Food 101: Combining Two of My Favorite Desserts

I love cake. But not the frosted confections you see in bake shop windows...I love the ooey gooey kind--like pineapple upside down cake and rum cake. So I thought, why not combine the two!

These days who wants a whole cake? Hand me a cupcake! So here is what recipe I came up with (and it tuned out amazing!):

My Famous Pineapple Upside Down Rum Cupcakes

This recipe will make a batch of 12 cupcakes.

Sauce:
1 cup brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter (3/4 of a stick)
1/4 cup rum and water mix--you pick the ratio. I do half and half.

Cake Ingredients:

2 Eggs
Splash of vanilla extract
2/3 Cup white sugar
4 Tablespoons pineapple juice
2/3 Cup all purpose flour
1 Tsp baking powder
1/4 Tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray your muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl, add eggs, white sugar, and pineapple juice. Beat for 2 minutes. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and turn mixer back on for 2 minutes.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and add the brown sugar, water and rum. Stir on low heat for three minutes. May boil over so watch it!

Place a pineapple ring in the bottom of each muffin tin (you may have to cut down the ring so it will fit or use pineapple tidbits). Add a cherry in the middle of each pineapple. Spoon over a spoonful of the warm brown sugar mixture. Pour cake mixture over to fill muffin tin 3/4 of the way full.

Bake cupcakes for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Let cool in pan for 3 minutes.

Run a knife around the edge of each cake to help loosen in case it sticks a little. Place a wire cooling rack on top, and quickly flip over.


Place wire rack of cakes on baking sheet to cool for 10 minutes

Serve and spoon remaining sauce over cupcakes after you plate them - about a teaspoon.

Yum-my!

Love,

Rose

Fashion Fridays: Things I Love

A trend I am loving right now is sheer sleeves (and I always love French Connection!).  All of these are on www.asos.com and whadyaknow?  They are on sale!  See what I have been crushing on lately:

French Connection Lace Mini Dress

$155.77 

sale $93.11

French Connection Lace Dress With 3/4 Sleeve

RRP $196.96

sale $103.85

French Connection Pleated Ruffle Neck Dress

RRP $277.53

sale $134.29

French Connection Feather Look Dress With Embellished Neck    

RRP $232.77  

sale $85.94

 

French Connection Silk Beaded Neck Shift Dress

RRP $241.72

sale $146.82

Happy styling!

Love,

Rose

Food 101: My Famous Teriyaki Chicken Bowls

So I had a craving for a spicy teriyaki chicken bowl, but not with all that MSG (and overcooked veggies)! So here's what I came up with (it turned out pretty tasty!):

Serves 2-3
Ingredients:

1 head broccoli/broccoli crown
1 bag frozen mixed peppers
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1-2 chicken breasts grilled and sliced
1 cup rice

For sauce:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup brown sugar or maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon minced garlic or 2 garlic cloves chopped
1 tablespoon spicy steak seasoning

Instructions:

1. Prepare rice according to package instructions

2. Steam broccoli until almost cooked but still crunchy, and in the last minute or so add the peppers and onions and sprinkle with the spicy steak seasoning. Cover with a lid for 5 minutes with heat turned off.

3. Pour soy sauce, flour, brown sugar and garlic into sauce pan and cook over low heat for a few minutes. When sauce thickens add water to thin and ginger, stir to Combine and remove from heat.

4. Pour sauce over veggies and add chicken. Stir to combine.

5. Serve over rice and enjoy!

Happy cooking!

Love,

Rose

Food 101: Healthy Tomato Basil Chicken Pizza

So I made this the other night and I wanted to share the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup grilled chicken cubed
1 large beefsteak tomato chopped
1/2 of an onion chopped
1 cup or one handful of basil Roughly chopped
3 tablespoons herb de Provence or Italian seasoning
2 cups of mozzarella cheese shredded
1/2 of a cup tomato paste or tomato sauce
1 can of Pillsbury pizza dough Thin crust

Directions:

1. roll out pizza dough to thin layer across the cookie sheet

2. Spread pizza sauce or tomato paste
3. Top with ingredients
4. Salt and pepper to taste
5. Sprinkle cheese across ingredients 6. Sprinkle herb de Provence on top
7. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes or until bubbly and brown!

Food 101: Three Ways to Wake Up Side Dishes

So I love to cook, but sometimes I don't have time to make everything from scratch. I thought I'd share a few of my go to sides and "wake up" tips to add flavor and a "made from scratch" taste:

1. Frozen Corn - try heating it up in basil butter (use food processor to chop 2 cups of fresh basil, add some softened butter and mix together, then toss it in the pan and add the corn, and salt and pepper to taste--delicioso!

2. Frozen Mixed Vegetables (green beans, corn, carrots, peas)- add a few tablespoons of pesto (I love Classico brand) and a few sprinkles of parmesian cheese. BOOM!

3. Couscous/Rice Pilaf/Brown Rice - add some herb de provence/dried Italian seasoning, fresh diced tomato, and/or fresh chopped Italian parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

4. Frozen Pizza (I use Kashi because they are whole grain) - I'll add fresh sliced tomato, basil, fresh cracked pepper and my own selection of other veggies (mushrooms, red pepper, baby spinach) to make it more healthy.

5. Eggs- Add fresh chopped rosemary, salt and pepper to taste--its a very posh way to have gourmet flavor in a quick breakfast staple.

These are just the ones I can think of that I use most often. If you can think of any other quick tips...add them in the comments! I'd love to hear some more good ideas!

Love,

Rose

I've Been On A Hiatus!

Dearest followers,

I know I have been dead silent on my blog, and for that I appologize! I am currently 9.5 months pregnant and the last 9 months have been into nothing but baby prep/baby stuff--which I'm sure not everyone wants to hear about! I have mentally blogged so many times, but never gotten the chance to write them for you all. BUT, I promise I will be back soon! Continue to write me with feedback on what you like to hear the most about, and I will do my best to get this back up and running! Muah!

Love,

Rose

Food 101: Healthy or A Play On Words?

Hola!


These days it is "in" to be a healthy eater, and trust me, every company in the food industry knows that! This is why many companies skate around the topic of true nutritional content and use "consumer friendly" labels to trick us like "all natural". Yeah that means absolutely nothing--and if you read a little farther on the label, it is usually full of processed ingredients and things you can't even pronounce! Another trick is "whole wheat" when what you really want is "whole grain wheat".

Although learning how to decipher labels/nutrition facts is integral if you are going to eat well, I'm just going to focus on a little trick I just learned the other day.

Ever heard of The Whole Grains Council? They make it easier for us shoppers (especially in a rush) to quickly locate foods that are truly good for us. They do this by slapping on a "Whole Grain Stamp" (see photo) which means that what is inside has been approvel by the council and truly has whole grains.

As expained on their website, there are two different varieties of Stamp, the Basic Stamp and the 100% Stamp. If a product bears the 100% Stamp, then all its grain ingredients are whole grains. If a product bears the Basic Stamp, it contains at least 8 grams – a half serving – of whole grain, but may also contain some refined grain.

Each Stamp also shows a number, telling you how many grams of whole grain ingredients are in a serving of the product. BOOM! So start checking your boxes for this magic little stamp. Be sure to look thoroughly as sometimes its on the bottom of the box or the top/side/back.

This stamp applies to more than just breads, but also: cereals (hot and cold), pastas, rice, tortillas/wraps, dairy, frozen/prepared entrees, flour, baking mixes, soups, waffle/pancake mix, snack bars and a bunch of others!

Here are some of the brands that I found to have these labels:

Nature's Pride breads
Ronzoni pastas
Post/Kellogg cereals
Kashi products
Annie's homegrown
Barbera's bakery
Quaker Oats
Sunbelt
Earth's Best
Nature's Path
Otis Spunkmeyer
Whole Foods Markets


Eat well and prosper!

Love,

Rose