Cupcake Apothecary

Pasta to Zucchini

I feel like because this is my baking blog, I can't post my low carb foods on here, so I made a new blog called Pasta to Zucchini. Please check it out! Even if you're not into low carbin' or like on facebook!

If you are interested here are some of the things I have made.

Noodle and Company's Copy Cat The Med Salad

Zucchini Cakes

Banana Oat Muffins

Sante Fe Omelet

General Breakfast Ideas

I also write about running tips, zumba, yoga. I try to find free videos of zumba and yoga. I will be writing on my own journey of losing 60 pounds total, but I have 42 left to go. I'd appreciate some followers and/or support in general.

If you are on myfitnesspal please add me at blkenigma8

and it if you are on nikeplus add me at blkenigma

When you have the sniffles...

I currently have a cold.

This is how I looked yesterday. Not even joking.

I'm sure that I'm like most people and hate being sick and want to do everything in their power to speed the process along.

My go to products: Kleenex with Aloe, Vicks vapor rub, Chamomile and Echinacea Tea, DayQuil and NyQuil, and a heat pad. These products usually do the trick and it gets out of my system within 3-4 days. But sometimes there are some things that you can't live with during. Like yesterday, my nose was so stuffed my voice was sounding annoyingly identical to Fran Dresser. I tried blowing my nose but nothing came out.

What to do, what to do. At one point I started to get dizzy because one ear was popped and the other wasn't. I was desperate. So I did some research. I found a few answers and there was surprisingly not a lot of answers out there.

Even then I like to have all my facts in one place. Much like my 130 uses for Vinegar and 43 uses for Baking Powder post. So I'm going to make a tips and tricks for when you're sick post. If you don't use it, I will always have it for me to look back on.

First off, THE MUSTS:

1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I will most likely put it under every symptom.

2. Rest. Take it easy! Make the hubby, wife, kids, brother, sis, etc help you out with a blanket and a remote.

3. Sleep. Take a Nyquil or Melotonin to help you go to sleep and stay that way.

4. Do I really have to say this one? No alcohol, smoking, drugs, partying or just plain craziness.

5. If this lasts longer than a week to two weeks, GO SEE A DOCTOR!!!

Aches

-Heat pad
-Hot bath
-Massage from your lovely, lovely significant other.
-Tylenol, Advil.
-Laying down with your legs propped up

Chills/Sweats

-Cold compresses around legs and forehead.

-There's not much out there. What I do is when I'm uncontrollably hot I take a cold shower or stand outside in winter for a few seconds. When I'm cold I have my heat pad and warm dog and husband that I cuddle up with.

Coughing

-Hydrate

-Drink lots of warm fluids. Tea's, warm milk, soup, broth

-Hot Showers and steam. I like to lean my head back and just let the hot water pour on my throat. This helps with soreness as well.

-Humidifiers. BE CAREFUL! If left uncleaned, they become reservoirs for pumping out fungus and mold. ICK.
-Decongestants. Dayquil and Nyquil, guys. Every 6 hours until bed then Nyquil for undisturbed sleep.
-Vicks Vapor rub. Rub it on your throat, chest and arch of neck

Ear Congestion

-Chewing Gum

-Swallowing Hard
-Nasal Decongestants
-Yawn Wide

-Suck a mint or in your sick case, a couch drop. Let it slowly dissolve in your mouth.

-Plug your nose, inhale through your mouth and hold your breath. This should push some air through your ears

-In a warm shower, bend down and attempt to touch your toes and alternate popping your ears and trying to suck air down your throat. Suck the mucus down your throat? I guess like hawking a lugee. Ears should pop!
-Heat up a sock with some uncooked rice in it. Lay down with the sock against you year for a few minutes. Pour peroxide in ear. After a few minutes, clean ear with q-tips.

Sneezing

-There isn't much on how to stop sneezing either. Sneezing for me means that I'm healing. The day before I'm ok again I have fits of sneezing and the need to sneeze all day long. Even if I take allergy pills, it won't go away.

Sore/Scratchy throat

-Gargle salt water

-Gargle Listerine

-Heat one cup to a boil and squeeze half a lemon and a tbsp of honey into your mug. Sip slowly.

-Ginger Tea. Licorice root or tea

-Cough suppressant

-Inhaling steam through your mouth.

-Boil 1 cup of milk and 1 tsp of turmeric for 3-4 minutes. Drink before bed

-Drinking Pineapple juice

-Apple Cider Vinegar. Take 1 part to 2 part ratio with water. (I hear it works wonders, but it also tastes horrible, I've tried.)

-Chicken Soup

-Rest. Sometimes I just don't talk when my throat feels like this. It helps a lot.

-Hydrate

Stuffed Nose

-Blowing your nose with tissue with lotion of aloe. Or apply vicks vapor rub on your nose after blowing to prevent chapping.
-Make steam (Run the shower, boil some water, humidifier) and try to slowly inhale the steam.
-Use Nasal Sprays like Vicks Sinex or salt water solutions.
-Nasal Adhesive Strips.
-Vapor Rub. This is my bff when I'm sick. Rub some on the tip of you nose to help breathe AND for a chapped nose. Rub some on your chest/throat for a cough suppressant and to help reduce stuffiness in your nose. If you do not have any vapor rub, you can also use peppermint oil.
-Chewing mint. I have not tried this, but apparently it works and if it doesn't at least you have good breath!
-Take Decongestants
-Put a warm compress over your nose. Soak a warm (as hot as you can stand) hand towel, lay down and place on your nose. This to me took forever to do and kept making me get up and reheat it for it to work and didn't last as long.
-Elevating your head. Laying down will worsen your stuffy nose. Try to recline instead.
-Eating spicy food. I don't know how accurate this one is but if all else fails at least you can't taste it much due to the stuffiness.
-Hydrate. You should do this last one all the time in normal life, but especially when you're sick.

Vomiting/Diarrhea

-Eating crackers help with feeling like you have to vomit or anything carb-y. My theory is that it 'soaks' up whatever bug is in there.
-Charcoal tablets. These are a must in my house. They help with any kind of stomach problem. They are fast acting and there isn't any *mmhmm* 'leftover' diarrhea.

If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them and post them!

Sources:

WikiHow
Home Remedies
eHow

Buzzle

WebMD

Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies (Low Carb)

New year, Same Resolutions: : Losing Weight.

Actually, it's more like... getting healthy.

Also, please visit my new blog about getting fit and eating healthy.
Pasta to Zucchini

My husband and I watched a documentary called Fat Head. Tom Naughton took the documentary Super Size Me to a whole new level. He wanted to prove that you can eat out like the guy from Super Size me and not gain weight. It was all about portion control when it came to carbs. Carbs has so much sugar in it that even if you're eating a 'diet' bread or cupcake there's still so much sugar in it.
Or something like that. My husband took more out of it. but I recommend watching it. It is eye opening. It's on Netflix watch instantly.

Anyway, so my husband and I are cutting out carbs for a little while. It's getting a little tough. I've been craving cupcakes and cookies. So I found these cookies when I was looking for some inspiration to do something without flour or with almond flour and right in front of my face were these cookies.

My Source: Culinary Couture

What you need:

1 cup Peanut Butter (I used Smart Balance)

1/2 cup Brown Sugar (Original called for a full cup but I wanted less sugar)

1/2 cup Splenda

1 Egg

(I added in a pinch of my homemade vanilla. It makes everything better.)

And you can also add chocolate chips!

What you need to do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

MIX IT ALL TOGETHER. Don't even worry about dirtying your Kitchen Aid or Bosch. You can seriously whip this up real quick!

Bake for 9 minutes and let cool. Enjoy!

Makes 24 cookies

Per cookie:

54.9 Calories, 3.2 g Total Fat, 0.6 Saturated Fat, 15.5 mg Cholesterol, 26.0 mg Sodium, 53.4 mg Potassium, 7.6 g Total Carbohydrate, 0.3 g Fiber, 6.3 g Sugars

Putting my blog on hold

I'm so sorry to say that I have to put my blog on hold. We are on the waiting list for base housing and until then we're in a tiny cramped apartment which has literally the worst oven in the world! I will try to post some non baking things up or some older recipes I never posted from the past but that is all I can do for now. Thank you for your amazing, supportive comments. They motivate me to keep baking! I will hopefully be back baking within a few months.
Here are some photo's of recipes to come:

Pumpkin Granola

Fruit Cups with Sugar Cookie Cups

Baked Chimichangas. (Literally the best chimichanga EVER)

Meatball Subs

Valentine's Day Cupcakes.

Literally the Best Sugar Cookies in the World!

I didn't even attempt to mess with this recipe and make it my own. Sugar cookies and I have a love hate relationship; in that, I love to eat them, but they hate to come out right when I try to bake them. It's very sad. Until now, that is. I came across this recipe on allrecipes.com. It is awesome because most sugar cookie recipes call to be put in the fridge for an hour or more. Sometimes I'm lazy. I don't want to do all that. Well, this recipe is a little bit of labor, but it's so good, so it's worth it.

(I do not recommend these cookies for cut out cookies)

What you need:

2 3/4 cup all-purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/4 cup Margarine

2 cups White Sugar

2 Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Additional white sugar for decoration

What you need to do:

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.

Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until just blended.

Roll the dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in remaining 1/4 cup of sugar.

Place cookies 2 inches apart onto parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned at the edges. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies come out perfectly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.

They do however, get harder. What I recommend for consistently chewy cookies if you're keeping them for more than a day is to put a slice of bread in a tightly fit container. The bread lets out moisture, so your cookies never get hard. Try it. It seriously works.

Also, what I recommend, if you're like me, you'll eat the whole batch because they are so good, so do this: Bake a few, then on another parchment lined cookies sheet place the sugar coated raw cookie balls then freeze them. When you want more simply defrost them (it doesn't take long at all) then bake them like normal!

Enjoy!

file:///C:/Users/Alyssa/Downloads/pinterest-2a0be%20(1).html

Pumpkin Oatmeal

It's that time of season again, and it's my favorite time: Pumpkin time!

I try not to go too nuts on the pumpkin, but I can't help it. It's so good!

So far I've only made this and pumpkin granola, so it's okay. But I plan on making Pumpkin donuts, pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin bars, and of course a few pumpkin pies. This year I will be doing something different though. I'll be making a pumpkin cheesecake pie for Thanksgiving since we're visiting family and I'm sure everyone else will bring pie too.

ANYWAYS, I've been trying to lose weight for a long time now. I've recently joined a gym though called Just Ladies Fitness and I'm loving it!

So, in addition, I've been trying to eat healthier. It's tough but I'm making do. So, for breakfast I've been trying to have more oatmeal and fruits instead of cereal, especially since it's getting cold out.

Here's a delicious recipe for Pumpkin oatmeal.

What you need:

1/2 cup Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats

1 cup Milk (Skim, soy, rice, 2%, whatever you choose)

1/4 cup canned Pumpkin Puree

Ground Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Ginger

1/2 teaspoon Maple Syrup (or honey)

Brown sugar or walnuts or anything you want to top.

What you need to do:

Simple really: Boil the oats in milk, pumpkin, syrup and spices. You can even use pumpkin spices if you'd like. I put a few shakes of each spice into the oatmeal. Let sit until oats are soft.

Sprinkle with your topping.

That's it!

It's so simple and so delicious! My favorite part, besides the pumpkin, is that it doesn't have any preservative or processed junk or anything. I actually found a link to a few copy cat of those instant oatmeal packets. I will have to share. :)

Enjoy!

Lasagna Cupcakes

Cupcakes are taking off. I've seen so many things in cupcake forms lately. Like in Tokyo, theres a 'red velvet' cupcake. Sounds normal, right? WRONG! The red in the cupcakes is from beets. Ick! Cinnamon buns can now come in cupcake form. And now, lasagna.

This was really good, but really hard work! Like... it took a lloooonnng time to finish. Was it worth it in the end? meh... not really. I'm all about pretty, delicious and pretty easy and less time consuming to cook.

Pretty, right? They were pretty tasty. But honestly, I think I could use this same recipe and just make it the old fashion way. This recipe was adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

What you need: (Sorry, I don't have measurements)

Italian Sausage (I used Johnsonville Chicken Sausage, 3 cheese Italian Flavored)

Red pepper

Onion

Garlic

Lasagna noodles, cooked al dante

Ricotta Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Mozzarella Cheese

(I added in some Fontina Cheese as well)

Italian spices (I.e. basil, oregano, etc)

Spaghetti sauce (I use Prego, my Favorite!)

What you need to do:

Start out by putting your sausage in a food processor.

Pulse until it looks like the above photo. The smaller, the better.

Next, pulse some pepper and onion. Garlic would be nice too, but I crushed mine with a knife so we have lots of big pieces!

Saute it all together, fully cooking the sausage.

Spray your pans and warm your oven to 350 at this point, if you haven't already.

Take your lasagna noodle and put it on a hard surface, like a cutting board.

Grab a cup and cut little circles out.

Voila!

You may even have to pinch off a bit more if it doesn't fit right.

Place your lasagna circles in the tin.

Take a lasagna noodle and cut it in half, the long way. Wrap the noddle in the pan like so. It doesn't have to be perfect, the stuffing will hold it together later.

Mix your cheeses, making sure their creamy and well blended.

Add in your spices!

Now layer. Sauce first.

Meat/onion mix next.

Ricotta mix next.

More sauce.

Place shredded Mozzarella Cheese on top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, allowing everything to get warm and melt. The edges should get a bit crispy, but don't leave it in more than that otherwise it will harden.

Not so bad, just a lot of prep work. I hope you all enjoy!

Linky Parties:

FriDAYS Made Sweet

Too Excited, Must Share!

But thanks to pinterest, which I don't think I have the pin, I have found an amazing way to help my frustrations, and I highly recommend you doing the same!