Who doesn't love chocolate?!

Okay, so the PTO ladies are coming over tomorrow night to help me count these 50 billion BoxTops we've collected.  Yay for BoxTops!!!

Okay, back to the story.  So, I had to decide what snacks to make for the ladies!  Who doesn't love chocolate?  And who doesn't love cupcakes?  But ... who loves all the fat and calories?  Yuck.
So began my search for a healthy-ish cupcake ... WITH frosting (It's communist to eat cupcakes with no frosting!)

So, here's the recipe.

Heat oven to 325 (this is important.  325 works the best for big, round cupcakes.  To hell with what the box says!)

Mix contents of cake mix (whatever flavor you please.  I went with .. duh, dark chocolate) with 6oz. plain greek yogurt.  I used full-fat greek, but fat free works fine too.  Now, here's the catch ... read the cake box.  The first mix I picked up had 5grams of fat.  The next brand had only 3.5 grams of fat.  No brainer there!

Add 1 cup of water to the cake mix and mix it all up.

At this point, it will look like thick chocolate mousse.  Yumm.  Yes, it's safe to eat at this point, there are no eggs!

Spray your cupcake liners with cooking spray, and fill 2/3 full.  This is important too.  If you fill them too full they won't puff up, and round cupcakes are prettier than flat ones!

Bake at 325 until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Don't jump around like a dang fool while they are baking, or they will go flat.  I have a 7 year old in the house.  My first batch went flat.  Then the kid got sent to bed.

The cupcakes come out fluffy and airy.  Most definitely the fluffiest cupcakes I've EVER had!

For the frosting you can do it several different ways.

1.  prepare 1 small package of jello instant pudding (flavor of choice) and let set up.  Whisk in 1/3 c. frosting of choice.  Again, read the labels.  Some have less fat/calories/sugar than the others, and it'll all taste the same in the end!  This gives you a thin-pudding consistency.  You can either spread a small amount of the mixture onto the top of your cupcakes (it doesn't set up hard, think ganache consistency), or you can inject some into each cupcake.  The injection is my preferred method.  Either way, you need to frost them right before serving or they get too squishy.

2.  Mix the prepared chocolate pudding with 1 tub non-fat Cool-Whip topping and spread on cupcakes.

**I made the pudding to the package directions.  2 cups milk, 1 envelope pudding.  I'm going to play with only using 1 cup of milk next time, maybe I will get a thicker frosting.  Either way, it's delish!!!

So, I calculated the fat and calories using the pudding/frosting icing.  My calculations for 18 cupcakes:
135 calories and 2 grams of fat each!  Awesome!
Here's the catch - it will actually be less, because this pudding makes a TON of icing, and you don't use very much at all.  Only about 1 Tbsp of icing per cupcake, so that really knocks down your calories and fat.  But I'm too lazy to do the math again.

And here's the ooey gooey injected cupcake.  What?  Injector?  We live on a farm, of course I have a clean syringe (or a hundred) lying around!  If you don't, just use your turkey injector, or even a turkey baster, or a piping bag with the long, narrow tip - or come up with some other creative idea.

Either way, these things are freaking awesome!  I have some other healthy recipes in the works for the PTO ladies tomorrow evening, I'll tell you about them some other time!

Fancy Restaurants Be Damned!!!

So, here at Casa de Hazaleus we have cattle.  And horses. And dogs.  And kids.  We live in a small town, the dining consists of a Mexican restaurant, a cafe or two for lunch, and fast food.  Luckily, my husband pampers me with a monthly date out to a fancy restaurant, concert, trip out of town, etc. etc.  I'm a VERY pampered ranch hand!

The other day though, I had a craving ... no, a NEED for some Creme Brûlée.  Those of you that know me know that I am domestically challenged.  I doctor and care for critters.  I can even be OCD about a clean house - but I'm a lousy cook!  So, what was I supposed to do about this Creme Brûlée hankering?!

I put on my big girl undies and made some Creme Brûlée!!!  The first night I made it Jeff wasn't home. Which was good because the texture was off.  Flavor was spot-on but it looked more like curdled egg mess than Creme Brûlée. That gave me time to perfect my creation.  This is even a lower-fat version, since I made it with 1% milk and not heavy cream!  Go team me!

Here's the details:

6 egg yolks (save the whites for breakfast egg cups!)
2 cups 1% milk
1/2 cup sugar
teaspoon vanilla


Top:
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tbsp butter


Here's the easy-peasy directions!

Pre-Heat oven to 350
Warm the milk in the microwave, and stir the sugar in until it is dissolved.
Slowly add the eggs to the milk.  Add vanilla.  Pour into oven-proof glass cups (ramekins).
Place cups in a cake pan, and fill the pan with water until it goes 1/2 way up the cups.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until set.

Once set, remove from oven and remove from warm water bath.  Let cool thoroughly, then place in refrigerator to chill.

After the cups are cooled, you are ready for the top!

In a small saucepan, combine sugar and butter.  Heat on med-high heat, stirring constantly.  Once sugar is dissolved, you can up the heat a little to get caramelization.  Once the mixture is *almost* the color of honey, take if off the burner.  Spoon 1 Tbsp. of the mixture over the cold cups and rock them back and forth, and all around, until there is a light coating over the top.  The thinner the better (if you ask my husband), but I really enjoyed a thicker crunch on top.  Either way - it's your choice!

Now, you are ready to eat these yummy treats!  Take your spoon and give it a good !whack! to crack the topping.  Then enjoy!