Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes (and delicious)

I have not been able to control my chocolate cravings the last 3 days so I decided to google 'low calorie chocolate cake' so maybe I could indulge without all the calories. Luckily I found this baby!: http://www.yammiesnoshery.com/2011/10/secretly-healthy-chocolate-peanut.html

Only 220 calories a cupcakes, WITH FROSTING. Which did I mention is chocolate peanut butter????!!!! What could be better? So if you are craving something sweet, chocolatey, and could get away with being healthy, check out this recipe.

Super Easy Cheesy Mac n cheese!

Everyone needs some good ol' Mac n cheese now and then. Since it is my all time favorite food, I would prefer to have in ALL THE TIME. Unfortunately, if I did that, I would be the size of an elephant. But now and then it's okay to splurge, and tonight was mac n cheese night. I stumbled upon this recipe and HAD to try it and I will definitely use it again!

Recipe here:

http://www.macaroniandcheesecake.com/2011/09/revolutionary-mac-cheese.html

I used white cheese because over here in Sweden, there is no cheddar cheese. I also used nutmeg and left out the cayenne. I would not change anything!

Halloween Cakes!

Halloween in Sweden is very uneventful for an American. They celebrate Allhelgonadagen where they visit the graves of their loved ones. Some children dress up and go trick or treating down town. But it really does not feel like Halloween.

Halloween cakes

I have to say I have been extra down this week because the Giants won the world series (which made me very happy) but I really wish I could have been in San Francisco celebrating. Needless to say I am home sick for California. Then this Halloween came and there was nothing to do so I stayed home and watched 30 Days of Night all by myself.

Pumpkin spiderweb cake

To make myself feel a little better I baked some Halloween treats. I baked some pumpkin cookies and brought them to my SFI (Swedish for immigrants) class and also a Halloween cake.

Frankenstein Cake 

The cake is lemon sour cream cake with vanilla butter cream frosting and lemon butter cream filling. The cake was a little dense for my taste, but it made it easy to work with in the decorating process.

I hope you all had a nice Halloween, or whatever holiday you may celebrate this time of month!

Pumpkin Cheesecake!

Tonight I made my first cheesecake! It is fall, my favorite season, so I had to make pumpkin cheesecake. (See my previous blog for directions on how to make your own pumpkin puree!)

I used this recipe: Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake from allrecipes.com. I switched some of the sugar for stevia because I am trying to shed a couple of these jolly pounds I have gained. I will be making this again but I will DOUBLE the filling. Not enough cheesecake in my crust!

 I made my crust using this recipe: Graham Cracker Crust I also used some stevia in the crust.

Thanks to the people who shared these recipes on allrecipes.com!

Now go make this cheesecake and enjoy! And if you can't wait the three hours it needs to chill in fridge, pop it in the freezer! :)

Make your own Pumpkin Puree!

I always wanted to make my own pumpkin puree for a few reasons: 1. Fall is pumpkin season, they are easy to find. 2. Support your local farmers and buy their pumpkins! 3. I always feel like I am cheating when I use store bought when I am perfectly capable of making it myself.

This fall I took advantage of my inability to buy pumpkin puree in a can (these silly Swedish people have yet to discover the deliciousness of these orange beauties). So I went to the downtown market, and luckily some of the farmers had pumpkins!

Here are the directions to make your own pumpkin puree. It is so easy!

1. Cut pumpkin in half. Remove the pulp and seeds. (keep seeds in you want to eat them later)

2. Cover pumpkin halves with foil and place on a cookie sheet.
3. Bake in oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1-2 hours. This depends on the pumpkin's size. Remove from oven when pumpkin is tender/ the skin peels away pretty easily.

4. Let cool.
5. Peel away pumpkin from skin.

6. Put the pumpkin in blender or food processor and blend until there are no chunks.

7. Freeze or use, whatever you want :) I saved mine in the freezer in 850 gram boxes (the equivalent of two 15 oz cans)
8. Make something delicious like pumpkin bread or pumpkin cheesecake and ENJOY!

German Chocolate Wedding Cake

German Chocolate Wedding Cake with edible sand and seashells

Well, another life goal accomplished. I made my first wedding cake! My dad and his lovely wife got married last week in southern California on the beach and had a beach themed wedding. I was given the honor of making the cake (and cupcakes)!

My dad's favorite cake is german chocolate and his mom (whom is no longer with us) used to make it for him. Also, the traditional coconut pecan frosting that goes on german chocolate cake kinda looks like sand. In honor of my grandma we decided to go with german chocolate cake. For the cupcakes we went with a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and a carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

My new stepmom ordered lots of chocolate seashells. There were milk chocolate, white chocolate, and swirl. I felt like they needed some color so I painted them with luster dust. If you have not tried luster dust, let me tell you, I am extremely sad that I did not discover this wonderful product until just now! It gave the shells depth, shine, and color. I loved it!

After 4 days of baking, mixing, dishwashing, piping, luster dusting, and finding cake batter in strange places, this was what came of all the madness...

And we all ate cake and drank champagne and were married! Congratulations to my dad and his wife! It was a wonderful trip to CA, I loved seeing my family :)

Spanish Bulgur Chicken Stuffed Peppers

I have been craving my mom's stuffed peppers for weeks. Finally I decided I would make some myself. But I did not want the typical ground meat and rice variety so I chose to use chicken and bulgur instead.  Then I thought I would try Spanish/Mexican flavors. 

So I basically made Spanish Bulgur (instead of spanish rice). Then I cooked some chicken in taco seasoning. Added in some of my favorite mexican add ins and stuffed some peppers!

They turned out beautiful and delicious. Also, very low in calories. Approximately 200 per pepper half.

I love things that have lots of veggies and cheese and grains. The stuffing for this is actually something I would eat even outside of the pepper. In fact, there was some 'stuffing' left over that I plan to have for lunch tomorrow.

Here is the recipe: (I cut some of the ingredients in half because I had so much left over)

Spanish Bulgur Chicken Stuffed Peppers:

Ingredients:

3 large bell peppers (which ever color you prefer)
1 white onion chopped
2 garlic cloves crushed
1/2 cup bulgur
1 chicken bouillon cube
1.5 cup water
1 can crushed tomatoes
Half red bell pepper cubed
1/2 can black beans
1/2 can corn
1 avocado cubed
1 large chicken breast cubed, small pieces
Taco seasoning
1/2 cup feta cheese crumbled
Red chili flake
Black pepper
Salt
3/4 cup Shredded cheese of your choice (jack or cheddar would be great)
Optional: Salsa and sour cream

Directions:

1. Set oven to 400 degrees F. Coat baking pan with cooking spray or vegetable oil. Cut the 3 large bell peppers in half, remove seeds and place in pan. Set aside.

2. In a large frying pan add a tablespoon of oil and cook the onion until translucent, (about 5 minutes) Add the garlic and bulgur and stir while cooking for about 5 minutes. Then add water, bullion cube, red bell pepper and crushed tomato. Stir well and leave to simmer about 15 minutes or until bulgur is cooked and most of the liquid is absorbed. (Note: if the liquid is absorbed before the bulgur is cooked, add some water and continue to simmer)

3. Transfer bulgur to bowl. Fry the chicken with taco seasoning until cooked all the way. Add chicken to bowl of bulgur.

 4. Add avocado, beans, corn, and feta. Season with salt, pepper, and chili flakes to taste. Mix everything and add to the halved bell peppers.

5. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes or until bell peppers are cooked (soft). Then remove foil, sprinkle on shredded cheese and return to the over for five minutes. Serve.

Optional: Serve with salsa and sour cream. ( I would have but I did not have any on hand)

Enjoy!