Simple and Peanut-Free Cupcakes

On Sundays, my family likes to get together for "family dinner".  Yesterday, my sister hosted and made a ham, mashed potatoes, salad, beans, glazed carrots... oh and rolls, of course.  A feast, really. It was great!

I offered to make cupcakes.  My nephew, Jonathan, has a peanut allergy so we have to be pretty careful with baked goods.  At girls night a couple weeks ago, Rebecca brought mini cupcakes from Crumbs bakery.  They all had special little toppings and frosting flavors.  They were so good and served as my inspiration for yesterday's cupcakes.

To make my life easy, I decided to go with a boxed mix and then make the frosting from scratch.  My sister recommended a peanut-free brand that was available in the organic section (I also like this mix b/c it has very minimal ingredients). Graham crackers and chocolate chips that were processed in facilities without peanuts were sitting right next to the box on the shelf so I picked up those, too!

While the cupcakes were baking, I organized the toppings onto little plates.

I setup my kitchen table as the frosting/dipping table.

So I made two frostings.  Recipe via Giada here. I didn't make two batches separately like she does in the video. I just frosted the vanilla ones first and then added in the jam and more powered sugar to make the strawberry frosting.

Frost, dip, pack & serve.

Safe to say the kids enjoyed :)

Have a great week... make it awesome. xo.

Avocado, Egg, Feta

I just got back from boxing a little while ago.  The class was particularly intense today (which was awesome) so I wanted to make a lunch that had a good amount of protein.  Lately, I've been making salads for lunch at work with avocado, egg, & feta.  It is such a delectable little combo.  Usually I only use one egg, but after today's class, I knew I needed a little bit more protein.  Eggs got a bad wrap for a while, but really, they are so good for you.  

Here are the ingredients & benefits:

New England Farmhouse Grown Tomatoes: Lycopene, antioxidants, vitamin C (I don't like buying tomatoes anywhere but USA).  This time of year, local greenhouses are the way to go.
Avocado: Omega-3's, Fiber. (the healthy fats in avocados help absorb the nutrients in the salad) 
USDA Organic Eggs: Choline & Protein.  Choline reduces inflammation and is great for brain health. You've got to buy ORGANIC when it comes to eggs. Just the label "cage free" doesn't protect you.  
Carrots: Beta-carotene, vitamins A&C
Feta: Tastes yummy, calcium, has less calories and fat per serving than most cheeses. (So there you go.)
Organic Baby Spinach: Such a power food, you name it, it's in it. Fiber, Vitamin C, A, K, & the B's. 

Honestly, just eating these pretty little tomatoes & avo with some olive oil would have made me happy.

Sometimes, I get the boil perfect.  Happy little eggs.

Finished product.  I dressed it with lemon juice and a yogurt feta dressing that doesn't have any preservatives or nonsense oils in it.  I found it at foodies.  I should have taken the photo before I dressed it, it was really quite pretty before.

Have a fabulous weekend. xo.