Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

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I saw a recipe on pinterest for an oreo cheesecake cupcake but I wasn't real keen on the way they made their cheesecake filling. So...I tweaked it to use my cheesecake recipe, as I like the sour cream mixture baked on top of the filling, not mixed in with the cream cheese.  Makes for a moister cheesecake in my opinion.  They are divine!  Hub and I didn't wait the four hours. We couldn't hold off longer than two.  So yummy.

I will post a pic of them later.  Trust me on this one.

Place 30 oreos in 30 cupcake liners..in cupcake tins.

Mix:
2 -8oz packages of cream cheese (room temp)
½ cup sugar
½ tsp almond extract
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest
Beat until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl halfway through beating.

add in:
2 egg yolks and beat until smooth (keep the whites)
Beat the whites until stiffly beaten
fold in stiffly beaten egg whites

Scoop this mixture over the oreos and bake for 12-15 mins.
While they are in the oven, in a mixing bowl mix:
2 C sour cream
4 T sugar
2 tsp vanilla or almond extract

Pull the cupcakes out of the 275° oven, spread a generous portion of the sour cream on top.  Bake another 10-15 minutes until the cheesecake is done.
Chill 4 hours

Update:
My boys loved them, asked me to make them everyday.  Next time I am going to add 1.5 x the sour cream mixture...it was good, but I want more! My recipe was for a regular cheesecake so this was trial and error with the cupcakes. Turned out wonderful.  Easy too, I will make them often.

Mug Brownie! Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae in minutes!

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While I am playing with mugs and mixes...

Same Concept..

1 package of angel food cake mix

1 package of brownie mix

Mix together and put it a jar, the two mixes

To make brownie : 

In a mug, mix

 3 T powder mix

2-2.5 T water

Nuke for 1 min.

It's done! 

While its hot, add chocolate or caramel syrup, and some nuts if you like...whipped cream and a cherry!  

If your out of whipped cream, pour a bit of milk onto it.  

Mug Cake Recipe (big batch for a quick snack anytime) Updated:

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This mug cake is a great way to satisfy your carb sweet craving in no time.

Ingredients:
1 box Angelfood cake
1 Box any other cake
Mix the two together and put into a jar for when you want a quick snack.  ONE of the boxes of cake MUST be angelfood cake.

to make your snack
In a mug, three T of cake mix and two T of water.  stir and nuke for one min.
Bam, its done...
here's my tips for this recipe..I like an extra half T of water in mine and I like to add things to it before nuking..choc chips, broken up oreos...anything you like..and when its done,I drizzle milk on it and stir it up and throw in an extra two broken oreos...Whipped cream is good too, but I only usually get this once before my kids empty the can.  I snooze I lose. lol.

I keep this in a jar on the counter w the directions to make it.  My kids devour it. It's not the most awesome cake I ever made, but its an easy fix for a craving.  Its pretty good.

Warning:  My sink is always full of mugs!  My teenagers (and the strays they bring home)  seem to love this in the middle of the night.

Vitamix Butternut Squash Soup (vegan)

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This little gadget is amazing..it will make a soup from scratch in five minutes.  I was at Wegman's the other day and the vitamix  guy made us this...came home and made it again.

Vitamix Butternut Squash Soup

In the vitamix, throw in:

four carrots
Half red onion
2 stalks celery
clove garlic
half avocado
1/2-3/4 of 20 oz package of cubed butternut 10 peppercorns
8 oz rice milk
1 T cinnamon
big squeeze blue agave (about 4 tablespoons)
1 tsp salt (tweak it out if you want)
2 cups hot water (approximately, until vitamix is almost full, just hot tap water)

Okay, this is the hard part....turn on the vitamix..and wait 5 mins...
After the five minutes, its ready to pour into mugs/bowls and piping hot.

My son's culinary class made a sauce for drizzling on top of theirs with sour cream, maple syrup and ceyenne pepper.  Also they used a sweet potato to thicken theirs, this recipe uses avocado.


   

Margaritas Luscious Chocolate Body Scrub ♥

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Margaritas Luscious Chocolate Body Scrub

I love sugar scrubs. Salt scrubs seem to dry my skin and hurt too much.   I know Hershey has its own chocolate spa, but I don't have the time or money to get there, so here is what I came up with.   I washed my face with this and licked my lips...omg LUSCIOUS!

1 C sugar

1½ T Cocoa Powder (not hot chocolate mix, real cocoa)

½ C coconut oil (warm so its liquid to be able to mix it easier)

2 T honey

Mix the sugar and cocoa first with a whisk, in another measuring cup or small bowl, mix the honey and coconut oil...than add the dry to wet.  

I'd store this in the fridge but its not necessary if you are going to use it up in a day or two

You can also use an oil if you prefer, olive, grapeseed, but I am a coconut oil lover for body products.

This will harden when its above 76° but its easy to melt it back down if you prefer to have it liquid, your warm bathroom will bring it right back to liquid or put it in the hot shower a min or two. 

Disclaimer:   I use brown wash rags and towels (I live with all men and brown is my fav masculine color so its what we have) so I can't say what this will do to your pretty wash rags. Use a dark one. It did rinse right off of my cloth shower curtain. 

Homemade Cheese-its

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I came across this awesome homemade cheese-its recipe.  They are so cute, and if you are going to eat junk food, making it yourself is one sure what to make sure you are not getting awful ingredients you can't even pronounce.
The ingredient list is so short and simple....Here is all you need.

Cheese-its

(adapted from “Ready Made” and a few other sources)

8 oz extra-sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely shredded

½ stick unsalted butter,  room temperature

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 c flour

2 T water, iced

See the full recipe with picture details on A Golden Afternoon.

Recycled Wine Bottle Torch.

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I am always in search of ways to reuse all of the wine bottles that appear in my recycling container (must be my darn wino neighbors hehe)
Here is a really cool garden use for them.
For the website I found this on, with full directions, click here
Here are some pics from the site to give you an idea of how easy it is...

Click on the picture to take you to the details and sizes of the parts.