What is that you say? You have leftover Halloween candy? What an atrocity!
Twenty years ago the thought of leftover candy would have sent shivers down my spine. I would hoard my trick-or-treating valuables and hide them from my parents, who would only let us have 1-2 pieces a day {yes, I was clearly deprived}.
Today the thought of the leftover candy in my house is making me shudder and shake for other reasons. The sheer fact is that I cannot be trusted with that kind of caloric heaven in my house. I have zero willpower. Honestly.
And so, I searched and searched for what to do with my leftover candy.
I could bake it into a giant cookie. I could mix it into some vanilla ice cream {note: I am relatively certain my good friends Ben and Jerry did just that with their new flavor “Everything but the…” which I became well acquainted with on Saturday night circa midnight. Oops}.
Luckily, Real Simple came up with tons of idea of how to take high-calorie, high-fat, high-sugared candy, and somehow make it even higher-calorie, higher-fat and higher-sugared desserts. Genius, I tell you.
Hello, Twix Cheesecake Pie. Come to mama.
Or maybe I will have some mini peppermint patty brownies. Um, perhaps I feel more like a snickers dulce de leche terrine.
Oh, fine. I’ll be “healthy” and have some candy corn pretzel bark.
And I’ll be sure to wash it down with a sweet tart milk shake.
{Admission: I am likely taking my candy to work with me to appear as a “giving” person, while selfishly celebrating that someone else can fight with their own temptations.} But still. These recipes rock right?
How ridiculously awesome is this McQueen bag? It screams Halloween. {via Slim Paley}.
Hope you have fun trick or treating. We are taking R + M around our new neighborhood. Apparently 7 months is a little too young for candy? Who knew? The decorations here are incredible and we can’t wait to see them at night.
R is going to be an 80′s workout girl. M is going to dress as a rap star. Never a dull moment.
Here’s hoping for a sweet night {filled with Reeses, my personal faves}.
xoxo,
Niki
p.s. if you want to know exactly how to stay healthy on Halloween candy check out this post the Hungry Girl right here. Thanks to Alyson and one of my favorite blogs for guiding me to this}.
I love Nutella {actually, it’s more of an addiction}, so I really can’t keep it around because I have ZERO self-control when it comes to hazelnut, chocolate goodness. When I came across a recipe for Nutella cupcakes I knew my pre-wedding attempt at healthy eating was about to go straight down the drain. But hey, it was TOTALLY worth it. The best part of these cupcakes is that the Nutella is swirled right into the batter, creating a “frosting” inside the cupcake. I can tell you’re salivating already!
Gather all of the ingredients.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together 1/4 cup of room temperature butter, 1/4 cup of vegetable oil with 3/4 cup of sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in 3 large eggs, one at a time, along with 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
In a bowl mix together 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour. With the mixer on low slowly add the dry ingredients into the bowl. Mix until combined. This batter will be very thick, it needs to be essentially the same density as the Nutella.
Spoon the batter into a muffin tin {you can use cupcake liners or just spray the tin with PAM}. This recipe will make 12 full-size cupcakes.
Then scoop 1 teaspoon {or a spoonful} of Nutella into each cupcake. Using a skewer or knife, swirl together the chocolate and batter.
Bake at 325 degrees for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
For a printer-friendly version of this recipe click here: Nutella Cupcakes
