My Fabulous Spice Apple Cupcakes - Pazazz Apples

"How 'bout them apples?" "An apple a day...." "You are the apple of my eye." We are all familiar with these phrases, but is everyone familiar with the Pazazz Apple? This type of apple is part of the Honeybear Brands of apples and is often compared to a Jolly Rancher candy because of it's ratio of sweet to tart taste. Available during the months of November to August, this apple is at it's peak!! And you can pick up yours at your local Hy-Vee or Aldi stores.

When Honeybear reached out to me asking if I would be interested in partnering with them, I immediately said yes! I am a huge apple fan, whether it's eating them raw, cooked for my version of applesauce, or baked within my spice apple cupcake, apples are always in my fridge. I mean, apples have so many health benefits. They are their own prebiotic, high in fiber and can help aid in weight loss, an antioxidant, and can help protect your brain! And when they asked if I would like to share a recipe with all of you, I said yes again! I've been baking this spice apple cupcake for a while now and the family loves them! It's a great dessert, but it also makes a hearty sweet breakfast, if you ask my dad. However, that might not be the weight loss aid they were speaking of!

So let's talk about that cupcake recipe. I'm a girl who loves a shortcut in the kitchen, especially when baking, so I reach for my favorite box spice cake mix when making this cupcake. What I love about using a box cake mix, is that you can start with the basics and then amp up the flavor with add-ins, like cooked apples, to create this spice apple cupcake! You want to add the ingredients suggested on the box which we all have on hand. Bake them according the package, however, I know for my oven, 14 minutes is the perfect bake time. From there, it's all about apples! 

For the apple filling, I treat it much like an apple pie filling. Prep your apples by washing them and getting them ready to peel. I used an apple corer to slice and core, then used my favorite knife to peel. I used three apples in total.

Once all of the apples have been peeled, it's time to dice. I dice my apples into thin pieces because I don't want a big bite inside my cupcakes. They will cook down a little, but you still want a small bite inside.

Once they are all diced, it's time to cook! I placed all my apple pieces into a skillet and add all the yumminess of an apple pie filling. 

I add a tablespoon of unsalted softened butter to the apples.

To that, I add light brown sugar and apple pie spice.

This is a true scientific measurement here. I use roughly one to just a little less than two handfuls of brown sugar. It's a "too taste" kind of thing.

A little apple pie spice goes a long way, so just sprinkle in a little for flavor.

Make sure to steal a taste, and if you feel it's a little too tart, add a little granulated sugar to help sweeten the apples. Cook down to tender. Again, you don't want a crispy apple bite. Since your cupcakes are already baked, you are adding these cooked apples to the center, so you won't have a chance to cook them more.

Now that your apples are cooked, and cooled, it's time to fill the cupcake! I use an apple corer to remove the center of the cupcake, but you don't want to go all the through. Just core mid way through the cupcake, remove, and place aside in a small bowl. You will reuse them.

Fill each cupcake with the baked apples. You don't want to overfill, but you also don't want to under stuff. It's a thin line between both. After each one is filled, replace the centers with the pieces you removed.

 

Lastly, it's time to frost! I made my own, but you can most certainly use store bought. I made cream cheese frosting using an 8 ounce softened cream cheese, one stick of room temperature unsalted butter, and a teaspoon of vanilla. Add it all to the mixer and mix until creamy. Add four cups of confectioner sugar, one cup at time, mixing in between. If it feels too thick, add a tablespoon of water to get to the desired consistency to frost the cupcakes.

Then you frost! I add mine to a piping bag, with a large star tip, and pipe in a circular motion starting on the outside of the cupcake. I added clear and gold sprinkles to the top! 

  

I served these up for book club on a cupcake holder. So cute and so yummy!! Everyone loved them!

 So there you have it! That's my spice apple cupcake using Honeybear Pazazz apples! It's honestly the easiest cupcake recipe, you just have to put in a little love when making them! 

Head out today and grab your Pazazz Apples and get started on your own apple creation!!

XO,

Andrea

*This was a sponsored post, but all opinions and recipe were my own.

A New Kind of Date Night

When you have busy kids, you have busy weeknight lives. And if you're lucky, you can take your spouse with you to the evening activity and spend it on the new kind of date night we've adopted! Date nights are hard to come by. We are lucky, because McKinley loves to spend at least one night a weekend with my parents, but not everyone has that opportunity. It can be weeks or months before you get a date night, so if possible, maybe you can adopt our new trick!

McKinley has a weekly drawing class that's an hour long, so that's an hour we can spend together. And what do most parents do with free evenings these day? Binge watch their favorite shows on any streaming network they have subscribed to. We may not be binge watching, but we are taking advantage of being able to watch one hour a week of our favorites shows we can't watch on the DVR. As of late, it's Almost Family on FOX. Have you watched? We love it!

So, in addition to watching one of our recorded shows on HULU, we're dining al fresco. Okay not really. We're dining in the comfort of our front seat of the car! But hey, this is the new kind of date night and we're making the most of it. And, we're saving money. That's the big thing. Imagine eating out every Thursday night? That's roughly $20 a week. And it would be fast food. And that's more weight gain. So, made at home dinners it is! 

I also have to be mindful of the meals for Thursday. Soup, spaghetti, or tacos wouldn't really work. I need something that's not going to drip all over the places. We've done French bread pizza, sausage and potatoes, and last night it was quiche. And I've been using the plastic containers we keep from lunch meat, but I wanted something a little "classier" for date night. So, I rummaged around in my mom's cabinets and "borrowed" her Tupperware she's had since the 70s (just look at the colors), and a couple of Pampered Chef measuring bowls with lids, which make for the cutest way to transport our dinner and making it feel like an upscale picnic! Oh, and the darling Tupperware cups I found at an estate sale this summer were the perfect way to store muffins! I also use them daily for McKinley's lunch. This is also my way of changing my carbon footprint by not using nearly as much plastic!

So here's what took place. I made the quiche earlier in the morning, so I had plenty of time to pack everything up. With his class starting at 6:15, he eats in the car, so I start packing dinner for the whole family around 5:15. (And his dinner consisted of a hotdog and sides. He doesn't eat quiche!) If I had waited to make the quiche at 4:00, I would have been strapped for time. I waited to the bake the muffins in the afternoon, and while they baked, I prepped the fruit bowls. Everything was coming together. I heated up the quiche a piece at a time, added it to the Tupperware bowls, packed up all the food, and we headed out the door! 

Check it out!

What I do need is a chic way to transport the food. My J.Crew bag, though super compact, took a beating when a fork poked through on the way home! 

Two cold parents chillin' in the car! We ate, chatted a little, watched our show (which always creates a conversation), and then picked up our kiddo in the classroom at 7:15!

Other ways we're dating these days is watching The Bachelor on a sleepover night while keeping the funds in check by staying home. We made the conscience decision to keep going out for dinner to a minimum this calendar year. Maybe once a month and trying a new local place to support our KC entrepreneurs! And, we are thinking ahead to summer and a couple of out of town family weekends. 

What are you doing for fun date nights? Are you staying in as well? Going out? Let's talk about all of the ways we can date in this new age and keeping that dating spark alive!

XO,

Andrea

I Knew This Day Would Come....

Before we knew we were having a boy, I worried about dressing a boy. Boys clothes lacked a lot to be desired. Everything came with dogs and bears or cartoon characters and silly sayings. I wanted polo shirts and cute shorts. Jeans and button downs. Sweaters and cords. Basically, the same type of clothes grown men like my husband and dad wore. I mean, girls clothes came in darling tulle dresses, sequin heart tops, or ruffled skirts by the rackful. But when I finally found the right stores to shop in for McKinley, like Boden and Janie & Jack, he's been dressed in style since birth! 

I knew this day would come, I just wasn't sure when. The day that McKinley would announce that he wanted to pick out his own clothes. The horror! I've been dressing him single handedly since day one! And I think I've done a pretty decent job thus far! There have been days, weekends mostly, that he picks out something to wear, but it's generally for days he's playing outside, headed to Emerald City to play, climb, and jump, just not on a daily school day basis. And all I can say is, thank goodness his wardrobe is somewhat fool proof for this leap into styling himself. However, this is what happened when he picked out his look for last year's school carnival....

The day happened to be last Thursday when he woke up in a bad mood, was getting himself dressed, and was "forced" to wear a button down shirt. A button down shirt he picked out at H&M over the summer that is covered in tiny construction equipment. I styled it with jeans and a cute navy and yellow vest. And tennis shoes, of course. But the button down shirt was the issue and he stated that he was tired of dressing up everyday for school! I asked him what exactly about the outfit made it so dressy and exclaimed that it was the button down. So we made a compromise. Instead of the casual vest I had picked to go over the shirt, we settled on a red "sweatshirt" half zip pullover that gave the appearance of being "dressed down". In all honestly, the pullover was dressier than the vest, but I went with it. And I played along when he told me he was going to pick out his clothes going forward.

As we drove to school that day, I told him that it was fine that he picked out his clothes, but I needed to have a little say, like that it matched. "It has to match?", he basically yelled from the backseat, and I'm pretty sure you could hear my eyes roll as he said it. "Yes it has to match", I said. "This is a non-negotiable"! He huffed! I explained to him that he has a certain style, a style that everyone associates with him, and I'm not willing to really budge on that. School is a place, like church, that we must show respect, and he is going to dress respectfully. It's his job for now, and he is going to dress like he's going to work! I wasn't allowed to dress down for school. I always looked cute and put together. And maybe that's expected of girls, but I also feel it should be expected of boys. Women and men. I have a very strong opinion on how I think people should dress!! Very strong! 

I went on to say that if he wanted to pick out his clothes for school, this must be done every night before bed. We don't have the luxury of spending time putting his "look" together in the mornings. We barely have time for the things we have to do to get out the door. His response, "Well, I'm not going to pick them out everyday......" Did you hear my eyes roll again? So, Thursday evening, he started the process. "Mama, what jeans should I wear? Mama, where is my Mahomes jersey? Mama, what shirt should I wear under the jersey?" Good thing he's picking out his clothes! Satisfied with the contents, he went on to the rest of the evenings bedtime routine. Here is the final look! His outfit, his pose, his most prized position. 

Sunday night, not a word was said about putting his outfit together. Guess who did it? And, when he got dressed this morning, guess who put that look together? And not a word has been said by Mr. Fashionisto himself. He's gotten dressed, eaten his breakfast, and complained about other things like not getting to eat something unhealthy for healthy morning snack. I'm surprised my eyes are still in their socket! Here's Mr. Sunshine himself this morning! 

The new Mini Boden catalog came the other day and he picked out all the items he liked best. And can you believe they are all the same types of things that exist in his wardrobe today? Cute tees with embroidered animals doing hilarious things, sweatshirts with sharks swimming in pools and half sized lobsters, sweaters with cute strips, and so on. All of the things that make him look too dressy on a daily basis. You see, the thing is, I allow him to pick out his clothes. He picks them out of the Boden catalog, off the Carter's website, from the H&M kids section in the store. It's that I layer them with button downs to keep him warm in the winter, long sleeved tees under short sleeves for the same reason, or turtlenecks under sweaters and sweatshirts for layering when he removes one during the day. He just sees them as dressy. I see them as completing a super cute look! A look that is definitely one of a kind.

I know that one day, all of this will come to an end. I know that cute Boden appliqued shirts will be replaced with something else. I'm hopeful, it's still polo style shirts, button downs with v-neck sweaters, and khaki shorts in the summer. And yes, things will still need to match. I just hope my eyes are still in their sockets!

McKinley's wardrobe in review. Stylish young man. 

At what age did your child(ren) start picking out their own daily clothes? From most of my girl mom friends, I've been told since about Kindergarten. Not sure about boy moms. But this boy mom is hopeful it will last a while!

XO,

Andrea

KC Weekend Fun - Kansas City Boat & Sportshow

It's the first full Monday after the holiday/winter break, and I don't know about you, but I was ready to get back to a routine. I love being home with everyone, but it's so nice to get back to normalcy! And even though he would never admit, I'm pretty sure McKinley was ready to get back to school himself!

But now that we have all this "time on our hands", what are we going to do with it? Well, I have a list of all the things I want to accomplish this week, so that  when the weekend rolls around, I feel like I've earned a weekend of play! And when I say play, I mean it! Here's what I've got on my radar and you should to!

The Kansas City Boat and Sportshow is back and it's loaded with all the fun! This annual event is held at Bartel Hall and starts on Thursday January 9th and runs through Sunday January 12th. Check out the times below! 

Thursday, Jan. 9, 2-9 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 10, Noon-9 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 11, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.

Sunday, Jan. 12, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

And here's what they have in store!

• New! Paddle Sports Pool, where attendees can get their feet wet checking out demos and testing a new Hobie or Jackson Kayak. Seminars and open paddle times will be posted on-site.
• New! Career Day, where students and job seekers can get career advice and hear about job openings from marine business professionals on Friday, Jan. 10.
• New! The Show Me Stage, where attendees can hear from fishing experts and watch fishing and casting demonstrations.
• Back by Popular Demand! Fred’s Shed, offering do-it-yourself enthusiasts and boat owners the chance to hear professional, practical advice on maintaining, repairing and upgrading your boat or motor.
• Boats & Brews, featuring live music, craft beer tastings and more on Friday, Jan. 10 from 5-9 p.m. Tickets will be available online.
• The Hawg Trough, a 5,000-gallon, fully stocked fishing demo tank with seminars from pro anglers – a chance to see firsthand how fish react to various rods and bait.
• KC Food Truck Mafia, serving up tasty, unique fare inside of Bartle Hall during the show from a variety of local food trucks.
• Willow Creek Trout Pond, where little ones can practice their angling skills for free, reeling in live trout.

I know that I am personally interested in the Paddle Sports Pool and watching McKinley at the Willow Creek Trout Pond! He's really taken to fishing when we vacation at my parents river house, so this will give him some practice before he head back down this spring. And he loves a good food truck, as do I!

To plan ahead, tickets are $12 for adults, and children under 12 are free. However, because you are followers of This Kansas City Mama, I've got a deal for you! Use this discount code to get a buy one get one ticket discount. Use code "BOATGO6" at checkout! And, if you really want to take advantage of a deal, head over to my This Kansas City Mama Facebook page to enter to win a family 4-pack of tickets!!

For additional information, head here! This page will give you all the details you need to plan your weekend and day of fun at the Kansas City Boat and Sportshow!

XO,

Andrea