Fudgy Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

March 28, 2015 by Christine Skari

Oh hey there, beautiful. I’ve been waiting for you my entire life. I want to stare into the depths of your chocolate-swirled beauty fooevaaaaa. And by stare I mean SHOVE IN MY FACE.

I know some of my readers are based in the lands of ice and snow, and I wish I could reach through the screen and offer up a condolence cupcake because California is lookin’ migghhhtttyy fine these past few weeks. I’m talking mid-70s to mid-80 degrees and nothing but sunshine. Spring is here! And you know what that means… I need to start preparing myself for all the healthy Spring produce that’s coming my way! With cupcakes! Because I wouldn’t want to be toooo healthy and a balanced diet for myself often includes a Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing in one hand and dessert in the other.

And yes yes yes, I know that strawberries are technically not quite in season yet, but can you blame me for wanting to spruce up a boring (albeit delicious) chocolate cupcake with some strawberry flair? They’re the food equivalent to sparkly sequins on a new dress. Who am I kidding. TOTALLY NECESSARY.

So let’s chat a bit more about these.

First, you start off with a decadent fudge brownie cupcake base that comes from the lovely Sally from Sally’s Baking Addiction. Then, you cleverly make and separate a quick buttercream frosting, adding diced strawberries in one part and cocoa powder in the other. Now, STOP! Put that spoon down and try your hardest to not eat half of it. Don’t ask me how I know this.

Moving on to more good things!

Here comes the fun part. Grab a trusty piping bag and tip (which can be found in must grocery stores for a very reasonable price) and stuff those cupcakes with the strawberry frosting, top them with a gorgeous swirl of the chocolate buttercream, top them with a strawberry, and sift powdered sugar/cocoa powder for garnish. BOOM.

And voila! Share or save them all for yourself. No one will ever know 😯 .

5-Ingredient Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Fudge

March 25, 2015 by Christine Skari

CHOCOLATE. PEANUT BUTTER. SEA SALT PRETZELS.

Someone please hold me as I pass out, because this is my kind of food.

The last few days have been nothing short of glorious. I finished my last final on Friday and am currently back at my parent’s house doing all my favorite things (read: photography, cooking, Netflix binge-watching, petting Kyle’s new puppy). Glorious, I tell ya. I know I’ve been MIA for the last week, but prepare to have recipes start to rain down on you. My goal for the next few months is to get 3 recipes up each week, along with more personal posts so I can add some more of myself into my little site.

Andddd here’s the first of the plethora of recipes coming! Meet my newest love, Peanut Butter Pretzel Fudge.

This recipe packs all my favorite things into a delectable bite-sized treat. With a fudgy chocolate base, thick peanut butter layer, and pretzels sprinkled with sea salt to lend the perfect crunch, this fudge has it all. Seriously, meander (and by that I mean RUN) to your kitchen and make this ASAP.

This recipe comes from Bake for the Border. One look at her mouthwatering photos, and I knew I had to try out the recipe for myself!

Easy 4-Ingredient Fudge Brownie Truffles

March 10, 2015 by Christine Skari

This is not a drill!

MAKE THESE RIGHT NOW. NOW NOW NOW NOW. You need these. trust me.

I’m trying to make this into a more coherent post, but I can’t. All I want to do is somehow accurately describe these in a way that makes you understand how insanely good they are. I’ve been waiting for a dessert like this my entire life. And poof! Just like that, they’re here. Well, not anymore since they’ve officially been demolished, but they’re here in spirit through these photos. HELLO, my beauts. I miss you. Come back to meee.

I’m not sure if you can tell, but I really like these. I know it can be kinda hard since I’m playing coy with my feelings for them *stuffs ten in mouth*, but they’ll do juuuuust fine for satisfying my sweet tooth. In fact, you might even be able to say that this recipe is one of my all-time favorites! Decadent layers of chocolate that include a brownie base (made easier by using box mix!), caramel-stuffed chocolate chips (THESE ARE A THING EVERYONE STAY CALM), a dreamy coating of milk chocolate, and a sprinkle of roughly chopped chocolate shavings because why not. They’re unreal. To the point of being a little ridiculous. I didn’t even know things could taste this good 😯 .

Oftentimes, I think we associate mind-blowingly good recipes with being super complicated and involving a million and a half ingredients to make. This recipe is the exact opposite and only involves 4 – yes, you heard me right- ingredients, yet gives a big WOW factor. Any taste testers will think these came straight out of the display case at a fancy bakery and it’s truly love at first bite.

To make this recipe extra special, I used one of my new favorite ingredients: Nestle’s DelightFulls Filled Morsels! You may remember them making their first appearance on the blog with my recipe for Fudgy Dark Chocolate Mint Cookies back in December, where I used the mint-stuffed morsels. You guys. Get to the store ASAP and pick up a back or 20 of these. They come in a variety of flavors including cherry filled, mint filled, caramel filled, and peanut butter filled. I guess you could say they’re filled with a lot of joy 😉 . Also, I can’t even tell if that was a pun or not because it was such a bad attempt at a joke hahah. Sorry- currently on a bit of sugar high!

Now go forth and add a bit more chocolate and a lot more deliciousness into your life!

This article is sponsored by Nestle Toll House

Iced Berry Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

January 27, 2015 by Christine Skari

Is it just me, or does it feel like an iced berry oatmeal breakfast muffin day?

Any of the following responses will do:

a.) DUH

b.) HECK YEA

c.) TEN. GIVE ME TEN. Wait, ALL OF THEM.

Healthy Iced Berry Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

Every morning for the last 3 weeks has followed somewhat of the same pattern. I get up at 6:45, basically fall down the stairs on my quest to get some liquid gold (aka coffee) into my veins, log on to my Bloglovin (shameless plug hehe) to read as many of my fellow bloggers posts as possible, realize it’s 15 minutes before I have to leave for class/head out for my run, rush rush rush to get ready, and either miss out on breakfast alltogether or grab a bar on my way out the door. I be moving like zooooooooom.

And guess what. Come the end of my lecture, I’m either starving or gettings all sorts of sad because I missed out on a real breakfast for a lousy little granola bar. I mean, I’m a healthy-ish food blogger for cryin’ out loud. I think I can do better than a pre-packaged snack for breakfast! And these put bars to shame because amidst the gloriously juicy and plump berries and vanilla icing, there’s fiber and healthy carbs and are those trumpet I’m hearing? Unleash the celebratory breakfast muffins trumpets!

These are very dense and filling due to the whole wheat flour and oats and contain no butter and are sweetened mostly by bananas and just a leeeetle sugar in the batch. And those perfectly tart berries? Don’t even get me started. They make me… berry happy. Also, can we just ignore how bad that pun was? You guys da best.

For those of you who like a bit of extra sweetness and prettiness, you can also add on the optional vanilla glaze. And by that I mean, DO IT.

Breakfast Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Shake

January 20, 2015 by Christine Skari

While I am absolutely loving my lecture schedule this quarter, it does have me up and running pretty early (early is a relative term- think in terms of a college student). I have three 8 a.m classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so I have to be up at 7 to get ready, eat breakfast, and bike from my house to campus to get there in time. I don’t start till 9:30 on Tuesday and Thursday, but I’ve gotten into the good habit of being out and running along the beach trails by 8 so I can get home in time to shower and get a bit less sweaty and a lot more presentable. So what does all of this mean for me in terms of my morning eats? The faster and easier the better!

Enter, my recipe for my Breakfast Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Shake!

Breakfast Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Shake- this tastes AMAZING and has over 27g of protein and 5g of fiber! And it makes a HUGE serving and is ready in less than 3 minutes!

This recipe could not get any simpler, faster, or more delicious! I literally whip this up in a half-asleep stupor most days and it only takes me about 3 minutes from start to finish. Not only is it quick, but it’s full of wholesome and good-for-you ingredients that give you your chocolate fix along with a whopping 25g of protein! There’s nothing I love more than a meal that not only tastes amazing, but also does amazing things for my body.

My secret ingredient for this recipe is Silk® Light Vanilla Almondmilk, which is a delicious substitute for milk. I didn’t know this till a little while ago, but Silk Almondmilk actually has 50% more calcium than dairy milk*, and absolutely no cholesterol and no saturated fat. It’s also lactose-free and doesn’t contain anyhigh-fructose corn syrup. Say whaaaaat?! So much goodness packed into just 60 calories a cup!

This recipe is as simple as throwing all of your ingredients into a blender, pressing a button, and slurping it down. It’s an especially good breakfast option for me since I usually can’t stomach too much solid foods early on in the morning, but I want some nutrients so I don’t crash in the middle of my classes/runs. Anyone else the same way?

Breakfast Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Shake- this tastes AMAZING and has over 27g of protein and 5g of fiber! And it makes a HUGE serving and is ready in less than 3 minutes!

I honestly can’t get over how tasty this shake is and it’s one of those recipes that I also would gladly drink for dessert. Dessert for breakfast? Yes please!

*(Same for both Original and Unsweetened) 45% DV calcium; dairy milk 30% DV. USDA National

Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 26. Data consistent with typical skim dairy milk.

Silk_product_image

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Silk for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.