Sweet Potato and Apple Bake

This recipe I made today is a go-to side dish.  I found it an this amazing blog called Six Sisters' Stuff and they have a lot of yummy looking recipes that I will be trying further.  This is a great side dish for pretty much any meal and it is simple to prepare and doesn't take long either.  Also, I love sweet potatoes so any recipe with those in it has my vote!  Bon Appetit!

Sweet Potato and Apple Bake

Source: Six Sisters' Stuff

Bake time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

4 to 6 sweet potatoes

2 to 3 Granny Smith apples

3/4 cup of Craisins (I actually omitted these because I did not have them on hand but they sound like they would be great in this dish)

Ingredients for sauce:

1/2 cup of butter (melted)

1/2 cup of maple syrup

1/2 cup of brown sugar

3 tablespoons of cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Cut up the sweet potatoes and boil in the water until tender and then rise to the top.  After they are done boiling, lay them in a 9 x 13 pan.  Peel and slice the granny smith apples and put them on top of the sweet potatoes.  Sprinkle the craisins on top if you have them.

Then mix all the ingredients for the sauce together and pour the sauce over the sweet potato and apple mixture.  Put in the oven and bake uncovered for 30 minutes.  Voila instant side dish! :)  Thanks for reading!

Hello Blogging World!

Hello and welcome to my first official post on my blog A Maizie of Ideas.  I created A Maizie of Ideas to share and create all of the ideas I have in my head and ideas that I have seen online and will be trying.  First, let me tell you a little about myself: I have a profession as a teacher and love educating, but also am a cook, baker, artist, fashion and style obsessed, and soon-to-wife in August to an amazing man!  On here you will find everything from recipes to my own personal styled outfits, my art projects to DIY wedding ideas and more!  Take a look around and may you be inspired to create and try new ideas, even if it's a pass or fail you should always be content with something you have created :)

This first recipe I found online after watching Cupcake Wars (I love this show, who else does??!)  It isn't a recipe that was created on the show but I went to the food network's website to find C'est La V's (a contestant on Cupcake Wars) website which is a vegan bakeshop.  Now, I am not a vegan but I do like to eat healthy and I love to try new foods and recipes.  Not only does she have a bakeshop but she has a blog where she posts recipes on C'est La Vegan.  Which is where I found this scrumptious, mouth-watering, melt-in-your-mouth recipe (and lots of others which I'm sure I will be trying).  It is called the Sugar Donut Muffin!  I know genius, a sugar donut and muffin put together what could be better than that!  Now, her recipe is veganized as you would call it but I decided not to make mine that way just because I did not have the vegan ingredients on hand and wanted to make these ASAP.  But, I will definitely be trying the vegan version at some point and will have to let you know how that compares to the non-vegan version.  Bon Appetit for non-vegans and vegans alike!

Sugar Donut Muffins

Source: C'est La Vegan

Makes about 10 muffins

Baking time: 15-18 minutes

Ingredients:

3/4 cups of sugar

1 egg

1 and 1/2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
3/4 cups of milk (I used non-fat, but use whatever you have on hand)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

For sugar coating:
2 tablespoons of margarine
1/2 cup of sugar

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350F, and lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or use cupcake/muffin paper liners or you could use silicone reuseable cupcake/muffin liners, which is what I used.  I picked these colorful silicone liners up at Williams & Sonoma and have got to say I am pretty impressed with them.  You don't even need a muffin tin to use them, you could even line them up on a baking sheet and cook them like that!

In a large bowl, mix together your sugar, egg, oil, milk, and vanilla extract.  In a small bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.  Pour the dry ingredients from the small bowl into the large bowl's wet ingredients and stir to combine the two.  

Pour the batter evenly into the 10 muffin cups, filling about 3/4 of the way full in each muffin tin or muffin liner.  Put the muffins in the oven and bake for about 15-18 minutes.

While your muffins are baking, melt your margarine.  I did intervals of 10 seconds in the microwave, it does not take long!  Put 1/2 cup sugar in a small bowl.

When muffins are down, lightly brush the top of each muffin with some margarine and then roll the muffin in the bowl of sugar.  Make sure to coat all around.  Let cool and then enjoy!  These are most definitely fantastic and do taste like a sugar donut.