Yummy Goodies!

Just before New Years we pounded mochi at my house, like we do every year. Since it was a smaller crowd this year and we normally pot luck, we didn't know how much food was actually going to show up so I told my mom that I'd make some snack kind of things just in case.

I actually only had time to make two things, but they were really yummy! One of my go-to recipes this fall/winter has been pumpkin spice cupcakes. (And I had to use Halloween cupcake liners that were a little bent out of shape, which is why it looks all warped. LoL) It's a super easy recipe that I found in a magazine and went a little crazy on. 

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

1 box yellow cake mix

1 box vanilla instant pudding

1 can pumpkin puree (it said 1 cup in the recipe but I put 1 can. It tastes better that way)

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup water

3 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees

*Mix all ingredients in a bowl

*Line cupcake trays

*Fill 3/4 full

*Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

*Cool and frost. 

I used a regular canned cream cheese frosting that I added a little bit of vanilla, cinnamon, and clove to. Just eyeball it. I think the recipe makes about 28 - 30 cupcakes, possibly more. 

The other thing I made was Muddy Buddies. So super duper easy and took all of 10 minutes. I'm sure everyone knows how to make these but here you go anyway:

Muddy Buddies

1 box Chex or Chex-like cereal (I used these Rice Pockets or something like that from Safeway once and it worked fine.)

1/2 a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 a bottle of peanut butter

1 cup (or so) powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 a stick of butter

*Melt chocolate chips, butter, and peanut butter in a microwave-safe bowl on high for 30 seconds. 

*Take it out and stir. If it's not completely smooth, put back in microwave for another 30 seconds. 

*Once the mixture is smooth and all melted, empty the box of cereal into a big bowl

*Stir vanilla into mixture and pour over cereal

*Completely coat cereal with mixture

*Dump cereal into either 2 1-gallon size Ziplock bags or 1 2-gallon size bag. 

*Pour in powdered sugar, close bag, and shake like crazy until all the cereal is coated. If you need more powdered sugar, add more. 

*Dump cereal out onto waxed paper to cool

And that's pretty much it. I poured mine into a bowl and mixed in some mint M&Ms because I just had some lying around. 

Okie dokie. That's all for today. Bye!!