Cinnamon Pear Coffeecake

Right now as I sit here, I am in shock. A good shock.

My daughter is notorious for waking up at the crack of dawn. Which in my opinion, is 5 am. No matter how late she is up the night before- come 5 am on. the. dot. she is up and ready to go.

Now, I am definitely a morning person. Just not a before the sun is up kind of morning person.

Last night we were out and didn't get back til 8:45, and little miss didn't go to bed until 9 pm. Naturally, I was planning on her schedule being a little different tomorrow, and her being extra grumpy today. So when I woke up at 6, and still no baby was awake, I decided to get a head start on my day! It is now 6:50.

Is it bad to say that I'm really digging this alone time with my laptop and coffee?!

Happy Valentines day to me.

I made this cinnamon pear coffeecake a few days ago for the second time, and it's safe to say, this is one of our favorites. Even the little miss loves it. And I would love to tell you that it's 'healthier' because It has no butter and oil in it....which is mostly true....but I made up for that by adding a healthy dose of cinnamon chips and streusel topping. Bite me.

I know that If someone made this for me for valentines day, I would love them a lot more than I hopefully already do.

Cinnamon Pear Coffeecake
Adapted from yummy mummy kitchen
Pre-heat oven to 400

1 1/2 cups AP flour
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 cup almond milk (cow's milk works too)
1/4ish cup applesauce
1/2 cup cinnamon chips
2 Pears, peeled and sliced

Combine dry ingredients.
In separate bowl, beat the egg then add milk and applesauce.
Add wet ingredients to the dry and add in cinnamon chips.
Stir just until combined.
Pour into a greased 8x8 pan, or a 8" round pan.
Arrange pear slices on top in a single layer. Pears overlapping is okay.

Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp. Butter
1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine all ingredients, and with either a fork and knife, or pastry cutter, cut in the butter until it resembles small peas.
Sprinkle over pears.
Bake for 25-35 minutes, until knife comes out of the center mostly clean. ( You don't want a dry coffeecake!)

We enjoy it hot out of the oven!

I hope you make this and love it. And obviously if you don't like pears, apples work just the same! Have fun, I tell you!

Baby just woke up. Quite alone time = over.
Happy Valentines Day!

Key Lime Cake Batter Truffles

I know this is totally not a fall dessert. It's more of a 'thank goodness it's summer' type of dessert...

Sorry.

But I'm pretty sure you'll get over it once you taste these.

I was messing around with this cute little bottle of lime extract I got a few months ago, when the idea for some sort of truffle hit me. Except I had no graham crackers, so a key lime pie truffle type thing wasn't gonna happen.

Have you ever had cake batter truffles?! I made them awhile back- I can't eat less then 5 at one time. They are super.

Why not throw in some lime?

These were refreshing, sweet-but-not-to-sweet, and just so yummy.

I love truffles...they make me weak, they make me lose all self control, and they're so cute!

Key Lime Cake Batter Truffles
yield: 40-50 truffles


1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp. key lime extract (mine is very strong and condensed, so depending on what kind you have you will need more or less. Adjust to taste.)

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup yellow cake mix
3-4 Tbsp. milk
Green Sprinkles

Coating:
1 bag white chocolate chips
4 Tbsp. shortening
4 Tbsp. yellow cake mix

In an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together.
Add in extract and mix well
On low, mix in flour, cake mix and milk as needed to form a dough.
Throw in as many sprinkles as you want!
Roll dough into little 3/4 inch balls.
Place on a wax paper lined pan or plate and freeze for a few minutes while you make the coating.

In a heatproof bowl, melt white chips with shortening at 30second intervals stirring very well in between.
When chocolate is smooth, stir in cake mix.
Remove truffles from freezer, dip in coating with a fork, and place back on wax paper. Sprinkle with sprinkles!

Blueberry Peach Crisp

I am loving all this summery fresh fruit stuff going on these days. 
When I did the grocery shopping this week there were these beautiful peaches I had to buy. I felt like I needed to make peach crisp... 
Today, my husband had to work, which is a major whomp on a saturday...so me and the baby girl were just lounging around this morning, when I decided it was the perfect time for some peach crisp- for breakfast!
But wait. It gets better. 


I threw in a bunch of juicy, fresh blueberries. 


Does any one not like crisp? Any kind...apple, pear, plum, strawberry rhubarb...SO GOOD.


I served myself up some with a big dollup of whipped cream and It was the best choice I ever made. Today, at least.

Blueberry Peach Crisp
-heat oven to 375


Filling:
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed
6 peaches ( I didn't bother peeling mine, and it made no difference to me)
2 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

Topping:
3/4 cup oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup pecans


In a large bowl, mix the filling ingredients together very well.
Pour into a large pie plate.
For the topping, combine all ingredients in a large bowl (I just re-used the same bowl for the topping) and cut in the butter with a fork.
Sprinkle over the filling.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Best when served warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!

Enjoy!

Blueberry Cheesecake Mousse Dip

It's hot here.

When it's hot, we eat ice cream.

I made this bad boy last night:

-Oreo
-Whoopie pie ice cream
-Hot fudge sauce
-Kit kats
-Cookies and Cream ice cream
-Hot fudge sauce
-Oreo
-Cool Whip

Yeah. Can we say waist buster? But let me tell you- If you're gonna bust, what better way to do it? It was SO GOOD. And that's an understatement.

But sometimes, sometimes, you want something different- like blueberry cheesecake! Light, fluffy blueberry cheesecake mousse is even better. Because you can dip things in it, like strawberries, graham crackers, and spoons.

Fruit Cheesecake Mousse Dip

-4 oz. low fat cream cheese
-1 cup powdered sugar
-1 tsp. vanilla
-1/2 of 8 oz. container fat free Cool Whip
-1/2 Cup frozen blueberries, thawed

In an electric mixer on high, beat cream cheese and vanilla.
On low, slowly add in powdered sugar. Gradually turn up to high and beat really well until smooth.
Add in Blueberries, mixing on high.
Fold in Cool whip.

You could also make this with frozen strawberries, or any frozen fruit actually!

So good!