Tie-Dye Cupcake Recipe

Lately, I have been itching to bake something. One of my very favorite things to bake is a glorious treat that we all call cupcakes! They're definitely a crowd-pleaser and are cute to boot! You can come up with endless ways to bake them, make the frosting, and add all the decorations you'd like. Who wouldn't want a delicious tie-dyed cupcake? That's what we're making today!

I've been watching copious amounts of baking tutorials on Youtube and I'm not even sorry about it. Haha Several women have inspired me to get back into baking again and it feels good to get back into that hobby. 

This recipe is super easy, so even if you are a first time baker, you'll be able to follow along. If you have any questions about the recipe or anything pertaining to the cupcakes, please let me know! I'd like to help in any way I can. 

Cupcake Batter: 

1 box of Orange Cake Mix

Buttercream Frosting:

2 1/2 sticks of Butter

5 cups of Powdered Sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1-2 tbsp. Skim Milk

*I used the Buttercream Frosting recipe from the lovely woman on Youtube known as "My Cupcake Addiction." I changed the recipe just ever so slightly. Click HERE to view the video to see the original recipe. Please watch her video! Seeing her in action making the frosting really helps to answer questions you may have about making it. 

How To Get The Tie-Dye Effect: 

What You'll Need:

Ziplock Bags

Scissors

#1 Once you have made your buttercream frosting, separate it into different small bowls so that you can color it with food coloring.

#2: After you have colored your frosting to the colors you desire, grab a large or small Ziplock Bag.

#3. Spoon one of your colored frosting colors into the right side of the Ziplock bag. 

#4. Take a different color of frosting and spoon it in the left side of your bag.

#5. Close your Ziplock and make sure there is no air left in it. 

#6. Use the side of your hand to slide both colors of frosting to the bottom corner of the Ziplock bag. The two colors will meet in the middle. When you squeeze it out, it will create a swirled, tie-dyed effect. 

#7. Cut off the bottom tip of the ziplock bag where you pushed your frosting. I would suggest cutting the tip no larger than the tip of your pinkie finger. Then, squeeze your frosting onto your cooled cupcakes and viola! You're done!

If you are still confused by what I just tried to explain, Click HERE to watch "My Cupcake Addiction" do this same thing. If you are more of a visual person, like I am, you may want to give it a watch. 

If you try these cupcakes, let me know! 

Dad's Easy Taco Bake Recipe

My dad loves to make concoctions using all kinds of different foods. He's a really good cook, so most of the recipes that he creates turns out really well. This Taco Bake was definitely no exception! 

Now, this is definitely not a healthy recipe, but it sure is delicious! It's also very filling as well. It's definitely not a puny taco. You know what one of the best things about this recipe is? It's super easy! I consider that a win in my book!

Wanna find out how to make this mouth watering Taco Bake for yourself? Keep reading!

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Ingredients: 

1 pound ground beef or ground chicken

1 package Taco Bell taco seasoning

1/2 Tablespoon chili powder

1 (10 oz) can of Rotel Original Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies

1 (16 oz) can of Refried Beans

10 Old El Paso Bold Nacho Cheese flavored taco shells

1 (15 oz) jar Tostitos  Medium Salsa Con Queso

Sour Cream, optional

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Directions:

Crumble and brown ground beef or chicken; drain. Add taco seasoning, chili powder, Rotel, and Refried Beans. Cook until all ingredients are mixed well and heated through. Place taco shells upright in a baking pan. Spoon taco meat mixture into taco shell and top with Salsa Con Queso. Bake in oven on 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Broil for the last couple of minutes.

Yield: 10 servings

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Let me know if you decide to try this recipe out! 

Breakfast Granola Recipe

I love granola. It's one of the most delicious things you could eat for breakfast, in my opinion. A few years ago, I was scouring the good old Internet for easy, granola recipes that I could fix. I found one that I liked, but I didn't have half of their ingredients on there, so I modified it to make it my own. 

I decided to make my version of this granola recipe looser instead of being able to cut into it. I love to eat this as cereal with milk. It's delicious! I love making it the night before because it saves time making yourself breakfast in the morning. If you try this recipe out, please let me know!

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4 cups old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup pecans

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup canola oil

1/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon vanilla

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In a large bowl, mix oats, brown sugar, pecans, fruit, cinnamon, and salt. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat canola oil and honey until warm, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla extract. Pour this mixture over the oat mixture and mix thoroughly until everything is completely coated. Spread evenly on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes until slightly golden brown. Don't stir during baking. Cool completely and store in an airtight container or ziploc bag.

NOTE: There are a 3,103 calories in this recipe which makes about 7 1/2 cups. That makes about 207 calories for every 1/2 cup of granola.

NOTE: You could also replace the raisins for any kind of fruit you like. You can switch this up and make it your own like I did. 

Snow Cream Recipe

Not too long ago, it snowed quite a few inches here and we couldn't wait to go scoop up all that good snow and turn it into Snow Cream! I'm sure you guys know how to make snow cream especially if you live in the South like me. I thought that I'd share the recipe with you anyhow! :)

 I pulled this recipe from my dad's blog, Tug's Life. Give it a read! You won't be disappointed.  CLICK HERE for the direct link to the recipe. 

Ingredients:

1-can of cream (evaporated milk)

1-cup of sugar

1-tbs of vanilla extract

10-cups of clean snow from the hood of your car!

Directions:

Stir the cream, sugar, and vanilla together until smooth. Slowly stir in the snow a little at a time. Mix well until everything is nice and smooth and creamy, like ice cream. Then you may feel free to eat it all! :)

Caramel Chocolate Popcorn Recipe

I was surfing Pinterest and I came across this awesome, easy recipe for Caramel Chocolate Popcorn. I modified it just a little bit and decided to whip it up today! You can find the original recipe HERE. I doubled this recipe so that it was enough to feed my family of 5. If you are just making this yourself, follow the original recipe. Enjoy!

Caramel Chocolate Popcorn:

4 packages microwaveable popcorn, popped

2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp light corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla

8 tbsp marshmallow cream

Chocolate chips

Instructions:

Using a medium sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add in brown sugar, corn syrup and vanilla. Stir to combine. Add in marshmallow cream and stir until completely melted and mixture is smooth.

Place popped popcorn, careful not to add kernels, to a large mixing bowl. It's practically impossible to keep all kernels out, but just do the best you can. Drizzle caramel mixture over popcorn and toss to combine. Mixture will be very sticky and harden fast so do this quickly.

Spread wax paper on a large cookie sheet. Spread the caramel popcorn on the cookie sheet. Add chocolate chips to a ziplock bag. Melt in the microwave in 15 second increments until chocolate is melted. Seal the bag and knead it to mix together. 

Snip the end of a corner of the bag off and drizzle it on the popcorn. Don't snip off a teeny tiny corner, or you'll end up squeezing it too hard to get the chocolate out and bust the bag like I did. Oops!  Just snip a decent size hole. 

Leave Popcorn on cookie sheet for a while so that the chocolate and caramel mixture can harden. Store in an airtight container. Viola! 

Gingerbread Cookies & Homemade Frosting Recipe

My mom, dad, and I were all sitting in the living room when I brought up the subject of Gingerbread Men. I had told Dad that I don't remember a time where I have eaten any Gingerbread Men. He told me that they were good and said that there was probably a recipe on Pinterest for it somewhere. He then proceeded to find one and show me. Of course, I was super excited because it turns out that we actually have all the ingredients for these amazing, fattening cookies. I also have a large box of an assortment of 100 or 200 cookie cutters!! Dad and I both looked at the recipe and he said that I needed to 'get up on that'! hahahahaha I think he's wanting me to make them. :P That's fine with me, because I've been wanting to try them. Since I'm planning to cook for Mom all week, I figured that this would be something cool to make.
CLICK HERE if you're interested in where I got this recipe from.

This recipe is a good 'ole Christmasey one! It is soooo good!

Enjoy!

NOTE:  We didn't have any cloves, so I left them out. I also used Sorghum instead of regular old Molasses. I really don't know if that makes a difference in the taste or not. We've had the can for a while, but I've heard that stuff like that doesn't really expire. There's no expiration date on it, I'm still alive, so I'd say that it's fine! hahahahahaha I made sure that I tried a cookie first to make sure that no one died of food poisoning. ;)

I also want to say a huge thank you to my little sister for taking these pictures for me. She did such a good job! 

NOTE: I only left them in the fridge for 2 hours and you really do need to leave it overnight. Since I didn't leave them overnight, they didn't quite form into the cookie cutting consistency. I just used a spoon to put the gingerbread cookie batter on a cookie sheet. They look like weird, malfunctioned circles. hahahahaha I did them in varying sizes just to see what it would be like. They taste good to me though, so who cares what they look like. :) I also didn't use the whole can of sweetened condensed milk. I just put it in there until I liked the consistency. It's all in your preference. 

NOTE: This frosting definitely isn't AMAZING frosting, but it's okay. I actually kind of like this frosting with the gingerbread cookies. Something I did extra that wasn't in the recipe was add 1/2 cup of sugar in it because I thought it helped the taste. Like the instructions said above, it's all to your desired consistency and taste. I just played around with it until I was satisfied.

In the future, I'd like to try a different gingerbread recipe and see if it is even better than this one. If you try this recipe out, let me know! I'd love to see pictures!

Sugar Cookie Recipe

                                                  1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup sugar

1 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup real butter (I use margarine most of the time)

3 large eggs

4 1/2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cream of tarter

Cream together first 6 ingredients. Blend dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased (I grease mine) cookie sheet. Sprinkle sugar on top. Cook in a preheated 350 degree oven for 9 minutes.

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These sugar cookies tastes like you're biting into a fat cherubim. They're that heavenly. Ok...but seriously! They are GOOD.