Vanilla Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting (gfcf)

I made these yummy GFCFSFYF Gluten free, Casein free, Soy free and Yeast free) Vanilla Spice cupcakes  with Cinnamon Frosting for Liam's classroom on Thursday, they turned out really well!

I used Pamelas Vanilla Cake mix, and mixed in 1 1/2 TBS of Pumpkin Pie spice which essentially is just a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.

I followed the instructions on the bag for cupcakes. 

For the frosting I used the following ingredients:

 1/2 C coconut butter (which is soooooooo good, i love it and use it with many things in place of butter)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 C powdered sugar
1 tsp almond/coconut milk (this is what we use in our house as our everyday milk. Jason is the only one who still uses cow milk for his morning oatmeal, even the babies drink this as their regular milk in their bottles. So much healthier! And no hormones and weird processed junk!)
To make the frosting use a stand mixer or hand mixer.Beat the butter at a medium-high speed.
Add the cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, and beat until it’s creamy smooth, scrape the sides as needed. Add the milk little by little to see if it needs more or less liquid. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes or more.Frost once cupcakes are cool. I also added a few dashes of colored sugar (which i normally avoid due to food coloring not being very good for you, but i wanted to make them more festive and had some on hand. To each their own!)

You can find all of the gfcf ingredients i used at your local grocery store, in the health food (or should i say real food lol) section.

Enjoy! 

Love and light, 

A

Christmas cookies and treats: Our favorite family recipe traditions.

Buckeyes

4 cups creamy peanut butter

4 sticks butter at room temp

3 lbs confectioners sugar

2 packages (12 oz size) chocolate chips

1/2 bar of paraffin

Mix peanut butter and butter together.

Add confectioners sugar in by the cup, until smooth.

Form small balls then refrigerate.

Next melt paraffin and chocolate chips together on top of a double boiler of a heavy saucepan.

Using a toothpick, dip cold balls into chocolate.

Let dry on wax paper.

Makes about 166 candies. 

Brigadeiros and Snowballs

Brigadeiros 

3 tbs powdered cocoa

3 tbs butter

3 14 oz cans condensed mild (NOT evaporated)

Chocolate Sprinkles

Combine cocoa, butter and condensed milk in saucepan. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until mixture is very thick. This will take approx 10 minutes and mixture will resemble caramel.

Remove from heat and cool until lukewarm.

Butter hands and roll mixture into small 1 inch balls. Roll balls in chocolate sprinkles. 

Snowballs

1 cup butter softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tbs water

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup sifted powdered sugar

Colored sugar or colored edible glitter

In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for about 30 seconds. Add the granulated sugar and beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in water and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour and the chopped pecans. 

Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place 1 inch apart on an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake in a 325 degree oven about 20 minutes or until bottoms are light brown. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely. 

In each of 3 small bowls place 1/3 cup of the sifted powdered sugar.  Add a different color of edible glitter or colored sugar to each. Gently roll and shake cooled cookies in desired powdered sugar mixture.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

2 large eggs

2 cups smooth peanut butter

2 cups sugar

60 chocolate Hershey kisses

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Beat together eggs, peanut butter and sugar. Shape dough in to small balls and place 1 inch apart on baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and press kisses down onto balls. transfer to rack to cool. 

Sugar Cookies

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 stick of butter flavored Crisco shortening

2 eggs

1/4 cup light corn syrup or regular pancake syrup

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups all purpose flour (plus 4 tbs divided)

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Decorations- Your choice, granulated sugar, colored sugar crystals, frosting, candies, chips, nuts, raisins, coconut, decorating gel.... we did plain white frosting this year to avoid the addition of food coloring :)

Heat oven to 375.  Place sheets of foil on counter top for cooling cookies. 

Combine sugar and butter flavored Crisco in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, syrup, and vanilla. Beat until well blended and fluffy.

Combine 3 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add gradually to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix until well blended. Divide dough into 4 quarters. If dough is too sticky or too soft to roll wrap each quarter of dough with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least one hour.

Spread 1 tbsp of flour on large sheet of wax paper. Place 1/4 of cough on floured paper. Flatten slightly with hands. Turn dough over and cover with another large sheet of wax paper. Roll dough into 1/4 inch thickness. 

Cut out with floured cutter. Transfer to un-greased baking sheet with a large spatula. Place 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with gran sugar or colored sugar crystals or leave plain to frost once cooled. 

Bake one baking sheet at a time at 375 for 5 to 9 minutes.  DO NOT OVER BAKE. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove cookies to foil to cool completely, then frost if desired. 

 Makes about 3-4 dozen. 

Magic Bars 

1/2 cup margarine or butter

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (6 oz) package semi sweet chocolate chips

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 (325 for glass) 

In a 13x9 inch baking pan, melt margarine in oven. Sprinkle crumbs over margarine then pour condensed milk evenly over crumbs. Top with remaining ingredients and press down with a spatula. Bake 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Chill if desired. Cut into bars.

Enjoy!

Love and light, 

A

AhMazingly Delish Chicken Enchiladas

I make these Chicken Enchiladas at least once or twice a month, and if i have ever had you over for dinner more than a few times you have probably tried them :)

I never knew just how delicious enchiladas could really be until i made these. I really feel like the key is in making your own sauce from scratch. And we like our spicy and extra saucy!

It is a recipe that requires a little bit of time, but once you get make it a few times, its a piece of cake. 

So worth the little bit of extra effort !

I originally got the recipe off the My Colombian Recipes website. 

If you have checked out some of my other Favorite Recipe posts, you know i get a lot of recipes off her site.There are some seriously delicious things on there to try let me tell ya! 

We like having extra sauce left over to put on our enchildas once they are done so i doubled the sauce recipe  and make ours a bit more spicy. 

Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil 
6-10 dried árbol chili to your taste
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
6 cups chopped tomatoes (I tend to use canned petite diced tomatoes. Easy and less expensive)
4 cups chicken stock (You will use the broth from your boiled chicken breasts- see below-)

4 cups Monterrey jack cheese
Salt and pepper
1 pack of corn tortillas (These are the yellow ones not the white flour ones. The taste and texture DO make a difference. The amount you use will depend on how much chicken you make and how much of the chicken, cheese and sauce you use to place in them, i don't like a skinny enchilada so i fill mine up, yum)
4 -6 cups cooked and shredded chicken (I use approx 4 bone in chicken breasts, boil them with a chopped onion and drop a few whole garlic cloves in too)
sour cream
Fresh cilantro, chopped
Salsa for garnish
Vegetable oil for warming the corn tortillas

First thing you want to do is boil your bone in chicken breasts. You will need the broth to make the sauce.
As i mentioned above, i add a whole chopped onion to the water along with a few whole garlic cloves for extra flavor. You will need to boil your chicken for approx 45 min.s or until done.

Once you have your chicken cooked, drain the breasts through a colander into a large pot to save your broth for the sauce. 

Set chicken breasts aside to cool and shred later, while your sauce is simmering.

To make the sauce- In a large pan over medium low heat , warm the olive oil. Add the garlic and chili and sauté until just golden, 5 to 7 minutes. (I do medium low because anything higher on my stove will burn the garlic and you don't want to do that. So keep and eye on the garlic and have your other ingredients ready to put in. I also chop my dried arbol chilis and get rid of the stems)

Stir in the cumin and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds more.
Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and the chicken broth. Stir and cook over medium-low heat for about 15-30 minutes.

While the sauce simmers, go ahead and shred your chicken and set aside.

In a food processor or blender, process the sauce mixture to a smooth puree, in batches if necessary.

BE CAREFUL. If you don't wait for it to cool, which i never do- the sauce will be VERY HOT and will expand while pureeing or blending, so DONT OVERFILL. I use a kitchen towel to put over my food processor or blender while pureeing to avoid messes (and burns lol)

Return the puree to the pan and set over medium heat for 5-10 minutes more & set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Heat vegetable oil in a large fry pan over medium heat. Heat the tortillas in the hot pan until softened, about 20 seconds per side. I am used to doing this by now so i do a few at a time. When you first start out, just do 1 or 2 at a time so you dont fry them to a crisp.

Lightly oil a baking dish large enough to hold your enchiladas side by side. I make a lot so i end up using a large baking dish AND smaller 9 by 9. (Jason likes to take the smaller dish to work and share with his co-workers (= )

Place shredded chicken down the center of a tortilla, sprinkle the chicken filling with cheese and drizzle with sauce. Roll up the tortilla and place it in the dish, seam side down. Repeat until you have formed all of your enchiladas.

Drizzle the remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas and top with the remaining cheese. We like ours saucy and cheesy so i pretty much DROWN the enchiladas in sauce, and just add as much cheese as we like on top.

Bake the enchiladas on 350 degrees until the filling is bubbling and the cheese is melted and golden, about 20 minutes. 

To serve- carefully transfer enchiladas to each plate, garnish with the sour cream, salsa and fresh cilantro and serve immediately.

I like to pair with a side of saffron rice and some shredded lettuce as well. 

So, so, so good. 

Let me know what you think!

-Alex