Lemon Poppyseed Bundt Cake

I have been craving something made with poppy seeds lately.  They just keep shouting at me every time I open the refrigerator!  I paired them with lemon, reduced the fat in a typical cake and came up with this light, heavenly lemon poppy seed bundt cake which did not disappoint.  It's robust on lemon flavor, moist and delicious!  It's even better the second day after making too!

Servings: 16
Serving Size: 1/16 of bundt cake
Points Plus: 7pp
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 55-60 minutes

Ingredients:
Cake Ingredients-
1 Duncan Hines Lemon Cake Mix (16.5 oz)
2 1/2 Tbsp. flour
1 package instant lemon pudding, sugar-free
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup poppy seeds
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
3 egg whites
1 egg

Glaze Ingredients-
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2-4 Tbsp. fresh lemon mice
1 drop yellow food coloring

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a bund pan with cooking spray.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the cake mix, flour, instant pudding, buttermilk, water, applesauce, oil, poppy seeds and lemon juice (2 Tbsp).  Mix until well blended.  Add the egg whites and egg and beat until smooth.  Pour into prepared bundt pan and spread evenly.  Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out cleanly.  Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes.  Carefully loosen sides with a knife and remove the cake onto a plate.  Cool completely before glazing.

To make the glaze - combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl.  Blend until very smooth with a whisk.  Add the food coloring and mix well.  Drizzle the glaze all around the top of the cake.  Slice and serve!

Tip:
Keep your poppy seeds in the fridge to make the last for up to 6 months!  Because poppy seeds are high in oil content they need to be preserved a bit otherwise they won't last long.  The fridge is the perfect home for them!

YUM!
XOXO Nancy

Glazed Donut Muffins

I had been wanting to try this recipe out for a long time and I finally did!  I made these on Easter for quick, light-ish breakfast before church and a bigger Easter meal with family around noon.  They were delicious!  I mean what an awesome combo?!?  Glazed donut meets muffin form!!!  They are definitely a bit indulgent, but in my opinion, completely worth the splurge!

Servings: 16 muffins

Serving Size: 1 muffin

Points Plus: 6pp

Level of Difficulty: Medium

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Bake Time: 15-17 minutes

Ingredients:

Muffins:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

2 2/3 cups flour
1 cup skim milk

Glaze:
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. hot water

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400°.  Line a regular muffin tin with liners.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter, oil and white and brown sugars.  Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until smooth.  Add in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and vanilla, stirring until just well combined.  Alternately add the flour and milk seperately; add about 1/2 the flour, then 1/2 the milk and repat.  You want to make sure to not overmix this batter. 

Spoon the donut muffin batter into the muffin cups.  Bake for about 15-17 minutes or until the muffins are just turning golden brown.  Cool muffins on a wire rack.  It's important you allow the muffins to cool before you add the glaze to the tops.  Make the glaze in a small bowl by mixing together the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and water.  Use a whisk to make sure the glaze is smooth and void of lumps.  Dip each muffin top into the glaze by turning the muffins upside down.  Allow the glaze to harden and then transfer back to the wire rack to cool/harden further.  You might need to dip the muffins a second time.  It kind of depends on your preference!

Tip:

A tip I use often when I make muffins is to split the batter into regular muffins and some mini muffins.  Mini muffins are obviously less pp value and you still get the taste!  Obviously mini muffins are a bit easier to overeat though, so make sure to practice portion control if you take this strategy.

XOXO Megan

Recipe adapted from Sweet Pea's Kitchen

Double Chocolate Cookies

I love cookies!  This recipe calls for two types of chocolate chips to make some seriously delicious treats.  The original recipe comes from The Pioneer Woman's blog.  I scaled back the recipe a bit to save some pp – I took out some butter and reduced how many chocolate chips the recipe calls for.  I also made the cookies a bit smaller to add an extra ½ dozen to the total recipe yield. They are still a bit indulgent, but every once in a while it is okay to splurge a bit. Katie and I actually made these together when we got together with our husbands for a dinner party a few months ago!

Servings:  3 ½ dozen or 42 cookies

Size:  1 cookie

Points Plus:  5pp per cookie

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Bake Time:  9-11 minutes per batch

Ingredient List:

2 sticks butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

2 large eggs

3 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup cocoa powder

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Lightly spray cookie sheets with cooking spray.  Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add in the eggs, one at a time; make sure they are mixed well.  Add in the vanilla extract.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.  Add the dry mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture in multiple batches.  Gently fold in the semi-sweet and white chocolate chips.  Scoop out the cookies (about 1 Tbsp. per cookie) onto cookie sheets.  Bake for approximately 9-11 minutes, until just set in the middle.  Cool on wire baking racks and enjoy!

Tip:

Okay these cookies are delicious!  You can easily cut this recipe in half to only end up with 21 cookies so you don’t go crazy.  Or bring the extras into work and share with your coworkers (and get them out of your house J)!!!

XOXO Megan

Orange Poppyseed Scones

Can I just tell you how much I LOVE scones?? I know they are typically full of butter and therefore high in pp, but nothing is better to me than a hot scone straight from the oven with a cup of coffee!  This recipe is for a zesty combo of orange and poppyseeds.  I think the portion size of these scones are very generous given they are only 5pp.  Serve these delicious breakfast treats next time you host a brunch!

Servings:  12

Size:  1 scone

Points Plus: 5pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time:  20 minutes

Ingredient List:

2 ¼ cups flour

½ cup sugar

¼ cup poppyseeds

1 tsp. cream of tartar

¾ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

½ cup butter

½ cup orange juice

1 egg

1 ½ tsp. orange zest

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°.  Mix together flour, sugar, poppyseeds, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.  Using a pastry blender, cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles cornmeal or coarse crumbs.  In a separate bowl, beat egg slightly into orange juice.  Add in the zest.  Add liquid mixture to dry mix (use fingers if necessary) and gently shape dough into a ball.  Divide dough into two halves.  Pat out each half on a piece of wax paper with flour into an 8-inch circle about ½ inch thick.  Cut each half into 6 wedges.  Place on baking sheet.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Tip:

These scones have great flavor as described above!  However if you are looking to amp up the orange flavor even more, consider using fresh squeezed orange juice and add in a bit more zest to really have the orange flavor pop!

XOXO Megan

Cake Batter Valentine's Blondies

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!!

These little treats are SO GOOD!  I made these to serve at a birthday party I recently hosted and they were definitely a hit.  I choice to serve them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but believe me they are delicious on their own too!  I found these on Sally's Baking Addiction blog. Try them out next time you need a fun dessert!

Servings: 18 
Size:  1 cake batter blondie 

Points Plus: 5pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Bake Time:  25-30 minutes

Ingredient List:

1 box yellow cake mix
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 egg

½ cup milk

½ sprinkles (I chose to use Valentine's sprinkles)

½ white chocolate chips

Vanilla ice cream (optional, not included in pp value)

  

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, oil and egg with a whisk.  Slowly add in the milk, whisking until well combined.  Fold in the sprinkles and white chocolate chips.  The batter will be very thick and dense.  Don't be surprised by this - they are called cake batter blondies for a reason!  Spread the batter into a lightly greased 9x13 pan and add some additional sprinkles to the top of the blondies before baking.  You can defintiely use a smaller pan, but it will make for thicker blondie bars.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.  Allow the bars to cool for awhile before you cut into squares.  Serve alone or with ice cream! 

Tip:

The original recipe is made with with funfetti, multi-colored sprinkles which would be perfect for a kid's birthday.  You can also substitue in Christmas, Easter, or St. Patrick's day sprinkles instead to make these for any holiday you want!

XOXO Megan

Corn & Jalapeno Mini Muffins

The combination of flavors in each one of these mini muffins really packs a punch!  It’s a delightful combo of sweetness from the honey, a bit of heat from the jalapeños and hearty cornmeal.  These are perfect side to serve with tacos or any Mexican dish.  Try pairing them with the Crockpot Chicken Tacos we featured on the blog last week!

Servings:  16 (recipe will make a total of 32 mini muffins)

Size:  2 mini corn muffins

Points Plus: 2pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time:  10-12 minutes

Rating: 5 stars – Excellent!

Ingredient List:
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
¼ cup flour
¾ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. sugar
⅛ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ cup milk
¼ cup honey
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
2 large jalapeños, seeded and diced
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese, reduced-fat

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375°. Lightly grease a mini muffin tin with cooking spray.  Combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a medium bowl.  In a separate, larger bowl combine the egg, milk, honey and melted butter with a whisk.  Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl and stir until well mixed.  Fold in the jalapeños and cheddar cheese with a spatula.  Fill each muffin tin about 2/3 full.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Tip:
Serving these warm are a MUST!  Although you can save time and make these ahead of time, they really are best when they are just out of the oven.  Of course you can pop them back in oven to warm them up just before you are ready to sit down too!

XOXO Megan

Champagne Orange Bundt Cake

I came across this recipe on Pinterest as I was searching for a fun, festive dessert to serve on New Year's Eve.  The original recipe (found here) comes from the Muffin Tin mom's blog.  I wasn't able to find the orange mimosa flavored sparkling wine that her recipe calls for so I improvised and used a combination of champagne and orange juice instead - two ingredients you already need for the frosting!  I also chose to omit the sliced almonds to cut down on pp.  Enjoy this bubbly cake!

Servings: 10

Size: One slice of 1/10 of the cake

Points Plus: 8pp

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Bake Time: 25-30 minutes

Rating: 4 stars - Very good

Ingredient List:

Cake Batter

1 box white cake mix

2/3 cup champagne

1/3 cup orange juice

3 eggs

Baking spray

Frosting

¼ cup champagne

¼ cup orange juice

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, mix together the cake mix, champagne, orange juice and eggs until well combined.  Pour batter into a lightly greased bundt pan.  Bake according to the directions on the box, about 25-30 minutes.  Allow the cake to cool completely before you frost it.  To make the frosting, first combine the champagne and orange juice in a large bowl.  Add the powdered sugar a ½ cup at a time until the frosting reaches the consistency you are looking for.  It will be more of a glaze than a thick frosting.

Tip:
I don't know about you, but I REALLY struggle when it comes to making frostings!  I think the key is to not have too much liquid so you don't have to add as much powdered sugar to even out the consistency.  That said, you could use slightly less champagne and orange juice in the frosting to make for a thicker frosting if you prefer. 

XOXO Megan

Cranberry Bliss Bars

Happy Christmas Eve! We have been doing a ton of food prep in the last 24 hours at our home, in anticipation of hosting Christmas Eve tonight.  It is really quite remarkable how many different things will come out of our kitchen tonight, I am so excited! I have also had some interested food related epiphanies in the last 24 hours.

1. Um, whoever invented the Pampered Chef garlic peeler is a Genius with a capital 'G'.  This kitchen tool has changed my life.

2. Chorizo tastes bad in soup.

3. Check the price of a lamp rack prior to ordering it from the butcher (more on that tomorrow).

4. And finally, there is a reason Starbucks calls today's recipe BLISS bars.  These bars are Incredible (with a capital 'I'). Skinytaste revamped them to make them WW friendly, and I seriously can't believe how good they are.  They would be a perfect addition to your Christmas Day brunch. 5 STARS!!!!!!

Tip

When I turned the pan upside down to make the bars come out, they didn't!  So, I just frosted them in the pan and then used a spatula to remove them.  Worked pretty darn well if you ask me!

Merry Christmas everyone!  See you tomorrow!

XOXO - Katie

Frosted Pumpkin Cookies

I have had this recipe saved to my Pinterest dessert board for quite awhile.  It comes from the Parent Pretty blog – check out the original recipe here.  I made a few modifications, most notably, I cut the recipe in half.  I wasn’t ready to have 5 dozen cookies staring me in the face and testing my self-control!  2 and 1/2 dozen seemed like a much more reasonable amount for me to make.

Servings: 2 ½ dozen (or 30) cookies

Size:  1 cookie

Points Plus: 4pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time:  10-12 minutes per cookie sheet

Rating: 4 stars –  Very good

Ingredient List:

Cookies:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground nutmeg

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

½ 15 oz. can pumpkin

2 cups flour

Frosting:

¼ cup butter

¼ cup packed brown sugar

2 or 3 tsp. milk

½ tsp. vanilla

2 to 3 cups powdered sugar (depending on frosting thickness/consistency)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Using a mixer, beat the butter for 30 seconds.  Add in sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and beat until well combined.  Add the egg and vanilla, mix well.  Next, beat in the pumpkin.  Finally, add in the flour in multiple steps, not all at once.  On an ungreased cookie sheet, drop heaping teaspoons of cookie dough a few inches between each cookie.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Cool on a wire cooling rack.

To make the frosting, heat the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan on the stove.  Make sure the mixture is well combined and smooth.  Transfer the butter/sugar into a bowl, whisk in the 2 tsp. milk and vanilla.  Beat in powdered sugar, add more until frosting is to your desired level of thickness vs. more of a glaze.   You may need to add additional milk to acheive the frosting thickness you prefer as well.  Once the cookies have completely cooled, spread frosting on top.

Tip:

I can't stress enough the importance of waiting until your cookies have cooled before you add the frosting to the tops.  I was impatient and my cookies although started out looking great (see picture above), but I quickly watched my frosting droop and melt off the top and setlle into small pools at the edges of each cookie. :(

XOXO Megan

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cakes

These are DELICIOUS, indulgent little cakes!  I served these at a family brunch recently and they were very popular.  Adding in chocolate chips is a perfect pairing with pumpkin!  And mini chocolate chips are just so cute. :)

This recipe comes from Skinnytaste.  The original recipe has these made into mini-muffins which would make 28 mini muffins or 14 regular sized muffins if you wanted to try a different variation for less points (see all pp values listed below).

Servings:  6

Size:  1 mini bundt cake

Points Plus: 8pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time:  25-28 minutes

Rating: 4 stars – Very Good

*PP value for 1 regular muffin would be 4pp, 1 mini muffin would be 2pp

Ingredient List:

½ cup whole wheat flour

¾ cup all purpose flour

¾ cup sugar

¾ tsp. baking soda

1 ¾ tsp. pumpkin pie spice

¼ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. salt

1 ½ cup canned pumpkin (equal to 1 15 oz. can)

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

2 egg whites

2 tsp. vanilla

2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray the mini bundt pan with cooking spray.  In a large bowl, combine the two types of flour, sugar, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and salt; mix well.  In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, oil, egg and vanilla – beat until well combined, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture in multiple steps.  Do not over mix.  Fold in the mini chocolate chips with a spatula.  Using a spoon, drop spoonfuls of batter into each mini bundt mold.  Bake for 25-28 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let your mini bundt cakes cool before serving.

Tip:

An easy way to get your mini bundt cakes out of the pan is to flip your cooling rack upside down and place on top of the bundt pan.  Flip both the pan and rack upside down so the cooling rack is right side up (set on your counter) and the bundt pan is upside down. Your mini bundt cakes should pop right out of the pan and be perfectly placed to cool!

XOXO Megan

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

Has this ever happened to you??  You start a recipe and realize you forgot to pick up one ingredient?  Or you realize you just used up the last bit of a spice that your recipe calls for? 

Well… this little recipe shows you how to make your own pumpkin pie spice!  Pumpkin pie spice is a delicious blend of fall flavors.  You might be surprised that your spice cupboard is already stocked with all the ingredients you need to make your own blend!

Servings:  Depends on your recipe needs

Size:  Total recipe makes about 5 Tbsp.

Points Plus: 0pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time:  n/a

Rating: 3 stars – Good

Ingredient List:

3 Tbsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. ground ginger

2 tsp. nutmeg

1 ½ tsp. allspice

1 ½ tsp. ground cloves

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients until well combined.  Store your homemade spice blend in an air-tight container.  Keep on hand for delicious pumpkin recipes!

Tip:

Making your own spices is fun and easy!  There are lots of other options out there to try out –taco seasoning, chili powder, popcorn seasonings and other spices and rubs for chicken or beef.

Keep this recipe handy since it will be used in another pumpkin recipe later this week on the blog!

XOXO Megan