Peanut Butter. Chocolate. Cake. Three of my most favorite things in one seriously scrumptious dessert! I have been dying to make this since I located it on Pinterest last month. Fortunately, there was a birthday in the family this weekend. Perfect occasion for such a cake. In all honesty, the only thing I could think about during classes on Friday was that I was going to finally make this cake... Disclaimer: this cake is HORRIBLE for you. Super delicious. But you might want to have some extra insulin and antilipidemics handy. Kidding...kind of. Definitely get in some P90X or something once or twice BEFORE eating it. But really, this is the BEST tasting worst thing you can eat. Definitely worth it. Even the brother who doesn't like peanut butter, poor unfortunate child, ate this cake up. I would recommend making this for a crowd so you're not munching on leftovers :)
The recipe is from Tara at Smells Like Home. I thought about maybe making some healthier substitutions, but, really, with a cake like this, what's the point? There's just not a great way to do it. You can, however, control the quality of the ingredients that go in (i.e. natural/organic). Don't get too natural with the peanut butter though! JIF or Skippy Natural (creamy) are fine, but don't use anything that separates. That would be no good. Also, I only had 9" cake pans...so if that's you too, just know that you'll have a wider, shorter cake and will need to adjust the baking time. Click on the link above to get the recipe for this sweet thing!
Here's one I've been meaning to put up for a long time! I made these yummy muffins towards the end of Christmas break. I took a recipe I found (my mom's mom's) for pumpkin bread. Then, I totally messed it up (eliminated the sugar, all-purpose flour, shortening, and water). I really had no idea how they would turn out. The batter was pretty good, which is always a good sign. They smelled good while they were baking, another good sign. When I finally tried one, I was impressed. I was kind of hoping that the brother would think they tasted too healthy, so then I would have leftovers to take to school...but no. He didn't even noticed. He loved them. The mother loved them too. Definitely a success for replacing processed ingredients with more natural ones!
Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients:
1 cup honey (local)
4 eggs
1/3 cup all-natural applesauce*
2 cups all-natural canned pumpkin
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I probably added a little extra)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease or line a 12-cup muffin pan.
Mix honey, eggs and pumpkin
Add in dry ingredients and mix
*Add applesauce until the right moisture is achieved
Divide batter into muffin cups
Bake for...15-20 minutes or until done.
I think that's about right! It's been awhile since I made them... and of course I didn't exactly write everything down.
I've had this quinoa for quite some time. I've wanted to eat it. But, the thing with quinoa is that it seems like it takes forever to cook, and I don't have time for that! Last night, I decided to take a study break and I cooked ALL of the quinoa I had (a little over 2 cups dry). I then divided it up in 1/2 cup servings to freeze and be handy. I left one out for breakfast this morning. I had it with half an avocado and a fried egg. Sprinkled with a dash of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Delicious! It was the perfect post-workout power breakfast!
