Fat-Free Glazed Lemon Cupcakes

The other day when Laura was here we decided to make something together so we could blog it. :) We wanted to keep it healthy and simple so I found this recipe for fat-free glazed lemon cupcakes.

Ingredients

Cake:
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup applesauce
1/3 cup egg whites (whites of 2 eggs)
1/3 cup skim milk
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon)
2 teaspoons lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Glaze:
1 cup confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons lemonade
few drops yellow food coloring (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° and line cupcake pan with liners. Combine first seven cake ingredients in medium bowl. Combine remaining four cake ingredients in smaller bowl and slowly mix into first bowl until smooth.

Pour batter into cupcake cups until about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Meanwhile, combine glaze ingredients in a small bowl.

Allow cupcakes to cool completely. Glaze by turning each cupcake upside down and dipping top in glaze. Allow excess to drip off, flip back over and allow glaze to set.

Laura said they kind of taste like a halls lemon lozenge and she was exactly right. I wasn't a fan of the glaze. I liked the cupcakes better with out the glaze. Nate enjoyed them. He ate his without the glaze too. :) Will I make these again? Probably not. :(

New Things Monday

Little late on this posting today but I was pretty busy and now finally have a few min to get this done. There's no way I can skip my 'New things Monday'. :) Today's feature is Body by Vi. It's this new shake craze. You replace 2 meals with this shake and eat a normal dinner. (or replace whatever meal) My husband and our friend Laura is doing this challenge. So far Laura has loss 20 pounds and my Nate has loss 16 pounds. I tried this shake. It smells and tastes just like cake batter. It's so cool that you can add this mix to all sorts different things. Whatever you feel like making with different fruits or juices you can add it. It's soooo much better than all those other diet shakes out there. Of course, no one but yourself can decide when you're ready to lose weight but I think this shake plan is great. If you'd like to sign up my hubby has his own page for you.

New Things Monday

Strawberry/ Lemon Sparkling water from target. Sorry pic is small. It's all I could find. :) This stuff is GOOD! :)

Oven hot dogs

For dinner tonight I was inspired by this blog. (sorry my pic sucks...my lens is broke on my awesome camera)

Hot dogs (turkey dogs)

buns (I used whole grain)

shredded cheese

small onion (cut up)

chili (I used hormel no beans)

mustard (just on Nates)

You spread mustard on bun. Add some onion. Add you hot dog and then top your dog off with chili, onion and cheese. Place them on cookie sheet or in a deep dish to bake. Bake on 350 degrees for 10 to 15 min.

We liked them! i think next time I will cook up the chili and onion together in the skillet. And I would cook the hot dogs in the microwave. Then pile everything in the buns. But that's just me.

I would def make these again. :)

Fun Sunday

My friend, Crystal had a birthday Friday. Kristen and I planned a little birthday gathering for her. Kristen made some really cute invites and sent them out to the gang.

My star-gazer lillies population have increased. They look beautiful.

I found out that Crystal likes these so I figured I would clip one for the birthday girl. :)

Kristen made reservations for a place none of us have been too. We wanted to do something fun and different instead of going to Applebees or Red Robin. We had our lunch at The Riverboat on the Potomac. It's in Colonial Beach (river).

Front entrance. Once inside you are in Maryland, which is cool. The have gambling at the Riverboat some of which is illegal in Virginia so a way to get around it, build your place on the water so it's considered legal I guess. LOL

Our table all set up and waiting for us. It was cute and we could sit and look at the water and people watch while enjoying our lunch. For appetizers we got crab dip, hush puppies, mozzarella sticks, and chicken wings. I think most of us got house salads before our main dish. I got the flat iron steak. I got it well done and it was perfectly cooked. No pink, and not burned. YEY! I got a baked potato for my side with just butter and the plate had a mixed veggies. (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and green beans mixed together). Sharon and Joe got prime rib. It was huge!! I've never seen a steak that big. Crystal got a parmesan breaded flounder. The flounder was really big. Everyone's eyes got real big when her plate was set in front of her. LOL Eddie got salmon. Dave and Nate both got baked stuffed flounder and Kristen got the triple decker potomac club. Whew....it was A LOT OF FOOD. And it was all good. No complaints! :)

Cute view from the balcony.

Some pelicans. :)

We all had a great time. For dessert, I made strawberry (box mix) cupcakes. And instead of icing I made French Cream (which I learned to make at my Strawberry class) to go on top. It was good. It tasted like a little strawberry shortcake. :) (no pics of them)

We also discussed going to the Melting Pot in December for Kristen's birthday. Some of us girls haven't been there and it sounds like an awesome place to go to.

Another nice Sunday with awesome friends! :)

For the french cream:

4 cups of diced strawberries

1/2 cup sugar

1 stick of butter (I used unsalted; softened)

1 8 oz pkg of cream cheese (softened)

1 pint of heavy cream (you mix to whip cream texture)

Mix butter and cream cheese. Add in sugar and mix. Then mix in your strawberries.

In another bowl, mix your heavy cream on the highest setting. Don't worry it won't spill or spray out. Keep mixing until you get peaks. You'll know when it's ready. Now you have whip cream. :)

Fold in the whipped cream and refrigerate for an hour. You can use it as a dip or add it to cake or whatever you'd like. :)

Cheese Steaks

For dinner tonight I decided to make some Cheese Steaks.......

I had some thinly sliced meat from Wegmans. It was 6 slices. I baked it in the oven with pepper, w sauce and some water. Once it was done I let it rest for 10 min. Then I cut up into pieces.

I also cut up a small onion. In a skillet on medium heat I added some olive oil and added the onion. Then I browned the onion pieces.

After the onions were browned I added the meat. I added black pepper, some parsley flakes, w sauce, some minced garlic and a little bit of season all.

I then cut up some provolone cheese and added to skillet. Once cheese is melted it's done.

Add to a sub roll. You can add mayo and sliced provolone cheese on your roll if you'd like. :)

Flowers :)

I have lots of daisy bushes and some stargazer lilly plants in my front flower bed. The daisies are slowly popping here and there. I think there are 8 daisy bushes in total. Only a few daisies have come up on a few of the bushes. I love it when the bushes are full of daisies but it will probably be another week or two before they are covered in daisies. But today two of my stargazer lillies have popped. They are a pretty pink. :)

Lillies :)

A daisy :)

New Things Monday

I know I already talked about this in my blog posting from the weekend but I needed to talk about it again. We (Kristen, Dave and me) tried the tru blood drink. It's blood orange flavored and it's really good. It's kinda like an orange soda. :)

If there is something NEW that you tried and liked and would like me to try it to feature it please feel free to let me know. I'm up to trying NEW things. :)