Graham Cupcakes with Keylime Icing: Basically Key Lime Pie made into a cupcake!

Super cute cupcake gift box- available at Sur La Table

It even has windows so the lucky person who gets these can see the cupcakes!

And Zebra Print Cupcake Liners!

I found this delicious cupcake recipe on ming makes cupcakes.

It’s an amazing cupcake recipe site and that has truly inventive recipes and wonderful presentation.  I made these for my friend’s birthday and they were awesome!

Ingredients for batter

1 Cup flour

½ cup graham cracker crumbs (blend in food processor)

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 stick butter, room temp.

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp vanilla

½ cup milk (I used soymilk because I don’t usually have reg. milk in my fridge) 

Prep Time: 20-25 mins    Oven Temp: 400 F     Bake Time: 20 mins

1.Mix flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt. Beat in butter gradually. 

2. Beat in sugar and mix thoroughly.  Beat in eggs, then vanilla and milk until just combined.

3. Pour into lined cupcake pan.  Bake for 400 F for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out almost clean

Frosting Ingredients

3      oz. cream cheese

1/2 stick butter, room temp.

2 cups confectioners sugar

2 tablespoons key lime juice

1.    Mix together ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth. Frost cupcakes.

2.    Optional- For presentation purposes, top with a sprinkle of crumbs and lime slice.  I didn’t do this step because I was afraid the acid in the lime would disturb the frosting unless they were eaten the same day as I baked them.

 ALSO: I had a lot of leftover graham crackers and icing so I spread the rest of the icing on graham crackers and made cookie sandwiches for my boyfriend. 

I had enough leftover frosting for 4 of these guys!

Sriracha Beef

My dinner plate: Sriracha Beef, Zucchini Noodles and Spinach Salad with Key Lime Garlic Dressing

I’ve made variations of this recipe for the past couple of months and I think I finally perfected it this week. 

Ingredients

1 to 1 ¼ lbs beef chunks (I use chunk roast that my butcher cuts up for me)

2 tablespoon sriracha

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

½ tablespoon honey

½ teaspoon ginger

1.    Mix beef chunks with all ingredients.  Toss so that all of the meat is coated, I usually use my hands to do this.
2. Let marinade in the fridge for 2 hours. 
3.     Grill on high heat for 2-3 minutes on each side.
4.  Serve! 

Meat with Marinade

On my little electric grill....

Yummy Almond Banana Pancakes (Gluten-free of course!)

I found this yummy recipe for banana almond pancakes (gluten free of course) but I needed to tweak and perfect it before I could post it.  My version uses both almond meal and flaxseed meal as gluten-free flour substitute.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups almond meal

¼ cup flax seed meal

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda 

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

3 ripe bananas

2 eggs

Coconut oil or butter for greasing pan

Prep Time: 15-20 minutes               Cook Time: 20 mins (depends on how many pans you have on the stove top)

1.  Mix all dry ingredients in a large size bowl. Whisk to combine.

2. Mix eggs and banana in a separate bowl.  Use the back of a fork or spoon to mash the bananas.  Once the big pieces are mashed, pour the mixture into a blender and blend for 10- 15 seconds or until smooth.
3. Pour banana mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Use a whisk to combine the batter.
4.  Heat pan over medium heat and grease the pan with coconut oil or butter.
5. Use ¼ cup measuring spoon to spoon batter into the pan.  Use the back of the spoon to spread batter a little.  The batter is thick so if you don’t spread the batter with a spoon, the pancakes will be too thick to cook through. Flip the pancakes after 4 minutes, depending on heat.
6.  Transfer pancakes to a parchment lined baking sheet and finish cooking in the oven for 4 minutes at 350 degrees.  I finish them in the oven because gluten-free recipes tend to burn easier and take longer to cook than normal pancakes.  I use the pan to brown each side and cook them about 75% of the way through, the oven just finishes the cooking the middle of the pancake.

Variations
- I also made these with sweetened shredded coconut.  Add 1/4 cup to ½ cup of shredded coconut.  However this addition adds a lot of sugar.  You could try them with unsweetened shredded coconut as well.
- These taste great with blueberries too! I added blueberries to one of my pancake batches because I love banana blueberry smoothies and they turned out great.
- Haven’t tried these with chocolate chips yet but I’m sure they would be amazing!

Hard to tell from the pic but the batter is pretty thick.

YUM!!

Breakfast Fruit Smoothie

I’ve been starting my days with this delicious smoothie.  It’s a quick way to leave the house with a full stomach

Ingredients

3-4 frozen strawberries halved

½ banana

10-15 blueberries or a small handful

½ cup of soy or almond milk

2-3 tablespoons low fat or fat free greek yogurt

a generous pinch of orange zest

½ teaspoon agave nectar.

Place all the ingredients in the blender and blend until combined.

Next up on the smoothie list, almond-banana smoothie and avocado-basil smoothie.  I'm a little scared of the latter but it was featured in bon appetit so I might as well give it a try.

Cauliflower Rice with Linguica, Mushroom, Bell Pepper, and Onion

This is one of my new go to dinners. To save time, I have decided to start making cauliflower rice (raw) in bulk and freezing it so that I can enjoy this meal more often but have less prep time.

Ingredients
1 large head of cauliflower
1- 1 ½ pounds of linguica
3 Portobello mushrooms (chopped)

½ white onion (chopped)
1/2 large bell pepper (chopped)
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon melted coconut oil

Prep time: 10 minutes           Cook Time: 15 minutes            Stove Temp: Medium

1. Cut cauliflower into small chunks, removing about half the stems.  In 3 or 4 batches (depending on the amount of cauliflower) chop cauliflower in a food processor.  I chop each batch 5-10 seconds.  The cauliflower will be closer to the consistency of couscous than traditional rice.
2.  In a large bowl, mix ground cauliflower, garlic powder, chili powder and coconut oil. Set bowl aside.
3. Heat a pan over medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon of coconut oil.  Add linguica and break up into small chunks with a spoon while cooking.  Make sure to turn chunks over so they cook evenly.
4. Meanwhile, cook onion, bell pepper, and mushroom in a pan over medium heat with ½ teaspoon coconut oil. When cooked through set aside.
5. Remove cooked linguica with a slated spoon so that oil remains in pan.  Place linguica in a separate bowl and set aside. 
6.  Pour half of linguica grease into a small bowl.  Place the pan back on the stove and allow to heat up for a minute. 
7.  Add half of cauliflower mixture to the pan.  Stir every 15 seconds so that cauliflower cooks evenly and does not burn.  It takes about 5 - 7 minutes to cook the cauliflower through.  Add cooked cauliflower to the bowl with the cooked veggies.
8.  Pour remaining grease into the pan and allow to heat for a minute.  Cook the remaining cauliflower with the same process as above. When cooked through, add to the first batch of cauliflower.  Stir well to incorporate onions and mushrooms evenly through.
9. Spoon cauliflower onto each serving plate and top with linguica.

Raw Cauliflower Rice with Chili Powder onto Top

Cooked Cauliflower Rice (Color is a result of the cooking oil)

My Dinner Place: Cauliflower Rice topped with onions, mushrooms and yellow bell peppers, and side salad

Gluten Free Pumpkin Granola

1 ½ cups almond meal
½ cup flax seed meal
1 cup cooked quinoa (ground in food processor)
1 cup pumpkin puree (Libby’s Pure Pumpkin)
1 ½ tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 eggs
juice of one orange + zest of ½ orange
½ cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sprinkle of each of the following: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice
coconut oil (melted)

1.  Combine almond meal, flaxseed meal, brown sugar, spices, and ground quinoa.  Whisk to combine.
2. Add pumpkin, vanilla and honey. Whisk to combine.  Add almond milk, eggs, orange juice and zest.  Whisk to combine. 
3. Fold in chopped walnuts.
4.  Prepare muffins tin by brushing each cup with melted coconut oil.
5.  Roll dough into one inch balls and place on baking sheet. Press down on each slightly so they flatten out a little.
6.  Bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes.  Rotate pan once during baking process.
7. Once cooked through I cut each one in half or fourths so that they were in bite size pieces.
8. I served this granola with some yogurt on top and a little bit of honey drizzled over.