Strawberry Cupcakes with Basil Cream Cheese Frosting

I love cupcakes. They're small, adorable and ever so yummy! There's just something satisfying about peeling off the liner and taking a big bite out of the cake.

The inspiration behind this cupcake was a strawberry basil sorbet I had once - the perfect combination of sweet and savory. I've been thinking about this one for awhile - about how yummy it would be to turn this flavor profile into a cupcake!

There was a minor issue with the garnish - I had thought a candied basil leaf would look pretty on top of the basil frosting, only my basil leaves didn't really agree to being dunked in sugar syrup. I ended up garnishing with a sliced strawberry, which was equally pretty with the color contrast.

Ingredients
-1cup pureed strawberries
-1.5 cup flour
-1 cup sugar
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 cup milk
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-2 eggs at room temperature
-1 stick butter at room temperature
-1/2 package (4oz) cream cheese at room temperature
-powdered sugar
-2 big handfuls of basil, pureed

Instructions
-Preheat oven to 350.
-In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, mix the strawberry puree, milk and vanila.
-In the bowl of your stand mixer (I love my Kitchenaid - I tell my husband frequently that it's the best gift he's ever gotten for me), cream together the butter and sugar. Scrape down the sides and add in the eggs. Mix until well combine. Scrape down the sides again.
-Add in the flour and strawberry mixtures and mix carefully until combined.
-Pour the batter into a prepared muffin tin (I made 12 cupcakes from this recipe) and bake for 20-25 minutes (the cupcakes are done when a toothpick come out clean).
-Let cool before icing.
-For the frosting, whisk the cream cheese, basil puree and powdered sugar using the stand mixer until the desired consistency is reached. Notice how I didn't specify the amount of powdered sugar? This is really up to you and what consistency you want in your frosting.
-Frost and enjoy!

Burger Night with a Twist

Who doesn't love a burger right? There is nothing wrong with a nice greasy burger (please refer to my love for In n Out here), but sometimes you just want something a little bit healthier. Instead of taking the traditional lighter burger option and making turkey burgers, I thought I'd try this tasty looking recipe I saw in the Karma Chow cookbook. It was a veggie burger that happened to be vegan, gluten free (even though I didn't make mine gluten free) and most importantly, delicious! It had 3 kinds of veggies, brown rice and beans - all sorts of healthy goodness!

It was a big hit with the family - Ethan and Eva each nearly finished their full-sized burger - what else can a mom ask for right? This was a really easy dinner and these are seriously the best veggie burgers I've ever had - I couldn't stop talking about them all day! This recipe is definitely going to be added to the dinner rotation!

Ingredients
-1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
-1.5 cup brown rice (I didn't really measure - it's not super important to get this part exact)
-1 bell pepper, roughly chopped
-1 big handful baby kale
-1 onion, quartered
-1 tsp chili powder
-a couple squirts of ketchup
-breadcrumbs (I used regular ones, but you can use gluten free, or I think oat flour would work well too)
-1 tsp salt

Instructions
-Puree the bell pepper, kale and onion in a food processor. Scrape into a glass bowl. This will be kind of liquidy.
-Puree the rice and chickpeas. This puree will be a bit sticky - that's okay! It doesn't need to be a smooth puree - a little texture is fine. Scrape on top of the veggies. 
-Add chili powder, ketchup, salt and as much breadcrumbs as you need to get the burgers to a nice consistency. I needed about 1.5 cups.
-Preheat grill pan or saute pan over medium heat.
-Line a sheet pan with wax or parchment paper. Form the mixture into patties and place on the prepared pan. I made 10 good sized burgers.
-Grill or saute over medium heat for 4 minutes per side. If you use a non-stick grill pan, you don't need oil!
-Serve with whatever topping you like! I served mine with guacamole :)

<3 those grill marks!

Any excuse to eat guacamole at our house!

Saturday Fun

We had a pretty fun Saturday this weekend and thought we'd share it with you!

It was the first Saturday of the month, so there was arts and crafts at Home Depot, which Ethan has been doing for 1.5 years now! This month the kids made a little red race car. Sadly, there was no painting, but there was plenty of hammering and stickers involved!

Then we decided to have a little treat and headed to The Sugar Path, which is a new cupcake place in town. OMG do they have wonderful cupcakes! I'm the girl who HATES buttercream frosting, but I love The Sugar Path's version - smooth, creamy, buttery and none of that gritty nastiness that you usually get. They have creative flavors too - my favorite is Fluffernutter (a marshmallowy peanut buttery delight!)! 

Of course, having eaten all that cake, we needed to burn off those calories (a girl's gotta watch her waistline, right?). We still had a reasonable amount of snow in the yard, so we headed out back and went sledding! Even Eva got in on the action and a good time was had by all :)

Hope you guys had a wonderful weekend as well!

Carefully placing the sticker

All done!

Mayhem, vegan strawberry and Lady Jane by the slice

Ethan's cupcake - the vegan strawberry. Scarlett (red velvet) is his favorite, but it wasn't on the menu when we went.

Me and Eva's cake - Lady Jane. Just a simple yellow cake with pink buttercream frosting!

Chris's cupcake - Mayhem (yes you need to get the Allstate employee the Allstate cupcake :P).  Fudge filled chocolate cake topped with buttercream frosting, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, caramel sauce, fudge sauce and coconut!

Eva's enjoying her cake covered fingers!

Cupcake <3

Going down the hill!

Baby girl zooming by :)

Eva is 1!

Eva is 1! I can't believe I have a 1 year old now :) She continues to amaze me with how sweet she is.


Weight - 18lb, 2oz (26%), height is 27.25 inches (3%) and head circumference is 18.5 inches (92%!). With these proportions, Miss Eva resembles a bobblehead!
Clothes - no change here! Short sleeved 6m onesies for layering. The majority of the wardrobe is still 9m, with a few 12m things. Carter's fits really big!
Diapers - the question is now will Eva need her diaper rise adjusted before potty training? I'm guessing it will be close!
Sleep - Thank goodness Eva sleeps so well! Naps well, sleeps through the night.
Eating - we're transitioning from purees to table food! Eva has quite the appetite and loves everything so far - chili, mac 'n cheese, sandwiches...you name it, she eats it! We were going to go down to nursing 5x a day, but I chickened out. And it's not like she's overweight!
Likes - this girl loves her doll! She will crawl across the room in search of "Dolly". Also loves frosting and cupcakes!
Dislikes - having her runny nose cleaned, leaving headbands in her hair
New tricks - hugs and kisses :) Hugs largely consist of collapsing on you and patting you, kisses consist of leaning in and licking your face/nose/cheek/whatever she wants to! At her 1 year photoshoot, she ate the frosting off her cake and shouted "cake, cake!".

Here are some pictures of the birthday girl on her birthday!

Good morning Miss 1 year old!

Excited to be 1!

Sibling <3

Snacking on some blueberries at Grandma's!

Noone is as pretty as Eva!

Birthday girl chowing down on some Chick-fil-a

Cupcake, pre-Eva

Hmm...

Eva really likes frosting! This cupcake was confiscated shortly after the picture. Dealing with babies coming down from a sugar high is not fun!

Valentine's Day 2013

We didn't do anything spectacular - just stayed in. Chris went out to NIU to speak to their ACM organization, but he brought back some super yummy takeout from a Mexican place we used to go to.

Chris and I also did what was supposed to be $10 presents, but ended up being $15 presents - it was fun being creative! I got him some Guinness and a "beer and pretzels" cupcake. He got me a tripod for my DSLR- yay!

Ethan did have fun at school - I found some Spiderman Valentine cards for him to take to school and share with his friends. We also made a super cute Valentine's Day banner :)

Beer, "beer and pretzels"

Sibling love :) Eva's shirt says "True Love" and she's wearing a matching Minnie Mouse hair clip.

The banner! It started out as a Valentine's Day snowman, but then he wanted to make a heart for each member of our family, so we made a banner instead.

Daddy's heart

Mommy's heart

Ethan's heart

Eva's heart

Ethan at 3.5

Interview with a 3.5 year old - the answers are all his, I've clarified in parentheses :) 

Ethan has grown up so much and we are so proud of him - he can be difficult at times, but overall he is a very sweet boy.

1. What is your favorite color? Red

2. What is your favorite toy? Train table

3. What is your favorite fruit? Bananas

4. What is your favorite TV show? Alfie and Jack (Thomas's Trusty Friends)

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? peanut butter sandwich

6. What is your favorite outfit? Spiderman shirt, Spiderman underwear and Spiderman shoes (don't worry, pants are involved too!)

7. What is your favorite game? Candyland

8. What is your favorite snack? bunny crackers

9. What is your favorite animal? Pooh bear

10. What is your favorite song? Spiderman

11. What is your favorite book? Ironman

12. Who is your best friend? Mommy (<3!)

13. What is your favorite sport? football 

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play with my dump trucks

15. What is your favorite drink? milk

16. What is your favorite holiday? Valentine's day

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Pooh bear

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? cereal and milk

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? cake (we took him to Sugar Path for a half birthday treat)

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Batman

Sibling picture :)

The Scarlett (red velvet) - there was a raspberry on top, but someone snatched it up in a hurry!

A Sneak Peek...

Eva turns 1 in a week - yikes! Her party won't be for a little over a month, so I thought you would enjoy a sneak peek into what I have so far...

The theme will be ballet. And pink. Lots and lots of pink :)

The outfit- the shirt by Emma B's Baby Boutique, Crown Princess Babylegs, sparkly pink tutu made by mommy

The hair pretty - by Mia and Mackie in the Mirror (who else, right?)

The invite - by my wonderful friend Zaianne (these will hopefully be in the mail sometime next week)