Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes

Happy St. Patrick's Day (click here for over 70 GREEN recipes from THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS linky party), and boy do I have a special GREEN recipe for you today! This is OUT OF THIS WORLD! My daughter said this is the best cupcake I have EVER made. And considering I bake all the time, I take it that this is one of those FOREVER keep recipes. I first got my inspiration from another girl scout cookie cupcakes I made last week Peanut Butter Patty Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes and then another blogger Ladybird Ln linked up this recipe Chocolate Mint Cupcakes which is almost exactly what I was thinking. And so as the Irish would say.........

Kayley & Ashley

I really hope you ALL decide to make this DELICIOUS CUPCAKE... I guarantee you will not be disappointed. We made these for one of my girls BEST FRIENDS for her birthday (which was yesterday.... "SWEET" 18th Birthday Ashley)!

Ashlyn & Ashley

My girls have spent the last 5 years with Ashley (which they meet at their Jr. & Sr. High School). I know they are really gonna miss her next year (as they are Juniors and she is a Senior this year)!  It just won't be the same without her! Maybe with a little LUCK they will all end up at the same college!

Now onto this cupcake extravaganza.... and yes I've already txt'd and facebook'ed a few folks so I can try and buy some more girl scout cookies, CUZ WE ARE ALL OUT!!! And I know we will need to make these cupcakes again soon! (Now if only I could make a GLUTEN-FREE version, I guess I will have to get started on that too!)

Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes

from Tina Hudgens with Inspiration from Others

Chocolate Cake Mix, we used Triple Chocolate or Devil's Food Cake (follow directions on the back, then crush one tube of the cookies very finely and mix in the batter)

White Cake Mix (follow directions on the back; and then add 6 to 8 drops of Green Food Coloring to mixture)

Fill the mini-cupcake tin with half chocolate and half "green" cake mixture and bake as directed by the box. About 12-14 minutes. Cool and then frost.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
from Magnolia Bakery in New York City
frosting recipe updates 10-13-11

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
6-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
Green Food Coloring

Place butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the powdered sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On medium speed in an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly.

Crush a few additional Thin Mint Cookies to decorate with. 

Scrambled Eggs with (hidden) Cauliflower (GLUTEN & DAIRY FREE)

Simple breakfast recipe, that adds in an extra veggie to my kids meals so that I can rest assured they are getting in enough veggies for the day. I purchased a wonderful cookbook (Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food) a while ago, when I was having a really hard time getting my son to eat anything that was remotely good for him. This cookbook saved my life at the time and left me with a few tricks up my sleeve that I still continue to this day. This is one of my favorites, adding in puree cauliflower to scrambled eggs, I also add cauliflower to mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes to Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.

Scrambled Eggs w/Puree Cauliflower

4 eggs

1/4 cup puree cauliflower (I store these little cups you see in the photo in my freezer, microwave them for 40 seconds and have them on had at all times)

Add 4 eggs in a bowl, add in your puree cauliflower, whisk and scramble them up on the stove top. They can NOT taste the cauliflower at all, and if you think they can, add in a little graded cheese and your good to go!

I am excited to do my first review for CSN Stores. Check out the cool Le Creuset line. I received one of these for Christmas from my husband and I have yet to use it, but I am excited about finding a recipe to cook in my new pan!

I LOVE Linky Parties and it's Wednesday.... almost Friday! Come on everyone... "WE CAN DO THIS"! What a great way to mix and mingle with lots of bloggers (and find FABULOUS recipes)! Today, this recipe is linked to the following linky parties: Creative Share Wednesdays, Gold Star Wednesdays, Let's Do Brunch, Living Well Wednesdays, Show & Tell, Wandering Wednesday, What's Cooking Wednesday, Works for Me Wednesday, Homemaking Link-Up, Whats on the Menu Wednesday, What's on Your Plate, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Gluten-Free Wednesdays, Real-Food Wednesday and Food & Health Carnival

Family Meal Plan (3-14-11) and Freezer Cooking

Click here to see previous week's Family Meal Planning! 

I am a FREEZER Cooking girl! I just LOVE the feeling of having meals in the freezer at all times. So, much so that I once owned a restaurant/meal prep business called Dinners Ready (for those familiar with Dream Dinners, same kind of business). My restaurant business was short-lived because of circumstances beyond my control (and yes, I do MISS it very much). But the "freezer technique" of prepping and cooking has never died. And believe me, I froze meals long before owning a Dinners Ready store and I am sure I will be doing it long after too. The feeling of having so many meals stored in my freezer and able to use at a seconds notice is an unbelievable feeling of relief.

A few weekends ago I did an all-day cooking adventure with hamburger meat and this weekend I will be stocking up on chicken meals for the freezer. Now, this is not the pre-cooked, throw in the freezer for left-over type of meals (many of them are rarely ever cooked first), these are fresh meat, easy to throw together meals that just happen to be 100% ready (but stored in the freezer). I also want to point out, that you do NOT have to do an all-day cooking extravaganza to get your freezer stocked up. I also make DOUBLE meals on many other days in the middle of the week, we eat one and freeze one. This is the QUICKEST and EASIEST way to get your freezer stocked up (without cooking all day). Tonight if you are making spaghetti, then I encourage you to DOUBLE the batch, eat half and put the other half away in a ziploc bag to freeze for another day, if you are making a pan of Lasagna (make two), if you are cooking up soup (a double batch is a MUST). This is also how my freezer STAYS full all month long. As one meal comes out, I know in a day or two another one of my DOUBLE meals will land it's way back into the freezer the same week.

Here is what I am making & freezing this weekend (recipes coming soon... as soon as I can cook them all and get some good pictures for you to enjoy): Honey Chicken, Cream of Chicken Enchilada's, Pesto-Balsamic Chicken, Chicken Chili Rellenos, Chicken Artichoke and Parmesan Chicken

And here is another list of MANY recipes that are on my blog, that can be prepared and frozen for later:
Applesauce Meatballs: pre-make and cook, then freeze
BBQ Chicken (Crock-Pot): Cook in crock-pot, shred and then freeze for tacos
Chicken Crescent Rolls: I will freeze just the chicken mixture of this recipe
Cream of Broccoli Soup (GLUTEN-FREE & DAIRY-FREE)
(G'ma) Goulash: This recipe must be fully made before you can freeze
Grandma's Homemade Rolls: I try and ALWAYS have a batch of these in my freezer
Hamburger Pie : This is a PERFECT meal for the freezer
Hummus Mushroom & Potato Soup
Lasagna: I have never ever made just one pan of Lasagna at a time, I make at least 3 or 4 & freeze
Marinated Steak: I marinate ALL steak before I freeze, the marinate soaks in the whole time it's freezing and un-thawing
Pizza Sauce: we always have too much pizza sauce, we use half and freeze half
Salsa Chicken
Shepherd's Pie
(G'ma) Simple Spaghetti Sauce
Sloppy Joes
Ultimate Patty Melt: premake patties, but do not cook, just freeze

I also freeze ALL cookies and ALL muffins. A muffin for breakfast or a dessert anytime (you can defrost them, add them to kids lunches and/or pop in the microwave for 30 seconds and have a nice HOT, FRESH homemade cookie anytime day or night):
Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Bananaberry Muffins
Banana Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Butter Cookies
Chocolatey Pumpkin Cookies
Magic Sweet Potato Muffins
Red Velvet Cake Balls
Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies
Snickerdoodle Cookies
Sour Cream Blueberry-Blackberry Muffins

I also want to give you a few helpful hints on freezing meals in hopes that a few of you busy moms will try this (especially if you have never done it before, I PROMISE you will LOVE IT!) I have done this not only for myself on a regular bases, but I have used this when a big event is going on, a baby is about to arrive or a surgery is planned, if I have family in town for a long period of time and want all the meals ready to defrost and cook, I use this for camping in our motorhome too (then I never have to worry about bringing ALL the spices needed for each meal), there are so many reasons to use Freezer Cooking. I really hope you give it a try, and if you have any questions feel free to ask away and I will do my best to answer them.

MOMS CRAZY COOKING Freezer Tips

• Make a DOUBLE Batch of any freezable meal (each and every time you cook). Package it up and add it to your freezer for later.
• I usually use foil disposable pans (but not always), sometimes I use my regular pans (as long as you can live without them for a few weeks), until you cook that meal. OR my favorite thing to use is large freezer ziploc bags (this was learned during my Dinners Ready meal prep days). We put EVERYTHING in a Ziploc, from meat to sauces, veggies and anything in between. It saves a TON of space in your freezer too.
• I don't bother with fancy labels, I just have a Sharpie handy and write on the foil or ziploc (ex: Lasagna: Cook at 350 for 1 hour) and if you wish include the date too. Nothing stays in my freezer that long, so I never worry about the date.
• Thawing out the meals is not a necessity (for most meals), but it does help. I never find the that I need the meals so last minute that I don't have time to thaw them out (If I am running that behind, we've usually already ran through a drive-thru.... sorry just keepin' it real). I usually wake up in the morning and say "Hey, How about a Meatloaf or a Lasagna tonight", I go to the freezer, grab a fresh HOMEMADE Lasagna, stick it in the refrigerator and by the time I get home from work at 3pm, I may leave it on the counter for an hour or so and then into the oven it goes and I feel like WOW... I could have slaved all day to make this, but I am otherwise just SOOOO happy I had one of these in the freezer ready and waiting for one of those rushed to busy to think about dinner days!
• There you have it just a few simple steps to make FREEZER COOKING another added JOY to your life instead of a stressful situation!

That's our Family Meal Plan for this week. I'd love to hear if you have any short cuts, tricks or tips.

Check back and we will link the actual recipe!

(not all recipes will become reality so if there is not a link, we haven't made it yet)

Banana Smoothie (from Food Network Smoothie book this month)

Best BBQ Burgers

Banana-Chip Yogurt

Baked Egg Rolls

Crab Salad w/Lemon & Parsley

"Green" Pancakes

Mozzarella Chicken (my famous recipe)

Eggs on Toast

Lasagna (a freezer meal)

Magic Sweet Potato Muffins (muffins from the freezer)

I LOVE Linky Parties, what a great way to mix and mingle with lots of bloggers! Today, I am sharing my Menu Planning & My BUDGET Grocery Shopping with: I'm and Organizing Junkie: Meal Plan Monday, GCC Shopping Round Up, Frugal Friday, and Frugal Free Friday
And the recipe today will be shared with: It's a Blog Party Delicious Dishes, Hearth n' Soul Blog Hop, Made from Scratch Tuesday, Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits, Dr. Laura's Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Titus 2sday Linkup, Tuesday Night Supper Club, Get Your Craft On, Tip Junkie's Tip Me Tuesday, A Little Birdie Told Me and Tuesdays at the Table 

My 17-year old daughter has written a beautiful letter about one of her teachers and we would LOVE for you to CLICK-READ and VOTE for her to have a chance to win up to $3,000 for a College Scholarship. If just HALF of my daily readers CLICK and VOTE, she would make it to the TOP 10 TODAY!!!!

PLEASE VOTE FOR KAYLEY!!!

Also don't forget our weekly linky party

this week is "EVERYTHING Green for St. Patrick's Day"

"THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS"

THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS LINKY PARTY #20 (Go GREEN!!!) and St. Patrick's Day Frog Smoothie (GLUTEN-FREE)

THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS Linky Party #20

The Theme is: GO GREEN for St. Patrick's Day Celebration

St. Patrick's is not a big holiday celebration around our house, but we do always make sure we wear our GREEN as we head out the door in the morning. This year will be no different, but this year we will be making sure we celebrate with lots of GREEN food. And since St. Patrick's Day is just a few days away, I can't wait to see what GREEN food you all bring to the blog hop party! I would love to see some GREEN cookies or some GREEN cupcakes. I will have to make them as soon as you share the recipe with all of us!

I came across this Frog Nog on Sister's Cafe Blog, where I spent the entire day on Friday printing out recipe after recipe of some amazing things I want to try. But since GREEN food day was coming first, I thought this recipe was perfect (plus I had some left-over spinach in the refrigerator)! This smoothie is so sweet and as long as you can get past the GREEN color, it is actually one of the best smoothies I have ever made.

St. Patrick's Frog Smoothie (GLUTEN-FREE)
adapted from original recipe found on Sister's Cafe Blog

2-4 cups spinach or other greens (I use mixed spinach and arugula)

1 banana
1/4 cup crushed pineapple
1 tbsp Honey
1 Vanilla Yogurt

Fill food processer (works MUCH better then a blender) with greens and a few tbsp of water. Pulse to blend until the greens turn to liquid greens. Add in banana, pineapple, honey and yogurt and continue to blend until smooth. Pour into the glass and serve!

(My daughter is still in the running for another COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP! PLEASE VOTE, if you would! Just click, read and VOTE for my daughter Kayley. She wrote a beautiful essay about an amazing teacher she has at school. THANKS AGAIN for VOTING!)

I LOVE Linky Parties and it's MONDAY already! Let's do this bloggers... it's a fresh start to a NEW week! I can't wait to mix and mingle with all of you and see what has been cooking in your kitchens! Today, this recipe is linked to the following linky parties: Homemaker Monday, I Made It Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up, Made by You Mondays, Making the World Cuter, Market Yourself Monday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Mouthwatering Monday, Just Another Meatless Monday, Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays, It's a Blog Party Delicious Dishes, and My Meatless Mondays

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Now onto the LINKY PARTY! Please only link recipes with our theme!
This week's theme is: GO GREEN for St. Patrick's Day Celebration

Here is a complete list of the past weeks and a list of what's coming up on This Week's Cravings!

The SIMPLE Rules: (Click for complete list of guidelines for This Week's Cravings)

If you are a regular link-up we're excited to see what you have to share! If you are new please read & follow the simple rules, so everyone can enjoy the linky party! If you forget to link back or add a button IN YOUR post you will receive a gentle reminder to add it. THANKS A MILLION!

<a href=" http://momscrazycooking.blogspot.com/search/label/THIS%20WEEKS%20CRAVINGS" target="_blank "><img src="http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k498/Hudgens6/Buttons/ThisWeeksCravingsButton.jpg" /></a>

Please Grab Our Button!!!

This Week's Cravings Past & Future Recipe Links

March 7 - Romantic Dinner Recipes

March 14 - St. Patricks Celebration - GO GREEN!!!

March 21 - Chocolate - Chocolate and more Chocolate !!!

March 28 - "Surprise" Ingredient

April 4 - HUBBY COOKS (I can't wait to see what the husbands come up with)

This is a BLOG HOP Party so please visit other links
and meet some great BLOGGERS!

Peanut Butter Patties (Tag-a-longs) Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes

This is my cute little nephew (2-1/2 years old) eating his way through this delicious Peanut Butter Patties Cupcake. This blog post is also one of thee funniest photo shoots to date here on MOMS CRAZY COOKING.

I was babysitting my nephew (and one of his sisters too) but he just LOVES Aunt Tina's Cupcakes. He knows everytime I see him, stop by his house, or he comes to my house that most likely I will always have somekind of cupcake for him. This time I thought it would be fun to have him bake some with me.


He was a riot taking pictures, best model I've had so far. I would tell him, I need a picture of this or that, make sure you look this way or that way? And he would do just what I asked him. I think my sister needs to tap in on that talent. He would be a perfect model. Even when I wanted the perfect picture of him taking a bite of the cupcake, he put it right to his mouth and said "is this good", "did you get it", and "okay am I done now", "can I take a real bite". IT WAS SO DANG CUTE!!! I could of cooked all day with him, but cupcakes were as far as we got.

The outcome though was these one-of-a-kind outrageously delicious, better then any peanut butter cupcake I have ever tasted Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes. That thank goodness we can only make these a few times a year, when those cute little girl scouts come around selling there delicious cookies. If you see them outside the store, know any girls that still have cookies to sell, then I suggest you get some Peanut Butter Tag-a-Long (or Peanut Butter Patties), so you can make these AWESOME Cupcakes.  I found this recipe over at Inside BruCrew Life and I just knew I had to try them and I am SOOOO happy I did!

Peanut Butter Patties Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes
originally found at Inside BruCrew Life

1 box vanilla cake mix
1 box Peanut Butter Patties (Tag-a-Longs) Girl Scout Cookies

Preheat oven to 350. Place liners in a cupcake pan. Make up the cake mix according to the directions on the box. Put about 2 Tbsp of cake batter into the liner, then set in one cookie on top. Finish off each cupcake with the rest of the batter. Fill it at least 3/4 of the way full. Bake 22-24 minutes. Let cool and then frost with Honey Peanut Butter Cream, add sprinkles and eat!

Honey Peanut Butter Frosting
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
4-5 cups powdered sugar

Cream butter and peanut butter. Add the water, salt, and vanilla and cream again. Slowly add the powdered sugar until desired thickness. After all the sugar is added, beat in another 1-2 Tbsp water (optional). Then beat in the honey until creamy. (Make sure that it doesn't get to creaming)

It's the WEEKEND, a great time for any kind of PARTY including Linky Parties! Today, we will link this recipe to: Check Me Out Saturday, Cookbook Sundays, It's Party Time, Recipe Swap Sundays, Sister Sister Sunday, One Food Club, Sweets for Saturday, Spotlight Saturday, Sundae Scoop, Muffin Monday, Cupcake Tuesday and Potluck Sunday