Recipes

Mini Pumpkin Muffcakes

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Oh so simple, and oh so delicious.

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In the past week or so, I realized that my year-to-date pumpkin intake is severely below goal this year.  It dawned on me that I have only enjoyed ONE Starbucks pumpkin latte this year and I’ve only made pumpkin cookies ONCE.  Sad!  The very next day, I received an email newsletter from Hungry Girl that was ALL ABOUT PUMPKIN.  Fate?  I’m thinking yes.

Do any of you get the Hungry Girl email newsletter?  I am a big big fan.  She always has simple healthy recipe ideas and offers up tips on healthier options to make at chain restaurants.  She’s also coming out with a show in January, which I’m pretty pumped about.

One of the pumpkin recipes in the newsletter that caught my eye was this recipe for Caramel Pudding Pumpkin Cupcakes.  I truly am a baker at heart.  Yes, I love to cook, but if I had to choose I’d pick baking any day.  One of the reasons I rarely bake is that I possess little to no will power against baked goods.  I’m the girl who has to try a “little bite” of each baked good at family get togethers… only to end up eating the sugar equivalent of 7 king size snickers bars…  For those of you who were Sex and the City watchers, I could totally relate to the episode where Miranda ate chocolate cake from the trash can.  Like I said.  Little to no willpower.  So rather than suscept myself to sugar induced comas, I avoid baking. 

Unless of course I have plenty of people to pawn my wares off on…  And when all else fails, I scale it down.  I mean way down.  I’ve been known to make a solitary no-bake cookie.  Talk about proactive measures!

When I got to baking these pumpkin cupcakes, I decided to cut the recipe down to 3 cupcakes.  Come on.  You have to give yourself a little wiggle room Winking smile 

I assembled the ingredients for 3 cupcakes in a large bowl (making a few minor tweaks from HG’s recipe):

  • 1/2 cup Better Crocker moist yellow cake mix
  • 1/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
  • 1 egg white
  • 1.5 tsp Smuckers sugar free breakfast syrup
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 packet Truvia
  • dash of salt

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I whisked everything together with a fork for a good two minutes:

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Then divided evenly into 3 muffin tins, which I popped into a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes…. and VOILA! 

Little bits of joy:

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I’m so proud Smile 

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While the cupcakes cooled, I got to work on the caramel icing.  For three cupcakes, I only needed 1 caramel candy (the little cube caramels you can find individually wrapped in the bulk candy section of the grocery store) and 1 tsp Almond Breeze Vanilla Unsweetened Almond Milk.  I put both of the icing ingredients into a bowl and popped into the microwave on 50% heat for 1 minute, then stirred, and repeated for another minute.

Then I just drizzled the caramel goodness over top of the three cupcakes:

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I had one of these little guys with my evening cup of Earl Grey tea.  It reminded me of the pumpkin muffies you can get at Panera (you know, the ones that are dusted with powdered sugar?).  These cupcakes really are a cross between a muffie and a cupcake….  A muffcake, if you will Winking smile 

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Not only were they super easy and scrumptious, but they made my kitchen smell absolutely heavenly.

Stats on 1 Mini Pumpkin Muffcake (as prepared by Fervent Foodie):  106 calories, 23g carbs, 1g fat, 2g protein, 1g fiber

Mini Pumpkin Muffcakes Ingredients List (makes 3)

  • 1/2 cup Better Crocker moist yellow cake mix
  • 1/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
  • 1 egg white
  • 1.5 tsp Smuckers sugar free breakfast syrup
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 packet Truvia
  • dash of salt
  • 1 caramel candy
  • 1 tsp Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

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Recipes

Spinach Caprese Quesadilla

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While at work yesterday, my mind kept drifting to dinner–but nothing was sounding good to me.  Since I have an abundance of tomatoes and basil (thank you backyard garden for your fruitfulness 🙂 ) I decided to do something caprese inspired. 

Caprese is one of my all-time favorite Italian dishes, and it typically consists of tomato, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.

Before diving into to the caprese, I got to work on some brussel sprouts.  I halved 10 brussel sprouts, trimmed down any rough ends of the stem, and then made a small slit down the core of each sprout half.  I read that making this little slit on the rougher part of the sprout helps to ensure even cooking.  I put the sprouts on a cookie sheet that was liberally sprayed with cooking spray, then seasoned them with S&P, and gave them a good toss before throwing them into a 415 degree oven for 17 minutes.

Brussel sprouts!

Now onto the caprese!  First, I sliced up 1 roma tomato and 1 Sargento light mozzarella string cheese and put them into a bowl:

Then, I drizzled the tomato and mozzarella with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and a 1/2 tsp olive oil and sprinkled with some salt and pepper.  Next I added 3 sliced up fresh basil leaves and tossed everything to coat.

Meanwhile, I topped a Mama Lupe’s Low Carb tortilla with some fresh spinach and topped with the tomato mozzarella mixture:

I topped this off with a second Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla, then I popped this baby onto the George foreman grill for about 5 minutes (until the tortilla was crisp and the cheese was melty):

None of these pictures do the quesadilla justice!  If you like caprese, you will love this:

I’m hoping I get some tips on taking pictures of food indoors at the Healthy Living Summit!  I can never seem to get indoor pictures quite right!

By the way, if you love caprese too check out the recipe I tried for hot caprese! I also added a “rating” scale to my recipe page :mrgreen:

Stats on dinner:  325 calories, 43g carbs, 12g fat, 20g protein, 14g fiber

 

A few hours after dinner, it was time for my night time snack.  I was craving a green monster smoothie, so I put the following into the blender:

  • 1/4 cup Stonyfield Farms Fat Free Yogurt
  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 2 cups spinach
  • 1/2 cup fresh frozen strawberries
  • 1/2 cup fresh frozen blueberries
  • 1 packet Truvia
  • 1 ice cube

Green Monster:

This guy was so much GREENER in person than in these photos… my camera was being stubborn last night!

Stats on the green monster:  119 calories, 24g carbs, 2g fat, 8g protein, 6g fiber

 

Question:  what’s your favorite “healthified” Italian dish?

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What I ate

Tuesday Tastes Good

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Today marks Day #3, week #3 of my interval training plan!  I am just flying right along….. Which does make me a little nervous.  I keep waiting for another knee injury to surface… Hopefully with good stretching and elevation while at work I can continue to work my way back up to running the entire time.

I’m really hoping to be able to participate in the Healthy Living Summit group run in August too…  We shall see 🙂

Breakfast #1:  Just-sayin-no to muffin(tops)

I had a breakfast meeting at Panera this morning for the Knowledgeable Network of Women in Akron.  In a previous life, I would have been PUMPED for a muffie and/or bagel from Panera…  Coffee cake?  Bring-it-on.  Nowadays I just stare longingly at these delicious treats through the glass case and drool…. 

BUT there is good news!  Panera carries Stonyfield Farms yogurt!  So, I ordered up some of that with fruit (no granola though) and a TALLLLLL coffee 🙂

Breakfast #2:  Giving low-carb waffles a second go

I made low-carb waffles for the first time last week, and I was really excited to try them again.  There’s lots of things I’d like to play around with, but for the sake of determining what works and what doesn’t I only changed a few minor things this time around.

Last night I cooked up the waffle batter below for 10 minutes on the waffle iron:

This morning, I popped the waffles into the toaster, then topped ’em off with some fresh/frozen strawberries/bananas/blackberries that I heated up in the microwave along with some PB2 (added extra H20 fo’ the drizzle).

YUMMMMMM…..  So tasty, even though the texture is not quite what I want.  Guess I’ll just have to keep on experimenting.  No complaints here!

Stats on waffles with fixins:  206 calories, 31g carbs, 4g fat, 21g protein, 8g fiber

Lunch

Lately, I’m pretty much obsessed with hummus and spinach sandwiches of any variety.  It’s not just me either.  I made a wrap with hummus on it for the BF over the weekend, and he seconded my desire to rub it all over my face and marinate in its deliciousness.  Hahahah… 😉

Today’s wrap consisted of:

Heavenly 🙂

Stats on wrap & sliced yellow pepper:  295 calories, 23g carbs, 10g fat, 24g protein, 8g fiber

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What I ate

Cold and crunchy Monday

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It’s Monday!  Woot. 

😉 actually today has been a pretty decent Monday thus far.  The office is super quiet since many of my coworkers opted to use our floating holiday today.  I decided to bank mine and take my birthday off (next week) instead.

Hope you all have a fabulous fun/food/framily filled weekend!

The PB2 Giveaway ended last night!!!  Read further for the lucky winner 😀

Breakfast #1

It’s been so hot these past few days, that I was craving something super cold for breakfast this morning.  I decided a fruit smoothie would be the ticket to cooling things off.  I threw the following into the blender:

  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Vanilla Greek Yogurt
  • 1 cup fresh frozen strawberries
  • 1/4 cup blueberries
  • 1 packet Truvia (Stevia) all natural sweetener

Once I blended everything up, I opened the fridge to put the almond milk away and saw a lonely half-empty bag of spinach sitting on the shelf begging to be eaten. 

I’ve read lots of posts on the “green monster” smoothies, especially on Julie’s blog, but I’ve never tried one myself… Until today that is!

I grabbed a handful of spinach and threw it into the blender and gave it a good pulse. 

Yes, that is spinach you are seeing

The result:

One huge smoothie with “monster” flecks:

This was surprisingly tasty!  You can’t specifically taste the spinach itself, but it gives the smoothy a hearty fullness.  It also cuts on some of the sweetness of the fruit, so I was glad I used a whole packet of truvia.  I think I’ve officially jumped on the green monster bandwagon 😀

If you’re intrigued — check out the Green Monster Movement.

Stats on the Green Monster:  197 calories, 37g carbs, 2g fat, 12g protein, 6g fiber

Breakfast #2

O…. O…..   mmmmmm…. haven’t had overnight oats in a few days, so I went with the go-to OO Combo: 

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • sprinkling of cinnamon
  • fresh strawberries

All stirred up:

Overnight oats… oh how I’ve missed you :-*

Stats on the oats:  208 calories, 38g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber

Lunch

Keeping on with today’s cold theme, I thought I’d add a little crunch to my lunch with a nice salad.  Last night, I threw together a monster salad that consisted of:

  • 1/2 bag fresh express romaine
  • 1 roma tomato
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1/4 cup white onion
  • 1 serving baby carrots
  • 1 link of Jennie O’s hot turkey sausage

Topped it all off with 2 tbsp of fat free ranch dressing:

Stats on the Monster Salad:  295 calories, 28g carbs, 10g fat, 22g protein, 7g fiber

And the winner of the PB2 Giveaway ……………

Drumroll please……

Based on the random number generator, the lucky winner is:

Monique at She’s Going the Distance!!!

  

Thank you guys for taking the time to post on my blog!  I really love seeing what you guys have to say, and as cheesy as it may sound (who doesn’t love a little cheese?) it really brightens my day 😀

Monique – please send your mailing address to:  ferventfoodie@gmail.com

Everyone else – you can purchase PB2 online at www.netrition.com.  Since it’s flat rate shipping, I’d recommend getting some Mama Lupe’s low-carb tortillas, Joseph’s low-carb pita, and some carba nada pasta 🙂

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Recipes, What I ate

Something old, something new x2

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Breakfast #1

For breakfast this morning I was craving one of my standards:  dippy eggs and potatoes.  So, I cooked up 1 egg over easy, heated up some of Jarrod’s special cajun oven potatoes, and a Thomas’ multi-grain english muffin. 

Served up with a dollop of ketchup, of course! 😉

Delicious as always!  Sometimes you just gotta go with the tried and true.

Stats on breakfast #1:  219 calories, 39g carbs, 6g fat, 12g protein, 9g fiber

 

Breakfast #2 = Healthified Low-Carb Waffles

I recently picked up some Bob’s Red Mill Low-Carb baking mix, so I decided to try and make some low-carb waffles this morning.

I mixed up:

  • 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill Low-Carb baking mix
  • 1/4 cup + 1 tsp Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 egg white
  • Sprinkling of cinnamon

Poured the mix onto the waffle iron, and let it cook for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I mixed up half a serving of PB2 and made it a little on the runny side (for drizzling!).  I also microwaved 1/4 of fresh frozen strawberries.  Once nice and hot, I added a sprinkling of Truvia to sweeten them up and a drizzle of Smuckers sugar free syrup.

All together:

This was a good first stab at low-carb waffles!  Next time, I think I’ll add half a packet of the truvia to the actual waffle batter and also 1/8 tsp of baking powder to help the waffles perk up a bit.  Definitely gonna play with this idea some more!

Stats on just the waffles:  126 calories, 12g carbs, 3g fat, 18g protein, 5g fiber

Stats on waffles with all the fixins:  170 calories, 21g carbs, 4g fat, 21g protein, 6g fiber

 

Larabar success!!

Yesterday, I was feeling adventurous (albeit hesitant) and decided to try the Peanut butter & Jelly Larabar that I’ve been neglecting for the past week due to Larabar Fail #1 and Fail #2. 

Every other larabar I’ve tried to date, I’ve taken 1 bite and tossed the rest.  I actually enjoyed this one!  Wow!  I’m so surprised!  And I LOVE the simple ingredients:  Dates, Peanuts, Unsweetened Cherries, and Salt.  Still keeping an eye out there for the coconut and key lime flavors…

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