I’m so bummed I haven’t been able to post much lately, but no doubt all I think about is recipes I can put up here, or cute ideas to share with you all!  When I’m not busy with school, or work college stuff takes all my time.

Luckily a little guy named Nemo blew through my hometown on the East Coast leaving a pretty some pretty heavy snow on the ground!  We haven’t had much snow this winter, so I’m not complaining, and when it snows all I have to do is admire its beauty because Heaven knows I would not go near that snow with a 10 foot pole.. its far too cold for me!  Ahaha.  Instead I’ll bake up a storm, sit by the fire, throw on my favorite show, and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Although its freezing out, and there is snow coming down my mind is thinking about Spring, and all the pretty pastel colors, and cute holidays that come along with it.  Although Valentine’s Day is not exactly in the Spring I consider it more of a Spring holiday, I mean its not really near the Thanksgiving/Christmas time, so yeah.. lets just call it a Spring Holiday!  What I love about Valentine’s Day, and Easter, and Memorial Day is all the fun, and pretty colors that come along with these Holidays.  And since pink is my favorite color of all time, always has been, always will be I’m pretty sure you can guess, which is my favorite.

If you said Valentine’s Day.. you’re right on the money my friend.

So for the past couple of week my mind has been set on this pretty holiday, and all the adorable things I could do to make it even cuter.  Pinterest is super fab.. I rave about it all the time, and is a source I love getting inspiration from.  I’ve seen cake pop rose bouquets floating around, and thought they were super fab, so I decided to put my own little twist on it.  Today I decided to take my two favorite egg free cookie dough recipes (Sugar Cookie Dough & Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough) and make them into Valentine’s Day bouquets.  Although I arranged mine in a bouquet these would also be cute to gift as individuals pops if you bagged them with a little bag, and tied a pretty ribbon on them!  Whatever you decide to do I’m sure your valentines will love these delicious pops!

Making the Cookie Pops:

1. Make the Cookie Dough.  (Recipes Below.)

Sugar Cookie Dough Recipe:

Recipe by The Novice Chef

Servings about 20

Ingredients

1 stick salted butter, softened

1 & 1/2 cups of yellow cake mix (I used Pillsbury Golden Butter Yellow Cake Mix)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup rainbow jimmies

Directions:

1. Mix all the above ingredients in an electric mixer.  If the mix is a bit dry add milk by tsp until it forms a soft dough.

2. Form dough into about 3/4- 1 tbsp size balls and place a lollipop stick into each.

3.  Place in freezer for 30 mins.

4.  Dip in white chocolate.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (Egg-less)

Recipe by Sally’s Baking Addiction (modified by Me.)

Servings about 20

Ingredients

1 stick salted butter, softened

1 & 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk chocolate chips

1/4 cup semi sweet chips

Directions

1.  Beat sugars and butter on high in an electric mixer until fluffy.  Scrape sides with a rubber spatula.

2.  Mix in milk and vanilla.

3.  Slowly beat in flour & salt until a dough forms.  Stir in chocolate chips.

4.  Form into 3/4 tbsp- 1 tbsp sized balls, and stick a lollipop stick in each.

5.  Place in freezer for about 30 mins.

6.  Dip in melted semi sweet chocolate chips.

2. Shape cookie dough into 1 inch balls, and insert white Wilton lollipop sticks (you can use whichever length you prefer), and place balls on wax paper on a plate.

3. Place plate in freezer for about 30 minutes.

4. After taking the balls out you can choose to shape the balls into triangles (strawberry shape), or leaving them in balls.  (I chose to do both in order to make my bouquet have more variety!)

5.  Set cookie dough back in the freezer for 30 mins.  (The more time in the freezer the easier it’ll be to dip in chocolate because the dough won’t melt in the chocolate if it is frozen.).

6.  Melt Chocolate by using a double boiler.

To melt Semi Sweet Chocolate:  Place 1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips in boiler with 3 tablespoons of vegetable shortening, stir with a rubber spatula until melted.  Take off heat and dip cookie dough.  (Tap excess chocolate off the pops so that it doesn’t drip down and make them look messy.)

To melt White Chocolate: Put a full bag of Wilton’s White Chocolate Melts with 2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening in double broiler and stir until melted.   Take off heat and dip cookie dough.  (Tap excess chocolate off the pops so that it doesn’t drip down and make them look messy.)

7.  Place cookie dough pop stick down into the styrofoam to let the chocolate set up.  Once you’ve filled up the entire styrofoam tray place it in freezer to let chocolate completely set.

8.  Once the first coat has set you can continue to melt different colors to drizzle over the pops, or dip the ones shaped like strawberries in.  Also have sprinkles ready to go to sprinkle as you go along.  (After each new chocolate coat, or drizzle place in the freezer allow chocolate to set.)

9.  If you made the strawberries you’ll need to make a batch of frosting tinted leaf green.  You want the consistency to be thicker so it’ll set well on the pop.  Use tip #67 (Wilton) and create small leaves around the popsicle stick where it meets the chocolate pop.

For the buttercream:

Recipe by Me (Brooke B.)

Ingredients

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 butter extract

1 tbsp milk ( I used fat free )

Directions

Mix all together with green food coloring in an electric mixer.  Place into piping bag, and pipe.

10.  After all the leaves have been applied place back in the freezer for 10 mins to let the frosting harden.

11.  Take out of the freezer and ENJOY!  Try not to eat too many, even though they’re simply irresistible and cute!

Putting the bouquet together:

1.  Get a large mason jar, and place a piece of styrofoam in the jar.

2. Around the foam place paper confetti, or pretty tissue paper to cover up the inside of the jar.

3.  Stick pops at different levels into the foam.  When you’re done cover remaining foam up on top with paper confetti.

4.  Send to your lover! (;   Or treat yourself to a lovely chocolate bouquet!

I hope you all enjoy this pretty post, and excuse me once again for my absence.  I’m back again full force and can’t wait to share many more recipes with you all sweet things.  Have a great day, and a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today’s post is going to be simple and sweet.  I wanted to share with you all a cake that I made for my Sister’s birthday yesterday.  Everyone loved the look of the cake, and although it looks pretty in the picture it definitely doesn’t do the cake justice because it looks magnificent in person!  I chose to make a blue ombré cake, but of course you could do this with any color you’d like!

This cake is very simple to make.  

Making an Ombré Cake:

Directions for Pre Frosting:

1. Start with a freshly baked, cooled cake.  Any flavor will do, here are some ideas (clicking them will bring you to the link):

Homemade Funfetti Cake

The BEST Moist Chocolate Cake

Skinny Chocolate Cake

Skinny Red Velvet Cake (I’d double this recipe for a cake)

2. Whip up a batch of my infamous Buttercream Frosting or any white vanilla frosting of your choice.  The frosting must be white so that the food coloring can work.

3. Apply a crumb coat.  (Now for those of you who are unsure of what a crumb coat is it is just a very thin layer of frosting that coats the entirety of the cake in order to hold down the crumbs, so when you are frosting it with the pretty layer of frosting the crumbs don’t come up into the frosting.)  Once you’ve crumb coated your cake, whip up yet another batch of frosting.

Directions to frost:

1. Divide the frosting evenly amongst 4 small bowls.

2. Tint one bowl the lightest shade of the color of your choice, the next a bit darker, the next one the darkest shade of the color and leave one bowl white.

3. Now starting with either your white frosting or darkest colored frosting apply a ring of frosting about 1/3 the ways up from the bottom of the cake and go around and smooth it out.

4. Next apply your next lightest color the next 2/3 of the cake, making sure to smooth out the frosting, and lightly blending the two colors on the edge where they meet.

5. Then apply your third color, and do the repeat the above step.  Be sure not to completely frost the cake because the top either needs to be the lightest or darkest color depending on which you choose.

6. Lastly use your darkest or white color to frost the top of the cake and blend the edges where the darkest or white frosting meets the other color.

7. Now decorate the cake as you please.  I chose to sprinkle the cake, and use cookie sugar decorations, but you could simply leave it plain ombré and write on it, and it’d look equally as beautiful!

Here is also another ombre cake that I did earlier in the year if you’d like to see another example:

This is a cake I made for my cousin’s birthday.  I opted to only use 3 colors, so one could argue that it is a color block cake, but I actually think its ombre because I blended the colors.  For this cake I used light blue, light purple, and white, and sprinkled the top.  

Like I said though, feel free to use any color, or colors you choose!  This is where you can get creative, maybe a red ombré cake with green sprinkles or a blue ombré cake for Hannukah, the options are endless!

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To conclude this post I just want to wish my wonderful little sister a very happy birthday!  I love you so much, and couldn’t ask for a greater blessing in my life!

Hope you enjoyed this post!

See you tomorrow with Top Things Tuesday!

(Photo by Me- Brooke B.)

Who can resist a soft, sweet, peanut butter-y, thick cookie?  

Not you I bet!

Well if you’re like me and a total peanut butter cookie fan I bet you’ll loveeeeee these Skinny Peanut Butter Sugar Topped Cookies!  Not only are they super delish, and taste almost exactly like a full fat peanut butter cookie, but they also are only 57 calories a piece, and the greatest thing of all I’m betting big money you have all the ingredients in your kitchen cabinets right now!

(Photo by Me- Brooke B.)

Skinny Peanut Butter Sugar Topped Cookies

Recipe modified from Skinny Sweets Daily.  (Original Link: here.)

Servings 32 cookies

Calories: 57

Fat: 2.2 g

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose white flour

2 tbsp white bread flour

2 tbsp white cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 & 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup light brown sugar

3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled completely

1 lg egg

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter (I used jiffy natural smooth peanut butter)

Baking Stevia to sprinkle cooled cookies with

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cookie pan with silicone (allows the cookies to be removed easily and not burn the bottom).

2.  Combine flours, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.

3.  Beat sugar, melted butter, and peanut butter in an electric mixer until smooth.  Then add egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

4.  Add flour mixture in slowly and mix until blended.

5.  Place mixing bowl into the freezer for 5 minutes allowing the dough to firm up.

6.  Scoop balls of dough by 2 tsp measure, and roll into a ball and place on baking mat.

7.  Bake for about 8 minutes, or until a light golden brown.   Allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, and then move to cooling rack.  Sprinkle lightly with baking stevia.

(Photo by Me- Brooke B.)

These are great the first night!  Very soft, and the flavor is pretty peanut buttery.   By the second day the cookies firm up a bit, but are still soft, and now the peanut butter flavor is very prominent and delish.  I’d say I enjoyed them better the 2nd day, especially with my big glass of milk! (;

So if you’re looking for a super quick cookie to whip up for an after dinner dessert, or a cookie for your holiday table I’d highly recommend these bad boys!

Happy Holidays!

P.S- I have already posted a Skinny Peanut Butter Cookie recipe on my blog, but the difference is is that they are flourless, very chewy, a bit gooey, thin and have a more caramel-y peanut butter flavor.  But don’t let that deter you Peanut Butter Fans out there!  They’re still uber yummy and worthy of my PB fan’s mouthes and my vegan friends, as they are vegan too!  So, if you’d like to give these a try or check them out click: here. (65 calories per cookie)

So after some consideration I chose to share with you homemade from the kitchen gift ideas for Christmas.  I’ve kicked this ‘homemade’ idea around the past couple of years, but this year I decided to give it a go because I wanted my gifts to be more special, and from the heart, and also I needed to cut back a bit on spending this season, so I’ve decided to go the homemade route.

The ideas I’m sharing come mainly from things I’ve been pinning on pinterest.  None of the ideas are mine, so if you see something you like be sure to click the title below the photo, and it will link you to the site.

1.  Candies and fudge-

These gifts are great to package in little boxes  and tie with ribbon or adorn with a bow to make the packaging look festive!

Cake Batter White Chocolate Truffles

 (Recipe by : The Novice Chef Blog)

These truffles are insanely addicting, and I don’t use that lightly!  I made these for my 18th birthday party, and Everyone, I mean Everyone loved these babies!  After my birthday party I even got 3 orders from people to make them a batch just so they could have them around the house.  Now here is the best part, even better than the flavor, well almost, they take like no time to make!  The most time consuming part is waiting for them to dry, no worries, stick them in the freezer and I’d say these could be made in under an hour.  (This recipe makes a lot of truffles too, I’d say close to 40 or 50!)

Five Minute Chocolate Fudge

(Recipe by:  Rachel Ray)

This fudge is to die for.  Make a plate of it in my house, and by the second day it’s completely gone! Let that be the indicator of how yummy this fudge is!  And by the way there are no lies when they say this recipe takes 5 minutes, its literally a breeze.  The only note I have to make is that when my family & I make this fudge we always leave out the dried fruit, and nuts because frankly it’s more delicious without it, and you can really taste the wonderful tones of chocolate and butterscotch!

Buckeyes

(Recipe from: Nestlé)

To be quite honest I’m a sucker for a good buckeye.  I could pop these things like candy.. oh wait they are candy, maybe that is why.  Aha, well if you’ve never had a buckeye, or are looking for a really wonderful recipe to share with friends and family I’d highly recommend this one!  I made these for my birthday and they were great!

Healthier Dark Chocolate M&M Fudge

(Recipe by: Chocolate & Carrots Blog)

This one is for all you trying to be good around the holiday season!  Now I’ve never tried this recipe, but I read the post and it sounds like it’s a great recipe.  I’ll definitely be giving it a go, of course a Skinny dessert blogger needs to try ‘healthier‘ fudge, I mean healthy and fudge in one sentence.. this recipe is truly a god send!

2.  Cookies & Bars-

Here are some great ideas (skinny & full fat) to accompany your candies & fudge!  Wrap them up with your other sweet treats, or in a tin or box of their own!

Butterfinger Caramel Bars

(Recipe by: Cookies & Cups blog)

I haven’t had the chance to make these bars just yet, but I have them pinned away for a rainy day!  These look, and sound great, so I’d say if you’re a butterfinger lover or caramel lover give them a go!

Now if you lean more towards Caramel and Peanut Butter, then I’d give these lucious Knock you Naked Bars a chance, which I wrote about in last weeks post.  I made them for a cookie party last week and they were great!

Seven Layer Bars

(Recipe by: Brandi @ Tastykitchen.com)

I’ve had Seven Layer Bars many a times growing up, but recently I had them at Thanksgiving and a new love affair bloomed.  My Auntie made these bars using natural coconut shreds, and good quality chocolate, and used fat free sweetened condensed milk.  Now I couldn’t find that exact recipe because she had just modified the original, but here is the basic recipe, in which you could make the modifications yourself.  These bars are simply delish, and oh so easy.  One pan, no mess!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

(Recipe from:  Eats well with others blog)

I made Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough bars last Christmas, and they were a hit.  This isn’t the exact recipe, but very, very similar, and I bet equally great!  I highly recommend these to accompany you at your holiday table, or in the cookie boxes.. your friends, and family will love them no doubt!

Now for some Skinny Cookies & Bars!

Lighter Seven Layer Bars

(Recipe from: Abbey Cat Chat Blog)

Like I said lovin’ the Seven Layer bars.  I’ve never made them light, but from the decadence of all the full fat ingredients in this recipe I bet you’ll never notice!

Skinny Lofthouse Style Sugar Cookies with Skinny Buttercream Frosting 

(Recipe By:  Me- Brooke B.)

These cookies are soft, buttery, like the Lofthouse style you purchase from the supermarkets.  The skinny Buttercream frosting on top of these cookies make them taste just like a full fat sugar cookie.  Decorate them with sprinkles for the holidays, or color the frosting. At only 48 calories per cookie, indulge yourself!

Skinny Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches filled with Skinny Buttercream Frosting

(Recipe by:  Me- Brooke B.)

These cookies sandwiches are great!  I brought them to a cookout this summer, and the whole plate was gone within 10 minutes because so many people went back for seconds.  These sandwiches consist of chewy, yet soft buttery chocolate chip cookies, and skinny Sweet Buttercream Frosting!  At only 125 calories a piece you can’t beat them!  Color the cookies red, or green to make them festive!

Skinny Butterscotch Heath Cookies

(Recipe by:  Me- Brooke B.)

All I have to say is butter = love.  Yum.

45 calories per cookie.

3.  Cute Packaging Ideas-

Here are some ideas for giving out your treats!

Natural Packaging 

Economical Ideas

Classic Idea

Glass Jars

I hope these ideas have inspired you to give homemade gifts a try this year!  Feel free to comment with your favorite homemade treats you share every year, I’d love to see, and give some of them a try!

Happy Holidays!

The Christmas count down is on, and I’m beginning to get oh so excited!

For those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays to you as well!  Many of us are gearing up to prepare feasts, and getting all our shopping done!  This week I’ve decided to share with you appetizer and dessert recipes I love, and would like to share with you so your family and friends, as well as yourself can enjoy them as much as my family and I do!  There are also some recipes posted that I haven’t tried, but look delish and have gotten rave reviews, so be sure to check those out! If you didn’t see last week’s Top Things Tuesday be sure to head on over and check out some cool holiday gift ideas!

Appetizers Recipes

Hungry Girl Skinny Buffalo Chicken Dip

This dip is insane, and never seizes to fail.  Every party I’ve brought it to everyone loves, and it is often times requested by friends & family to make it!  And not only is it insanely delish, it is also SKINNY!

Baked Apple & Brie

To be honest, I’ve never made this recipe before!  I’ve had Baked Apple & Brie many times, and love it!  This recipe looked great, so I decided to link it.  I usually purchase a Baked Brie with cranberries in puff pastry from Whole Foods because it is my favorite, so if you are lucky to have a Whole Foods near you I’d definitely recommend it!

If you are looking for a skinnier version I’d definitely check Gina’s Baked Brie Cups!

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/11/skinny-baked-brie-phyllo-cups-with.html

 Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

I loveeeeeee stuffed mushrooms, especially those with seafood in them!

Hot Caprese Dip with Tomato & Basil

I have not tried this dip, but when I saw it on pinterest I had to pin it!  I mean look at that gooey cheese, delish!

Dessert Recipes

Reeses Cookie Cups (Skinny- 80 Calories)

They are buttery.  Sweet.  Rich.  Indulgent.

And only 80 calories.

Eat some.

Skinny Chocolate Chip Cookies (50 calories a piece)

These cookies are great, and have all the flavors of a regular full fat cookie!  I love them and find myself making them often just for the heck of it to enjoy.  The picture above shows pink cookies, but feel free to use red or green dye for Christmas, or blue for Hannakuh!

And if you aren’t a chocolate chip fan you could always give my Butterscotch Heath Cookies a try!

Sugar Cookies (Skinny- 48 calories)

For me Sugar Cookies are a must for the Holiday Season!  I love the soft, butteriness of a delish sugar cookie!  These are very similar to the Lofthouse Soft Sugar Cookies and have Skinny Buttercream frosting to make them extra yummy!

Peanut Butter Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

(formerly Knock You Naked bars)

I know it’s a mouth full… of goodness that is!  These bars of soft, chewy, sweet, but not too sweet.  Oh man I could not resist I ate four big squares all by myself, and everyone else at the cookie party couldn’t stop raving!  They were great.  The only change I made was to make my own cookie dough rather than use packaged premade dough because I thought they’d be even better with homemade cookie dough!

Salted Chocolate Cookies with a Caramel Center

A fabulous lady at the cookie party the other night made a version of these cookies that were to die for!  I decided to scour the internet for the recipe, and came across these bad boys that look equally as yummy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Holy yum, yum, yummmmmm!  This looks like it’s going to be heaven in my mouth!  I’ve had this pie pinned for quite sometime now and have waiting for the perfect opportunity to give it a go, well Christmas is that time I’ve decided.  This pie doesn’t look as though it is for the faint of heart, so for all you PB lovers out there… I’d say live a little, and indulge in this yumminess!

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Now that you’ve got all these recipes at the tips of your fingers I hope it’ll inspire you to give one a try and share it with your family!  Spread the Holiday Joy with these yummy recipes and let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

Her family’s stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nick soon would be there.  

Brooke & her sister were nestled all snug in their beds,

while visions of sugar cookies danced in their heads….

You heard that right!  No I don’t dream about sugar plums during the Christmas season, I’m more of a sugar cookie kind of gal.

So with that today I bring you Skinny Lofthouse Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Frosting for the price of 39 calories per cookie and only 9 calories more for frosting!

How could this be you ask?  Sugar cookies are ladden with butter, and buttercream frosting you know there is a good couple of sticks of butter in there too, I mean it is BUTTERcream frosting.

Well here is the secret… 2 very easy, low cost ingredients.

Cake Mix & Fat free Vanilla Yogurt.   That is it!

Cake mix isn’t too high in fat naturally, but what makes it so fattening is the oil and eggs that are mixed into make the mix to make the batter.  Vanilla Yogurt acts as a great substitute for things like butter, which is a replacement for oil sometimes.  Yogurt doesn’t always work as a fat substitute, but in this recipe it works fabulously!

The Buttercream frosting recipe is basically just a modification of a classic buttercream frosting.  I’ve also used this buttercream frosting to make Chocolate Chip Cookie sandwiches, and it was great too!

I liked these the first day, but just liked.  To be perfectly honest they got better as they sat.  By the 3rd day they were delicious!  Dense, and soft and just perfect!  Just like my all time favorite Lofthouse Sugar Cookies!  Yum! Yum!

Skinny Lofthouse Style Sugar Cookies

Servings: 27 cookies, frosted

Calories: 48

Ingredients

1/2 box of a 15.25oz classic white box of pillsbury cake mix

1/2 cup fat free vanilla yogurt ( I used yoplait light)

Directions

1. Mix together in electric mixer until dough has formed.

2. Using a 1/2 tbsp spoon measure out dough, and form into balls.

3. Bake at 350 for 5 minutes, pull cookies out of the oven, and then flatten the balls with a spoon into round cookies.

4.  Bake at 350 for another 3 minutes, or until bottom of cookies are a light golden brown.  DON’T OVERBAKE! (The cookies will to continue to bake on the sheet a little after while they set, so don’t worry if they aren’t a perfect golden brown)

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tbsp salted butter, softened, don’t melt!

1 tbsp brummel & brown yogurt spread

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp milk, (you may need a little more)

Directions

1.  Beat butter and vanilla until light and fluffy.

2.  Slowly add in powdered sugar, and beat.  Add milk until you reach the desired consistency.

3.  Frost cookies.

Now it’s up to you how you’d like to decorate your cookies.  You could leave them be, or add a little food coloring to the frosting and make them festive for Christmas, or pretty for a birthday party!  And if you don’t mind adding a couple calories to the cookie you can always put sprinkles, which I opted to do for the sake of Christmas (you know you can always indulge in a few more calories around Christmas.. I mean the holidays only come once a year, aha!)

Happy Holidays!  Hope you enjoy!

Next week’s Top Things Tuesday will be dedicated to my favorite holiday recipes to help you come up with ideas for food for your holiday feasts!

So to begin this weeks Top things Tuesday we start off with:

Gift Ideas!

If you know me on a very personal level than you know that I LOVE Etsy… I mean LOVEEEEEEE.  Well if you didn’t know that, now you do, so  I guess you can say we are on that ‘that’ level now, aha.  Anywho, I love Etsy because the items on there are generally very unique, and I’m also an avid supporter of small business because without it where would we be, and I also give props to those people out there working their butts off to make a name for themselves.  Also I find handmade, or one of kind items to be of better quality  generally than the mass produced target items.  Don’t get me wrong though I don’t hate on Target, I actually like it quite a lot, but you get my point handmade is a good way to go when you have the option, and also a lot of the times the prices on Etsy are very affordable!   So what I’m trying to say I guess is check out Etsy I think you’ll really like it.

1. Mixer & Whisk Necklace

My first gift idea is off Etsy, which is why I just went on a rant about the site, and several other items on my list are also from there.  This super cute necklace is handcrafted, and unique in design.  I’ve never seen a mixer/whisk necklace before, and when I saw it I just knew I had to have it!

It is only $14.99 from the Treasured and Charmed store, which also has a lot of other great one of kind pieces of jewelry.

2.  Stackable, Word Rings

For those of you who aren’t bakers, or don’t want to embody the baking spirit through jewelry, these rings may be more up your alley!  I love these, and think they’d be a great gift for a person with their own names on them or a word or phrase.  It’d also be a good gift for a mom with their children’s names on it, or maybe even grandma!

These are made by the store Cinnamon Sticks, and are $18.00 per ring.  She writes “I hand fuse, forge, and stamp fine silver to create these little rings.  They are oxidized to bring out the letters. They have a beautiful organic, aritsan look.”  These are beautiful, and super inexpensive for a ring you can wear everyday with any outfit!

3.  Iphone Case

When I saw this case I knew it was a must on my Christmas list!  I mean it looks just like a hostess snack.  Now I have to ‘fess up because I’m not a hostess fan, but I do like a homemade hostess cupcake just as much as the next guy.  This case is cute for anyone, but the Curious Case LCC store also has other fabulously cute cases that anyone will love!

This is my favorite:

For those of you who don’t want to be tempted to break your diet every time you look at your case, then these cases may be more suited for you!

Did somebody say wedding gift idea!

This case is a little odd, but all the more it is super fun, and different, I mean when was the last time you saw a british monetary iphone case?

And just because I want to make you drool…

CHOCOLATE!

That’s it for my baking related Christmas items, except for some food colorings, frosting tips, and baking bag of course!  If you’d like to take a closer look at my Christmas list for gift ideas head on over to my pinterest Santy Clause List board, which you can find here.

Now changing gears to some of my favorite things for the week!

1. Taylor Swift’s album Red

Okay, Okay, I know first off this album came out a little over a month ago, so I’m a little late and yes, I know, it’s Taylor Swift.  Although I’ve tried to dislike her music because it’s so mainstream, and pop, I can’t deny the girl has amazing amounts of talent, and her music is awesome.  It’s fun, relatable, and whether your 18 and going through the things she is describing or if your 30 and been there and done that you’ll enjoy it.  Usually I don’t love every song on an album, but I can’t say that for this album.  I’d have to say my favorites are 22, Red, and The Lucky One.  Check it out on itunes, or spotify!

2. Power Station

I love pinterest because of not only the wonderful, yummy food posts, but also the great ideas people share.  This power strip idea is something I HAD to pin when I saw because I always find my cords in a tangled mess on the floor, and this looks like it might finally be a solution to my dilemma!  Thanks pinterest!

The link leads you to a site where you can purchase this box: here, or if you’d prefer to do as I’m going to do you can use this as a model to creating your own for essentially nothing!

3.  Lilly Pulitzer Gingerbread house!

With the holiday season upon us I know a lot of us are beginning to make Christmas decorations, cookies, and of course gingerbread houses, and with that I set out to find ideas for each of those on pinterest.  While skimming through the gingerbread house ideas I stumbled upon this house, and knew this was my kind of gingerbread house.   Pink and green christmas?!  Does it get any better than that?!

For a more in depth view of this Lilly house head on over here

4.  ”A Team” by Ed Sheeman

All I have to say is Ed, you have the voice of a god, the lyrics of a mastermind, and I love you.  Listen to “A Team” here, or head on over to itunes to check out Ed’s hit.  He will be opening up for Taylor Swift’s Red tour, which may or may not in your own opinion elude to his musical genius.

5.  Skinny Reeses Cookie Cups!

What would top things Tuesday be without me telling you how much I’ve enjoyed a food that past week?  I chose my Skinny Reeses Cookie Cups because not only could I not stopping eating them right out of the oven, and at Thanksgiving, but my family could also not resist them, nor could my sister who is not a sweet lover!  At only 80 calories a piece these are great to whip up for a night at home, or to add to your holiday table!

For the recipe click: here

I hope you all enjoyed this fun filled post and I look forward to sharing with you all next week with some of my favorite delish holiday foods!

Are you drooling yet?

Well if you are like me and a delicious red velvet cupcake is something you like to indulge in every now and then then this is the recipe for you.  I LOVE red velvet cupcakes because it’s a break from the usual chocolate cupcake with its tangyness that is so iconic of a red velvet cupcake.

I decided to make mini red velvet cuppycakes for our thanksgiving table because we were having other desserts as well, so I figured people would be able to try a little bit of everything if the serving size was a bit smaller.  These were quite a hit, and most people weren’t only able to eat just one!

I adapted this recipe from dashingdish.com and the frosting recipe is something I concocted on my own.  Although I like the tang of cream cheese frosting, I also like my frosting a little on the sweet side, which is what I was able to achieve with this lower calorie version.  The reason it is lower in calories is because I used 1/3 the fat cream cheese, and also I opted to not use butter as most recipes call for.  Even when I’m making regular, full fat cream cheese frosting I generally don’t use butter because I can’t taste much of difference.  The cupcake recipe was great!  Very moist, and the flavor was almost exact.  Topped with frosting you can’t tell the difference!

Skinny Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from dashingdish.com, original recipe link: click here

Servings 26

Calories: Unfrosted Cupcake- 60, Frosted Cupcake- 86

Fat: 1.6 g (Frosted)

1/2  of a (16 oz) Boxed cake mix – white

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp reduced fat buttermilk (1/2 cup + 1tbsp 1% milk w/ 1tbsp lemon juice)

1/4 cup plain chobani (fat free)

1 + 1/2 egg whites (hard to do, but not impossible!)

1/2 of a large of sugar free, fat free cheesecake pudding mix (non-bake)

1 tbsp unsweetened Hersey’s cocoa powder

1/2 tbsp red food coloring

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line mini baking pan with liners.

2. Mix all ingredients above in a stand mix until smooth.

3. Scoop batter into liners about 3/4 full.

4.  Bake for 8 minutes, and then check every minute until a tooth pick comes out clean.

5.  Allow to cool.

Skinny Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

1/4 cup + 2tbsp (1/3 fat) cream cheese, softened

3/4 + 2 tbsp cups powdered sugar

1/4 + 1/8  tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Mix until smooth in a beater.

2.  Frost cupcakes.

These cupcakes are super yummy, and take no time to make!  If you are looking to make small treats for your holiday table, or for a birthday party these would be fabulous!  Enjoy all the deliciousness without all the fat, and calories of a traditional red velvet cuppycake!

A week ago my best friend lost her life to a terminal illness called Cystic Fibrosis.  Taylor was only 18 years old, but her passing has made me reflect on the life I lead, and by example of her life I’ve decided to live with no regrets, and not care what others think about what I do because I am who I am and that is all I can be.  If there is one last thing I could say to Taylor it would be that she has inspired me and so many others to evaluate our lives and find new meanings.  I’m honored to have been able to call her my best friend since the day I was born, and I know that although she is no longer here with me in physical form her spirit forever stays with me, and she’ll continue to be my best friend for the rest of my life.  

(Tay & I as babies, Tay & I at my 18th birthday party, and the last two are Taylor in the park, and at her prom this past year.)

Anyone’s death makes you think, and is always sad, but it is always hardest when the person is so close to you.  Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful though that you were even fortunate enough to have had these wonderful people in your life, so Tay I love you girly, breathe easy.

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To celebrate Thanksgiving my family and I started our day off at my Aunt’s house along with my Dad’s brother and his family, my Aunt and her family, and my grandma.

(My sister and I.  Thanksgiving 2012)

(My cousins & I.)

(All the cousins, we’re a little excited to eat if you cant tell!)

(Dinner- Photo by Me)

We had a delicious 5 course dinner that consisted of stuffed mushrooms, antipasto and kalamata olive bread, italian wedding soup, turkey dinner & all the fixings, and of course dessert!  Everything was fabulous, and I have to thank my family for coming together to make such a yummy meal!

(Dessert- Photo by Me.)

For dessert I whipped up red velvet cupcakes, brownies, reeses cookie cups, white chocolate cranberry cookies, and a pumpkin pie… all skinny of course!

Click here for the recipe for: Reeses Cookie Cups (Only 80 calories a piece)

The rest of the recipes will be up over the next couple of weeks, remember the holiday season is upon us so these recipes are great for any time!

After leaving my Aunt’s we headed to my Mum’s parents house and hung out with them for a little while.  And we finished the night with Taylor’s family!  Such a great day.

Now I’m not a believer in black friday because I feel as though in some respects it ruins Thanksgiving because people have to work, so they lose out on time to be with their family and lose the option to travel to visit family and friends, but I broke the rules and went out shopping anyways.  My friend Kev wanted to get a 50′ TV, so we headed out to Target at 10, waited in the freezing cold, and right at 12 we were let into Target.  Kev got his TV and was quite the happy camper.  I have to say it was a good deal, and I’d be willing to wait in the cold for a couple of hours for a good deal, but for a couple of days waiting like some people did at my local best buy… now that is a whole other story!

I’d like to know all about your Thanksgiving festivities and favorite recipes you may have from the holidays that you’d like to see made skinny.  Or if you’d like to share a black Friday story go for it!

Thanks for stopping by!

]]> http://thesweetprimadonna.com/2012/11/25/thanksgiving-festivites-spreading-the-holiday-cheer-from-my-house-to-yours/feed/ 2 bbuckett tay photo 4 photo 1 tab photo 3 62282_10151268340066600_405534787_n photo 4 sugar http://thesweetprimadonna.com/2012/11/25/skinny-reeses-cookie-cups-80-calories-per-cookie/ http://thesweetprimadonna.com/2012/11/25/skinny-reeses-cookie-cups-80-calories-per-cookie/#comments Sun, 25 Nov 2012 15:14:37 +0000 The Sweet Prima Donna (Brooke B.) http://thesweetprimadonna.com/?p=703 Continue reading]]> Hi Everyone!

I know I’ve been MIA for quite sometime now, and I must say I apologize from the bottom of my heart!  I seriously wake up everyday with the idea of blogging, but I feel as though I just never have the time to get around to it, which is a shame because it’s something I love to do, and it makes me smile when I see people enjoying my posts and recipes.

What has been keeping me so busy is school, school, school, oh and school.  Don’t get me wrong I throughly enjoy school, but this being the fall of my senior year, I’ve been quite the busy bee.  College essays, applications, visits, you name it I’ve probably done it.  I’m also involved in theater, and my best friend and I are also a president of a club at school, which is time consuming, but I love it so it’s totally worth it!

Now that my college apps are in, and my essays are done I will have time once more to come back to blogging!  So here I’am back again to share with you a yummy skinny recipe! This past week was Thanksgiving so I got the fabulous opportunity to bake up several delish skinny desserts.  For the next couple of weeks I will be posting all these recipes, so be sure to stay tuned.  We have reeses cookie cups, pumpkin pie, brownies, red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and white chocolate cranberry cookies!  Yum, yum in your tum!

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Thanksgiving.

 The holiday to gorge yourself until you can’t eat anymore.  Maybe not everyone is that way, but I know I definitely am guilty.  Not only is it a time to eat, eat, eat, but also a time to be thankful for the bountiful, delicious food we have.  I really thought about how my skinny desserts could tie into being thankful, and when I thought about it I came to the conclusion that I should be thankful for the healthy, beautiful body I’ve been given and in turn I should nourish it with food that is healthier, so that I can maintain the body I’ve been given.  So as a late celebration of Thanksgiving I dare you to thank your body, and treat it right by feeding it ‘better for you’ food, not all the time, but the majority of the time.  Like I always say there is room for indulgence, but maintaining a mostly healthy diet is key.

As I said above for Thanksgiving I whipped up several super delish desserts to share with my family at our Thanksgiving celebration.  Everyone loved everything, and nobody, I repeat nobody knew they were skinny, which is a feat in itself.

I’ve decided to start with everyone’s favorite recipe:

Reeses Cookie Cups!

Skinny of course.

These delicious cups consist of a rich reeses cups baked into a buttery, sweet chocolate chip cookie.   Heaven in a cup!

Enjoy, xox

(Photo by Me- Brooke B.)

Skinny Reeses Cookie Cups

Recipe by Me (Brooke B.)

Calories: 80

Fat: 4.1g

Ingredients

1/2 cup + 1 tbsp white flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp granulated sugar

2 tbsp stevia in the raw- or the equivalent of 2 tbsp of sugar (any sugar substitute will do)

2 tbsp butter, softened

1/2 a large egg white

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/16 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips

26 minature reeses cups (not minis, the individual wrapped minatures)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a mini cupcake pan really well with pam spray.

2. Beat butter and sugars.

3. Beat in egg white and vanilla, and mix for 1 minute on med-high.

4. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.

5. Mix butter mixture and flour mixture. Once the flour mixture is almost completely mixed in add mini chocolate chips and just mix until stirred in throughout the batter.

6. Spoon batter into the cupcake pan by the 1/2 tbsp.  Make round balls of dough, then press into the bottom of the cupcake spaces.  After place a minature cup into each.

7. Bake for 9 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.

8. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes, then move to a cooling rack.

(Photo by Me- Brooke B.)

Wa-la!  

There you have it.  If you are making these at home I suggest halving the recipe… trust me when I say they are addicting.. so plan to share or only make a few, or just indulge yourself, either way enjoy! (:

If you’d like to read up on my Thanksgiving head on over: here