The One About Skinny Strawberry Cupcakes

Hi, my name is Shanna, and I love cupcakes.

There, I said it. And who doesn't love cupcakes, really?  But, unfortunately for me, eating cupcakes does not line up with my weight loss goals.  We'll talk more about that later, but the day I found a recipe for strawberry cupcakes that would not ruin my diet for the day, the heaven's parted and babies giggled, and all good things collided.

I'm being dramatic.  But these cupcakes are really good, y'all! And at 105 calories...It doesn't get much better.

So, I have to share the wealth.  But first, a few disclaimers...

• I cannot take credit for this recipe. I found it on Skinny Mom. And I've tried several of her recipes and they've been fantastic. 
• The picture below used store-bought icing, so I'm doing a little false advertising here.  With the Pilsbury hot pink vanilla icing (and sprinkles), these particular cupcakes were more than 105 calories, because 2-year-olds don't care.
• I've made the frosting outlined in the recipe as well, and it's so light and awesome. You could also eat these with no frosting at all and they are heavenly strawberry muffins. They are so moist and flavorful, you won't miss the frosting.

Skinny Strawberry Cupcakes

 



 

 

 

Ingredients

 

Cupcakes:

• 1 box Pilsbury Moist Supreme Strawberry cake mix
• 1 6 ounce container Dannon Light n Fit Strawberry yogurt
• 2 egg whites
• 3/4 cup of water

Frosting:

• 1 tub of Cool Whip Free (8 ounce size)
• 1 box of Strawberry Jello Pudding mix (Sugar-Free, Fat-Free 1 ounce size)
• Red food coloring, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners or spray with a non-stick spray.
2. In a medium bowl mix cake mix, egg whites, yogurt, and 3/4 cup of water. Stir for 2 -3 minutes until well-blended (I used a hand mixer). Place mixture into cupcake liners about 2/3 full.
3. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
4. While cupcakes are baking mix the contents of the Strawberry Jello mix with the full container of Cool Whip pudding mix. Stir until blended. Add a few drops of food coloring for color. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
5. After cupcakes have cooled, ice the cupcakes with Cool Whip mixture

 

What more could you ask for? Low-calorie, guilt free, super-easy cupcakes! This will make about 18 cupcakes, so make sure you share.

The One Where I Cleaned My Oven

Happy Friday, Folks!

When I started this blog a couple of days ago, I shared that my muse was a gross, neglected oven. Since we put our house on the market on Tuesday, I have been in deep cleaning mode. No area is safe from the magic eraser, windex, or my new best friend- baking soda!

Today, I'm sharing how I restored my oven to almost new quality without a single chemical.  Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't describe myself as a "green" person. I love me some chemicals, but oven cleaner has always scared me. Besides the fumes, the stuff is hard to get completely out of the oven, so I feel like I'm seasoning all baked goods with "Easy Off."

Then along came this pin,this pin, and this pin. I figured I didn't have anything to lose. Super cheap? fume free? Let's go.

There are so many methods out there, so I did a little combo.

What you need:

• Baking Soda
• Water
• White Vinegar (in a spray bottle)
• Scrubbing pad (optional)
• Plastic Spatula
• Paper towels/Old rags
• Small Pot (for boiling water)

Step #1 Boiling Water: Place a pot of boiling water in the oven, shut the door for 20 minutes, and let the steam do the work. Let's let the "before" picture be the one below. This was after the steam treatment, wiped out with a paper towel. It didn't do much.

Step #2: Mix baking soda and water into a paste and brush it all over the greasy areas.  There are measurements in the instructions I pinned, but I just eye-balled it.  Too runny? More baking soda. Too pasty? Add water. You want it to be toothpaste consistency  but easy brushed on. I used a paint brush to be fancy, but you could apply it by hand if you want to.

Step #3- Close the oven and preheat for 5 minutes. Set a timer, not sure it would be safe to let the oven get much hotter. Turn it off after 5 minutes and walk away. Or in my case, go to bed!  You want this to set on the oven for a couple of hours, but the longer the better. Mine sat for almost 24 hours because I had to work the next day and I wasn't about to scrub the oven first thing in the morning.

Step #4- We're ready to scrub! Use a plastic spatula to scrape the baking soda out. You'll be surprised what comes up with the baking soda. Once you've got out most of the debris, spray a few squirts of vinegar all over to break down the paste. Then, wipe clean with a rag/paper towel.  You'll have to rinse out your rag several times in this process.  I also busted out a scrubby sponge to buff out particularly stubborn spots. Now, you may be done after this step, unless you oven was really bad, like mine. Below is round one, and it already looks fantastic....

Step #5- Also known as the step that doesn't work. In my Pinterest research, someone suggested using a lemon with a little salt a dish soap to clean the oven glass. It did absolutely nothing except make the oven smell good. So I guess there's that.

Step #6- Repeat steps #2-4. I mixed up some more baking soda paste and applied it generously to the stubburn spots and oven glass, preheated, walked away, watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory.

After scrubbing my little heart out, victory was achieved and the oven sparkled (literally with the help of PicMonkey)

Thumbs up for a clean oven!

Step #7- You thought we were done?  To keep the oven clean while we still live and cook in this house, I laid down some foil...

And with that, I can get to the fun part- enjoying the clean oven! A certain, adorable little girl turned 2 yesterday and that called for cupcakes...

But not just any cupcakes, skinny strawberry cupcakes!  I'll share the recipe in the next post, because they were such a hit.

Until then, I hope I've inspired you to do a little spring cleaning without the fumes.  It's a beautiful thing.

The One Where I Started The Blog

It's like a brand new notebook on the first day of school and this is the first page.  You make sure your handwriting is perfect because its the first thing you'll see when you open it up. This blank page is full of possibilities. What first impression do you want to make?

Here I am on my shiny new blog welcoming new and old friends (Hi!) as I expand my little hobby. Putting together my "first page," and the beginning of a new venture. Blogging isn't new to me; it has been in my life since 2009, when I started my family blog. You may know me from Keepin' Up With The Moodys. Feel free to pop over there to learn more about yours truly and my fantastic family. I will continue to blog there. It's like my favorite pair of jeans- comfortable and lived in. I'll continue detail memories and pictures for us to enjoy in the future, especially for my daughter.

So why start a new blog?  

Glad you asked.  

Mostly because I started cleaning my oven last night. I took a "before" picture of that super gross oven that's only been cleaned 2 or 3 times in 3 years and I thought about how much I'd love to take pictures of the process and share the final squeaky clean oven that resulted from combined Pinterest tips. I follow a lot of DIY blogs, and people that want to take pictures of such things are bloggers, am I right? And, really, pictures of an oven cleaning process just doesn't belong next to posts about my daughter's new pictures or my husband's new job. So hello, homemaking blog!

The title? I love it (#TheWorkingHomemaker). It represents me. I struggled with my identity after having my daughter. My whole life, I had envisioned myself (in an apron and pearls, of course) cooking fabulous meals, keeping a spotless house, and raising well-behaved children who I wouldn't dream of leaving at a daycare. Then, reality hit.  Turns out, I didn't fall in love with a rich man. I had a college degree under my belt, big dreams for the future (I want it all- vacations included), and after maternity leave, all I wanted in the world was to go back to work. Sweet routine- you are my lifeline.  And wouldn't you know... I still don't own a proper apron!

So back to work I went. Turns out, two incomes are awesome and my daughter is thriving and still loves me very much. I realized I can have it all. The title "working mom" fits, but I want to go a step further and prove that homemakers can also be career women. Is it still tough to leave my girl at "school" some days? Oh yes. Do I sometimes leave dirty dishes in the sink? You bet! Am I pursuing my life's passion the office everyday? No, not really. But this life the Lord has laid out for me is blessed and I embrace the "working homemaker" mantra.

I'll show you how I do it- through the lens of my iPhone, and my love of compound sentences. So I hope you'll follow, subscribe, comment, and pin.  We're going to share recipes, plan birthday parties, clean ovens, and DIY on a budget. I won't post everyday and may even miss a week here or there, because that's the life of the working homemaker.

Now, where are my pearls?