The Best Apple Strudel Muffins

Apple Strudel Muffins-  The perfect muffin to have with your morning coffee. I found this recipe online and it turned out great! They took about 45 minutes to make and made exactly 12 medium-sized muffins!

Ingredients:
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1  and 1/4 tsp vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups of chopped apple ** I put 2 cups!

Ingredients for Topping:
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1/8 tsp ground cinamon
1 tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 12 cup muffin pan
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
4. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.
5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

* Next time I would change it to 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar!

Birds Nest Cookies

No Bake Birds Nest Cookies -  On Easter Sunday my family had everyone over for dinner. I decided to make these cookies after stumbling upon them online. They are perfect for a Easter decoration or even as dessert!

Ingredients Needed:

• 1 package chocolate chips
• 1/4 c. peanut butter
• 1 can crunchy Chinese noodles
• 1 bag of Mini Eggs

1. Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter together in the microwave. Be careful not to overheat. The best way to do that is to stir it every minute until it is smooth. ( * I stirred it every 30 seconds)
   
2. Mix in the noodles and spoon into little "nests" onto wax paper.
   
3. Press two or three robin's eggs into the center of the cookie. The Cadbury Mini-Eggs work really well, but you can substitute with jelly beans, yogurt covered raisins, Jordan almonds, etc.
   
4. Refrigerate until hard.

*For a bit more variation you can substitute butterscotch or cinnamon chips instead of chocolate chips!

* I picked blue mini eggs because they looked the most like Robin eggs :)

Wake Me Up - Smoothie

Yesterday morning I was searching online for the perfect morning smoothie. I came across this amazing recipe for a strawberry, banana smoothie. 5 minutes later it tasted great, so I thought I would share it with everyone. I thought of the name "Wake Me Up" because this smoothie is natural and a healthy way to start the day.

Recipe:

10 oz. fresh strawberries

2 ripe bananas (I used 1 banana)

3 tablespoons of sugar or honey (I used honey because it is a much healthier option)

1 cup of ice cubes (I used 6 ice cubes)

3/4 cup of milk, yogurt or coconut water (I used ¾ cup of yogurt and a splash of milk)

This makes about three large smoothies! Perfect to have with your breakfast or on the go.

Peanut Butter Cookies

This afternoon I made peanut butter cookies! They turned out great and only took 10 minutes to bake in the oven.

Recipe:
***The recipe says it will make 60 1 and 1/2 inch cookies. However, I doubled the recipe and made them bigger and it made 40.
Preheat Oven to 375 F. Grease or line 2 cookie sheets.
Whisk together: 
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
Beat in a large bowl until well blended:
1/3 cup (5 and 1/3 tbp) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
Beat in:
1 large egg
1 cup of peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Stir in the flour mixture until blended. Shape into 1-inch balls and arrange about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Press flat with a fork. Bake 1 sheet at a time, about 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand briefly, then remove to rack to cool.

*** To top it off I added a chocolate chip on top!