Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

I'm a huge fan of cupcakes, fanatic might describe it better. In fact I sell cupcakes on the side. Pretty much only to friends and family, but they are always impressed with what they get. This isn't the first time I've tried to come up with my own recipe, but it is the first time I've tried to come up with a healthy recipe, and all because I'm starting to miss my cupcakes and need to have them. So, I went to my favorite blog, and found my favorite pumpkin cupcake, and started changing it from there. When you look at the ingredients you will notice that there is no oil. I've replaced the oil with apple sauce. I thought about doing it with pumpkin, but I was worried that the pumpkin flavor would end up overwhelming, and not the subtle taste that I like. Then, I switched up the eggs for egg whites, an easy change, although if you want to use eggs, only use 4. And the final change is attempting to use some white whole wheat flour instead of all white flour.

I can say, without a doubt, the changes were a success. The cake is super moist complimented by amazing frosting. I'm sure they will be a hit tomorrow.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Makes  24 - 30 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups white whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
2 ½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup apple sauce
8 egg whites

For the frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese
1 stick unsalted butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar


Directions:

Cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, blend together the pumpkin, granulated sugar, brown sugar and apple sauce. Add the eggs whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixture on low speed, add the flour mixture in two additions, mixing just until incorporated.


Fill the cupcake liners about three-quarters full. Bake until the cupcakes are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about  18-20 minutes. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pans and let cool completely.


To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth. Add more sugar if necessary. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.






Source: Cupcakes adapted from Annie’s Eats.

A Beautiful Wedding!

Two amazing people got married today, and I was privileged enough to be invited. It was a beautiful ceremony, with a very nice reception at a unique venue. A great time. One of the more difficult things about going to a wedding is the idea that I have very little control over what is available to eat.

The food was very good, and I worked very hard to allow myself the opportunity to eat, without having to worry about whether or not I went over my daily points. I didn't eat much before the wedding. A small breakfast, and a snack prior to heading over. I'm so glad I had that snack, cause things kinda took awhile to get going.

The food was served around 7, starting with appetizers, which included garlicky chickpeas, ham and mozzarella, and romaine lettuce. I actually ate the lettuce, which will shock anyone that knows me. There were also huge baguettes at our table, which by the time we got food I was starving so I had one of those. then there was dinner, which was chicken Marsala, pasta in marinara sauce, broccoli, and potatoes. I had a little of all three, and a sliver of cake at the end of the night. If I calculated correctly the dinner was about 2 days worth of food, and by the end left me feeling not so hot.

The good news is there was dancing, and I danced quite a bit. Plus I went for a walk this morning. I had about 26 activity points by the end of this week, and I didn't touch any of my weekly points, which I still have some left. I really hope that I'm still on the weight loss side of things as my first weigh in is tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

Almost the End of Week 1

It's Friday night, and I'm feeling lazy. For some reason it was a tough work week, and it left me exhausted. When I'm tired it can be tough to do anything other then sit in my favorite chair and watch TV online. But that's not an acceptable past time, and that won't help me reach any of my goals. Not just the weight loss goals, but the healthy lifestyle goals as well.

Me this past June in Greece. Next vacation I want to want to be in front of the camera!

With those thoughts, lets start with a recap ...

Sunday I joined weight watchers, not an easy choice because I feel like I know what to eat, and how to be healthy, but knowing what to do and doing it are two very different things. I haven't been able to motivate myself on the doing it part recently at all. So, after much thought, reading, and talking to my mom, I went to a WW meeting Sunday morning. Weighed in, I wasn't at all surprised by the number, and stayed for the meeting. The group leader is .... peppy. Not the peppy I tend to get along with or necessarily want to be around, but she is the group leader for every meeting in my area. Maybe her peppiness is what I need to stay motivated. Which means, I'm not going to try and switch, I'm going to continue to go Sunday mornings and learn to love it.

Also on Sunday was the first day I started counting points instead of calories. I like it a lot better. I don't mind recording what I eat (especially since I have a smart phone, it really isn't that hard to do), but for whatever reason counting calories always left me hungry, very very hungry. Well, Sunday I wasn't hungry. I did go over my daily allotment of points by three total points, but I worked out that day, which means it all balanced out. See, one of the great things about the new points plus plan is that if you exercise you can gain extra points. You can use them or not, but you do get to record your activity and have it count which is awesome!

Monday and Tuesday I was under my allotted points, but I wasn't hungry, so I just didn't eat any more. Wednesday I ate exactly my daily amount of points. And Thursday, well, Thursday I was way under. It wasn't intentional. I went over to a friend's house, we got to talking and by the time I got home it was late. So I made myself a small snack, but not the meal I was planning because I don't like to eat right before bed. It worked out, but today (Friday) I've been tired. Makes me wonder if it is due to my lack of nutrition yesterday, or just fatigue from my crazy work schedule. Either way, I will probably try to get closer to my 30 points from now on.

What helped me stick to the plan was preparing most of my food for the week on Sunday. It meant about 4 hours of cooking, but it saved me sooooo much time during the week. Plus the food that I made was good. So far I've been getting my recipes from the blog www.skinnytaste.com, and I've liked what I've made. I highly recommend the skinny chicken enchiladas, baked chipotle sweet potato fries, zucchini turkey burger, and even the broccoli mac n' cheese. I can't wait to try more in the future, as well as post recipes and pictures for the things I end up making.

Some good news is that I haven't used my weekly points yet, I have been saving them to use tomorrow, as two of my friends are marrying each other, and the food is going to be delicious and Italian. I'm not excited about weighing in the day after a planned going over of points, but ... it should all be great, because I've been so good so far.

I've also decided to set non weight loss goals. One of them for this week is to exercise everyday. This leads to a healthier happier me, so now I need to get up off my butt and make it happen. I'm tracking my activity points, and I will treat myself (maybe to a new book) if I make 21 activity points this week. So ... it's time to work out.

Joining Weight Watchers

Since college, I have constantly struggled with keeping my weight down. I grew up healthy and very athletic, but somewhere along the way I lost the habits and motivations to eat right and exercise. I few years back, I successfully dropped a lot of weight, but the diet I tried was not one I could stick to for life. It was extremely restrictive, cutting out all the food that I personally love to eat. So, of course, I gained all the weight I lost back.

Over the last year, I've been trying to lose weight again, and while I know what I should be eating, it's not always what I want to eat, instead of losing weight, I've gained about 15 lbs. Along with not eating right, I recently injured myself and exercise has been difficult. Once I am exercising I love it, it makes me feel better about myself, I want to eat healthier, but I have problems motivating myself to exercise.

This past week at work, we got an email saying that they would reimburse the cost of weight watchers, so ... today I'm heading out to join, I have heard great things about this way of life. Plus, the support group aspect will hopefully work for me. I'm getting ready to head to my first meeting now. I hope it goes well.