Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Taco night at the Boyer's house. It seems like when I don't have time to pull a complete dinner together tacos always seem to be a good dinner to fall back on. The good thing about that is my husband could eat tacos, burritos, quesadillas (you get the picture) EVERY single night of the week if I would let him.

Miles mentioned after dinner that I haven't blogged in a few days so I decided to whip up a new muffin recipe. I LOVE LOVE LOVE packaged muffins. I know that seems like a strange thing for someone that finds great joy in baking but they just taste so yummy. For my first attempt at homemade muffins I went with and EASY recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens recipe book. They were pretty good but could have used a little more sugar (keep in mind that since I love the packaged muffins, the sweeter the better). None of the recipes in this book had chocolate in them so I had to improvise a bit but here is what I ended up with



                                       OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

Muffins:
1 1/3 cup flour
3/4 cup oats
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil

1. Preheat oven to 400. Combine flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and set aside

2. In another small bowl combine egg, milk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter is still lumpy)

3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups (2/3 full).

4. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown

Yesterday Miles and I celebrated our second Valentine's Day as a married couple. We had a wonderful dinner at Bordino's (drinks, calamari, pasta, desert). I couldn't be more in love! As much as I love going out to eat with my hubby, I REALLY love cooking him dinner. So tonight after we took Miss Jada for a walk I decided to make something new. I found a few great recipes and dinner is served.

ON THE MENU

Crispy Baked Cod

Roasted Tomatoes with Garlic and Herbs

Basmati Rice with Edamame 

Raspberry Lemonade

Crispy Baked Cod Recipe

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 clove garlic (I used the polaner chopped garlic)
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs (I chose to use the Italian bread crumbs)
• 2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
• 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest - I am new to using my lemon zester but think it is fantastic
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp reduced fat mayo 
• 4 skinless cod fillets, about 6 oz each
• Salt

1.  Preheat the oven to 350. In a small skillet over medium low heat, melt butter. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add bread crumb, stir to coat with butter, then cook, stirring frequently, until light golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in parsley and lemon zest. Let cool. Combine mustard and mayo in a small bowl. 
2.  Rinse fish and pat dry. Sprinkle each fillet lightly with salt, then place on a rimmed, foil-lined baking sheet and brush with mustard mixture. Press 1/4 of crumbs onto each fillet
3. Transfer baking sheet to oven and bake until until fish is no longer translucent and flakes easily, 10 - 15 minutes ( I cook EVERYTHING about 5 minutes longer than it recommends). 

                **I got this recipe from an old issue of all you magazine**

After dinner it was time to make desert for community group tomorrow...OUTRAGEOUS CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!!! 

Joe's Birthday - More Cupcakes

Due to my recent interest in baking anything that starts with a cup and ends with a cake, my sister asked if I would make cupcakes for Joe (my brother-in-law) for his birthday party. The list started out pretty simple and then she added in all the kids. Of course I told her I would but Joe really loves boring yellow box cakes with simple chocolate icing. So I decided to take a yellow cake recipe I found in one of my cookbooks and then jazz them up with a chocolate butter cream icing.

I had spent the whole day with my sister registering for my new little niece that will be here in May so by the time we finished that and I bought everything at the store I was a little rushed on time to make the party. Then when I got home from the store I realized that I was almost out of flower. Miles to the rescue. While I got things moving he ran to the store and came home with not one but two big bags of flour. Anyone who knows Miles is probably laughing because that is such a Miles move. A few weeks back he went to the store to buy a printer cartridge and came home with a new printer because he saved money. Anyway back to cupcakes...So I successfully whipped up 36 yellow cake cupcakes, iced them all, and made it out the door in about an hour and fifteen minutes! They were delicious. If you don't believe me take a look at Cade chowing down!!!

**Sifting 2 pounds of powdered sugar when you are in a hurry is not a fun task. Miles was really excited to help so he had to be in the post this week! Jada of course helped clean up anything that hit the floor.

Bring On The Babies (diaper cake)

So my friends have officially passed the wedding stage of life and are moving into the baby stage. I couldn't be more excited for each and every one of them. With babies comes baby showers and with baby showers comes NEW CREATIVE OPPORTUNITIES!

I love making diaper cakes. What I don't love is traditional diaper cakes. So when asked to make a "Large" diaper cake for a Cardinal Baseball themed baby shower here is what I ended up with. Each layer of the cake is actually two layers of rolled diapers. I just hate lumpy cakes so I had to find a way to make it smooth like a real cake. Then to bring in the theme a little more I chose cardinal (bird) ornaments, tulle, and ribbons from hobbylobby.com. To make it a little more personal, I painted the JOEL letters to add to the front.  Throw in a little tissue paper, hot glue, and baby accessories and here is what you get. I just can't wait for the Kenyon baby to get here in March.

Peanut Butter Surprise Cupcakes & Furniture Shopping - Just Another Saturday

After all of the snow we had this week, Miles and I were both READY to get out of the house for the day. Before we made it out Miles cleaned the house for me! That's right...my amazing husband cleaned. I was busy working on some details for my sisters baby shower. I KNOW I KNOW, the shower isn't until April. But if you haven't heard IT IS A GIRL and I couldn't be more excited. May have gone a little overboard buying gifts for her already.

Our first stop of the day was Kennedy Coffee. I had a carminilla and Miles had a mint mocha. They have the most wonderful chocolate whip cream. Most of the rest of the day was spend furniture store hopping. We went in looking for a coffee table and left with an ottoman for our living room and a whole new set of office furniture for Miles. We had put off revamping the office but decided it was time. His poor college desk just wasn't going to make it much longer and the chair he so loved was just falling apart. SO in a few weeks we will get it all in and I will post our new finds!


With the superbowl tomorrow I felt it was necessary to make cupcakes for the big game. There is nothing worse than showing up to someone's house with nothing, even if they tell you not to bring anything. I decided to combine a few recipes and ended up with a homemade peanut butter surprise cupcake with creamy peanut butter icing. The BEST part is the Reeces cup baked in the center. Even Chloe (the cat) showed her interest in cooking tonight. Enjoy the photos! They were delicious!!!!

SNOW DAY

We woke up this morning to LOTS of ice and snow. Of course neither Miles or I took the day off to enjoy the beautiful snow, but we did manage to sneak in a 15 minute lunch break to play with the dog in the backyard. Jada absolutely loves the snow. She loves to run laps, jump, and eat the snow. Basically she just goes CRAZY! Here are some fun pictures we took of our play date which later turned into a photoshop lesson from Miles on how I can arrange my photos for my new blog. SUCCESS. My first photoshop collage.