To Die for Carrot Cake

Ever since I started working out again, my natural impulse is to start eating healthy as well. I am a junk eater, my normal diet consists of carbs, sweets, junk food and more sweets. One day I was craving for cake and it was soooo hard to resist the temptation to make a chocolate one. Remembering that I have some carrots in the fridge, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and make a carrot cake! This recipe is by Trish of momontimeout.com, she named it "To die for carrot cake" and let me say, the night I made this carrot cake, my parents didn't go home until they got done at 10 pm. It smelled so heavenly that my mom asked to have one of the cake straight out of the oven, it was still hot that when i frosted one cake, the frosting turned to glaze. Not to worry, this recipe is for 2 round cake, so I saved the other one. I waited for it to cool down and here's what it ended up looking like 

My husband totally raved about it too, He loved that the cake was moist and the frosting not too sweet. 

To die for carrot cake ( adapted from Trish of momontimeout.com)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce or vegetable oil ( i used vegetable oil so my version is the not so healthy one)

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. allspice

2 cups finely processed carrots ( i put mine on the food processor so it looked like finely minced)

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup crushed pineapple in juice not syrup and not drained

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 350f

- Combine the applesauce/oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla

- In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt

-In another separate bowl combine the carrots, coconut and pineapple

-Mix the dry ingredients to the wet one, once well mixed, add the fruit mix. 

- Pour into a lightly greased and floured 9x13 or two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans.

-Bake for 35-40 mins. or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

-Cool cakes completely  and frost with the "Best cream cheese frosting" 

Best Cream cheese frosting (recipe from www.bubblecrumb.com)

Ingredients:

Two 8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

-Cream together cream cheese and butter until creamy

-Add vanilla and powdered sugar beat until creamy

- Frost and enjoy!

Million Dollar Spaghetti

Growing up in a country where Rice is one of the staple foods, we only made spaghetti on special occasions, not only that,  pasta and meat are expensive where we're from (The Philippines). So when we moved here 11 years ago, we made spaghetti to our hearts content, until we got tired to the point when it was served at home or in events, we don't put it in our plates or simply just IGNORE....then I came across this recipe from Pinterest "Million Dollar Spaghetti" and life will never be the same again. As I was scrolling through the page, I didn't care that it had tons of raves when I saw the words "cream cheese and sour cream" on the ingredients list, I was sold. I actually made it twice in one week..it's that good! no, i wasn't trying to keep the recipe to myself, the reason why I didn't post it the first time I made it was ( this is going to make me sound soooo dumb but oh well) I bought egg noodles instead of Spaghetti just like the name of the recipe...how could I have missed that? It's one of my life's biggest mysteries. When my 8 year old cousin took the first bite she asked my mom what recipe was called and guess what she said "This really tastes like a million dollars!" she loved it! and if you're a mom your greatest critics are children. I'd like to say sorry in advance for the lack of pictures and don't worry this recipe is a million times easy ;)

Million Dollar Spaghetti (adapted from ashleykaitlin.blogspot.com)

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1 can spaghetti sauce

8 oz. of cream cheese

1/3 cup pf sour cream or plain yogurt

1/2 lb. of cottage cheese or ricotta

Whole stick of butter

1 lb. of spaghetti

Bag of shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 beef bouillon cube or salt and pepper to season

1 tbsp. of sugar

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 350f, cook spaghetti in boiling water and drain. 

- Mix the cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese make sure it's well incorporated.

- Brown the meat and drain the excess oils. Put back in the burner and add the bouillon cube once its incorporated in the meat add the spaghetti sauce and the tablespoon of sugar. Bring to a simmer then set aside.

- Take a few slices of butter and put them at the bottom of your casserole dish or glass pan, layer with the spaghetti noodles and the creamy cheese mixture. repeat the butter, spaghetti and creamy cheese mixture, top with the Spaghetti sauce meat mixture. 

- Put in the oven for 20-25 mins. remove from oven top with the sharp cheddar cheese and return for another 15 mins.  Enjoy with caution as its hot.