Christmas M&M Cookies

I love this time of year. It's just a great time to bake for your friends and coworkers. I baked a batch of these for Scott and some of my coworkers since they found out that I baked. Great huh?

Well I know that they enjoyed it because I brought about 20 and there weren't any left when I left from work. Scott says that he loves the cookies and that they were his favorite! I'm definitely happy that he enjoyed them. He's never really had any of my baking since I stopped after we started dating. Now he gets to try all of my baking since it's the holiday season.

I really do miss baking guys; I hope everyone still reads and I promise to bake at least once a month!

I found the recipe here, and its a great one. Try it! I baked it for a little longer than the recipe and it still turned out chewy. That's the most important part - chewy, soft cookies.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting

This cupcake was definitely a nice fall dessert since it had pumpkin which was super easy. It's an easy dessert - just throw everything together basically and bam, it's done!

Cinnamon Coffee Cake Bundt

A couple nights ago, I just felt this HUGE urge to bake. Possibly because I haven't in a while and because when I get stressed, all I want to do is bake..and then not eat it. I know it might seem weird to people, but I just can't get myself to eat what I bake, other than like one piece. This recipe is actually really good where I don't mind eating a couple of pieces...over a couple of days.

It's super simple to whip up, I did it in about 20 minutes and baking took about 45 mins. Almost fell asleep since I was baking at about midnight, but that's what the boyfriend is for. He told me when to take it out of the oven. Actually, I only found the recipe because I was showing him a website and then i thought that a recipe would be especially good.

The recipe is a great one, but I modified it slightly. I used yogurt instead of sour cream, and added cinnamon to the batter. I also added more instant coffee to it just slightly and used hazelnut instant coffee instead of regular. It adds this actually nice flavor to it.

The coffee cake is especially good days after when the flavors are allowed to settle a bit. We had the coffee cake the next morning with some fruit and an omelet to share!

Jambalaya (cooking)

Yes, all I typically do is bake, but since I'm trying to lose weight and not spend as much money, my boyfriend and I have been staying in and cooking. Obviously, it's a lot cheaper to cook from home than it is to eat out every night. We talked earlier in the day and we decided that we wanted to make something with chicken, onion,  and celery in it. I chose some recipes and we decided on Jambalaya.

Some chicken, sausage and vegetables make a great jambalaya - much cheaper than at a restaurant.

So the recipe is modified from this Jambalaya recipe. We only made a couple of changes and it came out amazing! Everything is basically the same as the recipe, except the order in which we cooked items.

Instead of the meats first, we decided on vegetables first.

 Then the meats.

Then adding in everything according to the recipe. 30-40 minutes later - everything is complete!

DELICIOUS!

Small Update!

I have no idea who still follows my blog, but I have been slacking in the baking department since I met my boyfriend. Anyways, we had been together for a year so we decided to go to my hometown and Disneyland!

Some of the pictures I took (with my cellphone camera)

Lovely sights hm? I really enjoyed the park all decorated Halloween like. This was only in Disneyland though. California Adventure, which was the first time I've ever been, was so much fun as well. Scott and I had so much fun together and ate way too much for our own good.

Examples:

All of these things were delicious! The gumbo was in Disneyland; the second one is from Embassy Suites, and the third is from this amazing place called Bruxie. The waffle sandwich is a great thought and they are so good. I'm so glad they're opening one in my hometown too so when I go home for thanksgiving I will definitely go there for food!