Recipes

Whole Wheat Apple Sauce Waffles

June 24, 2015

You know, being sick really, really sucks.

That’s an obvious statement right there. Duh.

But it’s even worse when your kid is sick. Double duh.

Our house is one big germ bubble. From Autumn’s double ear infection to my viral something that had me practically sleep away the day yesterday. I wish I was still in bed now in fact. And I’m sure I’ll feel the same way tomorrow too. Oh well.

I did manage to make these awesome waffles yesterday afternoon. It made me feel like a human. You know, it gave me something to do other than roll over in bed, look at the time on my phone, and roll back over again to fall back asleep. Plus, ya gotta eat.

At least Autumn ate some waffles for dinner. Actually, let’s not kid ourselves, she ate whipped cream off the waffles. My kid is addicted to whipped cream. She yells when she sees the can in the door. I have have start to hiding it. Now I wouldn’t normally let her just pick whipped cream off homemade waffles and eat it for dinner, but I needed her to eat something and she blew off the mac and cheese, grapes, yogurt, and waffles. So, whipped cream for dinner, sure. #parentsoftheyear

Okay, back to the waffles…

They are a perfect flavorful, low fat, healthy waffle for when you’re craving a hearty waffle while trying to reduce the fat. I ditched the oil for apple sauce in my favorite Classic Waffle recipe which sounds boring but it makes them really moist. And I added some fun spices to enhance the whole wheat and apple flavors. Jazz hands!

I topped them off with more apple sauce, some softened butter, and a good swirl of maple syrup. And you should too.

Whole Wheat Apple Sauce Waffles

Makes 12-14 4″ Square Waffles (Qty will vary per waffle iron)

Ingredients

2 eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of ground ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Process

Preheat waffle iron.
Vigorously whisk the eggs in large bowl until fluffy.
Mix in flour, milk, apple sauce, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and vanilla extract until just smooth.
Spray the preheated waffle iron with a non-stick cooking spray.
Ladle 1/4-1/3 cup of the batter the onto hot waffle iron. Cook until golden brown. Serve hot with butter & syrup.

Chocolatey Banana Burritos

June 22, 2015

Oh, what a weekend!!!

Our poor Autumn had a rough night on Friday and that continued on with a crummy Saturday. We noticed that she started to get warm, and then hot, and then really hot. I called the Dr and we headed over to see what was going on.

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Chocolate Stout Waffles

June 17, 2015

We are still riding our wedding high. Oh man, so much fun. So much work. So exciting. So tiring. So everything!!

We worked hard on the wedding and were so happy with how it all turned out. We were very hands on with the planning and execution of it. I loved the decorating part, but I really loved the meal planning too!

The food was so important to us so we worked with the organizer and chef to create a fun menu for the night from the stationary and passed hors d’oeuvre to the dinner and to our cake and dessert. (I’ll go into more detail in upcoming wedding related posts.)

Our venue, Crissey Farm, is owned by the same family that owns the adjoining Barrington Brewery & Restaurant, which is known for their Chocolate Stout Cake. As it’s their signature cake we decided to us it as our wedding cake. We did change things up slightly as they use a chocolate ganache like frosting, but we opted for a chocolate buttercream. The design mimicked this one with it being ‘naked’ and with berries. Oh man, I can’t wait to get our pictures back to see it all over again.

It was incredible. We loved it. I can’t wait to dig into out top tier on our anniversary, although I don’t really think we will wait that long. ha!

I was inspired by the cake to make these chocolate stout waffles.

They are chocolatey with a hint of beer in the batter. Perfection!

These waffles would be great to serve for Father’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, or any Sunday for brunch. Chocolate 24/7 please!

While I could have made a chocolate whipped cream, to match the chocolate butter cream used in our cake, I decided to just keep it ‘basic’ with a vanilla bean whipped cream. But I don’t discourage if you want to make it into a chocolate whipped cream. Dive right in!

As well you can totally trash these up by making them into a sundae! Pile on some ice cream, break out the hot fudge, and dollop on the whipped cream. I wouldn’t hate it if you added some nuts and cherries too.

Celebrate our new marriage along with us by enjoying these Chocolate Stout Waffles, inspired by our wedding cake! Enjoy!!

Chocolate Stout Waffles

Makes 14 waffles

Ingredients

For the Waffles

2 Cups, plus 3 Tablespoons all purpose flour
3 Tablespoons quality cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 Tablespoons sugar
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 Cup milk
1 Cup stout beer
2 large eggs
2/3 Cup miniature chocolate chips, option, but encouraged

Whipped Cream
Fresh Berries
Miniature Chocolate Chips

Process

To make the waffles, preheat your waffle iron.
In a large mixing bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the milk and small pieces of butter. Microwave in 30 second intervals, mix, and repeat until the butter is melted.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and whisk in the eggs, warm milk and butter mixture, and finally the stout to combine.
Scoop out 1/3 Cup measure into each well of your waffle iron. Cook according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Garnish with whipped cream, berries, and miniature chocolate chips. Enjoy!!

Waffle is slightly adapted from Hungry Girl Por Vida

The Best Buttermilk Waffles

June 10, 2015

These waffles make me sooo happy!!

I recently had a long msg exchange with my best friend explaining how I’ve been so overwhelmed and struggling to be happy recently. Every day life has been a handful to juggle, and the wedding prep on top of it has been crazy cray. Plus, I’m on a project that has a deadline this Friday & I’m out of the office on Thursday (for another project) and Friday (for the wedding) so there is a big push to get as much possible done so I don’t leave my coworker screwed with a mile long to-do list.

When I’m stressed I tend to look forward in the future for things to get me through to that point. My friend totally gets me and my ways of ‘goal’ thinking. It’s not that I don’t ever enjoy the moment but I am often quickly moving on to the next thing. Having a rough day… look forward to the weekend. Having a rough week… look forward to the next vacation. Having a rough month… look forward to winning the lotto. There definitely is some benefit but when I start talking ‘well, I just have to get though this year and then when we move…’ she knows I’m in too deep. She reminded me how I can’t keep focusing on something so far off in the distance. Since having to think of it as 320-ish days as something ‘to get through’ is no fun.

So I’m really, really trying to rework my thinking so that I think about the day and little joys. I’m still thinking about the move to Florida but every day I’m trying to look around and appreciate the little things, instead of feeling that everything is an obligation and that I am about to be swallowed up by my to-do list.

So I took my friend’s advice and focused on day to day and enjoyed the weekend and the various moments throughout it.

Sunday was a great day and it started off with breakfast. Well Autumn’s 2 breakfasts… she had already 1 1/2 apricots and 1/2 cup of cheerios for breakfast early on. Then she noticed I was making waffles and walked over to her highchair and let us know she wanted back in and wanted some of the buttermilk waffles I was making. In the end she ate most of a waffle all by herself. Such a win!

Well, it’s easy to understand why she loved the waffles… they are the BEST. I swear by it. In fact, I already shared this recipe years ago, but I had to post again as I love it so much. Plus, I needed to give it the proper respect is deserved with some nice pictures. Good bye point and shoot, hello DSLR! ha!

This recipe makes for such a tender airy waffle. What makes it so tender? All that butter!! Yep, the recipe uses 2 sticks of butter. No joke!! But it’s all worth it. I mean you usually put butter on the waffle, but this time you just put butter IN it. I won’t judge if you put more on top actually.

But since it does use so much butter I will judge you if you use poor quality butter. For real. It is the biggest flavor component of the waffle, so you must use a good butter. I love Kerrygold as it adds so much flavor to the waffle. It’s a great Irish butter that uses milk from grass-fed cows. It makes such a difference. You’ll love it.

Get some good butter & buttermilk and you’re on your way to waffle bliss.

The Best Buttermilk Waffles

Makes 8 Belgian waffles

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups unsifted cake flour or 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
2 cups of buttermilk
16 tablespoons of butter, melted and cooled

Process

Wisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Beat the eggs and buttermilk together in a small bowl.
Combine the buttermilk and eggs into the flour mixture. Mix lightly with a fork until the flour is moistened. Mix in the melted butter. The batter should be lumpy.
Cook in your waffle iron. A really hot iron will produce a better waffle- nice crisp edges!

Sourced from The Cake Bible

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Kerrygold has provided me with butters and cheeses to use in the creation of these waffle recipes for my #WaffleWednesday series. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks for all of your comments. I appreciate them all.

Fudgy Strawberry Brownies

June 4, 2015

I am so thankful that Autumn is addicted to fruits and vegetables. I know there will be a day when she turns her nose up to them and will only eat white foods, but I’m enjoying this now.

Autumn’s daycare teacher says that she needs to give her the protein and carbs first at lunch before pulling out the veggies and fruit because if she sees them she will only eat them. I think that is just adorable. I’ll have to remind her that when she is protesting them for plain buttered pasta in a few years.

Or maybe something magical will happen and she’ll skip that terrible phase?!?!? HAHAHA that’s doubtful, but I will take all the good vibes that I can get!

And when that happens I’ll have to start to sneak fruit and veggies in other food.

Just like what I did here.

JUST KIDDING!!!

I just had a massive package of strawberries that was staring at me every damn time I opened up the fridge and as much as we all love fruit I was doubting that we could finish it off before it went bad. That’s just the worst.

So I was daydreaming about what to do with them on my way home one day. I started to think about brownies and was thinking of tossing strawberries in the batter to make them extra sweet and delicious.

I mean you pile on fresh strawberries or strawberry sauce on sundaes so I was thinking that putting the strawberries in the brownie would just help you make your sundae that much faster. Plus, even better. Just add some ice cream and hot fudge sauce and boom!!

Because these bad boys are so fudgey, dense, and moist – yeah, I said it- they are ‘fork brownies’. At least that is what Price called them. Hope that makes sense! xoxo

Fudgy Strawberry Brownies

Makes an 8×8 tray of brownies

Ingredients

3/4 Cup flour
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 Cup sugar
3/4 Cup oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons water
1 Cup (6 oz) chocolate chips, melted
1 Cup (6 oz) chocolate chips
1 pound chopped strawberries

Process

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and line a 8×8 baking pan. (I used glass so I didn’t line my pan)
In a small bowl, sift the flour, salt, and baking soda until combined. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix the sugar, oil, and eggs until combined for about 2 minutes.
Add the water and the vanilla extract, mix to incorporate.
Mix the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Add the melted chocolate chips and stir for about 3 minutes to combined.
Fold in the chocolate chips and strawberries.
Pour into your prepared pan.
Bake for 55-65 minutes, until just set in the center
When finished, remove from oven and allow to cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Adapted from Jessica in the Kitchen

Cherry Crisp Waffles

June 3, 2015

1o days until the wedding!!!!

HOLY SMOKES!!!! I’m excited and nervous. Not nervous about marriage, no I’m exited about that! I’m nervous about the ceremony and the reception. We have so much still to do and still to coordinate.

The jam favors need to get labeled, the gifts need to be packaged up, the centerpieces need some work. But it is getting there!

Thankfully, my dress is all done with. I had the final fitting last week. It needed a bit more of adjustment to fix two things but I hung around for that and was able to take my dress home that night. YAY!

On the other hand Price had his final fitting and they had to take his pants in another 3/4″ of an inch! Yep, he lost another 3/4″ since his first fitting in Mid March. He’s been working so hard and it’s really paying off by sticking doing another round of Whole30 (in April) and Whole30-ish foods since. Like right now, we are doing Whole30 most of the time with a daily cheat thing. It’s a good balance for us.

So making these Cherry Crisp Waffles the other day meant that we were really treated our selves. But let me tell you, it was worth it!!

The sweet, yet tart cherries were the perfect accompaniment to the sweet waffles. The honey flavor in the Honey Wheat waffles paired so nicely with the cherries and the cinnamon flavor in the crisp topping. I never used to be a fan of crisp toppings as I didn’t love the texture of the toasted oats but I’ve begun to change my tune as it really adds a fun crunch.

This just screams summer to me. Makes for a great brunch-y breakfast. Or even a dessert. Wouldn’t it be fun to change things up and do a real breakfast for dinner night and finish it off with one of these waffles.

As the recipe makes 6 waffles I called up Autumn’s daycare teacher, who lives than a block away, to offer them breakfast. Autumn and I delivered them before they headed off to church. Autumn of course didn’t want to wear pants for our walk over! HA!!

I hope that you enjoy these as much as we all did.

And 10 days!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!! YAAAA!!!! WOOOOHOOOO!!!!! EEEEE!!!!

Cherry Crisp Waffles

Makes 6 waffles

Ingredients

1/2 of a 10oz package of Krusteaz’s Crisp Topping Mix
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 1/2 Cups of Krusteaz’s Honey Wheat Pancake Mix
1 Cup Water
20oz can of cheery pie filling
whipped cream & syrup, optional

Process

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Preheat your waffle iron as well.
Mix together the crisp topping mix with the butter. Mix until all of the topping is moist. Sprinkle onto a cookie sheet. Bake for about 7-8 minutes and mix the topping, return to the oven for another 6-7 minutes. Let cool.
While the topping is baking, combine the honey wheat mix with the water in a large bowl. Mix until just combined.
Scoop out a 1/3 Cup of batter into your waffle iron. Bake until your waffle iron beeps, at this point steam should have stopped escaping and your waffle is golden brown. Place on a cooling rack while you make the rest of the waffles.
Serve your waffles by adding a big scoop of the cherry pie filling to the waffle, and then sprinkling the topping crumble on the pie filling. Add whipped cream or syrup, if you wish.

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Krusteaz has provided me with all sorts of fun mixes to create waffle recipes in a collaboration of their #BreakfastNight and my #WaffleWednesday. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks for all of your comments. I appreciate them all.

Mozzarella Waffle Sticks

May 27, 2015

Oh, our poor car!!!

Our trusty, reliable Frank The Tank is in the shop now. He is in need of some lovin’.

…

Strawberry Agua de Fresca

May 25, 2015

Happy Memorial Day!!

And happy Secret Recipe Club Revel Day!!!

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Waffle Sticks with a Cannoli Dip

May 20, 2015

I can be really flaky at times.

Okay, most of the time. I mean I don’t back out of commitments, I can’t handle being late, and I love to-do lists but when it comes to doing stuff for me I get flaky. My things just get pushed aside a lot of the time.

Like getting my license renewed…

Yep, it expired back in January while we were on our cruise and I only just got it renewed. My time during the day is so crunched from having to leave work early to get Autumn so I kept putting it off because I’d check the RMV website and it’d say there were 55+ minute waits. Ummm, no! Ugh. Well, I finally bit the bullet one day and headed over to the RMV in Watertown Mall at lunch. Well, what the dumb RMV website didn’t say was that there was a do it yourself kiosk there. WHAT? I was able to do that and it took like 5 minutes!! And I got to take multiple pictures until I liked one enough. yay!! Finally, something off the never ending to-do list!!!

Anyway, whenever I think of cannoli I think of my Poppy. Well, I am also reminded of him when I think of sfogliatelles, Drake’s Coffee Cakes, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. There were always boxes of coffee cake and packages of peanut butter cups in his refrigerator every time we would visit him in New Jersey. And he would often get Italian pastries for our visits as well. Most often cannoli and sfogliatelles were in the box. The best!

Now, because of the superior quality of the cannoli he would get I have a pretty high standard for them. You can’t have a soggy shell. Nor can your filling be too loose. And, something that I feel passionate about is that when you get a chocolate chip cannoli the filling MUST have mini chocolate chips in it. Don’t try to give me a regular cannoli that has its ends dipped into chocolate chips. Once you take a bite from either end it’s just like any other cannoli.

There are too many places that slack off when it comes to their chocolate chip cannoli (I’m looking at you Mike’s Pastry) so when I was planning on making this cannoli dip I was really excited that I would get to load it up with chocolate chips, just the way I like it!

The waffle sticks are lightly scented with coffee and orange, similar to the perfect Italian pick me up. The cannoli dip also has orange zest, which just makes the flavors pop, especially the chocolate.

The recipe makes for a lot of waffle sticks, which is great for a crowd to serve for a snack or dessert. But it you think that is too many for you then you can halve the recipe easily. Or just make them all and freeze them by laying them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet and then placing them in a resealable plastic bag once frozen.

Even Autumn loved snagging a waffle stick. I love that the waffle sticks are great for little hands. Plus, all kids love waffles. At least she really does!

I hope you’ll give these a try as the waffle sticks as they are so cute and the dip is incredible. I swear that you won’t stop dipping!

Waffle Sticks with a Cannoli Dip

Makes about 48 waffle sticks

Ingredients

For the Waffles

2 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teapsoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 Cups milk
1/4 Tablespoons brewed coffee
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
about 2 Tablespoons orange zest (I used 2 oranges)

For the Cannoli Dip

8 ounce container Mascarpone cheese
15 ounce container Part Skim Ricotta
1 1/4 Cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 to 1 Tablespoon orange zest (depending on taste)
2/3 Cups mini chocolate chips

Process

For the waffles, preheat your Mini Babycakes Waffle Sticks Maker
Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
Vigorously beat the egg in a large bowl. Add the milk, coffee, oil, and vanilla extract and beat well.
Add in the dry ingredients and the orange zest. Mix until just combined.
Scoop out 1/3 Cup of batter and evenly spread out in the waffle iron. Cook until golden brown and crisp. Place on a wire rack to cool and crisp up.
For the dip, begin by straining off the Ricotta cheese to eliminate excess fluid.
In a large mixing bowl, combine mascarpone cheese, ricotta, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and heavy cream. Mix until smooth and well combined.
Add the orange zest chocolate chips and mix well.
Pour into a serving bowl. Serve with waffle sticks.

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While I received the waffle maker from Select Brands, all opinions are my own.

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And now the GIVEWAY!!!!

I have another awesome giveaway from Select Brands!! We’re partnering up this year and I’m so excited about it!

We want you to be able to make these fun Waffle Stick recipes so be sure to enter my giveaway for a Mini Babycakes Waffle Sticks Maker!

Follow the instructions HERE!!

Elvis’ Favorite Waffle Dunkers {& a Giveaway!!!!!}

May 13, 2015

I savor every day that is nice out. In fact our windows and doors are open now so I can enjoy the breeze and warm afternoon temps. We’ll just ignore the fact that I just let a ton of flies in, shall we…

My Dad rented a house on Cape Cod or all of our families to go to for a week in August for his 75th birthday. I can’t wait!! It will be awesome to have everyone together to hang for the week. The cousins will all get play and swim at the beach and in the pool, which is going to be so much fun for all of them. Plus, it will just be so nice for the family to be together. I think it’s been 15 years since my bother, sister, and I all took a vacation together. I am really looking forward to that lazy week in August.

And I swear I am going to pack my waffle irons so I can make all the cousins breakfast every morning. No really, I propably will. ha!!

I am just so hooked on waffles!!! And why shouldn’t I be?!?!? They are so awesome!!!

Exclamation points!!!! LOTS OF THEM!!!!

I think all the kids are gonna love when I bring my Mini Babycakes Waffle Sticks Maker since it makes fun waffle sticks that they can dunk into syrup. They are fun for kids of all ages as Autumn can easily grab them with her little toddler hands. And I swear the biger boys will enjoy that they are perfect for an on-the-go breakfast so they can play outside.

Plain waffle strips getting dunked in maple syrup us awesome, but I wanted to create a jazzed up, super fun recipe so I created this Banana and Bacon Waffle with a Peanut Butter Sauce for dunking.

Yep! I was inspired by Elvis’ favorite sandwich! He loved peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwiches. So I made these waffles sticks using those ingredients. I think The King would approve of these sweet, and yet slightly smokey, waffles with the luscious peanut butter sauce. Oh man, that peanut butter sauce is to die for.

The waffles sticks come out stuck together, but you just need to snip them apart with your kitchen shears to break apart the 4 waffle sticks. As well, they will come out a wee bit soft from the waffle maker, but they crisp up in just a few minutes when you place them on a wire baking rack.

Now don’t freight if you don’t have this awesome waffle sticks maker, you can use a square or circular waffle iron and just stack up your waffles and drizzle the peanut butter sauce over the waffles when serving them. But I think the Mini Babycakes Waffle Sticks Maker makes for the cutest waffle dunkers.

If The King was still alive I swear he would be singing the praises of these waffles. Definitely not singing the blues here!

Elvis’ Favorite Waffle Dunkers

Makes 48 Waffle Dunkers/12 waffles

Ingredients

For the waffles

6 ounces bacon
12 ounces butter
3 large very ripe bananas
1/2 Cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Cups flour
1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 Cups buttermilk

For the peanut butter dunking sauce

3/4 Cup heavy cream
3/4 Cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 Cup brown sugar
1/4 Cup light corn syrup
pinch of salt

Process

Cut up the bacon into small pieces, no bigger than 1/4″ wide. Cook until golden brown. Remove from the skillet and place on paper towels.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
Beat together the bananas and sugar. Once combined add the eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract, beat well.
Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the banana mixture, gently mix. Add half of the milk and mix to incorporate. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture and milk. Add in cooked bacon and mix to thoroughly incorporated.
Cook in your preheated Mini Babycakes Waffle Sticks Maker until golden brown and crisp. Place on a wire rack to cool and crisp up.
Prepare the peanut butter dunking sauce by combining all of the ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until it has reached a boil. Turn down the heat slightly and mix thoroughly. Let simmer for 3 minutes to thicken. Serve warm with the waffle sticks.

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While I received the waffle maker from Select Brands, all opinions are my own.

____________________

And now the GIVEWAY!!!!

I am kicking off my awesome partnership with Select Brands by giving away a Mini Babycakes Waffle Sticks Maker. In fact, for the next 2 weeks I am sharing fun dunkable waffle recipes and will be giving away waffle makers then as well. Three awesome recipes, three awesome giveaways in the month of May. Awesome!!

So let’s kick things off this week with this Select Brands Mini Babycakes Waffle Sticks Maker giveaway!

Follow the instructions HERE!!

Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

May 8, 2015

These cupcakes are so friggin’ amazing.

When Price and I finished our 2nd Whole30 at the end of April these were our big treat to celebrate completing it. And they were such a great way to celebrate!

As your diet while doing Whole30 is quite limited (amazing, but limited), you really should slowly introduce foods one at a time slowly while going back and forth to the Whole30 diet guidelines to see if things bother you. Since we had already (hap hazardly) done one reintroduction to ‘normal’ foods after our first Whole30 in February we just jumped at our chance to stuff our faces with these cupcakes.

They were everything we had been thinking of those long 30 days.

The bacon.

The chocolate

The peanut butter.

Come, on… shut up!

In fact I made these bad boys on Sunday, froze them, thought about them endlessly, and then inhaled a thawed Cupcake for dessert on Friday. They held up really, really well. Now I am scheming on making more and more cupcakes to freeze so we always have something sweet on hand. I’m thinking I need to get a deep freezer! ha!

I was tempted to make a chocolate frosting but at the last moment I asked Price if he thought a peanut butter frosting would be good and he picked that. I think it was the better choice in the end as well.

I prefer to cut my bacon before cooking it whenever I am using crumbled bacon in a recipe. I just find it easier to work with. Plus, I prefer the bigger pieces of bacon in the cupcake. If you don’t want ‘big’ pieces then feel free to cook the bacon and then chop it up, you’ll get a more crumbly bacon that way.

One thing to note when making them is that the batter is pretty thin, compared to most other cake batters I have made. Do not worry! They come out perfectly.

I mean, what’s better than a chocolatey cupcake studded with bacon topped off with a light and fluffy peanut butter buttercream!?!?

Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

1 pound bacon
2 Cups all-purpose flour
3/4 Cup cocoa powder
2 Cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 Cup cold coffee, preferably strong
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

For the Frosting

1/2 Cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 Cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2- 2/3 Cup milk
6 Cups confectioners sugar

1 Tablespoon Cocoa Powder, for dusting

Process

To make the cupcakes, begin by preheating the oven to 375 degrees F. Fill 2 12-cup cupcake pans with liners.
Using a scissor, cut the bacon into 1/4″ wide pieces. Cook the bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Drain and set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Pour in the eggs, coffee, buttermilk and oil into the dry ingredients mixture. Stir just until blended. Mix in 3/4 of the bacon, reserving the rest for garnish.
Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.
Bake 20-25 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Cool for 15 minutes in the pan prior to removing a wire rack. When cool, frost the cupcakes.
To make the frosting, beat the butter until light and fluffy.
Top with the remaining bacon and then dust with the additional cocoa powder.

Cupcake sourced from All Recipes, frosting by I am a Honey Bee

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Also…

Whole30 #2: Days 28-30 Recap

May 7, 2015

I am documenting my second Whole 30 journey to help me see how far I’ve come from my first Whole30 (Feb 2015) to this one (April 2015). Plus, I don’t want to fall into any food ruts. Hopefully this will keep me inspired through the whole process. I’m looking forward to the transformation in how I approach food, cook with it, and enjoy it. Check out all my Whole30 related posts HERE from why I did my first Whole30, why I am doing this one, and food diaries.

{Day 28}

Tuesday, April 28th, 2015

Such a good, long day! I had a long (2 hr 45 min) planning board meeting at night so dinner time was rushed and Price put Autumn down, but it was a nice day. Plus, I like being on the planning board.

It finally was a nice day so Price left work early with me so we could all go to the beach with Kemper before dogs weren’t allowed anymore at the end of the month. Well.. that was a big bust as they changed the schedule from April 30th to April 1st! UGH. At least we walked next to it and enjoyed the nice weather getting some exercise.

I just keep thinking about cookies. Eat all the cookies! I am cookie monster!!!!!

Breakfast

1/2 a sausage, leftover veggie potato hash, 1 over-easy egg, salsa (Trader Joe’s)

Thankfully this came together quickly as the majority of it was leftovers or quick prep stuff (like the sausage). I only had 1 eggs as I am trying to cut down on the # of eggs I eat because they are so boring to me now. Plus, we ate them a A LOT. A LOT. I don’t think I will be craving an egg for a while.

Lunch

Salad with Chicken

Typical salad made of romaine, grape tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, cucumber, etc. Another day of using my leftover roasted chicken as well.

Pulled pork and sweet potato

I reheated this quickly after our walk at Revere Beach. I had to rush as I was quickly on my way to my planning board meeting. We went to the beach and then got home with just enough time for me toss this together. I ate most of it on the way to the meeting too.

Dessert

Blackberries

So juicy, so sweet, so good!

It as a long day after my meeting so I wanted a special treat, so I grabbed some berries when I had a chance to relax.

{Day 29}

Wednesday, April 29th, 2015

Hump Day, Slump Day.

Midweek is rough for a number of reasons, but it as a long day as I went to work, went home, and went back to work and didn’t leave until just after midnight. It is draining, but at the same time I enjoy the big quiet blocks of time to work on things.

Breakfast

Veggie scramble with salsa (Trader Joe’s)

So the photo shows a torn up piece of pruscitto on the eggs, but in reality I didn’t eat it. It kinda tasted off to me. Like extra salty to me. Strange. I just threw it out after that 1 bite. But the rest of the breakfast was great. I loved the Trader Joe’s salsa that I used. They have the very best salsas.

Lunch

Salad with roasted chicken, mixed berries

More of the same when it comes to the salad, but it’s good.

The berries were the best part of the food all day.

Snack

Cashew Cookie Larabar

I am addicted to these damn things

Dinner

Sausage with broccoli and cauliflower

I was really experiencing a midweek slump so I threw this together by stir frying it all together in a large skillet. Topped it off with some coconut aminos & hot chili sesame oil.

Late Night Snack

Mini Larabar in Cherry Pie

I should have skipped this. I need not to give into impulses to much but it’s hard when it’s a long day and it’s just right tehre in front of you.

{Day 30}

Thursday, April 30th, 2015

The last day!!!!! I am so excited that we did it. AGAIN!!!!!!

I feel great but I’m ready to have this be over. I need some treats.

Breakfast

Roasted Mini Potatoes and 2 over-easy eggs with Franks Red Hot hot sauce

I swear I could eat these potatoes every day. So damn good. I love the size, texture, and the flavor when I season them up.

I could drink Frank’s by the gallon.

Lunch

Watercress Salad and Kale Chips from Cocobeet

I had organized a lunch outing with our studio to go to the food trucks and eat outside, but the weather didn’t hold up so we just grabbed food and came back in. I had planned on going to one of the food trucks too since I tweeted with them about their menu but they were experiencing some generator issues and couldn’t make it. So bummed.

I was bummed about it, but I did get to go to Cocobeet instead and they have amazing food too.

Dinner

Shrimp Egg Foo Young

I was stumped for dinner so I started searching around on Pinterest, and after some browsing I was inspired to make a complaint version of Egg Foo Young. It was awesome. It didn’t have a sauce like when I order it for take out, but it was still so good. I just needed some cauliflower rice and it would have been perfect. But I was lazy and watching Grey’s so this was quick and easy.

Perfect way to end my second whole30!!!!!

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AND

MY FIRST TREAT!!!!

Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg

I bought a ton of candy after Easter when it was on sale. I thought it was a great deal, but it was so torturous! That big bowl of goodies was such a tease, but we managed to ignore it.

I had jokingly said to Amanda that I would stay up to midnight to eat it as soon I could could. I then thought it would be fun so I started to think about it more and more and decided to do it. It was silly but funny to stay up to midnight just to eat this incredible treat. OMG, SO FREAKING GOOD!!!!!

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What are your favorite Whole30 recipes? Please share!

Are you considering doing Whole30? Give it a try!