
1 box of pound cake mix
Cookie cutter
1/2 cup chopped pecans

 Icing
3 tablespoons of evaporated milk
1 stick of butter, softened
3.5 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

 

Make the pumpkin bread and follow the instructions on the box. Cook it 8 minutes less than the recommended cooking time. 

Put it in the fridge for three and a half hours so it will cool. 

Mix the pound cake together.

Take out pumpkin cake out of the fridge and slice it up.

 

Take your cookie cutter and press it into each pumpkin bread slice.

 

Viola!

 

Take all of your cut outs and line them up in your pan. 

Make sure to carefully place them in so everything is evenly lined up.

 

Pour the pound cake mix on top of your pumpkin cut outs. Make sure to cover everything completely on the sides so that it fills in when it bakes.

Follow the instructions on your pound cake mix to bake it in the oven.

 

Now I don't believe in throwing away excess so I took the leftover pieces of pumpkin cake and put them in a second pan.

 

Pour the leftover pound cake on top.

 

When you take out your cutout cake, it will look like this

 

How both look after they finish baking.

Beat butter and powdered sugar in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Add evaporated milk and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth.

 

Ice your cake and then sprinkle pecans on top.

 

The final product

 

My dessert, wine and slices of my cake.

 

Not too shabby for a first attempt. Next time I won't use a leave as a cutout. I think I'll use a turkey cookie cutter instead.

 

SUCCESS!

Spontanous Moment #34: Gobble Gobble

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. I love everything about it: family, food, friends, and thankfulness. So any chance I get to celebrate the holiday, I take. When I heard that there would be a bunch of little kids at our Thanksgiving dinner, I immediately knew I had to make a few Thanksgiving treats!!

I decided to make acorns and turkey treats!

Acorn Bites

Ingredients:
Donut holes
 Nutella
Chocolate sprinkles
Pretzel sticks

Make donut holes (see Spontaneous Moment #22).

Once they cool, dip donut holes halfway into the Nutella jar and immediately dip that into a bowl of sprinkles.

Place pretzel stick halfway into the donut hole.

Turkey Treats

 Ingredients:
Nutter butter cookies
Jelly beans
Sour patch kids
Reese peanut butter cups
Mini M&Ms
Chocolate cookie
White Icing

I made a variety of different gobblers. I made all the eyes out of the mini M&Ms, but I mixed up the jelly beans and the sour patch kids as the feathers. I also made some with cookies and some sitting alone.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Spontaneous Moment #33: Eggplant Pizza

If you can't tell by the many posts I've made in the past, I have a small addiction to pizza. It's so easy to make and the cheese just oozes in my mouth as I gulp it down.

In my attempt to create a healthier version of pizza, I turned to vegetables for a little help. Thankfully, eggplant seemed to be up to the challenge.

Eggplant Pizza

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant
1 teaspoons salt
Don Pepino Pizza Sauce
2 cloves of garlic
Basil
Pepper
Shredded Mozarella Cheese
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Chili flakes
Turkey pepperoni (optional)


Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 375.

Slice your eggplants thick enough so that they  cook evenly. (Basically, don't make it too thin)

Lay out all of your eggplant slices on two sheets of paper towels and sprinkle a teaspoon of salt on your slices. This will absorb all of the moisture out of the eggplant. Let it sit for 15 minutes and then turn over and cover the other side in a teaspoon of salt. Sit for another 15 minutes.

Wipe off all of the salt/moisture off the top of your eggplant slices. Lay your eggplant slices on a cooking sheet and brush the tops with olive oil. Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. While they're baking, thinly slice your basil leaves and mince your garlic.

Remove the eggplants from the oven and turn on your broiler.

Put a generous amount of pizza sauce on the eggplant. Sprinkle with the garlic, chili flakes and basil. Then crack some pepper on top.

Sprinkle your mozzarella cheese on top and then place a single pepperoni on each slice. Top your slices with parmesan cheese.

Put your eggplant slices in the broiler for 6-7 minutes or until cheese is slightly brown.

I like to add a little more pepper and pepper flakes on top after I take them out, but that's optional.

Right out of the oven

Not the best picture, but this is my plate. YUUMMM!

Just taken out of the broiler after 6 minutes

Spontaneous Moment #31: Zucchini Fritters

I just purchased a mandolin and I'll find any excuse to use it. So on my journey to eat healthier, why not whip up some zucchini fritters.

The sound of this recipe made John want to gag, but he was changing his tune by the end of the night.

They were so incredibly easy to make and the entire process took less than 20 minutes!

10 minutes prep time
6 minutes cooking time
Serves 2 (to serve four: double the zucchini, garlic, onion & egg, but keep the rest the same)

Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini
1 medium red onion
10 sprigs of parsley, stems removed (or if you want to mix it up 5 green onions)
Lemon Zest (I zested one lemon then cut lemon wedges with the rest of it)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper (to taste)
1 large egg
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup flour
Olive oil

Grate zucchini and onion into a medium bowl. Add chopped parsley, lemon zest, garlic, salt, pepper, parmesan and egg. Mix well. Slowly add flour, stirring the entire time so that you won't have any clumps.

How it should look after mixing in the first 9 ingredients

John helping me slowly mix in the flour

How it should look after the flour is added

Heat up olive oil in a large pan on medium-high heat. Take a spoon full of the mixture and plop it into the pan. Repeat spacing the fritters evenly apart.

The size your fritter should be on the pan

Nom nom nom..cooking for about 2 1/2 minutes

Cook fritters until golden brown which is about 2-3 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate.

Garnish with parsley or lemon wedges. Enjoy!

Spontaneous Moment #30: The Burger of all Burgers

Whenever I go to the counter at a burger joint and they ask what toppings I want... I tend to pick everything. Yes, I can't fit the burger in my mouth. No, I don't care. I call those kind of burgers SMASH BURGERS.

I love making turkey burgers at home and then cramming everything under the sun in between the buns. Tonight was no different.

Smash Burger ingredients:

Ground turkey
Lipton Onion Soup Mix
2 Garlic cloves
Potato bun
Sliced pickles
Sliced onions
Mushrooms
Lettuce
Tomato
Reduced fat Colby Jack cheese
Pepper
Sirarcha Sauce
Spicy Mustard

Preheat your onion to 350 degrees. Take out your ground turkey and put it in the bowl. Mince the garlic and then add it to your bowl. Pour one packet onion soup mix into the bowl and mix all three ingredients together. Make little turkey patties and cook on the stove top in a skillet.

Put your buns in the oven for 3 minutes. Take out the bun and finish toasting it a little bit on the stove top in the same pan you used to make your turkey burgers. Set aside.

On the same pan, toss in your mushrooms and sautee them until they're soft.  Set aside.

Put your spicy mustard and sirarcha sauce in a bowl and mix them together. Spread the mix on your bun.

Pop that burger on the bun and then slap on all of your ingredients. Once you've stacked everything up sky high, take your hand and just smash it all down!