Carrot Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

I was one of those weird kids that LOVED carrot cake growing up. But I always picked the raisins out (seriously, who decided that putting raisins in baked goods was a good idea?). It wasn't until my mom's friend graduated from college and had a carrot cake with pecans in it that I had ever thought of the idea, which was apparently just as popular as raisins. My mom can't stand nuts aside from almonds, and definitely doesn't like them in her baked goods, so I came up with a basic carrot cake cupcake that can be kept as is or have raisins, nuts, or whatever else you want added to them. Bear in mind that this recipe only makes 12 cupcakes, so if you need more it's really easy to double, triple, etc.

As always, click on the pictures to view them larger!

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED

*1 large egg (room temperature)

*1 cup golden brown/medium strength brown sugar (packed)

*1/2 cup of vegetable oil

*3 cups of shredded carrots

*1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

*1 tbsp ground cinnamon

*1/2 tsp baking powder

*1/4 tsp baking soda

(for the frosting-not pictured)

*4oz plain cream cheese (room temperature)

*1/2 stick butter (room temperature)

*1 tbsp ground cinnamon

*1/2 lb powdered sugar

*milk


LET'S DO THIS!

First off, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit and line a cupcake pan with liners.

You're going to whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.

In another bowl (or a mixer if you have one) beat the egg, oil, and brown sugar together. It should look almost like a gooey caramel.

Once those ingredients are mixed together well, add the carrots in.

After the carrots are incorporated, slowly mix in the dry ingredients. Scrape the sides at this point to make sure all of the ingredients are evenly mixed in.

Next, fill the cupcake liners up evenly.

Bake until you can pull a toothpick/knife out without anything coming off it-it should only take about 15-20 minutes.

When the cupcakes are cool, make the frosting by beating the cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, and a small splash of milk (about 2 tbsps) together. Slowly add the powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency. If you add too much powdered sugar, simply add milk about a tbsp at a time. I knew I wanted the frosting on these to look more rustic, so I added less powdered sugar than I would if I were going to pipe the frosting on.

As soon as these came out of the oven my mom was asking every thirty seconds when she could eat one. The kitchen smelled like a Yankee Candle store in the middle of October, so I don't blame her.

These babies are so moist that I seriously don't understand how they hold together when the cupcake wrappers are taken off.

They got a thumbs up from everyone in the house, so hopefully you'll like them too if you make them!

Until next time...


Stay Stellar,

Paige Elise

My Lasagna!

I couldn't think of a cool name that didn't just list off every ingredient in this lasagna, so I'm just going to call it "my lasagna." It's not hard to make at all, but you'd better plan on staying home all day to put it together/check on it occasionally. The pictures aren't the best, because we're having a summer storm today, so the lighting was horrible, but I was determined to make this lasagna and share it with all of you. As usual, you can click on the photos to see them larger!

Anyways, here's how to make it!

INGREDIENTS:
*lasagna noodles
*Italian sausage
*stuff to make sauce (you can use premade sauce, but I prefer making it from scratch)
*ricotta cheese (large container)
*shredded mozzarella cheese (large bag)
*spinach/arugula mix

LET'S GET COOKIN!

First off, you're going to want to take your Italian sausage out of it's casings and brown it in a skillet. You can choose to use one of those sausage loafs instead, but I really like the way these sausages taste, so I decided it was worth the extra 30 seconds of cutting and squeezing.

While you're doing this, cook off your lasagna noodles according to the package directions. I didn't include a picture because I had them on the back burner and it didn't make for a good shot. After they're cooked, reserve about 1/2 a cup of pasta water for your sauce. Trust me, it makes it taste better.

After you've browned the sausage, take it out with a slotted spoon, but leave the "juice" in the skillet. Toss in some diced onion (I used about 2/3 of a sweet onion, but you can use less/more if you'd like) and caramelize them. This is going to make the onions (and your sauce) taste better. If you are opting to use premade sauce, obviously you can skip this step.

For the sauce, you're going to throw the onions into a large pot with some white wine (I forgot to include it in the picture since I already had it in my cupboard and all of the other ingredients were just purchased today) to your own liking-some people like the flavor to be more pronounced than others, I am one of those people-and about 1/3-1/2 a cup of the reserved water water. Now is the time to spice it. I used the token Italian grouping of salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, parsley, thyme, and basil, but again, it's all up to what you like. Give that a good stir and let it sit on low for about half and hour to an hour so the onions can really absorb the wine flavor.

Next, add your large cans of crushed and diced tomatoes and the sausage you set aside earlier and stir. Let this sit anywhere from 3-6 hours, depending on how much time you have to get dinner on the table, stirring here and there. Again, the burner should be on low.

Here's a quick breakdown of what we did for assembly. We forgot to take pictures of all of the steps since we had to wash our hands every time we touched the wet noodles or ricotta, but hopefully you get the idea!

*Preheat the oven to 375F

*Take a large, rectangular baking dish (we just used the biggest cake pan we had) and spread some of the sauce along the bottom. This prevents the noodles from sticking to the pan/burning.

*Lay your first row of noodles next to each other. If your pan is longer than the noodles, just have them overlap or slice off any excess noodle.

*Spread another layer of sauce, followed by general globs of the ricotta along the pan, then cover it completely with shredded mozzarella and a few heaping handfuls of the spinach/arugula mix.

*Top with another layer of noodles and repeat the process until you reach the top, but switch the cheese and greens so that you'll have a nice, gooey crust once it's finished cooking.

*Pop it in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the top starts to brown and bubble. Normally you should let it sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting, but my family was starving, so we dug right in and it basically exploded on our plates. It was delicious though and everyone loved it!

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this post, and if you end up trying out this recipe, let me know how it was for you, and until next time...

Stay Stellar,
Paige Elise

Green & Yellow Salsa

Having grown up in San Diego, I've had my fair share of salsas. This is one I came up with when thinking of ingredients that I like in salsa. I wanted to include avocado, green pepper, and corn, and decided to go with an all green and yellow theme. This recipe can easily be altered if you want to substitute any ingredients (ie: a purple onion or red pepper instead). What's great about salsas is that almost anything goes. Let's get started!

(as always, click on the images if you'd like to see them larger)

Here's all of the ingredients that you'll need:

*1 green pepper
*2 small avocados(or 1 large)
*fresh cilantro
*1/2 of a yellow onion
*1 jalapeno
1 lime
1 can of corn

*not pictured: salt, pepper, a knife, a bowl, a cutting board, and gloves for cutting the jalapeno (recommended)

To start, drain the corn and pour it into the bowl

Dice the green pepper and put that into the bowl as well.

Dice the jalapeno into tiny pieces (they pack more punch than the pepper, and you don't want it to overwhelm the rest of the salsa).

Dice the onion into pieces about the same size as the pepper.

Cut the avocado into pieces about twice as large as the pepper and onion.

Finely chop about a handful of the cilantro.

Add the juice of the entire lime (I recommend rolling the lime on the cutting board before slicing it and sticking a fork in the center while squeezing-doing both of these things will help you get more juice out) and salt and pepper to taste.

Mix it gently (you don't want the avocados to turn into mush), cover, and chill for a few hours before serving. This last step gives the salsa time to absorb the flavors of the salt, pepper, and lime better.

This salsa goes great on top of tacos (or even just chicken), with tortilla chips, or even just as a side dish!

I hope you've all enjoyed this recipe, and until next time...

Stay Stellar,
Paige Elise

Thrift Store Adventure!

I'm honestly surprised that I wasn't born at a thrift store. Ever since I can remember, my mom and I have been complete thrift store junkies. Seriously, what's cooler than finding pieces that no one else will have for a next-to-nothing price?

While I was living in Iowa, we basically only had a Goodwill on each side of town, and it was really hard to find anything actually worth buying at either of them (save for my seafoam seahorse cardigan), so when my mom told me about her favorite thrift store in the town I'm living in now, I jumped at the chance to go.

One thing that's really cool about this thrift store is that every time you donate, they give you a $4 off coupon towards your purchase. I brought a bag of clothes I didn't want anymore and my mom had a few boxes of random stuff she found while unpacking that she didn't actually need anymore.

I didn't bother taking any pictures of the inside of the store, because my mom and I were too busy trying not to kick this girl's ass that wouldn't back off (anyone who has gone shopping with my mom and I knows to STAY OUT OF OUR WAY). But here's some pictures from their back lot that was pretty awesome looking!
(click to make them bigger)

What I've Been Up To Lately

Hey guys! Long time no talk, right? Well, I've been super busy the past few months, and wanted to share what I'm been up to with you guys.

First of all, my boyfriend and I moved to Bend, OR in March, so it's been pretty crazy getting settled in. We love it so far though, and it's been great being back with my family-especially my sassy and perfect eleven year old sister.

I took a little break before going back to work after the disaster that was my last job, but I'm working again now and I love my new job so far!

I took the plunge and dyed my hair purple! I've wanted purple hair since I was little, but was never able to have it for a multitude of reasons. I love it so much, and so do random strangers.

I've also started crafting again and plan on opening my Etsy shop back up again soon. Here's a bow I gave away on my Facebook page recently.

Well, that's the basic rundown of what I've been up to/why I haven't been blogging. Now that I'm settled in, I'm going to be blogging more! I have a whole list of ideas I want to get down on here :)

WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Pinterest
Etsy

Until next time...

Stay Stellar,
Paige Elise

Greek Chicken & Quinoa

My boyfriend and I are currently in the process of moving, so we haven't bought a lot of groceries lately. When I was looking through our kitchen deciding what to make for dinner, I came up with a simple idea that I thought was worth sharing. I really wanted something full of veggies for dinner, but we don't have any fresh veggies, so I opted to just cram this dish full of frozen spinach. What's great about this recipe is that you can add/take stuff out to your liking. For example: if I had a purple onion or some fresh tomatoes, those would have definitely gone in. Anyways, on to the recipe!


(click on the pictures to make them bigger)

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
*Two chicken breasts
*One cup dry quinoa
*Spinach (fresh or frozen)
*Feta Cheese
*Olive Oil
*Greek Dressing (I made my own, but bottled is fine as well)
*Kosher Salt
*Greek Seasoning
*Lemon Pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While it's preheating, line a pan with foil, drizzle a little Olive Oil in it, and place the chicken breasts on top. Add kosher salt, Greek seasoning, and lemon pepper to taste. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes until it's cooked all the way.

While your chicken is baking, cook your quinoa according to the directions on the box. I bought pre-rinsed quinoa, but if yours is not, you will have to rinse it before you start everything.

Once your quinoa is fully cooked, add your spinach (or other veggies), and some of the spices to add flavor throughout the dish.

Stir thoroughly and let sit until veggies are cooked all the way through.

Place the quinoa on the plate and top with feta cheese, chicken, and some Greek dressing.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! Let me know if you tried it and how you liked it/any variations you made :)

Stay Stellar,
Paige Elise