Cheesecake Brownies

Mahek of Brown Eyed Beauty has given her rendition of Valentines day pancakes, cake pops, and now she is serving up CHEESECAKE BROWNIES. Delish for v-day, b-days, or any day! Enjoy!

Cheesecake Brownies

What you’ll need:

•   1 package of cream cheese (8 oz)

•   1/4 cup sugar

•   1/3 tsp. vanilla extract

•   1 egg

•   1 brownie mix

•   2 eggs

•   1/4 cup water

•   1/2 cup oil

•   heart-shaped baking pan(s)

Instructions

1)    Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2)    Mix together the brownie mix with 2 eggs, 1/4 cup water, and 1/2 cup oil. Mix together until no clumps.

3)    Pour into each heart shaped pan, dividing equally.

4)    Beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth.

5)    Pour on top of brownie batter. Take a knife and mix together, to make a marble design.

6)    Put the pans in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Hopefully you enjoy these treats as much as I do. Let me know if you use any of these recipes and what your feedback is!

 How do you celebrate valentine’s day?

Valentines Cake Pops

Thanks to Mahek of Brown-Eyed Beauty for this DELICIOUS recipe!

Valentines Cake Pops

What you’ll need:

•   1 Red velvet cake mix

•   1 cup water

•   2 eggs

•   1/4 cup oil

•   1 cream cheese frosting

•   1 bar of Candiquik (I chose the white one)

•   Cake pop sticks

•   sprinkles (if desired)

Instructions

1)    Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and mix together cake mix, water, eggs, and oil. Mix until all the clumps are gone.

2)    Bake your cake according to the time listed on your box (it depends on the type of pan you’re using.)

3)    After you’re done baking, let your cake cool a bit. Then take a fork and break the cake into little crumbs. You may transfer the cake to a bowl to do this.

4)    Once the cake is completely cooled and is broken up into crumbs, add in the frosting. Usually people say to use the whole jar, but I recommend start off with half of the jar and adding more later. You don’t want your cake balls to be too soggy/oily.

5)    This next step requires you to use your hands so make sure they’re clean! Now DIG IN! Use your hands to mix the crumbs into the frosting.

6)    Once you’re done, take piece of the mixture and use your hands to roll them into 1-inch balls.

7)    Now set them on a plate or tray. Now take a tiny bit of the candiquik and melt it in the microwave.

8)    Once you’re done with that, take your cake pop sticks and dip them one at a time into the candiquik and stick it into each cake ball. This helps to make sure that the sticks will stay inside the cake ball.

9)    Now refrigerate these for 45 min-1 hour.

10) Melt some of the candiquik and dip each cake ball into it. Make sure to cover the whole thing!

11) You may dip it into some sprinkles if you’d like, which would add a touch of color!

This one may take a while, but they’re just so pretty!

Valentine's Day Pancakes You'll Fall in Love With

I'm excited to announce a Valentines Food Series for FFF, thanks to Mahek of Brown-Eyed Beauty. This week, get your tastebuds prepared for Valentines themed pancakes! It's the perfect way to say good morning, I heart you to your boyfriend (or roommate, or cat) this year. Everyone enjoy this recipe then head over to Brown-Eyed Beauty for more of her taste in food and fashion.

Valentine’s day can cause a range of emotions in people; they can either be extremely excited or extremely depressed! Well, I have the solution for all ranges of emotions, because obviously food can fix anything!

I have attached three valentine’s day recipes that you can make for your loved one, your best friend, or heck, yourself!

-Mahek

What you’ll need:

•   1.5 cup flour

•   3 tbsp. sugar

•   1.5 tsp. baking powder

•   1/2 teaspoon salt

•   1/4 tsp. baking soda

•   1 cup milk

•   4 tbsp. melted butter

•   1 egg

•   1 strawberry

•   heart-shaped cookie cutter

•   chocolate chips (if desired)

•   powdered sugar (if desired)

Instructions:

1)    Start off my mixing together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

2)    In a different bowl, mix together the milk, melted butter, and egg. Then slowly mix this into the flour mix. (If you want, you can add in chocolate chips at this point.)

3)    Heat a skillet over medium-low heat with very little oil, and slowly pour in your mixture. About 1/4 cup should be perfect. Slowly use your spatula to spread the pancake out to make it big enough to fit your heart-shaped cookie cutter in.

4)    Cook both sides until brown.

5)    Take the pancake from the skillet onto a plate and then take the cookie cutter and press it down against the pancake.

6)    Once you’re satisfied with the shape, cut the top of the strawberry off and make a v-shaped cut at the top (this will make it look somewhat like a heart.)

7)    Slice the strawberries sideways so you don’t lose the shape of the heart, add it onto the pancake, and add some powdered sugar if you’d like.

Voila! There’s a simple valentine’s day breakfast!

Check back for Valentines Cake Pops and Cheesecake Brownies.... y u m!

The Do's & Don'ts of Fashion Instagramming

I have serious opinions on 

both fashion and instagram. 

Heavy topics, I know. I bet you're glad you were sitting down when you read that. If you feel like you can handle the serious, life-or-death matters that are fashion and social media, please continue forward.

I recently guest-blogged for the London-based website, Chloedigital! Chloedigital is a boutique agency that specializes in development and marketing through branding, web design/applications/development, social media, e-mail marketing, SEO and blogger outreach. They have a killer blog for any of you who are interested in fashion or technology!

Frolick over to read my guest post here.

 {clockwise}
 Pink heels: Sam Edleman
Green dress: JC Penny's
Black cross body bag: Rebecca Minkoff MAB
Silver sunburst necklace: F21
Turquoise top: F21
Black ombre ankle strap heels: Jeffrey Campbell
Blue sequin top: Neiman Marcus
Lipstick: Something from Walgreens IdKkKkKkKkKk

Guilt-free cookies, bread & cake- Love, Jordie

The following guest blog post is by my one of my longest friends, Jordie McGilvary, who is studying to be a dietician. She is always surprising and inspiring me with her healthy lifestyle choices, which you can follow on her instagram account, @brittany_jordie. People have requested her to start blogging about her clean eating habits, but until then, she's agreed to reveal some of her favorite guilt-free treats. She came up with the following recipes herself.

 I hope you enjoy her nutritious insights as much as I do!

__________________________________________________________

These are my “go to” baked goods. I love them and truly cant get enough. The cookies are way more processed than the banana nut bread and the carrot cake but I still love them. Adding protein powder to my baked goods really allows me to get more protein in my diet. Not too much, but some, and I typically don't think it's personally necessary. I used to make these and give them to my vegetarian friend because she definitely wasn't getting enough protein in her diet, and I'm sneaky.

I also really love adding unsweetened applesauce into my baked goods as a fat replacement. The applesauce makes my baked goods moist and chewy, and personally, I like that. It doen't taste too 

strongly so that's not a problem.

White Chocolate, Crasin Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 package Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup crasins
• ½ cup white chocolate chips
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• ¼ cup vanilla protein powder (optional)

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all ingredients together. Using a tablespoon, drop the batter onto a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cookies will spread a lot so make sure to space them well.

Banana Nut Bread

• 3 eggs
• 1 c sugar
• 3 large very ripe bananas
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• ¼ cup vanilla protein powder (optional)
• 1 cup nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit. Mash bananas in bowl. Mix in eggs and sugar. Stirr in dry ingredients a little at a time. Add in nuts. Pour into a greased bunt or loaf pan. (I use coconut oil to lightly grease my pan so the loaf comes out easily) and bake for 45-60 minutes.

Carrot Cake

• 4 eggs
• 1 ¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan using coconut oil and all purpose flour. In a large bowl mix together eggs, applesauce and white sugar with 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots and pecans. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a fork comes out clean.

For frosting I mix ½ cup plain greek yogurt, 2 wedges of laughing cow light cream cheese, 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar, 1 tsp vanilla. Mix all together until smooth and creamy. Stir in ¼ cup chopped pecans. Frost cooled cake and keep refrigerated.

{original image: here}