Apple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

 

I made this coffee cake for Christmas morning breakfast (hence the lack of prep photos). Cream cheese and apples? Sign me up. The bake time is a little lengthy, but I thought it was well worth it. This makes plenty and would be perfect for company!

I used half butter, half cinnamon sugar spread. If you don’t have cinnamon sugar spread available, just use butter in its place. You can never go wrong with more butter.

Apple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Prep Time: 25 minutes


Bake: 350 degrees for 55 minutes


Cool: 5 minutes


Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients:

4 cups apples, peeled & thinly sliced
2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup Land O’Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter Spread
12 ounces cream cheese (low fat works), at room temperature
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk (nonfat works)

TOPPING:
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9-inch pan.

Place apple slices in bowl and drizzle lemon juice on top. Toss to coat. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine butter and cream cheese; add in sugar, and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extract.

Sift dry ingredients into a separate bowl (flour, baking powder, soda & salt)

Add flour mixture to creamed mixture a little at a time, alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture; mix well after each addition.

Pour batter into prepared baking pan.

Combine topping ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle the topping over the apple slices and toss lightly to coat well. Arrange the apple slices evenly on top of the batter in the pan.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Please visit my link parties page to see who I linked up with this week!

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Also, have you heard about the upcoming Find Some Love Fest? Grab the button and meet back here February 1st!

christmas

Whoa! So, Christmas came and went in a blur. How was your holiday weekend? Ours was...busy? Holidays = lots of driving for us. This was truly was the best Christmas I have had in a looong time, and no I'm not saying that because of all of the fabulous and unexpected gifts I received like:

A KitchenAid mixer in RED from my mom and sister.

A Keurig from my mother in-law!!!

AND A CANON REBEL T2i FROM MY HUSBAND!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have done nothing but take photos all weekend long. Wanna know what its like to be follow around by the paparazzi? Just go hang out with Allison after she gets a new camera. I am going to take a class in OKC  next month with Melissa-Pineapple Lily, who by the way, was the FIRST person I text when I opened my camera! The manual is 258 pages and I think mine is written in Chinese. Ok, no not really...but I really need/want to know how to use this thing correctly! 

This is seriously the first moment I have had to breath, so I don't have a lot of words for you tonight. Not to mention I have felt pretty yucky the past few days. My normal life starts again tomorrow and I have TONS to share with you. Until then, here are a few photos from the weekend! 

Giving and Receiving {Winner Announced}

I want to start out by saying thanks to all who participated in the giveaway. Without you, the reader, none of this would be possible. I appreciate all of you who enjoy and support what I do.

So! Time to announce the winner!

The Feeding My Temple 100+ GFC Follower Prize Pack goes to

Bailee Taylor!!!

Congrats! I will contact you for your mailing address! Gosh, I love a good giveaway.


I would also like to share a few of the fabulous things that have come in the mail for ME!

First, I won this darling pincushion from Pineapple Lily and The Yellow Postcard (both fellow Okies, I might add!)

I also received two of my Christmas cards from the blogger card swap Cait hosted!

From House of Jeffers:

LOOK at her business card! A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.




And second from What I Wore Tip to Toe:



Not only did she send a fabulous Christmas card and another beautiful business card, but she also sent me a snowman decorating kit-complete with carrot nose and hat!






























I apparently look like a snowman. Thanks?









Thanks, ladies!! 


As a reminder, the first Birchbox Beauty Bash goes live tomorrow morning! You can link up your Birchbox or any beauty related tips, tricks, DIY's, how to's, reviews, giveaways, you get the idea...


Help spread the word by tweeting, blogging, facebooking (yes, I just made a verb out of Facebook), and pinning! 


See you then! 

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Family Bake-off and Pumpkin Granola {recipe}

Heeeeyyyy! Remember me?? Yeah, so life gets in the way of blogging sometimes. Remember that annual family bakeoff I told you about? I have been meaning to share some photos and a recipe from it! The women in my family (8 of us this year) get together and bake, and bake, and bake until there is no butter left.

Here goes!

Here is my nephew packaging up some almond brittle. Yes, he washed his hands. 

My sister! She made these super cute ornaments from Pinterest!

My brother! I'm getting him a pair of scissors for Christmas. 

My mom! She is the artsy one of us all. Need a tiny pair of felt elf boots? She's on it. 

We were frantically trying to finish the ornaments. This meant dull scissors and lots of hot glue.  

Whoa. Monster Baby. 

Nope. Try again. 

Perfect. 

Like I said, we package it all up and send them out as gifts. I made the Cowboy Cookies (seen here, Pinterest inspired packaging!) and 3 batches of Pumpkin Granola (recipe below).

In addition we had Lemon Squares, Chex Mix, Pistachio Seat Salt Bark, Almond Bark, Pumpkin Bread, Puppy Chow, Hello Dollies, Peanut Butter and Maple Rice Krispies Treats, Tarts, and Pecan Muffins.

Pumpkin Granola

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Bake: 325 degrees for 20 minutes 

Cool: 20 minutes

Yield: 6 cups granola

Ingredients

5 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and brown sugar.

In another bowl, combine the pumpkin, maple syrup, applesauce, and vanilla.

Pour the pumpkin mixture into the oat mixture.

Toss the mixture until all of the oats are coated. Spread the granola onto a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment.

Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 20 minutes. Take the granola out and stir it around. Bake another 20 minutes or until the granola gets crisp. Take the granola out and mix in the cranberries and almonds.

Guest Post {Raising Dieter}

Please welcome Shay from Raising Dieter! I absolutely love her guest post! Christmas activities that are family friendly!





1. Go and see Christmas lights or a Nativity.
This is fun activity for all ages! Most cities have lights so bundle up and stay warm (unless your in the South of course.)


2. Read a Christmas story.
Whether your reading chapters from Luke, The Christmas Jars, A Christmas Carol, or Peef the Christmas Bear (my favorite children's Christmas story.) It is always so nice to turn of the electronics and simply listen to a great story!


3. Play games.
Who doesn't like to play games? My son loves it when we play Yahtzee. Settlers of Catan is a favorite for me and Kimball right now. There are so many fun games to play. We have a tradition where we get a game every Christmas Eve. This year it is going to be Quirkle.

4. Make some treats.
The kitchen is always a place to involve the whole family. My husband has been asking me to make cookies for a while (I have put it off until now.) This is my favorite recipe of sugar cookies. They are always soft.

Directions

1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt

-Cream butter and sugar together. Then add vanilla, egg, and sour cream. Continue to mix until smooth.
-Add soda, salt, and half of the flour. Stir into above mixture and then slowly stir in remaining flour.
-Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness.
-Place on buttered cookie sheet (I use a stone) and bake for 8-10 minutes at 375° (My first couple of batches take around 12 minutes on the stone).

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, melted
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

-Cream the softened cream cheese: blend with butter.
-Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat well.

I hope your enjoy your holidays! This is such a special time of year! Come by and visit me at Raising Dieter!  :) Shay

Week 1: Day 5

Wow. Its Friday! I had one of those weeks where I thought it was Wednesday on Tuesday...ya know what I mean?


This weekend, we have plans to go "see the Christmas lights." This means going to a huge Christmas lights display about 20 minutes from us. And I am getting together with all of the women in my family for our annual "bake-off." My grandmother started this tradition before I was born (I think) and we have carried the tradition on. Its a day full of baking and belly aches from too much chocolate. We package everything up and give them as gifts to our family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. I will take lots of photos to share!

I will probably do tonight's workout 5 times in a row so I can start with a huge calorie deficit for the bake-off....just kidding. That's super psycho and unhealthy. You might recognize this routine from Tuesday!

Oh, P.S. I now have 91 GFC followers! When did that happen?? That is amazing. And I'm at 3,593 page views just from TODAY! What?? I feel so blessed. I find myself so not interesting...this is my awkward way of saying thank you to YOU! My fabulous readers!!!





Week 1: Day 5

30 minutes cardio

Upper Legs 

Exercise	Rest	Reps	Sets
Iron Cross	1 minute	12	1
Iron Cross	1 minute	10	1
Iron Cross	1 minute	8	1
Iron Cross	1 minute	6	1
Dumbbell Lunges	None	12	1
Iron Cross	2 min	12	1

Exercise	Rest	Reps	Sets
Dumbbell Squat	1 minute	12	1
Dumbbell Squat	1 minute	10	1
Dumbbell Squat	1 minute	8	1
Dumbbell Squat	1 minute	6	1
Dumbbell Walking Lunges	None	12	1
Dumbbell Squat	2 min	12	1

Lower Legs

Exercise	Rest	Reps	Sets
Rocking Standing Calf Raise*	1 minute	12	1
Rocking Standing Calf Raise*	1 minute	10	1
Rocking Standing Calf Raise*	1 minute	8	1
Rocking Standing Calf Raise*	1 minute	6	1
Calf Raise on a Dumbbell	None	12	1
Rocking Standing Calf Raise*	2 min	12	1

*Use 2 dumbbells instead of a barbell