Baked Blueberry Doughnuts

Of course I am on a diet NOW, but I've been holding onto this doughnut recipe for a long time now and this is the perfect time to share it with all of you non-dieters out there (oh, how I wish I could join you). For all you readers who wish to indulgence in these delicious doughnuts enjoy, enjoy (and PLEASE DO eat one for me!). They are a baked doughnut, so they are half-way good for you.

I could have doughnuts every morning for breakfast. The corner doughnut shop, to these super delicious homemade doughnuts and anything inbetween. I LOVE doughnuts, they are SO good. I have a few doughnut recipes on here and I am sure this won't be my last.

Baked Blueberry Doughnuts
recipe found at A Well-Seasoned Life, originally from King Arthur Flour

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons buttermilk (or regular milk)
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons water
½ cup blueberries

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Crush your berries with the back of a fork. In a separate bowl, mix together milk, eggs, oil, blueberries and water. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Bake at 325 degrees for 16-18 minutes in a 6-doughnut pan or in a mini doughnut maker according to manufacturer directions. Alternatively, you can bake them in lined mini muffin tins for 7-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. While the doughnuts are cooling make your glaze.

For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Water

Mix together powdered sugar and lemon juice. Add water 1 teaspoon at a time until it reaches a thick drizzling consistency. Drizzle glaze over cooled doughnuts and enjoy! Yields: 8 regular or 24-30 mini doughnuts.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Heart Marshmallow {inside}

Happy Valentine's Day, and here is another FUN recipe with the Strawberry Heart Marshmallows. We took one of our favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes (read all about MY Husband's Favorite Recipe here) folded a heart marshmallow inside and came out with these beautiful cookies.

The taste was delicious, as any homemade chocolate chip cookie should be, but with the added surprise of a melted strawberry marshmallow inside every bite. And since they are PINK it just makes everything better. I LOVE PINK, and actually this chocolate chip cookie recipe is really growing on me, it's now my go to recipe. I learned a few tricks and I keep improving my cookie baking techniques. Did you know to make your round cookie dough taller rather then wider will yield in a thicker cookie (tried it and it totally works).

Crisco Chocolate Chip Cookies

from Crisco

3/4 stick Crisco Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening

1-1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

1-3/4 cups All Purpose Flour

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

1-1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 heart marshmallow for each cookie

Heat oven to 375ºF. Combine shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt and baking soda and whisk together. Mix into shortening mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Take a spoonful of dough and wrap around one heart marshmallow. Make sure your dough is taller then it is wide and place on cookie sheet to bake.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies, or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet on a cooling rack. Remove cookies to rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Marshmallows

 The Valentine's Day strawberry marshmallows that are out in stores are so cute, I just can't help myself every time I pass by them in the grocery store I want to pick up a bag. I've already made a few fun things, check out these SUPER DUPER CUTE Chocolate Chip Cookies with Heart Marshmallows and last year these Heart Brownie Bites.

I had planned out an entire PINK Baby Shower using lots of pink, lots of hearts and lots of awesome ideas with these heart marshmallows, including the cutest dessert bar ever.

But, today I wanted to share this cute gift idea for a great Valentine's Day treat. These are a simple treat all you need to do is just dip the marshmallows in some of your favorite melting chocolate, decorate and bam a super cute Valentine's gift. Have your kids give them away to special friends or teachers or make them for your co-workers, either way they are sure to make someone smile.

TIP #1: When buying lots of holiday M&M's I've got lots of tips and tricks for saving them up and separating the colors. Whenever there are holiday M&M's out in the stores, I gather up my coupons (usually stocking up the day after for the half price sale) and using coupons and getting them at half price they are a steal. I bring them all home and separate the colors into baggies (this is WAY cheaper then buying M&M's buy the color at a store or online). I then store them in their separate baggies in my baking cupboard until an event takes place. I've used the red for a sports party, the pink for a PINK Baby Shower and the list goes on and on. I love having all the colors of the rainbow at my finger tips and whenever my hubby and I go to the movies our favorite thing is M&M's and popcorn. I can just grab a colored baggie and throw them in my purse (totally beats paying $4 bucks at the theatre for a small box).

TIP #2: Melting Chocolate. When you are finished using melting chocolate and you have some left overs, it's very easy to just re-harden in small disks and re-use later. I take all the left over melting chocolate and drop in small spoonfuls on wax paper. Let re-harden over night and then store in a baggie until you need to remelt and reuse for another project.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Marshmallow
original idea spotted on Pinterest from Monster Mama

Strawberry Marshmallows
Melting Chocolate
White Melting Chocolate
Valentine's Day M&M's

Melt your milk chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Using a toothpick dip each heart marshmallow in the chocolate until it's completely covered. Lay out on wax paper and immediately set a Valentine's colored M&M on the center. Let dry. Melt a few melting chips of white chocolate into a small ziploc baggie, in the microwave. Once melted cut off a small corner and then decorate. I slid the marshmallows onto a skewer before placing into a long baggie, but this is not necessary. Tie with a cute bow and deliver.

Chocolate Chip Cookies w/Heart Marshmallows

Here is a quick and easy recipe if you've discovered those adorable little heart marshmallows in the grocery stores. Here is our favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (repeated) or use your own favorite recipe, add in a package of pink M&M's and here's an out of this world delicious cookie.

Chocolate Chip Cookies w/Heart Marshmallows
cookie recipe source unknown, heart idea all my own

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg & 1 egg yolk
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup Pink M&M's
1 pkg Pink Heart Marshmallows

Preheat oven to 325. Grease cookie sheets. Sift together flour, baking soda & salt; set aside. In a medium bowl , cream together melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in vanilla and eggs until light and creamy, mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and M&M's by hand. Drop cookie dough on to cookie sheets and bake 10-12 minutes. As soon as you remove from the oven press heart marshmallow into the center of each cookie, allow to sit for about 1 minute and then go back and press a second time lightly with your finger, this will ensure that the semi-melted marshmallow will adhere to the cookie.

Cantina Steak Burrito {Taco Bell}

With Taco Bell's new Cantina menu, even on a diet you can still find a healthy fresh fast-food solution. I've been eating Taco Bell for as long as I can remember, it's now one of my son's favorite places to eat. I am usually a creature of habit and have the same thing each time I visit. There are about 4 or 5 menu items that are on my list and I just rotate through them. So, trying out the NEW Cantina Steak Burrito was a treat for me.

It was a Sunday afternoon, my son and I decided to stay in our pj's and have a relaxing day at home (yes, it was Super Bowl Sunday too, but with the hubby working, we never even turned it on). My son enjoyed his video games and (me) mommy was in her scrapbook room watching chick-flicks all day long. It really was a PERFECT Sunday afternoon.

When we got a little hungry I decided to head through the Taco Bell drive thru (yep, in my pj's). The NICE thing about drive-thru's no one cares what you are wearing. I ordered my son's usual items and I purchased the Cantina Steak Burrito for myself. I decided to just stick with the one item this time and I am glad I did, the burrito is HUGE. It's a great size and can even be split with a friend or family member. I know if my husband had been home, this would have surely filled him up with one burrito.

The Cantina Burrito is filled with thick cut steak, rice, black beans and guacamole. It also has pico de gallo, and a roasted corn & pepper salsa and to top it off it has creamy cilantro dressing, all of these things are VERY DELICIOUS! The two flavors that stood out to me were the fresh guacamole and the creamy cilantro dressing, these two elements were my favorite part of this new burrito. When I saw that there was a Cantina Bowl too, it's now next on my list to try. I encourage all of you to stop by local Taco Bell and try out the new Cantina menu, I don't think you will be disappointed.

"As part of the DailyBuzz Food Tastemaker Program,

I received a stipend for this post, but the opinions are mine"

This post is sponsored by Taco Bell. See how great our steak is when you try the new Cantina Steak Burrito. Because when it comes to a great steak burrito, it's all about the steak.