French Toast & Bacon Cupcakes

The second thing I made for our friend's cookout were these cupcakes. He is a HUGE fan of anything bacon so when I found these, I knew without a doubt that they were the perfect thing to bring. I loved the french toast concept, but I was a little scared about how they would taste with the bacon. I'm not going to lie--they were pretty awesome. If you're ever looking for a weird, conversation-piece food item to bring to a party, bring these. They were SUCH a hit. Everyone loved them. Seriously--I didn't hear a single bad thing about these cupcakes-and I expected to hear a LOT! I mean, bacon? In a cupcake?? But trust me, it works. And the bacon on top just adds to a cute presentation. I found the recipe here. Enjoy! :)

Without Icing (See the bacon chunks??)

With Icing

The insides :)

THIS is how good they were! :) He's going to kill me for this picture. Haha!

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Yep, another bread. I love making homemade breads. One day, I want to be the kind of mom where I make it every week for my family instead of buying a loaf of bread from the store. It's so incredibly easy-and uses ingredients everyone has on hand (besides the yeast... some people don't always have yeast on hand, I'll give you that... BUT yeast is pretty darn cheap, so go buy some today!) I realllly want to try the whole Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day craze going around, where you pretty much take one day a week to make up a huge batch of dough, then leave it in the fridge all week and pull off a chunk whenever you need to bake anything, whether it be rolls, a loaf of bread, or whatever. It's all out of this cookbook, which is on my list. :)

This time, I decided to try my hand at some cinnamon swirl bread. Gettin fancy. :) It was super easy-seriously. Annndddd... drum roll, please..... I remembered to take pictures!!! :) Granted, I remembered at the very end when there was only one slice left, but still!

PS: I'm guessing this bread would be delicious as french toast the next morning, but it didn't really last that long. :)

Another thing: Next time, I'll use melted butter in the inside cinnamon mixture instead of oil. It tasted fine to me, but Matt said he could tell a difference. (He saw the recipe before hand and commented on the fact that it was "weird" so of course he happened to notice how "weird" it tasted... haha!) But seriously, even though butter and oil do basically the same thing, I did find it kind of weird to use oil instead of butter, so next time I'll use butter instead.

Without further ado... Here's the recipe. Try it--it's goooood!!

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

(I'm not posting the actual recipe because the way she did it on her blog explains it really good with pictures and everything. Much better than I could do. So promise me you'll click on the above link and check it out! It's worth it!)

Up Next... the easiest recipe you'll ever make. PERFECT for summer, as there is NO heating up of the stove or oven!!! :) Get excited!

Pioneer Woman's Blueberry Baked French Toast

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures for this one :( Sorry! But don't worry, I will be making this again! It was sooooo soooo good! And really easy. I pretty much made the entire thing (in seperate pieces) the night before, so all I had to do when I woke up was throw the topping on top and put it in the oven. I definitely recommend making this. It sounds weird (using chips instead of bread) but I promise, it's even better! Just try it! You'll be glad you did!

Pioneer Woman's Blueberry Baked French Toast

Cinnamon Rolls w/Cream Cheese Icing

These are awesome. I've made them a couple of times, a couple of different ways and I've loved every single way they've come out. This time, I followed the recipe exactly, but made my own icing. A cream cheese icing I found online that is supposed to be the same as Cinnabon's icing. It tasted the same to me, but it's been a looonng time since I've ate there! The only thing I hate about making these is it takes so long (one hour+ten minutes+thirty minutes RISING time, then baking for 30 minutes, plus however long it takes you to make the dough, roll it out, etc.) Anyway, three hours later (well worth the wait!), here are the cinnamon rolls!

PS: I love making these at night. I don't think I've ever actually made them for breakfast, even though I know there is a point I could wait and just bake them in the morning. I always want them right then!

PPS: I'm not posting the recipe because #1, I don't feel like it (it's on my other computer and I don't feel like getting it off) and #2, I read this blog post last night and think it's downright hilarious, but still kind of one of those things... I've gotten really into figuring out copyright/piracy stuff lately due to digi-scrapping, and I don't really have it all figured out yet. (No, I don't really think it's illegal to post recipes online, especially if you tweak them and make them your own. Who's to say you didn't just come up with it by yourself??? Anyway, that's a whole nother post... I'm pretty much just being lazy today. Sorry!) :)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I made these muffins this morning before I went to work and they were fabulous!! They were great for breakfast, great for a snack after work, and I'm about to go eat another one (or two!) for dessert!! :) I don't have any pictures, but here's the recipe. Money Saving Mom linked to it the other day and I just now decided to try it. Super easy, and very good. One warning... The recipe makes enough for 30 muffins. I halved it (easy to do if you follow this link to get to the recipe. You can have them halve it for you! Just click on 'change servings and units' beside where it says '30 Muffins' right above the ingredients, and change it to 15 instead of 30.) and it made "15" but I filled mine a little more than 3/4 full and used all the batter to fill up a normal 12-muffin muffin pan.

**The recipe below is for the halved version I used which made 12 muffins**

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 of a 16 ounce can of pumpkin
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5/8 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
  

Directions

1. In large mixing bowl beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla and oil until smooth.
2. Mix dry ingredients together and mix into pumpkin mixture. Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full.
4. Bake at 400 F for 16-20 minutes.