Pina Colada Cupcakes

Pina colada is one of my favorite flavors and it's wonderful in cupcake form!  Even better, it's low fat.

Ingredients:
cupcakes:
2 cups moist style yellow cake mix
12 oz canned crushed pineapple in juice
1/2 tsp coconut extract
optional: 3/4 cup shredded coconut

icing:
4 oz canned crushed pineapple, drained
1 sugar free vanilla pudding snack size
1/8 tsp coconut extract

1  1/2 TBS light cream cheese

1 sweetener packet like splenda

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all icing ingredients together and refrigerate until needed.

In large bowl combine cake mix, undrained pineapple and coconut extract.  Line a muffin tin with baking cups and distribute batter evenly.  Bake 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Allow to completely cool, then frost and enjoy!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Always a favorite of mine growing up, this is my mom's recipe and I haven't changed a thing!

Ingredients:

• 2 small cans of albacore tuna
• 1 can cream of celery soup
• 1/2 - 3/4 bag of egg noodles
• 3/4 - 1 cup miracle whip
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped green pepper
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar

Saute vegetables in butter or olive oil until starting to soften and onions turning translucent.  

Cook egg noodles according to package, then drain,  Heat soup and milk in medium sauce pan then add in the miracle whip and shredded cheddar until cheese is melted.  Take off the heat and stir in tuna.  

Mix everything together and pour into casserole dish.  Top with more cheese if desired.  

Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly and edges get golden brown.

Caramel Apple Cider Cookies

Like fall in cookie form!!  I took these to a fall get together and they were extremely well received and everyone wanted the recipe, so that's saying something!  Wonderful dipped in hot cider or tea, or warmed in the microwave before eating.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 box Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink Mix (10 pkts in box, I used 8 of them)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 14 oz bag kraft chewy caramels (I bought the wrong ones, the caramel bits.  They worked alright but the chewy caramels would melt and spread in the cookie better I'm sure)
• 1/2 TBS Torani sugar free brown sugar cinnamon syrup (optional)**

Preheat oven to 350.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper so the caramel doesn't stick to them.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.
With an electric mixer cream together the butter, sugar, salt, and packets of cider drink mix powder until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.
Gradually add flour mixture in and mix until combined.
**At this point I added a little of the torani syrup because the consistency was too thick.  If you don't have anything like that to add either use a little less flour, or add 1/2 TBS milk or water to the dough if you think it's too thick.

Scoop out cookie dough balls about 2 TBS sized.  Flatten the ball and add in the caramel in the center of dough then seal the dough around it, covering it completely.  Reshape into a ball if necessary.  Place cookies about 3 inches apart as they will spread.

Bake 11-14 minutes or until very lightly browned around edges, they may not look quite done in the center but that's ok.  Carefully slide parchment paper off cookie sheet and onto counter for cookies to cool.  When cookies are cool enough to handle carefully twist off parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down on a cookie rack or else some caramel may drizzle out of the bottom!