Happy Halloween!

We just got back from Irvine where we went Trick or Treating with good friends of ours. It was so much fun as always.

I hope every who reads this had a safe and fun Halloween as well.

Did you know...

Pumpkins were once recommended for removing
freckles and curing snakebites.

The largest pumpkin
pie ever made weighed over 350 pounds.

It's been a while!

I received an email from a friend today asking if I was ever going to post to my blog again? LOL! Good question I thought. I cannot believe I haven't blogged since August. Have I been busy? Yes. Have I been just too tired to want to sit and type? Probably. But mostly, I really have had nothing to write about.

Things have just been nutty. Work, the biz which is still just under a year old, J in a new school...YAY HARBOUR VIEW, Dave working crazy hours at AAA, birthday parties, skating on Saturday's, illness, you name it! I can come up with 1000 reasons why I haven't been here.

So what the heck are you all doing? I need to catch-up on the blog reading. I have been so out of touch. What are the latest cupcake trends? What book has Rena been up to? How are my Aussie and English friends? What are the give away trends these days? What political stuff is my Lil Sis writing about? It seems that if it's not on FB, then I am totally out of the loop.

Yes, this was pretty much a post just to post. But maybe it's a jump start to more blogging. We'll see!

Easiest Meatballs Ever!

There are only so many hours in a day so of course whenever I can take a shortcut and still make a great and inexpensive meal I am a happy person! So here is my recipe for the easiest and a great tasting spaghetti and meatballs using one of my favorite kitchen appliances, the slow cooker.

For this I use the meatloaf meat from the butcher department in my grocery store. The reason is shortcut, shortcut, shortcut! It's already well seasoned and makes for great meatballs.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Meatloaf (raw of course)

1 egg

Italian breadcrumbs

1 can or jar of pasta sauce

1/4 cup water

Directions:

Mix meatloaf and egg. Add enough breadcrumbs to bind. Lightly spray crockpot oil. Make meatballs about the size of a medium sized meatball. Not too small and not too large. Place meatballs in crockpot and cover with sauce and water. Set to low and in about 6 hours you will have perfect meatballs.

Correction for vegan cupcake recipe!!!

I have recently learned from someone who is actually vegan that refined sugar is not vegan. Crazy, right? Well I did some research and click on this link to see what I found. http://www.vegan.org/FAQs/index.html Very interesting facts here!

When making the recipe be sure you buy beet sugar if you want true vegan cupcakes. I actually did that. But the Coco Lopez isn't "vegan" by definition so what you can do is mix some beet sugar with coconut milk in a blender and add a little honey for texture.

Moist and Delicious - Coconut Vegan Cupcakes

This is an original recipe! These cupcakes are moist and full of flavor.

Coconut Vegan Cupcakes with Chocolate Coconut Ganache

Ingredients:

Nonstick cooking spray

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup shredded coconut

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup vanilla soy milk

1/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cup Coco Lopez

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 tsp. coconut extract

Directions:

1 )Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners, spray lightly with nonstick spray

3) Sift dry ingredients together (flour, baking powder, baking soda, coconut and salt)

4) Using a mixer, combine the soy milk, oil, Coco Lopez, sugar, vinegar, vanilla and coconut extract. Mix at medium speed for about a minute.

5) Add half the dry ingredients, scraping the sides if needed.

6) Add remaining dry ingredients and mix for 1 minute longer.

7) Fill cupcake liners until almost full. Bake 25 to 30 minutes.

8) Cool completely and glaze. Sprinkle each with shredded coconut.


Ganache:
2 Sjaaks 70% Extra Dark Bars
1/4 cup unsweetened Coconut Milk
1/4 cup Coco Lopez

1 cup Confectioners Sugar

Open the can of coconut milk and pour into a bowl. Stir until creamy in consistency. Break up the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and pour 1/4 cup coconut milk over chocolate. Microwave for about 20 seconds and stir. Continue to micro for another 20 seconds then stir. If it's warm enough for the mixture to melt until silky then do not continue to micro. Add Coco Lopez and stir until blended. Add confectioners sugar and blend. Place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

It's 7-11 so what does that mean?

FREE SLURPY DAY

AT

7-11