Baked Banana and Zucchini Donuts w/strawberry glaze.. YUM

So I recently bought a donut pan for baking donuts. I love donuts, but they are just so unhealthy fried. SO last night I was on pinterest searching for recipes and came across a Banana and Zucchini recipe! This is perfect because I have a good bit of zucchini, well a giant zucchini for that matter. For those of you who are not on my facebook. I have a cowork that has his own garden and he brings us zucchinis to work. They have been giantic lately. Well this certain cowork does not like the fact that I walk home back and forth to work. So he said he was going to bring me a giant zucchini everyday so that I will have a weapon (he jokes a lot). Im afraid he might really do this and if so I will be swimming in zucchini! Pics below of the huge zucchini.

It could totally be a bat for a little league team :)

Okay for actual donut recipe please make your way over to the lovely recipeforcrazy blog found via pinterest. Mine turned out really good (btw I halfed the recipe on her site) and it made 12 donuts for my 6 donut baking pan (which I got for 10$ at bed bath and beyond). Also, she has a donut maker so I baked mine for 15 mins at 350 degrees!. These donuts are similar to a muffin just in donut form, but HEY THEY ARE BETTER FOR YOU !! Anyways I tweaked one thing and that was the frosting.
I used a strawberry glaze. While the donuts are baking make the glaze...
To make the strawberry glaze you need..
6-7 strawberries (you can omit the strawberries too and make a basic glaze you probably need to add more powder sugar though)
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup of powder sugar
splash of vanilla extract
Optional 1/2 tspn lemon juice (it added a nice fresh flavor)
I chopped up my strawberries and put them a in a pan with the tpsn of sugar on med heat. Basically your cooking the strawberries to a syrup. Once you have a nice syrup consistency (add more sugar if needs thickening or water to thin it out). Allow the strawberry syrup to cool and then blend the mixture together until you have a puree.
I didn't put my puree through a stainer, but you can to get rid of the bigger strawberry bits.
Next mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. If glaze is too thin just add more powder sugar to make a thicker consistency.

Once your donuts are finished cooking allow them to slightly cool a bit. You still want them a little warm though. Then dip your donuts in your glaze and allow to cool further. ENJOY!! This was my first donut baking experience. I can't wait to try more...

How to make flavored cream cheese.

So in Charlottesville there is a place called Bodo's Bagels. I walk by there everyday pretty much on my way to work. They have some really great bagel sandwiches and awesome cream cheese for bagels. You can buy the flavored cream cheese by the tub, but they can run up to 4$. Anyways this morning I thought why don't I just make my own flavored cream cheese, which I did and it was so easy!! Also was extremely tasty. Below are the ingredient I scrounged up from my cabinets.

 

 So I made 2 different kinds this morning. I used cream cheese and mixed berry jam for one. The other was honey and almonds. So I have these little containers that I put them in called glad mini rounds. They are perfect for sauces and spreads. Anyways, all you need to do it make sure your cream cheese is room temp. because its easier to mix that way. In one container I mixed my cream cheese with honey and almonds and in the other I mixed it with the mix berry jam. It is that easy!!! Also you can make it as sweet as you want just keep adding more honey or jam to your cream cheese! Its great because you can by one thing of cream cheese and divide it up instead of buying a bunch of flavored tubs of cream cheese and then them going to waste.

The possibilites are endless with this. You can use fresh fruit such as strawberries and cut them up finely and mix with some sugar and let them sit for a bit to make a straberry sauce and then mix with your cream cheese. There is so may flavors you can create with different jams, marmalades, cinnamon, vanilla or even apple butter cream cheese. This would also be a cute idea for a brunch! Get a bunch of bagels and make a variety of cream cheese spreads! I can't believe I haven't done this earlier!

 

Make and then store the rest in the little containers!



Early Valentines Day inspired Breakfast

SO Valentines day is coming up. I don't feel like people should be pressured into buying tons of gifts. Its more about the little things. Recently I've been listening to people talk about Valentines day and most girls I have heard say I just want him to recognize the day. So guys just do something special you dont have to go out and by diamonds and tons of flowers.

 Inspired by upcoming Valentines day I made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast! The pancakes were blueberry and strawberry. I started with bisquick and then made the batter a little thicker by not adding so much water. Then I cut up some fresh strawberries and added fresh blueberry to the batter. Then I made my heart shaped pancakes. I wanted to use a cookie cutter at first, but I couldnt find one. I like how they turned out they are cute, but I also like their imperfections.



1. Using a big spoon the pour batter in a well pam sprayed pan. Like image 1.

2. Next do the same thing on the other side like image 2.

3. Next, quickly take a spoon or knife around the edges to fix any batter that might have spilled over like on the right side in image 2. Make sure its good and cooked on that side before flipping (however dont burn it).

4. Now let it brown on the other side and you gots a heart shaped pancake!!

Next I made strawberry and blueberry syrup. In a pan add cut up strawberries and blueberries. Add about 1/4 cup sugar. Allow to set for a couple of minutes. Then add a little butter I didnt even add a tablespoon and simmer over low heat. Then I squeeze about 1/4 of a orange (optional) in the mixtured and stirred. A simple syrup should be formed and once that happens I added just a little bit of maple syrup to add more flavor and thickness.

Add some powder sugar on the pancakes (optional)

Then enjoy!

Dinner!!!

Mushroom Rigatoni Bake

Image from cookinglight, also recipe from myrecipes. It was pretty good to be meatless. The mushrooms made you not miss the the meat.

My image above of the finish dish is not the greatest quality! but it was still good.

Sauteed shallots

so yummy. I love mushrooms

My favorite dark wine!!!

French bread!

Pasta, mushrooms, and cheese mixture!

Nutella Turtle Cheesecake

So a couple of weeks ago my mom bought me a springform pan. Ive been dying to make a cheesecake. December 1 was my mom's Birthday and I thought what a perfect time to make a cheesecake. So I found this website via pinterest. willowbirdbaking. On this website is a link to a youtube video on how to make cheesecake. Here is my first delicious cheesecake.

Crust
20 graham crackers pulsed into crumbs
5 1/2 tablespoons of butter melted

Dark Choc Ganache
1/2 cup of dark choc pieces
1/4 milk

Caramel
condensed milk

Cheesecake Filling
3 8oz packages of room temp cream cheese
1 cup of sugar
2 teaspoon of vanilla
1 1/2 tbsp of flour
3 eggs
3 1/2 tbsp of nutella

1. Start off making the caramel for the cheesecake. This takes about 6 hours at least. Its totally worth it! Get your crockpot and line the bottom of the crockpot with alum foil. Place your unopened can of condense milk on the alum foil. Fill crockpot with water and make sure the water is covering your can completely. Set temperature on low. In about 6-8 hours you will have awesome caramel (found via pinterest). Make sure you allow the can to cool before removing from the water or use tongs. You will have alot of caramel left over so you mine want to get some apples :) Set aside until your ready to decorate your cheesecake.
2. Make your crust. pulse 20 graham crackers in a food processor. Then mix 5 1/2 tablespoons of melted butter. Stir until butter is well incorporated. Place mixture in the bottom of your springfold pan. Press and pack the crumbles in the bottom of your pan with your fingers or a glass.
3. Now make the dark choc. ganache. Heat up 1/4 cup of milk and add it to your 1/2 cup of semisweet dark choc pieces. Stir milk into the choc until it is melted. Pour the majority of the mixture into the springform pan. Spread the choc evenly on the bottom and add some pecans on top (optional). Leave some of the melted dark choc to decorate the top of the cheesecake. Place springform pan into the freezer just until the filling is done.

4. To make the filling, you mix 1 cup of sugar with the 3 packages of room temperature cream cheese with electronic mixer. Add vanilla and flour to the mixture while scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Then add each room temperature egg one at a time. Once that is all mix add the nutella at the end. You can add more or less nutella for your liken. I did not want the cheesecake to overly sweet, especially since I was added all the sweet toppings to decorate it. If you dont want the sweet toppings on top then add more nutella for taste.

5. Pour mixture in the pan. Take some alum foil and cover the bottom of the springform pan to avoid leaking because your going to place the springform pan in another pan filled with water. Bake 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. Mine took more on the hour side. Allow for the cheesecake to cool before adding your topping. I drizzled the left over dark choc and caramel on top. Then I placed pecans around the edge of the cheesecake. Place in the refrigerator for 20 mins to allow to set. Then you got a awesome Nutella Turtle Cheesecake!!!

Yummy breakfast

Its the first weekend of fall and I decided to make breakfast.

 I found this image below on pinterest and it looked amazing that I just had to try it.
Yummy breakfast!!

Source: bacontimewiththehungryhypo.blogspot.com via Ashlee on Pinterest

Recipe from bacontimewiththehungryhypo

Heres mine it didnt look exactly like the one above but it was close and so good!.

Mine looks more like a breakfast calzone!

Ingredients:1 can of crescents 8count (I used reduced fat)

5 large eggs (to make it slightly healthier use egg whites or egg substitute, however double up on the egg whites)
1 cup of shredded Colby and monterey jack cheese
8 slices of fully cooked bacon ( I used turkey bacon)

- Preheat oven 375

- Cook bacon and cook egg scramble style

- Arrange crescent rolls with the pointed end away from the middle, I did mine a lil different than http://bacontimewiththehungryhypo.blogspot.com/2011/02/beautiful-bacon-egg-cheese-wreath.html, but you can check out her website for her instructions I just modified it a lil.

- place bacon, eggs, and cheese on top of the crescent rolls, like so..

- then fold over pointed ends to the middle.

- Bake for about 15-17 minutes

Then I made some Pumpkin Spice Coffee as a fall inspired drink I just used the left over pumpkin spice mousse and put it on top of my coffee. Basically I just made coffee lightly sweetened it and then topped it with the mousse and some pumpkin spice.

Cheers!



Dinner!

Tonight I cooked dinner for the fam. It was pretty good.

Its called Lazy Sunday Casserole (yes I realize it is not Sunday)

Anyways I got the recipe from kayotic kitchen, but tweaked it a bit. And for dessert I made Pumpkin Mousse Filo cups

Ingredients:
4 sausages (beef or pork) - I used turkey sausage
1 pound potatoes
1/2 pound carrots
1/2 bell pepper
1 large onion
1 fennel bulb - I didnt use any fennel
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp oil
freshly cracked black pepper
1 1/2 tsp Italian herbs
1/2 cup chicken broth - I used fat tire beer instead (the turkey sausage and the beer cancels each other out right)
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Visit kayotic kitchen for her directions they might be slight easier to follow then my condensed version.

- I washed and chopped all the veggies into nice big pieces.
-Use a big bowl to combine the oil with the Italian herbs, grated or chopped garlic, and Beer .
- Put veggies into a nice big roasting pan and pour seasoning mixture over veggies. Add some salt and pepper in addition to the season mixture

Pretty colors right... Now cover with foil and bake for 45 mins.
- When there is about 15 mins left for the veggie, start browning the turkey sausage in a pan. You dont have to cook them all the way tho.

-After browning the sausage let them rest and then cut them 1/3 or 1/2.
-After 45 minutes the potatoes and vegetables should be fork tender. Next add the sausage with the veggies and pour the balsamic vinegar all over. Bake for another 20-25 mins uncovered!
-then Enjoy!

 Pumpkin Mousse Filo cups

I know the paper plate is classy!
Anyways I cant seem to find the website that I got the recipe for the pumpkin mousse, but I remember ( sorry for not crediting).
-1 package of vanilla instant pudding (the small one)
- 1 cup of milk
- 1/2 can of pumpkin puree
-  1 Tablespoon of pumpkin spice
- 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon
- About 1/4 cup of sugar (I kinda did mine to taste)
- package of filo cups.
 They tasted like fall in a mini cup :)

Updates and some DIY ideas!

So I have been so busy studying for my physics register and taking part in school activities. On thursday, I officially passed my physics registry and now I am a RDMS (Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer)! For school I just have to pass one more OB, but I am giving myself a month to relax because I stressed myself out so bad taking them back to back like that. Also I wanna congratulate some of my fellow classmates for graduating today!!! so excited for yal.
I am also excited cause next week I am going on a cruise for the 1st time to the Bahamas w/ Carvinal Cruise. I will be working alot this weekend. I work a double on bar today and its graduation and then I work a double on bar tomorrow and its mothers day so I hope bring in the money!
Hopefully I will be able to work in some painting and DIY crafts I been wanting so bad!

So heres some Ive been dying to try
3. DIY Earrings - Instructions via dismountcreative blog, these earrings are so awesome I can't to try and then develop my own style. They are made out of polyer clay. What endless possibilities!

2.Then a DIY geometric block necklace from the same site, dismountcreative,

3. Color block pouch via Just B, tutorial is located when you click the link. I have been obsessed with bright corals!. This is perfect!

4. Blueberry crisp! OMG it looks amazing I cant wait to try to make this when I get back from my cruise...YUM! recipe located on howsweeteats blog!

I heart french toast!

This morning I decided to make French toast! I love me some french toast, but I decided to try something different Stuffed Strawberry Cream cheese french toast. It was so good! I paired it with some maple sausage! I definitely gotta run today after that :)

Anyways heres how you make it for 1 serving
French toast egg mixture
2 lg eggs
pinch of sugar
pinch of brown sugar
Tsp of Vanilla extract
1/4 cup of milk

Strawberry Cream Cheese
5-7 strawberrys cut into mini pieces (use 1/2 for syrup)
1/4 cup of soften cream cheese
1 tbsp sugar

- For straw. cream chs combine the cut up strawberrys with the sugar and allow to sit to form a syrup (10 mins at least) Then add 1/2 of the strawberrys to the soften cream cheese (other half will be added to syrup)

- For strawberry syrup add about a tsp of butter to a pan and then add the other 1/2 of the strawberrys with about 1/4 cup of syrup. you can also just microwave the syrup and then add to the strawberry for a quicker way.

- Combine all ingredients in the French toast egg mixture whisk together really good and then take 2 pieces of bread (I just used honey wheat bread) and pour egg mixture over and let sit for at least 10 mins or until bread has soaked up all the egg mixture.

Spray a frying pan with non stick spray and make sure pan is hot. Place soak bread in the skillet and brown both sides. Once cooked allow to sit for a second and then take strawberry cream cheese and spread on one side of one french toast then place the other piece on top sandwich style.

 Pour strawberry syrup on top and enjoy!