Cupcakes & Cheesy Toast

Howdy! I hope you’ve all been enjoying your Sunday!

Earlier today, I had some baking to do for a picnic up at Saratoga; unfortunately, I didn’t get the notice from the hubby until 10:30 last night, so my creative juices didn’t have much time to start flowin’! ;)  I stuck with an old standby, quick and easy: Soda Cupcakes!

I used a box of Devil’s Food cake mix + 1- 12oz. can diet Vanilla Pepsi to create a batch of scrumptious mini cupcakes.  To add a little “pizazz” to some of the goodies, I used some of these:

Hershey’s HUGS :-P

Once the cupcakes were taken out of the oven, I immediately inserted an upside-down hug into about 1/3 of the cupcakes.

I totally FORGOT to take a finished photograph, but luckily, we were able to take a few leftovers back home with us, so here’s some that endured the car ride home – a little messy, sorry! :oops:

I almost always make my own almond buttercream frosting because I think it’s a gazillion times better than canned; unfortunately, I ran out of powdered sugar and only had enough homemade frosting for about 20 of these little guys. BUMMER.  Luckily, Kate was coming to pick me up and she was able to stop and pick up a can of cream cheese frosting to finish ’em off. (THANKS KATE!)  They were all still pretty yummy — I snacked on 2 of these during the day (1 with homemade frosting, 1 with canned)

*Sad news – I ran out of the house this afternoon with my lonely camera sitting on the kitchen table, so no photos for most of the day. Boooooo…  But I can tell you there was a yummy spread of food, and I enjoyed a plate of a little pasta salad, fresh fruit, and a small piece of a roast beef sub from a sub platter.  It was all very tasty!

Fast forward to this evening – I started to get a few tummy grumbles, but I really didn’t want anything too involved.  I incorporated some of  my favorite ingredients to make some open faced cheesy-tomato-pesto toast.

I toasted 2 slices of my rye bread under the broiler, and topped them with a smear of The Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese, a spread of pesto, tomato slices, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and a sprinkle of reduced-fat mozzarella cheese.  Then I popped them back under the broiler for about 3-4 more minutes to get the cheese all melty.  They were delicious and exactly what I was craving! :)

A Couple Updates…

1. Yesterday, I added a new “Q & A” page to the blog, so if you haven’t checked it out, feel free! ;)  You know you can always ask questions anytime – just email me or drop me a comment.  I love answering all your questions!
2. I realized I haven’t really shared many of my Examiner posts with you guys lately, so here’s my most recent, to catch you guys up to speed! Check ’em out…you know you wanna. ;)

• National HIV Testing Day

• Stay Full with Delicious Summer Produce

• Veggie Myths, Debunked: Part 3

• Veggie Myths, Debunked: Part 2
  

• Veggie Myths, Debunked: Part 1

What was the best part of your weekend??

Mine would have to be getting all of our new landscaping finished! :)