Drumroll please!

I know I've been away for a little while, but I've got a lot going on now! It's spring, the time to be sprung! HOWEVER!!!! THE DECISION HAS BEEN MADE! I KNOW WHERE I WILL BE ATTENDING COLLEGE THIS UPCOMING FALL!!!!!!!!

*drum rollllllllinnnnggggggggg*

*SO MUCH ANTICIPATION*

*I KNOW IT'S KILLING YOU*

*IT'S EATING YOU UP INSIDE*

*YOU NEED TO KNOW AND YOU NEED TO KNOW NOW*

That's right, folks. I will be going down south to Virginia to get my learning on at Roanoke College. I can't even begin to explain to you how excited I am!!

Pumpkin Coconut Muffins with Brown Sugar Crumbs

In all my travels through the blogosphere, I have come across many interesting recipes and ideas. One recipe that I found was a pumpkin coconut bisque. I got the ingredients for it, and weeks later, still haven't had made it, I decided to put the two cans of pumpkin and can of coconut milk to use in my own way.

This recipe is definitely something that I made up on my own, seeing as I couldn't find any muffin recipes that included canned pumpkin and coconut milk, but then again I really didn't try that hard. Maybe there are excellent pumpkin coconut milk recipes out there and I just don't know it. Whatever the case may be, this is one of my own recipes that could possibly use some tweaking, but came out deliciously nonetheless.

It's really a good thing that I wrote down this concoction as I went because I definitely would not have been capable of recalling everything that went in these, or the amount.

Ingredients for muffins:
3 eggs
3 egg whites
2 cans pumpkin
1 can coconut milk, unsweetened (the small can that's only like 5/3 cups)
1/4 cup Splenda baking mix
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin spice

Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oats
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
1. Whisk eggs and egg whites, then add pumpkin and coconut milk.
2. Add Splenda, honey and salt.
3. Whisk in flours, powder, cinnamon, pumpkin spice and oats.
4. After making sure to spray your tins, spoon batter into 12 large muffin tins or 24 regular size muffin tins.
5. Mix the topping together using your hands because that's just more fun and who couldn't use more fun in their life? Use your hands to sprinkle as much as you'd like on to each muffin.
6. Bake for 35 minutes in a 350 degree oven, using convection if available.

Before smashing into one of these babies in the morning, I suggest heating it up a little bit, and making sure to get some of the brown sugar topping in each bite. Seriously guys, it makes all the difference.

Keep crazy, babes. 

Maple Walnut Cookies

'Tis the season to... experiment with flavors that you haven't used in a while because it's the middle of winter and you're bored with your life because you don't want to leave the house because it's too cold and you can't stand the idea of looking at snow anymore.

I recently had some maple walnut ice cream that was absolutely delicious and I have no idea what brand it was so that's kind of sad... but this ice cream was like really good, right? So I decided to turn it into cookies! 

Everything is good as a cookie! Okay that might not be true. Meatloaf cookies? Probably not. Caesar salad cookies? I'm thinking no. But maple walnut! Damn that's a good cookie.

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 - 4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1-2 cups chopped walnuts (or none, or 8 cups, or just eat the walnuts because they're really tasty by themselves)

Instructions:
1. Melt together the butter, shortening and maple syrup.
2. Mix in brown sugar until it becomes a completely smooth, homogenous mixture.
3. Add the eggs, vanilla and salt.
4. Add flour and baking powder until the dough is still soft but not tacky.
5. Mix in nuts.
6. Bake for about 18 minutes (but no more than 20) in a 325 degree oven. They won't get that brown, so make sure that they don't burn!

Happy baking, babes.

Trail Mix

The greatest thing about trail mix is that you can put whatever you want in it, eat everything you like out of it, and then add more so that it is never totally completely gone. So while there are not any rules for trail mix, I do have certain guidelines.

Trail mix SHOULD contain:

1. Something sweet
2. Something salty
3. Something chocolate
4. Some type of cereal
5. Some type of nut
6. Another type of nut
7. A type of granola
8. A nice graham cracker or another sweeter cracker such as Nilla Wafers or Teddy Grahams
9. M&M's 
10. Whatever the hell you want

So on that note, my trail mix at the time that this picture was taken contained:

1. Fiber One 80 Calorie Chocolate Square cereal
2. Graham cracker squares
3. Lightly salted almonds
4. Walnuts
5. Peanut butter granola (I like the brand Kind)
6. M&M's

So there you have it! Those six things make it sweet, salty, crunchy, soft, chocolatey and not all around terrible for you to eat! 

Trail mix is really something that you can have fun with, making it how you want to take with you wherever you want. 

Keep it crazy, trail blazers. 

In New Yoooorrrkkkkkk!!

This past weekend Heather invited me to go to New York City, so obviously I had to find people to cover for me at work because there was no way I was going to pass up an opportunity to get out of this small, snowy town of boredom.

Heath got Easter M&M's and if you know me at all, you know that my two favorite things are M&M's and bunnies. I literally clapped with joy when she pulled them out in the car.

While we did have a great time, these bunny M&M's may have been the highlight, except for the cupcakes that we got at Sweet Buttons Desserts. That's not to say that I didn't have fun in the city, but that just proves how much I love bunny M&M's.

These cupcakes were sooooooooo delicious. They were moist and delicate and tiny but just enough. I loved that they were little so that I could try two different flavors because I have a feeling that even if they were huge I would of had to try more than one of the flavors. 

The pistachio cupcake was. I can't even describe it. It was light and fluffy and moist. The pistachio flavor was just enough and not over powering. The frosting was smooth and had some texture but nothing that got in the way of the silkiness of the cupcake as a whole. It was a simple, perfectly constructed pistachio cupcake. 

And then there is chocolate. You can never go wrong with chocolate. Put Nutella in that chocolate and oh sweet baby Jesus. The chocolate cupcake was a little bit drier compared to the pistachio but the Nutella made it work and really made me not care if it was dry at all. Then the frosting was absolutely light and airy. Seriously, perfect. Well played, Sweet Buttons Desserts baker, well played.

A Sweet Sixteen and Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies

One of my best friends from skating, Sydney, just turned sixteen!!!! She's like my little sister and to think that she can drive a car now is absolutely frightening, but now I can make her give me rides around instead of me constantly picking her up. However, I do like dragging her around with me.

Sydie's mom invited Kelly, Maris and myself to Sydney's family birthday party so we got to surprise her and that was so much fun, I can't even tell you. Syd absolutely flipped out when we walked in the door, I didn't realize that it was going to be that much fun to surprise someone.

Anyways, I obviously made her something and since she loves peanut butter and chocolate, I found this recipe amongst the many recipes I have saved and stashed. This was one of the few recipes that I have ever actually followed correctly without taking anything out or adding anything of my own, so I recommend you do the same! They are perfect as is! 

Like seriously... I may have eaten half of the tray while I was cutting them up to give to her...

Happy 16th, baby girl <3

Have your bed and eat it too!

What did you do this wonderful Valentine's Day? Did you share it with your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, cat, imaginary lover, other angry singles?

I spent mine with marshmallows.

I'm not even embarrassed.

I've always wanted to make marshmallows from scratch but they have always been one of those things that has kind of always intimidated me for some reason. After making them, I'm really not even sure why I never even tried before; they really aren't hard to make at all. I think that hardest part was having enough patience to wait the minimum amount of time before cutting into them.

I'm sure that had I been able to wait overnight, as recommended, they would have been more cuttable and come out cleaner, but hey, they look homemade, or rustic, as I like to say. But anyways, I've always wanted to make marshmallows. I love them. They are great. And since I've been watching How I Met Your Mother on Netflix at an impressive rate, my desire has gotten even stronger every time Lily calls Marshal marshmallow. THEREFORE! I could not wait any longer.

I invited myself over Becca's house last night because she had to pack for her trip to the Galapagos Islands, and I made marshmallows. It was so much fun. I can't even describe to you how satisfying this experience was for me. After I poured the mallows into the pan and covered it in plastic wrap, Becca and I could not stop poking it. Then we cleaned out the bowl, in the traditional style of doing nothing less than licking it.

Becca pointed out how lovely it would be to have a bed made of marshmallow. Then you could have your bed and eat it too! Classic Becca line right there. So use this recipe right here, and go back a bed made of mallows and eat them too! 

Keep crazy, my little marshmallows! 

Healthy Peanut Butter Cereal Cookies

I wish that food didn't have calories, or that all food had the same nutritional value or just something that would make eating healthily easy!!!!!

But that's not the case. So you have to work with what you got. And what I've got, is fake peanut butter that I found at Target. I didn't love the taste of it alone or on crackers, so I decided to throw it in some cookies and make a sort of breakfast cookie.

I also used my Truvia baking blend, which I believe I have shared with you before. It's great for when you have to use a small amount of sugar for pancakes, muffins, waffles or something like that.

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
1 cup of peanut butter substitute
1/2 cup Truvia baking blend
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups oats
2 cups Rice Krispies

Instructions:
1. Melt together the butter and peanut butter until combined.
2. Add sugar, salt, vanilla and eggs.
3. Mix in flour, baking powder and soda.
4. Add oats and Rice Krispies.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Don't over bake, or they'll get way dry and no one wants that.

Wow that picture is blurry. That's what you get for only using your phone to take pictures... Although... Some pictures on my phone have been pretty great lately...

We recently got a huge snow storm, leaving us with sixteen fresh inches of snow. I was on my way to school the other day and saw that my neighbors took advantage of the fresh layer. Don't you just love middle school boys? Their minds are so... creative...

Hope you're all staying warm! I'm sure as hell not.

Happy baking, crazies!!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Selfie Sunday!! 

I mean... Super Bowl Sunday?

Nah, I'm really not into that.

I am into these though. Just a simple sugar cookie base, plopped into a mini muffin tin with a peanut butter cup in the middle.

Who wouldn't be into that?

It's kind of funny because my sister and her fiancee are having a Super Bowl party that I was invited to, and I made these cookies for it because Casey requested them, so I made them, and had my parents take them to the party while I stay home tonight.

What am I doing instead? Maybe I'll do my stats homework and work out. I really have a lot to do. I need to find another job and plan my entire future. Of those four things that I just listed, I think the stats homework will take me the longest.

Good thing I could wait for these to cool to start chowing down.

Cookie selfies!!

I really have too much fun...

Keep crazy, fellow non-football fans! 

The Two Best Banana Bread Recipes Ever

Okay so you see,  I typically eat a banana a day. Because they are healthy, and they make me happy. It's a win win, get it? Because I eat so many bananas, we don't usually have any that get ripe enough to make bread.

But for whatever reason, we recently came to a point in my household, where we had soooo many bananas that have gotten passed the point of eating, that I was able to make TWO different types of banana bread!!!!!!

This brought me great joy. I was able to make my family's favorite banana bread recipe, and a healthier version that I came across in my blog roaming.

Here is the first kind. The recipe with all the real sugar and white flour. It's sweet, it's moist, it dense, it's absolutely delicious.

I personally, love to sprinkle a nice coat of cinnamon sugar on top before baking it. It gives it a nice little crust on top, and because there is no cinnamon IN the bread, it literally gives it another level of flavor.

Oh, I guess you're gonna want the recipe, huh? Okay, here ya go!

And now moving on to the healthier, but no less delicious, version.

I made this with truvia baking blend sugar instead of regular, granulated sugar. There is a little fat from the vegetable oil, whole wheat flour and walnuts (which are healthy).

I added some walnuts on top, along with a nice little sprinkle of cinnamon, because I simply could not help myself.

I found this recipe on one of my favorite new blogs, The Picky Eater, whose philosophy I adoreeeee!!!!

Happy eating and keep crazy, loves!