Mug Cake Month

I have gotten back into making mug cakes this month. (If you are not familiar with mug cakes, they are single serve cakes made in a mug, usually cooked in the microwave, but sometimes in the oven.) Mug cakes are not the be-all, end-all of desserts, but they are convenient and they keep life interesting. (I am bad about making dessert, eating it once, and letting the rest go to waste.) I have made mug cakes before, but I found a wealth of new mug cake recipes on Pinterest, and have been going off those. So without further ado, here are a few winning recipes (with my adjustments) that I have found so far:

Cinnamon roll microwave mug cake (Kim's Cravings)

Mix:

1/4 c whole wheat flour
1/4 t baking powder

Stir in:

3 T whole milk
1 T unsweetened applesauce
1/4 t vanilla

Top with 1 teaspoon cinnamon sugar and swirl into batter with a knife. Microwave for 1 minute, 30 seconds.

Banana bread muffin (Skinny Taste)

*I made this one in a bowl. Bowls also work for mug cake recipes. 

Mash:

1 banana

Stir in:
1/4 c whole wheat flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t vanilla 

Add in 2 T of water if the batter is dry. Microwave 1 minute, 30 seconds for a gooey cake, or 2 minutes for a more firm cake.

Single serving brownie (Brooklyn Farm Girl)

Mix:

2 T whole wheat flour
2 T Cocoa
1 t cinnamon 
1/2 t baking powder

Stir in:

1/4 c applesauce 
2 T water

Microwave 1 minute, 30 seconds.
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If you have any fun mug cakes, please comment, or send them my way. I enjoy experimenting!

Wisconsin: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day dawned fairly late (at least for us 5 am risers) and started with a jog at the apartment gym, since I was too scared to go outside in the cold. Afterwards, I settled in with this muesli breakfast.

Brother eats frozen berries, granola, and yogurt every morning, and after trying it, I have to say he's onto something. I might need to add this into my breakfast rotation at home!

We finished the cookies and had a little time before we needed to cook dinner, so I asked Brother to bundle up and go for a walk outside with me. Lo and behold, the sun was out, and it was beautiful!

Brother lives downtown, so we had a nice walking path and some beautiful houses along the way. 

Thanksgiving dinner was ham, green beans, and mashed potatoes. The ham and mashed potatoes were great. The green beans (usually my favorite part) however, were lackluster. Oh well. We dished everything up and ate at the granite island in my brother's kitchen.

I took a nap post dinner. I know that's a "no-no," but I did it anyway, and enjoyed it. In lieu of dinner, we had dessert and coffee and played a game of Carcassonne.

One game of Carcassonne was enough for Brother, who has memorized most of the pieces. I, however, didn't want to call it a night, so I asked to do something else. He pulled up some Penn and Teller Fool Us re-runs and we watched those for awhile. Then I tried to console myself and pack up, as I needed to leave in the morning. That didn't work so well.

More on goodbyes tomorrow.

Wisconsin: Day 3

Day 3 was baking day! Brother graciously took the day off his real job, so we went to work in the kitchen. We indoctrinated the new mixer by making cheesecakes.

Then we prepped pie dough for a chai spice apple pie. I made the leftover pie dough into chai spice cinnamon rolls.

We started on white chocolate cranberry cookies, but had to pause because we realized that we had no baking soda. We managed to get lunch (leftover curry for me!) and finish the pie before walking to the movies.

I'll admit that I'm a baby about the cold, so when Brother offered his sherpa hat, I accepted. We laughed about my get-up and what brother dubbed "all the colors," but you know what? It worked. And I was in a better mood because I wasn't cold.

Brother and I have very different tastes in movie, so I was glad to find a movie we could both watch. Complicated movies make my head hurt, and for some reason, I always seem to get sleepy during the action scenes, but I actually enjoyed this movie.

Murder on the Orient Express is based on an Agatha Christie book and has quite the complicated plot. I had an existential response to the movie, wondering if it is ever okay for people to get a second chance because someone lies for them. You'll have to see the movie to understand what I mean.

We intended to go to pizza for dinner, but we were tired, and while at Target to pick up the forgotten baking soda and a can-opener, we decided to get frozen dinner food. I got a chicken broccoli alfredo steamer. Brother got a frozen pizza. Brother snacked before dinner and ended up only having corn. I had my full meal.

It was relaxing to eat at home and not cook, since we'd worked at that basically all day.