Food: Vanilla (with hints of butterscotch) cupcakes and mini SKOR topping

I've been home for reading week the last few days and I've finally got a chance to bake! I was too consumed in being lazy for the week and going to pilates/yoga class everyday. I started with a basic vanilla cupcake and I decided to add some of the leftover butterscotch chips that was lying around. Along with that, I just made a basic buttercreme frosting and added tiny SKOR bits on top. I had everyone on a sugar coma! 

Vanilla Cupcakes with a Hint of Butterscotch

• 1 cup of unsalted butter (soften, room-temperature)
• 2 cups of granulated sugar
• 2 3/4 cups of flour (I used blending flour)
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• a dash of salt
• 1 cup of milk (I used whole milk)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup of butterscotch chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees C. Line two cupcake pans with liners - you may not fill all of them up depending on how much you fill them up, but line them all up just in case.

In a big bowl, cream the butter and sugar together using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Give it a good mix. Set aside.

Using a measuring cup, measure out the milk. Then, add the vanilla extract. Give it a stir. Set aside. 

Going back to the big bowl, you'll alternate between the dry ingredients and wet ingredients in three parts - slowly incorporating it into the sugar and butter mix. Make sure you do not over mix. Stop mixing once you don't see anymore of the dry ingredients. Using a spoon (or any other utensil), slowly stir and mix in the butterscotch chips. 

Using an ice cream scoop, fill up the liners. The ice cream scoop will distribute the batter more or less evenly throughout. In the end, I only filled up 20 liners. 

Pop them into the oven for 16-20 minutes. Let them cool before you frost them!

Vanilla Buttercreme Frosting 

• 1 cup of unsalted butter (soften, room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 4 cups of powdered sugar
• 4-5 tablespoons of milk/cream (I used whipping cream)

Prepare your piping bag.

In a bowl, cream the butter. Add the vanilla extract. Add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar at a time, blending right after. Add a tablespoon of milk/cream when you find it hard to blend. Mix until the all the ingredients are well blended. 

Fill the piping bag up and frost your cupcakes the way your heart desires. 

Give your cupcakes a sprinkle of some skor chips to finish the cupcake up.

Definitely a good hit away from your classic vanilla cupcake.

Enjoy!

<3

Susan

Food: Avocado Rice for Lunch!

So, it's extremely snowy out and we're expecting around 20cm of snow throughout the day.  A great day to stay indoors and just eat...and maybe study...actually, I really should be studying for my midterms next week. 

On another note, everyone in my house is sick except for me. So, my housemates turned up the heat and it's probably the optimal ripping temperature for my fruits and veggies. I brought 4 avocados this weekend and I brought a few specifically to slowly ripe throughout the week. NOPE, didn't happen. I went to class on Monday, came home, and all my avocados are screaming "EAT ME NOW". 

So, having to think of ways to be all avo-creative, I decided to mix it into my rice today!

I just made some rice in my rice cooker and once it's done, scoop a whole avocado into bowl and just mix. All the white rice will slowly turn green - add a little bit of lime juice to it and don't forget to add your seasoning of choice (I used garlic powder and ground pepper)! I had a whole container of mixed greens sitting in my fridge, so I had the rice sit on top of some of that good green fuel. 

Along with this, I had half of a baked potato from last night with some sour cream and green onions.

And of course, how can I have a meal without my green tea?

I hope you all enjoy this mini food post. Let me know what you use your avocados for!

<3

Susan

Food: Sunday Salad

As the weekend come to an end, it was nice to be home for the last 2/3 days. I kept an eye on the weather for Toronto the last week and was so excited to see that the weather was rising...ALL THE WAY TO 0 DEGREES for Saturday. Without realizing that the warm weather is a bad idea to wear my Uggs; not because it was warm, because it's still cold enough to wear the shoes - but, instead, when Saturday did come, it was raining snow flakes. Extreme slushy puddles all over the city! My poor UGGS are SOAKED and DESTROYED.

Lesson for my life - UGGs are not functional...EVER.

Despite losing a pair of shoes this weekend, I came back to my place to find tons of veggies sitting in my fridge about to go bad. I made a great salad for lunch today and I just wanted to share with all of you a little bit of my day!

What's in this salad?

• Spring Mix
• Iceberg Lettuce
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Balsamic Salad Dressing

I hope you all enjoy this mini update! 

<3

Susan