Turn a Box Cake Into a Costco Cake? Please Tell Me It's True.

This blog is a bit late, as I actually tested this pin over three weeks ago.  I’m a slacker.  What can I say?

We have all seen this pin, read its instructions, and felt our pants get instantly tighter.  I know I did, but the possibility of being able to make a cake that tastes like a Costco cake, made it all okay…even though it would be bad.  Very, very bad.

So, here’s what you do.  You add an extra egg, use butter instead of oil and double it, and use milk instead of water.  (Normally I use sugar free applesauce instead of oil, so this was the opposite of what I usually do.)  I tried it on two cakes.  One was devil’s food and the other was strawberry.  I honestly couldn’t tell the difference with the chocolate cake.  It was definitely NOT worth the extra fat and calories.  The strawberry cake, however, was AMAZING.  If Costco made strawberry cake, this could have passed for it.

The one thing I noticed was that the cakes cooked way faster than they normally do.  Keep your eye on it.  This could be why the chocolate one wasn't as amazing.  In a way, I’m kind of glad it didn't blow my socks off…and so are you if you work with me.  If it turned out like a Costco cake, I’d have to make one every weekend, which means I would have to bring the leftovers every Monday.

I used the Martha Stewart cream cheese frosting recipe again.  Love, love, love it.

Toddler Travel Tip-Print the Maps!!!

Before we took our week-long road trip, I looked up pins to get ideas to made the trip easier.  The best tip I came across that I actually tried, was printing the maps for the trip.

We broke the trip into two days each day, so I printed out each day separately.  Each day, I showed the 4 year-old where we were starting, and where we would end.  She randomly throughout the trip would ask me to show her where we were.  I pulled out the Star Wars folder and pen, and circled about where we were.  She absolutely got it.  Giving her a visual to associate time with was brilliant.

Do it.

I Hear It's Called Pink Cloud...I Can Support That

Who doesn't like a dish that is EASY, TASTY, and good for you?  This fits the bill.  Coming in at just 1,472 calories for the entire batch, you really don't even need to share.

I made it as a dessert, but I can see myself making it for breakfast, a side dish, or a snack.  The baby FREAKED out over it.  He wasn't patient enough to let me feed him with an actual utensil, he insisted on using his hands, and was quite vocal about how angry he was when it was gone.  Fortunately, I was nice enough to share mine with him.

I used...

1 tub of light Cool Whip
1 big container of vanilla yogurt
1 box of sugar free cheesecake pudding mix
1 bag of frozen mixed berries

I mixed them all up, and threw it in the fridge last night.  Today, it was amazing.  See:

Oh, my holy crap.  I bet if you threw some granola on top, it would be amazing!

Throw it in a pie crust?!?

Also, next time, I'm trying Greek yogurt.  I'll keep you posted.

20 Calorie Kiwi Lime Angel Food Cupcakes...sure, they're tiny, but who cares?

I have wanted to make this recipe since I got the Ninja Cooking System. They look amazing in the picture, and the recipe seemed easy enough. And, it was, really. Next time I make them, however, I will:

Remember to add the other 2 Tablespoons of sugar.
Spray the muffin pan with Pam.
Let the eggs get a little stiffer before I add the lime zest and juice.
Get two limes.
Slice the kiwis thinner.

I used the silicone muffin pan that came with the machine for the first batch. The picture in the recipe book makes them look taller than they came out. By the time I scraped them out, they were just tiny balls of goodness. I used a little tin that came with a kid's mini cupcake kit I got for the girl a while back for the second batch. They came out more like cupcakes, but I still had to scrape them out, which meant they lost their shape.

Overall, they were quite good. And, for TWENTY calories each, even Weight Watchers would support this dessert. (It's actually a little less since I ate 1/3 of the kiwi on its own.)

Also, someone remind me to buy good picture-taking dishes.

One Pot, 1/2 Hour Lasagna? Thank You, Ninja Cooking System.

I got myself the Ninja Cooking System for Mother's Day.  I have seen them at Target for a while, but thought it was just a REALLY expensive Crock-Pot.  While trying to find something for my mom, I saw it and actually looked at what it was.  After some convincing that it was okay to spend that much, I got it.  (I got it at Kohl's with a 20% off and $30 Kohl's cash, so it didn't sting quite as bad.)  It came with a little recipe book, and this was one of them.  My favorite part about it so far is the clean up.  It took me two minutes to wash it, threw the spoon in the dishwasher, and I'm calling it good.

I followed this recipe, except I used chicken Italian sausage instead of hamburger.  Next time, I'll use ground turkey.  The kids didn't really like it, and I'm guessing that's why.  A little too spicy for them, perhaps.

Seriously, though.  10 minutes of sausage cooking, 20 minutes with the pasta, sauce, and water.  3 minutes after you add the spinach and cheese mixture, and you're DONE.  The only prep was to clean the spinach and mix together the cheeses, which was easily done during the 20 minute stretch.

So far, I'm a big fan of this thing.  Just the clean up alone is worth it.

 I forgot to take a picture before we dug in, but here is what was left.

*UPDATE* I just threw this into LoseIt with 10 oz of ground turkey. If you go with 6 servings, each one is only 284 calories!

**UPDATE, UPDATE** I forgot to buy fresh spinach this time, so I used frozen. Worked like a charm. I've made this three times now, and have decided I'll never stop. Easy, tasty, and the clean up is next to nothing. I'm in the middle of a deep clean and wanted minimal impact. This baby did the trick. 

My New Favorite Frosting Recipe and Cute Cupcake Liners

There are a few things I look for in a frosting recipe.

1.  Crisco scares the crap out of me.  Absolutely NO Crisco is allowed.
2.  It can't be too hard or time consuming.

Okay.  Two rules.  I have two rules when I'm looking for a new frosting recipe.

On this particular occasion, I was also looking for a frosting I could color and use to pipe decorations onto the cake.  This recipe seemed easy enough and fit the bill.  *UPDATE* The link in this pin isn't working.  This is the recipe.

The hardest part was not eating all of it before it made it onto the cake.  The second hardest part was waiting for the cream cheese and butter to come to room temperature.

I only made half of this recipe and it was enough for the little cake, 16 cupcakes, PLUS a bunch leftover that I planed on using as a strawberry dip.

I also went ahead and tried this pin while I was at it.  I had white cupcake liners that I bought quite a while ago, and it was easy enough.  A little messy, but worth it.  You could have a lot of fun with a tie dye effect, if you wanted to.  I did notice that it's better when the color on the liner is a different color than the frosting.

No Bake Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Who wouldn't want to try this pin, right?  I've seen it 1200 times since I joined the (stupid) Pinterest world.  Now that strawberries are cheap again (someone remind me to find out if Cracker Barrel has strawberry shortcake yet), I decided it was time.  Here is what I learned, short and simple.

1.  It was impossible to make them pretty.
2.  The cheesecake was instantly thick, which made it quite difficult to control.
3.  My wrists really hurt after I was done.  (Flashbacks to decorating cakes with fudge for Christmas at TCBY.)
4.  You have to leave the stem on, or there is a hole at the bottom.
5.  Leaving the stem on makes them somewhat difficult to eat.
6.  If you use the 1/3 less fat (fake) cream cheese, light Cool Whip, and sugar free pudding, these are only about 25 calories a piece.

I actually made these in two batches, because it made so much of the cheesecake and I had two huge containers of strawberries (and I ended up eating 1/4 of them while cutting the X in them, because I cut too far).  The first batch I made like the original pin (the top two strawberries). But, after discovering that it's a pain in the rear to make, and eat, I decided to do the second batch upside down like this pin (bottom three).  It was way easier to make, but the cheesecake slid right out.  Plus, you couldn't fit as much in the strawberries.  I actually only filled enough to take this (really bad) picture, then I used the rest as a dip.

So, they tasted great, but I won't make this particular recipe again.