A recipe created just for Pizza Lovers!

I saw this recipe from Rachael Ray and tucked it away for a day I needed something "fun" to make for Robyn. Today I was struggling with a lunch plan...and then I remembered Pizza Puffs!!

Easy enough- I always have everything on hand. I added Garlic Salt and Italian Seasoning to mine.

The recipe says to add the basil at the end and sprinkle on top, but I chose to put mine inside.

Everything is better with cheese!!

Fill a mini muffin pan. GREASE WELL!!!! I found these to be a little tricky to get out of the pan. They were actually easier to remove after they cooled a bit. I used a Tablespoon and it filled 24 cups perfectly. Bake about 20 minutes at 375 degrees and allow to cool a few minutes before eating.

 

Serve with your favorite pizza sauce!

***Robyn and I loved these! Fun because you can easily add whatever toppings you love. Rachael also details in her recipe how to freeze them!***

Easy and Cute- 2 things I love!

Along with the Jessie Cake I made for Robyn's birthday party, I also just HAD to make these adorable cookies!!! I found them on the Disney Family site...and they were quite simple.

Start with store bought sugar cookie dough...you can make your own, but I only wanted a few cookies. The log made 12 cookies.

Bake according to package, allow to cool and then flip them over so the flat side is up. While they cooled, I made Sugar Cookie Icing. I colored it red with gel coloring. I used a ziploc to pipe a border of red around the cookies, allowed that to set and then filled in the centers. This icing is shiny and dry in about 2 hours.

To make the top of the hat, cup the tops off GIANT gumdrops. I found mine at Hy-Vee...they are fruity, not spice drops.

Using more Sugar Cookie icing in White (or leftover butter cream from the cake)...pipe a large dollop in the center of each cookie and press a gum drop into it. Then pipe a line around the outside and little lines through it to make the lacing on the hat.

Allow to dry completely before serving. Mine were a little sloppy, but I think they still turned out pretty cute!

A kid friendly dinner that Robyn loved!

My daughter has her own mini muffin pan, part of a mini baking set. She brought it to me last night at dinner time and wanted me to make something in it. Since it was time for dinner, I didn't want to do cupcakes or muffins...so I came up with a dinner idea!!! We made mini muffin pizzas :)

I took 2 pieces of Whole Wheat bread and rolled them flat with my rolling pin.

A Tablespoon was the perfect size to fit the muffin tin- so I used my knife to cut around it.

I placed the bread rounds in the muffin tin and put them in a 400 degree oven for about 3 minutes- just to toast slightly so they wouldn't get soggy.

Robyn selected pepperoni and cheese- her favorite combo!

Add about 1/2 tsp of sauce to each muffin cup, top with 1 pepperoni and a small pinch of shredded mozzarella cheese.

Pop them in the oven for about 5 minutes- broil for a minute if you want to brown the cheese.

Adorable bite sized mini pizzas. I can't wait to find more fun ways to use my mini muffin pan! Robyn ate every single pizza!!!

If you love Cotton Candy...

Then you will love Cotton Candy Cupcakes!! Robyn and I both love Cotton Candy Ice Cream (Kemps), and I got this crazy idea to try and make Cotton Candy Cupcakes! They turned out pretty tasty, although, if I can find the LorAnn Cotton Candy Flavoring...they will be even better!

I used a regular white cake mix- and made according to the box directions. 

I then split the batter into 2 bowls and added blue food coloring to one and red to the other to make pink. To the pink frosting, I also added 1 1/2 tsp of Raspberry Extract.

I added a little blue batter to each cupcake liner...

And then topped the blue with some of the pink batter. Bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes.

For the frosting, I used my favorite recipe,  Rick's Special Buttercream Frosting.

I then used my mixer to stir about 3 oz of cotton candy into the frosting. And I colored the frosting pink and blue as well :)

I put pink frosting down one side of my piping bag and blue down the other to get a swirl of color when I piped the frosting.

Top with more cotton candy for a fancy treat! These are VERY sweet...and you shouldn't add the cotton candy until you want to serve them, or it starts to dissolve into the frosting :)

I love Mary's snack mix!

I've had a potty training two year old at home this last week, so I decided to make her some fun snacks! One of my FAVORITE treats is the snack mix my Great Aunt Mary makes- I can't remember ever visiting them without enjoying some of it!

For this recipe you will need: Wheat Chex, Goldfish Crackers, Pretzels, Cheetos, Cheerios, Worcestershire Sauce, Butter, Garlic Powder and Nuts if desired. I leave the nuts out to make it kid friendly.

In a very large bowl, mix 4 cups of Cheerios, 3 cups of Wheat Chex, the whole bag of goldfish, the whole bag of pretzels and 3/4 bag of Cheetos. In a heatproof bowl, mix 1 1/2 sticks of butter with 1 TBS garlic powder and 2 TBS Worcestershire Sauce and pour over the mixture tossing well to coat.

Put the mixture onto a couple of large baking sheets and bake at 250 degrees for 45 minutes- stirring every 15 minutes. Cool and store in an airtight container. I love this even more than Chex Mix!!! Don't take any shortcuts and try to microwave it instead, it makes the Cheetos stale. And beware...it's super addicting!

Every once in a while, I really love a hot dog!

Halloween means all sorts of goodies that are not "good" for you...so I decided it was a good day to have a not so healthy dinner too :) I don't know about you, but every once in a while, I crave a really good hot dog! And I just have to eat fries with my hot dog, but I did bake those :) For this hot dog fix, I chose to make Pretzel Dogs.

Start by proofing your yeast with sugar in warm water.

Add in salt and about half of the flour. Continue adding flour until dough is no longer sticky...you may not need it all. Knead dough until smooth. Cover and let rise 30 minutes. Knead again and let rise again for about 1 hour.

After dough has doubled in size, roll out into a rectangle on an oiled surface. Cut dough into strips...I used my pizza cutter.

Wrap around your hotdogs making sure to seal both ends....I used yummy Hebrew National hot dogs :)

I only did one package of hot dogs, so I made the rest into pretzel nuggets. Drop into the water bath and cook for 30 seconds. Place on a lined or oiled baking sheet and brush with egg. Sprinkle with salt...I only salted what we would eat the same day. Bake at 450 degrees for 12-18 minutes. The nuggets took less time.

Finished dogs and nuggets...

And dinner with my homemade oven fries...a happy dinner for Halloween :)

I love theme food for the holidays!

Fall is my most favorite time of year, and Halloween is my husband's favorite holiday. The last few years, I  have tried to make lots of themed food for Halloween. A family favorite- Mummy Dogs! Nothing healthy about these cute treats, but they sure are tasty!

You only need 3 ingredients for this recipe- easy! I always use the reduced fat crescent rolls.

Start by pre-heating your oven to 375 degrees. I like to use my pizza cutter for the dough- slice each triangle of crescent dough into skinny strips.

Wrap each little smokie with a strip of the dough, leaving a small space on the top for the mummy face.

Repeat process until you have used up all the dough- I usually get about 40 mini mummies. This can also be done with full sized hot-dogs, but these are super cute as a party appetizer or for kids. I did cut some of my mini dogs in half to make them kid-safe.

Bake for about 12 minutes- or until crescent dough is lightly browned. Use yellow mustard and a toothpick to apply "eyes" to each mummy.

I like mine served with a mixture of yellow and spicy mustard. Cute and tasty :)

A little love...for my little cupcake!

I was shopping at my favorite Drug Store last weekend, and I came across a cart of Cake Cones (for ice cream) marked down to $.25/box! I bought a box and new instantly what I was going to use them for. With friends coming for a play date, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to make Cone Cupcakes!

For this recipe you need: 1 box of your favorite flavor cake mix (prepared according to package), 24 cake cones, muffin pans, frosting and sprinkles :)

After mixing the cake batter, place cake cones into your muffin tin. I still use liners, to cut back on messes!

Fill each cone about 3/4 of the way full. 

I made 12 cake cones and 24 mini muffins out of one box of cake mix. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes (the minis only took about 15).

Allow to cool completely before frosting. Don't worry what the tops look like, they will be covered!

My first thought for these was cream cheese frosting...my favorite! I mixed cream cheese, a little butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Chill before frosting the cupcakes.

Unfortunately, I ran out of powdered sugar before I got it to the consistency I wanted...but the end result dried looking like real ice cream!

I decorated half of the cupcakes with canned strawberry frosting and added cute sprinkles!

Yum!

Robyn and her buddy loved their ice cream...that didn't melt :)